Ripped Away

Year Two: Qudditch Roast-offs, Creeveys and Photoshoots

Two weeks into the new school term passed. Heracles set up her lab in the third floor corridor again and got back to work on her mirrors. The bags under her eyes that had faded during her time with the Weasley family returned in full force, as did her use of pepper-up and dreamless sleep potions to function. Heracles had to apply even more makeup than last year to keep her friends from discovering her ill health.

Ginny and Luna blended seamlessly into Heracles's friend group. Ginny was a very down-to-earth person who knew how to deal with the school's bullshit, and Luna was just fun to be around with her odd way of looking at the world. It helped that she gave great, if slightly cryptic advice to anyone who needed it too. And apparently, both of the first year girls already knew each other before Hogwarts. Luna and her father lived close to the Burrow, so she and Ginny grew up having playdates together. They were already very close friends, and were usually seen together when Ginny wasn't with Heracles or her brothers.

The teasing and calls of 'Loony Lovegood' stopped after the first breakfast of the year, and Luna sat with Heracles at the Gryffindor table for every meal. The staff, very aware of what Heracles had done to their colleague Professor Sprout on the first day, wisely said nothing about this. Most of them knew better than to try and get on Heracles's bad side now. Except for McGonagall, who was the definition of a perpetual pain in the ass who didn't know when to take a hint.

At the tiny blonde girl's insistence, everyone in Heracles's little group now had a year subscription to the Quibbler, and they got new issues in the mail every week. They could often be seen reading the magazine upside-down while wearing spectrespecs, much to the bewilderment of staff and students alike. But there was a genuine reason for this.

When she originally started reading the magazine, Heracles thought it was just a publication about odd magical creatures and slightly far-fetched stories, but when Luna instructed her to turn her latest issue upside-down and put on the spectrespecs that came with it during breakfast one morning, Heracles was astounded to find countless other, hidden articles in the pages of the magazine. And these articles weren't just fun stories or theories; they were genuine, believable writings about corruption in the Ministry, the suppression of magical creature rights, and blood-based discrimination against muggleborns and halfbloods. Heracles had asked Luna why all of these amazing articles were hidden.

"Dad says the Ministry doesn't like it when people publish the truth. He says people don't like to hear that they're wrong. So he has to use spells to hide the writings he's truly passionate about from unwanted eyes.", Luna had said with an uncharacteristic frown. After that, every one of their friends read their magazines in the same odd way Luna and Heracles did, and they would often have surprisingly intellectual discussions about that week's articles. They were having one such discussion by the Quidditch pitch while Fred and George got ready for team practice, when all hell broke loose.

"I know it won't fix the relationship between wizards and other magical beings overnight, but I think every intelligent magical being should be allowed to attend Hogwarts and carry a wand. Suppressing goblins and centaurs and all the other magical beings just because they're different isn't morally right!", Ginny declared with fire in her voice. She was turning into quite the magical creature social justice warrior. Heracles nodded along with her declaration as she leaned back further against the bleachers.

"Yeah, I agree. But try telling that to the purebloods in the wizengamot who actively support the suppression of magical creatures.", Heracles said. Neville, who was standing beside her, raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you in the wizengamot? Don't you have like, nine seats?", Neville questioned. Heracles shrugged.

"Yeah, but I've got no interest in politics.", 'at least in the politics of this world', she thought. But that didn't mean Heracles didn't have opinions, or wasn't willing to support her friends' political aspirations. Neville looked like he was about to say something, but then something happened on the pitch. The Slytherin quidditch team appeared, looking every bit the haughty pack of purebloods they were. They marched up to the Gryffindor team, who were stretching and getting ready for practice. Oliver Wood glared at Marcus Flint.