Ripped Away

Year One: Attempted Theft and A Violent Conclusion

After the Mirror of Erised incident, things were quiet at Hogwarts. Heracles's potions ingredients business continued to boom, with her best customers being overworked O.W.L students who were struggling to get all the ingredients necessary for Snape's complex potions. Norbert got even bigger and had started losing his baby fangs, and Heracles started spending quite a bit of time with Rhea, the unicorn she saved. The equestrian creature had taken to pestering her whenever Heracles entered the Forbidden Forest, letting her ride her and introducing her to the rest of her herd. Heracles also picked up a bit of the unicorn language from the herd leader, much to Rhea's joy.

The twins continued to wreak havoc, Neville continued to be accident prone and Ronald, Granger and Malfoy continued to be annoying. Dumbledore became less insufferable and was actually now rather tolerable. He kept his promise and kept McGonagall and the other teachers off her back about her attendance, which Heracles appreciated. The old man didn't seem to understand her warning about Quirrell, however, as the stammering fool stayed in the school's employ. So Heracles took to using the Marauder's map to keep tabs on the man by checking on his location every now and again. Thankfully, he didn't seem to want to go after the stone again anytime soon, which let Heracles focus on her experiments.

Months passed. Heracles made more and more mirrors, but each one failed, and with each failure, Heracles became worse off mentally and physically. The dark circles under her eyes became so pronounced, that not even heavy makeup could cover them entirely. She felt tired the majority of the time and became even more snappy with people who weren't her friends or acquaintances. Then exams rolled around.

Heracles passed all her final exams with flying colors, even breaking a record with her Transfiguration exam scores, much to McGonagall's annoyance. Heracles had to use her wand during the practical portions so she wouldn't draw attention though, much to her annoyance. Flitwick wouldn't shut up about her superb cheering charm at dinner for an entire week after tests, which made Heracles both annoyed at the fact that he wouldn't shut up and proud of herself. Even the monotone Professor Binns was impressed by her knowledge of the Goblin Wars that she exemplified during his exam. Heracles didn't make a fuss out of the grades she got, but Granger and Malfoy did, mostly because they were salty that she got the top scores in their year and they didn't. Neville and the twins were happy for her, but they weren't surprised. They were used to her getting the best grades.

All in all, the final half of her first year was peaceful. Too peaceful. Heracles just knew something was going to go horribly wrong before she left for summer break. Some Overblot level hot nonsense was going to go down before she left the school. She could feel it in her bones

And as it turned out, her bones were right. Heracles cursed as she looked at the Marauder's map. It was days before the end of term. She was in bed after a long day of her mirrors not fucking working, and had been doing a routine check on the map to make sure Quirrell or some other schmuck wasn't trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, and what do you know, Quirrell was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone. Again. For the first time since Halloween. Fuck.

Heracles jumped up out of bed and threw on her invisibility cloak. She rushed out of the common room and ran to the third floor corridor as fast as she could. She arrived there, she rushed to the door to Ortho's room and opened it. She was expecting to find her canine friend injured after trying to fight off Quirrell. What she found, however, was Ortho snoring peacefully.

'He's asleep.', Heracles observed. Then she heard harp music. She looked around, and saw an enchanted golden harp playing music in the corner. The girl cursed. She knew music could put Ortho to sleep instantly after using her enchanted shell to help her sleep in his room with him. The three-headed dog had been out in moments after he heard Idia's soothing voice. Heracles brushed past Ortho and went over to the trap door on the floor, which he was guarding. She opened it and without hesitation, jumped into it.