Mind Over Matter

Hera 1 : Dumbledore 0

CHAPTER THREE

The morning rose bright and early in the ladies half of the Gryffindor dorms as Hera lay in her bed staring up at the canopy thinking about how her life had suddenly tilted on its axis, but granted not by as much as most people would think. She couldn't miss parents she didn't really remember and therefore she couldn't really be angry over their murder, or angry at their murderer.

She had never been treated like family, or even a strained acquaintance really of the Durselys so she had absolutely no emotional attachment to them. Idly she did wonder how long it would take for them to inform her that her 'home' had been burnt down with them still inside it, if they were expecting her to be upset or distraught they would have another thing coming.

She knew that Dumbledore was a manipulative son of a bitch so finding out that she had been set up for failure from the beginning wasn't actually as much of a stretch as most people would have thought, she was actually surprised that the test hadn't registered any potions or compulsions but there was always a chance that something in her and Tom's magic mind meld (she couldn't help the snort there) that eliminated such things.

The marriage contract was a total surprise although it really shouldn't have been, but to betroth a nine year old girl to someone she had never met in a culture she wasn't even aware existed in a bid to control her future and houses she was lady of was kinda low, thankfully he had only set her up for actual marriage, but it begged the question of what was supposed to happen after that? Bitterly she connected the dots between the horcrux, what she could only assume was her death to remove the tether to this plane, and probably already having married Ron by the time it had happened. They would get her money, estate, seats... it was actually a fairly genius plan. Kill her off and be rich and merry.

Although... holding up her left arm to inspect the silver band on it. Tom had explained that because of the nature of the courting and the houses involved (namely slytherin) that the magic in the band had concealed its true appearance for her own safety. It would only look like a thin silver snake when in the mindscape because it was impossible to see there by all but her betrothed.

Grinning slightly she had to wonder just what the world was coming to that she had willingly and almost enthusiastically passed up marrying a friend (in name only) to marrying a dark lord that had tried to murder her multiple times and make lots and lots of babies. Oh the irony. She hadn't immediately regretted the decision the same way she knew would have if she had chosen any of the other contracts and she doubted that she would any time soon. And she did get opportunities to herself too as Tom had left the mindscape some hours prior to 'prepare' something so it wasn't like she was going to be stifled in either real life or her own head.

Sighing and with great reluctance, deciding that breakfast probably couldn't wait any longer if she was going to receive her rings this morning she got dressed, her taped together trainers and ratty jeans made her stand out in the school, like she had nothing but her wits and her face in the world. No money or possessions is what it looked like, worse than any weasley. Honestly how Snape had missed it was mind boggling but that was probably a manipulation on Dumbledore's part as well, it seemed after all that is what he did best.

Hermione was missing so she could only assume that she would find her hunched over a book in the great hall as was the usual occurrence, she'd probably found a new book in the library (which she would be visiting at her earliest convenience) and wouldn't emerge from it for anything short of murder, and in that instance maybe only to sate her curiosity for a moment. Dressing in her usual Hogwarts uniform because she always had on the weekend for lack of decent casual clothing, fiddling with the band on her wrist because she wasn't used to it yet but enjoying the comforting magical warmth it provided. According to 'Bonds and Binds' by Letitia Urquart, the warmth was actually a sign that the other person was whole and healthy, it became cold if they were ill or not-quite burning hot if they were in immediate danger. It was quite interesting actually because they were created by the opposing person's magic, but as with the case of disguising itself your own magic works itself around it. With both of them already having a measure of each other's magic already interwoven with their cores the band was actually sort of a formality, which wasn't lost on her either. Perhaps that was why the mindscape only had one bed.