He hadn't thought that a child of James and Lily Potter would be capable of quiet, what with how both of them were bold and fierce in their convictions, unbothered with letting other people know their thoughts. And yet Heri Potter was a very quiet girl, always willing to lend an ear to anyone that wanted to fill the air, and never did she volunteer to demonstrate anything in class. Soft-spoken, Pomona had told him. Heri was warm smiles and carefully worded statements in place of her parents' glowing grins and forthright declarations. She wasn't the adventurous sort either. She showed no interest in the third-floor corridor, not even after receiving the Invisibility Cloak. Albus had been so certain that no child would pass up the opportunity to get up to mischief at the chance of being invisible, but he was proven wrong. As far as he knew, Heri hadn't done more than carry it around with her; she hadn't even offered to lend it to the Weasley twins to assist them in their pranking. She showed so much potential though! Albus had overheard students talking about the occasion wherein Heri had rescued another student by actually punching a bludger away. Then there was the mess on Halloween where she had physically beaten a fully-grown Mountain Troll to death with its own club. Such physically-focused subconscious magic was astounding. He did feel dreadful that such a young girl had been forced to take a life — even if it was a troll's life — and in such in such a violent manner as well. He couldn't help but feel proud of her as she gamely made herself move on from the situation, especially when her friends took the opportunity to bring it up whenever they could. She certainly had the makings of a hero within her. When Albus had arrived at the chamber of the Mirror of Erised that evening, he wasn't certain what had happened. Outside of the casual destruction that Quirrell had wrought on his way through the obstacles, there had been no signs of struggle. That, of course, could be attributed to a simple 'mobilicorpus' or perhaps he had stunned Heri before levitating her through. That didn't account for the shattered Mirror and horrendous bloodbath though. Catching sight of the damage, Albus swore his heart skipped a beat. The girl was soaked through with blood! For a horrible moment, he was certain she was dead. His horror was abated when he discerned the movements of breathing coming from her. He rushed over to get a handle on the damage. Glass was everywhere, on the floor, slicing into Quirrell's corpse, and even on Heri. There was a nasty gouge in her hand from where it appeared that a piece of glass had been shoved into her palm. He feared the worst and quickly performed rudimentary healing spells on her, breathing a sigh of relief a moment later when he checked her pulse and found it to be steady. That she was still going strong — relatively — after clearly surviving some kind of atrocious attack was a credit to her. Carrying Heri to the Hospital Wing, Albus couldn't help but continue to wonder what in the world had happened in that chamber. There was clearly some sort of battle which Heri clearly won, but the method by which Quirrell had died worried him. The man was half ash, the other half filled with stab wounds. Remembering the strange gouging and slices in Heri's hand, Albus couldn't help but worry. Had Heri stabbed Quirrell to death? Did she actually have it in her to kill someone, and in such a horrific manner? Well, that wasn't fair. From what Albus had observed, Heri was nowhere near an aggressive sort. She was the type to strike back only when she was cornered. Thinking on the Bludger and the troll, it was logical to conclude that Heri must somehow fall into a sort of panic-induced frenzy when her life was in danger, doing everything she could to make sure the threat was eliminated. He could hardly fault her for that, many people did the same albeit to a less deadly end. Looking over the little girl now tucked into the infirmary bed, Albus wondered how the girl would cope once she came to. If she really had stabbed Quirrell, that was a cross she would bear for the rest of her life. She had taken a life albeit from a person seeking to do the same to her. She was only a child; could she withstand the weight that killing another person brought onto the soul? Only Heri could answer that and she was deeply under with a cocktail of potions to keep her asleep as she healed. If she held strong, it would be another credit to her name, Albus concluded, stroking his beard in contemplation. Another sign of her potential. AN: As a reference to the AN at the beginning of the chapter: I recall instances where girls used the name of male gods. I've met a guy whose girlfriend was named Jupiter, one of the Sailor Scouts from Sailor Moon was Mercury, and a book I've read had a female character named Apollo. I've also found that the name Kairos, a name predominately used by girls, is the name of a minor god, a son of Zeus. I think that's plenty of reason for me to say that I think Herakles should be used by girls too.
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