Last time...

"I do, in fact, have a plethora of bad choices in which to reference what not to do. They're called character flaws for a reason." He pointed out, unimpressed with her silently calling him out on them. "It's how I can guide you to make better choices than the ones I have made, leaving you free to make entirely new bad choices as you like. Now, is there anything you would like to ask me, considering I have your Blood Inheritance Test results here in my hand right now?"

He did too, even waved it around a little as if to tempt her.

"Is it bad that I still can't bring myself to ask, despite your heavy handed hinting?" Hera hedged. "I need to know, I do, but I…I can't…I can't ask…"

"Then I won't push you to, but we will be talking about this later. Now, off with you. Dinner's started already, and I imagine there's a legion of people waiting outside this door for you." Professor Snape stated, dismissing her from the room.

Chapter 33

Frigga had been lost in her thoughts for months, ever since the little fated child had come and gone in the blink of an eye. Tyr had been most disappointed about the girl disappearing. It had not mattered to him that she was a girl, not when he helped train Sif, and it was well known that their Valkyries had been the best. It had not mattered to him when Frigga informed him that the young girl was Jötunn, though the two realms still had much discord with each other. She fought like a trained warrior of Ásgarðr. She was a fated, and that's all he needed to know, but they hadn't been able to figure out how to get into contact with her to continue her training; should she wish it.

For all that the little fated was Jötunn, no one on Jötunheimr recognized her. Farbauti had looked at the image of the young Jötunn girl more intently than the rest of the delegation, but if they recognized her, they never said. The only other clue they had to go on was Swiss cheese, a curious thing to be sure. Miðgarðr was the only place with anything that sounded like that, but it was a protectorate. Even so, there was no sign of the little fated there. So Frigga was entirely unprepared to see the young girl in her weaving room, looking at an unfinished tapestry.

"Please don't go." Frigga pleaded softly, seeing her there.

"This is just going to keep on happening now that I've drank that potion, isn't it." The girl sighed. "I used to watch you work for hours, and you never saw me; not once."

"It is quite possible." Frigga allowed, uncertain of what potion would render the girl visible to them. "You stated you visited this realm many times without our knowledge. If you sought to change the circumstances of those visits, it could have that outcome. We have been searching for you, hoping to make amends, but were unable to find you. How do you travel here?"

"I didn't really know I was doing it before, and the perspective was different, so I don't think the travel was quite the same." The girl admitted, turning to face her now. "The potion…allowed me to send my soul across the aether, through time and space, to the last time my soul was this young…sort of. I'm trying not to acknowledge what that means, what it really means, but I think you know."

Indeed, she did. If what Frigga thought was true, then her son was fated for something other than this life. The Norns tended not to meddle with Fate, only watching and guarding the weave. Very few things would cause them to step in, and she often wondered how long Odin could interfere with the order of things before he created one of those incidents that needed a Norns intervention. It appears that at some point in their lives, the Norns step in to interfere with her son's fate. However, it was the girl's avoidance of this knowledge that made her pause.

"Why do you not wish to acknowledge what has happened to you?" She wondered. "The origins of your soul?"

"I just…If I do…It's just one more thing that makes me stand out." The young girl sighed in defeat. "One more thing that makes me a freak. There's just a lot going on. Adding that to the mix just feels like too much."

"Come, sit with me." Frigga suggested, gesturing to a small sitting area off to the side of her weaving. "Tell me about your life."

The girl made to object, but Frigga regally held a hand up to make her pause.

"I know you can not tell me what happens to him, but there is something of his soul…his magic…within you, and I find myself…wishing to care for you as your own person as well." Frigga admitted. The girl looked dubious at this. "Please? Perhaps if you tell me of your life, I can help you with your problems, if only in some small way."

It wasn't trust at first conversation, but Hera found that the more she spoke with this woman, the more she wanted to trust her. Each visit brought them closer, but for every few days that Hera experienced between visits, months or years would pass for Frigga. She still didn't want to acknowledge what Frigga so readily accepted, but every so often Frigga would have information on Jötunn on the table, and every so often Hera would sneak one of the books or scrolls into her bag. It shouldn't, but it still confused her that the things from her dreams showed up in her real world bag when she woke up. When Loki and Thor were away, Frigga would teach her magic. When the two were there, Hera trained in the arena with Thor and his friends, while Loki was quietly encouraged by his mother to spend time in the library.

Hera wasn't expecting for Thor and his friends to come running up to her the next time she popped into the arena, all talking at once. It shocks her into accidentally apparating into one of the supply closets, something she hadn't done in a while. When she manages to extract herself, Thor is right there, and suddenly she's being dragged towards the mess hall. They have about a thousand questions, and apparently that can only be done with mead and food. She convinces them instead to sneak into the kitchens, where she proceeds to commandeer one of the cooking stations for them.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Fandral asked excitedly, as he watches her cut up various ingredients for their food. They're all sitting around the cooking station like it was a hibachi grill island or something.

"Tell you what? Our first meeting wasn't exactly what I would call trust building." Hera pointed out. "You then proceeded to try to kick my arse for insulting your crowned prince, when you'd done the same thing to the Queen not moments before. Before that, you not only insulted the youngest prince, you insulted magic; which is a part of my very being. Not to mention, you insulted women everywhere. Exactly when was I supposed to tell you that I used magic to try and find someone who could help me explain what I was, and how to defend myself against the people trying to kill me, when you'd all but told me you thought I was a freak too?"

"YOU ARE MOST…" Thor paused when he saw Hera glare at him from her station, meat cleaver raised high as she'd paused in her preparations, and amended his tone. "You are most wise, Lady Hera. We did not get off to a great start, but surely now you can tell us? Share with us your adventures! You have gone up against these people who tried to kill you, yes? How did you defeat them?"

"So…no curiosity as to the whole how the hell am I a frost giant runt?" Hera asked, pausing in surprise. "I just…I was expecting animosity or an attempt from one of you to kill me or something. Wasn't there a war?"

"We were told that you yourself were uncertain as to how you came to be." Fandral explained, attempting to be suave. "If you want, we can go somewhere with more privacy, and I can explain how it all works."

"Please don't tell me he actually thinks he can lure women this way." Hera mock pleaded, looking to the others. Fandral pouted, but Volstagg, Hogun, and Thor laughed, while Sif watched her thoughtfully. "Fandral, if you continue talking to the ladies in such a manner, none of them will give you more than a passing glance, though maybe that's all you care for. The moment they realize you don't value them as more than a passing fancy, to use and throw away at your leisure, they will warn all others away. However, if you continue talking to me in such a manner, I'll make sure none of them get the chance, and cut off the part of you that you want to stick into the ladies. Understand?"

Volstagg is slapping his knee as he's trying not to laugh out loud, shaking hard with silent laughter.

"Adventures!" Thor cuts in, blushing at her candor.

"You all realize I'm actually only fifteen, right? I don't just look fifteen like you lot." Hera reminded them, but Thor looked on ever expectantly. "Very well, I guess I could tell you about the time I punched a guy in the chest so hard that a piece of his rib cage broke off and stabbed him in the heart."

"That hardly sounds like the whole of the tale." Hogun remarked.

"I may have left out that this was a teacher at my school of magic, and that he had a second face on the back of his head." Hera supplied, and then proceeded to spin the story about her first year at 'magic school'.

She tells them about seeing the hatching of a rare and most fearsome dragon, and that she and her fellow companions had managed to sneak out the dragon without getting their friend in trouble. She tells them about the forbidden forest, and the death of a creature of pure light. She tells them about a mighty giant of a three headed beast, and though they were sad there was no fight there, Volstagg is impressed she could befriend such a fearsome creature. She tells them about the mirror that displayed the desires of the heart, neither truth nor future, and how she destroyed it and thus return an item of great importance that had been trapped within back to its owner. They listen with rapt attention as she tells them about finding that the unassuming Professor she had dismissed so easily was not as weak as he seemed, how he had taken in the wraith that was the man who wanted to kill her, and how she had laughed at him until he attacked her in a fit of rage, thus enabling her to land the hit that killed him.

As she's telling the story, she's preparing their food with magic, something that fascinates Thor and Volstagg; Hogun watches with appreciation, but as he is Vanir, it is common to him. Sif grumbles about magic being a weak trick that anyone could do. Until this point, Hera had tried not to let Sif's words get to her, but it was just too much while she was preparing food. It felt like being back with the Dursleys. So she set aside some of the food, all of which had yet to be touched by magic, and scooted it towards her. Sif just looked at it like it was a foreign entity, and looked back to Hera.

"If you can't keep your comments about magic to yourself, you can prepare your own food." Hera stated, nudging the pile of ingredients towards her a little more. "I'd like to see you prepare food with magic, since it's something anyone could do. Don't for an instant give me that tripe about it being for the weak, or the women. As if being a woman automatically implies weakness. If it's such a weak womanly thing, you'll have no problem with it, being the strong independent woman you are, right?"

"You would-"

"You stay out of this, Thor." Hera ordered, pinning him with a look. "I have dealt with this kind of disrespect all my life. No more. Either she learns to keep her opinions to herself, or my boot ends up in the crack of her arse. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. Now, what's it gonna be?"

Sif looked petulant, but relented.

"I have a friend like you back home." She fondly comments to Sif, taking the plate of ingredients back, and returns to cooking the food. "Stubborn, strong willed, smart as can be, haaates to be wrong about anything. She insisted that she wasn't going to be some stay at home woman who took care of the kids, but forgot to factor in that those women can be some of the strongest women ever. The women of my world can be both fierce warrior and housewife at the same time, if they so choose. They have fought for the right for this to be so."

"The men allow this?" Thor asks.

"The men allow what, Thor?" Hera counters, a dangerous edge to her voice as she eyes him now. "Remember that your response will determine if you get any of this food."

"I simply mean it seems as if there is more of an equal stance on things, and not quite the uphill battle that Lady Sif has to contend with." Thor insisted, hands up in surrender. "Are there men who do this?"

"What, be stay at home husbands?" Hera asked. Thor nodded. "Yes. After all, if women can be both warrior and housewife at the same time, men can be warrior and househusband too. My world is split in two in a way. Those with magic keep to themselves, but within their own community things are much more equal on the gender spectrum. I suspect this is only because we have other problems within our society, which is sort of why I have someone trying to kill me on a yearly basis."

"What are the problems of which you speak?" Sif asked, considering her more carefully now.

"Oh. That's…complicated. Give me a mo'." Hera sighed, before working to complete the meal in a self contained cooking bubble in the air, plating them when she was done. "I present to you…Dinner. Enjoy."

For a moment there was nothing but the scrapping of various utensils, each enjoying the meal they'd seen so quickly prepared by magic.

"The problems?" Fandral inquired, after a time.

"My world is pretty magic heavy, as I've said before." Hera continued, after swallowing a bite of food. "There are families that can trace their lines back to what they believe is the beginning of magic itself in our world, and this became such an important distinction for them that they began to see anyone of new blood coming in as muddying the waters. In order to keep them out, they would only marry within certain families they held sacred, but after a while that gets a bit…dicey. Marry someone too close in relation enough times over the generations, and abnormalities start cropping up. Madness. Infertility. Defects. Their argument was wanting to hold onto traditions, to keep to the old ways; and if that is all it was, then teaching the newcomers the old ways would be the obvious answer. Neither side seemed to want to do this, however, and so every year new magical children come in with no idea how insulting they're being at times, and children from old magical families resent them for stomping all over traditions they've never been taught."

"How does this factor in with your problem?" Volstagg asked thoughtfully.

"Oh, that's easy. Imagine it, Volstagg, you want to take over the world. You're powerful, but you can't do it alone. You need an army, preferably one that already believes they're better than everyone else. You tell them everything they want to hear so they'll swear loyalty to you, and then you bind them to your service so that they couldn't escape even if they wanted." Hera replied, waving her fork around a little. "Ah, but see Prophecies are kind of a big deal, and you've just heard one that could possibly be about how to kill you. Maybe. However, you've only heard half. You don't know the rest of it, but that doesn't matter. You go to kill the obstacle in your path…Only it's being protected by a family. The man dies first, trying to buy time. It's the woman that lasts the longest; pleading, begging, fighting.

You kill her too, but only after trying to get her to stand aside so you can kill what she protects. You did promise, after all. You ask three times, but she doesn't listen, so you kill her anyway; effectively braking the magical vow you'd accidentally just created. Nasty business that, but you're about to kill a baby, so it's not like you care. (gasp!) Except your attempt doesn't kill the baby, and instead jerks the soul right out of your own body. Now you've got bigger problems, like trying to get a new body, so you can go back and kill that baby who grew up, so you can take over the world."

"…Volstagg, how could you?" Thor asked in a horrified and hushed tone, and for a moment Volstagg actually looks like he can't believe Thor would really accuse him of doing that, before they all burst into laughing fits.

"So that is why you have been training as you have." Hogun realizes, to which Hera nods. "Why train in both physical fighting and magic?"

"A lot of people in my world view physical fighting the way this world views magic, something anyone who is weak with no skill could do – It's not like punching someone in the face is all that hard, you know – but they don't do, you understand; just like Sif can't do magic, despite claiming how easy and beneath her it is." Hera explained, getting back to her food. "If I can train in both, I'll be stronger than any of them. I'll be able to protect the people I care about."

"Very well, we shall help you train!" Thor insists enthusiastically. "Now, tell us more of your adventures. How did you get the scars on your left arm? Those look like they were made from a most fearsome beast indeed. It must have been a great battle!"

Hera just grins, and starts another round of story telling.

There was no way she was seeing this. Tony Stark could not be in the Great Hall. She blinked, thinking it a hallucination, because surely that's what it was. Professor McGonagall had told her to go to the Great Hall after her first class that morning, that it was a day for the Champions to spend with their families before the task, but…The Dursleys would never have come, and Tony was a muggle too. Professor Snape and Sirius had had to sneak him in with Professor McGonagall's help last time, but was that because they were helping him avoid Dumbledore, or because he was a muggle? Hera hadn't thought to ask, and now she was left in a state of panic within her own mind.

Cedric and his parents were just inside the door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father rapidly. She realized he was speaking in Bulgarian, but it sounded like English to her unless she strained to hear it as it was; she was getting better at recognizing when it happened now. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away with her mother, both of whom smiled at her when they saw her. Gabrielle, Fleur's little sister, waved at her excitedly before turning back to her family.

"Surprise!" Tony exclaimed happily, walking over to her. "You okay, kid? You look a little green."

"Tony, you're here. You're a muggle, and you're here, in the open. How have you not been obliviated or something?" Hera stressed, looking around and wondering why no one thought it was weird for him to be here, too worried to be baited by his colour pun.

"Oh. Sirius and this Remus guy. Do I say bloke here? I should totally say bloke here. Anyway, they brought me. Said it was some sort of family day before the last task of Death Tourney 2.0." Tony rambled excitedly. "Then I met this father and son who insist you turned someone into a mime, but they left her at home."

"Hera!" She hears, and turns around, only to be engulfed in a hug. "It's been ages. Charlie says hullo, by the way."

"I'm still not quitting school." Hera replies, though it's muffled.

Bill just laughs as he lets her go. "He said you'd say that."

"Why does a guy want her to quit school?" Tony asked, eyeing Bill with clear suspicion. "Should I be concerned?"

"I can talk to dragons." Hera admitted with a shy grin. "Charlie works at a dragon reserve, and is a bit obsessed. He keeps offering crazy amounts of money he can't possibly have access to for me to quit school and work there. At this point, I think it's just for fun."

"He may also be in lurrve." Bill teased, messing with her hair till she playfully shoved him off. "You talked to a dragon, and told her to set you on fire. He said it was the most terrifyingly brilliant thing he'd ever seen."

"You really did that?" Tony asked, surprised. "I got that Daily Prophet thing, but I can't believe half of what it says."

"It wasn't my original plan, but it was too flashy to pass up." Hera admitted sheepishly. "So, Tony, this is my way cooler older brother Bill, as is evident by the long hair and fang earring. I kind of want one."

"They let me off work when I told them who I was coming to support. Gringotts loves her. Still won't tell me what she did." Bill stated, continuing whatever conversation he and Tony had been having before she got there.

"Where's Arthur?" Hera asked suddenly.

"Right here." Came a voice from somewhere just behind her.

"Not Dad!" Hera exclaimed happily, as she whirled around to hug him.

"Still checking to make sure you eat your vegetables later." Arthur replied with an easy smile. "Hera, about Molly-"

"All she has to do is apologize, Arthur." Hera interrupted sternly, but was confused when Arthur just smiled.

"Molly's embarrassed; not because of what she's been turned into, but because she acted that way, and got called out on it by a child." Arthur replied with ease. "She's admitted what she's done, but it's going through with the apology that's the hard part now."

"I'm still working on the paper to publish, but it's a bit difficult finding sources for what I did besides 'I saw it in a dream once'. I don't think they'd accept that." Hera remarked. "At least people have eased up on Hermione now. They've even taken to sending her gifts to try and win her favour."

"That's too funny." Tony snickered, but she can see he's feeling a little uncertain. This is the family that had all but taken her in, after all, and he doesn't know how he fits into that.

"Want the grand tour?" She offered, looking back to Tony. "You know, now that I'm not freaking out?"

"Sure. Show me a magic castle." Tony insisted enthusiastically. "I wanna see everything."

"There's a tree outside that hits people if they get too close. We call it the Whomping Willow." Hera replied gleefully. For all the world, Tony looked like Christmas had come early on his birthday.

She showed him all over the castle as best she could. He was fascinated by the moving staircases, and the talking portraits, and Peeves. The first time he saw her talking to Sir Nick and the Bloody Baron, he almost shat himself. Arthur asks him about a million questions, and Tony can't help but love the boundless enthusiasm, even as Hera can see him internally cringe when he realizes this man is the Head of a department of Government. Sirius and Remus join them around lunch, and Tony looses his mind because Sirius turns into a Grim right in front of him. Sirius has been holding onto that particular prank for a while, Hera can tell. Tony absolutely refuses to explain to Arthur the function of a rubber duck, if only because it amuses him when Arthur asks about it.

Hera introduces him to many of her classmates at lunch as she can, though at first she is hesitant and uncertain. It's easier to talk about her interest in things than it is her attachment to people, even though talking about her interests is hard enough as it is, but she becomes more confident the more Tony just breezes through it with ease. Slytherin is uncertain around him now that they have the time to worry about it, particularly because they are caught between the views of their parents and their own curiosity, but knowing that they are a unified House in public helps Hera and the others ease them into things. Those she knew best from Gryffindor came over as well, along with the friends she'd made in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and suddenly Slytherin is more crowded than it's ever been, particularly with several of the students from the other two schools they have sitting with them at the moment. Even Professor Snape stops by their seats to check on them; under the guise of making sure everyone is behaving themselves, of course.

Professor Dumbledore doesn't do much more than look over at them, and to be fair he's been rather busy as of late. He doesn't have the time to investigate Tony as any curious person would want to do, and it is well known that Albus Dumbledore is as curious as a person can get. Each of the teachers makes it a point to visit with them, though there is always at least one person with both Dumbledore and Moody whenever they are near her or Tony. Each of the teachers give him a sort of progress report, which she's never experienced in a positive way before, and he even attempts to eat one of Hagrid's rock cakes when they make it down to the man's hut. She takes pity on him after a moment and shows him Ron's trick of soaking them in tea for several minutes first, and is secretly amused at how all the adult men sans Hagrid are flabbergasted at her ability to eat them as is.

"Is he a good'en?" Hagrid asks quietly. She and Hagrid are watching Tony getting pulled into another conversation about muggle tech with Arthur; this time about the Ford Angela.

"He is, Hagrid." Hera replied, keeping her voice low as well. "I'm as weird as weird can get, and he still wants to be my brother."

"I'm glad then." Hagrid nodded. "He seems a good sort."

"Thank you." She whispers. If he notices the dampness in her eyes, he doesn't say, though he does give her a sort of knowing smile as he hands her another rock cake.