Last time...

Albus swallowed nervously, and turned to leave. Her threat was real, he could feel it in the power around her. He knew that she would dismantle everything that he had built if he left her to her own devices, but at the same time he couldn't bring himself to admit his own faults. He'd worked too hard to make up for them, that acknowledging them now felt like failure, and that…that he couldn't accept. Her voice followed after him, sending chills down his spine.

"…So be it…"

Chapter 38

"Madam Pomfrey, can you and Professor McGonagall give us some privacy?" Potter asked in a tired tone, looking to the two women after Dumbledore had gone, upon seeing Sirius and Remus walking into the room. "I'm afraid my friends are going to burst in at any moment, if Cedric's arrival wasn't warning enough, and we need to have words before they see me."

"You need rest, Miss Potter." Madam Pomfrey warned her. "You're acting rather erratically as it is."

"I know, but if I don't deal with this now, it's gonna come back to bite me on the arse later, I just know it." She reasoned. The woman looked set to push the rest of them out, when Potter relented. "I'll rest. I swear I will, right after. I promise. You can poke and prod, and make me drink terrible tasting potions to your heart's content. How 'bout it?"

"Alright, but they leave right after." Madam Pomfrey agreed, her mouth set in a grim line, no nonsense.

"Yes, Ma'am." Potter nodded, and the woman cajoled Professor McGonagall into leaving towards the doors with her.

"Alright, Potter, everyone is gone." Severus declared. "Now, what is the meaning of this?"

"You all have to promise not to react." Potter immediately pleads, which suggests nothing good. "Or at least…don't…don't get mad at me…"

They all nodded their silent assent, and she began. Horror filled their minds as she went into an in depth explanation of what happened to her while she was gone, how she'd been unable to fight against being tied up, how she'd been forced to participate in a ritual that brought the Dark Lord back. Severus wanted to shout in outrage at the blatant lies she'd told before, but he waited, having agreed to keep his silence till the end. She told of the man's arrogance, his history, his planning to achieve that moment. Stark snorted when Potter admitted that the first thing she did once free of the ropes was punch Pettigrew square in the face; even Severus knew the loyalty of the Marauders to each other was such that they would have died for Pettigrew had the roles been reversed, something Black and Lupin adamantly agreed on.

"When one of his Death Eaters began talking, I knew…some of them were parents, and I couldn't…I couldn't hurt them." Potter admitted softly.

"Why?" Black demanded, causing her to cringe. "They would have killed you if given half the chance!"

"Siri, stop." Lupin scolded quietly. "Look."

Only then did Black seem to realize how uncomfortable he'd made her, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Prongslet, I just don't get it."

"I know, it's just…my friends…I couldn't forgive myself if I killed their parents, even if it was in self defense, even if they could have tried to kill me first…Their children love them, Padfoot." Potter tried to explain.

"But not one among them is repentant!" Black insisted. "If it hadn't been for your mother, Snape wouldn't have turned against Voldemort either!"

"You leave me out of this, Black." Severus growled.

"What does he mean by that?" Stark asked, narrowing his eyes at them.

"There is a prophecy, and – laugh all you want, Stark, they hold weight in this world – by that time I had already made my choice." Severus admitted, waiting till Stark had stopped giggling to continue. "I joined the Death Eaters for one reason; power. I wanted to prove I was better than my drunkard of a father, better than all of them, and I was willing to turn a blind eye to atrocities that are too vile to have names in order to get it. Black is not wrong. Had the Dark Lord gone after Frank and Alice Longbottom, I wouldn't have so much as batted an eyelash, too entrenched in my choice to wonder or care for redemption."

"Explains why you're such a bully to Neville." Potter murmured. "The prophecy should have been about him, as it constantly mentions a 'he' in it. He will have powers the Dark Lord knows not, being a prime example."

Severus did not speak to acknowledge her assumptions, knowing them to be true, only giving a subtle nod as he continued. "I took it to the Dark Lord, the part of it I heard before being thrown out, who inevitably decided it was regarding Lily and James, those who had thrice defied him as the prophecy stated was a requirement that would lead to the marking of his equal, the one that could vanquish him. I plead for her life, for Lily's life, even knowing he wouldn't spare the others, because at the time I didn't care."

Potter sucked in a breath, having not expected that part, though she must have known it.

"I had forced myself not to think of my first friend for years. She had disapproved of the choices I was making at the time, and I would like to point out that they were atrocious choices. I had refused to heed her warnings, because the promise of power was too sweet to resist. I wanted it too much to care what the consequences were, to care about what those I was associating with were doing to people like her." He continued. "When he left, I was faced with the dawning realization that I had just bargained for my first friend's life as if she were some tawdry harlot, and that she would have never forgiven me had she lived but her family had not. So I went to Dumbledore, the only one I knew of with the power to protect them, and I begged. He agreed, and I became a double spy, with the promise that I would watch over their daughter when she came to school. That is what he means."

"And you freed this man?" Stark asked in quiet astonishment, looking to Potter. "You agreed to apprentice with him, knowing all this?"

"I hadn't known a lot of that at the time, no, but it was pretty easy to guess a good bit of it after hearing the prophecy for myself in its entirety." Potter admitted softly. "Before, all I knew was that he was doing a rather passable job at pretending to hate me, but it felt…forced. I know what true hatred feels like, and when I looked at his magic, I saw that at his core he was jaded…His heart just…wasn't in it, and that was all the reason I needed."

"I think we're getting off topic." Lupin reminded them. "What does this have to do with what happened in the graveyard?"

"Right." Potter nodded, getting back down to business. "I don't expect any of them to change much, or right away, but I thought…How many of them are just as tired? How many of them just want to raise their kids in peace? Shouldn't I give them that chance? How many of them were following along the path of least resistance, because there wasn't another option anymore? Once you take that mark, he owns you. He'd go after their children next, and they wouldn't be able to deny him."

"Alright, alright, Pup, I understand." Black placated, grudgingly. "What happened after that?"

"You know what it means, that he used my blood as one of the ingredients to bring himself back to life. He made himself my equal, just as he had marked me as his." Potter stated, looking at Severus now. "His magic is within the scar he gave me. We know this because I felt it when I freed you of the Dark Mark. I felt something similar when Quirrell was teaching, and then there was Riddle's diary in second year-"

"Riddle's diary?!" He demanded. "How did you-"

"Not important right now." She waved him off. "What is important is that they're pieces of him…his soul, his magic, and I have to wonder…How many pieces did he split himself into? Is that why he looked so…wrong?"

"I think I've heard of that magic." Black noted, looking deep in thought. "Hera, if it's what I think it is, there is no darker magic than that. I know you say magic is all about intent, and while that is true, understand when I say you have to mean the evil that goes into casting something like this."

She nodded, but Severus didn't think she understood, not if that look in Black's eyes was any indication. Until now, no one had been able to get rid of the Dark Mark, but Hera Potter could. She could call to it, lure it out, demand it leave, and Severus had to wonder if it was because she had a piece of the Dark Lord's soul within her. If that was true…the only way to get rid of a phylactery like that…was to destroy it, and a living phylactery…such a thing had never been created before…at least, no records had been discovered for such a thing.

A chill settled over him as he realized what this could mean for the girl. Black and Lupin were just barely holding themselves in check, as it seemed they'd realized it too. Stark looked thoughtful, frowning at the implication of her words, and Severus had to wonder if he knew already and was trying to work out how to stop it. Before he would not have said such a thing was possible, but he'd seen Potter do the impossible. It was no longer out of the realm.

"Why do I have a feeling that you had one of your crazy ideas?" Severus asked, narrowing his eyes at the girl, hoping it distracted them all from their dark thoughts. It worked.

"It wasn't a crazy idea, and it worked!" Potter defended, but he just arched an eyebrow at her. Realizing her error, she sighed in defeat. "I reversed the ritual."

"Hera, that's not possible." Black stated dumbly, blinking like he couldn't believe it.

Severus glared at him, before explaining. "What he means is that it shouldn't have been possible. Reversing a ritual is painstakingly time consuming, and even if all the conditions are met, it still might not work."

"Except that it did." Potter shrugged. "You all act like things are way more difficult than they really are. Which, okay, rituals would be a pain…if I'd attempted it later. I did this right after it happened. The conditions were exactly the same. Hardly any time had passed at all. The ingredients where all right there. I just reversed the words, and did a bit of admittedly accidental overpowered necromancy to get his father's permission for what I was attempting, and boom. Done."

"…overpowered necromancy?" Severus asked, for clarification, unable to believe his ears. "How does one accidentally perform overpowered necromancy exactly?"

"Yeah. I…uh…well, I was desperate, okay? and I put a bit too much into the spell." Potter confessed, blushing in embarrassment. "Ended up summoning the whole damn graveyard; which was good, because they kept ol' What's-his-name busy while I finished the reversal ritual. After that, I leapt up on him, threw us both in the cauldron, and boom. I wake up, his wraithyness has fled into the night, I'm creating a fake memory to fool Fudge, and a group of Death Eater parents are waiting somewhere with Dobby for me to remove their marks. The end. Also, my scar is really itchy. I think the potion mix tried to pull it out too, only it's too firmly entrenched. So, itchy."

The men all looked to each other, knowing that was all the confirmation they needed.

"And what happened with the Headmaster just now?" Severus questioned.

"And punching him in the face earlier." Tony added helpfully.

"I will not apologize for that." Potter insisted, her earlier anger at the Headmaster returning. "I saw what his choices lead to, the complete disregard he's exercised when it comes to the lives of his charges. I refuse to let it continue."

"So…No threats on his life then?" Black asked with a wry smile, though his eyes were guarded.

"No." She replied, determined. "I want…I want to dismantle the image people have of him, the perfect grandfatherly Leader of the Light. I want to take away everything he's worked so hard to build, the lie I see every time I look at him, and I want him to know why it's happening. What he's done…I'm nothing compared to the generations of children he's refused to protect with his lack of action…I want him to suffer, but no…I don't want him dead."

...

What they did not know was that in a corner of the room, with silencing charms on, Hermione, Ron, and Draco were scrunched underneath the Invisibility Cloak, listening in on every word. They heard Hera talk about the ritual, the offer to free those parents that wished it, the theory about what was in her scar. They saw how the adults reacted to that knowledge, knew that it was far worse than Hera suspected. They heard Snape explain his motivations, and it was a good thing Hermione had thought to cast a nonverbal body bind on Ron in time or else they would have never heard the rest of it. It wasn't until after everyone had left, and Hera had fallen asleep, that they made their way to an unused classroom.

"That arsehole!" Ron shouted angrily, pacing. "How dare he?!"

"Look, I get that Professor Snape is-" Hermione began, but he cut her off.

"I'm not talking about him, but he's an arsehole too!" Ron declared, whirling around to face them. "I'm talking about Dumbledore!"

"What are…Weasley, what are you talking about?" Draco demanded, before it hit him. "You can't possibly mean-"

"That's exactly what I mean!" the boy snapped in outrage. "Why do you think she threatened him the way she did? They say there isn't a thing that goes on in this school that Dumbledore doesn't know about. Now, I hadn't wanted to believe the whole thing with Quirrellmort was a trap like she said, but if it was it all makes so much sense. How could Quirrell have a wraith hidden on the back of his head all year, and Dumbledore not know about it, unless he set him up and Hera too? Give her a chance, see what she can do, let her face the man who went after her parents. You can't tell me he didn't know what was in her scar! You can't tell me he didn't know what he was sentencing her to with those Dursleys!"

"It gets worse." Draco stated quietly. "If I'm right, Black was talking about a Horcrux. I read about it in the Malfoy family library. It's a vile piece of magic, committing murder to charge an object to contain a piece of your soul."

"Why would you have that in your library, or even read that?" Hermione asked, askance.

"It's knowledge." Draco shrugged, like it explained anything. "And it's because of that knowledge that we even know what this is, Granger. How to deal with it…Well, that's another story."

She begrudgingly acquiesced.

"It was used as a way to hopefully insure immortality by Harpo the Foul, but Potter spoke as if the Dark Git had made more than one, and that's…" Draco continued. "The books didn't say what it would do to a person if they did that, but it makes sense that he would lose more of his humanity the more of his soul he split away."

"Does it talk about how to get rid of them?" Ron asked, bracing himself almost.

"Fiendfire or Basalisk Venom should do it, but it doesn't talk about what to do for a living horcrux." Draco replied. Hermione went to object, even as Ron became stalk still, and Draco halted her. "She said there was a piece of his magic, his soul, within her scar. She knows what that feels like, where she helped Uncle Severus, and dealt with Quirrell during First Year. Do either of you know what she meant by the diary?"

"No, but…Just before Second Year, Hera snuck in and placed a diary in Ginny's cauldron." Ron answered slowly, thinking back. "I didn't think much of it because she gave one to Hermione and herself too, but Ginny swears she could see a small black book in Hera's arms as she left."

"Assuming that's the diary, Hera probably got rid of it somehow." Draco theorized. "She has enough power to cast and control Fiendfyre, but I don't know if she's ever attempted it. However, Father has been exceedingly happy about some sort of venture the two of them decided to embark on after he helped Sirius Black, something about exotic rare creature parts. She can speak to snakes and dragons; a basilisk wouldn't be too far out of the realm."

"You think Hera has a pet basilisk hidden somewhere?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Well, she was gone a lot in Second Year." Hermione mused. "You said even Fred and George couldn't keep track of her for long. If she had found the Chamber of Secrets, and Salazar's familiar, would she have told us?"

"I dunno." Ron admitted with a sigh. "A secret place no one knows how to get into? Somewhere safe and protected? I wouldn't have."

"It's the living horcrux, Hera herself, that's going to be the problem to solve." Draco reminded them, pulling them up short with his words. "There was nothing in the books about a living horcrux. I don't think it has ever been done before, or even if he meant to do it at all. If his soul latched onto her after the killing curse rebounded?…"

"What aren't you saying, Draco?" Hermione asked, pointedly, letting him know that she knew he'd been stalling.

"I don't know for certain, but…I think…" He tried, taking a bracing breath. "In order to get rid of the horcrux in a living vessel…you'd have to kill the vessel."

It was as if he'd cut the strings of a puppet, the way Ron crumpled to the ground. He's screaming, crying, raging against it all. It's a good thing Draco had thought to cast another noise cancellation charm to make sure they weren't overheard when they'd entered the classroom. Hermione's burst into tears, partly in shock, and partly already trying to work out how to save her friend. They're grieving as if their friend has already died, and something cracks within him.

He'd heard her after the second task. Her first friends, her first friends, how could she choose? He remembered the shock at hearing her threaten anyone and everyone who would ever dare to hurt them, and wishing with all his might that he had someone that was that fiercely loyal to him. He thought back to that moment on the train, when he'd insulted them, and still stuck his hand out anyway. And she'd really been about to accept it, if only after wanting him to know she didn't appreciate the insults?

She'd born his insults about her muggle family, about her mother, and anything else he could think of over the last few years. She'd shown him what power was, taunting him in that dueling arena with a king cobra in her hand, using his own magic against him. She'd tutored him in charms with no one the wiser, and then horded the dark chocolate his mother had discretely sent as thanks like it was a dragon's treasure. She'd taken the attack from the hippogriff without a thought. She'd pantomimed Seeker moves with him as they excitedly talked about Quidditch at the World Cup. She'd goofed off with them in the Common Room, played poker with a wicked smirk, daring his godfather to eat a bean, revealing that she should have always been Slytherin.

Draco realizes with mortification that he's crying too, right before Ronald reaches out and pulls him down into the floor with him. Hermione is wrapping her arms around him, and Ronald is wrapping his arms around them both. When had these people become his friends? When had Hera become his friend? What were they going to do?!

"We can't tell her, and if she knows, we can't tell her we know." Ron insisted, still crying when they all let go. "She'll either throw herself into some crazy stunt to end it all just to see if she comes out the other side roses, or she'll…just…give up. I can't…I can't face either of those."

"She's bound to figure it out." Hermione scolded, furiously wiping at her own tears now. "Our acting skills are terrible, and she knows us too well."

"Then we learn everything we can." Draco proposed. "I can search the library again for a way out for her that doesn't involve dying. Maybe there's a way to extract the horcrux without killing her. There's got to be something. Maybe Sirius will let me have a look at the Black family library. There's no way they don't know now, not with how they were looking at each other in there."

"I can start planning for the trip we'll inevitably have to take to hunt these things down." Hermione agreed. "Survival skills, obscure magics, protective wards, maps; The works. There's got to be a criteria for what he wanted when he made those things."

"I'll…I'll pull us through." Ron promised. "I can strategize, guess people's behaviours, plan for what they'll do, like chess. Between what you're doing, and what Draco's doing…As long as you two tell me everything, I can pull us through."

Draco is furiously trying to wipe away his own tears, still slightly embarrassed that he's crying in front of them, just grumbles. "You'd better, Weasley. Can't exactly end a generational blood feud with a broken promise, now can we."