Ripped Away

Year Two: Kidnapping via Unicorns, Punching a Dwarf and Go Fish

Ronald and Granger ended up getting a month's detention with Snape and lost a hundred house points each for breaking into the Slytherin dormitory, something that embarrassed and enraged them both severely. Unfortunately, their detention and new found pariah-hood amongst their fellow Gryffindors for putting them in last place for the house cup was the least of their worries, because few days after they got caught, Granger ended up getting petrified by the monster on her way to the great hall after detention. Penelope Clearwater, a Ravenclaw prefect and Percy's secret girlfriend, was also petrified, much to Percy's despair. Heracles could have honestly cared less, but the fact that it was known that she and Granger had been on very bad terms before her petrification cemented the fact that Heracles was apparently the heir of Slytherin in the minds of the students of Hogwarts, and that she would send her 'pet monster' after anyone who made an enemy out of her. Ronald Weasley's mad rantings after he discovered his 'friend'/partner-in-harrassment's petrified body only served to egg these thoughts on.

"I told you! I told you all, but you didn't believe me! She's the heir of Slytherin! SHE'S A WORTHLESS SNAKE!", Weasley had yelled as a grief-stricken Percy dragged him away. It didn't take a genius to figure out who 'she' was. Heracles, true to form, wasn't even there to witness the chaos. She was in her lab, working on another mirror. She heard about the whole mess from Ginny later that same day, who had chased her down on her way to bed to vent about it. Heracles had noted how rung-out and upset the girl seemed when she told her what happened, but she just chalked it up to stress from dealing with two very upset brothers.

The lawsuit with Lockhart was dragging on persistently. For all the man's incompetence, he had had the sense to pick a decent lawyer that was giving Edgar a bit of a hard time. Still, Heracles knew her case was solid and that she would win, even if it would take until the end of the school year for that to come to pass. But until then, the lawsuit was just another thing in the abject pile of stress Heracles had accumulated, and the bags under her eyes seemed to get a bit darker with every correspondence to her solicitor. At least Xenophilius Lovegood was doing as she had hoped and dragging Lockhart's name through the mud.

Two days after Granger and Clearwater were petrified, Heracles was walking around the Forbidden Forest after tending to Ortho and Norbert for the day and letting Hedwig out for a hunt, and decided to pay Rhea and her herd a visit. She had seen them in a while, and going for a ride on Rhea might do her some good. Heracles smiled softly as she walked into the meadow Rhea's herd liked to frequent. She took in the sight of dozens of unicorns interacting, playing and grazing. It was such a peaceful sight. It was almost like being back at Night Raven, helping Riddle and Silver around the stables at the riding club. A wave of nostalgia washed over her, but it didn't stay long, because Rhea trotted over to her and pressed her cold muzzle against the side of her face and snapped her out of it.

"GAH-RHEA! What have I said about doing that?!", Heracles yelled in irritation at her equestrian friend. Rhea snorted at her but said nothing discernable. Heracles had gotten much better at speaking unicorn than she had been when she first met Rhea, but some words were still lost on her. Rhea soon started to nudge Heracles to the right with her head, mindful of her horn.

"What are you doing? Do you wanna show me something? If you want to, you can just tell me.", Heracles told the unicorn, but she didn't speak. She just kept pushing her along until she was standing in front of another unicorn, Leto, and her twin foals Artemis and Apollo. Normal horses rarely had twins, and when they did they were almost always born dead (something Silver had taught her a while back), but unicorns could safely have up to three foals at a time. Though there were very few recorded instances of any unicorn having that many at once. Twins were considered rare enough as it was. Heracles looked at Rhea in confusion.