Last time...

"I want you to write 'I must not tell lies'." Umbridge continued, looking far too pleased with Hera's admiration of the quill.

"How many times?" Hera inquired, though she had a sinking feeling that she knew the answer already.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in." Umbridge replied. "Off you go."

"You haven't given me any ink."

"Oh, you won't need ink."

Oh, so that's how she did it, Hera realized. Still, Hera placed the point of the quill on the parchment and wrote: I must not tell lies. She expected the pain, and so didn't gasp, gritting her teeth against it before it could escape. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of her left hand, cut into her skin as though traced there by a scalpel.

Yet even as she stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again quickly, leaving the place where it had been only slightly redder than before and still quite smooth. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Umbridge waiting for her to react. Hera felt sick, realizing that the woman expected her to look up with confusion and betrayal; because those in authority should not abuse the children in their care. She realized that every child before her had done just that, had looked up with confusion and betrayal, as hope died. With a stubborn tilt to her jaw, Hera got back to it; placing quill to parchment once more, writing the words 'I must not tell lies' again and again, watching as they healed over seconds later.

The ink was her blood, she soon realized. It was why her protection hadn't been enough. Umbridge had forced each child to do this, to cut themselves with this quill time and time again until the message 'sank' in. Hours passed, and darkness fell. Hera did not ask when she would be allowed to stop. Instead, she focused her intent into the quill; knowing that what she was going to do next would require it.

"Come here." Umbridge demanded, after what seemed like hours. Hera made her way to her. "Hand."

Hera extended her hand, to which Umbridge took it into her own. The woman's touch was revolting, and she repressed a shudder as Umbridge ran her fingers over the words still cut deep into her skin. Hera had managed to convey to the quill that she needed it to cut as deep as possible, that her healing factor would reject it if it didn't. She needed there to be evidence left in order to do the magic she had planned. It gave into her request with glee, not often given the chance to inflict pain onto a willing victim.

"Well, I'm surprised. I seem to have made an impression after all." Umbridge mused with a smile. "You may go."

Except, when Umbridge let go of her hand, Hera grabbed onto hers with a vice like grip and a grin that was anything but kind.

"I think not." Hera declared, her voice low, and the two disappeared from the grounds of Hogwarts.

Chapter 110

It was a little discombobulating to wake up with no understanding of where she was or how she'd gotten there. What she did know was that she was trapped; tied and bound in some kind of rope, her face half pressed into the ground below. It was pointless to try and use wandless magic to get herself out. She'd never attempted to learn the skill, because what witch in her right mind would ever go anywhere without her wand? A repetitive thwacking sound caught her attention then, almost a hypnotic sound, something that caused her to struggle in her panic.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The voice warned. "Those are Devil's Snare vines. They tend to get a little…clingy when people struggle."

Dolores couldn't help the panic that, struggling harder against the vines, though she calmed unexpectedly.

"Didn't think I'd need to cast a calming charm on you so soon." The voice continued, almost conversationally, as if dismissive of her terror. "Can't be having the Devil's Snare killing you now. I still have plans yet."

"Plans?" Dolores demanded, though her voice came out in a terrified squeak. "What plans?"

"Forgotten already?" The voice inquired, as if surprised by this. "I suppose it's to be expected. You did pass out there for a while, and I didn't notice. Monologuing, you know."

"What plans?!" Dolores repeated, her panic pushing through the calming charm. "Who are you?!"

She was quickly rolled over, only to see Potter looking down at her. There were dirt smudges on the girl's face, as if she had been digging. There was a feral sort of look to the girl's eyes, something dangerous and unhinged. In that moment, Dolores realized that Potter understood she was breaking the law by doing…whatever this was…and the girl didn't care. Potter looked at her with a complete lack of respect, as if she were a bit of dirt under her shoe, or a particularly uncooperative chicken she was trying to joint for dinner. It was unsettling.

"Potter?" Dolores exclaimed, fear seeming to settle into her very bones. "Let me go this instant!"

"You seem to be under the impression that you're in a position to demand things and be listened to." Potter noted, dismissing her in favour of getting back into the hole she'd dug; only half of her body visible. "You are mistaken."

"You can't kill me!" Dolores shouted, beginning her struggling anew; only to be hit with another calming charm. "I'm the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic! I'm the High Inquisitor!"

"Shut your pie hole before I fill it with dirt." Potter snorted, surprising her into silence. Stopping again, she turns to Dolores and adds. "I notice you didn't add Headmistress to that load of drivel. Is that because you still can't get into the Headmaster's office? Because you know Hogwarts doesn't accept you?"

Outrage filled Dolores, because she knew these things to be true. Hogwarts hadn't accepted her, had outright refused to allow her entry into the office that was rightfully hers! No spell or password worked, and so she'd used her own office. She'd only tried at night, after she'd gotten through with detentions, to try and break into the Headmaster's office; unwilling to risk another student seeing her fail after that one time. The few students that had stood with her were visibly shaken in their faith in her, and that was something she couldn't have.

"I don't need Hogwarts to accept-"

"Actually, you do." Potter interrupted, turning in one smooth motion to grab Dolores and drag her into the hole as well. She landed with a hard thud, whimpering at the pain; not that Potter seemed sympathetic in that regard. "You tortured those in her care, you see, and Hogwarts takes offence to that sort of thing."

Dolores realized that Potter was shaping the dirt walls around them, nearly enclosing them, and a new sort of panic filled her.

"I had wondered how you'd gotten around my protections, especially considering you didn't know they existed, but then I realized the obvious loophole." Potter continued. Dolores couldn't help but latch onto it like a lifeline, for all that the girl damned her. "Self harm is not something I could protect them from."

"What are you…What are you doing?" Dolores stuttered, trying to catch her breath. "Y-You can't k-kill me."

"There are worse things than death, Professor." Potter stated; as if she truly knew such a thing, before her tone became almost instructive. "Did you know that there is a dish – Well, several, really – where you can dig a pit, wrap the meat up and bury it to be smoked by the logs you set on fire on top of the pit?"

…

The words had barely been spoken before the woman had passed out. Hera was not impressed, especially not when the stench of urine reached her nose. This was a woman who was supposed to be a strong willed person that helped to run the government. What did it say about her that she couldn't even handle being abducted and scared out of her wits by a teenage girl? Granted, that wasn't what she'd actually planned to do to the woman, but still.

"Pathetic." Hera grumbled to herself.

"Are you trying to create your own oubliette, my friend?" She heard Jareth, and turned to see him standing at the edge of the pit looking down into it. "The Labyrinth could have helped."

"Oh, it did. The Labyrinth was a fountain of ideas, and is it weird I can feel Hogwarts from here too? They make quite the team." Hera admitted, before tilting her head. "Help me out?"

He did so, taking her hand when she offered it to aid her up, amusement written clearly on his face when she was on level ground once more. "How long before she wakes up again?"

"Not long, but by then she'll have been completely consumed by the earth. The cave I requested will form around her as that happens. I just needed to dig to the opening Hogwarts and the Labyrinth said would be the best fit for this." Hera explained, even as the two watched Umbridge being swallowed up by the earth. "If she manages to get out of this particular trap, I've promised the Firies a new playmate. If she survives them, perhaps a Wild Hunt?"

"It has been some time," Jareth allowed with a thoughtful expression. "but you know how those go. Who or what we hunt tends not to make it out alive, and you do want her to live…at least, for now…yes?"

"What about a chase?" Hera inquired, having not considered the stipulations of a Wild Hunt exactly.

The answering grin she got was something wild and just a touch mad. All Fae were, she reasoned, because no one survived immortality without becoming a little insane. It reminded her of a goblins sneer, bloodthirsty and all too willing to see it through. Umbridge would have her life, yes. After surviving the pits, the Firies, and the chase, she would have it. All it would cost is her sanity.

"Ah, I believe I could rally my subjects for a chase." Jareth agreed, his eyes alight with fiendish glee. "What of you, Hera? Will you be participating?"

"In a manner of speaking." Hera allowed, amused at the amount of promised vengeance she could see in his eyes, though she frowned as she continued. "I can't allow myself to join the chase, no, not when I want to kill her. I need her to live until the very last moment, when she abandons all her so called reason and does what she's always wanted to do. She has to make it back to Hogwarts for that."

"Ah, and so you wish us to chase her there." Jareth concluded with glee, to which Hera nodded. He gave a regal bow in response. "My friend, we would be honoured."

"Everyone will go for this?" Hera wondered in uncertainty. She'd never asked for this level of cooperation from so many beings, and she was having a momentary bout of uncertainty. "Truly?"

"Yes. They would." Jareth answered. Hera wasn't as certain as Jareth seemed to be, and upon seeing that he gestured to the Labyrinth and the kingdom itself. "Hera, you did what no one thought could be done. You went to a place that should have killed you, and came back alive. You freed a being we thought a monster, and revealed him to not be so to those who cared for him and for those whom he cared for in return. You outsmarted me without ill intent, and aligned yourself with me against a god. In doing all of this, you became goblin friend and princess."

"It's just…I get that my anger is justified, and that she totally deserves everything that's about to happen to her, but…I tend to be singularly focused?…" Hera tried to explain. "I don't want to just run roughshod over someone else's plans. They could have important things to do. I don't need to go through all of this elaborate planning I've cooked up. I'm perfectly capable of making that woman bleed on my own if the others have things that need doing."

"I do not doubt it!" Jareth barked out in surprised laughter. More calmly, he continued. "Hera, when you asked if the Labyrinth would aid you, the kingdom cheered. When you asked the Firies if they wanted to entertain a new plaything, they celebrated. So know that when I say that everyone will revel in the chance to aid you when I tell them you asked if all the kingdom so wished, it is not an exaggeration. You are our Princess. That foul waste of air hurt those under your protection, and she has hurt you. They are angry, and they will want blood for what she has done. We all do."

Hera couldn't help but crack a lopsided grin at that, as she chuckled. "Just make sure it isn't her life they take. I still plan on having my own bit of fun, you know."

Fred and George had had quite the time of it over the last couple of days. They hadn't been sure what Hera was asking when she told them to go to the Room of Requirement for assistance, but they'd gone anyway. It had turned out to be a treasure trove of odd knick-knacks, a veritable smorgasbord of things they could use, quite different from how it had been as the training room she'd asked it to be for the DA lessons. They even found a particularly interesting trinket they thought she might like, though they put that away for later. They had a plan to hatch, after all.

When they were ready to spring the plan, they went to find Hera; only, Hera refused to be found. Instead, they found Professor Snape…and a Ministry Proctor. It didn't dawn on them until the older gentleman began explaining the process, just what they were in for. She'd tricked them, distracted them into giving her somehow enough time to get a proctor for their N.E.W.T.'s, and then promptly disappeared. They'd tried to find her after the exams, but they couldn't locate her anywhere; not even on the map.

"Professor!" They both shouted, barrelling into Snape's office without so much as a thought. By now, they knew the wards only truly kept out those who wanted to bother the man with foolish requests or an attempt to harm, but those with a genuine concern or request were let in; even if they weren't keyed to the wards.

"What is it now?" Snape growled, looking far angrier than normal; something that stumped them for a moment. Snape may put on a good show, but genuine anger was rare, not like the constant state of true annoyance he gave off. "As you can see, I am busy at the moment."

Indeed, he was, if the strewn papers all over the man's desk were anything to go by.

"It's Hera. We can't find her." Fred began, not bothering to hide his worry.

George was grim as he added. "It's been three days."

"Since she disappeared?" Snape questioned doubtfully. "I think I would have noticed such an absence, Gentlemen. Try again."

"Since she asked us to set up a plan." Fred corrected. "It's been three days."

"We're ready, but we can't find her now." George explained, more than a little worried now. "We've tried everything."

"Really, Gentlemen?" Snape countered, arching an eyebrow at them. "Everything?"

"We've looked everywhere." Fred insisted. "She isn't on Hogwarts grounds."

"Come to think of it, Umbridge isn't on school grounds either." George remembered, frowning.

…

"And just how, pray tell, do you two know that?" Severus drawled, eyeing them with suspicion. It didn't help when the two of them froze up simultaneously. Deciding that distracting them for the time being would be the better use of his time, he continued on. "Tell me then, what else have you done to locate her? Scrying? Spells? A ritual? Offerings to your chosen god, perhaps? Maybe a manhunt or two?"

"It's funny you should mention offerings to our god." Fred Weasley commented.

"We did that," George Weasley pipped. "a lot."

"Believe me, I know." Potter's voice rang out dryly, right before she popped into view in his office. There was a plate on top of her head, five on each arm that she had splayed out so she wouldn't drop any of them, and one in each hand. They then began floating to various flat surfaces in the room. "Jareth's still laughing it up because of the stunt you two pulled."

She then proceeded to produce a spoon out of thin air, grab a plate, and point at the two of them with the spoon.

"Also, if you two keep this up, I'm gonna get fat."

…

"Merlin's pants, this is amazing." Hera proclaimed, momentarily distracted by the apple pie cheesecake she'd picked up. "Do you two make these? Which one of you did the buttercream frosting on that cake last week? Or the crumble for this cheesecake? It's fucking brilliant, is what it is."

"Potter."

Hera looked up from the food to see Snape looking pointedly at her, and only then did she realize how badly Fred and George were in some kind of shock.

"What's with you two?"

"Hera…"

"You're bleeding, Potter, in case you've forgotten." Snape drawled, gesturing at her. She looked down at her wrist, discovering that the wound had reopened. By the time she looked up, he was already taking the plate out of her hand, turning her wrist over in his hand. "What. Happened?"

"What I said would happen." Hera reminded him. "I went to detention."

"We'll need murtlap." Snape informed the boys. "I'm assuming you two can procure it without getting caught, since you were so adept at stealing it from me."

"You're not doing that." Hera snapped, wrenching her wrist out of his grasp, clinching her teeth against the pain of it. "The blood quill did it's job. It did what I needed it to do. You undo that, you undo the contract. You do that, and it will all have been for nothing."

"…What did you do?"

"Blood quills are goblin made." Hera informed him, a cruel smile slowly making its home on her face. "Maybe she should have thought about that before using them against me and mine."

"Potter-"

"Look, I'll do the ritual in here if it makes you feel better, but it's getting done one way or the other." Hera cut in, offering the only compromise she was willing to offer.

His expression became tight, thin-lipped, though he nodded. "Very well."

For a moment, she looked at him completely stunned. She hadn't actually expected him to agree to the compromise, considering how unyielding he tended to be on certain things. Perhaps he simply chose which things to be unyielding about, as this was apparently one of them, because he wasn't yielding now. Hera didn't know what to do about it. Without breaking eye contact, she snaps her fingers, summoning the items into the room.

"Alright, this is what I need you to do." She began, breaking eye contact with Professor Snape to turn to the ingredients. "Fred? George? Whatever it is you've planned, I need you to spring it. Now. Once chaos has ensued, Luna and the others will begin spiriting away the students."

"And just how will they be doing that?" Snape inquired with his usual drawl.

Hera paused in her preparations, wrist still bleeding, realizing only just now that she probably should have mentioned this sooner. "Oh, I…uh…taught Luna how to shadow step?"

"When?" Snape demanded, looking even paler than usual.

"I dunno really…sometime after the holidays." Hera shrugged. "She was asking questions about magic, its possibilities, and before I knew it she'd mastered the ability. Brilliant, that girl."

Snape looked about ready to keel over.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine." She insisted, as she got back to it. As an after thought, she admitted. "I put her in charge of teaching the others, and then went to detention so I could bury Umbridge alive."

Fred and George both began making their way to the door, as they still needed to spring their part of the plan.

"Are you sure I can't convince you two to stay afterwords?" Hera inquired, looking up from the cauldron to give them a mischievous grin filled with promise. "You're not going to want to miss this."

The two looked at each other, before Fred gave a brief nod.

"We'll let you know."

…

When they were gone, Potter turned her attention back to the cauldron.

"Blóð býður blóð." She spoke, and the words rumbled low around her. "Blóð til bannaður blóð sáttmáli. Safna á þennan stað. Talaðu við mig. Meðhöndla með mér."

As she spoke, Severus watched as wisps of dark red – in some cases black – seemed to float through the air like a spider's web.

"Blóð býður blóð."

The more he focused on her words, the more he could almost make out their meaning, but he was shocked out his musings when he realized there was an echoing voice to the rumbling he heard; as if Potter wasn't the only one speaking.

"Blóð til bannaður blóð sáttmáli. Safna á þennan stað. Talaðu við mig. Meðhöndla með mér."

The wisps in the air seemed to come from everywhere, though they avoided Potter and himself as they floated about the room. Potter no longer seemed to see him, focused on the cauldron before her. Holding her left wrist above the cauldron, she took a candied apple slice and squeezed the juice out of it. As the juice ran down the wound, more than blood seemed to pool out of it, though Severus couldn't quite describe what he saw even to himself. Whatever it was dripped into the cauldron, mixing with the powdered ingredients he hadn't been able to get a proper feel for to understand what they were, and the other wisps moved as if summoned until it all coalesced into a single dark liquid.

"Hverþorir?" The voice seemed to vibrate out from the cauldron.

"Hera Potter, ættleidd dóttir Frigga frá Ásgarðr, erfingi goblin ríki." Potter replied.

Though she didn't bat an eye to speaking to a cauldron filled with blood soup, she also looked beyond terrified, as if this were the single most dangerous thing she'd ever done. He felt a desperate need to know what was being said, and a dizzy spell temporarily overcame him. When it cleared, his mind played back what had been said, and he realized he could understand it now. Blood invites blood. Blood to Forbidden Blood Covenant. Gather to this place. Talk to me. Treat with me. That just begged the question of who had answered with 'Who dares?'.

"Kneel."

Potter's arm shot out to grab him, pulling him down with her as she knelt before the cauldron, eyes wide as she stared unblinkingly in front of her. He didn't know when he'd moved to be nearer to the scene, and so it surprised him. He didn't fight her on this though, didn't question why she'd done it. This was the most afraid he'd ever seen her, and he knew in his bones this was not something to take lightly. Severus waited, uncertain what would happen next, racking his brain to try to figure out who they were speaking with or even a reference for what Potter had done to call them.

"Tell me."

"The children under my protection were forced to use blood quills, quills that are tied to my kingdom, quills that are now binding them to contracts their magics are not mature enough to handle." Potter continued. "I wish to have it returned."

"To the children?"

"No. To the woman who forced them to hurt themselves." Potter corrected. "Dolores Jean Umbridge."

"That is not your name to give."

"Isn't it?" Potter countered, a small grin making its way onto her terrified face, making her look a touch mad. "She did give it to me, after all."

"Dumbledore gave her name to all of you before the beginning of the feast." Severus hissed under his breath. "Wouldn't that counter this?"

"Not if I asked her for it specifically afterwords." Potter explained. "There was a reason she feared everything I gave her, you know."

"What's done is done, and what's said is said." Severus realized.

"Exactly."

"Very well. It will be returned."

"Your price?" Potter inquired, ducking her head low. "I am not so foolish as to think I could invoke you, and not incur one."

"Wise…Precious…Chosen…Price to be paid…Your price…take up the mantle."

"…The mantle?" Potter inquired, looking up to the cauldron. "I don't understand."

"Be what was denied…Take up the mantle…Be my Account…my god."

"I'm not…I…" Potter ducked her head again. "I don't deserve it. I'm not worthy of that."

"Potter, you literally just called an entity I can only assume is Magic to speak with you through a cauldron of blood, and you're going to tell it no?!" Severus scolded, hissing at her under his breath; never mind that the entity itself could no doubt hear him. Potter looked at him, eyes pleading, so he grabbed her shoulder to steady her. "We told you before that it was possible that you could be. All that is left now is for you to believe that it is. It is gift and burden both, but Magic would not give such a price if it did not think you capable or deserving."

Potter turned back to the cauldron, jaw trembling as she tried to muster up the ability to answer.

"...I accept."

When Dolores woke up, she had expected to see Potter once more. Instead she woke up screaming, the feeling of something cutting into her flesh from every angle. It felt almost like scrawling…like words were being written into her flesh. She screamed, calling out for help, but there was no answer. She tried to get out of the reach of whatever it was that was cutting into her, but to no avail.

When the cuttings stopped, Dolores was relieved. By then she'd understood what was happening, that somehow Potter had managed to return to her what she had done to others. Blood oozed from every wound, and there was a pulling feeling coming from her feet. Dolores looked down…or rather up…to see that her feet were tied up and bound to the ceiling. The air was thick with fumes that were no doubt poisonous, obviously coming from whatever sort of river that could hiss when blood dripped into it; she didn't want to know.

However, there was hope! Above her was a hole the size of a galleon on the roof of the earthly cave, just big enough to not let her choke on the fumes. It gave her a bit of clarity to see if she could get out of this situation. If she could get out, she could get back to Hogwarts, where that Potter girl had no doubt run back to in order to hide her crime! Belatedly, she realized there was a shovel strapped to her arm, and a note taped to her forehead. With the high pitched laughter she could also hear above her, Dolores didn't like her odds.

The Note?

Start digging.

AN: I'm so sorry! I've been fighting with the plot bunnies for over a week, and they've apparently settled on drawn out torture as opposed to kill her and be done with it.

Also, last scene inspired by Harveste Addams written by Kyaru (Thumbie) on AO3

One moooore thing lol I am not a linguist, so I used The Vikings of Bjornstad for references, and Bing Translate

Shout out to M3lody on AO3 for plot bunny idea focusing on Loki being the god of magic! Once they made that comment, the plot bunnies couldn't put it down!

People reading this as a completed work, this is a mandatory rest stop. Drink some water, go to sleep, and come back in the morning.

Not originally mine, but I saw the idea and thought I'd include it every ten chapters or so. Thanks to katherynefromphilly on Tumblr for the idea!