Last time...

Once everything is settled, they head up to the tea room, but the Weasleys are gone. Tony is a lot more comfortable here than he is, but Rhodey understands it's because he's been trying to learn about his sister's world. When Tony sets his mind to something, he's all in. The two siblings are entrenched in a conversation about holiday plans and the possibilities of techno-magic capabilities. He's not sure how those two things coincide, but he's not about to interrupt this to ask, so he turns his attention to the only other occupant that he can.

"What's your name anyway?" Rhodey asked politely. "I'd asked before, but then giggles happened."

"I'll give you mine if you give me yours." The wild looking man replied slyly, with a wicked grin.

The words are on the tip of his tongue, breath taken in, when a hand slams over his mouth. He looks to see Hera Potter sort of perched on an armrest, practically leaning on him. How had he not felt that before now? How had he not seen or heard her approach? The confusion must have been noticeable, because Hera sighs and lets up her hand from his mouth, before relinquishing her perch on the armrest.

"You almost gave a High Fae your name. I thought you might like to keep it. If you don't, that's your business." She shrugged.

"I don't…I don't understand?" Rhodey admitted, more than a little confused.

"Who do you think that is?" She demanded, glaring up at him now.

"Uh…David Bowie?"

Chapter 80

"Merlin's sagging ball-sack, you can not possibly be serious right now." She swore, pinching the bridge of her nose, pausing to glare at him once more. "I have no idea who David Bowie is, and honestly I don't fucking care. This is the Goblin King, not…whoever the fuck David Bowie is, and you should be a little more worried about the fact that you almost gave him your name."

"Tony?" Rhodey called out, a bit distractedly. "Why is she freaking out about me introducing myself, and why doesn't she know who David Bowie is?"

"You should be more concerned with the fact that your best friend almost gave his name to a High Fae without thought or consideration for what that might mean." Hera added.

"Stardust, are you after my Sugar bear?" Tony asked in mock askance, as he appeared by his side, before flipping Rhodey on the ear. "I thought we talked about the name thing."

"We did! I was just introducing myself!" Rhodey insisted, perplexed.

"They are right to warn you, though I would not have taken anything you would not have wished to give. As Hera is my ally and friend, and Tony is her brother, it would behoove me to keep myself in their good graces." The Goblin King stated, looking far more amused by this than Rhodey thought he had a right to be. "You should be wary of how one asks you to introduce yourself. Not every Fae is as considerate as I am, nor do they look as obvious as I do now. May I have your name, Will you give me your name, or any variation thereof is seen as literal. When one of the Fae has your name, they have you, do you understand? They can know your name, and still not have it. There is a difference."

"Okay, note to self, no giving names." Rhodey mumbled to himself, though the light chuckles from Hera and the Goblin King let him know that they had heard him even if Tony who was right next to him had not. He tries again. "Okay then, what do I call you?"

"You did not ask to have my name last time, so your wording wasn't wrong then. I was just trying to trick you to see if I could." The Goblin King teased. "Call me Jareth, if you like. Tony certainly has a number of nicknames he uses."

"You haven't heard the half of it yet. Sugar bear is one of the least ridiculous nicknames he's given me over the years." Rhodey nodded in understanding and commiseration. "You can call me Rhodey."

With that, everything finally settled into place.

…

She and Rhodey had somehow separated from the others in the room, likely Tony's attempt to help them get to know each other. Rhodey had availed himself of the coffee as soon as he saw the Belgian syphon coffee maker start up on its own. Apparently any apprehension he could have had about magic was instantly negated as soon as he saw how it could make a good 'cup of joe'. Meanwhile, Hera had sought out a comforting herbal masala tea to calm her nerves. With only each other to talk to, and no idea how to start the conversation, things fell into silence rather quickly.

"How deeply entrenched in Stane's pocket are you?" Hera asked, eyeing him speculatively from behind her cup of tea. "What did he tell you to do?"

"Already assuming I agreed to what he wanted?" Rhodey asked, not really answering either question. Her silence was answer enough regardless. "Obadiah knows better than to ask me to spy on Tony for him, but he did ask that I keep an eye on you, said that you were filling Tony's head with all kinds of wild ideas. I said I'd be wary, but I never agreed to tell him anything. Now, I know my best friend. I've been with Tony these last few days, and there's nothing disconcertingly different about him."

She stayed silent, waiting.

"He seems more interested in politics now, more conscious about where his weapons are going, both things he attributes to you; both things Obadiah had been trying to get him to do for years, things that he now thinks Tony should keep his nose out of." Rhodey continued, watching her now. "What's Obadiah doing that he doesn't want Tony knowing about?"

"If I tell you, are you going to tell him?" Hera countered, nodding her head in Tony's direction. "When he figures it out, it'll crush him, but he needs to do this on his own. You can't tell him."

"Hera, if it's illegal, it needs to be investigated through the proper channels." Rhodey pointed out.

"And if the proper channels are being watched?" She countered. He straightened in his seat. "I see I have your attention then."

"What evidence do you have?" Rhodey asked, looking nervously to Tony and back again.

"Nothing I can prove, which is why I haven't said anything." Hera admitted. "Obadiah isn't too far gone yet, but if he keeps going the way he is…he will be."

"You're hoping if you don't say anything, you won't accidentally push him, and he won't do something he can't take back." Rhodey realized, sighing when she nodded. "That…sounds like time shenanigans."

Hera grimaced, a bit panicked by how close this man's guess was.

"Tony mentioned something about the tapestry, so I'm guessing that's what you're meaning." He continued, and Hera made a so so gesture. After all, the guy wasn't entirely wrong. "Okay, so not entirely then, but…okay. I won't tell him."

…

"So, you ever gonna tell her?" Tony asked, absent-mindedly, as he watched his sister slowly begin to bond with his best friend. Jareth stiffened next to him. "It wasn't that hard to guess, you know. The way you look at her sometimes, it seems almost wistful, mourning what could have been. Loki must have meant a lot to you."

"Which is precisely why you should know the answer to that question." Jareth replied in a clipped tone. "Hera is not Loki. Were she and I to ever develop those kinds of feelings for each other, she would wonder if that last life played a part, and I can not do that to her. Should we enter into such an arrangement in the future, I would rather she know it was because I value her as she is, and right now all I see her as is a friend I am happy to get to know well. You do not have to keep checking."

"Ah, but I do. Big brother duties, you know." Tony teased. More seriously, he adds. "It's okay to miss him."

"He's still alive right now, but you're right that I miss him." Jareth allowed. "We were…how would you put it?…Lovers in youth, barely on the cusp of deeper feelings, but that chance is long gone now. What could have been was taken when Oðin did what he did. Perhaps I should tell her. There is much she seems to not remember unless it is spoken of, but that can wait, I think. For now, she has her own problems to deal with."

"So, if thinking about all that is as difficult as it sounds, why'd you agree to the prank?" Tony pouted.

"She mentioned your reaction should she come to you with questions about older men and what goes where." Jareth admitted with a sly grin as he looked over at him. "It was too amusing to pass up."

Finally getting to see Arthur loosened the tension in her shoulders, and Hera tried not to let it get to her that she couldn't get a read on Molly's emotions when the woman had come up to fetch her. Molly had taken one look at Jareth and her guard was up. She could understand, but the danger only occurred if there was a time when one had or would wish their child away, and Hera couldn't imagine Molly ever doing that; though maybe one of her children had tried to wish another away? It seemed unlikely. Once in the ward Arthur was held in, she could see that there were only three patients. Arthur was occupying the bed at the far end of the ward beside the tiny window, propped up on several pillows and reading the Daily Prophet by the solitary ray of sunlight falling onto his bed.

"Hello!" He called out happily, throwing the Prophet aside. "Bill just left, Molly, had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you later…"

"How are you, Arthur?" Molly asked, bending down to kiss his cheek and looking anxiously into his face. "You're still looking a bit peaky…"

"I feel absolutely fine," Arthur replied brightly. "If they could only take the bandages off, I'd be fit to go home."

"Why can't they take them off?" Tony inquired, morbidly curious.

"Well, I start bleeding like mad every time they try," Arthur replied cheerfully, reaching across for his wand, which lay on his bedside cabinet, and waving it so that enough extra chairs appeared at his bedside to seat them all. "It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snake's fangs that keeps wounds open…With Severus' help, I'm sure they'll work out an antidote soon. In the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour."

"I'm glad you're alright, Arthur." Hera sighed, filled with relief.

"Hera, I…what you did was both incredibly brave and dangerous, but I really hope I never wake up to you defending me from a giant snake ever again." Arthur admitted emphatically, grinning all the while.

"I would very much like to not wake up to having to defend you from a giant snake. Let's not repeat that experience, shall we?" Hera agreed, matching him grin for grin. Her smile faltered though, and he looked more worried about her than his own life. "There was no need for you to be there, Arthur, not when both parties knew what the thing said. Dumbledore should have told you that. He'd already gotten confirmation from Snape, and he sent you anyway. The snake attacked you thinking Riddle didn't want witnesses, not because he ordered it."

"You mean he…?" Molly trailed off, unable to or unwilling to ask such a question where they were.

"He is. I saw it happen, talked to him, gave him a choice." Hera confirmed, shocking the adults in the room. "He can either get along side, or stay as he is, but this war is going to happen with or without him. He's not the problem, not on his own. He's just a symptom of the disease."

"So if he…gets along side…you what? Rehabilitate him?" Tony asked incredulously. "Hera, he-"

"I know," Hera rushed to explain. "but with my blood as a stabilizing agent, it gives him clarity of mind he didn't have before. Doing what he did the way he did took what humanity he had from him, and now he has some of that back. I want to see what he does with it."

"And if he squanders it, the chance you've given him?" Rhodey asked, though he had no knowledge about any of this. Jareth too looks intrigued. "What then?"

Hera didn't even hesitate. "Then I will curb stomp him so hard they'll be finding pieces of him on the other side of the galaxy."

Jareth laughed loud and joyously, before settling on a grin. "Then I will head to Gringotts, see about drawing up something for the various contracts I can see being needed in the future. Should either possibility come into fruition, we should be prepared. I will await further news from you, Princess; and as always, it was good to see you, my friend. I shall visit sometime during the holiday, if you like."

She is quick to nod her agreement.

It isn't until the shower of glitter that is Jareth's usual exit strategy is gone that the adults sans Tony realize what the Fae had said, and all have a knee jerk reaction to it.

"PRINCESS?!"

Hera raises her hand to show the ring on her right index finger, feeling oddly caught out and uncertain of what to do about it. "Uh…Hi?"

…

Henry Striker was in a foul mood. Bitten by a werewolf. Of all the things to happen to him. They'd been trying to convince him all morning that he'd be able to live a normal life. That chap with the odd snake bite had insisted that he knew and counted a werewolf as a personal friend of his, that his life wasn't over, but Henry hadn't felt like listening. He knew the political climate, knew that what he was now was considered second class to most. His family had abandoned him the moment they found out, left him there at the hospital without a word.

However, when he saw the girl with black hair approach the man he'd spoken to earlier, he wondered how much he really knew about the state of things. That was Hera Potter. She'd been consistently shaking things up since the moment she arrived back into the magical world, and he'd heard all kinds of stories; everything from her freeing Black, to her speaking out in defence of werewolves. There'd also been curious talk around the hospital that morning. A girl fitting her description had been seen floating around the hospital, and things that didn't have cures were showing up as having been cleared away. For the first time since this accursed thing happened to him, he had hope.

"Hey…" He called out, when it looked like she and two of those she'd arrived with were leaving. "…is it true what they're saying?"

He nodded when the girl pointed to herself in inquiry, and she made her way over.

"Is it true what they're saying?" He repeated, but she didn't look as if she understood what he meant. "You've healed people in this hospital, at least…a girl with your description has been…"

She turned beet red in embarrassment.

"I didn't think I'd drawn attention to myself." She mumbled. "I just healed a few minor things."

"The thing is…" He tried, taking a calming breath before continuing. "Did he tell you what happened to me?"

The girl nodded.

"I was wondering if that was something you could heal too." He admitted, turning his head away in shame. "I've been abandoned by my own family-"

"I can't." She blurted out before he could continue, and his hopes were dashed. "I don't think…I didn't mean…"

"It was too much to hope for, I guess, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask." Henry shrugged, trying not to let it show how much it bothered him. She was just a kid, and it wasn't fair of him to just expect her to be able to heal him as she had others. She sighed, so he guessed his attempt wasn't as successful as he'd hoped, and stepped closer to his bed.

"I can't right now. I don't know enough yet." She spoke quietly. "Those other things? I knew enough. You know of Severus Snape?"

He did; that man had a reputation as a revered Potions Master and paranoid bastard.

"I'm apprenticing with him, and a cure for Lycanthropy is considered a personal challenge for that man." She informed him, causing him to perk up with interest. "If you want to give me your contact information, even if it's just an address where you can accept owls, I can keep you apprised of the progress we make. It's not much, and it sounds a bit superficial and empty now that I've said it out loud like that, but-"

"It's more hope than I've had in ages." Henry rushes to thank her, already scribbling down his address. "I'll take it."