Chapter 9

"So, Hera, about the kitchens, there's a problem." Fred admitted when he sat down at the table.

"Yeah, we told them who was requesting a private snack-"

"and they may have went a little overboard."

"How overboard are we talking about?" Hera asked, in confusion. She'd never met those working in the kitchens before, but if they reacted the way people did at the Leaky before...well, at least there would be enough for everyone.

"We'll show you after the party."

"You're coming too?" Hera asked, confused once more. "But I thought…"

"Oh, we heard that Nick is going to play a prank."

"It would be a shame to miss it."

"Didn't even know he had it in him."

"Alright, well we should probably head over now." Hera smirked, then looked around. "Was there anyone else who was going to go?"

"I've got the charm worked out to take pictures of ghosts properly." Colin supplied. "Dad's gonna be impressed."

In the end, quite a few students followed Hera towards the dungeons. The passageway leading to Newly Headless Nick's party had been lined with candles too, though it gave it a more eerie glow than anything else. The temperature dropped with every step they took, so it's good that they brought their cloaks. Hera didn't really notice, but still put hers on when the others did. The cold might take longer to creep up on her, but she didn't want to have to deal with the questions even so.

"Sir Nick!" Hera exclaimed as the group entered the room. "This is quite the turnout you have here!"

"Welcome…welcome…" Nicholas greeted happily.

"I hope you don't mind, but I got to talking with a few of the other Gryffindors, and they've all come to offer their condolences." Hera continued, gesturing to Colin. "Colin here would actually like to take a few pictures of you and the guests, if that's alright, and I think there's someone here who will be writing an article for a newspaper about it."

"Luna Lovegood." A blonde First Year Ravenclaw announced upon being spoken of. "I'll be writing for the Quibbler. We'll see if any of the other Newspapers will be interested in the story, and seeing that it is the 500th anniversary of your death, I imagine there will be several interested parties. Would you be willing to do a small interview?"

Colin was already going around taking pictures of things. While Sir Nick settled in for the interview, Hera went and found the Bloody Baron, who was standing rather alone.

"Hello, Baron, how have you been?" She asks, then leans in. "His head hasn't…I dunno…reversed the damage, has it?"

"No, he's waiting for Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore, leader of the Headless Hunt to show up in order to surprise him. That idiot has been showing up, stealing any attention Sir Nicholas gets whenever possible." Baron replies, disdainfully eyeing the ghosts that were avoiding him. "It will be quite the surprise. All Nicholas has wanted was to be accepted, to be in a group of friends. He's not realized yet that he doesn't need them. He has friends here."

"So…Podmore's a bully, only he comes off all charming and stuff, so no one ever says anything, because they don't realize what he's doing, taken in by it as they are." Hera summarized. "And Sir Nicholas has always wanted to be a member of the Headless Hunt because they presented themselves as the 'cool' kids."

Baron nodded.

Sir Podmore had arrived, and was circling Luna trying to distract her from her interview. Colin was staunchly refusing to take pictures of him, proving that he could be just as stubborn as the rest of them. Sir Nicholas looked torn between annoyance at Podmore and admiration of Luna and Colin. Neville and Ginny were with Luna, and Hermione and Ron were walking around like frozen icicles. Fred and George just kept hitting each other with warming charms whenever, and watching the scene with expectancy.

Someone must have sent the word out, or knew about the Podmore chap ahead of time. Anyone who came in from Gryffindor Tower, even if it was only for a few minutes, ignored him in favor of Sir. Nick. Unused to being ignored, Podmore starts the Headless Hunt to steal away the attention, only to have his head knocked clear away from the arena by Sir Nicholas' own 'Newly' severed head. After that, pandemonium ensued among the ghosts, and Fred and George were praising Sir Nicholas on such a spectacular prank. The Bloody Baron was drawn into the limelight when Sir Nicholas pulled him into it, insisting to anyone and everyone that the Baron was the ghost that helped him with his predicament. She noticed how shyly embarrassed the Baron was about it all, but it did get the other ghosts to stop avoiding him quite so much, and it's not like she escaped the spotlight either.

It is here that she meets Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunted a girls loo. Myrtle seems like a sad and moping sort, but when she talks about her death, she's animated. As much as Hera wants to be annoyed with her sob story of being bullied for her glasses, she also knows first hand that it's never just that one thing, and she wonders what Myrtle hasn't dealt with yet. They start comparing notes, talking about their trauma like it was teatime conversation. Myrtle seemed to appreciate that there was someone who wasn't going to tell her to just get over it already, nor would she make fun of the emotions she felt, and the two promised to hang out sometime.

Everyone saw what Fred and George meant when they lead the group to an unused classroom. The moment they stepped into the room, a feast fit for royalty appeared before their eyes. Colin and Luna hadn't stayed, both excited about the article and the pictures, but each took a plate with them at Hera's insistence. Everyone was excited for the upcoming Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match, except for maybe Hermione. Fred and George laughed riotously as Hera described all the idiotic scenes Lockhart was making her perform in class, complete with dramatic posing and a swan dive or two. Ron had to catch her once, or risk her falling into his mashed potatoes, but he played it up like a champ. All in all, it was an eventful and pleasant Halloween.

Of course something was bound to go wrong sometime.

When she woke up, it was to see Madam Pomfrey fussing over her.

"We've got to stop meeting like this, you know." Hera drawls out in amusement. Madam Pomfrey snorted, but Hera could see the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Do you even remember what happened?" Pomfrey asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

It slowly came back to her; the quidditch match, the rogue bludger, Lockhart vanishing the bones in her arm. She groaned in annoyance at it all. At least she'd caught the snitch. In her mind, she dared Hermione to champion Lockhart after this. Anyone could make a mistake, but this was ridiculous.

"You've been in here for three days, regrowing the bones in your arm. You had a bad reaction to the Skele-Gro, but it's the only thing we have that will grow bones back." Madam Pomfrey sighed in sympathy. "I've got Professor Snape working on something, but I don't know how much help it will be to you now."

"Give him time, I'm sure Lockhart will vanish something else." Hera scowled ruefully.

The Dueling Club was something everyone was talking about. Many were imagining Professor Flitwick would be leading it. He was a dueling champion, after all. What they got was Lockhart standing there in plum robes, while Snape glared at him as if that alone would be enough to do him in. Ron never thought he would be on Snape's side about anything, but needs must. There was no way he was going to side with Lockhart.

No one expected Hera or Draco to have an all out duel, but that's what ended up happening. On that platform, gone was the Hera that shouted her spells so carelessly in class. Here was a Hera that was careful and precise, and oh so cutting. She knew where to strike and when, a coiled snake with nowhere left to turn, and Ron was left wondering if she'd been taking instructions from Flitwick in dueling. Her spells left icy patches where they landed when deflected, and Draco was barely keeping up. Before the final round, Snape whispered something in Draco's ear, and then they were at it again.

...

This time, Draco summoned a snake onto the platform. Lockhart was going to get rid of it, no doubt causing another disaster, but Hera deflected the spell. No doubt this was a creature meant to scare her, but they hadn't been there at the zoo with her and Dudley. No one breathed or made a sound as she knelt down and held out her arm to the snake, as it struck and missed. Snape looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his skull, they were so wide open in frozen alarm,…and she reached out again.

"I know you want to hurt me, but I did not summon you here." Hera spoke calmly. "Would you like to scare the one who did?"

~I like you, Speaker~ It stated, slithering over to her, making its way around her arm to settle into a comfortable position as it moved to stare out in the direction it had left.

"What is this?" Draco asked, panicked, because now both the snake and Hera were glaring at him.

"It's magic, Malfoy, my magic." Hera declared as she stood up, calmly walking with her arm slightly outstretched in front of her, but Draco kept backing up. "What's the matter? (The snake struck out again, but she's pretty sure it's just for show now) Snake got your tongue?"

"Potter, that is enough." Snape scolded, stepping forward.

~Spoilsport~ The snake hissed, and Hera chortled because it was true.

As soon as the snake was gone, Hera was almost literally dragged out of the room by her two best friends. No one had said anything, but it was clear that something was wrong. Finding an unused classroom wasn't hard, but didn't feel necessary. Surely the common room would have been fine? When Hermione was finally through making sure the room as as secure as it could be, she turned to Hera.

"Harry, why didn't you tell us you could talk to snakes?!" Ron asked, sounding wary and mistrustful.

"She did, when she spoke to that dragon last year." Hermione pointed out.

"I'd only ever talked to the one dragon, so it's not like I knew I could do that, and then there was that boa constrictor before first year." Hera admitted with a shrug. "I don't get what the big deal is."

"It means you're a parselmouth, Hera, someone who can talk to snakes." Hermione revealed as if she should know that already. "I looked into it last year after the dragon fiasco, and the way Hagrid reacted was very telling. It's a Dark gift, Hera. Evil. I was really hoping it was just a one off, and you'd never use it again."

"How is it evil just because it's a Dark gift? I don't think that's how magic works." Hera argued, confused now. Why was Hermione so against this? "Besides, didn't you see that back there? That was awesome! Malfoy nearly pissed himself. It's worth it just for that."

"You-Know-Who was a parselmouth." Ron added warily. "Even Salazar Slytherin was one."

"Yeah? Well, they don't own the gift either." Hera snapped in annoyance. "If I went to India, Africa, or Australia, or hopped across the pond to the Americas, how many parselmouths do you think I'd run into?"

"I'm just telling you what the books told me." Hermione countered, and Hera flung up her hands.

"Books are not infallible!" Hera scolded, and began pacing in the room. "Books are information compiled together, and information is supposed to be impartial, I know, but books are written by people, and people tend to be stupid. They write opinions like they're facts, and don't bother correcting themselves."

She stopped pacing, only to see that Hermione had drawn herself up in indignant fury.

"Let me guess, you think that everything you've read that hasn't been in a fiction book is true even when they aren't citing their sources, don't you."

Hermione's face was red with anger by this point, but Hera didn't care.

"Look, Mate, We're just trying to explain what it's going to be like in school for you now that you've outed yourself as a parselmouth."Ron tried. "People are going to talk, and it's not going to be nice. Anything You-Know-Who can do is seen as evil, and now they're gonna think you are too."

"Do you know how ridiculous that is?" Hera asked, incredulously. "If Voldesnit used a Protego, would that be evil too?"

"Welcome to magical Britain, Mate." Ron shrugged, not arguing the point.

"Hera, you have to promise you won't use that again." Hermione insisted.

"Are you out of your bloody mind?" Ron asked, looking at her incredulously, surprising Hera and Hermione both. "Charlie hasn't stopped talking about her since he realized she could talk to dragons. There is a Dragon Reserve that would hire her on the spot because of that gift, and you want her to never use it again?"

Hermione drew herself up, scared and shaking in anger, and nodded sharply.

"It's a foul evil gift, Hera." Hermione insisted emphatically. "You must promise never to use it again."

"I can't make that promise." Hera shook her head. "It's not the gift that makes it evil, it's how it's used. I won't deny a part of my magic just to make you feel better."

Hermione looked ready to cry, but instead flounced out of the room.

"Don't mind her, Hera. She'll come 'round." Ron assured her. Hera nodded, though she wasn't so sure. "Don't get me wrong, I think talking to snakes is creepy, but evil might be pushing it."

"You're afraid of snakes, but not dragons?" Hera guessed.

Ron nodded, grimacing a little. "Snakes don't bother me nearly as much as spiders do anyway. I told you about what the twins did, right?"

"Yeah." Hera remembered. "How bad do you think this is gonna be? I room with two of the biggest gossip mongers in Gryffindor, and Hermione is in a mood."

"Bad." Ron admitted. "But I'll be here if you need me. It's not the same, where we don't room together, but I'll try."

...

She gets ostracized by the school, like Ron and Hermione had warned her she would be. Her theatrics hadn't helped much, even on top of the parseltongue ability, but there had been something oddly satisfying about making Draco choke on the sneer he'd sent her way. Slytherin is convinced she's their Heir, whatever that means, and hate her appropriately; if only because she is in Gryffindor and not their own House. The rest of the school is convinced she's a Dark witch that needs to be put down. Even her friends are wary of her now.

Colin tries, bless him, but he can't do much more than make sure she's okay when he passes her in the hall most days. Neville just gets nervous when he sees her, and refuses to look her in the eye when she speaks to him, stammering even more than usual, which had resulted in more explosions in Potions class. Ron sits by her in every class he can, glaring at anyone who would even think to talk bad about her. Ginny is in the same boat as Colin, but it's nice that she tries. Hermione refuses to acknowledge that she exists until Hera denounces her 'dark and evil' gift, something Lavender and Parvati pounce on all too eagerly like sharks smelling blood in the water. The twins just think she's awesome, but they give her space, like they think that's what she needs.

It is during one of these moments of solitude, after finishing up her homework in the library, that she remembers the diary. It feels like how she remembers Quirrell did. T. . She remembers seeing that name in the trophy room, something about special services to the school. It doesn't look like much, just a diary, but then why would Mr. Malfoy have placed it in Ginny's cauldron if it were ordinary? Unable to think of anything else to try, she writes in it.

My name is Hera Potter

The ink sort of shines for a moment, and then disappears. She's surprised with writing begins to appear again.

Hello, Hera Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?