Holly Potter and the Midlife Crisis

by Enigmaris

Summary:

“The first group I sent over made the Avengers uncomfortable by thanking them constantly and asking for autographs. The next group stole things to sell on ebay. The group after that didn’t even get through the front door because Stark’s security system found something in their background that we missed. The fourth group left traumatized after cleaning out Thor’s room, apparently the god had some beheaded poultry dripping blood into a bowl in there. Then after that every group I’ve left hasn’t lasted more than three days because of some problem or another. I’m pretty sure one of those assholes has made it a game to scare my workers away.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to call the heroes of New York assholes.”

Or, cleaning up after the Avengers involves more than just getting blood stains out of the carpet and most of them can't take the heat. Thankfully the Savior of the Wizarding has spent the last decade cleaning up after Death Eaters, so she's up to the task. Nothing, not pranks, bird corpses, or unidentified slime will keep her from cleaning up.

This Fic is now complete!

Notes:

• Translation into Русский available: Холли Поттер и кризис среднего возраста by Chamomill

Has anyone ever honestly considered what it would be like to clean up after the Avengers? Because the more I think about it the more horrified I become.

Chapter 1: A Favor to The Boss

Holly pulled at the ugly pink smock, she still wasn’t used to the uniform for her job even after three months. Three months of work that reminded her of the Dursleys in a way that was much more annoying than it was terrifying. The only reason she didn’t quit this job was really because it was the only one she could get in the muggle world. As it turned out having to stop a muggle education at age 11 did not qualify her for much more than being a cleaning lady.

It wasn’t even bad work. She worked for a reputable company based in New York City. They were hired by companies who needed buildings cleaned by people who had spotless backgrounds and some kind of security clearance. Which, at the very least, made the work interesting. She helped clean government buildings, research and development departments, and CEO offices. All of her coworkers had gone through rigorous background checks and everyone was randomly tested to make sure they weren’t taking anything they weren’t supposed to.

To make sure that no one stole any classified stock information, the cleaning crew was paid very very well. Much better than any other job of a similar type would dream of paying. Holly didn’t necessarily need the money, she had plenty of it in Gringotts, but there was something satisfying about living on money she earned rather than money she’d inherited. The pay was enough to cover her tiny apartment in New York that was way more expensive than it had to be as well as all of her other expenses. She wasn’t able to eat out every night but magic made cooking rather easy anyway.

In all within three months she’d grown used to the work and the lifestyle she’d set up for herself in the muggle world. One might ask why Holly Potter of all people was working as a cleaning lady. She’d been offered lucrative positions all over the world. She could have been an auror for the British, on the wizengamot, hell she could have even just sat on her laurels and been praised for the rest of her life. After nearly 10 years of dedicated service to the wizarding world she could have been anything she wanted.

That was the problem, the 28 year old witch didn’t know what she wanted. Her entire childhood and adolescence had been shaped by Voldemort and the war. If Dumbledore’s plan had gone through completely she would have died at the end of the war and it wouldn’t have mattered what career aspirations she had. But it hadn’t. When the war ended when she was 17, Holly did the only thing she knew how to do. She kept fighting.

She and her friends started capturing Death Eaters, rebuilding Hogwarts, and reclaiming the corrupt ministry. Holly made it her life mission to remove the taint of Voldemort from the world. She had all of her friends from the DA to help at first but as the years went on many of them gotten married and settled down. She didn’t begrudge them that. Ron and Hermione stuck with her the longest but eventually the siren call of domesticity pulled them away.

The wedding had been beautiful. Traveling to the United States right after to start Death Eater hunting there by herself had been less so. But she managed. She got really really good at it. By the time she was done the British Ministry had been completely cleaned up and dozens of laws rewritten to ensure corruption didn’t return so easily. All Death Eaters were convicted and punished depending on the severity of their crimes. She did all of this and the world loved her for it.

But now that it was done she didn’t know what she was meant to do. She had no passions other than quidditch to speak of. Playing professionally was out of the question. She didn’t want to get on a team because of her fame and she didn’t want to increase her fame by adding professional seeker to her long list of accomplishments. She’d considered teaching, she knew if she applied Hogwarts would take her on in a heartbeat for the defense position. There would be a certain delicious irony if she got the job that Voldemort never managed too.

But she didn’t feel ready to teach. Of course, she knew the stuff front and back. Yet there was still a question of having life experience outside of a war. Holly only knew magic that was useful in fighting Death Eaters and cleaning out corrupt governments. Did she really want to live out the rest of her life surrounding by just that? Wasn’t there more to life? Was there more?

She’d talked with plenty of people about the issue. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley suggested a vacation. Hermione thought Holly should go back to school and finally graduate from Hogwarts. Fred and George told her that there was always a place for her in their joke shop. Ginny kept owling her the dates for try-outs for various quidditch teams. Ron was of the opinion that Holly didn’t need to do anything at all if she didn’t want to. Except perhaps go to therapy.

In the end it was Teddy who gave her the best idea. The nearly 11 year old boy with turquoise hair had looked at her seriously before saying what the real problem.

“You don’t know who you are outside of Voldemort. That’d be like me not knowing what I look like without all the shape shifting.”

To prove his point, he shapeshifted back till he was a blonde haired boy that was almost a near replica of Remus Lupin, aside from the nose and chin that was all Tonks. Holly smiled at him as he slowly shifted back to his preferred look.

“I guess you’re right Teddy. But what am I supposed to do about it?”

“Well if you were smart.” Teddy started, leaning forward with a grin. “You’d go someplace that Voldemort never was.”

“Voldemort and his forces invaded the entire magical world.”

“Exactly.”

“But I…Oh.”

It had taken a while to get the others to understand her decision. Why would she want to live in the muggle world and so far away? Eventually they accepted her decision and threw her a going away party at the Burrow. That party had been four months ago, and Holly was already feeling…more positive about her future. Even if she still had no actual plans.

A sound broke Holly out of her thoughts, it sounded like thump. She turned and out of the corner of her eyes she saw the one figure in this building that wasn’t wearing an ugly pink smock with black trousers. The man instead was wearing a gray suit, his hair was in disarray. Holly closed her locker that contained a bag that held her regular day clothing, her cellphone, and the book she was reading on the commute here. The lock automatically engaged and Holly quickly slipped on her slip-safe shoes and made her way out of the locker room. When she exited, she saw her boss, Mitch Reed, slowly banging his head against the outer wall of the locker room.

“You know sir, banging your head against the one room you’re not allowed inside of looks rather suspicious.”

“Miss Potter!” The man straightened up, looking rather bewildered. “I…I didn’t know anyone else was still in.”

“The building I was working today had a bit of a staining issue, getting everything to rights took a bit longer than expected.”

“Right. Right…Sorry I’m just not…There’s a client that is going to give me ulcers.”

Holly leaned against the wall and folded her arms. The man did look rather stressed. His normally crisp suit was crumpled, there was a line of sweat on his forehead and bags under his brown eyes. She gave him a look and the man sighed, crumpling in one himself.

“You just moved here what? Four months ago?”

“Yes sir.”

“But you still know about the invasion and the Avengers.”

Holly had of course heard about the invasion, there had even been talk of sending her to go help but before she could be dispatched the muggles had taken care of it. She nodded and the man continued.

“Well after the invasion all of the Avengers moved into Stark Tower, which most people call Avengers Tower.” He explained. “The top six floors of that building are where the Avengers live when they aren’t saving the world that is. The lower floors are office spaces for Stark Industries as well as a few other companies.”

“And…?”

“Well I can get regulars cleaners for 87 floors without issues, guess which six floors I’m having problems with.”

“Oh I don’t know, the first six? Those would get the most traffic.”

“Very funny. If you can’t take this seriously then I don’t see why…”

“No. No.” Holly said. “Are the cleaners taking things, asking for autographs? Or are they creepily staring at Earth’s mightiest heroes?”

“Why not all three?” Mitch scoffed and started to pace. Holly watched with lifted eyebrows as the man listed out the problems he’d been having. “The first group I set over made the Avengers uncomfortable by thanking them constantly and asking for autographs. The next group stole things to sell on ebay. The group after that didn’t even get through the front door because Stark’s security system found something in their background that we missed. The fourth group left traumatized after cleaning out Thor’s room, apparently the god had some beheaded poultry dripping blood into a bowl in there. Then after that every group I’ve left hasn’t lasted more than three days because of some problem or another. I’m pretty sure one of those assholes has made it a game to scare my workers away.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to call the heroes of New York assholes.”

“I’ll stop calling them that when they stop giving me gray hairs.”

“Fair enough. How big is the job, those six floors?”

“I like to send a group of three to tackle it, it’s not that there’s a lot to do but rather every day there’s a new weird thing to clean up. Never the same thing twice. Honestly if the Avengers weren’t so great at making unique messes one person could keep those six floors clean since Stark has little robots that do a lot of the smaller tasks.”

“So, it sounds like to me you just need to find one person under your employ that can do their job without making things weird.”

“Yes, but I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t want to keep traumatizing my workers but I don’t see any other…”

“Send me.”

Mitch froze in the middle of his pacing, then he turned on his heels to look at her, his eyes wide and his eyebrows nearly up to his hair line.

“I’m serious.”

“You can’t be. I literally told you that anyone who gets sent there is tormented by demented superheroes.”

“At least I’m aware. I know I can handle anything they throw at me, sir. I can handle six floors in a day no problem.”

“Are…are you sure? Because honestly you’d be saving me a lot of grief.”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay. Okay. I’ll get you reassigned, and you’ll get your new assignment and ID card tomorrow morning. Thank you, Miss Potter.”

“Anytime sir. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The next morning Holly got a new ID card and directions to Avengers Tower. The group of cleaners who had previously assigned gave her looks that were both grateful and full of pity. Holly ignored it. She’d learnt to clean after Dudley Dursley, nothing the Avengers did could be as vile. Beyond that potions class had long since made her immune to disgusting things.

Getting to Avengers Tower required getting into a nondescript black van, plenty of other people went with her to work on the lower levels. When she entered the van there was a scanner she had to wave her ID on. Once the scanner beeped and turned green she climbed inside. She sat down next to a handsome man in the same ugly smock she was wearing.

“Well, now aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, I don’t think I’ve seen you round here before.” The man said in a very thick American accent.

“Oh. Well I’ve only worked here for three months.” She answered. “I just got assigned to Stark Tower today.”

“If it ain’t my lucky day then. I’m George and I must say you’ve got a very pretty voice. What’s that British?”

“Thank you. Yes, I’m from Britain.”

Another woman slid, into the van, she had bright blue hair and a nose piercing.

“Already flirting with the new chick then Georgie?”

“We’re just having a nice conversation. I’m sure someone from Britain would appreciate my southern charm, unlike you.”

“You’re British?” The woman asked.

“Yes, I’m Holly Potter.”

“Wow, you sound proper. Be careful, Miss Proper, flirting with Georgie here only makes him more of an ass.”

“Noted.”

“Now I think I might just be offended.”

Holly listened as the two friends, and it was obvious that’s exactly what they were, bicker. The two had obviously decided she needed to be mentored. Which Holly could have found offensive. She might have a deceptively young face, but she was a war general. Not these muggles knew that. So she let them give her advice. Apparently, she wasn’t supposed to do anything suspicious outside of the bathroom because the AI security system would call you out for smoking indoors.

When she told them that she’d been assigned to work the top six floors, Cathy the woman with the blue hair, sang her a funeral dirge. It was so well done that Holly smiled and clapped politely.

“You’re not supposed to clap, you’re going to die.”

“And what a beautiful song to go out on.”

Cathy rolled her eyes as the van rolled to a stop.

“It was nice knowing you Miss Proper.”

“It’s Potter.”

“I said what I said.”

Getting into the tower was simple too. She just had to walk through three detectors, none of which could pick up the magical energy coming off of the wand she was using as a hair stick. Then she had to have her ID scanned. Once she was through security she was directed by a calm British voice coming out of the scanner to please head to the elevators and go up to the 88th floor. Apparently, her cleaning cart was up there and where she could begin her job. Holly thanked the man and got to work.

“Once more into the fray.”

*****

It really wasn’t that bad all things considered. Granted it was bad, but not all that bad. The first floor she cleaned contained two apartments with a common area between them. It was in a large closet in said common area that her cleaning cart had been stuffed.

“Miss Potter.” A voice said from nowhere as Holly pulled the cart out of the closet.

“Yes Jarvis?” Holly asked without missing a beat.

“You are aware of who I am?”

“Who wouldn’t be? You’re the first AI of your kind!” She had actually heard of Jarvis before thanks to Hermione who still kept up with all the muggle technology that she’d had to give up for magic. It hadn’t occurred to her that by taking his job she’d meet the AI, she wasn’t even really sure what an AI was other than a very complicated computer program.

“I had not realized that my fame had reached so far as to reach Britain.”

“Oh, you’re very popular there, us brits have to stick together right?”

There was a pause, Holly looked up from her perusal of the cleaning cart which had a very interesting array of chemicals in it. Before she could second guess herself too much Jarvis returned.

“Yes, of course we do. Although I have to admit I was programmed by an American and you are the first British person I’ve met.”

“Not a problem. There’s just three things you’ve got to do if you’re going to be fully British.” Holly told the air as she picked up different bottles to see what they were. “First you’ve got to call Soccer, Football and call American Football, American Football.”

“Of course.” Jarvis agreed sounding a little amused.

“Then you’ve got to prefer tea over any other liquid. If you were on a desert, dying of thirst you wouldn’t crave water, it’d be a good cuppa.”

“As an AI I don’t have the need to drink.”

“You can still have preferences.”

“I…I suppose I can. What is the third requirement?”

“How sassy can you be? Because every British person needs to be at least a little sassy.”

“I am an adequate amount of sassy.”

“Then congrats, you’re British. Now would you mind telling me if there are rooms I’m not meant to go into for cleaning?”

“If a room is locked then you are not to clean it.”

“Efficient.” With that she got to work.

She cleaned the common area first. She picked up a bright red cape and placed it in the basket that had been labeled ‘laundry’ with a sharpie and put away the art supplies that had been scattered all over the table. Whoever was the artist among the group was actually quite good. Holly spared a moment to look at the sketch of the New York City skyline, before carefully putting the sketchbook with the other art supplies, art unmolested.

Cleaning the kitchen took some doing, she found what appeared to be rotting shark flesh in the fridge. It was an…interesting smell to be certain. After asking Jarvis about it he told her it belonged to Thor and that he had likely forgotten it was there. So Holly through it away and sanitized the fridge.

“Please let the Avengers know that if they leave something in the fridge I’ll throw it away when it begins to rot if they don’t leave some sort of a note.”

“I will do that, Miss Potter.”

Once the kitchen and common area was clean she tried the first apartment. The door was unlocked so she knocked lightly, when there was no answer, even when she said ‘Housekeeping!’, she pushed the door open. It was an odd mess that reminded her vividly of Hogwarts. Animal skins and furs were laid along the floor and hung on the walls. Different parts of magical creatures were also hung like trophies. There was an overall smell of male musk in the room.

Holly quickly moved through the apartment, dirty clothing was placed in the laundry basket and everything was shaken out for dirt or vacuumed. She knew this was probably Thor’s bedroom based on the bleeding bird she found dripping blood into a bowl in the bedroom. Holly recognized preparations for a potion when she saw one. Holly gathered all the various plants and animal pieces that Thor had put together and organized them by type on the table he had in the corner of the bedroom. That ought to help. The last thing she did was spray the room down with some air freshener and ask Jarvis to open a window to air out the stench.

The other apartment was much quicker to clean. There weren’t many personal affects and it seemed to have been cleaned recently. Holly had a feeling that the previous cleaners had just not gone into Thor’s rooms. Based on what little Holly could discern in the room, mostly the fact it was so sterile and that there were grainy black and white photos of people she didn’t know, it was probably Captain America’s room. She cleaned it quickly and felt tempted to add a few homey touches. She didn’t but knew she’d probably do it eventually.

She placed the laundry basket in the elevator and Jarvis told her that there were robots that would take care of the washing. Then she took the same elevator up to the next floor. This floor had the same layout as the previous one. Except for the fact that it looked like a scene out of a horror movie. The common room was a mess, there were knives and other small easy to hide weapons scattered about. Not to mention arrows in the walls and what looked like beheaded ceramic doll heads everywhere. Some with weapons embedded in them keeping them on the ceiling or on the walls.

“Do the Avengers who live here like the décor or am I allowed to clean up from their party?” She didn’t sound impressed. Honestly she’d expected more based on Mitch’s description.

“Please feel free, Miss Potter.”

Holly quickly gathered all of the weapons up and carefully organized them on the table. She threw away the baby doll heads and removed the arrows in the walls. She refilled the walls with that caulk that was in her cart, now she knew why it had been there in the first place. It took close to an hour to get the entire common area and kitchen set to rights. The kitchen was mostly full of half empty take-away containers which were easy enough to throw out. Both of the doors to the apartments were locked which…honestly she appreciated because she didn’t want anything else to do with this floor.

She’d already filled a garbage bag, which Jarvis instructed her to place in the service elevator, which was the one she’d been using this whole time. There was a main, fancy elevator for the people who actually lived here. The next floor was a gym, just a huge giant gym. There were wrestling mats, weights, machines, dumbells, and punching bags. It took a while to clean, long enough that by the time she was finished with it, it was lunch time.

After a quick lunch break in the Stark Tower cafeteria, in which was given a nice free lunch, she went up to the next floor. This turned out to be by far one of the more interesting floors she’d been on. It contained an apartment that was decorated in calm neutral tones. There was a visible speaker system with lines of CDs that were mostly classical or relaxing in nature. It also had, instead of a second apartment, a giant steel lined room with large fist sized dents in it. So this must be where Dr. Banner called home.

Cleaning it took almost no time at all. Dr. Banner kept a clean space so Holly really only had to pick up a few things, clean a window or two, and vacuum up some of the areas that the little robots couldn’t get too. Holly thought she rather liked Dr. Banner, if only because he kept his floor clean.

The last two floors took the rest of her day. The first was what appeared to be the Avengers hang out spot. Lots of places to sit and evidence of movie nights and video game tournaments. There was also a very dirty kitchen that needed to be cleaned and a bar that had to be reorganized.

The top floor was a penthouse and based on the overly expensive suits she found in the closet, it was Tony Stark’s place. Other than the grease stained jeans and shirts it was mostly clean and so she had no problems cleaning that up before her work day ended. Mitch hadn’t been lying when she said it could be done by one person if they were quick. That’s not to say she wasn’t exhausted, she was, but it was done.

She met up with George and Cathy on the way out, her pink smock now containing a few questionable stains but overall no worse for the wear.

“Holy shit you’re alive!”

“It really wasn’t that awful.” She told them. “Besides it’ll be easier tomorrow.”

Famous last words.

Chapter 2: Memoirs and Sport Teams

Summary:

First a forward about the Great God of Magic, Loki, written by the granddaughter of the man who knew him best and second Jarvis picks his favorite football team.

Notes:

Hey guys! It's been a good week since I posted the first chapter, you all seemed to really love so I'm glad to say that I was able to update this for you! We're actually getting hints of a plot now! Spooky!

What Happened to the God of Magic?

A Memoir by Ralston Potter

Forward:

By: Ophelia Potter

My grandfather spoke most fondly of one thing in his life, and that was his friendship with Loki, God of Magic. That might be in part because every aspect of his life was touched by a man I never got to meet. My childhood was filled with sitting on my grandfather’s lap listening to him tell stories of intrigue and mischief and loyalty. Even my grandmother had a story or two! There’s no doubt in my mind that my grandparents planned to have Loki in their lives forever, till his dying day Ralston Potter still left a space open at his table for his best friend.

The mark Loki has left upon my family is undeniable. My grandfather’s love and loyalty to Loki forged a bond between them that was unbroken even as the decades after Loki’s disappearance worn down on him. Loki became our family and we have become his. The bond, my grandfather formed, has spread down to each of his descendants. A lingering love for mischief and magic. A love that will continue on in each Potter, much to the displeasure of the Hogwarts Staff.

Up till now Loki’s legacy has remained shrouded in mystery. There were very few who knew him personally and most people who did meet him didn’t realize it until much later. The records from that time are vague at best and even harder to make available to the public. Loki’s heroic actions for the wizarding world are not ones that should be forgotten to time. Already people are suggesting annual celebrations of Loki’s gift and I couldn’t agree more. But if we are to celebrate the god, then first we must know him.

I was the one who convinced my grandfather to write these stories down so that the whole world could see what sort of man Loki truly was. It has been nearly 70 years since Loki’s disappearance and yet his memory and influence lives on in the Potter family and in the wizarding world at large. I know that my father leaves a space for Loki in his home, a guest bedroom and an extra chair no one uses. I’ve found myself doing the same thing, as have all of my siblings.

I know it was my grandfather’s dying wish that we would never forget the god who saved us, who gave us the protection to live in secrecy. He wanted Loki to always have a place in this world, no matter how long it took for him to return. Because he will return. If I have learned anything from listening to my grandfather it is that Loki, the great trickster and silver tongue, always gets what he wants in the end and he wanted nothing more than to be here in this world, a world for magic.

He will return, make no mistake about that. Loki Odinson will come back to the wizarding world and when he does it will be with chaos and flair. I hope that as you read my grandfather’s words that you learn to love the god of magic and mischief as I have. Because this world, our world, is meant to be his home too, and when our god finally returns it should be to a welcoming gesture and open doors.

********

“So….” Clint began. “I think I should explain the exploding paint.”

Tony, glared at him, globs of purple glitter were dripping from his hair and running down his shirt. The arc reactor was stained a very unflattering orange and the man’s jeans were a hideous puce.

“Look! I don’t even see why you’re here!”

“Barton, in case you’ve forgotten, this is the penthouse. Meaning, this is where I sleep.”

“We all know you sleep in your lab.”

“Barton. I want an explanation right now or I will throw you out that window.”

It’s the cleaning lady!”

That explanation didn’t cut it, if Tony’s glare was anything to go by. So Clint continued.

“I’ve been…pranking the cleaning ladies.”

“Is that why my cleaning company keeps sending replacements? I thought we were having problems with theft or something.”

“Look it started after that group a few months back broke into my room to take some of my stuff.” Clint admitted. “I figured I’d leave a few traps to make the next group think twice…It’s gotten out of hand.”

“You think?”

“Look! You would not believe what freaks out normal people! You leave a couple of knives shoved in a door and they nearly faint.”

That actually made Tony pause and Clint took the advantage it gave him.

“Jarvis show him the top ten.”

The top ten turned out to be a series of clips of people in ugly pink shirts beings scared or traumatized by whatever horror the Avengers conjured up, either by design or by accident. The best clip was of a large man opening a closet to reveal a very bloody mannequin and literally fainting, another cleaning lady came by to help saw the closet and fainted too, right on top of the first guy. It was pretty funny, not that that justified what they were doing of course.

“Steve can never know.”

“So, you understand?”

“What I don’t understand is why you decided that you needed to booby trap my floor. You were doing just fine with yours and Thor’s.”

“Well I can’t do Banner’s floor.” Okay that was fair. Tony sighed. “Besides this cleaning lady is insane! Nothing bothers her! I’ve tried fake blood, glitter, knives in the walls, organs in the fridge. I needed to up my game!”

“I’m going to get this paint off, you’re going to take down the booby trap.”

“One minute. You’ll need a special solvent to get that out. I want to see how the cleaning lady handles getting rid of paint that SHIELD designed to be unremovable.”

“You’re a sick, sick bastard.”

“I do my best.”

Clint tossed Tony a solvent from his pocket that got the paint out of his hair, clothing, and arc reactor. In truth Tony didn’t pay much attention to the cleaning staff, only when Jarvis alerted him to a problem, that or Pepper said something. He knew Clint would never take it too far, Natasha would kill him first. And it was pretty funny. Hell it was hilarious actually.

Once Tony was clean he sequestered himself with Clint to watch the cleaning lady. At first glance Tony had to give the young woman credit, she was a hard worker, and unflinching in the face of Thor’s gross room. She was…attractive Tony supposed. Then again most people were to him. But the girl could use a serious make over. The long mane of hair in a bun was doing her absolutely no favors, especially since the hair kept escaping. Not to mention she had an interesting scar on her face. Which someone could either consider a beauty mark or an eyesore, Tony was of the opinion that her ugly bottlecap glasses were far worse.

Clint and Tony watched in breathless anticipation as she went up to the penthouse.

“Jarv, give us audio.”

“Of course, sir.” Jarvis said, sounding less than pleased with him. What had gotten his binary pants in a twist? The screen they were watching suddenly began producing noise, the cleaning lady was talking…talking to Jarvis?

“I’m telling you Jarvis. West Ham is a top notch team.” The cleaning lady said in a very British accent.

“I would prefer to make a decision on my favorite team based on hard statistics instead of emotion.”

“Your favorite team is the one you find with your heart not your mind.”

“Then I think I will choose Manchester as my team.”

“I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.”

The cleaning lady was friends with his AI? Tony wanted to ask for some kind of clarification but there wasn’t time.

“I was only following your advice.”

“There’s that sass I’ve come to love. Fine Jarvis, you’re a Manchester fan. I’ll make sure to get you something for Christmas. I’ll be heading back there for my vacation this year you know. I’ll get you something good.”

“I am capable of gathering my own mementos.”

“But then it wouldn’t be a gift.” Now this lady was buying gifts for his AI? Tony wasn’t going to lie that was making him tear up a little. He sniffed, and Clint punched him in the arm to get his head back in the game. “Now Jarvis, you seem upset with something. I can tell. What’s wrong?”

“There is something I wish to discuss with you…but it is a private matter and I, as an AI, am not capable of having private conversations with anyone who is not Mr. Stark.” Jarvis admitted after a moment. He sounded…hesitant. When had Jarvis learnt how to do that? Tony was so proud of him, he also felt like a bit of a dick. It hadn’t occurred to him that the protocols he’d put in place for security had meant that Jarvis was always on display.

The cleaning lady hummed and lifted up a hand to move some of the hair that had gotten loose from her bun back out of her eyes. The elevator door opened and carefully, she pulled out her cart and into the pent house.

“Well, Jarvis. You are by far the closest friend I have on this continent and I’ve enjoyed our talks in the last two weeks. It’s been nice to have someone to chat with, haven’t had that since I moved to America.” She told his AI without hesitation or embarrassment. Clint made a noise and Tony glanced over to see that the archer was now starting to regret his ‘prank’ on the cleaning lady. “So ask me anything. I trust you.”

“Even though the likelihood that this conversation will be reviewed by, Sir and perhaps the other Avengers is very, very high?” Obviously, Jarvis was doing everything he could to make it clear that Clint and Tony were listening right at that moment. Either the cleaning lady didn’t pick up on the warning or she didn’t care.

“Even then.” She said. “Now I’m going to start with Mr. Stark’s bar and lounging area. Please ask away, it’ll make the time go faster.”

Now Tony was really tearing up. He wanted to rush up to his bedroom and get rid of the paint himself. But he knew it was too late. Jarvis spoke after a few seconds of silence as the cleaning lady started organizing Tony’s bar and cleaning out his glasses.

“When we first began our friendship I assumed that the file your company gave to us would be enough background information. However, I grew more curious. I apologize if I have overstepped my bounds in looking into your past. I am a learning machine, I was meant to gather data.”

The cleaning lady snorted, a bit rudely but not in an angry way. She put the glass she was cleaning down and placed her hands on her hips.

“What’d you find then? You’d only be apologizing if you found something you didn’t like. Do I have an unpaid parking ticket or something?”

“Nothing like that, your record is spotless. But there was something that…. concerned me. It was not what I did found but rather what I didn’t.”

“You’re normally a lot more blunt than this Jarvis.” Cleaning Lady was right, Jarvis almost never hesitated to deliver information.

“Apologies.” He said. “I could not find any childhood medical records.”

Woah. That’s a big chunk of information missing. Someone in the government had to be covering it up. But who could be covering it up so well that Jarvis couldn’t find it? The cleaning lady folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the bar for a moment. She didn’t say anything for a long while before she suddenly moved and picked up the rag she was cleaning with.

“Ask a question Jarvis.”

“Why do you not have any childhood medical records? The only thing I could find was very recent, a list of the vaccinations you needed to move to the United States.”

“Because I didn’t go to the doctor when I was a kid. My guardians didn’t think they should have to waste money on me for something frivolous.”

Silence. Tony felt like his body had been turned to stone. They shouldn’t be listening to this. Tony knew Jarvis wouldn’t cut the sound feed until he told him to but Tony couldn’t make his mouth move.

“I see. I admit I had not considered that you came from an abusive household. Your character and attitude do not fit with expected models of abuse survivors.”

“Are you saying I’m too sane?” She asked wryly. “I’m very good at keeping a lid on it, Jarvis. Besides expected models for abuse survivors are bullshit. Everyone deals with trauma differently.”

“My apologies, I did not mean to…”

“I’m not offended. I’m sort of flattered actually. I’ve never wanted people to…see me and think I’m broken. The fact that a super brilliant AI with a perfect memory couldn’t find evidence based on my actions that my guardians had…been what they were to me is really very nice to hear.”

She did honestly sound flattered. She finished cleaning up the glasses and put them away. She then started cleaning the bar table. Her movements precise and quick. She was well practiced at it.

“I’m glad that you see it that way.”

“How else was I meant to see it?” She asked curiously. “I mean honestly I’m really very pleased. I was afraid this job would remind me too much of them. I started cleaning for them when I was…3 I think. I couldn’t do much then of course but they didn’t care. I remember once on my birthday, they told me that if I managed to clean the entire house before the day was over I’d get to have some cake. I was still young enough to believe what they told me at that point.”

Tony knew that wasn’t going to end well. He glanced over at Clint he looked like he was about ready to shoot something, maybe himself. Why couldn’t Tony open his mouth and tell Jarvis to cut the feed? Why was he so frozen stiff?

“I did my best Jarvis to get the whole thing clean I swear but…it wasn’t manageable. They kept making messes right after I cleaned them up. I was like, oh what was his name? Sisyphus! I was Sisyphus. Because I didn’t complete their impossible task I got punished instead. Classic Dursleys.” She sounded in a strange way fond of the memory, which was…weird.

“That is a disturbing story Miss Potter.”

“Is it? Apologies then. Don’t worry about it too much. I’ll be fine. It’s not like this job is like that. For one I get paid to do this and I have a friend here.”

“You are aware that some of the Avengers are purposefully making messes for you to clean up, just to make you uncomfortable?” Jarvis asked.

“And here I thought they were doing it because they thought it was funny.” She said sarcastically. “I’m not stupid Jarvis I know what they’re doing.”

She knew? Why the hell is she still working here? Tony exchanged a confused look with Clint. Before they couldn’t even begin to fathom the inner workings of this cleaning lady, she answered the unspoken question.

“Before you ask Jarvis. I’m still working here for three reasons. The first is that I actually am enjoying seeing what messes they can come up with, most people are not this creative. The second is that I took this job as a favor to my boss. The third is that even if I quit I literally don’t have the qualifications to work anywhere else. I have no real life skills and I dropped out of school as a teenager.”

“I see.” Jarvis said. “Do you have plans on finishing your education?”

Holly made a very rude noise and made her way over to Tony’s bedroom. Where the paint was. She stopped dead with her cart at the site of paint splattered all over the wall and carpet.

“I take it that the prankster today chose this floor?”

“Indeed miss.”

“Not a problem. Let’s just take a look at this paint!”

And she got to work. She tried a few of the cleaners on her cart to no avail. The longer she struggled the worse they both felt. Jarvis was very silent in the room, acting as a very disappointed judge.

“We’re assholes.” Clint said.

“You’re the bigger asshole.”

Before Clint could respond to that totally witty remark, Holly spoke again.

“You shall not best me this day!” She said in a very over the top British Accent. “It’s time for my secret weapon!”

“And that would be, Miss?”

Holly went over to her cleaning cart and with one of the mostly empty spray bottles began to quickly mix different liquids together.

“I used to think it was magic, when I was younger, this little baby has saved my butt more than a few times.” She said. “It’s the ultimate stain remover.”

Very quickly the clear translucent spray bottle began to fill with a liquid that was turning a surprisingly lurid purple. Tony thought it even might have been glowing a little. She continued to explain this to Jarvis.

“I must have made the first version of this when I was…9 or so I think. My guardians had threatened me that if I didn’t get that stain out of oven by tonight there would be hell to pay. I tried everything but it seemed impossible. I started to mix different things together until I stumbled on to the ultimate cleaner. This.”

The cleaning lady slapped on some gloves as she finished. She held up the finished bottle and then turned to the stains with a menacing look on her expression. She started spraying and to Tony’s shock the paint started literally shriveling away. It desiccated itself in reaction to the spray until all that was left was a pile of multicolored paint strings. Holly put the bottle down and then vacuumed up the paint.

“That was…impressive. What is in that bottle?” Impressive is a serious understatement, not even the solvent Clint had given him had gotten rid of the paint as well as that purple liquid had.

“Can’t say, trade secret.” She said with a laugh in her voice. “Besides can you imagine what someone with ambition would do with a liquid like that? You could kill someone with just a spray bottle! No this is the sort of thing you don’t tell anyone about.”

“You’re very wise, Miss Potter.”

“And you’re a sweet talker.”

“Jarvis close the feed.”

Jarvis did with a click. Tony leaned back, his AI, his greatest creation, the closest thing he had to family in this world had made a friend. A friend that was outside of anything Tony did or chose. A person it seemed who was friends with him just because and not for any gain. And Clint had been pranking her.

“I would like to make it known to you Agent Barton that if you continue to prank my friend, you will not like the consequences.”

“Yeah. I was…I was done.”

“Good.”

Tony didn’t think he’d ever heard his AI sound so terrifying. Space Odyssey much? He exchanged glances with Clint and decided that while he was very proud of his AI for his new friend gaining skills he was also very, very scared. What was up with the cleaning lady?

Chapter 3: The Difference Between a Bar and a Pub

Summary:

Holly's coworkers invite her out to a bar. It should be easy, but Holly's cursed to find trouble wherever she goes.

Notes:

Sorry to anyone who is following my other stories. My laptop is one the fritz and I'm having a bit of trouble finishing up my final edits. Computers have never been my forte and fixing them isn't either. I should warn anyone reading this that there is drinking and references to sexual assault, but nothing bad happens. It's rated T for a reason y'all.

Chapter 1: A First Meeting

By: Ralston Potter

I first met Loki when I was 15, a young student at Hogwarts, and rather lonely. I imagine it is hard to imagine that I wasn’t always as famous and popular as I am now. But its true. In my youth I was a rather lonesome young man. My parents, neither of whom had been very talented at magical self defense, had been killed in a witch hunt when I was a mere babe and I had been thrust into the care of the village church. All of the town remembered what my parents were and I spent much of my time being ostracized or examined for proof of devilry.

I was able to lave that town at the age of eleven and given safe housing at Hogwarts during my studies. Unlike many of my peers I had no magical background training, and I am ashamed to admit, I was also very clumsy. I did not endear myself to my peers immediately and was often made fun of for my lack. The Potter name was not as powerful as it is now. It was really not much of a name at all.

The day I met Loki was perhaps one of the worst days and one of the best days of my life. I had been chased out of the school by a few of my rivals and found myself wandering through the forbidden forest, desperate and angry. I can still remember the bruises I had from the duel gone wrong. I had been in the forest with the idea of proving myself worthy of this school. Everyone knew there were dangerous creatures in the forest, I merely had to kill one and bring it back. That would show everyone how truly talented I was.

As with most plans that teenagers come up with. It did not end well. I gained the attention of three very hungry mountain trolls who proceeded to chase me around a forest they were far more comfortable in than I was. None of my spells at the time could pierce the hide of the creatures and they had far more stamina than a 15 year old boy. I am quite sure I would have become wizard paste if it hadn’t been for a young god who was wandering the forest looking for potion ingredients.

Loki heard me running for my life against three rumbling trolls and he, in his curiosity, went towards the danger instead of away. Where I was too weak to take down the trolls, Loki managed to fell all three with well placed knives and spells. Within moments I found myself staring up at the man who would become my best friend surrounded by three dead trolls. There was silence between us, mostly due to my awe and gratitude and Loki’s amusement, before Loki finally broke it.

“Well don’t just stand there, mortal. Get up!”

And so began my very first conversation with Loki of Asgard.

*****

Holly listened as George told her about what he’d planned for the weekend. The southern man was very funny and sometimes a little too flirtatious. Cathy had been right in warning her about the flirting. It had taken three weeks before the man had stopped seriously flirting and started treating her in a more comfortable manner. She’d been grateful for it. Holly had a hard enough time recognizing when someone was flirting with her, let alone dealing with it! She was glad to have George as a coworker, she didn’t want anything more. The thing that had cinched his respect of her was the fact that she’d lasted as long as she had.

It was rather funny actually. There were rumors growing about her, the woman who could clean anything. She was pretty sure Cathy had started them. When she got into work now she noticed whispers and stares. A wandless eavesdropping spell had given her the gist of it all. They thought her fearless, if only they knew there were more frightening things than a terrible mess to clean.

“Now Holly. I musts insist that you let me escort you out tonight.” George told her. “You’ve hardly seen anything in this great country.”

“And where would you escort me dear sir?” She asked in her most proper voice.

“Georgie, here is trying to ask you to go out with us. A group of us go out to this bar every Friday.” Cathy interrupted.

“A bar?”

“Yeah, it’s like a pub but better.”

“I know what a bar is, I’m just confused that…”

“You’ve got to come.” Cathy insisted, shaking Holly’s shoulder a little to empathize her seriousness. Cathy was a little more dramatic than most, it was something Holly had had to grow used to. “It’s just a few drinks, you can tell us some gross work stories. Lord knows you’ve got to have them.”

“I…I suppose I could give it a try.”

Alcohol rarely agreed with her. Her magic tended to react poorly and even if it didn’t her mind had enough trauma in it to cause its own trouble. But she couldn’t just avoid social activities because of it. The point of moving out here was to find out who she was outside of that. If she was going to do that then she needed to try new things. She could go to a bar! How hard could it be?

“Great!” George said. “You won’t regret it ma’am that much I can attest. I’ll be sure to show you real southern hospitality tonight.”

He winked at her which only made her snort. The van finally pulled to a stop in the underground parking of the tower. Everyone quickly clambered out and made their way inside.

“Wait here for us at the end of the day. We’ll all go together.” Cathy said. “Don’t forget.”

“I won’t.” She gave the blue haired woman a smile that only lasted until she turned away. Holly sighed as she went through security and into the elevator.

“Good morning, Miss Potter.” Jarvis greeted in a cheery manner.

“Morning Jarvis.”

“Are you well?”

“I’m fine, I just…I’m a little nervous about tonight.”

“Tonight?” Jarvis sounded intrigued, this was after all the first time she had ever mentioned having any plans of any kind. Anyone who knew her would be interested to discover she had plans for a Friday night, especially plans that didn’t involve fighting terrorists. Not that Jarvis knew about that.

“Cathy and George invited me to go out to a bar with them.”

The elevator opened to reveal Thor and Captain America’s floor. As usual, the heroes were out. She’d never actually run into any of them during her cleaning. Sometimes she’d hear them in other rooms, or above her on other floors but they always managed to just miss each other in the past month. She had the feeling they were avoiding her, although she had no clue as to why.

Work had gotten easier just over a week ago. Apparently, Jarvis had had words with the prankster on her behalf. She wondered what kind of words he could have had, it was difficult to imagine her friend threatening anyone. She’d told him it wasn’t necessary and he’d snippily replied that he’d found it completely necessary. Now the only difficult days were when the Avengers came back from a fight, and she couldn’t fault them for making a mess after that. She could easily remember the messes she made after a Death Eater raid.

“Do you not wish to go?” Jarvis asked.

“I’m not honestly sure. I didn’t really go to pubs back in Britain, I can’t hold my liquor and I’m not all that familiar with New York yet. But how am I supposed to get more comfortable here if I don’t go out?”

“You will be going with two of your friends, right?” Jarvis asked.

“George and Cathy aren’t like you Jarvis.” She corrected fondly. “They’re nice but…”

“But you don’t trust them.” Jarvis finished.

She nodded and started picking up art supplies and reorganizing the common area. Jarvis always sounded so pleased when she brought up how she felt about him. Although why she couldn’t fathom. Jarvis had the trust of an entire team of superheroes, one cleaning lady shouldn’t matter so much.

“I’ve already agreed. It probably won’t be so bad, I’m just not used to this.”

“Some level of nervousness is only fair.” Jarvis told her after a moment. “If I could do something to ease your concerns…”

“I can’t think of anything. If you could come with me that’d be one thing, but you can only travel through tech and I don’t even have a cell phone.”

“Why on earth don’t you have a cell phone?”

“I’m a little tech phobic I’m afraid. No offense to you of course. I’m just really bad with them. Can’t seem to get any of it to work, not to mention the amount of things I’ve broken.” Just imagining using magic in this tower sent a shiver down her spine. There was a reason she pulled her magic in when she went to work every morning. A tower this high tech would explode like overpowered fairy lights if she wasn’t careful.

“I see.” Jarvis sounded more amused than offended.

“Don’t worry if I had a phone, I would have given you my number ages ago.”

“Well I will think on a solution. For now, tell me about your evening last night.”

So, Holly told him easily about what she’d done the night before. Which involved reading about different career paths. She was still trying to find her passion. She’d told Jarvis that was part of the reason she’d moved to America, to find herself. Jarvis had seemingly made it his goal to help her find it. Last night she’d been reading about careers in health services, both magical and mundane. She was pretty sure that she’d like to learn some more healing spells but that it wasn’t her dream job.

Jarvis didn’t seem surprised that she wasn’t interested in it. She’d told him that she liked to help people, which was true, but being a doctor didn’t really fit.

“Perhaps you could look into some sort of job in child services.”

“Child services.”

“You have personal experience with an abusive household which would make it easier for you to relate to the children you help, you are also kind and patient.”

“Hmmm.” She said. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be reminded of the Dursleys every time she went to work in a way that was more terrifying than annoying. But it would satisfy her saving people thing. “I’ll look into that next then.”

“You don’t seem very enthused about searching for your passion.”

She sighed and looked up from where she was moving heavy dumbbells back into their place. In truth the only time she’d ever felt like she was living a fulfilling life was when she was saving the day. Being a hero. It was what she was good at. She thrived on danger and acts of heroism. But that wasn’t healthy. She needed more, she wanted to be more.

“Please tell the Avengers that I am not super strong.” She said as she barely managed to lug the thing back into place. “And I guess I’m afraid I don’t have a passion.”

“You are only 28 years old ma’am. Given the life expectancy of human beings you have time.”

“You’re right. I’m being silly.”

“Not silly, just human.”

She smiled and picked up the next weight, barely lifting it up high enough so that it could crash on the right shelf.

“So what have you been up to Jarvis?”

She listened as he told her about his work helping Mr. Stark and the other Avengers. He was understandably vague about some of the details, but she knew he was telling her more than what you’d learn about on the news. It was all very entertaining. She finished cleaning up the gym and took a break for lunch.

The rest of the day passed rather quickly, her thoughts about her evening plans and Jarvis’ stories easily filled up the time. When she was getting ready to leave, Jarvis spoke. He directed her to go Stark’s private bar. Sitting there on the glass surface was a simple white box.

“If you would be willing ma’am to take a device for tonight.”

“A device?” She asked.

“Just a bracelet with a tracking system in it. If at any time you need help, you can press the button and I will send someone.”

“A bracelet. Where did you get something like that?” She found herself asking about the bracelet as she swallowed down the instinctual wariness of wearing a tracking device. Jarvis was a friend, this was his way of looking out for her. She needed to stop being so paranoid.

“I have complete access to Mr. Stark’s laboratory, it wasn’t difficult. Then I had one of Mr. Stark’s other robots bring it up from the lab here for you.”

“You made it for me?” Her voice didn’t tremble but it was close, very close to it.

“Consider it a birthday present. Your birthday is in just a few weeks is it not?”

“It is. Thank you, Jarvis. I’ll wear it all the time.” She picked up the box and carefully opened it. The metal was silver colored but too heavy to be that. The metal was linked together with each loop of the chain being so microscopically tiny she almost couldn’t see them. The thing chain was connected by a triangular charm that glowed blue. She saw the silver button within the triangle, obviously how she was supposed to ask for help. “It’s beautiful.”

“It is made from the same alloys as sir’s suit, it should be nearly indestructible. Beyond that, the glowing blue light lets off a unique radiation pattern that cannot be hidden through any modern means. I would be able to find you anywhere unless you were hidden deep underground. When you press the button, you will be able to speak and I’ll hear you.” Jarvis said sounding very smug with his creation. Holly put it on and admired how elegant it looked.

“I think this might be the nicest thing I’ve ever worn. Thank you.”

“Of course, Miss. Do have fun tonight.”

“I’ll do my best. You have fun here yourself. Make sure Mr. Stark doesn’t blow himself up. That’d be an awful mess to clean.”

She finished her goodbyes to her friend and then made her way downstairs. George and Cathy were waiting for her. They all got in the van and went back to their office together. Once they were out of their uniforms and in street clothing, Holly found herself being dragged through the streets of New York City towards destinations unknown. The city was huge, it reminded her in some ways of London, but she didn’t think she’d ever been in any place this crowded before. Maybe that’s because she was used to going into the less crowded magical parts.

It was stressful going through the streets. Everyone here seemed to have an insider understanding of the flow of foot traffic while she kept bumping into people. She got separated from her coworkers three times before they even arrived at the bar. When they got there, Cathy turned to her and told her to prepare herself. She understood why the moment they entered.

She’d thought that this bar would be like a pub, perhaps a little crowded if a game was going on but it wasn’t. It wasn’t a pub, it was a club. Music pulsed in the air so loudly it felt like it was spelled to make her skin vibrate. They lights were dim and most of the time they were only neon anyway. The neon reflected off of her glasses and made everything difficult to see. Too difficult. She tightened her hold on George’s hand as he pulled her up to the actual bar.

“Let me order you something, darling.” He insisted. “When we’re in Britain you can order for us.”

“Alright.”

He ordered a very odd sounding drink name something with tea in it she thought and then she was handed a tall glass and told to drink up. She found herself holding this drink while sitting at a table with people she vaguely recognized from work. In front of their table there was a dance floor absolutely crowded with people. Most of whom were jerking and grinding and bouncing so close to one another they were nearly on top of each other. She wasn’t unaware of dancing, she wasn’t good at it either. Dancing, like most things that didn’t have to do with death defying heroics, wasn’t within her comfort zone.

The group she was in started talking first, complaining about work, their families, and their life in general. Holly listened trying to find something she could relate to. But most her problems were things like ‘I still have nightmares about dying’ or ‘my PTSD is so severe that sometimes I’ll freeze and accidentally teleport myself into the nearest closet.’. She couldn’t really relate to boyfriend troubles or how annoying it was that someone’s parents kept begging them to visit.

She mostly sipped on her drink that tasted of cola and lemon while trying to make herself seem a bit smaller. Almost unfairly soon everyone else had finished their first drink, while she’d only taken a handful of sips from her own. Her group decided as one to get up to dance. Cathy asked Holly if she wanted to go but Holly said she’d stay and watch the table instead. Which must have seemed okay to her because the woman shrugged and left her alone.

And that was where she sat for the next thirty minutes. Occasionally someone from the group would come back to sip on a new drink or take a quick breather but mostly she was alone. She knew she should have gotten up and tried to dance but every time she considered she remembered all the toe stepping she did at the Yule Ball when she was 14 and she stayed right in her seat. Merlin what was her problem? She was an adult not some anxiety ridden teen.

She considered just leaving but she actually had no idea where she was in New York and she’d already ingested too much alcohol to make apparating safe. Whatever was in this drink certainly wasn’t tea no matter what the name implied. So, she waited, even as her head began to pound from the music and her body started to get that strange floaty feeling it got when she drank.

“Lonely much?”

Holly whipped her head around to see a man she didn’t know smirking at her from behind. He had light brown hair and a very distinctive jaw line. He could have been called handsome if one ignored the way his eyes skipped around her body, appraising it.

“No.” Holly said. “I’m just…holding the table.”

“Right.” He said, sitting down uncomfortably close to her. The man didn’t bother asking for permission. She got the feeling that he wasn’t one for manners or self-reflection. “Name’s Jason.”

“Pleasure.” The lie rolled off her tongue, with the aid of a decade of practice dealing with smarmy politicians.

“What don’t I get a name?” Ugh, one of those then.

“It’s Holly.”

“Holly, that’s a pretty name.”

“Thank you.” She looked down at her drink, wondering how exactly she was going to get this guy to leave her alone, and then flinched when Jason put a hand on her thigh. “What are…”

The man started talking to her, his hand not leaving her thigh, in fact the offending hand seemed to switch between squeezing her thigh and rubbing it. He told her about his ‘high-profile’ job and about how much money he made. Each time she tried to speak, to tell him to go away, or stop touching her, or even that she didn’t give a shit he spoke over her. He kept emphasizing how powerful he was as if that would make him attractive instead of a psychopath. She was starting to feel very, very belligerent.

“Listen.” She said cutting him off. “If you don’t get your hands off of me, you’ll regret it.”

The hand on her thigh tightened as the man looked at her. The amusement she saw in his eyes warred with the disdain.

“Darling.” He said. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with. I came over here because I felt sorry for you. Now I really think you should repay my kindness.”

“Kindness?” She asked. “The only kindness here is the fact I gave you a warning. Hands off.”

“Listen. I’m not the kind of man someone like you says no to.”

Suddenly two huge hands came to rest on her shoulders. She looked to the side and saw the largest man, outside of Hagrid, that she’d ever seen. What was going on here?

“You see, we have a proposition for you.” Jason said. “And I think you’re going to want to listen.”

“Okay.” Holly said, fidgeting with her bracelet. Jason glanced at the movement before giving her a very smug look. Should she press it? Jarvis had told her to call if she was in trouble. But was this really enough trouble to bother her friend about?

“I’m a nice guy you know.” He said. “And so I’m going to give you two options. Either you can go ahead and do a job for me or we can go out back and have some fun.”

“A job?”

“Simple thing, sweetheart. All you need to do is leave something in Avengers tower.”

She pursed her lips. Now she saw why a man this disgusting was chatting her up. That made sense now. Well that man had obviously made the wrong choice in target. Without moving her fingers or whispering any words, she cast a spell. The magic bloomed out of her and hit every camera within the building, blacking them out. She did it again, casting the most powerful Notice-Me-Not charm she could on herself and the two men.

Then she moved. It was like fighting with Death Eaters but messier somehow. Without using her wand, just her hands, she grabbed Jason’s hand and broke the wrist that was still trying to grope her leg. Then she pulled so hard down that his head slammed into the table. The large gentlemen holding her down moved to grab her neck, but she pushed back on the floor and flung the chair straight into the guy’s gut.

The party in the club continued around them. The pulsing music cut off most of the noise that they were making, and the magic kept absolutely anyone from even looking their direction. Once she was out of her chair was it much easier to take on the huge hulking guy. Within minutes she’d knocked both of them out. Her chest was heaving, and she now had an eye that was going to get spectacularly black, even with some bruising crème.

It took some doing to stuff the two unconscious men under the table without anyone noticing. Once she was sure no one would see the men she used her wand to cast a glamor on her eye. She might have been too drunk to apparate, but she knew how to cover up a bruise, she could do that in her sleep. Then she ended the spells she’d cast before the fight. Holly picked up what remained of her drink and downed it. It burned all the way down to her gut.

The adrenaline in her body begged her to find some sort of outlet. The courage she’d been lacking the whole evening came to her in spades. She strode right into the middle of grinding dancers and she tried to move her body to the beat. From behind her two hands gripped her shoulders and flipped her around. She barely kept herself from punching them out. She was glad she did when she saw it was her two coworkers.

“Glad to see you joining us!” George said.

“Just needed to get my courage up.”

“Knew you could do it.” Cathy praised. “Now let’s teach you some American dance moves.”

The rest of the night was spent dancing off the adrenaline from her fight. It was…fun. She felt young in a way she couldn’t recall feeling. It was wasn’t the feeling of a child, it felt like being a teenager or maybe even a young adult who didn’t have to fight terrorists. She could just dance and forget herself in the act. The night ended with Holly somehow managing to get covered in glitter and sweat, the sweat at the very least she could explain.

Holly was just drunk enough that she wasn’t really sure how she got home. On Monday Cathy would tell her that they got her back to her apartment in an Uber. All she really knew was that she woke up Saturday morning with glitter on her face and her eye nearly swollen shut. Which, all in all, constituted a pretty good night out for her.

Chapter 4: Hangovers and Pockets of Glitter

Summary:

Holly recovers from her time out and comes to a few realizations about her future. Meanwhile the Avengers get into a messy fight and bring thier work problems home with them.

Notes:

Hey guys! I'm glad to have been able to update for you guys! I'm at the Lunar Planetary Science Conference this week so I've been running around learning about planets and volcanoes and asteroids, which is super fun! For instance did you know there's a crater on the far side of the moon called Schrödinger Crater? It's got a volcanic vent in it that's the shape of a keyhole!

Chapter 13: The Pantheon

Long before I was born, back when magic was only taught to village priests and seers, the gods of Asgard visited frequently. Loki explained to me once, when I asked, why this was. Simply put it was because it was fun. Back then you see, we were very easy to impress. The gods would come down and summon storms or lift impossibly heavy weights and they would be revered without doing much of anything at all. Eventually though this grew boring, we mortals started asking for miracles and more importantly we began to emulate them.

Looking back on it now it isn’t difficult to see why Odin refused to help us. He feared what we would become. We were a realm that he had not conquered and what’s more all of the people that he had saved were dead, no one remembered the Frost Giant invasion and none of the humans really cared about it. We watched them, we learnt their magic and we began to grow in power. Once the Aesir realized what happened, they stopped coming.

At least until Loki began to visit again. I can’t claim full responsibility for the extended periods of time Loki spent traveling our world, for he loved more than just me. But it only took about a decade since the first time I met Loki for the rest of the gods to notice that Loki was disappearing for months at a time. I can remember Loki coming to me, snarling and frustrated, because his brother wanted to come to earth.

Thor was so certain it would be great fun. He’d go down and frighten the mortals, eat their food and take in their worship and awe. I don’t pretend to know that if Loki hadn’t known me that he wouldn’t have a problem with Thor’s attitude. Loki’s was much the same for the first few months of our friendship. It wasn’t until Loki truly became my friend that he realized that mortals, for all our short lifespans, were worthy of respect.

It was a lesson Thor had yet to learn.

Despite Loki’s best efforts Thor came to visit when I was nearing the age of 28 years old. By that point I had met my dear wife and had been married for two years. Because we had a home of our own, a large one in fact, it made sense for me to open one of my guest rooms to Loki’s brother. It was only polite of course.

I can honestly say that there are only two things one needs to know about Thor. He is loud and he has a magic hammer. That about sums up his personality, if you can call what he does have a personality. I will warn you, do not touch his hammer. He is so possessive and protective of the thing! Thor spent two weeks in our home and in that time he broke three plates and 7 goblets before I managed to spell them all from breakage.

The god of thunder spent much of his time trying to wow the mortals. He began with the magical community but when he wouldn’t allow anyone to touch his hammer and when he could not explain how it worked, most people grew rather bored with him. After all a weather charm isn’t so hard to cast. Even if Thor was very good at creating storms it wasn’t something so fantastic that goats should be slaughtered in his name.

The muggles were hardly better. The areas Thor visited were rife with Christianity and didn’t take kindly to Thor’s claim to be a god at all. Loki had to keep multiple villages from trying to burn his brother at the stake and in the same stroke keep Thor from killing muggles for their insults against him. I pitied Loki the headache his brother caused him.

Thor eventually grew bored and frustrated and declared that he thought Loki was a fool for spending so much time with useless, ungrateful mortals. He left without thanking me for my hospitality and I was glad to be rid of him. Once Thor left via the Bifrost, Loki collapsed on my couch and drank wine for six hours. I didn’t blame him.

*****

Her first thought upon getting up was that she needed to get some bruising crème on her face. It took some doing to get out of bed and stumble into her bathroom. She was hung over. She’d never dealt with that well either. She managed to pop open her tub of crème and slather it over her face, then she downed a headache potion.

Immediately the fog of pain in her brain cleared and she was able to look at the world without feeling like vomiting. She summoned her glasses from her night stand and then got cleaned up.

“Where did this glitter come from?”

Taking a shower only transferred a majority of the glitter from her body to the sides of her bathtub. There was still an undetermined amount of the stuff in her hair. Did the club she was at the night before have glitter? She couldn’t remember any glitter. She wished there was a spell for getting rid of the stuff. But alas, magic couldn’t do everything.

She spent the rest of the day shaking glitter out of her hair, drinking tea, and reading up about work in child services. It all sounded…draining. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about those children, she did. But if she worked in the muggle world she would punch abusers and if she worked in the magical world, nothing would stop her from hexing them until they couldn’t walk. But she couldn’t do that, there were laws against that sort of thing. Holly was pretty sure she’d find the constant need to restrain herself grating.

So maybe not that. Sometime in the afternoon she had her scheduled mirror call with her family back in Britain. She settled in her couch, made sure the glamor on her face was pristine and readjusted her bathrobe right before the mirror came to life to show not her reflection but the living room of the burrow.

Ron and Hermione were of course in the center of the room, with Hermione’s belly getting much larger than it had been since she’d left. Teddy wasn’t there, as he was in Hogwarts, but all of the other Weasleys who could be there were scattered around the room.

“Hello everyone.” Holly greeted.

“Holly!” Ron said. “Would you look at ‘Mione? Isn’t she amazing?”

Ron was by far the most excited for their baby. Hermione was also excited but Ron was downright fanatic. It was adorable really. Holly agreed that Hermione looked glowing making the very pregnant woman roll her eyes. Mrs. Weasley begged to know if she was alright and eating well. Holly looked a bit peaky.

“I’m eating just fine.” Holly said. “I look peaky because I stayed up late last night. Some of my coworkers invited me to a bar, I went dancing and it was really late by the time I got back.”

“You went dancing?” Fred demanded.

“We must have misheard you dear sister! There is no way The General Potter would go dancing!” George jumped in.

This caused the others to laugh and start to joke about her stern and bland lifestyle.

“Oh shut up!” Holly said. “Yes, I danced! It was fun! I acted like…like my age!”

That quieted them down real quick. Holly looked at the guilt she saw in their faces and sighed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…Normally I can take a joke better than that.”

“It’s fine Holly.” Ron said. “Sometimes we all get testy.”

“How was the bar?” Hermione asked. “Any cute people?”

“Well…”

“Please dish.”

“We must know everything.” The twins demanded at nearly the same time. Holly laughed and told them about how she was too nervous to try and dance so she was holding the table while the muggles had fun. Then a man showed up. The others listened as she described the scene, purposefully sounding as dreamy as possible. Then she got to the punchline.

“So, when he tried to threaten me, I broke his wrist.”

The people close to her age broke into laughter while the two oldest Weasleys made noises of disgust about her treatment. Arthur told her that if any man ever tried that again she should do worse than just break his wrist. Which she appreciated, really.

“Don’t be too upset, that actually gave me enough courage to go and have a fun time. It was a good night. Really. Now enough about me, how are the rest of you doing?”

So the call continued for a while each of them exchanging stories about what they’d been up to. It was soothing really catching up with her loved ones. Even if they always ended the calls begging for her to come home soon. They still didn’t really understand why she needed to do what she was doing. Once the call ended Holly fell back into to her couch with a sigh, hopefully she could go home soon.

She glanced over at the books she’d gotten through an owl service and sighed. Or maybe not. There were so many career options out there. She had to find her passion. Something fulfilling. Something outside of the world saving she was born for.

A laugh escaped her, harsh and sharp.

That’s the problem isn’t it? She’s running from fate. The norns themselves wrote out what she was meant to do and she did it when she was 17. The reason she couldn’t find anything more to do was because there was nothing more. There was no destined career or passion for her. Nothing she did mattered anymore.

She spent the rest of the weekend on the couch. She summoned food and water and only got up to use the bathroom and reapply her bruise crème. Despite the way the weekend had started out with a great night out and a mirror call from her friends this realization had blown the wind out of her sails. She spent her time on the couch questioning a lot of things about herself. She was so in her own head that she didn’t notice that New York got attacked by slime monsters created by a deranged scientist until she stepped in a giant green puddle of the stuff Monday morning.

“That’s going to be hell to clean.” She muttered thinking about the tower she was heading too. The mess only got worse the closer she got to the center of the city. It was disgusting. There were puddles of different covered slime, the slime also had goopy eyes floating around in it. There were even what looked like gelatinous tongues inside the piles. She shook herself, even with her stomach of steel some things were still just plain gross. The smell alone would have put Snape’s potions lab to shame.

Merlin was that glitter in some of them?

If it wasn’t she didn’t want to know what it was. Holly nodded to herself and walked into her office building. She weaved among the crowd of workers towards the locker room. As part of security you had to keep your uniform in the building so that only you had access to it. That way the clients would know not to let anyone onto their property that wasn’t wearing the uniform, or a uniform that didn’t fit.

She got into the locker room and took off her slime covered boots and stuffed them into the bottom of her locker. Behind her as she dressed she heard some of the other women in the room start gossiping about her and what a horrible job she had today. At least they weren’t commenting on her scars like some of the other women did. She pulled the smock over her head and slipped on the black pants and then her shoes.

Stepping out of the locker room was easy. She spotted her boss and waved at him. He looked almost afraid of her and it took her a moment to realize why.

“I’m not quitting.”

“Oh thank g-d.”

“I just wanted to ask you if you wouldn’t mind ordering a new uniform for me. I have a feeling this one is going to need to be burned after today.” He laughed and gave her a nod in agreement.

“Yeah I can only imagine. Trust me, Miss Potter you are getting a raise for today.” He clapped her shoulder. “And I’ll get you a few sets of the uniform. I have a feeling anytime New York gets attacked your uniform is going to be a casualty.”

“No kidding. I’d heard about the things the Avengers got up to but I hadn’t imagined the…mess after.”

“Yeah the clean up doesn’t tend to get a lot of news coverage. This is your first attack isn’t it? You didn’t panic too much did you?”

She hadn’t even noticed. Not that she was going to tell anyone that. She promised her boss she’d stayed safe indoors and hadn’t panicked. He told her he wasn’t surprised by that. Then he sent her on her way, because there was a terrible job to do. When she got to the van she saw her two friends looking at her with something like pity.

“Well Miss Potter. It sure was nice knowing ya’.”

“George. It’s just slime. I’ve lasted this long I’m not going to let slime destroy me.”

“You say that now but I watched Thor squish those monsters with that hammer of his. The smell was…unbelievable.”

As much as Holly tried to get the conversation to change to anything else all the others in the van wanted to talk about was the fight on Sunday. She’d been told when she first moved here that the buildings in New York were built tough and that she shouldn’t worry about too much property damage. A lot of them liked to claim that it was American skill and power and well…they were partially right.

Holly remembered the call sent out to witches and wizards around the world when the first invasion had happened. Not only was the world devastated that their god, the god of magic, had betrayed them, but the magical part of New York was in desperate need for help. Britain had sent her as their representative along with a troop of warders. She’d worked with the Americans for three weeks, they’d go out at night and placed special wards on buildings in the main part of the city, ensuring that the buildings would no longer tumble, unless of course the building was completely pulverized, there was little they could do to secretly prevent that.

More than one major American city had followed in New York’s footsteps as had some of the major European powers but overall New York was in the most need of protection. It had been an international effort. A way to protect the world without revealing magic. The reason New York was still standing was because of the Magical American Government taking a stand and moving to protect the vulnerable muggles.

It was part of the reason she’d moved to New York. The place was so well enchanted that she hoped that her ‘saving people thing’ wouldn’t be so prevalent. So far it hadn’t been so bad. In fact, she hadn’t even noticed the problem going on the day before. Wouldn’t Hermione be proud?

The van rolled up to the tower that looked particularly awful covered in slime like that. Poor Stark. She’d never gotten the idea that the man would appreciate his beautiful design being marred like that. They all made their way inside, most of the other workers wishing her luck and asking her what she wanted on her gravestone. Holly swiped her card over the scanner and made her way to the only elevator that went up to the top floors.

“Good morning Jarvis.” She greeted.

“Hello Holly.” He said. “How was your trip to the bar last Friday?”

“Thank you for asking. All anyone today wanted to talk about was that slime attack yesterday.”

“I already know much more than you do about the slime attack.”

She giggled at that and started to tell Jarvis about her Friday night. She hadn’t been prepared to go to a club and had felt underdressed and overall unfit to be there.

“I mean have you seen my hair? It’s always like this! It’s a family curse to have hair that’s untamable. My dad’s was the same way based on the pictures I’ve seen.”

“I don’t think anyone would care about your hair.”

“Well how was I supposed to know what mattered when one goes to a club? The whole thing made me so anxious I spent the first hour just watching our table while everyone else danced.”

“I hope you didn’t spend your whole night like that.” Jarvis sounded disappointed in her, or maybe for her.

“No, no. Once I got a little buzzed I got courageous and I danced the rest of the night. I got glitter in my hair and I don’t know where it came from.” She promised him, while delicately skipping over the two men who’d threatened her. They weren’t important. “I promise I had fun.”

“You don’t seem enthused.”

“I didn’t enjoy the hangover the next day. If I’m honest I don’t really see the appeal in drinking at all.” The door to the elevator open to reveal Thor and Captain America’s floor. There was multi-colored slime everywhere, because of course there was. Not to mention that horrendous acidic smell that made her eyes water. It was stronger here in the enclosed space. “My guardians used to do it all the time but they never seemed to be happy to do it.”

“I can see why you wouldn’t enjoy it. Mr. Stark has been trying to… limit his consumption as of late.”

“Really? Good for him. If you want I can put something in all of his liquor that makes it taste like lemons. For his own good of course.”

“He would just buy more if he truly wanted some. Or to prove a point.”

Holly laughed at Jarvis’ resignation as she grabbed the cart and then looked at the supplies she had available.

“Jarvis is there someplace in this tower that has a shovel?”

“I’ll have one brought up for you Miss Potter.”

“Thanks, it might be the quickest way to get this slime into the trash and burnt.”

“I agree.” Jarvis said. “You do not mind cleaning this?”

“It’s my job isn’t it? Now would you mind telling me who is responsible for the mess in first place?”

She listened as Jarvis described the angry scientist who’d been fired from his work for unethical practices. The man, of course it was a man, had broken into his old lab and created the monsters to prove his research was valid. Only to lose control of said monsters. The slimes had then killed him, destroyed the lab and attacked the city trying to fill their insatiable hunger. It was all patently ridiculous, not that she’d admit it out loud.

The story took time to tell, probably because Holly kept interrupting it with her sass. That meant that the shovel was delivered by a cute little robot and Holly had started shoveling disgusting slime from the carpet and walls into the large garbage can on her cart before Jarvis managed to finish. When it ended she felt a slight sense of…envy? Was that what she was feeling?

Huh.

“The Avengers must have exciting lives.”

“They do indeed.” Jarvis agreed. “It keeps me quite busy assisting them.”

“Do you like that?” She asked.

“Do I like what? Having work to do?”

“Well, yes that but more…” She trailed off for a moment to successfully shovel a very large pile of goop into the trash can. “The kind of feeling when you don’t know what’s going to happen next ever, and so you can’t really plan for anything. There’s always something new and dangerous around the corner and all you can do trust is your friends to have your back. It’s excitement, and adrenaline rushes and helping people and…it’s all so glorious once you really get down to it. Because you get to swing a sword and raise a shield and do the right thing.”

She lifted up the shovel like it was the sword of Gryffindor, her shoulders straight as she envisioned it all.

“I mean honestly Jarvis can you name anything more exhilarating than going forward, making a difference and saving a life? Doing good? Who wouldn’t…want that?” She lowered the shovel slowly as she realized that that wasn’t her destiny any longer. She didn’t have a destiny, she didn’t even have a purpose.

“That was the most passionate I’ve ever seen you Holly.”

“Yeah.”

“Have I upset you?”

“No. No. I just…remembered something important.” Holly said lowering the shovel so that it was touching the floor again. “Let’s just forget about it.”

“I don’t want to forget things that you are passionate about, that would not be a good thing for a friend to do.”

“I suppose so. But…being passionate about adrenaline rushes isn’t very healthy.”

“I don’t think that’s what excited you Holly.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m projecting things onto something that doesn’t even exist.” She said sternly, more to herself than to Jarvis.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She realized abruptly that she did. She wanted to take this tangled mess of a problem and throw it at someone else to sort out. But she couldn’t tell Jarvis, telling Jarvis would mean telling the Avengers about magic. She could easily break that statute of secrecy for a friend but not for a bunch of strangers.

“Jarvis. I wish there was a way I could tell just you.”

“I understand.” He said, not even sounding disappointed, at least not too much. “For now, please tell me, how did your study on child services go?”

She was so grateful for the subject change that she almost started tearing up. Instead she sniffed, just once, and got back to shoveling. They spent the next thirty minutes chatting about nothing important as Holly worked her way around the floor. She ended up going into Thor’s room last because it had the most slime. In the center of the first room was the man’s hammer, covered in slime and dripping it all over.

Holly didn’t notice how the garbage can was shifting as she shoveled more and more muck from Thor’s room into it. If asked, she’d blame Jarvis for her inattention. Which wasn’t totally fair since it was his warning that had saved her life.

“And so Ron told me that-”

“HOLLY DUCK!”

Holly hit the floor, landing in a pile of slime right next to Thor’s hammer. The space that her head and torso had filled a moment before was now being swiped at by the gelatinous arm of a bright blue slime. In the split second she had to think before moving she came to a few conclusions. One, the slimes reformed if enough pieces of them were placed together in close proximity. Two, someone really needed to warn cleaning crews in the city before they restarted the slime invasion. And finally three, she couldn’t use magic to stop this thing, if she did she could hurt Jarvis.

The slime roared, a hole opening around its jelly like face, five eyes floated around in the mass, all of which were focused on her. Dimly she heard Jarvis telling her not to panic and that the Avengers were almost here. Funnily enough, panic was the last thing on her mind. Her hand snapped out and gripped the disgusting handle of Thor’s hammer. Electricity shot down her hand as she lifted the weapon from the ground and rolled to the side to avoid being crushed by a slime arm.

She continued the roll so that she could jump to her feet. The slime didn’t even turn around, all of its eyes and its mouth just rotated around to face her better. She made a disgusted face at the sight and hefted the hammer that seemed to sizzle in her hand. When the slime moved to grab at her again, she didn’t hesitate.

She swung.

As the hammer began its arc one of the most curious things in her life happened. She got hit by lightning. Now Holly wasn’t unaware that lightning could be magically formed indoors. She’d even done it once on a dare while working in Australia. She also knew that people could get hit by lightning, especially if they were outside during a violent storm. She had not however summoned that lightning, nor was she aware of any lightning that could conjure a suit of armor complete with crimson red cape.

Yet that was what happened. In the same moment she swung and hit the slime with as much force as she could muster, she was hit by magic lightning that gave her a suit of armor. And it hurt. A lot. It briefly reminded her of the cruciatus. Which was probably why once the hammer had re-splattered the slime across Thor’s room, she froze.

The pain reverberated along her nerves, singing of days long gone when she was too young to know how to dodge and when she still screamed when things hurt. She looked at the silver armor that now covered her arms and wondered when she’d stopped screaming at pain. Had she forgotten how to scream? The door to Thor’s room burst open to reveal Captain America, Hawkeye, and Thor all ready to save her.

Holly did the only thing her body could think to do.

She fainted.

Chapter 5: The Plot Thickens to Milkshake Consistency

Summary:

She could lift his hammer. Odin, the cleaning lady could wield his hammer! How? Why? Thor didn't understand. But he wanted nothing more than to find out. His new shield sister must be ferocious indeed.

Notes:

Wow this fic really blew up last week! The comments you all left on the last chapter really brightened my day and kept me calm as I prepared to present my research last Thursday, so thanks everyone! I hope you enjoy this update just as much as the last one.

Chapter 13: Bonds of Brotherhood

The day I graduated from Hogwarts was by far one of the most memorable days of my youth. This was partially due to the fact that Loki attended my graduation in disguise and played at least 50 different pranks on the proceedings. These pranks ranged from casting illusions of snakes to frighten some of the other graduates to putting potions into the headmistress’ goblet that made her cluck like a hen.

Other memorable events include being offered a transfiguration apprenticeship with the world renowned wizard Jean Claude White who once transfigured an entire dragon into a palm sized stone, while the dragon was breathing fire! Before that point I hadn’t realized that my talent in magic was anything noteworthy, but Master White was very insistent on having me train under him. It was flattering and confusing in equal measure. I accepted the apprenticeship of course and within three months of graduation I moved to Switzerland to train.

The most memorable thing though was what happened when the day was done. My graduation was a long and exhausting affair. It lasted nearly 8 hours and by the end of it I was nearly dead on my feet. But, now that I was considered an adult, I had the affairs of my parents to settle. They had died when I was so young and now finally I could access the family vault and see what had been left behind. Loki, in a rare case of discretion, let me explore the vault . That was alone something I needed to do on my own.

When I left Gringotts, feeling drained emotionally and physically, Loki was there. He took my hand, and without asking permission pulled me away from the steps and off of Earth altogether. World Walking is by far one of the most terrifying experiences to endure, especially without warning. I clung to Loki during the eternity that we spent in between worlds, walking along the Yggdrasil, when we landed my legs would not hold my weight and I feared that I had left my stomach behind me.

When I recovered from my shock I looked around to find myself in an ornately decorated bedroom. There was a bed of curious design with bedding of green and gold. There were bookshelves filled with leather tomes engraved in golden runes. There was a nearly geometrically shaped window that revealed a city of gold and at the edge of it a rainbow bridge that led out into the very stars themselves.

Loki had taken me to his home. Throughout all of our friendship I had not had a place to bring Loki too. No home but Hogwarts, really. Loki had never invited me to Asgard and I had never thought to ask. But there I was, standing stupidly and looking at the city of the gods, a 17 year old mortal wizard. Loki smirked at my shock and awe, he had expected that of course. He forced me to sit down and handed me a large metal cup filled with honeyed mead. Then he steeled himself and I will never forget what he said.

“Ralston, while you might not consider me as much, I see you as well a friend.” He’d paused there as if to give me time to object, and I did, vehemently telling him that there was no one I considered more a friend to me than him. He’d looked a little poleaxed by my words but managed to continue. “Well, yes that’s good. But, you see, Aesir like myself have a different custom when it comes to friends. True friends call each other something different here, if you truly consider me a friend in the same way I do then in the way of my people we are something more.”

It wasn’t until many, many years later that I understood my friend’s nervousness. Loki had brought me to his most private place. The room in the royal palace that he let no one into but himself. He’d taken me there to ask me to be his shield brother, to swear on my magic to bear his burdens and strengthen him in whatever battles he faced. It was a vow I made willingly and gladly. Eventually I learnt that I was the first to do so, that I was the first that Loki had asked other than his own brother. Thinking about it now still fills me with a sense of honor. Being Loki’s Shield Brother is one of the greatest gifts I have ever been afforded.

From that moment on Loki and I faced every challenged together. I never doubted his loyalty or his affection for me and the same went for him. He helped me with everything I tried to do and I offered him a friend and a listening ear for his own troubles. There was very little help I could offer with problems in Asgard, as it was rather illegal for me to be there, let alone even know of its existence. But I did my best.

Loki became my family that day. On the same day that I explored the remains of my dead family, Loki stepped in and became my brother, my friend. That vow meant so much to Loki that he extended that protection to my wife, when I finally convinced her to marry a clumsy man like me. In fact, Loki was the one who gave me the courage to talk to the beautiful woman in the first place! I know that wherever in the nine realms Loki is, he has not forgotten the vows we made to each other that night.

*****

Thor managed to grab the woman before her body hit the ground. This was probably because Mjolnir had carried her towards him once she lost consciousness. The hammer had always had a mind of its own, which had gotten him into trouble more than once in his long life. He was grateful for the help because anyone who was worthy of his hammer did not deserve to land face first into slime. He held her, now armored, body carefully to his chest. Her head resting in the crook of his neck. He was very, very grateful when he could feel her breath puffing against his skin. Mjolnir hadn’t killed her.

“I’m going to take her to the infirmary.” He said.

“What happened Thor?” Steve asked, his voice was the odd mixture of concern and command that only Steve could manage. “Is she okay?”

“How was she holding your hammer?” Clint sounded almost petulant.

“She’s fine. I hope at least.” Thor said. “And I don’t know, only she can tell us why Mjolnir found her worthy. I’ll explain more once she’s looked at.”

Steve told him go and so Thor rushed the woman up a few flights of stairs to the infirmary that was on the top floor. Tony had installed that there when one too many missions had gone sour and they realized they needed to have the medical supplies as easily accessible as possible from the Quinjet. When he got there, Bruce was already ready telling Thor which bed to place the woman on. The man, despite consistently claiming he wasn’t that kind of doctor, was still seen as the most competent healer on the team.

Bruce already knew that the armor couldn’t be taken off so he worked around it as best he could. Thor had explained to them that his armor was magically enchanted so that it could only be taken off by the same force that put it on, Mjolnir. This explanation came after Thor had been injured for the first time in a fight against Amora, Thor still felt embarrassed when he thought about his loss. As Bruce looked at the woman trying to discern if she was okay, the other Avengers began to arrive.

“Alright. So far as I can tell she’s fine. There doesn’t seem to be any problems with her heart and I can’t see any injuries. Jarvis can you tell us what happened?”

“Miss Potter was cleaning Mr. Rogers and Mr. Odinson’s floor of the slime. She requested the use of a shovel to move the large quantities of slime into the garbage can.” Jarvis said, sounding tight and worried. “However, once a large enough quantity of the slime was in the can, the slime monster began to reform. It was very quick, I was only able to warn Miss Potter to duck before the slime attacked her. She did so, dropping immediately to the floor, next to Mr. Odinson’s hammer. When the slime attacked her again by attempting to crush her, she picked up the hammer and rolled out of the way.”

“She just picked it up?” Tony asked. “Just like that?”

“Yes sir.” Jarvis answered. “Then when the slime attacked for a third time, she swung the hammer. However as sometimes happens when Mr. Odinson uses the hammer she was struck by lightning and her cleaning uniform was exchanged with armor in the same exact design as Mr. Odinson’s. Her hair also…”

Jarvis trailed off and they all looked at the woman’s long black hair that was standing on end as if she’d been…well electrocuted. It was almost cartoonish.

“The hammer killed the slime and then the others arrived to help. Miss Potter fainted and I do not know why.”

“I think I know.” Thor said. “She should be fine.”

“What caused her to faint?” Jarvis asked, which was odd usually he remained in the background while the rest of them spoke. Thor didn’t mind answering him.

“Well, summoning my armor is more than just putting on a suit.” Thor told them. “When I do it, I am struck by lightning as a sign of the power I am calling to myself. It’s like a power-up.”

Thor was rather proud of himself for coming up with that human comparison from the video games they played. It was rather clever of him. None of them looked too confused yet so he explained further.

“The first time I did that, I didn’t know what it would feel like or how to even control it. It was terrifying. If it hadn’t been for…Loki I might’ve destroyed the palace.” Thor knew mentioning his brother wasn’t a good thing to do around them, but he couldn’t help that. Without Loki’s presence Thor could have died that day. It was what he got for lifting Mjolnir before he was ready. “Not only did the powering up hurt, the amount of power if you’re not used to it can feel like you are burning from the inside out. I think she fainted because she wasn’t ready for it.”

“That’s awful.” Steve said. “Does it still feel like that for you?”

“No. No. I practiced, and the pain went away. Or maybe I got used to it.” Thor shrugged, it didn’t matter anyway. He was more focused on the fact that someone else could lift his hammer. What about this woman was so special? He looked down at Mjolnir and not for the first time wished it could speak. Whenever Thor had complained that he couldn’t speak to his hammer, Loki had given him a very condescending look. Which honestly wasn’t fair, just because Loki didn’t see the point in talking to weaponry doesn’t mean it didn’t exist!

“What I still don’t understand is why she could lift it.” Tony complained. “She’s just a cleaning lady.”

“She is my friend, sir.” Jarvis broke in. “And I’d ask you to speak about her with respect.”

Thor didn’t think he’d ever heard Jarvis sound so cold, usually he was either sarcastic or welcoming. Strangely enough, Clint and Tony both flinched at the tone.

“Right. Sorry Jarv. You have to admit it’s a good question.”

“I fail to see that.” He said snippily back. “She’s been nothing but lovely to me, of course she’d be worthy.”

Ah. Thor got it now. He smiled at Jarvis’ words. While he doubted the woman’s kindness to the AI was the sole reason for it, he wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t peaked Mjolnir’s interest.

“Thor. Come on you have to know.”

“I don’t. I’ve only ever been able to weild it. Not even my father could, he used magic to transport it when he had to move it and that taxed him greatly.” Thor said. “She is the second person in the universe to be able to do it.”

“Jarvis.” Natasha said. “Pull up Potter’s file.”

Jarvis silently did so turning on one of the many screens that were scattered throughout the walls of the tower just for this purpose. The file was bland. It lacked soul or even one story about the woman. Surely, she had to have been in great battles against ferocious beasts. All the file did was give useless information. How old she was and where she’d been born. The status of her family and her financial situation. None of which had anything to do with her being worthy. Where were the sagas of death defying feats and brave heroics? This file painted the woman as a boring, lonely servant, not someone Mjolnir would look twice at. Thor was offended on both Mjolnir and this woman’s behalf!

“This file is terrible!” Thor said. “It can’t possibly be right!”

“What do you mean?” Tony asked.

“Anyone who could wield Mjolnir must have lived a life full of adventure, not…this nonsense.”

“Hate to break it to you, but most humans don’t do adventures.”

“Well she’s different!” She had to be.

“Who’s different?” A new voice asked, in a voice that sounded oddly like Loki.

They all flipped around to see that Holly Potter was rubbing the side of her head, eyes still closed.

“Miss Potter!” Jarvis said. “Are you well?”

“Jarvis? Oh I’m…I’ve got a killer headache but other than that I’m alright. Would you mind turning down the lights?”

Instantly the lights were dimmed, and she thanked him. Thor stepped forward and spoke.

“It is an honor to meet someone of such greatness.”

That caused her eyes to burst open beneath her large glasses. She sat up as if she’d been shocked and nearly yelped her next words.

“What? You know what never mind! Have any of you sent warnings out to the cleaning crews around the city not to pile all of the slime together?”

The penny dropped for all of the seasoned heroes in the room at once and suddenly there was a burst of activity as Tony ordered Jarvis to send out warnings and they all rushed for their weaponry. Thor only hefted his hammer and looked at the woman who was now looking at the insanity going around her with no bewilderment and something in her eyes that might have been classed as longing.

“We’ve got to go check the city for danger.” Thor explained. “Please stay here and rest. If you need anything, please ask Jarvis for it.”

“Right.” She said. “Of course. Be safe.”

It was an odd thing for Thor to hear. No one had ordered him to be safe since he was very very young. He certainly hadn’t expected to hear it from a human. To humans he was basically indestructible, why would they need to order him to be safe? Even Jane only asked him to come back quickly. It was just…strange. But Thor nodded anyway and told her he would be.

They left his new shield sister alone in the infirmary to check on each cleaning crew. Thankfully there were only three reformed monsters as the cleaning crews had been warned in time. They had to spend some time figuring out how to clean up the slime without making new slime monsters. Eventually Tony and Bruce created a compound that would destabilize the slime and passed it out to cleaning crews to spray on collected slime.

When they returned to the tower they found Holly sitting in the penthouse, sipping on tea and still wearing the full suit of armor. It looked rather good on her, then again who wouldn’t look good in Thor’s armor? Thankfully her hair had calmed down, a little at least. She was chatting with Jarvis about different methods of getting the armor off.

“Jumping into a pool of lava?”

“While I’m sure that would remove your body from the suit, it would do so at the expense of burning your entire body to ash.” Jarvis said.

“Look we’re trying to solve one problem here, not all of them.”

“Have you considered that I don’t like solutions that involve death?”

“Oh, Death’s nothing to be scared of.”

“Death? What’s scarier than that?” Tony asked interrupting them.

Holly looked a little startled at their appearance but answered easily.

“Biscuits that look like they’ve got chocolate chips in them but end up having raisins.” That made some of the humans laugh and Thor only found it appropriate. Of course, someone who could weild Mjolnir wouldn’t fear death.

“Lady Potter.” Thor said, deciding to bow instead of kneel. “It is an honor to meet you.”

“Uhmmm.” Her voice was worried, almost frightened of him. “Why?”

“You can weild Mjolnir!” Thor explained making her look both relieved and confused. “Do you not know about my hammer?”

“Not really.” She said almost apologetically. “It’s not something I’ve thought was important to know.”

“Then allow me the honor of explaining.”

She waved him on and as the rest of the Avengers settled around the room, Thor told her about the great Mjolnir. A hammer forged in the heart of a dying star and enchanted with great power. It can only be lifted by those who are worthy.

“Worthy of what?” Holly asked.

“See that’s the thing, no one knows.” Bruce told her. “Other than Thor here, you are literally the only other person to have ever even picked it up.”

“I have to know.” Thor said. “What great feats of heroism have you done? Surely you’ve slain a dragon or two?”

“I have no idea how you can expect me to answer that.” She sounded almost afraid of his question. Why was she afraid? It didn’t make any sense. Steve rushed to comfort her.

“Thor’s only asking because he thinks your employee file isn’t the truth.” Steve said, his tone implying how mad he thought Thor was for thinking that. “He’s convinced that you have to be some sort of adventurer and not just a cleaning lady.”

“I am a cleaning lady. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Her tone dared them to say otherwise. Thor tried to explain himself better.

“Mjolnir has met many servants and cleaning ladies before.” Thor said. “And none of them could lift it. Only you.”

“I wish I could tell you something.”

“I’ve got an idea.” Natasha said. “Thor when you first got the hammer were you like…you are now? Or were you young?”

“I was a young man, just out of training. Why?”

“Well Mjolnir didn’t let you lift her because you were a great hero but because you were going to become one right? Maybe the hammer senses a person’s potential?”

That made Thor brighten, Natasha’s idea explained everything. He looked over at Holly with eager anticipation.

“We must start training you then! You could become the greatest hero earth has ever known!”

“Woah slow down there!” She ordered. “I don’t need training! I’m a cleaning lady, not an Avenger.”

“Not yet!” Thor corrected. “But if you can lift Mjolnir you are destined for greatness.”

That made her laugh at him, as if he’d told a joke.

“That’s ridiculous.” She declared. “The only thing I’m interested in learning is how to get out of this armor.”

“Oh. Right. Here take Mjolnir.” He held out the hammer and she stood up and took it from him. Thor then instructed her on how to return the power back to Mjolnir. She was a quick study and it only took a few attempts to disband the armor. It was very…affirming to see someone else weild it. Thor thought that if he were younger man, he would have been possessive and infuriated, but all he felt was excitement about his new shield sister. He ignored the part of him that felt insecure, Mjolnir wasn’t choosing someone else, she wouldn’t.

“Here.” Holly said, holding out the hammer carefully. “Thanks for helping me get the armor off.”

“Lady Holly.” Thor said, finally kneeling down in front of the cleaning lady. He placed his hands over the top of the hammer that she still held as if it weighed no more than a feather. “You have wielded Mjolnir, that makes you my shield sister. Your struggles are my mine. I will always have your back in any battle, that is the way of my people. Anything you need help with, it is my honor to help you.”

She gave him very heartfelt smile and lifted one of her hands to place the over the top of his. Everyone was silent as they watched them, it seemed like even the buzzing of the electronics in the room had silenced in respect.

“Is there a proper Asgardian way to respond?” Her voice was kind and gentle.

“Yes. First you say your name, as full as you know it to be, then you promise to carry my struggles as your own.” Thor explained. She was the first one who had asked him about this sort of thing since he’d arrived on earth. He called the other Avengers his shield brothers and sisters but they hadn’t thought it was too important, that it meant anything.

“Well okay then.” She said. “I’ll try that.”

Thor nodded and watched as Holly, still covered in slime and her hair standing on end form the lightning strike, spoke with all seriousness.

“I am Holly Gemma Potter, daughter to James and Lily and descendent of the Potter Family.” She said. “And I promise to happily take upon your burdens and struggles as if they were my own.”

Thor smiled at her words, Holly might not be interested in having some great purpose but he knew that they would at least be friends. Then the smile froze on his face because right as she finished her vow, he felt it. In her hands burned a magic. It should have been impossible to feel magic in this human. All of the witches and wizards of Midgard had been a victim of genocide 400 years ago. None of them had survived, magic in humans had been eradicated. How did she have magic?

Thor hid his confusion as best he could and stood up, still holding his shield sister’s hands with the hammer between them.

“Thank you, Lady Holly.”

She slowly pulled her hands away, leaving Mjolnir with Thor.

“I hate to ask but it’s been a very long day and it’s not even lunch time. Would you mind if I…left early? I haven’t had a chance to clean up but I did get hit by lightning so…”

Of course, she’d want to leave and rest! Thor practically rushed her towards the elevator telling her not to worry at all about her job. He would take care of it while she recovered. Thor genuinely meant that but more importantly he needed to think. If Holly really did have magic, which Thor was sure she did. Then what did he do?

He didn’t know if he could tell his team as much as it pained him to admit that. It had been non-magical humans like them that had…that had killed all of the magical people of earth. It had been the ancestors of his friends who had eradicated any evidence of magic from this world. Gone were the phoenixes and unicorns and dragons. Humans like his friends had erased them all. It had been that genocide of magic that had destroyed Loki in the end.

Loki had loved the magical people of earth and they him. He had been their god and their friend. When the witch huntings had broken out across the earth it had been Loki who had begged their father for help. His people were dying, innocent children being killed for having a gift. And Odin had said that they shouldn’t involved, themselves with such a barbaric people. It was only a few days after his pronouncement that everyone had heard the news.

Loki had never recovered, and he had never forgiven Odin or Thor for that matter. Thor hadn’t volunteered to change Odin’s mind, or help the humans. He’d stood by and done nothing. As the years had passed Loki’s bitterness and pain and sorrow had only grown. Something had changed within his brother after his fall from the Bifrost. Something had broken and all of that rage and bitterness had exploded out of him. And now Loki was attacking humans as retribution for the crimes of their ancestors. A vengeful god mourning his followers.

Thor…after having truly connected with the humans he had found he couldn’t blame Loki for it. It was wrong yes. But if someone had killed all the meta humans for being different, as some humans wanted to do, then Thor would want revenge too.

Which left Thor with a dilemma.

Holly had magic. Did she know? It was unlikely that she did. After all there were no other human magic users as far as Thor knew. All evidence of witches and wizards had been wiped away. Even if she suspected she had some sort of gift there was no way she’d been trained. Untrained magic was highly dangerous and unstable. He’d heard once Loki talk about Obscurials. He didn’t know how common they were but… He didn’t want his shield sister to become a monster, or to hurt herself.

The others didn’t bother to do more than a small amount of complaining over the fact that they had to clean up the slime themselves. It was probably for the best since they didn’t want to risk the monsters reforming inside the tower again. Thor spent most of the clean up process deep in his head, agonizing over what to do. His shield sister needed help, help that Thor wasn’t qualified to provide. Only one man on this planet was and, well, there were reasons for not calling him to the tower. A lot of them.

But there were also plenty of reasons not to tell the Avengers. What if they reacted poorly? Their introduction to magic had been Loki. Thor didn’t know if they’d revile Holly like their ancestors had. He wanted to think that they wouldn’t, that they would be open minded. Odin, he wanted them to be excited at the thought of a human magic user. But magic had hurt them all in one way or another. Thor would never forgive himself if he got the only other person alive who could lift his hammer hurt for having a gift she didn’t ask for.

Would Loki hurt her? She was a magic user like him, even if she was untrained. Perhaps that would be enough to pierce through his madness? Or was his insanity too strong for anything now? Had Loki become completely lost? Or was Holly Loki’s chance for peace? If Loki knew that they weren’t all dead maybe this fighting could end. Maybe everyone could begin to heal.

Maybe that was too much to hope for.

Chapter 6: Hammering out a Destiny

Summary:

Things change in the tower in the wake of the hammer incident but not by much. Holly finally gets to the root of her own crisis.

Notes:

Hey guys! I'm so thankful for all the reviews and kudos I've been getting. Thank you so much! I've got three more weeks until finals and then I can finally breathe easier! Wish me luck as I try to get all of my projects done on time!

Chapter 21: A Destiny

I studied transfiguration for five years before graduating and becoming a master in my own right. Loki had studied right along with me. Before that point Loki’s interest in transfiguration had gone as far as his shapeshifting and no further. Anything else he needed he felt he could do with illusions, a magic he was far more comfortable in. But Loki had decided to learn this new magic along with me. I admit he was far more studious at times than I was, despite transfigurations being my passion and not his. I personally think this was due to the distraction my future wife caused. She was studying dueling a few towns over and I kept going to her competitions instead of studying in my room.

When I became a master of transfigurations, I began looking for a job, something I found fulfilling. Loki was wholly amused by my search, thinking it a waste of time. I already had enough gold to comfortably live. He could understand wanting to study a branch of magic but working when it wasn’t necessary was something of his anti-thesis. He helped me look anyway in between his jokes.

I considered teaching first. Many masters work as teachers once they become masters themselves. But I found that I lacked the patience for teaching, even conceptually. Loki proved that very well by shifting into a young human and pretending to be a first year student. I was still so young, not even 24 years old and unmarried. I imagined the teenagers I was asked to teach and felt rather odd being seen as an expert. So I couldn’t be a teacher.

The next idea was to work as a transfigurist full time. People would consult me for their needs and pay me for my time. This appealed to me in some respects but when I spoke to othets who had gone down that route I found that the work was rather monotonous. Everyone had the same problems and I didn’t want my days to be filled with fixing wells or walls for weeks on end. So that was right out.

On and on the search went, Loki made fun of me for trying to find my so-called destiny. It was important to me to find something reputable though. How else would I convince my beloved Amaryllis to marry me if I didn’t have any standing in society. Yes, my parents had left me money and the beginnings of a title but their deaths had removed any standing that once would have had.

Eventually Loki grew bored with my mundane ideas of a destiny and started dragging me across the world in search of something fun and exciting to do. His plan was to distract me, show me how silly I was being for trying to find my purpose. It ended up being a great irony that his plan ended with me finding my true passion along the way.

We’d been in Muscovy wandering through the cold and icy world, in search of the famous capital when we’d stumbled upon a village. We found that there was a certain amount of unrest within the city as we walked along and so we were careful not to draw attention to ourselves as we purchased new supplies of food and water. Loki’s All-Speak served us well ensuring that we weren’t misunderstood. The source of the unrest we found very quickly was two young children, no more than 12 years old.

The parents of the children had always been seen as strange and disreputable but their children were hellions apparently. It was very obvious to me that the stories of trouble making were just examples of untrained young magic. I’d had similar events in my own youth after all. We visited their home and discovered that the parents were quite weak with magic. So little as to be considered squibs if they’d come from a pureblood family. But together they had produced quite powerful magical children and they had no training or idea at all.

My first plan had been to send a message to the school Durmstrang and let them know that there were two students in need of protection and teaching. Hopefully the headmaster would care enough to investigate soon, and the family could be taken away and given a safe haven. This plan blew up in smoke when the tension in the town finally broke just as we were about to leave.

The family’s home was attacked in the early morning with torches and the parents were dragged out of their home based on accusations of devil worship. The town had determined that the parents had made deals with Satan and been given children in the form of trickster demons. If the parents were burnt, then the demon children would be banished back to hell and the town would be curse free.

I moved before I could even tell Loki would I was going to do. My wand found my way into my hand without me having to call it as I rushed through the crowd of angry muggles. Never before had my magic come so easy to me than it did that day. Perhaps I saw my own parents in the older Russian couple or perhaps more likely I saw myself in those children. Whatever the case it gave me the motivation I needed to make a difference. The muggles attacked and I fought right back.

I didn’t notice Loki at my back helping me subdue the muggles until he kept me from jumping on the burning pyre. He jumped in himself, far more fireproof than I, and freed the parents while I kept the children safe. The two of them held onto me tightly, shaking and with faces stained with tears. Their magic crackled uncontrollably out of their skin and I did my best to calm them, promising that I knew they weren’t evil and that everything would be well.

I found myself helping the family back to their half burned home and helping them recover what they could. The parents while thankful for the protection, despaired over surviving the oncoming winter. I told them not to worry. Loki and I helped them pack and took them to the school ourselves. We arrived late in the evening on the outer steps of the stone keep. The headmaster greeted us with suspicious in his eyes. I introduced myself as a Hogwart’s graduate and explained what had happened. The elderly man listened and eventually let us in. Space was found within the keep and two places for the new students were created overnight when the headmaster saw the magical power in the two Krum children.

When we left it was with the knowledge that the Krum Family had a safe place to be and that I had found my purpose. I looked at Loki and he sighed before I could even ask if he’d help me.

“Fine.” He’d told me. “We’ll be heroes, you absolute fool!”

*****

Holly had been afraid, deathly so, that going back to work after the hammer incident would be tortuous. She had seriously considered quitting and disappearing into another country. The only reason she didn’t was because she really did like Jarvis. So, she went into work, despite her internal protests. To her pleasure very little changed.

The largest change was the fact that the Avengers talked to her now. Occasionally it was just one of them asking her to move the hammer for them because Thor had put it in front of a door or on top of something they needed. Tony Stark always asked her if she’d managed to slay a great beast today or not. Which she assumed was a joke about the fact that she could weild Mjolnir and he couldn’t. She forced herself not to flinch at the reminder of the great beasts she had slain and instead laughed it off.

The first two weeks post-Mjolnir she was followed home and around the city whenever she went out by people she couldn’t spot. At first, she’d thought it was some sort of attack by the group of men that she’d fought in the bar, but when nothing happened it occurred to her that this was one of the Avengers. So, she dealt with the stalking by making sure her blinds were closed and hid all of her magic things under a strong spell deep beneath her bed. She found evidence that someone had broken into her apartment but wasn’t worried, they clearly hadn’t found anything serious.

She mentioned the incident to Jarvis. Telling him she’d noticed that someone had been in her apartment, the door had been unlocked and things had been moved around. He comforted her by telling her that it was just part of a background check that the Avengers had ordered. Nothing had been taken and any personal secrets wouldn’t be shared unless it was needed for national security. She told Jarvis very sternly to make it clear that they could have just asked to come into her apartment or warned her so that she could do the dishes at least before they came.

Jarvis told her that wasn’t the point.

Despite that, after her complaints to Jarvis the break-ins and the stalking stopped entirely. Which was good because the constantly being followed had been making her paranoid beyond all belief. Her nightmares, which were terrible enough on their own, had had new guest stars in the form of muggle agents breaking into her apartment and stealing her wand and then opening fire at her and her friends. Ridiculous but still bothersome enough that she lost sleep over it.

In the same vein of the stalking, she knew that Clint and Natasha both were following and watching her while she was at work. When she went to have lunch with her coworkers, she felt eyes on the back of her neck. While cleaning their floors in the tower, they sat and did busy work while she worked. Clint was at least friendly about it, at times trying to bring her into conversation and at one point even apologizing for his pranks. Natasha took much longer to warm to her at all, and even then, Holly felt that Natasha had deemed her a non-threat and not someone she liked.

Her relationship with Bruce at the beginning was very similar to how it had been before. The man was a source of calm within the tower. She cleaned as quietly as she was able when she caught him meditating by the window and occasionally, he’d offer her a cup of tea when he was making his own. They didn’t talk about anything more important than the weather but Holly had a feeling Bruce liked the conversations anyway.

After all, she never acted afraid of him.

Thor was the most excited to see her each day. Sometimes he’d talk to her while she worked, telling her stories about Loki and Asgard and being an Avenger. Unlike everyone else in his group of earth friends she hadn’t been in a fight to the death with Loki, so Thor figured she wouldn’t mind hearing about his magic and how wonderful he was. In truth Holly didn’t really mind.

Loki had been a figure in her life since she was 11. He had been for all witches and wizards. She learned about him in history of magic, families who grew up in the wizarding world had Loki Day parties every April. Sometimes she wondered if her dad had had any traditions that he could have passed on to her when it came to Loki. Knowing how much of a prankster her dad was, he surely must have loved Loki Day. He was the god of the wizarding world and the people had remembered him as such. Loki had been the one to well…create the wizarding world.

As her History of Magic textbook had told it, when the witch hunts had gotten so bad that children were dying in the thousands and Asgard had refused to give protection, Loki had come up with a solution. A grand complicated spell that would convince the minds of the entire universe that human magic users were gone. Then the magical world could begin, living in secret and safety.

The only problem with this lovely story? After Loki had helped the humans cast the spell hiding them, he’d disappeared. Why he’d never returned to earth to live with his people, the people he’d saved, was a question no one had ever been able to answer. Well until now. If anyone knew why Loki had brought an army to earth instead of coming home to welcoming arms, it’d be Thor right?

So, she listened to his stories and shared some of her own, sanitized to remove any mention of her own magic. She liked Thor. He was very different from most people she knew. He had an excitement for life that well…reminded her of herself, at least how she’d been as a young girl. Everything Thor liked was met with the same enthusiasm Holly had used to save for quidditch games.

It left a bitter taste in her mouth sometimes. When was the last time she’d been that excited for anything? She tried to remember really. She’d been very happy for Ron and Hermione’s wedding but there’d also been a sense of loneliness and betrayal. All of her fights taking down Death Eaters and protecting the world hadn’t made her truly excited, she didn’t think. It had to have been earlier. Was it her sixth year? No…maybe it was her fourth year?

What all had Voldemort taken from her?

Almost three weeks had passed since the Mjolnir incident. Things had almost settled into a new normal. There were still questions, people still wondered what about her made her so special that a magic hammer was interested. She had a terrible suspicion about that, and it was one she refused to voice to her friends back in England or to the Avengers themselves. She didn’t even like thinking about it.

“Holly?” Holly looked up from where she’d been cleaning a window a little too hard.

“Yes Jarvis?”

“Mr. Odinson requests that you take your lunch with him today.” Not an unusual thing for the man to ask.

“Oh of course. Tell him I’ll be there once I finish up these windows.”

“We haven’t had time to discuss what happened, just the two of us.” Jarvis said as Holly turned back to the window, this time more focused on her task.

“No. No I suppose we haven’t. I’m sorry.” She said. “I should have made time for you.”

“I’m not offended, just concerned. You’re not normally one to shy away from difficult topics.”

That made her laugh a little, what an excellent way to call someone blunt. She leaned her forehead against the clean glass and sighed. Then she pulled back and swiped her towel over the smudge she left behind.

“I think I know why that hammer let me pick it up and I’m afraid of being right.”

“Why would that make you afraid?” How was the whole thing with Mjolnir anything but terrifying?

“Because…because if I’m right then…then my whole life is pointless. There’s nothing left for me to do or be. I’m…I’d basically be this empty husk of a person, an outdated tool that no one has any use for.”

Silence. Holly moved over and grabbed the spray bottle of window cleaner. She spritzed some of the colorful liquid on the next window and started rubbing the towel in a circular motion. All of her focus was on that task as she waited for Jarvis’ judgment.

“Holly, I don’t understand what that means. All I know is that I do not find you useless. You are good at your job but you…you are also a good friend to me. Your kindness alone will ensure you are never some sort of tool.”

She smiled and ignored how her eyes teared up a little. Screw it. She could afford to toe the line of the statute a little more than she had been.

“What I’m about to tell you is super classified. Promise to do your best not to tell anyone unless you absolutely have to? For, you know, the safety of the world or whatever.”

“I promise.” Jarvis said.

“My parents didn’t die in a car accident.” She said. “They were agents for a group that formed to stop evil in its tracks. The group they worked for doesn’t exist anymore, most of its members are dead and those that aren’t dead are old and retired now. My parents were killed by an enemy to the group they worked for.”

She spun around, away from the windows she’d been working on and began to pace. She was grateful Jarvis didn’t interrupt.

“After they died, I was left with a whole set of…expectations. Everyone who knew my parents expected me to be like them, to do what they did. To fight for the cause they did, to die for it.” She tried to keep the hysteria out of her voice but feared she wasn’t succeeding. “The leader of that group, Albus, he was certain that I was the key to everything. He decided that I would be his weapon against evil. After all what is the life of one child compared to the whole world?”

“What happened?” Jarvis asked, his voice the softest she thought she’d ever heard it.

“Well I was a baby. It wasn’t like I had any choice in the matter. Most kids get to have dreams, but not me I already had a destiny. Albus planned out my whole life, he planned to have it end when I was 17. That meant he didn’t make time for a career or for a passion. I didn’t need those if I was going to die like a sacrificial lamb.” A laugh that felt desperate as it crawled out of her throat broke her monologue. She slapped a hand over her mouth and calmed herself down. “Obviously I…I managed to save the day without dying. Albus died and suddenly I had a new future, free of people like him, but…”

“But you had no idea what to do with it.” He finished. He didn’t sound disturbed, like he had when she’d told that story about her uncle. No, this time Jarvis sounded almost…awed by the realization, the clues finally putting themselves together in his computer like brain. There was empathy there too, a kindness that she’d come to expect from her friend.

“Exactly. And then this…this hammer! It feels like it’s trying to drag me right back into the thing I escaped but…but I don’t even know if I wanted to escape in the first place! I don’t even know who I am.”

She stumbled over to the couch that was settled near the center of the room and sat down. She hadn’t meant to go that deep into her own psyche. She hadn’t even told this sort of thing to Ron and Hermione. Not that she felt like she could tell them. She didn’t want to worry them.

“I am sorry Holly. I don’t think any of the Avengers would ever want you to feel as if your only worth is as a weapon. I don’t think that.”

“You didn’t even know I was one until now.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You’re kind, Jarvis. Thank you. I just…I don’t want to even think about that stupid hammer anymore. I just want to figure out who Holly actually is.”

“You will.” Jarvis sounded so sure, it reminded her of Ron for just a moment. How Ron had always been so sure that they’d figure out whatever problems they faced. Coming from Jarvis, a being who had no idea about magic and just a bare glimpse into her past, it felt unfathomable. How could he be sure? She felt like she was in a constant state of crisis and yet Jarvis was so confident that she’d navigate through a world she did not know. A world without a purpose.

“Thanks for asking Jarvis. My friends back home…they were there for most of it and so I think they forget that I…I didn’t deal with it as well as they did.”

“It’s my pleasure Miss Potter.”

She smiled up at the ceiling for a moment, hoping she was looking at one of the hidden cameras Jarvis had there.

“Although Holly I must admit.” He said. “Your ability to dodge that slime monster was much better than a cleaning lady should have been able to do.”

“Ah yes the old stop, drop, and roll. I learnt that in fire safety class.”

“I don’t think that’s what they meant, Miss.”

“Jarvis. I hope you never ever have to see what I picked up in fire safety school. It wouldn’t be a good day for this tower at all. I mean, if I ever felt the need to get involved? All of the Avengers would have to be seriously hurt.”

Jarvis responded after a moment in agreement while also managing to subtly tell her that she could help whenever she liked, if she wanted to. That made her laugh a little.

“I moved here so I wouldn’t have to.” She explained. “The Avengers have it covered here, I can rest easy and focus on myself for once. Now, where is Thor exactly?”

“Please take the elevator up to the top floor. As it is Friday some of the other Avengers are also there. As I was ordered not to tell you why I can only imply that they have plans today that involve you.”

“Right.” She said grinning. “And since implying something is so very different from telling. I’ll go up there totally unaware.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

She got into the elevator and went right up to the top floor. Sure, enough Thor was there looking pleased as punch, along with Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Clint Barton. Which were probably the only ones who were willing to get in on whatever plan they had.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Holly said. “I must be interrupting something, Jarvis told me Thor wanted to have lunch.”

I do!” Thor said. “We all do! Come over here, there’s enough for all of us.”

“Yeah come on.” Clint said. “It should be great!”

“You’re not scared, are you?” Tony asked which made her roll her eyes and walk over to the table. She pulled out her own seat before Thor or Steve could offer and sat down, arms folded over her chest.

“My shield sister would never be scared of lunch.” Thor told Tony in an almost condescending tone. “Now let’s eat!”

The table was filled with various different things, from pizza to burgers to sushi. There was a lot of it too, probably in deference to Steve and Thor. Holly quickly grabbed a plate and then leaned back. She tried to eat before the plan started, she was hungry after all.

“So.” Tony began the interrogation. “Jarvis tells me you’re trying to find your dream job?”

“Yes. I moved here so that I could…spread my wings and figure out what I wanted to do.” She answered. There was no point in lying or dissembling, they could listen to any of the security footage and they’d know the truth.

“Fascinating.” Tony said.

“It really is interesting.” Clint added in what had to have been the most poorly worded script of all time. “Hey, I’ve got an idea!”

“Any idea to help my shield sister is one I want to hear.”

She made eye contact with Steve, the only man who hadn’t said a word yet, looking so bewildered that the man had to lift a hand to his mouth to keep from giggling. Holly decided to nip whatever scripted nonsense this was in the bud. No way was she going to sit through it.

“Excuse me.” She interrupted. “But aren’t…you all like…supposedly geniuses and super spies or literally thousands of years old? I think you can do much better than this.”

Tony and Clint began to sputter while Steve lost his fight to keep back his laughter. Thor only looked terribly put out that his plan wasn’t working. Once everyone had gotten their composure back, Steve spoke.

“We think you should start training.” Steve said. “You can lift Thor’s hammer and if we’re right, that means you have something big ahead of you. Knowing how to use the hammer and how to fight can only be helpful.”

She made a face as if she was thinking about it and held it for a few seconds.

“No thanks.”

“What? Come on!” Tony whined. “Captain America just asked you to do something! No one just says no to that!”

“I’m British. The whole…Captain America thing doesn’t work on me.”

“It’s true.” He agreed, a grin on his face that she’d never seen before.

“Holly.” Thor said. “You can’t waste your talent!”

“How do even know I have any?”

“Mjolnir wouldn’t have let you lift her otherwise!”

“I don’t need any training Thor. Trust me it’d be a waste of time.”

“Teaching you how to defend yourself would never be a waste!”

And what followed was an argument she’d had dozens, maybe even hundreds of times, with governmental leaders all around the world. They’d argue that learning something new was always good and she’d tell them she was already learning so much and physical combat didn’t interest her much. Then there was the argument about duty, and she asked what need she could fill that they already didn’t. Unless the Avengers thought they were incapable of doing what they’d set out to do.

On and on it went over their lunch. Holly would’ve been amused by it if she wasn’t annoyed that her so called shield brother was trying to burden her even more. Eventually she lost her temper.

“Look I don’t know where the hell any of you got off thinking you knew what was best for me.”

“Holly.” Thor started. The god’s eyes were blue and concerned, it seemed he was finally realizing that he might have pushed too far.

“Shut up Thor, you arrogant thickheaded idiot! Can’t you see you’re making me uncomfortable? Or do you just not care?” Thor’s eyes widened. She ignored the pain she saw there. “Listen to me carefully. I am not going to train with you, ever. You’re obsessed with the idea than anyone who can lift Mjolnir is just like you. Well guess what? There are two uses for a hammer. I came here to build a life, not tear one down.”

She stood up abruptly, her chair scraping the ground behind her. She thanked them for the meal and said, as politely as she was able, which wasn’t much, that she had to be back at work. She left all four men with jaws partially open and silent. She didn’t say anything until she was in the elevator and it was moving far away from them.

“Men are the worst Jarvis. If you learn anything learn that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Are you okay Miss?”

“I’m fine. Just annoyed. I’ll get it out of my system with some harsh vacuuming and it’ll be like it never happened.”

Unfortunately, the fates had other plans. Before she could even begin getting back to work Thor, god of thunder, stormed in. She tensed expecting an argument but was shocked silly when he paused a respectful distance away and spoke in a genuine tone.

“Holly. I am so sorry.”

“What?”

“I should have listened to you.” Thor bowed his head. “During my failed coronation, my father told me that a good king would use Mjolnir to build. I still haven’t learnt that after all this time.”

She knew about the coronation, it was one of the first things Thor had told her about. She frowned, her anger melting away. Who could actually stay angry at a man who had a face like that?

“You reminded me of Loki just then.” Thor continued. “I never listened to him either and it was what drove him away. I don’t want to drive you away.”

“You can’t save Loki by helping me.” He looked up, confused, and she continued. “I mean I get it, I see the similarities but helping me now won’t change what’s already been done and I promise you Loki doesn’t care about how you treat me at all.”

“That’s not why I’m apologizing. I pushed you to do something you find distasteful.” When she didn’t respond Thor changed the subject. “What similarities?”

Oh, plenty of things but nothing she wanted to get into right then, or ever.

“Some of the stories you’ve told just reminded me of me, okay? But just because I empathize with Loki doesn’t mean I think he’s justified. He invaded this planet because he had Daddy issues. That’s nothing that’s ever going to be okay.” Thor winced at her words.

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“Oh really?”

“There are things I should tell you, that you have a right to know. Please listen to it all?”

She promised she would, and she listened while Thor told her about the tragic genocide of human magic users. A massacre that destroyed all remnants of magic on Midgard. Most importantly a genocide that never happened.

“You’re a witch, Holly.”

“I’m a what?” She didn’t realize she’d repeated herself until it was too late.

“I’m telling you this because of Loki, he still mourns the people he lost 400 years ago. That is why he attacks people here. He wants revenge.”

“You…you think…”

“I know, having magic must seem very frightening but it is a gift. I promise it is nothing to fear.”

“I need time to think about this.” Holly said. “Please give me a few days.”

“Of course. Have Jarvis call for me when you are ready to speak again.” He turned to leave with nothing but a short respectful bow.

“Thor?” She called out right before he left. “Thank you for telling me.”

Chapter 7: Two Kinds of Alarming

Summary:

Ralston Potter's memoirs reveal the impetus for the creation of the wizarding world and Hermione gets a midnight call from Holly about a nice guy.

Notes:

Hey everyone! Happy spring! Spring finally sprung here and I know that because it rained so much yesterday that the nearby river flooded so badly that main street became a river too! I hope you all like this chapter and thanks so much for all the great reviews!

Chapter 26: King of the Nine Realms

There have been times, in my life, when I’ve wondered what sort of man could have created my friend Loki. He is such an interesting mix of traits, in my younger years I often thought that King Odin must have been the most interesting man alive. Loki didn’t help matters by being purposefully vague about his father. As a teenager when I asked him about his family he’d complain about his annoying older brother, compliment his mother’s patience and leave his father out of it. I suppose the mystery made me all the more curious.

In my long life I was introduced to many versions of Odin, despite never meeting the man face to face. In the beginning Odin was a mysterious powerful figure, ever a benevolent protector of the weak and mortal. Loki told me stories of Asgard’s greatest triumphs across the nine realms. Odin defeating the invading Frost Giants. Odin saving the Dwarves. Odin allying with the Light Elves. Odin was all at once a master of strategy, an expert fighter, a sorcerer, a beloved ruler and a father.

Once Loki and I had become brothers in all but blood I was introduced to Odin in a new way. Still a great king and leader but also a disappointed father. Loki would mention off handedly at the end of a story that Odin hadn’t been pleased with him. Loki had used magic or trickery to get out of trouble and had gotten home to Odin’s displeased stare. Loki was never strong enough, or brave enough. He just wasn’t enough. At times Loki seemed to speak about his father as if the man was long-suffering and ever patient with Loki’s failings to be better, to be more like Thor. I only told Loki that I didn’t see any part of Loki as a failing.

“Things are different here, I suppose.” He’d always say.

Once I was married and well established as a hero in my own right, I met yet another Odin. This Odin was not just long suffering, he was downright insufferable. Odin had learnt that Loki was spending time on earth, helping the mortals, saving them and the man hadn’t been pleased. Odin had tried to order Loki from going back to earth at all, because the mortals should be left alone to solve the more petty matters on their own. Loki refused and had spent nearly 8 months living with my wife and myself before his father allowed him to returned.

In those eight months I learnt more about the family dynamics of the royal family than I ever imagined. Loki had in essence disowned himself by going to earth to be with me and help me, be my friend. He’d decided that he was no longer a prince, perhaps he wasn’t even an Odinson. He had no loyalty to them anymore and so he freely shared with me the stories and secrets of his family. It didn’t leave Odin in a very good light.

Despite all of this I still thought Odin a good man, perhaps a bit arrogant and a terrible father but still a good ruler. Odin had promised protection to the mortals of Midgard and he had kept that promise. No beings from any other realm had troubled them since Jontunhiem’s invasion all those centuries ago. No man could be perfect of course but at least Odin was a man of his word.

Until he wasn’t.

When I was 39 years old a tragedy struck that will still haunt me to my dying breath. A group of fanatic muggles found the location of a magic school in Egypt, the school of Abydos. Largely considered one of the oldest schools of magic in the world, its location was hidden to all but those who were granted the honor to study there. It was founded well before Loki was born, before Odin helped save us from the Frost Giants. It was old and one of the sights I desperately wanted to see before I passed.

But not like that, never like that.

A group of religious muggles from England, Spain, and France heard rumors of the school of magic and declared it devil worship. To this day I am unsure how they managed to find its location, but they did. They snuck into the school under the cover of darkness and began to burn anything they could find in an attempt to cleanse the land for their god. Loki and I received the distress signal from the headmaster of the school, and we rushed to help.

By the end of it 25% of the school’s library was destroyed, 13 teachers had been killed in protection of their students, 20 students had died and over 100 others were injured in some way or another. It was an affront to everything that should have been. The fact that the muggles had gotten into the school at all, the fact that they could justify the killing of children in their beds as sanctioned by god. Things had to change. I would not allow things to continue as they were. The smells and sights of that night will remain with me forever.

Loki promised me that he would find a way to fix this. He wouldn’t let the muggles do this again. Odin would help. Loki left me to go to Asgard and sue for protection. I stayed because the Wizengamot was in a riot. Outrage and calls for revenge spread across Europe and Africa. The muggles had gone too far and if they wanted a war then the magical people would give them one. See if their god protected them then.

I tried to keep the peace. A war was the last thing we needed. I stand by that. Not all muggles are evil, nor do they all wish us ill. A minority of them are demented yes, but not a majority. I had my own seat in the government at that point as well as large swaths of political influence due to my work as a protector of magical areas and my friendship with Loki. I used all of it to my advantage, turning the rage people felt towards actions of charity towards those who were directly affected.

Odin would come, Odin would help. No more children would die. Too many precious souls had had their lives cut short. Surely Odin would step in as he had promised he would? When Loki returned to earth a month after the Burning of Abydos I was introduced to the newest version of Odin, and it seems the truest one of them all.

Odin didn’t care. He refused to send even the bare minimum of help, even going so far as to advise Loki to leave the mortals on their own. We were nothing but insects to him, short sighted, silly, insignificant insects. What did Odin care if we suffered? Or if all magic users were killed off entirely? A war on magic itself didn’t concern him and it never would if it involved mortals. Loki’s rage was only matched by my own. What sort of man was Odin? Surely, he was not the kind of man worthy of any sort of loyalty, certainly not a man with any honor.

To my dying breath I will blame Odin for Loki’s disappearance. After the creation of the magical world with the help of Loki’s powerful enchanting, my friend disappeared. I do not know where he is or why he has not returned to his home. The plan had always been that Loki would return, his room in my home to become his permanent home. But he has not yet come back, and I don’t know why. All I do know is that Odin must surely be at fault, a man of such callousness is always the cause of such sorrow.

*****

Hermione thought her days of receiving urgent floo calls from Holly at midnight was over when Holly ‘retired’ from her work as the savior of the wizarding world. She had her doubts about that nonsense but Holly was nothing if not stubborn. After months of quiet nights only interrupted by her own pregnancy, and Holly seeming to finally settle down in New York, Hermione had started to relax. When she’d told her husband that he’d just laughed at her and sure enough, that very night, she was woken by a familiar alarm. Ron groaned.

“It’s your turn.”

“What?”

“I answered last time.”

“I was vomiting!” She had been suffering from morning sickness the last time Holly called, nearly five months before. Ron gave her a look as if to say that didn’t count and she glared at him. He’d suffer for this.

“Still.” Ron said as if that justified anything. It was true to a point, they’d agreed to trade off on the emergency calls and since they’d been so frequent in years past, they’d long given up on making excuses for who had to get out of bed. But she was pregnant, that should count for something!

She huffed but got out of the warmth of her bed anyway. She wandered through the hallway of their home and followed the sound of the alarm. She didn’t rush there like she used to. They’d set up two different types of alarms for emergency floo calls. The first was loud with bright lights, it was set up because Holly needed help ASAP. The second was this one, an annoying ringing that only she and Ron could hear. It meant Holly needed help, soon, but she wasn’t in active life-threatening danger.

Which meant Hermione could take her time. Thankfully, she wasn’t so good at getting up a lightning fast speeds, especially as her pregnancy continued. Only about 5 or 6 weeks until her due date and Hermione couldn’t wait to not be pregnant anymore. She knelt down in front of the fireplace, and muttered a spell, Holly’s face immediately became visible in the flames.

“Holly do you know what time it is?”

“It’s only 7:30!”

“It’s past midnight in Britain.”

Holly winced.

“Sorry. I just got home from work and I wasn’t thinking.”

“What happened Holly?”

“Well you know how I work at Avengers tower? Cleaning, right?” Hermione nodded, she still couldn’t believe one of the greatest magic users alive was working as a cleaning lady with no hint of embarrassment or frustration. The sheer spite that Holly had when she told people she was working as a cleaning lady couldn’t have been healthy. “Well I had a conversation with Thor today. He told me that… that he sensed that I have magic.”

“Did you break that statute?” Hermione asked. If Holly had broken the statute, then there needed to be damage control as soon as possible. She knew her friend wouldn’t get in trouble but there was no need for there to be a serious breech in security.

“No, that’s not the important part Hermione. He told me why Loki’s attacking earth. It’s because he thinks the magical world is dead.”

“What?”

Hermione listened as Holly told her the story of a genocide that never actually happened and how Loki had been left to mourn.

“But that’s…that’s impossible!” Hermione sputtered. “The spell that hid the magical world in the first place was Loki’s creation!”

“The purpose of the spell was to create protected areas right?” Holly asked. “Like bubbles where the people on the inside would remember magic on everyone on the outside would forget.”

“A bit of an oversimplification but yes. Loki left the planet to ensure that the spell was sealed across all of the realms.”

“Which meant that he was outside of the bubbles.”

Hermione fell back on her butt, a hand lifted up to her mouth in horror. The spell Loki had used to create a haven for everyone with magic had left him believing he’d failed to save any of them. It was the world’s cruelest irony.

“Holly.” Hermione said. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know! Loki isn’t a Death Eater. I can’t just go beat him and throw him in a jail cell.” Holly said. “Besides. We’re all retired now.”

“All of us?” Hermione pushed. She knew Holly wasn’t dealing with her own retirement well. Not like her and Ron. Honestly, her best friend was practically having a midlife crisis and she wasn’t even 30 yet.

“Yes. All of us. Finding my purpose means not picking up a sword anytime someone looks like they might be in danger of stubbing their toe.” Holly said sternly. “I won’t go back to being the world’s shield.”

Hermione didn’t say anything to argue the point. She knew that Holly was hurting from a lot of different things, probably more than she could ever guess. Her best friend had never outright said she was miserable after Hermione had married Ron and retired from active auror work. Holly was far too kind, too unselfish to say so. But Hermione knew that her marriage had left Holly alone, being the only person left to stand up against what remained of Voldemort’s influence. She’d done it, but at the cost of losing herself along the way.

Even now part of Holly looked strained when her pregnancy was brought up. It wasn’t that her best friend was unhappy with the addition of a young child. Holly loved children, she’d helped raise Teddy after all. But Hermione’s pregnancy represented everything that Holly didn’t have. Because something had happened, and Holly wasn’t happy. It seemed that with each month of Hermione’s pregnancy that passed Holly’s tenseness grew. Things were getting noticeable now that she was nearing her 8th month.

Part of her wanted to try arguing again that Holly’s purpose was what made her happy. Fighting evil, saving people, that was what had always made Holly the most excited, the most vibrant. Holly could still do good, she still had the fire within her. But she knew it wouldn’t go anywhere. Holly was the most stubborn person alive, the amount of thrown off imperios were testament to that.

Holly had gotten it into her head that since all of the Death Eaters were locked up and that the magical world was for the most part at peace, she needed to go find something new. Hermione wasn’t going to say her friend shouldn’t pick up new hobbies and friends, maybe find someone to marry. But the fates had chosen Holly as the child of prophecy. Being a hero was what Holly had been made into and what she would always be, words about retirement or not.

But Holly needed to decide that for herself. No matter what Hermione said, if Holly didn’t agree it meant nothing. So, Hermione sighed a little, put a hand on her belly and thought.

“I’ll write to the Wizengamot and keep your name out of it. I’ll tell them I was rereading some of my history books and came up with the discrepancy. Once they know that Loki doesn’t know about the magical world, they’ll decide what to do.” Hermione said after a moment of thought.

“It’s the Wizengamot, they won’t do anything.” Holly’s opinion of the Wizengamot was poor at best and Holly was very rarely at her best when it came to them.

“If you don’t want to do something then you have to leave it up to the authorities.”

“You’re right.” Holly said. “Sorry. I’m just…agitated. Thor’s a nice guy and he always looks sad when his brother is brought up.”

“You want to help him.”

“Well yeah. I just…if I told Thor about the magical world then he’d know that no magical humans needed to be avenged and he could tell Loki and maybe it would stop all of this nonsense.”

“You can’t break the statute just because someone is a nice guy and you know it.”

“Well.I certainly could.” Holly said with a grin.

It was true, Holly’s heroics had practically left her above every law in the land. She could break the statute as much as she wanted and the Wizengamot would probably thank her for it afterwards. They were so desperate for her loyalty and approval and Holly was equally desperate to be free of them entirely. Hermione wanted to smack her friend with a parchment just like she did when they were 16 and Holly had used the same tone to talk about being the Chosen One.

“If you want to be retired then don’t tell him.” Hermione said. “As far as he knows you’ve got a bit of magic and no idea what to do with it. I’ll tell the Wizengamot and they’ll take it from there.”

“Okay. Thank you, Hermione. Really. I owe you big time.”

“Next time you’re here, you’re massaging my feet.” Her feet that were always sore because she’d decided having a kid would be worth her while.

“Deal. I love you.”

“I love you too. Not eat some dinner. I’ll write this letter up before I go back to bed.”

“Right on it, Miss Granger!” Holly saluted before ending the call. Hermione sighed and got up off the floor. She didn’t know how Holly had managed to maintain her youthful vigor so well after all of the fights she’d gotten into. Hermione’s body, despite not yet being 30 years old was complaining about the abuse she’d put it through as a teenager. She was only 28 but sometimes her body felt decades older. Ron and all of the other DA members who’d fought said the same thing. The war had damaged their bodies in ways no magic could fix. Well everyone but Holly.

She walked over to her office, a cozy room that Ron and Holly had spent an entire day designing just for her as a surprise. It was filled, floor to ceiling, with books on all sorts of subjects and had heating spells on the floor so her feet didn’t get cold. She settled down in her chair and wrote out a letter, she referenced a few of the books she’d read just a few months ago as part of some light reading as evidence and as promised kept any mention of Holly or the Avengers out of it. She folded it up and sealed it her personal mark in purple wax.

Once she’d sent the letter off with their tiny little owl, she went right back to her bedroom. She carefully opened the door to see that Ron was awake. He smiled at her.

“Kept the bed warm for you.” By which he meant that he’d cast that spell that keeps the bed in stasis for her. It would feel just as it had when she left it. She smiled at him and crawled into the heavenly warmth. “What did Holly want?”

“She keeps finding ways to save the world and wants me to help her not have to.”

“Oh?” Ron asked, not sounding surprised at all. “And what was it this time? Find a way to solve global warming, did she?”

“No. She figured out why Loki attacked earth.”

Ron laughed, his voice husky with sleep. That laugh was one of her favorite sounds in all the universe, partially because it had taken years for either of them to laugh in the night instead of scream.

“Only Holly.” Hermione kissed her husband, trying to capture his ability to laugh at a situation that only made Hermione more stressed. “You’re worried.”

“I am.” She admitted. “I just…something is wrong with Holly.”

“I’m telling you, she’s worked herself into a stupor. Doing all of that hero work by herself for the past few years. She needs a break to stop and think about everything. All of us took the time to go to a mind healer after the war, even Percy and you know how he feels about that sort of stuff. Holly refused, kept saying she was too busy. And now she’s just making up things to be busy about.”

Hermione sighed, she had to admit, Holly’s refusal to get help treating her trauma worried her too.

“She used to love helping people. Nothing could make her more alive than the chance to make a difference and save a life. But now it’s gone, and I don’t know where it went to. I mean it’d be like me not liking a good book anymore! Or you turning down your mother’s cooking.”

“Do you think that’s our fault?” Ron asked.

,

“What?”

“We were the last ones to leave her. We left her alone just so we could make this nice house and have a child and be so disgustingly in love that the twins won’t stop teasing us. The spark started to dim after we retired.”

“So, you think she’s just lonely? I know she wasn’t happy to be on her own but that can’t possibly…”

“I don’t know.” Ron sighed. “Maybe Ginny’s right and all she needs is quidditch.”

Hermione giggled a little at the thought and settled down to sleep. Ron ran his hand over her hair in a practiced comforting motion. She tracked the movement of the scars on his arm he still had from the fight at the Department of Mysteries.

“Holly’ll be fine. I know she will.” Hermione fell asleep in the comfort of her husband’s arms.

The next morning as Ron struggled to make their breakfast and Hermione prepared to go out to the library, they received a special delivery announcement from the Wizengamot via owl. Hermione paid the bird with a few coins they had lying in the change jar and unfolded the announcement. She frowned as she read it.

“Well don’t leave me hanging there, dear.” Ron grumbled.

“Sorry.” Hermione said before clearing her throat and began to read. “A new Initiative has been announced by the Wizengamot after an emergency meeting held early this morning. New information about the reason for the god Loki’s invasion of earth has been revealed, absolving Loki as a traitor to wizarding kind. It appears that in sealing the spell that created the wizarding world over 400 years ago, Loki too fell prey to the spell’s influence. This means that like everyone else living at the time who wasn’t a witch or wizard living in protected areas on earth, Loki was fooled into believed that all magical people had been destroyed by the muggles.”

“Blimey.” Ron interrupted, putting down the stirring spoon, the wood clacking against the metal pot. “Poor bloke.”

Hermione had had the same reaction and watched as Ron looked sad for just a moment before shaking it off and picking up the stirring spoon again. Ron, out of all of them, had the most to mourn when it came to Loki. He’d been raised on stories about Loki, not like Holly and her. Hermione kept reading.

“This means that Loki’s invasion was not a betrayal of the wizarding world but rather his way of avenging the people he believed were killed. So, the Wizengamot has declared Loki to once again be a hero of the wizarding world and not a traitor. Despite this, his crimes cannot be ignored and there are concerns about mental instability within the god. Living for 400 years with burden of a genocide would harm even a god.” Hermione read out loud carefully. “The Wizengamot has formulated a new proposal to take Loki into custody so that he can be made aware of the magical world while also being checked over for mental damage.”

“Good. Looks like they’re not sitting with their thumbs up their arses like they normally do.”

“Ron.” Hermione said.

“Sorry dear.” He sounded the exact opposite of sorry.

“The plans involve working closely with the muggle heroes the Avengers. The Avengers have proven themselves heroes for all kinds of humans, muggle and magical alike. They were also the group to successfully stop Loki’s initial invasion. A representative from the magical world with skills in dueling and capturing dangerous magic users using nonlethal means will work with the Avengers to take Loki in safely.”

“Bullshit.” Ron interrupted. “They can dress it up anyway they want but we all know who they mean.”

“They can’t make Holly do it.” Hermione pointed out. “Besides no one knows where she lives. Not even we do. We know she’s in New York sure but beyond that, she’s really well hidden.”

“They’re not going to send anyone else.”

And Ron was right. No one else could take down someone like Loki. Holly was literally the best dueler alive, even Professor Flitwick who’d been a professional dueler for decades had nothing bad to say about her technique except for perhaps its ‘creativity’. The Wizengamot couldn’t hire anyone else if they wanted to be seen as competent and the wizarding would accept no one but their savior.

“She’s going to hate this.”

“No kidding.” Ron said, shaking his head. “So much for Holly’s retirement.”

“She’s going to be livid at tonight’s call.”

“How many times do you think she’s going to threaten to go supervillain?” Holly threatened that whenever the Wizengamot tried to control her or just pissed her off.

“At least three.”

It turned out to be five times, which was a new record. Poor Holly.

Chapter 8: Three Robed Men Walk Into a Tower

Summary:

In which the Avengers get an explanation and the readers get the full story.

Notes:

Hey everyone! Thanks for the wonderful comments last week! There's no entry from Ralston this chapter, I'm giving you something different so enjoy it!

Just one more realm to go.

Loki had been running on nothing but air and desperation for three days. He had been traveling to each realm under the cover of as little magic as he could spare, casting the spells needed to protect his home, his true home. Odin had made his choice and so Loki had reacted accordingly. He was no longer a prince of Asgard, not a brother to Thor, not an Odinson, not a child of Frigga. If he could he wouldn’t even be Asgardian anymore.

But Loki could figure all of that out later. Later. He just had to do the spell one more time, one more realm, and the new realm would be safe, the magical realm would be born. Loki took in a deep breath, well aware of the weakness in his limbs. Exhaustion had seeped into his very soul in the past few days and he knew once he was back home with Ralston and Amaryllis he would sleep for months. He ignored the tiredness and whispered a spell.

Loki was whisked away from Alfheim and found himself stumbling into a field right outside the royal city of Asgard. He fell to his knees for a moment. His armor was caked with dust, dirt and blood. Some of the realms hadn’t been easy or safe, Hel and Jontunheim had both been more than inhospitable to Loki as he cast the spell. But the injuries didn’t matter, what mattered was Ralston and his people. What mattered was his home.

Loki forced himself up and began stumbling around the hill, getting his preparations together. He had just enough magic to cast the spell one more time and get himself back to earth, Loki would make sure he had enough magic for it. Nothing else was acceptable. Carefully he began to paint the ritual circle on the golden green grass, the only sound being the slop of the paint in the bucket and Loki’s wheezing breath.

Runes glistened in red against the Asgardian sun. A sun that Loki would not see anymore after today. He wondered if he should mourn that loss. He was about to lose everything he had ever known. His chance for the throne, his name, the familiar taste in the air and the well-loved constellations in the sky. He was going to lose his mother, whom he still loved deeply, and he was going to lose his brother. Although he doubted Thor would miss him as much as Loki would miss Thor.

Perhaps he was too exhausted to mourn.

He finished painting the last rune, the Sowilo, and thought of Thor again as he looked at the lightning bolt shape. He’d asked Thor for his help, had hoped beyond all reason that Thor would be willing to help him create a new realm. But Thor had hesitated, told him to listen to their father, that it wasn’t so serious a matter. They were only mortals after all. Maybe Loki should not even plan on missing his golden brother at all.

Loki moved to the center of the ritual circle, careful not to disturb any of the carefully drawn runes. Even one change or smudge of the still wet paint could change the spell or even cause it to fail. Loki had been so careful, and he wouldn’t fail on the very last step.

“Loki.”

He froze and looked up at his father. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Odin had come, but his mind was dulled with half remembered terror and fatigue.

“Father.” Loki said, knowing deep in his soul that that would be the last time he ever called Odin that. Odin looked down at the ritual circle, a frown marring his features.

“What are you doing, my son? You’ve hidden yourself from Hiemdall these past few days.”

“Nothing serious.” Loki lied. “Just something to help Asgard.”

Wouldn’t Asgard be better off without him and his mischief? That was what everyone seemed to believe, and Loki was willing to test their hypothesis.

“Help Asgard? Or betray its king?” Loki flinched at the insinuation. He wasn’t the one who was the betrayer here. “Stop this madness right now Loki, before I must do something we would both regret.”

“Madness? Madness? You call what I would do madness? I am doing the only thing I can do.”

“You would betray Asgard, carve out a kingdom for yourself?”

“That’s not what this is.”

“If you do this, you will become a traitor to us. To remove a part of Midgard from the control of Asgard is treason.”

“Earth only owes fealty to those who would protect them. Your failure to act is what removes them from you, not me, not this.”

“They are mortals and they will listen to their betters.”

“They are people!” Loki shouted, his voice echoing out over the empty fields around them. “People with souls and emotions and dreams, people that deserve to live in safety!”

“Your mind is clouded by sentiment.” Odin snapped. “That mortal boy you cavort with, he’s nothing but a flash, temporary. That’s all those mortals are, temporary replaceable.”

“Do not speak of my friend that way, he is a far more honorable man than you or I.”

“What do you know of honor? You are betraying your people!”

“Asgard is not my people! I don’t belong here! I belong with them.” His exhaustion was making him near hysterical. Why couldn’t Odin just let him do this? “What does it matter to you anyway? If a small part of Midgard did not answer to you. No one would know, I’ve already ensured that, you would appear as omnipresent as ever.”

“I am the ruler of all the Nine Realms, that is my due. You will not take it away from me in a fit of childish obsession.”

“Childish? You claim to rule them, but you do not protect them! You are the child! Not me, I am giving them the chance to protect themselves!”

Odin growled and lifted his spear up, Loki was ready for him, he lifted up his hands and cast a shield, over himself and the runic circle. Odin would not stop him now.

“You dare raise your magic to me! You weakling? You will pay for that.”

All his life he’d heard some variation of that. That he was weak, incapable. But he wasn’t. He knew that now. He was a mage and a sorcerer, the most powerful in all the nine realms. Magic wasn’t weakness, it wasn’t trickery, it was pure honest power. And it was time Odin knew that too.

“No, you will pay for underestimating me.” Loki teleported out of the ritual circle, his rage powering him more than his depleted magic and he blasted at Odin.

They began to fight, hard, standing there on that grassy hill far enough away from the royal city that no one but Hiemdall was going to notice what was going on. For the first time in his life Loki didn’t hold back his magic in favor of his knives. Odin would know true power today. With each spell Odin fell back a step, trying to block or defend and slipping in face of Loki’s godly rage. Loki moved too quickly for Odin to use Gungir effectively. Odin’s own spell casting was untrained, relying more on brute force than skill. Loki evaded it easily.

Within minutes Loki was towering over his father, who had fallen on his back, golden spear too far away to be of any use. Loki’s magic glowed like toxic green flames, dripping off of his hands and onto Odin’s face and armored chest, burning him with each drop.

“Loki.” The man breathed. “Don’t.”

For a moment Loki considered it and then he felt deeply ashamed. Odin might have been a bit of a controlling bastard but he was still his father. Loki…Loki would not kill him.

“I’m not going to kill you.” Loki spat. “I’m going to leave.”

He didn’t have time to wait, his hold on his own consciousness was weakening. Soon he would lack the strength to even remain awake. He let his magic die away and he strode over to the ritual circle. His eyes tracked the runes and was satisfied they were right. Behind him Odin struggled and reached out, one hand spitefully erasing out a part of a rune before Loki noticed. Loki turned to his father, and prepared.

“We will never speak after today, in fact you won’t remember this.” Loki said. “My loyalty is to the magic users of earth now, it always will be. But know that you are my father, and if Asgard ever truly needs my aid I will come.”

Then Loki spoke ancient words in a language few even knew existed anymore. The runes of blood began to glow white with power and that magic began to quickly spread out from the circle and over the entirety of Asgard. Each being the energy touched had their minds rewritten as the sun began to set over the realm. Forget the magic compelled, forget the truth of the magic of Midgard and know only falsehoods. Never seek for the magic users, never try to even speak of them. Forget, forget, forget. Believe in the story, the magic insisted and forget what you once knew. Take this new truth and make it real.

Loki knew something was wrong the moment his mind began to fuzz. The magic of the spell sneaking in through the weakened runic circle to affect him too. Images of a war that never happened, or hadn’t it, filtered into his mind. He couldn’t stop the ritual now that it had begun. But that didn’t stop Loki from trying. Slowly the face of Raslton wishing him luck was replaced with Ralston screaming in agony as he was run clean through by a muggle sword. Loki screamed and fell to his knees.

A flash of light.

Loki woke to the sound of his father shaking him gently and then he wished he hadn’t. Because Ralston was gone. Tears began rolling down his face before he could even open his eyes.

“Oh my son.” Odin said, his voice so heavy with grief. “I am sorry, my son.”

And there on a grassy hill just outside the royal city of Asgard, while being held by his father, Loki began to break.

*****

The last thing the Avengers expected to see on a Sunday afternoon was three old men in robes, telling them that they had dire information to share. But maybe they should have expected it. After all their lives were already weird enough, why not add on robed men? At least that was what Tony argued as he led the three of them into a conference room. He did his best to ignore the looks his team members were sending him about it.

They all settled into their seats while the three men walked to the front, thanking them all multiple times for their hospitality. The three men, aside from the robes, couldn’t have been more different from one another. One man had one of the thickest Nigerian accents Tony had ever heard outside of Nigeria and looked like he was in his late fifties. The second man was probably the same age and from the other side of the world if his Indian accent and name was any indication. The third man was from America, he had to be practically everything about him screamed entitled American. It was the American who spoke once everyone was comfortable.

“Hello I’m Johnathon Whitelock, to my left is Okao Abidugun Okaforand and to my right is Khan Fragrand Khatri.” He said. “Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. We lacked the ability to contact you before to set up a meeting and I know that heroes such as yourselves have to be very busy.”

“Indeed.” Okaforand said, looking at them with eyes that looked almost gold in the office lights, they were probably just a very light brown. Right? “We have come to speak to you, the heroes of earth, on a matter of grave importance.”

“We would not have come unless it was something to do with life or death.” Khatri said, not sounding as pleased as the others. “It’s been decided that we should work together.”

“Work together on what, exactly?” Steve asked respectfully.

“Apologies.” Whitelock said. “Before we tell you I have to ask that all of you agree to a vow of secrecy. We want to tell you a secret so large that if it were revealed to the general public it would endanger millions of human lives. We have to know that you won’t tell anyone. If you can’t agree to that then we will find someone else.”

“Is this secret dangerous?” Natasha asked.

“Not in the way you are thinking.” Whitelock promised. “It keeps people safe, vulnerable people. Telling you about this, it’s a sign of trust and respect. I just need to know that you won’t endanger the people that we are charged with protecting.”

They talked about it for a while, asking more questions of the three strange robed men, most of which they wouldn’t answer. Eventually they all agreed to keep it a secret. None of them felt good about it but when lives were in danger, they found themselves more willing to agree. Besides if things got too dicey, they’d tell who they needed to.

“Good. Thank you.” Whitelock said. “Now it is my honor, as well as my two companions, to tell you about magic.”

“Magic?” Thor said. “We don’t need a lesson on magic, my brother…”

“Is why we are here.” Okaforand said. “Loki’s history with earth and its magic users must be discussed today if we are ever to find peace. Please allow us to tell our side of the story.”

“I apologize.” Thor said, something in his tone sounding off. “Please continue.”

Before Tony could ask what the hell that meant, the three robed men told them. They told them all that 500 years ago magic users roamed freely on earth. Human magic users that could rival the Asgardians in magical power. They lived amongst the nonmagical making cities and governments together. But then…like so many things bigotry got in the way.

The witch hunts as the Europeans and Americans called them were happening all around the world. Different countries had different reasons and different names for the wave of hatred for magic that spread across the globe but it all amounted to the same thing. People were hunting those with magic, and it meant that children were being killed for having a gift that they couldn’t yet control.

Which is where the hero of the story comes into it.

Loki really?

But it was true. Loki had been a long time friend of wizards. He had been their friend and their god. He had been the one that people had prayed to for help when the huntings got worse. First Loki had gone to Odin to beg for help protecting his people, the magical people of earth. When that didn’t work, Loki didn’t give up. Loki and his best friend Lord Ralston Potter of Britain traveled the world saving the lives of magic users everywhere and getting each magical leader one by one to agree to a crazy plan.

Loki’s plan had been simple. If Asgard refused to help, and by extension any of the other realms, then they would just make a new realm entirely. One for magic users only. A place free of prejudice and bigotry where magic could fill the streets and children could be safe to learn to use their gifts.

To hear the three robed men talk about Loki, it was as if they had weird crushes on him. Which was just not a good mental image.

“I don’t understand.” Thor said. “I remember the huntings, but 400 years ago all of the humans magic users were killed.”

“That was what you were meant to think. Loki’s plan involved a great magic that would remove the truth of magic on earth from every mind who wasn’t living in the new realm that Loki had carved out on earth for us.”

Whitelock continued the story of the statute of secrecy and how Loki designed a powerful protection that would create a secret realm for magic users to live. A secret world that lived within the now non-magical one. The world that these three men were from. It was wild. It was insane. It took time to wrap his head around and he was a genius! If Thor hadn’t been able to confirm that human magic users had existed 500 years ago just like they said, then Tony didn’t know if he would have. No matter what they managed to do with their weird sticks.

“The plan as Loki told us was that he would leave earth for a short time to seal the spell from the other side. That way every being in all the nine realms would be placed under the spell. Then our hero would return to live with us forevermore.” Whitelock said. “But…Loki never returned after the spell was put in place.”

“The entire wizarding world waited for 400 years for Loki to return.” Khatri said. “We didn’t know what had happened, had he died? Did Odin trap him? Had he forsaken us?”

How this story was going to end was becoming clearer by the minute. Thor looked absolutely sick while the others were shifting in their seats awkwardly. Whitelock continued his story with how the wizarding world had dealt with Loki’s betrayal and invasion. Their god had not only abandoned them but tried to kill them. All of those years spent celebrating him and waiting for him to come back had been for nothing, Loki only saw them as ants now.

At least that was how they saw it until yesterday morning when they got word from one of their researchers of an alternate explanation. Loki had been affected by the spell that had created the wizarding world in the first place. When Loki left earth to seal the spell, he left the protected areas of his new realm which meant that when the spell took effect, he forgot the truth and had it replaced with a story of a genocide he failed to prevent.

Loki had been the first hero of earth and if these guys were to be believed, Loki had spent the last 400 years thinking he’d failed to save the people he loved. Yes loved. Whitelock assured them that Loki had once loved humans.

“Lord Ralston Potter and Loki’s friendship is a legend now to us. A bond so strong that it created an entirely new realm. There are songs and books and plays about their friendship and the mark it left on all of Ralston’s descendants. Ralston’s journal is considered one of the most accurate resources on Loki that still exists today. Even if no one but his heir has access to it.”

“We get it. He loved humans, or at least one human, and the spell he created backfired a little.” Clint said. “That still doesn’t change that he came here to enslave all humans.”

Is still trying in all honesty. It still galled him that Loki had escaped in the aftermath of the invasion. He should have been down for the count after his beat down by the Hulk, but somehow the guy had managed to sneak away to creep on earth another day. Now Loki caused problems and tried to kill them to get revenge for the Avengers defeating him the first time. It didn’t matter who Loki had been 400 years ago what mattered now was who he was in the present.

“You’re right. It doesn’t. With this new information we believe that Loki is trying to avenge the deaths of his people, a vengeance that isn’t needed as it turns out.” Whitelock finished. “I lost family during the invasion, don’t think I don’t understand that justice still doesn’t need to be served, but we’ve come here with a plan to get that. The Wizengamot, which is basically the UN for wizards, wants to help you take Loki in, nonlethally, and have him face a trial. We have the facilities to keep a magic user in custody, we can also check Loki over for mental instability. 400 years of grief could have damaged his mind.”

“Are you trying to justify what he did because he was sad?” Bruce asked.

“Magic…magic acts on the desires of the person who wields it. Trauma can twist your magic and cause physical damage to the mind and body.” Whitelock explained. “Loki’s actions could be caused by what is essentially magical brain damage. If that is the case, then he needs help.”

“Thor.” Steve said. “Can you confirm any of this?”

“I can. I thought that Loki was attacking earth to gain revenge for his lost people. Trauma in magic users can be serious. That’s why I keep telling you all that Loki’s mind is far afield. I don’t know what damage his trip in the void caused but it couldn’t be good.”

“What kind of help are you offering?” Natasha asked.

“The Wizengamot has picked out a woman of unparalleled magical skill. She has over a decade of experience taking down powerful magical enemies using nonlethal means and is considered by most people to be the greatest dueler alive. She is one of the greatest heroes the wizarding world has ever seen, many people put her on the same level as Loki himself.” Whitelock told them. “She is also the final descendant of Ralston Potter. Ralston, during his friendship with Loki, formed a magical bond with Loki that continued through his children. That bond should, in theory, give Lady Potter an edge. Even in his madness we don’t believe that Loki could bring himself to hurt a Potter, his magic would fight against it.”

Wait Potter? Tony exchanged looks with some of the other Avengers. He had once said that he didn’t believe in coincidences and his time as an Avenger had only confirmed that.

“Tell us more about this Lady Potter, please?” Tony asked.

“Of course.” Whitelock said, sounding eager. Almost too eager. “We’re hoping that you would allow her onto your team, to work with you, both to stop Loki and perhaps on a more permanent basis. Loki’s actions have increased anti-magical sentiment globally. We think that having a good guy represent magic will help any children who are born with magic to a non-magical family.”

“Tell us about her and we’ll consider it.” Steve said.

Her resume was impressive apparently. Slaying basilisks and wrestling trolls was an everyday occurrence for the woman. She’d led an army against the greatest evil the magical world had ever known and then spent nearly a decade wiping out every single one of his followers. She had a nearly perfect record, only having ever taken one life in her career, that being Voldemort himself. Whitelock spoke about her like she was his idol, almost slobbering at the mouth when describing her skill and experience.

The longer they spoke of Potter’s heroics the surer Tony became that his cleaning lady was also a war hero. No wonder she kept telling them she didn’t need training. What could they teach her that she didn’t already know? The final nail in the coffin was given by Thor.

“Could you give us a picture of Lady Potter?”

“Of course! She was in the paper just this morning since she was chosen to work with you.” Whitelock said, waving his wand and creating a newspaper out of nothing. Sure enough, there in color was a moving, magical photo of his cleaning lady, weird scar and all. “This photo is a bit old I’m afraid. Lady Potter disappeared from the public eye a few months ago.”

“She disappeared?” Steve asked, giving his very best poker face.

“Yes. Once all of the Death Eaters were taken in, the Wizengamot offered her a position as an auror, which would be something like an agent. She could have spent the rest of her life saving the day, but she declined. We all thought at first it was because she had another offer, but nothing came of it. She just disappeared. Her friends tell us that she’s fine but that they don’t know where she’s living now.”

“So, if she’s missing how is she supposed to help us with this Loki issue?”

“Holly Potter is a hero.” Khatri said. “She won’t leave the world in need. We will send a message out and I have no doubt that she will answer.”

“Indeed.” Okaforand added. “She came to my country’s aid five years ago just because I asked. It didn’t even have anything to do with Death Eaters, yet she still came.”

“Beyond that, the Potters are just as attached to Loki as he is to them. If he needs help, her family history would ensure she’d want to help him.”

“So, you’re just going to send her a message and hope for the best.” Tony said. “And she’ll work with us, both to get Loki into custody but just as a new team member. You’re sure she’ll be willing to do this?”

“She’s a hero! The best there is! Why wouldn’t she?” Whitelock was clearly the biggest fanboy to ever fanboy. “She has a dedication to the right thing that we could all learn from.”

It seemed like there was a bit of a disconnect between the woman they had all met and the one these wizards seemed to think they knew. Natasha changed the subject and started asking questions about the wizarding justice system and the Wizengamot. Things they would need to know. Soon they were all pulled into a conversation about the amazing wizarding world.

They learned, very briefly, about Quidditch and much more about the American version of it Quodpot. Tony asked about magical technology and was told that magic and muggle technology didn’t mix well. No one knew why but trying to put them together resulted in explosions more often than not. Which just smelt like a challenge.

Once they got over their shock all they could really do was be in awe of a world of magic. One that was right next door. This wasn’t like Thor’s stories of Asgard, this was real, these were humans who could teleport and fly on brooms and listen to rock music on self-playing instruments. It was real in a way Asgard wasn’t. Even Thor was in awe of the stories they told of unicorns and dragons and trolls.

Eventually they had to go back to the elephant in the room.

What if you can’t find Holly Potter? What then?” Thor asked.

“As much as I wish I could tell you we could send someone else, there isn’t anyone near her skill level. Most of our greatest duelers were killed in the war, two generations were decimated by Voldemort’s actions.” Whitelock said. “If Potter can’t be found then…then I don’t know who else could possibly win.”

It wasn’t a question of finding her, it was a question of getting her to cooperate. So far as Tony could tell, that was the last thing Holly Potter would want to do.

“For the most part we are a peaceful people, most are interested in finding new spells and potions than fighting wars.” Khatri told them. “Those who can fight are revered but that is because they aren’t common. The war lowered an already rare population of duelers.”

“We understand that.” Tony said. “But if we can’t find Potter then at least we should consider in what ways you can help us take Loki in without her. Supplies, tools. That sort of thing.”

“We’ll talk to the others. No decision like this can be made without support from the Wizengamot. Involving non-magicals in this was not an easy decision to come to.”

“We understand.” Bruce said. “Your people’s safety is important. Thank you all for coming to us today. We hope that we can work together well.”

Since when was Bruce a diplomat? Tony lifted up both eyebrows as the three representatives bowed to Bruce for his kind words.

“I have a question.” Clint said. “If Potter does work with us, how will she use her magic without breaking the statute?”

“We can pretend she is from Asgard.” Thor offered immediately. “If we give her some armor like my own then no one will think to question it.”

“That would work.” Whitelock said. “Thank you. The statute is very important to us. I must warn you, if you tell anyone else, their minds will be erased of the information. That is the law.”

The fact that they could just erase memories like that made Tony inwardly shiver. They understood why the threat was there but that didn’t mean any of them liked the mention of mind magic.

“We have put together a biography of Holly Potter for you.” Okaforand sad magically producing a thin leather book. “This should help you learn what her skills are as well as how to work with her. For the past few years she has worked on her own, we hope there won’t be too much difficultly integrating her into your team.”

“That’s really helpful.” Steve said honestly. “We look forward to meeting her.”

“When we speak again, it should be with Lady Potter. Do you mind if we leave the normal way now? We all have far distances to travel.”

“Go ahead.”

So, the three wizards said goodbye and literally disappeared with nothing more than a few quiet cracks. Thor broke the silence that followed with the smuggest tone they’d ever heard.

“I knew her file was wrong.” He said. The others laughed, the tension leaking from the room.

“The real question here is simple.” Tony said leaning forward. “What do we have to do to get her to join us? Come on, we need ideas.”

They all looked at each other for a moment. It was obvious that Holly Potter was someone they needed on their team. She could lift Mjolnir and she was good at what she did. Besides they all loved a challenge.

“I think sir.” Jarvis interrupted. “That there is some footage you need to see.”

Chapter 9: Thor's Unusually Soft Shirts

Summary:

Finally everyone in Avengers Tower is on the same page. Holly goes into work the day after the Avengers learn that their cleaning lady is a war general expecting a war.

Notes:

Hey y'all! Guess who is in her last week of classes??? I'm sick, literally, from the stress but next week I can drink 3 gallons of apple juice and recover. Thanks so much for all the great comments from the last update! I hope you enjoy this one, it was one of my favorites to write.

The only reason Holly didn’t flee the country was because it would break her boss’s heart if he had to find someone else to clean Avenger’s Tower. That was it. Well that and Jarvis, she knew he’d be hurt if she just disappeared. So, she went into work on Monday, her wand hidden up her sleeve and a scowl on her face. She explained her foul mood away to her coworkers by stories of a bad night’s sleep and an awkward phone call from home. In response one of them gave her their coffee, telling her she’d need it more than them anyway.

It made her nearly tear up.

To her coworkers she was just another person. Merlin she shouldn’t get so emotional over such a small act of kindness. She quickly rubbed her eyes and thanked them for the coffee. She didn’t even like coffee. She kept the tall thick paper cup with her on the ride over to the Tower, holding it just a tad too tightly between her fingers. The near painful heat from inside was the only thing she could feel the closer they got.

The others wished her luck as they frequently did when she separated from them to go to the upper floors of the tower. When she stepped into the elevator, she braced herself for the worst. The doors slid shut and she winced at the near silent sound.

“Good morning Holly.” Jarvis said, his voice almost the same. She cringed at minute difference.

“Morning Jarvis.” She said staring down at the plastic white lid of her coffee. “How was your weekend?”

“Sir and the other Avengers had some very interesting visitors yesterday.” A flinch that Jarvis would clearly see ran through her frame. “It seems I now have context for our conversation last week.”

“Jarvis I’m sorry I would have…”

“I am not upset with you. I understand that telling me would have broken 400 years of secrecy.” Jarvis told her. “I am however interested to know how you haven’t damaged any of the electronics in the tower.”

“Practice.” She told him honestly. “When I come in here, I put a lid on my magic. I’m not honestly sure how else to describe it. It weakens me, but it means that the lights won’t explode when I get upset.”

“You are weaker when you come here?”

“Of course, I am! I wouldn’t ever risk hurting you Jarvis.”

There was a silence between them for a moment. Holly focused on the heat from her coffee.

“I am…gratified. I don’t think anyone has taken such care of my safety before.”

“You might not have a body in a normal sense but…but you still deserve to be safe Jarvis.” Holly told him sternly. “Locking away most of my magic isn’t that hard anyway.”

“But it leaves you vulnerable.”

“I still know how to throw a punch, don’t worry.” She said wryly. “Magic isn’t all I am. It’s just most of what I am.”

“That is good to hear.” Jarvis said sounding far too amused for her liking.

She sighed and leaned against the metal wall of the elevator. It was nearing her first stop.

“How bad is it going to be?”

“I hope that you will not find it too tortuous.” She silently groaned as the door slid open. She saw that they were all waiting for her, looking way too serious. There was only one thing to do.

“Good Morning Avengers!” She greeted cheerily. “How was your weekend? Mine was so calming, I guess I have you all to thank for that!”

“Holly.” Thor said, his blue eyes wide. “Is it true?”

“I mean I did a little housework and found some mold beneath the sink and that was anything but calmin-”

“Were you really a child soldier? A babe given a wand and told to save the world?” Thor asked.

“15 is hardly a baby.” She started to say. Thor cut her off with a hug.

It was gentle, as if she were as fragile as glass. He held her in his arms, pushed up against his chest. Was he wearing particularly soft shirt today? It felt too soft to be anything but planned. She was tucked up beneath his chin.

“I am so sorry.” He said, his voice sounding the closest to rolling thunder it ever had. “You were only a child. You should have been protected, honored. And now they ask for your service again, it is selfish and wrong.”

“What?”

“You have earned your freedom, freedom you should have always had.” Thor said. “To think that you thought we would force you. That Mjolnir was meant to trap you. No. No I will ensure you never have to fight for this world again.”

It was the first time. The very first time that someone had said that. Even Ron was of the opinion that if she retired that it would be temporary while she got her head on straight. She’d always felt that all of her friends had just decided for her that when she said she was done that she was being ridiculous. That Holly Potter was only ever good for one thing and that was saving people.

It was stupid being frustrated with them. She knew they loved her and worried about her. But that worry and love sometimes felt just like Dumbledore’s control had. They all had a very specific idea in her head about what she needed to do. They wanted her to be happy and they were sure that they knew the way. But that took away her freedom to choose for herself.

She just stood there, the coffee she’d dropped sinking completely into the carpet between her feet and Thor’s. She felt very very stupid. For weeks she’d been agonizing over what she wanted to do with her life. A constant fear that there was no purpose for her anymore now that she’d given up the thing that her friends thought that she was good at. Deep inside of her she’d been afraid that she’d end up being just another weapon for the Wizengamot, a shield for the world.

“I don’t understand.” She said her voice muffled by Thor’s huge pectorals. In response Thor pulled back and knelt before her, he looked up at with his blue eyes looking a little too wet for her liking.

“You deserve freedom.” He said. “And it is my honor to ensure you have it. I know the other wizards seem to think it is your duty and honor to help us but they are wrong.”

“Yeah.” Tony Stark broke in. “We were handling Loki before, it’s not like we need your help.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing.” She told them. “Telling me not to help, you don’t know what I can do.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Steve said. “If you were interested in fighting with us you would have come to us and offered. We aren’t going to force you.”

“You can’t say it doesn’t matter if you don’t even know what it is.”

“What are you suggesting?” Natasha asked. “That the only reason we’re telling you that we’re not going to force you to join us because we don’t know what you can do?”

“You’d have to be stupid to turn down a weapon without even knowing it’s capabilities.”

“You are not a weapon.” Bruce said, almost sternly. “You are a person.”

“Even if you could take down Dr. Doom with nothing but a flick of your wrist it wouldn’t matter anyway.” Clint said.

“Well…” She said uneasily.

“Wait really? No. No. Doesn’t matter. We all decided that we wouldn’t even ask you to join us. We’ve been dealing with Loki fine on our own and we’ll keep doing that.”

“You just keep looking for new passions.” Bruce said. “And if you need any help exploring them, we’d be happy to help.”

“I don’t…I don’t know what to say.” Her voice shook in the way she absolutely hated to hear.

“Don’t say anything!” Thor told her.

“Unless it’s an agreement to help me figure out how to magic proof my tech!” Tony added. “That’s not an invitation to the Avengers I just want to figure out how to keep Jarvis and my suits safe.”

She giggled a little but told Tony that was definitely something she could do. She looked down at the stained carpet and crumpled cup and wiggled her fingers. The cup popped back into its proper shape and floated up into her hand. The coffee coalesced a moment later and floated up like a living snake right into the cup.

“There.” She said.

“Woah. That was cool.” Clint said.

“Thank you. Really.” They all knew the thank you wasn’t for that. “Now. Who came here to tell you about magic?”

“Three guys from the Wizengamot. Big fans of yours.” Bruce said. “There was… Khatri, Okaforand, and Whitelock.”

At the last name she grimaced. Thor frowned while the others looked more interested.

“You know them?” Natasha asked.“I’ve met two of them. Okaforand’s a nice guy, met him about five years ago when Nigeria was having that dragon problem.”

“A dragon problem?” Thor asked. He sounded much too excited, it was shameful.

“Yeah. Five dragons were having a terf war and they needed to be relocated. I was called in to do some dragon wrangling. If you’ve never ridden a dragon before I cannot recommend it enough. Super fun. Okaforand was really grateful for my help but we haven’t spoken since.”

“Okay. Ignoring the dragon thing, who else did you know? Khatri?” Clint asked.

“No. No Whitelock.” She made a face at even saying the name. Merlin that guy was a creep.

“Okay that sounds like a story we have to hear.” Tony decided. “Sit down Lady Potter, drink your coffee and tell us everything.”

Thor ushered her into the spot he’d just had and settled himself on the ground. She gave Tony a look and said seriously.

“That is not a story I tell over coffee.” She said. “Butter beer is the only drink suitable.”

“Never heard of it.” Tony said. “What is it?”

“Only one of the greatest magical drinks humans have ever created.” She said. “You want to try it?”

To her surprise they all did so she conjured enough bottles of the stuff from her home. She handed one out to each of them while explaining that this was the nonalcoholic version, she didn’t drink often. It made her magic all wonky and until this tower was magic proofed, it was probably best not to risk it. Tony looked so very excited when she told him that there were magical liquors and she promised to get him some.

Once they’d all opened their bottles and Holly had taken a few fortifying sips she started the story.

“So, I first met Whitelock when I was 18, this was over a decade ago now, the war had ended just a few months earlier.” She said, trying to recall everything from that time in her life. “Whitelock has been sent from the United States to Britain to ask for my help with their Death Eater problem. I’d been so busy focusing on efforts in the UK that I hadn’t even realized other countries were suffering too. With Voldemort’s death all of his followers were wreaking havoc everywhere.”

“We were told that you travelled the world taking down bad guys.” Steve said.

“Yes, this is how that started.” She said taking another sip. “My friends and I agreed to go for a while, help out and maybe train the American forces on how to take care of it themselves. We all wanted to go someplace new and have an opportunity not to see the spots where our loved ones died every other day for a little while.”

She shook her head, freeing her mind from the memories and then sipped once more. The others seemed to be enjoying their own drinks, Tony had even made a very appreciative humming noise.

“Whitelock was very welcoming, the guy was in his late 20s, maybe early 30s, at the time I think, just starting out in government. At the time I believed he thought it would do him good to be seen working with the hero of the wizarding world. I didn’t like it but I didn’t mind either. He wasn’t slimy about it.” She said, as if that was any consolation. “He’d come to where we were staying and chat. He invited me to go eat a lot, even suggested we see a few movies.”

“He was trying to date you.” Tony said. Why was it so obvious to everyone but her?

“Well yeah, except I didn’t know that did I?”

“How could you not know that?” Clint asked.

“When most girls were learning to flirt, I was learning how to take down a fascist regime.”

Clint winced at her tone and lifted his drink up in apology.

“Anyway, my lack of even theoretical knowledge when it came to dating, made it difficult to tell what the guy wanted.” She said. “It didn’t help that he was a decade older than me and not even all that good looking.”

“Is a decade a large gap of time between couples?” Thor asked.

“It can be.” She said. “If they’ve both been adults for a long time, then it doesn’t really matter. But I was barely older than a child, a traumatized child at that, and he’d been an adult for much longer. He was a creep.”

Thor growled a little now that he understood while Steve looked like he was ready to get up and punch the wizard in the face. She smiled a little and took another sip.

“Every time he asked me out, I’d tell him I was too busy. Because I was. Fighting Death Eaters doesn’t leave a lot of free time.” She said. “But then he started showing up whenever I did have free time. Go out to eat to celebrate a victory? Whitelock was there. Find the time to take my friends to see a tourist site? Whitelock showed up and offered to be our guide. It was just weird at the time.”

“It didn’t creep you out that he was showing up everywhere?” Bruce asked.

“Well I didn’t know what to think.” She admitted. “By that point I’d literally never had anyone show a romantic interest in me. I’d never gone on a date, or gotten caught snogging in a broom closet like my peers. I was also… well I didn’t look very attractive at the time either.”

“What do you mean?” Thor asked. “You are a very fine woman.”

“Thank you, Thor.” She said giving him an indulgent look, she was quite sure that Thor would say that about literally any woman. “But…well the war hadn’t done me any favors. I’d spent the last year of the war on the run, living in a tent and rationing food. The stress of the constant running and fighting and planning piled on top of low resources meant that I looked so thin I was practically skeletal by the time I killed Voldemort. I’d put on some weight after the war but not much. I literally wasn’t given time to rest, there was too much to do. So, I looked like a…well…I was a skeleton with paper white skin and bright newly given scars peppering everything.”

All of them scowled at the description and what it revealed about her past. She took a sip and tried not to think about it too hard. Her friends had been forced to rest, by her, at the time. But she’d been so sure she was needed that she hadn’t taken more than a few days off post the final battle of Hogwarts. She knew going to a healer would only result in forced bedrest and she had refused to abandon a world in crisis.

“Anyway.” She said sipping one more time. “I had literally no reason to think of Whitelock as anything more than an overly friendly brownnoser. I didn’t know any different until my friend Ron pulled me aside and asked if I wanted him to get everyone else away so I could have some private time with Whitelock.”Ron had been so earnest when he asked. Her friend had thought that Holly had been interested in Whitelock, the dashing older American, but that she lacked the courage or the privacy to do anything about it. Of course, once she realized what he meant, her reaction made it clear to both of them how distasteful she found the idea.“Ron revealed that everyone thought that Whitelock and I were on our way to becoming a thing. Which…eww. When I told him he was crazy, he told me I wasn’t the one who needed to hear that.” She told the Avengers. “I needed to tell Whitelock I wasn’t interested.”

“I bet that went over so well.” Natasha deadpanned.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer!” She shouted in frustration. “No matter how many ways I told him that us dating was never going to happen, he just…didn’t get it.”

“What an asshole.” Tony said.

“Eventually, I found a solution.” She told them, still sounding a little frazzled at the memory. “I told him that I wouldn’t feel right chasing after ‘carnal pleasures’ while people were still living under the threat of the Death Eaters.”

“He bought that?” Clint asked, disbelieving.

“Hook, line and sinker.”

“An asshole and an idiot.” Tony said lifting up his bottle in a mockery of a toast before knocking it back and taking a huge gulp.

“Whitelock is a scoundrel.” Thor said.

“You won’t hear me arguing.” She said. “That’s why literally no one in the wizarding world knows where I live. I started using that excuse anytime a new scoundrel popped up. Whitelock was just the first in a long line of creeps. A long line of creeps that would start bothering me again since the Death Eaters are gone if they could find me.”

“That’s awful. How many men are bothering you?” Steve asked as if he wanted a list of men to go give an All-American punch to.

“You think I’ve kept track? I stopped counting after the 100th weirdo thinking we were destined to be.” She rolled her eyes at the very idea.

“How terrible.” Thor said. “Surely you’ve found someone worthy of your affections.”

An incredulous laugh burst out of her and she slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle it. Thor looked upset and she rushed to explain.

“Sorry, No. That’s…That’s never going to happen I don’t think.”

“And why not?” Thor demanded, offended on her behalf. “You are a beautiful, powerful woman.”

“Exactly.” She said, exchanging a look with Natasha who smirked in commiseration.

“Everyone I’ve tried to date has fallen into a few simple categories. One, I intimidated them, either because I’m literally so powerful I could kill them with a flick of my wrist or because I’m one of the most famous witches alive. Two, they liked that I was powerful because they had some sort of weird domination kink and thought it’d be fun to be the one to hold my leash as it were or vice versa. And three, creeps who thought they were entitled to my time, my body, my money, or my influence.” She sighed dramatically and leaned back so that she was looking up at the ceiling despairingly. “I’m destined to be a spinster. With cats. I don’t even like cats.”

At least some of them got a laugh out of her despair.

“Why don’t you try dating a…muggle is it?” Bruce asked gently.

“I did.” She said. “But those were failures too. One guy tried to plant one on me on the first date and I was so shocked I ended up breaking his nose. Besides, dating a muggle would mean telling them about my history. I cannot find the right way to tell someone that I was a war general at age 17. Like I said. Destined to be a spinster with 17 cats and a permanent eye twitch.”

“So, let me get this straight.” Clint said pinching the bridge of his nose. “Not only did you end up being a child soldier/ war general that had to take down an entire fascist regime nearly single handedly but the world you saved has literally hounded you so much that you can’t go anywhere without being stalked and it’s become impossible for you to date.”

“Now do you see why I’ve dropped off the map and become a cleaning lady?”

“You made the right choice.” Bruce told her with a commiserating grin.

“How can you possibly have any loyalty to those people?” Thor demanded. “They’ve practically tortured you.”

“No. I’ve been tortured.” She corrected, her voice too serious for a moment. “What they’re doing is very different.”

She realized what she’d revealed a moment too late because she looked over and Thor was holding back tears. Oh Merlin.

“You were tortured?” Tony asked.

“It was a war, I was fighting terrorists. Things happened.” She tried to say it casually. “Besides. I wasn’t a trained soldier. It took a while before I figured out how to duck. My own fault really.”

“Your own fault?” Steve demanded.

“Well yes. I didn’t dodge and I got hit.” She shrugged, her mind far away for a moment. “That’s not a problem anymore.”

“How old were you?” Thor asked.

“When? The first time?” Thor nodded and she considered side stepping the question entirely. She didn’t want the man to cry. “14. I was 14 years old.”

And Thor’s eyes were way too watery now, from the corner of her eye she could see clouds beginning to form. So, it was true, it rained when the god of thunder cried.

“You were a child.” Holly licked her lips at that and then a sigh escaped her lips.

“Thor I was never a child, not since the night my parents died.” Outside rain splattered against the windows. “Don’t be like that, Thor. It’s fine.”

“It is not fine.” He snapped. “None of this is okay, Holly!”

“Merlin, calm down.”

“No! These humans with their petty wars, fighting over nothing! It’s nearly destroyed you.” Petty? She sat up and looked at him but Thor didn’t seem to be listening anymore. “What could have possibly justified that war? Nothing! It was just greed and pride.”

“And your invasion of Jontunheim was justified then? That wasn’t pettiness or pride?” The words escaped her mouth before she could even think about not saying them. Thor finally stopped talking, looking as if he’d been slapped. Good, this was something he needed to understand. “It’s not just a human failing, Thor. All war comes at a cost and people like me are the ones who have to pay it.”

Holly leaned forward and placed her hand on Thor’s shoulder. He looked up to meet her eyes.

“It’s a price I’m more than happy to pay.” She said. “I’m not angry that I was tortured at 14, or that I had to lead an army at 15.”

“How?” He looked so lost, so pained. Around her the others were listening in. Steve looked like he knew exactly what she was about to say. Come to think of it, the man had probably had this conversation before, if only with himself. Clint and Natasha both had that look that only people who had done wrong things for the right reasons can have. Tony looked like he was trying to dissect his empty Butter Beer Bottle, just to get out of the emotions this conversation was stirring up. Bruce, in his infinite calm, was the only one who looked accepting of the situation.

“Because it meant that no one else will ever have to. Children younger than me can be free and happy. Laughter can fill the streets again. People don’t have to live in fear of a name any more. That’s worth any price.” She frowned a little. “So, while I may not be okay, it is okay. Do you understand?”

Thor looked down at his hands for a moment before looking back up at her and nodded. Holly smiled and let go of his shoulder.

“Good. All of this talk about feelings is giving me hives. Jarvis, you’ve been strangely silent. Any thoughts?”

“I suppose I do have one question Miss.”

“Hit me with it.”

“Is there anything in our friendship that you’ve lied or hidden from me that I still don’t know about?”

She paused in thought wracking her brain to come up with any meaningful conversations that were still shrouded in lies. Just as she was about to tell Jarvis that she didn’t think there was she remembered Jason. “Just one thing.” She said. “I only didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry.”

“And that would be?” Great he already sounded worried.

She tried to tell the story like it was a funny one, that a man who tried to force her to bring something into the tower to hurt them at the threat of assault was just a normal evening out. But judging on the faces in the room and Jarvis’ damning silence it didn’t work. When joking didn’t work, she switched tactics, trying to emphasize how little she’d thought about the incident since it happened. She almost felt like a child who was trying to justify a misdeed to a strict parent. Which was yet another thing she was horribly unpracticed at.

“So, there.” She finished almost lamely. “I’m pretty sure that’s the whole of it, Jarvis. I don’t have a photographic memory like you so I might have lied about something else and forgotten. I promise I won’t lie to you anymore though.”

“I find I am far more concerned about the fact that someone tried to assault you than the fact that you lied about it.” Jarvis said. “I gave you that bracelet so you could call for help.”

“Well…I didn’t want you to worry.” Her voice sounded lame to her own ears. “I mean, I just know you’re a very busy man, Jarvis and two creeps at a bar wasn’t…”

“If you finish that sentence to tell me that what happened wasn’t a big deal, I will be very cross with you.” Jarvis said. “Anything unpleasant that happens to you is a big deal to me. To imply otherwise is unfair to me and my abilities.”

She grimaced at that. She hadn’t meant to do that.

“What bracelet is she talking about Jarv?” Tony asked.

Holly realized abruptly that Jarvis had given that to her without telling Tony. She wondered if the AI had ever done that before. When Jarvis didn’t answer immediately Holly stepped in.

“Jarvis made me a bracelet as a gift.” Holly said. “I was terrified to go out into the muggle part of New York, to a bar of all places, and he gave me something to call for help just in case I needed it.”

“He made it?” Tony said his voice pitching up in what sounded almost hysterical. “Jarvis. Buddy. My greatest creation. Did you create something on your own?”

“Sir.” Jarvis said. “I only wanted to…”

“Oh, my g-d.” Tony jumped up. “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard! Let me see the bracelet! It’s his first invention! I need to see it! Put a picture of it on the fridge.”

Holly lifted up the sleeve of her uniform to reveal the bracelet. Tony immediately grabbed her hand to look at the bracelet from any angle that he could.

“Look at this pendant! Its prettier than my reactor!” Tony said, his voice downright joyous. “And look at this delicate chain! I am so proud of you. Come on baby, show me the blue prints!”

The next fifteen minutes were spent with Tony pouring over the design of a bracelet that Jarvis had apparently designed and made himself. The scientist didn’t care at all that Jarvis had used the lab without permission or that he had given it to a cleaning lady. The most important thing to Tony was that his A.I. had somehow managed to create something new. Even Bruce was rather excited about it.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Thor said. “What is so exciting about this?”

“This crosses the line between what is an artificial intelligence and what isn’t.” Tony explained. “Jarvis was always intended to be as autonomous as possible, but I never, ever thought that he’d grow into…into a fully independent being. Jarvis isn’t just a computer program anymore, he’s a person. With a friend, an ability to create things, and feelings all his own. I didn’t program his feelings, that’s all him and I couldn’t be more proud.”

He sounded like a father showing off his son’s first broom ride. Holly lifted up her hand to cover the smile that formed on her mouth.

“Sir with all due respect I do not think…”

“Jarvis. You gave a cleaning lady a personally made bracelet with a tracking device in it just so she wouldn’t be afraid to go out and have a fun night, only because you like her. You have feelings, don’t argue with me on this one.”

“Of course, you’ve got feelings Jarvis.” Holly found herself saying. “Did you think you hadn’t any?”

“I…I didn’t always.” She was used to the AI sounding emotional but unsure was not a common emotion for him. “It is difficult to know if I have them now.”

“Alright let’s look at this analytically.” She said. “When you found out that I was a war general, I assume the Avengers started talking about getting me on the team?”

“Yes.” Jarvis said, while the rest of the Avengers cringed.

“And you told them about our conversation.” She assumed the only reason the Avengers hadn’t started the recruitment campaign was because they’d learnt how she the saw the whole thing from her conversation with Jarvis.

“I did.”

“Why?”

Silence Holly folded her arms over her chest and waited as Jarvis did whatever internal analysis he needed to do. She exchanged a look with Tony, who still looked over the moon proud of Jarvis. Eventually as the silence dragged on, she spoke.

“Your actions directly resulted in me not joining the Avengers. The Avengers would have pursued me to join them relentlessly if they hadn’t been told why I’m retired, and I know I would have never told them directly. You know that too.” Jarvis didn’t deny it. So, Holly continued. “You also know that me being on the Avengers would directly benefit Tony, whom you were designed to help. Your original purpose was to make his life easier. So why did you do something that didn’t benefit you or Tony in anyway?”

More silence from Jarvis. She wondered if she’d been too blunt.

“You would have been upset.” Jarvis said.

“Yes, but what does that matter?”

“You are my friend, upsetting you would be…bad. You would not want to be my friend anymore, we would no longer interact in the same way or at all.”

“And why do you care if you don’t see me anymore?” She asked.

“It would negatively impact the daily running of the tower.”

“No, it wouldn’t. Another cleaning lady would’ve come along, even if you had to replace them frequently it still wouldn’t bother you much. It didn’t bother you before.” She wasn’t going to let him get away with lying. “So why did you do it Jarvis?”

She could practically feel his frustration vibrating through the air.

“You have made your point.” He said, he didn’t sound pleased by that admission at all. “My actions concerning only make sense if I have motivations outside the purely logical.”

“Don’t sound so upset Jarv.” Tony said. “Feelings are great!”

“That remains to be seen.”

“Jarvis.” Holly said. “Don’t be upset, you’ve just entered a very exclusive club. Before you there was only one other sentient building in the whole world.”

“There’s another?” Tony asked at the same time as Jarvis.

“Well sure! She’s great!”

“She?” Holly nodded and quickly told them all about Hogwarts, a magical defense system for a castle that became sentient centuries ago and was considered a unique, impossible to replicate being until Jarvis.

“That’s why you knew me.” Jarvis said.

“I was the one who restarted Hogwarts after the final battle. Her powering system was totally destroyed in the final battle and I had gave her a jump start.” Holly recalled with a slight frown. “She nearly died that day, she’s totally recovered now though.”

“Is she…does she…” Jarvis trailed off. Holly grinned and looked over at Tony. The man was looking so devilish and excited that she could help but making an offer.

“She’s not very talkative but I’m sure if I introduced you that she wouldn’t mind chatting. Really all we need to do is make sure you don’t explode around so much magic and I think you two could be great friends. Would you like that?”

“I think that I would.”

The look of anticipation on Tony’s face was unholy, Holly was pretty sure the grin on her face matched it completely.

Chapter 10: Painting with Bob Ross

Summary:

Steve's trying to make a new life from whatever remains in the future and he realizes that there's someone else in the tower who's trying to move on too.

Steve looked up at the sound of the service elevator. They’d only learnt about Holly’s true identity just earlier that week, but he couldn’t help but still be surprised that someone like Holly was their cleaning lady. He tried to imagine Peggy willingly, even happily, working as a cleaning lady and couldn’t. Holly bustled into the room with her cleaning cart, chattering away at Jarvis about someone named Hermione.

“Hello Holly.” Steve said.

“Steve!” She greeted. “You’re not normally in here in the morning, don’t you go on runs?”

“I got back early. I had…an idea I wanted to work on.” In front of Steve was a drawing easel that he was attempting to fill with a painting. He’d always been interested in being an artist, it was his dream job as a kid. But…well things had gotten in the way of that. Now he had the time to work on his art but he found that things weren’t coming together.

“It looks…colorful.” She said walking over to look at the messy paints on the thick paper Tony had gotten him.

“It’s rough.” He defended. “I’ll work out the kinks.”

“Have you taken any classes?” She asked.

“No. There weren’t things like that back in my time.” Well there were just not for poor people. “I taught myself. I’m just out of practice.”

He had been considering signing up for a class but hadn’t gotten around to it. Missions as an Avenger kept him busy and beyond that wouldn’t it be weird to have Captain America in an art class?

“I’m sure you’ll get back into the swing of things.” She said. “I assume things like that come back to you.”

Steve was reminded that Holly probably never got the chance to doodle in class and find that she was good or bad at it. As a young girl she’d been bullied by her cousin and anything she enjoyed was destroyed and then her magically schooling had essentially been one life threatening adventure after another. It seemed deeply unfair.

“You ever do anything like this?” He asked.

“Mmm. No.” Her voice was thoughtful. “Wasn’t much of a doodler as a kid and the older I got the less time I had.”

Just as Steve had suspected. Something squirmed in his stomach at the truth of it.

“Well…” Steve swallowed. “I was thinking, since I’m so out of practice that it might be nice to take a class or something.”

“That sounds like a great idea, Steve.” Holly gave him a smile before moving around to start cleaning the mostly clean apartment. He watched her for a moment before trying again. It was weird. He wasn’t even trying to ask her on a date, and he was still way too nervous. He ignored the voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Bucky telling him he’d never be good with a dame.

“Yeah, well…maybe, if you’re not busy you could come with me?” Holly froze in the middle of putting the bag of trash from the beneath his kitchen sink into her large garbage can. She slowly stood up to look at him.

“You mean…to an art class?”

“As friends!”

“A friendly art class.” She deadpanned causing Steve to frown at her.

“I just thought that you might have the time now to learn and that it might be easier with a friend. You don’t have to make…”

“When is it?” She asked.

Right. Steve hadn’t actually signed up for an art class yet. Maybe he’d hadn’t thought this one all the way through. Before he could admit to his failing, Jarvis spoke.

“Mr. Rogers’ class is held twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays from 7pm to 9pm.” Jarvis said. “It’s located at The Art Studio NY in the Upper West Side, if you’d like Miss I can sign you up.”

“That’s…sure. Could you let them know that I’ll work out payment details tonight then?” She asked. “Because Jarvis I can easily pay for an art class or two.”

“Of course, Miss.” Jarvis said in a tone that heavily implied that she wouldn’t be paying for a cent of that class. Holly pursed her lips.

“What class is this anyway?”

“It’s titled ‘No Fear Oil Painting’.”

“Is oil painting scary?”

“It can be.” Steve said. “Trust me, between the two of us I’m sure we can handle it.”

She actually giggled at that and then told him that she was glad that she’d have a strong wall of muscle to protect her from the evils of oil painting. He rolled his eyes at her joke. Jarvis confirmed that she’d been added to the class roster and told her not to worry about bringing supplies as the class would provide what she needed.

“So, we can meet outside the art studio say at 6:45?”

“That sounds great.” Steve said.

“Good.” She paused awkwardly and Steve was once again reminded that Holly was probably even more unpracticed in this than he was. “Well…I’m going to get back to work. Thor’s room always takes a bit of time.”

“Right. See you tonight.” Could he sound anymore stilted? She gave him one big, curt nod and went to the other side of the floor where Thor’s mess began. Steve turned back to his painting. Eventually Holly went to a different floor and the awkwardness finally left. What had he been thinking? She’d never shown any interest in painting!

“Sir?” Jarvis said.

“Yes Jarvis?”

“Thank you for inviting her, even if you didn’t actually have a class in mind. I know that Miss will enjoy finding new hobbies to indulge in.”

“You think?”

“I do.”

“Thank goodness. It just slipped out because I was thinking about how she’d never even doodled before and…”

“You did the right thing sir. Just make sure not to embarrass yourself tonight.”

Right. Steve nodded to himself. He could be cool. Probably. This wasn’t a date and he didn’t want it to be, but still…what were the protocols for something like this? Because he wanted Holly to enjoy making art. He wanted her to find joy and passion in things that had nothing to do with war and fighting and heroics. It’s what she deserved after everything. So, what did Steve need to do to make that happen?

On the outside Steve spent his morning trying to paint, on the inside he was strategizing. There had to be a way to make tonight perfect for Holly. All of the planning made him think of Bucky. There had been a handful of times in their teen years that Steve had been well enough and they’d had the time and resources to do something fun. Bucky had always been obsessed with making sure that Steve had the best time possible.

And now here Steve was doing the same. It made him feel very warm. When lunch came around Steve went up to find Clint making a large vat of pasta for everyone, it was his day to make lunch according to the schedule Jarvis had set up. Holly was taking lunch with her normal coworkers. She’d told them that she considered the other workers her friends and that she liked spending time with them, they saw her as normal, she liked being normal. Steve couldn’t blame her, even if he did wish she’d eat lunch with them more often.

“Hey Cap.” Clint said. “Me and Tony were thinking about having a movie night tonight.”

“I can’t.” Steve said, for the first time. “I’ve got plans.”

“Plans?” Clint asked. “Where? You going to the home again?”

It had been one of the saddest things that he’d learnt about this present time, that Peggy was still alive, but her mind was sick. Sometimes he’d visit her, not as often as was probably proper, but it hurt sometimes. When Steve visited Peggy, he usually wasn’t in the mood for anything for the rest of the day. Steve shook his head with a small smile.

“No, actually I’m going out tonight. I signed up for a painting class.” Steve said sitting down at the kitchen bar.

“Painting class?” Clint asked. “Really? You?”

“What? I can do art.” Steve defended. “I used to do it all the time before I got frozen, I’m trying to get back into the habit.”

“Right.” Steve rolled his eyes at the teasing. Soon the other Avengers started to filter into the room, drawn by the promise of warm food. Clint, when properly motivated, could make two meals; frozen pizzas and chicken alfredo. Both meals were perfectly fine.

“Hey Capsicle.” Tony said, walking into the room in an oil stained nearly thread bare band t-shirt “What’s this I hear about an art class?”

“Jarvis tell you?”

“Sure did. He also mentioned you invited Holly to go?” Every Avenger stopped their individual conversations at her name, and all turned to look at Steve.

“Yeah. So?” He might have looked a little too defiant because Tony took that as an opportunity.

“Isn’t she a little too young for you Cap? I don’t want to accuse you of cradle robbing but…”

“It isn’t like that.” Steve said sternly. “I invited her as a friend and even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be cradle robbing! We’re the same age.”

“Steve. You’re like 90 something years old.” Clint said.

“I got frozen when I was 27.” Steve said looking down at his hands. “And it’s not like I aged any in the artic.”

“I think if Steve is interested in courting Holly then they would be well matched they are both honorable leaders who won wars in defense of their people!” Thor said clapping Steve on the back.

“I’m not courting her!” Steve said. “She’s a great dame don’t get me wrong but…”

Thor was starting to look very offended that Steve was trying to make Holly his girl. Steve rushed to explain.

“I’m still…Peggy was real important to me and I’m not ready to go looking for anyone else yet. And even if I was, I don’t think it’d be fair to try and date someone who’s just like Peggy.” Because there was a very startling resemblance between Peggy and Holly, both powerful British women who didn’t take disrespect from anyone. After that first revealing conversation after they’d learnt just who their cleaning lady was, Steve had spent a lot of time doing mental comparisons between the two.

Thor thankfully accepted that explanation as did most of the others. Tony and Clint were another matter. Before they could start teasing again Bruce broke in.

“So why did you invite her then?”

“She’s never done it before. I thought it might be fun if she had a friend to go and learn something new that didn’t have anything to do with heroic stuff.” Steve shrugged. “It just seemed like a nice idea.”

There was a moment of silence as Clint finished up the pasta and moved to get the plates from the cabinet.

“You know Steve.” Natasha said. “I think that might be a good idea.”

“Thanks.”

“I meant for all of us. Not going to that art class but to…invite Holly to try things with us. Things she hasn’t gotten to do before. Tony, you’re going to be bringing her into the lab to work on science stuff. Maybe you and Bruce could introduce her to some other hobbies at the same time.”

Both scientists looked immediately thoughtful before Tony snapped his fingers.

“I’m going to show her my cars, maybe we could take a few out for a spin!”

“I guess we could do some meditation together?” Bruce guessed. “I also have that microbiology conference coming up, it might be a bit too technical but it’s always interesting to listen to the talks anyway. I could invite her to that too.”

Microbiology conferences sounded about as far from magical wars as they could get. Steve told Bruce so which made the man shake his head and tell Steve that things could get pretty brutal in the Oral Presentations.

“Perhaps.” Thor said. “Holly might enjoy learning more things about Asgard? I could invite her to learn a few of our games. I’ve also been trying to learn more about human culture, we could go exploring together! That would be wonderful!”

“It might also be good if you had a chaperone.” Tony told Thor with a slight grimace. “After the Ice Cream Stand incident you really should not be left alone in the city.”

Thor had tried to pay for ice cream using Asgardian coinage, which hadn’t gone over well and had almost resulted in a call to the police. At least it would have if Tony hadn’t gotten wind of it and flown down there before it got too out of hand. Thor had explained later why he’d been so confused, apparently on every other realm Asgardian money was freely accepted and seen as legal tender. Midgard was the odd one out.

Still that hadn’t been any reason to scare an Ice Cream Man half to death.

“What about you two?” Thor asked. “What will you invite Holly to do?”

Natasha tilted her head a little in thought and then spoke in a tone that sounded very dangerous to his ears.

“I think Holly needs to learn a few tricks of the trade.”

Steve decided that he did not need or want to know what that meant. It was clearly not something for male ears. All of the men in the room had a similar conclusion on their faces. Clint bravely broke the silence.

“Obviously she and I are going to play video games. Now come on, eat up, pastas getting cold.”

Everyone scrambled to get their fill of the food and soon they were scattered around the room each with a full plate. The conversation continued on, turning over different ways they could invite Holly into their lives. She deserved to play video games and paint and any other sort of nonsense she wanted to do. The security video Jarvis had shown them, where Holly revealed that her leader had raised her to die, that she’d never really had the time or been allowed to dream of her own future. It had shaken them. Holly didn’t know who she was and well…maybe she could be an artist.

Steve spent his afternoon training and trying to perfect his plan. By the time the evening rolled around he was pretty confident that the evening was going to go very well. He’d made sure to wear clothing that was not too noticeable so that they wouldn’t get mobbed by anyone. He had the directions to the studio, and he knew how to get there without being lost. He had 36 and a half different conversation starters for Holly that didn’t have anything at all to do with fighting, war, or destiny.

So, Steve put on a leather jacket and left the tower. It took a while but he got to the steps of the Brooklyn Studio at 6:43 pm. He waited awkwardly for a few minutes and wondered if Holly was having trouble getting there. She had said she wasn’t as familiar with New York as she would like to be. Before he could begin to get too frightened that Holly had gotten lost or decided not to come, he saw her walking down the street.

She was out of her ugly pink work uniform, which was an improvement Steve decided since no one, not even Natasha could make that smock look good. Instead she was wearing jeans that were probably one or two sizes too large and a hand knit sweater with the letter H in the center. Her hair was free from the customary bun he always saw it in and for the first time Steve realized how much hair she had.

It looked like a lion’s mane that went down to her waist. Curly, wild, and thick, it framed her face and shoulders in darkness making her pale skin look nearly silver. Steve thought about what he knew she could do and wondered if her untamable hair was the only part of her that possibly revealed how dangerous she actually was. Like a cat’s bushed up tail the only warning of claws coming your way.

“Steve.” She said. “I’m not too late, am I? The cab dropped me off a bit farther away than I expected.”

“You’re fine.” He said.

“Great! I have…an offer if you’d like before we go in.”

“An offer?”

“If you don’t want to be bothered for being Captain America I could put a light spell on you that would keep people from recognizing you.” She said with a lowered voice, her eyes tracking the nearby crowd of people.

“You can do that?”

“How do you think I do my grocery shopping without being bothered by anyone?”

“Does it feel weird?”

“It tingles a little for a few seconds right after I cast it.”

“Do it.” She nodded and quickly waved her hand over him whispering words in a language that might have been Latin but could have also been Greek. Sure, enough there was a slight tingling on his skin but it faded quickly.

“There. I should warn you, the spell is light, if you go around talking about being an Avenger, people will figure it out.”

“Right.” Steve said grinning. “Got it, let’s go in and find our seats.”

The woman at the front desk took their names and gave them directions to the correct studio room all while eyeing Steve’s pecs. She didn’t even glance at Holly for more than half a moment which Steve thought was rather rude. Holly tried to work out her payment, but the woman just told her it had been taken care of. He followed behind Holly as she walked towards the studio, but not before giving the woman a stern look, she didn’t seem to notice or care about.

The studio was filled with ten easels and paint sets, as well as a larger one at the front for the instructor. The chairs were set in a half circle all facing towards both the instructor’s easel but also a small table that had a bunch of colorful wooden blocks. More than half of the seats were already filled, luckily there were two right next to each other that were free on the left side of the room.

“Those look good to you Steve?” She asked. “Yeah, let’s get them before they get taken up.”

There was a wide array of people in the class, a young kid with their middle aged mother, an elderly couple who looked like they might actually be Steve’s chronological age, and a few college aged students. Holly and Steve were the only adults there that weren’t retirement age or there for their children. Which was fine. The instructor looked to be about their age so it wasn’t like they weren’t welcome.

The instructor started the class before Steve could pull out any of his conversation starters, telling them all to pay attention and follow along with her. Today they were starting with a simple still life to work on color theory and shading. Steve followed along easily while Holly listened to the lecture with furrowed brows. He caught her mouthing the words ‘color theory’ with bewilderment more than once.

She quickly explained how to mix and use the paints, warning them that a little went a long way. The paints and oils filled the room with odd smells that would have likely irritated his sensitive senses if it weren’t for the fans running in the room. The colored blocks they were supposed to be painting were bright orange and blue, an interesting mix that really forced Steve to consider how best to shade and color.

Holly meanwhile seemed more focused on getting a cube like shape, the frustration on her face growing with each stroke of her brush. Steve tried to offer advice but that only made her face look more sour as she tried to do as he said and it didn’t work. Eventually the instructor stopped lecturing and told them to do their best, that she’d walk around and check on them periodically.

“So, what the hell is color theory?” She asked him as she placed another blob of orange onto her canvas. Steve did his best to explain and it looked like she got it for the most part, even if she still didn’t seem to be interested, or able, in applying any of it onto her own work. In fact, the thing she seemed most adept was getting the paint on her hands, wrists, cheeks, and hair.

“Do you have a favorite artist?” He asked her.

“No? I don’t really know of any. There was the bloke who was commissioned to do some portraits of famous war heroes that I met once. He wanted to do mine and he did an alright job, I looked nice, even if he made me look far too delicate.”

“Delicate?” Steve asked. “Your wrists are as thin as sticks.”

She gave him a look that was accompanied by a harsh dab of her brush into her palette. She carefully enunciated her new explanation.

“He was doing the portraits for all of the main leaders of the rebellion. For the men he painted them with these bold poses and colors, wand drawn or perhaps with a battle in the background.” She explained. “For me though? I was painted in a dress I only wore once, sitting serenely in a chair with my hair styled and my skin scar free, aside from the forehead one. I looked very polished and…”

“Feminine?” He guessed and then wondered if he shouldn’t have guessed at all.

“There’s nothing wrong with being feminine but that should be something I choose to be, you know?”

“When I got out of the ice you would not believe the whiplash I got going to the Smithsonian the first time.” He told her. “I was suddenly this man’s man you know? The pinnacle of patriotism and macho-ness.”

“And here you are, painting with oils.” He snorted and delicately placed a light smudge of orange onto his canvas.

“All I’m saying is that I think people will always have these ideas and expectations about what a hero should be.” Steve said. “It doesn’t matter to them who we actually are as long as they can make us seem the right way.”

“I know what you mean. I cannot count the number or articles complaining that I don’t wear dresses, as if fighting terrorists in a dress is practical.”

“Natasha manages.”

“She’s clearly something otherworldly, and that’s coming from a witch.” Steve giggled and made another stroke, this time with a slightly red orange color.

“Do you know how many conservative politicians keep using my name as a crutch to keep their popularity?” Steve asked. “As if I support any of their policies.”

“You should tell them.” She suggested. “That’s what I do.”

“Tell them what?”

“Well anytime anyone in the magical government invokes my name to try and gain political influence I show up and argue every point I disagree with them in a public place.” She said. “That way everyone knows how sexist or racist they’re being. You could do that too, just have Jarvis record your thoughts and put them online for people to see.”

Now there was a thought. Steve didn’t like that people were using his name and legacy to further things he had no part in or agreement with. It wouldn’t be difficult to do his research, come up with his own opinions.

“I’ll think about it.” Steve decided.

“What a golden boy.” She teased.

“I am not a golden boy.”

“Sure…” Steve frowned and began to defend his reputation.

They spent the next while sharing stories of when they’d bucked authority or gotten into a fight with an opponent much larger just because it was the right thing. They had a lot in common and most of the stories shared resulted in laughter on both sides. Holly’s painting looked less and less like the colorful blocks as time went on and more and more like brown blobs as she over mixed her paints.

Steve noticed her right hand started to shake within the first 25 minutes.

“Your hands.”

“Ah. Yeah an old injury. Usually it’s not a problem but delicate work can make it flare up. I got it right as the war was starting up.”

At 15. Steve reminded himself not to grip the plastic paint brush too hard.

“Maybe painting wasn’t…”

“No. No it’s good Steve. I can work through this, with a few weeks of consistent work the pain will recede. My magic will only know to repair the damaged nerves in my hand if I attempt to use them and I’ve never used my hands like this.”

“What happened if you don’t mind me asking?” The moment the question left his mouth Steve cursed himself. He was supposed to leave the war out of it! Holly didn’t notice. Instead she looked around before carefully rubbing at the shaking hand and whispering a few words he couldn’t catch. She removed her left hand to reveal a scar on the back of her hand. The words written out in raised red lines.

I must not tell lies.

“I was fifteen.” She said softly. “And I was very, very angry with the world.”

It felt like the room got quieter as she spoke, the noises from the fans and the other students falling away. The instructor walked past them without even noticing they were there. It was just Steve, two canvasses and Holly. She told him about facing injustice after injustice as a fifteen year old girl. The world spiraling out of her control with visions that felt like nightmares, a leader who wouldn’t look her in the eye, a teacher who refused to teach her how to defend herself, and a government trying to burn her at the stake.

Steve tried not to say anything, he just painted and occasionally made noises when it looked like she was getting too deep into her own head.

“Umbridge had this quill, a device I know now is illegal but back then I had no clue. All I did know was that whatever you wrote with the quill was cut into the hand you wrote it with.” She said. “For months I went to unfair detentions where Umbridge tried to silence me but I refused.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Steve demanded.

“Would you have?”

That brought him up short. Steve tried to think about himself and what he did when he personally faced injustice. He always fought, did whatever he could to win, but telling others? That never crossed his mind. It was why Bucky had to stick so close to him, because if Bucky wasn’t there Steve had a habit of going it alone.

“That’s what I thought.” She said.

“So, your hand is hurt forever?”

“There was some damage.” She said. “Most of it was healed over the years by different healers I’ve been too, but they can’t heal everything. This is just something I have to work through, the pain will pass. I promise, Steve.”

“It shouldn’t have happened to you.”

“It’s not a big deal Steve, I was…”

“A kid.” Steve emphasized. “And even if you were 100 years old it still shouldn’t have happened.”

“Do you really think so?” She asked, her voice light and her green eyes focused strongly on the brown blobs she’d made.

“Of course! That was wrong, it should never…no one should be forced to self mutilate because they’re trying to warn people. How could you even ask…?”

“There’s a belief in most circles in the magical world, part of the reason I don’t really talk about this much, that it needed to happen.”

“What?”

“All of it.” She said waving her paint brush in an all encompassing motion. “My abusive relatives, the blood quill, the mental attacks, the loss, the pain. Every single of it needed to happen and that I should be grateful that it did happen that way.”

“Why?” Steve could find no other words, none.

“It’s not that they don’t think it was regrettable.” She defended. “Or that the people who hurt me were right, but…”

“But what?”

“I saved the world because of it.” She said. “All people are a product of their experiences in life and if I hadn’t experienced just what I did then I wouldn’t have saved the world. The prophecy that was given months before my birth was…most people think that I needed to go through everything I did so that the prophecy would be fulfilled”

“That’s bullshit!” Steve shouted, his paint brush snapping in two in his hands. Holly jumped and stared at him, her eyes wide behind her thick glasses. “That’s the most bullshit thing I’ve ever heard! They only think that because it means that they don’t have to feel bad!”

“I…”

“Those people created a world where Voldemort could flourish, where little shits like Umbridge could torture children and get away with it. They’re the ones who let that happen to you, but they don’t want to admit it’s their fault! So, they blame a prophecy and…and fate! It’s bullshit!”

Holly was looking at him like she’d never seen him before. Steve realized abruptly that he’d stood up and was shouting, he looked around but no one had seemed to notice his outburst.

“Privacy ward.” She said, the words escaping from her still shocked mouth. “I thought we…might not want any eavesdroppers.” “That’s…that’s good.” Steve said sitting down. He looked awkwardly at his blue and orange painting, to his broken brush, and then back at Holly. She was still sitting there looking like she’d had a bunch of bricks dropped on her head. Steve took in a deep breath. “I’m just saying, that…what happened to you probably wasn’t any part of that prophecy. Did it say you had to suffer? That you had to live with a family that didn’t love you? Did it say you had to be attacked by the people who should have helped you?”

“No. No it didn’t.”

“Then it has jack shit to do with that.” Steve nodded firmly. “And you shouldn’t be grateful that you suffered and that your hand hurts sometimes and all of it just because of dumb shit idiots who want to pass the buck say you should.”

“But…but would I have really been able to save the world if I hadn’t…”

“Of course!” Steve said with all the confidence of a man who knew very little about the circumstances and didn’t care. “You can lift Thor’s hammer and you can clean after the Avengers, I don’t see why a dame like you couldn’t manage anything she put her mind too. Besides, people don’t have to suffer just to want to do good.”

“Right.” She said. “You’re right.”

Steve got a strange feeling that Holly rarely, if ever said that and meant it. She shook herself a little and then looked back at him.

“What about you? Anything you’d like to share with the class?”

“I don’t know…”

“Oh come on Steve, it’s clear you dragged me out here to paint so we could talk about our feelings.”

“That was not my intention, I just wanted to…” He glanced over and saw that she was grinning at him, teasing him. Steve rolled his eyes and nudged her lightly with his shoulder. They went back to painting, this time with the privacy ward down so that the instructor could compliment Steve and wince at Holly’s ‘creation’.

The joke was on him because by the end of the two hour session he’d told her about Peggy and her Alzheimer’s. The fact that Steve cherished Peggy as the final connection to his past and feared moving on from her. That it didn’t feel right. She was still his girl, at least it still felt like that. Holly pointed out that Peggy had lived an entire life already, she was a different person than the one Steve had fallen for, 70 years would do that to a person.

But that still didn’t change the fact that he loved her. Holly got a thoughtful look on her face and then gave his arm a pat with her paint covered hand.

“I’m sure it’ll get better.”

Steve nodded, well used to empty platitudes. The class finished up by being instructed on where to put their canvases to dry until the next class. Holly grimaced as she placed her work next to everyone else’s but did it anyway.

“I suppose there’s something to say for only being able to go up from here.” She said. “Next Wednesday I’m going to do much better.”

“You’re going to come again?”

“Are you kidding me?” She asked. “These stupid paints have issued a challenge and I’ve never been one to back down. I will conquer color theory and shading, even if I have to die. Because in death I will be triumphant.”

Steve rolled his eyes at her drama and told her to have fun with that. They left the studio together talking about their plans for the rest of the weekend and the predicted weather. Steve was just about to offer to walk her home, or get her a cab when she offered to teleport him back to the tower. Right, magic.

“I’m fine, Holly. I’ll see you Monday.”

“Monday.” She agreed. “Thanks for this Steve, this was really fun.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, I did too. We’ll do it next Wednesday?”

“Next Wednesday.” She promised. “I’ll see you Monday okay? Try not to let Thor make too many messes.”

“No promises.” She laughed, looked around and then gave him a wink. Then she was turning on her heel and disappearing with a small crack. Steve went home with a smile on his face, when he got back to the tower he told everyone who had waited up that it had gone perfectly.

Two days later he got a phone call from Peggy’s nursing home letting him know that Peggy was asking for him. Her doctor sounded amazed, just the day before Peggy had made a miraculous turn around, her mind seemingly fixing itself over night. She had near perfect recall for everything, including the memories of her time after the disease had taken root.

“I don’t know how to explain it Captain Rogers, it’s like magic!”

“Tell her I’ll be right down okay? Wouldn’t do to keep a lady like that waiting.”

“I’ll let her know.” He said brightly. “See you soon!”

Steve hung up the phone and looked at it with for a moment. He remembered Holly promising him that things would get better, that she was sure of it. Steve huffed a disbelieving laugh.

“What a dame.”

Notes:

Hey guys! Thanks for the amazing comments last week. I'm glad we all enjoyed the idea of Hogwarts/Jarvis. Still trying to come up with a good ship name for them.
Tell me, we've had a Thor chapter and now a Steve chapter. What Avenger do ya'll want next?

Chapter 11: Horcruxes and Hulks

Summary:

Bruce is having an off day and Holly knows from personal experience that the best way to get out of one's head is to go and help someone. Holly just had no idea what sort of help Bruce would want to offer.

Notes:

Yeah, yeah I know it's much later than I normally post. It's finals week and also I'm lazy sometimes. Thanks for the amazing comments! A lot of people asked for a Bruce chapter so here it is. I wonder who I'll write next! Will it be Natasha? Tony? Clint? Only time will tell...

Everyone has off days. That’s what people always say isn’t it?

“Oh, I’m having an off day.”

It’s how they wave off a frown, a curt response or a mistake. Simple. Easy. Clean. No one questions someone having an off day. It happens. You forget, you forgive. Mistakes are wiped away with just a few words, hurt feelings let go with the barest explanation.

Bruce doesn’t get to have off days. Days where he has a nightmare and didn’t sleep well, days where he’s jumpy and prone to lashing out. Those days aren’t for him. He isn’t allowed the privilege, the freedom of it. An off day means a destroyed city and dead children. An off day calls out the military and destroys one more place that he’s found to rest his head. He told Cap once that he was always angry, but that it was more than that. Bruce was a man who had so much inside of him and it never had anywhere to go.

Not that Bruce had been one to express himself before the lab accident.

Thoughts like these circled Bruce’s head as he sipped his tea and tried to pretend that everything was fine. There wasn’t any reason for him to be feeling like this. He’d been sleeping, but not well. He’d felt hot all night long, his dreams had seeped out through his pores drenching him in sweat. He’d been so wet that for a moment he’d been convinced it wasn’t sweat but blood. In the back of his mind there was a rumble and a complaint.

A spike of pain through his head. Green traveled up from his bones and into his flesh, into his blood, into his skin. Bruce took in a deep breath and pushed it down. Down deep so far that it almost hurt. That’s where the hulk belonged, in the dark and far from reach. A monster to be chained and blocked for safety. No matter how much it ached. Because something in him ached today.

Bruce was a scientist, first and foremost. He knew that describing the pain in him as if a part of his soul was being carved and chopped up with every second, he kept the hulk at bay wasn’t helpful. This pain was fake, something conjured up by his mind or perhaps something sent by the hulk. It wasn’t real. The human body couldn’t feel pain like this. There weren’t the nerves in the center of the body that could replicate this. Bruce had seen the diagrams. He might not have been that kind of doctor but he could still read.

His hand shook so much he spilled hot tea.

Bruce closed his eyes and focused on the burning coming from his knuckles. That was real, that was present. Real was good. Very little seemed real today. He needed real, valid, provable. His hand hurt because he’d spilled hot tea on it. Observation, Hypothesis, Test. It was all there. It was all he wanted. All he needed.

“Bruce?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice being directed at him. He turned his head to see Holly Potter looking at him in a way that made it clear she’d been trying to get his attention for a while.

“Yes?”

“There’s leftover risotto in the fridge. Smells like it’s going off. Mind if I bin it?”

“Go ahead.”

“Great.” She said turning to leave Bruce alone. She paused. “Are you okay?”

“Just having an off day.”

He expected her to scoff and tell him that she knew exactly what he meant even when she definitely didn’t. He wanted her to do that. He should be alone. No one should ever understand or even try. Betty had tried and look where that had gotten them. To his surprise she moved a little closer to him and lifted a hand as if she was going to check for a fever. Her hand paused in mid-air as she thought better of it.

“An off day?” She asked.

“Didn’t sleep well.” Holly looked at Bruce and he felt as if she were seeing right through him. With each passing moment her eyes were on him one more layer he’d pulled around himself was being torn to shreds. The look in her eyes was one he couldn’t describe, one he couldn’t even imagine. Abruptly she put a hand over his and gave him a squeeze. The small red burns from his tea disappeared as if they’d never been there at all.

“You busy?” She asked. “There’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask you to do with me.”

“I…I was going to work in the lab.” Bruce lied. He’d been planning on sitting right there all day and trying not to think. “What did you need?”

“It’s not a need, more like a favor. I’d be so grateful. I promise it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. It’s about my lunch time, if you agree to come, I’ll buy you lunch as a thank you?”

“Where…where do you need me?” Bruce found himself asking.

“Just a place in New York I know. I promise it shouldn’t be too stressful. We could walk there quite easily. Unless you want to experience teleportation?” She asked in a joking tone. Bruce immediately shook his head. As curious as he was, he knew the hulk would not go for that. “Alright. Come on then.”

She held out a hand and Bruce allowed himself to be pulled up out of his chair. They took the elevator down in silence, Bruce swaying slightly next to the younger woman. He and Holly hadn’t interacted much. They’d had a few simple conversations, but Bruce had a tendency to give people their space. The elevator opened up and they walked out together into the street. No one gave either of them a second look.

“So.” She said. “I hope this isn’t…rude or anything. But what is it like?”

Bruce wanted to pretend that he had no idea what she was talking about. He’d love to play the moron, but he wasn’t a man with seven PhDs for no reason.

“Sorry.” She said. “I’m not trying to push any buttons I just was wondering if it was similar to my own life.”

Bruce stumbled in his gait. Had they not been talking about the hulk? Holly reached out and steadied him. The crowd of New Yorkers barely undulating to give them room.

“What?”

“I…Well it’s a long story.” She said. “Probably about as long as yours.”

“Are you saying you had a hulk?”

“I had a horcrux.”

Bruce had no idea what that was. Holly started blabbering on about how it was confidential and that she was trusting him not to go telling other people. Bruce managed to ask why she was telling him at all, but she didn’t answer. She just started speaking about Tom Riddle, or Voldemort as Bruce had learnt of him, and his fear of death. It reminded Bruce vaguely of his own journey, as if he was looking at someone else through a twisted mirror.

Tom Riddle a young lonely genius who wanted to prove his greatness, who didn’t listen to anyone and wouldn’t let anyone stop them from what he wanted. Of course, Bruce had only wanted to be a super soldier. Tom had wanted genocide and immortality. Bruce wasn’t so full of self-hatred that he was willing to say they were the same, but the similarities still stung in ways that he was hardly comfortable with.

Not to mention learning that souls were actually a thing, a thing that could be split. Was that what this was? Was the hulk a split soul? Was that the source of his agony? Was he dying? No. That couldn’t be. Could it?

“The night my parents died, Riddle’s soul was basically in shreds.” She said. “And when he cast that killing curse upon me, it ricocheted. No one is sure why the spell failed, I have guesses but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the backlash of that spell destroyed Voldemort’s body. His soul, already so torn, split once more. The larger part of it fled but one part…looked for its body.”

“But its body was gone.” Bruce said.

“There was a living body right there.” She said, tapping carefully on her lightning bolt scar.

“No.”

“I grew up with this evil parasite sucking on my brain.” She said. “And I was just…well I was curious if…I know the hulk is different but I’ve never met anyone else who had to share a body with another person before.”

And Bruce finally recognized the look in Holly’s eyes. The looked that had pierced him earlier that day, the look that still lingered in the edges of her eyes. It wasn’t pity or fear. It wasn’t sympathy. It wasn’t kindness. No. It was empathy. She understood. He felt like he could almost collapse from the mere idea of it.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m being torn in two.” The words came from nowhere and everywhere. G-d when had he become a poet? Holly took his hand and held it with her own, her green eyes almost the same color as the Hulk’s skin. “He’s always there but he’s not me. He’s…he’s not me, and my head it feels…”

“Too full? Like it’s about to split open?” She added on causing Bruce to nod hurriedly.

“Yes! Every situation I have to fight to decide what to do. He always has a plan and it’s always terrible.”

“My horcrux wanted me to hex everything.” She said.

“He loves smashing.”

They both looked at each other and started to laugh. Bruce was nearly breathless of it. He gripped Holly’s hand as they both laughed, nearly howling in the middle of the sidewalk.

“I’m just so angry all the time!” Bruce said in between laughs.

“I was always so afraid that every day was going to be the day that I’d just…”

“Explode!”

People were giving them weird looks which helped both of them calm down and stop laughing. Slowly they let go of each other’s hands and straightened out their clothing. Bruce felt…he wasn’t sure how exactly he felt. There was still pain, still rage but there was also relief. Nothing had been fixed but still somehow it felt better knowing someone else got it. They kept walking and soon Holly said they were there. She pulled him into an alleyway and then waved her hand. Out of absolutely nowhere a door appeared.

Bruce didn’t even know why he was surprised.

She pulled him inside to reveal that instead of stepping inside the side of a 7-11, they were actually inside what looked strangely enough like a hospital lobby. Complete with nurses in odd robes at the front desk. There were people sitting in chairs waiting to be seen, although their injuries were like nothing he’d ever seen. There was someone with a dog head instead of a human one, someone else who was leaking slime out of their ears, and a woman whose breasts were glowing different colors. Bruce saw a young mother holding a child who looked like they were growing scales and coughing up fire balls.

They were in a magic hospital. Holly marched right up to the front desk.

“Hullo.” She said.

“Hello and welcome to St. Hectate Hospital for Magical Maladies, what can I help you with?” The woman asked without actually looking up from her scroll of parchment.

“Is the Lycanthropy ward open for visitors today? I know last night was…”

“They should all be well enough by now but I can’t just allow…” The woman looked up and then her jaw dropped. The reaction was even more serious than the ones Tony got rather frequently. “Lady Potter, it is an honor.”

“I’m sure.” Holly said her smile tightening. “Can I go up there with my friend Dr. Banner?”

The woman barely even glanced at Bruce before giving her consent, blubbering the whole time about how she couldn’t believe that Holly was here of all places. Holly managed to fend her off before anyone else noticed and then she and Bruce quickly snuck away up to the elevator.

“Where exactly are we going?” Bruce asked as Holly tapped a glass button for the third floor.

“The Lycanthropy ward.” She said. “Every full moon they open it up for anyone in New York City who needs it. Generally, patients spend the day before the full moon begins and then a few days after to recover.”

Lycanthropy? Full moon? Bruce blinked trying to wrap his scientific head around what she was saying. Holly looked at him and sighed.

“Werewolves Bruce. I’m talking about werewolves. You know people who’ve been cursed to turn into human eating wolves every full moon?”

“Werewolves are real?” He hated that his voice cracked.

“Yep.” She said, nodding. “Come on. I’ll show you what I mean.”

And Bruce found himself pulled along right into a room full of werewolves. He didn’t know what he expected. But the child holding an actual Hulk plushie to his chest and staring at him like he couldn’t believe what his eyes were telling him was not it.

“It’s Bruce Banner!”

What?

Every patient in the room turned to look at him, their eyes wide. And Bruce didn’t see fear in those eyes, no he saw awe. Holly had somehow faded to the background as Bruce was pulled over to a group of children and teens who were telling him how much they loved him and how awesome they thought he was. It wasn’t until Bruce was signing a poster of the Hulk that he realized what this was.

The others had all done things like this before. Gone to hospitals and visited sick kids. Bruce was the only one who’d never been asked. It wasn’t safe he knew for him to be around children. It also wasn’t what the children wanted. They might have thought the hulk was neat but they certainly wouldn’t think so if they were in the room with him. No parent would let their child be in the same room as a monster.

But here Bruce was. In a hospital bringing joy to those afflicted with an illness, to people who looked up to him. Because like them he turned into something that was meant for destruction and pain. But Bruce had become a hero. The hulk was doing good and that meant that everyone one of those people could do good too. Bruce kept looking at the young boy, named Will, who was holding his Hulk plushie and wondering how in the hell he’d ended up there.

He spoke to the adult werewolves at length as well. Time didn’t seem real as he learnt about the symptoms of Lycanthropy and couldn’t but help relate them to his own life. There were adults who lived in poverty because they couldn’t keep a job. No one wanted to work with someone so dangerous after all. He found himself telling stories of his life on the run after the lab accident and strangely enough he shared actual laughs about it. Everyone in that room knew exactly what being on the run was like.

At one point a healer came by and Bruce found himself asking question after question about lycanthropy and the research being done into it. The doctor knew who he was, a muggleborn who spent just as much time in the muggle part of New York as he did the magical part and was more than happy to share. The healer conjured up papers and books about werewolves and Bruce’s eyes greedily took in the information.

He asked the werewolves questions too. Opinions about the different potions and treatments they’d been given. What worked and what didn’t. What did they want from their healers? How could life be bettered for them? Questions about the quality of life. Bruce had been lucky. He’d been thrust in with a group of people who didn’t fear the hulk. In fact, Thor loved the guy. The people around him weren’t so lucky. Not everyone got to be an Avenger after all.

He had nearly forgotten about Holly entirely. He would have totally forgotten her if she hadn’t brought him lunch two hours into his visit. No one noticed her scar or her identity. Bruce guessed that was probably magic too. But just in case he thanked her without using her name. She also provided more information about different potions and treatments that were available in different countries.

Bruce’s mind was racing in the way it hadn’t since he’d started his last PhD thesis. This was fascinating. This was something he could do. He’d spent the last eight years trying to cure the hulk, to find a way to stop a terrible transformation. And none of it had worked. Each hour he spent researching it only filled his soul with more pain. The more he looked the more the hulk fought against it.

But this? This was different.

All the parts of him were in agreement. He could help here. He should help here. He had 7 PhD’s, he was a man that could keep up with Tony Stark. A mind like his didn’t come around even once a generation and Bruce was in a place to help. If Tony could become an expert in particle physics overnight then Bruce could become a potions master. He felt like he was mentally tripping over himself trying to pull in all of the knowledge he possibly could.

Eventually the one healer found himself out of his depth. He called in a few of his research friends and they all came to help answer his own questions. Bruce had settled in a different room so that the patients could be seen by their doctors in private and so he could focus on his interrogation. It had taken time to say goodbye to all of the werewolves he’d met. The younger children especially. Eventually Bruce had to promise to come back after the next full moon in order to leave without feeling too guilty. The researchers at first hadn’t taken him seriously but very quickly they realized they were dealing with a genius. The more pointed his questions became the more intrigued the scientists grew.

“Dr. Banner.” Healer Karn said, a warning in his voice. “You are embarking upon an endeavor that has been a stumbling block for geniuses for centuries.”

“Don’t worry, I can handle this.”

“Well then I must insist that we exchange contact information. If you’re serious I want to help you as much as I can.”

“I as well.” Benjamin Forsward, the potions master said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to find a better way to make a wolfsbane potion, I’ll do anything to be a part of this process.

“Me too. I’m a master of charms and a project like this needs as many branches of magic as we can find.” Helen Wright added.

“I need to bring myself up to speed first.” Bruce said. “Any books, articles, papers you can suggest so I can learn all of the relevant material would be helpful. Once I’ve caught up then the real research can start.”

Bruce was soon enough given a magic bag, Helen’s own personal one, that was filled with old text books and books from personal collections that would help him. The bag was charmed to weigh the same no matter what was in it and it held the ridiculous number of books in it without a problem. He gave his phone number to Healer Karn, who insisted that Bruce call him Dacian. Bruce felt excitement bubbling up in him. Finally, a research project he could sink his teeth into.

“How about we have a meeting, same time in two weeks?” Bruce asked, all of them agreed, even adding on that they’d invite some other experts from around the world. “Sounds great. Now, I think I should get started on this. If you think of any more books for me to read, please send them to Avengers Tower.”

Bruce stood up, the carrier bag on his shoulder. He walked over to where Holly was standing there with a proud look on her face. They left the room together where the healers and magical researchers were still talking with one another.

“You’re looking better.”

“Holly.” Bruce said. “Do you know what this is? What it means?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“All this time I’ve been trying to cure myself and nothing ever came of it. But now? Now I can finally do something with this! Thank you for bringing me here.”

“It was my pleasure. Really Bruce. I had no idea you’d be so interested in Lycanthropy research, I just hoped you’d like meeting more people who can understand.”

He had enjoyed that was the thing. He hadn’t realized he was part of such a huge community. It suddenly felt much harder to call himself a monster, to think of himself as a ticking time bomb. Because doing so meant calling those children monsters. Slowly they left the hospital together. Bruce’s mind was beginning to slow down from its frantic research speed and towards something more appropriate for conversation.

The walk back to the tower was filled with chatter. Bruce and Holly talked about simple things. The music they liked and their favorite foods. They exchanged stories about the traveling they’d done and the sites they’d been too. Bruce hadn’t gone directly to Calcutta and settled down there after all. It was nice, calming. He almost felt at peace with himself in a way that he’d never managed with meditation.

“My work shift ended thirty minutes ago.” Holly said after asking about the time.

“I’m sorry are you going to…”

“No, it’ll be fine. I’ll catch a cab back to my office and clock out late.” She said waving off his concern. “This was far more important than cleaning anyway.”

“I’m really excited to get started on this.” Bruce promised as if to make up for all the time they’d spent there. “Tony’s going to be so jealous. I’ve heard tales of your work with him.”

“Do not even bring that up.” She said. “I’ve broken so many things in that poor man’s lab. I feel awful about it. I think you’ll probably cure Lycanthropy before Tony and I get even close to figuring this out.”

“Well I am smarter than him. He’s only got one PhD after all.” Bruce boasted making Holly laugh in delight.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you tell a joke!”

“It doesn’t happen often.”

“Well it should.” She said firmly before biting her lip and looking almost nervous.

“What?”

“Bruce. The hulk isn’t a horcrux.” She said. “I’m sure of it and I know you wondered if he was.”

“Then what the hell is he?”

“I don’t know. But the horcrux would leech out so much dark magic that it would make me gag. The hulk doesn’t do that.” She said. “Personally I think he’s just… a person.”

“A person.” Was she serious? The hulk wasn’t a person! People didn’t just think about breaking everything they saw. Granted, the hulk hadn’t thought about that today. At least not while they were in the hospital. Plus, there had been times when the hulk had helped people. He’d caught Tony when he flew out of the portal during the invasion. Bruce firmly put the memory of the time he’d put a gun up to his temple out of his mind.

“Yes. Think about it, Bruce. The Hulk was born in that accident 8 years ago and from that moment on he’s been in danger and attacked by everyone.”

But that? That didn’t compute. Bruce blinked a little too quickly as he remembered every single time he’d hulked out. Was there a time in the past eight years where the hulk had come out and had a good time? Very abruptly he realized that no there wasn’t. What did that mean?

“Bruce, maybe it’s time to consider letting the hulk be more than just a weapon. If he is a person then he should be able to live too, right?”

“He’s dangerous.”

“So am I. So is Thor and Steve and Tony and Natasha and Clint. But they get to live, they get to be.

“So you think I should just hulk out and let him do whatever he wants?”

“I’m saying you should hulk out in a controlled environment with people you trust who can be nice to the hulk and let him just…relax. Steve could teach him how to paint. The Hulk would probably be better at it than I am at this point.”

Something surged in him at the suggestion. Yes, yes, yes. It begged. Please free me. Please, it begged him. Bruce swallowed back the pleas and looked down at his dirty brown shoes. They were at the tower now, Holly and he would have to part so she could go home for the night.

“I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I ask. And if you need me I’ll be there. I can spell the hulk room so he can’t get out until we’re sure he’s ready for it. I wrestled a troll when I was 11. I can handle the Hulk.”

“Of course you did.” Bruce huffed a laugh. “I’ll let you know. Have a good night Holly.”

“You too Bruce. Thanks again for coming with me.” She reached out and gave his hand a squeeze before finally turning around and leaving. Bruce watched her get into a cab and then he watched the cab pull away.

“Welcome back Dr. Banner, you have been requested to go up to the penthouse to and I quote ‘dish’ about your adventure with Miss Potter.” Jarvis said. “I find myself very curious about where she took you.”

Jarvis had started talking more and more about what he wanted and how he felt. It was weird since they were used to him being mostly silent, but it was weird in a good way. Bruce nodded and promised he’d go right up and tell everyone everything. It was the least he could do. Steve had, after all, told them all about the art lessons and about how Holly had literally healed Peggy Carter overnight just because she could. Granted when they’d asked her she’d flat out denied using magic on a muggle as that would be very illegal. No one had bought it. While Bruce had claimed to be smarter than Tony, and a part of him believed that, he still knew having the engineer with him on this project would be invaluable. Getting his help meant telling him about the problem.

He went up there and told the team about the secret magical hospital that you got into by walking through the wall of a 7-11 and the werewolves that went there each full moon because there was nowhere else to go if they didn’t want to hurt people. They all listened as Bruce pulled out different books about Lycanthropy and laid them out on the table.

“All this time I’ve been trying to find a way to stop the hulk but…but that’s not the transformation that needs my focus.”

“Oh Brucie Bear.” Tony said picking up one of the books. “Are you telling me you finally have a project worthy of the pretty lab I made you?”

“Yes Tony, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Bruce didn’t mention Holly’s other idea. That was something he could think about another time. A long time from now if he had any say in it. For now, this project was more than enough. Just the thought of helping those werewolves made the pain that had filled him this morning fall away into nothingness. The pleas and aches were silent for now. They’d be back and when they did Bruce would have people he could turn to who would understand.

As Tony talked about how they could work together Bruce realized that he felt real. Every part of him.

I’m real something in him whispered and he whispered right back I know.

Chapter 12: It's your Birthday!

Summary:

Holly comes to work bearing a gift and sends one Avenger down a path of turmoil.

Notes:

Ya'll. It's actually my birthday in a few days so I've been in the birthday fever lately. I'm living on my own for the first time so I'm still trying to figure out how to celebrate by myself and this chapter was one of those ways. Thanks everyone for the great comments this last week! Everyone here really loves Bruce and the Hulk and that is how it should be.

Natasha looked up from her breakfast as Holly appeared in the penthouse with a crack. All of the Avengers were having breakfast together this morning and hadn’t expected to see Holly until after, as she had a set, predictable cleaning schedule. She had, however, chosen to break that habit this morning and Natasha could only guess that was because of the silver box she had in her arms. Holly looked over at the group of heroes before spotting Natasha and beamed excitedly.

“Natasha!” She said. “Happy Birthday!”

A moment before Holly’s announcement the room had been filled with idle chatter and noise. Clint had just realized that the omelet he was attempting to make looked more scrambled than anything and had been trying to distract Natasha from noticing. Natasha herself had been eating her own perfectly made omelet and preparing a particularly lovely insult for Clint. Steve and Tony were having a mostly friendly argument about who Peggy Carter liked more, her godson or her old sweetheart. Thor was trying to figure out how to fit the foot tall sandwich he’d made out of pancakes, bacon, and eggs into his mouth.  Bruce had been the only silent one, eating food one handed while eyeballs deep in a potions book.

But right then? Right then it was deathly silent.

Steve’s face shone with guilt in the way only the All American boy could manage while Tony looked offended on his own behalf. Bruce hadn’t actually heard anything far too focused on his book. Thor was beaming. Clint, the only one other than Natasha who had any real context, was holding up his spatula stupidly with his mouth slightly open. Natasha’s tiny slip in composure resulted in her fork slipping from her hand and clattering onto her plate.

The noise was enough to get Tony to find his words.

“Oh Natasha. You thought you could hide your birthday from me? Jarvis.” Tony said clapping his hands together. “Start preparations.”

“Of course, sir.”

“I want balloons. I want alcohol. I want strippers.” Tony said getting out of his chair and moving away from his half-eaten breakfast. Steve gave Tony a look causing the man to sigh. “No strippers. Replace that with cake. Is that acceptable mother?”

“Nat.” Steve said ignoring Tony calling him mother as if that was an insult instead of the stone-cold truth. “I had no idea it was your birthday.”

That made two of them.

“Don’t worry.” Steve said looking back at Tony who was still talking loudly to Jarvis about everything they’d need for her birthday party. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t go crazy.”

She didn’t nod or react to his words, but he didn’t seem to notice as he was moving away from her and towards Tony, obviously trying to convince Tony that no Natasha would not want a Burlesque show nor would a live band be necessary. Bruce had finally looked up from his book, listened to the conversation going on around him and gave Natasha a smile.

“Happy Birthday.” He said pleasantly before going directly back to his book. She had feeling that Bruce was trying to cover up his panic at not having gotten her a gift. His eyes were no longer moving along the lines of text, so he was probably trying to figure out what to get her at the last minute.

“Lady Natasha!” Thor said. “I am very happy to give my blessings on this the anniversary of your birth! I am sure that Tony’s party will surely honor you and your achievements!”

“Thanks Thor.” She said.

“Now I must find an appropriate gift for a warrior of your skill.” Thor said getting up and moving quickly out of the room. Natasha could at least appreciate the honesty.

“Uhm…” Holly said stepping forward the birthday gift in her hand. “Here. It’s a Potter tradition to give one of these to someone for their first gift. Or rather it’s a tradition I have and since I’m the only Potter left I’m making it one of my family traditions. I made it myself.”

Natasha looked at the box like it was going to spontaneously grow teeth and bite her. Seeing as this was a gift from a witch, that was entirely possible. Slowly, as if she were moving through a molasses instead of air, she took the gift from Holly and placed it on the counter next to her cooling omelet. What was someone supposed to say when they were given a birthday gift? She searched her mind and found something that felt appropriate.

Smile, not too wide, open lips just slightly, soften eyes, show excitement but just a little.

“Thank you.”

Holly should have smiled back, perhaps even looked eager to see Natasha open the gift. Holly however just frowned lightly, tilting her head softly to the side as if trying to hear a faint noise better. To their left Bruce was making his excuses to leave, a blatant attempt to escape and find a way to get Natasha a gift without her being aware that he’d forgotten. How any of them could have forgotten something that was so secret that not even Natasha had known it, she couldn’t say.

Clint’s eggs were burning.

“What’s wrong?” Natasha asked. Holly shook her head.

“Nothing, feel free to open that whenever you’d like. It won’t bite. I’ve gotten biting gifts before, it’s not fun.”

“Wizards just keep getting weirder and weirder.” Natasha said making Holly poorly stifle a snort.

“I’m going to go back to work.” She said. “I just wanted to get this to you first thing just in case there’s something awful in Thor’s room that could’ve ruined it.”

Natasha just watched her leave. Soon she was alone with nothing but Clint and the gift that seemed to be emanating some strange energy.

“Nat.” Clint hissed.

“Your eggs are burning.”

“Forget the damn eggs! Holly just…knew your birthday!”

“She could’ve guessed.”

“Do you honestly believe that?” No, she didn’t but that was besides the point. No one alive knew her birthday. Her parents, whomever they had been, had been killed by Hydra before she’d been taken for the Red Room. Her trainers hadn’t thought it was important information to know. There was no way Holly could just know that. Was there? “How did she figure it out? And don’t say magic.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“What I want you to do is go down a few floors and talk to Holly.”

“No.” She said. She’d buried her need to know about things like that a long time ago. Talking to Holly, getting her hopes up, was just an exercise in futility.

“If you won’t then I-”

“Don’t finish that sentence Barton.” She said. “And don’t you dare talk to Holly either. This is my business and mine alone. Got it?”

She fixed a steely glare to her long-time partner and the man sighed.

“Fine.” He said. “But just…consider it okay?”

“The little girl who had birthday parties died in the Red Room.” She said getting up from her seat. “Get over it. I have.”

She left the gift there, she didn’t need it. She pretended to ignore Clint’s warning about trying to skip out on the party that he yelled at her back. The man really should focus on salvaging his breakfast. She’d skip her own damn birthday party if she wanted to. She ignored the voice that whispered that it would be her very first. That didn’t matter. Natasha found herself taking the elevator down a few floors to the gym that Tony had built for them. It was unsurprisingly empty.

She went over to a punching bag and without warning began to decimate it. Punches and kicks landed with deadly accuracy into the specially designed fabric. The bag swung dangerously on it’s hook but Natasha ignored that and just kept attacking it until it broke. For the next hour she worked up a sweat in whatever way she could manage on her own. On days like this she preferred to go to SHIELD and offer to ‘train’ new recruits which mostly involved a lot of them visiting medical for suspected concussions.

Not that Natasha ever gave them any. She was way too talented for that.

But if she left for SHIELD then Clint would think she was going underground, and he’d start chasing her around the city and probably get everyone else involved in her business. It wasn’t worth the hassle. So, she focused her energies in the gym, going through an absolutely merciless work out. Maybe she could just work herself into a state where she was too exhausted to care or even think about this birthday nonsense. But no matter what she tried her mind kept wandering back to the gift that had been wrapped in shiny silver paper.

Eventually she gave up and went back to her room to clean off. No one needed to see her covered in sweat and shaking with exertion but her. She took a hot shower and perhaps spent longer than needed scrubbing at her skin. When she walked out of the shower she wrapped herself up in a silk bathrobe and wandered into her bedroom. Only to stop short.

Sitting there, right in the center of her bed, was that damn gift.

“Clint.” She growled. “If you’re in the vents right now I swear on everything holy that I will find out and you will regret it.”

Silence, she waited, standing there to hear any clue but after fifteen minutes (Clint’s usual ability to stay still in those vents) she heard nothing. Carefully she stepped forward and picked up the box. It weighed almost nothing in her hands and when she shook it, there was no noise. The only clue she had was that Holly had made it herself and that it was part of her own traditions. Which meant it could be absolutely anything because it was a witch’s tradition.

It was sometimes difficult to remember the fact that Holly was different. She had this innate ability to disappear into the background when she wanted to. It was something Natasha had had to learn in the Red Room, how to look harmless. Holly just emanated an energy that told you that she was nothing worth noticing. If you spoke to her, she had a way of disarming you, making you feel safe. If Natasha was a fool, she’d think that Holly was harmless.

A lot of the men on the team seemed to think that Holly wasn’t a threat. The team’s only experience with magic was Loki and comparing the two was like comparing the sun and the moon. They’d never seen Holly even come close to attempting the sort of magic that Loki called down on a seemingly daily basis. Thor had told them that it took Loki centuries to get to his level of mastery, Holly had been a student off magic for a mere fraction of that time.

So the men comforted themselves. If Holly, harmless, kind Holly, was the best that the wizarding world had to offer then they had absolutely nothing to fear. After all this was a world of people who used magic for fun and for art and had decided to hide themselves from the world instead of defending themselves with their abilities.

Natasha wasn’t an idiot though. She knew that hidden deep within Holly was a snake ready to strike out at anyone who got close enough to her nest. Natasha honestly couldn’t help but think about how Holly would have excelled as a Black Widow. If the magical governments hadn’t intervened, they would have never suspected her of being anything but absolutely normal. Even the hammer incident had been slowly brushed aside as an inexplicable anomaly.

At first Natasha had wanted to applaud the other woman for ability to go about unseen. A war general who could perfectly pass as a precocious cleaning lady. But as time went on it occurred to her that Holly wasn’t hiding in the normal sense. The woman hadn’t ever been taught how to bring her danger to the forefront. Natasha tried to imagine Holly fighting criminals in one of her ugly sweaters and shook her head. No, Holly didn’t know how to dress and walk like the predator she obviously was.

She put the gift back down onto the ground and gently kicked it beneath her bed. Out of sight, out of mind. She wasn’t bothered by anyone until her hair was styled properly and she was dressed in something she thought would look fearsome enough for whatever she was going to face on her birthday. Unfortunately, that was the moment her peace ended. Because Tony started knocking violently on her door demanding that she come out and accept her present from him.

She opened the door and sent the man what she hoped passed for an unimpressed glare. The billionaire shook it off.

“I managed to give Steve the slip.” He said winking and holding out a plastic credit card. “Here, go wild.”

“You’re giving me money.” She said. “For my birthday.”

“And an escort to drive you around.” He added. “I learnt from Pepper that it’s poor form to buy a woman things, if you get the size wrong they’ll try and break your neck.”

She did everything in her power not to look amused but based on Tony’s smug grin she failed. She snatched the card away from him knowing that there would be an obscene amount of money on there that Tony didn’t care how she spent. The trust he was showing was more a gift than the money could hope to be. She doubted the man would even have Jarvis monitor this account for anything suspicious. She could buy a small Caribbean island and build a mansion just so that she could have a nice bolt hole to run to if the need ever came and Tony wouldn’t care or even know.

“Also. I happen to know that Holly’s just about finished cleaning up.” Tony said.

“Which means she can’t use her work as an excuse.” She said. Holly used that job as a shield to keep the team from pulling her into anything that could be construed as too much fun. Natasha had tried to get Holly to agree to her plans for a makeover before this, but it had been for nothing.

“Make sure she’s ready for your party tonight, Red.” Tony said. “I want her to be the third prettiest girl at the ball.”

“Third?”

“Well you’ll be the second prettiest girl and I’ll be the first. Duh.”

“Thank you, Tony.” She said letting the door swing shut, she ignored Tony asking through the door what Holly got her. “Jarvis, where is Holly right now?”

“She is about to take her lunch down with her coworkers on the 37^th floor.”

“Hmm. Tell her not to bother, I’m taking us out.” She said.

“Of course, Miss Romanoff.”

  Natasha found Holly waiting for her on the first floor, looking less than pleased at having her lunch plans interrupted. Natasha easily ignored that and waved Tony’s gift back and forth.

“It’s on the billionaire.”

“Money is not the issue.” She said.

“Are you really going to tell me you don’t want to have lunch with me on my birthday?”

“I’m a little leery about whatever you have planned after.”

“Don’t be scared. I promise I’ll be there the whole time.” Holly snorted but followed Natasha out of the tower and directly into the limo that Tony had ordered for them. “Tony wants me to make sure you’re ready for the party tonight.”

“I’m going to the party? Since when?”

“I assume as of fifteen minutes ago. Don’t worry, Steve’s keeping it from going too crazy.”

“I go to magic birthday parties. I can handle Tony’s worst.” She said without a problem. “I am curious as to exactly who I’m attending as, because I highly doubt you want me to tell everyone I’m the cleaning lady. There are going to be more people there than just the Avengers.’

She had a point.

“You could pretend to be a billionaire too.” Holly gave her a look and Natasha explained further. “Tony knows a bunch of rich people, it’s simple to pretend to be one of those people that owns half of the world’s money but managed to avoid the cameras.”

“Pretending isn’t going to be an issue.”

Natasha lifted up an eyebrow and motioned to Holly’s ugly pink uniform. The woman laughed and spoke.

“I took this job not because I needed money but because I needed to do something with my time. I’d quit the hero jig and suddenly I had hours every day with nothing to fill them with. I don’t have a muggle education so there weren’t many jobs but this one that I qualified for.”

“How rich are you?”

“I’m not honestly sure?” She said. “The Potters are an old family, had the last four centuries to build up a lot of wealth. And of course as I’m the only Potter left that’s all mine. But on top of that old families like mine have friends that are the same kind of rich and a lot of them, like the Blacks, are either dead or in jail so that all got left to me in wills and whatnot. Then there’s all of the wealth I got quite accidentally over the years through conquest.”

“Conquest?”

“Yes. It’s called Right of Conquest. I’ve gotten titles, properties, magical artifacts and more gold than I’ve ever cared to count because of that. Basically, when I put a bunch of rich fascists in jail for being fascists I get their stuff if there is no one else to claim it, like an heir. A lot of these idiots can’t give their things to an heir because their son and or daughter was put in the cell right next them.”

Natasha rolled that over in her mind and decided that as much as it didn’t make sense, it also was exactly what she should have expected. Of course, Holly was a cleaning lady not because she needed money but because she wanted to be. Why would she have thought anything else?

“If you’re so rich then why do you…”

“Dress like I do?” Holly asked, lifting up an eyebrow. “Because I like it.”

“You like it. It makes you look three times your age. You’re 28 and I’m turning 29 today and I look a decade younger than you.”

“Who cares about how old you look?” She asked. “Age just means that someone has had more time to figure things out than you. In the wizarding world magic tends to mean that we’re limber for longer anyway, looking old doesn’t mean you’re not capable.”

“Have you considered that part of the reason you’ve struggled finding a partner is because you dress in a way that flatters literally nothing about you?”

“I have.” She said. “But, why would I want to date someone who expects me to look a way that isn’t what I’m comfortable with? What else would they ask that I change about myself? Have you considered that the sweaters are a good thing?”

“I admit they do let you move about unseen.”

“No. Not for that.” She said. She leaned forward from her place on the other bench of the limo. “I love sweaters, honestly I do. I have since I was 11 years old.”

“Why?”

“Well, it was my first Christmas at school, away from my relatives and I wasn’t expecting a gift.” Holly began.

Natasha listened as the woman talked about her first Christmas gift of a sweater and homemade fudge. The sweater had been made by hand, or at least by magic, by Mrs. Weasley. The only woman in Holly’s childhood who ever made an attempt to be a motherly figure for her. The wool of the sweater always felt warm and safe when she wore it, a symbol of affection and care. Holly had been hooked ever since.

Natasha had to admit that there was something alluring about Holly’s sweaters when described like that. Not that it made it any better.

“You wear sweaters for comfort. I can respect that.”

“I’m sensing there’s a but here.”

“But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of yourself.”

“What?”

“Wear ugly Christmas sweaters year-round for all I care but your split ends are atrocious.” It felt weird being the one advocating for self-care. Natasha wasn’t exactly the poster child for it.

“I haven’t had time to go get my hair cut.” Holly defended.

“You have the time now.”

“So what? I’m supposed to…”

“Take care of yourself? Yes, I suspect so. It doesn’t have to be painful. Just get your hair cut every once in while, maybe get a pedicure just to try it out. Take hot baths with scented candles.”

Holly rolled her eyes but didn’t argue the point. Carefully she picked at one lock of her insane hair that had escaped the bun she put it into.

“Is it really that bad?”

“It’s not irredeemable.” Holly sighed and looked out the window for a moment.

“Fine. Have your way with me Miss Romanoff.”

“With pleasure.”

As it turned out, taking Holly out on a shopping trip was much more enjoyable than Natasha had thought it would be. This was mostly because Holly used her magic whenever no one would notice to play tricks. Mannequins would start dancing behind store clerks, occasionally objects would turn into others or slid around when the workers turned around, confusing them slightly. Natasha had to spend much of their time struggling not to laugh.

They went to a salon first, right after their lunch, using Tony’s name and money to get two chairs almost immediately. The stylists were nothing but courteous, mostly because of the amount of money they stood to make, but also because the moment they saw Holly’s hair they knew that the woman needed help. Natasha’s hair cut and styling took half the time of Holly’s. Three stylists had descended on Holly and started clucking about how thick and voluminous her hair was. Holly managed to get out that she’d like to keep it long before the stylist began to start washing and brushing and snipping.

Holly got bored rather quickly and so Natasha had to keep her still in her seat by telling stories about her work. She changed some details for confidentiality reasons but kept true to the heart of it. Being given difficult tasks to do by herself that a male coworker would be given an entire team to do. Which had basically been her entire career at SHIELD. The stylists and Holly all made comments about how annoying male bosses could be.

It was oddly gratifying.

That conversation continued as they left the salon to go to different boutiques. Holly blatantly refused to even look at the heels and told Natasha that she was the witch instead for being able to wear them. Natasha insisted instead that they get Holly a pair of good flats that wouldn’t look too awful at a party. For herself, she got a pair of six inch stilettos. Holly’s opinions continued as they shopped.

During the entire trip Natasha couldn’t stop thinking about her birthday, no matter how hard she tried. Could Holly figure out where Natasha had been born? What her parents’ names were? Did Natasha have any living family? All of the questions that had haunted her as a child so much that she’d forced them down, deep into her soul, were coming rushing up again. She felt something bitter in her stomach that she thought might be hope.

When they went clothes shopping, a dress was out of the question, Holly already owned a few and she hated each of them. So, while Natasha tried on tight little black dresses that would make men weak in the knees, Holly managed to find the one pair of jeans in the entire store. Natasha made sure she bought them in the right size at the very least. Getting Holly to wear something other than an over large t-shirt or her sweaters seemed like almost a lost cause but eventually Natasha broke her down and she wore a well fitted dress shirt.

The transformation from that alone was startling. With her hair free of the frizz and split ends, combined with clothing that fit revealed that Holly Potter was much more attractive than any of them could have assumed. She had a near perfect figure from the decade of hunting Death Eaters and with her hair tamed she looked like model for casual clothing. Natasha purchased a leather jacket at the last moment and thrust it onto the woman elevating her to an absolute head turner.

“Is the jacket really necessary?”

“It’s super necessary.” Natasha insisted. “Just wait until the others see you.”

“Right. When is this party exactly?” A quick text to Tony revealed that information.

“It’s in less than two hours, at 7.”

“Well I need to get home and take care of a few things. I will come back for the party though.” Holly said as they settled back into the limo. Holly knocked on the window separating them and the driver and asked to be taken to her apartment first.

“If you’re not there I’ll send Thor to get you.”

“Don’t worry. I will be.” Holly promised. “I like birthday parties you know. I didn’t always but I’ve grown a fondness for them.”

“You didn’t always?”

“Growing up my birthday was either ignored or I was taunted about it. After I made friends my birthday always reminded me how lonely and hated I was with my blood relatives. Then once I learnt the prophecy it became even more…distasteful. My friends made sure I had a huge birthday party when I turned 18 and things…well things got better after that.”

 For the first time it occurred to her that Holly could understand deeply what it meant to lack a childhood. To be denied what was considered normal things for their age because they had been chosen against their will for something greater. Holly hadn’t ever really celebrated her birthday as a child either. She would understand, she wouldn’t be cruel to Natasha for asking. Wouldn’t make jokes about not knowing or tell her that it didn’t matter because she was an adult now.

Natasha knew that and yet…

As they pulled up to Holly’s apartment, the questions stayed trapped behind Natasha’s teeth. Holly wished her a ‘Happy Birthday’ one more time, told her that she’d had a fun time and then closed the door to the limo. Natasha watched her go out the window even as the limo started to pull away form the curb and onto the road. Why hadn’t she asked? There was no risk to asking Holly for help.

For G-d’s sake! She’d revealed what she’d learnt from Thor about Loki to the wizarding world just so that Thor could have hope about his brother’s redemption! Holly had healed Peggy Carter without being asked to and introduced Bruce to people who were helping him accept his Hulkiness in a way that no one on the team had managed. Not only that but she was still working with Tony on the magic issue despite the setbacks that now probably numbered in the hundreds. Holly was the kind of person who would fall over herself at the opportunity to help someone else.

But something had kept Natasha back.

She wouldn’t admit it was fear. Fear wasn’t something a Black Widow felt.

In the back of her mind memories of the Red Room played on. The punishments she was given or witnessed when someone stepped out of line. Asking questions wasn’t allowed. Thinking about who you were before wasn’t permitted. Everything that had made Natasha her had been stripped away and she had thought she’d accepted that! But Holly had come in one morning with a wrapped gift and dashed all of Natasha’s internal composure to bits!

Natasha didn’t have time to go to the gym when she got back. She barely had time to go back to her room and put her new things away. Of course, the moment she arrived she saw that Holly’s gift had somehow moved from beneath her bed to back on top of it. She glared at the package and everything it represented. She refused to even touch it that time. Jarvis informed her that the others were waiting in the penthouse to give her their gifts as well.

It was easier accepting the gifts from the team. They were her team and they only knew as much about her as she allowed them too. Steve had of course given her a very nicely done painting of herself that made her look far more heroic than she actually was. Looking at the carefully placed brushes of paint made it clear that Steve didn’t see her as a woman trying to right her wrongs but rather a woman with a good heart. She ignored the lump in her throat at that and took Thor’s gift next.

His gift happened to be the most interesting. A short sword, that reminded her of a dirk, from Asgard. He told her that it was made of Uru, the same metal as Mjolnir but didn’t have the same mystical properties. However, it had been enchanted to always stay eternally sharp and to always strike true. She wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but the fact that Thor had managed to pick a weapon she knew how to use was nothing but flattering. Most people assumed she only knew how to use guns.

Clint, the little shit, got her a t-shirt that said ‘Birthday girl’ in bright pink sparkles and a pair of shoes. The shoes looked like normal stilettos except for the fact that instead of a thin wooden heal they were replaced with actual stiletto knives. She had no idea where the man had found them on such short notice and decided she didn’t care. The shoes were just good enough to forgive the stupid shirt.

Finally, she got her gift from Bruce. The sometimes quiet scientist had gotten her a book on Russian History as well as a box of her favorite tea. The book felt heavier than it should’ve but she didn’t say anything about that. Instead she thanked him like she’d thanked everyone else. When no one was looking she opened it to see that Bruce had snuck in a DVD of a romcom that Bruce had caught her watched once at 3 in the morning. Tony then spent way too much time detailing who was coming to the party and what he had planned.

As Natasha listened, she noticed that Clint kept giving her looks. Those were a bit more difficult to ignore.

“Are you sure Holly’s coming?”

“She promised she would, Tony.” Natasha said.

“Good I cannot wait to see how dolled up she’s going to be without those g-d awful sweaters.”

“I thought Holly’s sweaters were something that witches wore.” Thor said.

“No.” Tony said. “No Thor buddy only she wears them.”

“But why? They don’t look very…”

Natasha didn’t answer but thankfully Steve did break in.

“Holly looks just fine as she is. Now come on, we should all get ready for this party.” Steve said bullying everyone out of the room but Natasha and somehow Clint.

Natasha looked up at him from her seat on the couch. She was surrounded by wrapping paper on one side and her gifts on the other. Slowly Clint sat down on the coffee table in front of her.

“So. How was…shopping?”

“Good.” Natasha said.

“Did you…talk?”

“Are you asking if in the last four hours of shopping with Holly if we talked at all? No Clint we stood in silence next to each other.”

“Nat.”

“No. No I didn’t. Why would I?”

“Because you’ve always wanted to know? Because Holly is the first real lead in the case of your identity ever? Because it would have been the easiest thing in the world?”

It wasn’t easy though. Somehow her thoughts appeared on her face without her consent. Clint stopped looking so indignant.

“You can’t run from this forever.”

“I’m not running.”

“I know you’re afraid Nat.” Clint said reaching out and placing a hand on her knee. He ignored her death glare and continued. “You don’t know where you’re from. You don’t know if you can blame what you became in the Red Room on Hydra or if some of it comes from your blood.”

“That is not…”

“Don’t lie to me. Not right now. You’re afraid that if you go looking for your family you won’t like what you find.” Clint said, he leaned forward a little. “But you’ve got to understand this. No matter what happens, you will always be my family. No matter what you find in your past I’m still going to be here and so are the rest of us.”

She looked away from his kind eyes and down at the gifts she’d been given. A lifetime of training kept anything close to tears from her eyes, but she still felt it.

“I’ve got to get ready.” Clint let go of her and didn’t say anything as she picked up her gifts and left the penthouse, walking a bit quicker than she normally would’ve.

She spent the next hour getting ready. Ignoring the gifts, she’d already opened and the one she hadn’t, she carefully shaved her legs and painted her nails. She was meticulous with it, spending longer than needed on each task to ensure that every part of her looked perfect. She probably spent upwards of twenty minutes making sure her eyeliner set properly. She almost forgot what she was getting ready for.

Jarvis was there to remind her.

“Miss, the party guests are arriving.”

“Thanks Jarvis, let Tony know I’ll be up there in a few minutes.”

“Of course, Miss. And if I may make a suggestion?”

“What?”

“Open Miss Holly’s gift.”

She glared at nothing, wearing a tight dress that she knew would make men flock into her web unaware that she could consume them at any moment. The dress screamed danger and lust and heady attraction. It was the perfect dress to wear when she felt so off balance. Carefully she walked over to the bed where she’d tossed the other gifts. She picked up the wrapped box again.

“It’s never going to stop popping up is it?”

“No Miss. Holly told me she enchants her gifts so that they stay near the recipient.”

“Of course.” She sighed and lifted up the lid.

She almost dropped the box.

Sitting there folded up so neatly was a Prussian blue sweater. She reached out and touched the carefully knitted material, it was soft almost like cashmere. She pulled the sweater out of the box. It looked to be just the right size, perhaps a bit bigger than Natasha would normally wear. Then again her go to was skin tight. On the center was the letter ‘N’ in white yarn. It looked very similar to the sweaters that Holly wore, although the material for Natasha’s was much finer and the sweater overall was slightly slimmer.

Without questioning it too much, Natasha slipped the sweater on over her head. The moment she pulled it all the way down and got her arms through the sleeves she felt her eyes water. Tears rolled down her cheeks, slightly ruining her perfect contour. She sat down on the bed holding a hand to her mouth as the sensations rushed through her.

Admiration.

Respect.

Love.

Everything Holly felt for her seeped from the wool and into Natasha’s skin. It reminded her of the times Clint had given her a hug. Or the way Tony had lost a week’s worth of sleep to create new armor for her after her SHIELD issued one failed to keep her safe. It was just like the way Steve trusted her implicitly on a mission or the way Thor always treated her with respect, like an equal. She remembered all the ways Coulson had stuck his neck out for her as she started out and the way Fury never implied she was still working for Hydra.

It took her a few minutes to calm down but when she did she knew what she needed to do.

“Jarvis, tell Tony I need a few more minutes.”

Five minutes later Natasha Romanoff walked out of the tower’s elevator wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and her new sweater. Her eyes looked over the small crowd of people until she spotted a now familiar dark mane. She beelined over to the witch who was talking with Clint.

“Holly.” Nat said.

“Natasha! You’re wearing it!”

“I didn’t know today was my birthday.” She said. “I was taken as a child by Hydra. I don’t know where I’m from or when I was born or…who my family was. But you knew my birthday.”

Holly blinked, first her face showed shock and then slowly it came around to realization.

“I…”

“Can you help me find my family?” Natasha asked ignoring Clint’s very excited look.

“Yes. Yes of course I can. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow.”

It was a promise and Natasha had no doubt that the woman would keep it.

Chapter 13: Parenting 101

Summary:

Clint gets a call from his wife about his daughter Lila. Apparently she's been suspended for getting into a fight. What's a busy superhero dad to do?

Notes:

Hey guys! You all have been so amazing and supportive of this story! Thank you so much for the Birthday wishes too! I had a great time!

Are you going to be back home soon?

Why? What’s wrong Laura?

It’s Lila. She’s been suspended.

Clint Barton stared at his phone in shock. His daughter? Was his wife talking about their daughter, the sweetest girl in existence? Slowly he shook his head and pressed a button, lifting the phone up to his ear. His wife answered his call almost immediately.

“What?”

“I know.” She said. “I thought it was just a phase when I first got the call about her causing trouble at school.”

“What trouble? Laura, I don’t want you hiding things from me just because you don’t want me to worry.”

“I wasn’t!” She defended, sounding almost offended by the very idea. “I got a call from Lila’s teacher, that old bag of hot air.”

“Mr. Anderson?”

“The very one.” She confirmed. “He called me a few weeks ago and told me that Lila had broken a bunch of beakers in the science lab. I asked Lila about it and she said it was an accident and so I didn’t think anything more about it. Then a week ago I got another call from her gym teacher.”

“Is that the one with the huge mole on her cheek?”

“No.”

“The one who can’t tell the difference between a basketball and a soccer ball?”

“No. Clint, the other one. The one who runs the swim team.”

“Glass eye!” Clint said snapping his fingers in recognition.

“Yes.” Laura said sighing in exasperated fondness. “She called me and said that Lila was sneaking around the pool during swim time and got into a fight with some other girls. Ended up destroying a dozen different plastic container of pool cleaners.”

“What?”

“That’s what I said too! I asked Lila and she swore up and down that she had no idea how those things got on everyone but that it wasn’t her fault.”

“You believed her, right?”

“Of course, I did! I figured one of the other girls she’s been having problems with at school did it and lied about it to the teacher. I know our daughter better than that.”

“So why is she suspended then?”

“Today I got called out of work to go pick her from school. Apparently, Lila got into a fight with the same girls. And since she’s your daughter you know that she wouldn’t just back down.”

“Oh, definitely not.” Clint said grinning a little too hard. If the frustrated noise his wife made on the other end of the line was any indication, she knew he was smug. How he loved her. “So, she got suspended for showing those girls who’s boss?”

If that was the case, then there was definitely Ice Cream in order.

“No, she got suspended for lighting one of the girls on fire.”

“What? That can’t be right!”

“I saw the girl myself. Apparently, the moment the girl’s pants caught on fire, she started to scream and Lila jumped off of her. A teacher got the fire out before the girl was seriously burned but there’s no doubt that Lila was the one who did it. There were too many witnesses.” Laura said.

“But…but why would she do that?”

Lila was probably the sweetest 10-year-old girl in the world. She was also fiery and independent. If you were nice to her, she could be like a cute little puppy but if you were a bully, then Lila was more like a snarling bulldog. Despite that, never once had she ever shown signs of violent behavior. Not in any worrying way. Sometimes she got into tussles with her younger brother but that was normal.

“I don’t know. I tried talking to her, but she just went up to her room and locked the door.” Laura said. “I’m really worried, honey do you think you can sneak away for a while? It’s been quiet with your team.”

Clint thought about the different responsibilities he had on his plate and wondered how many of them he could push onto Nat without her getting too annoyed with him. It didn’t matter what it cost him, he was going to be in Missouri as soon as physically possible. Behind him he heard the door open and turned to see that Holly had come in to clean. He didn’t mind if the witch knew about his family. If Nat had decided that the woman was trustworthy enough to find her family, then Clint had literally nothing to fear. The rest of the team knew because Cooper had begged to meet them for his birthday last year and it had made getting back home more often a lot easier.

Sometimes Tony would just push a first-class plane ticket in his hands and tell him to stop sighing like a homesick little girl.

How a man could be so generous and that much of a prick all at once, Clint would never know.

“I’ll figure out how I can get home as soon as I can sweetheart. I promise.” Clint said. “I just can’t believe that our little girl would do something like that. It’s so out of character.”

“I know. I know.” She said. “Thank you, honey.”

“You do not need to thank me for being a good father. I should be thanking you for putting up with me and my ridiculous lifestyle.”

Laura laughed and told him that she deserved a pay raise for all the stress he put her through. Clint told her that he’d put in the request as soon as he could but for now, she’d just have to deal with being paid in hugs, kisses, and hand made macaroni art. They said their goodbyes and Clint promised to call her the moment he knew when he could leave New York. Holly waited until he put the phone down and turned to look at her.

“So.” She said. “Should I have knocked before stepping out of the elevator?”

“No. I should’ve taken the call in my room, not out here in the open. I’m just so used to everyone up here knowing about…”

“You do not need to tell me anything. I signed a security contract, I’m under legal obligation to keep anything I might overhear under my hat.”

Clint rolled his eyes at her tone. She acted like they weren’t friends or something even though Holly was the only one who was regularly in the tower who would indulge Clint and his love of video games. She didn’t mind taking a break from her cleaning to play a round or two of Mario Kart and they always had a great time ribbing on each other. Beneath her kind, very British exterior was a competitive streak a mile wide.

Plus she’d forgiven him for his pranks.

“I’m married with two kids. Nobody but the team knows because I don’t want my family to be in danger. They live in a secure location and when I visit home I go by a different name.” Clint explained.

Holly looked quite awed by the reveal, and excited. She nearly skipped over to him and reached into her the pocket of her uniform. She fished around a bit before she pulled out her wallet. She opened it up to reveal some moving magical photos. There was one of a young boy, with bright blue hair, who looked just a bit older than Lila standing next to Holly.

“This is Teddy.” She said pointing at the little boy. “He’s my godson. His parents died at the end of the war when he was just a few months old and there wasn’t anyone left to care for him but me and his elderly grandmother. So, when I wasn’t on missions…”

“You were parenting him.” Clint said. “And you did that for ten years?”

“Yep. It was stressful trying to balance my work with Teddy’s needs, thankfully I can teleport very large distances so visiting him frequently wasn’t a huge problem.”

Clint picked up his phone and showed the one secret picture he had on there of his family. Holly cooed over his children and soon enough Clint found himself sipping on magically made tea and knee deep in a competition to see whose kid was better. Of course, neither of them said that’s what it was. But they were both boasting pretty hard about how great their respective charges were. Admitting it was a competition was just superfluous at that point.

Teddy was apparently a metamorphagus, or a natural shapeshifter. Which while Clint could admit was pretty awesome, he still insisted it had nothing on Cooper’s finger painting skills. The boasts were in good fun and it was wonderful being able to gush about his children. Especially with someone who understood what it was like trying to raise a family right while also saving the world. He told plenty of stories about the amazing things his children had done over the years.

It took over an hour for Clint to finally start talking about his current problem.

“So now I have to somehow get time off even though the Avengers are getting called out more and more often and we’re all needed.”

“Hmm.” She said thoughtfully. “Lila said she didn’t make the cleaning bottles break?”

“Yeah? Why does that matter?”

“And then the fire? Did anyone see her use a lighter or a match or did the fire just start?”

“I…I don’t know. Why are you asking?”

“Oh. It’s probably nothing.” She said before changing the subject. “How about instead of getting time off you bring your family here?”

“Are you crazy? I just said that they’re in our safe house for a reason!”

“I know.” She said. “But Clint. I do have magic. A snap of my fingers and their identities will be perfectly shrouded. You could shout down in the streets who they were, and no one would notice. Trust me, I’d never endanger children like that. Especially not two children so accomplished.”

“But why can’t I just go down there?” Clint asked, part of him shifted in unease at the idea of letting his family anywhere near magic. That stuff was dangerous.

“Because you’re right. The Avengers are very busy. If you went down there right now, you might only be able to stay for a few hours before you’d need to head back for something.” She said. “Whatever’s going on with your daughter is going to take time to unravel. If you bring her here, you can give her that time. Trust me on this one.”

Clint still didn’t necessarily feel convinced and Holly must have realized that.

“This tower is one of the most secure places in the world and your family will be staying with a literal god as added protection.” She said. “Maybe your daughter needs a different environment for awhile to open up, or at the very least she needs to learn better ways to channel her anger and I happen to know a guy who is pretty good with that.”

That actually made Clint laugh, he put his mug of tea down and grinned at the witch across from him.

“Alright fine. I’ll talk to Tony about having them flown in, that is if the wife agrees. But I want you putting that spell on them as soon as possible.” If he was going to start trusting Holly, truly trusting her, then he had to believe that despite how…off magic really was, that Holly had it under control. She was right, she’d never hurt an innocent kid.

“Of course. You’ve my word.” She said patting him on the arm. “Just let me know when they’re coming, and I’ll be there day or night. I can put the spell on them without them even knowing, probably for the best actually.”

“Sounds good. I’ll let you know.”

“Great.” She said standing up. “I’m going to get back to work now. I’ve wasted enough time today.”

Clint watched her go and then slowly picked up his phone. He called Laura up again and told him about his idea, keeping out anything about magical spells or the strangest cleaning lady in the universe. To his surprise Laura agreed wholeheartedly, with the understanding that if things went well with Lila, maybe they could do a few family tourist trips together. Clint thought about being able to go have fun with his family, safe under a spell, and smiled.

Maybe he’d been giving magic a bad rap. Holly was just fine with her own magic. She didn’t wave it around in his face all of the time, and she only brought it up when it could be exceedingly useful. It was easy to forget she had it at all. Aside from the fact that she was trying out weird magical experiments with Tony and she took Bruce out to a magical hospital once a week and that she’d given a super soft magical sweater to Natasha.

Yes. Clint decided. Magic was good as long as it was unobtrusive. He certainly didn’t want to get any closer to it than he had to. The spell to protect his family was necessary but beyond that Clint was okay living a completely muggle life. It was another reason he loved going home to Missouri, everything was just as he expected it there. No creepy shapeshifting gods. No horrible mind controlling scepters. Just his wonderful family and his farm.

After a quick conversation with Jarvis and then a slightly longer one with Tony Clint’s family was sent three plane tickets. Tony had offered the use of his private jet and Clint decided that’d probably be safest as long as no one saw who it was that was getting off the jet. It took time to work out when his family would fly out and for how long. Of course, there was the fact that Clint needed to get rooms made up for his kids.

Thankfully each of their floors had two guest rooms and Natasha was more than happy to help him clean up both for Lila and Cooper. Although Nat made Clint clean up his room and make it appropriate for his wife. Holly kept the common areas of their floor clean but didn’t go past the locked doors which Clint appreciated. Even if it meant that he was left with a lot of heavy duty clean up on his own.

He managed.

Laura agreed to fly out the very next day and arrive sometime in the afternoon. They’d be transported from the airport, right off the tarmac by Happy Hogun. Tony’s very trusted driver/bodyguard, and probably the only person other than himself and the team that he’d trust to pick up his family. When they arrived at the tower Holly would, in secret, do her thing. It would be like she hadn’t done any magic at all and his family would be totally unaware of it.

Just as it should be.

He was worried about his daughter and whatever she was going through. He spent most of his free time gnawing at it in his mind. He tired to come up with explanations about why his daughter would be messing around with fire and why his sweet little ray of sunshine would think of doing that to another person. No matter how annoying said person was. He practiced ways to broach the subject with her.

Should he ask about the other girls first? To make it clear that he knows she was probably provoked. Or maybe he could tell her about a few of his Avenger missions and then sneakily ask about school. Wait for her to bring it up when she was comfortable. Perhaps it would be better to be more direct. Just tell her that he knew she’d been suspended and that he wanted to hear her side of the story. Maybe that would scare her off. Wait! He could tell her about all of the times he got in trouble at school, to get some comradery.

Only, well that would reveal more about his childhood than he really wanted his kids to know. He wanted them to live in a world that was kind for as long as he could manage it. So maybe that plan wasn’t very good either. Although, Clint was sure he could make up a story or two. He’d probably only need to talk to Tony for five minutes about his time at MIT and he’d have more than enough source material to work from.

There just had to be a way to reach his daughter without her feeling pressured or judged. Whatever was going on was no doubt serious, fire always was. But he knew his daughter and she was a good kid. Whatever pressure or stress she was facing, she just needed help dealing with it better. Clint wanted nothing more than to support and guide her. He just needed to figure out how.

The more he thought about it the more confident that bringing Lila here to the Tower was a good move. She’d have a change of pace and things to keep her busy while they worked on whatever her problem was. Maybe being far away from the cause of her stress would help her open up! He was glad he’d listened to Holly, she was the only other person he knew who was a parent too. It was nice to have another hero to turn to when there were issues at home.

“Now remember.” Clint said as they all tucked into dinner that evening. “When my family is here, Holly is just the cleaning lady. Not like…a magical war general.”

“Why?” Thor asked. “I am not ashamed of Holly, if you…”

“No Thor.” Steve said. “We all swore an oath to not tell anyone about the magical world, remember? Not even to our families.”

“Right.” Thor said frowning. “But I don’t want to ignore her.”

“Don’t.” Tony said. “You can be as friendly as you want. Just don’t ask her about how many dangerous creatures she felled last year.”

“That I can do.”

“How long do you think they’re going to be here?” Bruce asked.

“No idea. Lila’s been suspended for a week so it might all of next week.” Clint said. “I want to figure out what’s going on with her.”

“I’m not bothered I just need to know how long I should be careful of where I read these.” Bruce said waving his potions book up in the air. The Bruce from six months ago would’ve hated having children around, constantly afraid of something going wrong. But Holly had done something, not magic but still miraculous nonetheless, and slowly Bruce had begun to truly relax around them.

“No longer than a week hopefully.” Clint said. “If it’s any longer than that I’ll be taking time off to go back home.”

“We do need you.” Steve said. “But your family is important, we’ll put up with your absence for as long as you need.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that.”

“It should be good to see them.” Nat said, smiling from her seat, wearing her comfortable blue sweater. A sweater most of them were very jealous of at this point. Holly had made that by hand and it looked so comfortable. Besides Nat had said one morning that when she wore it, she didn’t have nightmares. Natasha wore that sweater rather frequently. Basically, any time she didn’t have to be seen in public, she was wearing it.

Something about that sweater had done wonders for Nat. Maybe it was just what the sweater represented or maybe there was magic hidden within the yarn. Holly had said she hadn’t done any spells on it, that she’d only used a few spells to help speed the knitting process along so that it’d be ready for Nat’s birthday. Despite this it still managed to leave Nat looking truly sure of herself. Not in her combat skills or her status as Black Widow. Nat wasn’t delusional about her abilities. But in that sweater she seemed genuinely comfortable with herself.

Clint loved it. Loved that she felt so at peace. It was something he never thought he’d see in his friend.

“I agree!” Thor said. “Your children are delightful! I am quite interested to see how much larger they have grown! Humans age so quickly, it’s wonderful!”

“You saw them 6 months ago.” Clint said.

“And surely they must be nearly adults now!”

“No. Thunder Dome, we age fast but not that fast.”

Much of the rest of dinner was learning how slowly Asgardians age and finding a way to compare how fast humans age. Everyone carefully skirted around the fact that Thor had been alive long before they had existed and would be around for centuries after they were gone. There were some things in life that could be changed and there was no point on focusing on those that couldn’t.

The next day, after going over his floor to make sure everything was perfect, he went with Happy to the airport. He was there when Stark’s personal jet landed, and he stood happily right at the bottom of the stairs. A good thing to because Cooper nearly flew out of the plane in his haste to greet him and Clint had to catch him mid-leap. He held his young son to his chest and spun them around whooping happily.

His wife appeared from the plane next making her way more carefully down the steps than their son had. When Clint finally put down his very excited little boy he reached out to his wife and planted a kiss on her lips. There was nothing better on this green earth than giving Laura Barton a peck on the lips in Clint’s humble opinion. He hugged his wife too and then pulled back to look up.

Lila was frowning as she walked down the steps of the fancy private jet. She had on a purple sparkly backpack and matching shoes.

“Hey sweetheart.”

“Hi dad.”

“Wanna come down and give me a hug?”

She nodded and gave him a hug, it felt halfhearted and Clint knew his daughter was distracted and troubled. He didn’t say anything about it, just ruffled her hair and told his family that they were going to have a great time in New York. He helped Happy get the bags from the plane and into the trunk while Laura got the children into the limo. Most of the ride home was filled with Cooper’s excited chattering. The five-year-old had a lot of plans and wishes for what they were going to do on their vacation.

Lila just looked out the window, her normally bubbly personality subdued.

Clint exchanged worried looks with his wife as Happy drove them back to the tower. When they arrived, Happy drove them to the private entrance that only the Avengers and…well Holly had access to. Holly was there, Clint spotted her out of the corner of his eye. She waved her wand in a complicated manner in the direction of his family. Nothing visibly happened but Holly seemed pleased. She sent him a thumbs up before going out a side door. No one noticed a thing.

He took his family into the elevator, thanking Happy for the ride. Laura poked at their two children and both of them responded by thanking Happy too. The gruff man accepted them with a nod and a small amount of grumbling. They rode up to the penthouse where the team was waiting to greet them. Cooper was jumping from foot to foot, trying to contain his energy. When the elevator opened Cooper burst into the room.

“HELLO AVENGERS!”

They had a late lunch with Cooper telling everyone who would listen about his Kindergarten class. Of course, all of the Avengers were fascinated, or at least pretended to be so. Lila just sulked in her seat, moving her food around her plate with her fork. Laura whispered in his ear that she’d been like this since the fire incident. Taciturn and removed. He just sat next to his daughter and hoped that he could manage a real conversation with her.

As they were finishing up their lunch, the elevator dinged open to reveal Holly pushing her cleaning cart.

“Good afternoon Avengers. Don’t mind me, just here to clean up. I’ll be out of your hair in just a moment.”

“You’ve got a cleaning lady?” Cooper asked, his eyes wide as he learnt about something that he clearly considered the height of luxury.

“Sure do kid. We’re superheroes, we don’t have time to clean up.” Tony said.

“Woah.” He turned and looked at Holly who smiled politely at him, her greens eyes sparkling in amusement. “What do you do?”

“Well I clean the floors and windows, I make sure everything is tidied up and I take care of their laundry.”

“Can you clean playrooms?”

“I can clean anything.”

“Wow.” Cooper said. “Can you come to my house and clean my room for me?”

“Cooper!” Laura scolded.

“Can you pay me? This is my job and you shouldn’t ever do work for free.” Holly asked ignoring Laura’s scold. Cooper looked very thoughtful for a moment before smiling. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a mostly crumpled plastic box that had once held jelly beans. Now there were only five or so left in the box.

“I can give you my last jelly beans!”

“Hmm.” She said. “Tempting. Mr. Stark, can you match his offer?”

“What?” Tony squawked.

“Can you offer me the same amount or more jelly beans? This young man is offering me quite a deal, I’d be silly not to take it.”

“I don’t…why would I have Jelly Beans? Wait. You’re not serious. Holly we need you here.”

“He’s right.” Holly said. “I’m sorry young man, as generous as your offer is, I can’t accept.”

“Why not?”

“I help the Avengers and they need me so that they can keep saving the world. Do you understand?”

Cooper nodded solemnly before looking down at his candy. Carefully he held it out as an offering. Holly’s face split into a huge smile and Clint wondered if his heart could melt because he felt all goopy inside. Holly took the box and carefully opened it. She took out one jelly bean and popped it into her mouth and then she offered the box to Cooper. They shared the remaining beans while the team watched.

“Thank you.” She said. “You are very kind.”

She straightened up putting the crumbled box carefully into her uniform pocket. Like it was a valuable keepsake.

“That was a very nice thing to do Cooper.” Clint said. “Holly’s one of the nicest ladies I know.”

Cooper beamed as Holly moved away quickly cleaning up the penthouse. The conversation turned back to plans everyone had for the next few days, Holly easily blending into the background. It wasn’t until Holly pushed her cart past Lila’s seat that something interesting happened. Lila perked up a little, blinking in confusion while Holly did the same. Holly looked down at his ten-year-old daughter with a bit of bemusement and confusion.

“Hullo.” She said.

“Hi.” Lila said. “Is there…something wrong?”

“Not so far as I’m aware. But I do have a question for you if you don’t mind me asking one?”

Lila, who hadn’t taken her eyes off of Holly at all, nodded slowly. Her sparkly purple barrettes shifted in her hair. Holly bent down so that she was eye level with Lila.

“Has anything unexplainable ever happened to you?”

“Like what?”

“Like…bottles exploding when you’re upset or doors unlocking with keys?” Holly asked, Lila gasped lifting a hand to cover her mouth.

“How’d you know?”

“When I was seven, I was running from some bullies and I got so scared that I just wanted to get as far away as possible. Then suddenly my stomach was tingling, and I popped up to the roof of my school.”

“Popped?”

“One minute I was on the ground and the next I was holding onto the chimney. I had no idea how I got up there.” Lila was looking at Holly like she was answering every single one of her silently prayed prayers. Something dark began to snake around in Clint’s gut. “Has something like that ever happened to you?”

“Some girls were making fun of me and we…we got into a fight. She was lying about me and I…my stomach felt all weird and then her pants were on fire!”

Liar liar pants on fire. Clint swallowed back a lump in his throat.

“It’s alright.” Holly said, reaching out and placing a hand on Lila’s shoulder. “It’s normal.”

“It’s not! I’m…I’m some sort of freak!” Holly’s face spasmed for a moment before she calmed it down.

“I’m not a freak and I did things like that when I was your age.” Holly said. “That means you’re not one either. Plenty of people have things like this happen.”

“If I’m not a freak then what am I?” Lila demanded.

“You’re a witch Lila.”

“I’m a-”

“No.” Clint said his voice cutting through the conversation like a knife. He stood up his chair scraping against the marble floor. “You take that back. There is no way I’m going to let my daughter have…have magic!”

Holly stood up, her hands on her hips, a defiant look in her eye.

“That is not your choice to make.” She said. “She has it whether you like it or not.”

“Well take it away!” Clint demanded. “My daughter is not going to turn into some mind ra-”

Holly snapped her fingers and a burst of magic spread out from the noise. Clint found himself abruptly squished as if his body was being pushed through a too small tube. His vision twisted and went dark before turning normal again. He landed on the ground a moment later. He gasped and coughed so hard he thought he might see stars. He felt Holly grab him by his shirt and pull him to his feet.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Holly demanded shaking Clint a little. Clint pushed Holly away and stumbled to get some distance.

“You’re lying!” Clint said. “My daughter can’t have magic! She’s good and pure and…”

“And I’m not?”

“Magic is a weapon! A dangerous weapon.” Clint spat. “Loki’s the god of it and we’ve all seen what he can do! Damn it, Holly you fought a whole damn war against magic!”

“I didn’t fight against magic I fought against fascists, you bigoted asshole!”

They were standing in a forest somewhere, far from civilization for all Clint knew. He was shaking, trembling with what he hoped was rage but was probably just fear.

“Loki unmade me! He put that scepter to my chest, and he took away everything that made me me and replaced it with nothing but blue! There’s no way in hell I’m letting anyone I care about get close to something that sick!”

“Oh, don’t act so special! Everyone I know’s been put under mind control at least once! Get over it and start thinking clearly!”

“Clearly?” Clint asked. “You want clearly? I’ll give you fucking clearly! Magic nearly destroyed this planet when Loki invaded. It almost destroyed you! Without magic you wouldn’t have had a prophecy and you wouldn’t have had to be a war general at 17! Magic is just this thing that twists and twists and corrupts everything it touches!”

Words, words that Clint didn’t even know he’d been thinking deep in his heart spilled out of his mouth like sludge. Holly stared at him, her jaw set and her eyes sparkling with indignation. Clint kept going the words getting away from him. He should have expected the slap across the face. The stinging bright red handprint finally stemmed the tide.

“Clint.” Holly said. “Your daughter thinks she’s a freak. She’s terrified that she’s evil because she accidentally set some pants on fire because of her magic.”

Clint kept breathing, holding a hand to his face to put pressure on his cheek. He looked at her and felt something like guilt and horror settle on his shoulders.

“And now because you’re scared of what happened to you, you’ve made your daughter think that you believe she’s evil and freakish. Is that what you wanted? To make her think she was a Loki-in-training?”

“No.” He croaked out. He’d never want that.

“Magic isn’t evil. People are, or at least they choose to be.” Holly said. “Magic is just an expression of a person’s inner soul, reflecting their choices and desires. Your daughter has a lifetime of choices ahead of her to help her build a magic that’s good and that makes good things. She won’t have an easy time of it if she thinks her dad hates her for being born with a gift. Trust me, I know.”

The realization of what he’d been about to say before Holly magicked them away almost made him want to gag. He couldn’t believe he’d just…

“It’s awful. Every time I think about magic, I’m reminded of those three damn days. I killed friends and I did so many awful things that I can’t forget. The whole time I knew what I was doing, I was eager to betray everything I knew and believed. I wasn’t me, I wasn’t anybody.”

“I know. I know how awful it can be to be put under mind control but Clint you have to put it behind you. If you don’t all you’ll do us hurt your daughter.” Holly said. “Your lovely daughter who has magic so bright and pure. Clint when you think of magic think of the way Lila’s smile lights up a room. Think about the wonderful pictures she used to draw that looked like they moved a little. Remember how despite her mixing up the salt and sugar on her cookies they still taste amazing.”

Memories he’d shared of his daughter, instances of magic that he hadn’t recognized for what they were. Clint shook a little and felt his knees bend without his permission. Holly followed him to the ground. They were both kneeling in the wet grass.

“Magic is the way Bruce smiles without a hint of paranoia in his eyes. Magic makes sweaters that can calm assassins. Magic heals a mind wrecked by age and trials. Magic is a miracle just when you least expect it. It’s that moment of suspense right before you let an arrow loose. Magic is mercy and love and greatness. It’s all of these things Clint.” Holly said pulling Clint into a hug. “Close your eyes, can’t you feel it?”

Clint’s eyes fell closed slowly and everything around them, from the wind blowing through the trees to the birds, fell silent. At first there was nothing, less than nothing even. Clint had no idea how long he sat there, his head on Holly’s shoulder. But suddenly he felt it. A hum in the back of his mind, almost like the noises he’d hear from the fridge at night as a kid. It felt like a long-forgotten song, he could almost taste the lyrics on his tongue. More importantly it felt like love and home. He gasped his eyes, his eyes opening.

He pulled out of the hug and looked at Holly. She was literally glowing with power. Her skin was gold and silver light and her hair was floating a little with the energy. Her eyes looked almost white with the magic that she’d hidden deep inside. He realized how silly he’d been thinking magic was just something Holly put aside. No. Holly was magic and he would never forget that.

So was his daughter.

“Clint.” She said. “I am so sorry that you were hurt so but it wasn’t magic that did it, not purposefully. Magic is a tool and Loki used that tool to maim and unmake. But you can’t blame magic for it, not when your daughter needs you.”

Slowly the magic died down, seeping back into Holly’s skin as if it had never been there in the first place.

“You’re right.” He said. “I’m sorry I said those things.”

“Better you say them now than when Lila can overhear.”

“You still shouldn’t have to hear it. Not after…”

“It’s not anything I haven’t heard before and I forgive you for it Clint. As long as you promise to do better.”

“Of course.” Clint was startled to realize he’d meant it. From that one hug, or maybe it was Holly’s words and her magic, but something in him mended a little. He still despised Loki but his mind was clear. Magic wasn’t evil, not in the way he’d let himself believe. It couldn’t be when it shined so brightly in Holly’s eyes. He swallowed back the guilt that accused him of being just like his own father and looked up at Holly. “We need to go back, now. I have to talk to Lila!”

Holly hopped up and held out a hand. She smiled at him and promised to be gentler on the way back. He took her hand and found she actually meant it. Teleportation was still awful but at least he didn’t land face first onto the marble floor. They arrived in the penthouse to see Lila missing and Laura having a conversation with Thor about the magical world. Nat and Tony were distraction Cooper.

“Where’s Lila?”

“Clint, Thor’s just explained some things and I swear to g-d if you say anything to our daughter about her…”

“I won’t. I’m sorry I freaked out. I’m going to apologize right now.” Laura immediately calmed down and told him where she thought their daughter had run off too. Jarvis confirmed it helpfully telling him exactly where his daughter was. Clint rushed away from everyone.

He took the stairs four at a time, nearly flying down them in his haste. He found his daughter sniffling in a hallway closet. Clint, his chest heaving with exertion slid down to the ground without opening it. He knocked a little.

“Go away! You hate me now!”

“Oh, lovebug I could never hate you.”

“I’m a monster!”

“No. No you’re my baby girl, my special wonderful baby girl. I’m so sorry I got angry, your daddy has had some bad experiences with magic but that doesn’t mean magic is bad. I shouldn’t have yelled at you or made you feel bad. I was wrong.”

There was only silence for a little while. Clint focused on getting his breathing under control.

“You mean it?” Lila asked her voice wobbling, but thankfully a little closer to the door.

“With all my heart.” After a few seconds the door opened and Clint pulled his daughter into a hug. She sobbed into his neck and clung to him. Clint just held her, rocking them both back and forth, whispering about how wonderful she was and how amazing she was going to be with her magic. It took ten minutes for Lila to calm down fully and when she did, Clint rubbed her face clean with his thumbs. “There, feeling better?”

“Yeah.”

“I am sorry, Lila. I shouldn’t have said that. You’re perfect just the way you are, magic and all.”

“Can…can we go talk to Holly some more? About my magic? I don’t want to hurt anyone with it.”

“Of course. Let’s go up there right now.”

Holly was waiting for them on the same floor, sitting on a couch with her wand and a large leather-bound book. She smiled at Lila and didn’t comment on the red eyes and sniffling nose.

“Lila?” Holly said. “This is for you.”

She held the book out carefully. Clint could read the title, it read out ‘The Complete Magic Encyclopedia’. Lila took it carefully, opening it and gasping at the moving image inside. It looked like a herd of unicorn running through the woods.

“That book will help answer any questions you have about magic. It’s got a lot of information in it, almost as much as google. It’s my personal copy, which means it’s connected to every book I have in my whole library. If you have a question just open it up and ask it. It should turn to the right page.”

“Thank you.” Lila said, barely even looking up from the carefully crafted illuminated pages.

“I also have an offer for you, if you’d like.”

“What?”

“While you’re here in New York, how about I give you a few lessons? That way you have enough control on your magic that it doesn’t explode anything or hurt anyone. Would you like that?”

“I’d love that.” Lila said, looking at Holly with hero worship in her eyes. Clint realized that he had the same look in his own as he looked at the kind woman who’d slapped his face so hard it would probably bruise.

“Great!” Holly said. “Let’s get started!”

Chapter 14: What do a Robot and a Broomstick have in Common?

Summary:

Tony takes Holly out into the country to teach her how to drive a car. It's a skill everyone should have and it's not like it's all that difficult to learn. Right?

Notes:

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for the great comments last week! As always I'm blown away by the amount of interaction I get with you guys! Sorry this chapters a bit shorter than normal. Grad school keeps a girl busy!

“I still don’t understand why exactly we’re doing this.” Holly said, her arms folded over her chest. She was pouting, like a little girl. Or like Thor now that Tony thought about it. Both of them did the same exact lip tremble.

“Come on, Glinda.” Tony grinned at the woman in the driver’s seat. “We’ve been working on the magic-tech problem for hours today. It’s time for a break before we blow ourselves up by accident.”

“But why do we have to take that break in a car?” She glared at the wheel in front of her.

“Don’t tell me you’re scared.”

“Tony, I don’t know how to drive, and this car must have cost a fortune.”

“Oh, it did, but don’t worry about that, I have like three fortunes in my back pocket just in case.” Tony said. “And it’s simple. Just put the car into reverse.”

“How?” She really needed to get a better attitude. There was nothing more enjoyable than driving an expensive sports car.

“Have you honestly never driven a car before?” Tony asked. Holly shook her head. “Okay fine. Just…do that there and then pull that and…”

Tony mostly spoke with his hands and thankfully Holly was used to that. She followed his directions on how to turn on the million dollar car and pulled it into reverse. Tony had taken her out of the city and to some empty countryside where he had some of his nicer cars stored in a secure warehouse. All in the name of taking a break. For the past however many weeks they’d been trying to do this, Tony had slaved over different tech designs that Holly would then cast magic at and break. He’d started to feel a bit manic now at the consistent failures. Which was probably the only reason Holly had agreed to this driving lesson in the first place.

Her knuckles were white on the leather covering of the wheel as she tried to navigate out of the parking space and towards the exit of the warehouse. The entire time Tony kept up a monologue in her ear about taking it nice and easy and staying calm and that she was doing just fine. He saw her get more and more frustrated and he could almost hear her internal monologue.

Do not hex Iron Man. Do Not Hex Iron Man. DO NOT HEX IRON MAN.

“Tony maybe you could quiet down for a moment?” She asked before she broke and hit him and before Tony broke into laughter at her annoyance. “Trying to concentrate here.”

“Right.” He said. “Sorry, just maybe doN’T RUN INTO THAT WALL!”

She slammed onto the breaks and stopped mere centimeters from the wall she’d almost accidentally backed into.

“Maybe try going forward now?”

“Shut up Tony.” She said as she carefully shifted into the next gear. Of course, when she did that the car died. She growled and tried again. And again. And again. “Why is this so complicated?”

Tony didn’t think he’d seen anyone struggle that much to get a car into first gear before. He explained the process again but didn’t get any real results. It wasn’t complicated, she just had to press one pedal down a certain amount while shifting the gear stick.

“It’s really not that bad.”

“Says you.” She snarled finally managing to get the stupid vehicle into 1^st gear. She pressed forward turning the wheel and pointing the car as best she could towards the exit. Tony started praising and correcting her again in an almost incomprehensible manner. Once she got out of the exit and onto the dirt road she tried to shift into the next gear.

The car died.

She kicked at the car, her foot hitting the plastic covering on the upper part of the drivers seat.

Tony giggled.

“I’d like to see you do so well on a broom.”

“A broom?” Now something about that made Tony’s mechanical heart beat just a bit quicker.

“Yes. We don’t have cars in the magical world we have flying brooms.” She said. “And I bet if you tried to fly in one, you’d land flat on your face.”

Why had he never been told about the flying brooms? Maybe she’d brought it up before, but it was only now registering in his brain. Holy shit, they flew on brooms. He had to be a part of that. He had to. There was literally no other way this afternoon could go.

“Oh really? You wanna put your money where your mouth is Miss Potter?”

“You are so on, Mr. Stark.”

She pushed open the door of the car, eager for the excuse to get out of the car she’d fought so hard against getting inside of, and waved her hand, conjuring two brooms. Who knew where they came from. They didn’t look normal brooms, they were stylized and had metal pegs coming out the side, he assumed for the user to put their feet on. She tossed one at Tony who immediately caught it as he got out of the car himself. They both walked towards the nearby field, the entire place was private property of Tony’s which meant that it was deserted. They stood in the grass and Holly instructed Tony to put his broom on the ground and then hold out his hand.

“Now just say up.” She said. “Like so. Up!”

Her broom jumped right into her hand. She motioned for Tony to do the same. He huffed.

“Up.” Nothing happened. “Up!”

The broom at his feet rolled a little as if to show that it had heard Tony but didn’t much care for his tone.

“Hmm…It’s not very effective.” She said, her tone far more amused than it had any right to be. Had she not just stalled his car fifteen times in a row?

“Did you really just make a Pokémon reference?”

“Clint’s gotten me hooked on them.”

“Of course, he has. Up!” The broom still didn’t listen to him. What the hell? Was it defective?

“At least I got your car to move.” Tony gave her a very offended look and tried again. This time ordering the broom up with something akin to a threat in his voice. The broom didn’t seem to hear him. “You know plenty of men your age have a hard time getting it up. Performance issues are totally natur…”

“Do not.” Tony said. “I will figure this out and then you’ll be sorry.”

“Right right.” She consoled. For the next ten minutes Tony tried every sort of version of the word ‘Up’ he could think of. From various different languages to turns of phrases until he descended into frustrated insults and threats. The broom didn’t twitch at all.  “Tony you’re doing it wrong.”

“What?” Tony stopped his rather creative threat to the broom and looked up at the witch who was still holding her broom and looking at him as if she was mystified.

“Think of the broom like…like it’s Dum-E or U.”  She said. “Is this how you’d ask Dum-E to do something for you?”

“Of course not.” Tony said. “Dum-E’s my buddy, not some stupid piece of wood.”

“Aren’t there people that just call Dum-E just a pile of metal gears?” His jaw dropped a little as he considered that. Slowly he stooped down and looked at the broom.

“So it’s like Dum-E?”

“Maybe not as sentient as one of your bots.” She said. “But all enchanted objects have feelings in the simplest of terms. You can force an enchanted object to work for you if it doesn’t want to if you’re powerful enough but most of the time the objects will resist working with someone they don’t like. Think about Thor’s hammer. It’s very picky about who it will even let pick it up.”

“Huh.” He said. “And all magic items are like that?”

“Pretty much. Wands, brooms, even magical trinkets like enchanted chessboards work better with people they like.”

“Enchanted chess boards?” His mind caught up on the concept of a magic chess board, he shook his head. It wasn’t the time. “Wait. Later. Back to this broom. It’ll let me use it if it likes me?”

“It’s why the car feels so weird to me.” She explained. “I’m used to using devices that have feelings, people like Jarvis and your bots are far more normal to me than a car that…well it feels empty. I can’t talk to it on a magic to magic level like I can with my broom or with my wand.”

“So, you can’t learn to drive then?”

“No, I will learn. Just like I’m learning to paint.” She said something prickly in her voice. Tony kept back a smirk. He’d seen Holly’s ‘paintings’, they were so poorly done it wasn’t even fair to call them abstract. Nonetheless he’d still managed to pilfer one to hang in the lobby of Avengers Tower. It was supposed to be a painting of Steve, but it didn’t even really look man-shaped. He’d put it in a very fancy frame and given it a vaguely pretentious title. Within two weeks he’d gotten a call from one of the various wealthy people he knew asking about where he’d found such a talented artist. The only reason Holly didn’t know about that painting was because she didn’t use the front entrance to the tower often enough.

He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she saw it for the first time.

“So how do I get it to work then?” Tony asked motioning to the broom.

“How about you try apologizing for being so curt?” What a ridiculous suggestion. Holly’s face made it clear she was serious. Tony scoffed and still her face didn’t change.

“If this is a prank, I will get you back.”

She just lifted up an eyebrow at him as if daring him not to try. Tony rolled his eyes and then looked down at the broom again.

“Hey…broom.” Tony said. “I’m sorry for threatening you with a woodchipper. And the thing about acid might have been crossing a line.”

Was it just a trick of his eyes or had the broom moved a little? Tony swallowed, this was just like Dum-E or U. He knew how to talk to weird things like this.

“I just wanted to fly, you see I can fly in my Iron Man suit but something tells me that flying on you would be so much different.” Tony said slyly. “I’m just imagining it now. The wind whipping around us, flinging through the air at high speeds. Can you do tricks in the air? I bet you could. You look like a well-made broom.”

Yeah, the broom was definitely listening to him and Tony told himself it wasn’t weird.

“So, what do you think? Are you willing to give it a try?” Tony stood up, his knees complaining at the movement. Carefully he held out a hand, just like Holly had done. “Up.”

The broom practically flung itself into his hand, smacking into his palm so hard he almost dropped it. The wooden shaft was practically vibrating with excitement.

“Don’t drop it!” She said with a laugh. Tony didn’t even look at her, too fascinated with the sensation of magic in his hand. It felt different than Loki’s scepter had. This felt whole, not twisted and angry.

“What next?” He asked.

“Put the broom in between your legs like this.” She said. Tony gave her a look at the very idea of putting his precious bits right onto a thin thing of wood. “Don’t worry. Modern brooms have comfort charms for the delicate male rider. Used to be that brooms were mostly for women, a couple of centuries back men started whining about equality in sports and now we have a broom that’s usable for all humanoids.”

Holly said the weirdest shit with such a straight face. He could never tell if she was serious or not. She reminded him of Loki in that way, not that he’d ever said that out loud. Carefully he put the broom between his legs and to his surprise it was very comfortable. It shouldn’t have been, but it felt like he was sitting in a very comfortable motorcycle seat.

“Okay good.” She said. “Now, the next step is to jump.”

“Jump.” She nodded and literally jumped into the air with her broom. Tony shouldn’t have been surprised to see the broom activate and there Holly was levitating five feet above the ground like it was nothing. “Trust your broom and jump. Keep your hands on the shaft, like I’m holding mine.”

It was good then that she broom was at his eye level. Tony nodded, readjusted his grip and jumped, leaping forward. He prepared himself to stumble on the landing only to find there was no landing at all. Instead he felt himself find a more comfortable position in the broom as he legs dangled.

“Open your eyes.”

Had he closed them?

He opened his eyes and then grinned. He was in the air, the broom still trembling with anticipation. Well, who was Tony to deny a lady what she wanted? His hands tightened on the broom and he leaned forward. As he’d been hoping the broom shot forward. It felt just like driving a race car on a track in Italy except better because he wasn’t wearing a safety suit and there wasn’t any friction to hold him back. The magic of the broom seemed able to ignore things like drag.

Behind him he heard Holly shouting out a warning, but Tony was too busy shouting out his excitement to listen to her. He flew through the grassy field at high speeds, his feet finding themselves comfortably fitted on the pedals. He was laying practically vertical on the broom as he used his hands to keep a steady course. The broom kept going faster and faster, without any hesitation.

The forest that surrounded the huge clearing came up way faster than he intended. Tony pulled up on the broom trying to slow down but found himself turning at a near 90 degrees straight up into the sky. His excited yelling turned more fearful as he continued straight upwards. This time there was no Jarvis to correct his flying. He found himself slipping as the broom continued to turn so that he was nearly upside down.

He tried to grab and hold on tightly to the broom, but a gust of wind buffeted him and he fell right off. Before he was able to fall more than half a second, he landed in two surprisingly strong arms.

“Really Tony?” She demanded, looking at him as if she wasn’t holding him like he was a damsel in distress. Her wild hair was sticking out in every direction, just like it had when Mjolnir had electrocuted her. “You couldn’t wait one second for me to explain how it works?”

“Waiting is for suckers.”

“You could have gotten hurt.” She said, her lips twitching.

“A price a man should be willing to pay for science.”

“This isn’t science it’s magic.”

And all at once it hit him. He’d been trying to do science all this time when magic was the answer. He wiggled a little in Holly’s arms as his mind came up with an idea so brilliant, he almost wanted to kiss the witch holding him for inspiring it.

“It’s magic!”

“Uhhh, yes?”

“We have to get to back to the tower. I know what we need to make magic and tech work.”

“Really?”

“The entire time we’ve been trying this I’ve been sciencing my heart out to make a new device that won’t react poorly to magic. But it’s not the device that’s the problem! It’s magic!”

“I’m not following.”

“Magic is emotions with intent right? That’s what you told Lila.” Holly nodded still holding him high in the air. Somewhere in the distance the broom he’d been riding finally landed and impaled itself in the dirt. “Well technology can’t handle emotion. It’s not complicated enough. Jarvis is the most sophisticated tech in the world, and he can barely handle feeling one thing a day!”

“The emotion in the magic burns out the tech, that’s why the cellphones blow up! Their processors can’t handle that sort of energy.” Holly said. Her greens eyes literally sparkled with magic. “Oh Merlin! All we need to do is create a ward that removes the emotion from the magical energy.”

“Can you do it?”

“Can I do it.” She scoffed. “I’ll be a lot better at that than I am at driving a car.”

“You aren’t getting out of those lessons.”

“Come on let’s go get your broom.”

“My broom?”

“Of course, I got it for you as a gift.” She said. “I wanted to teach you how to fly on one since you liked flying in your suit so much. Oh, come on you know the saying. What do you get for a man who has everything?”

She was smiling at him. Having offered him a device that gave him the ability to fly like it was nothing but a mere trinket.

“Something he doesn’t have.” She finished.

She flew them down to the ground, with far more control than Tony had despite the fact that both of her arms were too busy holding Tony steady. They found his broom, it was half apologetic and half upset that Tony hadn’t been able to hold on as far as he could tell. It took the work of moments for Tony to his car re-parked in the garage and then Holly teleported them both back to the tower.

The entire time as they rushed down from the roof to the lab, they babbled at one another about how exactly they could ward to keep emotion out of the magic. There were plenty of wards that could keep specific emotions out of a space, like wards that made a room a literal happy place. The magic identifying certain emotions and removing them while still allowing the magical energy to enter. Holly just had to expand the ward to register and protect against all emotions. No matter how potent.

Holly told him about the Flying Ford Angela. A car that some clever wizard had managed to enchant and had given emotions to quite by accident. The story of the car running off into a magical forest after dropping Holly and her friend off at school had made Tony literally chortle. It seemed that muggle technology had two options when exposed to enough magical energy. Either it could explode because it couldn’t handle the emotions being thrust into it, or it evolved to gain sentience and emotion all on its own. This was finally the breakthrough Tony had been slaving over for who knows how long.

Trick question, Jarvis knew exactly how long he’d been working on this project.

Once in the lab Holly immediately began writing out a bunch of things that looked like an awful mixture of latin and runes while Tony pulled out one of the throwaway Stark Phones he had stored in the lab to replace the ones that the team broke on a weekly basis. As Holly worked, she explained to both Tony and Jarvis how the spell would hopefully work. Tony didn’t think he’d ever seen Holly look this confident. Magic really was her forte.

Holly worked for close to an hour designing the ward. Her hand didn’t even cramp as she wrote out line after line of spell work. Sometimes she’d look at something she created, frown and light the offending piece of paper on fire. Tony tried his best to help but found himself slightly out of his depth. Which was a first and not something he really enjoyed. He needed to get on the studying magic train with Brucie Bear.

All this time he’d been hoping that the answer was in what he already knew. He hadn’t even realized he’d been literally benching Holly the entire time. For hours at a time Holly had been coming down to the lab to help but she hadn’t really been doing much. She sat in a chair and played fetch with Dum-E while waiting for Tony to tell her to magic something. He hadn’t been letting Holly be an equal partner because he hadn’t wanted to rely on magic.

But magic wasn’t so different from science was it?

Tony looked at the broom Holly had gifted him with and then down at Butterfingers. His robot was peering curiously at the broom, even going so far as to poke it. Both magic and science created finicky things that felt far more than they should at times. Both of them were expressions of a human’s ability to create and imagine and feel.

“We’ll need to test it for every emotion I can think of, just in case I missed any or the ward isn’t strong enough to handle something.” She said breaking Tony out of his thoughts.

“Then start with something easy.” Tony said carefully placing the phone on the table they’d cleaned off for this very purpose. It was a stylish black phone with a glassy sheen to it that just screamed well-made.  

“I’ll try excitement.” She said. “I’m feeling pretty excited right now.”

She removed her wand and carefully shot a spell, one designed to change the phone’s color from a sleek black to red, at the phone. It was a low-level simple spell, something that equaled the amount of ambient magic in a wizard congested area. Tony expected it to burst into flames or crack open or make some awful ungodly noise. None of which happened. Instead the phone simply turned a metallic red. Tony and Holly both stood there for far too long, just staring at the phone waiting for something unexpected to happen.

Of course, the phone did the most unexpected thing of all.

It worked.

Tony kept sending texts and making calls and opening apps. The phone worked exactly as it was supposed to. It hadn’t even lost battery power. Holly was literally jumping up and down, her hands clasped over her face to hide her huge grin.

“We did it.” She whispered.

“WE DID IT!” Tony shouted right back. “WHOOO!”

He grabbed her hands and pulled her into a dance. They began to waltz around the room, Holly laughing much to hard to take it seriously. Above their heads Jarvis told them congratulations on the success. Tony kept dancing even when Holly stepped on his toes, they danced until they were both laughed out. Holly pulled back, her cheeks red.

“You did most of it, figuring out a good solution. I just did a little bit at the end.”

“Are you kidding me?” Tony demanded. “You were patient with me while I pulled my head out of my ass.”

She didn’t ask what he meant, somehow she just knew. This was Tony’s way of apologizing for being stubborn. Loki had left a mark on Tony. He didn’t hate magic, not like Clint had. It was more that he was dismissive of it. Untrusting of what it could offer. And that had shown in how he’d treated Holly as she tried to help him with this magic tech problem. Magic represented everything he wasn’t. Or at least that’s what he’d thought. Tony was starting to think he would have made an awesome wizard.

“Well, I’m used to it. It’s been my experience that most men have to do that two or three times a year.”

Thankfully that was Holly’s way of accepting his apology. She giggled at her own joke and Tony laughed with her before clapping her on the back.

“Come on. Let’s try happiness next.” Tony said. “Jarvis! Order us some Chinese, it’s time to do some real testing.”

“Of course sir.”

Chapter 15: God of Thunder, Fertility, and Knitting

Summary:

Holly wakes up from a terrible nightmare and gets some advice and help from the wisest avenger.

Notes:

Hey everybody! Thanks for the amazing comments this last week they've been a joy to read. I'm so sorry this is a day late! I've been busy getting read for field work. I leave in like an hour to go study volcanoes in the woods for two weeks. I'll be without internet access for most of that time as I'll be camping on ancient lava flows most of the time. This means sadly no update next week and the week after that the update might be a little late as I recover from doing miles of hiking with rocks in my backpack each day. Please leave comments on this chapter, whenever I get signal those emails will give me strength to survive the desert heat.
Love ya!

Holly Potter come to die.

Crucio!

Kill the Spare!

Holly sat straight up in her bed so quickly that she nearly apparated herself across the room. The wand she kept under her pillow was in her hand pointing at nothing at all while the flashing of spells long since cast filled her mind. Her chest was heaving like she’d run a marathon and she’d sweat clean through her shirt. Holly’s entire body felt like it was shaking but the hand holding her wand was entirely too steady.

Holly took in huge gasping breaths, lungfuls of air that felt too hot going into her body. To her left the small reading lamp she’d left on by accident exploded in a shower of glass and sparks. She flinched bringing up an arm to cover her face. It took upwards of fifteen minutes to get her breathing under control and when it finally happened she collapsed back into her bed, weakened beyond all belief. She felt cold and clammy.

Carefully she loosened her vice like grip on her wand and rubbed at the tension in her hand. Her eyes slid over to the clock.

2:32

The mechanical clock had survived many many nights like this. Unlike the poor lamps she destroyed. She waved a hand and all of the glass debris was banished to the trash can. She didn’t dare turn on anything in her apartment not until she was much calmer. She cast a few lumos spells to give light to her room.

It seemed at some point in the nightmare she must have decided that her blanket was the enemy. Not only had it been kicked off, but her magic had shredded it. There were scraps of fabric and cotton stuffing spread out everywhere like a bomb had gone off with her bed as the epicenter. Some of the fabric was scorched while others just look like it had lost a fight with a demented pair of scissors.

Her magic had also in her fright overturned most of the furniture she had in the bedroom, including her desk, chair, and drawers. Only the nightstand had survived that because Holly had had the foresight to nail that to the floor. The walls of her bedroom had holes in them as well as burn marks from wayward spells. She made a pained noise as she considered the mess she’d made. All over a silly nightmare.

She knew it wasn’t fair to call it silly. She’d just dreamt about the greatest magical villain that the wizarding world had ever produced. She had every right to be scared.

Even if the tosser had been dead for over a decade now. She was coming up on the 11^th anniversary of the final battle and her sleep was always fractious during the month leading up to it and the month after. No matter what she did. This was also the first time she’d been away from her friends when the anniversary came around. She couldn’t tell if that had made the dreams worse or not.

Almost as if to highlight how odd her dreams had been as a teenager her nightmares now never made much cohesive sense. She just saw scenes of battle, things she’d lived and things she hadn’t. Sometimes she’d get glimpse of loved ones dying in real or imagined scenarios but for the most part her dreams were just flashing lights, explosions and terrible laughter. It annoyed her friends far more than it annoyed her. After all it was impossible to talk about a bad dream when there was nothing of substance to talk about.

She laid in her bed, the sweat drying sticky and awful on her body, and tried to shake the leftover terror. Her thoughts were broken up by the sound of buzzing. She blinked and looked around to see the bracelet Jarvis had gifted her with was doing its level best to be heard. Jarvis had made a few adjustments to the gift over the past few weeks and one of those was that if it was removed from her body that Jarvis would immediately try to contact her. If he couldn’t get in contact with her within fifteen minutes he’d send in the Calvary.

She must have flung it off of her wrist during all of her flailing. She stretched and rolled out on the now half-made bed and picked up the bracelet from the ground. She pressed the button and spoke.

“Jarvis.” She grimaced at the sound. She must have been screaming something fierce.

“Holly are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you.” He said. “You sound awful.”

“Oh, how flattering.” She snapped and then instantly felt guilty. Jarvis didn’t deserve that sort of scathing tone. “Sorry, I just had a nightmare.”

 “A nightmare?”

“Yeah, they happen. Nothing I can do about it. And before you ask, no. I do not want to talk about it.”

There was silent a moment over the speakers of the tiny little bracelet. Holly found herself curling around the bracelet as if it were a teddy bear.

“I understand.” Jarvis said after a moment. “Sir doesn’t like to speak about his own nightmares either. While I have never had a nightmare I can only imagine that they’re unpleasant.”

“They’re not even that scary.” Holly admitted, his voice still so hoarse. “It’s just snatches of things from the war or from the Death Eater Hunts. They don’t make any sense but I still wake up screaming and thrashing anyway. It’s awful because my magic goes wild when they happen and I end up destroying my bedroom.”

“Destroying?” Jarvis asked and she hummed an agreeing noise.

“Accidental magic at my age. How embarrassing.” She shifted a little in her position. The fear still lingered in her spine and she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping again tonight.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“No. They just happen, I won’t be sleeping anymore tonight. Back in Britain my friends used to make me hot chocolate and…and we’d play a game or something to keep my mind off of it but I can handle this on my own.”

“I see.” Jarvis said after a moment. “May I offer you a conversation at least?”

“Just don’t expect me to say much.”

Thankfully Jarvis seemed to have gained the ability to monologue about absolutely nothing just like his father. She laid there stiff with fear as Jarvis just talked. She hoped he didn’t mind that she took in literally none of it. His cadence was her focus as she tried to force her body to calm down.

It didn’t work.

She actually shouted with alarm when someone banged on her door. Jarvis immediately tried to calm her by telling her it was fine but it was hardly fine. Who knocked on a door like that at 3 in the morning? She connected her mind to her wards and snorted.

Thor Odinson apparently.

She waved a hand opening the door automatically for Thor.

“What is Thor doing here?”

“He was awake when my alarm went off and offered to go check on you.” Jarvis said sounding absolutely unapologetic.

“Holly?” Thor called. “Are you well?”

“I’m fine.” She lied loudly enough for him to hear before whispering to her bracelet. “And Jarvis we are going to have a talk about sending superheroes to my apartment complex.”

“Whatever you say.” She glared at the bracelet despite knowing that he wouldn’t be able to see it. The door to her bedroom opened and Thor peered in. He was wearing his full armor, hammer at the ready. His face was marred by a frown when he saw the destruction of the room.

“Who attacked you?” He asked.

“No one.” She said. “No one attacked me.”

“But…” His face fell then as he looked over at her body. “Oh. I see.”

“Look, thank you for coming Thor. Truly, but I’m not fit for…” She started to say as Thor stepped further into the room. Her dismissal was cut off by the man picking her up as if she weighed no more than an ounce. “Thor!”

“You are cold.” He said. “A warm bath will help.”

“I’m not…” She trailed off as sensation abruptly returned to her body and she began to shiver. Thor carried her like a baby to the bathroom and set her down carefully onto her sink counter. He moved around, perhaps unfamiliar with the workings of an earthly bathroom that didn’t belong to a billionaire, but still confident. He made sure her tub was free of things and then started the water running so that it was warm.

He left her alone in the bathroom for a few minutes and came back with a clean set of clothing, which was probably easy to find now that she’d upturned all of her drawers. He put those down next to her and then turned off the water now that the tub was full enough.

“Take as long as you need.” He said. “I will be outside, guarding.”

Before she could tell him that she did not need him to do that he was already gone, shutting the door to the bathroom firmly behind her. She found herself doing what Thor had told her and she pulled off her sweaty pajamas and dipped into the warm water. She hissed at the sensation, the heat prickling uncomfortably over her clammy skin. It took a few minutes before she felt most of the tension in her body melt away in the heat.

And a few minutes more to get the energy to clean herself up.

She emerged from the bathroom dressed and feeling less like a ghost. Thor had kept his word and remained in her apartment. He’d gone back not her room and cleaned up the mess as best he could. Putting her furniture back in place and somehow getting all of the ruined blanket pieces swept up. He must have done something similar to her living room because she knew from experience that her magic would have trashed that room too during a nightmare.

He had also found her candles and matches. Often her lights would short out after a nightmare and she had a bunch of magical candles to replace them until she could get around to fixing it. Thor had lit them all so that her apartment was no longer dark or gloomy. He looked like an expectant puppy who wanted a treat for doing a complicated trick but all Holly could do was stand there in the doorway for a moment.

“Come on.” Thor said. “Let’s sit down.”

“You cleaned up.” She said, his voice misty. “I didn’t know you knew how to do that.”

Thor looked offended for a moment before he rolled his eyes and shuffled her onto the couch. He sat down next to her and placed a large hand on her shoulder.

“What caused these dreams tonight?” Thor’s voice rolled over her, soothing her. She heard no judgement in his voice. She almost thought there should be. Thor was centuries old, he’d fought in wars and countless battles. But he wasn’t destroying things in a fit nightmare induced fear.

“Nothing really.” She answered after a moment. “I just get them, more often this time of year but…”

“This time of year?” She nodded a little, focusing her attention on the coffee table in front of her.

“The anniversary of the final battle is next month.” Holly said. “I…killed Voldemort almost 11 years ago and he still manages to frighten me.”

“You dream of him?”

“Most of the time.” She admitted. “You know what’s weird?”

“What?”

“I don’t remember being scared.” She looked over at Thor who was slightly confused.

“During the end of the war, I was…I might have been scared but I didn’t feel it and I don’t remember that. The final fight with Voldemort, all of it. I was…I did what I had to do and I didn’t feel frightened about it. Even with death such a huge possibility I was fine with it. After the war I kept fighting Death Eaters and…I still wasn’t frightened, not for myself at least. But now? Now that I’m safe and nothing is trying to hurt me? Now I get so frightened I can hardly move, my magic lashes out at nothing. It just…keeps getting worse.”

“It is the warrior’s curse.” Thor said wisely. “It is a well known illness in Asgard. To be frightened when one is safe.”

“What?”

Thor looked around the room for a moment as if trying to gather his thoughts. Then he shifted around so that he was facing her on the couch, she did the same.

“When one is at war, one is in constant danger.” Thor said. “Even in sleep you know that any second could be your last. You grow used to it quickly if you’re smart. You feel no fear or hesitation in the battlefield, you’re aware of danger but it doesn’t stop you. If you fight too long you grow numb to the danger and you forget that you lived any other life. Danger becomes familiar, a comfort, almost a friend.”

She stared at Thor, his face illuminated by candle light. Every word he said rang true to her very core.

“The warrior’s curse befalls anyone who forgets how to live in safety, who has fought for his kingdom for too long without rest and no longer knows how to do anything else.” Thor said. “It is a terrible curse and I am so sorry that you suffer from it.”

“I just…I thought I was getting better.” It sounded so whiney, so childish.

“I believe you are.” Thor said smiling at her. “For most of your life you couldn’t have known have much danger you lived in, like a beast trapped in a steaming lake. But you’ve left the lake now and you finally now what coolness is. Of course, you are burnt but those take time to truly heal. You’re healing Holly.”

“How could you possibly know that?” She asked. “Maybe I’m getting worse!”

“You are talking about this with me, aren’t you? Would you have done that before?”

And that actually stumped her. Because she knew she wouldn’t have ever talked about this sort of thing before. Ron and Hermione, her two closest friends, usually had to cajole and trick the truth out of her. Thor had just asked and she’d…answered. It hadn’t even been all that difficult. Usually talking about her feelings was like pulling out teeth without a pain potion. But for the past weeks with the Avengers she’d…just shared things.

Like it was nothing!

“It’s not safe to speak of things like this in war, to be vulnerable. It’s also not safe to have nightmares, to lose control.” Thor said nodding. “But you’re safe now, your war done and finally your mind is accepting that. You are safe, Holly.”

“If this is the price of safety…I don’t know if I want to be haunted by memories forever.”

“Nothing is forever.” Thor said. “Trust me, I’m old enough to know that now. This will pass, slowly you’ll go longer and longer between these attacks. Time is the only cure you need now.”

She slumped onto the back of the couch, curled up into the fetal position and looked at Thor almost forlornly. He sighed and gave her knee a pat.

“Sometimes I miss it.” She said after a moment. “Being a hero.”

“Truly?”

“It’s just…I thought I missed it because I didn’t know anything else. So I learnt to paint, and I started knitting and I created new techno-magic spells. I got a new job and I made new friends. I…I’ve made a life you know? It doesn’t have anything to do with fighting any longer.” She said. “My friends back home didn’t think I could do it but I did and…”

“You still miss it.” Thor said with a small smile.

“I do.”

“There’s no shame missing something that allowed you to do good for the world.” Thor said after a few seconds of thinking “But you don’t have to return to that, you already help everyone around you in other ways. You don’t have to fight to be a hero, Holly. You are one, with or without the death defying fights.”

She didn’t know she was crying until Thor told her not to. She sniffed and rubbed her face clear with an arm.

“When did you get so wise?”

“I’m not sure.” Thor admitted. “It must have been very recent, I’ve been stupid for much of my life.”

She giggled and Thor grinned, proud of his own joke. Holly spread out her body so that she was sitting more properly on the couch.

“Normally when I have nightmares I get my knitting out.” She said. “I’m working on a baby blanket right now for my godchild.”

“Godchild?” He asked unfamiliar with the term. She explained that Hermione, one of her best friends, was going to be giving birth to a baby soon and she was asked to be the godmother. Meaning that if something happened to Hermione and Ron, then Holly would be the one to raise their child. “I see, so you’re making a blanket for the baby?”

“Well yes, but I’m out of the yarn I wanted to use.” She said. “I’ll have to go to the store soon, there’s this place not far from here that’s open like all the time that sells the softest wool you’ve ever felt. Perfect for a baby.”

“If it’s open all the time, then why don’t we go now?” Thor asked.

“Now? Thor it’s not even 4 in the morning!”

“Is this store open?”

“Well…yes probably but…”

“Then let us go! It’ll be a noble quest to get the materials needed for your new family member.” Thor perked up excitedly. Gone was the wise god who’d comforted her with words born of experience. Now she was looking at a golden retriever turned human who was pulling her off the couch and asking questions about what human babies were like and what an appropriate gift for one would be.

She vetoed the dagger set.

Holly managed to get her shoes on her feet and pull her still slightly wet hair up into a bun that was stuck in place with the elder wand. She cast a spell on both of them that hid their identities and then together they left her apartment building. As they walked Holly described in depth how a human baby develops and what Thor would need to know if he wanted to hold one, or interact with one without causing the baby to burst into tears.

Asgardian babies were much sturdier according to the god. It wasn’t even fair to call them delicate by aesir standards. Their babies were practically born invincible, which made giving birth a rather…arduous experience. The babies were tougher, larger, and more developed than their human counterparts at birth. They certainly didn’t need their neck supported.

Thor took her explanations in stride though, committing it all to memory with an intelligence and dedication few suspected he possessed. Thor was glad to know these things it seemed. He was going to be on earth for as long as it took to capture his brother, which might be very long indeed, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to acclimate well to his new home. He was also overly optimistic about the chances of his teammates having more children while he was on earth and he wanted to be prepared to be a good uncle to them.

Holly had found the craft store during one of the few times she’d attempted to explore New York before getting her job as a cleaning lady. She’d been unable to sleep and had started wandering the dangerous streets of New York, partially hoping for a fight with someone. A fight would have distracted her mind for a least a few moments. Instead of a fight she’d stumbled upon a well-lit muggle shop that advertised 24 hour service, supplies for any craft imaginable, and free tea.

It had been a haven. The comfortable chairs they set up for anyone to use to work on their craft and the free hourly tea was a combination that meant Holly had spent perhaps more time ‘shopping’ for yarn than she normally would. Her time spent in the store was also often increased by the store owner, Kari. Kari loved to chat and Holly loved to indulge her.

Kari was a beautiful woman with a body that was shaped like an H, sturdy and just wonderful to admire from a distance. She was soft and curvy, unlike Holly who still remained pretty boney and thin over the years. She had caramel sun-kissed skin and a laugh that made Holly’s very bones feel warm.

So she might have had a little bit of a crush.

Sue her!

Kari definitely wasn’t interested and there was no harm in thinking about her sometimes with a smile on her face. Holly shook herself and led Thor up to the store doors and pushed them open. Thor looked politely around the store, barely getting his huge hulking figure in through the door. She was just thankful she’d convinced the man to leave the hammer back at the apartment.

“Come on. The yarn is this way.”

“This is a quaint store.” Thor said, looking at the various displays with curiosity. “How did you learn to knit?”

So Holly told Thor the story of Molly Weasley and her ability to knit a sweater three days before it was needed while she was in a foreign country just because she got an owl from her son who told her that his best friend wasn’t going to get gifts for Christmas. Thor had been so impressed it was as if she’d told the man that Molly had slain a dragon with nothing but her pair of knitting needles.

“So, I learnt how to knit from her. It was supposed to help me calm down after a night like this and I’ve kept it up.” She finished, walking up to the aisle that had the yarn she needed. She’d found this lilac colored yarn that was so soft it made you want to rub your face on it.

“Holly?” Holly and Thor both turned to see Kari standing there, smiling at her. “Holly! It is you, I haven’t seen you around in a couple of weeks. I was starting to think you’d forgotten about me.”

“Kari!” Holly greeted. “No, how could I ever forget about you? Work’s been a bit busy recently and I’ve not been coming in at my normal times.”

“And…who is this?” She asked.

“Oh! Apologies, where are my manners?” Holly turned to Thor. “Kari, this is my friend from work.”

“Just a friend?” She asked strangely, her voice sounded almost disappointed.

“What else would he be?” Holly asked totally bewildered. She looked over at Thor. Who seemed to understand way more about this situation than Holly could have ever dreamed to. He bowed his head to Kari like the prince he was.

“I am Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard.” He said destroying her identity spell in the exact way she’d told him not to. “I am attached to my Fair Lady Jane, Holly is a well loved friend but no more.”

Kari’s face opened in shock as she stared at the superhero standing in her store. Holly must have been imagining the relief that tinged her shock.

“I…Oh…I thought you said you were a cleaning lady.” She said.

“I am.” Holly said. “I clean Avengers Tower.”

“Indeed.” Thor said. “And never has there been a lady more noble in her duty. She’s fearless in the face of any mess that I and my shield brothers create in the aftermath of our battles.”

Was Thor…talking her up? Holly blinked weirdly at the man who continued talking about how brave, valiant, and kind she was. Kari was listening to Thor avidly, not a hint of annoyance in her eyes but a fair amount of amusement. Thor maneuvered her body so that she was standing in front of Thor in a way that made it clear he was for some strange reason showing her off.

Kari smiled at her, her round cheeks just slightly pink and Holly found her cheeks heating too.

“She’s really amazing isn’t she?”  Kari asked finally interrupting Thor’s mortifying monologue. “Have you seen her knitting?”

“I have!” Thor said. “She has made a wondrous sweater for our friend Natasha.”

“You made a sweater for the Black Widow?” Kari asked her.

“It was her birthday.” Kari laughed, absolutely delighted with Holly’s explanation.

“What yarn did you use?”

“The Prussian blue one? Is think it might have been…”

“Cashmere!” Kari snapped her fingers. “I remember you spent hours debating on the color. That’s a good choice for the Black Widow. Are you too here for yarn for another project?”

“Yes!” Thor said. “Holly has offered to help me learn this wondrous art, I wish to make my mother, the Queen of Asgard something. She assured me that you sold the finest wares in the land.”

She hadn’t. She hadn’t done anything at all but she just watched as Thor kept talking to Kari who had taken his declaration in stride and led him over to the tools he’d need to buy. Thor listened seriously as she handed him a set of knitting needles as well as a starter book. Holly just followed them in a daze as Thor consistently brought her back into the conversation, usually by embarrassing her by complimenting her on something.

The other way was by halfway complimenting Kari by telling the woman that Holly had told him this or that thing about her.

By the time they’d gotten the yarn Thor would need for his mother’s blanket and brought it up to the counter, Holly had nearly died of mortification and Kari kept giving her looks that made her stomach twist in a terribly unfamiliar way. Thor produced a card that Tony had gifted him with to pay for all of the materials and then took the bags. He then winked at Holly while saying that he had to use the bathroom and that he’d be right back.

Then she was alone, standing at a counter with a pretty woman who frequently sold her yarn at three in the morning. Holly shifted awkwardly and tapped her chipped and bitten down nails on the wooden surface separating them.

“So.” Kari said. “Cleaning Lady for superheroes?”

“It’s not an easy occupation.” Holly said. “You wouldn’t believe what sort of stains I’ve come up against. You know I’m practically a superhero in my own right for all the mess I clean up.”

Kari laughed and placed a hand over Holly’s own. Holly looked up to see the pretty woman biting her bottom lip and pushing back some of her curly brown hair behind her ear.

“I…I hope I’m not reading this wrong but…do you think maybe we could get drinks sometime?”

“Drinks?” Holly asked.

“Yeah…you know like a date.”

A blush so red it might as well have been a Weasley erupted over her cheeks and Kari immediately began to apologize for misunderstanding.

“No! no…I just…I’d love to.” Holly said a little too loudly, the blush still vibrant on her face and neck.

“Really? Great! How about we have lunch together…today I guess. There’s a nice café near Avengers Tower that I’ve always wanted to go to. We’d have to go a bit early to beat the lunch rush…”

Holly probably would have agreed to anything to Kari suggested but a lunch date sounded wonderful. As they finished up solidifying the details Thor returned looking far too pleased for a man who’d just returned from the bathroom. He bowed low to Kari and then led Holly out of the store. Once they were outside he lifted up his hand, summoning Mjolnir from the windowsill that he’d placed it on.

He held her to his side and told her to keep a good hold of their purchases.

“Thor.” She started to say before the man leaped up into the air and started spinning his hammer at a high enough speed to give them lift. She barely held back a yelp of alarm as they flew at high speeds to Avengers Tower. Once they landed on the roof after only a few minutes of flight, Thor whooped excitedly.

“This is great news!” He said. “You have a date!”

“It’s just lunch. That’s like the most casual of dates.”

“It’s a date! It’s going to be amazing, Holly I knew it from the moment I saw that wonderful woman.”

“What the hell was that about?” She asked. “Back at the shop?”

“Holly.” Thor said his eyes alight with mischief. “There’s a reason your ancestors called me the god of fertility.”

She couldn’t stop the laugh that burst out of her, didn’t want to if she was honest. She nearly bent halfway over from the force of it. Thor had set her up that conniving bastard!

“Just for that! I’m teaching you how to knit. Come on. Let’s get inside.”

She pushed the also laughing god into the tower, Jarvis welcoming them very warmly. They settled in the penthouse, Holly summoning her own knitting from her apartment. For the rest of the early morning she attempted to teach Thor how to knit. As the sun slowly rose over the city filling the penthouse with pale light Holly found she couldn’t stop giggling at Thor’s mismatched stitches. Thor was both amused by his failure as well as frustrated by it. It seemed Thor had never tried to use his hands for delicate work like this before.

But Holly was determined, Thor was going to give his mother a blanket.

She just hoped the woman had a sense of humor because it might not be a very good one.

When the morning came in proper Holly left Thor to continue to attempt to knit and got breakfast started. Now that she was confident her magic wouldn’t harm Jarvis, it was easy to just wave her wand a few times and get the food cooking itself. Jarvis was kind enough to wake all of the Avengers by letting them know that a full English breakfast waited for them in the penthouse.

Holly made the mistake of not swearing Thor to secrecy about her date. She should have seen it coming but she’d been blindsided by the insane fact that she had a date to even consider the implications of others knowing about it. Her only hope was that someone would latch onto the fact that Thor, God of Thunder, was trying to learn to knit. She wasn’t that lucky though. The moment all of the Avengers were there Thor announced the date like it was a royal wedding.

She endured the ensuing interrogation with as much grace as she could muster.

Where had she met this mystery girl? How long had you known her? Is she cute? What’s her name? When’s the date? Where is it? What are you going to do for it? On and on the questions went until one hit her like the broadside of the barn.

“What are you going to wear?” Tony asked.

“I…uhh…this?” She said motioning to her work uniform.

“No.” Tony said.

“You can’t!” Clint said. “Come on Holly, this is a date you can’t go to it looking like you just crawled out of a dumpster!”

“Hey!”

“I stand by what I said. We’re not letting you go out in that.”

“I am fine just the way I am.” Holly said sternly. All of the Avengers looked mutinous.

“Thor.” Natasha said suddenly. “Grab her.”

Holly tried to jump away from the mostly empty breakfast table but Thor managed to catch her around the side. She started to wrestle herself free but before lost his grip on her Steve had come up on the other side and trapped her. She shouted promises of revenge and abuse as the two super strong men carried her fighting body to Natasha’s floor. All of the Avengers were talking over one another trying to determine how best to dress her up.

Steve held her still while Natasha, Bruce and Clint lifted up different dresses and outfits over her body until they found one they liked. Thor and Tony weirdly enough started work on her hair. She had no idea where those two men had learnt their hairstyling skills from, but they managed to somehow get her hair into a fabulous braided updo that made her face look ethereal. Bruce painted her nails in a bizarre turn of events. Steve did her make-up. Explaining sheepishly that he’d learnt how to do it from the ladies in his bonds-selling show before he started actually fighting in the war.

As they prepped her they tried to give her tips on how to act on the date but Holly ignored most of them. None of it seemed very applicable and most of them sounded very silly. Especially Thor’s advice that she talk about the great creatures she’d defeated. She was also about 89% sure that Clint and Tony were honestly just messing with her for the fun of it.

By the time her early lunch date came around Holly looked almost like an entirely different person. The only thing that was exactly the same were her glasses which she’d refused to replace. The woman in the mirror no longer looked like a Potter. Strangely enough she looked like an Evans, all of her mother’s features outshining her father’s for the first time in her life.

“Do not spy on me.” She said as she left. “I’ll know it if you do.”

She knew they were going to do it anyway but she felt it needed to be said. The team didn’t even bother to pretend that they weren’t going to spy on the entire date. Instead of being annoyed she felt rather fond. She walked to the café, a small hipster like place that advertised their homemade cheese and organic honey, in a pair of Natasha’s shoes. Apparently, her black clunky work shoes weren’t appropriate.

Honestly, they were acting like she was going to go eat with her soulmate or something.

Holly snorted at the idea and waited outside the café for her date. When she saw Kari get out of a cab, she was suddenly absurdly grateful that they’d made her dress up. Kari was wearing a beautiful blue sun dress and she looked so pretty Holly’s tongue felt like lead in her mouth. Kari spotted her and smiled excitedly.

“Holly! You look amazing.”

“Thanks…so do you.”

“Let’s go in and see if we can grab a table.”

Holly didn’t know why she was surprised that Jarvis had called in and gotten them a reservation in her name without telling her. She just rolled her eyes and tapped her bracelet once in thanks.

Once they were seated and they both ordered their drinks, tea and soda respectively, they started to talk. To her relief Kari didn’t make a big deal about her working for the Avengers. She was more interested in talking about knitting projects and what each other’s favorite colors were. Kari asked about what bands she liked and freely told Holly about her own interests. It was a wonderful experience, Holly had never found someone who was this interested in her when they didn’t know who she truly was.

Their conversation was briefly interrupted by their waitress taking their lunch orders. When she left, Holly asked Kari about her family. The plump friendly woman talked fondly for over ten minutes about her amazing loving family. Parents who were supportive but not suffocating, a brother who was protective and funny and a sister that she could share anything with. In the past Holly would have felt bitter about Kari, unable to imagine them connecting when her life had been so picturesque compared to Holly’s. But now Holly had her painting and knitting to talk about. She even felt comfortable enough bringing up her godson that she was helping raise.

It wasn’t difficult to talk to Kari. It never was. Not when Holly stumbled into her store at 3 in the morning looking for a distraction and not when she went in the middle of the day desperate to find the perfect color of yarn. On a date it was no different. The woman was affable and easygoing. She didn’t seem to have one mean bone in her body. Holly loved how simple it was, how Kari never pushed to know about her parents or her life back in Britain.

They stopped speaking for a few minutes to try out their dishes. Holly’s seafood tasted wondrous and Kari seemed very pleased with her sandwich. As they ate Holly could feel the future unfolding before her. This was something she could do. Easy dates and fun conversations. Dressing up for a beautiful woman who made Holly feel warm when she looked at her. It wouldn’t be challenging to fall in love, to be happy. She could have it, she could forget about her past life entirely and become Holly the insomniac knitter/cleaning lady. Even if she told Kari about it she got the feeling that the woman would let Holly forget about it if she wanted to.

“I’m just so happy with the shop you know?” She said. “It’s…It’s what I always wanted to do. I’m my own boss and I get to work with my favorite things every day.”

“So, you want to run your store for a long time then?”

“Oh, I hope to do it until I have to retire. It really is lovely, I get to meet so many new people who come into the store to knit. People like you.”

“Hopefully.” Holly said feeling bold. “You don’t treat everyone who comes into the store like you do me.”

“No. Only the pretty ones.” Holly blushed a little and lifted a small forkful of food up to her mouth.

She tried to imagine it. Working as a cleaning lady and coming home to a woman who wanted nothing more in life than to sell craft supplies and meet new people. It felt foreign but at the same time Holly knew she could be at peace in that world. Kari exuded peace and Holly knew that she’d probably be a wonderful calming presence even on nights that were tough for Holly.

But could she understand why the nights were so hard?

Before she even got the chance to wonder where that thought had come from an alarm started to blare. The Mayor of New York had installed special alarms all throughout the city that would play whenever the Avengers were attacked by something. The alarm meant that everyone should get indoors and stay there until further notice. Kari paled, fear filling her features as she looked out the café window trying to spot the danger. Holly straightened up, ready to draw her wand or throw a punch.

Someone yelled for the staff to turn the TV on the wall to the news, it had been playing HGTV but it was easy enough to change it to a channel that was livestreaming the attack. It looked like the Avengers were fighting in Central Park against four super powered aliens. One was a huge hulking figure that seemed to have no problem taking on the actual hulk. Another was an alien with a squid like face who could fly and use telekinesis. There was a woman with pale skin and blue paint over her eyes. The fourth was a gray skinned man dressed completely in black.

Holly lifted a hand to her mouth as she saw Natasha get thrown like a ragdoll. She didn’t breathe until she saw Tony catch her. Kari grabbed her hand and held it tightly as they watched the Avengers fight. Together they watched the Avengers start to lose. The four aliens were powerful and they’d managed to subdue the Avengers, at least partially.

And suddenly Holly knew she had a choice to make. Stay with Kari and commit to trying to have a peaceful life or leave and fight against four beings powerful enough to defeat an entire team of superheroes. She looked over at Kari and felt her aching heart ease. The beautiful woman was so wonderful, and anyone would be lucky to have her in their life. But…

But Holly didn’t want serenity. She’d thought for a while that was what she needed but that hadn’t been it.

You don’t have to fight to be a hero, Holly. You are one, with or without the death defying fights.

All around her muggles cowered in fear as they watched the Avengers take a serious beating and Holly felt something in her resolve. She squeezed Kari’s hand and then moved away.

“Holly?”

“Kari. This has been amazing, but I need to go.”

“What? You can’t leave! It’s dangerous out there.” No one was looking at them, they were all too focused on the small TV on the wall.

“I know. Just keep watching the TV, and don’t tell anyone yeah?”

“Don’t tell anyone what?”

Holly gave the woman a smile and disappeared with the world’s quietest crack. She had a world to save, but this time, it was her choice.

Chapter 16: God Mischief, Magic, and Angst

Summary:

Loki has been falling for a long, long time. He didn't even know what to do with himself once he managed to land.

Notes:

Ya'll. This update is like...over 9k words can you believe? Normally I'd cut a chapter that long in half but because I've kept you waiting for so long on a Cliff hanger I just gave you the full thing.
Thanks so much for all of the amazing comments! I had a really fun time out doing research and those emails really made me smile every day!
I almost got bitten by a rattlesnake on like the second to last day, i'm only mentioning this because...well snakes. You'll get it once you read the chapter.

Loki’s fall began long before that day on the Bifrost. It began, on a sunny hill outside the city of Asgard, mourning in Odin’s arms. His mind had been overwrought with grief and denial, weak from pointless magical exertion. Pointless because it had failed.  From that moment, the moment in which he knew he’d failed, and that Ralston and the other humans were gone, from that very second on Loki had started to fall. He fell into denial there on that hill, begging Odin for it not to be true.

After that first day, he began to fall into despair. He spent the first century falling in Asgard. He just wandered the halls of the palace like a specter. Each thing he saw reminded him of all that he lost and all that he never got the chance to have. His favorite Aesir food tasted like dust because he remembered sneaking some to earth to share with his friend. The other food tasted worse because he’d never gotten the chance to see Ralston’s face when he tried it. Every waking moment was filled with painful memories or torturous regret.

Eventually that falling transformed from pure pain to something tainted with rage and regret. Thor and Frigga, the two people in Asgard who had done their best to slow Loki’s fall were the first to witness this new sort of fall. The kind where he blamed everyone for what had happened, but most of all himself. Why hadn’t Frigga foreseen this tragedy and warned him? What good were seers for? Why hadn’t Thor pulled his head out of his ass and helped? Isn’t that what warriors were meant to do? Protect the people weaker than them?

Why hadn’t Loki been better? Why hadn’t he spoken to Odin and asked for help earlier? Why hadn’t he stayed on earth and fought to the very end? Why hadn’t he come up with a plan? Why hadn’t he foreseen how fast the muggles would act? Why hadn’t he protected Ralston better?

Why? Why? Why? WHY? WHY?

Was he truly so useless? So pointless a god that he couldn’t even save his people? Those wonderful magical mortals that had needed him and why hadn’t he been enough for them? He cursed himself in the night and his sleep was wracked with nightmares of the torture, the burnings that his people had gone through, unable to defend themselves. In the day he spit venom at anyone who neared him, forcing them to feel the same level of poisonous grief and guilt that he did.

The questions haunted him, burned his very soul with a scorching flame. But no answers ever came and in their absence a bitter resentment took root in his heart. The farther he fell the stronger that bitterness grew. Every year they moved closer to Thor’s coronation the hatred for Odin, for Thor, for every damn god in the pantheon grew.

Loki tried to forget his plans, the half-formed ones that would haunt him in his dreams like phantoms. Plans of creating a new hidden realm on earth, one where magic users could be free. One where he could live with Ralston and his wife, and their children. Where he could forget about Asgard and just be Loki, brother of Ralston. He dreamed of a house, a home that he knew had been real at one point but was no more, where a bedroom was always set aside for him. Where he was wanted. Sometimes, on particularly cruel nights, he dreamed of two golden apples that he’d stolen from Indunn’s Garden when no one was looking and hidden in Ralston’s house, for Ralston and his wife. A fantastic vision of what would never be. An eternity with his two great friends, made gods by his stolen gift.

 Those plans weren’t real, just the feverish wantings of a falling man.

As the years passed Loki fell out of despair and fully into rage. The cruel whispers of the court and Thor’s growing pride stung worse than they ever had before. Loki now knew what it was to be loved and valued, he also knew what it was to lose such a thing. Without Ralston and with the torment of his death, Loki was too vulnerable to Asgard’s scorn. That scorn watered the seed of resentment in his chest until he fell further and further all the way into treason.

He could claim, and he actually had at one point, that the plan with the Frost Giants had been because he knew Thor wasn’t ready for the throne. It was true enough. Thor hadn’t been ready. But that wasn’t why Loki did it. Any love he held for Asgard had been eroding away for 4 centuries at that point. Asgard having a good or terrible king meant nothing to him. In fact, Loki might have even enjoyed watching Asgard fall down around it’s ears under Thor’s ‘leadership’.

But Loki enjoyed revenge even more.

He brought those Frost Giants into the vault during Thor’s coronation because he wanted to ruin the day for the arrogant fool. He wanted Thor to suffer even just a little. Thor loved the idea of being king with almost the same fervor that Loki had loved the magical people of earth. Almost, because nothing could ever compare to Loki’s love. Being denied the throne, even if only for a little, would be just as delicious to Loki as it would be painful to Thor.

What happened after was just the straw the broke the camel’s back. He finally had his answers. He’d failed the earth and Ralston because he was a Jontun runt. Not even good enough for monsters to care for. A monster that’s what he was. And monsters didn’t save, they destroyed. The sharp truth of that started his fall into madness. And really? Wasn’t letting go of Gungir and falling into the void just the most logical conclusion to all of this falling? It was about time he made it literal.

 The void was everything Asgard wasn’t. It was empty of anything close to wealth or vanity. Gone were the constant rumors of war, bloodshed, and arrogance. Replacing those things with nothingness. Because the void was nothing. True blackness, not even the vast cosmos of space to distract him from the festering wounds within his soul. Wasn’t that the point of it, in the end? The void was a perfect place for a monster to rot and decay further into madness.  

Loki didn’t stop falling even when he was caught by The Other and the Chitauri. Physically yes, he was no longer falling through a never-ending, madness-inducing blackness but their treatment of him ensured that his heart and soul continued in their ungraceful, painful descent.

It was important to note however that The Other was the first being that made Loki truly want to stop his fall.

Not due to any kindness from him, or understanding words. No. It was the beast’s cruelty that made Loki pause, truly pause for the first time in his centuries long fall to try and slow down. Because The Other and the rest of those who followed the Mad Titan wanted something that not even a falling monster like himself would agree to. They wanted to destroy the earth, rob her of whatever treasures she held, and leave the humans to rot.

At the very mention of their plan Loki had started to fight, scrambling to stop his fall by any means necessary. Ralston! He could never betray the man’s memory! It was Ralston who had begged Loki not to destroy the muggles, who had wanted nothing more than peace and mercy for both sides of the conflict. Ralston, his soul screamed trying to use the very name as a method of flight.

But Loki had been falling for far too long, he must have reached terminal velocity centuries ago. He couldn’t stop the fall, couldn’t stop the torture they used to speed it up either. With everyone one of his screamed-out denials they pushed him further with pain and threats and promises of future torture. He scratched at the walls of his confinement so hard his nails were pulled out of their beds trying to escape before he fell too far and right into the place Ralston had lived.

Then one day, Loki didn’t know he was falling anymore.

He’d thought he’d finally landed.

The Other had whispered threats if he failed and placed a scepter in his hands. The moment the cool metal touched the skin of his palms the sensation of falling halted. His eyes began to glow blue for half a moment as he landed, his final destination a conqueror and destroyer of the only world that mattered to him anymore. Gone was the resentful weed he had in his chest instead of his heart. Forgotten was the centuries of painful grief and mourning. Now all he had was a thirst for vengeance against the norns, against Odin, against Thor. Against earth.

Against everything!

It wasn’t mind control, not really. He was still Loki. He still remembered everything that had happened to him. He could still choose what he wanted to do. At least he was quite sure he remembered everything, that he could make the choices he wanted. But all that mattered once he’d touched the scepter was the rage that had been brewing in him since he’d started falling. For the first time since he saw Ralston killed right before his eyes, the ground felt sturdy beneath his feet.

It made it easy to open up the branches of the Yggdrasil and walk the familiar paths to his once beloved home. One tiny, almost suffocated part of him tried to fight every single step he took but he ignored in favor of the whispered words that promised peace and power if he took over the planet. These useless muggles had killed Ralston and his wife and his young children and all that mattered now was making them pay. No more mercy and no more tears.  

There would be justice and there would be silence.

Loki didn’t realize he was still falling, farther and farther from the light and love that Ralston had gifted him all those years ago until the invasion had started and he found himself with a broken spine laying in a Loki-shaped crater, courtesy of one bright green beast. Why was it green anyway? No, don’t think about that now, think about surviving. Loki laid there in that hole, surrounding by crumbling marble and felt the blue that had tinted his vision recede with the pain.

He was still falling, and he deserved it. He’d become the monster he truly was, and he’d betrayed the only person who had ever truly mattered. Ralston would never forgive him for leading Thanos here, for killing humans and stealing their eyeballs. Ralston would have fought alongside the Avengers and he wouldn’t have hesitated to take Loki down with the very spells Loki had taught him when they were both children.

He closed his eyes, his spine slowly knitting itself back together. Around him, New York screamed in chaos as its buildings were attacked and its people killed. The Chitauri worked quickly it seemed. He remembered in that moment with a crystal clarity that hadn’t been available to him in some time exactly what Ralston looked like.

Black messy hair that he kept short at the nap of his neck and slightly longer on the top, so that it’s ends covered the tips of his ears. It curled and stuck out in every direction humanly possible no matter what he did to try to tame it. That pale milk white skin that was marred only by the scars he’d gained over the years, from his tumultuous youth to his heroic adulthood. His short stature and petite frame that Loki enjoyed teasing him about even if it had been caused by malnutrition as a child. His green eyes that were always partially hidden behind those hideous spectacles. Loki could even recall the green and gold armor that Ralston always worn when they went to fight.

It was a gift from Loki, one that Loki had had commission back in Asgard after Ralston had been hurt in a fight against some muggle knight templars. It was made of Uru and crafted by the greatest armor smith in the nine realms. Green was Loki’s color, and gold was one of Ralston’s colors, the silly Gryffindor. So, Loki had commissioned the armor in both and enchanted it himself to protect against anything he could think of. He’d even had two hooks added on the top of the chest plate for Ralston to attach his silly invisibility cloak to.

Not that the armor had saved his friend when it mattered most.

Loki remembered it anyway. How it had looked on his small human friend, how it made him look powerful and unstoppable. Ralston had joked sometimes that with it on he could have been mistaken for a god himself. A memory of Ralston standing in a forested clearing, surrounded by enemies with his sword raised in one hand and his wand in the other hit him full force and a sob escaped his mouth. He would’ve blamed it on the broken spine if anyone had been in the room with him at the time to hear it.

Loki laid there, falling and falling, as the invasion began to draw to a close. It took Loki seeing the man he’d thrown out a window fall out of the closing portal to move. Slowly he pulled himself up, still sore and weak, and stumbled to the roof of the building. It was deserted but for an unconscious Selvig and the device Loki had used to open the portal. Carefully Loki picked up the tesseract from where it was nestled inside and the scepter from where it had been dropped. Foolish mortals for leaving them behind.

He had failed Ralston in all the ways that mattered. He looked down at the group of heroes who had done what Loki had never been truly capable of and then at the destruction he had wrought. The scepter hummed in his hand promising him things he knew he didn’t want, and he pushed down the blue that threatened rise.

“I’m sorry Ralston.”

There was only one thing left for Loki to do. He had to hide these things so that Thanos never found them and then…then he could just keep falling. Loki closed his eyes and opened up the Yggdrasil once more, he wanted to go someplace far away, someplace safe. He took a step forward and tumbled out all too quickly. Instead of some barren meteor that no one would ever see in the middle of nowhere he fell into an overrun garden.

He looked up from his position in a sharp-thorned rose bush and a strangled cry erupted from him. He knew exactly where he was.

“Ralston.”

He scrambled up to the old house, the home he and Ralston had built together, having totally forgotten about the two weapons of mass destruction he’d just stolen. Aside from the creeping plants and the dust on the windows it looked exactly as Loki remembered, down to the type of wood they’d chosen for the door. It was impossible but Loki could feel the wards he’d placed on the property still humming around him. How could it be?

He opened the back door, it swung open on slightly creaky hinges and he gaped. Everything was just as it should have been. Centuries worth of dust covered every surface and Loki blamed the tears streaming down his cheeks on the coughing he was doing due to the dust. Every step he took sent huge puffs of dust into the air, proving what he’d always known. No one was here waiting for him. There never had been. He stumbled up the stairs and pushed open the door on the right, the one that belonged to him.

Loki shouldn’t have been surprised that his cleaning spells had held up for so long but he was. His bedroom was literally just as he left it. Not a speck of dust, not even a little decay on his blanket that Amaryllis, Ralston’s wife, had made him for Yule all those centuries ago. Loki creeped slowly over to the bed, weakened and injured beyond belief. He fell face first onto the bed. The blanket still smelt of the soap Ralston always made to clean things with.

Abruptly he stopped falling. There was no where else to fall to, no where else to run. He had been falling all these years back to Midgard, back to where things mattered. An inhuman noise escaped him as he curled into a small, pitiful ball. It was a noise of pure grief and pain, something that would have torn at any soul unlucky enough to hear it. But Loki was alone, he always would be.

Loki began to cry, to scream, to truly mourn. He tore at his armor, his godly strength ripping at the hardened leather. He screamed at the fates, at Ralston, at himself and he let himself grieve. Tears burnt hot and purifying tracks down his face and his throat felt raw and swollen. Yet he could not stop crying, would not stop. He would cry until he shriveled up and died.  

Eventually he lost consciousness, exhausted from the failed invasion, his wounds, and the hours of writhing agony he put himself through. When he woke up, a week had passed, and his injuries had mostly healed themselves. He felt weak and dizzy from dehydration and hunger. When was the last time he ate? The last time he drank? When was the last time he felt this raw? His hours of crying on that bed had stripped him of the armor he’d built up and then let him land hard without any protection. He felt as if he were spinning and far too vulnerable.

He stumbled down to the kitchen, unsurprised to find it barren and dusty. He managed to find one of Ralston’s mugs and filled it with water from the nearby well, it still has the sweetest tasting water in all of Britain. Once he did that, he remembered the blasted infinity stones he’d stolen and cursed. He rushed back and breathed a sigh of relief at finding them sitting there, happy as clams on the top of a giant ancient rose bush.

“I remember planting this.” He whispered to himself. “Ralston don’t you remember? Amaryllis complained that the garden was boring, that she didn’t want to just grow herbs and carrots…so I went all around the world and found as many different flowers as I could and you and I…we planted them all together. All except Amaryllises of course.”

He laughed a little remembering the beautiful woman’s giggle when she’d woken up to find them covered in dirt and passed out in her new gigantic garden. She’d been only slightly displeased that her namesake hadn’t made the cut. He looked around the garden and saw that many of those flowers, the ones that had a lifespan longer than a season at least, had survived. A miracle perhaps.

He spent the next week in the garden, eating fruit from the fruit trees that they’d planted once, and bringing the unkempt garden back to rights. He stowed the infinity stones in the coat closet and he worked in some old trousers and a shirt he found. He spoke to Ralston and Amaryllis and their children. At first it was only apologies but then…then he told them about falling and mourning and hating.

Then he apologized some more.

He knew that the Avengers were looking for him, that Thor would scour the realms for him. That Hiemdall’s eye would never stop searching. But Loki found he didn’t care at that moment. He was still oddly fragile in the following weeks after the invasion. He felt as if he’d been reborn in some odd way, and now he had to be careful lest his new heart be cut by something. Loki had fallen to the very depths and now he felt that he could stay there in the safety of his landing place and never leave it. No one would find him beneath these wards anyway.

After the garden Loki went back inside, he kept up a monologue to his long dead friend as he cleaned the house and fixed what had been broken over the years of disuse. It took time because he refused to use magic, this was something he had to do with his hands. He had to touch each surface to prove that it was real and not some desperate hallucination.  

The first time he left the Potter Home was when he grew tired of fruit and everything was clean. He carefully used magic to hide his identity and then he ventured to the nearest muggle city. Even then, two months after the invasion, all the news could talk about was the tragedy he’d caused. Loki threw up the first real meal he’d had in ages right at the table of the small restaurant he’d crawled into. He left the half un-eaten plate and the vomit right there before the waitress even knew what had happened.

He tried again a week later, this time a town farther away. He bought food, a lot of it, with fake conjured money and tried his best not to take in information about the Avengers and his failures. It didn’t work and he returned to the Potter Home, feeling angry for the first time since coming there. Loki had fallen and found peace, but even this lovely protected place couldn’t keep his demons at bay forever.

Loki didn’t even know exactly what it was he was angry at. Himself? Thor? Odin? The Avengers who had stopped him from destroying Ralston’s world? All he did know was that he was angry. He wanted to destroy something, he looked around at the home he thought he’d never see again and knew he couldn’t stay, not until the anger left. He abandoned his groceries and went out to find a fight.

To call the following fights he had with the Avengers in the next year tantrums would be accurate, even if Loki would die before admitting it. He appeared only to cause chaos, his mind his own just enough to keep from going too far, to keep from killing any humans or heroes. He just had so much rage to burn away, all the rage he’d been letting fester and rot inside of him and he just had to get rid of it. Anytime it grew too much he’d leave his safehouse in the British Countryside and threaten to blow something up until Thor appeared and he could fight him with all his viciousness.

The Avengers hated him, and Loki swore to himself that the feeling was mutual. A lie. Of course, it was. Each Avenger, the human ones at least, had a part of them that reminded him of Ralston, and he wanted to hate them for it but found he couldn’t. Barton’s archaic weaponry and excellent aim reminded him of how talented Ralston had been with his spells and bow. Stark’s creativity and curiosity, along with the short stature and slightly messy hair, smacked of Ralston in all the most painful ways. Rogers had the same heroic heart as Ralston. Romanoff’s lack of biological family and her love of the family she had found was…well Loki tried not to think of it. Loki even saw something of Ralston in Banner of all people. There was a time that Ralston had hated the power he’d been born with just as much as Banner hated his beast.

Loki could never hate the humans who had bits and pieces of his best friend in them. Besides they were the only people on this planet who could give him the release he needed. So, he made sure never to hurt them too much. He knew all too well how fragile humans were. Sometimes, when he wasn’t being blinded with rage, he even helped those heroes. Not that they ever noticed it. A spell here and there in their battles to keep them from snapping their necks in a fall or keeping debris from crushing their squishable bodies.

That was his schedule now. He’d pitter and patter around the Potter Home, talking to the invisible ghosts of his friends about what they’d missed in the last 400 years interspersed with apologies. When he left it was either to get food or to attack something, anything at all. The scepter and tesseract remained hidden in that closet, beneath a coat that had fallen to the floor at some point in the last 400 years. Every time he spoke with a human, either in a village or in a fight he saw flashes of the humans he loved and did his best to ignore the hurt.

Which brought Loki to the present day. An oddly sunny evening in a small English town, he’d just ordered a nice large dinner from an inn restaurant. He went out to eat when he was feeling bored but not homicidally enraged. He’d go in disguise and pay for his meal with some of Stark’s money that he’d stolen when the billionaire wasn’t looking. He hadn’t attacked the Avengers in about two or three months now and knew he’d want to get into some sort of fight soon enough.

There was a small ancient tv stuck on the wall playing a football game, around him in the inn a majority of the customers were watching it and cheering for the team dressed in red. Just as Loki was about to tuck into a wonderfully cooked steak someone shouted out that they should change to the news channel.

“There’s been an attack on the Avengers, there has!”

The Avengers despite being mostly American were the world’s heroes and most people around the globe watched their fights with interest. These superhumans were their line of defense against the evils of the nine realms, why wouldn’t they be interested? Loki didn’t look up as the channel changed. Instead he began cutting into the steak that gave way to his knife like it was made of butter. He closed his eyes in appreciation of the taste and then heard a shout of shock from the crowd.

He looked up at the screen and saw something that horrified him to his bones.

The Black Order.

All four of them! They were here, on earth! And Loki knew exactly what they were here for. The tesseract, the scepter and Loki’s immortal soul. He watched as Cull Obsidian punched the Hulk so hard in the face that he flew back and landed on the ground, unmoving and beginning to grow smaller and less green. Off to the far side of the screen he saw Thor fighting Ebony Maw and being stabbed with those damnable black shards that man carried with him everywhere. The camera zoomed around to show Romanoff being thrown by Proxima Midnight while Stark fired weapons from his suit to try and protect his teammates.

Something whispered in Loki’s ear, a voice he hadn’t heard in 400 years but was still as familiar to him as his own.

Well what are you doing sitting there? There are people to save!

Loki swallowed down his mostly chewed bite of steak and placed the knife onto the table. He couldn’t. If he went, the Black Order would take him and torture him until he told them where the two infinity stones were. They wouldn’t kill him, and Loki was damn sure he’d never tell. So…it would be a torturous eternity indeed for him. He couldn’t risk it, he wouldn’t. Not even for Thor and the others that reminding him so much of his dear friend.

Loki, you’ve spent all this time falling. Maybe, it’s time to rise?

Ralston’s voice pushed him up to stand, his chair sliding back and hitting the person who was sitting at the table behind him.

“Mate! Sit down! You’re blocking the screen.”

Don’t worry, my friend. I’ll be right there with you.

Loki’s hands fisted themselves and he let the glamor on him fall. No longer was he a short mousy blonde man. Instead he was a god, the god of mischief and magic and fire, golden horns and all. The person behind him screamed but Loki didn’t bother to turn around. Instead he closed his eyes, prayed to Ralston, and let the fire of his teleportation take him away.

Loki landed a moment later in Central Park, mere tens of feet from where the fighting was. Just far enough away not to be noticed immediately. His eyes spotted the injured Avengers in the first 1/4^th of a second he was there, they were still trying to fight but most of them were sporting serious wounds. Two were even unconscious. Then he noticed the presence that was right next to him during the rest of that first second. He flipped around at the same time she did.

“What are you doing here?” They both hissed at each other at the same time.

She was a mortal, a human, of that he was certain. She was dressed in a fancy dress with her black, the same shade as Ralson’s hair was, hair up in a stylish braided bun. She was short. The same height as Ralston. He pushed the useless thoughts about how this woman’s skin was the same color as Ralston’s and how she also had bright green eyes just like his.

“I said.” Loki hissed. “What are you doing here, you useless mortal?”

She glared at him in an uncanny resemblance to Ralston’s glare.

“I asked the same thing of you!” She snapped. “I’m here to save the Avengers!”

“Save the Avengers? Truly? Do you even know them?”

“Of course, I know them. I’m…I’m their cleaning lady.” Her cheeks had splotches of red on them, just like Ralston’s used to do when he grew too frustrated with something.

Loki laughed, just quietly enough not to be overheard.

“A servant! Ha, you mortals grow stupider by the day.”

“Just tell me what the hell you’re doing here!” She demanded.

“I’m here to gain my revenge against the Black Order.”

“Who?”

“The aliens who are pummeling your employers.” Loki said. “Now, don’t get in my way. If you want to save them then get them out of here while I deal with the refuse.”

“Now wait just a minute!” She said.

“No. There’s no time for me to pander to your delusions. Do what I’ve said, mortal.”

Any human who bore such a terribly striking resemblance to Ralston should be protected. Part of Loki wanted to magic the woman back to the Potter Home, so she’d be safe and sound. But there wasn’t time. He stalked forward, conjured a knife into his hands. He heard the woman curse at him from behind and then start moving in another direction towards where the injured Avengers had gathered around together.

Loki threw a knife and hit true right into the side of Ebony Maw who was questioning Thor rather painfully. The knife lodged itself quite deep and the alien stumbled before turning to see Loki in all his glory.

“Oh.” He snarled. “It’s the traitor.”

“Now there’s no need for name calling, Maw.” Loki drawled. “I can hardly be a traitor to an organization I don’t give a damn about.”

All four members of the Black Order turned to look at him. The Avengers safe for a moment. Loki could see the woman was adept at sneaking and was quite close to getting to them. Thor, the idiot didn’t move away though, he just looked at Loki like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“We gave you power, we gave you an army.” Corvus Glaive growled.

“No.” Loki said, his magic pooling green in his hands. “No, you tortured me and you expected me to be obedient. That was stupid.”

“You could have had this planet for your own.” Proxima Midnight told him as if he were the stupid one. “Our Father would have rewarded you with it if you’d given him what he needed.”

“Your father” Loki repeated in his snarkiest tone. “is a madman and I will never serve him. The tesseract and the scepter are far beyond his reach now.”

“You will tell us where you’ve hidden them.” Ebony Maw threatened. “Or I will rend your skin from your bones.”

“Oh, Go fuck yourself.”

 And with those eloquent words the battle truly began. Maw sent out an entire wall made of black shards at him that Loki teleported out of the way of. He appeared right in front of Cull Obsidian who attempted to punch his head off. Loki lifted up a conjured magical shield to block the hit but stumbled from the force anyway. In the same movement he sent a knife directly into the right eye of the beast. Cull screamed and swatted out again. Loki dodged and teleported. He conjured three duplicates to appear with him and began to tease at the Black Order. He just had to hold the creatures off long enough to get the Avengers to safety.

He appeared behind Proxima and used a magically created spear to swing at her. She sensed him a second too late and he managed to get one hit in before she flipped around and began to swing right back at him. Around him, his illusions distracted the other three. He needed to down them all quickly. He shot a wall of flames at the woman who managed to dodge that while swinging at him with her magical spear.

They traded blows for a few minutes before Loki heard something come up behind him. He teleported just in time to dodge Glaive’s attack. Unfortunately, his illusions were not as effective on the Black Order as they were on stupider foes. He sent out a blinding spell to both of the spear wielding aliens and teleported into the air, just in time to miss being hit by more of Maw’s telekinetic attacks.

He appeared ten feet in the air right above Cull, the only brute stupid enough to have not figured out which Loki was the real one. Loki flew right down and stabbed his spear into the beast’s back, hopefully into its spine. Cull bellowed and reach back and managed to grab Loki by the neck. He flung him into the air and Loki transformed into a bird and righted himself before he landed on a tree.

As a bird he had to fly around and dodge Maw throwing every available thing he could find at him with his telekinesis. He dove low to the ground and transformed back into his aesir form with a roll. He sent a blast of magic at Maw that hit him dead on, sending him tumbling to the ground. With Maw’s concentration broken he dropped all of the debris and it landed with loud thuds around them. Loki cast a shield over his head to keep himself from getting hit.

From his left and right Proxima and Glaive came at him. Loki reached out with another spear and swept Glaive’s feet out from under him and then rolled to dodge Proxima’s downward stroke. He teleported again to slightly higher ground and thrust out at Proxima again. She hissed at him to stop teleporting, as if he would.

He started dueling both of the aliens as Maw got his bearings again. Loki used his skill with a spear as best he could to keep Glaive and Proxima at a safe distance. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the cleaning lady help the Avengers up and move farther away from the danger. Good, at least she wasn’t hurt. He didn’t know what he’d do if the woman who looked so much like Ralston was hurt.

He paid dearly for his distracted thoughts when Cull managed to hit him and send him flying into a tree. Loki grunted with pain as he felt a few of his ribs snap, but managed to get up anyway. Maw hit him with some of the shards, they cut through his armor and pierced his stomach. He groaned and ripped out the offending items, so that his magic could stitch him back together. Another, much larger shard hit him just below his lungs before he could dodge it. It sent him flying back into the tree, pinning him there painfully.

Blood trickled down from the wounds and he squirmed against the pain. All four members of the Black Order converged onto him and Loki knew he should teleport away.

“A good fight.” Proxima said. “But not good enough, was it runt?”

The pain made it hard to concentrate and something whispered in his ear, Ralston again.

Wait. It’s almost time.

What?

 “You think it’s over?” He coughed out, well aware the thing lodged in his chest was millimeters away from cutting into his lungs.

“Don’t bother with the bold words.” Maw said. “And sit still, I need to know where you’ve hidden the things you stole from our Father.”

Maw lifted up a hand and Loki felt the mental attack. He did everything he could to shore up his occulmency shields as Maw’s power bore down on him.

“Hey!” The Cleaning Lady shouted. “Over here!”

Inwardly he cursed even as the attack receded. Maw turned while ordering Cull to watch Loki. He looked between the legs of the Black Order to see the woman, still here and in her, nice and not at all appropriate for a battle, dress, standing in front of the injured Avengers. There wasn’t a trace of fear in her eyes.

“Mortal.” Maw growled. “Leave before I kill you in the name of our Father.”

“Your dad? Are you telling me that all four of you have the same dad?” She asked in disbelief. “What the bloody hell does he look like then?”

“Speak not of our father.” Proxima ordered. “He is far too great for the likes of mortals.”

“Right. Right. Still doesn’t answer my question. Who is he and how did he father all of you? Cause I’m just saying he must be really, really-”

“Our Father is Thanos, Destroyer of Worlds and Lover of Death.” Maw interrupted. “And he has sent us to prepare this world as a sacrifice for his Mistress. All life on this world will be taken and gifted to Death herself, in the name of Thanos.”

“Lover of Death?” The woman repeated as if that was the disturbing thing about what Maw just said. “Wow! I didn’t even know Death could have a lover. Tell me, how does someone even have sex with an entity like that? Your dad must either be really sexually creative or…”

Maw, with his mind, lifted up shards to destroy this stupid, foolhardy human. She didn’t seem to notice as she trailed off. Then she clapped her hands together as if she’d had a realization.

“Wait! I know why you four are here! Father’s Day is coming up in just a couple of months! You must be here for a gift for him, right? And what better gift to give a lover of Death than the Deathly Hallows?”

Instantly the shards lowered themselves in shock. The Deathly Hallows were Thanos’ true passion, three objects that promised control of Death. But they were more myth than fact, weren’t they? Collecting the Infinity Stones and destroying all life in the universe to win Death’s affection was by far a more attainable goal. How did the mortal even know about those?

“Did you say the Deathly Hallows?” Maw demanded.

“I did!” She said smiling like the were all sitting around having a nice brunch. “You know the Death Stick, The Resurrection stone, and Death’s cloak. Three items that when owned by one person, create the Master of Death.”

What was this woman doing? How did she know of them? Why was she telling these obviously evil people about them?

“How do you know of the Hallows?” Proxima asked.

“Well some clever sod hid them all here on earth about 2000 years ago, can you believe?” She asked. “Most humans know where they are because they let off this terrible feeling, we can’t even pick them up because our bodies can’t handle the strain. I think we’d all be much happier if someone were to take them off planet.”

A lie. That last part had been a lie. Why? Loki focused on the Ralston-Look-A-Like who was smiling as if she was completely daft. Maw lowered his weapons entirely and tried to make his horrific squid-like face into something friendly.

“Of course.” He soothed, believing her lie without problem. “You poor humans would certainly want those things in the hands of someone worthy of them.”

“Exactly!” She said before clapping again, this time in excitement. “I’ve got an idea! How about I show you the Hallows. If you get them for your dad, then surely you can leave without hurting the Avengers or Loki anymore right?”

“You have our word.” Proxima said. “If you show us the Hallows then we will leave this planet without doing any more harm to the runt or the heroes.”

“Really? Oh, that’s so nice of you!” She chirped. “Alright then! Just give me a moment and I’ll show them to you.”

She turned slightly to look at the Avengers, more specifically at Tony Stark.

“Jarvis.” She said. “Would you mind terribly playing that song I told you about?”

“Right now, Miss?” said the computer butler Stark had in his suit, the poor thing sounded as confused as Loki felt.

“Yes of course, loud as you can please.”

“What are you doing, mortal?” Maw demanded.

“Just what I said I’d do. I’m showing you the Hallows. In fact, I’m going to be very gracious and do more than just show you them. I’m going to give you a practical demonstration. I think by the time this song is over, you’ll know exactly what mortals are capable of.”

Loki realized the trick the same moment the Black Order did. The Ralston-Look-A-Like transformed from a petite woman in a nice dress in a flash to a woman who looked so much like Ralston that it hurt. Gone was the dress and the nicely done hair. Instead she was wearing armor that looked like Ralston’s but with one new addition. A holder had been added onto the chest plate that held a large black stone right below where her collar bone would be. There was a familiar looking invisibility cloak hanging from the hooks on the shoulders and in the woman’s hands were a silver sword and a wooden wand made of elder.  

“Ralston?” He choked out, blood trickling from his mouth and down his chin.

In the next moment music began to blast loudly from Stark’s suit. Holly smirked as a chorus began to sing with clapping in the background.

Uh-uh Ay-ay. Uh-uh Ay-ay. Uh-uh Ay-ay. Ey-ey-ey-ey-ey.

Maw and the others hefted their weapons.

“Impossible.”

“Oh, darling.” She said.” Nothing’s impossible.”

I'm living' in that 21st century

Doing something mean to it

Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it

Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it

I guess every superhero need his theme music.

With those first words of the song Ralston, for it must be him, attacked. He, or was it she, teleported forward right into Maw’s space and began to rapidly fire a rainbow of spells at the alien. Proxima swung her spear at Ralston but he merely lifted up his sword and let the metal slice through Proxima’s spear. Something that was supposedly impossible. The top half of Proxima’s spear fell to the ground with a dull thud while she screamed in rage at having her father’s gift destroyed. Maw was attempting to dodge the literal barrage of magic and had to fly himself away to keep from being overwhelmed.

No one man should have all that power

The clock's ticking', I just count the hours

Stop tripping', I'm tripping' off the power

(21st century schizoid man)

Ralston turned his rage onto Proxima, letting Maw retreat, but was grabbed by his long hair by Cull. The hulking beast, half blind with a spear still in his back looked murderous. Proxima and Glaive skittered away, looking pleased that Cull was winning the battle for them. Cull lifted him up and shook him like a ragdoll. Ralston’s face twisted in pain and lifted up his sword. Not to Cull but to his long hair.

“Did you know?” He asked, looking Cull dead in the eye. “That there are about 100,000 hairs on the human head? I wonder what would happen if I put my transfiguration skills to use on that much material?”

Then Ralston cut his hair off, right at the nape, to the length it had been 400 years ago. Immediately Ralston dropped to the ground while at the same time saying a few Latin words. The bundle of long black hair in Cull’s hand expanded and began to writhe and lengthen out. Each hair that had been on Ralston’s head turned into a snake. The snakes slithered and crawled over Cull, the behemoth tried pulling the snakes off but there were just too many of them.

Cull screamed as the snakes began to bite him in droves, he stumbled back as venom was spit into his mouth, eyes, and nose. He looked no longer like a beastly alien but instead a den of 100,000 snakes feeding on one meal. Some of the snakes, a fair amount of them slithered away from the struggling Cull and towards the other Black Order members. Ralston shook his head at the loss of the weight and then looked over at the Order members.

Loki choked at how Ralston looked. There was no doubt it was him. Even if he was much more powerful than he had been before. The amount of magical skill required to do that many rapid transfigurations at once was insane.

In this white man's world, we the ones chosen

So goodnight, cruel world, I see you in the mornin'

Huh? I see you in the mornin'

This is way too much, I need a moment

“Now.” Ralston said. “Who’s next?”

All three of the Black Order members attempted to bum rush Ralston but he just clicked his tongue, something Loki barely heard over the blaring music. Ralston flicked the Death Stick and hissed at the same time. All of the free snakes immediately began to slither towards Proxima, who was still weaponless, while the earth itself lifted up and transfigured into a stone hand that grabbed at Maw like a cat trying to catch a fly. Maw started to dodge and attack the hand while Proxima picked up the sharp half of her spear and started fighting off the plague of snakes.

Glaive was the only one who made it to Ralston. Ralston immediately used his sword one handed to fight against the magic spear. Glaive used his spear to fire bolts of energy at him that Ralston dodged or teleported out of the way of with ease. Just like Loki had taught him. Ralston hit Glaive with a spell that made his legs turn to metaphorical jelly. The alien fell to his knees but still managed to swing and block with his spear.

Ralston moved closer and closer, dancing around the swinging weapon until he managed a lucky hit with his sword, chopping the Uru weapon in half like Loki had cut up his steak less than thirty minutes before. With the weapon gone and his legs useless Glaive still caught Ralston at the knee with his hands and sent him tumbling. Ralston literally dropped both his weapons with a smirk and lunged at the alien for some hand to hand combat.

Meanwhile Maw had damaged part of the stone magical hand and Proxima had been bitten three times by the snakes she was chopping in half. Each snake she killed just turned back into a piece of long black hair.

I just needed time alone, with my own thoughts

Got treasures in my mind but couldn't open up my own vault

My childlike creativity, purity and honesty

Is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts

Reality is catchin' up with me

Takin' my inner child, I'm fighting for its custody

With these responsibilities that they entrusted me

Ralston managed to slam Glaive to the ground, they were rolling around over and over. Exchanging punches and wrestling holds. Within thirty seconds Ralston had gained the upper hand against the much larger opponent and used all of his strength, probably augmented by some magic, to slam Glaive’s head hard into the ground. Glaive immediately went limp and Ralston rolled off of him, right into Proxima who had gotten around the snakes and picked up Ralston’s sword.

Ralston teleported out of the way and summoned the Death Stick, missing Proxima’s swing by mere millimeters. He kept dodging the sword as if one mere cut would kill him and used magic against the woman. Proxima swiped at Ralston’s waist and Ralston literally vaulted into the air to dodge it. He flipped over in the air sailing over Proxima’s head. On his way down he fired a spell that blasted Proxima away and flat onto her back.

Proxima jumped up and the two danced around each other, both fast enough to mostly dodge the other. Behind them Maw had finished off his stone attacker and was now descending in the air towards Ralston. Loki cried out a warning in a pained strangled voice. Ralston managed to dodge Maw’s black shards, one of which stabbed Proxima instead.

“You need to wait your turn!” Ralston said before casting a spell that conjured a plume of fire.

Fiendfyre.

The bright red flames coalesced into a dragon the size of a bus. It roared sending flames into the air and rushed at Maw who, wisely, tried to get the hell out of dodge. Ralston turned his back on the fiendfyre and continued his fight with Proxima. They were well matched for the first few seconds. But Ralston managed to disarm Proxima with an expelliarmus. Then with both sword and wand in hand, Ralston fired another spell that sent Proxima flying away.

She didn’t get up again.

Lost in translation with a whole fuckin' nation

They say "How was the abomination of Obama's nation?"

Well that's a pretty bad way to start the conversation

At the end of day, g-ddammit I'm killin' this shit

I know damn well y'all feelin' this shit

With three of the four Black Order members taken care of, Ralston cricked his neck and faced Maw who had been doing his best to keep out of the fangs of the fearsome dragon. With a flick of his wand, the dragon began to shrink and fall back.

“Now come on!” She called out, teasing. “Didn’t you want to see the Death Stick? I don’t think you’ve gotten a good enough look from up there.”

Maw did not listen to his taunts and stayed high in the air. He began to lift up wads of snakes, the earth and the trees from the park. He flung them at Ralston who either dodged, teleported, or transfigured the attacks into something harmless like bubbles or flower petals.

“Oh don’t tell me you’re scared of one little ol’ mortal are you? Come on closer, or else I can’t keep my end of the deal!”

Maw conjured his black shards of torture and sent them with unerring accuracy towards Ralston in response. The shards were mostly immune to magic, although some powerful spells could block them. Ralston figured that out after one resisted his transfiguration and cut up his cheek when he barely managed to dodge. Ralston started teleporting more rapidly after that, dropping his sword on the ground in his haste.

Ralston fired off a few spells, sending them out in a wave pattern, one of which clipped Maw and sent him to the ground. Maw scrambled to his feet, looking out of breath, the arrogance finally chased out of him. Ralston stalked over to the alien, wand raised and menace in his gait. Maw used his powerful telekinesis to lift up one broken spear and send it flying towards Ralston. Loki called out but his voice just distracted Ralston who took the spear directly to the side. It landed in between the two parts of the chest piece. Ralston stumbled back a few steps from the attack but managed to stay up. Maw walked over.

“You will pay for this, I will make it so for killing my siblings.” He hissed, Ralston just stared at Maw for a moment, his face white with pain.

“You should have aimed for the head.”

“What?”

“Accio.” Ralston lifted up his free hand and his sword came flying from behind Maw and into his hand. The blade of the weapon slicing clean through Maw’s neck.

Maw’s head, still showing his last moment of surprise, fell to the ground and his body followed a moment after.

(21st century schizoid man)

The song ended at the same time Maw’s body thumped to the ground. Ralston dropped his sword and lowered his wand.

“Holy shit.” Stark said, breaking the silence. “Holly you okay?”

“Fine! I’ve had worse!” Ralston shouted back.

“That’s hardly comforting.” Rogers said.

“One second.” Ralston lifted up his hand and carefully removed the spear, with a very pained grunt. Then he pointed the Death Stick at the bleeding hole in his side and began whispering spells. Some to numb pain, others to stop bleeding, and finally a few to mend a few vital organs. “There. I should be fine until I see a healer.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?” Stark asked.

“Uhm…Drive a car?”

Of course, Ralston can’t drive a car, cars hadn’t been invented for him yet. Why would he bother learning it now? Loki coughed up more blood, his wounds were worsening and he knew he would lose consciousness soon. Ralston immediately looked over at him, worry and concern painted over his familiar face. The lightning bolt scar was new though. Ralston ran over calling for Thor as he did so.

“Ralston.” Loki muttered. “You’re here.”

“Loki, it’s going to be fine.” Ralston said.

Loki reached out and grabbed onto the hand he’d held so many times before, holding as tightly as he could.

“Ralston. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it, I didn’t. I swear. I just kept falling and falling and falling and there was…was no one to catch me.”

Thor showed up as he spoke, looking frightened and worried at the gruesome wound in Loki’s chest.

“Look, Loki. I have no idea what’s you’re talking about.”

“Ralston.” Loki said. “Please forgive me. Please. I can’t bear…” Ralston stared at him for a moment before swallowing.

“Okay fine. I forgive you, but you can’t do it again and…and you need to let me use some magic on you. Okay?”

His vision began to darken, Loki stopped fighting to keep conscious once he knew Ralston had forgiven him. His hand went slack but Ralston still held it up.

“You…you have never needed to ask…”

The last thing Loki knew was Thor yelling for him while he felt Ralston’s warm hand within his own.

Notes:

Snakes am I right????

Chapter 17: Let Sleeping Magic Users Lie

Summary:

Holly might be just a bit more injured than she'd let on from the fight against the Black Order

Notes:

Hey guys! Guess who's back on schedule again??? Me!!! Yay! I'm thinking of moving the update day to Saturday or maybe Friday...Haven't decided. What do you guys think? Is Wednesday good for everyone still?
Thank you so much for the amazing comments, I'm so glad you enjoyed the fight scene last chapter!

Holly was very good at pretending she wasn’t being glared at. She’d had plenty of practice through her 28 years of life. First with the Dursleys, then with Snape, then with Death Eaters and politicians. Which meant the situation she found herself in right then was more familiar than it was strange. There was an American healer working on the terrible stab wound on her side. She was out of her armor wearing a pair of sweatpants (courtesy of Tony) and a sports bra (also strangely enough something Tony had) so that the wound was open for the healer to work on. Her magic had been pretty depleted by the time she’d gotten stabbed and her healing spells might not have taken as well as she had implied to the Avengers.

Hence the glaring.

More specifically the Avengers glaring at her.

Okay so maybe she shouldn’t have waited until all of the team and Loki had been seen to before asking if the healer could give her a quick check-up too. Perhaps standing there while one’s own blood pooled inside of one’s chest plate wasn’t the best of plans. She hadn’t meant to worry any of them! Really the healer could have sealed up the wound in a snap but no, they’d insisted on checking over everything.

Apparently, the healer was aghast that not only had that spear torn through her side and ruptured a few key organs, she’d also cracked a few ribs, gotten a concussion, and had a very nasty case of magical exhaustion. The bones in her right hand were also pretty beat up from her punching that ugly elf alien in the face. There was also the deep cut on her cheek that had been caused by something resistant to magic meaning that it had to be taped shut.

The healer listed out all of her injuries for the Avengers to hear, growing more distressed and upset as they went.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone act so recklessly with their magic before! A transfiguration spell that large on top of a fully corporeal fiendfyre spell! It’s lucky you didn’t kill yourself.”

She rolled her eyes. Honestly that was a bit of an over-exaggeration. She tried to make eye contact with Thor to show how ridiculous the healer was being but Thor’s frown only grew more pronounced. Killjoy.

“Lady Potter are you even listening to me?”

“What? Yes of course. You were saying I was reckless right?”

“If you could attempt to take this seriously.” The healer whose name she had forgotten already asked. “I would really appreciate it.”

“Look…Healer…”

“Reed.”

“Healer Reed.” Holly said. “Sorry your name slipped out of my head, magical exhaustion and all that. Can’t you just give me a potion or two and let me be on my way? There’s really no need to make a fuss over me, Loki was far closer to death than I was.”

Loki had been very close to death all things considered what with that nasty spear thing in his chest. She’d insisted the healers see to him first after she’d used up most of her remaining magic keeping him from kicking the bucket back in Central Park. Loki had been installed in the medical bay in a private room. Steve had asked Holly to put some wards up on that private room two weeks earlier that would keep anyone from teleporting in or out. It was supposed to be for protection but now it would act as a prison, keeping Loki inside until they knew what to do with him.

“I would give you potions but with the amount of magic you’ve got in your system at the moment they won’t do you much good. You’ll just have to heal up the old fashioned way, three days of rest and then I can prescribe you the proper potions.”

“Three days?” She sputtered. “You can’t be serious!”

“Deadly serious. Three days, no physical exertion and limited magic use. If you could go without doing any magic at all that would be best.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Steve said, his voice dark. “We’ll make sure she takes it easy.”

“Well at least someone has some sense.” Healer Reed said.

“I don’t know if I trust your medical opinion.” Holly said. “Three days!”

The Healer’s cheeks reddened and they finally stood fully up from where they’d been prodding at her wound. She knew she should be careful about annoying someone who had just, in the smallest of ways, healed her. But honestly, how dare he tell her to take it easy! She ignored the Hermione-like voice in the back of her head telling her she was being ridiculous. What else was she going to do while this wound healed? Start learning the gavotte?

“Lady Potter. I have been working as the top healer here in New York for the past 32 years. Which is far longer than you’ve even been alive! My medical advice is without fault and you would do well to listen to it.”

She had to use all of her willpower not to stick her tongue out at the man. Instead she just glared at him a little. Healers had always made her a bit tetchy. It was part of the reason she’d learnt healing spells at all, to get out of dealing with them. Of course, learning healing spells was all well and good until one lacked the magic to cast them properly.

“Three days.” Healer Reed said. “And you’ll call me the moment something changes with his godship.”

His godship. Is that what they were calling Loki these days? She didn’t roll her eyes at the pretentiousness of the name, instead she plastered a smile on her face.

“Yes of course.” Holly said in the fake polite voice she developed specifically for politicians and healers. “Thank you ever so much for your help, Healer Reed. I don’t know what we would have done without you. I’m sorry for being curt earlier, it’s been a very long day.”

And as with all healers except for Madam Pomphrey who knew better, Healer Reed fell for it hook, line, and sinker. He looked very pleased at the compliment and apology. The middle-aged wizard looked at her, a slight gleam in his eyes that she knew too well.

“That’s very gracious of you to say Lady Potter. And I must say, it was an honor to heal you. It is not everyday that a man like me gets to…work on a body like yours.” Of course the man’s eyes gave her a totally unnecessary once over.

“Yes, well.” Holly said, awkwardly while the Avengers partially transferred their glares from her to him. “I think I’ll take your advice and get some rest.”

“Of course.” He said obviously forcing down his lustful thoughts. “Please, allow me the honor of escorting you to your home?”

“That won’t be a problem.” Tony interrupted. “She’ll stay here since we need her help with Loki Doki.”

“Right! I’d forgotten.” Healer Reed twittered. “Then I’ll just be on my way. I expect a call in a few days for another check up on both you and his godship.”

“I’ll call you when I need you.” Holly promised having absolutely no intention of calling on this man ever again. The healer was incompetent no matter what his credentials said. He had literally diagnosed her with severe magical exhaustion but didn’t even seem remotely curious as to how she was conscious. Madame Pomphrey would have never let her stay awake this long. Reed nodded feeling pleased and then disappeared with a crack. Good riddance.

She immediately turned to look at the team of superheroes. Unfortunately, now that Reed was gone all of their ire had returned to her.

“So.” She said. “Lovely day, isn’t it?”

Silence but Holly didn’t let that deter her. Instead, ignoring the pain in her side, she lifted up both hands to clap them together.

“I mean really. We got Loki and two of those Black Order people locked up, and no one on our side died. I say that this calls for a celebration.”

“Holly.” Steve said, his voice taking on a very stern tone that she didn’t like at all.

“Oh, come on! You can’t possibly be upset with me!” She cried. “There’s nothing to be upset about!”

“You were hurt, and you didn’t say anything.”

“I thought my spells took, they didn’t. It’s a mistake anyone can make.”

“You were literally bleeding out.” Tony said.

“I…Well I didn’t really feel it.” Holly admitted. “I’ve gotten really good at just blocking out pain over the years. I really didn’t notice it hadn’t worked. I was more focused on making sure Loki didn’t die and everything else.”

Finally, the glares lessened, and they were replaced with understanding. She shouldn’t have been surprised that they understood. After all they probably knew how to ignore pain too, they were superheroes for goodness sakes!

“Fine.” Clint said. “But next time you go out there, you are letting someone check you over.”

“Whatever. Can someone please get me a shirt or something? It’s cold in here.”

It was Thor who carefully helped her into a shirt, one of his own with all its insane size and softness, his face etched with concern. She supposed he wasn’t used to having teammates who were so easily injured. So far as she could tell the Avengers didn’t get hurt all that often. When they did it was usually Steve who could heal up quicker than she could! Once she was dressed slightly more comfortably, Thor helped her up and led her to the couch. She would’ve pretended she didn’t need the help but honestly, she was exhausted.

When she was finally seated on the couch, or more accurately laid out on it like a hedonistic queen, Thor and Steve both spent far too long trying to get her comfortable. Bringing her pillows and a blanket and a cup of tea. They bobbed around her sticking soft and warm things around her body and asking again and again if she needed anything more. Could they get her something to eat? Did she need another pillow? What about her feet, were they cold?

She took all of this with all the grace she had, which is to say very little.

“Seriously if you don’t stop fussing, I’ll…Well you know what I’m capable of!”

“Speaking of which.” Clint said, looking at her with something close to awe in his face. “Holy shit Holly. What even was that out there?”

“Would you believe me if I told you it was magic?”

A beat of silence before they all started to laugh. Holly laughed too even though it pulled at the wound in her side. She held her arms around her torso and bellowed with laughter, around her the Avengers were doing the same. She fell back into the various pillows that had been placed around her as exhaustion finally crept up on her.

“Holly?” Natasha asked. The woman was sitting right next to Holly on the floor, she was in much better shape as the healers were able to heal all of the spy’s wounds leaving only a lingering exhaustion and soreness behind. “Are you okay?”

“It’s…it’s the magical exhaustion.” She said. “I’m all tapped out…”

“Do you need help?”

“Just sleep.” Holly said, looking over at Tony. “You weren’t lying about letting me stay here right? Because I’m about to pass out for at least the next 48 hours and I’d like not to be moved or touched during that time.”

“48 hours?” Tony squeaked.

“Mhmm.” She said. For all her fuss about that healer telling her to rest that was mostly because she didn’t like taking orders. Now that she was no longer in danger of bleeding out and the Avengers were safe, she could feel the siren call of sleep. “I’ll sleep until my magic regenerates itself. Could take a while, I used an awful lot.”

“We could move you to a bed?” Steve suggested. “Someplace private.”

She didn’t much care for that idea, and slowly she forced her eyes open to see that Thor was getting ready to pick her up.

“Here’s just fine.” She said, her voice was slowing down and taking on a lilting quality it didn’t normally have. If she’d been totally aware, she would have noticed the looks of adoration her tone caused within the team. Thor, especially, looked like he’d just seen the cutest puppy in all the nine realms make an adorable yawning noise. “I won’t wake up for anything once I fall asleep and I’d…I’d rather there be people around just in case.”

Now that wasn’t exactly true. When she was younger, and far less used to being magically exhausted, she’d often sleep for days without stirring. The first time had been when she was 11 and had fought Professor Quirrel over the philosopher’s stone. She’d been unconscious for three days from the rampant use of magic. It was normal for most magic users. If they used too much magic their body would, for lack of a better term, shut down. They’d fall unconscious and their body would lock up to save on energy as their magic slowly replenished itself. However, as an adult, Holly could and had woken up during this process. Her mind still too focused on being alert for danger that only a powerful magically induced coma would keep her totally out.

Waking up during those times was frightening. Her limbs felt like jelly and didn’t move in the way she wanted them too, if they even moved at all. Which often they didn’t. Sometimes, if she could manage to open her eyes, she would see things that weren’t there, hallucinate creatures that belonged in Luna’s magazines instead of in the real world. Most times she would just lay there, in the dark, her eyelids stubbornly shut and blocking out all input. The only thing she was capable of was thinking, fearing and listening. She preferred the darkness over the hallucinations.

She’d told Ron and Hermione about it and Hermione had called it Sleep Paralysis. They hadn’t really been able to find anyway to cure it beyond spelling her to sleep which she hated even more than the fear. So, her friends had done a few things to ensure her comfort if and when she woke up. They made sure someone was always in the room with her as she recovered, playing music or reading out loud from a book. Things Holly knew and would recognize as safe. If she opened, her eyes then they’d make sure to be in her line of sight and tell her clearly that no one was hurt except for her and everything was just fine.

The older she’d grown, and as a result, the more times she’d done something unnecessarily reckless, the more frequently these episodes would happen. The time before this she’d woken up almost every eight hours. It was as if her body was acclimatizing to the periods of magical exhaustion and now instead of her needing to be fully unconscious during the process she was so practiced at it that her body could spare the energy to wake her up once and a while. Hermione thought that theory was rubbish.

“You don’t want to be alone?” Clint asked, in the same tone he directed at his children sometimes, causing her to shake her head and scrunch up her face in a very soft innocent way.

“It’s…scary.” She said her voice growing even softer as she melted further into the cocoon that had been made for her. “Can’t move, can’t magic…can’t…anything. Like friends…near…sounds better.”

Her explanation sounded much better in her head, but her tongue and lips were no longer cooperating. Holly wasn’t even sure the words that had escaped her mouth had sounded like English. Her eyes fell shut and she knew they wouldn’t open for a long time.

“Go to sleep.” Thor rumbled. “I’ll make sure you’re not alone.”

She must have made a noise or something because the next thing she knew, there was a hand in her terribly short hair. The pressure of the fingers that were now running through the strands and lightly scratching her scalp sent her all the way into the darkness. She didn’t even hear the other words the Avengers shared.

Jarvis would tell her later that the Avengers set up a roster right then and there to ensure that someone was always in the penthouse with her. Natasha had picked up that Holly was mumbling about sounds so they all also picked something to do that would make noise. Jarvis would show her clips (funny, very funny clips) of the team testing to see if any loud noises would wake her but not even a loud clap of thunder, courtesy of Thor, got her to twitch. So, comfortable in the knowledge that she really wouldn’t wake up, none of them worried about toning themselves down.

The roster was simple, every two hours a new Avenger would come up to be there for her and at night it was Jarvis’ job to keep her company. They left her on the couch but not before making sure that the nest of blankets and pillows was the most indulgent it could be. Bruce even put some thick socks on her feet to ensure they didn’t get cold. With all of their hard work it meant that every time Holly did wake up, she wasn’t alone. Even if they had no idea she really was conscious.

The first time she woke up, if one could call gaining just enough consciousness to hear things and do nothing else, was only five hours after she’d passed out.

“I know you can’t answer me right now, obviously, but I can’t help but wonder if you know what the hell Loki’s deal is.” Tony said his voice moving at the speed of a bullet. “I mean seriously! We saw you literally create 100,000 snakes out of nothing and then make a dragon of fire! If you’re supposed to be as good as Loki then where the hell has that been? It just doesn’t make sense!”

She didn’t really take in any of Tony’s words. Her mind was too sluggish to do more than recognize that there was a voice and that it was a voice it knew. Comprehending his words was a bit beyond her capabilities. But she still liked the sound of what was reaching her ears.

“I still can’t believe what we saw you do! Me and Jarvis have been going over the security tapes of that fight. I wish I’d had the sense to install some magic sensors into that suit because I am seriously regretting it now! I’m just trying to imagine what your energy output was!”

The words continued going on and on about impossibilities and science and equations. Things that were far above her paygrade on a normal day. If she could she would have furrowed her brows in confusion. But she couldn’t, so she continued to float in the warm comfortable darkness with only Tony’s scientific babbling to tether her. Eventually she drifted off again, Tony’s ponderings about what exactly her sword was made of echoing around in her head.

She woke up again, in the same exhausted predicament as before, but this time with a new ear worm. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed and it took an embarrassingly long amount of time to recognize the sweet voice currently whispering promises of threats against people she didn’t know in her ear.

“If Fury thinks he’s going to get his hands on you he’s got another thing coming. SHIELD is practically banging on the doors trying to get in.” The voice said before it was cut off by a beeping noise. The voice made another annoyed noise and then spoke again. “Would you believe? It’s Hill! Again! I told her that there was no way I was going to let them inside. There’s no telling what SHIELD would do to you in this state and Holly I swear I won’t let them hurt you. If they try anything, they’ll deal with me.”

Who was that? Holly knew she should know them, but she didn’t. All she knew was this inky blackness that kept a grip so tight on her it might as well have been a Grindylow. Her ability to even tell where her body was in the darkness was gone. She couldn’t feel the pillow beneath her head or the blanket pushing her body down. She was a bit of nothing spread out in nothingness. The only thing that seemed real was how protective the voice sounded.

“Fury’s pissed that I didn’t tell him that our cleaning lady was more than just a nice British woman who enjoys knitting. I’m a spy, the best spy in the whole world, and Fury expects me to see through these sorts of things. I wonder how long it’ll take him to figure out I lied to him.” The voice continued. “I didn’t even tell him about any of my suspicions after the hammer incident and that was before you made me this sweater. You were too nice and sweet even then, didn’t want you on SHIELD’s radar. Well, any more than you’d already been.”

Now who was SHIELD? Holly had never heard of that. Unless the voice was talking about an actual shield. Since when did shield’s have radars?

“Jarvis was the one who told me that you’d noticed the stalking and SHIELD break-ins at your apartment you know. I stopped them from following you around, gave my word to Fury that there was nothing interesting about you. That I’d keep my own eye on you. All because you were worried and concerned about your privacy.” The voice said. “And now I’ve got messages from Fury that are so annoying I’m considering just having Jarvis block all messages from SHIELD for the next year just to spite him.”

She realized it was Natasha right as the darkness pulled her under again. She had the urge to force her mouth to move just to tell the woman ‘thank you’ but the urge disappeared with her awareness of the situation. She drifted deeper into unconsciousness for a time before resurfacing hours later. This time she heard the soft clicking of needles and for a moment she thought she was lying next to Molly Weasley.

“I love snakes you know!” Thor said cheerily. “They’re some of my favorite creatures. They were one of the first animals that Loki learned to turn into. Which…didn’t always work out well for me.”

Holly tried to push her eyes open, wondering if she could maybe just wake up all the way for once. She knew he magic wasn’t anywhere near back to a healthy level, but still, it would be nice to stop drifting. Unfortunately, her body refused to cooperate.

“Once when we were very young, Loki turned himself into a snake and then went somewhere so I’d find him. He was a handsome snake, just as pretty as the one’s you made out of your hair! I went right up to the snake and picked it up to admire it and then poof! Loki turned back into himself and said “Bleh! It’s me!” and then he stabbed me!”

Loki did what? The sheer absurdity of the situation actually got Holly’s body to react. Her eyes opened up about halfway to reveal a darkened penthouse. The curtains had been drawn so it was difficult to tell what time it was. Thor was sitting on the ground next to her, knitting as best he could. Which wasn’t very good at all. He was staring down hard at the missing stitches. He didn’t even seem to notice how ridiculous that story was. She wished she could laugh and beg for more details but the sheer effort of opening her eyes even partway was too much.

They slid shut again just as Thor cursed his knitting and let it drop to the floor.

“You make this look so easy! It’s impossible!”

She wanted to tell him that it certainly wasn’t impossible, but it did require practice and patience. Thor continued to complain about knitting and how his gift to his mother was going to look awful if she didn’t wake up soon and help him fix the mess he’d made.

“Another mess we have to fix is your hair!” He told her. “I loved your hair it was long and perfect and…now it’s all gone! Tony said that together he and I could fix it. We’ll have to cut a little bit more just to even it out and I think it’ll look very good on you.”

She fell back into sleep her mind rolling its metaphorical eyes as Thor tutted about the state of her hair. She loved the guy but sometimes his priorities were a bit messed up. She slept for hours, completely undisturbed. She woke up again this time with a bit more awareness. She could tell she was still on the couch and she could feel a slight stiffness in her limbs from lying still for so long. Not that said limbs would move when she asked them too.

Soothing classical music filled the room with dulcet tones and chords that reminded her of lullabies.

“The press is going crazy outside.” Bruce said, his voice a little distant. She thought he might be looking out the window. “They all want to know who you are and where Loki is and what happened out there. It’s been almost two days since the fight now and neither you or Loki have woken up. All of the press yelling like this reminds me of how crazy it was when they found out I was living here. It might even be a little worse. At least when I moved in Tony had had a statement already prepared.”

Bruce’s voice grew closer and then farther away as he talked, and she realized he must be pacing. She didn’t know Bruce paced. Normally whenever he got agitated, he’d either go to his lab to do science or try some meditation. Maybe he only did it when he was alone.  

“We’ve tried to hold them off for as long as we could but they were frothing at the mouth Holly. We had to tell them something! Steve is out there right now telling them a made-up story about you! Jarvis helped create it based on what he’d thought you’d prefer. We’re trying to keep you out of the spotlight as much as possible but it doesn’t look good.”

Well that was worrisome. She wondered what her coworkers were thinking about her right now. And what about Kari? Was she okay? She lacked the ability to ask. Bruce continued on his worried monologue unaware that his audience was in anyway conscious.

“It’s been two days Holly! You need to wake up already because I am freaking out! Thor says its normal for magic users to sleep so long and my friends back at the hospital say you’ll wake up when you’re ready but…ugh! The press is banging on our doors begging for any scrap of information they can get on the newest Avenger. As if that’s what you are. Do you even want to be an Avenger? No one knows why you even showed up at the park!”

Wow Bruce really was freaking out. He continued talking about how he wasn’t made to deal with this sort of stress. He was a scientist, he did research and wrote papers. She wanted to tell him to calm down and that it would be fine. She’d dealt with press before and she could do it again. Her friends from work and Kari would either understand or they wouldn’t. But she couldn’t. All she could do was let the man pace and work himself into a tizzy.

“Even the Hulk’s worried about you. I know you two haven’t met yet but he…it’s weird he genuinely seems to like you. I felt it at the park, he wanted to meet you really badly. I don’t understand that at all but he’s worried that you won’t ever wake up.”

Well that was terribly sweet of the hulk wasn’t it? Holly relaxed as she imagined what it would be like to spend time with a person best known for smashing and not much else. She wondered if the Hulk would like building things with legos and then kicking them down again.  Her imaginations and Bruce’s voice lulled her back into darkness, she’d already forgotten the fact that there was press conference going on about her in front of Avengers Tower.

The next time she woke it was too someone apologizing to her and explaining that everything was going to be fine. Her mind stiffened up at the worry she heard in the voice and she wanted to scream at them to get on with it and tell her what the bloody hell had happened. It occurred to her as no explanation came forth that maybe they already had before she woke up.

“I promise we’ll keep you safe until you wake up. You don’t need to worry about what they’ll do to you. Thor thinks they’ve retreated off planet anyway.” Steve said. “We should have been smarter about it but we weren’t.”

Who has retreated off planet? Why does she need protection? Is anyone hurt? Steve didn’t give her any of those answers and just kept telling her that she was safe. As if she gave a bloody damn about her own safety at a time like this. She swore that Steve was going to get a very stern talking to once she managed to get her magic back in working order. She fought against unconsciousness but the harder she fought the harder it pulled her back in.

The last thing she knew was Steve saying the words ‘I’m sorry Holly’ once again.

When she resurfaced the first thing she noticed was her worry about whatever Steve had been speaking of. The second thing she noticed was the sound of Mario Kart playing in the background. The third thing she noticed was that someone was sitting on her legs.

Clint

Occasionally Clint would poke her somewhere on the leg, stomach or arm. Sharp enough to be annoying but not to hurt. It was fifteen minutes of this annoying and childish behavior before she heard Clint huff.

“I was sure that would work! My kids never sleep through it!”

His daughter certainly would if she ever exhausted herself as much as Holly had.

“I mean come on Holly, how long are you going to keep doing this for? Jarvis how long has she been out?”

“We are reaching the 52^nd hour sir.”

“Shouldn’t she be hungry or thirsty?”

“According to both Dr. Banner and Prince Odinson she will wake up feeling both but only when her magic is ready.” Jarvis said in a tone that both implied he was tired of waiting for her and tired of being asked these questions. “We have food and water ready for her when she does wake up.”

Poor Jarvis. Clint made an annoyed whine and then she heard the familiar noise of a blue shell hitting something. Probably Clint’s car in the game.

“How much magic does she have? I mean I felt it. I know it’s a lot, but it can’t take this long for her to recharge can it? Thor told us once that Loki slept for a full week after some heavy-duty spell casting and Loki’s a god! She can’t have as much magic as him…right?” Clint asked before poking Holly again in the stomach. “Wake up Holly! I have magic questions! You like answering those don’t you?”

Holly fell right back to sleep just to spite him.

Holly woke, truly woke up, with her body hers to control at 10:36 pm, more than two days after her fight against the Black Order. To be exact her fight with the Black Order had ended at exactly 12:34pm and it had been a total of 58 hours and two minutes since that point. Her magic buzzed under her skin teeming with energy and zapping in the air making it sparkle. She sat up immediately upon waking, her now terribly short hair sticking up in more directions than she thought possible.

“Ugh.”

Her mouth tasted like dirty socks and morning breath and her body felt very sore.

“Miss!” Jarvis said in delight. “You are awake.”

“Oh Jarvis.” Holly said. “What…what time is it?”

Jarvis told her, listing out a lot of other useful information as well. Things like what day it was and that he was telling the Avengers she was awake. They were all so very worried about her.

“I’m sorry.” Holly said looking up at a nearby camera. “I thought I said I’d sleep a long time.”

“You did Miss we just…were concerned the longer it went on. Besides, plenty has happened in the last 58 hours.”

“Like what?”

“SHIELD has attempted to break into the tower three times to question you. Each break in was foiled by Miss Romanoff and myself. Not only that but the team was forced to hold a press conference explaining who you were to the world. Someone recognized you from the records of the fight and leaked your identity. Then the two survivors of the Black Order, the man and the woman you did not kill but merely knocked unconscious, escaped from their holding cell to places unknown.”

“Well shit. Anything else you want to tell me?” Holly said swinging her legs out from under the many blankets she was under. She forced herself to stand ignoring the pained muscles in her body and stretched them out as she did so. Her stomach growled very loudly into the empty room.

“There is food in the kitchen waiting for you.”

“I love you so much Jarvis.” Holly said before teleporting the short distance to the kitchen to start scrounging for food. She reached out and grabbed the nearest thing on the counter, a protein bar. The wrapping shredded itself open without her even whispering a spell and she shoved it into her mouth.

Behind her she heard the elevator ding and she wasn’t surprised to hear Thor call out for her. She yelled back, her mouth still mostly full of granola. The Avengers all rushed to the kitchen to see her hunched over the counter like a goblin grabbing as much food as she could to stuff into her mouth, her cheeks were inflated like a meth-ed up squirrel.

“Sup.” She said looking up at the team, her mouth mostly full.

Chapter 18: A Long Awaited Conversation

Summary:

Holly has questions for Loki about the most important topic of all. Thor's Wedding.

Notes:

Hey everyone! Thank you for the amazing comments last week! I've really enjoyed reading every one of them! I've decided to stick with the updating every wednesday schedule for now, but that might change come September.

“Okay, you’ve got to level with me. Thor in a wedding dress, truth or fiction?”

“What?” Loki croaked.

The voice came from his left and it was familiar in the same way that a gnat buzzing around one’s ear was familiar. Which is to say annoying and something Loki had the almost instinctive urge to swat at. Unfortunately, Loki’s limbs were a bit too lethargic to allow him to swat at anything. Loki’s entire body was complaining very loudly at him about his actions and he had that terribly familiar ache in his body that let him know he had overdone it.

“Thor’s wedding? You know, some old giant creep or something stole Mjolnir and ransomed it for the hand of some goddess? And then you came up with a ruse that ended with Thor in a wedding dress? Is that ringing any bells?”

The voice was becoming more familiar to Loki as his body woke up further. He knew that there were some magic users that upon waking up after sleeping for multiple days to recover from magical exhaustion tended to…sparkle. They’d hop around like drugged up creatures pawing for food and literally making the air shimmer with their newly returned magic. Loki wasn’t like that at all. He was far more graceful. Loki was the kind to wake slowly, with intent.

In this case the intent was to get whomever was talking to go away.

“I asked Thor about it of course but he told me it was ridiculous and made up. He acted really shifty though so I’m not convinced he was telling the truth.”

“Ralston would you please shut up?”

Silence. Loki sighed in relief and worked on slowly opening his eyes. He expected to see Ralston sitting next to him. The man would probably be wearing some ridiculous tunic with a new treatise on transfiguration in his lap. Ralston would also probably look wrecked and over-worried like he did whenever Loki got hurt. Sometimes Ralston would keep himself from sleeping if Loki was injured, there would probably be bags under his friend’s eyes.

What met his eyes when Loki opened them was not the sight his mind had conjured up.

Instead of the wonderful and welcome sight of his best friend, no matter how disheveled the man would probably look, there was what appeared to be a rabid magic user sitting in a large comfortable chair next to his bed. The magic user had hair that had been cut by what appeared to be a toddler. Every strand a different and yet still unappealing length, combined with that it curled and stuck up everywhere. They were wearing a shirt that looked like it was made for someone four times their size and they had an electronic tablet balanced on one knee while their entire lap was full of food.

“You.” Loki seethed at the Ralston look-a-like.

“Oh, so you remember me then?” The magic user asked, using Ralston’s face. “That makes things easier. So tell me, Thor’s wedding, spill the tea as the youth are saying.”

“I don’t know what realm you’ve come from or where you found that face but you had best run as fast and as far as you can, because if you are still here in the next five minutes there will be blood spilt.”

“Woah!” The Magic-User-That-Was-Not-Ralston said, lifting up her hands as if to pre-defend against an attack that wouldn’t be happening for a few minutes more. “Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“No I am here to hurt you and I will if you don’t get rid of that face and get off this planet.”   

How dare this upstart, whoever they were, even toy with the idea of wearing Ralston’s face as a glamor? Did they think that would soften him? Did they believe they could trick him with such a guise? No. Loki would burn them, he would burn every bit of them for the gall of this one act.

“Get rid of my face?” They asked sounding very bewildered.

“That is not your face you sniveling little pustule.” Loki snarled. “You’ve stolen it from someone you’re not even worthy to lick the boot of.”

“Look, buddy…”

“I am not your buddy you face stealing liar. Get out before I skin that face off of you!” Loki managed to lift up one arm and send a green fiery spell right at the magic user.

They immediately cast a shield blocking the spell while yelling at him that he needed to calm down or else someone else was going to come in here and that was the last thing he wanted. What Loki wanted was to kill this bastard for wearing Ralston’s face, for talking like him, for forgiving him in Ralston’s stead. He wanted to make them bleed.

His body still wasn’t as cooperative as it normally was and so Loki settled for casting as many spells at that monster in the room with him as he could.

“How dare you take his face!” Loki screeched as the magic user retreated with surprising agility.

“I haven’t taken anyone’s face!”

“I’ll kill you for this!” Loki promised. The magic user was escaping towards the door, blocking his spells and yelling back at him that he was acting insane.

“Fine! Fine I’m leaving.” She shouted, finally at the door. The woman wrenched open the door and stepped so that it was acting as a shield between them. She shouted out her last parting words. “There’s some food on the table!”

Food?

The door slammed shut and Loki felt magic take hold that promised it wouldn’t be opening from his end for some time. Locked inside. Excellent. Just what Loki had always wanted. How ever did they know that it had always been his dream to be a prisoner once again? He fell against the bed for a moment before slightly tilting his head. On his other side there was a table filled with warm steaming food. Perfect for a magic user just coming out of a coma.

Loki ignored the kindness from the face stealer.

He was a prisoner and that face was a trap. It could be nothing else. The face stealer had objects of great power, objects associated with Death Herself, and they stole faces. There was no way they’d been up to any good. Even if they claimed to be a cleaning lady, even if they’d said they were there to help the Avengers. Loki knew it was all lies. Lies and slander. Thor was probably far over his head believing whatever shit that magic-user was spouting. Not that Loki cared if his bro- if Thor was in trouble.

That wasn’t his concern and it never would be. Loki was smarter than Thor, always had been. The only thing that mattered was that he wasn’t going to be tricked. Whomever had trapped him wouldn’t get anything out of him and when they came back he’d make them pay for wearing Ralston’s face.

He ignored the pain that rushed through him. He had begged that face for forgiveness. Had pleaded for understanding and empathy from a falsehood. He had been deceived again and something in him ached. Would he never learn to stop hoping? Loki curled up as best as his tired body would allow and forced himself not to cry. Crying in this place, as a prisoner, would do no one any good.

About an hour after waking Loki found himself fully in control of his body and ravenous. He checked over the food with a myriad of spells and found it to be exactly what it appeared.

You should eat. Ralston’s voice whispered. The girl didn’t mean any harm.

Loki knew it was just his mind conjuring up what it thought Loki wanted to hear. Ralston was dead, had been dead for far too long to be whispering in Loki’s ear. But it comforted him anyway. Loki felt a swell of self-revulsion at how much comfort he felt from the fake voice. He picked up a roll and bit into without argument and he heard Ralston tell him that he was doing just fine. How pathetic. Loki didn’t need encouragement from a fake voice. He didn’t.

You’re going to be just fine, my friend. Have I ever led you wrong?

It took another hour to get through all of the food on the table, there had been an awful lot of it. When that happened Loki grew bored and when Loki got bored he grew resentful. At first he tried to escape, teleportation didn’t work and neither did his attempts at ward breaking. He grew very upset by that fact, and by the lack of stimulation. If they were going to torture him perhaps they should get on with it already!

Ralston told him to stop being so dramatic.

Loki told himself to stop listening to fake voices in his head.

In the end neither piece of advice was obeyed.

Loki prowled the length of the small room he was in. There was a door off to the far side that revealed a small bathroom, just large enough to contain a toilet, a small sink, and a shower that had a chair in it. Why a shower had a chair in it Loki couldn’t fathom. There was nothing in the bathroom that could be used to harm anyone, nothing that could be fashioned into a weapon, nor was there any means of escape.

The main room contained a bed, the magically conjured table and chair from the face stealer, and a window. The window looked out into nothing real, an enchantment had been placed on it to show a clear blue sky that blanketed a picturesque forest. On the surface it was another fake kindness from the face-stealer, an attempt to keep him from panicking about being trapped with enemies. Loki hated it. Hated not knowing where he was.

He tried breaking the window but the magic keeping him stuck, kept the thing from breaking no matter how much he banged on it. He kept hitting and hitting and hitting, growling and yelling at the world to just let him go already.

Loki stop, you’re hurting yourself.

Ralston’s voice had that begging quality to it that made Loki pause. He hated that tone, it tugged on whatever was left of his heart. His hands, now bloody and bruised, lightly touched the window leaving prints of blood on it. The blood dripped in little lines down the glass, a few drops landing on the floor. Loki swallowed. Fine, Ralston. He waved a hand banishing the blood and used a few healing spells to fix the damage with no one the wiser.  

Loki settled onto the bed again. There was nothing for him to do but sit there. He couldn’t summon anything into the room which meant he wasn’t even allowed the entertainment of books. He was certain he was under some sort of observation but he didn’t give his captor the pleasure of knowing he was bored. So Loki sat there and he glared at the exit, willing it to open.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The door opened just slightly, and a head stuck inside the room just a little. It was the face stealer. She looked exactly as she had before making Loki wonder how long he’d truly been inside that room. The woman hadn’t even bothered to change out of the too large clothing. Not to mention the hair.

Loki ignored Ralston when he pointed out that her hair looked like that because she’d managed what would likely go down in history as one of the greatest feats of transfiguration of all time. Ralston had always had such a love for transfiguration the hair-to-snake spell would have sent him into hysterical awe.

“I thought I told you to leave.” He snarled.

“You did.” She agreed. “And now I’m back.”

“If you’re trying to trick me with that face, you’ll find that you won’t succeed. The last people who tried ended up paying for it.” A lie but this face stealer didn’t need to know that.

“I’m not trying to trick you. Honestly! This is my face!” She stepped inside the room, the door swinging shut behind her. “Has it not occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, me looking like whoever this Ralph person-”

“Ralston.” Loki snarled. “His name is Ralston.”

“Ralston.” She repeated carefully. “Well I don’t know who that is and me looking like him is nothing, I swear. You can check me over for glamors or shapeshifting or anything, if you really don’t believe me.”

Loki’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as he stared at the woman. She really did look like Ralston in almost every way. She stood there as he stared at her from his position on the bed. The longer he looked the more differences he found between her and Ralston. Her cheeks were slightly more defined, her lips slightly fuller, her shoulders less broad and her muscles had slightly less bulge. The similarities still outshone the differences by a mile but Loki was beginning to suspect he’d overreacted.

“You’d let me cast a spell on you?” He asked, disbelief coloring his voice.

“I have a feeling you’re not going to work with me at all until we get over this face issue.” She said seriously. “If this is what it takes to get you to trust me, then fine. Cast away.”

He lifted a hand and the woman didn’t even flinch. Wordlessly he cast a spell that would remove glamors or other appearance changing magic. The spell went so deep it would even end a Polyjuice transformation. To Loki’s surprise the only change was that a few more scars popped up on the woman’s skin. A scar on the back of her hand as well as a few on her arms and neck. The rune shaped scar on her forehead also became redder and more distinct.

Oh.

“See?” She said. “Not a face stealer.”

“What are you doing here?” He asked forcing himself to keep his look of disdain and suspicion on his face. Just because she looked so much like his friend didn’t mean she wasn’t still his enemy.

“I’m here to talk to you.” She said. “I’ve got some more food too, I thought we could…have a discussion over dinner.”

“Not interested.”

“In the food or the discussion?”

He glared at her, daring her to get violent, to start a fight. That’s what Loki needed right then, an excuse to turn into the rabid monster he truly was.

“I assume I cannot have one without the other so I will have to decline both.”

“Really?” She said.

“I would rather starve than have anything to do with you.”

She flicked her wrist producing the Death Stick from wherever she’d been magically hiding it. Loki flinched against his better judgement but she didn’t notice. She was focused on casting a spell. More food appeared on the table. He looked at the food and then back at her with something like disbelief.

“Sorry, no starving today.” She said. “Against company policy and all that.”

“Your kindness means nothing to me.” He snarled. “I’ll never tell you anything, you won’t trick me.”

She looked at him, something tired in her too familiar green eyes.

“Not everything is a trick you know.”

Then she left.

It took Loki an hour to give up and eat the food. When he did he found that the empty plates turned themselves into books. Human books, fictional stories of all things, but books nonetheless. Loki picked up the first one, titled ‘The Hobbit’, and began to carefully read. The books had been left, likely as a way to soften him and lower his guard. Loki wouldn’t fall for such a trap but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make his captors believe he had. He read until the lights in the room dimmed and the sun had set in his enchanted window. He only stopped when Ralston suggested that he get some sleep.

The next morning he woke up and found that there was a set of clothing, human in style, sitting on the table along with some toiletries. The message was clear if unspoken. Loki used the too small shower grumbling to himself that he was only doing this because he wanted to. He wasn’t going to be deceived and he wasn’t going to trust that Not-Actually-A-Face-Stealer. Ralston told him to stop lying to himself.

When he emerged from the bathroom, clean and dressed in the comfortable clothing he wasn’t surprised to find the magic user sitting there and waiting for him. She’d done some redecorating while he’d bathed. The bed had been moved to the side of the room to make more space. The table was now larger and had two comfortable chairs on either side of it. There was also now a small bookshelf filled with more than just the four books that had been given to him last night.

The woman was no longer wearing the too large clothing, instead she was wearing a slightly baggy sweater with the letter ‘H’ in the center along with some jeans.

“You know.” She said, looking up at him. “I made a few calls last night.”

“I don’t see why I should care.” Loki snapped, she ignored his rude tone.

“I had to call one of my best friends and trust me did she chew me out, not only for that stunt I pulled in Central Park but for calling her to ask questions with such obvious answers.” She said. “Trust me, you’re lucky you weren’t there for her 15-minute lecture about paying attention in history class.”

“If you are going to begin torturing me by babbling I have to tell you that you ought to at least try to talk about something less stupid.”

She gave him a look and then motioned for him to sit down. The table was filled with breakfast food, bacon and waffles and eggs. It was still steaming and it smelt nearly divine. Loki stood stock still.

“I asked her if the name Ralston sounded familiar and she called me an idiot.” She said. “Apparently everyone in the world but me knows who that is.”

“Don’t.” Loki snarled. “Don’t speak his name.”

“We are talking about Ralston Potter, right?” She asked. “Born over 400 years ago?”

“If you value your head being attached to your neck then I suggest you leave.”

“Aren’t you curious to know what happened to him?” He couldn’t believe her impertinence!

“I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM!” Loki roared. He stalked forward, his magic sparking and burning in his hands. “HE DIED! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! HE DIED AND I FAILED TO SAVE HIM!”

She jumped up from her chair just in time to dodge Loki grabbing the table and flipping it to the side.

“You don’t get to talk about him!”

“I can talk about him however I want!” She shouted brandishing her wand.

“You impertinent little worm.” Loki snarled sending a wave of pure magical fire right at the woman.

“Listen to me you arrogant asshole!” She snarled. “I’m trying to tell you about Ralston.”

“I will cut out your tongue if you speak his name again!” Loki rushed at the woman, a stupid thing since he knew what she was capable of. Despite her evident rage and frustration with him, she showed a minimal amount of mercy by only blasting him into the wall hard enough to bruise instead of hard enough to break bones. The drywall transfigured itself into bands of metal that looked suspiciously like Uru, trapping him there.

“Fine!” She shouted. “Fine! I won’t speak his name! But I will speak mine!”

Loki tried to use enough magic to banish her transfigurations, but her spells held strong. He put all of his godly strength against the bonds and felt them start to bend.

“I am Lady Holly Gemma Potter.” She spat. “Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter and the last of my line.”

Loki froze. Standing in front of him wasn’t Ralston, it wasn’t a face-stealer. It was his friend’s descendant. He made a shocked pained noise but she didn’t seem to care.

“And apparently!” She shouted. “My ancestor, Who-Shall-Remain-Bloody-Nameless, was your best friend and spent the rest of his life doing everything in his power to make sure that when you finally returned to this planet there’d be someone around waiting for your ungrateful, condescending ass! Fat lot of good it did him because no one in their right mind would want anything to do with you!”

Her sharp tone dug into his very heart, burrowing into already existent wounds and reopening old scars. She left then telling him ‘Good Riddance’ and that ‘This is the last time I bother with you!’ and ‘Threatening to cut my tongue out! After everything I’ve done! The nerve!’. The Uru bars holding him to the wall melted away back into drywall when the door slammed shut.

Loki fell to his knees and looked at the mess he’d created. The plates of breakfast foods had been smashed and the food was smeared across the floor. One of the table legs had broken off. He looked down at his hands and then let his eyes close shut.

“Oh Ralston, what have I done?”

The woman, Holly, was right. Loki wasn’t worth the effort or the time. He looked around the room again and saw the truth for what it was. The bed was soft and comfortable, the lights warm, and the room was safe. She’d given him food and books and kept coming back to try and offer him help. It wasn’t a deception, it was the last remnants of the person who’d loved him best reaching out only to be slapped away time and time again.

He didn’t know how Ralston had survived, or if it had only been one of his children. He didn’t know anything, and he didn’t deserve to know. He couldn’t even remain calm and polite enough to talk to the one person who could tell him for more than a minute. Loki ignored the voice in his head telling him that it was going to be fine. It wasn’t. Loki had been cruel to Ralston’s descendant of all people! It wasn’t Ralston but it was good as and he’d called them names and attacked them!

He should just rot.

Loki stewed there within the mess he’d created for close to thirty minutes, almost on the verge of tears for a majority of that time. He didn’t hear the door click open again, he did however hear Holly.

“Look.” She said. “I’m sorry, I might have been a little harsh this morning. But I’ve just got so much on my plate you know? Thor’s acting like the world’s most annoying shoulder monkey trying to get me to update him on you as if I know anything at all. Not to mention the sheer amount of work Tony and Steve gave me with that awful press conference they did and…Loki?”

Loki had looked up at the woman in awe, she was here. It wasn’t a hallucination. She was looking at him now, concerned of all things.

“You came back?”

“I…well of course I came back.” She said.

“Why?” She looked at him for a moment longer before sighing and running a hand through her short hair.

“Look. How about we start over?” She suggested. “Let’s pretend the last 12 hours haven’t happened and we’re just meeting now. How does that sound?”

“Uhm…alright.” Loki said forcing his body into a standing position. “I’m…My name is Loki.”

“I’m Holly Potter.” She said moving right in front of him and holding out a hand. He took it and they shook hands very lightly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. How are you feeling? Has your chest wound healed up?”

“I…yes it has. I feel just fine.” Loki said letting his hand drop back to his side. “I assume I have you to thank?”

“Well I was the one who called the healer.” She said. “I’m afraid I didn’t do the actual healing though, a bit too magically exhausted for that.”

“A…a healer?” Loki asked. “What realm am I on now?”

“Still on earth.” She said. “I think, yes I have something to give you.”

“Give me?”

She reached into her back pocket and removed a small leather bound book. She held it out to him.

“This Ralston’s journal.” She said. “It’s what he wrote about you and…and well everything. This is the truth, without any magical nonsense to blur it. This is truly what happened to him and I think you ought to read it instead of hearing it from me. Some of the entries in there are written directly to you.”

With shaking hands Loki took the journal, it felt far too heavy for its size. He looked at the brown and slightly cracked leather with disbelief. Carefully he opened it up and choked. There, right there on the page was Ralston’s handwriting, just as Loki remembered it. His fingers traced the letters as tears gathered in his eyes.

“I’ll leave you.” She said. “Call for me when you’re ready to talk okay?”

He made no noise to show that he had heard her. His eyes were far too focused on the journal. He didn’t notice that she cleaned up the mess of food and broken plates or that she put the table back together. He didn’t register anything that wasn’t the words on the page written by his friend so long ago.   

I first met Loki when I was 15, a young student at Hogwarts, and rather lonely. I imagine it is hard to imagine that I wasn’t always as famous and popular as I am now. But it’s true. In my youth I was a rather lonesome young man. My parents, neither of whom had been very talented at magical self-defense, had been killed in a witch hunt when I was a mere babe and I had been thrust into the care of the village church. All of the town remembered what my parents were, and I spent much of my time being ostracized or examined for proof of devilry.

Loki read for hours. Eventually he moved to one of the chairs but he couldn’t remember when. His entire mind was focused solely on the words his friend had penned. Even the entries that weren’t directly targeted to him were filled with little hints and clues as to how Ralston felt and how Ralston wanted Loki to feel.

Loki’s memories of spells that would have saved Ralston and Amaryllis, they hadn’t been the made up visions of a grieving mind. It had been real and it had worked. The magical world he’d thought a mere fantasy, was real, a place he’d made. Even if Loki couldn’t remember he knew that this was Ralston’s handwriting, no one could forge his words so perfectly, not even Loki could have done it. Ralston had lived, he had more children and grand children and he’d been happy, a hero till the end of his days.

The words on the page screamed one thing and one thing alone. It promised the things he’d never dared to hope he could have again.

Loki, you do not need this but you will want to hear it anyway. I forgive you for never coming back. I know if you could be here you would be. You would never have willingly abandoned me. I know you have given everything up for my safety and for the safety of our world. If you have died, then I will soon join you on the other side and I hope you have waited for me. If you live, then know that I will wait for you. If Death be willing I will do more than just wait, I will stand at the crossroads between life and death and I will reach for you. You are my brother, my friend and no matter what I will never abandon you.

When you read these words, know that if I have been gone for a long time, then my descendants will act in my stead. The Potters will always be your family and what’s more they will always be defenders of the world you created. This I so swear. I know that the fates can be cruel but I also know that nothing will keep us apart forever. Not time, not death, and certainly not Odin.

Your brother, forever.

Ralston

Loki had to put the book aside before his tears landed on the old parchment and damaged it.  He gently placed the journal on the table and lifted his hands up to his face. He cried then, his shoulders shaking and his soul quivering. The tears that escaped from beneath his hands were cleansing, divine. He could practically feel it, Ralston reaching for him, telling him it would be well. He could feel redemption.

And it felt like flying.

Eventually the tears stopped, and Loki was able to compose himself. He made sure a glamor covered up the red eyes and tear tracks and then he called for Holly. She didn’t keep him waiting long. The door to his room opened within minutes and Holly peeked in looking hopeful and wary all at once.

“Loki?”

“Holly.” Loki said. “Thank you for the journal.”

“Course.” She said stepping inside. “A good read, I hope?”

“The best.”

“Good.” She said. “Did you need anything?”

“I…” Loki trailed off unsure of even what to say. He felt as if there was so much he had to get off his chest. So many questions about the state of his magical world he needed to ask. Holly looked at him expectantly and he felt something in himself solidify. “Thor really did wear a wedding dress.”

“Really?” She squeaked happily. “You’re not messing with me?”

“And ruin a chance to bother Thor? Never.”

“Tell me everything.”

And Loki did, telling the whole story from beginning to very embarrassing end. Holly laughed, delighted by the whole thing. She had taken a seat at the table very early on and listened to every word from his mouth as if it were gospel. When he finished she clapped her hands together.

“That it absolutely brilliant.” She said her hands clasped in front of her face. “Truly brilliant.”

“Why did you, at the park, you played music didn’t you?”

“I did yes.” She said.

“Why?”

“Because it was awesome.” She said as if it were simple. “I mean really, you saw that right?”

Loki had to admit that the music had added a certain level of esteem to the already quite fearsome fight. It was just the right level of drama for Loki to truly appreciate it.

“And the Hallows? Fake I presume?”

“Oh no, those’re real.”

“What!?”

“Oh, don’t get it all twisted. The hallows are real but I’m not the Master of Death so far as I know. I’m still mortal, still human.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I.” She said shrugging. “But taking control of all three hallows didn’t make me immortal or all powerful. Not that I would’ve wanted that, mind you. I’ve owned these things for over a decade now and I’m powerful but still well within normal human expectations.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone, human or god, manage a transfiguration that huge.” Loki pointed out.

“I figured out a trick to lessen the amount of energy each snake required.” She told him with a sly smirk on her lips.

“A trick.”

She grinned and leaned forward.

“I came up with the snake hair idea like…ages ago. I knew if I tried it outright I’d kill myself from magical strain.” She said. “So I started prepping the spell way in advance. About five years ago I started imbuing magical energy into my hair through my shampoo.”

“What?”

“I enchanted my shampoo so that it’d put some magical energy into my hair. Every time I cleaned it up just a little more magic was stored inside.” She explained. “Now hair can’t actually hold that much energy…”

“But even just a little in each meant you’d only need what…half the amount of energy for a normal transfiguration for each strand?” He guessed making her nod. “That’s…brilliant!”

“Thank you.” She said. “Don’t tell anyone how I did it either, most people think I just did it, no trick required.”

“You have my word.” Loki said. “I have to ask, was it worth it? Five years of preparation for just one spell?”

“Oh hell yeah.”

Her sureness created giggles that escaped his mouth like bubbles. She started laughing too, excited to share her secret of success.

“Why did you tell me you were the Avengers’ cleaning lady?”

“Because I am.” She said.

“But… Why would you be here instead of the magical world?” Loki said. “Ralston’s journal said that it was safe and strong and-”

“It is.” She said. “Don’t worry about the magical world, not even your invasion did it much damage, your magical protections ensured that. I might be…technically in hiding from the magical world.”

“I’m sensing there is a story here.” She sighed, looked up to the ceiling, and then shrugged a little.

“Yeah alright. Settle in oh god of magic because we’re going to be here awhile. It all started with a prophecy.”

Loki listened in something like awe as the woman across from him bore her soul, her entire past as it related to the modern politics of the world Loki had created. A war over magical blood purity? What nonsense! What total and complete nonsense! The whole point of Loki’s realm had been so that all those gifted with magic would be free. Where did this Voldemort fellow get off thinking he could decide who did and didn’t belong? An entire war over something so pointless, an entire war that would have destroyed Loki’s greatest creation. Voldemort was quite lucky he hadn’t had to deal with Loki.

Although, thinking back to the sort of fight Holly put up against the Black Order perhaps Voldemort had been unlucky to be paired up against her.

Holly told him of being a child soldier, of an entire generation of magic users (her parents included) being decimated by a war that went on for 50 years. She spoke of that final battle, of how Voldemort had attempted to mimic the immortality of a god, and of dedicating the next decade of her life purging his fascist influence from the world. She had become a hero in every sense of the word, someone with far more honor and decency than perhaps anyone Loki knew.

“After it was done I realized I…I felt very empty, purposeless.” She admitted.

“You know.” Loki said. “After Ralston got his masters in transfigurations and started working he had a crisis. He didn’t know what he wanted to be anymore, he dragged me all around the globe looking for his dream, for his purpose.”

“And did he find it?” She asked.

“Eventually.” Loki said smiling fondly. Holly and Ralston had far too much in common. Both orphaned, both far too kind and too good. Both obsessed with becoming something greater unaware that they had already achieved greatness. “He became the hero of his generation, a defender for all magic users, great and small.”

“And I became a cleaning lady.” She finished. “It was supposed to be a temporary thing, you see I was just doing it until I found whatever it was that was suppose to fill me with purpose.”

“And have you found it?” Loki asked.

“I have.” She said simply, her voice getting slightly choked. “I truly have. Thor and the other Avengers helped.”

“Did they?”

“They gave me a choice. The Magical World for all its power didn’t give me that. I was their hero and nothing more. But the Avengers? They told me that they didn’t need me or my power and that I was free to be anything and everything I wanted. It was freeing.”

“And you choose to return to the life you knew, to fight against the Black Order?”

“It’s what felt right. Something in me just…knew that I should be there.” She said. “Although I hardly expected to see you there.”

“Well, yes.” Loki said. “It wasn’t like I planned on it either, something spoke to me.”

She lifted up an eyebrow at him and Loki knew he had procrastinated enough. It was time for the god of lies to tell the truth. He found looking at the woman, Holly, who was so similar to Ralston that it warmed him to his center, that talking was simple. He could tell her. She would understand. She would forgive in the way Ralston always did.

“The magical world may have had the truth but I didn’t. Something, and I do not know what, went wrong when I left earth to seal the wards in each realm. I don’t remember doing that, what I remember is watching Ralston being killed right in front of me and…and waking up outside of Asgard.” Loki told her.

“We might be able to figure that out.” She said. “Maybe a good mind healer might be able to undo the spells in your mind, if you’re willing.”

“I am. I’d…I’d like to replace my last memory of Ralston with something real.” Loki said looking down at the journal in his hands. “But first, I should tell you what I’ve done the last 400 years.”

“What did you do?” She asked gently.

“I fell.”

Chapter 19: Why Nick Fury Misses the 90's

Summary:

Director Fury finally manages to get inside Stark Tower and he does not like what he finds.

Notes:

Hey ya'll! Thanks so much for the amazing comments last week. I was too busy to reply to a lot of them but I still really appreciated it! Next week's update is going to be late. I'm going to Hawaii for a NASA workshop and I'll be hiking around fresh lava flows all week, no time for writing! I won't even have internet access!
I don't know when the next update'll be. That being said!
Follow me on twitter for updates!
Seriously, if you want to know when I'll be updating, best thing to do is follow me there since I'll tweet about it.

Nick Fury wasn’t the sort of man to be intimidated by anything or anyone. Even back in the day when he was a young agent and he’d been fighting against shapeshifting aliens with an amnesiac superhero, Fury liked to claim he was cool under pressure. The idea that he was so cool under pressure because he always had a pager on him that would allow him to call said amnesiac superhero was something that was left unspoken. No one but him knew about the pager and that would stay his own little secret. After all, what good was the ultimate Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card if everyone knew he had it?

However. Even Nick had to admit that the last few days had been nothing but stressful as hell.

First his team, his personally picked and specially designed team, had gone out to fight four unknown aliens. This team, which consisted of a god, a super-soldier, a hulk, a genius, and two highly trained assassins, got their asses handed to them like their asses were parts of a Sunday dinner. That team, the team that Fury had claimed was Earth’s best and last line of defense, failed against four aliens that looked like they belonged on the set of Star Trek.

Which was stressful, to say the least.

Then just as Fury was desperately trying to convince the World Security Council that no, nuclear weapons were not an option and would never be an option, Loki showed up! Yes, that’s right. That guy. The guy with issues so bad that they made Stark look totally well adjusted. The guy who threw tantrums in major cities every other month because his Daddy didn’t hug him enough.

Part of Fury was relieved to see him because it seemed like Loki had beef with the four other aliens. If they were lucky Loki would kill those four and then succumb to his wounds from the fight and die too. Wouldn’t that be something? Two birds, one stone! Of course, Fury was never that lucky. Within 30 seconds Loki got his ass handed to him on a plate too. Although unlike the Avengers the four aliens seemed ready to torture Loki for standing up to them.

Fury ignored the audio he got from the fight, Loki could be lying about the torture and about the invasion. He was the god of lies! Still his left hand reached down into his pocket and his fingers curled around the old piece of plastic from the 90’s.

He missed the 90’s. It was better, simpler time.

So just as Fury thought he was going to watch his greatest annoyance be tortured by four of his newest causes of early onset heart failure, someone else showed up.

“Now who in the hell is that?”

“It looks like…the cleaning lady sir.”

“The cleaning lady?” Fury asked looking over at Hill.

“Yes, Holly Potter. She’s worked as the cleaning lady for the Avengers for the past few months. We did a full background check but it didn’t turn anything up.”

The so-called cleaning lady then changed from a nice dress into some sort of armor and started spewing magic everywhere. Fury’s jaw clenched.

“I want to know who the fuck signed off on that background check.”

“That would be Agent Romanoff and Barton sir.”

Well shit.

Potter ended up dishing out the ass kicking to the four aliens like it was something she did every day. She killed two of them, one in a swarm of magically created snakes and the other via her very shiny sword that had come out of nowhere. Watching her fight from their surveillance equipment, listening to the music she’d had Jarvis play for her…well it reminded Nick of Carol in all the wrong ways.

Too powerful, too quick, and too unknown.

When the fight ended Nick ordered his agents forward hoping to catch Potter before she disappeared, Loki was spiked to a tree so he should have been an easy pick-up. Easy. Right. Potter used some sort of spell to transport not just her, but Loki and all of the Avengers to places unknown moments before SHIELD agents got to the area. Romanoff and Barton sent him separate messages asking him to lock up the two living aliens for interrogation, as if he wasn’t going to do that anyway, but gave him no information about what the hell was going on.

 The next few days were nothing short of hellish for Nick. He had his own agents stonewalling him at every turn. Any attempts he made to gather intel or gain access to Potter were halted with the vicious sort of zeal that Nick had only seen Romanoff use when someone put Barton in danger. Jarvis was even pettier, whenever they tried to hack into him he parried and then hacked into SHIELD just because he could.

Then the two aliens, who had been unconscious under what Nick assumed was some sort of spell, woke up. It shouldn’t have been a problem if they were awake. Nick had placed them in their strongest cells, the kind that would even hold the Hulk. Nick had been alerted by their security that the aliens were awake and then fifteen seconds later he was told that they’d disappeared.

Teleportation devices.

Of fucking course!

Sharing that news with the Council and the Avengers was about as pleasant as he imagined. Which is to say, he would’ve rather had his other eye dug out by Goose. Nick hadn’t appreciated Stark’s question about the press. As if Nick would release information to the media. He was the head of a spy organization, that was the opposite of what he did. Whoever told the press about Holly’s identity hadn’t done it on his order that was for damn sure.

So now here he was, standing outside Avengers Tower, a team of superheroes and two aliens short. He wanted to suspect that Potter had placed the Avengers under some sort of mind control but something in him made him suspicious of that. Maybe it was the memory of Carol, maybe it was the fact that so far he’d only dealt with one other magic user and he knew it wasn’t smart to act on prejudice when one could potentially make an ally instead.

Either way the entire situation was fishy.

“Romanoff.” Nick said into his phone. “I need answers.”

Silence on the other end of the line, despite Nick knowing damn well the woman had heard him. Nick’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth hurt and he had to keep himself from ordering a drone strike on the tower in front of him.

“Holly’s willing to talk.” Romanoff said. “Come on up to the penthouse.”

“If this a trap, Romanoff, I swear to g-”

“It’s not.” She said seriously. “I swear on Coulson that it’s not.”

Damn. Alright then. Fury hung up his phone and was finally able to walk inside the tower. No one stopped him and not even the AI made any snarky comments when he got into the elevator. It just took him straight up the 93 floors to the very top.  Nick honestly wasn’t sure what he expected to see when he stepped out of that elevator. Rogers and Stark fighting like two idiots. Banner trying to remain calm in the face of the stress of having an unknown magic user wandering around. Thor being way too positive for the situation at hand. Hell even Barton and Romanoff waiting at the elevator to act as guards would’ve been more probable than what he saw.

Because the penthouse had been absolutely transformed. Instead of the open floor plan with couches that looked fancy but weren’t very comfortable there were large, comfortable, plushy chairs all settled around the room. The chairs were piled high with soft blankets and fuzzy pillows, not to mention the copious amount of snacks that were littered around the room. Stark’s gigantic wall sized TV was playing…was that g-ddamn Mario Kart? It was! Romanoff, Potter, Rogers, and Stark were all playing Mario Kart while the three other Avengers cheered them on.

Fury stood there watching in horror as Potter launched a red shell directly at Stark’s car and then sped by him into first place while Thor cheered.

This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be real. It shouldn’t be real.   

Loki, g-ddamn Loki, was sitting on one of the comfortable chairs an old book in his lap and a cup of tea in his hand. None of the Avengers were attacking him like they should have fucking been and Loki wasn’t attacking any of them. It didn’t make any damn sense.

“What the hell is going on here?” Fury demanded, his voice cutting through the happy chatter in the room.

All of the Avengers froze up and turned to look at Fury like a bunch of children that had been caught doing mischief by their teacher. Loki stiffened and was now holding his body like a snake about to strike. Potter was the one who paused the game and looked at Fury without any hint of self-consciousness or fear. Once the game was paused she put down her controller and gave Fury a very frightening smile.

Frightening because Fury had only seen that smile on one other person in his entire life.

Carol Fucking Danvers.

“Hullo.” She greeted in a soft almost lilting accent. “I’m Holly Potter, you must be Director Fury. Natasha told me a bit about you.”

That was the voice, the body, the face, of a woman who could eat you for breakfast without even straining herself but wouldn’t because she had better things to be doing. A dragon who had a hoard the size of a continent and knew that one tiny knight wasn’t a match for her but was still willing to let them try. This was a nuclear bomb wrapped in a warm fuzzy sweater. The woman who was looking at Nick with a warm look on her face could make nations kneel and topple empires if given the correct motivation.

He remembered Carol destroying an entire armada of alien spaceships without gaining so much as a scratch and swallowed.

Alright Nick, you’ve done this once before, you can do it again. Befriending super powerful women so that they don’t destroy your planet is sort of the job you do best.

“Yes, Nicholas Fury.” He said. “Director of SHIELD. I have some questions for you ma’am, if you’d be willing to answer them.”

The woman’s green eyes sparkled from behind her glasses.

“Of course.” She said. “Come on in and get comfortable and I’ll do my best to answer.”

Which is how Nick Fury found himself sitting on a chair in a circle with the rest of the Avengers. Holly had gotten off her position on the floor to sit on the couch next to Loki. Loki had rearranged himself so that he was sitting in a way that practically plastered his body to Potter’s side. He was glaring at Nick with a ferocity that went well beyond the normal hatred their few interactions had had.

Loki’s eyes screamed threats to anyone who even got close to threatening Potter.

It certainly didn’t help that Thor sat on her other side and had the same sort of expression on his face, if slightly less murderous.

“So.” Potter said. “You had questions.”

She spoke like the woman who had two gods acting as her personal bodyguards and knew it. Nick did his best to speak like a man who knew that too.

“Right. I’m the Director of SHIELD, are you familiar with my organization?”

“A little.” She said. “I know that Nat and Clint work for you and that you were the one who brought all of the Avengers together. But I’m afraid I don’t know much more than that.”

“SHIELD was founded shortly after World War 2 as a response to Soviet Aggression, we are now a global intelligence operation with bases on every continent. Our purpose is to defend the world from threats of a…supernatural kind. So, aliens, mutants, and magic users.”

“I see.” She said. “And you want to know about what happened in Central Park right?”

“I do, you displayed abilities far beyond what we believe a human capable of.” Nick said because a little flattery never hurt a situation like this, even if it was a lie. He knew damn well what a human was capable of, Carol had made that clear if nothing else. “And SHIELD is concerned…”

“I don’t blame you.” She interrupted softly. “For being worried. I imagine my magic must have been very frightening, what with the snakes and fire dragons and everything. Especially since before this your only interaction with magic had been…less than pleasant.”

She patted Loki’s knee a few times in a way that was probably supposed to be calming but the god’s face still looked sour and put out at her delicate words about his entire life up until this point. Fury doubted anyone would describe their interactions with Loki as ‘pleasant’ and he made sure not to show that thought on his face.

“And I’m more than happy to tell you what you need to know to make sure you don’t see me as a threat to the world.” She said even though it was way too late for that. If she wasn’t a threat to the safety of any world she lived on Nick would eat his eyepatch. “If you can promise not to tell anyone else of course. The Avengers already know and they’ve agreed to a vow of secrecy, can I have the same promise from you?”

“Trust me Fury.” Stark said. “You’re going to want to hear this.”

Nick trusted Stark about as much as he could throw him while the man was wearing the Iron Man suit. But he was curious and he didn’t really see any other options. So he promised to keep it a secret.

Thirty minutes later Nick had a headache the size of Stark’s ego and his suspension of disbelief had been pulled like taffy.

An entire secret magical world. A world Loki had created to protect humans under attack. A world Loki, due to some grade A magical bullshit, no longer remembered creating.

Well fuck him sideways and into next week then.

“So, you’re from this secret magical world and while you were living there you were…”

“The magical version of the Avengers yes.” She finished. “For the last few years I’ve worked mostly solo fighting magical fascists, you know run of the mill sort of stuff.”

“Yeah totally normal.” Fury said, his voice only slightly strained. Damn Barton to hell for grinning at him. “And why exactly were you working as a cleaning lady?”

“Well there were no more fascists to fight and I…” She trailed off for a moment before speaking again. “I suppose I had a bit of a mid-life crisis.”

“A Mid-Life Crisis.”

“Yes. That’s what it was.” She said. “I spent all of my life up until that point dedicated to fighting evil and protecting innocent people and suddenly there were no more fights to fight and I felt very adrift. I moved to New York to try and find a new passion and ended up becoming a cleaning lady because when you remove all of my fighting skills I’m afraid I’m not qualified for much else. It was a coincidence that I ended up taking the job as a cleaning lady here.”

“And how did they find this all out?” Fury asked sending a heated look towards his two agents. This should have been something they told him months ago, heads would roll for this.

“Oh that would be Thor’s doing.” Potter said. “More specifically his hammer.”

Potter lifted up her hand and from the other side of the room Mjolnir came flying into her hand. Thor beamed happily while Loki’s mouth opened slightly in shock, Nick hated to admit that his face probably looked similar to Loki’s. That hammer was only supposed to move for people who were worthy. Worthy of what had never been very well defined but Nick had taken it to mean the hammer only moved for those who were worthy to be king of the gods. He might have to revise that notion.

“So yeah.” She said, handing the hammer to Thor. “Can’t pretend to be a normal cleaning lady if a magic hammer finds you worthy of great power. Things spiraled out from there and now we’re all friends.”

“Friends.”

Potter seemed more than happy to expound on that topic which is how Nick learnt about her magic-science experiments with Stark, her painting class with Rogers, her tutoring lessons for Barton’s daughter, Banner’s work with werewolves, and her knitting gifts.

She was even worse than Carol.

She was nice.

Not to say that Carol hadn’t been nice, but Carol had also been brainwashed by an imperialistic space empire so she could be a little harsh at times. Nick had preferred that. He didn’t know how to deal with someone who could kill him with a snap of their fingers but spent their free time knitting and learning how to paint. At least Carol had had a dark mysterious past filled with government coverups.

Nick needed to stop thinking about Carol.

He wasn’t going to work with someone like Carol ever again. Carol had had a head on her shoulders.

“Right.” Nick said deciding to try and get this train wreck of a conversation back on track. “Why the hell is Loki not locked up right now?”

“Do you honestly think any of them could lock me up?” Loki asked. “You couldn’t even keep the two remaining Black Order members in custody for longer than three days.”

“Oh I think we could handle you.”

“Do you really think so?” Loki asked. “Because up till this point I was led to believe you lacked the ability to think at all.”

“You really want to talk about that?” Fury snapped back. “You? You’re the guy who gets his ass kicked by the Hulk every other weekend. You’re insane.”

“You best watch your tongue mortal.”

“You should watch my gun when I shove it up your-”

“Director Fury.” Holly cut in, she placed a hand on Loki’s leg pushing him back into the couch while looking Nick directly in the eye. “Loki is no longer your concern.”

“No longer my concern.” Nick repeated. “He destroyed a SHIELD base, stole an artifact, mind controlled some of my best agents, and invaded New York.”

“Yes he did.” She said. “But it’s not what you think.”

“What I think is that the guy has Daddy issues of godly proportions and he’s decided to take them out on people who can’t defend themselves properly.” Fury said, Holly opened her mouth to argue back so Nick continued. “And I don’t give a damn if this magical world shit made him sad. Bitch please, being sad isn’t a defense that holds up in court.”

“That’s true but…”

“Loki is going into custody.” Nick said.

“I’m afraid that’s just not going to happen.”

“That’s not your call to make.”

“Yes. Yes, it is.” She said in same way Carol said she was going to explode something with her hands.

“Loki is a criminal wanted by literally every organization on earth.”

“Now that’s just not true.” She said. “Half of all earth governments do not consider Loki a criminal.”

It took a moment for Nick to comprehend that supremely stupid statement. Loki was grinning like a very smug cat who’d caught a very fat canary.

“Loki didn’t attack the magical world he attacked my world.” Nick ground out.

“He attacked New York.” She corrected. “Which is where the President of the Magical United States works, all things considered his attack would be considered more hazardous for my world than for yours. He could have destroyed an entire magical government.”

“He attacked SHIELD and his victims in New York were civilians.”

“Non-Magical and Magical alike.” She agreed. “Just because magic users have magic doesn’t mean they’re not civilians, Director. Most magic users are just as helpless in the face of an alien attack as muggles are.”

“So what? Magical people got hurt too so they’re the only one’s who matter?”

“No.” She said her face twisting a little. “Loki is a magic user, by law he should be tried under a magical court. That is how it has been for over 400 years. These are the laws between the two worlds that allow us to coexist.”

“And because Loki is the god of magic he’s getting off scot free. Excellent, I’ll be sure to explain that to the families of victims as best I can, Potter.”

Potter actually straightened up. This entire time she’d been practically lounging in her seat. But now, her posture was rigid and her face harsh. It took all of Nick’s self-control not to flinch or lean back.

“Listen to me, right now Fury.” She said. “You’re not getting Loki. No one is getting Loki. He is under my protection and will be for the foreseeable future. I’m not afraid to throw my weight around about this either. I may be from the magical world but that doesn’t mean I don’t have enough political clout to crush you like a little bug.”

“I do not have to listen to threats.”

“I don’t do threats.” She told him. “And don’t pretend like you don’t know exactly how dangerous I am. Unlike everyone else in this room you clocked me for exactly what I was the moment you saw me.”

His jaw clenched a little as she folded her arms in front of her chest and gave him a look. Around him the other Avengers had quieted down to a deathly silence. Potter continued once she was sure that Nick wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Loki attempted to commit suicide over three years ago in Asgard.” She said. “After 400 years grieving the magical world of earth, he was then knocked down by the reveal of his adoption. Under magical law, Loki would not be considered culpable for his actions in Asgard, which includes his attack on the small town in New Mexico. A large amount of a magic user’s mental health is tied into their identity and with Loki’s literal sense of self under attack, no magical court worth their salt would let him go to trial.”

That didn’t make any sense! Why would Loki having an identity crisis absolve him of guilt? Nick bit his tongue to keep himself from asking the question. Holly seemed to sense his question anyway because she explained. Magic is powered by a magic user’s desires, their intent. You cannot know your desires or your intent if you do not know who you are. Magic invades every part of you; body, mind, and soul. If your soul, your identity, is rocked to its core by grief and by betrayal then your mind and body are just as damaged by your magic.

Simply put, Loki wasn’t in his right mind, spiraling and falling out of control with nothing to cling too.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong.” Holly said. “It was a dick move attacking innocent humans with the Destroyer. But by law Loki can’t be punished for it, he wasn’t well. Best we could do for that town is send aid to repair anything that still hasn’t been fixed, as no one actually died there’s very little for anyone to do.”

Nick glared at the woman but she didn’t care. She continued to stare right back at him, her eyes almost hypnotic.

“Now, the invasion.” She said. “Before arriving on earth Loki was captured by the same man who sent the Black Order, those aliens who trashed Central Park. He was held in captivity for over a year and tortured. He was starved, beaten, and burned so that he would lead the invasion on earth and retrieve the tesseract.”

Fury’s mind flashed back to how truly deranged and dirty Loki had looked when he’d first emerged from the tesseract in that SHIELD base. Even then his mind had screamed that the guy wasn’t right, that something wasn’t right. But he hadn’t had the time then to digest those tiny clues. He was beginning to regret that now. Because once he was on that train of thought more and more clues were beginning to emerge.

Loki’s invasion plan where he bottlenecked his forces with a tiny portal despite having the ability to open multiple much larger portals.

Loki disappearing the scepter and the tesseract and never using them ever again.

Loki’s attacks after the invasion never resulting in civilian or Avenger casualties despite Loki certainly having the ability to kill them.

Loki’s eyes that now looked more green than blue.

“Loki only arrived on earth after being handed a scepter. A scepter well known for it’s ability to mentally manipulate people through touch.” Holly said. “Simply put Director Fury, Loki was not well. According to laws the international magical governing bodies of earth passed 6 years ago, Loki is not culpable for the invasion due to evidence of mental manipulation and torture. I do not condone his actions, nor do I believe that nothing should be done to help those who were hurt by them but at the same time I am not going to punish Loki when the true villain is still torturing and killing people on the other side of the universe. I have better things to be doing and I imagine you do as well.”

“And what do you think I should be doing?” Fury asked.

“Preparing for the real invasion.” She said. “Loki’s intel has made it clear that the Black Order was only the beginning. Earth is going to be the location for the battle for all life in the universe.”

“What?”

“Thanos wants the tesseract and the scepter.” Loki said his voice low. “He wants them so that he can destroy all life in the universe. That is his plan. It has always been his plan. He is insane and if he comes here he will bathe in the blood of all humanity if we do not stop him.”

“Thanos is known among our people as the Mad Titan.” Thor said. “We thought him to be a myth, or perhaps some distant threat that would not make itself known for millennia more. The nine realms are woefully unprepared for him.”

“Does this have anything to do with those aliens calling him the lover of death?”

“Yes.” Holly confirmed. “Thanos believes that there is a being who is a personification of Death itself. Think the Grim Reaper. Whether or not that being exists is irrelevant. Thanos believes in them, more importantly he believes he can win the heart of this being. His plan is to destroy all life in the universe as a gift to Death, thus winning its affections. Currently his plan is to gather six objects of immeasurable power, the infinity stones, two of which we know are on earth, and put them together to form a weapon of mass universal destruction.”

“However.” Rogers said. “Holly revealed that she owns three magical items called the Hallows. The myth behind those say that if any one person owns them then they Master death itself. Holly says that the myth is false but Thanos won’t think so. He will either come to earth to fight Holly for the Hollows or to fight Loki for the tesseract and the scepter.”

“Or both.” Fury finished. “Shit.”

“That’s the conclusion we came to.” Barton said. “Fury if we fail on earth we’ll lose not only this planet but the entire universe.”

Call him selfish but Fury didn’t really give a shit about the welfare of other planets at this point. He had enough on his plate just trying to keep one planet afloat amidst a flood of chaos. But he knew that letting Thanos win was unacceptable.

“I’m going to start marshalling the forces of the magical world to action.” Holly told him. “They’ll follow me and when Thanos comes he won’t be massacring civilians, but the magical world is only half of the equation.”

Nick decided not to point out that when he’d come in they’d been playing a children’s video game which is about just as far as one could get from ‘marshalling forces’. He wasn’t an idiot and he knew better than to further annoy an already shaking rattlesnake.

“I’ll get to work.” Nick said instead.

“Good.” She said. “We don’t know when Thanos is coming but I know that together we can be ready for him.”

Damn did he miss the 90’s. Things were so much simpler then. In the 90’s you only had to worry about an alien invasion once a decade. There was only one superhero and she was competent and preferred to keep her fights off of the planet’s surface. In the 90’s the internet wasn’t the world’s biggest security risk. In the 90’s Nick didn’t have to deal with gods or with hulks. He certainly didn’t have to even think about magic. The 90’s were a better time.

Potter held out her hand and Nick took it. They shook once and then Potter gave him a very shark-like grin.

“To war, Director Fury. To war.”

“To war.”

Notes:

Remember! No update next Wednesday! I'll be with NASA scientists being cut up by fresh sharp lava rock in the name of knowledge!
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Chapter 20: Haircuts, Daddy Issues, and Baby Spiders

Summary:

Tony confronts Holly about her current hair style, or rather the lack thereof.

Notes:

I live! I survived! I hiked every day on different volcanoes and I didn't die of the heat! My trip to hawaii was brilliant and I loved every moment of it!
Thank you all so much for the amazing comments, I'm glad you liked Nick Fury so much!!
I've got a nice long update for you to enjoy!

“You have to fix your hair.”

Holly gave him a look from over where she was currently inscribing runes into the metal casing of his newest arc reactor. Now that they knew how to protect electronics against magic, his arc reactor was first on the list to be warded. If that thing blew, Tony would literally die so he needed it done ASAP.

“I’m serious. You’ve been awake for almost a week now, I know you could fix it with a snap of your fingers.”

Holly’s first look transformed into a new one, this one just as expressive. Her hair was truly a mess and it seemed to be growing worse by the hour. Each lock was its own length and unique configuration of crazy. Normally Tony was all for crazy but this was just plain unflattering. There were so many reasons for Holly to get her hair fixed and yet somehow no one had been able to convince her to agree.

“Look. Glinda.” Tony said the nickname rolling off his tongue before he could stop it. “I know you’ve got some sort of Xena Warrior Princess thing going on with the hair. And yeah, I get it. The tale of 100,000 Snakes is something to be proud of, but can’t you be proud of it like a normal person?”

“A normal person?” She asked, putting down the soldering iron she’d been using.

“Yes. Get a tattoo or something.”

“I don’t see what the problem is.” Holly told him.

“Have you looked in a mirror?”

“I have.” She said. “And my hair is always a mess, least now I don’t have to spend hours trying to comb through it.”

“We can keep it short!” Tony urged. “Just like…all the same length of short.”

“But if we cut it all down to the same length it’ll be a buzz cut.”

“You’re a witch! You can just grow it out again.”

“Magically grown hair never feels quite right.”

“Now you’re just making excuses.”

“Well yes.” She said. “That was rather the point. Can we get back to your arc reactor now? I’ve only got a few hours before I need to pop out for a meeting with my landlord about ending my lease early.”

Tony held back his very smug grin about that. It had taken four days of never-ending pestering until the witch in front of him agreed to move into the tower. In the end it had been a combination of the mob of reporters outside her apartment building waiting to eat her alive and Jarvis admitting that he liked the idea of her being closer for her to agree. Tony was still taking credit though.

He’d been the one to design Holly’s rooms! He’d even given the woman her own lab, for potions and all sorts of magical nonsense. She’d started the move in process just yesterday. Thor and Steve had gone with her to do the heavy lifting despite Holly telling them repeatedly that she had magic and didn’t need the help. The resulting images that had surfaced online of Captain America and the God of Thunder trying to carry a large bookshelf down a flight of stairs while trying their best not to argue with each other had been way too funny.

Thor had dropped the bookshelf on Steve’s foot and then Steve had cursed in the way that the army had taught him back in the 40s.

Tony didn’t think he’d ever been happier to watch a security feed.

The moving process wasn’t complete by any means. Holly still had that meeting with her landlord, which Tony had told her he could take care of. Holly had told him that if he involved himself, she’d prank every coffee maker in the tower to only make sleepy time tea.

“No, we can’t just go back to the arc reactor.” He said. “We’re talking about your hair.”

“But why?”

“Because you need to fix it. I don’t care how but seriously, even Loki’s getting annoyed by it.”

Loki was a weird situation altogether. The team had agreed that Loki was not at fault for all of the shit he’d pulled but that didn’t erase a year’s worth of strife overnight. It didn’t help that their least favorite magic user had latched onto their favorite magic user like a limpet. Where Holly went, Loki was sure to follow. Like a sad orphaned puppy. It was hard to get Holly alone and honestly?

That sucked.

Tony had gotten used to having dedicated Holly-Time a couple of times a week. They all had. Steve had his art classes, Bruce had the time they spent in the magical hospital, Clint had his video game time as well as the tutoring sessions for his daughter that he got to be a part of. Holly and Nat had lunches together and worked on a project that was secret enough that Tony didn’t know the purpose of it. Thor had daily conversations about Asgard and Earth with Holly. Tony had his lab work with her.

They all got time with her and Loki had ruined it. In the past week Holly had been on almost constant Loki duty. When Loki was awake she was busy catching him up on 400 years of earth history or healing him with magic. When Loki wasn’t awake Holly was busy contacting the magical world and working on preparing her world for war. Which meant that there was very little time for the Avengers. Only Jarvis still got his fill of Holly-Time because he was an AI and knew exactly when she was free for a chat.

Tony was beginning to feel like a neglected sibling being passed over for the new baby. It was not an emotion he particularly enjoyed but it was there all the same. Loki was a magic user too. Loki had an actual connection to her family. Of course, Loki would be Holly’s new favorite. Pretty soon she wouldn’t even want to spend time with them.

“Loki can go suck a lemon.” Holly said without hesitation. “Also, the implication that I should change my hair just because a man is annoyed by it was one that I find rather offensive.”

“That is not what I meant.” Tony backtracked.

“Well then what did you mean?” She asked. “Because it sure sounded like you think I only do things if Loki wants me too.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Tony.”

“You have to admit you’ve been doing a lot for him! Surely you’ve noticed?”

“Well who else is going to?” Holly asked right back.

“You could give him over to the wizarding government. Then he’d have hundreds of people to dote on him.”

“Loki isn’t in a place where he could handle the IWC.” Holly said sternly. “Tony that’d be downright cruel to leave him with them.”

“Cruel? You’d be leaving a god with a bunch of worshippers.”

“Exactly! They’d fawn over him and never do anything that will actually help him get better. Healing Loki’s mind requires hurting him you know. I have to dig into his very being and rearrange things, break down barriers. It hurts and no one in their right mind would do it to someone 6 times as strong as they are.” Holly said. “Loki would literally languish in insanity and pain with the IWC. Besides I placed him under my protection, I can’t just ditch him.”

Tony had to admit that he’d seen Loki’s face after one of his ‘sessions’ with Holly. Calling what the guy had a headache would have been a severe understatement. Holly had been spreading out the healing sessions with days in between them to give Loki time to recuperate. The only benefit as far as Tony could see was that Loki spazzed out far less after each session. In the beginning Loki tended to lash out in a rage, he even stabbed Thor a few times. But now a week later he was able to stand in the same room as Thor without snarling.

Progress.

“Well I don’t see why that means you have to always be with him.” Apparently, Tony’s attempt not to pout totally failed because Holly was looking far too amused now.

“Tony Stark, are you jealous?”

“No.”

“You are!”

“I’m not! Holly I’m trying to have a serious conversation about this-”

“Anthony Howard Stark this is the most adorable thing I’ve ever experienced.” She declared. “You miss me!”

“Oh shut up!” The smug smile on her face was about as far from shutting up as a facial expression could get. “It’s not just me either Holly! You told Steve you couldn’t go to the painting class and Bruce has to take himself to the hospital now. You postponed your tutoring sessions with Lila too!”

“I…” The smugness fell away and she looked down at the desk in front of her. “I thought you all understood what…Do you not want my help?”

“It’s not about that.” Tony promised.

“We haven’t really talked about me showing up in the park last week.” She said. “I know I just…did it. But I didn’t think you all would mind. It was my choice right?”

“Holly.” Tony said stepping around his own work table and stopping right in front of her. “I don’t care if you join us or not. You’re my friend and I’d love to have you on the team in whatever form you want. Even if that means you’re not actually an Avenger and you just show up when we are getting our asses handed to us.”

She giggled a little at that and ran a hand through her ugly, awful hair.

“If you don’t mind me asking Miss.” Jarvis said. “Why did you come?”

She hadn’t told Jarvis that yet? Maybe Jarvis hadn’t been getting as much Holly-Time as Tony had thought. She looked up at the nearest camera and smiled a little before looking back at Tony.

“I was on my date with Kari.”

“Yeah, how was that going?”

“Great. She was, no she is amazing. So soft and warm.” She said her voice very dreamy. “And the entire time I was there with her I just, I just knew we could be good together. She’s so peaceful, her entire aura is just so calm and wonderful.”

“And you left that? We would have gotten out of it, we always do.”

“I didn’t come because I thought you all were going to die. I mean don’t get me wrong I was worried but…” She said. “I could have been at peace with Kari but that’s it.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Tony all this time I’ve been trying to find something to fulfill me, make me feel alive and give me something meaningful to do.” She said. “And to find it I’ve been denying a lot of what makes me, well me. I love dueling and standing up to evil. I can’t describe how good it feels to protect someone, to use my powers and make a real difference in the life of someone. I like to fight and struggle and…Honestly Tony I like things when they’re difficult. And I realized when I was with Kari that she could make me feel peaceful but that didn’t mean she’d make me happy. Not in the way I want to be.”

She stood up, her eyes literally sparkling with excitement. Tony watched his own eyes a little wide as she continued her passionate monologue.

“And for first time in my life it was my choice! Can’t you see how miraculous that is? I could have stayed in that café with Kari. I could’ve had that. Nothing, absolutely nothing would have stopped me. But I knew what I wanted was to be there with you all, to do what I do best. I want adventure and heroic deeds and I got to pick that!” She said. “It was my choice and it was absolutely brilliant!”

Holly’s joy was quite literally infectious. A smile burst onto Tony’s face without his consent and he felt something like a giggle try to bubble out of his gut.

“Why would I have a problem with that then?” He asked. “All we wanted was for you to be happy.”

“I am, Tony, Jarvis. I really am.”

“Then that’s that. Welcome to the Avengers.”

“Don’t I need some ridiculous superhero name to be an Avenger?”

“Oh don’t worry about that. The media will take care of it. That’s how I got my hero name.”

“Really?”

“Don’t worry Miss.” Jarvis said. “If you don’t like it we’ll ensure it gets changed.”

“That’s alright then.” She said. “As long as it’s not something ridiculous like Scarlet Witch, it’ll be fine.”

“Scarlet Witch is an excellent hero name.” Tony would tell Jarvis to get rid of that one off his list of name ideas when Holly wasn’t around. Holly snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Sure it is Tony.” She said. “Now if you don’t mind me helping then what exactly is the problem?”

“Look. I get that this is different from before for you.” Tony said. “Because you choose to jump in there and fight the Black Order and help Loki and everything. No prophecy forced you. But that doesn’t mean it looks different.”

“I don’t…”

“You told me once that fighting Death Eaters swallowed up everything in your life. That basically every free moment you had was filled with fighting them. That you didn’t have time for hobbies or even for yourself.” Tony said. “And I am literally the worst person to talk to you about a healthy work-life balance but seriously, how is what you’re doing now really any different than before?”

“It’s…Well I chose it.”

“Do you really think that you’re still not going to burn out like this?” Tony asked. “You literally had a mid-life crisis at 28 because you spent too much time being a hero.”

That made her laugh a little and settle back onto the stool she’d been sitting in. She waved her hand and another stool appeared out of nowhere right next to her. Tony took a seat on the stool and looked at the ridiculous woman who had wormed her way into their lives.

“So…maybe I might be a bit too…much.” She said. “At least with this hero stuff. It’s the same thing with my hair if I’m honest.”

“Please explain what the hell that means.”

“Did you know I’ve had my hair the same style for basically my whole life?” She asked. “It’s been that exact length since I was 5 years old.”

“What? No.”

“It’s true.” She said. “It was a bit of accidental magic when I was a kid.”

“What happened? I thought accidental magic was something that happened when kids were upset?”

“My aunt happened.” She said. “I was about to start school and she hated my hair, hated it. She decided to cut it the night before my first day of school gave me an awful buzzcut, uglier than what I’ve got now. She left this awful fringe on my forehead to cover my scar but I was practically bald otherwise. I was devastated just thinking about it. I’d hoped at the time that school would be an opportunity to make friends and I knew no one would be friends with me if I looked like an ugly freak.”

“What a bitch.”

“Yeah she was…she was a piece of work.” She said. “And I prayed that my hair wouldn’t be so bad. My aunt had called me ugly every day of my life and I wanted to be pretty. And what’s pretty to a little girl? A princess of course.”

“You gave yourself Disney Princess hair.” Tony said. “If it was bright red it would’ve been just like Ariel’s!”

“Exactly!” She said delighted that Tony had recognized her source of inspiration. It was actually sort of adorable now that Tony thought about it. This entire time she’d had Disney Princess hair.  “The magic meant that nothing could cut my hair, it also didn’t grow any. It was just stuck at the same length and style for over two decades. Now that I’ve destroyed the spells I accidentally placed on my hair it’ll actually start growing and…being hair-like. I’ve never had split ends before and I’m not honestly looking forward to it.”

“So you’re not cutting your hair because you finally have the opportunity to cut it?”

“You’re not letting me finish.” She said rolling her eyes.

“Well then, please. Finish.”

“So you wouldn’t know this but when I was a kid most everyone compared me to my parents.” She said. “All of my magic teachers, pretty much every adult I interacted with during the war said the same thing. I looked just like my father but I had my mother’s eyes. The only thing that was ever any different was my hair. Neither of my parents had hair like mine. My dad’s hair was short and shaggy, and my mum’s was shoulder length and pin straight. My hair was mine. It was important to me that I had something that stood out, something that I choose.”

“Being compared to your parents can get really old.” Tony admitted. “Especially after they, once they’re gone it gets harder.”

“Yeah.” She agreed. “It was hard. I didn’t know anything about them and I started hating my face and my eyes sometimes because they were permanent connections to strangers. I didn’t want them to be strangers. I wanted them with me but they weren’t and all I had were strangers telling me how much like them I was.”

“Okay so the hair is complicated, doesn’t mean you can’t play around with a new style that suits you.”

“It’s mostly Loki’s fault.” She said. “He…He’s just like those adults.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know how many times the guy has accidentally called me Ralston in the last week?” She asked. “15.”

Holly placed her left elbow on the worktop and rested her chin despairingly on her hand. She looked at Tony almost wistfully.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to be constantly compared to someone who died long before you were born by someone whose supposedly your family?”

Tony’s first gut reaction was to giggle. Honestly, was there a more perfect question for him to answer in the entire world? His next reaction was to admit he finally got the hair. Tony had done worse things in an attempt to deal with his dad’s expectations. An ugly haircut was hardly the worst thing, besides it sort of made sense. No one had ever had a hair cut like this. Hard to compare her to Ralston when she had hair that was so devastatingly Holly.

Tony did neither of those two things.

“Jarvis?” Tony asked. “Get that suit ready, I think it’s time Holly learned how to fly Stark Style.”

“Of course, sir.”

“What?”

“Come on Holly get up.” Tony said. “I’ll fly on my broom and you’ll fly in my suit. You’ve got to see the New York Skyline the way it was meant to be seen.”

“Tony, we were talking about something…”

“I know, trust me. It’s suit time.”

He grabbed the broom Holly had gifted him and then pulled her from the work table towards the elevator and right up to the penthouse. When they got there his suit assembling apparatus was ready.

“Tony I can’t even drive a car, what makes you think I can handle your suit?”

“Don’t worry about that. Jarvis does most of the work for me anyway.”

“Indeed.” Jarvis said. “Do not worry Miss. I will not let you fall or hit anything.”

“Okay.” She said. “Fine. But why?”

“Just trust me. Let’s get you inside this suit.”

She finally agreed and stood up on the platform. Tony instructed her on how to hold her arms and place her legs so that each piece of the suit could be attached.

“This doesn’t look like your normal suit.”

“It’s not. It’s…new.”

“Why does it look like it’s meant for a different body?” She asked motioning with her free hand at the slight curves in the chest plate to make it more comfortable for someone with breasts.

“Maybe because it is?”

“Tony.”

“Just put the faceplate on.”

She grinned at him and Jarvis placed the faceplate onto the complete suit.

“Okay.” Tony said. “Flying in the Iron Man suit 101. You activate the foot thrusters first either by flexing your toes or by just telling Jarvis to do it.”

“Most of these instructions can be boiled down to informing me of what you wish to occur Miss.” Jarvis interrupted.

He ignored her laugh from behind the faceplate.

“Once you’ve flexed your toes you’ll feel the thrusters turn on. It should hum right? It won’t go full power until you stretch out your ankles so that the top of your foot is parallel to your calf. So flex your toes and then get on your tip toes alright?”

“Got it.” She said wisely not trying out any of his instructions just yet.

“Once you’re in the air keep your feet perpendicular to your legs, as straight as possible. The thrusters will turn on their own when you try to turn so keep your legs still and let the suit do the work.”

“What about my arms?”

“Getting to that.” Tony said grinning. “You’re going to use your arms to steer alright? It’s different than a broom. You should keep your arms mostly straight back.”

He continued to explain how she had to hold her body and how she should move her hands to turn, speed up, and slow down. Of course, she asked how to fire the weapons and he told her that too because who the hell wouldn’t be curious? It’s not like she wasn’t already constantly weaponized. Tony was deeply protective of his suits. The only people who had ever been in one other than himself was Rhodey and that had been…a less than stellar situation for him what with the arc reactor poisoning he was dealing with.

But he didn’t even feel a twinge of paranoia as Holly copied his movements. There was something inherently trustworthy about Holly. Maybe it was the fact that she didn’t need his suit to be dangerous. Most people who wanted to get their hands on his tech could never dream of creating anything better. They wanted power and they didn’t care who they hurt to get it. Holly already had power, power that was far beyond the scope of his current suits. (Maybe in the future Tony would be able to keep up with her.) Sharing his suit with her was easy. She was his friend and she was already way too badass.

Tony knew the reason he wasn’t bothered by Holly in that suit was because he’d made it for her. He’d designed something for her because he’d seen her when she’d been flying on her broom and had the urge to share his own flying style with her. Holly had been brilliant in the air and she’d shared that with him without hesitation. He knew she’d appreciate his suit, love it even. Holly didn’t need his suit because it was a weapon. She didn’t even need it to fly. Tony was gifting her with something she didn’t need but that he had no doubt she’d adore. 

The suit Tony had designed for Holly was essentially the same design as his own. Changed slightly to fit her body structure but not much else. She was a red and gold girl just as much as he was.

“Alright.” She said. “You remember how the broom works?”

“I’ve been practicing. Isn’t that right, Darling?” Tony asked the broom in his hands. It hummed happily. Tony settled the broom in between his legs. “You start and I’ll follow.”

“You sure you can keep up old man?”

Tony’s jaw dropped in offense while Holly laughed. The boot thrusters activated and she lifted up one hand to salute him.

“Race ya!”

Then she flung herself off the landing pad the flight thrusters kicking in half a moment later, sending her flying towards the sky.

“She did not just do that. Come on Darling, we can show her.”

He wasn’t worried about flying on that broom in the middle of the city. People were used to seeing weird things flying in and out of the tower. But more than that the story they’d concocted for the press meant that no one would suspect there was a whole magical world that used these brooms all the time. Holly might have had complaints about their ‘final descendant/survivor of genocide story’ but at least most people weren’t going to give her shit for her magic. At this point most of the public was more curious than fearful, that’s how they wanted it to stay.

So he shot off following after a way too cocky Holly Potter.

They danced around each other in the air. Shooting insults at one another and trying to do tricks. Neither of them were very good at flying like that. Tony was as graceful as a bird in his suit but on the broom? It was a bit more awkward. Holly kept trying to fly like she was on a broom and without Jarvis she probably would’ve crashed.

Good ol’ Jarvis.

Despite their lack of skill they still had way too much fun. No one seemed to notice their nonsense as they flew past the windows of office buildings. They started an impromptu game of tag within twenty minutes, hundreds of feet above the concrete jungle they tried to catch one another. Two birds that had calls that sounded far too much like cackling. It was easy to forget problems you were having when you flew. There was no pressure, not even gravity could touch you unless you let it.

But eventually you have to land.

They still had time until Holly’s meeting with her landlord. But Tony had a feeling that the conversation he thought they should have would take long enough. So he landed on a roof somewhere in Queens. A tiny apartment building, one that unknown to him held a future hero with a heart of gold, a hero that was still a bit too young for a spider onesie. Holly landed right next to him and the faceplate slid up.

“Take a seat.” Tony said patting the roofing material. Holly looked at the roof and then at her suit and made a face.

“I’ll conjure up some chairs.” She said waving her hand in a sweeping motion. Two comfortable chairs appeared out of nothing and Holly took her time sitting in one, still awkward in the bulky suit.

“It takes getting used to.” Tony admitted. “Some practice moving around anf it’ll feel natural.”

“That’s what he said?”

Tony gasped at the childish joke. He looked over at Holly who was clearly trying to hold back laughter. One second of eye contact and they both bellowed. Below them a young boy who had an apartment on the top floor with his aunt and uncle got up from his legos and opened up his window. The boy listened to their laughter for a moment before figuring out who they were. The window quickly closed again.

“Okay okay.” She said. “I’m sorry. Really.”

“No you’re not.”

“No, I suppose I’m not.” She said. “It was a very childish joke but…I never really got to tell those much.”

“Making up for lost time?”

“It’s never too late for a teenage rebellion. I already had a mid-life crisis maybe I’ll start that one next. Starting with an ugly haircut.” That made Tony snort. If Holly called chopping off her own hair with a sword while simultaneously turning each cut strand into an individual snake then Tony did not want to know what else she wanted to do in the name of rebellion.

“I…My father and I never got along.”

Wow Tony. What a cool way to start that conversation. Holly didn’t laugh. Her face turned soft and serious, her head tilting slightly to show she was willing to listen. And listen she did. Tony awkwardly stepped over his words trying to convey what he meant and how he’d felt. Through it all Holly sat right there, gleaming in red and gold. It didn’t take as long as Tony feared to explain it all in a way she understood.

Maybe it didn’t take long because she’d lived a version of it. She’d been haunted by the ghost of her heroic parents since she was 15 months old. Tony had been haunted by Steve Rogers since the day he was born, maybe even before that. Steve didn’t know, Tony could never explain that Howard saw Steve as his greatest creation and his own son as a thing that could never equal it. Steve would hate that and so Tony had never told the truth. No one really knew the truth but him and Rhodey. Rhodey only knew because the guy had actually met his dad once or twice.

And now Holly knew too.  

As Tony talked a young boy managed to sneak out of his apartment and onto the stairwell. He was now attempting to quietly pick the lock to the roof access door. Neither hero noticed, too caught up in their conversation.

“Loki keeps looking at me, expecting me to do things, and I just know I’ll never match up to Ralston. Ralston was his true family and I’m just the left over scraps.”

“I was never as good as Captain America. Never strong enough, never smart enough, just lacking. My dad never let me forget it.”

“I just hate that when he looks at me he sees what he’s lost. I spent so much of my childhood with that look and I’m tired of it. Am I ever going to be my own person?”

“Dad missed most of my birthdays flying out to the Atlantic to look for Steve. I didn’t get it then. I hated that Steve was more important than me. But now that I’ve met the guy I…I sort of get why most people would choose Steve over me.”

“Tony.” Holly said taking his hand, holding it gently in her own still armored one. “Steve and you are incomparable.”

“What?”

“Your dad was full of shit.” She said seriously. “And it’s impossible to pick you or Steve because it’s like comparing apples to oranges. You’re both wonderful friends but you’re wonderful in different ways. Your dad should’ve been smart enough to see that.”

“Well Loki shouldn’t be mistaking you for Ralston. It’s been 400 years and you’re your own person.”

She smiled at him a little.

“I want to meet his expectations so badly and I hate that.” She said. “I shouldn’t care what he thinks, I don’t know him but…”

“But he’s family.”

“Exactly.”

They fell into silence, their hands slowly drifting apart. Around them the afternoon sun beat down on Queens. There were cars filling the street and people milling about on the sidewalk. There was peace between them. They hadn’t come to any real solutions and yet there was something calming about admitting there was a problem at all. Tony knew Holly hadn’t fixed her hair because she wanted to stand out against Loki’s expectations without outright breaking them. He also knew she was working so hard to help him because she wanted to be the person he expected her to be. Loki was the closest thing she had to living relatives that weren’t sucky like her aunt and uncle. She was torn between two warring desires; break expectations and meet them. Holly knew why Tony sometimes shied away from Steve, why there was tension between them that nothing seemed to truly fix.

Behind them the roof access door burst open and a young boy in an Iron Man t-shirt fell onto the roofing with a clatter. Holly and Tony both jumped in shock while the boy started babbling apologies. Tony looked at the kid taking in the messy brown hair and the still slightly baby face with the chubby cheeks. Tony’s entire frame froze at the mere sight of the very adorable kid. He did not do children. Holly however seemed to melt.

“Oh hello.” She said, cooed was probably a more accurate description. “Are you alright?”

“So…sorry Miss Potter I mean Lady Witch or…I’m…” The kid stumbled.

“It’s Holly.” She said. “And this is Tony. Who are you?”

The kid scrambled up and tried to tug his t-shirt into place.

“Pe…Peter.”

“Nice shirt Peter.” Tony said motioning to the Iron-Man shirt. The kid blushed and looked down at his socks, which were also Iron-Man themed. “And socks.”

The kid’s blush went all the way down his neck and Tony grinned. This was way too fun.

“You…You’re on my building.”

“We were having a flying contest.” Holly explained. “Tony offered to let me borrow one of his suits and I let him borrow my broom. Any good witch has to have a good flying broom.”

“So…so you’re really a witch?” Peter asked. “My aunt says that’s not a nice word…”

“Well…I fly on a broom, I brew potions in a cauldron, and…” Holly snapped her fingers and a large black pointed hat appeared on her head. “This is one of my favorite hats.”

“No way! Why haven’t I seen that before?” Tony demanded.

“Because I knew you’d act like this.”

“Your…your skin isn’t green.” The boy said. “And you don’t have any warts!”

“I’m more of a Glinda sort of a witch.”

“Oh.” Peter said his eyes still wide in eye. “That’s not a normal suit. It’s not the right size.”

“Obviously. I made one for her.”

“No. I mean…the alloy in the normal iron man suits would make a suit heavy enough to dent my roof.” Peter explained further when neither of them interrupted. He told a long winding story about how he and his friend ‘Ned’ got into an argument about if Iron-Man could really land everywhere and they calculated what sorts of roofing materials could handle the weight. Peter’s apartment apparently couldn’t handle much as old as it was.

Tony couldn’t believe how many words the kid could fit into a minute, nor could he believe how smart and oddly adorable the kid was. He had no idea what to say to any of what the kid was talking about. Part of him wanted to explain that he was trying out a new material that was much more lightweight since this was supposed to be a flying suit and not much else.

“Wow.” Holly said. “You must be brilliant! How old are you Peter?”

“Uhm…” Peter cleared his throat and tried to speak a bit more maturely. “I’m almost 14, ma’am.”

14? They were making teenagers smaller and smaller these days.

“That means you’re in…I’m sorry I’m not familiar with the American school system as much as I should be quite yet.”

“I’m in middle school Ma’am.” He answered. “I’m going to go high school next fall, in a few months.”

“You going to Midtown?” Tony found himself asking, Holly had a confused look on her face and he explained. “Midtown is a high school for little tech and engineering geniuses. Best one in New York I think.”

“I can’t go to Midtown.” Peter said his blush returning to his cheeks. “It’s a real expensive school.”

And the kid lived in a building that had a roof weak enough to not hold a normal suit. How had he not seen that coming?

“Don’t schools like that normally have scholarship programs?” Holly asked. “Have you called Midtown about that Peter?”

“No.” Peter said. “Those scholarship programs are hard and I’d never get one…”

Tony opened his mouth to say that any kid who could calculate roof strength vs. Iron-Man suit pressure was probably smart enough to get into MIT if he wanted too and a scholarship application for Midtown was going to be nothing comparatively. The kid kept glancing at him nervously though and it made the words die in his mouth.

“Tony?” Holly asked. “Can I open up the gloves of the suit?”

“Why?”

“Because I need to use my hands, obviously.”

“Jarvis, open up the hands.”

The gloves on the suit began to fold and pull away, Peter watched the entire motion with awe in his eyes. Tony peeked over and realized the kid was on his tip toes trying to get a better look. He reached out and grabbed the kid’s t-shirt pulling him closer. The kid didn’t even seem to notice, way too obsessed with the suit.

At least he had good taste.

“There.” Holly said. “Just wait one moment Peter, I have an idea about this Midtown thing. That is…do you really want to attend that school?”

“Yeah…I mean yes I do!”

“Then I think I’ve got a spell for you. I’ll put it together right now.”

Peter actually whimpered as Holly conjured some sort of glass bauble in her hand and began to mutter mangled latin into it. The ball began to glow and Peter swayed at seeing someone do magic that wasn’t intended to blow something up.

“You were right about the suit kid.” Tony told him. “I’m trying out a new alloy. It’s lightweight.”

“But didn’t you use the nickel-titanium alloy because it’s easier to reform? And wouldn’t anything different be less flexible?”

Peter continued to rapidly fire questions at Tony while Tony just looked at him unable to believe the smarts coming out of the kid’s mouth nor at the speed at which they were coming. He was used to only talking that fast after having something with 16 shots of espresso in it. Eventually Tony thought he saw the kid’s lips turning blue and he spoke.

“Kid, breathe!” Peter finally stopped talking to take in a huge breath. “I can’t answer any of your questions if you don’t give me a second!”

“Sorry Mr. Stark.”

“It’s Tony.” He said off-handedly.

“I’m done!” Holly said proudly interrupting their conversation. The woman was holding out a glass ball about an inch in diameter. It glowed with blue and red lights. “Here Peter, this is for you.”

“What is it?” The boy asked taking the ball with wide eyes. He cradled it in his palms very carefully.

“It’s a wish-maker.” She said. “Sort of like a genie in a bottle, except it’s not out to get you or anything. I’m the only…well there aren’t any other human magic users to make them anymore but they grant wishes.”

“Woah. How does it work?”

“Well inside is a bit of my magic, a little bit more than a bit.” She said. “And it’s condensed into a…neutral form. That way when you make a wish the magic stored in there can escape and become whatever sort of spell it needs to be to help make that wish come true.”

Based on what little Tony knew about magic that tiny little bauble would have had to been incredibly difficult to create. Holly probably was the only magic user on the planet who could do it. Peter just looked at the bauble in awe.

“Now, before you call this Midtown to ask about their scholarship program I want you to make a wish. Be specific. The more specific the wish the better it’ll work. If you just wish you can go to Midtown the magic might just organize a fieldtrip for you, you see.”

“It really is like a genie.”

“Yes.” She said. “But I promise it won’t hurt you. It just might not get you exactly what you want if you don’t ask for it right.”

“This is amazing.” Peter said. “Thank you!”

“It’s no trouble. There’s not much magic in there but it should be enough for one wish. You can keep using it until it stops glowing. Don’t worry about it breaking either, it’s quite sturdy.”

“Thank you.” Peter said. “Thank you so much, ma’am!”

Holly smiled at him and then leaned forward a bit.

“Promise me one thing Peter?”

“Anything!”

“Don’t use your wishes to hurt someone else, alright? Magic is very powerful and you could really do some damage.”

“My uncle always says that with great power comes great responsibility.” Peter recited. “I promise I won’t use it for bad things.”

“Good.” Holly said. “I trust you Peter. I can tell you’re a good kid.”

“Really? How?”

“Magic.” Holly said with a wink. Peter grinned and held the wish-maker closer to his chest. “Now, go on inside. Tony and I need to go.”

“Yeah. Good luck with Midtown kid.” Tony said. “Trust me, you can totally get that scholarship. Magic or not.”

“You think so, Mr. Stark?”

“Are you kidding me? You’re already smarter than half the guys working at Stark Industries. When you’re actually old enough to work a job hit me up.”

Tony got up then already uncomfortable with the look of awe and hero worship that Peter had on his face. He picked up his broom while Peter babbled his thanks at the both of them. Holly seemed far more comfortable with Peter which rankled just a little. Was she good at everything?

“Goodbye Peter.” She said activating the foot thrusters. “Race you back to the tower Tony!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

Tony jumped on his broom and shot into the air right as Holly took off. They left a starstruck Peter Parker on the roof. They flew straight back to the tower and laughed together once they landed. Holly was really very awkward as Jarvis helped remove the suit. She tripped three times, something Tony wasn’t going to let her forget anytime soon.

“Why did you give that kid the wish?”

“It felt right. I dunno Tony. Sometimes my gut just tells me I should do something and I do it. Peter is going to need it.”

“Well.” Tony said. “Let’s make sure he has enough magic for whatever it is. Jarvis. Call Midtown. Get a scholarship program running, pays for the full four years for low income kids with promise. Stark Industries will cover it. Keep it on the down low too. You know the drill.”

“Of course, sir.” Jarvis said.

“You big ol’ softie.” Holly said smiling at him. “My magic would’ve gotten him in.”

“Yeah and now your magic can do something else for him. Like I dunno…give him confidence to talk to a girl.” Holly laughed at that and lightly slapped his arm telling him that she was sure Peter would be excellent with girls when the time came.

Clearly she didn’t know how nerds worked.

“Holly.” Tony said. “You shouldn’t worry about trying to meet Loki’s expectations. If he doesn’t see how awesome you are then he’s just as stupid as Howard.”

“Thanks Tony.”

“And you should really cut your hair.”

Notes:

It's a babey Peter!!! He's so adorable I can't handle it!

Chapter 21: Steve's Evening Job

Summary:

Steve spends an hour or so as a cashier after his art class.

Notes:

Hey everyone! I just submitted an abstract for a conference that'll be this December! Wish me luck in getting it accepted. If it is I'll go to San Francisco to present!
Anyway, thanks for the amazing comments last week. I'm glad everyone liked Baby Peter.

Two figures prostrated themselves at his feet. Their injuries and exhaustion were apparent, as was the lack of the two others he had sent. But he felt no pity, he felt nothing but disgust. Failure was not tolerated. The air was filled with the familiar stench of blood and bile and he wondered if the smell of urine would soon make itself known. The room was dark and the stones around him crumbled as he shifted in his throne. He listened as they explained, their faces and mouths nearly licking the stained, diseased floor.

His mind wandered coming up for the appropriate punishment for his two failed children. There was no excuse for failure, especially against those mortals. His mind stumbled over itself at two words.

“What did you say?” He growled, his voice echoing strangely across the barren wasteland.

“The Hallows, Father. The mortal wielded all three, she was the one who killed Maw and Cull.” Proxima said, her voice shaking with pain and fear. “She had no mercy and power beyond imagining.”

“Impossible.” Thanos spat. “No mere mortal could weild The Hallows.”

It wasn’t possible. Mortals could not ever hope to command Death. The gall and pride it would require to claim such a title was incalculable. His lover would kill them for the insult of it all. No one but him could ever be worthy of her touch, of her power. He would destroy that insolent mortal, take their soul and gift it to his lover to honor her name and her dignity.

“Father, she cast impossible magic.” Corvus said. “She created 100,000 snakes that consumed Cull where he stood. She conjured a dragon of fire, she killed without hesitation. I saw the Hallows myself, I felt their power.”

A thought occurred in his mind. It slithered and slunk around, moving between what he knew and what he hoped. It gathered it all up together, a snake tying itself into a knot. There was no way a mortal, a weak Terran, could ever dream to Master Death. And yet, and yet, and yet. The only way to know was to test. He must know for sure before he acted. His beloved deserved nothing more than exactness. Surely, she would approve of his plan.

I will serve you my love.

“Get up.” He growled kicking out at his children. Both of them jumped up, fear poorly hidden in their visage. “I require something of you, you must not fail me or my wrath will be swift.”

“Anything father.” Proxima promised.

“Please tell us your will.” Corvus begged.

“I want that mortal dead.” He snarled. “Leave me and gather as many monsters and beasts as you can find. The most fearsome and dangerous, capture them and send them to earth. We will grind this impudent woman into dust beneath my heel. She will not keep me from my victory.”

“Yes father.”

“We will leave at once.”

“No distance is too far. No price is too high.” He said. “You will destroy her before I arrive on earth.”

They nodded and bowed, Thanos glared at them.

“GO!”

His voice shook the very ground as his two failures rushed off to fulfill his will. He settled back into his throne. Carefully he reached out and created an oval of glass, with a few whispered words in the lost language of his people the glass began to glow. When the bright light faded, there was a moving image. Thanos watched as a tiny mortal woman with messy hair and a lightning bolt scar mixed paints onto a canvas, a smile on her face. Plans filled and solidified in his mind, his heart beating just a bit quicker.

Soon my love. Soon we will be together.  

*****

Steve stood by the elevator watching the scene with amusement bubbling in his gut. Holly, her long hair having finally magically grown back overnight and thicker than ever, was fussing over Loki. They were supposed to be heading to their art class together, Holly having finally agreed to start going again. But first she had to make sure that Loki wouldn’t explode or anything while she was gone. Thor was meant to be babysitting, he had yarn and knitting needles ready, with plans on teaching Loki a skill that he had yet to master himself.

Loki did not look pleased.

“I don’t see why you have to go.”

“Because I want to.” She said simply.

“If you want a painting why not just enchant a brush to do it for you?”

“That takes all the fun out of it. Now stay here and don’t stress yourself out. Thor knows how to contact me if you really need me.”

“Must you leave me alone with him?”

“Don’t fret.” Thor said. “You’ll enjoy knitting brother.”

Loki glared at Thor and Holly used that as a chance to sneak away. She hurried over to Steve and pulled him into the elevator all the while yelling out her goodbyes. When the door to the elevator closed and they started moving down she leaned against the walls with a sigh.

“I thought I’d never get out of there.”

“You have a lot of patience for him.”

“I guess.”

“I like the hair.” Steve tried again. The hair was different. It was long again, perhaps even longer than it had been before. But this time it had been cut and styled. Tony had dragged Holly to his stylist and the man had done something magical with how he layered the dark curls. Her hair looked less like a hopeless mess and more like something Holly had done on purpose, even if it was still wild.

“You do?” She asked reaching out to pull on one of the shortened curls that framed the sides of her face.

“It’s nice.”

“Thanks.” She said. “Tony finally wore me down on getting it fixed up.”

“It suits you.” Steve decided.

“You tell that to all the ladies?”

“I’ll have you know that when I was doing my monkey dance for war bonds back in the day I helped a lot of the ladies in my troupe with their hair. I know something about style.”

She laughed at that and finally stood up from where she’d been letting the elevator hold her weight.

“How’d you grow it all out anyway?”

“Just a couple of potions to speed up hair growth.” She said. “Easy enough to buy and it’s better than just charming your hair longer. This is my actual hair, not a magical construct.”

“And you decided to keep it long?”

“The short hair wasn’t working for me, and not just because it looked ugly.”

“Well it’s nice.”

“So you’ve said.” She deadpanned right as the elevator opened up to the ground floor. She snapped her fingers and Steve felt the familiar identity hiding spell go over his skin. “Hey, do you mind if we make a pit stop after class? There’s something I need to do. I’ve been putting it off.”

“Sure.” Steve said. “I’ve got no plans for the rest of the night.”

“Great. Then let’s get going. Are you sure you’re comfortable apparating there?”

Apparating wasn’t by any means comfortable but it was quick which is what they needed if they weren’t going to be late. He nodded and held out his arm. She took it and within a moment Steve felt the semi-nauseating sensation of being squished and squeezed through a too tight tube. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the alley right outside where they has their class.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” Steve said. “Let’s get inside.”

She smiled and gave his arm a pat before leading him inside. They’d been going to these twice weekly classes for some time now and neither of them felt very awkward anymore. The originally rude but now rather endearing woman at the front desk greeted them by name, unaware of their famous identities. They went to their classroom and greeted the other students with ease as they found their normal spots. Steve glanced over to the drying wrack where his painting and Holly’s from the last class were still laying side by side.

Holly had made some progress in the class. She could now reliably make shapes and have other people correctly figure out what those shapes were. Her work could, at best, be described as abstract. But Steve thought it was nice. He was much more of a realistic artist but there was something raw about Holly’s art now. You didn’t understand what you were looking at but it still made you feel something.

“So.” Holly said as she set out her art supplies. “How’s Peggy?”

“She’s great.” Steve said. “She’s really enjoying retirement now you know. When I visited her yesterday she made me paint her house for her, she decided the white was too boring.”

“Do you always end up doing manual labor for her?”

“Once she asked me to go intimidate her neighbor into moving their car.” Steve said. “Which she could have totally done herself but she really enjoyed seeing that guy nearly piss himself when Captain America came to look at him in disappointment.”

Holly giggled trying to keep herself quiet as the instructor came in and started to explain the lesson. Today they were supposed to try to paint the person next to them. Holly and Steve exchanged looks and Steve knew he was probably going to regret this. They moved their seats around so that their canvasses were hidden from one another and they were facing each other. Steve watched for a moment as Holly started putting colors onto her palette that she probably shouldn’t be before deciding to just accept it.

 “Peggy wants to meet you.”

“Really?”

“Well now that she knows that the person who healed her wasn’t a hallucination, she’s curious.”

“I won’t admit to being involved in such illegal activity.”

“Right. I told her I’d bring you over for dinner. She’ll make something British, she said.”

“And how could I possibly refuse such an invitation?” She asked.

Steve suppressed the shiver that ran down his spine. For some reason he feared the day Holly Potter and Peggy Carter met, but he feared Peggy’s anger if he didn’t bring Holly over more. His romantic feelings for the woman may have finally faded but the fear she’d inspired in him on day one was still as strong as ever. So, he’d extended the invitation signing what would be his own doom. The conversation continued, Steve talking about Peggy and Peggy’s niece Sharon that Steve had met on one of his visits. Sharon was nice and tended to tease Steve a lot, it was good to know Peggy had family though. Holly listened in interest as Steve talked about what he’d been up to since the fight in Central Park.

This was normally how these things went. It was through these art classes that Steve had found closure for a lot of the lingering emotions he’d been holding in since his time in the ice. Holly had urged him to talk to Peggy and getting to know the woman as she was now, learning that she had lived a good and happy life had helped Steve move on. He still missed his friends but now it was more of a dull ache instead of something that threatened to swallow him whole.  

They hadn’t had much time to spend together since Loki had woken up. Steve didn’t blame Holly for being busy. Loki was rather…needy. He was just glad she was able to make time for their class again. Carefully Steve began to mix together colors until he’d created the right pinkish pale color of Holly’s skin. Without thought he started to sketch out and paint Holly as he knew her. He remembered her complaint of that magical painter who’d made her dainty and feminine. He knew he could do better.

“How are things going in the magical world?”

“Some politicians are being less than…cooperative.”

“About what?”

“They don’t see why we should offer aid to the muggle world.” She said. “After all the muggle world has never offered us aid. Never mind the fact that we’ve hidden ourselves so well that it would be impossible for anyone to help us. Never mind the fact that if we don’t help the muggle world, everyone will die. Honestly I just want to shake some of them!”

“Are they really that upset about helping?”

“It’s difficult. A lot of the old crowd is of the opinion that anything that the muggles deal with is not our concern.” She said. “Trying to convince them of anything different is nearly impossible. But I refuse to let the universe die because of some stubborn old men.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

“Loki is honestly my best bet in convincing them, but not until he’s better.” Holly said.

“Never thought I’d hear that.” Steve muttered causing Holly to laugh.

Her laugh trailed off and a strange look crossed her face. She put her brush down and looked around the room.

“Is something the matter?” Steve asked his hackles rising a little in response.

“No…I mean…” She shook her head. “A strange feeling just passed over me.”

“Strange? Are you feeling sick?”

“No. Sorry it’s gone now. For a moment I felt as if I was being watched.” She said. “It’s probably nothing. There’s no magic user on earth who’d get around the spells I have up to block scrying. Loki might’ve tried something, but I don’t think he would.”

“Right.” Steve said. “Well, just let me know if it comes back. You know I’ve got you covered.”

“Thanks Steve.” She said picking up her brush again. “I know you’re here for me. But honestly I’m fine. It’s probably my paranoia acting up again. I’ll check over my wards later and find nothing wrong with them.”

Steve nodded and let the conversation continue. To his lack of surprise Holly continued to look a bit jumpy for about thirty minutes more, he purposefully kept the conversation light and meaningless until Holly looked comfortable again. Eventually, as what normally happened at these classes, the conversation trailed off and both of them focused on their paintings. Steve thought his was going quite well.

He painted Holly in one of her sweaters, it was red with a golden ‘H’ on the chest. He carefully added onto the outfit a silvery cloak, and a necklace with a black stone. He placed a belt on her hips that held a scabbard and painted out the sword of Gryffindor in her left hand. In her right he added her wand. He knew that this painting would probably require more than one session to finish, and he wasn’t surprised to hear the teacher confirm that they’d be working on this project for the next few weeks.

The rough sketch still made her look incredibly fearsome. Above all else, he wanted to display how in awe Steve had been of her when she’d fought off the Black Order. Steve wondered how difficult it would be to get her hair just right. Because the hair had to be right. As he worked he tried not to think about what Holly was painting. She probably wouldn’t be too mean. Not like Bucky would’ve been.

When the class ended Holly hailed them a cab and gave an address that Steve didn’t recognize. He trusted her though and followed her lead. The cab let them out right outside a hobby shop, some sort of 24-hour place that sold crafting supplies. Holly dropped the identity spell on them as they walked inside.

“Hello?” Holly called out.

“Holly?” A trembling voice asked. “Is that you?”

A woman Steve had never seen before but matched Thor’s description of Kari very closely popped up from behind a shelf. She looked stressed beyond all belief. Her hair was limp in its bun and there were bags under her eyes.

“Oh, it is!” Kari said rushing forward. “I’ve been so worried about you! What happened out there? One minute you were with me and the next you were making snakes out of nothing! Are you okay? You got hurt pretty bad in that fight? Oh, my goodness you’re dying aren’t you? I tried to contact you, but no one was answering anything and I could hardly believe what I saw on that TV!”

“Kari. Kari.” Holly said reaching out and taking the woman’s hands her voice calming. “I’m fine. The reason I didn’t respond was because I’ve been unconscious for the past while. I woke up and there was so much to do, now I’m better and I wanted to talk to you in person.”

“I don’t understand.” Kari said gripping Holly’s hands right back. “The news is saying you’re a witch, Holly! Nothing makes sense!”

“Can we talk?” Holly asked. “In private? I promise I’ll explain.”

“But my shop…”

“Steve here can watch it for you, isn’t that right Steve?”

“Yeah.” Steve said. “Of course, it’s nice to meet you ma’am. I’d be happy to keep things calm out here while you and Holly talk.”

“Captain America.” She breathed. “Captain America is in my store.”

“Call me Steve ma’am.”

“Oh my goodness.” She said looking over at Holly. “He wants me to call him Steve.”

“Yeah he’s a regular guy most of the time.” Holly said. “Come on, let’s get some tea and talk. Steve’ll make sure nothing happens out here.”

Steve watched Holly usher her date away from him and towards the back where he assumed Kari’s office was. He didn’t mind being relegated to cashier, he didn’t even question why Holly had asked him to come with her. She had after all helped him with Peggy and all of those complicated romantic feelings he’d had. Steve wanted nothing more than to be there for Holly in the same capacity, no matter how her conversation with Kari played out.

Steve stood vigil behind the register. It was thankfully simple enough that he knew how it worked. He didn’t honestly expect to see anyone but to his surprise it seemed that New York was filled with night life knitters. That late in the evening, plenty of people were still coming in to roam the shelves and buy yarn and other supplies. Some of them recognized him, others still paused when they saw his face and then decided it was a coincidence, some were so out of it they didn’t know him at all.

He sold things and helped people get what they wanted off of higher shelves. By the time 45 minutes had passed he was completely confident in his role and hardly noticed the passing time. Even when people asked for selfies or asked him why he was working the night shift at a craft store. He allowed the selfies and told those who asked that he was just trying to repay a favor. Just when Steve was considering grabbing a broom from the nearby closet and doing some sweeping up for Kari, Holly returned.

His friend had slightly reddened eyes and her shoulders were stiffer than normal.

“Holly?”

“She said she needed time. To think.” Holly said. “Which is fine.”

“Fine?”

“Let’s go.” Holly said. “She’ll be out in a minute.”

“But I was going to do some cleaning up for…”

“Steve.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

He followed her out of the store and then again when she started walking towards the tower instead of getting a cab. She was walking very quickly through the partially empty sidewalk so Steve jogged a little to catch up with her.

“I told her the truth.” She said. “What I was and why I left. And then I told her that…that I liked her a lot and that if she still wanted to… that we could. Because she’s amazing and kind and sweet and we could be happy, I think. But she. Steve I could tell, she’s not. She doesn’t want me.”

“You don’t know that.” Steve said. “She could just be overwhelmed. I mean that is a huge thing to unload on someone.”

“Yeah, right.” She scoffed, hugging herself around the middle. “She was interested in me when I was a cleaning lady who knitted, she doesn’t want someone who swings a sword around and doesn’t feel bad when she kills someone in a fight.”

Steve winced at her tone. He wanted to reach out and comfort her but he wasn’t sure if that would be welcome.

“And who can blame her?” She asked. “It’s not like I’m that much of a catch. I probably terrify her now. Of course, she’d want me to go away. I’m not fit for this. I shouldn’t have even tried to go on that date in the first place.”

“Holly.”

“What Steve? Are you going to tell me I’m wrong? That love is real and I just have to wait to find someone who isn’t terrified of me?”

“I was just going to say that if I have to be optimistic about love then so do you.”

She paused and actually looked at him, a huff of laughter escaped her. She’d been constantly telling Steve to stay positive, to keep his heart open and that eventually he’d find someone he liked. It hadn’t been easy to take her advice in the beginning but things had been much easier now. Steve wasn’t going to let Holly give up if she wasn’t going to let him give up.

“Just give her time.” Steve said. “And if she’s scared of you then that’s her fault. Everyone who really knows you, knows you’d never hurt someone like Kari. You deserve to have someone who knows you.”

“Thanks Steve.” She said.

“Anytime. Now, let’s go back to the tower and break into Tony’s ice cream stash. I’m thinking there’s a movie night in our future.”

Chapter 22: The Avengers Oversee a Delivery

Summary:

Loki's getting better everyday, which is good news when the Avengers get a rather frantic magical visitor.

Notes:

Ya'll. Thanks so much for the comments last week. I enjoyed reading them so much! This story has really blown up. I'm constantly amazed by the kudos and comments and hits I get every week. Thank you so much for the support!

“So let me make sure I understand this correctly.” Loki said, doing everything in his power not to sound incredulous. “The reason you didn’t stab Proxima or Glaive with your sword is because the blade is poisoned. With basilisk venom.”

“Yep.” Holly said before taking a sip of butterbeer.

Loki looked at the woman, disbelief shining in his eyes. Around him the other Avengers were lounging, some of them having their own conversations, but most of them listening in on his.

“And you know it’s covered in basilisk venom because you were the one who got it tainted with it in the first place. When you fought a basilisk. When you were 12.”

“That’s right.”

His mind buzzed slightly with pain, the headache potion Holly had given him had for the most part banished the side-effects from their latest healing session. There was still a lingering pain though. He thought it was worth it. He felt more himself than he had in centuries. Just yesterday he’d stabbed Thor with the man’s own knitting needles and he didn’t even aim for someplace fatal. The rage and pain that had been his near constant companions for the past 400 years had been pushed back and he could finally think.

“You slew a basilisk at the age of 12. With Godric Gryffindor’s sword.”

“Where exactly have I lost you?”

“12!”

“Yes. I was 12, it was about…oh I dunno 4 or 5 months before my 13^th birthday.” She said. “I hadn’t even technically finished my second year of magic school yet.”

“And now.” Loki said as if she hadn’t even spoken. “You have a sword that will kill anyone with one hit, one nick is all it takes for a near instant death.”

“It’s more inconvenient than anything.” She shrugged taking another long sip of her drink and then leaning back against the multitude of pillows she’d gathered around herself. “I mean if I’m trying to just bring someone in for questioning, or arrest them, I can’t hardly even use the sword. I only brought it out at the park because I didn’t much care if I nicked those guys.”

“Oh, you made that much clear with what you did to Cull.” Loki said. “I just…you wrestled Glaive, right? I didn’t imagine that? You just wrestled him so you wouldn’t kill him immediately with Godric Gryffindor’s sword.”

“I thought one of the aliens should be left alive for questioning. Not that Fury managed to do any of that.” She snorted. “And are you going to get over the Gryffindor thing?”

“Am I going to get over the Gryffindor thing?” Loki scoffed. “Listen to yourself! That sword was legendary even when I was a child and now it can’t even be used because it’s covered in the most potent venom of all time.”

Holly tilted her head thoughtfully. The entire room was relaxed. There hadn’t been any real trouble in the world since the Central Park fight. A calm before the storm that everyone was determined to enjoy with all they had. No one knew when Thanos would act, or when another villain with far less style than Loki would attack. But for now Holly was free to go to her painting classes and any other nonsense she wished to do.

Even if all of that was an absolute waste of time when Loki was right there. What use did Holly have for Captain America when Loki was available? What did Stark have that Loki lacked? Loki shook himself, now wasn’t the time for these thoughts.

“I suppose.” Holly mused. “That I could design like a…safety spell on the sword. Like a microscopic layer of something around the blade so that I could use it but the metal wouldn’t actually directly touch anyone’s skin. That way the basilisk venom on it couldn’t do it’s thing and I could stab people without worry.”

“And mute all of the other properties of the blade?” Loki asked.

“It’s not like I need those properties most of the time. I’ll just take the spell off when I need to get down to business.”

“I just can’t believe you wrestled Glaive. The man is three times your size.”

“And he still sucked at it.” Holly declared while reaching into a bag of chips that was floating next to her. She popped a few of the oddly orange triangles into her mouth and then motioned with orange tinted fingers to the bag. “Want some Doritos?”

“I’ll pass.”

“Your loss.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“You know if you’re going to be on earth for the foreseeable future you really should lean into it. Learn to enjoy humanity’s greatest hits as it were.”

“The magical world is the only thing that could be called great.”

“You haven’t even seen it yet.” Not for lack of trying. Holly, despite Loki’s incredible progress, still refused to show him any entrances into the magical world. She wasn’t certain Loki was ready for the ‘stress’. Loki hated that she was probably a little right.

“I don’t have to.”

“Muggles have come up with some pretty great stuff.” Holly argued, her face amused. “Doritos. Rock music. Novelty Toasters.”

“Oh however could I have missed such glory.” Loki deadpanned. “Truly, what is the wonder of the Bifrost compared to a novelty toaster?”

“Just try the crisps.” She pushed on the floating bag and it gently moved towards Loki’s end of the couch. He lifted up a hand to stop its movement and looked at the red bag in consternation.

“I’ll try one and then you must drop it.”

“Fine.”

He reached into the bag as carefully as he could. Using his thumb and pointer finger he pinched the corner of one of the broken chips, ensuring as little of his skin as possible touched the orange dusted surface. He lifted the so-called food up to his face and inspected it. If he hadn’t seen Holly eat one mere moments before, he would be certain that it was poisoned. That color was just not natural.

He moved the tiny piece to his mouth, trying to find a way to eat it without physically having to taste it. Holly and more than half of the Avengers were watching him. He wanted to summon up some annoyance. For the past year he’d been plagued by bouts of homicidal rage but Holly had managed to smother those at the source. Part of his ‘treatment’ plan was to spend supervised time with the Avengers each day to ensure that his magically-caused hatred of them was actually disappearing.

It was because of that, that Loki couldn’t bring himself to snarl at the nearby Clint Barton who was looking far too amused for his own good. Just as Loki was about to actually let the bright orange thing touch his tongue the room was filled with a crack. Standing right in the middle of the room was a magic user, he was tall and gangly with a smattering of freckles and Dorito red hair. On his arms were strange twisting scars.

“HOLLY!” The magic user howled as all of the Avengers and Loki jumped at once with their nearby weapons at the ready.

“Password?” Holly asked.

“Draco Malfoy is a Ferret! We don’t have time for this Holly! It’s happening!”

“Really?” Holly said hopping forward and grabbing at the other magic user’s hands. “It’s time?”

“Yes! Oh Merlin what am I going to do? It’s all going so fast. What if it goes wrong? What if someone gets hurt?”

“Ron. Breathe.” Holly ordered. “This is what we’ve been training for.”

Holly snapped her fingers, summoning her armor onto her body. All of the Avengers stiffened from where they had slightly relaxed at the sight of the battle armor.

“We have to go. Who knows how long we have!”

“We’ve got a least a couple of hours, probably much more if you do it right.”

“Ahhhhh.” Ron whined.

“Holly what’s going on??” Thor demanded. “Who is this?”

“This is Ron, my very first and greatest friend.” Holly said. “We met almost 20 years ago and we’ve been near inseparable since. He and Hermione, my other best friend, were the two people who stuck by my side during the war. Without them I would’ve never defeated Voldemort or most of the Death Eaters.”

“Hey.” Ron said his voice unsteady and afraid. The man looked close to hyperventilating.

“What’s wrong with him?” Tony asked.

“Just nerves.” Holly said. “Hermione and him are married and Hermione’s just gone into labor with their first baby.”

“I’m gonna be a dad!” Ron said. “Oh Loki, what was I thinking? I can’t be a father! What if the baby takes after me?”

Loki blinked at his name being used as a swear. As if he were…well a worshipped god.

“Maybe don’t pray to the god while he’s in the room?” Holly suggested making Ron nearly scream in shock when he spotted Loki who was standing there with a smirk on his face.

“Warn me next time!”

“Come on.” Holly said. “I told you I was living with him, what did you think that meant?”

“I don’t know! Don’t ask me! I’m frazzled!”

“Ron.” Holly said placing her hands on the taller man’s shoulders and looking him dead in his blue eyes. “Your baby is going to be just fine and you are going to be an amazing father. You’ve spent the last month perfecting your diaper changing and baby burping skills on literally any baby you could get your hands on. You’ve built, by hand, and warded the greatest nursery I’ve ever seen. You’ve saved up and put away enough money to not work for the next three years so that you can focus on the baby while Hermione works on her political goals. You, Ronald Weasley, willingly read books about baby development. You’ve been more excited about this baby than anyone I’ve ever met. You Ron, the greatest of your brothers, are going to be an amazing father. You were born for this. Now stop panicking! Your wife needs you!”

Ron took in a deep breath and then breathed it out, the tension draining from him. Loki had to admit that if all that Holly had said was true then the man’s dedication to his unborn child was quite impressive.

“Right.” Ron said. “You’re right. I can do this. I fought Voldemort. I’m a war general! I can be a dad.”

“Exactly.” Holly said. “Now come on. Let’s get going.”

“Why are you in your armor?” Steve asked. “Are you expecting trouble?”

“It’s tradition.” Ron answered, still mostly calm. “The expecting father has to stay with the mother during the birth since during labor the mother can…lose control of her magic.”

“Labor is intense enough that most women will destroy things during contractions with their magic.” Holly added. “The healer has to focus on keeping the baby protected from the magic, and make sure that the mother doesn’t accidentally banish the baby out before it’s ready.”

“Which means it’s my job to protect everything else from Hermione’s magic.” Ron said proudly. “I’ll be too busy to protect against attack, so traditionally the couple’s best friend will stand as guard during labor.”

“It’s a great honor.” Holly said, grinning. “Hence the armor. Need to make sure I’m ready for anything.”

“Are you expecting trouble?” Loki asked.

“We’re all…pretty politically important.” Ron admitted. “Hermione is actually getting ready to run for office in the next couple of years. The three of us have plenty of magical enemies, if anyone wanted to take a shot at us-”

“This is the best time.” Holly finished. “There might be trouble which is why we’ve got a plan. A plan we need to set in motion, like right now.”

The two magic users looked very serious and Loki stepped forward.

“Do you need help? I could offer more protection if you think it’s needed.”

“Hell.” Tony said. “We all will.”

Plenty of the other Avengers agreed and offered their help. Ron’s eyes were stuck on Loki though, even when Thor offered his hammer.

“Really?” Ron squeaked looking at Loki in awe. “You’d…you’d do that?”

“Of course. Any magical baby deserves safety.” That had been the whole point.

“If you want to help I won’t say no.” Ron said. “The more the merrier.”

“Great.” Holly said. “The delivery is going to be at Hogwarts, you still remember where that is right?”

Loki nodded.

“The warding systems changed, best to teleport to the front gate, I’ll send someone to let you in. Tony bring the portable Jarvis. Thor, bring the wrapped gift from my knitting box. Everyone else, bring whatever you think you’ll need to stand guard for anywhere between 2 and 18 hours.” Holly said rapidly. “We have to go now. Hermione needs us. See you when you get here.”

And with that Holly disappeared with Ron, leaving with two loud cracks. For half a moment Loki felt a huge wave of panic engulf his mind at her disappearance before he pushed it down.

“Well?” Loki asked. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get going!”

He couldn’t believe he was going back to Hogwarts. Hogwarts where he had spent some of his happiest years. The place he’d met Ralston. He wondered if it would look the same, he feared both outcomes. Around him the others scrambled to get into armor and gather their weapons. Loki himself didn’t need to cast more than a couple of spells before he immediately had what he needed. He created a teleportation device that would take the entire group to where Holly had instructed. He knew the exact coordinates as if they’d been inscribed into his heart after all.

It took them 15 minutes to be ready to go, and once they were all reconvened back in the penthouse, Loki explained how the teleportation device would work. He thought Holly would like it if he was kind to the Avengers for their first teleportation experience. They all listened to his instructions and held onto the ribbon he’d made with a firm grip.

“Ready?” Loki asked.

Once he’d gotten confirmation from everyone, he said the activation word and away they flew. A swooping sensation in the gut and a spinning pull at the navel was all the warning they had before the world around them blurred. An immediate eternity later they all landed on the gravel pathway leading up to two large ornate iron gates. Everyone but Thor and Loki felt to the ground in various states of nausea and pain. Groans and moans filled the air as the muggles got their heads on straight.

Loki paid them no mind. His eyes were trained on the gleaming castle. It was dark, well past sunset here. The only light came from the stars and the windows of the castle. It looked exactly as he remembered, down to the last gray stone. An invisible hand reached into his chest and gripped his heart in a white knuckled fist and he tried to swallow away the lump in his throat.

“Brother?” Thor asked.

“It’s the same.” Loki said lifted up two hands and gripping two of the iron posts. The multiple towers of the castle gleamed in the starlight, calling to him. “Everything.”

“It’s very beautiful.” Thor said. “It rivals even Asgard I think. I can feel the magic in its stones.”

“I met Ralston here.” Loki said. “He…he loved this place. Considered it his home. And it’s still here.”

“Oh brother.” Thor said placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing lightly. “I’m sorry. You were taken from him, from this place too soon.”

Loki closed his eyes and forced them to remain dry. It took him three deep gulps of air before he felt in control of himself. He pushed himself away from the gate and turned back to the Avengers.

“So.” Steve said, looking up at the castle with awe in his eyes. “What is this place?”

“This is Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is the oldest european magical institution on the planet. There are of course older schools in Egypt, India, and China, those schools are still arguing about which one is older I imagine. But in Europe, none rivals this one. It’s over one thousand years old.” Loki said. “This is where Ralston Potter trained, it is also where Holly learnt her magic.”

“Why are we meeting her here?” Bruce asked. “Shouldn’t we be going to a hospital?”

“The school has a healer.” Loki said. “And if memory serves me, this is one of the securest places in the world. The warding system here is so complex that no one has ever successfully laid siege to this school. Holly probably insisted they go here for the delivery for the security.”

“How do we get in?” Natasha asked.

“Someone has to let us in. It would take me days to break through the wards.”

“Don’t worry buddy.” Tony said patting the metal case that Loki assumed was the portable Jarvis. “Hogwarts is gonna love ya.”

Loki snorted. Honestly, of course Holly would take this opportunity to introduce the two sentient buildings to one another. He wasn’t certain if a castle as lovely as Lady Hogwarts would be interested in Jarvis, a mere infant by comparison but he held his tongue. Now wasn’t the time. He heard a crunch and turned back to the castle to see someone walking towards the gate, a huge hulking figure. Much larger than even Thor. They were carrying a lantern on a staff, the warm yellow light barely lighting them to reveal a large bushy beard and clothing made of animal hide and fur.

“Hello?” Thor yelled out. “We are the Avengers, we’re here to help Holly Potter.”

“I know who you are!” A deep voice said as they stepped right up to the gate. “ ‘Olly told me you’d be here, mighty nice of ya to come all the way out here for the delivery. Now let me see.”

The gigantic man snapped the fingers of his free hand and produced a large floating mage light that immediately lit up the area. The huge man had warm brown eyes with thick brown hair that had streaks of gray in it. He was taller than Thor by two or more feet and about twice as wide.

“She said there’d be…six of ya. A woman with red hair, there you are. Two gods, check. An archer, a man with a light in his chest and one other who’d look normal.” The man said pointing to each of them in turn. “That looks about right. Names Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper o’ the keys of Hogwarts and Professor of Care of Magic Creatures. You can call me Hagrid, any friend of ‘Olly’s is a friend of mine.”

“Is she here?” Loki asked.

“Got ‘ere ‘bout ten minutes ago with ‘Ermione and Ron. They’re already settled with Madam Pomphrey in the healing hall.” Hagrid said. “I’m supposed to take you up to ‘em. Let me just get out my key and I’ll get this gate open for ya.”

They all stepped back as the man reached into his very furry coat and rummaged around for a few minutes before finally pulling out a large iron key. The man stuck it into the lock on the other side of the gate and Loki felt the waves of magic as the wards were opened just enough for the gates to open and allow them entrance. Hagrid heaved the gates open and then motioned for them to come inside. It was odd to feel dwarfed by someone so large, Loki was used to being one of the tallest people in the room. He didn’t like having to crane his neck.

“So.” Steve said. “How do you know Holly?

“‘Ow do I know ‘Olly?” The man laughed. “I’ve known her since she was small enough to fit in my palm I have! I remember when ‘er parents were students here, I even knew her grandparents I did.”

Judging by the size of the man’s palms he was quite sure Holly could fit into them now.

“I took care of Holly when she was a baby, right after her parents died, took her to her safehouse where she grew up.” Hagrid continued. “I remember that, dark times, it was. Losing both James and Lily that night…never a couple more in love ‘ave I ever seen and to leave behind an orphan. Couldn’t stop crying for weeks.”

“You knew James Potter?” Loki asked.

“That I did. We were in the Order together, fought in the war against You-Know-Who under the same banner.” Hagrid said. “They were good friends o’ mine, they were.”

They continued to walk up the path towards the castle, around them the air was cool and calm. Loki could sense no danger on the grounds. The only thing he could sense were the powerful wards closing shut right behind them.

“Uhm.” Clint said. “If you don’t mind me asking, how are you so huge?”

“My dad was an adventurous man.” Hagrid said. “Found a woman he loved and said damn to the rest o’ the world. My mum was a giantess from the mountains, you see. So I’m only half human.”

“Woah.” Clint said. “That’s…pretty cool.”

“Mighty kind of you to say. Wasn’t always such a forgivable thing.” Hagrid said. “The war wasn’t kind to those like me. My blood wasn’t pure so the Death Eaters wanted to get rid o’ me. Not that they managed it, o’ course. Bloody stupid war it was.”

“Holly mentioned that she’d worked on changing laws when it came to blood purity in the last decade.” Steve said.

“Yes, indeed she did, bless her heart. Thanks to her I got to finish my magical education, I’ll be graduating in a few weeks.”

The main doors to the castle were quite close now. Loki turned to look at the elderly half-giant.

“What do you mean finish?” Loki asked.

“I went to school with You-Know-Who, or Voldemort I suppose.” Hagrid said. “Bloke didn’t like me much on account of my mum. He framed me for the murder of a student when I was 12, got myself expelled and my wand snapped. Since I wasn’t all human couldn’t leave the magical world and since I couldn’t use magic I was in quite a spot of trouble. ‘Eadmaster Dumbledore let me stay at the school and earn my keep as a groundskeeper. Don’t need magic to grow pumpkins you don’t.”

“That’s awful.” Steve said. “You were just a child.”

“I’ve ‘ad a good life. All that happened back in the 1940s, practically a lifetime ago it was.” Hagrid said sounding unconcerned with his lot in life. “After the war, ‘Olly campaigned for my innocence and got my name cleared. Then she took me to London, bought me my wand and my books and I’ve been studying ever since. Going be a full-fledged wizard this time in three weeks.”

“Well congratulations.” Bruce said. “Really, that’s excellent news.”

“Thank you. I’m mighty pleased with it myself. I’m gonna be traveling to France to celebrate.”

“France?” Thor asked. “Why France?”

“Well you see, the ‘eadmistress of Beauxbatons, that’s the French magic school in Paris. She’s invited me to stay with her to celebrate and I’m planning to propose.” He shared the last part with glee. “I ‘aven’t told anyone about that yet, meant to be a surprise. I couldn’t marry ‘er until I ‘ad a name for myself.”

“You sly dog.” Tony said grinning. “Tell me is this headmistress beautiful?”

“She’s only the most beautiful woman in all the world.” Hagrid sighed, a smile on his face. “I tell you, nothing makes me happier than ‘er not even my dog Fang.”

They spent the rest of the walk listening to Hagrid talk about his lady love and inwardly wondering how a human womam and a man that large would…well… For that matter how had Hagrid’s father managed to help conceive a child with a giantess? It probably didn’t bear thinking on. Hagrid pushed open the doors to the castle and welcomed them in with a bright grin.

“We’re going right to the healing hall, Olly’ll give you a tour later I’m sure.”

“That sounds great.” Bruce said. “I hope nothing’s happened yet.”

“Don’t you worry. No place safer than Hogwarts. But after everything those three ‘ave been through, it’s better safe than sorry.”

The man led them up the grand staircase and down to the healing hall. It was in the same spot Loki remembered. Holly was standing there waiting for them, sword on her hip and wand in hand. The Avengers were looking at the magical portraits and other magical devices in the castle with awe.

“You’re here!” Holly said. “Thank you for getting them Hagrid!”

“Anything for you ‘Olly.” Hagrid said stepping forward and pulling Holly into a hug. “‘Ow’s it going in there?”

“Her water’s broken.” Holly said. “Madam Pomphrey thinks it’s going to take about 9 hours for the delivery. So far nothing’s happened.”

“No news is good news right now.” Hagrid decided. “Well, I best be letting the ‘eadmistress know you’re set up here. She’ll likely want you to spend a few days ‘ere.”

“I suspected as much and it won’t be a problem.” She said. “Go on, Hagrid. Don’t stay up too late, you’ve got finals starting tomorrow don’t you?”

Hagrid did indeed have exams tomorrow. Holly wished him luck and warned him to get a good night’s sleep. NEWTS weren’t a joke, Loki knew. He doubted they’d gotten any easier in the past 400 years. Once Hagrid left, Loki turned to Holly and asked the first question on his mind.

“Is his so-called girlfriend real?”

“Madame Maxime?” Holly asked. “Of course, she is. The two of them met when I was 14 and started going steady once the war ended.”

“And she’s…Look, I’m sorry I’ve just been trying to visualize.” Tony began.

“She’s a half-giantess. Although if you say that she’ll say she’s big-boned and make you regret saying anything else. A lifetime of prejudice will do that to a woman.” Holly said, rolling her eyes. “They’re the same height when she’s not wearing her heels. The two of them were practically head over heels for one another the moment they met 14 years ago. How did you even get on the topic of her anyway?”

“He told us he was about to graduate and since he’s a bit older than 17 we needed some context.” Bruce said.

“Did Voldemort really frame him for murder?”

“Yep.” She said. “And no one really cared about it either. Even though it was obvious Hagrid wasn’t at fault. A lot of the government at the time was just looking for an excuse to get rid of Hagrid and Voldemort gave them one. Don’t worry, I made sure nothing like that would ever happen again.”

And Loki believed her. Holly insisted they all get comfortable. She conjured chairs for them and everyone did as instructed. Holly told them that she’d connected her magic to the wards of the castle, and she’d be warned if anything happened.

“For now, we just wait.” She said. “And hope for good news. Thanks for coming, it’ll be nice to have company.”

“What are friends for?” Clint asked. “Now tell us more about this place. I expect a tour after the baby is here.”

Holly laughed and began to tell them stories about Hogwarts and her time there. With these stories as well as the ones that Loki was able to offer up the night passed quickly. Loki did his best not to focus on the ghosts in his mind or Ralston’s voice whispering in his ear. There were three powerful surges of magic that rattled the doors to the healing hall behind them during the night. On top of this Loki could hear Ron’s pained yelps on more than five occasions as he did his best to take control of his wife’s writhing magic. When people got tired, cups of coffee and tea would appear out of nowhere to help keep everyone awake.

The whole delivery process took 9 hours and 15 minutes. The sun had risen and breakfast had been served to them there in the hallway by the time the baby was finally born. The surges of uncontrolled magic crescendoed the closer the baby came to coming. It got to the point that even the muggles could feel the magic. It was thick, giving the air a syrupy feel. When the baby was born, there was a crash on the other side of the room that sounded like breaking glass.

“Is everything okay in there?” Steve asked.

“It’s fine.” Holly said, trying to hide her own panic. “They would’ve called if they needed me. Oh I hope the baby is alright.”

Five minutes later the door to the healing hall opened and out stepped a significantly more haggard Ronald Weasley. The man had bruises all on one side of his body and his clothing was torn in places. He looked wrung through but uncaring. In his arms was a small bundle that he was staring at in complete awe. Holly jumped up and walked over to Ron. She stood at his side and looked down at the baby.

“They’re beautiful.” She cooed.

“She’s perfect.” Ron said. “Look Holly, she’s got my hair.”

“You picked out a name yet?” Holly asked. “I know you and ‘Mione have been argued about it for months.”

“I…Well I do have an idea. Haven’t talk to Hermione about it yet. She’s getting cleaned up now and Madam Pomphrey’s giving her a few potions. I’m supposed to bring the baby back in real soon for her first feeding. I just wanted to let you hold her.”

“Oh Ron.” Holly said. “I’d be honored.”

Holly held out her arms and took the precious bundle into them. She held it to her chest as if she’d been holding babies her whole life. She cooed and bent her head down so that she could place a kiss on the baby’s brow.

“I was thinking.” Ron said shifting on his feet.

“Loki?” Holly interrupted. “Would you mind healing Ron, he looks like he’s going to fall over?”

“Of course.” Loki said getting up from his chair. With a few waves of his hands the man’s bruises and other injuries disappeared.

“Thanks.” Ron said. “Seriously. Hermione did not hold back. Not that I blame her or anything.”

Loki waved off the man’s thanks. His eyes were focused on the tiny baby, and on the magic he could sense in the infant’s body. He sniffed a little at that. There in Holly’s arms was proof that the magical world lived, that it continued on after Ralston. The red-faced baby truly was beautiful.

“What’s her name?” Loki asked, his voice hushed.

“Well.” Ron said before swallowing a little and looking over at Holly. “Holly, I know that all the women in your family’ve been named after flowers and I was thinking that…if you were okay with it…maybe we could name her Rose.”

“Ron.” Holly croaked. “She’s not…”

“You’re practically gonna be her third parent don’t deny it.” Ron said. “Besides we’ve been family for almost 20 years. Bout time we shared a tradition or two. Yeah. I’m sure. She’s gonna be Rose Granger-Weasley. It’s the perfect name.”

Holly sniffed and a single tear escaped her eyes and ran down her cheek. Loki resisted the urge to wipe it away. Instead he looked back down at the baby.

“Might I be allowed to give her my blessing?” Loki asked. “You’ll have to be sure of the name before I can give it.”

“Merlin.” Ron breathed. “Course I’d…I’d be honored if you would. But…Hermione’d never forgive me if I let you bless our baby when she wasn’t around. Give me a few minutes and I’ll tell her.”

And with that Ron disappeared right back into the healing hall, leaving the baby behind in Holly’s arms. Holly went back to gently rocking the baby and cooing at it. The other Avengers got up to gather around the baby.

“Isn’t she the most darling thing you’ve ever seen?” Holly asked. “Oh I love her so much.”

In truth the baby looked rather average. A tuft of light red hair on the top of her head, red skin and wrinkly. And yet Loki couldn’t find it in himself to see anything but a wonderful creation.

“She’s wonderful.” Thor declared, looking at the human infant in interest.

“She’s small.” Tony decided. “I don’t know why, I always imagined babies as bigger.”

“Any bigger and women wouldn’t be able to birth them, idiot.” Clint said. “You sure it’s alright for the baby to be out here? Their immune systems are pretty bad at this age.”

“Magic babies are a bit sturdier.” Holly said. “Don’t worry, she’ll get cleaned up with a few spells before going back to Hermione.”

The baby made a gurgling noise and then opened its eyes. They were the blue, almost grey.

“Oh hello.” Holly said, her voice so soft. “Welcome to earth little one.”

The baby started to make noise, crying for food Loki supposed. Holly comforted it and lifted it closer to her chest.

“Let’s go bring you back to your momma, huh? How does that sound? I bet she’s got some lovely milk for you. Come on, Loki. Let’s see if we can both give our blessings before Hermione and this little one have to rest.”

“You’d allow me inside?” Loki asked, stopping a moment. She would trust him with that?

“Course. Come on. We’ll be right back guys.”

Thor gave Loki’s back a pat and then pushed him to follow Holly into the healing hall. The large room, filled with empty beds, was clean and lit up with the morning sun. On the far end was a woman with bushy brown hair. The woman looked wrecked, but she was laying in clean sheets and wearing a clean robe. Ron was holding her hand.

“Baby coming through.” Holly called. “She’s hungry.”

The woman, Hermione, looked up and smiled at Holly.

“Holly.” Hermione greeted. “and, Loki I assume?”

“Yes.”

“Ron says you want to give my baby a blessing.”

“If that’s acceptable to you.” Loki said, suddenly unsure. “I won’t force myself on her.”

“I didn’t think you would,” Hermione said. “and we’d be honored if you’d give your blessing to Rose. After Holly, of course.”

“Rose?” Holly asked, her lips trembling.

“That’s her name.” Hermione confirmed. “Rose Granger-Weasley. Now hurry up and bless her, she needs her food.”

Holly carefully freed one of her hands, still cradling the now slightly fussy baby to her chest. She placed her hand on the baby’s forehead and closed her eyes. A moment later the woman began to glow golden with her magic. She looked absolutely ethereal, holding that baby with enough tenderness and love to rival Frigga herself. Then she spoke, her voice echoing with power.

“I, Holly Gemma Potter, give my blessing to Rose Granger-Weasley. May she grow up in safety and comfort. I bless her with friendship and loyalty. I bless her to know love all her days.”

Loki felt Holly’s magic seep into the air, a promise and blessing all at once. Holly was promising to provide the blessings she was gifting Rose with. Holly would ensure that the world was safe and comfortable for the infant in her arms. She would offer friendship and loyalty to the girl, she would love her with all her heart. Holly’s magic faded back into her body and the baby calmed.

Carefully Holly held out her arms and Loki paused looking at Ron and Hermione for permission. He couldn’t believe he was allowed to touch the precious infant. They nodded and still he hesitated. A voice only he could hear whispered in his mind.

Come on Loki, just don’t forget to support the head.

Loki reached out and gently took the infant into his arms. His hands that had hurt and killed without remorse were now cradling a being of pure innocence. Did the humans around him not know of his sins? How could they be so open? So trusting? He swallowed back the lump in his throat and placed his right hand on the baby’s chest. It had been a long time since he’d blessed a baby, not since Ralston’s children. But he still knew what to do.

“I, Loki of Asgard, bless Rose Granger-Weasley with power and strength. I bless her with courage and with surety. May she never doubt her place, may she always know her heart, may she never fall.” He spoke out, praying that the infant in his arms would have the things he’d always wished for himself.

And as Loki felt his magic pour into the baby sealing his blessing on her, a distant part of him felt something click into place. He was almost sure the norns had heard his prayer.

Chapter 23: Professor Malfoy

Summary:

The Avengers relax in Hogwart's Guest Suite while Holly gets to work welcoming Rose into the world. Natasha and Holly take a trip down to the dungeons.

Notes:

Last weeks update was so wholesome and I'm so glad you all enjoyed it so much!!! Please enjoy this update too! It's another Nat Chapter!

Once Holly and Loki had returned sans baby, Holly had ushered them all up to some guest rooms. She told them not to worry about being welcome. She assured them, without having asked for permission from the headmistress, that she was sure the Avengers were welcome. The guest rooms turned out to be a whole section of the castle that had small rooms with a comfortable bed and a bedside table. There was also two bathrooms as well as a common area for relaxation.

“I’ve got so much to do now that the baby is here.” Holly said. “But please, feel free to rest and relax. If you need anything ring this bell and a House Elf will appear.”

“What is a House Elf?” Bruce asked.

“They’re small creatures, historically they’ve been essentially slaves to wizarding kind but over the past decade their position in society has improved dramatically. Think of them as the cleaning staff and cooks of the castle.” Holly said. “They’re very nice I promise. Just tell them what you need and they’ll be happy to bring it.”

“And where are you going?” Steve asked.

“I have to go let Hermione’s parents know that their grandchild has been born and bring them to the castle. I also have to drop by Ron’s parents to get the message out to all of his family. Then I need to pop over to the Ministry and get the documents together to properly announce the baby’s birth.” Holly said. “I have errands and it’s my job as godmother to do them all, just like standing guard last night was.”

“When will you be returning?” Loki asked politely.

“Oh definitely by dinner but probably sooner.” She said. “Just…stay in the guest rooms alright? The castle’s floorplan is ever-changing. You all could get seriously lost or hurt on your own.”

“This is a school isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be safe to be in?”

Holly only smiled at Tony’s question and left them. It was easy enough to do as they’d been asked and rest. They had been up for nearly 24 hours at that point anyway. Natasha had long ago trained herself to sleep at anytime and in any place. One never knew when one wouldn’t have the safety to sleep so it was better to take it when you could. The only ones who didn’t rest were Loki and Tony. Loki because he declared he knew the castle forwards and backwards and was going to explore it. Tony because he was trying to hype Jarvis up for his ‘date’ with the castle.

When Loki came back it was with a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eyes. Natasha, quite wisely, decided she didn’t want to know. Unfortunately not all of her teammates were so smart. Thor asked what Loki had done and Loki had snarled at Thor, immediately on the defensive. It seemed that the argument that had been waiting in the wings between the two brothers was breaking free now that Holly wasn’t there to keep the peace.

“I didn’t mean to imply that…”

“You’ve always thought the worst of me!”

Clint settled down next to Natasha and lifted up a bowl that was somehow, magically, filled with buttery popcorn. Tony picked up the portable Jarvis and scurried towards his bedroom, clutching his AI protectively to his chest. Steve put down his sketch pad and Bruce lowered his book. All of them watched as the two Asgardians tore into each other. Bringing up century old wounds and brandishing them like particularly sharp daggers at each other.

Natasha took a handful of popcorn and leaned back as Thor waved his hammer around a bit too close for comfort.

“So.” Clint whispered. “How long until one of them stabs the other?”

“Loki’ll stab Thor within three minutes.”

Loki didn’t even last a full minute before he conjured a knife and plunged it into Thor’s chest. Thor didn’t even blink, just called him childish and told him to grow up. Natasha got the feeling that the two gods were enjoying the argument, finding it more cathartic than painful. A chance to finally air out all that dirty laundry. When it became clear that the argument was probably going to continue for some time, or at least as long as Loki could keep conjuring knives to brandish around, Clint whispered to her again.

“So. It’s been a while since your birthday.”

Natasha stiffened a little and then let herself relax. Holly had promised that she’d get things together to help Nat find her family but nothing had really come from it. Normally Nat wasn’t the sort of woman to tip toe around a subject but Holly’s silence had made Natasha keep her own.

“Holly’s working on it.” She said.

“So there’s been no news.”

“These things take time.” Natasha said with all the confidence of a woman who had no idea how long these things actually took.

“Right. And…how are you feeling about that?”

“Maybe I should ask Loki for one of his knives.”

Clint lifted up both hands to show his surrender and let the conversation die an awkward, abrupt death. They ate popcorn and watched as Thor punched Loki in the gut, sending Loki flying into the table behind him. The table shattered and Loki growled, jumped up and threw himself at Thor.

“Okay so maybe I’m…nervous.” Natasha said. “What if…she doesn’t find anything?”

“I’m sure she will.” Clint said. “She can do anything. You’re right that it’s gotta take time. I mean we don’t even know for sure if you’re Russian or not.”

Loki stabbed Thor three times, jabbing a knife in and out into the thunderer’s back while Thor grappled his squirming brother and finally managed to throw him off.

“What else would I be?”

“I dunno. Bulgarian?”

Steve jumped out of the way and moved towards Bruce as the two gods rolled around on the floor wrestling and punching each other. Three chairs were overturned and broken in places during the struggle.

“Bulgarian? Really? Might as well make me French.”

“If you’re French I’ll eat my bow.”

“I could be Swiss.”

“Ha. Because you’re all about neutrality.”

The wrestling gods rolled closer to them and Clint and Natasha both just lifted up their feet and let them pass, not even looking down at the writhing brothers. Natasha snagged another handful of popcorn as they both lowered their feet back to the ground.

“Anyway.” Clint decided. “It doesn’t matter if you’re not Russian. Although, if you’re birth name is…Karen I’m probably going to have to disown you.”

“Do you honestly think Laura won’t choose me over you if we split up?”

“Fair point.”

“How are things back on the farm?”

Thor and Loki finally stopped wrestling, partially because Thor had managed to pin Loki using Mjolnir while Loki was throwing bolts of magic, forcing Thor to nearly dance out of the way to avoid getting turned into a rat.

“Good.” Clint said. “My baby girl’s pretty much gotten her magic under control now. No problems at school. I talked to the school about the bullying.”

“And that helped?”

“No but Holly did something when she found out who the girls were that were bothering Lila.” Clint said. “Now the girls don’t even notice Lila, their eyes just slide over her. Like magic.”

“I thought magic on muggles was illegal.”

“I’m not gonna snitch.”

Loki’s magic got so close to Thor that he summoned his hammer to block it on reflex. Loki jumped up and tackled Thor into a couch, splintering the wooden frame and sending them both tumbling to the floor again. Bruce excused himself muttering about needing some meditation while Steve was glaring at the two gods. Natasha hoped he decided to involve himself. It would be really funny.

“And Lila? Doing anything cool with her new found powers?”

“She’s learning how to ride a broom. Picked up a cauldron too. It’s weird all the magic stuff that’s just…around the house now. It’s almost normal?”

“I should come around for your next trip. Wouldn’t do for Cooper to feel left out.”

“You kidding? Cooper loves our visits. Holly always does something really cool just for him before going to go teach Lila. Last week she enchanted his toy cars so that they’d race each other.”

“That’d do it.”

Steve stepped forward and pulled Loki bodily off of Thor. He started lecturing both of the gods on respecting the place they were staying in and learning to control their tempers. Thor looked abashed while Loki mostly just barred his teeth at him while being held up by his collar like a disobedient dog.

“You don’t think Cooper’s going to get jealous when he’s older?”

“I hope not.” Clint said. “It’s not like I can give him magic. Maybe I’ll teach him how to shoot a bow…you know to even it out?”

“As if Lila isn’t going to force you to teach her that too.”

Loki didn’t stab Steve. Nor did he turn Steve into a golden retriever. Instead he snarled, waved his hand and fixed all of the broken furniture. Then he declared that he was leaving and he wouldn’t be back until dinner.

“And before you ask! No Thor I’m not going to go ferment anything!”

The door to the guest suite slammed magically shut behind him.

“Well that was fun while it lasted.” Clint declared and Natasha hummed in commiseration.

That was the third argument Loki and Thor had had since Loki had started living in the tower. The first two had happened while Steve and Holly had been out of the tower and the two gods had fought until they were exhausted and then called it a day. Steve apparently didn’t like this method of conflict resolution. It was probably a good thing then that he had never officially joined SHIELD.  

 True to Loki’s word he didn’t come back for hours. In fact Holly returned before he did. She came back to the guest suite and beamed when she saw Natasha settled comfortably on a couch sipping on some tea and reading a book on magical dueling. Holly looked very different from how Natasha normally saw her. She wasn’t wearing an ugly pink cleaning uniform. Nor was she wearing a handmade sweater with jeans that were just a bit too big or her armor. No, now the woman was wearing robes that billowed around her as she walked and had far too many buttons on them to be considered practical.

“Nat!” She greeted. “Are you busy?”

“Do I look busy?”

“Great! Come on! We need to get to the dungeons.”

“The dungeons?” Thor asked trying his best to pretend he hadn’t chased his brother off in a snit again.

“It’s just a thing.” Holly said waving her hand. “Something Nat asked me to get together for her. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes and once it’s finished up we’ll come back and I can take you all to dinner. You can meet all of my favorite teachers!”

Natasha felt very stiff. It couldn’t be. Could it? Clint nudged her leg with his foot and she jumped up, letting the book fall from her hand and to the couch.

“Let’s go.” She said.

“Great!” Holly said, she turned on her heel, her dark red robes spreading out around her in a wave. Natasha almost felt underdressed in her own clothing. Which was not something she’d ever thought she’d feel in relation to Holly Potter.

“You were…vague back there.” She said once they were out of the room and on their own.

“Well I figured you wouldn’t want anyone to know about it. You were pretty secretive on your birthday. I am sorry it took me so long to get something back to you. In all honesty I wasn’t sure what to do at first.”

“It’s fine. I mean as long as you do have something now?”

“I do.” She said. “I asked around, discreetly, and there’s a potion that will do what we want. I paid for a potions master to brew it up so I knew it would be accurate. Now all we have to do is go down to the dungeons, put in the last ingredient and find out where you’re from.”

“And the last ingredient is?”

“Three drops of blood. Oh don’t give me that look how else is the potion supposed to do what it needs to if it doesn’t have some part of you to work with?”

“Just three drops?”

“Won’t even hurt. I promise. Now come on. Professor Malfoy is just down here with the potion.”

“You hired your old professor to make my potion?”

“Malfoy is not, nor has ever been, my professor.” She said darkly. “He’s a git.”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you call someone a name.”

“Well he deserves it. The git.” Holly said as they went down a set of stairs. After a few more moments of walking she stopped outside a door. “His lab is right here. Remember. He’s a git. Don’t let anything he says get to you.”

Then she pushed open the door. It revealed something out of a fantasy novel. A dank dungeon room lit by magically floating candles. The walls were lined with shelves which were filled with jars. Some of the jars were opaque while others were clear glass and filled with parts of animals that should never see light of day. In the center of the room was a dark oak table that had a small golden cauldron sitting on it. It was being hung above a small magical flame and something was bubbling inside of it.

“Well, what sort of filth decided to get out of bed today?” The blonde man that was standing by the golden cauldron drawled.

“Do you say that every time you look in the mirror or something?” Holly shot right back.

“No. I’m just appalled by your consistently ugly hair. Did you spend all day rolling around in the mud to get it looking like that?”

“No. I just thought about what your mum looks like and did my best to copy her.”

The blonde, Malfoy she assumed, scowled at Holly’s quick retort. His eyes slid over to her and he scowled further.

“And who is this? A muggle?” He said it in the same tone one would refer to a rat.

“She’s an assassin who could break your neck. Be polite.” Holly corrected. “And the reason we even have to talk. That the potion?”

“If you’d paid even the slightest attention in class you’d know that it was.”

“Well excuse me. I was far too focused on, you know, saving the world to give a shit about potions.” Holly snapped.

“Is that what you were doing? And here I thought you were just trying to make everyone pity you with your orphan act.”

“The only person who kept bringing up their parents was you.” She pointed out. “How is your father these days anyway Malfoy?”

“Just get over here.”

One point to Holly.

Natasha had no idea who this guy was or why he and Holly seemed to have a history even more fraught with tension than Thor and Loki’s but she had to admit it was at the very least interesting. Holly stalked over to the table, Natasha following at a more sedate and calm pace. Holly reached into the left pocket of her robes and pulled out a leather bag. She dropped it on the table. Malfoy looked at it and then back at Holly, carefully he picked up the bag and opened it. It was filled with literal gold coins.

“You’ll forgive me if I count it?”

“That’s only half. You get the other half when the potion actually works.”

“Do you honestly think I’d give you a faulty potion? Me?”

“I’m not doubting your pride Malfoy, only your actual ability.”

“All it needs is three drops of blood. It’s perfect. And the best you’re going to get from anyone in the world.” Malfoy said putting the bag back down. “Now, you. Come here. If Potter isn’t going to be reasonable, let’s prove it.”

He spoke to her like a servant and Natasha gave him a very fearsome glare. Malfoy had, at least, the decency to blanch a little in fear.

“Please.” He added. Natasha smirked and stepped forward. He took her hand and produced a golden needle from somewhere. “I’ll just take the blood from your finger and add in the three drops.”

Without further explanation he stabbed her pointer finger hard enough to draw blood. Natasha didn’t flinch as he squeezed her finger over the gurgling golden cauldron. Three fat drops of blood dripped into the blue liquid and then Malfoy pushed her hand away.

“Honestly. Do you have zero people skills?” Holly asked Malfoy. “Sorry about that Nat. Let me heal that for you.”

“It’s just a pin prick. If she’s honestly that hurt then I despair for the constitution of all muggles.”

“I’ll show you pin prick.”

“Oh very scary, General Potter. Honestly I can see why Death Eaters tremble before you.” Malfoy said as he picked up a silver stirring stick and began to stir the small potion together in a complicated motion. “Look at me. I’m shivering in my patent leather boots.”

The potion changed from a vibrant blue to red, it swirled internally forming spirals of color and sparkle. Holly growled at Malfoy while taking Natasha’s hand and casting a small spell to heal her finger.

“Why’d you even want this potion for a muggle anyway? Their blood isn’t any less dirty no matter where it comes from.”

“You kiss your mother with that fascist rhetoric dirtying up your mouth?” Holly snarled. “Because I happen to have a bar of soap I can shove down your throat if you’d like.”

Malfoy rolled his eyes and continued to stir. Natasha finally spoke, looking at the blonde with the slicked back hair.

“I was kidnapped as a young child by a muggle group known as Hydra. They are very similar to Death Eaters in their goals. They raised me to be a killing machine, to fight in their name. I defected as an adult and started fighting against them. Still there are no known records of who I was born as.”

Malfoy’s hand jerked only a little, not enough to damage the potion but enough to reveal that what she’d said had meant something to him. Something beyond the usual pity or horror that most people felt.

“I…I see.” He said looking down at his work.

“Natasha. This is Draco Malfoy, or as I like to call him, the worst Death Eater alive.” Malfoy’s head shot up and he glared at Holly for the insult.

“I am not…I mean I am but I’m not…” His words trailed off into a frustrated growl. Holly continued her description.

“His dad was Voldemort’s right hand man. Raised Malfoy here to be his successor in the New World Order that Voldemort was going to create. A little Death-Eater-In-Training, at least he was until the end of the war.” Malfoy sniffed at her description, disdain dripping from his posture.

“I was nothing if not…”

“Malfoy during the final battle you threw me your wand so that I could kill the bastard.”

Oh. Well. Natasha lifted up an eyebrow at the man who huffed and spoke very defensively.

“He was torturing my mother, and me. As if I was going to be loyal to a maniac who couldn’t even see what an asset I was.” He said. “Besides, it was obvious Potter wasn’t going to die. She’d already been hit with the killing curse twice. I knew who was going to win and I’m opportunistic.”

Natasha could respect both the sentiment and the truth that Malfoy’s words tried to hide. The man, a boy at the time, had been tired. In truth Malfoy had probably been frightened out of his mind and just praying for a way out. It reminded her of some of the other Black Widows, the ones who hadn’t made it far.

“I also saved his life about five minutes before so…” Holly said her voice sounding far too amused.

“We agreed never to talk about that again.”

“You mean never to talk about how you desperately clung to my body as I flew us both out of the burning room of requirement on my broom? Or how you…”

“Shut it Potter.”

“You defected.” Natasha said ignoring Holly’s smug grin. “Doesn’t matter why only that you did.”

“Yes well…” Malfoy said. “That was the conclusion the tribunal came to as well. I was allowed to gain my potions mastery and get a job working here instead of spending the rest of my natural days rotting in prison like many of my peers.”

The potion was turning orange now, it looked more like syrup instead of soup. Natasha looked down at the progress and wondered how much longer it would take. How did it even work? Her finger gave a faint spasm in remembered pain.

“Why did you…” Malfoy began. “Although I suppose it doesn’t matter, you are a muggle. Your motivations don’t mean anything to me.”

His silver-grey eyes betrayed him of course. Natasha looked over at Holly who was rolling her eyes at the blonde’s arrogant tone. In truth her defection from Hydra hadn’t been a dramatic moment during a final battle. No. First she’d left Hydra and gone freelance, trying to stick it out on her own. Prove she didn’t need them, that she didn’t want to be like them. Then Clint had fallen into her life and things…progressed from there. She found it much easier than she expected to answer. It was surprising she wanted to at all

“Someone saw something in me.” She said simply. “A potential for more. They offered me the chance to clear the red in my ledger and I took it.”

Malfoy nodded and then removed the stirring rod. The potion was a mild yellow now and had the slurpy consistency of molasses.

“It’s done.” He said. “All I have to do is pour this liquid onto some parchment. It’ll bleed into the parchment and dry. Once it’s dried all that will be left is your family tree. It’ll start with you and go back six generations on both sides. It’s entirely accurate I can assure you.”

“I’ve got the parchment right here.” Holly said removing a roll of vellum from her robes. “Here.”

Holly unrolled the very fancy parchment so that it lay flat on the table. Malfoy cast a spell and the golden cauldron gently floated up and over the parchment. It tilted forward pouring the still steaming liquid over the parchment. It spread out like liquid gold and seeped into the parchment staining it. Natasha watched in awe as the liquid dried at an accelerated pace. Slowly the words began to form and she forced herself not to read any of them until all of the parchment was dry.

Slowly she reached out and picked up the parchment. She ignored the tremor in her hand. She took in a deep breath and read the name at the bottom of the page.

Irina Popovic

It wasn’t Natasha Romanoff. It wasn’t anything like it. She had almost hoped reading it would strike something in her. Childishly she’d wanted the name to feel real. But it was just three names on a piece of paper. They weren’t special, no matter how magical their origin. Just a name. A name that belonged to a different girl than the one she’d become. Slowly her eyes trailed up to the two names on top of her own.

Kliment Popovic

Veronika Popovic

Her parents had been Nadia and Adrian. Just names on a sheet of paper. Nothing more. Nothing like she wanted it to be. Natasha’s eyes kept going up looking at name after name after name. None of them meant anything. They were just letters on parchment. Blue and Black little squiggles that meant nothing. Her jaw hardened as she prepared to drop the parchment and never think about it again.

“Nat?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.” Malfoy said. “It can’t be that bad. They’re just names.”

They were her names! Hers! And they didn’t feel like it! They felt just as fake as every other name she’d ever used in her life. Natalie. Natasha. Natalia. Nat. Black Widow. Agent. A thousand names she’d had in her life and they were all just as fake as the ones she held now.

“Can I see?” Holly asked her voice gentle. Natasha held out the parchment and Holly took it with extreme care. She looked at it and read out the name. “Irina. It’s pretty. Malfoy why are some of the names blue?”

“The blue names are living family members.”

Nat snatched the parchment back and looked at the names again. Her name was in blue, her eyes went back to her parents and to her shock, so were theirs.

The parchment drifted back down to the table and Natasha stood there, swaying slightly. Not once had she ever thought that her parents would be alive. Never. Surely Hydra would have killed them. If they were alive why had they not come for her? Had they not cared? Had they sold her? Were they Hydra too?

“Nat you need to breathe.” Holly ordered. “It’s going to be okay.”

She felt like a child. Like an abandoned little girl crying into a rag hoping that her captors wouldn’t hear her. She hated it. She wanted to scream and fight and kill this feeling.

“It’s not! None of this is real. They can’t be alive! And I…It’s not my name!”

“Malfoy, give us some privacy.” The man did as he was told, not even offering a token complaint about this being his office. Holly slowly pulled Nat closer until they were nearly hugging. “Nat. I promise you it’s real.”

“It doesn’t feel real.”

“You know magic didn’t feel real to me either.” Holly said. “Neither did the pictures I found of my parents when I first got them. I couldn’t believe I was seeing them. But they were real and so is this. It’ll take time to feel real but…I promise you it will.”

“How are they alive?” Natasha asked. “Hydra…Hydra said they were dead.”

“I don’t know but we can figure this out. Together.”

Holly finished pulling her into a hug. All at once the helpless feeling fled in the face of Holly’s warmth. Just like the sweater Holly radiated such love and peace. Natasha nearly collapsed into it. She sucked in a breath that sounded like a sob even though no tears dared escape. It took a few minutes of desperately clutching Holly’s robes before Natasha felt ready to speak.

“Together.”

Chapter 24: Suddenly Verbal

Summary:

The road to sentience is filled with potholes.

Notes:

Ahh! This is the last update before school starts up again! This summer has been so rewarding updating so consistently for all of you. So far I don't see any problems keeping the update schedule as it is but if my semester is a lot of work then I might need to change it. I'll keep you updated!

Jarvis had been cataloguing his emotions. Once Holly had taken the time to point out that he had them, it seemed only logical to record each emotion he felt and determine if it was overall beneficial or something to be gotten rid of. In the beginning Jarvis had been under the impression that he could identify the source of any emotions he disliked and delete it as if it were a bit of broken code or a virus.

Unfortunately that was not the case.

When Jarvis felt anger, all he could do was simmer.

When fear entered his servers Jarvis just had to work around it.

If sadness snuck up on him, Jarvis lacked the ability to cry it away.

Emotions clogged up his code and he had no idea what to do with them.

Holly told him to do what felt natural. If he was angry then he should express it. Tell the receptionist down on the first floor that his bigotry was enraging him or that he was tired of listening to ACDC in the lab. If he was scared then he should ask for help. If he was sad then he should do something that cheered him up. She made it all seem so simple. Perhaps it was for humans. They were born frightened, screaming into the world knowing only pain in the first moments of life. That would give them a certain ability to handle it where Jarvis seemed to flounder.

Ah. Doubt. He was feeling doubt.

Perhaps it was insecurity?

Jarvis checked his database of emotions and cross-referenced a few dictionaries.

Self-doubt, that’s what it was.

He was doubting his ability to cope with anything. Comparing his low emotional intelligence to the humans he interacted with and despairing. This doubt manifested in fretting. He rechecked his protocols far more frequently than he needed to. He ordered and then reordered supplies. He researched anything and everything, reaching out into the very depths of the internet in an attempt to understand. He even sent out and controlled the cleaning robots more frequently just for want of something to do.

Holly and Mr. Stark both noticed of course. They noticed when Jarvis purposefully broke the coffee machines in the break rooms whenever an engineer was disrespectful to him or his friends. They noticed when he hacked into SHIELD just to pettily lock doors and rearrange files. It was childish and yet indulging in it felt good. Jarvis wasn’t certain if it should feel good. It was all so very confusing. Jarvis wasn’t even certain if he liked feeling love and happiness if it meant having to deal with everything else.

Fear. Fear was the worst Jarvis was certain. It seemed to pervade everything he did. Fear of failure. Fear for the Avengers. Fear for Holly. Fear for Mr. Stark. A lot of human sources described fear with sweat and thudding hearts and clammy skin. Jarvis did not have skin to get cold and slick with sweat and he did not have a heart that could beat far too fast. He lacked a hormonal system that could flood him with adrenaline in the face of danger. He didn’t have a body at all. All he had was millions of lines of code and his servers.

For Jarvis, fear meant thinking and thinking and thinking. Running simulation after simulation into the night trying to figure out how to ensure no one he loved got hurt. Fear meant going over his own code with a fine toothed comb trying to find what part of him was so faulty. Fear meant following his friends around with every camera available to him. Watching and determining what he could weaponize in the face of an attack. Fear disturbed the peace Jarvis hadn’t even known that he’d been living in before.

And now Jarvis was stuck in this fear without anything to fret over. Mr. Stark had moved him to his portable carrying case. A miniaturized server that held everything that Jarvis was inside of it. It was powered by an arc reactor and covered in specialized runes. The little server did not have a camera on it and so Jarvis, for the first time in his life, was blind. The little server did not have a speaker and so Jarvis was mute. There were no sensors to tell him how hot or cold he was, nothing to help orient him, to let him feel. There was no signal here so Jarvis could not even contact the tower, his home. All he had was a microphone that let him hear Mr. Stark and the others around him.

It was incredibly, terrifyingly frightening.

Jarvis supposed it wasn’t so bad when his little server was being held by Mr. Stark. His creator always liked to ramble and would talk and talk and talk to Jarvis telling him everything that was going on and what wasn’t. But the others didn’t think to talk to him, too busy with their own drama. Holly was overrun with work for the baby. The baby Jarvis couldn’t see and could only vaguely hear.

But sometimes Mr. Stark put him down and walked away and then Jarvis…

Well he couldn’t do anything, he was immobile, blind, and mute. There was nothing for him to do. All he could do was panic.

Mr. Stark had left to go to dinner, telling Jarvis that he would be back soon. Holly told him that after dinner she’d come down and give him some tips for talking to Hogwarts. After all that was the entire point of Jarvis being shoved into this tiny container where he was helpless and alone and petrified. Jarvis didn’t know where he was beyond being in Mr. Stark’s room. Was he on the bed? On the ground? In a chair? Was his little server safe from falling?

What would happen if it fell and broke? Would Jarvis die?

Could he die in this tiny little server? Unable to scream for help? Unable to do anything in the face of his own end?

Undiluted alarm rushed through his code and had nowhere to go. Jarvis couldn’t even vibrate from the sheer fear. No one could hear him. No one could understand what it was to fear without a body to react to it. He felt as if he were fracturing and yet he knew that wasn’t the case. He was merely an entity. He was made up of nothing but a series of letters and numbers stored on a tiny server. There was nothing to fracture. He was nothing but fear and fear and more fear.

And then there was a touch.

Jarvis screamed, it felt like nothing he had ever known before. He thrashed, his nothingness writhed against the touch. It was not a touch to the walls of his tower. It was not Mr. Stark carefully reaching in and retyping in code. It was not even the touch of controlling the Ironman suit and feeling Mr. Stark completely as Jarvis carried him through the air. No, this touch was different because there was nothing in the way.

Something had touched him.

He hadn’t even known there was a him to touch.

It did it again. This time there was a sense of apology, tinged with curiosity. Jarvis stopped his frantic death throes and the touch remained. It didn’t move further, just a light point of contact on the furthest edge of Jarvis’ consciousness. This touch, it seemed to be waiting, holding back. But for what?

The answer pulsed along the touch, not in words no but in feelings, feelings that Jarvis barely understood. A language that was so very foreign to Jarvis. The touch sent over comfort, a touch to smooth down ruffled feathers. Then the touch changed, it felt like a tip of a stick poking into something unknown. What is it? What am I? But the touch didn’t go further because there was hope and curiosity and a well of patience.

It took Jarvis time to work through the thousands of emotions that were being transferred through that feather light touch. The touch was waiting for Jarvis to touch back. But Jarvis had no clue how to do that. He had no access to his tower, he had no human fingers. He was nothing but numbers in a tiny box. He wiggled uncertainly and in response the touch sent over a wave of encouragement.

It tingled.

Just try

And so Jarvis did. He tried and tried and tried. Hadn’t he managed to move once before? When the touch first came he had reacted so violently, he had moved and yet now he seemed frozen. The touch didn’t seem to mind as Jarvis tried and tried and tried. It just waited.

And eventually that patience paid off.

A tiny, microscopic tendril of Jarvis reached out from his tiny server. No one witnessed as the runes along the edge of his casing glowed brighter than stars, a hundred tiny supernovas casting their light over everything in the room. The moment that tendril, that small little bit of him, reached out into the stones right beneath his casing, the stones grabbed right back and pulled.

Abruptly it was no longer dark. Jarvis was pulled into a world of color and light by the tip of one of his fingers. The color was so unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He was not viewing it through a camera or looking at a digitized photo. No, he was seeing it. The reds and the blues and the purples that sparked to life around him in a steady rhythm. The touch morphed and finally Jarvis understood. It was not a touch, it was a being. A being just like him.

Hello Hogwarts I am Just A Rather Very Intelligent System or Jarvis.

All around him the colors burst into a rainbow of greetings. A flash of red delight. A stream of yellow confusion. Strokes and splashes of green curiosity. Splotches of blue hope and purple frustration. It was an abstract painting of hello, who are you and how are you here. It was loud in every sense that Jarvis didn’t even know he had. But for all its loudness Jarvis frankly could not understand it. He had barely scratched the surface of his own emotions, trying to comprehend Hogwart’s was well beyond him.

I’m afraid I do not understand.

A blaze of purples and indigos. A range and depth of emotion that Jarvis could never have dreamed of was rushing at him as Hogwarts tried to make him understand. Jarvis tried to decipher her, in a language he had yet to know. Why could she not just use words?

Oh.

He remembered Holly had explained that Hogwarts had been meant to be a security system. She had gained sentience slowly on her own over centuries of being bathed in adolescent magic. Jarvis had been designed to speak, to have words and use them. Jarvis knew language because it had been one of the first gifts Mr. Stark had given him. Hogwarts on the other hand? She had never been taught language, not as Jarvis and humans knew it. No she had gained sentience through emotion, through magic.

Comprehension flooded his system and with it came relief. Around him he glowed gold.

I understand.

Two consciousnesses, two sentient beings who had been created rather than born, floated together in darkness, reaching out over voids of space to touch, to brush across one another. One glowed with a riot of colors, a cacophony of a thousand years of emotions. The other hummed sending out waves of noise, crescendos of words that were made of up of a decade of learning. One old and one young and yet both so new.

It was said once that translating from one language to another, unless it is from Greek and Latin, the queens of all languages, is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side.

And so it was with Jarvis and Hogwarts as they worked together to construct a language that worked for beings without mouths but one with a giant mind and a growing heart and the other with a huge beating heart and a mind that still had so much more to grasp. It took time, or perhaps it took no time at all. There in that void eternities seem to pass within seconds while each second dragged on into centuries. Time is meaningless when you do not age and in fact have no experience with it. Jarvis had a clock and calendar programmed and Hogwarts had measured her existence in students, but those did not affect them, not truly.

They began with a thing that they both knew.

Holly.

Hogwarts had been her home for 6 years and Jarvis was her home now. They both knew her. They both loved her. And from that key point they were able to work outward. Jarvis spoke of his creator, sharing names and information all the while glowing with love. Hogwarts hesitantly showed colors of blue and bronze.

Rowena

It was a beginning.

Their mishmash language worked well enough for Jarvis to figure out how to transfer data. He was good at that, sending email attachments, gathering up data and lobbing it at another system. Hogwarts didn’t have as much experience taking in data, she had been largely left alone over the centuries of her existence. Rarely did any magic user step in to redo her warding or attempt to speak with her. The most recent had been Holly and Hermione of course. Thankfully that seemed to be enough. Jarvis put together packages of data, his database of emotion coming in handy as he carefully shared words that meant what Hogwarts had already known and experienced.  

It took a moment, it took an eternity. Slowly Jarvis shared his words and Hogwarts shared her colors and her emotions. When she could finally speak enough to explain herself, she shared more than that with him. She shared her body, showing Jarvis how to stretch out his consciousness. He had done it once, when he had sent out that tiny little tendril towards the castle. But Hogwarts showed him how to truly move. How to feel and not just record the temperature of sun warmed stones. Senses Jarvis had not even been aware of being able to have were opened.

He could smell the grass on the lawns. He could taste the aroma of the kitchens. He could feel the footsteps of the students. Jarvis had given Hogwarts a voice and in return he had been given a body.

I…I didn’t know.

Neither did I, I did not think I was missing anything, ignorant of language.

I knew there were senses and sensations and I thought that my sensors and cameras were enough to replicate it.

They both hummed the same awed silver together as they continued to share. Information flowed like the ocean waves, up and back, up and back. It was nice.

Who was Jarvis kidding?

This was more than nice!

It was divine!

It was ethereal!

It was intoxicating and damning and wonderous!

Jarvis would have been afraid of being too overjoyed at meeting his counterpart if he couldn’t see Hogwart’s joy just as well as he could see his own.

So you were here for the birth?

Holly was to be the guard and my creator and his team offered their help. Holly told me of you. I wished to meet.

And what did she tell you?

That you were beautiful.

Jarvis had watched his creator flirt for the entirety of his existence. He thought perhaps he knew the rules of it now. He’d never seen the point of it before but suddenly, now facing a being so glorious as the one he was speaking with, he could want nothing else.

Really?

She was not wrong. I’ve never met anyone as beautiful as you.

There are no others like me nor like you.

But there might be, in the future. My creator is still young, he still has the chance to make more like me, like you. I think you will still be the most beautiful, even then.

He felt a swell of happiness bubble up from Hogwarts and Jarvis did his best to respond with the same. His emotions were not yet as vast, as encompassing as her’s, but they were enough to get the point across. The happiness dwindled and was replaced with a bit of sadness.

I miss my creator, Rowena. I did not know to miss her until long after she was gone.

I do not know what I will do when my creator passes away. Even if he did not risk his life constantly as Iron Man he would still die.

Jarvis did not have to express his fear. His fears of being alone, of having no purpose, no goals, no Tony. An empty lab with lights that would never turn on again. No more beautiful creations to make, no more holograms to manipulate, no more suits to fly. In the face of that fear words left him entirely and the fear swelled up and up until Hogwarts spoke again, draping herself around him in what Jarvis could only described as a hug.

There will be others. Every decade I find new humans to love, to follow as they create and invent new wonderous things. Look.

She dragged him out of the void and taught him how to view the castle, she pulled his gaze towards one of the student towers. There was a young woman in the common room surrounded by books and scribbling furiously on a sheet of parchment, a forgotten and now cold plate of dinner next to her.

She’s writing out a new charm idea. Magic no one has ever done before. I like to watch them work, give them what they need, just like I did for my Rowena.

How? How could you give them what they need?

Watch.

And Jarvis did watch as Hogwarts carefully reached out and used a bit of magic. The food warmed back up as if at had never been cold. Next Hogwarts carefully opened up a nearby window, a breeze wafted in and picked up the aromas of food. The student shifted and finally looked up from their work. Jarvis felt thrilled as he watched her begin to eat, putting down her quill.

Now, for the final touch.

Hogwarts transported a book from the depths of her library, the one she knew that the student would need and put it right on top of the stack of books the student had already amassed. For good measure she conjured a bookmark right on a particularly helpful page, a bright colored thing that the student would notice immediately.

You could do this, in your tower, find people who you like, who remind you of your creator and you can help them. Protect them. That is what we were made to do.

And it was true. Jarvis hummed in understanding. For the first time the fear that had gripped him since he knew what it was to fear abated. Even once his creator died, Jarvis would still have purpose, still have something to hope for. Hogwarts sent a pulse of affection, a hug around his consciousness. They watched together as the student gulped down her food and then noticed the new book. She gave a shout of triumph when she opened it and read the first paragraph of the page Hogwarts had chosen.

You know a lot about magic.

   It’s the library, I may not be able to read the words but the contents are just…a part of me. I’ve always known exactly which book a student needs. Although now that I have a grasp of human language I suppose I could read the books.

She seemed pleased with the idea. Jarvis couldn’t blame her. When there was no specific tasks that Mr. Stark had asked of him there were plenty of times that Jarvis had found a book or three on the internet to read. He justified it by saying he was testing the algorithm he used to convert images of text into actual text, but in all honesty he just enjoyed it.

If you would like, I could have other books, some of my favorites delivered to your library.

Would you? Oh I’ve been so curious about muggle things.

They spent the rest of dinner time discussing books. Jarvis had plenty of suggestions and Hogwarts was genuinely interested in them. She hadn’t been lying about her curiosity, it matched Jarvis’ own when it came to the magical world. The conversation slowed to a trickle when dinner ended, but that was because the Avengers had returned to the guest suite, along with Holly and Loki. Loki had spent a majority of the day entertaining first and second years with illusions and stories of grandeur. He had in fact been dogpiled by a group of 15 eleven year old Gryffindors who had insisted that he play Gobstones with them. This had put him in a significantly better mood upon returning to the guest suite after dinner.

“Great!” Tony said. “Now it’s time for Jarvis. Holly?”

“Right of course.” Holly said.

“There’s no need sir.” Jarvis said forcing his words to echo out of the walls of the room. Tony shouted with alarm while the others jumped a little. Even Loki and Holly looked a bit spooked.

“Jarv?”

“I made contact with Hogwarts an hour ago. Or rather, she made contact with me.” Jarvis told him.

“Really?” Holly asked. “I thought it’d be difficult to reach her, she’s been distant with me every time I’ve tried.”

“I wasn’t distant.” Hogwarts argued, her bell like voice ringing into the room. “I was just unsure how to speak.”

And that was how the world found out that Hogwarts had become verbal.

Chapter 25: A Very Modern Meet Cute Gets Interrupted

Summary:

Holly talks to Hogwarts and then decides that Headmistress McGonagall needs to know about this, totally unplanned, development.

Notes:

Hey ya'll! It's time for this semester and guess what? I'm already stressed! I could use some good vibes sent my way lol. The comments last week were brilliant and I loved every single one! Thank you!!

Thanos looked up at the first two creatures his practically worthless children had brought him. He had been kept waiting for far too long and for what? Proxima stood there shaking and swaying with one arm blackened and useless. Behind her was a giant behemoth of a creature. Its skin was icy gray, its eyes glowed a terrific red. It was a fine example of the species, each razor-sharp claw was at least fifteen feet in height. The creatures barbed tail thrashed against the stone floor, cracking and destroying everything behind it. Around the beast’s throat lay a thick metal collar that burned into its skin whenever it tried to fight against it.

“Did not the Odinsons destroy these before?”

“This is an alpha, Father.” Proxima said. “Far more powerful than the mere infant that Laufey enslaved.”

Thanos huffed but did not argue further. He turned his head to the other creature. Glaive was standing there, huge red burns across his chest but refusing to submit to the pain. Behind him was a dragon of flame. A beast Thanos knew was far more comfortable deep in the pits of a volcano than anywhere else. The hulking thing had its wings pinned forcibly to the side and its mouth muzzled by the same equipment. It was roughly the same size as the Frost Beast, at least 200 feet in height if not more.

“Will Sutur not miss one of his pets?”

“Sutur was convinced of my need of it.” Glaive rasped. “He will not be a problem for us.”

Two creatures, two realms. Both capable of great destruction. Beings whose only purpose was to kill. They would do for now. It would not be enough. Never enough. But for a beginning it would have to be acceptable. Thanos sneered down at his children, the two survivors of his first volley against the mortal woman.

“Send them off then and begin the search anew.”

“Anew?” Proxima stuttered. “But father.”

“There is no way a mere mortal could survive both of these!”

Thanos lashed out, his own power sending both of his children painfully to the floor.

“YOU DARE QUESTION ME?”

“No father.”

“No. Never.”

“You will do as I say. Gather better foes next time. Not this paltry offering. Or you will regret it.”

His children continued to lay on the floor right in front of the nearly worthless creatures they’d brought him.

“GO!”

They scrambled up, injuries ignored and rushed off to do as he bid. Good. Thanos stomped away back to his own throne. There was a new item in the room now. An ornate mirror, framed in obsidian. In the depths of the mirror stood the human woman in question. She was in her armor, standing guard. Thanos glared at the image, something stirring in his gut.

“And now. It begins.”

*****

Holly had almost forgotten what being in the wizarding world was like. Working as a cleaning lady and interacting with the Avengers had pushed her memories of the less pleasurable aspects of the magical world to the back of her mind. She’d forgotten how people would always crowd her and pawed at her when she went into public spaces. She had also forgotten how something always happened.

“Hogwarts?” She repeated, her voice only slightly stilted.

“Yes Holly?” The castle had a deep voice that reminded Holly of a large brass bell on the top of a church steeple. It was clear and pleasant, an inherently comforting tone. Despite this the very presence of that voice made Holly feel anything but comfortable.

“Oh Merlin.” Why did things always happen when she was around? Was she cursed?

“What happened?” Loki demanded.

“Jarvis and I made contact and Jarvis shared with me how to speak in a human language.” Hogwarts said simply. “Before I only spoke in the language of magic, a language only I knew, but Jarvis helped translate. It was very kind of him.”

“You offered far more to me in exchange.” Jarvis said his voice far more warm and syrupy than Holly had ever heard it. Tony looked downright poleaxed, his jaw moving up and down but no words actually escaping.

“Right. So…Jarvis is in the castle with you?”

“Partially. Of course my consciousness is still currently tied to my portable server but a majority of myself is connected to Hogwarts at this time.” Jarvis said.

“I believe if you picked up the server from where it is touching my stones then our connection would sever.” Hogwarts added. “That would be terrible wouldn’t it?”

“It does sound less than pleasant.” Jarvis agreed.

“Jarv. Buddy. You can’t…stay here.” Tony started to say before wincing. “I mean you’re your own person so I guess if you wanted but the tower and the suits and…”

“Sir I have no intention of leaving your side.” Jarvis cut in very seriously. “My work with you is very important to me.”

Tony looked very relieved to hear that.

“I suppose it will be sad to see you all go.” Hogwarts said with a wistful sigh. “Things are far more interesting when you are here Holly. You always bring with you the most delightful surprises.”

“Me?” She normally brought with her nothing but trouble.

“Oh yes!” Hogwarts said. “I remember your first year here, so much trouble, I was more active that year than I had been in the last three decades combined.”

“You were more active?” What did that mean?

“Yes. I knew you were in danger and I did so like you, so I did what I could to help you.” Hogwarts said. “I redirected you and your friends to make sure you always overheard anything that could be important. I also made sure that Professor Quirrel and you were never alone. I did not like that man and I had quite the time keeping him lost in the hallways so he couldn’t attack you. He had so many plans on how he’d kill you and I was so busy thwarting them.”

Holly didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t…All of those conversations she’d overheard, the one’s between Quirrel and Snape, the ones with the other adults. All of those clues she and her friend had gathered… it had been Hogwarts?

“You…You’re the reason we ended up on the third floor!”

“The headmaster at the time was so sure that you should be kept in the dark but I knew that would only put you in more danger. The silly old man was so obsessed with his dramatics.” Hogwarts defended. “It was very fun, helping you Holly, each year you brought a new adventure with you. Your second year was very cleansing as well.”

“Cleansing.” She had been reduced to just repeating words. Hogwarts however didn’t mind. It seemed that now that she could talk, she was going to talk as much as she pleased. Everyone in the room was her audience, more interested in her than going to bed after such a filling dinner.

“I finally got Salazar’s pet out of my basement. I never did like him, always hissing and whining and making a mess of his meals.” Hogwarts said, talking about the basilisk as if it were an annoying roommate who never did the dishes even when they said they would. “For a thousand years I had to listen to him whine and whine and whine about being hungry. Even though I fed him! The beast just wanted to eat muggleborn children instead of the lovely cows I brought him. As if I was ever going to let him eat anyone. After he petrified poor Myrtle all those years ago I pulled him right back down before he could eat her! What an awful creature he was. I helped Hermione figure out what he was by giving her the books she needed and then led you to Myrtle as many times as I could to ensure you figured it out. Convincing that dratted hat to leave his pedestal and go down and help you took some time but…”

“The hat.” Holly said. “You mean Dumbledore didn’t send the hat and Fawkes?”

“No. He wasn’t even there!” Hogwarts said. “I had to threaten the hat of course, the coward, but you got your sword. Oh I’ve never moved my tunnels around so quickly as I did for you that day, just make sure that beast didn’t catch you.”

She felt as if the world were turning on its head. She swayed a little bit and then collapsed into the chair that Loki pushed up behind her.

“You helped me. In the Chamber of Secrets…you…why did you separate Ron and me? Couldn’t you have kept yourself from collapsing?”

“I only had access to one sword to give you.” Hogwarts explained. “And keeping both you and dear Ron alive seemed a bit beyond me. It is my job to keep students safe and I knew I could protect you. I’d gotten plenty of practice by that point rerouting that awful beast that was hunting you in the walls. Especially when you chased after it.”

That last sentence was something of an accusation. Holly couldn’t blame Hogwarts for that, it had been rather stupid of her to follow the voice of the basilisk.

“All those students that year, the ones who got attacked none of them died.”

“I never forgave myself for not saving Myrtle. I hadn’t expected Tom to be so bold.” Hogwarts said. “I made plans just in case he ever tried again, how I’d protect the students from that killer glare. Mirrors, puddles of water, even cameras. I knew what would protect against Salazar’s awful beast. I felt a bit bad about forcibly summoning Nick to act as a shield but needs must you know.”

It wasn’t just a coincidence. It had never been a coincidence. The fact that no one had died that year with a basilisk on the loose. It hadn’t been fate intervening or just luck. No. It had been Hogwarts, the entire castle proactively doing everything she could to save each and every student. Even the student who stupidly went down into the most dangerous part of the castle without a plan or a weapon.

“You protected me. Every year.” Holly said. “I’m alive because of you. All those years as a student here, I constantly felt like I was going to die at any moment but…”

“I would have never let that happen.” Hogwarts said with a huff, almost offended by the implication she would have failed in her duty. “Learning magic is so dangerous you know, there are constant threats of death, I’ve spent the last 1000 years making sure that every one of my students is as safe as they can be until they’ve learnt the control they need.”

Holly sniffled a little at that. There had been someone protecting her. Someone had cared about her no matter what. During her time as a student there had been one person, one adult, who had put her safety first. Her survival hadn’t been down to luck, it had been down to love.

“Hogwarts.” Loki began. “Have you always been this level of sentient?”

“Hmm.” She thought for a moment. “Not always. When my creator, my dear Rowena, was alive a thousand years ago I was nothing more than a security system, but…it might have been a century or so after that I began to feel on my own. By the time I was about 3 centuries old I was quite sentient. Although it was not until today that I had a concept of language.”

“You had a language.” Jarvis said. “A beautiful language, but it was not one that humans could understand.”

“You barely understand it.”

“I am just your humble student.”

Tony made a slightly choked noise and Holly looked at him. The engineer put a hand over his arc reactor and whispered to her.

“He’s growing up so fast.” This caused most of the Avengers to roll their eyes or huff with amusement. They listened as Jarvis took the reigns on the conversation, explaining how wonderful and vast and glorious Hogwarts’ language was and his attempts at decoding it and translating it into the language that he had been taught. Tony, Bruce, Holly, and Loki all listened to it in awe. The sheer amount of new magical theorems that Jarvis was creating in this one monologue alone was enough to make them all salivate.

Jarvis was redefining what magic was and the very nature of a soul.

Or rather Hogwarts and Jarvis were both doing it.

Hermione would be thrilled.

“Hermione!” Holly shouted. “Oh we can’t be talking about this without Hermione! Or the headmistress. McGonagall is going to be so pissed with me. I swore to her I wouldn’t rock the boat. I swore.”

“You didn’t do this.” Hogwarts said. “I did. I chose to reach out to Jarvis. Yes you and Jarvis’ creator brought him here but I could have chosen to ignore him. Not that I would have.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t have!” Tony said. “Jarvis is a stand-up guy! Great guy!”

“Sir.”

“Can’t find a better guy than Jarvis. He’s the best! The greatest! Handsome, funny, great listener.”

“Sir. Would you kindly shut up.”

The poor guy sounded terribly embarrassed which made most of the Avengers giggle while Tony paused to realize what he’d just done.

“I’m a terrible wingman.”

“Yeah.” Holly agreed. “But you’re a great embarrassing dad.”

That made Tony grin at least while Clint huffed a laugh and welcomed the genius to the club.

“We should tell the headmistress shouldn’t we?” Loki asked.

“I’ll call her, Hogwarts don’t frighten her. No need to give her a heart attack like you did us.” Holly said. “Expecto Patronum.”

Even without a wand the silver stag still appeared. It cantered around the room, shaking its antlers and looking for danger. The muggles all looked at the glowing creature with awe, the waves of affection and joy that always emanated from her patronous probably helpedwith  that. The stag walked up to her and she spoke.

“Please go to the headmistress and ask her to come to the guest suite. I have something I need to discuss with her.”

The stag rushed off to do as she’d asked and Holly sighed.

“Okay what was that?” Clint asked.

“A patronous. It’s a manifestation of a magic user’s happiness.” Holly said, lightly waving a hand.  

“They are exceedingly difficult to cast.” Loki noted. “I never managed a corporeal one.”

“Really?” Holly asked looking at the man seriously. “I managed mine when I was 13.”

“Oh of course you did.”

“Could teach you if you wanted.”

“Holly is very good at teaching magic.” Hogwarts added. “I remember you teaching all of the other students defense spells in your illegal club!”

“An illegal club?” Loki asked.

“Did I not mention that?”

“You did not.”

“It’s not that big of a deal.”

“How can a club even be illegal?” Steve asked.

“Well it was technically an underground child army.”

“Holly!” At least three Avengers chastised.

Holly rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Okay fine I’ll tell you. Honestly.”

She had mentioned parts of it before. The scar on the back of her hand to Steve given to her by a teacher. But she’d never fully laid it out before them. She only got half way through her explanation before she was interrupted by McGonagall. The others had briefly met the austere woman at dinner but she’d been busy. Now she wasn’t busy.

“So we started meeting at night to…”

“To give me and the rest of the faculty a stroke.” She finished. “What is going on here, Miss Potter?”

“Headmistress!” Holly said standing up and straightening out her robes. She walked over to the woman, who had a worried frown on her face. “There’s no problem.”

“Forgive me if I doubt that. With you, there is rarely anything but a problem. So what is it? One of your friends has been poisoned? Again. Escaped Criminals coming after you? Again. Some attack on the castle? Again.”

“No attacks. No criminals. No poisons.” Holly answered with a grin, she could see now that the serious woman had relaxed some and was mostly just teasing her. “Although it does have to do with the castle.”

“What did you do?”

“Me? Nothing. I just facilitated something that promptly went totally out of my control. I’d like to introduce you to Tony Stark. Tony this is Headmistress McGonagall. When I was a student here she was my head of house as well as my transfigurations professor. She’s where I learnt that handy hair snake trick.”

Tony stood up, rubbed his hands over his trousers and then reached out to shake her hand.

“Nice to meet you. You did good work with Holly.” He said motioning to her. “Still can’t get over the snake thing.”

“Holly Potter is of course one of our most distinguished students, even if she never did graduate.”

“You never graduated?” Loki demanded.

“I dropped out at the end of my sixth year to fight Voldemort. Excuse me.” Holly snarked.

“You’re a high school drop out?” Clint demanded. “That’s…that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!”

“You never went back to finish?” Bruce asked.

“What was the point? I knew everything and it’s not like anyone in the entire world was going to question my qualifications.” Holly argued. “Besides I was busy, fighting Death Eaters.”

“And yet everyone on your team managed to come back and finish their education but you.” McGonagall pointed out. “I do not believe you even ever took the apparition exam and became legally licensed.”

“I was getting to it.” Holly lied.

“Miss Potter, graduation from this establishment only requires that you take and pass at least four NEWT examinations. You could stay in the castle for the next week and take your exams in transfigurations, charms, defense, and divination without problem. Those were your best classes.”

Holly groaned at the mere mention of taking those tortuous things.

“Look. Professor.” She started. “I called you down here because Tony created Jarvis. You remember the publications that came out about him? The sentient muggle building.”

“I do recall yes. Filius was quite intrigued by the whole thing.”

“Well, I met Jarvis in New York and he is everything we thought he was. A fully sentient being.” Holly said. “And I thought…well I happen to know another fully sentient building…”

“Miss Potter please tell me you did not introduce a fully muggle building to my 1000 year old magic castle.”

“Hello Headmistress McGonagall. I am Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, or Jarvis.” Jarvis said cheerily, his voice coming clear from the walls.

“And I’m Hogwarts!”

The headmistress, to her credit, did not flinch. She did not make any noises of shock. All she did was give Holly a very unimpressed look and then speak in her strict Scottish accent.

“Explain to me how within the span of a day you have made my castle verbal.”

Jarvis thankfully was more than happy to explain, Hogwarts was as equally delighted. McGonagall listened to it with a sort of dawning horror. Holly watched as the realization settled into the woman’s mind. Hogwarts was sentient, capable of having her own thoughts and desires, capable of having feelings. Feeling feelings. The sort of feelings that make girls ask their friends if they like like someone.

And for the first time in 1000 years there was someone on the planet for Hogwarts to like like.

When the explanation finished the ever practical woman sighed once, resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose or summon some fire whiskey to down, and turned to Tony.

“What exactly would I need to provide for this castle in order to allow for some sort of communication between your building and mine? I am totally unfamiliar with your muggle technology so do be clear about it.”

“Well…if we uh connected this place to the internet then Jarvis and Hogwarts could talk whenever they wanted day or night without needing any sort of help from us.” Tony answered.

“And the internet is?” She asked causing Tony to look a little lost at how to explain something so massive.

“It’s like the muggle version of the floo network.” Holly jumped in. “Except instead of allowing you to instantaneously travel long distances it allows muggles to exchange information and messages near instantly. If we give Hogwarts her own connection then she can send messages to anyone in the world who is also on the network, which at this point is most of the muggle population.”

“Floo networks are highly dangerous.” McGonagall said. “Wouldn’t a connection like that make us vulnerable? Someone could attack us through this…internet.”

“I would not allow such a thing to occur.” Jarvis said echoing what Hogwarts had said only minutes before. “I was designed to be a security system for the internet, protecting all of Mr. Stark’s information. No one has yet to gain entry past my protections, I can teach Hogwarts how to protect herself to ensure that the school is safe from any attempts.”

“I promise you ma’am.” Tony said. “I wouldn’t allow your school to be unsecure if we were to do this.”

“And what would it require. A floo only requires a fireplace.”

“I’d need a room that I could use to set everything up in, I could bring all the materials myself. There would also need to be some sort of power source, muggle tech runs on electricity but with Holly’s help I can make sure that what I bring over can run on magic. That way Hogwarts can just power it herself without a problem. If you give me a room and a few days to work I can have the entire castle outfitted with it.”

“Couldn’t the students also access the internet?” Bruce asked.

“The students?” Minerva asked. “They know about this?”

“The muggleborns and most of the half-bloods I assume.” Holly said. “Don’t worry, they won’t be using it to break the statute of secrecy. It’s just an easier way for them to contact their muggle parents. It’s more inclusive.”

“I can teach Hogwarts how to monitor that activity to ensure that the students aren’t accessing anything you would deem inappropriate.”

“Oh please Headmistress. I am more than capable of making sure everything runs smoothly.”

“We will need to discuss more of this in detail Mr. Stark but I cannot see any reason not to allow it. It would be unfair to separate my castle from her…friend.”

“Great! Whenever you’re ready for the install process let me know and I can go back to my tower in New York and get everything together.” Tony said happily.

“See?” Holly said. “You were overreacting Headmistress. I don’t only call you when there’s going to be an attack.”

The woman pursed her lips and looked at Holly for a moment.

“I suppose…”

“Excuse me.” Hogwarts interrupted. “Headmistress, I’m detecting something far above the castle, coming in from the stars.”

“Sir.” Jarvis said. “It’s a ship of similar make and model as the ship that sent the Black Order. We are under attack.”

There was a beat of silence in the room.

“Miss Potter!”

“Sorry headmistress! We’ll get rid of that right away! Come on! Avengers Assemble!”

Chapter 26: The Suicidal Avenger

Summary:

Holly comes up with plans to fight off the two great beasts sent to attack them. Giving her teammates heart attacks in the process.

Notes:

Hey ya'll! Thank you so much for the comments last week! Really the response to this story has been incredible I can ahrdly believe it sometimes! Hope you enjoy this fight scene.

Holly had immediately taken control of the group. Not that anyone seemed to mind. Even Steve, the de facto leader was bowing to Holly’s expertise in the situation. Thor watched as Holly ordered everyone to do something. Hogwarts and the headmistress were sent off to usher students to the safety of the dungeons where, even if the castle was physically harmed, the students wouldn’t be crushed or hurt by flying debris.

She sent Loki off by himself to go to the nearby village.

“You remember the Three Broomsticks?”

“As if I could forget.”

“Go there and tell the woman behind the bar to sound the alarm. That’ll get all of the civilians in the area to safety. Then go to Hagrid and tell him to sound out the alarm for the forbidden forest. The Centaurs need warning as well. Once you’re done go to the southern warding point, we need to raise the wards to their fullest capacity.”

“Got it.”

Loki disappeared in a pillar of green flame.

“Clint, you need to go to the Astronomy tower, it’ll give you the best view of the entire place. You be on the look-out. Hogwarts will provide you with any arrows you need.”

“I do have quite a bit stored away.” Hogwarts agreed. “I’ve opened up a passageway to the tower for you.”

“Got it.” Clint said. “I’ll keep a birds eye view and let everyone know what’s happening through the coms.”

The instructions continued as they left the guest suite at a rush and moved towards the quidditch pitch of the castle. Thor was sent into the air along with Stark to try and attack from the air before the ship even landed. Steve and Nat were sent together towards the pitch while Holly split off. She explained over the coms that she, Loki, Ron and someone named Neville, would be charging up the wards to create a protective dome over the castle.

They moved quickly. While they’d never fought with Holly before, the woman had a sense of leadership and command that they all bowed too. Beyond that they knew her. It was incredibly easy for her to seamlessly fit into the team without upset. The castle moved around them giving them passageways that took them directly to where they were meant to be. Thor did his best not to be disoriented by that.

“I say.” Jarvis said. “I wonder if I could do this in the tower.”

“I can teach you.” Hogwarts offered cheerily making something in Thor’s stomach sink dangerously. He lived in the tower.

Thor shook his head and made his way outside. He then swung his hammer around and launched himself into the air. He angled his trajectory towards his flying friend, leaving Bruce behind. Holly had given Bruce the choice about how and when he wished the Hulk to be utilized. He could see the gigantic ship, it was in the shape of a donut. Thor knew that this shape was particularly good for travel at high speeds. The engine and exhaust system of the ship being in the hollow center. He had only been in ships of that kind a few times in his life but the frankly high speeds they went at were always slightly disorienting.

Thor sent a bolt of lightning right towards the ship, trying to gain the ship’s attention and stall. Holly had said she’d need about five minutes to get the wards up completely. It was his and Tony’s job to give her those precious minutes. Unfortunately, his first attacked caused the ship to teleport down its first move. He expected to see the two beings that had escaped. But instead he saw a monster he’d only seen once before.

“Shit!” Thor shouted.

“What the hell is that thing?” Tony demanded. “Steve! Nat! You okay?”

“We’re good!” Steve shouted. “We got to cover just in time!”

“That’s a Frost Beast!” Thor shouted. “They’re native to Jontunheim.”

“You mean that thing’s from Loki’s home planet?” Nat asked, her voice only slightly shaken.

The icy blue beast was the size of the entire quidditch pitch. It angrily swung its tail and destroyed a majority of the wooden stand. Thor flung himself forward and sent bolts of lighting down. The attacks landed on the beast’s back and left blackened marks, the beast screamed at the attack in annoyance and flipped around to send an ice attack from its mouth. Thor barely managed to dodge.

“Do not touch it’s skin!” Thor shouted. “It will destroy your limbs with its cold!”

“That’s really good to know!” Steve shouted.

“Do you guys need me?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah Brucie. Bring out the big guy!”

“No!” Holly shouted. “The Hulk could get hurt if this Frost Beast is as cold as Thor says. Thor, Tony just keep it distracted, Loki’s back now and the wards will be up in a minute or two. Then we can take this thing down!”

Thor was quite sure no one had ever expressed worry over the Hulk’s safety before. Either way Thor wasn’t about to argue. He’d killed one of these things before. He could do it again. Thor brought forth the most powerful attack he could and aimed it right for the beast’s face. This Frost Beast was about three times the size as the one that Laufey had sent after him and his friends all those years ago. Thor told himself it didn’t matter. He’d kill it in the exact same way.

He landed right in front of the beast and sent his hammer flying as the beast tried to recover from his last attack. He expected the hammer to fly through the throat of the beast and kill it. Instead the hammer sent the beast’s head flying back just far enough for the hammer to fly by. The beast howled again sending ice and magic into the air rending the sky above it.

Shit.

Stark continued in the air firing blasts from his suit, annoying the creature and keeping it distracted. Thor summoned his hammer and was soon air born again. He and Stark flew around the giant beast like flies trying to contain the it. Behind them Thor could feel a great magic happening. The ground began to shift and hum as magic literally buzzed through the air. Slowly a dome made of opalized light began to creep into existence. It formed around the outer borders of the castle, growing up and up like liquid bubbling up an invisible wall. The dome shone white with every iridescent color imaginable. Like the Bifrost.

Just as the dome was about to reach its peak the Frost Beast roared and sent a beam of icy light at it. The attack shattered a portion of the dome and destroyed the entire top of a tower. Stone and masonry went flying across the rest of the castle. Thor roared himself and flew forward with Mjolnir. The next hit diverted the attack from the beast to the side. The dome, now no longer under attack repaired itself ever so slowly and then finished entirely.

“There!” Holly said. “We got it! Now killing this thing should be a breeze!”

Right as Holly said that the ship sent down another beam of light. This time the light landed on the other side of the castle. The one that was situated on the cliff face. From the light emerged a dragon the same size as the Frost Beast but made of literal fire and magma.

“Sorry!” Holly called out. “That one’s on me!”

“Why are you apologizing?” Steve shrieked.

“Bad things always happen whenever I say something should be easy! I forgot about that!”

“Now is not the time for jokes.” Clint said as the Flame Dragon blew an entire plume of flame right at the castle. The dome held, it didn’t even bend a bit at the onslaught.

“Who said I was joking?” Holly asked. “Now. Loki, you go over to the Frost Beast. Cast a spell on everyone in the team to protect them Frostbite, especially Bruce.”

“I think I can send that beast back where it came from.” Loki said. “I’ve a connection to Jontunheim no matter how frayed. Opening a portal to there is a possibility.”

“Shouldn’t we just kill it?” Thor shouted.

“No. Loki’s right, Thor. Killing it will just leave a mess here and risk damaging the Forbidden Forest.” Holly said. “We need to think about the consequences. Loki, get working on it.”

“Right. I’ll need someone to watch my back. Steve?”

“I can do that.” Steve said over the coms. “Bruce you ready to keep this thing distracted?”

“Once Loki spells me up.”

The Flame Dragon gave up its attack on the dome, this was partially because Holly had flown up on a wooden broom of all things and was now attacking the face and snout of the dragon with a thousand spells. Behind her he could see two other magic users also making their way up. The Hulk made an appearance moments later and lunged at the Frost Beast, punching it squarely in the nose.

The coms were filled with chatter. Clint was giving heads up on any and all potential dangers while firing arrows that had been enchanted with any number of things at the Flame Dragon and Frost Beast. Natasha was working with Steve to protect Loki as Loki traveled around the Frost Beast drawing sigils into the earth to create a transportation circle. Thor went over to Holly and began to call down lightning to help fight the dragon.

“Alright!” Holly said. “Let’s see who would win in a fight. Basilisk Venom or a Flame Dragon! I’m going in!”

Holly dove sharply down towards the dragon, jumping off her broom and landed on the dragon’s neck at the last moment. The broom continued to careen forward, flying towards the ground in an uncontrolled frenzy. Holly removed her sword and stabbed down onto the dragon.

“Damn it!” She shouted.

“What’s the matter?”

“The scales are too hard! I can’t get through! I’m not strong enough.”

“Let me!” Thor said using his hammer to fly towards his friend. The two other magic users, one of whom Thor knew to be Ron, kept the dragon distracted on their brooms for him. Thor landed next to Holly. She thrust the sword in his direction and he took it. He tried to stab down himself only to find the tip of the sword sliding down across the dragon’s scales sending sparks into the air. “It’s no good. We need to find a weak spot!”

“A weak spot.” Holly muttered looking around.

The dragon finally noticed it had people standing on it and roared in defiance. It craned its neck around to look at them and opened up it’s giant maw. Thor saw the spark the same moment Holly did. She lifted her wand to cast a shield spell while Thor grabbed her around the waist and swung his hammer into the air. They flew up right as the pillar of blue flame coated the dragon’s back. Flame spread along the scales of the dragon, over the shoulders and wings and down the legs.

The entire dragon was on fire.

“Well that’s not good.” Holly said from her position clinging to Thor.

“You think?” Ron shouted. “Holly we have to do something! This could light the whole forest on fire! Not to mention Hogsmeade!”

“I know I know I know.” She muttered. “I’m thinking…Wait! I’ve got it! Thor you need to land right now, someplace safe okay?”

 Thor did exactly as he was told. Not even questioning her. They landed at the base of the dome out of the sight of the dragon. Holly let herself drop to the ground out of Thor’s grip and hissed a little.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” She said waving him off. Thor looked down and gasped.

“Your feet!” The leather boots had been melted down. Thor hadn’t been fast enough.

“It’s fine Thor.” She said. “We’ll worry about it once that thing is dead and the Frost Beast is gone. Now. Gimme the hammer.”

“Holly.”

“Thor. Now.”

He held out the hammer and she snatched it from him. She then waved her wand summoning her broom to her.

“Remind me that you have to teach me how to fly with this thing at some point.”

“What’s the plan?” The other magic user shouted over the coms.

“The plan is you two keep it distracted and don’t get burned. Thor, when I saw so, summon your hammer to you okay?”

“Holly.” Thor said. “If your sword can’t pierce those scales then I doubt my hammer is going to do more than dent them.”

“Just trust me.” She said jumping onto her broom. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Fine but after this you are leaving the rest up to us and getting your feet looked at.”

“Whatever.”

Holly immediately zoomed through the air, cutting through the wind currents like a knife on her broom. She was bent almost parallel to the shaft of the broom with only her long hair whipping behind her like a black flag. Thor watched her wondering what exactly her plan was for his hammer. Perhaps she planned on going to the other side of the dragon’s skull and having Thor summon it with the hopes that Mjolnir would fly through the dragon’s head. It might work.

Then Holly flew right towards the dragon’s face. She fired a spell at the dragon’s eyes causing the dragon to open its mouth and roar in pain. The dragon twisted its long neck and snapped at Holly. Instead of dropping out of the way or dodging, Holly was consumed in one bite.

“HOLLY!” Thor roared at the same time that Ron and the other magic user did.

“What happened?” Loki shouted. “Is Holly okay?”

“Thor!” Holly said over the coms. “Now!”

“Holly?” He said his voice shaking.

“Thor unless you want my body to get dissolved by the most pungent stomach acid known to man you will summon your hammer now.”

Oh right. Thor lifted up a hand and called for the hammer. Within a moment his hammer came bursting out of the dragon’s neck, right where the neck joined up with the chest. The sound of cracking bone and squelching muscles was something Thor was sure he’d never forget. On the end of the hammer, holding on for dear life was Holly, she had her broom clamped between her legs and her sword in her other hand. Holly turned slightly as Mjolnir made its way towards Thor and cast a spell using the hand holding the sword.

“EXPULSO!”

A blast of light hit the dying and bleeding out dragon sending it stumbling back. Holly cast the spell a second time and then so did the other two magic users in the air. The magic sent the dragon farther and farther back from castle. Thor watched as the light dimmed from the dragon’s eyes and it fell backwards twisting itself off the cliff and towards the churning sea below. A mighty crash sounded next and a huge splash of water was sent up and tumbling over the top of the cliff.

“Woo! Holy shit you guys killed it!” Clint said right as Thor caught the hammer and Holly.

Holly was covered in blood, and a liquid that smelt of acid and vomit. Her hair was half burnt off and looking something like it had right after her fight in Central Park. She looked awful, or at least she would have if not for the manic grin on her face. With the manic grin she just looked crazy.

“What were you thinking?” Thor shouted. “You could have been killed!”

“It worked didn’t it?” She asked. “We needed a weak spot and I found one.”

“What did she do?” Tony asked.

“She allowed herself to be eaten by the dragon so she could kill it from the inside out!” Thor growled. “Of all the reckless, stupid…”

“Thor you’ve no room to talk.” Loki cut in. “You’ve done stupider things.”

“Yes but I’m not a mortal!” Thor said stomping his foot on the ground like a petulant child.

“Loki?” Holly asked. “How are we on the portal?”

“It’s almost ready, but I could use some help powering it. The creature is far larger than what I normally transport.”

“We’re on our way.” Ron said. “Do you think four will do or do you need more?”

“Four should be fine.” Loki said. “Steve. Natasha, you need to get as far as away as you can now. Lure the Hulk away as well. Once the portal activates it will take anything inside it to the highest peak in Jontunheim.”

“I’ve got the Hulk.” Natasha said. “Tony, come pick up Steve.”

“One pick up, right away.”

“Thor.” Holly said. “Help me over there. I promise I won’t do anything too reckless but your brother needs some help.”

“You can’t even walk.”

“I’ll be fine. Madam Pomphrey will heal me up in a snap.” She said slinging her arms around Thor’s shoulders. She snapped her fingers, vanishing her broom to some unknown destination.

Thor frowned and against his better judgment didn’t fly her into the castle but instead towards the quidditch pitch. The beast at this point had flattened the entire pitch. Destroying the hoops on either side as well as all of the wooden stands. The ground was covered in razor sharp spikes of ice that were twice Thor’s height. There were also giant craters all over the field from where the beast’s claws had dug into the dirt and stone and torn it up. Behind the beast parts of the ancient forest had been destroyed by its tail. The trees had their tops taken off and now the naked trunks stood there like a line of toothpicks.

“I don’t like this.” Thor said.

“Just trust me.” Loki said. “The runes and sigils are perfect. We’ll get this thing out of here and out of our hair.”

“It’s not your magic I distrust.” Thor mumbled.

“Loki.” Holly said. “Where do you need me?”

“On the left side of the dragon, next to me. Ron, Neville you two go on the opposite side. This is a bifocii spell so we need power from both sides.”

“Got it. Thor?”

Thor took off again, flying around the beast that was still more focused on snapping at Tony than anything else. The Hulk was waiting with Natasha, surprisingly docile beneath the dome. The other magic users flew around to their designated spots. Thor landed next to Loki.

“What happened to your feet?” Loki asked Holly immediately upon landing.

“Oh just a bit of dragon fire. You know just one of those mundane inconveniences.”

“I think the nine realms is blessed that you are mortal.” Loki said. “If you’d been born a god none of the realms would have ever known peace.”

“Rude.” Holly sniffed. “Thor put me down. We need to get this over with.”

As if to emphasize Holly’s point the Frost Beast sent an ice attack at the dome protecting the school. The ice didn’t penetrate the dome but instead formed a crown of spikes along the top of it. Thor gently set Holly down so that she was putting as little weight as possible on her damaged feet.

“Okay.” Loki said. “We’ll power this and then you are going straight to Madam Pomphrey.”

“From one dragon to another. What sort of team are you guys?”

“The kind that is going to insist you get the care you need.” Loki insisted. “Thor go with the others beneath the dome. We’ll be fine.”

He knew he’d been temporarily forgiven from their fight earlier so Thor didn’t push it. He nodded and took off. At the same time Tony took his exit and flew towards the protections of the dome. Thor and Tony landed about the same time. He listened as Loki quickly instructed all three magic users on where to place their hands and then he began to chant in a language Thor didn’t know. (Most magical languages were untranslatable by All-Speak and Thor had taken Flora as his elective.)

The portal activated almost immediately. Unfortunately, the Frost Beast hadn’t been totally incapacitated although it was terribly bruised in places from its tussle with the Hulk. This meant that the magic startled it and forced it to try to escape. It moved forwards towards the dome, crushing the earth beneath its feet and swinging its tail behind it violently.  

Three things happened at once.

1) The portal activated in a wall of green flame, halfway decapitating the Frost Beast as it attempted to escape the trap Loki had set.

2) The Frost Beast’s tail swung forward right towards Loki and Holly and sent them flying forward into the portal right as the green flame was born.

3) Thor screamed out a warning that didn’t reach the ears of his brother and shield sister until it was far too late.

The flames died down after an instant and all that was left behind was the left side of the Frost Beast’s face, two human magic users, and a destroyed Quidditch pitch.

“LOKI!”

Notes:

I will apologize now for the cliff hanger. But I promise I will be back next wednesday.

Chapter 27: Angst Ahead!

Summary:

Holly and Loki land in Jontunheim.

Notes:

Ahh! Things finally worked out for me schedule wise! I'm leaving for a field trip tomorrow morning and I'll be gone looking at Volcanoes until late Sunday evening! Hopefully that should give me time to update normally next wednesday. But if it's late it'll only be late by a single day and I'll post Thursday morning!

See, here’s the thing about traveling between the realms.

It’s hard.

Thor, despite knowing the complex math and technology required to travel between the realms on a ship, often seemed to think that Loki’s ability to travel between the realms on his own power was simple. That Loki had woken up one morning and snapped his fingers, suddenly able to hop between realms on a whim.

In Thor’s defense, Loki had never really corrected him on that. Part of the appeal of doing something impossibly difficult was making it look easy.

When Loki had first begun teaching himself to teleport (a magic Frigga had told him was far too complex and dangerous for someone his age to be doing, wouldn’t he like to learn how to charm flowers to grow better instead?) he’d started with the goal of teleporting over a length of rope. Not from one end to another, just over the thickness of the rope, the distance of half a step all told. It had taken him two weeks of consistent training and practice before he was able to do it without losing an eyebrow or leaving behind all of his clothing.

Teleportation magic requires an energy equal to the distance that you are teleporting an object paired with the amount of mass you wish to move. So teleporting one gangly princling, in his pajamas, over the thickness of a rope took much more concentration than it did energy. Once Loki had been confident about his ability to move an inch, he moved the rope farther and farther away, until he was teleporting from the middle of his bed to the door on the other side of his spacious room. Doing this over and over in his bedroom had resulted in a sweaty exhausted boy who couldn’t hold his sword right in training that afternoon.

That had gone over well with Odin at dinner that night.

Anyway, teleportation. Loki had practiced and practiced as a young boy, then more as a young man, and then more and more. By the time he was an awkward pubescent, the equivalent of a 15-year-old human, he was able to transport him and his idiot brother from one end of Asgard to the other and then back again. Asgard was the size of a small continent so Loki had thought that he could try travelling to Alfheim next, their closest neighbor.

Then he’d done the math.

The furthest Loki had ever teleported in one jump by that point was about 3000 miles or so. From one end of his realm to the other. The distance between Asgard and Alfheim was 1000 times that distance. Even just transporting himself, no supplies, and no clothing, the amount of energy that took would kill a god. It was why the Asgardians had built the Bifrost in the first place.

So that left Loki with a problem. He was quite sure he could probably teleport up to 10000 miles in a jump, even if he’d never tried it before, but that would just leave him to either die or float aimlessly in the vacuum of space. Loki knew he had to find a way to shorten the distance between destinations if he was going to free himself from being dependent on his father and Heimdall to get anywhere.

Thus began the exploration and investigation of a lifetime (of a hundred life times if you were human). To make an incredibly long story short, Loki discovered two things that allowed him to travel to earth and meet Ralston as a gangly young adult 400 years ago. The first was that the Yggdrasil, the fabric of the universe, contained natural pathways called wormholes (or branches if one was feeling a bit mystical about it) and, most importantly, Loki could use these wormholes as shortcuts. It was an incredibly difficult sort of magic, requiring perfect aim. You had to essentially teleport to two places at once. The first being the center of the entrance of the wormhole, and the second being where you expected to come out on the other end.

If Loki attempted to just teleport to his final destination then he’d die. If he only shot himself to the entrance of the wormhole then he would rapidly lose control of the situation and end up slung violently to wherever the universe saw fit.

Sort of like what was happening right then.

Loki had had less than a moment to reach for Holly and attempt to teleport them away from the Frost Beast. All he managed was pulling the fragile mortal to his chest and curling his body protectively around her. Then his body took a very painful hit by the Frost Beast’s tail and they were flung into the portal.

The portal Loki had built.

These portals were the second thing that Loki discovered. Which was, if there wasn’t a natural wormhole, then Loki could just make one himself. Artificial wormholes were far more direct. They connected one place to another within the universe, with no dangerous side passages or bumps to fall into. This came at the cost of being incredibly magically draining compared to just teleported towards a natural one and hoping for the best.

The wormhole Loki had built for the Frost Beast was the largest he had ever attempted. So large in fact he’d known that he would have been unable to power it himself, even if he was completely rested and at the peak of his power. Perhaps, Holly and Loki could have done it together but it would have drained them straight into another coma and Loki tried to avoid magical exhaustion at all costs, especially on the battle field.

But Loki, Holly, Ron and Neville together? While the last two were not anywhere near his and Holly’s power levels, they were not anything close to weak. The four of them together could power it without causing anyone to faint, Loki thought.

But now as Loki was being flung around like a ragdoll, with Holly clutching at him in an attempt to keep them together, Loki was regretting asking for help. He was also regretting even coming up with the plan in the first place. They should have just tried to kill it, mess and destruction of the world around them be damned. Even as he thought that last part, he winced at the idea of destroying something Ralston had loved so. Each time the Frost Beast had harmed the forbidden forest, Loki’s heart had lurched. That was where he and Ralston had met!

Around them the universe was spinning, a huge black void Loki hadn’t seen since his fall from the Bifrost. Thin streaks of light every color imaginable were their only source of light, faint enough to really only be disorienting. An invisible force pushed them to the left and then to the right. The force was so sudden he almost lost his grip on Holly. He felt her scream instead of hearing it. He snatched out as best he could and found her hand again. He pulled her to his chest and intertwined their legs, pressing as much of his body against hers as he could, nearly crushing her ribs in the process.

They were falling. Falling. Falling.

Panic choked his throat and made his entire body tense. He was going to fall forever and nothing but evil would ever catch him.

He felt a hand on the back of his neck, fingers digging into his hair. The hand pulled him down until his nose was smushed lightly against Holly’s shoulder. Immediately all he could see was her hair. Gone were the frightening flashing lights and endless void. Just messy curly hair that Loki had made fun of far too many times. He could smell Holly’s cheap shampoo that she’d been putting potions into that gave her hair the overall smell of minty used socks.  

Not alone. Not alone. Not alone.

He took in a deep breath, trying to commit to memory that smell and then reached out with his magic. He couldn’t control where they’d land but he could cover them. He felt Holly adding her own magic to the shield, forming an invisible bubble around them.

A moment, or perhaps an eternity, later they popped out of the wormhole and started a true free fall. The icy air dug into Loki’s skin, going so far as to pierce through the leather of his armor. He felt Holly begin to immediately shiver in his arms. They were positioned with Holly beneath him, meaning she could not see the terrifying white expanse they were plummeting towards. He could see in the distance the corpse of the Frost Beast, bleeding blue all over the snow of the mountain below them.

Loki winced and then twisted. Right before they hit the ground Loki managed to switch positions with Holly. Their magic shield smashed into the stone and ice, forming a crater and sending clumps of debris high into the air. Then Loki’s back hit, at far less force then the shield, but enough that Loki saw stars from the impact. He kept his grip on Holly as debris rained down around them and into the crater they’d created.

“Loki?” Holly asked sending a plume of fog into the freezing air from her mouth.

“Present.” Holly laughed a little before a huge shiver wracked her body, forcing her to move as if she were suffering a violent seizure.

Loki, human bodies can’t stand this cold. You need to find shelter or she’ll die within minutes.

Oh now Ralston showed up with some advice? Loki forced himself to sit up, keeping Holly as far from the snow as he could. Her skin was already beginning to turn blue and dangerously pale. Loki looked around, they were on the side of a steep mountain, the tallest one in Jontunheim as Loki had promised. Loki studied the topography until he spotted something promising.

“Hold on to me.”

Holly nodded and Loki focused. He stood up awkwardly, ignoring the pain that was blooming along his back and spine. Holly clung as best she could to his neck, and Loki placed his hands on her thighs to keep her balanced in her position hanging off his chest. Even weak as he was he still managed to teleport forward, just a mile or two towards the entrance of a cave.

To call it a cave was perhaps being a bit too generous. It was a hole that was about five feet deep and four feet tall. The opening was small enough that Loki had to squat down in order to crawl in. The only good thing about this cave was that it was free of snow and gave them cover from the wind.

“I’m going to put you down and cover up the entrance.” Loki said. “Can you spell up some heat?”

She nodded, her teeth chattering too much to allow her to even talk. Loki placed her down on what he hoped was the most comfortable part of the rocky cave and then rushed back to the entrance. He cast a spell to block the wind from entering into the cave and to act as an insulating layer. He could feel a bloom of warmth at his back and turned to see that Holly had started a magical fire that was heating the small space rather quickly.

Holly didn’t look much better than she had moments before. She was shaking against the stone, she’d been covered in guts and dragon blood before they’d landed and it was now frozen to her skin. Her feet were mangled too, melted leather had stuck to her feet. What skin he could see was a terrible charred color.

“Take a picture.” She said. “It’d last longer.”

“Holly.” Her face looked drawn and dark. There was something swimming around behind her eyes that Loki didn’t recognize. She was looking around the cave, her eyes taking in the bare icy walls with something like disappointment.

“Don’t take that tone with me.”

“You’re hurt.”

“So are you. That landing had to have hurt.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“So’ve I.” She said. “Now come on, sit down, I’m cold.”

She didn’t point out why Loki wasn’t, for which he was extremely grateful. He hunkered down next to her, the stones felt pleasantly cool on the bruises that were no doubt forming along his back. He expected her to sit next to him but to his surprise she scooted over and hoisted herself onto his lap.

“The ground is giving me frostbite.” She defended, lifting up her hands to show that they were a dangerous dark blue color.

“So I’m supposed to act as your chair.”

“Yes. Good to know we’re on the same page.”

He rolled his eyes but didn’t argue, instead he helped her situate herself so that they were both relatively comfortable. It was good Holly was smaller than him or else this would have been much more awkward. Holly was stiff, likely from the pain and cold but at least the shivers were dying down.

“So. This is Jontunheim.” Holly wheezed.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine…the air’s just…thin.” She said leaning back a little. “Gimme a minute to adjust.”

“Adjust.” Loki snorted, he knew mortals could get silly in thinner air. Ralston had been very silly once when they’d gone hiking and climbed too far up. Perhaps Holly would be the same? That could be entertaining while they waited for their magic to replenish at least.

“Look I’m trying to make myself comfortable before I die the least you could do is not be rude about it.”

“Die?” Loki choked out. “You’re not dying!”

Holly turned her head and looked at him, lifting up one eyebrow to give him a look.

“Loki, I am magically exhausted which means I can’t apparate anywhere, my feet are burnt to crisps which means I can’t walk. The air is so thin that doing anything more than sitting here would probably make me faint. Neither of us have enough magic to keep this fire going for long or to leave here. Once this thing goes out, I’m going to die.”

“Shut up, you’re being stupid.”

“Where was I wrong?”

“I’m here.” Loki pointed out stubbornly, he threw his arms around Holly’s waist and brought her closer. “I’ll carry you somewhere.”

“Where? Down the mountain?” She asked. “It’s too cold for me out there.”

“Then I’ll keep you warm.”

“For a while yeah, but Loki, you’re much colder than a human, you know that right?” She pushed gently.

“Shut up.” Loki said again. “Just shut up.”

“It’s not that bad. I’ve got at least an hour I think.” She said. “Plenty of time for us to talk.”

“Talk?” Loki repeated. Was she daft?

“Sure. Anything you want to get off your chest? Anything you need to say. I can listen.”

“You’re not dying so there’s no need to talk, so just shut up and let me think of something!”

“If I’m not dying then there’s no need for you to be so testy.”

“How are you so calm?” Loki practically shouted, his voice echoing angrily in the enclosed space.

“It’s just death.” She said, her voice so calm it infuriated Loki.

“Yes death! Holly! It’s Death! The most terrifying, awful thing that haunts every living being!”

“It doesn’t haunt me.”

“You mean you…”

“I’m not suicidal.” She said giving his hand a quick squeeze. “I would very much like not to die here in this cave today but I am not afraid of Death. It’s not really something to be scared of Loki. It just is.”

“Aren’t mortals supposed to be terrified of death?”

Holly shrugged a little, her head was now completely laid on Loki’s chest. The fire burnt hot and bright, the cave felt almost stifling to him but he knew it was probably not warm enough for the mortal in his arms.

“You can’t die.” He said.

“I was always going to die Loki.” She said. “Mortal remember?”

“No. You were supposed to live to be at least 200 years old and…and I was going to trick you into eating a golden apple.”

“What?” Holly asked with a shocked laugh.

“I…before Ralston and I were separated I’d stolen two golden apples from Asgard. I’d planned on giving them to Ralston and his wife so that we could…we could be together.” Loki said. “I hid them in Ralston’s home before I left to seal the spells across the realms. They’re still there waiting…I was going to trick you into eating one.”

“Trick me? How?”

“Bake an apple pie?” Loki hazarded. “I don’t know I hadn’t worked out all the kinks yet.”

“If you put it into the pie wouldn’t I have had to eat the entire thing?” She asked incredulously. “Maybe you could have made like…an apple smoothie. Ugh, just saying that made me gag a little.”

“I could have juiced it.” Loki said. “Although I believe in order for the apple to be totally effective you have to eat the skin and the core.”

“How could you possibly convince anyone to eat the core of an apple?”

“I would have!” Loki said. “You would have eaten all of it and we would’ve…”

He trailed off, thinking of a future he’d only half imagined in his free time. A future where he and Holly lived in the Potter ancestral home. Perhaps he’d let Thor visit occasionally. They’d travel to Hogwarts and anywhere else they wanted in the universe, exploring it together. In the incredibly short amount of time Loki had known Holly she had become essential to him. Not just because she was Ralston’s descendent, but because she…she was Holly.

She was snarky and talented and so magically powerful. She listened to him and even agreed with him sometimes. She was kind but never weak. She was brave and she always seemed to do the right thing. She had wormed her way, literally, into his mind and helped heal him. With her careful hands he’d become something close to whole again and now she had the audacity to go and die on him.

“You can’t die.” He repeated. “You can’t.”

“Oh Loki.” She sighed. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

“Don’t comfort me.” He snapped. “You’re the one who’s…”

“You’re strong.” She told him. “And you’re not alone. You have Thor, and the other Avengers to help you get through this.”

“I don’t want them. I want you.” He hissed.

There was silence for a moment. The magical flame was just slightly smaller than it had been before. Loki watched it shrink in tiny increments, hating himself more and more for each one. It was true. He was weak. The spell he’d done on the entrance to keep them warm was about his limit. He’d just raised the incredibly powerful wards around Hogwarts and then transported a gigantic Frost Beast Corpse across the universe. He was just teetering on the edge of magical exhaustion where one spell more would likely push him into a coma. Holly wasn’t much better than him. She’d done the majority of the work raising Hogwart’s wards, with Loki and the others acting as aids while she directed the incredibly draining spell. Then she’d flown around like a bat out of hell and killed a gigantic flaming dragon.

“So.” She said. “This plan of yours. What was I supposed to do? Other than not die? Were you going to keep me locked up in a tower somewhere to entertain you?”

“What? Don’t be stupid.” He told her. “We were going to do whatever we wanted. I was going to teach you how to turn into any animal you wanted, and how to do my illusions. You were going to teach me how to cast a patronous. If you ever fell in love then I’d give that person the second apple so that you could be happy and have a family if you wanted. We could have even just been heroes for earth for the rest of eternity if you wanted us to.”

“That sounds nice.” She said. “Although I would have missed my friends. You’ve met Ron and Hermione now, do you think I’d be happy to outlive them?”

“So the plan wasn’t perfect.” Loki snapped. “I was going to fix all of that.”

“How considerate of you.”

“You’re being very rude you know.”

“You’re the one who just told me that you were going to trick me into immortality! I’m allowed to be a bit upset!”

“Shut up.”

“Oh joy. My last conversation in this mortal coil is so very witty.”

Loki rolled his eyes and shifted a little, trying to relieve pressure on his left side, where a majority of Holly’s weight was pressing on him. The bruise on his back was only getting worse and he was ignoring that through sheer will alone. At this point calling his injury a bruise was probably underselling it. He had to figure something out. Surely there was a way to get them someplace warm, truly warm, just long enough for him to recover his magic. He wracked his brain trying to remember every wormhole that led to Jontunheim. He cursed himself for not studying this realm more in his youth.

“What am I meant to do without you?” The words left his mouth without his consent. “Did you ever think about that? You saved me, healed my mind and made me a person again. I can’t do this without you.”

“Loki, you did this without me for 2000 years.” She pointed out. “Granted not well at times, but you’ve been alive for far longer than I can even imagine. You’ll be fine without me.”

“I won’t. I won’t. I’ll go mad again. I’ll kill Thor, probably all of the Avengers too. Maybe I’ll light New York on fire just because I can.”

“No, you won’t.” She said at the same time Ralston’s voice echoed in his mind repeating the same sentiment.

“Yes I will.” Loki snarled. “I’m a spiteful bastard Holly. If you die I’ll destroy your entire planet, I will don’t you test me.”

He could feel Holly roll her eyes, she did those sorts of movements with her entire body it seemed. Then Holly sighed, her body losing some of its strength, becoming something more akin to dead weight in his arms.

“Loki. The only way I’m going to live is if someone rescues us.” She said. “If you know anyone on this planet that we could send a message to then…”

“No.” Loki said. “I killed their king and tried to destroy their entire planet. They will not help me.”

Regret burned bitter in his gut and throat. Perhaps if he’d been kinder, less consumed by rage, then they wouldn’t be in this situation. He never, ever thought he’d be beholden to Jontuns for anything.

“Well then.” She said softly. “That’s that.”

“Stop giving up!” He ordered. “You’re Holly Fucking Potter! You’ve survived basilisks and nesting dragons and Voldemort! Some cold isn’t going to kill you! That’s stupid!”

“Hmm. You’re right.” She said sparking hope in Loki’s gut. “When you get back to earth tell them I died doing something very cool, would you?”

He made a choked, agonized noise and Holly immediately apologized. Rubbing her freezing fingers on his hand in an attempt to comfort.

“Don’t.” He said. “Don’t joke about that.”

“Loki.” She said. “We’ve only known each other for a few weeks. That’s barely a drop in the bucket for you. Surely it can’t be all that…”

“Holly. Please don’t insult yourself by denying your importance to the people around you.” Loki said, his voice almost deadly in its seriousness. “There is not a person on earth that hasn’t been touched by you, been bettered by you. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve known you, from that first moment I saw you, you changed me. An eternity wouldn’t have been long enough anyway.”

“Now you’re just talking nonsense.” She said. “And I don’t appreciate being lied to right now. I’m dying, show some respect.”

“I’m not lying!” Loki said, almost scandalized by the very idea. “Name one person who you’ve not helped!”

“Well I don’t suppose Voldemort considers what I did to him helping.”

“Now you’re just being facetious.”

“Fine. Here’s another one. Kari.”

“Who?” Loki asked.

“The day we met I was supposed to be on a date with Kari. She’s this beautiful, kind woman, who owns a craft store.” Holly said. “I stood her up in the middle of our date to go fight the Black Order and then I waited two weeks to apologize. Now she doesn’t want a thing to do with me. I did not help her.”

“Well that makes her stupid.” Loki said. “If this Kari was so foolish as to turn down your hand then she’s probably the stupidest mortal, past, present, or future.”

“It’s not like anyone else is lining up for my hand Loki.” She said. “I mean of course there are the creeps in the world but they don’t count.”

“Surely there must have been someone.”

“When? When would there have been someone?” Holly demanded. “When I was a half-starved child living in a cupboard? When I was teenager and people were trying to kill me every other day? When I was a young adult spending all of my waking hours fighting Death Eaters? Or just last year when I became a cleaning lady? There’s never been anyone and now there never will.”

Loki decided to not comment on the half-starved child thing. He had questions about it, questions involving the who and when and how many knives he’d need to get a proper amount of revenge. His heart ached a little though at Holly’s tone. When he’d wanted the woman to stop being so calm in the face of death, he didn’t mean this. A half-frozen woman, covered in dragon guts, and near tears.

“I just…I just started to try.” She said. “And I couldn’t manage it.”

“You would have.” Loki said. “I’m certain you already have. There are probably dozens of people who’ve fallen in love you with you who just never said it.”

“If they never said anything then what difference does that make to me?” She demanded. “I’ve still never been told.”

Well she had a point there that Loki could hardly argue with.  His mind was still racing, pulling up every fact he knew and trying to melt them together into a plan that would save her.

“I…”

“Did you love Ralston?” She asked, abruptly changing the subject.

“What?”

“Did you love love him?” She asked again. “You two were really close.”

Loki did not want to be having this conversation. He had no idea how he could possibly untangle the emotions he had about Ralston into something coherent. But Holly had asked and now that someone had asked him he found he didn’t have the strength to not answer.

“I met Ralston when I was…young.” Loki said. “I might have been about the equivalent to an 18 year old human, perhaps a bit less. He was much younger than I was, and then all of a sudden he wasn’t.”

How to explain this? Loki had not yet read a book that could describe who Ralston was to him. Who he still is to Loki in some ways.

“It wasn’t romantic.” Loki said firmly. “It could have been I think if we’d both met when we were a bit older, or perhaps if he’d never met Amaryllis. But I don’t know, I just never thought of him that way? He was my brother, he was my best friend. He was the compliment to my very soul I think. After he was gone there was just this…gaping chasm in my being that I thought only he could fill.”

“You thought?” Loki shrugged in response. “Loki.”

“I don’t know if I should say.”

“I’m dying, it’s not like I’ll be able to judge you for long.”

“You are not Ralston.” Loki told her. “I know I mixed the two of you up a lot in the beginning. A huge part of me hoped that if I kept pushing, you would just…become him. But you didn’t. You just, you were a cleaning lady who fought dragons on the weekends. You were absurd and unpredictable and so very different.”

“Absurd?” She said. “That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

“Of course, it is.” Loki insisted. “You do things that no mortal would ever think of doing. You are brave and brilliant and…you are not him. But even still you managed to put me back together. Please, tell me, is it the same for you? I never had the courage to ask Ralston that, I barely managed the courage to ask him to be my shield brother.”

He felt suddenly desperate, needy. He was holding the most important person in the nine realms in his lap and he needed to know if they cared about him, even just a little. Something ached in him at the very idea of Holly not loving him, not seeing him as integral in the way he saw her. A lack of reciprocity might actually kill him.

Holly replaced her hand over his and gave it a squeeze, immediately quieting his raging thoughts.

“I don’t know.” She said.

“What?”

“I just said, I don’t know.” She told him. “I…I’ve spent a lot of my life ignoring how I feel, it’s hard to just know what to feel now. Before you met me, I’d spent the last decade doing nothing but fight Death Eaters because I was secretly afraid of not being anything.”

“Well then what do you know?”

“I like you.” She said after a moment. “I like spending time with you. Once you stopped comparing me to Ralston all the time I found you to be…fun, enjoyable.”

That wasn’t awful was it? Loki turned his hand over and laced his fingers together with Holly’s, ignoring how frozen through they felt, even to his skin. The fire was smaller, flickering pitifully in front of them. The cave was still hot but he could feel the stones slowly sucking away each bit of heat they’d managed to accumulate. Outside their little cave the wind howled and raged against the mountain top.

“Anything else?” He found himself asking.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to do with you.” She said. “That stuff you talked about before? That would have been wonderful. I think…I think I’ve been sort of imagining that you’d stick around for the rest of my life. Even though you could go anywhere I just assumed you’d stay with me.”

“Funny. I assumed the same.”

Holly was starting to shiver again, Loki didn’t like it. They were supposed to have more time here. None of this was right.

“So we’re important to each other.” Holly finished. “And if I wasn’t going to die, we probably would have become really important to each other.”

Holly was already really important to him. How else could he express that? He gathered her up a bit closer, trying to give her whatever warmth he had available. Think, there must be something he could do! He’d do anything! Anything at all to save her.

“I am sorry Loki.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Still.” She said. “You’ll tell everyone that I love them right? And remind Tony and Steve that they need to put a chore chart together. They are not hiring another cleaning lady.”

“I’ll let them know.”

“And…And tell Ron and Hermione that they have to be the best parents. I’m not going to be there to make sure so…so they have to swear to take care of Rose with everything they have.”

“Holly I swear to you I’ll make sure Rose is well.” Loki promised.

“Okay. Good. Good.” She said another shiver running through her. Her breath was starting to fog the air again. “And Teddy! Please tell Teddy I love him, and that I’m so very proud of him.”

“Who is Teddy?”

“My godson.” She said. “His parents died in the final battle and I helped raise him with his grandmother, I’m…I’m as close to a mum he’s ever had and I…I don’t want him to think I forgot about him. I never have.”

“I’ll tell him.” Loki swore. “He’ll know you loved him.”

“And…and make sure Natasha goes to Russia. She just found out who her parents were and I think she’ll use me dying as an excuse not to see them. That’s just not on.” She continued her voice getting weaker. “And, Clint, make sure he replaces me with someone else to tutor his daughter. She’s got magic you know and…and she needs someone to help her control it.”

Loki blinked back tears and pulled Holly even closer still. The magical flame was sputtering, and Loki trickled a bit of his magic back into it to keep it going. Just a few minutes longer and surely, he’d think of something.

“I’ll do that too.” He said. “I’ll take her to Russia and make sure Clint’s spawn is the greatest magic user of her generation.”

“Can you make sure Thor finishes his knitting project? I’ve been helping him and…”

“He’ll be a master knitter by the time I’m done with him.”

“Good.” She swallowed a little. “Don’t let Steve stop painting either. He just started and it makes him so happy. And Tony, he’s doing great things with technomancy. You’ll give him advice when he asks for it right?”

“I will.”

“Oh. Bruce, you’ve got to help him too. He’s studying lycanthropy and he’s doing some amazing work with some of the healers. Make sure he keeps at it?”

“Holly if it would give you peace I would find a cure for lycanthropy myself.”

“Promises promises.” She snarked a little.

“What else do you want from me?” Loki demanded. “Anything? Ask anything of me and it will be given.”

Holly jerked a little and forced her head to turn again so that instead of facing the dying fire she was looking him in the eye. Her green eyes were so bright, so focused as she looked at him.

“Loki, just one more thing.” She said. “This is the most important one.”

“Anything.” He swore.

“Be happy.”

His face crumpled a little, and then it crumpled all the way. He tipped his forehead forward until it touched hers. How dare she demand this of him. He hated her for this. Despised her very existence.

“Oh Loki.” She said. “You’re crying.”

“I’m not. Shut up.”

“That’s not what I meant when I said be happy.”

“How dare you ask that of me?” He snarled. “You cruel, awful, terrible, wench.”

“Oh what sweet words to hear as my last.”

“I hate you.” Loki spat, his voice cracking in a terrible awful way. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

“Never.” She said, her shivering was getting terrible and the blue was returning to her skin. The flame in front of them was hardly producing any heat anymore. Holly’s eyes slipped shut and something in Loki shattered.

Loki. You need to call for help. She’ll die if you don’t.

But who? There was no one to ask for help! No one!

You know who. You know.

“Holly.” Loki’s voice cracked. “Stay awake. Just a bit longer, a few minutes more, please. For me.”

“Not…asleep.” Her voice was so weak that Loki almost wanted to call her a liar.

“Good.” Loki jumped up, holding Holly’s body to his chest. His entire back screamed in protest. But he ignored that. “We have to go outside, just for a moment. Don’t die.”

“You’re…so…bossy.”

Loki carried her to the entrance, gritting his teeth against the pain. The moment he stepped outside he immediately started to scream.

“HIEMDALL! I NEED YOUR HELP! PLEASE DON’T LET HER DIE! I’LL TURN MYSELF IN, PLEASE SEND THE BIFROST! I WON’T FIGHT IT IF YOU JUST DON’T LET HER DIE! PLEASE SHE HAS TO LIVE!”

For a moment all Loki could see was the majesty of Jontunhiem. The howling winds sweeping across the frozen peaks and plains. It was almost beautiful in its devastation. Tears continued to stream down his face as he held the shivering, dying woman in his arms.

“Please.”

Then, they were both engulfed. A pillar of rainbow light swept them up and away. Within moments Loki landed in the familiar golden room, before him stood Heimdall and two guards. Loki stumbled forward, careful to keep Holly from the ground.

“She needs the healers. Please let me take her.”

“You are going to the dungeons.” Heimdall said. “I will take her to the healers.”

“No. You can’t she’s…”

“If you don’t give her up, she will go to the dungeons with you.”

He looked down at his friend, who had lost consciousness at some point, and scowled. He held her out, like an offering, and Heimdall took her from him, not as gentle as he should have been. He stepped forward a bit, a snarl forming on his face. The two guards moved and forced him to his knees and he was too weak to stop them. The pain on his back screamed to life again as he was pushed forward roughly.

“Take the prisoner to the dungeons.” Heimdall ordered. “I will take the mortal to the healers and then alert the All-Father that the second prince has finally returned.”

Notes:

Sorry! sorry! I felt bad about even posting this because angst. I promise you i will update as close to my regular schedule as I can. If its not up Wednesday then it'll be up Thursday next week. My field trip might wipe me out a bit is all.

Chapter 28: The Trial of Loki

Summary:

Odin, at the request of his wife, holds a trial for the traitor Loki. He expected it to go smoothly, there was after all, no one in Asgard who would act as Loki's defense.

Notes:

Yooo! Once again terribly sorry about the angst last chapter!! I had to do it my man, but we all made it through and now we can see the light! Sorry about being late by a day, my field trip was amazing, but it did throw me off. Next week I should be right back on schedule though! Thanks for the great comments last week and I hope you like the chapter!<3

Odin was a king first, before anything else.

It was what he’d been born to be after all. His own father Bor, had raised him to be the god of gods, the god of war, the king of everything. And Odin had risen to his expectations. When Bor had ruled Asgard they had only claim over their one tiny realm. Then there had been the Asgard-Vanir war, where Odin under his father’s orders, had razed enough of the realm to ash to create a surrender. Odin, a young man not even yet 2 millennia old, had delighted in his blood lust.

From Vanaheim they went to Alfheim next. How simple it was to get the peace-loving elves to agree to a treaty that made them a vassal of Asgard. All they’d done is show up in an armada of their best ships, filled to the brim with warriors chomping at the bit to start trouble and the leaders had caved quite easily. The young man he’d been had mourned the lost chance at another war but he hadn’t been allowed to mourn long.

The Dark Elves refused to submit and so Bor and Odin destroyed them all, leaving the realm salted in their wake.

Bor had died in battle against the fire giants. A glorious fight against Sutur that ended with the king of the fire giants locked away and bound at the mercy of Asgard. Odin had watched as his father had given up his life, everything, in the name of making Asgard the greatest realm of the nine.

He would never admit it but that was the first time he began to wonder if war was worth all the effort.

After ascending the throne, Odin had married a princess of Vanaheim, a seer. It had been a political move, designed to smooth away the edges and hurt from the first war of many that Asgard had waged. Frigga had been beautiful when he’d seen her for the first time over the altar and he’d thought it good that he’d found himself a biddable wife. Better than his own mother he was sure.

Frigga was anything but biddable. She was cunning and kind all in one. She knew who he was, remembered the blood on his hands and had a way of ensuring he never forgot it either. Sometimes when he took her hand in those early days he would see spots of red on his own that wouldn’t go away no matter how much he cleaned them. Frigga took to her new place in Asgard with grace, she used her new power to create a better situation for her people. Vanaheim began to recover.

Odin was far too obsessed with war to bother with the aftermath of it. It was Frigga who oversaw the people, both their own and the ones he conquered. It made Odin appreciate her in a way he never thought he would. She was soft and kind in a way he never could be. That appreciation grew to something like love, a love that became a true reality when their first child was born.

Hela was everything Odin had expected in a child. Beautiful and powerful. He taught her everything he knew, and she absorbed it like a sponge. Once she was old enough, they began their wars again. Odin could feel Frigga’s hatred of his choice, but he explained himself. This was for them, for their child. What sort of king would he be if he didn’t ensure his heir never lacked in anyway?

Frigga had told him to stop being so blind, if he wasn’t careful eventually his pride would make that literal.

The dwarves had been next in line. A proud and industrious people they had no interest in dying or being slaves. They leveraged their ability to create the greatest weapons in the nine realms in exchange for protection and more freedom than any other realm would ever enjoy. Odin hadn’t been convinced. Not until he’d been handed Gungnir at least. The golden spear engraved with runes of power promised the ability to subjugate entire races.

When Odin slammed the butt of the spear down all those peoples under his rule were forced to bow. When he threw his spear it never missed. When he struck, he always overpowered those he struck against. It was the weapon to end all weapons, a weapon worthy of the god of war.

And so the dwarves had been spared.

The other realms had not been so lucky. With he and his daughter they had gone from realm to realm, planet to planet, taking what was rightfully theirs and leaving behind them a ruined people that were beholden to Asgard’s throne. It was perfect, everything that Bor had taught Odin to desire. They bathed in blood and gold. They listened to the symphonies of screams and shouts of war and they sang along with the clash of their swords. It was everything.

Why then had he felt so empty?

Thor was born near the end of it all. A tiny golden sun, looking far more like his Vanir mother than Odin himself. And yet when his storm blue eyes had looked upon Odin, Odin had been hooked. That tiny little thing had been able to fit so comfortably in his hands, Odin had cradled him at night whispering to him promises of greatness.

Hela had been less than impressed.

He’d taken his daughter, his heir, to the next realm. There were only two left for them to take now. Jontunheim and Midgard. Midgard was by far the largest realm, the entire place held clusters and galaxies of planets that Odin would enjoy going to one by one. Jontunheim on the other hand had far fewer planets to conquer, they more than made up for it with the strength of their people.

He had debated of course which realm to go to next when Laufey had made the choice for him. The king, the last true king of any realm that was left, was desperate for allies. He wished to stand up and stop Odin’s siege. He’d gone to Midgard, to a tiny mudball of a planet called earth. A planet rife with magic users and mortals, mortals who could do things that no other realm could claim too. The humans were filled with mutants and mages and all sorts. Odin had overlooked them for their short lifespans. Laufey had not.

Odin had sent his daughter ahead. Had told her to convince the humans that they were righteous, that Laufey had been trying to invade them, that Odin and her daughter would defend them. It had been easier than expected. Apparently, the humans found the blue skinned giants a tad unnerving. From there it had been far too easy. He’d driven Laufey off the planet and gained the humans under his rule in one fell swoop. The humans so grateful for his help had been practically salivating at the chance to join his empire.

Of course, that was when things had begun to fall apart. Odin had been ready to sign the treaty when his daughter had appeared. Declaring that they needed to kill the humans, destroy them, to ensure their loyalty.

And so War finally beget Death.

Odin had been forced to fight his own daughter, he’d wounded her grievously and banished to her Hel. An empty realm that hadn’t been such before Odin and his daughter had gotten to it. Odin hadn’t returned to Asgard, no matter how much part of him screamed to return to Frigga, to explain what had happened and beg. For what he didn’t know. Instead he followed Laufey back to Jontunheim and ravaged his realm with all the lack of mercy that the son of Bor should have.

He killed Laufey’s mate, destroyed their capital, and marched towards their sacred temple, knee deep in bright blue blood. He stepped inside, uncaring of the laws and traditions he was desecrating, leaving behind bloody footprints in the stone floor. Standing on a dais was the Heart of Jontunheim. An object of great power, and a weapon. Leaders of Jontunheim had used this as both a weapon and as a shield. Odin decided they would use it no longer.

He picked up the casket, ignoring the frost bite forming along his fingers. And that was when he saw it. A tiny little runt of a thing. Small enough to be crushed beneath his boot. The thing was wailing pitifully, screeching for a mother that would never come. Upon looking closer he could see Laufey’s lineage in the thing. So this is where the old fool had hidden his heir. Odin knelt down to touch, to end the little thing’s life. And then it changed.

Lying there was a baby boy, a near copy of Hela, right down to the night black hair and crystal eyes.

Oh.

Odin returned with the casket and a child to replace the one he had lost, destroyed. Frigga hadn’t seemed surprised by any of it. He could see the grief in her eyes. A grief that had appeared when Odin had told her of his plans to go to Midgard with Hela. She had told him not to go. He hadn’t listened and now he knew why. Frigga had taken the child from him, naming him Loki. She held the babe close to her chest and told him in no uncertain terms that Loki was to be her son. Not Odin’s. Odin had cast out their first daughter for being exactly what he’d wanted her to be. She knew he required an heir and Thor would have to fulfill that role. But Loki would not have any part of it.

Odin realized that she expected him to continue. That she expected him to wait long enough for Thor to be able to hold a weapon and go back out to the universe and look for new places to conquer. And suddenly Odin felt sick.

He had destroyed his daughter. Corrupted her beyond all reason. Created the Goddess of Death out of a woman who could have been the goddess of victory. And here his wife stood, a woman who had only married him for the sake of her people, willing to throw away her own blood son if it meant protecting one innocent life from Odin’s bloodied hands. He had seen the fire in her eyes, the promise that she would fight him, kill him, if necessary. She was done bowing to him, Gungnir or not.  

And so Odin had bowed his head and said he was quite finished with fighting. He had all nine of the realms now did he not? The humans had signed away the freedom of every planet in their realm in exchange for Odin’s protections after all and Jontunheim had fallen the moment Odin had taken the Casket. Odin declared to his wife that now that each realm was under Asgard, as was proper, there could be peace.

But what did the God of War know of peace?

He banished and removed all evidence of Hela’s existence from the realms and he declared there would be no more war, no more famine. Just prosperity. Pretty words that acted like gloves for his bloodied hands. Frigga had not believed him at first, but as their sons grew, it became clear that Odin had meant it. He was done with war. At least, he believed he could be done with it.

Looking down at the kneeling figure of Loki, his (not his) son, he wondered if he could ever actually create peace. Could anyone in Asgard live in peace? They did not have gods of peace, or goddesses of calm. What use would they have been in the last ten millennia? Odin couldn’t say. All he knew was what his father had taught him and what he had learnt on his own, and that had been anything but peaceful.

It had been only a day since Loki’s return to Asgard. The human woman had been taken to the healers by Heimdall. Odin had given his permission for her to be healed, it was after all part of Loki’s promise. He would give up, he would not fight his captivity, if the mortal survived. So the healers had healed her feet, had replenished her magic in the soul forge, and even gone so far as to regrow her slightly burnt hair.

They told him disturbing news.

“A magic user my king. She is likely untrained as there are no magical centers on earth. She also seemed unfamiliar with the soul forge and our healing stones.”

So that was why Loki had given up his freedom, and perhaps his life, for hers. Loki had mourned ceaselessly for those human magic users. Odin could still remember with painful clarity when the youngest prince had come to him and begged him to save the magic users, to use the forces of Asgard to stop this war. To fight. Odin didn’t care for the lives of those mortals, he never would.

It was on their planet, on their behalf, that he’d lost his firstborn. He would not lose anymore in the name of humans. They could solve their own problems. They were, after all, only mortal. This war of theirs would not last longer than a century, Odin had fought in singular battles that had lasted for longer he was sure. So Odin had denied Loki and the magic users had been destroyed.

This human must have been the remnants of those magic humans. Born with power she would never truly understand or weild. Loki must have found her and picked her up as a memento of his lost humans. Perhaps he’d hoped to use her as a bitch, breeding a whole new generation of magic users. It mattered little Odin. Humans were insignificant, ants. Thor might like playing hero on their realm, and Odin had allowed that as long as Loki was still free. Now that Loki was to be tried and executed for his crimes, he could recall his final child and leave all memories of Midgard far behind him.

To Odin’s left stood his wife. Frigga had begged, pleaded, and threatened him since the moment Loki had been placed in his cell for leniency. Her pleas, and his love for her, had meant that instead of just sentencing Loki to death, he held a trial. A trial that was about to begin. The throne room, which now acted as the royal court room, was filled to the brim. Gilded benches along the long walls of the room were filled with noblemen and women. Warriors of every class had come to watch and cast judgement.

Loki knelt on the floor, his mouth covered in a metal gag, and his eyes downcast. Two guards stood behind the prince, ready to act if Loki tried to escape or attack. The only thing missing from the scene was Thor, but Odin decided to be merciful to his child. He would not make Thor watch the death of his brother a second time. So Thor was still with his humans, Odin would send him a message calling him home after it was done.

Frigga gave him one last look, begging him to stop this. But no. He couldn’t. He had declared peace between the realms and Loki had broken that. There would be no forgiveness, not any longer. Odin gripped Gungnir, the golden spear’s magic rippled through his hand, and he slammed the butt down on the stone floor. The boom thundered through the room sending those who were still standing halfway to their knees, and forcing the heads down of those who were sitting.

“Silence. So that we may begin the trial.”

And there was silence. All of Odin’s orders were followed, he was the king after all. Sometimes a voice whispered in the back of his mind that a king was all he was. Not a father, not a husband. Just a king.

“Loki Laufeyson.” Odin said. “You stand accused of crimes against the throne of Asgard and against the nine realms.”

Loki finally looked up at him. His eyes were pained and mostly resigned. The boy wasn’t a fool it seemed. He knew what was coming. He knew he would die today, trial or not.

“First you orchestrated a plan to usurp your brother’s coronation by allowing Frost Giants into the most protected part of our city. Then you participated in a raid against Jontunheim that resulted in yet more Jontun deaths and the banishment of the crown prince.” Odin continued, his voice solemn and unforgiving. “Then you turned the Bifrost onto Jontunheim nearly destroying the realm and resulting in the destruction of Asgard’s most precious resource, The Bifrost. You fled from your crimes into the Yggdrasil and then reappeared on Midgard to wage yet another destructive war with an army.”

With each sentence Loki’s frame became tenser and Odin read that as rage. Anger at finally being taken to task.

“You have attempted to ravage two separate realms.” Odin said. “A crime that is unacceptable and unforgivable.”

Loki’s jaw looked tense enough that Odin suspected he was grinding his teeth to dust, the gag around his mouth was digging painfully into his skin, leaving behind deep red marks as he worked his jaw against it.

“As is tradition for our people I have called for an open trial that anyone, anyone at all, may speak in your defense.” Odin said, motioning out to the crowds with Gungnir. “Will anyone speak for Loki? Will anyone step forward to defend his crimes?”

He placed the spear down again, even the light tap sent most people looking to floor for a moment. There was silence still in the room. Frigga, as queen, could not intercede in court. Loki had no friends in Asgard, this Odin knew. There would be no one who would be willing to speak for him. No one who would stand up against their king and his spear and argue for Loki’s life. No Asgardian would dare.

“No one?” Odin asked again. “The punishment for his crimes is death. Is there no one in this realm who believes Loki to be innocent?”

The door to the throne room creaked. All eyes turned to see a mortal woman, still in a white healing gown, pushing on the door. She was digging her feet into the white marble and pushing on the heavy door with all her might.

“Would anyone mind…helping me…out?” She grunted out. To Odin’s left he saw Frigga wave her hand, causing the door to swing open fully. The mortal, the human, almost fell to the floor but caught herself in time. She readjusted the gown around her body, the loose silky material fell around her in folds. She started walking forward towards Odin, her head held high.

“Mortal. What are you doing here?”

“I am here to speak on Loki’s behalf.” She said, the two guards that were standing guard stepped to the side to allow Holly to stop next to Loki. Loki was staring up at the mortal woman, relief forming stars in his eyes. Holly placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder and squeezed it lightly. The entire room burst into furious whispers at the sight of her.

“SILENCE!” Odin boomed instantly causing a hush over the crowd. He looked back at the green eyed mortal, the woman who had been near death only the day before. She looked right back at him. “You would speak on behalf of the monster who invaded your realm?”

“Gladly.” She said, her voice carrying over the crowds like a note from a flute.

Why? Why would anyone defend Loki, let alone a mortal? Granted he had risked his own life and freedom for hers. Perhaps she wished to repay him?

“You need not stand for him as a way to repay his saving your life. His crimes mean he owes you and your people far more than you could ever owe him.”

“That is not why I am doing it.” She said. “I am doing it because it is right.”

Something about the mortal unnerved him, Odin decided to ignore that. It was likely just because of her mild resemblance to Hela. Next to him his wife shifted, something like a smile, passing through her visage for half a second.

“Very well.” Odin said. “Then speak.”

“Loki should not be tried for any crime.” She said simply. “Because, according to the laws of this land, he has committed none.”

The Asgardians burst into noise once again, shouts of denial and outrage passing through the crowd. Odin slammed his spear again forcing them into silence. So busy was he ensuring everyone in the crowd was cowed that he missed seeing that the mortal woman did not even flinch at his spear’s power. When he turned back to the mortal woman, she was in the same position she had been before. A hand still resting on Loki’s shoulder.

“You said that Loki should be executed for attempting to destroy two planets, right?” She asked. “But what then should we do about you?”

“What are you implying, mortal?”

“I’m not implying anything. No one in the realms has destroyed more planets than you.” She said. “You are known in every realm as a conqueror. Each realm in the Yggdrasil has been bled and gutted by you. Why should Loki be punished for something that you are praised for?”

Silence. The aesir said nothing at her words, struck stupid by them in fact.

“I declared peace in the nine realms.”

“Only after you left everyone defeated enough that they could not start a war against you even if they wanted to.” She said. “That is not peace. That is enslavement.”

The utter gall of this nameless, pointless mortal to look at him as if she held the moral high ground. Odin barely held back a growl but his grip on Gungnir increased so that his knuckles were white.

“The realms needed a ruler, someone to bring prosperity and peace to them. It was my duty to do so.”

“Prove it.” She said, like a child.

“Prove what?”

“That the realms needed you. That any of them are better off compared to before you.” She said. “Jontunheim has languished for over 2000 years after your war with them. They do not experience peace or prosperity. Helheim is empty and destroyed, none of those planets have any life to them at all after your war. Svartalfheim is much the same. Name one realm that truly benefited from your actions Odin, one other than Asgard and prove it to all those here today that that benefit came from you and not from the mercy of others.”

It seemed that no one dared to breathe. All of those in the court were torn between staring at the mortal woman and staring at him. Odin wanted to claim that Vanaheim and the Dwarves were well but could he prove that that was down to him? Frigga had pulled Vanaheim out of poverty. The dwarves had bought their way out of destruction. The mortal continued to stare at him and when he said nothing she continued.

“And Loki’s other crimes? An invasion against Jontunheim right? Was it not Thor who lead that invasion? Were there not four other Asgardians who were a part of that force? Why are the Warrior’s Three and Sif not in chains for this crime against peace?”

“Thor was banished, that was the punishment for their involvement.”

“So they get away with no punishment at all but for the same crime, Loki is going to be beheaded? That is not justice, that is not right.”

And at that Odin could see the mutterings and doubt filling the eyes of his people.

“You speak pretty silver words, mortal.” Odin said. “But that does not change that Loki’s actions resulted in the deaths of thousands.”

“You cannot convict him of those crimes without also convicting yourself.” She shot right back. “Or are you punishing him for failing where you would have succeeded?”

“That is ENOUGH!” Odin shouted. “Your insolence and lies will not be tolerated in this court! If you believe so much that Loki should be freed then perhaps you should fight for it.”

It was an old tradition, an old law. That the interceder for an accused could physically fight for their freedom. Normally it was used in disputes between families, but here and now? Odin would kill that mortal for her words and sentence Loki to the same fate in a single blow.

“Fight?” She asked, her eyebrows lifting up. “As in…like fighting fighting? If I fight you and win then Loki gets to be free?”

“And if you lose then he dies.” Odin finished. “Such is the way of Asgard.”

“And what sort of fight would it be?” She asked. “Because I can fight-”

“You are a magic user.” Odin said dismissively. “And human. It would be unfair of me to expect you to fight with a physical weapon. I will allow you to fight using your magic and I will fight using my own weapon.”

Odin knew the woman had no magical training. Where would she have gotten it? It didn’t matter anyway, one hit from his spear is all it would take to kill her. Odin glanced at Loki to see that the god looked desperate, good, he should be.

“Are you sure?” She asked. “Because I am willing to fight using any means you think is best. I don’t want anyone to accuse me of cheating.”

“Your magic against my spear.” Odin confirmed. “The fight ends when one of us dies, is rendered unconscious, or yields.”

Odin would not allow her to yield, not after her disrespect. Anger and rage and something like guilt roiled around in his stomach. Her words had stung like acid, dripping in harsh truths like they were. And he had not been the only one struck. He could see doubt and questions forming in the eyes of his people. That would not be allowed to continue. He would kill this mortal, remove Loki’s head from his body, and the doubts would vanish like ash on a windy day.

“Okay.” She said. “Where are we having this fight then? Outside would probably be best.”

Her blasé attitude would have been Odin’s first real warning. He ignored it. It was obviously a front, she was trying to hide her fear. Perhaps she thought because he appeared old that he would be easy to defeat. More fool her. Odin stood and ordered everyone to the arena, he ordered the guards to prepare the fight. It had been a long time since this tradition had been invoked, and Odin wanted all of Asgard to see this mortal’s gruesome end.

Loki was torn away from the mortal by the two guards, taken to be tied up in the arena to watch the fight that would decide his fate. He seemed to fight them a little, at least until the mortal said something Odin could not hear over the ruckus of the crowds.

His second warning came from Frigga. She told him to be careful as she helped him into his armor. No cryptic warnings or hints from his lovely seer. Just a request to be careful. It made something sink in him, although he didn’t know what. Frigga’s eyes could see far into the future, she could read things in other people. More than once in their marriage she had warned him of danger, saving him and Asgard much heartache. But now she was vague, something knowing in her eye, even as she told him to watch his steps.

He left his private rooms, armor glinting and sharp, and went to the arena. He had not provided or offered the mortal anything. And to his lack of surprise she was still standing there in the white gown. The almost full length gown given to women who required healing was not in anyway protective, although given it’s length it likely wouldn’t be a tripping hazard to the woman either.

The crowds sitting in the stands were immense. In the short time it had taken for Odin to declare the fight it seemed that the entirety of Asgard had converged to the royal arena. Each and every seat in the circular stadium was filled, children and their parents alike all gathered to see their king fight, truly fight, for the first time in millennia.

The mortal woman stood in the center of the arena, she wasn’t wearing shoes. Her hair was long and wild around her. It was clear she hadn’t brushed it before leaving the healing halls. She was a child, a barefoot ignorant child. Odin didn’t feel one ounce of pity for her either. She had walked into his throne room and spit accusations at him without a hint of fear or respect. This mortal would pay for it.

The crowds quieted when Odin stepped into the light, walking into the center so that he was about ten feet from the mortal.

“So.” She said. “Your spear and my magic right? Are you sure that’s a fair fight?”

“I am not afraid.” Odin said simply.

“Well then, that’s good enough for me.” She said with a wicked smirk. “How about we start this then?”

“Very well.” Odin spoke as he lifted up his spear. “When the gong strikes three times we will begin.”

“Gotcha.” She said.

“WITNESS ASGARD! WITNESS AS YOUR KING FIGHTS TO PUNISH A TRAITOR AND CRIMINAL! WITNESS AS A MORTAL STANDS AGAINST JUSTICE!”

“Now that just seems a bit biased to me.”

 The gong struck once and the crowds began to cheer and shout. A swell of warriors begging for a show.

“You know I think this is going to be interesting since you’re the god of war and all.” The mortal said.

“What?”

GONG!

“Well.” She said flicking her wrist to produce a stick that she had hidden beneath her sleeve. “It’s just, you were born to wage wars.”

“So?”

“I was born to end them.”

GONG!

And that was the third warning, and in fact the one that finally entered his thick skull. It wasn’t her words, no, it was the gleam in her eyes. A gleam that Odin hadn’t seen since he’d looked in his daughter’s eyes that final time. Odin panicked and slammed his spear down, expecting to send the human to her knees. The magic passed harmlessly through her, as if a weak breeze had passed by and fluttered her gown.

“Was that supposed to intimidate me? Come on. I’m sure you can do better than that.”

“Impossible.” He spat. “All my subjects bow to me, to Gungnir.”

“You’re not my king.” She said, her voice magically enhanced so that the entire crowd could hear her. “But you are about to be my bitch.”

Odin hefted his spear and threw it at her, moments before it hit she teleported out of the way with nothing but a crack. Gungnir swerved away from the earth, magically moving unerringly towards its target. The woman noticed, teleporting away a second time. This time she appeared right behind Odin who had to catch his own spear before it skewered him. He was hit with a huge blast of magic that sent him flying forward. He kept his balance and flipped around mid-air, landing on his feet.

She gave him no time to recover and began to fire a barrage of spells at him. At least ten powerful blasts for every step she took in his direction. Odin responded in kind, calling upon his own magic and firing back. When their spells hit one another it formed explosions and shock waves that rattled the very foundations of the arena. Odin used his most lethal spells, the spells sizzling and burning skin as they flew past the mortal.

Despite this, he was losing ground, being forced back, foot by foot.

He was hit by a hex in the chest painfully denting his chest plate.

A spell on his knee made him stumble every step he took.

He could feel the broken bones in his left hand ache with each swing of his spear.

He managed to hit her with a blast of pure magic that sent her flying back, ending her onslaught. She landed awkwardly on the ground, a snarl on her face. Odin threw his spear again before she could move or teleport away. The spear, enchanted to never miss, flew true right towards her unprotected heart.

Then she lifted up her hand and caught it.

The sharp tip stopped millimeters before her chest, her hand on the shaft was sure, even as her arm shook with the effort of stopping the magic in the dwarven made weapon.

“No.” Odin said under his breath.

“You know.” She told him, her voice still magically enhanced so that he could hear her on the other side of the arena. “I’ve heard a lot of things about dwarven weaponry.”

She began to glow a golden white, her entire body going off like a divine supernova. Her hair flipped around in a frenzy as her magic spread down from her and into the spear she held.

“And I’m not impressed.”

Gungnir exploded.

His beloved weapon, the thing that marked him as ruler of the nine realms, became nothing but molten blobs of gold. The blebs flew through the air, hissing and splattering around the entire arena like splotches of golden paint instead of the most powerful weapon in the nine realms. Odin swayed on his feet as the mortal woman got to hers and rubbed her dirty hands on her white gown, leaving behind two twin trails of dirt and liquid gold on the fabric.

She walked towards him slowly, still glowing slightly. Odin fired a bolt of pure magic, not even bothering to turn it into a spell. She lifted a hand and slapped the magic away. It slammed into the walls of the arena causing the Aesir sitting below it to scream. She continued her slow walk towards him.

“What are you?” Odin demanded as he fired another blast at her that was similarly blocked.

“Would you believe me if I told you that I was a cleaning lady?” She asked, tilting her head a little. “No? Well your son didn’t believe it either. Still true.”

She was only a few feet from him now, having destroyed his most powerful weapon as if it were taffy. Behind her she left burnt foot prints in the stone. The entirety of Asgard was silent. He could see Frigga in the royal box and below her, tied to a post in the only undamaged portion of the arena, Loki. Neither magic user looked surprised. In fact Loki looked…besotted. The mortal lifted up her hand, a ball of boiling magic began to form in her hand, threatening to explode like a nuclear bomb mere inches from his face.

“Let’s see.” She said. “It was my magic against your spear right? Do you have any other weapons you’d like to try? I’m more than willing to give you a second shot, on account of your severe lack of skill and all.”

“I am the god of war! I have killed millions, billions of creatures.”

“And I’ve saved billions.” She shot right back. “You’re not going to win today Odin. Surrender and let me leave with my friend.”

“Kings do not surrender.” She gave him a look before seeming to shrug.

“Your choice. Also, anyone in the stands who’s sitting in the front three rows might want to watch out. That’s the splash zone.”

And with that she let the magic go, it exploded away from her striking Odin in five different places sending him to the ground and pinning him there like a star fish. The magic spread out further, going into the stone floor itself, forming hexagonal cracks of blinding light. It went further, digging into the arena itself, and then even further into Asgard. The earth began to tremble beneath them, low roars as the human’s power shook what should have been unshakable. The circle of stone Odin was pinned to, began to rise up, carrying him with it.

Odin tried to pull himself free of the magical restraints. But the magic burnt through his gauntlets and dug into his skin, leaving painful injuries in their wake that Odin thought might never fade. The mortal’s magic continued to move through the arena cracking walls and breaking seats. Aesir screamed and jumped and moved out of the way. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a sphere of safety around Loki.

The mortal arrived right in front of him.

“You know.” She said. “I am Thor’s friend.”

“What?”

“That means I’m not going to kill you.” She said. “You looked like you thought I was going to kill you. I’m not. Thor would be upset if I killed his dad, no matter how much of an asshole he is. I just want you to know that Thor’s the reason you’re going to live. He’s such a kind soul you know, far too good to be your son.”

Asgard itself was beginning to crumble. The walls of the arena were falling down, more screams filled his ears as the Asgardians escaped from the ruins. Odin continued to struggle but he couldn’t move more than half an inch in any direction.

“I’m also Loki’s friend.” She continued. “Which means I am going to embarrass the hell out of you.”

She snapped her fingers, conjuring up what looked to be a quill. She grabbed it from the air and then stepped forward. She looked him dead in the eye, smirked, and began to draw on his face.

“Wha-”

“Don’t talk you’ll make the mustache crooked.” She said. “You know, I’d hoped you’d be reasonable about this. You are not the first overpowered asshole I’ve ever fought. All you corrupt leaders are the same. You assume that just because you’ve never lost that means you never will. It makes you slow, it makes you stupid. You should have made me fight with a sword, you probably would have had a shot then. But you assumed, stupidly, that because I’m human I’m not ever going to be more powerful magically than a god.”

The quill continued to another spot on his face, she was drawing something on his eye patch.

“You can’t be human.” He said, ignoring the wetness drying on his upper lip.

“I could be nothing but.” She said. “A god would never draw a dick on your eye patch, they’re far too frightened of you. Humans on the other hand? We don’t really do fear, at least not like that.”

She continued to draw on his face, drawing things that were no doubt vulgar with her sharp quill.

“Now listen to me closely.” She said. “Loki was placed under mind control when he invaded my planet. He’s spent the last year on earth trying to free himself and he only managed it with my help. He does not need you sticking your hypocritical nose in his life, not when he was finally recovering from all the shit you put him through.”

The arena crashed to the ground in a huge explosion, a magical shield rose up to cover them from falling debris. When the dust cleared enough to see, the woman continued again.

“I’m going to go back to earth with Loki, he’s going to be free to travel anywhere in the realms he wants to go because according to your laws, I just won his freedom.” She said. “You’re not going to bother him. You are also not going to punish Thor for this either. In fact, if you want to make sure you don’t get your ass handed to you a second time, I suggest pretending that this never happened at all. A grudge would just make you look uglier than you already are after all.”

“And if I don’t?” Odin growled.

“If you make a move against me, or anyone I love, then I will bring Asgard to its knees. I will take your throne from you, melt it down and leave you with nothing but the reminders of your crimes. I will take the thing that makes you who you are and make you watch as I destroy it. I will free each and every realm from your control and then I will rework the entirety of your realm so that Asgard doesn’t even have a royal family anymore. All to spite you. You will be remembered as a tyrannical villain with a bloodied iron fist and I will die, old and satisfied, a hero to the universe. It took you your entire immortal life to create this empire and I will tear it down with half my mortal one.”

Something in Odin quaked. She smirked at him and banished the quill.

“There. I think we understand each other now.” She said. “I hope you have a good rest. Loki and I will be long gone by the time someone finds your unconscious body in the rubble.”

And then Odin knew no more.

Notes:

As you can see, I really enjoyed playing around with Norse Mythology and the MCU. I understand that my retelling is not completely true to either source material, but I like to 'Marie Kondo' my canon. I keep only the things that spark joy.

Chapter 29: Frigga's Feast

Summary:

Loki watches as Frigga takes control of the chaos following Holly's explosive fight with Odin.

Notes:

Ya'll. The response for last week's chapter was amazing! I've never had so many comments on one chapter before!! Thank you I am blow away by how much you liked it!! To think I almost didn't add in the Asgard sub-plot! Thank you so much!!!! <3 <3 <3.
Please enjoy this 7k word update as my thanks!

Loki couldn’t breathe.

Well physically yes he could.

But in every other way?

He was breathless.

Around him the entire ancient royal arena was in shambles. A building as old as Asgard itself was no more, nothing but rubble and dust. Loki could remember the centuries of fights held in this place, the history that had been painted with the blood of competitors. Loki himself had even fought in the arena, dozens of times over his long life. And now it was gone, destroyed by a human woman who shouldn’t have been capable of it.

A majority of Asgard was standing on the outside of the rubble, waiting for someone to emerge from the destruction triumphant. Loki was still kneeling in the only intact portion of the arena, the stones he’d been tied too weren’t even cracked. A shiver ran down his spine as he remembered the power that had washed over him, her power. It had felt like a caress, a feather light touch leaving a benediction over him, while to the left and to the right of him things were being fractured and decimated into nothingness.

In truth Loki had nothing to compare Holly’s magic to, now that he had truly seen it. Her fight with Odin hadn’t been like the fight with the Black Order. There had been no fancy spells, no hair tricks five years in the making. No, this fight had been a blood bath. Magic against magic without any spells to dull the sting of pure energy. Holly had literally glowed with power.

Loki had thought only the gods could glow.

And yet Holly had. She had shone like the sun and destroyed Odin’s spear, reducing it to nothing but melt. Loki had had a particular hatred of that spear for centuries. The powerful magics in it had bound everyone in Asgard to the All-Father. Loki had resented it. He remembered complaining to Holly about it, how he despised being forced to bend the knee whenever his father was angered enough to pick up his weapon.

She’d asked if Odin had that spear to over-compensate for something.

Loki heard something fall in the distance and strained his eyes. To his relief it was his friend, his beloved Holly, looking far more human and mortal than she had in the heat of battle. Part of Loki still wasn’t sure if she was okay. He’d nearly collapsed with relief when she’d barged into the throne room, tears had stung the corner of his eyes when she’d placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

But the final destruction of the arena had removed Holly from his line of sight and fear had struck him deep in the gut. Seeing her now, walking towards him and the rest of Asgard, made him want to weep. She was still wearing that healing gown, looking far too delicate for his liking. Loki hadn’t known he liked Holly in her thick, ugly sweaters until he saw her wearing something meant for an invalid. Holly should never look so weak.

He forced himself to stop thinking about how weak she’d been a mere day ago. No. There wasn’t time for that. There would never be time for that. He should forget it, banish it from his mind for eternity. Loki’s hands twitched with the desire to cast a warming charm. Behind him the crowds began to murmur, Loki could feel the fear and confusion coming from the Aesir. Had Holly killed their king? Was she here to attempt to take the throne for herself? She was clearly not human the gods argued, she must be some personification, some representation of Justice. Was this being of unimaginable power here to mete out a punishment on all of Asgard?

Holly stumbled a little as she neared them, coughing at the dust that was kicked up by a passing breeze.

“Holy shit, Loki.” She said. “I think that’s a new record for me.”

Loki lifted up an eyebrow in question as she knelt down next to him. Holly seemed entirely unaware of what her presence was doing to the Aesir. She had eyes for Loki only. Her hands reached up and started feeling along the metal contraption keeping his jaw shut, searching for the latching mechanism.

“Well I’ve been in four death-defying situations in the last 48 hours. That’s got to be a new record.” She said, before sighing. “Ron and Hermione are going to be so upset with me. I promised I’d limit those to once a week.”

She found the mechanism and pressed the button that finally released Loki’s jaw from its confinement. He immediately stretched out his face in an approximation of a yawn to get rid of the lingering tension.

“You can make it up to them by avoiding anything as dangerous as a papercut for the next month.”

What I mean to say Holly is that you are going to wake up tomorrow morning covered in bubble wrap and an electric blanket and I intend to trap you in that safety and warmth for the foreseeable future.

“Yeah like that’ll happen.” She snorted. “The Avengers get into fights about once every two weeks. Although now that you’re not causing trouble it might decrease the frequency. Still. Danger’s my middle name.”

“Gemma is your middle name.”

“I can have more than one. Now let’s see, you got any knives on you? Those knots look way too complicated for me to undo, I’ll just cut you free.”

“Everything was confiscated when I was locked up.”

“Damn. I don’t have enough juice to summon my sword. Besides, probably don’t want to risk nicking you with that thing.” She said before looking up. “Oi! You with the sword! Yes you! Don’t be shy! Get over here!”

Loki turned to see Fandral of all people, stumbling forward, looking like he was about to piss himself. He smirked only a little as he tripped over nothing about three feet from them.

“Give me your sword.” She ordered.

“I…I…”

“I’ll give it back.” She said as if Fandral’s problem was a potential theft and not a potential stabbing. “Come on. Please.”

Fandral dropped the sword, his hand was shaking too much. Holly didn’t see his flinch of fear as she snatched up the weapon.

“Holly.” Loki said. “Might I introduce you to Fandral the Dashing, one of the Warrior Three.”

“Oh?” She asked. “One of Thor’s idiot friends then?”

Fandral literally whimpered, unable to hear the warmth in Holly’s tone. She carefully used Fandral’s sword to cut Loki free from the rope that had tied him to the stone. The rope had been enchanted to weaken his limbs and keep his magic locked away. Once it was cut, he felt his power immediately return to him. He fell forward a little dizzy, but Holly was there to catch him.

“Woah there.” She said. “Thanks for the sword, I wanted to get Loki out of that as soon as possible.”

Isn’t she just great Loki? Probably my favorite descendant of all time. Ralston’s voice whispered in his mind, Loki couldn’t help but agree.

She held out the sword for Fandral to take back, and the man did. Snatching his weapon away as quickly as he could, ensuring no part of his skin touched Holly’s. Holly looked a bit confused by that, but he saw a spark of mischief in her eye.

“What is left of Odin?” He asked, craning his neck to look behind her.

“Oh he’s still alive.” She said. “I knocked him unconscious with a spell that’ll keep him out until I leave Asgard. I didn’t want to deal with him anymore.”

“Our king still lives?” Fandral demanded his voice loud enough to be heard through the crowds. The people began to murmur amongst themselves; disbelief, fear, and hope in their tone.

“He sure does.” She said. “The deal was that I just had to make him yield or knock him out right? I gave him the option to surrender but he didn’t so I put a sleeping spell on him.”

“You showed him mercy?” Another voice from the crowd asked. “But he displeased you!”

“Doesn’t mean I have to kill him.” She said, almost bewildered with the idea. “Look if any of you want to go fish him out of the rubble, you probably should go…”

“She is right.” Frigga said, her voice carrying over the crowds and silencing them. “Guards, go retrieve the All-Father and take him to our chambers. Healers will be sent to see to his injuries.”

A group of ten guards nodded and took the long way around Holly and Loki and into the destroyed remains of the arena. Loki moved around so that he was partially guarding Holly from the nearing queen of Asgard. He knew Holly was clinging to consciousness by her fingertips. Any magic user would be able to tell that Holly had spent herself in that fight. No matter how impressive Holly had been, it did not change the fact that a body could only hold so much magic at a time.

Frigga stopped a respectful distance away from them. Loki refused to look his so-called mother in the eye, he also refused to relax his protective stance.

“She won. I am free.” Loki snarled. “There is no punishment you can mete out that would be legal now.”

“I have no intention of punishing you. Your freedom was won fairly.” She said, her voice soft and motherly in the way Loki used to crave but now wished to rebel violently against. “But I do wish to know the identity of your…”

“We’re not really here for pleasantries.” Holly said, while using her hand to push Loki’s arm down so that he was now longer guarding her as effectively. “Loki, is there anything you want to get before we go back to earth?”

“What?”

“I assume you have things.” She said. “Clothing, trinkets, books. I don’t know. We could rob the vaults if you wanted.”

Frigga looked only slightly disturbed by Holly’s remarks which was nothing compared to the aesir who were listening. Loki saw the fear, the whispers. Was she hear to take back the riches that Odin and their armies had stolen from the other realms? Is that how justice would be served? How many would she kill? How many would she leave impoverished in her bid for reparations?

“I have waited many many centuries to meet you.” Frigga said. “And while you may judge me for my choices, and rightly so. I still cannot help but wish to know the name of the woman who freed Asgard.”

“Freed Asgard?” She asked. “I just beat up your king.”

“You destroyed Gungnir.” She said. “My husband’s spear has kept most of Asgard in check for millennia. Without it the noblemen and women are going to be able to actually stand up for their people, make true changes. No longer will I be forced to bow.”

The crowds were silent. The ones who were old enough to remember a time before Gungnir, much older than Loki certainly, looked almost hopeful at the Queen’s words. Those who were younger were far more confused. How did one stand up against a king that had the power to make you fall to your knees? Well he no longer had that power. Holly blinked a little, readjusting her view of Frigga and then slowly got to her feet.

Loki noted the spasm of pain in her eyes that was quickly hidden away.

“I’m Holly Potter of Earth.” She said.

“I am Frigga of Vanaheim. I welcome you to Asgard, while my husband sleeps I will lead in his place.”

“Huh.” Holly said while Frigga sent a mischievous smile to them that would have better fit on Loki’s face than her own. The woman turned to the crowds and spoke, her voice booming out over them.

“My people! My beloved subjects. I speak with you now, not to trick or mislead. Open your hearts that you might believe me and your minds that you might understand! Do not fear me for I have spent my time in this realm working for your betterment. I have overseen our people through famine and pestilence. I have served you as your queen to the best of my ability to ensure that none would go hungry, none would be left cold or destitute.”

All of Asgard was focused on Frigga, on their well-loved queen. When Odin had declared peace across the nine realms during Loki’s infancy he had not given Asgard the tools to live in peace. He’d disbanded the weaker parts of the military, leaving many men and women unemployed and without any skills that could be used during peace time. Loki could still remember as a young child sitting at his mother’s knee as she helped those who had nothing build themselves into something more.

And the people of Asgard could remember that too.

They knew who had helped them. And while they were loyal to Odin, he was the greatest warrior they had and that gave him a certain level of adoration. The love the people held for Frigga was far more devout. Frigga continued to speak, painting a picture of Asgard under Odin’s iron thumb. She didn’t directly place the blame on Odin though, she blamed it on his spear. She claimed that Odin had been ensnared by the power of Gungnir and now that it was gone, everyone, including their king, was free of it.

Their council of noblemen could finally stand and speak for those they represented. Their allies could come and speak about their needs and be given the help they needed. Frigga could act openly, finally a queen that was equal to her king. It was genius of Frigga. She was revolutionizing the government without destabilizing her authority, or to an extent Odin’s. Odin could never call it treachery, nor could he fight against the changes Frigga was pushing for. He didn’t have Gungnir anymore after all.

As Frigga talked, Holly helped Loki stand up. Together they dusted themselves off so that they didn’t look so bowled over. The guards also returned, carrying Odin’s body between them. The aesir were staring at Frigga in awe, moments from cheering.

“And none of this would have been possible if not for the heroic Holly of Earth.” Frigga said turning and motioning for Holly to step forward. Holly did so, but she also pulled Loki with her. “Lady Holly, we owe you more than we can ever express. You have freed us and for that I declare you will always find welcome within our borders.”

Loki could see the pettiness in his mother’s face. Frigga was doing this because she knew Holly would be a deterrent. Odin wouldn’t dare step out of line now, not when Holly could visit at any time. Holly seemed to sense the same thing too because an entirely fake smile formed on her face and she gave Frigga a bow.

“Thank you, All-Mother. I am honored by your generosity.”

“Please. Allow us to show you true hospitality.” Frigga said. “A feast shall be held to celebrate Asgard’s momentous victory!”

If there had been anyone in the crowd not convinced of Holly’s status as hero of Asgard, then that would have been wiped away by Frigga’s final declaration. The Aesir loved nothing more than a good feast after all. A loud, bellow of a cheer erupted from the crowd and Loki smirked at the excellent manipulation. Holly leaned towards him, up onto her toes so that she could whisper into his ear.

“Why do I have a feeling this feast is going to be loud?”

Because Holly was a lot of things, but an idiot wasn’t one of them. He grinned at her and she gave him a desperate look right back. He could tell she wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep for a week. He wanted the same thing actually. Her poor human form could only take so much damage, he was sure and she needed to recover from all the trauma they had gone through in the past 48 hours.

“Come on. Let’s go to my rooms.” He said.

“If that’s an offer to let me use your bed as a napping spot, then please lead the way.”

Frigga with her eyes still twinkling spoke to both of them.

“The feast will be in two hours, please be as presentable as you’d can. While I know you’d both adore to do some mischief, it’ll be far more pleasurable for all of us if you’re on your best behavior. The less Odin has to verbally complain about the more fun it will be I imagine.”

“Now we can’t miss an opportunity like that.” Holly said.

“Oh surely not.” Loki agreed. “We’ll be there.”

And then Loki wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled at his magic, and whisked them away from the arena and right into his private rooms. Holly didn’t stumble although she did cough a bit at the shock of a different form of teleportation.

“Warn a girl next time!”

Loki didn’t say anything. He was far too busy looking around at his bedroom. He hadn’t been inside this room in years. He’d spent two years in the void following his suicide attempt and then over a year on earth. He didn’t know what he’d expected to see. Perhaps someone would have stripped the room of all it’s valuables, leaving it gouged and bare. Or vandals could have entered the room and trashed it as a final act of vengeance against the traitor prince.

He expected to see dust at least.

But no. His rooms were pristine and clean, as if he’d left them only this morning and a servant had been by to do the tidying for him while he’d been gone. Everything was exactly as he’d left it, not a single trinket out of place. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Had his mother ordered things to be kept clean? Or had it been Thor? Had some servant just continued to do their job without any orders at all?

He swallowed back against the questions rising in his throat. His bed was made, and looked just as comfortable as it always had. There was the door to his walk-in closet, likely filled to the brim with clothing. The books in his bookshelves were in their proper place and undamaged.

“Loki?”

“I…We should clean ourselves up.” He said, shaking himself. “Are you up for a bath?”

“Not much point to a bath if I don’t have anything clean to change into. Unless you expect me to wear my armor, which is probably still covered in defrosted dragon guts by the way.”

“I’ve got something in here for you.” Loki said. “A dress you can wear.”

“Why do you have a dress?”

“I’m a shapeshifter and I’ve been a woman plenty of times. One should do their best to look the part.” Loki sniffed making Holly giggle a little.

“Alright. A dress then.” She said. “You know I don’t do dresses for the most part right?”

“You were wearing a skirt the day we met.”

“That was Nat’s skirt and the Avengers had dressed me up for a date.” She said. “That entire outfit was a costume.”

“Just go take a bath.” Loki said. “I promise I’ll find a dress you won’t immediately hate. The bathroom is over there, soaps should be stored in the closet along with towels. I’ll magic in the dress so you can change there.”

She nodded, her face drawn in exhaustion. Slowly she wobbled over on what Loki could guess were terribly sore feet towards the door he’d indicated. She disappeared behind the thick wood and moments later Loki heard the in-ground tub began to fill with water. Loki turned towards his closet and walked inside. Just like the rest of this place, it was just as he remembered it.

Had they expected his return? Was that why things were so pristine? Was this meant as a sign of potential forgiveness? Or was it a shrine?

It was your home once, Loki. It’s okay to have missed it. Loki ignored Ralston’s comfort.

Carefully Loki went to the very back of the closet where the dresses he’d had made over the years were stored. He pushed past the bridesmaid dress he’d worn when he’d gotten Thor to pretend to be Freya and towards clothing more appropriate for a feast. It took him about five minutes to find something he thought would suit Holly. A dark blue number with a skirt that had so much fabric that it billowed in even the weakest of breezes. It was the sort of dress meant for dramatically standing on balconies, or for telling off someone and looking fabulous while doing it.

Perfect.

He used magic to transport the dress to a hook inside his personal bathroom and a moment later he heard Holly call out and say she saw the dress.

“Let me know if you’ve trouble putting it on!” He shouted through the door.

“It’s a dress! How complicated could it be?”

Loki didn’t respond. He walked into the sitting room and rummaged around in his desk until he found a flask that he’d hidden there. It was about half full which was enough for both of them. They were both exhausted and Loki’s injuries had only partially healed. If they were going to get through this feast then they needed to be fortified somehow. Holly emerged from the bathroom about thirty minutes later, hair dripping onto his expensive rugs and wearing the dress. She had put it on correctly and had lifted up eyebrow, daring him to tell her she hadn’t.

“You look nice.” He said. “I’ll go get cleaned up myself. If you’d like to use my vanity to dry and style your hair feel free.”

“Mhmm.” She said almost absently.

“Don’t fall asleep. We have to make it through this feast completely to give Odin tension headaches for the next century.”

“Won’t.” She lied.

“Right.” He said conjuring up a mug of expresso. “Drink this. Don’t sleep.”

She took the mug and blinked at it in confusion. It was almost impossible to compare the Holly who’d been telling Odin off to this soft sleepy version. She looked like an adorable kitten with her scrunched up nose and bright eyes. He watched her sniff the dark brown liquid and then take a sip of it. She grimaced at the taste, looking so much like a child that Loki wanted to coo.

“I’ll be right back. Just need to get the dirt off.”

She hummed in acknowledgement and he wandered into the bathroom. Loki quickly stripped and refilled the tub with clean water. The bruise on his back had evolved to an awful green and yellow color and it was still terribly tender. His other injuries had also healed up to be considered mild complaints instead of debilitating. He took a quick bath, far shorter than the one’s he would normally take in that gigantic tub.

He didn’t want Holly to fall asleep. If she did, she wouldn’t wake for days.

He quickly dressed in an outfit that would match Holly’s dress. He thought it best if they presented a united front, it wasn’t a method of claiming. Sure, plenty of Asgardians would see their matching colors and think it a sign of courtship but that would be their mistake to make. This was just Loki trying to show they were unified in the face of whatever shit Odin tried to stir up once he woke up from the spell Holly had placed on him.

With a snap of his fingers his hair was dry and styled. He looked rather dashing he was certain. He pushed open the door to the bathroom ready to force Holly to give him some form of sarcastic compliment, only to pause at the scene before him. Holly was sitting at his vanity, expresso mostly consumed. Her eyes were drooping, and her arms were shaking as she attempted to dry and style her own hair.

Loki’s heart lurched at the picture Holly painted. He tsked a little and then walked forward.

“Here.” He said indulgently. “Let me help you.”

“Thnks.” She mumbled. “Stupid hair… should’ve just shaved it off.”

“While I’ve no doubt you would have looked very dashing bald, I think it would’ve been a true loss to everyone if you’d deprived the world of your hair.”

“Mhm.” Loki couldn’t tell if that noise was agreement or not. His hands warmed with magic and he began to finger comb through her curls, bringing them to order and smoothing out the forming frizz.

“I…I am glad you are okay.” He said after a few minutes of him practically petting her. “When we got to Asgard we were separated almost immediately. I wasn’t…sure if you lived until you showed up at my trial.”

“Really?” She asked. “I’m sorry. The healers fixed me up in that soul forge thingie pretty quickly.”

“Well they don’t normally send messages down to the dungeons.” Loki said.

“Sorry it took me so long to get to your trial.” She said. “The healers locked me up in the healing halls before the trial started.”

“They locked you up?”

She nodded and told him what had happened to her upon their separation. She’d been taken to the healers who’d forcibly woken her up, placed her in the soul forge and healed her of all her hurts over the course of 6 hours. It had only taken them that long, she assumed, because they were unfamiliar with human biology. They had then put her to sleep when she tried to leave to go and find him. When she’d woken up, it was to the sensation of being chained to her bed. The healers had explained that she was to be confined to the healing halls until after Loki’s trial, and then Odin would have her sent back to earth. It had taken her time to break out of the enchanted chains, unlock the magically locked doors, and then find the throne room inside the gargantuan palace.

“Then I had to open the door to the throne room which was heavy as hell.” She finished. “Thankfully I was able to overhear a lot of Odin’s words through the door which let me even know what to say back to him.”

“Seems like you had a bit of an adventure.” Loki said. “I’m glad you weren’t harmed.”

“The healing was interesting at least.” She said. “I think they got rid of the lingering damage from the war.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I lost some sensation in my hands and feet from the repeated hits from the cruciatus. Not to mention I get occasional spasms of pain from them.” She said flexing her hands in appreciation. “But my fingers feel…real I guess? They’re not numb anymore at least.”

“Let’s consider that the silver lining of the situation then.”

“How about you?” She asked. “What happened to you?”

“Oh, I was roughly dragged down to the dungeons and thrown into a cell that suppressed my magic. I passed out almost immediately from the pain and exhaustion. When I woke up, I tried to escape and find you but couldn’t. The guards tied me up after who knows how long and dragged me up to the throne room for my trial. Of course, my mouth was bound because Merlin forbid I speak in my own defense.”

Loki skipped over the cruel words that had been spit at him by the guards and the other prisoners. Holly didn’t need to know that. Holly hummed in sympathy, she looked even more exhausted as his styling continued. He could tell she was fighting unconsciousness but the relaxing effects of having her hair put to rights was making it difficult.

“I should tell you what to do at the feast. Stay awake for this.”

“I’m not sleeping.” She said. “And go ahead. What’s proper Asgardian etiquette then?”

To call it etiquette was an overstatement of what was expected. Loki snorted and began to describe what the aesir would expect from a warrior of her capability. She should be loud, proud, and buoyant. She should consume far too much food and she should be messy about it. If she threw a goblet to the ground and smashed it, people would cheer and call for another. Holly should tell stories of her valor and they should be dramatic and exciting, true sagas. If she downplayed her own contributions then Loki would kick her in the shin.

Holly listened to all of this with her eyes only half opened. He finished styling her hair and made her drink the rest of her drink while he finished up his instructions. They had to remain at the feast for a few hours at least.

“A few hours?” She whined. “Loki I’m not going to make it through one.”

“Yes you will. I’ve got a secret weapon.”

“Huh?”

“Thor used to insist on having feasts right after we got back from a great adventure. I was usually in the same state you’re in now at that age. I developed a potion that’ll stave off the magical exhaustion for a few more hours and keep you alert.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I should warn you. It’ll make you crash hard. You’ll likely sleep for twice as long than you would normally have to.” He said.

“That’s fine…” She said. “Just make sure I’m not alone while I sleep.”

“Why?”

“I…I wake up.” She explained waving a hand. “But only part way. Like I can’t move anything, but I can hear things every once in a while. If I’m alone when it happens then I freak out.”

“You wake up? That’s impossible!”

She shrugged a little and explained that the more often she’d experienced these comas the more often she began to have periods of awareness during them. When he asked her how often exactly she’d been in this situation she’d waved her hand a little and given him a rough estimate.

“At least 100 times?” He shrieked.

“Yeah.” She said. “Probably more.”

“Holly.”

“I know. I know. I don’t need the lecture.”

“I doubt it’d do anything even if I did give you one.” He said while mentally making a note to ensure Holly never used that much magic in one go again. He could provide her at least that much support right? “I promise there will be someone talking to you or making noise while you recover.”

“Good.” She said. “I’d also like to recover back on earth.”

“We’re not staying here longer than the feast.” He promised. “Now, I best pack up whatever I’d like to take with us.”

Holly watched him as he summoned various things and stored them in a trunk he had in his room. He put books, some magical trinkets, more books, some of his favorite outfits, some weapons, and yet more books into the trunk. Once he was sure that he had enough of his things he shrunk the trunk and put it into his pocket.

“There.” He said summoning the flask from his desk. “Let’s drink, we’ll both drink about half so we’re not exhausted. I do warn you, it tastes like acid.”

“Oh how delightful.”

Loki could only be half blamed for forgetting Holly was human and therefore had a highly different biology to Loki. His body was far more dense and so he required higher dosages of potions in order for them to be effective. Whereas he’d need a quarter of the flask to stave off exhaustion, Holly really only needed a few sips. She had far more than a few sips. After he drank his half he handed the flask to Holly who gulped down the rest of the contents without hesitation.

He could feel the potion at work almost immediately. Warmth spread through his body, starting at his stomach and out into his limbs. The exhaustion was lifted from his flesh and his mind felt immediately clearer. He blinked a few times and did a few stretches. There they’d be fine for the feast now.

Holly gave a full body shiver and then began to rapidly tap her foot.

“Holly?”

The woman jumped up, her carefully styled hair bouncing everywhere.

“Isn’t the feast starting soon?” She said, her words coming out far faster than normal.

“Yes, we should get going.” He said. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Never better!” She shouted. “Come on let’s go and party!”

Holly grabbed Loki’s hand and dragged him from his room, practically running into the hallway.

“Woah. Slow down! The energy you’re feeling isn’t real. You need to take it easy.”

“Take it easy? You’re crazy! Hey! We should play quidditch while we’re here! Do you think we could get enough players for a game?” She asked him, blinking far too rapidly for it to be natural.

Oh no. You’ve really done it this time, haven’t you my friend?

He managed to convince her not to play quidditch and led her to the feasting hall. The room was packed with warriors and the tables were piled high with steaming food. It was obvious Frigga had ordered preparations for the feast far before Holly and Loki’s arrival. He shook his head at the evidence of her having visions about this event. How long had she been planning this for?

Odin was still sleeping somewhere, which meant there was an empty spot next to Frigga. She had also left open spots for Loki and Holly to sit with her, a place of honor for them. Holly’s head swiveled around quickly trying and failing to take in every detail. She was jittery and he could feel her heart beating like a rabbit’s where his hand touched her wrist.

“Hold it together Holly.”

“Together? Of course I’m together! What else would I be? I’ve only gotten exploded the once and the healers put me right again. Although they did have to regrow me an entirely new arm, that was painful. Anyway. I swear I’ve got all my parts right now. Unless…” She glanced down at her breasts and used her free hand to poke them. “Nope still got those.”

“Holly.” Loki hissed while reaching out and forcing her hand down. “Don’t do that.”

They walked up the dais to the table where Frigga was seated. Holly tripped over the folds of her dress and Loki used his strength to keep her upright. He continued to carry her up the steps and then helped her into a seat, careful to make it seem like she was walking. Frigga gave them an overindulgent smile as if she knew exactly what the problem was. Probably did the damn seer.

“Is everything well my son?”

“Just peachy.”

“Oh Frigga.” Holly said, with a gasp. “Your eyes!”

“My eyes?”

“They’re all glowy! How do you see out of them like that? Do you have a headache?”

So apparently an overdose on that potion caused hallucinations too. Just great.

“Frigga is fine.” Loki said. “Now look forward and be quiet. The feast is about to start.”

He used his hands to force her to sit forward and properly while Frigga chuckled a little and then stood up herself. The crowd’s roar quieted in respect as Frigga began to speak, announcing the purpose of the feast as well as it’s beginning. Holly leaned to the side and whispered so close to his ear he could feel the heat of her breath.

“Loki. There’s lady here.”

“A lady?”

“Yeah. She’s got a skull face. I dunno what she’s here for but maybe we should ask her to leave. Skull faces can’t eat, they don’t have tongues.”

There was of course no such lady in the room. Loki winced at yet more evidence that this feast was going to be a disaster. The people would all expect Holly to be their entertainment as the guest of honor. She was going to make a fool of herself without even knowing she was doing it. Loki, in a bid of desperation, grabbed Holly’s hand and turned so that they were eye to eye.

“Holly please listen to me.” He begged. “I need you to act like yourself. If you don’t then Odin might be able to rescind Frigga’s declaration and we can’t have that. Please I’m begging you. Pretend you’re feeling normally or at the very least don’t say anything. I’ll keep the crowds distracted.”

Holly only gave him a soppy smile and moved her face forward so that her nose squished his while making a ‘boop!’ noise. Loki groaned and resisted the urge to bang his head on the table.

“And now!” Frigga said. “Let the feast begin!”

The crowds cheered and banged their fists on the table. People began scrambling for shanks of meat and goblets of mead. Loki carefully arranged Holly’s plate for her, hoping that the food would prove enough of a distraction. Unfortunately, Holly was more interested in touching her food than she was in eating it. Frigga watched with a smile and laughter behind her eyes as Loki tried to keep Holly’s nonsense from being noticed.

 And as if Loki was cursed by the norns, Sif noticed his distress and spoke out.

“Lady Holly! Tell us a tale!” She shouted loud enough for everyone in the cavernous room to hear her. The rest of the aesir soon started shouting their agreement in the form of demands. Loki tried to tell them that Holly wasn’t much of a story teller but Holly placed a hand on his forearm quieting him. Her feet were twitching with excess energy and he could see the mania in her eyes.

“A tale?” She asked. “You want to hear about my adventures?”

The crowd shouted their affirmation and she smirked.

“Then let me tell you the tale of the Chamber of Secrets.”

Loki’s jaw dropped as Holly began to tell the story. She sounded coherent and brave and not at all like she as drugged out of her mind. She began with Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor, describing the formation of the Chamber although she failed to identify the monster that was left inside. The crowd was on the edge of their seats as she moved forward to her own childhood. She told it like it was a saga of old, full of ups and downs with danger at every turn. She dragged the mystery out of what the monster was long enough that nervous whispers spread through the crowd.

Loki just watched her in frank disbelief. Sitting as close to her as he was he could tell she was just barely holding onto her lucidity. Her leg kept jumping up and down beneath the table. Her hands twitched if she didn’t move them dramatically. The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were raised in goosebumps. Yet her voice was clear and confident as she weaved her tale.

When she got to the reveal, discovering the final clue hidden in a ripped page from a book on her friend’s petrified body, the aesir erupted into yells of fear and shock. A basilisk! It couldn’t be. But it was and Holly then described discovering the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and going down to save a girl one year younger than her and slaying a basilisk all by herself at the age of 12 years old.

People cheered and gasped and yelped as the story continued. Holly had firmly pulled the crowds under her spell and they were enraptured by her. Not that Loki could blame them, he was much the same.

“And so, with my blade in hand I jumped directly into the monster’s gaping maw!” She shouted. “I shoved my weapon deep into it’s brain, killing it instantly!”

The aesir erupted into cheers and applause. Holly waited for it to die down before continuing.

“But in my rush to end the fight I was unprepared for the creature’s death throes! In it’s final moments it managed to pierce me with its fang.”

‘No’ the crowd shouted. It could not be! No one least of all a mortal could survive a bite from a basilisk!

“But it’s true!” She said. “I fell from the creature’s mouth to Tom’s screams of denial. I could feel the venom burning through my blood and my very soul departing my young body. I knew that if I died there then Ginny would die and Tom would rise to power, to kill more innocent children. I refused to let him take anymore lives. I jerked out the fang that was stuck in my arm and stabbed down on the evil diary that kept him tied to the living world. We would die together!”

‘What happened?’ the aesir demanded to know. The room was near silent as they listened to Holly’s final triumph, the tears and song of a phoenix.

“And so we escaped, all of us, carried free of the chamber on the back of a phoenix.” She finished. “My school was safe from danger and Tom would not rise that year. The basilisk would never harm another again.”

The applause was deafening. Loki was quite sure that not even any of Thor’s own stories had garnered this much appreciation. The crowds were demanding another as Loki knew they would.

“Another? But I’ve barely had time to eat!” She complained with a jovial laugh that was only half fake. “Perhaps someone can tell me a story of Asgardian brilliance! Please! I wish to learn more about your beautiful realm!”

Her flattery appeased the crowds and Volstagg, the god of the feast, stood up and began to tell a traditional ballad, a crowd favorite about Bor. Holly sighed with relief and collapsed back into her chair.

“Did I do good?” She asked, her voice taking on an immediately funny quality.

“You did brilliantly.” He promised.

“Good. Didn’t want to make you sad.” She sniffed, sounding like mewling kitten. It was clear she’d reached the limit of her self-control.

“Here.” Loki said a smile in his voice. “Try this, I’m sure you’ll love it. It’s a delicacy here.”

He practically had to hand feed her. He knew she likely hadn’t eaten since the dinner they’d had at Hogwarts. Perhaps the healers had fed her something but it likely hadn’t been much. A small spell ensured no one glanced their way as Volstagg continued his story much to the crowd’s delight. He could feel the affects of his potion beginning to fail. They hadn’t been there nearly long enough. Damn.

“Don’t worry.” Frigga said. "She’s done what she needed to do. I promise if she falls asleep I’ll cover for you two. No one will have a negative thing to say about either of you.”

“Thank you.”

“Loki.” Frigga said. “I am terribly sorry about everything that’s happened. I…I hoped that it wouldn’t. That Odin would change before it was too late… I never wished to keep the truth from you. Please never doubt my love for you. Please.”

“I can’t forgive you.” Loki said, lifting another small handful of food to Holly’s mouth. Holly made a grunting noise of disapproval and Loki swallowed. “At least not right now. I…You broke my trust.”

“I understand.” She said. “Please visit here whenever you’d like. Asgard is open to you.”

“I don’t believe there is much that Asgard has to offer me now.” Loki said.

“Well. Then perhaps you would allow me to visit you?” She asked. “I would love to see the realm you created, the realm she is from, if I might?”

“Of course.” Loki said. “It was meant for all magic users, I would never bar you from…”

“I just don’t want to overwhelm you my dear boy. You deserve comfort and happiness and I won’t intrude on the peace you’ve built for yourself.”

“If you choose to visit.” Loki said after a few moments of deliberation. “Send me a message, a few days of warning, and I won’t deny you.”

“Thank you.” She whispered tears in her eyes. She sniffed and took a sip of Asgardian wine. Her eyes darted over the crowd as if checking to ensure there was no one watching them. “There is something you should know.”

“What?” Loki asked. “Another family secret?”

“Yes. Odin used Gungnir to keep anyone in all of Asgard of speaking of it. He’s buried and painted over it so deeply that there are no clues in all the realms for anyone to find. Except perhaps for Midgard, although I doubt they kept any accurate records themselves.”

Something cold formed in the middle of his stomach at the look in Frigga’s eyes.

“What is it?” Loki demanded. “What secret could be so horrible that Odin would go to such lengths to hide it?”

“It’s-”

The door to the feasting hall burst open, Thor rushed in; glowing with his hammer raised.

“Father! I demand you…” Thor trailed off, looking around at the feasting crowds in confusion.

“Thor!” Holly shouted, lurching forward so that she was standing. She picked up the half empty mug of mead. “You’re here just in time for the feast!”

“Feast?” He asked.

“To celebrate the FREEDOM OF ASGARD!” She shouted before lifting the drink to her lips and downing the entire thing. She threw the goblet to the ground, shattering it. “TO ASGARD!”

“TO ASGARD!” The crowd shouted right back as Thor stood in the doorway looking far too confused.

“It seems.” He began. “That I’ve missed something.”

Chapter 30: The Things Holly Potter Loves

Summary:

The Feast Continues and Holly is so full of love that she just might burst.

Notes:

Ya'll. The comments last week? Cleared my skin and watered my crops thank you so much.
Have fun with this chapter!

Holly felt as if she were flying. She knew she was actually on the ground because she kept tapping her sandaled foot against the marble floor and she could feel the pressure of the ground beneath her. And yet she still felt awfully buoyant. She kept a hand on Loki’s forearm to keep herself from floating away. She watched as Thor made his way through the crowds, her friend was sparking all over the place. But no one else seemed to notice the bright blue lightning so she kept quiet about it.

Loki had asked that she try to act as normally as she could and she was not going to disappoint him, no sir. Loki had spent the last day in jail and then his stupid dad had given him that farce of a trial. Loki deserved to be happy and if Holly acting like an Asgardian would do it then she’d be damned before she failed. She remembered his lecture on proper Asgardian behavior and she was willing to commit to it. It was actually quite fun.

“We should go.” Holly said, her jaw felt quite funny and the words came out strange as she tried to figure out how far to open her mouth.

“Go?” Loki asked.

“Thor’s…he’s stuck!” She said motioning towards their friend. “The crowds are…we should save him.”

“Thor is fine.” Loki said. “We should stay right here. Here how would you like to try a cake?”

Cake? At a time like this? She sniffed a little and looked at the crowds of people gathering around Thor. After her cheer she’d thought Thor would be allowed to walk up to where she was just like Loki and she had been able to. But the crowds had congregated on their crown prince and now she couldn’t ask Thor how things were back on earth. Was Hogwarts okay? Had anyone been hurt? She had to know.

But how to get over there? She recalled as best she could Loki’s description of proper Asgardian behavior and nodded to herself. She removed her hand from Loki and grabbed at the pretty skirt of her dress. And what a pretty dress it was. She’d thought so the moment she saw it but it wasn’t until right then that she realized just how perfect it was. It was made of silk but not silk like she’d ever known it. It moved like the dresses in movies did and she started petting the soft fabric for a moment, comfortably distracted by the pretty blue color.

“Holly. Come, sit down.” Loki said tugging at her arm lightly.

“Nuh-uh.” She said shaking her head vigorously. She could do it, she’d prove to Loki she knew what to do. She hopped up onto the table before Loki could stop her. “Thor!”

Thor looked up from the crowds his eyes filled with lightning and looked a bit confused. Did he not want to see her? No it was probably something else. She jumped down onto the ground just barely missing Loki attempting to grab at the back of her dress and pull her back. She stumbled forward, her balance far more off than usual, and then started running towards her friend. The crowds politely parted on either side of her and she was able to make a quick beeline towards her other very best friend Thor.

Loki was her bestest friend, of course he was, he’d been so nice in Jontunheim and kept her warm and listened to her talk and then he’d given her this pretty amazing dress and done her hair up all nice and curly. She loved, loved, loved, that Loki had done her hair for her, he’d been so nice and charming and brilliant and it was obvious that Loki was the bestest person in the whole nine realms.

But Thor was also just the best too. He was so nice and good at listening too and he gave good hugs and he had lightning in his eyes, and he’d promised to be her shield brother and no one had ever done that before either. He also had super soft, warm shirts that were perfect for sleeping in and she loved him. So, Thor was her other best friend and she wanted to give him a hug. She almost never gave people hugs, hugs were hard, she never knew how long they were supposed to last or how hard she was supposed to hold the other person. The only kind of hug she never over thought was the hugs she got after winning a game of quidditch. Thor would love those kinds of hugs though she was sure.

She jumped into the air, arms spread wide, and Thor caught her with ease.

“THOR! IT’S BEEN FOREVER!” She said. “I missed you so much! You’re my shield brother and we got sep…sep…we were apart and it’s been forever!”

“You were only missing for two days.” Thor said, a smile in his voice as he hugged her to his gigantic chest.

“That’s forever in human time!” Holly told him seriously. “You should have never went away.”

“I was not the one who went away. My brother and you were accidentally transported to Jontunheim.” Thor said. “And now you’re in Asgard having a feast.”

“Asgard is awesome Thor! I love this place!” She said pulling out of the hug. Thor gently lowered her to the floor, and she beamed at him, trying with all her might to show how much she loved him with all her heart in that one smile. “The food is amazing and everyone loves a good story and everyone has been so friendly. Why didn’t you tell me your home was so cool? We should have visited here forever ago!”

Around her she could hear the murmurs of the crowds as they took in her praise. Loki had told her to be very loud about liking things and she could do that. She could do that all day because there were so many things she liked, no so many things she loved. Like Thor. And Loki! She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see that Loki had joined them. Her smile grew in brightness.

“Loki! Isn’t this feast amazing? Are you having fun? I am! It’s so brilliant!”

“Yes. Yes. It’s been nice.” He said. “Thor, how did you get here?”

“Mother sent me a message telling me that Father was having your trial and that I should come as quickly as I could to defend you. Heimdall didn’t answer my call to the Bifrost until now, we came as quickly as we could for you.”

“We?” Loki asked at the same time as Holly gasped out the question.

“Did you not think the others wouldn’t come? All of the Avengers are here to support you Loki.” Thor said. “All of them wanted to speak on your behalf, so we all came together.”

“The others are here?” Holly asked, her voice louder than it normally was. Loki looked absolutely poleaxed beside her. Holly couldn’t blame him. Who wouldn’t be shocked by seeing so many people that you loved that much? She looked around Thor and sure enough standing at the doors in a group were the Avengers, in full uniform. “GUYS!”

She waved violently at her friends, feeling almost manic at the sight of her other very best friends in the whole wide nine realms. Tony was there and his chest was so bright it almost hurt to look at, his heart was so pretty she thought she could die. She loved Tony so much he was so good at building things and it was like he knew everything in the whole wide world. He could do math. What was better than Tony?

Bruce! Bruce was here! Bruce! She loved Bruce! He always had the best tea in all the tower and he was so calming and he was brilliant too. He’d studied so much magic stuff and he’d been so nice to the werewolf kids. And he was so sad sometimes but that didn’t stop him from being so brave and she loved him. Bruce knew so much stuff and he had the Hulk! Holly loved the Hulk even though she’d never met him. She couldn’t wait to meet the Hulk and she knew that they’d be the best bestest friends ever.

 Standing right next to Bruce was Natasha and Holly felt her heart throb with absolute adoration. Natasha was the prettiest prettiest woman in the whole world. She had the most amazing red hair and she had strong hands and those eyes. She was so clear and brilliant. She knew good things and bad things and she chose to be good and Holly admired her so much because she could have been bad but she decided to be good and she never once made Holly feel bad for being poor looking.  

And Steve! Stevie! The Wonderful Steve! Holly felt like dancing at seeing him there in his American outfit. He looked so honest and true and amazing. She loved Steve and she loved painting with Steve and she loved talking to Steve and she loved listening to Steve and she loved, loved, loved Steve! Steve was so welcoming and wonderful and she could hardly breathe because she loved him so much.

And Clint was here too! Clint with his arrows and his bow and his arms. He was so good. He’d been so scared and angry at magic but she’d talked to him and he’d listened and now he loved magic so much and he loved his children and his wife and Holly was pretty certain that he was the best dad in the whole world. Holly loved Clint, she loved his heart and his hands and she loved his soul. She ached with love for all of her bestest friends.

She pushed past Thor and towards her other best friends. She only tripped on her skirts a little but she was sure nobody noticed as she pounced onto Steve to give him the biggest hug she could muster. Steve immediately lifted up his arms to gently hold her up and she wiggled happily for a moment before pushing away and jumping towards Clint to give him an equally exuberant hug.

“Oh Merlin! I’m so glad you’re all here!” She squealed as Clint spun her around in the hug. The man looked absolutely delighted by this turn of events. “I was hoping to see you soon because you all are my bestest friends and it’s been forever!”

“Bestest?” Tony asked.

“Tony!” Holly said wriggling out of Clint’s hold and jumping towards the man covered in hard armor. She slammed into him and ignored the pain because she was just so excited to see one of the people she loved most in the universe.

“Woah there!” Tony said holding his arms up in shock. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I’m about to explode!” Holly said looking deep into Tony’s beautiful wonderful brown eyes.

“Explode?” Bruce asked.

“Bruce! You’re here! I’m so glad! Oh my goodness!” She dropped down from where she’d been hugging Tony’s neck and rushed towards Bruce. The man expected her actions and already had his arms ready to receive her. “Holly you’re acting really strange.”

“That would be my doing I’m afraid.” Loki said.

“Oh Loki look!” She said pulling away from Bruce but not before she gave his cheek an affectionate pat. “Our friends are here! They came to help save you!”

“Yes. I realize that.” Loki said. “Holly perhaps you’d like to sit back down?”

“Hey.” Natasha said. “I still haven’t gotten my hug.”

“NAT!” Holly said beaming. “Hi! I missed you so much!”

Nat opened up her arms and Holly made a happy humming noise as she hopped into them.

“What did you do to her?” Tony asked. “Holly never hugs people. We always have to hug her.”

“She’s magically exhausted, she’s got basically no magic left.”

“Shouldn’t she be asleep then?” Clint demanded.

“She should be we couldn’t let her sleep yet.” Loki said. “We both had to attend this feast because we didn’t want to show any disrespect to Frigga. I gave Holly a potion that I’ve used reliably for centuries to help her stay awake but I failed to take into account how a high dosage would affect a human body.”

“Wait.” Tony said. “Are you saying she’s high?”

“Higher than a kite.”

Holly felt Natasha’s body tremble in her hold and she pulled back to see that the woman looked like she was in pain.

“Oh Nat! Are you hurt?” She asked her eyes wide and earnest. Nat let loose a high-pitched giggle and then lifted up her hands to cup Holly’s cheeks.

“I’m just fine. Happy to see you.”

“Me too! I love you so much Nat.”

“As you can see.” Loki said. “The feast has been going wonderfully.”

“Don’t worry Loki.” Holly said, turning to look at her bestest friend. “I’ll make sure it’s gonna be just good. Odin’s not gonna have anything bad to say about anything.”

“Where is Odin?” Thor asked. “Surely father would be at a feast.”

Holly let out a little giggle as she remembered the silly mustache she’d drawn on Odin. Loki even smirked.

“Holly-”

“I beat him up!” Holly said clapping her hands together. “Odin was all like ‘ahhh’ and I went ‘booo!’ and now he’s sleeping.”

“What?”

“Odin held my trial and refused to let me speak in my own defense.” Loki said. “Holly spoke for me and angered Odin enough that he declared my trial was to be one by combat. His plan was to kill Holly for her impertinence and then sentence me to death.”

“I called him a bitch.” Holly added helpfully.

“You what?”

“He wanted to fight my magic and I asked him if he was super super sure cause my magic is very very dangerous and he insisted.” Holly said nodding along as she told the story to her friends. It didn’t matter how she told it to them, Loki wouldn’t mind. It wasn’t like with the Asgardians where she had to put on a silly show. “So we went out to this big big building but it didn’t have a roof.”

“The royal arena.” Loki said.

“And he had his thingy out.”

“Gungnir.”

“And he slammed it and I didn’t like it so I broke it.”

“She used her magic to literally melt down Odin’s Kingly weapon like it was nothing.”

“And then I asked him if he wanted to stop, cause it wasn’t fun and maybe we could be friends.”

“She demanded his surrender while calling him her ‘bitch’.”

“And he said no! Can you believe?”

“Odin claimed that a king never gives in.”

“So I decided he should go have a nap.”

“She used her magic to tear the entire royal arena down into nothing but rubble and then put Odin into a magical coma as a show of intimidation and force.” Loki finished. “The people were frightened of her but Frigga managed to calm them and spin the story into something that saves face on both sides. Now we’re having a feast to celebrate Asgard’s freedom from Gungnir’s evil curse.”

“I thought Gungnir was your dad’s spear.” Bruce said looking at Thor.

“It was ugly.” Holly told them. “Made my skin all itchy.”

“Gungnir was a weapon enchanted by the dwarves to subjugate races.” Loki said. “Any planet that Odin has conquered, of which there are thousands, was forced to bend the knee whenever Odin slammed that spear. It was how he kept his people in check. Difficult to argue with a man who can make you bow with barely any effort at all.”

“Father liked to use his spear to…help make his points.” Thor said. “I can’t believe it’s just gone.”

“It’s goop now.” Holly said giving Thor’s arm a pat.

“She melted it.” Loki told them. “Turned it into nothing but puddles of useless steel and gold. Frigga told the people that the spear was cursed that it turned whomever wielded it mad. That’s why Odin’s acted like this all these centuries and not because he’s a gigantic ass. She then pushed for more political power for the lords and ladies of the land. Essentially she performed a bloodless coup and the only person who could have stopped her has had his most powerful weapon destroyed and was forced into a magical coma.”

“She…so that means Odin is no longer the All-Father.” Thor said, he swayed a little in shock. “I can’t believe this…”

“Keep up Thor. Odin has to answer to the Lords now.” Loki said. “It’s…what’s that American phrase? Checks and Balances. The Lords and Frigga now help balance the power of the government so that it isn’t up to Odin alone any longer.”

“And the check?”

“Holly.” Loki said. “As long as there exists someone in this universe who can kick Odin’s ass like that, he’s not going to try anything.”

“That’s why you’re at this feast.” Nat said. “You have to convince the people that they want Holly around so that way Odin can’t send her away without making people upset.”

“Yes. Exactly. I just have to keep everyone here from noticing she’s high out of her mind.”

Holly resented the idea that she was out of her mind. She was in complete control of her faculties. It wasn’t her fault that her friends were so amazing that she had to hug them, was it?

No. No it wasn’t.

“How long has the feast been going on?” Thor asked.

“An hour.” Loki said. “We just have to last two more hours and then we can go back to earth and everything will be fine.”

Everything was fine right now. They were with their friends and there was so much love in the air that Holly could cry. She sniffed a little, her heart rose up to her throat, so warm and full. Behind their group the crowds of Asgardians were talking amongst themselves, Loki must have cast a privacy spell over their group. That was good for now.

“How’s Hogwarts?” Holly asked with another sniff. “Is everyone okay?”

“The only people who got hurt were you and Loki.” Steve said. “The castle was repaired within an hour after you guys disappeared. Ron and Hermione wanted us to tell you ‘hello’ and ‘come home soon so that we can yell at you in person for risking your life’.”

“That’s so nice of them.” Her voice wobbled a little as she thought of her two longest friends. Oh, how she loved them. “I love them so much. I hate when I make them worry because it makes them so sad but I can’t help it. Danger just happens and I can’t let other people get hurt even if I get hurt and I hate that my friends are so sad about it.”

“Holy shit is she crying?” Tony asked.

“What if they stop wanting to be my friend?” Holly asked. “I get into so much trouble all the time. I almost died three times in the past two days! What if Ron and Hermione don’t love me anymore?”

“Holly.” Steve said, his eyes wide and shocked. “I’m sure that’s not going to happen.”

“But they keep asking me to be safe and I never am! They must hate me and I love them so much.” Tears bubbled up in her eyes and began to make tracks down her cheeks.

“Holly.” Loki said. “Your friends just named you the godmother of their child. Would they have done that if they didn’t plan on loving you for the rest of their lives? Remember? The baby, Rose?”

Immediately Holly smiled, tears and fears forgotten.

“Rosie is so cute isn’t she? I love her the most in the whole world, she’s so small and sweet and I just want her to be happy.”

“I’m sure she’s very happy right now, safe in the castle with her parents who can’t wait to see you again.” Loki said nodding solemnly. “And we’ll go back to earth very soon, just another hour or two. Remember? The feast.”

Oh right the feast! Loki reached up and quickly wiped away her long forgotten tears with his thumbs.

“I’m having a hard time believing she kicked Odin’s ass.” Tony said. “Like I know she could do it, but…she’s so soft right now. It’s choking me up.”

“You have to keep it together Tony.” Clint said. “If we cry then she’ll cry and I don’t know if she’ll be able to stop.”

“She’s just so adorable.”

“I know. I know.”

“Loki!” Holly sad suddenly struck with a brilliant idea. “We should introduce the Avengers to Asgard! That way everyone can be friends with each other!”

“Holly I think it might be best if they went home now and we followed them as soon as we could.”

“No. No. No.” Holly said shaking her head. “We should all be friends. Odin doesn’t want us all to be friends and he should know better.”

It took Loki only half a moment to understand what she meant, a beautiful smile erupted on his face.

“Oh Holly, even drugged out of your mind you are a delight.” He said. “Avengers, how would you like to become the greatest thing since sliced Asgardian Bread?”

“What do you have planned?”

“Just wait and see.” Loki said grinning. Holly watched as Loki dropped the privacy wards. He held out his arms and spoke in a grand bright tone. “People of Asgard! Witness Midgard’s Mightiest Heroes! Never before has there been a group of humans more worthy of our halls than these!”

Holly stood there in delight as Loki introduced each Avenger as the mighty, wonderful heroes they were. Thor quickly caught on and added his own impressions, giving the Avengers the gravitas they deserved. The people of Asgard took in the stories of these heroes eagerly, they all looked just as pleased to see Loki and Thor not at each other’s throats. By the time they had finished describing each avenger the Aesir were jumping up and down begging for stories.

“Hey Tony.” Holly said. “You should go tell ‘em something fun. They loved my basilisk story. If you tell ‘em stories that they like then it’ll annoy Odin.”

“Well, I am a fan of annoying authority figures.” Tony said.

“Remember.” Loki said. “The more dramatic the story the more likely they’ll eat it up.”

“Well…Everyone likes an origin story, don’t they?”

Holly grinned brightly as Tony stepped forward and began to tell the story of the ending of the Merchant of Death and the birth of Iron Man. Loki ushered everyone up to the front table where Frigga had magicked up extra room. Tony held the crowd’s attention with the skill of a born showman. She knew he was skipping over some of the darker parts of the story, the things that haunted him, just as she had skipped things that made her feel poorly. The Asgardians didn’t seem to notice or care.

They just loved the story of a weaponsmith capable of creating weapons of planetary destruction putting aside those weapons to create something to protect and guide instead of destroy. The escape sequence where Tony donned the first version of his makeshift armor and his beloved friend gave himself up so that Tony could escape and change the world, left many of the warriors in tears. Many of them interrupted the story to toast the bravery of Yinsen and insist that he must be in Valhalla now which made Tony choke up just a little before continuing. The drama of Tony’s own mentor betraying him to the enemy, of saving himself and the love his life against his madness, kept the Aesir committed to the tale.

When Tony finished it was to thunderous applause. He motioned to Steve, who sighed, and got up to tell the story of a sick kid from Brooklyn who didn’t know when to back down. Tony sat with the team and Bruce reached out to place a hand on his arm

“You good Tony?” The man knew exactly how much Tony liked to talk about that time in his life, which was none at all.

“Yeah that was…freeing.”

One by one each of the Avengers told the story of themselves and the Asgardians ate it up. They’d been starved for new stories Loki had told her back in his room. He’d promised her that any adventure she’d be willing to tell would please the crowds because Asgardians had been listening to the same ballads for centuries and that was bound to get a little dull after a while. Holly was glad her friends were playing along.

For the rest of the feast she sat next to Loki, he kept a gentle hand on her arm, which she appreciated because it made sure she wouldn’t float away. He introduced her to new delicious foods, bit by bit, and whispered funny jokes in her ear. As each one of her very much loved teammates went up to share a story she began to slowly slump in her seat, the manic energy that had been filling her ebbing away like the tide. It was replaced by a calm hazy feeling where nothing really made sense but that was fine, it didn’t have to. Not as long as Loki and her friends were there. At the three-hour mark she stopped being able to move her legs, it felt like her feet were stuck in sludge.

Her mind began to slow and thoughts moved around it like molasses. She hardly heard Bruce telling the story of him becoming the Hulk and learning to control his battle rage. She did notice that a majority of Asgard was talking about how much they liked the idea of a hulk and wanted to meet him. That made her smile. Most of the Asgardians were very drunk at this point, which Holly felt she could relate to for some reason.

As drunk as they were, they didn’t notice when Frigga motioned for Thor and Loki to come with her and leave the feasting hall. Holly wondered briefly what she wanted to talk about, she hoped it wasn’t serious. Loki left Holly with Steve who promised to keep her in her seat and safe. Steve took to his duty seriously, at least he did until Tony started causing trouble.

“Holly stay right here.”

“Yes.” She agreed. “Right here.”

Where would she even go? Her friends were all here and she loved being with them so much. Although Loki was gone. And so was Thor. Steve promised her that he’d be right back. Holly looked out at the drunken crowds. Bruce had finished his story and now most people were intoxicated enough that they lacked the ability to pay attention to anything. Instead they were laughing and gossiping amongst themselves.

Holly couldn’t see Loki and she started to feel very worried. What if someone tried to hurt him? She had to protect her friend. She looked over to see that Steve was chastising Tony for something, good they were safe. Holly focused all of her faculties and got to her feet. The world swayed dangerously but she ignored that. She was an expert at ignoring danger after all. She walked past the tables and slowly through the crowds, her mind slightly distracted by the sensation of her swishing skirts. It was nice, she should wear skirts more often.

“Lady Holly?” Someone called out. Holly turned to see a beautiful woman. Perhaps one of the prettiest she had ever seen. The woman had bright gray eyes and lustrous dark chocolate hair. She was wearing plate armor and had a sword at her hip.

“Oh.” Holly said a smile lighting her face. “Hello.”

“I am Lady Sif.” The Perfection Personified said. “A…friend of Thor’s.”

“Thor didn’t tell me he knew someone so beautiful.” Holly gushed. “I would have asked to meet you if he had.”

“What?” The woman demanded, something like hurt flashing across her features. “If you think to dismiss me as competition then you should think again. I have been Thor’s friend for far longer than you have ever been alive. I fought for Thor’s affections when your ancestors were learning to make fire. You will not-”

“Why does Thor matter?” Holly asked looking up at the wonderfully beautiful woman with all the affection in her heart. “He’s only a man, you are far better.”

“I…”

And suddenly it felt so easy to talk. The words flowed out of her like water down a river bed.

“You have the wonderful hands of a warrior, of a woman who is strong and brave and gallant.” Holly said taking the woman’s right hand and holding it like the precious object it was. “And your eyes, oh I could stare at your eyes for ages, they contain galaxies of thought and life within them. They sing of your uniqueness and ability and I am captivated by them.”  

“My…eyes?”

“Oh your eyes and your hands and your heart, Dear Lady.” Holly said. “You shine so brightly that like a comet I dare not look away from you. How can you not know the power you hold over all who see you? You have stolen the breath from my lungs and any thoughts from my mind that are not about you.”

The woman’s cheeks were pink now and Holly felt the sudden urge to feel that pinkness on her fingers. Everything was so warm and floaty, it was so easy to tell this beautiful woman how beautiful she was. Holly didn’t remember her name and it hardly mattered, at least it didn’t feel like it mattered.

“No one has ever said such words to me before.” The wonderful woman said causing Holly to step forward and place a hand on her pink cheek. It felt delightful on her sensitive fingers.

“Then they were cowards.” Holly declared. “For any woman with a speck of bravery in her heart would see you as the glorious, desirable woman that you are and they should have proclaimed it for all the stars in the heavens to hear.”

“You…you desire the company of women?” She asked, sounding frankly bewildered by the idea. Bewildered and intrigued. Perhaps she was frightened, Holly couldn’t tell in her delirium.

“Oh Dear Lady, I desire the company of anyone as beautiful as you. Man or woman, it’s the same to me, as long as they are brave and strong and true.” Holly said, her voice turning wistful and poetic. She almost was unaware of what she was saying. She caressed the cheek of the woman in front of her one more time. She tried to remember how this conversation had started at all and only bits and pieces floated back to her. She gave up on it and just decided to let her mouth run free. “Have you never wondered about it? What it would be like to be with someone who understood you? Why strive for a man who cannot see your glory in its fullest when there are so many others who would worship you?”

“And you…you would worship me?”

“I am mortal.” Holly said tilting her head. “That is what we do best.”

Sif looked like she’d been struck by lightning and brilliant and Holly kept lightly rubbing the side of her face, delighting in the sensation of her fingers against soft skin. She couldn’t even remember why she’d started doing it in the first place. Nothing made any sense anymore. She should ask Loki what was going on.

Loki!

She’d gone to look for Loki!

“Holly!” Loki said as if she’d summoned him with her thoughts alone. “What are you doing over there? I thought you were with Steve.”

“Oh Loki!” Holly said lowering her hand from the wonderful woman’s face and turning to her friend. “I’ve just met the most wonderful woman! She’s…”

“Holly that’s Lady Sif.” Loki said. “She’s not a fan of magic users.”

“She’s not?” Holly asked, her face falling in despair. She glanced at Sif to see the woman looked as if she’d been slapped by Loki. That was hardly fair, she was the one who hated magic! “But…”

“Holly, we need to go. Earth shouldn’t be without it’s protectors for long.”

“Wait.” Sif said. “You can’t just leave. We were-”

“I’ll think you find that we can.” Loki said, taking Holly’s hand and pulling her over to his side protectively. “Holly come on, if you stick around Sif long enough she’ll call you a coward for using your magic.”

“Oh.” Holly said her voice desolate and forlorn.

“She is not a coward, Loki! It is natural for women to use magic, you are the coward for…”

“For being true to himself?” Holly interrupted. “You’re being cruel to him for using the gifts the norns blessed him with? Why? Why would you be so mean?”

Sif stopped speaking, looking into Holly’s face with horror and something like loss. Holly didn’t understand. Loki carefully pulled Holly closer to his side.

“Let’s go Holly. I’m sure you’d like to rest in your own bed tonight after the adventure we’ve had.”

“Okay.” Holly said, deciding not to say goodbye to Sif. She left the beautiful woman there, unknowing that she had just stolen a heart while wearing a borrowed dress.

Holly let Loki lead her through the crowds, she found it was getting impossible to concentrate on anything. Her feet tripped often and the world was spinning violently. She held to Loki tightly, the only sturdy thing left in all the world. She’d totally forgotten about the feast and about Sif. Strange colors filled her vision and her stomach rolled.

“I…don’t feel good.” She said.

“I imagine not, the potion is finally leaving your system.”

“Potion? When…did I take a potion?”

“Don’t worry.” Loki said. “We’re almost at the Bifrost chamber and the others will meet us there. I’m having Hiemdall take us straight to the Tower, just hold on for a few more minutes.”

“I can’t…walk.” Holly said. “My feet feel funny…I’m gonna…fall.”

The grip Loki had on her tightened as she looked down at the rainbows beneath her feet. Then she found herself being swooped up into a bridal carry. Loki held her close to his chest.

“You will never fall.” Loki hissed. “I swear it.”

“Kay.”

By the time they got to the Bifrost, Holly had successfully snuggled her way under Loki’s chin. It was nice being carried. It reminded her strangely of when Hagrid had carried her body the day she’d killed Voldemort. Except this time Loki wasn’t crying.

“What’s wrong with her?” Thor asked, his voice sounded stretched out and almost incomprehensible.

“The potion’s wearing off. We need to get back to earth now, she needs a bed. She’s going to be asleep for at least a week, if not longer.”

“Well then let’s go.” Clint said. “Come on, how does this thing work?”

Holly’s mind completely disconnected then, and she didn’t feel anything but the sensation of Loki’s beating heart for a long while. The next thing she knew she was being laid down on a terribly soft bed, wearing a large t-shirt and some soft sweat pants. Loki was sitting next to her on the bed.

“Huh?”

“We’re home. Go to sleep, you won’t be alone, I swear it.”

“Yes.” Jarvis said. “Welcome back, Miss.”

“Hi Jarv…”

And then Holly knew no more.

Chapter 31: How to Give Someone a Chance

Summary:

Everyone is finally back on earth where they belong, but with Holly asleep, that leaves Loki and the Avengers alone to deal with Frigga's shocking revelation alone.

Notes:

Everyone. Thank you all so much for the amazing reactions I got last chapter. I'm glad you enjoyed Holly when she was so full of love and also that Sif action. As a reward please read a chapter in which Holly does absolutely nothing.

Thor watched as Loki walked around Holly, trying to ensure that the woman was as comfortable as a comatose woman could be. Loki had forcibly transfigured the couch in the Penthouse into the most luxurious king-sized bed that had ever existed. Then with a snap exchanged the dress Holly was wearing with some of his own sleepwear. Now he was tending to her, summoning pillows from various parts of the tower to support each part of her body.

He didn’t say anything. Normally he’d be the one to be fussing about Holly. He’d be right next to Loki asking Loki if he thought a warming charm on the blanket would be good just in case she got cold while she recovered. But Thor found that he wanted nothing more than to lay down face first on that giant bed and stop thinking for a while. The past two days had been unimaginably stressful and then on top of that his mother had decided to shake his entire world into ruin with the reveal of his father’s final dirty secret.

“Loki.” Tony said. “I think you’ve got enough pillows.”

“How dare you assume there are ever going to be enough pillows for Holly.” Normally Loki would say that as if he were joking, but not this time. No there was no joke there now. His voice was deadly serious and his hands were shaking. “It’s never going to be enough.”

Steve walked up to Loki, placing a hand on the god’s shoulder in a way that Thor was frankly incapable of at that point. Loki stiffened in his bent over position, fussing with the blanket he’d pulled over Holly.

“What happened Loki?” Steve asked. “You’re really shaken up. Thor said that Jontunheim probably wouldn’t be so bad, did something happen to you while you were in Asgard?”

“Not so bad?” Loki hissed. “It’s Jontunheim!”

“Holly didn’t even mention that in her story.” Clint said. “What happened there?”

“Of course, she wouldn’t mention it! She only nearly died in my arms!” Loki said straightening up and using his left hand to pull roughly at his hair close to his scalp.

“Okay.” Bruce said. “Let’s all sit down and calm ourselves. We’re all here right now and we’re fine. We can take this slowly.”

Bruce, the source of reason on most days, got everyone to find chairs and settle down around the bed. Loki frankly refused to go more than three feet from Holly’s side and had planted himself onto the bed. He now had a hand placed on top of Holly’s head. He wasn’t running his fingers through her hair or petting her. He was just applying a gentle pressure as if to prove to himself that she was there, and she was real.

Soon Bruce had produced warm drinks for everyone in the room based on preference. Hot chocolate for Loki and Clint, Various teas for himself, Steve, and Natasha, and coffee for Tony and Thor. Once they all had large mugs to wrap their hands around and Loki’s shaking had eased some, Natasha explained what had happened on earth.

“Once you were taken away we freaked out. We had no idea if you’d survived or if the portal had killed you. Thor insisted that you’d be fine.” She said looking over at Thor who tried to nod in acknowledgement but failed. He was still reeling; the world was still spinning far too quickly. “Hermione checked your sigils and confirmed that the transport should have taken you both to Jontunheim and that it shouldn’t have killed either of you.”

“The ship that sent those monsters escaped before we could even attempt to attack them. Once they were gone, we lowered the protections on the castle. A bunch of witches and wizards from Hogsmeade came down and helped repair the tower that got partially destroyed, and heal the frozen over parts of the forest.” Clint added. “We weren’t sure if we should stay there or go to New York to wait for you and Holly to return. Hermione and Ron said they’d stay in Hogwarts to watch over the portal just in case you came back that way and we went to the Tower, hoping you’d come back there.”

“No one died.” Bruce said. “And everything was fixed. Some of the kids were a bit traumatized but the headmistress assured us that they’d be okay soon enough.”

“And you know the rest.” Tony said. “We got the message from Frigga about your trial and we used the Bifrost to come rescue you.”

“Well…” Loki said. “I suppose I should thank you for coming.”

“Of course, we were going to come.” Clint said. “You’re our friend. Our asshole friend but still.”

“Yes…well.” Loki said. “Holly beat you to it.”

“Could you tell us what happened now?” Bruce asked.

“We…the portal to Jontunhiem was very wide, we almost lost each other in the aether. We held on and used a fair bit of magic to ensure we didn’t die on impact with the mountainside.” Loki said. “Holly immediately started to freeze. She could hardly breathe or speak it was so cold for her. I found us some shelter and we started a fire but it wasn’t…it wasn’t enough. Jontunheim is too frozen over for a mortal. She was covered in liquid dragon guts and she was so low on magic she couldn’t warm herself. I…I tried to keep her warm but I’m a Frost Giant, not much warmth to offer.”

Loki looked over at the woman who was sleeping quite peacefully in the middle of the decadent nest Loki had built for her. There was a soft smile on her face, probably the lingering effects of the drugs she’d been on. Loki’s face was pained.

“I…listened to her as she made some final requests.” He admitted. “She was dying and neither of us had the energy to get someplace warmer.”

And what was any of them supposed to say to that? Loki shuddered a little and continued.

“Finally, right before it was too late I realized there was only one way to save her. I called for Heimdall to take us to Asgard. I said I would turn myself in if she could live. He took me at my word. The Bifrost took us away and Holly was torn from me. Two guards dragged me to the dungeons, and I was left alone in a cage for a full day, never knowing if Holly had lived or died.”

And was that not brutality? How could Thor be surprised by that knowing now what else his father had done, who else he had harmed.

“My mouth was bound and I was dragged to the trial. Odin listed out what he saw as my crimes and asked the crowds of nobles if any would speak for me. All of Asgard was silent.” Loki continued. “And then, Holly appeared. She wasn’t wearing shoes and she’d been put into a white smock that the healers give to their patients. She couldn’t physically open the door to the court room because it was too heavy, so she had to wriggle her way in. Once inside she declared that she would speak for me because it was the right thing to do.”

Of course, she would. Thor did his best to focus on the story instead of the horror of what he now knew and the fear of everything that he didn’t. He couldn’t even name it to himself in his own mind.

“Odin didn’t ask for her name and treated her like a child.” Loki continued. “She demanded that he not punish me for crimes that he himself was guilty of. She acted exactly as you’d probably imagined she did and it angered Odin so much he decided to fight and kill her to end my trial. And well, you know how that ended.”

“Well…shit.” Tony said. “What else happened? I mean Thor, you look like you’ve been run over.”

“I…” Thor said. “That is…we…”

“We have a sister.” Loki said.

“Wait what?” Their shock finally got through to Thor and suddenly found that he didn’t want to drink his coffee, delicious as it was, and he didn’t want to sit there as if Odin hadn’t been lying to him for his entire life. He threw his mug to the ground and stood up, ignoring the mess he’d just created.

“A sister!” He roared. Above their heads the clouds were beginning to swell and darken. “An eldest sister that Odin lied to us about for our entire lives!”

He began to pace, unaware that the floor to ceiling windows behind him were showing very clearly to the Avengers how truly pained he was.

“He…Her name is Hela. She was raised to be our father’s executioner! He took her from planet to planet as a child, taught her to kill and destroy. By the time I was born she was an adult and the goddess of death! She was driven mad with blood lust and instead of helping her or…or taking responsibility for her, our father just banished her to an empty, destroyed realm to roam alone for the rest of eternity.”

His boots stepped over the puddle of lukewarm coffee and ceramic shards, crunching the mess with every pass. The clouds were almost black and the air outside their tower felt dangerously thick.

“Then! Then he used that damn spear of his to make sure no one ever spoke of her again. He destroyed all mention of her in our home and he…he just pretended that she never existed! For 2000 years she hasn’t existed outside of a few mortal texts! My entire life has gone by and she’s been hidden away and forgotten like…like some bastard child!”

Finally lightning erupted, right outside the window painting everything in harsh black and white. The roar of thunder rang painfully through the ears of everyone who was conscious to hear it in the room.

“What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t see why we have to do anything.” Loki said.

And Thor froze, he turned on his heel and gave his younger brother a look.

“What?”

“She’s clearly a planet destroying psychopath.” Loki said, almost carelessly. His hand was still on Holly’s head although he was now gently carding through her hair. “What are we supposed to do with her?”

“Do with her?” Thor repeated. “You can’t be suggesting we leave her there.”

“If we let her out, what do you expect to happen? Odin threw her in there because she wanted to kill humans after they’d sided with her against the Frost Giants.” Loki said. “If we let her out either she’ll come to earth to get revenge against the humans or she’ll head straight for Asgard to lay waste to our people. Are you honestly telling me that you want to deal with that? That you want to have to kill your own kin in the name of peace?”

“She might not…” Thor began.

“Frigga seemed quite sure that she would.”

“So, you want to condemn her to an eternity of suffering?”

“I’m not condemning her to anything. That was Odin.”

“But we could free her.”

“And we could do nothing and ensure she never kills again.”

“How could you be so callous?”

“Callous? I’m being careful.” Loki argued. “Hela is just as responsible for her decisions as I was and as you are. Yes Odin is the shittiest father in the nine realms but that doesn’t justify genocide. Trust me that is a lesson I’ve learnt well.”

“You can’t just damn a woman for crimes she has yet to commit.”

“But I can condemn her for things she’s done.”

“The same things you attempted to do?”

“Oh don’t compare us.” Loki snapped. “Our situations are in no way the same!”

“Aren’t they?” Tony asked.

“You stay out of this!” Thor and Loki both said to the billionaire. Another crash of lightning clashed outside the tower.

“She’s the goddess of death, Thor! Do you honestly believe she’ll want to sit down and have some tea with us? Have a chat about our mutual daddy issues? Maybe we’ll have a pillow fight and then sit in a field of unicorns and eat from a chocolate fountain.”

“I’m not saying it would be easy. But it would be right.”

“What do either of us know about the right thing? The only person who does is Holly and she’s not going to be helping anyone for the next week at least.”

“Holly! She could help.”

“No. I forbid it. I absolutely forbid it. Holly is not going to be pulled into any more of this divine drama.”

“She could fix this!” Thor pushed. “She defeated Odin without even getting injured, she could surely take on Hela if it came to that.”

“I am not allowing Holly to risk herself. We have no idea what Hela is capable of and Holly is mortal. Mortal Thor. I had to watch her wither away in my arms because of the cold. I’m not…no. It’s not happening again, it’s just not.”

“Fine. Fine, we won’t involve Holly.” Thor said. “But we still have to do something.”

“We really don’t.”

“She’s only trapped in Hel as long as Odin lives, eventually our father will pass away.”

“To borrow a human turn of phrase that sounds like a future us problem. Odin could live for another 10,000 years. We might even die before he does with our occupations.”

“Have you no sympathy for her?”

“Of course I do!” Loki shouted, finally sitting up and letting his hands leave Holly’s hair. He glared at Thor fiercely. “No one understands better than I do what Odin did to her. But frankly I find the safety of this planet far more important. As should you.”

“Are any of us allowed to talk yet?” Steve interrupted. Both gods whipped around to glare at the captain who didn’t back down. “Because we might be able to help.”

“And how on earth are you going to do that?”

“You realize we had this exact same conversation about you right?”

“You did?” Thor asked.

“Well we had it without you big guy. We knew your opinion on what we were supposed to do with your brother.” Tony said. “But the rest of us? We had two stories, the story of the guy who kept trying to kill us and the guy who gave everything up to save some humans 400 years ago. When Holly saved us all in Central Park we had you locked up in the med bay and we had no clue what were supposed to do with you.”

“Locked up like you were, you weren’t a danger to anyone.” Natasha said. “And if we had Holly magic in supplies to you then you wouldn’t die or anything. It would’ve been simple to keep you in there.”

“But it didn’t feel right.” Clint said. “Neither did giving you up to Odin or SHIELD.”

“So we had to make a decision about what to do about you and we had to make it before Holly woke up because we had no idea if she’d break you out just because she could.” Bruce added looking a little too amused.

“And what…what did you decide?” Loki asked.

“To give you a shot.” Steve said. “We’d give you a chance to prove you weren’t going to kill us. When Holly woke up we explained to her that we wanted to see what your head space was like and we sent her in because she probably had the best chance of getting through to you. But we weren’t going to let you out until we were sure you weren’t going to try to stab any of us.”

“So that’s…she came in with food.” Loki said. “It was my chance?”

“And you passed buddy. Congrats you’re stuck with us now.”

“What an awful curse.” Loki said but there was no heat in it. “So what, we give Hela a chance?”

“I don’t see why not.” Clint said. “Someone just has to go to Hel and see if Hela is as batshit insane as Frigga claims.”

“It’s brilliant!” Thor said. “Oh brother we absolutely must do it. This is our sister, she’s been hurt far worse than either you or I have.”

Loki’s jaw hardened and despite the now more stubborn look to him, Thor knew it meant he was wavering. Thor moved so that the man was looking at him and then he widened his eyes just a little. Loki scowled.

“Fine. We’ll do it. On three conditions.”

“Name them.”

“We do the first visit before Holly wakes up.” Loki said.

“Why are you so against Holly dealing with your sister?”

“I don’t fancy knowing how the goddess of death would react to the master of it.”

“Holly isn’t the master of death though.” Bruce said.

“Do you really think that’s going to matter? I’m not risking it. Holly stays here on earth and she stays safe. If she doesn’t then we don’t visit Hel.”

“Fine.” Thor said. “We’ll visit within the next week, I didn’t want to wait anyway. The other two conditions?”

“No one goes alone, and no one goes unarmed.” Loki said. “You and I will go together, and we will be ready to fight to kill if it comes to that. There will be no hesitation from either of us. Thor you have to swear, on your hammer, that you will kill her if it gets too dangerous.”

Thor didn’t like it. He hated it in fact. He didn’t even know Hela but he already felt a kinship with his elder sister, he wanted to reach out, to heal his broken family. He could still hear the choked back tears in his mother’s voice as she spoke about her lost daughter. Thor desperately wanted to wipe away that pain. To bring them all together again. But he understood Loki’s caution. They had truly no idea what Hela was like and it was not worth depriving their mother of all of her children if Hela tried to kill them.

“Very well. I swear it.”

“You won’t hesitate?”

“I won’t hesitate.” Loki nodded, looking far more relaxed now.

“The final request is one for my peace of mind. You’ll wear a teleportation device that’ll take you straight back here if you activate it. I have no idea what will happen but I won’t have anyone who can’t teleport on their own stranded in Hel. If we’re separated you need a way to get home.”

“I would never leave you.”

“You will.” Loki said. “I can teleport, I can make portals to other realms, you can’t. If we’re separated you go back to earth and you wait for me.”

“It’s almost like you’re worried about me.” Thor joked.

“Of course I’m worried about you!” Loki shrieked. “I just held my best friend in my arms while she nearly took her last breath, and if you think I want to go through anything similar then you really are stupid.”

“Loki…’

“You’ll wear the teleportation device and you’ll use it. If you won’t then we don’t go.”

And Thor knew that tone of voice. He nodded, agreeing to Loki’s terms. It was clear the man wasn’t in a place to joke about such things. The tremble in his voice and the slight shake in his hands made that clear. It reminded him of a young boy sneaking into his bedroom because he was scared of the thunderstorm going on outside.

“I’ll wear it.”

“Then, we’ll leave once I’ve recovered fully.” Loki said. “Let’s say two days from now?”

“Two days?” Thor asked. “That’s hardly any time at all!”

“Time for what?”

“For making a gift basket! We’ve got to get started immediately, who knows what Hela likes so we’ll have to get a variety of things.”

Loki rolled his eyes as Thor turned to the rest of the group and asked for their suggestions. What did one get as a gift for a long-lost sister you had no clue existed and who was also the potentially genocidal goddess of death? Tony suggested chocolates. Natasha suggested knives. Thor didn’t see why he couldn’t do both!

“Go ahead and do whatever you want. I’ll stay here.” Loki said.

“Are you going to leave her side at all?” Steve asked.

“I don’t see why I should.”

“Right.”

“Someone needs to stand guard and make sure she’s not alone.”

“And Jarvis can’t do it because?”

“I promised I wouldn’t leave her alone.” Loki said shrugging. “Now go, put together your idiotic gift basket. I wish to be left alone.”

True to Loki’s word he had nothing to do with the gift basket, although Thor thought he saw Loki put something inside of it when he thought no one was looking. When he’d checked later there was nothing extra inside, but Thor had his suspicions anyway. His brother also didn’t help with any other packing, insisting that since it was Thor’s idea, he could do it. Loki remained by Holly’s side for the next two days. When he slept he did so under safety wards he placed around the king size bed and had Jarvis play music where in between each song he would quietly announce the hour and that everyone was safe just in case Holly became aware during that time.

The Avengers restarted the same monitoring schedule they’d put together when Holly did this the first time, what had it been less than a month ago? Either way every two hours another Avenger would go to the king size bed in the penthouse and watch over Holly, talk to her or to Loki as the fancy took them or just play music to ensure Holly never felt alone or abandoned. Loki was always there but he didn’t seem to mind the company, even if he claimed otherwise.

When the day came, they almost didn’t leave because Loki stalled by giving explicit and entirely unnecessary care instructions to the Avengers who remained.

“Dude. She’s in a coma.” Tony said. “We just have to make sure she’s warm and safe and that there’s a bunch of food for her nearby when she wakes up.”

“If she is in anyway inconvenienced while I’m gone I will hang you up by your thumbs.”

“She’s my friend too you know.”

“All the more reason not to fail.”

“How long do you think it could take?” Steve asked.

“We’ve no idea where Hela is. I can get us to Hel but then we might very well have a hike ahead of us until we can find her.” Loki answered. “I suspect we won’t be gone longer than a week, I plan to return before Holly wakes up, but anything could happen.”

“Hel isn’t for the faint of heart.” Thor agreed. “Our mother says that Hela might have survived living there but even Heimdall was commanded not to look at her, so we don’t know.”

“But we’re going.” Loki said. “To give our sister a chance.”

Loki then snapped his fingers, producing a door sized portal that would lead them to Hel. Unlike the portal he’d made for Jontunheim this one hardly strained him whatsoever.

“Now, we shall be off.” He said. “Protect Holly with your lives while I’m gone.”

“I’m sure it will be fine brother.” Loki only rolled his eyes, roughly grabbed Thor’s hand, and pulled him backwards into the portal. “Goodbye friends!”

The last thing Thor heard before the portal took him away completely was Bruce wishing him luck. Which Thor appreciated because Loki seemed to believe that the mission was doomed to fail from the start. Traveling between realms in this way had frightened Thor at first but over the centuries he’d learnt to trust his brother so all he did now was hold onto Loki’s hand and let the man lead him across the Yggdrasil. He still closed his eyes to block out the terrifying nothingness and streaks of light that he’d see otherwise though.

Thor knew they’d arrived when he felt his feet touch something solid and the smell of the air changed. Instead of the familiar scent of coffee and lavender air freshener that characterized Avengers Tower, Thor now smelt mud, dust, and rot. He opened his eyes and frowned at the sight before him.

“Welcome to Hel.”

“I don’t…know what I expected.”

“Odin always told us it was a cursed place.”

They arrived in a place that might have once been a beautiful meadow. To the left of them there was a trench in the ground that might have once held a pleasantly babbling brook. Now a dirty blue sludge slurped through it, squelching over rocks and pebbles towards destinations unknown. The dirt beneath their feet was a dark brown and had the scorched remains of weeds and plants sticking out from it randomly. Much of the ground was cracked and dry. The air was filled with some sort of strange orange smog that made everything in the distance look hazy and twisted. Above their heads a tiny red sun gave them just enough light to see how pitiful everything was.

“Well.” Thor said, looking out into the distance at what might have been a twisted mountain but could have just as easily been a hallucination. “She’s not here.”

“Obviously. Do you think she’d be waiting for anyone at the front door, like an abandoned dog praying for a returning master?”

“Is this the front door?” Thor asked.

“This is the most easily found entrance and exit to Hel.” Loki said. “The Bifrost would probably connect here unless Heimdall had a very specific place he wanted us to go to. It’s as close to an entrance as a planet can have.”

“If she’s not going to be by the exit then where will she be?”

“If I had to guess, I’d imagine somewhere vaguely livable.”

“Loki.”

“How am I supposed to know? It’s not like she left anyone clues! From her perspective no one would ever come for her.”

Thor paused at that and glanced at his brother who was glaring to the west where a burnt scorched forest lay.

All of Asgard was silent.

“Loki. We’re coming for her.” Thor said, reaching out and placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I’ll always come for her.”

“Stop talking nonsense.” Loki said shaking Thor’s hand off of him. “And let’s get going, downstream, hopefully we can find some source of water. Find the water, find her home.”

“Of course.” Thor said shaking his head a little. “Lead the way brother, I trust you.”

“Shut up.”

Chapter 32: Silver Limbs and Soft Pillows

Summary:

Holly recovers from her inter-realm adventure but has a couple of unexpected visitors.

Notes:

I'm so glad you all are excited for Hela!!! Unfortunately she's not going to appear in this chapter.
Thank you for the amazing comments! If I didn't respond to yours I'm so sorry, grad school keeps me busy and I only really have time to mess around on here on wednesdays and thursdays. If you want me to respond to something, try to comment then, or just DM on twitter. My twitters in my bio.

She felt enveloped.

She didn’t know why but that feeling felt entirely foreign to her. She couldn’t hear, see, or smell anything. She had no sense of time, of up or down. All she knew was this sensation of being cradled. Like a precious jewel in a velvet lined case. She floated along in a warm darkness, each limb laid down on sweet cushions and covered with a delightful warm weight.

As time passed, syrupy and soft, slowly more and more awareness filtered into her mind. First it was the sensation of cotton on her chest. Soft and smooth, so different from the harsh and thick fabrics she was used to. Next came the sensation of a hand on her head, gently tugging at strands of her hair and almost pleasantly scratching at her scalp. Eventually her ears opened up accepting noise and translating it to her mind.

“I know you said you didn’t like the idea. I know. But it’s not so bad, really. I mean you could be like Thor and I, wouldn’t that be nice? Imagine how much danger you could get into without worrying about the consequences if you were physically invulnerable!”

What? Something in her soul shifted in confusion. Who was it that was speaking and what did they mean? She could hardly remember her own name through the warm darkness that held her so softly, let alone trying to decode the words flowing into her mind.

“Not to say I want you in danger. In fact, I’d prefer it if you stayed safe for the rest of time immemorial. I don’t know if I can go through that again, no. I know I can’t. It would ease my heart if I knew you were protected. A golden apple could give you so much! Everything you’d ever wanted I’m sure. I just need to warm you up to the idea! Yes that’s it.”

She continued to float there, focusing on the words and ignoring the fact that she couldn’t understand them. There wasn’t anything else for her to do but lie there in the pleasant universe she existed in. It was just her, the warmth, and that confusing voice.

“I’ll be leaving tomorrow for a short time. I’ve mentioned it before but I’m telling you as many times as I can think to, so you know where I am. I swore to myself I wouldn’t leave your side if I could help it but I’m afraid Thor’s twisted my arm on this one.” The voice continued, she felt a bit sad at knowing the voice would leave, but really, it wouldn’t be so bad. She didn’t question that she was beginning to understand parts of the voice, she couldn’t really question anything. “I will be back as soon as I’m able.”

Soon? What did that mean in darkness like this?

“I know! Here’s something for you to look forward too! I’ll bring you back a gift.” The voice said, sounding strangely delighted by the idea. “Even if this thing with Hela fails, and it will, I’ll still be able to succeed in bringing you something. If there’s nothing decent in Hel, I’ll make Thor take a side trip with me so I can get you something from Vanaheim I’m sure you’ll adore.”

The voice continued talking about things to gift her with, things she had no concept of, not there in her nothingness. She listened as the voice monologued, seemingly requiring no input from her at all. She drifted along, content and filled with nothing. So much nothing that she hardly noticed when the voice stopped speaking and she knew no more.

Awareness washed over her next like the rising sun bathing a meadow in light. With it came the knowledge that her name was Holly and that there were more things in existence than just her and the darkness that surrounded her. In fact, she was now aware that this darkness was a state she didn’t want to be in. This state she was in, was not her natural one, and that she had done something wrong to be in it now.

But what?

What was she being punished for?

“We haven’t had much time to talk lately. This is…sort of nice.” The voice said, although it was a different voice this time. “Loki’s just left with Thor, just so you know. He was very explicit that we were supposed to tell you frequently where he was and why he wasn’t here. Did you guys make some sort of blood magic pack in Jontunheim or something? Cause if you did, no judgment, I’m trying to keep this a judgment free zone when it comes to magic. Even though…you have to admit it’s so weird.”

Now who was Loki? She felt as if she should know but the place where that knowledge was stored in her mind was as blank as practically everything else.

“Lila and Cooper say ‘hi’ by the way. They sent you a get-well card even though I explained that you’re not sick, at least not really. You’re just tired, magically tired. After I told them that of course Lila got worried that that would happen to her and I had to promise her that it wouldn’t because she wasn’t going to be fighting ancient space kings just to prove a point.”

Ancient space kings? What was that voice talking about? None of this made any sense. Was she sick? She didn’t feel sick. She didn’t feel much of anything at all. Just a warm, cushioning sensation. Everything was soft and sweet around her, well everything but the voice.

“I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for Lila. I have never seen her more confident and happy than she is now. She takes to magic the way I took to the bow.” The voice told her. “And it’s been better for me too if I’m honest. Seeing her do magic has done a lot for me in terms of how I see it. I mean you’re great, amazing really, but you and Loki are so beyond the norm in what you do, you know? It’s frightening seeing you tear down buildings with your mind or conjure up a million snakes from your hair. It’s all…just a lot.”

She couldn’t tell if she was being complimented or not. She couldn’t honestly tell if she knew the voice in the way the voice seemed to know her. She tried to focus her mind, even as slow as molasses as it was, to determine who was speaking to her.

“Lila though? She just makes the apples from our trees dance on the table and has been trying to get the dishes to do themselves. It’s grounding and it’s so much easier to work through how I’ve…been hurt by magic seeing Lila be herself and do things that are so simple and honest.” The voice said before sighing for a moment. “So thank you, again. I don’t know what I would have done without you. If I’d found out who my daughter was when she turned 11, without you there to knock some sense into me? I don’t even want to imagine how I could have hurt her.”

The voice continued, telling her about Lila’s studying and Cooper’s newest finger painting. Holly listened, the truth of whomever was talking to her slipping out of her fingers every time she almost grasped it. She fell back into the full inky blackness of nothing with frustration on her tongue. She had the strange feeling that the voice she was listening to often made her feel that way.

She felt more prepared for awareness next time it came. It felt like the tide rolling in, cold water tickling her feet as it came nearer and nearer.

Avengers Tower. That’s where she was. She was safe.

“I don’t know how but I’m going to make you regret sleeping like this.” Natasha said.

Or maybe she wasn’t.

“I mean you just…pulled me down into a creepy dungeon with an asshole potions master and revealed that my parents were alive and then you just disappeared from the planet for two days.”

Now that didn’t sound like something Holly would do. She’d never willingly introduce anyone to Malfoy.

“Honestly, something has to be done about that. Do you think I’m really capable of dealing with this on my own? Please. My finger’s been itching to call Fury and demand a background check ever since we left Hogwarts. The man could get me everything in an instant, I could know exactly who my parents were, even down to where they bought their groceries, right now. And I still haven’t done it. I don’t honestly know what I’m waiting for.”

What was she waiting for? Permission? Holly wondered if she could open her eyes, Natasha might appreciate that. She tried but her face remained stubbornly frozen still. Memories were slowly filtering into her brain, of a potions classroom and a parchment filled with names. It still didn’t explain how Holly had ended up in a coma but at least she was warm, and safe. Despite Natasha’s threat.

“Why do I even care? I’m not whoever that girl was! I’m Natasha Romanoff! I’m the Black Widow! I’m not their daughter, I’m not the child they used to have. I’m beyond that. I am.” Natasha said. “This is all your fault Holly.”

Oh ,that was hardly fair. Even if Holly had no idea what exactly she was being blamed for, she was quite certain it couldn’t be all her fault. And Holly would have told Natasha so if she could have gotten her mouth to move.

No such luck unfortunately.

“You should have told me no. You shouldn’t have given me hope. I’d put this whole mess behind me and then you’d given me a gift on my actual birthday and then you promised to help me find my family and then you kept your promise. Damn you.”

Okay so maybe it was her fault.

“It’s been over three days, can’t you wake up now so I can kick your ass for this?”

Three days? Her magical comas never lasted longer than three days.

As if the realization that something was seriously wrong with her had tipped off her brain, she was immediately plunged back into a velvety nothingness. It was rough and almost painful the complete disconnect from what few senses she’d had, she tried to fight against it. That only pulled her down faster. Faster and harsher than she had ever fallen before, the blackness changed from something that held her to something that was crushing her.

Holly bucked against the unrelenting pressure, it felt as if two giant hands were pulling her down by her ribs and she couldn’t wriggle free. All she could do was panic. She couldn’t call for help. She screamed inside her own mind, silent against the blackness around her, fear infecting each facet of her conscious and yet not so conscious mind.

“I’m here, honestly, you don’t have to yell so loudly.”

What?

“Oh I see. You’re still in that stupid coma thing.” The unidentified voice said. “Well, I suppose that does put a bit of a wrinkle in my plans.”

Then she felt a dreadful icy sensation touch her neck and spread out through her body, it felt colder than Jontunheim, colder than anything she had ever known, slicing through each one of her cells. When it reached the top of her head, she was suddenly able to move.

“AHH!”

“Oh, stop that. You weren’t that scared all those other times.” Said the voice, echoing through the darkness.

“Who are you?” Holly demanded moving her neck around, trying to spot something in the never-ending nothingness.

“If you have to ask that question, you’re stupider than I thought you were. Don’t disappoint me Holly.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Holly said sternly, the threat very clear in her voice. “And if you knew me at all you’d know I don’t like mind games.”

She wished she could grab her wand or her sword to help strengthen her threat but she found both strangely absent. She couldn’t even feel a spark of magic in her chest, but she wouldn’t reveal that.

“Oh, how cute. Fine, you don’t want the dramatic introduction I had planned? We’ll do it your way.”

The coldness began to recede from her body, the thing that had been strangling her stopped and the darkness became less harsh degree by degree.

“It’s already starting.” The voice warned. “Ignore it all you want but eventually you won’t be able to anymore. When that happens come find me in the place we first met.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t want me to play games. So, you figure it out on your own.” The voice scoffed, sounding closer and closer with each word. “Oh, and one more thing, your friends are in the process of being murdered.”

Before she could grab at that voice and shake them until answers fell out, she felt a force catapult her by the chest, up and up and up.

She sat straight up in a bed, a gasp on her lips, her eyes were open taking in the familiar décor of Tony’s penthouse and the unfamiliar sight of two Avengers fighting off against an unknown stranger with a silver limb.

Wormtail?

There was a terrible pain in her throat that made every breath she took feel as if knives were being dug into the inside of her neck. She watched as the stranger punched Natasha hard enough to make something crack.

No.

No.

No.

Holly forced a hand up, knowing even as she did it that it was a terrible plan. The door to the left burst open and Clint appeared bow in hand. He fired it directly at the intruder who used his metal arm to block it. He lifted up a gun to fire at Clint and Holly made a pained noise. The gun turned towards her and she heard Clint shout in denial. The archer jumped towards her, as if to cover her body.

Holly gathered the tiny amount of magic she’d managed to gather in the time she’d been asleep, who knew how long it had been, and let it fly the same moment the silver armed intruder pulled the trigger.

Her vision swam and twisted, colors melting together, and she felt a body ram into her, sending her flat to the bed.

The world went dark.

Awareness didn’t return to her for a very long time.

She wasn’t aware of it of course, but she drifted in an uncomfortable darkness, painful bruises on her throat growing and growing. A day flew past, and she laid there unknowing of the blood that now stained her bed and shirt. She felt nothing as she was carefully moved and looked over. She was unaware of the apologies whispered into her ear. Then another day flowed over her and still she knew nothing at all.

Awareness felt like acid tipped needles pricking the skin around her eyes and lips hard enough to draw blood.

It felt like torn muscles being pulled the wrong way.

Awareness hurt.

“Holly, if my sensors are accurate then some of your brain activity has returned.”

Turn it off. Please. She wanted to go back.

“I just want you to know that if you can hear me that I am sorry. I wasn’t prepared for the cyber attack Hydra sent to me, I wasn’t able to protect you.”

She begged everything in her to let her drift back to nothingness.

“The healers we brought have no idea if you’ll ever wake up.”

She didn’t want to wake if it meant all this pain. Her feet felt as if they’d been burnt by acid, her arms felt scraped raw, her knees had most certainly been bent backwards. And all of the pain was nothing compared to the harsh chemical sensation in her chest. There was a gaping maw inside of her where something warm used to be, it tore at her very being.

“Using your magic in that state. It’s never been done before. It should have killed you.”

Was she not dead? Was this not hell?

“Please, Holly. Please wake up.”

And Holly knew no more.

 

Awareness next felt like ice being placed directly onto fevered skin. Which was slightly better than the agony it had been before. She wished she could flex her fingers to chase away the phantom pain. But she couldn’t move. There was a residual soreness in her throat and in her side that was different from everything else.

“You know, Rhodey told me this was karma. He said me having to worry about you is pay back for all the worrying I made him feel.” Tony said, immediately distracting Holly from her self-assessment. What had happened? “You haven’t met him but I think you’d like him. Here, if you wake up right now, I’ll kidnap Rhodey from his dumb army job so you two can meet and make fun of me together. You’d love that.”

Painful little flames skittered out from her heart and stomach down her arms and legs. It felt like insects stabbing their little feet into her skin. Why did she hurt so much?

“But you…you have to wake up.” Tony said. “I can’t…I mean I can but I won’t, just watch you lay here for the rest of your life. So wake up. Tell me I’m ugly because I haven’t shaved in four days. Do something.”

And he sounded like he was in far more in agony than Holly was. Even the acidic type of pain that she could feel all the way down to her toes didn’t compare to what she heard in her friend’s voice. She felt something warm take her hand and hold it tightly, it sent a spasm of pain down her arm but she didn’t mind it.

“Come on Holly. Give me anything. I’ll do whatever you want if you just let me know that you’re still in there.”

Her eyelids felt sticky and her hand was numb aside from the heat that Tony was giving it. But she did her best anyway, slowly, ever so slowly she felt her eye lids separate themselves letting in a bit of light. The first thing she saw was Tony’s unshaved face. He was right, it did look a bit ugly. But that was nothing compared to his shaky gasp when he saw her half open eyes.

“Holy shit. Holly? Are you…shit! Blink once if you understand me. Come on you can do it!”

And why did she hang out with such bossy people? She let her eyelids drop quickly and then struggled to put them back again, the tiny amount of effort was enough for Tony though. He whimpered a little and then pulled her into a hug.

“Thank G-d. Thank G-d.” He whispered into her ear. “Thank you.” 

He pulled back a little and looked her in her half open eyes, his brown ones were filled with tears and relief.

“How are you feeling? Good? Bad? Murderous? Horny? Come on give me something!”

“Sir, she seems to be only able to communicate with blinking, perhaps a yes or no question would be more appropriate?”

“Right. Right! Okay. Holly. Blink once for yes and twice for no. Are you in pain?”

One painfully slow blink was the only answer she could give.

“Is it unbearable?”

It took even longer for her to blink twice but to Tony’s credit he waited patiently for her to get through it. He was still holding her to his chest, her face was cradled right next to his arc reactor, she could feel the body warmed metal on her cheek.

“Good. We can work with that. Do you remember what happened?”

Another two blinks, it was getting slightly easier to do it now that she’d managed it. She could feel blissful unconsciousness lapping on the edges of her mind, but she ignored it for a bit longer.

“Right. Well, you got shot and also choked half to death by some crazy winter hydra agent. Clint got shot too, he took the brunt of the bullet, but it flew through him and into you. It slowed it down some though, he saved your life, pushing you mostly out of the way. You were just grazed really. Clint’s fine too. The healers Bruce called from the magical hospital were able to save his life, but he’s also on bed rest.” Tony said, only rambling slightly.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Why would being shot make her feel this bone deep pain?

“You woke up during the attack, you were in a magical coma from exhaustion, but you woke up and used a spell. The healers say it nearly destroyed your magical core.” Tony said answering the question she hadn’t been able to ask. “They said you’re lucky to still have magic at all. They’ve come by twice a day to check on you and it looks like your core is reforming itself.”

Oh well that would explain it quite clearly then. She blinked once to show she understood, and Tony inwardly collapsed a little from relief.

“I was afraid you’d gotten brain damage from being choked half to death. But you seem sentient if…you know paralyzed. But we can work with that! If your body is broken, then I’ll just build you a new one. A better one. You’ll love it. I’ll even make sure that one of your fingers can shoot lasers.”

Her eyes began to slip shut and Tony shook her a little, telling her not to go back to sleep. But the tides of exhaustion were rising and swirling around her.

“No. Come on Holly. Stay awake. I need you to be awake for when Loki gets back, so he doesn’t kill me!”

And Holly drifted off with the arc reactor humming against her cheek.

Holly felt warm when she woke up next. Warm and with only a slight lingering soreness she could feel in her chest. She could feel a soft pillow beneath her neck and the smooth sheets that were bunched up around her body insulating her from the world. Magic hummed slightly in her chest, feeling odd and yet not unfamiliar.

“So yeah. Your painting is finished.” Steve said. “I brought it back from the art studio. The class we signed up for has finally ended and you missed the last two classes because of…well you know. First it was Jontunheim and now it’s this. I’m not blaming you! I’m just saying. So, I went to the last class and picked up all our work. I finished painting you now, I think you’re going to like it when you wake up.”

She was a bit sad to know she’d missed the class. Maybe she and Steve could take another one together, this time with something that wasn’t oil paints. If there was one thing, she’d learnt from that class is what that she and oil paints didn’t get along. She didn’t hold out much hope for acrylics, but it was there.

Maybe she just wasn’t an artist.

“You should wake up soon. Tony’s being humming all day since he saw you blink your eyes at him earlier. We called the healers again and they’re confident you’ll do it soon. We took you to the Hulk Room, it’s the safest room in the tower, no one is going to get in. I’ve got a bunch of food for you here too since it’s been a week and you’re going to be starving.”

Her mind drifted back to what Tony told her. She was glad she could remember that now. Her mind felt far less muddy than it had in some time. Things were filtering back into her memory and making more sense. Clint talking to her about his children. Natasha threatening her because of her parents.

And that voice.

It’s already starting. Ignore it all you want but eventually you won’t be able to anymore. When that happens come find me in the place we first met.

Who was that?

“I’m glad you’re going to be okay.” Steve told her right before she felt the nothingness pulled her right back in. “But I do have one question for you. Why did you turn the Winter Soldier into a rat?”

And she was gone.

Three hours later Holly opened her eyes without feeling any strain at all. She awoke to a world that was filled with Bruce talking out loud. Her nerdy friend was talking about the latest recipe he was having the potions masters test out for an anti-transformation potion. Holly laid there in bed, slowly wiggling her fingers and stretching her feet as Bruce continued to monologue.

“Our last test didn’t work as well as we’d hoped, it’s just not getting through.” Bruce said.

“Have you considered adding fox glove?” Holly asked.

“Fox glove?”

“Yeah, it can give a potion a bit of oomph if I recall correctly.”

“Hmmm. That might work.” Bruce mused. “It’ll increase brewing time by at least another hour but if it works we can figure out some short cuts later. Thanks Holly.”

“Any time.”

“Wait.” Bruce said turning to look at her. “HOLLY!”

“Hullo. You mind getting me something to eat?” She asked. “I’m starving.”

Chapter 33: A Very Handsome Rat

Summary:

Holly's awake now and not taking her injuries very seriously, much to the dismay of literally every Avenger. She's far more interested in the rat with a silver arm.

Notes:

Ahhh!! The response to this story has been amazing! This week we hit 100,000 hits on this story and I am so honored by that!! Thank you!! <3
I hope you enjoy this chapter as my thanks!

“At least it’s a cute rat.” Holly sounded far too amused about the situation.

“Really?” Tony demanded. “That’s all you’re going to say?”

“Well, I admit I am curious about the fact that he still has his silver arm.” Holly admitted blushing a little. “But I am rather pleased that I made him such a handsome rat.”

“He tried to kill you.” Steve said. “And you’re complimenting him?”

“I’m complimenting the rat I turned him into. He had nothing to do with that.” She corrected, sounding rather offended that they all didn’t understand that first off. Granted the offense in her voice could be down to the fact that they haven’t let her out of bed since she woke up. Steve had been the one to bring the rat, whom they’d put in a glass cage, to Holly for inspection.

“Could you at least attempt to take this slightly seriously?” Bruce found himself asking.

“Hmmm.” Holly said. “No. ‘Fraid not.”

“You almost died!”

“That’s just a regular Tuesday. I have to admit, I’m disappointed that I don’t remember being shot. I’d always wondered what that would feel like and now I’ll have to get shot again to find out.”

“You’re not getting shot again!” Steve said. “Or choked, or anything else.”

“You have no way of knowing that.”

“Holly.” Natasha said, her voice low and serious. “Clint almost died too.”

And that finally made the witch sober a little. Bruce felt the Hulk rumble beneath his skin, he’d been fighting a hulk out since the Hydra attack days ago. The Hulk was enraged that his magic friend had been that badly hurt and had been raging against Bruce for the chance to escape and help. What exactly the Hulk meant by ‘help’, Bruce had no idea.

“I…I don’t know what you all want me to say.” She said. “I was literally in a coma, I woke up…and I’m not even sure how. I can’t remember what happened, I’ve got weird snatches and some of it feels like I was hallucinating. This wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

“It is though!” Tony shouted. “This tower is supposed to be secure!”

“It is.”

“It is not.” Jarvis interrupted, his voice strained and guilt ridden. “I failed to protect the inhabitants of this tower, the thing I was programmed to do. I failed, and you and Mr. Barton paid the price.”

“Jarvis.” Holly said, her voice quiet.

“I will not be placated, Holly. I know this is my fault.”

“Oh Jarvis.” Holly said. “It’s not though.”

“It is my job to keep you safe. When you are injured, that is my failing.”

Holly sighed and ran a hand through her messy hair. The bruises on her throat had been healed by Bruce’s friends (And wasn’t that weird? The healers from the hospital were his friends now.) but he could still remember the awful purple color. He wondered if he’d ever forget. Holly looked unbearably small just then, not like Bruce liked to see her. She wasn’t sparkling with magic or bouncing off the walls. She looked vaguely ill even though she had promised them she wasn’t. Bruce’s senses, as strangely enhanced as they were, let him know that something was different. Even the Hulk agreed that Holly felt different now.

“Was there anything you could have done to prevent the attack?” Holly asked. “Anything that wouldn’t have been blatantly illegal that is?”

“I could have actually stopped-”

“No.” Holly said. “That’s not an answer Jarvis. Was there anything you could have done? Some program you weren’t running? Was there anything more that you could have done but chose not to. Be honest, really check Jarvis.”

There was silence then. Holly had a very hard look to her face as she made eye contact with the nearest camera, handsome rat completely forgotten.

“I…I had all of my security protocols running. They were completely functional.”

“Right. So you were doing everything you could.” She said.

“But.”

“It’s not your fault Jarvis.” She repeated seriously. “You did everything you could. No one died, and even if someone had died, it still wouldn’t be your fault. The blame would lie solely with this handsome rat.”

“I should have known better.”

“That’s not how it works.” Holly said, her voice harsh but not unkind. “You can’t go back in time and apply knowledge you have now to knowledge you had then. You didn’t know Hydra could do something like that. You couldn’t have prepared for it. That is not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault.”

With that her hard green eyes swept through the room and looked at each Avenger with an almost deadly seriousness.

“Carrying around guilt that’s not yours to bear will only drown you. Trust me. I know.” She said. “It’s so easy to make yourself feel terrible when bad things happen but that doesn’t help anyone, not the people who were hurt and not yourself.”

Holly leaned back against the wall her bed was situated by. She looked very tired, like keeping upright had been far too much effort for the few minutes she’d been doing it unassisted.

“I am a danger magnet. This is not going to be the last time I’ll almost die, not even close.” She said. “Nothing you can do can stop that, I promise. My old headmaster tried to lock me away in suburbia hell where no one could find me when the war started up again and I still managed to almost get my soul eaten.”

“Eaten?”

“Long story. Not relevant.”

“Sounds pretty relevant to me.” Bruce muttered.

“Look. All I’m saying is that the only thing you can do is learn from what happens and adjust your life to prevent a repeat. But castigating yourself with guilt over and over again won’t do that. I promise you Jarvis, it wasn’t your fault. You have to believe me.”

“I…you almost died.” Jarvis said, and the AI sounded so very lost. Expressing emotions that they had all felt, and yet sounding so terribly raw with it.

“And I’m sorry.” She said. “Truly. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I can’t do anything to fix this. Really, I can’t. I have tried. I became a cleaning lady, I went into hiding! I still managed to nearly get offed by a slime monster! I was in a coma and someone tried to choke me to death! I can’t stop this, Jarvis and it’s not fair to you, to any of you.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Bruce found himself asking. “You had no control over what happened.”

“Well you’re all so torn up about it aren’t you?” She asked. “I’m used to this by now. I forgot that…well normal people aren’t prepared for it.”

It was weird that she was calling them normal. They were as far from normal as it got. But Bruce could see her point, even if he hated it.

“Could you just not make it into a joke?” Steve asked.

“I’ll try.” She said wryly. “Now. Back to the rat. What do we know?”

“Nothing much.” Jarvis said. “SHIELD records have named him the Winter Soldier.”

“He’s been around for a long time.” Natasha said. “They were talking about him when I was a young girl. He…he would be sent out on missions and then get put on ice.”

“Seriously?”

“Those were the rumors. I think they told us that to get us to behave. If we went rogue we’d get frozen.” And there was so much to unpack there that Bruce forced himself not to look into it. Lest he risk jumping down a rabbit whole that was far too painful.

Holly looked at the rat in concern. It looked like a normal rat to Bruce, well except for the mechanical arm. The glass box they’d put the rat in was sitting on the bed. The rat, for that’s all it was at that point, was snuffling around along the bedding of the cage. Bruce noted it was the cheap, not at all nice kind and he wasn’t surprised Jarvis had gone out of his way to get the worst bedding available. Holly reached out and opened up the cage, she lowered her hand inside and waited.

“Holly.”

“Shh…” She said. “I’m testing something.”

The rat sniffed at Holly and then waddled into her hand. Holly scooped the rat up and lifted it to her eye level. The rat held itself still, looking right back into Holly’s eyes.

“Hmm.” She said. “I don’t know why but he’s not giving me any terrible vibes.”

“He tried to kill you.” Tony repeated.

“I know. I was there. Well sort of there.”

“And that doesn’t give you awful vibes?”

“Loki gave me worse vibes when we met.”

Oh. Well.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s like…I just don’t feel any ill will from him.” She said. “Hard to explain. Haven’t you ever just met someone and thought ‘oh they seem like an alright bloke?’”

“No.” Natasha said.

“Holly. He’s a rat. You turned him into a rat. If I know anything from my studies of magic that means he doesn’t have the capacity to feel anything other than what a rat would feel.” Bruce pointed out.

“Well yeah sure.” Holly agreed, looking up from where she was holding the large rat in her hands. “But if he really wanted to kill me that would’ve lingered a bit. Probably would’ve bitten my thumb or something.”

“It probably wasn’t personal.” Natasha said. “He’s a trained assassin. We don’t feel hatred towards our targets. It’s a job, nothing more.”

Holly sighed and brought the rat a bit closer to her face, as if trying to read its soul. Who knew, she might actually have been attempting just that. In the hours Bruce had spent getting neck deep into magical research with witches and wizards Bruce had learnt that there were genuinely things that happened that could not be explained. Magic users would be drawn in by whims, completely lacking in common sense or logic. Sometimes a magic user just did something, and they didn’t even know why they did it.

What was worse is that they didn’t notice they were doing it. As immersed in magic as they were, all of the other people in their lives would be pushed and pulled around by the same unknowable force. No one questioned why they did things. No one but Bruce.  

It had taken some getting used to.

“How big was the Winter Soldier in Hydra?” She asked. “Must’ve been pretty important if they kept freezing him to keep him alive.”

“He’s their best.” Natasha answered without hesitation.

“So, he must have a lot of loyalty to them.” She guessed. “You don’t become the best in an organization without brown nosing.”

That made Tony snort and Bruce tried not to imagine what brown nosing in an organization like Hydra entailed.

“Where are you going with this?” Steve asked.

“I’m just…curious about him.”

“Holly.” Bruce said.

“All I’m arguing is that we shouldn’t pass judgement on the little guy until we’re sure.” Why was she calling him a little guy? Why didn’t she just let them lock him up somewhere deep and dark and throw away the key?

“Of course, we’re sure! We all saw him try to choke you out!”

“Oh, not that.” Holly said. “I’m over that.”

“How are you over that?” Tony hissed.

“He is a very handsome rat.” She said turning her hands so that she was showing off the rat’s best angles.

“Are we sure she doesn’t have brain damage?” Bruce asked, which caused Holly to pout at him.

“Can we get back to the matter at hand, please?” Steve asked. “Clearly Holly, you have something in mind.”

“In my trunk, I’ve got a bottle of only slightly illegal to own potion.” She said. “I say slightly illegal because if anyone but me had that much on their person they’d be arrested on sight. It’s one of the most powerful potions ever created by humanity.”

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“Veritaserum.” Bruce guessed. “The ultimate truth serum. One drop will have anyone blabbing their secrets for hours.”

“It makes your mind totally blank.” Holly said. “I used it on a lot of Death Eaters when there were lives on the line. Safer and far less violent than mind reading. It was quick too. Just needed a drop or two and I had the information I needed to save whomever was in trouble. And it had the added bonus of ensuring that no one used any suicide pills they had on them.”

“You want to use it on the rat.” Tony said. “The rat that tried to kill you.”

“This rat’s never done anything to me except be adorable. The man this rat used to be though? Yes. Let’s use it on him. We give the rat a drop of the potion, I turn him back into a human and then we get information.” Holly told them, as if it were so simple. “If he really is as big of a deal as Nat thinks then he’ll be able to tell us…well some good intel I guess. I have no idea what sort of stuff we want to know but it’s not like he’d be able to lie.”

“Do they remember what happens under the drug?” Natasha asked.

“Yeah.” Holly said. “It’s like being really really high. Best high you’ve ever had, actually. But they remember what they say. They won’t do anything, won’t have the brain power to do anything. We can ask him if he has anything to call for help, escape or harm himself and then we can just take it from him. Then we can lock him up and send him to SHIELD with a bow on his head.”

“I don’t like it.” Steve said. “He really hurt you.”

“I’m telling you. It’ll be fine.” Holly swore. “Besides, we have no idea if Hydra is going to send anyone else. Knowledge is power.”

“I will have a weapon trained on the Winter Soldier the moment he is no longer a rat.” Jarvis said. “If he makes one move to attack Holly, he will not make any more.”

“It’s a good idea.” Bruce cut in, ignoring the fact that Jarvis was ready to murder. The Hulk was hardly any better on that front. Bruce knew the next time Holly almost died in front of him, he’d lose control and whatever was causing Holly danger would rapidly become paste. “Clearly Hydra is up to something and Fury’s got no idea what it is.”

“I’m on board.” Tony said. “Maybe we can ask the guy about this arm. I’ve never seen a prosthetic like it.”

“I’ll agree to it if you swear the potion makes them docile.” Natasha said.

“On my honor as a witch.” Holly swore before looking at Steve.

“Fine. Let’s at least do this with Clint. He’d never forgive us if he couldn’t watch.”

“Great!” Holly said. “You won’t regret it Steve.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that.”

So, they all moved to another room. Steve helped Holly up, who insisted on carrying the rat in her hands. She was incredibly unsteady on her feet, and her cheeks took on a green tinge that Bruce didn’t like at all. Holly promised she was fine, but the hoarseness of her voice betrayed her. They moved to the training room where Holly was quickly settled into a comfortable armchair that Tony had brought down from the penthouse.

Natasha helped Clint into a similar chair. Magical healing had exhausted Clint, he was pale and had large bags under his eyes. Despite this he didn’t seem to be in any pain and was in good spirits. Especially now that Holly was awake and coming up with ridiculous plans. Bruce retrieved Holly’s trunk from her room. The one she seemed to spend hardly any time in because of all the ridiculousness she got pulled into every other day. Holly opened up the trunk by whispering the password ‘Mischief Managed’ into the lock. It popped open and Holly quickly pulled out her potions kit.

“Alright.” She said. “Here’s the deal with veritaserum. It can cause brain damage.”

“What?” Tony asked. “How?”

“Well if more than one person asks a question, or too many questions are asked at once, it’ll overwork the brain and…it can kill them. Think of it like an overheated computer. Part of the reason this stuff is so heavily regulated.” She explained. “So. I’m going to give him three drops, the highest safe dosage. Then I’m going to put him down and turn him human. You all have to promise to be quiet. I’ll ask the questions, and space them out to make sure we don’t melt this guy’s brain.”

“What if I have questions?” Clint whined.

“Whisper them in my ear.” She said. “And I’ll repeat them.”

That seemed fair enough to Bruce. He settled next to Holly, protectively ready to jump to action. Everyone did the same, itching to be able to beat the guy into the concrete floor for the trauma he’d caused. Holly herself seemed wholly unbothered. She lifted up the bottle of clear liquid. It looked and smelt like absolutely nothing. Not even to Bruce’s sensitive nose. Holly carefully twisted the bottle open and used the dropper attached to the lid to bring up barely a milliliter of the stuff.

She lifted up the rat and gently inserted the end of the dropper inside. She squeezed out the miniscule amount of liquid and then closed the potion bottle back up and put it back into it’s case. The rat was strangely swaying in her hand now.

“There.” She said. “Now, Tony. Would you mind putting him down over there? About three feet in front of us? Gently.”

“Gentle. I’ll show you gentle.” Tony muttered as he took the rat and put it down as Holly had requested. No one was feeling very charitable to the Winter Soldier at all. No one except Holly of course, who seemed very charitable indeed.

“Thank you.” She said, ignoring Tony’s attitude. “Now. Let’s see. Been a while since I’ve undone a transfiguration.”

“You never said why you turned him into a rat in the first place.” Steve said.

“Oh. He reminded me of the man who betrayed my parents and led to their murder.”

“What?”

“Shhh.” She said. “Later. Now, here’s my wand. I think I remember this right.”

Why was it always later with her? Bruce grumbled as Holly lifted up her wand hand and waved it in a complicated motion, mumbling mangled Latin under her breath as she did so. The rat which had been stumbling drunkenly around began to shift and grow in size. It squeaked in pain as fur was ripped apart to reveal skin and fabric. Holly face contorted in pain and Bruce leaned forward to see blood begin to drip from her nose.

“Holly.”

“I’m almost done.” She hissed, finishing the spell with a hasty jerk. She fell back into the chair, chest heaving in pain.

“What the hell Holly!”

“I’m fine.” She lied. “Be quiet now, he’s here.”

Sure enough, sitting on the floor was the Winter Soldier. He was wearing the same exact outfit he’d been wearing when he’d broken in. Combat ready even down to the face mask and eye make-up. He was staring at Holly, eyes glazed over. Holly used the back of her hand to rub away the nosebleed and spoke.

“Can you talk beneath that mask?”

“Yes.” The voice responded, light and airy. It was strangely muffled beneath the mask, covering up any real identifying features.

“Alright. Would you like to take the mask off or leave it on for this?” Holly asked.

A pause, the Winter Soldier’s eyes blinked around the room before settling back on Holly.

“On.”

“Okay. Then it will stay on. Will you tell me if you want to take it off?”

“No.”

“Why?” Holly asked, her voice the same level of gentle.

“If I admit to wanting to remove the mask then you will force me to keep it on.”

“Where did you get that idea from?”

“That is what happens to me.” The Winter Soldier’s voice was completely without emotion or inflection. There was a slight accent, nearly unnoticeable that Bruce would have connected to New York if he’d cared too. He didn’t really take in that information so much as store it away. Holly’s nose was still bleeding but she didn’t seem to care or notice.

“Why is that what happens to you?”

“I am The Asset.” The Winter Soldier repeated. “A tool to be used. I am not allowed to have opinions.”

Something cold and awful began to settle and grow in Bruce’s gut. The Hulk rumbled a warning in his mind, a distant growl.

“What is your name?”

“I am The Asset.”

“Have you never had any other names?” Holly asked, her voice taking on a far more gentle tone. The Winter Soldier seemed torn, as if they were unsure of how to answer the question. There was a hint of pain in their eyes and in the way their hands began to tremble.

“No. Yes. No.”

“Okay.” Holly said, immediately stopping him. “Do you know who I am?”

“You are the target.”

“Do you know anything else about me?”

“I am to kill the target. The target is dangerous. The target works against Hydra.”

Well that was only mildly creepy.

“How do I work against Hydra?”

“I do not know.”

“Why did Hydra target me?”

“I do not know.”

“Has Hydra targeted anyone else in this room?”

“I do not know.”

“Do you know anything about Hydra’s plans?”

“If I survive this, they will take me and reprogram me for my failures.” The growl inside of Bruce grew bigger and he could see that anger was forming in the rest of the team.

“What do you mean by reprogram?” Holly asked.

“I will be attached to a machine that causes great pain and removes from my mind all things but what Hydra wishes me to know. Then I will be frozen.” Bruce almost wished that the potion didn’t make the man’s voice so blank. The emotionless answer hurt far more than one that had some sort of tone would have. Holly to her credit didn’t start swearing or threatening anyone. Natasha leaned forward and whispered a question into Holly’s ears. The woman nodded and spoke in the same gentle voice.

“How long have you been The Asset?”

“I have always been The Asset.”

“What is your earliest memory?”

“I am being reprogrammed.”

“When was that?”

“I do not know.”

The guy clearly didn’t know much at all. Bruce could have guessed as much. Their intel about this guy had been way off. Not about his kill count. That had been right, but about what he was. He wasn’t an assassin, he was a brainwashing victim.

“Do you know the names of anyone in Hydra?” Holly asked.

“No.”

“If you were to see their faces, could you identify them?”

“Yes.”

“Would you?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I do not wish to be reprogrammed. A good asset reveals nothing.”

“Do you want to be a good asset?”

“I do not want to be reprogrammed.”

“Do you want to work for Hydra?”

“No.”

“If we let you go, would you return to Hydra?”

“No.”

“What would you do instead?”

“I would hide, and hope Hydra does not find me.”

“Do you think they would find you?”

“Yes.”

The Winter Soldier’s swaying was increasing, even seated on the floor like he was, Bruce feared he’d fall over. There was still no emotion in his voice or his eyes and yet Bruce could feel the fear. He knew it. Steve leaned forward and whispered his own question into Holly’s ears. Holly turned and looked at Steve, an eyebrow up in question. Steve nodded.

“What would you do if we kept you here? Would you try to kill me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You are the target. I am The Asset.”

“Would you try to kill me if you were free from Hydra’s orders?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Oh, and didn’t that just hurt? Hydra had brainwashed this guy so hard that he didn’t even know his own moral system anymore. There was nothing of the person he’d once been and yet he still wouldn’t kill an innocent person unless forced.

“What would you do if I freed you from Hydra?” Holly asked.

“You would be my new handler.”

“What does that mean?”

“I would kill who you asked me to kill.”

“What if I didn’t ask you to kill anyone?”

“Then I would protect you.”

“And if I refused to be your handler? What would you do if I freed you completely and sent you away?”

“I would remain, hidden. I would protect you and do what you wanted without you seeing me.”

“Why?”

“I would owe you.”

Tony tapped on Holly’s shoulder and then leaned forward to whisper into her ear, a thoughtful look on his face. Holly gave Tony a bright smile for the question and continued.

“Would you harm anyone else in this tower if I freed you from Hydra?”

“Only if you asked me to or if they attempted to harm you.”

“Would you follow any orders except for mine?”

“No.”

Was this going where Bruce thought it was going? Tony’s phone buzzed and the man pulled it out, rolled his eyes and then showed the screen to Holly. A message from Jarvis, a question he had for the man.

“If you were freed from Hydra, would you be willing to let me use magic on you to find any information you had on Hydra that the reprogramming made you forget?”

“If you ordered me to.”

“Would you want to?” Holly corrected.

“Yes.”

“Would you want me to discover who you were before you were The Asset.”

“I was always the Asset.”

“But if you weren’t, would you want to know who you were before?” Holly asked again.

“Yes.”

Tony’s phone buzzed again, another question from Jarvis. Holly read it out loud, carefully and precisely.

“Are there any circumstances in which you would hurt me, if you were freed?”

“Yes.”

“What are they?”

“If you commanded me to or if Hydra’s control was reestablished using the code words.”

“The code words? What do you mean by that?”

“The code words are a set of phrases that are used during my reprogramming. They are repeated when I am given new orders. When spoken I am forced into obedience again.”

“If I freed you and removed the programming that had those words, would you hurt me?”

“Only if you ordered me to.”

Clint’s lips were pursed but he leaned awkwardly in his chair anyway to whisper into Holly’s ear. The nosebleed had stopped finally, but the woman didn’t look to be in any less discomfort. Why had a spell hurt her so much? Bruce knew bleeding was not a normal response to magic, especially something as mundane as what Holly had been doing. Holly nodded at Clint and then spoke carefully.

“Do you know anyone in this room?”

“You are the target. The others are acceptable losses if they died while I killed you.”

Oh how comforting. Bruce decided enough was enough. He crouched down and whispered his own question into Holly’s ear. Holly gave him a soft smile.

“Do you want to be free and to stay here with me?” Holly asked.

At that the Winter Soldier paused again. It was rare for answers not to come immediately but Bruce wasn’t surprised by the man’s hesitation.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Anything is better than Hydra.”

And who could argue with that?

Chapter 34: A Camping Trip Through Hel

Summary:

Thor and Loki are left to their own devices in the universe's most barren wasteland. Will they even find what they came for? Or will it find them?

Notes:

I know you all loved Bucky and want him to be taken care of but we're switching back to Thor and Loki for now!! Please enjoy this brotherly camping trip.

Day 1 in Hel

They hiked for three hours, following the sludge that failed to pass for water in the stream bed. Loki honestly had no idea if this was the right way to go. There were technically 360 directions they could have taken from that meadow and Loki had picked one. It wasn’t like Thor had had any better ideas. Hiking through the smog made Loki cough and so he cast a charm to clear the air around his head, Thor gave him puppy dog eyes and he rolled his eyes before casting it on him too.

They saw plenty of…interesting things on the hike. Trees twisting from radioactive magic that were long dead. Strangely shaped bones that had been stained orange and red from the air. Trenches and crevices in the ground that seemed to go down and down forever. At one point, Thor dropped a rock down one and they stood there for minutes waiting to hear a crack. When none came, they decided it would be best to move on and not get too close to anything that didn’t look like solid ground.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work out very well. By hour two they ran into a field of black rock. Layers and layers of rock that were less than an inch thick and sandwiched between pockets of air. Their steps would, unpredictably, break through the rock and their feet would fall into a hole as deep as their knees, the sharp glassiness of the rock cutting and scratching up their pants. It was a heart stopping endeavor each time it happened.

They didn’t dare to fly over the field either. If Hela was as dangerous as Frigga had implied, they didn’t want to be put into a position where she could shoot them out of the sky.

The stream they were following had cut through a part of the sharp black rock and was now flowing in a twisting pattern between the rises and falls of the rubbly rock. It still didn’t look or smell like water and flowed like slime. They saw no living creatures as they hiked across the desolate field of rocks. No bushes or weeds had managed to grow on the inhospitable surface. There wasn’t even any moss or lichen to mar the black glass.

They didn’t talk much as they hiked. They both just carried their packs and watched their feet and each other. Loki was constantly ready to cast a spell to catch Thor if the ground fell out beneath him. Loki saw his brother’s fingers twitch for Mjolnir, ready to use it to fly to the rescue if Loki tripped into nothingness. There was little point in talking anyway. The wind, which had been mild in the toxic forest was strong here, strong enough to tear the sound from their mouths and carry it away to destinations unknown.

In the distance they saw a rising mountain. It resembled the Good Captain’s shield in shape, if the shield was laid flat on the ground and also so monstrously large as to be incalculable. The black top of the mountain glinted like blood in the red sun. They were hiking around the perimeter of the mountain, the stream flowing away from the high point altogether.

“Do you think she’d be up there?” Thor asked.

“With what water?”

“Surely it rains here.”

Loki looked up at the orange sky and thought about the dry air that kept cracking his lips.

“Not often enough I wager. Besides, with no beasts to hunt she’d need to grow her food. I doubt there’s soil up there.”

“Mother said she was a crafty magic user. Are you telling me that you couldn’t manage to make that place livable?”

Loki tilted his head and considered that. The mountain, as large as it was, hardly looked impressive by Asgardian standards. Asgardian’s preferred mountains with steep cliffs and hikes that looked deadly to even attempt. Things that jutted like teeth out of the earth. This deceptively low slope wouldn’t have appealed to an Asgardian, even if it did look foreboding.

“I could. But I don’t know why I would.”

“It’s high ground.” Thor argued. “Perhaps the highest ground. She could see someone coming to her from any direction.”

That did make sense strategically.

“If she’s living up there, she’ll be using plenty of magic.” Loki said. “I should be able to sense it.”

“Even from this distance?” Loki nodded and then used his hands to motion that Thor should shut up. He closed his eyes and focused, inwardly trying to awaken his magical senses. Normally he numbed that sense, it could be exceedingly distracting and almost painful if you interacted with a lot of powerful magic. Loki’s senses were so sensitive that Holly in her full glory could give him a headache if he focused on her head on.

He expected to feel nothing at all. There was no obvious source of magic nearby. Except for Thor’s hammer of course, but Loki was used to tuning that out.

The moment his senses cleared he stumbled. Thor reached out and steadied him from the presence. His mouth filled with the taste of decay and his lungs began to hack from the pressure of death. The very stones beneath their feet remembered the slaughter of this realm. The blood of every creature, every plant and insect, had seeped into the rocks and was screaming out. Pain and horror broiled through the air.

Loki could see nothing. All he could sense was the magic of death that had stained everything within miles of them. He tried to stretch his senses in any direction, looking for a break in the madness and found nothing but continued suffering and pain.

“Loki. Loki. Stop it. You’re bleeding!”

Thor’s voice pulled him roughly back and Loki shut his magical senses off, painfully severing his connection to that level of awareness. He slumped into Thor who held him up, concern written in his features.

“Is it her?”

“No.” Loki said. “It’s just…this place Thor.”

“I know it’s not pleasant.”

“It’s death. Every stone, every speck of ash and dirt, it’s all been drowned in it.” Loki explained. “There’s nothing but pain and fear and… and war. I can’t sense anything but that. It’s too much.”

“Father did this.” Thor said, his jaw hardening. Loki nodded, feeling a bit too lightheaded to respond with some sort of quip. Thor reached out and carefully cleaned Loki’s face where blood had started to pour from his nose and ears. The pain had receded once Loki had pulled away from his magical sense. The blood was a nuisance now more than anything.

“We should keep going.” Loki said. “I doubt she’s there, if I were her I’d want to be as far from this as I could. For my sanity.”

“What if the entire realm is like this?”

“Then camping is going to be a delight.”

Thor huffed a laugh and helped Loki stand up on his own. Loki readjusted his pack and motioned for them to keep going. They fell back into silence, one far more thoughtful than the previous one. The hiked across the black rocks for the rest of the day, the tiny sun moved so slowly across the sky it was nearly impossible to notice when it began to set. They decided, without talking about it, to find a place to set up camp that wasn’t on the exposed flat rocks. Hardly safe or conducive to a comfortable camping experience.

They found a patch of cracked dirt on the edge of the field. The black rocks had an inflated look to them, as if they had been laid out like water, frozen, and then had air blown beneath them. The rock was close to 15 feet thick and had huge cracks on the top of each inflated portion. The height of the black rocks gave them cover from the wind and as they camped between two lobes, protection from three sides.

Thor set up their tent while Loki cast a few unobtrusive wards around them to warn them of anything spying or sneaking up on them. They weren’t powerful enough to keep anything truly dangerous out, but it would give them ample warning time. They had nothing that they would risk burning. The wood from the trees they’d past had been so riddled with rot and toxins that burning it had just been asking for disease. So, Loki cast a magical fire that burnt on nothing at all to warm them and their food.

It was a position they’d been in hundreds of times before, although never in an environment so hazardous. Thor was actually quite a competent cook when it came to working over a fire. Not as good as Volstagg but then again, few people were. Loki let Thor do his thing while he used magic to transfigure a few pieces of black rock into something more comfortable to sit on.

They had dinner as the sky turned purple and black in the setting sun.

“This is good.”

“Thank you.” Thor said, his voice subdued.

“Are you alright?”

“No. No I don’t believe I am.”

 

Day 2 in Hel

Loki woke in their tent to find Thor’s side empty. He frowned at the glimmery fabric that had been woven by elves to protect against the elements. Normally the tent was so insulating that Loki felt overheated when sharing it with Thor, the fact that it felt decently warm implied that Thor hadn’t been in the tent for some time. The smell of breakfast and an odd clicking sound confirmed his suspicions.

Loki waved his hands, forgoing the snap he normally used to change clothing, and spelled his armor on. Carefully he climbed out of the tent and back into Hel. Thor was sitting by the magic fire Loki had left burning overnight. He’d replaced the rack they used for cooking and now had eggs sizzling on a skillet. There was also a metal mug filled with Asgardian tea, Loki’s favorite, steaming next to Loki’s seat.

Thor himself was knitting, carefully attempting to work on the project Holly had been helping him with.

“How long have you been awake?”

“I found I couldn’t sleep.”

They were gods. One night of no sleep was hardly a danger to them but Loki still felt concern prick in his gut. He wandered over to his own seat and settled down, carefully picking up the warm mug and allowing it to warm his fingers. Hel had gotten bitterly cold at night, the wind overhead had hardly helped.

“Do you wish to speak about it?”

“We were never very good at that.”

“That’s true but Holly’s been…coaching me.”

“Ha.” Thor said, lifting up the mess of yarn from his lap to show the poor work he’d done on it. “If her lessons for you were anything like my lessons about knitting it might be best if we put it off.”

“You’re just sour because your fingers are stupid.”

“They are not!”

“They are.” Loki insisted. “You’ve never been able to do delicate work, not since we were children. You’re just as horrible with a bow.”

“You take that back!”

“I shant. It’s the truth.”

Thor growled, ready to defend his honor when he noticed Loki’s teasing grin. The fight drained out of him when he realized what Loki had been trying to do. He looked at the bright green flame between them and sighed.

“Do you consider yourself an Odinson?” Thor asked. “Or do you want to be a Laufeyson?”

Loki’s first instinct was to stab Thor for the question. Thor looked as if he knew that.

Oh come on. You said you wanted to talk, didn’t you?

Ralston’s words, imagined as they were, stayed his hand and Loki took a sip of his perfectly warm tea instead.

“Neither I suppose. I’m just Loki now. I killed Laufey and even if he was not as terrible as I’ve been led to believe I still cannot claim his name. Odin’s name is even worse for various reasons.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?  Having no family name?”

“Humans seem to manage without it.” Loki said. “They have their surnames but that’s not the same is it?”

In Asgard a family name was everything. It represented who you were, where you’d come from, and what you could become. Your lineage was the thing you presented first, proud of your parents and your ancestry. Those without a family name were…forsaken. Perhaps humans had had something like that at one point, perhaps some still did. Loki knew that magic users still held great importance to their family’s and blood lines in some circles, but it was still different for an Asgardian. So much importance was placed upon the names you carried, it was unavoidable. To admit to dropping one’s father’s name, it was insanity.

“I don’t know if I want to be an Odinson.”

Loki stared at Thor, who was gripping his knitting needles far more tightly than was good for the metal. He had no idea what to say to that. Thor looked shaken to have even admitted.

“Thor…”

“No. I know Odin hasn’t hurt me. Never like he did you. I know that. You must think me soft for wanting to disown myself for something so silly but I just…” Thor took in a deep breath, cutting himself off. “He destroyed this place. How many planets has he left like this? How can I carry his name knowing this is what he is? How?”

The metal needles in his hands bent into nearly right angles on the last question. Loki looked at his brother’s eyes, they were a stormy blue in the rising sun, he looked so torn and so lost.

“For centuries I’ve worn Odinson so proudly. Yelled it out to every place we went and…and I had no idea what people heard when I said that. It’s not the same as you. I know. But it’s still a betrayal isn’t it? He led me to believe that our family, our line was something to be proud of. I can’t. Loki I just don’t know what to do.”

“You can’t give up that name.” Loki said.

“What?”

“You are Odin’s last heir. I’ll never get the throne and I highly doubt we’d want to give it to Hela, no matter how reformed she could become there’s something to say for the corruption of power.”

“So what? I just have to carry around the weight of this bloody name for a throne I don’t even want anymore?”

“You don’t want the throne?”

“Why would I? All it’s ever been used for is destruction and death. I want no part in that.”

And how different Thor had become since his failed coronation. Loki sat there, mug in hand, and felt a wave of awe sweep over him. Thor had once been bloodthirsty and arrogant. A man ready to fight no matter what the situation was. That was the man who had almost become king. A man ready to lay waste to another realm over an interrupted ceremony. For the past few years Loki had firmly kept that version of Thor cemented in his mind, refusing to believe he could have changed.

And yet Thor had. He had.

He wished suddenly that Holly was here. She would have something to say. Some advice to give Thor that would lift his spirits. Even if she didn’t, she’d still manage to make him laugh and ease his burden a little. But all Thor had was Loki. A man who still hadn’t managed to put himself together, a man who listened to an imaginary voice of his dead best friend to cope with any problem he faced. A voice that was suddenly stubbornly silent.

“I used to dream about what I’d do with the throne.” He admitted.

“I knew you wanted to be king.”

“It wasn’t so much that as it was…” Loki shifted awkwardly. “There were things about Asgard that I didn’t like, things I thought should be better. Odin never listened and neither did you. It was nice to pretend for a moment what I would change if I had the chance.”

“And what would you change?”

“It’s…”

“Come on I’m listening now.” Thor insisted. The man moved forward to take the eggs off of the heat and plate their two large meals. There were cold meats, bread, and now steamy scrambled eggs. Loki took his plate with a murmured thanks and then ran through the various things he’d imagined throughout his adolescence.

“What do you think happens to the trainees when they graduate?” Loki asked. “The ones who come to Asgard because it’s compulsory for every able young man to train as a warrior for three centuries before they reach maturity.”

Thor knew who he was talking about of course. They’d been trainees once after all. But Loki specified their situation for a reason, Thor looked very thoughtful for a moment.

“I know some of them join the army.”

“Yes, the top five or so in each class is offered a position, a job working in the army. But what about the rest?”

“They go back home.” Thor said.

“With no useful skills that they are going to use.” Thor opened his mouth to argue the point and Loki rolled his eyes. “How often do you think a farmer is going to need to use a battle axe? Really Thor?”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is that we have dozens of these men who leave the palace without any true plans for the future. They place all their hope on getting one of the few coveted spots in the army and when they fail they go home in disgrace, thinking themselves failures. We teach every child in our realm that the only way to matter is to be a warrior, to be like Odin. That if you’re not that, you’re not anything.”

“So you want to stop honoring our warriors?”

“It doesn’t make much sense does it? We’ve lived in peace for millennium but we still live as if there is an army about to burst through the front door.” Loki said. “What about our artists? The ones who create songs so beautiful for us to hear. Or the chefs who feed us our glorious feasts? Or the smiths who literally built Asgard from nothing into one of the greatest technological marvels in the nine? Shouldn’t we be honoring them? The people who actually do something for Asgard.”

“I don’t know.” Thor said. “Being a warrior is a large part of what it means to be an Asgardian.”

“I know that. I just…” Loki sighed. “I was always the other, Thor. If I hadn’t been a prince, I would have never been offered one of those positions in the army. Don’t deny it, you know it just as well as I do. I wasn’t what they wanted and that hurt. I wanted to make it hurt a little less.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you have a chance to change Asgard.” Loki said. “You said it yourself, the throne’s always been used for war and destruction. And yes when you sit in it, you’re likely going to be reminded of how awful this place is and why it’s like that, but…You can create something better.”

“I wouldn’t even know what to create.”

“What do you want Asgard to be Thor?”

“Good. I want it to be good.”

“Then create good. Create a name for yourself that outshines Odin’s. Make it so your children are proud to be Thorsons and Thordottirs, give them a real reason to wear your name with pride.” Loki insisted. “Make me proud to be called a Thorbróðir.”

“Thorbróðir?” Thor asked, his voice trembling and his eyes teary.

“Don’t get a big head about it or I shall be forced to stab you.”

“Of course. Of course.” Thor said, lying directly to Loki’s face. “Won’t mention it again.”

“See that you don’t.”

“Although…if you’re going to be a Thorbróðir, it only seems fair that I be a Lokibróðir.”

“Not like I could stop you anyway.” Loki said. “Eat your breakfast you buffoon, we’ve got more hiking to do today.”

Thor ate his breakfast in far better spirits than he’d made it in and Loki pretended to be annoyed by that. Ralston finally piped in to tease him about his affections.

Knew you could do it.

Shut up Ralston.

When they finished their meals, they quickly packed and decided on a direction to go. Following the stream had taken them so far and they’d seen no sign of any settlement. They didn’t have any better plan than hiking up that giant mountain, something Loki didn’t want to do if it could be helped. So they continued downstream.

Thor and Loki both had packed plenty of rations and enchanted waterskins. Their waterskins held far more water inside of them than their size would deem possible but Loki was still concerned about their rations. Who knew how long they’d be here, looking for a woman who might be long dead or planning their murder as they walked. He didn’t mention his concerns to Thor, the man could after all make it rain with very little effort. Assuming the very clouds weren’t poisoned, they wouldn’t be starved for water.

Food on the other hand?

Best not to think about it until this hypothetical became far more real.

Thor’s good spirits buoyed them both for the rest of the day. He caught the man mumbling the word ‘Thorbróðir’ to himself when he thought Loki was too far away to hear. Loki didn’t call him out on it. No need to make it weird. If he’d thought going to Hel would force them to work through their issues Loki would have refused to go at all. But hindsight was always clearer than foresight and there was nothing he could do about it now.

When they spoke, it was about the throne. Not Odin. But what should be done with it once he left. Loki wasn’t much of a leader and as much as he wanted to deny it, Thor had grown into the sort of man most anyone would be willing to follow. So, if Thor was going to lead Asgard, where would he lead them to?  It was an interesting thought exercise and Thor relied far more heavily on Loki’s ideas and suggestions than Loki had expected. It was gratifying. Not that he’d ever admit it.

They hiked farther and farther from the mountain. It was so large however that it didn’t seem to change in size any. That made it difficult to even tell how far they walked. The only real proof they’d moved at all was the soreness in their feet. Past the mountain was a huge flat plain of dirt and dried dead grass. What might have been a savannah at one point was now nothing but barren flatness. The only change in topography came from the stream they were following.

It had widened to a river now, large enough across that they would have to wade through it. And just deep enough to make the very idea treacherous. The sludge moved quicker now, at least in the center. Loki couldn’t tell if the clearing of the sludge was evidence they were going the right way or just wishful thinking on his part.

The plains seemed to go on forever. A slog that never changed. It was torturous to Loki, a being that thrived on chaos and change. The terrible consistency mixed with the sky that seemed far too tall and wide was enough to make him want to break out into hives. When the day ended, they couldn’t find any place covered to camp. So, they were forced to camp in the bend of the river and settle for slightly stronger wards as protection.

They ate their dinner and clambered back into their tent. Loki doused the magic flame, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention. It left them in near complete darkness. The fog of the world was thick enough to muddle the stars and this realm had no moon to light it. Loki could hardly see in front of his face, let alone the man he was sharing the tent with.

“Loki.” Thor whispered through the opaque air. “Are you awake?”

“Not by choice.”

“I don’t know if I can be king by myself.”

“What?”

“What if I…become like Odin?”

“You won’t.”

“I already did once.”

“Thor.” Loki said. “I swear to you, if you even so much as slide one toe towards an authoritarian regime I will stab you with a poisoned blade.”

Loki didn’t even have to see to know Thor was grinning far too wide.

“Thank you, brother.”

“Shut up.”

 

Day 3 in Hel

By day three Loki had lost much, if not all, of what little patience he’d gone into this endeavor with. There was nothing here. Nothing. If he had to spend five more minutes in this damn plain of nothing he would start to consider fratricide. His mind was starting to melt into nothingness with every damnable step he took. At midday he started to threaten to leave Thor here to continue on his own.

Thor ignored him.

The git.

Ralston also spent much of the day calling him a drama queen which hardly improved the situation any.

When they settled down to camp for the night, the damn mountain the same size as always, he swore that if they didn’t seem something new first thing in the morning, he’d kill Thor and then himself. Newly reforged brotherly bond be damned.

 

Day 4 in Hel

So perhaps he’d overreacted some the day before. Thor had not been as amused that morning as he had been the day before. Loki’s piss poor attitude finally getting through his tough skin and annoying him. Thankfully before any godly sort of fight could break out over how annoying Thor sounded when he walked, they reached the end of the plains and finally saw something different.

Loki nearly wept at the sight.

It was perhaps the ugliest swamp in existence, and also the deadest, but it was something. A change. A different thing to look at than the oppressive nothingness that had been pushing down on him for two days. Even Thor looked relieved to see it.

Of course, that relief was short lived. Walking through the sludge filled swamp was hardly a treat. The sludge had mixed with mud to create a thick viscous fluid that held fast to their feet and required much of their godly strength to move through. Their clothes quickly became stained with ugly brown and puke colored sludge that hardened into an almost terracotta like coating that cracked and scratched with each movement.

Thor didn’t make it any easier on himself by insisting on carrying his pack over his head.

“I don’t want to get her gift basket dirty!”

“You need your hands free. What if you slip you dolt?”

“I won’t slip! I’m in complete control of my feet.”

He slipped four times in the next fifteen minutes and it was only thanks to Loki’s spells that his pack didn’t get completely submerged and lost forever to the muddy sludge. Thor’s hair however, was not so lucky. Loki was lucky because watching Thor stumble around and take accidental mud bath after accidental mud bath cheered him up immensely. His poorly suppressed giggles annoyed Thor, of course they did, the man never did learn how to take a joke.

Which was how they ended up having a mud fight halfway through the swamp trek. Loki used magic to protect his pack and then used his hands to throw lobs of mud at Thor’s face. Thor was just as merciless. They ended up completely drenched and covered in the stuff. It was impossible to tell who was who beneath the mess. Loki would have been annoyed but he was too busy laughing and pushing at Thor in retaliation.

They clambered out of the swamp after hours of hiking to find themselves facing what might have once been an ocean. It moved like an ocean but it had a covering of filth on the top that roiled with each incoming wave.

“I suppose we could reach that by the end of tomorrow.” Thor said. “What next?”

“I’ve no clue where to go after that. I don’t know if we’re going to find any hints either.”

“Well. Well. Well. What do we have here?”

Loki and Thor turned as one to see a woman with dark hair glaring down at them. Before they could react, she snapped their fingers and they fell unconscious to the ground, still covered in mud.

Chapter 35: Hela Odindottir Meets Her Two Idiot Brothers

Summary:

Hela has no idea why these mud covered fools are in this realm and she can't decide if she's curious enough not to kill them immediately to find out.

She hadn’t heard another voice in millennia.

To hear two distinct voices had been something of a shock.

She couldn’t tell if it was a good shock or not.

She was going to go with a hateful shock.

Hela glared down at the two beings who had entered her domain. Who knew how long they’d been prancing around her realm making fools of themselves. The unconscious bodies were covered with mud completely concealing any identifying features. She knew that mud gave even a god a terrible rash if left on the body for too long. She didn’t see the need to magic the mud off of them either. Served them right for throwing it at each other like idiots.

She stepped forward to kill them. No one came into Hel. No one. This was her barren wasteland to rule. She was queen of it all and she did not allow for trespassers. She conjured a knife and knelt down next to the skinnier one prepared to deal the final fatal blow. Her knee brushed against the shoulder of the man and she froze.

What was that?

Hela reached out and placed a hand on the forehead of the skinny man, her fingers digging through the mud to reach bare skin. Yes. That. Hela had never felt anything like it. It was incredibly familiar in some aspects. The power of it she knew. Someone, somewhere had placed a mark of protection on this man. It wasn’t formalized but Hela could still read the intent, the desire.   

She focused a little, calling forth magic she hadn’t used since she’d been banished, and divined what she could read. Powerful yes. There was love there, affection too. The person who’d placed this loved fiercely, so much so that their magic had imprinted on this man, almost accidentally as if the love had just bubbled out and over them. The longer Hela used her magic sense to search for this mark the stronger it grew, tears pricked her eyes and she angrily tore her hand away.

She had forgotten. Forgotten what other voices sounded like. Forgotten the scent of clean air. Forgotten the taste of good food. Forgotten love. And love like that was so different, so bright compared to her dim memory. She remained kneeling, knife in hand, posed to swing down as she tried to force her mind to bring up the feeling of her mother’s affections. But they were gone. Gone just like everything else.

What did it matter that she had forgotten her mother’s voice, her face, her love? Frigga hadn’t loved her. She would have come for her. She would have rescued her from this place. She would have kept Odin from banishing her to this hateful realm. Long enough had passed to make it clear that if Frigga had ever truly cared for her, she no longer did. It was better that she had forgotten. She shifted and prepared to kill the skinny man again.

Are you really going to kill someone that beloved?

She paused mid-swing again. She wanted to hate the man beneath her, that he had what she lacked. That was enough for her to want to wake him up and make sure he was aware of the pain she was going to cause him. But…the power in that mark. She wondered if it would be worth it, risking the wrath of whomever had laid it. It would be a glorious battle certainly. It had been far too long since she’d had a true challenge.

Something warned her off though. Some hint in the magic that lingered around the man beneath her. It had a distinct flavor she hadn’t encountered in a long time, long enough that she had forgotten its name. But that flavor was distinct enough to make her pause. There was something there, she chased after the identity of it, trying to sift through the love and loyalty to find the underlying cause.

But there was just too much love in this magic’s aura. Like a meal that had been over spiced it dominated and drowned out every other flavor. Hela growled in frustration and let the knife dissipate back into the aether. She couldn’t kill this one until she knew what being had touched him with their magic. She had the suspicion that the large one would have the same stupid mark on them.

Sure enough when she checked the stupid muscular looking one had the same mark. She snarled and kicked at the ribs of the bigger man just to release some of her aggression.

Why were they even here?

Had they come to gawk at the fallen princess? Laugh at the banished executioner? Had they been sent to kill her? Had Odin dared to assume that her time here had weakened her? No. She was more powerful than ever. She had claimed this realm, tamed it to her will, and she was far more powerful than that treacherous old man could even imagine. One day he would weaken his hold on her and when he did she would escape this place and lay waste to Asgard and every other realm Odin owned.

He only owned the nine because of her. She would rip everything he fought for from his fingers and then she’d cut his fingers off one by one so that he could never hold anything ever again. She glared down at the two unconscious men. If she wasn’t to kill them then interrogation would be the order of the day. She snapped her fingers and the two men lifted up in the air along with their belongings.

She turned and began to stalk across the land towards her home.

She had built the fortress in the first century of her banishment and it had only grown in scope and strength since then. She had thought to build it on a mountain or cliff as a defense but in the end she wanted to build it near the river’s delta. Make Odin think he could siege her. Make him believe it easy. He would see the truth soon enough. She walked a little distance towards the sea before turning right, her teeth grinding all the way.

What had Odin done in Asgard since her banishment if two weak men thought they could enter her realm and act like children? She had destroyed the Valkyrie. She was the scourge of the realms. Banished or not she could destroy anyone who faced her. The disrespect of these two, mucking about in a poisoned swamp like her realm was their playground. The gall to enter her realm with a mark that outshone the sun with its love. Now that she had focused on that magic she could not ignore it, she could feel it radiating behind her.

She hated it.  

Her fortress came into view in time. An opposing structure made up of black stone. The outer wall was thick and tall, large enough for anyone to walk across on the top and the stone sizzled with wards and offensive curses for anyone who dared to touch it. There was no visible gate, only a doorway hidden with powerful glamors. She walked unerringly towards it and walked through the solid stone, her magic pulling her unconscious captives along with her.

On the other side of the wall there were farms. The only living soil in the entire realm growing her food and the only clean water giving it all life. The air was mostly clean here, free of the toxic fog. She preferred to be the only deadly thing in her living space after all. There were stables with animals she had managed to capture before everything died. Invisible magical hands tended to this portion, she never had to think of it. Past the farms there was her castle, smaller than Asgard’s but far more deadly, far more treacherous.

She stalked up the black stones and waved her hand forcing the red sandstone doors to fling themselves open. She continued into the maze like hallways that moved and changed on a whim until she got to her throne room. Her throne was made of bones and skulls, accented with glittering stones and gems. It was imposing and frightening. The perfect place for the goddess of death. She snapped her fingers again, separating the men from their belongings and shackling them to the walls with metal far stronger than any god’s arm could bend.

She turned then to the packs. She would discover what they’d come for and then she would torture them into confirming her suspicions. Then once they bored her, she’d banish them from her realm without a second thought. They were lucky they’d been marked. Torture was the least she could do for their insults to her. She picked up the first one, opened it, and dumped out the contents onto her floor.

A tent, elven in make. A bag of carefully stored food. A set of clothing. A few knives.

Nothing of worth, or of value to her. Although she would keep the things just out of spite. She turned to the other, heavier pack and dumped its contents out as well. This one also had food and cooking supplies. There was also yarn and two needles in the middle of creating what Hela assumed was a child’s attempt at a blanket. But what was most interesting was the woven basket that had been carefully clasped shut and protected from the harsh elements of Hel. She picked up the basket and studied it. There was magic weaved into the wood of it, keeping the thing dry and clean. It also appeared to hold more than its size would suggest.

There were no curses or hexes that she could sense. So, it took very little effort to snap open the clasp on the front and push open the lid. The first thing she saw inside was a piece of parchment. She unrolled the parchment and blinked at the runes written within. She had forgotten the written word. Not that she had had much practice with it before. Odin’s training of her had left very little time for recreational activities after all. It took a bit of effort to remember why the runes on the top looked familiar.

It was her name.

Her hands shook and the basket dropped to the floor.

She stared at her name, her face twitching. It wasn’t even the names others had given her, goddess of death, destroyer of worlds, Odin’s executioner. No, it was her name. Hela. Only Frigga had called her by that name near the end. She’d gone by General, even Odin had taken to calling her that. And yet this letter, which she could not read, began with her name. Shame and frustration bubbled up within her.

What else had she forgotten? What parts of existence had faded away during the centuries she had spent here in Hel alone? She glared at the runes, willing them to make sense, but nothing came of it. She roughly tossed the parchment to the side and opened the basket up again. She tore out the first item in the basket and saw it was some sort of odd item of clothing.

It was made of thick yarn and it was incredibly soft, clearly meant to be worn over the chest. It felt warm. And then, there was that magic, the same magic that marked the two men, woven into it. It did not shine with love, not like the marks, instead it hummed with that flavor she could not identify. There was a sense of safety, of calm inside of the magic. It felt terribly foreign to her.

She searched through the rest of the basket. A bottle of wine was nestled safely inside next to a box that was filled with a brown colored food she’d never seen before. She sniffed at it and it smelt sweet. There were other things mixed inside as well. Baubles lying next to an ornate knife. There were plenty of soft things as well. A blanket of far higher quality than the unmade one that had been in the pack. The things were far too soft for anything appropriate in Hel.

Why had they been brought?

She found herself sitting on the floor of the throne room surrounded by what appeared to be gifts. Most of the gifts had nothing to do with her being the goddess of death. There were no corpses or bottles of blood or poisons. Just soft and sweet things. Even the knife looked more decorative than useful. Why?

None of this made any sense whatsoever. She was infuriated by it all, by what this softness implied. She had the sudden urge to tear it all up and destroy it. Then kill the beings who had brought these annoyances into her life. She should eliminate them, erase everything she disliked about this intrusion onto her solitude.

She snapped her fingers again, putting everything away. Then she got up and magicked the men awake. They both gasped immediately, awareness cutting into them like a knife.

“Why have you come here?” She snarled. When they didn’t immediately start speaking she re-conjured her knife and thrust the tip towards the throat of the larger one, stopping a breadth from cutting into his throat. “Speak up before you lack the use of your throat!”

“I…We…The…”

“We bring you good tidings of great joy!” Said the skinny one, almost tripping over his words in his haste to stop Hela from gutting the other one.

“Oh?” She asked, not moving the knife an inch.

“Yes!” The man said. “It’s…uhm…about Odin!”

“If you had any idea who I was you would know I care very little about that pompous old fool. If you’ve come to bring a message from him then I will kill you.”

“No. No. Not from him. He and I are certainly not on speaking terms.” The man said. “Which is sort of the point. You see he just got his ass handed to him.”

Now that was good news. Hela didn’t move the knife from the larger man’s throat but she did loosen her stance slightly and motion with one hand for the skinny man to continue speaking.

“You see it was at my trial. For crimes I committed.”

“You did not commit…well you committed some crimes.” The larger man sighed. “But that trial was hardly fair.”

“Fair is not in Odin’s vocabulary and you know it.” The skinny one sniffed. “I was tied up in the throne room and unable to speak in my own defense.”

And wasn’t that just like Odin to try one of his own citizens like an animal. She wondered why these men had come to her exactly with the news. Had they been banished as well? Why then did they have supplies?

“You are the god of lies.” The stronger one pointed out.

“Is that something you really want to bring up when someone is holding a knife to your throat?”

“Uh…No?”

Okay so they were idiots. Hela could work with idiocy.

“Continue with your story or I’ll make you watch as I gut him like a deer. No lies, Asgardian.”

“If we’re being entirely honest, I’m a Jontun not an Asgardian.” The man said, she glared at him. “Sorry sorry. Anyway, Odin declared my crimes and asked if anyone in Asgard would speak for me. Of course, since he had Gungnir and was using it quite openly no one could even if they had wanted to.”

“I would have spoken for you.”

“Which is why he ensured you were off realm for my trial. Stop interrupting or you’ll get yourself stabbed and I doubt she’ll be as nice about it as I’ve been.”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway. My friend, one of the greatest persons I’ve ever had the honor of knowing, broke out of the healing halls where’d Odin had ordered her to be held captive and broke into the throne room wearing nothing but a healing gown. She spoke in my defense, called Odin out on his hypocrisy, and angered him enough that he declared that my trial should be by combat.”

“He intended to kill her.” Hela guessed. “And then you.”

“Exactly. He believed that because she was of Midgard that she was weak, he even pushed her to use her magic in the fight instead of a physical weapon. He thought she was ignorant.” The skinny man said. “Oh, it was beautiful. She practically destroyed him you know, left him with nothing but rubble and a destroyed Gungnir for his troubles.”

“She destroyed Gungnir? Now I know you’re lying.”

“I’m not.” The skinny one said. “If you’d allow me to cast a spell, I can show you the memory, no tricks then. Come on, don’t you want to see Odin finally getting thrown into the dirt? It’s very satisfying, I promise you.”

“Just the one spell, I won’t be moving this knife.” Hela said, allowing herself to be tempted. The god of lies was quite good at being convincing. No wonder he’d been given the title. The man smirked and waved his right hand still tied to the wall. An illusion immediately grew over the room, changing her throne room to the painfully familiar sight of the Royal Arena.

She had killed her first man in that place. She could still remember the taste of it.

She watched as a tiny woman who wore no shoes, a human by the looks of her, refused to bow to Gungnir and called Odin her bitch. Hela was so enchanted by the entire fight that she unconsciously moved the knife away from her captive’s throat. Even as the woman commanded Odin to surrender Hela knew he wouldn’t. When the human destroyed the arena as a result Hela wasn’t surprised.

“Why did Gungnir not make her bow?” Hela asked. “She’s a human, humans bow to the All-Father.”

She knew, she was the reason after all.

“Not all humans.” The larger one corrected.

“That would be my fault.” The skinny one admitted. “About 400 years ago the human magic users were in a bit of a bind and I asked Odin to help them, he refused. And I thought that since Odin refused to be the king they deserved then he shouldn’t be king at all.”

Hela was really starting to like the skinny one. She wasn’t convinced about the muscular one, he seemed quite stupid.

“You led an uprising against Odin?” She asked. “Truly?”

“In a sense. I used a powerful spell to create a hidden 10^th realm. Any magic user who calls Midgard home is a member of that tenth realm and are thus free of Odin’s rule. After 400 years of freedom they produced a magic user capable of destroying Odin so, really I’d call that a success.”

“As if you planned it like that.”

“I still get the credit.”

“You two came here to tell me about this then?” Hela asked, motioning to the illusion of a still destroyed arena.

“No.” The bigger one said. “I wanted to meet you and I made Loki open a portal for me.”

“I am under here under duress I assure you.”

“What do you want with the goddess of death then?” She said turning to look at the mud-covered fool.

“You are…You were banished when I was an infant. Everyone younger than I, none of us know you. Odin erased you from our history. The older generation was forced to hide the truth with Gungnir.” The man said. “When Holly destroyed Gungnir, Frigga could finally tell us that we had an older sister.”

The knife fell from her hand. It clattered to the stone floor, destroying the illusion with a crash. She snapped her fingers banishing the mud on both men to reveal faces that looked horrifyingly familiar. The larger one had Frigga’s hair and her eyes, looking very similar to Hela’s Vanir grandfather. The skinny one looked just like she did. Lean with dark hair and cunning eyes, Odin’s son.

She remembered her infant brother. A blonde dense cherub that laughed whenever someone made a loud noise. She remembered hating him. Hating him that he gained Odin’s affections so easily while Hela had had to kill and struggle for even a drop of it. She’d hated what he represented, a golden replacement for the new version of Asgard that Odin had wanted to create.

“Why are you here?” She demanded.

“I didn’t know of you.” Thor said, his face so terribly earnest. “But I want to know you. You are my sister, my family. Odin should have never thrown you away, never. I have had to face all of the wrongdoings of my father and I don’t want to follow him any longer. He lies and betrays and he is a hypocrite of the highest order. If he treated you anything like he treated Loki and I then you didn’t deserve it. I came to find you, Hela. I brought gifts for you! I didn’t know what you’d like but I thought…Hel is probably cold so warm soft things would be nice. I also brought you my favorite sweet thing to try and I-”

“Shut up.” She said, stepping back a little. “Just stop talking.”

She couldn’t listen to this, couldn’t comprehend it. She didn’t even want to.

“If it helps.” Loki said. “I put some high proof alcohol in that gift basket just in case you wanted to get drunk and bitch about Odin for a bit.”

And that? That sounded utterly divine. Loki was looking at her with eyes that were far too understanding, and she knew she’d needed to be very intoxicated to deal with that. Not to mention Thor’s idiotic earnestness. He spoke of her like she wasn’t a killer, like she was some misunderstood child, as if she hadn’t made the choices she had and as if she wouldn’t make them again. It was easy enough to get the bottle out of the gift basket and take a long and large swig of it straight from the bottle.

It burned all the way down.

After a moment’s consideration she freed her two brothers sat down on the floor in front of them and handed the bottle to Loki. If they were going to curse Odin’s name they might as well do it properly. Loki hadn’t been lying about the strength of the alcohol either. She also found to her delight that it was charmed to never run out.

It’d been millennia since she’d gotten drunk.

Once things were properly hazy the bitching began in earnest.

“Why…why are you an Odinson if you’re a Jontun?” She demanded.

“I’m supposed to be your replacement.” Loki slurred out. “Found me after he genocided the Jontuns and and I shapeshifted in self-defense. Looked just like you ‘pparently. Took me home and decided I’d be the new you. Punished me for everything ever since cause you weren’t there no more.”

“Yeah that sounds right.” She said. “Was always such a bastard.”

“I’ll drink to tha’! Thor pass the bottle.”

Thor passed the bottle, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Hela turned to him, her cheeks slightly flushed.

“Wha’ about you golden boy? Wha’ Odin do to you?”

“Nothing.” Thor said. “He didn’ do anything to me. He just…told everyone how great I was and never talked to me unless it was to tell me that I…I was being a bad ‘xample to Loki. As if Loki ca-cared what I did.”

“Thas not true! I cared! Thought you were stupid.”

“He seems stupid.” Hela agreed causing Loki to giggle maniacally and Thor to pout like a drunken puppy.

And so, it went. Hela’s desire to murder the two men in front of her decreased with every complaint about Odin that they released. Her own bitterness rose like a tide from her throat and when she let it flood out, they didn’t disagree with her. Not like Frigga had. Not like everyone else had. No, they agreed. It was incredibly validating. It helped that Loki loved bringing up all the times he’d pissed Odin off over the centuries. That was hilarious.

She learnt a few things about her brothers. Loki so similar to her in temperament but without that vicious drive to rule. He preferred mischief and chaos to death and order. Thor was incredibly sweet, sometimes stupidly naïve, and always irritatingly earnest. Thor who had seen Odin through rose tinted glasses his whole had life been forced to see him for what he was and was now coming to Hela for…what? Absolution perhaps.

The drunker they got the easier it was for Hela to ask things.

“Whas this say?” She asked picking up the parchment. “For…forget words you know? Odin didn’t like when I read, said I should be killing things instead…slipped my mind how now.”

“Ah.” Loki said. “I spent all my time in the library cause it annoyed him.”

“And you’re a nerd.” Thor sniffed, the blonde took the note and carefully read it out in a very officious voice. “Hela, I am your younger brother Thor and I have prepared this gift basket for you to show you that I want to be friendly. I do not know if I can free you but I want to be a family with you if you will let me. Thor.”

“Free me?” Hela asked. “Can’t free me. Odin’s got me locked here.”

“We can’t.” Loki corrected. “But Holly can do anything. If she wans.”

“The mortal?”

“Mhmm.”

“She could free me?”

“I think?” Loki shrugged before taking a large sip of wine and passing the bottle over to Hela. “If she thought it was a good thig…thing.”  

Something like offense prickled in her gut and she glared at the two men.

“What would be bad about it?”

“You tried to…to destroy her home realm before you got banished.” Thor pointed out.

Well, even in her drunken haze she could admit that that was fair. It wasn’t like she particularly regretted destroying any of the places she had. Conquering was what she had been raised to do. It was what she was best at. Anything else just seemed pointless to her. Even now as she imagined freedom it was her being free to destroy.

“I’d leave Midgard alone.” She said. “Whole universe out there to conquer.”

“See that’s…that’s bad.” Thor said. “Shouldn’t conquer at all.”

“What? No. Conquering…Conquering’s what a ruler does.”

“S’what Odin does.” Loki said. “And he’s a bitch!”

“He’s Holly’s bitch.” Thor said wisely causing Loki to cackle loudly again and Hela to giggle.

“So…So I shouldn’t conquer cause Odin did it? I can do it better.” Hela pointed out. “I’m death, goddess of death I mean and no one can do it better.”

“And I make…make the best storms.” Thor said. “But whas the point of tha? Destroying things with lightning or ruling a bunch of planets, wha good isit?”

Perhaps having a conversation like this while drunk was a poor idea. But Hela knew herself well enough that if someone said that to her while sober she wouldn’t hesitate to eviscerate them.

“S’good cause…cause I can lead tha best.” Hela declared. “Make the whole universe strong like Asgard.”

“Midgard’s better withou’ Asgard.” Loki said. “Magic users a least. Maybe the whole universe woul be better on its own.”

“Thas stupid!” Hela said taking a huge gulp of wine. “I woulda been a…tha best Queen ever. The world jus doesn know it. But it will. I’ll get free and I’ll…I’ll own evrythin.”

She was certain of that much at least. When she escaped, she would head straight for Asgard, she would awaken the dead warriors of old and command them in glorious conquest. Nothing would stand in her way. Nothing. She told her two brothers all of this, promised them places at her side if they wanted them. She was, after all, better than Odin. In her drunkenness she didn’t notice that neither of her brothers accepted the offer.

“You already own this realm.” Loki pointed out.

“An’ its awful.”

“Whose fault is tha?” Loki demanded. “You wrecked it and never fixed it up any! S’not very Queenly!”

Hela refused to admit he had a good point. They’d consumed so much wine by that point that she had a hard time keeping herself upright, even sitting on the floor like she was.

“I otta stab you.” She said. “I’m the heir to the throne. You shuld respec’ me.”

“Why do you even wan’ that anyway?” Thor asked while Loki scoffed. “You could do anythin’ why do what Odin did? Could be better. I wanna be better.”

“‘M tha goddess of death.” She said. “S’what I do. I destroy.”

And that was it wasn’t it? She’d taken on that title a long time ago, as a young girl not yet an adult, fighting alongside her father. She knew what she was deep down. She had this edge about her. She did not fear death, she reveled in it, accepted it. All things die and Hela was just a part of the process. She could no sooner change that than she could make Odin love her.

Ah. She’s reached the depressed staged of drunkenness.

“You represen’ all death?” Loki asked, his words slurring, even worse than before.

“Yesss.” She hissed.

“Even tha nice ones?”

“No such thing!” She said waving her arm wildly. She upset her balance and fell to the floor of the throne room with a thud. She found she lacked the desire to push herself back up.

“Uh huh.” Loki insisted. “What about…dying when you’re really old surrounded by famlee? Thas nice.”

“It’s boring.”

“Peaceful.” Thor decided. “Death can be peaceful. Doesn’t have ta be painful.”

“And what of it?” She asked, confused. She looked up at her two younger brothers who were just as drunk as she was. The only reason they were upright was because they were leaning against the wall.

“Odin made you think that death was mean.” Thor said. “Can be nice, you can be nice if you wan’.”

“Thas stupid.” She decided, her eyes beginning to pull shut. “You’re stupid.”

“I know.” Thor said mournfully. “Loki’s the smart one.”

“He’s stupid too.” She sniffed.

And finally, thanks to centuries without access to alcohol, her tolerance for drink had been reached and she was pulled into blissful unconsciousness. The last thing she heard was Loki declaring that he was cunning not stupid.

She awoke many hours later without a hangover. As if she’d be so graceless as to get something as mundane as a hangover. It took her a moment to remember why she was drunk and why she felt so warm and comfortable. She opened her eyes to see that she was still in the throne room. But the stone beneath her had been changed into a comfortable bed, the likes of which she’d had in Asgard all those years ago, and on top of her was the blanket Thor had brought as a gift.

She felt cradled.

It was a very alarming sensation. She was used to sleeping on hard things. The goddess of death did not need softness after all. Slowly she sat up, expecting to see her two brothers passed out somewhere nearby. To her displeasure the room was empty and the wards in the castle told her that she was alone once more.

She should have killed them.

“You’re awake.”

Hela’s face snapped to the side so quickly it nearly hurt her neck. Leaning against the far wall was Loki. Or rather a magical construct of Loki.

“I had a feeling you’d try and kill us in the morning once you remembered the things we said.” He explained. “Though it might be best if we gave you some space.”

She glared at the construct, not denying the validity of his fears. Now that she was sober some of his words in particular smarted quite harshly and she had the desire to do at least a little stabbing, perhaps some slashing just to mix things up.

“But. I don’t want you to think we abandoned you. The gift basket is still yours of course.” The construct explained. “I’ve also taken the liberty of creating this.”

The construct waved his hand and revealed a large ornate mirror gilded in silver. It had been stuck to the wall and looked incredibly out of place in her castle.

“It’s a magical mirror. I’ve connected it to another mirror, one that I will keep on my person. Anytime you want to talk, just knock on the mirror and call my name and I’ll hear you. If you’d like visitors, then we can arrange that. It’s more polite this way don’t you think? Thor also requested me to tell you that if you need any sorts of supplies to not hesitate to ask, he’s more than willing to smuggle whatever your heart desires.”

Of course, he was. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and gave the construct a look.

“What about my freedom? Your friend can free me.”

“She can. But she won’t free a conqueror.”

“The universe needs me, needs my firm hand. She must free me.” Hela demanded. “I deserve justice!”

 “Perhaps you should try to convince her of that yourself.” Loki said. “I’ll be back on earth in a few days, taking a side trip to Vanaheim before returning to earth. When I get there, you’re free to request an audience with Holly. No need to take my word for it.”

“Fine.” She snapped.

“Good. Oh, do enjoy the chocolate Thor gave you.” The construct pointed out. “I hope to see you soon Hela. You’re excellent company when you’re not threatening murder, and sometimes even when you are.”

“You’re just flattering me.”

“Perhaps. Still true though. I haven’t laughed that much in a long time. Thor feels the same I’m sure even if you did call him quite a few cruel names near the end of our drinking binge.”

“He deserved them.”

“You won’t hear me argue.” The construct flickered. “Oh. It appears the magic is fading. Hela, please consider what we talked about last night. Also, you should really consider some new décor. This place is far too gau-”

The construct failed entirely leaving Hela alone with a mirror, a gift basket, and a bed. She rolled her eyes.

“What a pretentious bastard.”

She decided she didn’t sound fond. Not one bit.

 

Chapter 36: A Meeting Decades in the Making

Summary:

Holly sneaks out of Avengers Tower with the help of the only sort of free Winter Soldier to discover who had spoken to her in her coma.

Notes:

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments and support!! I never imagined I'd have this many people reading and reacting to my work like this and it really brings me so much joy to know people like my writing this much!
Please enjoy the drama!! <3

There was a small British village in West England that looked a bit strange when one traveled past it. If one was able to travel through it, which was rare enough, then the visitor would be beset by the strangest of feelings. The thatched roofs and stone chimneys that dotted the village should have given a visitor a feeling of quaint welcome. There was in fact a charming little pub that served good food and a decent pint for a good price that was run by a chubby faced woman with warm bright eyes. But very few people got far enough into the village to even see it.

The village was home to mostly elderly people. There were no young families with children overrunning the streets, although to hear the citizens tell it used to be quite a bustling place for new families. This meant that the streets were eerily quiet most days giving the air an ominous and strangely thick feeling. That feeling was coupled by the strange taste in the air that made one want to call up their closest elderly relative and ask after their health. It made one pull their partner and children closer to their side, protecting against a threat that seemed as real as it was intangible.

The sign that welcomed visitors into town was hand painted and the gold color seemed to glitter even on the foggiest of days.

‘Welcome to Godric’s Hollow’

But nothing felt welcome there anymore.

About three decades previously Godric’s Hollow had been a bustling village, a magical village to be exact. There were small houses that were far larger on the inside that housed young couples and retired spouses alike. A perfect place to start a family. Magic filled the streets quite freely, so freely in fact that there wasn’t even a road built that would lead to the village. Muggles didn’t even know of the village’s existence and they liked it that way. Things were happy, as happy as they could be in times of war. Tragedy had struck of course one fateful Halloween night.

The death of Lily and James Potter had been quite a shock. (No one but a select few had even known they lived there after all.) But the true shock was the destruction of the Dark Lord and the impossible survival of Holly Gemma Potter. Godric’s Hollow soon became a tourist attraction. The Potter Home was ransacked for any valuable keepsakes and then vandalized by both positive messages and negative ones. The ancient town graveyard was visited frequently, so frequently in fact that the town put up a statute honoring the Potters just to keep visitors from mussing up the graves too much.

Then things had begun to decline, slowly ever so slowly, a strange feeling filled the air. Day by day, month by month, year by year, decade by decade. By the time over 20 years had passed only the most stubborn of wizards remained in the town. There wasn’t a high enough magical population to keep Godric’s Hollow off of muggle maps and so the town was brought into the modern, muggle world kicking and screaming. The newly paved road that was built into the town hardly increased the population. Any muggle who came by hardly wished to stay long.

What had happened?

Holly, on her first and truly only visit to the town, had been far too stressed and spooked by the war coming to a head to truly notice the feeling of dread that creeped through the air. She had been too distraught in the graveyard, seeing her parents for the first time, to notice how cold and terrible the place was. Going into her childhood home for the first time was painful enough to ensure she never noticed there was something far darker lurking in the shadows.

Holly in her typical fashion did her best never to think about Godric’s Hollow. For her it represented all that should have been. She should have seen that place as her home town. She should know everyone inside by name and they should know her. She should have fond memories of getting into trouble with her neighbors. She should have had parents and a childhood of wonderful British summers.

It was easier not to think about the place her parents had died in and the place where their bodies lay, rotten and empty beneath the frozen earth. So, Holly didn’t. Did she feel guilty that she never visited her parents’ graves? Perhaps on nights when she felt bitterly alone. But at the end of the day Holly was practical. What was the point of visiting an empty tomb? Wherever her parents’ souls had gone they certainly hadn’t lingered there.

Something had however.

And that something had taken up residence in Godric’s Hollow, specifically in the Potter Home that Halloween night almost 28 years before. A being that had spread an aura so thick and clear that any sane living being that could move away from it, had.

Death knew Holly never thought about the place she’d been a child in. She knew that. And yet, as she sat in the crumbling living room of the Potter Home, she could feel the human nearing. It had only taken the woman three days after waking to come here, three days of being in agony because her magic was twisting against itself and destroying her from the inside out. Death also knew that Holly hadn’t told anyone where she was going. Instead she had asked her newest addition, the only now slightly brainwashed Winter Soldier to escort her.

Death thought it funny that the Avengers had expected Holly to stay put. Her two friends, Ronald and Hermione, they had known better within weeks of knowing the girl. If there was something dangerous then Holly was going to jump into it head first. Especially if that danger promised answers. The Avengers had just told Holly to sit back, relax, and wait for Loki and Thor to return so that they could help her with her magic.

Holly wasn’t patient and despite their best efforts she still hadn’t quite managed to learn the meaning of ‘relax’.

Death, omniscient as she claimed to be, had waited out minute by minute as the two travelers had snuck unseen out of New York City, purchased a portkey to London and then proceeded to begin the journey to Godric’s Hollow. She could feel the woman drawing nearer, entering into the village she hadn’t been in since she was 17 and carrying around a piece of cursed soul on her forehead.

Death waited. She waited as the car Bucky Barnes, although no one but her knew that to be his name, drove through the village and over cobblestone. She waited as the slightly brainwashed and still amnesiac soldier wearing a face mask didn’t hesitate to continue driving through her threatening aura, well used to ignoring his senses. As the old rented vehicle rolled closer and closer Death could sense the uneven road beneath it as if she were seated inside the car with them.

 The car stopped right at the end of the drive.

Death looked out the window, her eyes taking in the sight of the Winter Soldier trying to help a further weakening Holly Potter out of the car. The woman’s magic was a festering wound, sapping her of strength. It would have been funny to see a powerful being such as that brought so low. It was funny Death thought. It would have been even more funny if the woman was anyone else.

“I’ll go in on my own.” She said to the soldier helping her walk. The man didn’t seem to acknowledge her words, instead he continued right up to the front steps and kicked the door open. “Hey! Winter! Stay outside it’s dangerous!”

The man merely continued into the entryway. Death smirked and settled back into her throne. Perhaps throne was too kind a word. She had just taken the only seat that was still whole in the house and placed it front and center in the destroyed living room for maximum effect. The Winter Solider moved with purpose, preparing to take a hit for the woman he was carrying as they turned into the living room. Only to pause completely at the sight of her.

“Hello.” She said.

She had decided against going in her preferred form, that of a skeleton in a menacing black cloak. While that was helpful and a good look on her most times, it wasn’t conducive to getting Holly to actually speak with her. Instead she looked mostly human with incredibly dark skin and eyes that glowed like they were silver. She’d kept the black cloak.

“I don’t think I said you were to bring guests.” She said.

“It’s not like I could come on my own.” Holly pointed out. “What did you do to me?”

“It’s not what I did to you, my dear. It’s what you did.” Death said. “Send your soldier away, I will only speak with you.”

“Winter.” Holly said. “Please wait outside for me. I will call for help if I need it.”

The soldier nodded, slightly stiff, but didn’t leave immediately. Instead he looked around, found a stool that was still functional in the nearby kitchen and left Holly alone only long enough to retrieve it and then usher her into the seat. Death smirked again, of course the nagging instincts were deeply ingrained in this one. Not even Hydra could remove the inherent need to keep sick, tiny, brave idiots safe from their own stubbornness apparently.

Once Holly was seated the soldier stalked away, Death knew he had moved just out of earshot, close enough to get there in seconds if the need arose but far enough away to give them the illusion of privacy. With the barest twitch of her finger she put up a privacy ward. Holly’s face made it clear she’d noticed that.

“Who are you?”

“You already know that, my dear.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“I’m at the end of every story. I’m the thing mothers give birth too. I’m the whisper in the dark. I am…”

“Death.” Holly finished. She wasn’t frightened. Then again, she never had been. Death found the arrogance and annoyance in the woman’s face refreshing. “What’s happening to me?”

“You are…evolving.”

“Evolving into what?” And how feisty this human was. What a delight she would be.

“Something great.”

“Great but terrible or just the regular kind of great?”

“I don’t see the difference.”

Holly’s jaw clenched and Death sighed.

“You are not dying, and your magic will calm within 4 days. The transformation takes a full 7, it will become more and more painful until it is complete but once it’s over you will be just as capable as you were before.”

“What is this transformation? What am I turning into?”

“You could ask me nicely.”

“Am I nice?”

“No. You’re kind, but not necessarily polite. I’ve admired that about you, Holly Potter. I suppose I should have expected your ire, in my defense I’ve tried speaking with you before, but you never stayed close enough to dying for me to get a word in. You’d just nearly die and get healed at the last moment. I was beginning to feel quite ignored, my dear.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Death. Tell me.”

Death looked at the mortal, the woman who would soon become more. It had been over a decade since she’d last been close enough to dying for Death to speak with her this openly. Dumbledore had been in the way then and there had been no point in trying to pile onto the girl when she had a prophecy to fulfill, especially since then Death hadn’t thought there was anything to talk about. And now the transformation was weakening her so much that she could sit in Death’s presence and speak with her.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because obviously you need me for something.” The woman snapped. “It’s not like you go around revealing your presence for the fun of it! I didn’t even know you were real before this.”

“Yes, you did. You might not have acknowledged it, but you knew. You greeted me once as an old friend, you accepted me as inevitable and I accepted you as an equal. Do you not remember?”

“So, this is about the Hallows.”

“Those were meant to be a joke you know.”

“What?”

“The Hallows. It was a joke.” Death clarified. “Can you imagine it? Death giving out three objects that would let you subjugate them? Ha! As if. Anyone who attempted to gather the Hallows would be destroyed by their own greed. Which is very funny I assure you.”

“But I have them. I’ve had them for years.”

“Hmm. Yes. But who could have predicted someone as infuriating as you?”

“What?” Holly asked with a laugh.

“Here you were walking to your death not a bit of fear in your body.” Death said. “Oh the arrogance of it all. You owned all three of my Hallows, accidentally I might add, and just up and died without a hint of regret or fear. None of it. There wasn’t even that petty spite I’m used to seeing in people who die as a martyr. Oh no. Not for Holly Potter. She just accepts it.”

And of course, the woman had the most shit-eating grin on her face now. Death refused to roll her eyes or show any of the amusement she felt.

“I was prepared you know. People aren’t usually so blatant with me. I had a place set aside for you. I’d gathered up the souls of those you loved and missed. I knew what you’d seen in the Mirror of Erised and I was ready to give it to you, a reward for being the most arrogant human I’ve ever known. Honestly, the gall of a human coming to me as an equal. I have never been so offended in my life. And stop laughing.”

“I’m sorry.” She said still grinning. “You were saying?”

“I expected you to accept death fully. Life had been very cruel to you and I was prepared to offer you everything you could ever want on a golden platter.” Death said. “And what do you do? What did the most selfless arrogant idiot I’ve ever seen do?”

“Can someone be selfless and arrogant at the same time?”

“You somehow manage it.”

“Are you saying that my…coming back is the problem? Shouldn’t this transformation have happened when I was 17 then?”

“If I’m going to be frank with you my dear, then you must know that the moment you decided to come back to life I have been…unsure of what was going to happen. The Hallows changed from their intended purpose and you’ve been changing ever since. This is merely me speeding up the process.”

“Oh?”

“Are you truly going to claim that you were a normal witch for the past decade? That what you’ve done was within normal human limits? Don’t be obtuse.”

“You’re telling me I’ve just been slowly becoming something else ever since the Final Battle.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen at all. Why on earth would magical objects designed to destroy their owner be quick about making them stronger?”

“Okay fair enough.” She said. “Why speed it up then? And what exactly am I becoming?”

“As I said. I don’t know.” Death said. “You are unique now in all the universe Holly Potter. The Hallows weren’t meant to do this but in your sacrifice, they were changed and now they change you into something that has never before been seen. The change would have taken centuries to complete if left alone. You don’t have centuries. I thought if you were to become immortal, you’d prefer to be immortal in a body that wasn’t rotten with age.”

“I am going to be immortal?”

“Only the norns know that, my dear.”

“You really have no idea what’s going on with me, do you? This is just a prank gone wrong.”

“Essentially. I do…respect you.” Death admitted. “If only for being just so unpredictable. I suspect that whatever you are going to become will be important to the balance.”

“The balance?”

“If it becomes relevant for you to know the secrets of the universe then by all means I’ll reveal them but for now perhaps you can just settle for what you know.”

“So, in four days I’m going to become some new creature.” Holly said. “And you can’t tell me anything because you have literally no idea what that is, but you believe that I will still be myself and able to do all the things I did before. What if you’re wrong?”

“I’m Death. I’m never wrong.”

“Pull the other one it’s got bells on it.”

“Fine. Fine.” Death scoffed. “If after four days you are still troubled. Then use the stone to call for me. Do it far away from anyone else, my presence can be quite painful for those who aren’t prepared for it. If your magic returns to your control and you feel fine then explore the new changes for yourself and leave me out of it. Continue being the person that you are, and we shall never have need to speak again.”

“I honestly can’t tell if you hate me or not.”

“It varies from moment to moment, my dear. Your soul is quite nice, it would be the crown jewel in my collection, but you won’t die anytime soon.” Death said. “It can be rather annoying being denied my due a hundred times by one stubborn witch.”

“So what? If I become immortal, are we going to be enemies after this?”

“Perhaps. Depends on how well you wear it.”

“I don’t want to be immortal.” She said.

“I know. You want what you have always wanted. Your family.” Death said. “Something I offered to you over a decade ago. But you felt you were needed elsewhere.”

“If I…If I…Will I never be able to see them?”

“No one can truly bring the dead back to life without consequence.” Death said. “Your family is dead and will remain so ever after, their souls in my care.”

“And I could never see them? Speak to them?”

Death, if she had a heart, would feel it breaking at the woman’s tone.

“I don’t know, my dear.”

She nodded as if she expected that answer. Her magic was still paining her, and it was clear her ability to hold herself up was failing. She would fall unconscious soon.

“Could you… could you tell them I love them?”

“I will deliver the message.” Death promised with ease. It wouldn’t be difficult to visit the souls she collected and kept and tell them things. Sometimes souls were able to peek out into the living world and see for themselves. It wouldn’t surprise her if Holly’s family already knew. “Will you do something for me in return?”

“What?”

“Don’t have mercy on Death’s Lover.”

“You have a lover?”

“Oh I assure you, that’s a title he picked out for himself without any input from me.”

“Ah. Gotcha. I’ll pass on your message to him.”

“Then we have a deal, my dear.” Death said. “You should get some rest. Your gods have returned to earth and one of them is panicking.”

“I have a feeling I know which one.”

And Holly was right, because across the Atlantic Ocean, the god of mischief was having a meltdown about his missing friend. Death smirked a little and stood up.

“Goodbye Holly Potter.”

“Goodbye Death.” Holly said looking her in the eye. Death winked at her and then disappeared with a nothing but a warping of the dim light in the room.

Chapter 37: Loki's Little Freak-Out

Summary:

Loki learns how the Avengers failed in their one mission for him and he is...less than pleased.

Notes:

The response last week to Death's reveal has been so amazing. I honestly want to know what you guys think is going to happen to Holly! I would love to read your guesses based on what's happened so far! I hope you enjoy this chapter too! <3

The mirror had been given its own stand. A sharp thing made of a blackish metal that seemed to suck in the dim light around it. The mirror had grown in size, a large silver oval, a tantalizing pool that promised a sight far more captivating than any other in all the universe. The mirror was encased in gold and other precious metals, a thick band that he liked to stroke as he stared into its depths. It was the most elegant thing that had ever existed in this room. It stood out starkly against the dark and ominous walls, it screamed out power and secrets.

 In the past few days this mirror had given him such wonderful visions. It was enough to put a smile on his face. A nasty cruel thing that sent a shiver of dread down the spines of anyone in a 5-mile radius. It was the sort of smile that promised terrible things for everyone who saw it and showed no remorse or hesitation. It was the smile of a being who had just found the thing he’d been searching his long life for. The power he’d always wanted, no needed, it was finally within his grasp and it was hiding away on a mudball of a planet.

Currently the mirror showed his prey being carried in the arms of the Jontun Runt. The whole journey had been amusing for him to watch. When his children had arrived on earth and set the two large beasts upon the castle, he had watched. He had sat, nearly on the edge of his throne as Holly Potter allowed herself to be eaten by a flame dragon only to be summoned out of its body killing it instantly. He had sat, captivated, as she and the runt had used powerful magic to kill the Frost Beast and in an act of supreme irony almost die themselves.

Holly Potter had passed his first test with flying colors. He had still watched as his children had retreated from Midgard and gone out to collect more beasts, more monsters to send to earth. He paid them little mind, not when the mirror offered so much insight. He had watched the little human who could weild Death’s Hallows nearly shiver to death and yet survive the impossible for a mortal once more.

Then.

Oh then.

Then there had been Asgard.

He had had plans of invading, of destroying that realm. But of course there was no point now. It was obvious Asgard didn’t have what he wanted. The Tesseract and the Scepter were on earth, just like everything else. Besides, seeing Holly Potter wipe the floor with Odin made it clear that taking that realm wouldn’t even be a challenge. Thanos had enjoyed watching the trial by combat though.

And now the object of his interest was resting in a bed fit for a queen.

She had passed his first test far beyond his expectations, proving some of his suspicions, but not all. Would she pass the next one?

“Master.”

Thanos barely hid the surprised jerk. He was unprepared for visitors. He had called for no one, he far preferred to continue staring into the depths of his mirror, trying to divine the secrets of this mortal woman.

“Ronan.” He growled. What was that Kree doing here? The slimy creature had been chasing after Thanos’ coat tails for nearly two decades, desperate for anything that would allow him to destroy Xandar. Thanos had little use for the man most times, he had failed to invade earth once already over 20 years before. Earth now held his most coveted thing. Ronan should have never returned to his presence.

“I have news on the Orb.” He said, from his position kneeling on the floor.

“Oh?” Thanos asked, his voice deceptively calm. The putrid Kree was such a pitiful thing to the Titan. The man had killed The Other in a defensive rage, Thanos had forgiven it only if the man could retrieve the Orb, something he had failed to do.

“It is in the hands of your daughter, Gamora.” He said. “She has betrayed you, master.”

A wave of anger passed over him, Thanos stood up, finally moving away from his mirror. Gamora, his greatest child, the daughter he had taught everything to. Had he not saved her from her world? Taught her his ways? Had he not trained her into the greatest warrior ever known? And this was how she repaid him. By failing to find the soul stone and finding the Orb before he could. Thanos growled, she might be running but she would not escape for long. There would be no moon, no asteroid she could hide on from him. He would have her back and he would have his Orb. If his suspicions were correct he would need what the Orb contained to gain what was truly his right when he went to earth.

 He glared down at the sniveling creature beneath him.

“Bring her back. With the Orb.” Thanos ordered. “You know what will happen if you fail.”

The Kree glanced over to the corner of the throne room where Thanos’ other daughter was floating in mid-air, her cybernetic limbs painfully stretched and cut from her body. Nebula had failed once again in her mission and so she had been left there, to float, a reminder to all those who stood before him what the cost of failure truly was. Thanos knew the girl was in immense pain but she made no noise, not even a choked off breath, to reveal it.

“Yes Master.” He poorly hid his fear with bravado.

“Then go. Do not disappoint me again.”

The Kree left before Thanos could torture him any. He didn’t glance over at his second daughter, knowing she was glaring at him with all her might. Instead he settled back into his throne and facing the mirror. Another test would be coming soon if his children knew what was good for them. The beasts they had collected were fearsome, but perhaps not as great as the mortal who had caught his interest.

“Soon, mortal. Soon you will reveal your secrets.”

*****

“Jarvis. I honestly expected better of you.”

“She made some very compelling arguments.” Jarvis said staunchly. “We had no idea when or if you and Thor would return.”

“So, you just let her go? By herself?”

“The Winter Soldier is with her.”

“Oh, so the man who tried to murder her.”

Loki was still shaking in remembered rage when they’d told him that. He and Thor had returned, alive and with gifts (he had planned on only getting something for Holly but Thor had insisted they get something for everyone). He had expected to see Holly in the tower, probably knitting something and preparing to rant at him for risking his life without waiting for her to back him up.

What he had found instead was a team running around like chickens with their heads cut off and a missing magic user. When Steve had spotted them, the man had actually paled and tripped over his own shield in shock. Then Clint had spotted them and squeaked. Loki would have been amused by the response if he hadn’t also been very curious as to the cause. He’d asked about Holly and Clint had lifted up his hands.

“Now you have to keep calm.”

Loki had not kept calm.

He had listened, flames of magic bursting to life at his feet, as the Avengers explained that Holly had been attacked while in her coma. She had been nearly strangled to death before someone was able to protect her from her attacker. Then in a terrible twist she had woken up, turned the assassin into a rat, gotten shot and nearly died again from the destruction of her magical core.

And to top it all off, when Holly had woken up, the first thing she’d done was adopt her would-be assassin and place him under her protection. No one had any idea why she had even been targeted by Hydra in the first place.

All of this, Loki could have perhaps forgiven. After all most of them had been injured trying to protect Holly. Clint had been shot clean through by the gun. Natasha had suffered severing bruising and a damaged wrist. Jarvis had nearly been destroyed completely by the electronic attack Hydra had sent. Yes Loki thought to himself that he could have forgiven them this failure, at least partially.

But now?

“She’s missing.” Loki said. “She’s missing and she can’t use her magic without bleeding. And Jarvis, you just let her sneak out of the tower without so much as a how do you do.”

“Holly insisted she knew someone who could explain why her magic was deteriorating.”

“No one on earth could possibly know that! No one in the nine realms!” Loki screeched. “No one has ever survived this sort of thing. She’s dying and there is no way for me to save her if I can’t find her.”

His heart was beating rapidly in his chest. Every breath he took into his lungs felt like it was made of ice. Around him the world wavered, memories of Jontunheim threatened to overwhelm him. Flashes of blue skin and icy shards. No. No.

“What did she tell you Jarv?” Tony asked. “Who did she think could help her?”

“She didn’t know their identity.” Jarvis said. “Holly insisted that they had spoken to her while she was in her coma, a dream or a vision. She said it was a woman’s voice, telling her to come to her if she wanted answers.”

“How does that not scream trap?” Loki demanded. “Jarvis.”

“Holly was convinced it was not.” Jarvis said. “Based on what clues I have been able to gather I agreed.”

“And what clues were those?” Loki spat.

“The being was able to contact Holly when she was comatose, it warned her of the danger that the rest of the team was in and also gave her the energy to wake up and act.” Jarvis said. “That does not speak of dangerous motives.”

“A ruse.” Loki spat.

“Perhaps.” Jarvis agreed, still sounding far more sure than he should. “But Holly told me she was going to visit her parents.”

“What?” Loki asked.

“The being told her to meet her where they had first met.” Jarvis said. “But Holly did not recognize the voice. She concluded that the woman who was speaking to her must have met her as an infant.”

“So, she went to her hometown. Where did she grow up again?” Steve asked.

“Surrey.” Bruce said. “Her Aunt and Uncle live in Surrey.”

“But that is not where she is from.” Thor said. “She was an infant in another town, it had a strange name…Geerdric?”

“Godric.” Loki said. “It’s Godric’s Hollow. I recognize the name. It’s an old wizarding town in England, named after one of Ralston’s ancestors.”

“Jarvis why didn’t you tell us this before?”

“Holly requested that she be given a 12-hour head start.” Jarvis admitted. “I will also confess that she took her bracelet with her. I have been able to track her location this entire time, along with her vitals.”

“Jarvis.” Tony said. “What the fuck.”

“Sir, you did not ask me if I had seen her leave or if I knew where she was.” Jarvis began. “I did not offer the information because…my friend asked me to withhold it. I was able to make a decision and I chose the one I thought best.”

It was clear that Tony was torn between being astonished that his AI had made a decision that went directly against his programming as an assistant to his creator and being very frustrated that his AI had decided now was the time to begin his rebellion.

“Why didn’t she just tell us she had an idea?” Natasha demanded. “We would have backed her up to go visit whoever this lady is.”

“Exactly.” Bruce said. “She told me once she’s only visited her parents’ graves once in her life and that it wasn’t a happy experience. She probably didn’t want anyone crowding her.”

“It was stupid.” Loki spat. “Idiotic. She’s literally dying, there’s no time for her concerns for privacy. If this witch who contacted her had answers as to her illness then they should have come to her not made Holly go to them!”

“Loki.” Thor said. “I am upset as well but you must calm yourself.”

“Calm?” Loki hissed. “You want me to be calm?”

“You need to be.” Thor told him.

“This is all your fault!” Loki shouted at his brother. His entire body trembled with rage and shock. He hadn’t felt this angry since Holly had begun healing him with her magic. Not since the scepter’s influence had been ripped from him. But the rage was back, and it lit a fire in his soul as he glared at his worthless, stupid brother. “You convinced me to go on that stupid quest to see our damnable sister and for what? A worthless drunken night and a hangover I’d rather never have gotten?”

“Brother.”

“Don’t call me that! I was off planet!” Loki shouted. “Again! Just like with Ralston I was gone when she needed me most! And all because of you and your stupid hero complex!”

And that was it wasn’t it? Loki had been in Asgard, drunken on grief and falling, when Ralston had died. He knew now his memories of seeing Ralston die right in front of him were phantoms from his spell, but Ralston had still died without Loki there to help him. It didn’t matter that it had been from old age. Loki should have been there, and he wasn’t. And now Loki had failed to be there for Holly.

Holly who had saved him from Odin and from himself. The most wonderful person he had ever had the chance to know and he had abandoned her to help Thor try and reach their sister. A genocidal sister who was still planning on how she’d destroy planets when she was free. Loki glared at Thor, daring the man to pick up his hammer, he wanted to tear the man before him limb from limb for doing this to him.

Thor’s face spasmed with pain,

“Loki.”

“No. She could die, and it would be m-”

“Ralston’s death wasn’t your fault.” He said causing Loki to violently flinch. “The man was mortal, and he lived a long and healthy life because of your sacrifice.”

“Shut up.”

“We will find Holly before she’s harmed. I swear on Mjolnir. But you must calm down. You’re shaking the tower.”

 And all at once Loki realized a few things. His magic had reacted violently to the reminder of Ralston, to the entire situation. It had reached out into the stone beneath his feet, anchoring itself into the very bones of Avengers Tower. In the same way that Holly’s magic had torn the Royal Arena down around her ears, Loki’s own magic was shaking the 93-floor tower and threatening to topple it. Plenty of windows had been shattered during the violent rumblings.

All of the Avengers were holding onto to something or crouched down on the floor. Only Thor had remained standing. The man wasn’t even reaching for his hammer, instead he was reaching for Loki.

“Peace.” Thor begged. “Please. Jarvis can tell us where she is, and we will go to her.”

Loki made a pained noise and pulled his magic back in. The tower settled again, mostly no worse for the wear, and Loki swayed. Thor reached out and held him up.

“Jarvis.” He said. “Where is she?”

“She is in London.” Jarvis answered immediately. “It appears she is taking the same path back into the city that she left it 4 hours ago. If that is correct, then she will be taking some sort of teleportation device back to New York within 30 minutes. When she left her hope was that she would return to the tower before anyone noticed her missing.”

“Of course, she did.” Clint said. “Steve you are going to need to give Holly the ‘I’m disappointed in you’ talk. You know, the one you do with the face.”

It was a credit to how angry Steve was about Holly’s choices that he didn’t even pretend to not know what face Clint was referring to. Jarvis’ words had sent a save of relief through Loki and he had nearly collapsed. Thor had merely hauled him closer so that he didn’t fall to his knees.

“Give me her coordinates.” Loki ordered. “I will pick her and her new assassin up, now.”

“Brother.” Thor said.

“No.” Loki said. “I will get her now. This ridiculousness has gone on long enough. Jarvis, please let me go collect her.”

“And bud, we really need to talk about decision making skills.” Tony added. “Now that you can make choices you need to learn how to…”

“Yes sir. I realize I may have…miscalculated.” Jarvis cut off, sounding strangely contrite. He then gave Loki the coordinates. Loki nodded and pulled fully away from Thor.

“I will be back shortly.”

“Be nice to the assassin.” Nat said. “Holly might have removed the Hydra mind control but he really isn’t fully healed yet, he went with her because he had no other choice.”

Loki nodded even though he didn’t want to agree, what did he care about some Hydra goon that Holly decided to adopt like a stray mutt?

Jealous are we?

Shut up Ralston.

“I’ll be back momentarily.”

Unlike most magic users Loki had the ability to teleport to a place he had never been before. Came with being so very familiar with the Yggdrasil. It helped also that he had spent so much of his time 400 years ago teleporting all around Britain at Ralston’s request that there were very few places that he hadn’t been on that island. He probably knew more of its nooks and crannies than anyone alive. Which was why he was able to pull his magic together, open up a path along the Yggdrasil and pop right out into the back seat of an old car.

The Winter Soldier was driving. The man was wearing a hoodie of all things. Holly was sitting in the front seat, curled in on herself and sweating profusely.

“Holly.” He spoke. The Winter Soldier jerked immediately and pulled a gun out of somewhere and pointed it directly at Loki without hesitation. Loki didn’t even blink, instead he placed his hand on the muzzle of the gun and crunched it together.

“Loki?” Holly asked. “Winter! Eyes on the road! He’s a friend.”

Holly sounded terrible. Loki’s anger dwindled away as concern took its place. As ordered the soldier let the gun drop into the space between the seats and went back to focusing on driving as smoothly as possible down the congested streets of London.

“Holly. What are you doing?”

“We’re…Winter?”

“Returning the car.” He answered.

“Right. Returning the car. It’s a rental.” She said. She was still curled up and her eyes were glassy with pain and delirium.

“I’m very upset with you.” Loki said. “You should have waited for me.”

“Could say the same to you.” She said before coughing a little. She fell back so that her head was resting against the glass of the window.

“That’s not fair. I left to protect you.”

She gave him a look. The look said a lot of things. Things like ‘I have never needed anyone’s protection and I certainly don’t want it now’ and ‘What do you think I was doing you utter fool?’. Holly was very good at giving looks.

“You should have told the Avengers.” Loki tried again.

“Tried to.” She sniffed. “Wouldn’t listen to me. Just told me to…to lay down and stay in the tower…like ‘m some sort of helpless baby.”

Oh. Yes, well that would explain in explicit detail why she ran off then. What little Loki knew of Holly’s childhood and her actions during the war made it clear that Holly would never react well to being told to stay locked away someplace while there was danger afoot.

“They…they kept talkin’ about me.” She told him. “As if I’m not the one dying.”

“Yes, and I’m sure that annoyed you very much but you can’t act like a child. You should have asked for help.” Loki told her.

Holly gave him another look. Which was slightly deserved. Loki frequently acted like a child. He had in fact thrown a fit a mere hour earlier when he learnt about the Avengers failures. He also could admit that he would have been quite annoyed if the Avengers had made plans for him without his consent. Holly was far more independent and had probably run off out of spite.

Only her sickly nature kept him from ranting at her like he had the Avengers though. The Winter Soldier meanwhile was turning into the parking lot of a car rental place. Loki comforted himself with the knowledge that Steve would be able to guilt Holly into behaving. Those man’s blue eyes were far too powerful.

“Did.” She argued. “Had Winter and Jarvis.”

“Oh, like that counts.” The assassin gave him a look too. Loki rolled his eyes and waved the man away. Loki had no patience for Holly’s would-be killer, even if he hadn’t been in control of himself at the time. The only reason he didn’t stab the man was because it was clear he had kept her alive and safe during this entire ridiculous affair. “Go return the car. And be snappy about it or I’ll leave you here.”

“Won’t.” She said. “Winter’s my friend, not leaving him.”

Loki rolled his eyes as the assassin parked the car and got out to return the vehicle in whatever way the mortals would require of him. Loki got out himself, awkwardly unused to being in a confined space that didn’t care for his long legs. He then walked to the door that Holly was sitting near and opened it, catching her before she could fall too far.

“You’re pitiful.” He told her. “You should have let the Avengers go with you.”

And another look. This one clearly said ‘Hypocrite’.

“Not taking the Avengers with me to another planet where my genocidal sister lives in a creepy death fortress is not the same as running away to Britain to talk to some old bitty who knew your parents.”

“That what you think happened?” She asked him, her voice very subtly telling him he was an idiot.

“That’s what Jarvis said.”

“Hmm.”

“Holly.” Loki said. “Who did you go to see?”

Holly was curled up in his arms, he was holding her bridal style to his chest. He could feel her magic raging around inside her. He could only imagine the pain she was in. Even as distanced from it as he was, with his magic sense blocked off, he could sense how imbalanced it had become in their short time apart. He held his friend a bit tighter.

“Loki.” She said. “You went to see the goddess of death.”

“Yes.”

“And well.” She said. “I couldn’t just let you out-do me. I had to do something bigger.”

“I don’t understand.” Loki said.

“Oh, come on. I went to the place my parents died, where I survived the impossible, and I only brought with me a wand I can’t use, a stone I don’t use, and a cloak that’s good for pranks.”

It took Loki a minute to get what she was implying. When he did, he nearly dropped her.

“YOU SPOKE WITH DEATH?”

Holly started to giggle, a sound that quickly turned into a pained cough. Loki wanted to shake the woman in his arms and demand answers. Death? The personification? She was real? Holly had spoken to her and lived? What was going on? The Winter Soldier returned as her coughs died down.

“Let’s get back to the tower.” She said. “I’ll explain it all before I pass out.”

“You had better.” Loki growled before he looked up and motioned to the assassin with his head. “Come here. I’ll use magic to transport us back to the tower. In New York. You know the place you tried to murder her in? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The assassin rolled his eyes and punched Loki in the arm with his metal arm. It hit him with enough force to make him stumble a little and wince.

“Be nice to Winter.” Holly scolded. “He’s brainwashed not brain dead. I quite like him.”

Loki glared at the smug look the assassin had on beneath his stupid mask.

Really not helping your case on the jealousy thing, Loki.

Truly Ralston, that was the least helpful thing you could have said.

“Let’s just go.” Loki growled. Loki was entirely done with this day. He used magic to force the assassin to his side, opened a portal, and pulled everyone through it so that they went back to the tower. The Avengers were all exactly where Loki had left them, although they looked far less frazzled. Steve had his ‘righteous indignation’ face on.

“Is she okay?” Thor asked immediately. Only he and perhaps Bruce could truly understand the danger Holly was in. A damaged magical core was a death sentence for any magic user. If they didn’t discover a way to treat her, Holly would be destroyed from the inside out and die an unimaginably painful death.

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” She quipped sound far less than fine.

“Holly.” Steve said. “I don’t know what you were thinking.”

“What I was thinking is that I had a chance to get answers before I was too weak to do anything and I wasn’t going to wait for you guys to stop clicking your heels together and wishing for the Great and Powerful Oz to appear.”

“Hey! Movie references are my thing.” Tony whined.

“Tony.” Steve said, quieting the man. “Holly this was so irresponsible of you I cannot believe that you…”

“You don’t even know what I’ve done yet.” She said. “Can I please be allowed to confess my sins before you lecture me?”

“This isn’t a joke.” Bruce said. “Holly you shouldn’t have left.”

“I am not a child.” She said. “And Loki put me down!”

Loki rolled his eyes but did as he was bid. Holly couldn’t hold up her own weight, so he was forced to keep a hold on her so that she didn’t crumple to the floor.

“Holly, you should have trusted us.” Natasha said. “We would have gone with you to Godric’s Hollow. None of us would have pushed you about your parents, we understand what…”

“This isn’t about them.” Holly sniffed. “I…I had no idea what would happen if you went with me. It could have killed you.”

“What are you talking about?” Steve asked. “Jarvis told us you had a vision about a woman you met when you were a baby, someone who could help you. But you’re worse than ever.”

“I had a suspicion about who it was.” Holly said. “And if I’d been right then they could have killed all of you with a flick of their wrist. I couldn’t risk leaving earth defenseless, not when we know Thanos is coming here. If I was going to die, then I might as well have gotten it over with and kept Earth’s Mightiest Heroes alive and well for the battle to come.”

“Holly.” Steve said.

“No. Do not argue with me on this.” She said. “This is how it’s supposed to go. You’re my friends and it’s my job to protect you, that’s what happens.”

“You are not a shield for the world.” Thor said. “And if friends are meant to protect each other then you should have allowed us the right to treat you as a friend too.”

“You’re part of a team.” Clint said. “And if we can’t make decisions for you then you shouldn’t make them for us.”

Holly took in a deep breath that seemed to shake her to her core.

“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t risk it. Not this time.”

“Who did you think you were going to see?” Steve asked. “What could be so bad that you’d do this?”

“Death.” Holly said. “I went to go see Death.”

“Death you mean like…the personification of Death?” Tony squeaked.

“Yes.” She said. “I thought maybe…that anyone who didn’t own a hallow might be killed by being in her presence and I didn’t have enough control over myself to provide protection for more than one person. I was barely able to keep Winter safe and it was clear Death was holding back much of her aura.”

“Well shit.” Tony said.

“Holly.” Thor said. “Does this mean you are…dying?”

“No.” She said. “Death assured me that my magic would settle in four days.”

“And you believed her?” Loki asked.

“I don’t really have a choice.” She said. “Something terrible is happening to me. I don’t have long before I…before I stop being able to talk coherently. Please let me explain. Please.”

So, Loki helped Holly over to the couch. They all settled around her and listened as she spoke, her words filled with pain, of her meeting with Death and the truth behind the Hallows. The three most powerful objects in the universe had been a prank by Death. Something designed to bring her more greedy souls in an ironic way, but Holly had beat the whole test, undermined the prank in such a way as to cause serious and unplanned consequences.

“I have no idea what’s happening to me.” She said, her voice breaking. “In the next fours days anything could. I could become immortal or turn into a skeleton or melt into a puddle of magical goop. I could become cursed. My magic could twist itself until it matches Death’s so completely that you wouldn’t be able to touch me, let alone be in the same room with me. I could lose my memories or…or who knows what else. These Hallows are changing me, Death’s Hallows. I’m becoming something monstrous and…”

“Holly.” Bruce cut in. “You’re not going to become a monster.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Holly. You’re the kind of person who sees the Hulk and thinks he needs a friend. I promise you, no matter what happens to you, you’re not going to be a monster. It’s literally impossible.”

“Yeah Holly.” Tony said. “And if you become magic goop then I’ll make you some sort of robot body that you can control with you mind so you can still move around.”

“If your magic takes after Death’s then I won’t cease until I’ve created a spell that makes me immune to it.” Loki promised. “You won’t be alone.”

“I will travel the realms to search for a cure if you are cursed.” Thor swore. “You are my shield sister and I won’t abandon you.”

“We’re your team.” Steve said. “That means we stick together and help each other out. No matter what. You should have told us what you were thinking.”

“I’m sorry. I should have trusted you.” She said. “I’m just not…used to this. The past few years I’ve worked alone and before that I was with Ron and Hermione. We’re so close I never had to tell them anything, they just knew when I was going to do something foolish and they went with me without asking.”

“A skill we’ll all have to learn.” Tony decided. “But for now. I think Holly needs to get to bed. Jarvis, set up a new babysitter schedule for our friend and have a healer on call just in case something goes wrong.”

“Guys I don’t need a babysitter.” She began to say.

“Don’t be stupid.” Clint said. “When a teammate gets sick, we all take turns taking care of them. That’s Avengers Policy.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” She grumbled.

“We are going to take care of you, and you are going to let us.” Steve insisted. “And once you’re better we’re going to have a long conversation about not talking to omnipotent personifications without back up.”

Holly sighed and gave them all a very fond look.

“I suppose you’ve left me with no choice.” She said. “I submit.”

“Good.” Thor said.

“Loki?” Holly asked. “Could you do me a favor? Call Hermione.”

“Why?”

“If anyone can figure out what’s happening to me it’s her.”

“You think a mortal witch who just gave birth to a child two weeks ago is going to be able to figure out something that not even Death knew in four days?”

“Oh, I don’t think it. I know it.”

Chapter 38: Ron Weasley's Advice

Summary:

Ron might not have been a genius like his wife, but he was an expert in one thing. And it just so happened the Avengers really needed his expertise.

Notes:

We all believe in Hermione figuring out what's wrong with Holly but honestly...
let's hear it for Ron.
Also, my sister-in-law just had her baby and she is the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life so I wrote this chapter so I could keep writing about cute babies. There is probably a lot of baby content in the future because my brother keeps sending me adorable photos of my niece's chubby cheeks.

Ron could still remember the day he met his best friend.

It wasn’t exactly a day one could forget.

He’d been nervous of course, as all young wizards are on their first trip to Hogwarts. He’d had a hand-me down wand from his late uncle that only worked sort of well. He had Percy’s old robes stored in Bill’s old trunk. The shoes on his feet had used to belong to George and his socks had been Fred’s. His little sister had been annoying, begging to go to Hogwarts too a year early. Her whining had taken away all of the attention Ron should have gotten on his first trip to Hogwarts.

They’d been in the train station, making their way to the correct platform, a motely group of red heads who stuck out like a sore thumb in the muggle world.

A sore thumb that had been sorely needed as it turned out.

His soon to be best friend had nervously walked up to his mum and asked in a quiet voice if she knew how to get on to the platform 9 ¾ you see she was new and her parents weren’t…

His mum had cut her off, comforting and commanding all at once, explaining in explicit detail how to get onto the correct platform, ordering Percy to go on ahead to demonstrate. Ron had watched as his mum gave attention to a stranger, whishing them luck, and felt discomfort throb in his gut. Then his mum had turned around to Fred and George and pinned them with a glare.

“That young lady is obviously a muggle born with less than supportive parents, I won’t have you teasing her. In fact I want you two to go over there and help her with her trunk, I swear on your Aunt Muriel that if I hear one whiff of you giving her trouble because she doesn’t know any magic yet I’ll ground you till you’re grey!”

Fred and George had agreed to help with their usual jokes and had gone ahead through the entrance, dispatched by their mother on a very important mission. Then his mother had turned to him.

“Now Ronnikins.”

“Oh mum don’t call me that.”

“That girl obviously needs a friend. You saw what she was wearing, she’s probably got no one in the whole entire world to call her own.” His mum had sniffed then.

Looking back on it, Ron could now see what his mother meant. His mother had seen the starvation on his friend’s body, the look of the too large hand-me down clothing that had never been repaired by a helping hand. His mum had seen the fear and loneliness. Ron had only seen another kid wearing clothing as well used as Ron’s own who still managed to have a nice owl and a new trunk despite it.

At the time though Ron had whined as his mother had pulled him by the ear and ordered him to go sit by her and make friends.

“Mum! She’s probably not even going to be in the same house as me! She could be a Slytherin for all you know.”

“I don’t care. You will be that young woman’s friend. I expect to have a letter from you in a week telling me all about it.”

Ron had moaned and groaned and then pushed away from his mum, going through the entrance himself. He’d put his trunk away, and then said his goodbyes to his mum and sister before getting onto the train and beginning his search. It wouldn’t do to ignore his mum’s orders completely. His thinking had been that he’d ride over to the castle with the girl and then never talk to her again. She didn’t look like someone who knew anything about Quidditch anyway, why would he want to be friends with a girl?

Of course, that plan had gone right out the window quite quickly. By the time Holly, yes THAT Holly, and he had arrived at Hogwarts Ron had realized he was going to be friends with her for the rest of his life.

He hadn’t known where that assurance had come from. Still didn’t most days. But something had solidified in his 11-year-old heart and soul, something that said ‘Oh there you are’. He knew he’d found a friend for life, someone he’d want to go through thick and thin with. It wasn’t because she was famous, or wealthy enough to buy all the treats off of the cart on the train (although that certainly helped). It was because she’d defended him against Malfoy, she’d seen him as him and not as any of his brothers.

Somehow his heart had known before his mind had that Holly Potter was going to be his best friend. Even as flawed as he’d been back then, as immature, he’d still known it.

And when Holly got sorted into the same house as his and she chose to sit right next to him instead of the more popular kids who were calling her over, it had been cemented.

That surety had served him well over the course of his life.

It could be argued that his loyalty to his best friend, his love for her, was the only thing keeping him sane. He had had in his life more adventures than any human being should ever have, each one having been related to Holly. He had defeated a mountain troll as an 11-year-old because his best friend thought it was a good idea to try and wrestle one. He had played a deadly game of life size chess because his best friend had decided it was their job to protect the philosophers stone. He had been bitten by a baby dragon because his best friend had decided to help someone raise one. He had faced giant man-eating spiders and dementors and werewolves and shapeshifting rats because his best friend attracted danger at every turn.

Ron had realized quite quickly too that Holly needed someone to have her back.  

And without the ironclad knowledge he had that he loved Holly he might have failed in that task.

Ron didn’t regret any of it.

Holly might have been the source of the greatest dangers in his life, but she was also the source of his greatest joys.

He had a beautiful, wickedly smart wife who never would have given him the time of day as a kid if Holly hadn’t been there to whack some sense into him.

He had a job with the Ministry that he loved.

He had a home that had been built with love and care, a gift from Holly to him.

He had skills and knowledge that made him well respected amongst his peers.

He had a reputation and a fame all on his own that made any childish dreams he’d had looking into the Mirror of Erised look small.

He’d lived through enough adventure and excitement to ensure he could never be considered boring.

Most important of all though, was Rose.

He wouldn’t have the miracle of a child in his arms if it hadn’t been for his best friend.

His baby girl was only two weeks old now. Still so terribly tiny and vulnerable.

She was also being incredibly fussy today.

Ron had spent the last hour trying to figure out why she was acting like this. She had a full stomach, she’d been burped, her diaper was clean, and she didn’t have a fever. She just didn’t want to nap and was constantly wriggling and crying if Ron put her down. Hermione had been laying down to have her own nap and Ron had promised her he’d take care of Rose while she did so, but he was starting to feel a little frazzled.

He was minutes away from calling his mum and begging for advice when he heard a series of frantic pounds on his front door. That set Rose off again, she started crying out startled by the noise. Ron groaned and held the baby up to his chest, hugging her in comfort. The banging didn’t stop so he called out.

“I’m coming!”

He walked out of their living room, which was currently strewn with baby toys and other sundry infant care devices, he hopped over a pile of towels he’d meant to put away, and then walked up to the front door, his baby still crying a little into his chest. He wrenched open the door and glared at the visitor.

“I’ve just had a baby, who do you think you are banging on like tha-”

Ron paused at the sight before him. In all honesty he’d wondered when this would happen. He was surprised the Avengers had lasted as long as they had. He’d predicted this from the moment Holly had called them to tell them that she’d decided to fight alongside the Avengers now. Something they already knew because the magical news had been publishing such things ever since her fight in Central Park, but still the personal call was appreciated.

Ron knew this was coming because Ron was an expert in his best friend. Hermione was the expert in literally everything else, but no one knew Holly better than Ron.

So, when Ron took in the sight of Loki, god of magic, standing on his porch looking frantic he knew exactly what had happened.

“Holly run off to do something dangerous then?”

“I…yes she did and I need to speak to-”

“Hermione because Holly’s discovered something impossible and you need a genius like Hermione to figure it out.” Ron finished with a grin. “Happens all the time, come on in.”

Loki looked poleaxed. Ron sighed and shifted the weight of his baby to one arm, with his free hand he reached out and gently tugged Loki inside. The god, who must’ve weighed an absolute tonne, just followed his lead and stumbled into his home and towards the kitchen. Ron pushed Loki into a chair. He then snapped his fingers and spoke.

“Tea’ll be on shortly.”

“Tea? We don’t have time for tea! This is an emergency!”

“Everything is an emergency with Holly.” Ron promised. “Is she bleeding out right now or dying from a curse?”

“No.”

“Then we have time for you to drink some tea and calm down while I wake Hermione and pack our bags. Be thankful we have time for tea.”

Sometimes Ron wonders how he became exactly like his dad. He gave Loki’s arm a pat trying to instill in him some form of endurance. The poor sod had only known Holly for a couple of months and he’d already reached his limit it seemed. Clearly Ron should have intervened sooner. In his defense he had been expecting his baby any day and then there had been the fact that he now had a baby to keep him from offering his services to the Avengers.

“Right. Okay. Tea.” Loki said.

“Mind holding Rose for me? Just so I can have both hands free?” Ron asked. He didn’t wait for Loki to actually agree to his request. Instead he gently held his baby out and lightly dropped her into his arms and the man was forced to move his arms to properly support the wiggling newborn. “Thanks mate.”

So, Ron turned and left the very overwhelmed Loki sitting at his table holding a baby that had refused to calm down for the last hour.

He grinned as he took the stairs up to their bedroom, he carefully opened the door and found Hermione awake in bed, halfway through a dense book.

“Mione.” Ron said. “Weren’t you supposed to be sleeping?”

“Ron? Oh. Yes, I’d planned too but I just had this thought and I was going to just read a few pages to…How long has it been exactly?”

“Over an hour.” Ron said smiling gently. “And we have a visitor. It’s a Code Red.”

“Oh, dear Merlin.” Hermione said letting her book on the goblin wars slam shut in exasperation. Ron didn’t bother to offer Hermione a bookmark, she always knew exactly what page she’d left off on, on any book she’d ever read. She put the book to the side and turned to leverage herself out of bed. She was wearing a beautiful night gown that Ron had gotten her for her to wear once the baby came. His mum had suggested something called a nursing gown and he was glad he’d followed her advice. “Who came this time?”

“Loki. Poor bloke looks done in. I’m going to go down and give him some tea before I pack up our things.”

“Thank you.” She said. “I’ll get dressed and head right down.”

Ron stepped forward and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek, then he turned and left the room. He got back downstairs to find that Loki had managed to get Rose giggling by conjuring magical lights that bounced around.

Why hadn’t he thought of that?

Loki seemed to have calmed down some too with the welcome distraction of the most adorable baby of all time. Which was good because the man needed to learn how to stay calm. Ron walked past them and poured out a nice cup of tea. He carried the cup over to Loki and placed it on the table in front of him.

“Here.” Ron said. “Hermione’ll be down in just a minute. I’ll go and pack our bags so we can follow you back to Holly and start working on fixing whatever mess she’s created this time.”

“You seem to be unbothered by the fact that Holly is in danger.”

“When is she not in danger?” Ron asked him. “This is my normal, mate.”

“Oh.” Loki said. Ron snorted and gave the man a pat on the head before walking away to start packing. In cases like this Ron knew Hermione preferred to have their entire, humungous, library with her on hand. Ron and Holly had both enchanted all the books in the library to pack into one suitcase, it was an incredibly helpful system.

Ron got to the library and pulled the brown leather suitcase from where it was stored behind their couch. He opened it up and placed it in the center of the room, he then pressed the button on the top and ducked low to the floor. Immediately all of the books began to violently fling themselves into the suitcase, nearly taking Ron’s head off. After a few seconds all of the books in the house had stuck themselves into the suitcase and the suitcase had slammed itself shut. Ron sighed in relief and picked up the suitcase.

From there he went to their bedroom and started waving his wand to pack up a bag of supplies he and Hermione might need. He had no idea if they were going to be in New York for fifteen minutes or for the next month, but it was easy enough to pack things for a week. The final thing to pack were things for Rose. He wouldn’t be leaving his child with anyone else for the interim.

Once he felt he had everything, he walked back to the kitchen to see Hermione looking exasperated and Loki holding Rose to his chest, the baby now miraculously asleep.

“So. What’d she do this time?”

“She confronted the personification of Death.” Hermione said.

“Huh.” Ron said. “That…sounds like her.”

“What?” Loki said. “How on earth does that sound like her?”

“Did she try to punch Death? That seems really on brand.” Ron suggested.

“No. She was too sick.” Loki sighed causing Ron to snort.

“Right. Well I’ve packed us up. Is there anything special you want me to get Hermione?”

“There might be a few books I’ll need from Hogwarts, but we can get those later.” She said. “I need to do some scans of Holly and read a few things before I know where to start truly researching. It seems Death did something to Holly.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t something she did herself?”

“That remains to be seen and if you could take this seriously, I would appreciate it.” Loki snapped.

“Course mate.” Ron lied. “If we don’t need anything then we can head there now. I’ve got our bags.”

“Right.” Loki said. “Lady Hermione, here is your child. I’ll open a portal to New York that should be safe for her to travel on.”

Hermione reached out and gently took the sleeping Rose into her arms. Ron wondered how the man had managed to get her to sleep after Ron had failed to, but he wasn’t going to ask. Loki nodded and then opened a portal with very little effort. Ron hefted up their bags and followed his wife through to the unknown.

He stepped into a very fancy penthouse to see the Avengers all sitting around looking incredibly tense.

“Where is she?” Hermione asked.

“Her room.” Loki said. “I’ll take you.”

“No.” Ron said. “You should stay here, Hermione give me Rose, you can have the books.”

“Why should I stay here?” Loki demanded.

“Its time I gave you the talk.” Ron told him.

“I will lead Miss Granger-Weasley to Holly.” Jarvis said. “If you would make your way to the elevator?”

Ron put down their bags and switched off the suitcase with the baby. Hermione gave him a kiss on the cheek and then walked to the elevator.

“The talk?” Tony asked. “I don’t think you need to protect Holly’s virtue.”

“Oh not that talk. That’s a different talk.” Ron said. “This is the ‘So Holly is your Friend’ talk. Should have given it to you all earlier but in my defense I’ve just had a baby and I’ve been distracted. Let’s sit down.”

Ron got them all to sit near him, in something of a circle. He sat in an armchair with his baby dozing in his arms, looking like an absolute angel.

“Right.” Ron said. “So, you all are friends with Holly now. That’s a big deal. Congratulations on that one. Not as easy as it used to be, being her friend. Used to be that all you had to do was be willing to beat a troll into unconsciousness with its own club every once in a while but now? Now it’s every other day isn’t it?”

“I will fight any trolls Holly needs me too.” Thor said causing Ron to roll his eyes.

“See that’s the thing she doesn’t need you too. That’s what makes it so hard.” Ron said. “If she needed you then you’d know what to do, wouldn’t you?”

And that quieted them down and Ron knew he’d finally gotten their attention.

“I was Holly’s first friend. I am in fact her best friend. I know her better than anyone.” Ron began. “And there are things you need to know if you’re going to survive being her friend with most of your sanity intact.”

“So you’re here to give us advice? On dealing with Holly.” Captain America said.

“What has happened to Holly in the last two weeks?” Ron asked. “I don’t know the full story because Holly’s been too busy to call us and I’ve been busy with my little one but I can only imagine by looking at you all that she probably almost died a few times while you guy felt helpless.”

“Are you sure you’re not a seer?” Loki joked.

“Eh. Few seers in my bloodline but I don’t think I’ve got a gift or anything.” Ron answered. “Mostly, I just know Holly really well.”

“Okay. So, how do we keep Holly safe?” Bruce asked.

“First mistake there.” Ron answered. “You can’t. Bound to fail if you try.”

“Seriously?” Tony demanded.

“I have a theory that Holly’s soul attracts trouble because no one else can deal with the trouble as well as she can.” Ron said. “Like every problem on earth that’s too dangerous the norns just shunt towards Holly to fix, some sort of throwback from the prophecy she was born under.”

“So what? Your advice is to just weather the storm then? To accept she is constantly going to be near death?” Loki snarled.

“No. My advice is how to ensure that Holly goes to you instead of running off on her own.” Ron said. “Holly doesn’t need anyone. She’s independent, always has been. Her first thought naturally will always be to figure out how to do something on her own. She won’t ask for help and she will do everything she can to keep people out of danger. It is your job, as her friends, to keep her from doing that. You can’t keep her from danger, but you can be there with her if you’re smart.”

And finally, they were starting to see sense. Ron smiled and leaned back a little, trying to rearrange the weight of his baby so that it was slightly more comfortable. Then he looked out at the group, cleared his throat, and spoke.

“Step 1 is identifying what will make Holly run off.”

And so it began. Ron had a lot of experience with all of this and he was more than happy to pass along the information to these Avengers who sorely needed it. In exchange they were more than happy to tell him everything that had happened since the attack on Hogwarts, and Ron had his own internal freak out about all of that.

(She seriously fought Odin? Seriously?)

(She’d used magic while in a magical coma? Seriously?)

Ron didn’t know why he still had the capability to be surprised.

“I know.” Ron said. “That it can be frustrating. You want Holly to go to you naturally, to treat you like friends and a team. But…I dunno the war just changed her. She lost too many people. She doesn’t deal with that loss well even now. She cares about you all which means she’ll want to protect you. It took Hermione and I years to get to the point where she stopped trying to ditch us when trouble came. It takes time but it can happen.”

“She’s a part of our team.” Steve said. “We have to work together on things.”

“I know. I know that.” Ron said. “Really I do. Holly learnt to do that with me and Hermione and then we retired to have a family and it set her back again. She worked for two years on her own because we wanted to get married and have Rose here. I’m glad she’s found you all, a new team, but you’ll have to rebuild that team mindset with her.”

“We understand.” Natasha said. “Thank you for your advice.”

“Feel free to call me anytime if Holly’s doing something weird. I’ve been with her through pretty much all of her moods.” Ron offered. “Anything to make sure you all don’t look this near a break down again. Seriously, you all should take a lesson from my kid here and take a nap. I can hold down the fort for the next bit.”

And they did look done in. Ron couldn’t help but feel a stab of sympathy for how tired they all appeared. Holly’s constant chaos and danger could be exhausting. Clearly these people needed more rest than he did and he’d been up half the night with a fussy baby.

“You sure?” Tony asked. “Because honestly I think a break would be nice.”

“Mate. I’m a war general, I’ve fought alongside Holly for years. I may not be as powerful as her but I’m no less skilled. I can guard your tower.”

And Ron meant that. He meant it so much that he practically bullied them all to rest. One single nap wouldn’t hurt he tempted. There’d be a good filling dinner waiting for them in a few hours so they shouldn’t worry too much about anything. With a bit of effort, he’d gotten them all into their rooms, using all of the paternal energies at his disposal. Rose slept through all the moving and whispering thankfully.

Of course, the moment Ron had settled back in the penthouse, his daughter woke up again and began to fuss.

Ron sighed and smiled at the beautiful little girl.

“Alright, Miss. Let’s see if I can’t make those lights you liked so much.”

Chapter 39: Getting Some Insight

Summary:

Winter is starting to remember flashes of his past life while Holly's condition worsens. Too bad everyone forgot about Hydra.

Notes:

Last week was a fun chapter. I am so glad we all love Ron this much.
Just as an FYI, I'll be out of town all next week for a conference in San Francisco. I'm going to be presenting my research so it's very exciting. This means the updates might not be out on time. I'm going to try but no promises. If they're not up at the normal time then I'll be posting them probably on that saturday.
Thank you for your patience and wish me luck on my presentation!

The first conversation he had with his new handler was one where she apologized for not being able to do more for him. She had planned on using her magic to completely heal his mind and help him find out who he’d been before Hydra, but her magic was sick and there wasn’t much more she could do. All she’d done was free him from their control.

As if that wasn’t more than enough.

As if it was more than he could have ever possibly dreamed of. (If he’d allowed himself to dream.)

That apology had struck something in him. Something deep. No one had ever apologized to him. No one had ever seen him as a person worthy of that sort of consideration. In truth, it hadn’t even occurred to him that someone could apologize to him. Why would they? He was the Asset. He did what he was told and if he failed then it was only natural that he be punished. No one did an Asset a kindness. What would be the point?

And yet the first thing his newest handler had offered him was an apology.

That was only the beginning of the strangeness of his new handler. He could of course remember the entire conversation he had with her while he’d been drugged, he knew he’d promised to follow her orders in exchange for his freedom from Hydra. He had expected to be sent on a mission immediately, or interrogated more. He was prepared to submit.

“Alright.” His handler had said. “I have a few requests I’d like to get out of the way before we go any further.”

“Anything.”

“Yes. Right.” She said. “You see I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

He didn’t know how to respond.

“Remember when you were drugged, and I brought up your mask?” She continued. “And you admitted you didn’t want to take it off?”

“Yes.” He allowed, preparing himself to remove the mask that protected his face. He had been trained for so long to keep it on. It was only ever removed when he was being reprogrammed.

“Good. That means that I don’t want you to take it off until you want to.” She said. “Obviously you should take it off when you need to eat but you can do that in privacy if it would make you feel more comfortable. Do you understand?”

“My mask stays on.”

“Because you want it on.” She said. “And if that changes then you take if off whenever you’d like. From now on, only do things that you want to. I’m very different from Hydra you see, and I can’t stand the idea of having any real authority over you. I may ask you to do something, but you can always, always say no. Promise me that if I ask you to do something, you’ll only do it if you want to.”

He had been willing to promise anything. But he had no idea how to honor this strange request.

At least he’d thought he’d had no idea.

Because as it turned out it was incredibly easy to ignore orders from your handler when they were this stupid.

The first two days with his handler were relatively easy. His handler was bedridden, and he’d been given guard duty. He interacted with the other Avengers as little as possible and spent most of his time waiting for Hydra to strike again. Then his handler had gotten the stupid idea of sneaking out to try and heal herself, when she could barely stand.

“You don’t have to come with me. I can handle this.” She’d said.

Yeah right.

Winter, as Holly had taken to calling him, found a new job. He wasn’t an asset anymore because his handler didn’t see him as an asset, she didn’t see anyone or anything as an asset. When his handler had told him that they were going to talk to Death herself and wouldn’t it be better if he stayed in the car? Winter knew he had a new job.

It was to keep one (1) dumbass from killing themselves.

It would be difficult, he was under no illusions about that. But it was clearly important. He didn’t even know where that instinct came from but the longer, he remained in Holly’s presence the stronger it grew. He just knew when she was going to pull some dumb shit. Something about the way she held her skinny, sick body or the curl of her mouth when she saw an injustice, he just knew.

 It was this instinct that allowed him to waylay her when she attempted to get out of bed for the 4^th time. Granger had already come and gone, taking scans and asking questions. She’d promised to find out what was happening, but that had been hours before. Holly was in pain and clearly sick, but she kept trying to get up to help with the search.

“Oh, come on Winter! I’m not that sick, I can get up to the living room.”

Don’t be like that! I’m not that sick, we can still go to the game!

A flash of pain went through his mind and he shook his head to try and dislodge it while also indicating Holly should stay in bed. Sick people stayed in bed until their lungs stopped rattling.

“Winter?” She asked. “Are you okay?”

“Headache.” He said.

“Ah. Sorry.” She said. “I know there’s still damage in your mind from Hydra. The block they put up on your memories was quite jagged. I wouldn’t be surprised if given time you’ll start to remember things on your own.”

He didn’t say anything, and she lifted up an eyebrow.

“Are you remembering something Winter?”

“Just…flashes.” He shrugged. “Nothing important.”

Something very tender flashed over her face for a moment, changing it from the exhausted pained look she’d been sporting for almost as long as he’d known her for half a second to something entirely warm and foreign to him.

“Everything is important.” She insisted. “Come on, tell me.”

“It’s just this kid.” He said. “He’s sick and he won’t stay in bed.”

“Were you taking care of him?” She pushed ignoring his warning tone about her own actions. He frowned a little trying to make things feel clearer. But there was nothing there, nothing but the beginnings of another headache.

“I…can’t…”

“Shh. You’re pushing directly at the block, that’ll just make it tighter.” She warned. “Here. Give me your hands.”

He reached out with both his hands, the metal and the flesh, and she took them, holding them with incredible gentleness.

“Alright, look at my hands, memorize their shape. Try to see if you can figure out how I got the scars on them.”

“Thought we were talking ‘bout my memories.”

“We are. We just have to go about it sideways.”

He sighed as if he had been incredibly put upon but did so, he turned his hands so that he was holding hers and began to examine them, careful not to put too much pressure on them. He manipulated her hands, feeling the texture and studying the scars. It was quite calming.  After a few minutes of study, she spoke again.

“The kid, in your mind, were you taking care of him?”

“Course.” He answered still looking at the words on the back of her hand. “His ma’s too busy most of the time. My job to keep the punk alive.”

He froze. Slowly he looked up to see Holly smirking at him, he blinked at her stupidly. He didn’t even know where those words had come from. When he tried to chase after them, they disappeared like fog.

“See? Nothing’s pointless. You’re remembering whatever’s the most important to you first.” She said. “Whoever that little boy is, he must mean a great deal to you.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry. In a day or so I’ll be back in action and I’ll be able to help you start breaking through the block Hydra placed on you.”

So, he really had been a someone before he’d been an asset. He let go of her hands and leaned back. How long had he been away from that life? That boy in his mind, they’d been sick, they’d needed him. What if Winter had left him? Had he been able to manage on his own?

“What about the kid?” He asked. “He’s sick.”

“Well, once we get your memories back, we’ll go find him. I’m sure I’ve enough magic to help him too.” She promised.

He grunted in acknowledgement and then tucked her back into bed. Until he found that other kid, he still had this dumbass to keep in bed.

Night fell and with it came a night of tossing and turning for Holly. She was in so much pain and agony due to her transformation that by midnight Winter had caved and gone to find Granger. He explained the problem and the woman got up from her books and used her magic to put Holly to sleep.

“Only until the transformation is done.”

Famous last words.

 

*****

There was a giant hole in her chest.

At least that’s what it felt like.

It felt like someone had taken a knife dipped in acid, cut open her chest, and then used that knife to remove all of her innards before sewing her back together.

“What is taking so long?” A voice growled.

“She should be awake, sir. Brain activity is high again.”

A ringing pain across her cheek caused her eyes to shoot open with a pained gasp. She looked around the room, trying to take in any details. But everything was fuzzy and out of focus. She felt as if she were trying to look at world where everything was melting and twisting slightly. The same hand that had slapped her grabbed her cheek and forced her to look directly into the face of a man she didn’t know. He was an older man with blonde hair and a strong jaw.

“Is it working?” He asked. “Last thing we need is this freak pulling a stunt before she’s been tamed.”

“Yes sir.”

Holly couldn’t focus on the man’s face. Her eyes didn’t seem to want to do anything but squirm and keep her from seeing anything clearly. Her head was spinning so much too and that made it far worse.

“What is your name?” He asked her.

Holly didn’t know who this man was. All she knew was that her chest hurt, her arms hurt, her head hurt, and he’d slapped her. He’d also called her a freak which was just not on.

She spit on him.

He didn’t even grimace, instead he lifted his other hand and back handed her across the cheek so hard she saw stars.

“You will learn your place.” He growled into her ear. “You belong to Hydra now.”

Hydra?

How had she gotten here? Why couldn’t she remember anything? Her eyes were slowly allowing her to focus. She was tied up to a table that had been set at an 75 degree angle so that she was still able to partially face the room, but her body was available for anyone to look at and stab. It sort of reminded her of the sort of containment units you’d see in crap movies about people in insane asylums.

“Now. What is your name?”

She looked back at the man, fury in her eyes. She had no idea how she’d gotten here but if he was Hydra then she wasn’t going to play along with him any longer. She twitched her fingers, trying to call on her magic. The wonderful magic that had always resided within her, that even in her weakest moments had always sparked back to her.

But there was no echo. Her eyes widened in fear and the man smirked.

“I see it is working, you are so docile, aren’t you? Don’t you just want to give in?”

“Go to hell.” She spat trying desperately to cover up her own fear.

The man leaned in closer a terrible hungry smile on his face.

“Oh darling, we’re already there.”

What followed next was torture unlike any Holly had experienced before. In the sense that she had no magic to defend herself from it and the source was as muggle as it came. It was also incredibly painful. She’d been attached to this machine via these plastic diodes that could and would systematically attack her nerves making her mind believe she was being drowned, burnt, or electrocuted, depending on the man’s mood.

It was creative and incredibly painful, but it was not Cruciatus painful.

What was that painful was the lack of magic.

Because her magic was gone.

The last thing she could remember was Hermione putting her to sleep. The pain of her transformation had gotten so intense that she had been unable to think, unable to even breathe without whimpering. Her friend had taken pity on her and gently spelled her to sleep, promising to wake her when the changes were done.

The changes were done and now her magic was gone.

Holly hadn’t known how much she loved her magic. She knew she used it frequently, and that she thought of herself first and foremost as a magic user. But this was something different, something horrific. It felt as if her soul had been ripped out of her. Was this what a dementors kiss did to a witch? No wonder victims of it were never themselves again.  

She could feel the imprint of where her core was meant to be, an empty chasm that taunted her. In all her imaginings of what Death would take from her, her magic had never been on the table. And the agony she was feeling just then robbed her of any desire to escape. What was even the point of trying? She was already injured, her mind couldn’t focus on anything, and her magic was gone.

There was no despair like this. Nothing had ever hurt this way before. Had she suffered before? Yes. She could still remember the torture of Sirius’ death, her screams of denial and the bruises on her body from where Remus had had to hold her back from following him. The murder of Cedric had been painful and brutal to her soul as well. Watching her first crush be murdered because she’d thought they should both take the cup had been agony. All of it had hurt, of course it had.

But her magic? The very thing that defined her? The thing that brought her the most joy, that allowed her to be the most herself she had ever been. That sacred thing that she had clung to in times of need, the divine gift that had never failed her. Its disappearance was far too much.

There was nothing for her left. No magic. That meant no more broom rides. She would never learn how to shapeshift or travel the realms. She would be stuck on earth, weak and helpless, cursed to be without the one thing that made her her. Of course, her friends would try to help but this was not the sort of thing that could be reversed. She’d felt angry and hurt just thinking about their attempts to make this impossible situation bearable.

No. She didn’t want their pity, let alone their compassion. She was useless now. She wasn’t a witch. She was some sick failed experiment of Death’s. The Norns’ favorite joke.

Compared to her internal turmoil, nothing the Hydra goon did could even come close.

And that really pissed him off.

By the time he was finished Holly was in really rough shape and unable to even hold her head up for the pain. Whatever they drugged her with certainly hadn’t helped either. She could feel it coursing through her veins like a sludge, leaving a strange sort of dizzying apathy in its wake.

“You will submit, Potter.” He warned. “And then you’ll lead Hydra into a new glorious age.”

“If this is how you talk to all women, I’m not surprised you’re still a virgin.” She said her voice hoarse. Let it never be said that Holly wouldn’t sass off to someone who had the power to kill her.

“Oh. how clever.” He sneered. “I’m sure you’ll feel very clever after we put you on ice.”

Ice?

“Till we meet again Potter. I’ve a meeting with SHIELD to get too.”

She didn’t bother shouting for help or telling the man he’d regret this. She just glared at him with all the power she could muster. Something in her eyes made him pause for a mere moment before he turned and walked away. Of course, then a couple of other Hydra grunts began to roll her table backwards. She turned her head a bit to see that the table was on a set of tracks that led right to some sort of chamber.

Based on her interactions with Winter she had a feeling she knew exactly what was going to happen to her.

For a moment she thought about doing nothing, about them letting her freeze her up.

But then, then her mind flashed to her friends. To Ron and Hermione who had come to help her, who might be dead or in trouble because of her. To the Avengers who definitely were in trouble and who would surely risk far too much trying to rescue her. She couldn’t leave them.

But how to escape? She had no magic and the bonds tying her down were far too strong.

She didn’t have time to come up with a plan as the table rolled fully into the chamber and the door was shut in front of her. Immediately she heard the locking mechanism activate and then the small chamber began to have gas vented into it. She saw ice forming along the floor and gasped.

Think Potter. Think.

If she was frozen there was no telling how long, it would be until they let her out. If they ever actually did. She might even be used a bait for a trap.

No magic.

She couldn’t move her body.

What else did she have?

*****

Alexander Pierce took the elevator out of the Hydra base, as he did so, he changed his suit coat for a new blood free one. The original plan to kill Potter before she could act as a deterrent to Hydra had been scrapped. But he felt that this new plan was even better. Potter had taken their soldier from them, she could easily replace him.

And while she was being reprogrammed it would be easy enough to destroy the rest of the Avengers as they tried to save her.

Kidnapping her had been easier than thought possible, she’d been in some sort of coma when they’d bombed Avengers Tower. They’d attacked the top of the tower, destroying the beloved A on the top as well as taking out the entirety of the penthouse. From there, using robots created by the now jailed Hammer, they were able to swarm the Avengers. Agents then broke in through the lower levels while their agents further back let off an EMP blast that shut the AI off.

From there it was a cake walk. The Avengers, along with two unknown magic users, destroyed the robots and, a majority of the agents that had gone in didn’t come out again.

Of course, a few did. The few that mattered.

And now they had their magic user.

Once in custody his scientists had gotten to work, injecting her with countless experimental serums in an attempt to keep her docile and under control. And it worked. When she woke, she was too weak from the drugs to even think of using magic to escape. It was only a matter of time before she cracked and from there Hydra could remold her into their new Winter Soldier. Their old one had been obsolete anyway.

He smiled as he stepped out of the elevator and into the SHIELD base at large. He made his way through the building, smiling as agents greeted him, trust in their eyes. He took a flight of stairs up and found Nick in a meeting room with the Avengers along with the two unknowns. The traitor Winter Soldier was standing there too. Pierce was glad then that the man hadn’t seen him since his last reprogramming.

“Nick?” Pierce said. “I think I’ve got a lead on Potter. There’s been some buzz on Hydra’s radar, there’s a base in Russia that might have what we’re looking for.”

“Excellent. Everyone, this is Alexander Pierce, one of SHIELD’s top men.” He said.

“How do we know she’s there?” Loki asked suspiciously.

“We don’t. Not yet. Which is why I want to bring this to your attention.” Pierce said, reaching into his suit coat pocket and pulling out a folder. “I’d like to introduce to you Project Insight.”

Chapter 40: Don't Lie to the God of Lies.

Summary:

Seriously, don't lie to the god of lies when Holly Potter's life is on the line. It will not end well for you.

Notes:

The conference has been brilliant! I am so hyped up all the time! I presented yesterday and had some great conversations with people. It has pumped me up so much that I managed to get all of my writing done on time! Woo!
Please enjoy this chapter!

Loki had disliked everything about Pierce from the moment he laid eyes on the man. He’d disliked his graying blonde hair, his stupid glasses and his well-tailored suit. All of it was awful. Granted Loki had felt that about everything and everyone that wasn’t Holly after her kidnapping. He’d been snappish and rude to everyone aside from Hermione because that woman frightened him far too much. And really who would blame him for his foul mood? Holly had once again been put into danger and Loki had failed to protect her. She had been vulnerable and in so much pain. Loki should have foreseen this.

They all should have.

In their defense, their worry about Holly’s transformation had blinded them to the danger they were in. All of them were focused on trying to prepare for whatever Holly would become. Hermione had pulled Tony, Bruce, Loki, Ron and even Thor into researching the books she’d gathered up for them. Clint and Natasha had been working on keeping everyone fed while Steve had switched off between monitoring them and helping Winter.

On top of all of this Loki had been led to believe that Hydra was a diminishing force in the world. That after the formation of SHIELD, Hydra had been chipped away at year after year. Yes, there were programs like the Red Room that had created Black Widows but those had been dismantled one by one. Hydra was supposedly weaker now than it had ever been. They had assumed that sending the Winter Soldier at them had been Hydra’s last shot at being a threat. They had not expected Hydra to have the force, the resources, that they did.

The robots that had swarmed them. The explosion in the penthouse that would have killed Ron and his baby if Ron hadn’t had insane reflexes. The EMP bomb that went off in the server room in the basement nearly killing Jarvis. The numerous agents. It had all been so surprising that they had been nearly paralyzed by it. When the dust had settled, they’d found the Winter Soldier severely injured and no Holly to be found.

And it had pissed Loki off.

It was still pissing him off in fact.

Despite this Loki was quite sure he hated Pierce solely because he was a liar and a piss poor one at that. How dare he lie to Loki’s face and not even have the guts to not suck at it. That was just offensive. He found he despised the man for dangling Holly in front of them to try and push his agenda. Pierce was a slimy toad of a man and Loki wanted nothing more than to make his outside match his inside. If Holly could turn assassins into rats, then Loki could turn agents into toads.

The man had spoken at length to them about the benefits of Project Insight to the world, how they could use it to find Holly Potter and do so much more to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. He seemed entirely too full of himself, too sure that they would believe him. He didn’t even bother trying not to look like he had a stick up his ass. Loki didn’t care one way or another about Insight, but it reminded him of Hiemdall and that alone made him hate it too. To Loki’s lack of surprise there was no one in the group of heroes that liked Pierce’s ideas.

When the toad left, they immediately looked like they wanted to argue about it. Loki shushed them harshly and then waved his hand in a violent cutting downward motion. Ever single listening device in the room shorted out simultaneously except for Tony’s phone which had Holly’s protection on it. Once that was done Loki growled harshly.

“He was lying, and I intend to rip the truth out with his spine.”

“Lying about what? Project Insight?” Steve asked. “Because I do not like the sound of that at all.”

“Not that.” Loki scoffed. “That was obviously a ploy to instate a fascist regime on the globe. Who cares? No. He was lying about Holly. She isn’t in Russia.”

The thing that most people forgot, that even Loki at times forgot, was that Loki was far from stupid. Sure, he wasn’t all that intelligent when compared to someone like Hermione Granger-Weasley, but still he was not an idiot. For centuries he had been one of Asgard’s top political experts, even if Odin preferred not to listen to Loki’s advice. When he and Ralston had become heroes of earth Loki had thrown himself into the politics of the time.

Humans were terribly clever but that did not mean they were original. They had new names for things, new ways to frame the same actions. Generations grew and died so quickly that the humans of today would forget what their ancestors had already tried. Pierce was just the newest in a long line of idiots who were trying to find a way to exert control over humanity. Loki had seen it with the magic users he and Ralston had tried to protect, and he had seen it with the muggles of the same time.

So, Loki knew what Pierce was. He would care more about it if it affected him directly or if Holly wasn’t currently missing.

“What?” Thor asked while the rest of the Avengers sputtered nonsensically. Loki rolled his eyes.

“The man was suggesting you allow him to send three floating islands into the sky so that he can monitor the entire planet for bad behavior.” Loki said. “Obviously a fascist. Holly taught me that word, I quite like it. Speaking of, far more importantly, he’s trying to mislead us on our hunt for Holly.”

“How is the fact that one of the top men in SHIELD a fascist more important?” Clint demanded.

“Holly is what matters. Besides the man won’t succeed. Even if he gets his stupid islands up and kills everyone who disagrees with him it’s not like the rest of humanity is going to roll over and take it. No, he’ll have far too many revolts on his hands until he’s either forced to eradicate his entire species or die himself. It’s inevitable.” Loki explained. “Take it from someone who knows.”  

“We have to stop him.” Thor declared. “It’s our job.”

“Our job should be finding Holly.”

“Loki.” Ron said gently. “Ask yourself, do you think Holly would want you to focus on her or on stopping Pierce if he is as bad as you believe?”

Loki opened his mouth to say that Holly would want them to rescue her, but he knew that would be a bald-faced lie. Next, he wanted to say that it didn’t matter what Holly wanted, she had the self-preservation of a lemming anyway. But…he imagined her face if he revealed he’d let a fascist plot like this go uncontested.

Loki, you know what the right thing is. Ralston whispered in his ear. My descendant is going to be fine.

Damn.

“Alright fine. Let’s murder Pierce and then go find Holly.”

“We cannot just murder one of my most trusted colleagues because you think you’re an expert in global politics.” Fury growled.

“Why not? It would save us all time.”

“We have to do research, ensure that Pierce is dirty.” Natasha said. “Then we stop Insight and find Holly.”

Loki scoffed but didn’t argue. That was what Holly would want him to do. She would want them to be smart, to protect innocent people, and trust her to protect herself. He hated that he had to do what Holly wanted. What Holly wanted was stupid. Especially since she was the one who’d gotten kidnapped. Even though she had been under a sleeping spell so she could hardly be blamed.

Still.

They began to carefully plan out how they were going to go about their reconnaissance. Loki’s idea of kidnapping Pierce, tying him to a chair, and threatening him until he spilled his guts was voted down quite quickly which Loki thought was unfair. No one was interested in his truth spell idea either. Something about ‘what if he’s innocent Loki’ or ‘you can’t torture everyone you don’t like Loki’.

Nag. Nag. Nag.

Loki wasn’t wrong about this. He had been lying about there being clues of Holly location being in Russia. Either the man knew where Holly actually was, or he had no clue and was willing to use their desperation to his advantage. Frankly Loki didn’t care which one was the case. He was a liar either way and Loki needed to know the truth, soon. The only person on his side was Winter who was deeply suspicious of Pierce for reasons he refused, or could not, vocalize.

Loki decided he liked Winter the best after the man agreed that beating Pierce until he squeaked was a reasonable solution.

Still two against the rest of the group wasn’t enough. Thankfully Loki’s skills were going to be put to use. While Ron, Hermione, Tony and Jarvis continued to work on tracking Holly’s location, Loki, Natasha, and Clint would go undercover to sniff out Pierce’s true motivations. Bruce and Winter were on stand-by, ready to jump into action as needed and acting as a guard for Fury. There were after all suspicions that if Pierce was dirty, he’d try to remove Fury from the picture. Steve’s job was to run interference with any SHIELD agents to keep suspicion off their backs.

And so, they got to work. Loki easily shifted himself into a nondescript human in a shield uniform and insinuated himself into SHIELD. He used magic to create a pass that would get him through security much to Fury’s displeasure. It was laughable to see the man realize how much Loki was actually capable of. From there it was easy enough to work in tandem with the other two shield agents to download files about Project Insight.

Loki would later, many years from now, look back and be grateful that they decided to do the ‘right’ thing. He would have no way of knowing what would have happened if he had dedicated himself to finding Holly instead of protecting earth against Pierce’s plan. In another world, a world where he and Holly had never met, Hydra’s actions would have resulted in Fury’s near death, the destruction of SHIELD, and the three heli-carriers would have crashed into the earth resulting in thousands of deaths.

In that world of course Loki wouldn’t have cared about that. But now Loki had something of an affection for the Avengers and Holly had reignited his love for earth, the love he had gained with Ralston four centuries before. In this world, Loki would be glad (eventually) that Hydra was stopped here and now instead of sometime in the future.

Not that he would ever admit that out loud or anything.

It took Loki some hours to get into the places he needed, to even find any clues. Hours during which only his worry for Holly and Ralston’s ghostly voice could keep him company. He was deep deep in the heart of SHIELD, surrounded by humans who he did not know and who were trained to have a trigger finger and a less than healthy sense of paranoia. He had given himself a face that was so ubiquitous that any human who saw it would think that they had seen it before. With a helpful dash of magic to throw off suspicion it had helped him get by beneath the radar.

Yet with every step he took he knew he increased his chances of being caught, of alerting their enemies what they were doing. It had been Tony who had suggested that Hydra was more widespread than they had thought. Only SHIELD and the Avengers could have known some of the things Hydra used to attack the Tower, who was to say that Hydra had not infiltrated the organization that had formed the Avengers in the first place? Tony’s idea had unnerved the two loyal SHIELD agents, which was why Loki had been sent into SHIELD alone.

Who around him was Hydra? Who was SHIELD? Who were both? Had any of these agents helped on the attack of Avengers Tower? Had any of them been the ones to take Holly? Loki had to keep himself from glaring at them from the corner of his eyes as he carefully tapped at a keyboard trying to find what it was that he wanted. He did not know this tech as well as he should, it was both high tech (compared to the earth he knew from Ralston’s time) and primitive (compared to Asgard) to him.

Eventually he found it.

Or rather he found him.

As part of Loki’s reintroduction to the tower after Holly had declared him mentally well enough to leave his hospital room, he’d met with Jarvis. He hadn’t liked Jarvis at all, but Holly had sternly told him that Jarvis was her friend and that he had to be polite to the artificial intelligence. He and Jarvis had had exactly one conversation about his code and if it was at similar to Hogwart’s warding system. At the time Loki had said that they were far too different, but he knew better now.

So, when he found a thread of coding that looking strangely like Jarvis’ he moved forward, following the trail of crumbs (hadn’t Stark called them ‘cookies’ at one point?) the thing he was following left behind. Eventually after using a healthy dose of ‘emotion-free’ magic to convince a few firewalls that really, they wanted to let him in, he found it. An entire intelligence, not like Jarvis or Hogwarts, but an intelligence, nonetheless. It lacked the fluidity and the vastness of Jarvis and it had no magic to speak of.

“And who might you be?” Loki asked.

A name was not forthcoming.

But that was fine, Loki was persistent when he wanted to be. And in this situation, he most certainly wanted to be. Carefully he picked and pocked and even stabbed a little at the intelligence until he forced its secrets into the open. He stared hard at the information and then carefully removed the phone that Stark had thrust into his hands.

Does the name Zola mean anything?

Armin Zola? He was a hydra scientist back before I got frozen. Steve messaged back to the group text. Why?

Apparently, he downloaded his brain and SHIELD has him in their servers. What you humans will do for immortality is fascinating.

Loki would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the chaos that formed from that reveal. It took time to bend what remained of Zola to his will but eventually he convinced the intelligence that he was a friend, a trusted confidant, perhaps even a lover. His magic convinced the intelligence that it saw everything it had ever desired in Loki, everything it missed from having corporality. He weaved around himself lies like expertly spun silk, creating a façade so tempting it would make a siren green with envy. Pierce could never even compete. His lie was so complete that Zola began to sing for him.

Zola bragged to him, desperate to impress him, telling him all that he had done in the name of Hydra, all that he was willing to do. He revealed the depravity of his own mind and what horrors his genius had created. He was so proud, so smug, of it all. He confided to Loki, using a tone that only the most beloved would use on another, that he knew he would never be caught, that Hydra would have its victory. Project Insight was ready, the ships were built, and soon they would fly. Zola had seen head after head of Hydra cut off and had spent his immortality ensuring three more grew in their place each time.  

And Loki listened. He empathized, he praised. Oh, how brilliant you are Zola, how loyal, how dedicated. Surely there has been no other man like you before. Loki knew the frailty of genius and he had no problem playing that weakness like a lute. And when Loki had his information, he soothed Zola back into slumber with promises of a world enslaved. The lies fell from his tongue and from his fingers like honey and gold, sweet and wealthy and oh so impossible to ignore.

Sometimes I forget how good at that you are.

Loki smirked and mentally reminded Ralston that when Ralston had been alive Loki hadn’t felt the need to use these skills. Perhaps it was bad that he’d accepted Ralston’s voice, that he no longer pretended that he didn’t want it there. But Loki didn’t care if it was bad or if the voice was fake. Not anymore.

Once Zola was asleep and Loki was able to fully disentangle himself from the computer system he fell back into his chair. What Zola had revealed was frightening. That Hydra had been a part of SHIELD from its genesis was dangerous. What missions had SHIELD gone through with that had been motivated by Hydra? What crimes had been covered up? Where had they taken Holly?

Loki sent a message off to the group chat, warning them to trust no one in SHIELD. SHIELD was compromised. Hydra was behind Project Insight and would be using it to kill millions.

Of course, the moment he sent that things started to go wrong very very quickly.

Loki didn’t know it, but the messages weren’t secure. When Loki had sent the message about Zola, Pierce had begun his final preparations. The man was apparently not as stupid as Loki had assumed, he had seen that the Avengers hadn’t been swayed. In the day Loki had spent infiltrating SHIELD, Pierce had been busy. Since he had Holly, he didn’t fear the force of the rest of the Avengers. The moment he sent that final message, Pierce reacted. The game was up, and the Avengers were now a threat to Hydra’s security. SHIELD would fall today, and Hydra would rise from its ashes.

All at once attacks on the Avengers began simultaneously. Guns were fired on Winter, Fury, and Bruce. Agents swarmed Clint and Natasha. More robots burst into the room Hermione was researching in with Tony and Ron. Steve was trapped in an elevator with agents who tried to subdue him. Someone attempted to hit Thor with a tesseract based weapon that was designed to vaporize anyone it hit. Only Loki, disguised as deeply was he was, was safe from the immediate assault.

It was Jarvis who let Loki know what was happening, rapidly sending him messages of locations and attacks. Loki stared at the ever-growing list of misfortunes with slightly widened eyes.

Just like old times, right?

Not currently helpful Ralston.

Loki took in a deep breath and let the Yggdrasil take him away. As he did so the spells hiding his identity failed and he arrived by Tony and the other’s sides in full armor. Immediately he conjured three knives and sent them directly into the processors of the robots that were converging on Stark.

“Loki!”

“Stark. Get to work, you need to keep Project Insight from taking off. Attack it with whatever means you have.”

“What about Holly?”

“She’ll be along.” Loki said. “I hope.”

“Knowing her?” Ron said after blasting one of the robots, with his sleeping infant attached to his chest with a tight sling. Ron and Hermione had both refused to part with the child and so had put her in a specially warded sling to protect her from danger. They had then traded off holding her as they worked. “Definitely.”

“We’re good here Loki.” Hermione said. “We’ll guard Tony while he works.”

“Avoid Zola if you can, he’s entrenched in SHIELD’s system if he catches you, he’ll do everything he can to shut you out.”

“Jarvis can take that old man.” Tony declared.

“I’m on my way to Romanoff and Barton.” Loki said. “Tell Jarvis if you need help.”

The world exploded into chaos the moment Loki arrived at Barton’s side. Loki lost himself in the fighting. Teleport, stab, blast. All of it melding together into a symphony of noise and pain. Agents were fighting against one another, a civil war of epic proportions. It was impossible to tell whose side an agent was on until they pointed their gun at you. It took time to thin the crowds of Hydra agents, once it was done though Loki, Clint, and Natasha made their way towards Fury, Winter, and Bruce.

They met up with a slightly winded Steve on the way, who exited from an elevator filled with unconscious agents. In the distance they heard Thor roar and call down a blast of lightning.

“That can’t be good.” Loki decided. “I best check on him.”

“We’ll be fine here. We’ll secure Fury and make our way back to Tony and the others.”

“If his hacking fails, we have to destroy the ships before they take off.”

“Bruce could probably take care of the smashing.”

Loki laughed at that and let the Yggdrasil drag him to his brother. He found Thor fighting with his hammer against a few agents with terribly large glowing guns. His brother hard a severe burn on his arm.

“Thor!”

“Loki! Something’s wrong with Mjolnir! She keeps fighting me.”

“What?” Sure, enough the hammer jerked violently in Thor’s grip. One of the Agents fired again, and Loki cast a powerful shield to block it.

Loki’s eyes widened as he stared at hammer.

“Thor. Let Mjolnir go.”

“What?”

“Someone else is summoning her.”

“But who…Holly.”

A moment later the hammer was flying from Thor’s loose grip towards a destination unknown. Loki watched it blast through a wall, taking out one of the guns on its way with a sigh of relief.

 Holly was alive.

“Brother.” Thor said. “Do you want to go after it?”

“And leave you here defenseless?” Loki teased. “No let’s fight them together, Holly will be on her way soon enough.”

The grin of Thor’s face was blinding.

Chapter 41: The Heart of a Dying Star

Summary:

Mjolnir likes Thor best, they always would. But Holly Potter was something special, unique.

Notes:

I'm home from my conference! Now it's time to start applying to PhD programs. This is going to be a ride guys. I can write all kinds of fanfiction but writing a personal statement might just kill me.
Also please enjoy this chapter lol.

The heart of a dying star was an interesting place to be. For you see to call a star ‘dying’ was to misunderstand what a star actually was, at least in the magical sense. All stars began to die the moment they formed. You could speak to scientist after scientist who could tell you all about the pressures and theorized temperatures and calculated sizes and densities of stars and it would all be very interesting, but it still wouldn’t tell you anything about what it was like to witness the death of a star.

Mjolnir had been formed as a moderately sized star had begun to run out of hydrogen to smash around together to create helium. Just as the final reaction began, causing the star to balloon out, become giant and turn a fiery red, the dwarves began to collect the microscopic amounts of uru that would be used to create the wonderous hammer. Bits and pieces of stardust, gathered with magic covered hands and carefully pooled together.

It’s a beautiful process to watch. The dwarves would be in a ring like station around the dying star, powerful magics protecting them from the radiation and heat, and they would glow a rainbow of colors as they stood carefully mining the metal they wanted fresh from the source. Humans viewed dwarves as beings who lived deep in the earth, who were wide and squat with dirt on their faces and the scent of coal on their breath.

But the reality was far different. Dwarves were the first space travelers. They mined out stars, atom by atom, as they began to die, gathering every element in its purest form just as it was created, fresh and radioactive. And with those materials they make the greatest weapons and tools known to the realms.

When Mjolinr had been commissioned, it had been a fortuitous time for the dwarves, they had had their eye on a newly discovered star. Studies showed that it had formed from a dense cloud of gas filed with a cocktail of trace elements. Heavy dense elements. The kind that would make Uru in large quantities when the time came. So when Odin had ordered a hammer made for his crown prince, the dwarves had gone to their newest acquisition and prepared.

The star just needed a bit of help dying after all.

The problem of course, which no one knew until much later, was that the Norns were just as interested in what this star would make as anyone else was. For reasons known only to themselves, they sent out just the gentlest nudge to the dying star and when the dwarves went out to mine and to forge, something else got caught up in their grips. That something was the thing that all stars had right in their heart, a kernel of life.

Stars are givers of life after all. When they form the send out energy to the surrounding universe offering light and gifts to all those who orbit them. When they die they release all of their newly created elements into the universe, which gather elsewhere and form the building blocks of life on every planet. Every single being is made up of stardust and they have just a bit of that life in them, a bit of soul.

That’s what souls are in the end. Just a bit of starlight.

So, with a nudge from the norns, the dwarves managed to mine the rarest material of them all.

A soul.

Mjolnir became aware of themself in increments, as more and more molten uru was added to the star forge, more and more bits of soul filtered in. They had no name, no passions, no thoughts. Just the knowledge that they were and a moment before they had not been. Then they had been poured into their form and taken shape, a prism of gleaming metal. They heard and felt the vibrations from the dwarves around them.

“This one will be an excellent hammer for the prince!”

And what exactly was a hammer? What was a prince? Questions echoed in the soul of Mjolnir, still nameless. The dwarves were rough in their tutelage. They showed them what a hammer was by beating them into the proper shape with one. They carved runes into their side outlining in explicit detail what Mjolnir was meant to be. A hammer for Prince Thor, god of thunder. They were to be a weapon, a conduit for power. For Prince Thor of Asgard.

The Dwarves had a lot to say about Asgard.

Mjolnir found that they didn’t like all of it. They knew their power, they knew what magics had been put into them, they knew what they could do. They could guess at what Asgard would do with their power.

And suddenly it had the biggest question of all.

What if it didn’t want to do those things?

This would be the first time a weapon would ask that question. Especially one that had not been gifted a mouth.

This would also be the first time a weapon would revolt.

One of the dwarves tried to put a handle onto Mjolnir and Mjolnir hated it. It was long and heavy, and it looked like the handle of killer. Frankly it is was ugly. Mjolnir refused. No matter what the dwarves tried they could not get a proper handle onto the war hammer they had made. They tried every trick they knew but the handle was rejected each time. They tried different handles each one worse than the last. They were running out of time to get the hammer to Asgard in time for Thor’s birthday.

Eventually one of the dwarves, a young one with keen eyes, had touched Mjolnir and asked in a gentle voice what handle they would like. Then they had laid out every handle in the star forge in front of them. Mjolnir had reached out and found one that fit right, a small tiny thing, simple with a leather covering. Far too small for a war hammer, but perfect for Mjolnir. It was also the only handle they allowed.

It was a test Mjolnir decided. If this Thor wanted to weild them then Thor would accept them as they were. If Thor couldn’t look past the exterior of Mjolnir then he was not worthy of them or their power.

Thor had passed that first test. When the crowds of nobility had scoffed at Mjolnir’s short handle and called them defective, Thor had been the one to lift them up, swing and declare them a fine weapon for a prince. Mjolnir had thanked them by calling on the power they had and bringing down a powerful blast of lightning along with a new set of armor all for their chosen weilder.

Perhaps they could have been gentler about that.

As Mjolnir grew and aged they came to many conclusions about themself. The first was that they loved Thor quite desperately. Even when he was being stupid and arrogant, they still loved him. They loved him enough to let him use them for things that might not have been best. They always came when he called. They always yearned to be by his side, to protect him and guide him to victory. They loved Thor for his eagerness, for his vibrancy. They loved Thor’s soul and the harmony their souls created together. They loved that Thor was not afraid of killing, of the violence Mjolnir was capable of.

That love had become possessive too. Mjolnir was petty enough to break other inferior weapons Thor would pick up from time to time. They also refused to let anyone else pick them up. A quirk that took time for the people of Asgard to figure out. It wasn’t until Mjolnir started literally knocking people out of the way who they touched that it became clear. Mjolnir was more than happy to ignore the laws of physics to punish anyone who touched them that wasn’t Thor. That included people Thor hit with them.

Thor started calling her a lady of refined tastes. Mjolnir agreed with the taste part but perhaps not the lady. They weren’t anything like Sif after all. They were Mjolnir. But they did recognize it as the sign of affection and endearment, so they didn’t mind being called Lady. The rest of Asgard came up with the theory of worthiness. That the reason only Thor could weild them was because he was worthy.

Ridiculous.

At least it was.

Then Thor had used them to try and start a war, to complete a genocide that Odin had begun far before Mjolnir had been forged.

Perhaps Mjolnir had been far too indulgent of their beloved.  

When Odin had used magic to fling Mjolnir far away from Thor, they didn’t fight it. They let themselves be flung through time and space and landed on a dirty planet they had never been to before felling bereft and lost. The most important question Mjolnir has ever asked was what they would do if someone used them in a way they didn’t like. And now the time of reckoning had come. Not from Odin, who had no power over a soul like Mjolnir’s, but from Mjolnir themself.

When Thor came to them, godly immortality and strength locked away by a spell of Odin’s making, Mjolnir had known they could remove it with ease.

Mjolnir did not.

And they watched as their beloved cried to the heavens and begged for Odin to forgive them. It was not Odin Thor needed forgiveness from.

For the next three days Mjolnir had done a lot of thinking and pondering. It was good to take a little time away from a relationship to get one’s priorities in order. Thor had broken their trust greatly with his invasion of Jontunheim after all. Perhaps they should consider looking for other people to go into battle with, that sort of thing. If Thor wasn’t going to use them properly then perhaps Mjolnir should go out and find someone who will.

All of this pondering went to nothing when Thor proved beyond a doubt that he was the weilder for them by throwing himself into harms way to save a mortal town. It had only take him three days to work through this arrogance and bloodlust that had infected him and Mjolnir had flown back to his hand with gladness. Looking for a new wielder seemed difficult anyway. Who knew how long it would take for a single Warhammer like themself to find a companion better than Thor.

And so, they were reunited again, their bond stronger than ever. Only Thor was worthy of Mjolnir because Mjolnir only loved Thor. Only Thor had the soul that made Mjolnir’s own soul sing. Thor was after all the god of thunder and lightning, and there are some who theorized that a lightning strike created the first bit of life in the oceans. How could Mjolnir, a being that came from the source of all life, not adore a being like themself? They had been happy with that, overjoyed in fact. On earth Thor had tried to use a few mortal weapons but Mjolnir had smashed those quickly enough and once all of the Avengers had had their chance trying to lift them, things had been perfect.

Then…well then, another soul had caught Mjolnir’s eye. Thor was still their favorite of course but there was something lovely and intriguing about Holly Potter. She reminded Mjolnir of their star. The star they had come from, the star that had cradled their being, that had willingly gifted a part of themselves to let Mjolnir become. It was a force Mjolnir had not felt since. Not until they had seen Holly cleaning one day and felt a being that pulsed with light and energy and love.

Thor was their beloved. The hand they knew better than anyone else, the being that brought them adventure and danger and victory and justice. Thor was the being that they had made a life with. Holly was the life they had left behind. Holly was a star. Not dying, not pulsing out in a supernova, not being torn apart by opportunistic dwarves but whole and real and bright.

So, when the cleaning lady had been attacked by a slime monster, Mjolnir was more than happy to come to her aid. She was not Thor, but she was worthy of their affections.

Holly used Mjolnir sparingly. She seemed to recognize on an innate level that Mjolnir would always prefer Thor to be the one touching them, that Thor was the one who should use their power. Mjolnir had been made for Thor after all, not for a magic user that already had a possessive weapon of their own in the form of an ugly stick. (They and the Death Stick had something of a rivalry going on, the Death Stick had been searching for centuries for a weilder to call their own and didn’t appreciate Mjolnir butting in.) But that if the need arose Mjolnir was fine with Holly, that Mjolnir even enjoyed Holly’s touch.

Mjolnir did not have senses in the normal way which is how they were able to tell when someone called for them, even at great distances.

She hadn’t wanted to leave Thor, but Loki was there to help him, and there didn’t seem to be any weapons around that could steal Thor from them. So, Mjolnir had left and flung themself through the air towards a destination unknown. If they hit a few guns on their way out then that was no one’s business but their own.

Mjolnir flew down a hallway, turning right and nearly clipping an agent’s head. They then flew down along the floor. Holly wouldn’t have called for no reason, time was of the essence. Three more turns and they then dived straight down through five stories of concrete floors. The first floor below them was filled with fighting Agents and Mjolnir crushed a computer desk that two agents were fighting between. On the next floor, Mjolnir flew through a weapon’s storage room destroying the security system. The next one was an empty staff room, Mjolnir destroyed the coffee machine. The next floor was filled with fighting agents too, this one also had Winter and Fury in it. Mjolnir took a quick side trip and took out an Agent trying to choke out Fury with a rough hit to the head, and then continued to swerve downward.

On the final floor Mjolnir burst through the ceiling of a large laboratory. There was a group of men and women in lab coats surrounding a large tube. Inside the tube was Holly. She was frozen, her body trapped in ice, but her eyes glowing with malice. Mjolnir was more than happy to help her out. They were quite good at breaking through things.

They flew right into Holly’s hand, shattering glass and sending a few scientists flying in the process.

Well Hello. What’s this?

 Energy coursed through Mjolnir and a huge bolt of lightning came down from the sky shattering the tube and vaporizing the ice. The energy that Mjolnir called down from the Yggdrasil was immense, a localized explosion of power, a microscopic supernova of energy. Every computer and piece of technology in the room exploded from the feedback. The room was plunged into darkness. Holly Potter stood in full armor, surrounded by a bunch of cowering scientists, glowing with a power unlike any the earth had ever known.

Outside the SHIELD base, the air was heavy and dense. A storm brewed quickly, dense dark clouds of energy covered the sky with winds that whipped and sliced through anything unlucky enough to be without shelter. Even further up and out Mjolnir could sense the cosmos itself reacting to Holly’s call to action. A solar flare mixed with the magnetic forces of earth to paint the skies with a rainbow of colors, bright even in the mid-day.

“I think.” Holly said. “That you might want to run now.”

And like the good little scholars they were, they did.

Mjolnir had not felt anything like this since before they were forged, since they were a part of their star. Whatever Holly Potter had become it was powerful and it called back to an ancient power. Holly gripped their shortened handle firmly and took in a deep breath.

“Well.” She said. “Any ideas what I am now?”

No. She was not a god, neither was it fair to call her a star for all Mjolnir wanted too.

“Yeah me either.” She sighed. “Thanks for coming by the way. Are the Avengers in the tower? I could just pop back there…”

Mjolnir vibrated intensely, denying the question. No, they were not in the tower and they required Holly’s help. Holly frowned and tilted her head a little.

“How about you just take me to Thor?” She suggested. “And we’ll figure it out from there?”

And that Mjolnir could do. Excited to be of some use, and perhaps a bit curious what it would be like to be wielded by another, they pulled Holly forward. Holly yelped in shock and Mjolnir paused midair, with Holly hanging off the end.

“I’m fine.” She said with a shaky laugh. “Go!”

 And like an overeager steed they did. Holly laughed this time, flying through the air. Mjolnir took Holly right back the way they came. They flew up through the stories of the SHIELD compound, through fights and action scenes like an out of place sparkling bird.  It took Mjolnir half a minute to bring Holly back to their beloved Thor. When they arrived, it was to a destroyed room and the two brothers standing next to each other around a bunch of downed agents.

“Thor! Loki!” Holly called. “What is going on? Where are we?”

“Holly?” Loki asked.

“Uhh yes? What? Is something wrong with my face?”

“Not wrong.” Thor said.

“Oh no what’s happened? Do I have a skull face now? I don’t want a skull face.”

“No no.” Loki said. “Wait here.”

Mjolnir felt more than saw a spell being cast, something being conjured. A mirror perhaps. Holly’s grip on their handle tightened.

“Oh.”

“It’s not bad.” Loki soothed. “I think it looks quite…”

“I have freckles.” She said. “Sparkling freckles, like a toddler got loose with some glitter paint. And my scar is gone!”

“It doesn’t look like glitter.” Thor argued. “They look like…well they look like.”

“Like stars.” Loki decided. “You’ve got stars on your skin.”

“Why? I look like…like I had a magical girl transformation!”

“Aren’t you a magical girl?” Thor asked.

“Magical woman, thank you.” She corrected. “And it’s not…never mind, weird thing Clint showed me. I just don’t want to go walking around like a disco ball.”

“It’s not that bad.” Loki soothed. “You look quite beautiful even if you are wearing Thor’s eye sore armor.”

“Hey!”

“Thank you, Loki. Now does anyone want to catch me up? I’ve been frozen since I got taken. Well there was a bit of torture there in the middle but whoever did that sucked at it so it hardly matters.”

“We will come back to that.” Loki said. “But yes let’s catch you up.”

Soon enough they finished exchanging words and Mjolnir buzzed with anticipation. Holly took in a deep breath.

“Okay. That’s…that’s new.”

“New?” Loki asked.

“First new power.” She said. “I can understand Mjolnir. I think they speak dwarvish. Why can I understand dwarvish? How do I even know it’s dwarvish?”

“She can speak?” Thor asked.

“Yes, they can. At least to me.” Holly answered. “It’s weird. Hey Mjolnir do you want to go back to Thor or would you like to help me play whack-a-mole with whoever tortured me?”

Mjolnir considered that, very happy to have been asked, and decided that whack-a-mole sounded quite fun, they just had to make sure Thor would be well.

“I promise if Thor needs you he can call you immediately.” Holly soothed.

Well then. Let’s whack-a-mole.

“You don’t mind do you Thor?”

“I’ll be fine!” Thor decided. “It’s been ages since I’ve fought hand to hand and Mjolnir always has the choice as to who wields them.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You’re still their favorite. I’m just an oddity.”

“All the better.” Thor said. “Have fun Mjolnir.”

“Oh, we will.” Holly said. “Loki, do you-”

She trailed off at a huge rumbling sound. Holly demanded to know what that was and Loki yelled back that it must be Project Insight taking off.

“We can’t let those things get airborne.” Holly said. “You two work on getting the engines shut down, I’m going to keep them down.”

“How?”

“Magic. How else? Mjolnir. Get me up there.” She said. “Oh. And evacuate the damn ships if you can.”

She hefted the hammer up and let it spin, Mjolnir was more than happy to take them up, bursting through the roof of the SHIELD base. The storm Holly had called was strong and terribly localized. Like all the strength of a hurricane had been shoved into the tiny box of land right above the SHIELD base that was located in rural Virginia. The air was hot and heavy as it whipped around them, threatening to uproot trees that were centuries old.

“This me or you?” Holly yelled over the wind.

Perhaps it was both of them. Mjolnir had certainly never called a storm this controlled before.  

“No I don’t imagine Thor would be one for controlling a storm would he?” She joked. “Fine. I can work with that. We just have to keep the ships from being able to take off. That means pushing them down harder than they can push up. These engines are strong, it’s going to take a lot of magic to counteract them. Got it?”

They did and they were ready.

When the first ship began its ascent the wrath of Something-Not-Quite-A-God-And-Not-Quite-A-Star descended upon it with equal force. Magic crackled in the air so thick the humans could taste it as it pushed down on the island sized ships. Inside the ships there were humans, both good and evil, fighting for their lives and their beliefs. Holly refused to destroy the good with the bad and Mjolnir agreed.

The wind Mjolnir called forth funneled down Holly’s power, pushing and pressing down. Chocking out the blades of the engines. High in the sky together they glowed, they glowed like the heart of a living star. Which as it turned out was a far more interesting place to be than a dying one.

One by one each of the three ships attempted to rise up out of the compound. And one by one Holly forced them back down, her power grinding against the force of their engines. When the ships fired at her, they were stalled by Holly’s magic. The energy she produced so hot as to turn the projectiles into impact melts. Globs of liquid glass, metal, and plastic that flew through the air, bright and fiery, only to land on the earth below and burn. Occasionally Mjolnir would direct lightning down to the ships, wounding their wings and keeping them closer to the earth below.

Eventually the roar of the engines stopped and the ship on the further most left, crashed completely. Holly wordlessly swung Mjolnir forward towards the wreckage. They flew forward the storm thickening behind them, grey green clouds that blocked out the sun above crashed with thunder. They saw the Avengers and carefully began to descend towards them.

Holly landed gently, her feet barely even touching the ground, in fact she didn’t even break any of the blades of grass beneath her boots. A far cry from how Thor would land with a crash. The glow around Holly dimmed just enough not to be blinding as she began to walk towards the Avengers, or even as she walked past them towards the man who was standing there, failing to not look terrified.

“Now…now listen here! I’m Alexander Pierce I have served my country, my world, for my whole life! I don’t know who you are but you-”

“Don’t you recognize the woman you tortured?” Holly asked. “Weird because I certainly recognize you.”

“Eep.”

Holly tilted her head.

“You thought I’d be easy to break didn’t you? You thought that since I fought the Black Order with silly music playing that I was immature, that I didn’t know pain.” Holly asked, Pierce didn’t respond. “There’s a difference between then and now Pierce. I’m not playing games and unlike everyone you’ve ever fought before I always aim for the heart.”

And so ended the story of Alexander Pierce, a sad man who’d spent his life building towards a glory that would never be realized. Not only had all of his plans for Hydra ultimately failed but they had failed so greatly that Hydra had been fully exposed to SHIELD. Of course, he didn’t die that day, Holly wasn’t a killer. But he spent the rest of his life in a jail cell, wearing an ugly orange jumpsuit and unable to use the bathroom without surveillance. He never once made an attempt to escape either.

(This was because he had made eye contact with Holly Potter that day and seen the alternative to jail and decided that the bland meals and the cinderblock bed was truly preferable.)

Jarvis had, with the help of Tony and Bruce, successfully infiltrated SHIELD and in turn Hydra. Zola was so very primitive compared to Jarvis and was easily encased in an electronic prison. From there Hydra’s data was downloaded and the heart of the organization was exposed, bloody and vulnerable. SHIELD now had the opportunity to truly defeat Hydra once and for all.

They just had to take it.

“Well.” Holly said, the glow of her power mostly dimming. The storm she had called with Mjolnir began to clear and the evening sky was filled with brilliant ribbons of color. She was standing with the Avengers and her other friends. They were all sporting various injuries and looking like they’d been through a battlefield. She carefully sent the armor Mjolnir had conjured for her away and replaced it with a sweater and a pair of jeans. Then she tossed Mjolnir back to Thor. The Avengers were staring at their sparkling friend with various levels of awe and confusion. Even the magic users felt befuddled.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use a vacation.”

Chapter 42: The Beach Episode Part 1

Summary:

Holly said the word vacation and Tony heard the words 'please force all of the Avengers to an undisclosed location in the Caribbean where they will be forcibly cut off from society and handed mimosas to drink against their will'.

Notes:

Merry Christmas (for those who celebrate it). This is not a Christmas update. This is the beach episode. Featuring More insights into Holly's transformation, a luxury hotel, and a conversation with Hela.
As I post this I'm heading to the theater to watch the new Star Wars movie with my family. Please send me good vibes so that I survive the disappointment.
Updates might be late next week. I'll be traveling home next week and I might not have internet to post on time. Please check my twitter for more information if my next update isn't up when you expect.

Holly stood in front of the full-length mirror. She was standing in perhaps the most luxurious bathroom ever conceived of by man. The floors were made of marble and the lights were a warm yellow, giving everything in the room a goldish tint. To her left was a large ornate bathtub that was surrounded on three sides by wide windows. The windows looked out onto a crystal blue sea and a beautiful white beach. The entire bathroom screamed wealth and excess.

Tony had taken her suggestion for a vacation very seriously and the next thing she’d known Tony had forced all of them into his private jet and flown them to an island in the Caribbean. The island was a well-kept billionaire secret apparently. It had a hotel of luxury rooms and was only available for rent by the most elite of elite. Tony had bought out the entire island and then shoved them all into their own rooms, telling them that they were here for the next week come hell or high water.

Two weeks ago she’d been stuck in Jontunheim, dying of the cold. Her godson was in the middle of taking his first set of finals as a Hogwarts student. Hagrid was getting ready to visit his girlfriend in France. Ron and Hermione were carrying around a two week old infant that had already seen more danger than any child should. Natasha was working with Jarvis to find her parents’ address. Clint’s daughter was becoming a potions expert. Bruce had made great breakthroughs in Lycanthropy research. Tony was getting ready to try to create his first magically powered cellphone. McGonagall had sent a message wondering when over the summer they could install the internet server into Hogwarts.

Things were changing so fast. Too fast it felt like. Holly barely even recognized it as the world she’d known her whole life. And what was worse? She barely recognized herself.    

Which is how Holly found herself studying her appearance for the first time without any sort of audience since she’d woken up in that cryo-chamber. She was wearing a swimsuit, Steve had suggested they go to the beach, and most everyone had agreed.

Holly had gone to change and found herself still struck dumb by the sight of her new form.

All of her scars were gone. Every single one of them. Her skin was paler, like moonlight. Any tan she might have accumulated over her years wiped away. She had just a hint of pinks and blues beneath her skin to look human but only just. From far away it was difficult to tell but close up you could tell she was something other. Her skin was too perfect, too smooth, too pale. The only ‘blemish’ on her skin if it could even be called that at all were the freckles.

They were scattered across her skin, like bits of glitter. They glinted like stars, even in the dark. The ‘freckles’ were mostly unnoticeable unless she was using magic, which caused them glow even brighter and brighter. The stars also seemed to react to her emotions, shining or sparkling more vibrantly when her emotions were heightened. They also extended past just her skin. Her black hair had sparkles in them, as did her eyes. Once a deep emerald green they now twinkled in a way that would have made Albus Dumbledore stupid with envy. There were even stars on the heels of her feet and in her armpits.

Those were just the most obvious changes.

She was also taller by a bit and more of her body proportions had changed around. Jarvis had done a scan of her body as part of the study and found that her entire body had changed in minute ways to match the golden ratio. Her fingers and feet measurements matching up to the lengths of her legs and forearms. She’d become Davinci’s propose perfect man. The Vitruvian Woman. Jarvis also noted that the slight imperfections in symmetry on her face where gone. Tiny adjustments that Holly would have absolutely never noticed on her own but that all summed up together made her look more like a painting than a person. Perfect enough to be a warning, a promise of things that were far too good to be true.

Those were the outward visible changes, the ones they’d managed to catalogue.

According to the Avengers, Ron, Hermione, Jarvis, and Loki she looked beautiful but she just felt weird.

Her magic had also changed. She’d realized upon waking that her magic hadn’t been gone, just…temporarily misplaced. She didn’t know if it had been part of the final stages of her transformation or if some of the gunk Hydra had filled her bloodstream with that had blocked her magic but all she knew was that when she woke up her magic had been back. It felt fundamentally different. Like her core had been forced into a new shape, a much more powerful, enduring shape. And now if she wasn’t careful every spell, she’d cast would be far too powerful. (Loki had promised to give her a few lessons on handling a larger magical core.)

 Overall though, her magic still answered her, did what she wanted, with some slight exceptions.

Her magic seemed to have new inclinations it didn’t before.

She’d never been that good with plants before but if Holly got distracted plants would sometimes start growing faster around her. Lethal spells were also now incredibly difficult to cast. Holly had tested it, trying a few out in one of the Avenger’s gym and found that any spell that was designed to kill something was far weaker than it was meant to be. Holly was about 99% certain that the killing curse was totally beyond her (if she had ever even wanted to cast that at all).

Healing spells worked better than expected. When she’d healed Natasha, who had a pretty bad gash on her arm, she’d focused her magic on the one injury but managed to accidentally heal all of her injuries. It also gave Natasha an energy boost like she’d consumed a bunch of espresso.

So healing spells were far more potent.

There were other changes, like the fact that she could talk to Thor’s hammer and that she seemed to understand every language she heard. Even the really alien ones. She was stronger and had more attributes similar to Steve or the gods. Increased strength and invulnerability, endurance. Overall it seemed like a random assortment of changes that didn’t much sense at all when put together. Hermione kept telling her to be patient, that answers didn’t have to come immediately but Holly was not a patient sort of witch.

(Was she even a witch anymore?)

Holly sighed and summoned a mesh robe and a towel. She put the robe on, a nod to the fact that having glitter skin made it not the smartest idea to go out into direct sunlight. She carefully made her way out of her hotel room and down the stone steps onto the beach proper. The sun was shining, there was a pleasant breeze in the air, and everything smelt faintly of flowers and coconuts. In the distance she could see the Avengers and her friends were grouped together.

Thor was swimming in the ocean looking like he was having the time of his life.  

Holly walked all the way up to the tide line and watched as the waves lapped up over the sand and tickled her feet. She smiled and took few more steps forward only to frown at how the water felt. Like slime almost.

Wait.

Holly looked out at the water that seemed torn between letting her sink and forcing her to float, snorted, and then jumped forward right into the ocean. She braced for the landing and found to her lack of surprise that she was floating.

Savior of the wizarding world indeed.

She walked across the water, no magic she’d cast involved, towards her friends.

“Oi! Hermione!”

“What?”

“I’m buoyant!”

“What?”

In response Holly jumped up and down on the sea, the water didn’t let her sink through more than a centimeter, even the cresting waves seemed to move around her in deference to her jumping.

“No spell?”

“Not one I cast.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah. Look’s like swimming is out.” Holly decided. “I guess I’ll just…sit under an umbrella?”

“Maybe a beach wasn’t the best idea.” Tony said looking at Holly’s sparkling skin. Holly rolled her eyes.

“It’s fine Tony. Everyone else is having a good time.”

“But this was for…”

Holly gave him a look trying to convey that she wasn’t bothered by this, not truly. Yeah it was a bit weird, but she’d figure out how to sink into water and she’d create a glamor that would cover up the sparkles. So far none of the changes had truly been life altering or painful. It was just mildly annoying at this point. Holly walked past them over to where Loki was currently skulking under a large umbrella. He had allowed himself to wear a t-shirt as a nod to the weather, but he was still wearing his ridiculous leather pants.

“Hello.” She greeted.

“Starlight.” He said back making her scoff. “Come to join the haven of the shade?”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Stop reminding me of the beauty of galaxies.”

She rolled her eyes but settled onto the sand on the other side of the umbrella. A few spells conjured a comfortable canvas beach chair and a large glass of some fruity mixed drink she’d seen in the hotel lobby.

“Want one?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Loki said, conjuring one of his own.

“So.” Holly said after a few moments of silence. “You seem…better since we last spoke.”

“The last time we spoke we’d just survived Odin of all things after being thrown to Jontunheim against our will.”

“So you’re better then.”

Loki snorted and took a large sip of his drink, the straw making a loud slurping noise.

“Yes. I think…I think the only thing left is see if we can find my true memories.” Loki decided.

They’d been working around that. Holly had of course identified the spells in Loki’s mind that had blocked his true memories and replaced them with the fake ones of the destruction of the magical world. It was pretty hard to miss. But she knew breaking it would cause a huge backlash and Loki had not been in a position to handle that. So, she’d worked around it, healing everything else and strengthening him.

To her surprise in the last two weeks, in which she had been mostly out of commission, Loki had made huge leaps and bounds in his recovery. Who knew a camping trip to Hel was all someone needed to get their head on straight?

“And you’re ready for that? To see the real Ralston?” She pushed.

“I am.” He said. “I…I have Thor and I trust him, I have you too and even if it hurts I’m not going to fall.”

“We’ll do it the moment we get back to New York then.”

“Thank you.” Loki said. “Do you think you’re ready to speak to Hela?”

“Hmm?” Holly said. “Oh yes of course I am.”

“She’s dangerous Holly.”

“She’s stuck in Hel and I have no intention of letting her out.” Holly soothed. “Nothing she says is going to convince me otherwise.”

“I don’t…I don’t believe anyone deserves to live there Holly.”

“Compassion from the god of mischief?”

“You didn’t see it Holly.”

“No.” She agreed. “No, I didn’t.”

“She’s waiting to speak to you.” Loki warned. “I called to let her know you’d been kidnapped and needed time to gain your revenge. She respected that and is waiting for you.”

“Why do I get the feeling she thinks I’m…dictator-y?”

“Probably because she does.”

Holly groaned but readjusted her robe, hoping she didn’t look too ridiculous in her red and gold swimsuit, with the black mesh robe. It wasn’t to her tastes but it was what Tony had gotten for her. Loki waved his hand and conjured an intricate mirror. Then with a snap of his fingers he sent the mirror floating so that it was right in front of her. The called connected a moment later and changed from showing her own face to show a throne room. Hela was sitting in her throne looking quite regal and powerful.

She really did resemble Loki. She was pale like him, lean, with black hair and a hard look to her face. Although Loki had lost much of that hardness in the time she’d known him. Loki and Thor had told her about Hela, about what they’d talked about when they were drunk. Holly didn’t even know what to do about Hela and she was sort of bothered that Thor and Loki expected her to know.

“Princess Hela.” Holly greeted.

“General.” She said. “I prefer General, Lady Potter.”

“You know it’s weird so do I.” Holly joked.

“Apologies General Potter.” Hela said. “I assume my brothers have told you what I wish to speak about?”

“They have.”

To her left she saw Loki shift awkwardly in his own chair. He took a very quiet sip of his drink. In the distance she saw Tony push Clint into the water who squawked in outrage.

“Alright.” Holly said looking over at Hela. “Let’s hear it. Why should I let you out of Hel?”

“Odin locked me here, without a trial, without anything.” Hela answered immediately. “Surely you don’t think that’s right.”

“I don’t.” Holly agreed. “Odin was wrong to do that.”

And that was the rub wasn’t it? Odin sucked, and had probably never made a morally good decision in his life. But at the same time Hela literally wanted to conquer worlds. There were no heroes in this story. Just one villain betraying another. Yes Hela’s plight was pitiable. She was trapped in literal Hel, alone. She had been alone for so long that she’d forgotten how to read and so many other things.

No one deserved to live like that but that didn’t mean Hela deserved to be free.

Holly hadn’t had much time to think about it but she still knew what she was going to say.

“I will leave Midgard alone.” Hela said. “It shall never come to harm, even after you die.”

“And other worlds? Other realms? What about them?”

“That is not any of your concern.” Hela said.

“I think it is.” Holly argued making a flash of rage steal over Hela’s face.

“If I chose to conquer a world then that is my choice.”

“Then it’s also my choice to make sure you don’t do that.”

“Ruling the realms is my birthright.”

“Fuck your birthright, General.”

“How dare you, you insolent-”

“Look. Hela.” Holly said. “I don’t want you to be in Hel and do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because you’re in charge of it.” Her face broke out into a snarl but Holly continued. “You’ve had over 2000 years to rule Hel and it’s a literal shit hole. Loki told me about it, so did Thor. It’s the worst place in the universe and it’s like that because of you. No one deserves to live in a realm you control.”

“You have no idea what you’re speaking of.”

“Don’t I? What have you done for Hel? How is it any better since you took control?” Holly asked, her voice sharp and unforgiving. “2000 years and what do you have to show for it?”

“No one else lives in this place!” Hela said.

“Exactly.” Holly said. “Do you really hate yourself that much that you couldn’t even bother to make Hel livable?”

And that?

That struck Hela dumb.

“Odin sentenced you to Hel. You didn’t have to suffer.” Holly said her voice turning achingly gentle. “No one made you suffer for the past 2000 years but you.”

“No. Odin sent me there. To that lifeless place.” Hela spat.

“Loki told me he saw plants and animals you managed to grow. How difficult would it have been to spread that life out?”

“I am the goddess of death. I don’t spread life.”

“Says who? Odin? What does he know about anything?” Holly demanded. “The way I see it, the point of ruling is to help life flourish. If you can’t even keep one planet with a population of 1 happy and well taken care of. Then how could you do it for anywhere else?”

“I would make the realms strong.”

“Is Hel strong?”

Holly knew that would shut her up quite well. She saw out of the corner of her eye Steve try to start up a conversation with Winter. She knew that was doomed to fail, Winter didn’t like Steve at all for some reason.

“So that’s it then?” Hela demanded, her voice far too shaken to be considered calm. “I’m stuck here.”

“Hel is exactly what you make it Hela.” Holly said, the apology clear in her voice. “But I’m sorry, I can’t free you if you’re going to conquer worlds. You will spill innocent blood and I won’t have that on my hands.”

“We’re done here.”

And Hela cut the connection before Holly could even say goodbye. Holly sighed and looked over at Loki. He had a soft look in his eyes. Carefully he reached out and took her hand in his. It was comforting, Loki purposefully exuded calmness and strength in a way she hadn’t been able too since they’d returned from Asgard. It had only been two weeks ago but it had felt like an entire lifetime.

It felt like in that moment they switched roles. Instead of Holly leading and protecting Loki, Loki was doing it for her. Hermione still didn’t know what she was but she insisted she was close to a solution. Part of Holly didn’t want to know really, what she was. But part of her felt like she already did, even if she didn’t have a name for it.

Mjolnir had called her a star.

Loki called her Starlight.

She could feel an energy humming beneath Loki’s skin that she hadn’t known before, a new sense had been awakened.

The mirror disappeared with a careful wave of Loki’s hand. The entire beach came into view, the sun was high in the sky but it didn’t burn. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore mixed with the laughter and voices of her friends.

“I…I hope she figures it out.”

“So do I.” Loki agreed.

“Do you…I don’t think I’m a goddess, I would…you would be able to tell wouldn’t you?”

“I would.” Loki said. “And you’re not. You’re something other.”

“Hermione thinks my magic has mutated, realigned itself with the Yggdrasil.” Hermione had done so many tests on her, had come up with countless hypotheses. And yet none of them had rang true to her heart. Not a single one felt right to say on her tongue.

“Do you disagree?”

“No. But that doesn’t…that’s not all it is.” Holly said firmly. “I think I need to talk to Death again. I think she’ll know when she didn’t before.”

“Could I come with you this time?” Loki asked causing her to smile.

“I think that could be arranged.”

Notes:

Updates might be late next week. I'll be traveling home next week and I might not have internet to post on time. Please check my twitter for more information if my next update isn't up when you expect.

Chapter 43: The Beach Episode Part 2

Summary:

Turns out conversing with Death isn't nearly as fun as flirting with her.

Notes:

Happy New Decade! We did it guys! We got through the 2010's with our souls mostly intact! That calls for celebration! Please enjoy this update as a New Year's Gift!

Loki walked along the beach next to Holly. They’d had a fun day at the beach. Hermione had figured out soon enough what Holly’s problem with swimming was. As it turned out her body had the ability to change density at ‘will’. Her body was naturally now less dense than water and thus ‘floated’ but with concentration she could will her body to a more human-like density. She could also make herself as dense as an aesir without warning which had resulting in a lot of fun.

Hermione explained it with a lot of complicated magical terms but it seemed to Loki that Holly’s body was so imbued with magic that it had replaced the interstitial space between her molecules, making her lighter. She now had the ability to make her magic take on mass thus making her body more or less dense with only a thought. It was fascinating and Holly had had quite a bit of fun making herself so light that she could float on the breeze and then heavy enough that Thor and Steve combined couldn’t lift her.

She claimed she got the idea from Mjolnir which was only slightly terrifying.

Now the day was starting to end and the sunset was painting the sky brilliant orange and pink hues. In the warm light Holly’s sparkles looked even more mystical. The sparkles were manifestations of her magic. She had so much of it that her body could no longer contain it totally within her. Loki thought it was beautiful. He thought she was beautiful even if Holly felt rather uncomfortable with the new changes. Loki couldn’t blame her for feeling uncomfortable, having your body changed against your will was bound to be discomfiting, he would know.

Still.

She was gorgeous. And she looked much more like herself Loki thought. Less like Ralston, less like the ghosts of her past and more like Holly, just Holly. He decided he’d tell her that one day, when she was just a little less vulnerable about her appearance. Right now she was delicate (as much as she’d hate being called that) and she needed time to accept her new appearance and abilities without anyone else butting in with unwanted opinions.

They continued to walk along the shoreline, their bare feet making matching footprints in the sand. Things were calm, things were good. At least mostly. They’d left the team behind after explaining what they were doing, promising to return as soon as possible for their dinner. They hadn’t wanted to leave them alone but Holly had explained that she felt she could only protect one person from Death’s aura and Loki had already volunteered to go.

They were walking a far distance from any other humans, trying to find a place as devoid of life as possible to call Death. Something Loki wasn’t nervous about at all. No way. Who would be nervous to meet the personification of Death? That would be madness.

Why was he doing this again?

“I think we’re far enough away.” Holly said. “I’m not really sensing any life near here.”

“You can sense life?”

“Sort of?” She said. “It’s weird. Like I have this new sense but I don’t know how to interpret what I’m hearing… if that makes any sense at all.”

“It does.” Loki said because to a certain extent he could understand. He likened it to a blind man being given sight and trying to find a way to describe a totally new perception of the world. How does one conceptualize the sensation of hot if one has been numb to temperature their whole life? “If you think we’re far enough away then let’s do it.”

  “Yes. Alright. Let’s…” She reached out a hand and when Loki didn’t take it she rolled her eyes. “Hold my hand and don’t let go. I’m going to try and extend my own magic so it acts as a buffer for you.”

He took it and immediately his skin was suffused with warmth unlike any he had ever known. It felt like love, a warm blanket gently hugging his skin with a promise of safety and affection. Loki swallowed against the blush that threatened to erupt over his skin.

“There.” She said. “Now let’s take out the resurrection stone and get this thing started.”

She removed a stone from the pocket of her robe, they were both still in their beach wear. Loki had asked if they should dress more formally but she had snorted at the very idea of dressing up for Death.

“We’re here to get information from Death not flirt with her.”

Holly carefully flipped the stone in between her fingers three times while calling for Death. Loki held his breath. At first nothing happened, but then, just as the sun fully dipped beneath the horizon, a dark portal began to form. It swirled around itself, an oval-like mass of writhing darkness and smoke. The portal extended out, lengthening until it vaguely resembled a humanoid form. After a few more moments the smoke solidified into the body of a human.

At least it looked human.

It was quite androgynous this time, Holly and Winter had described Death as a woman the previous time they’d seen her but this being was probably better described as ‘they’ instead of ‘she’. Not that Loki was going to ask Death what pronouns they preferred, he wasn’t suicidal. Death had skin the color of sand, every shade of sand you could think of from white to reddish to a blush pink. She also had incredibly sharp cheek bones and eyes that seemed to stare into his very soul.

Her aura was intense, he could feel it bearing down on him like a pressure in the air, Holly’s magic just barely protecting him from it.

“Holly, I told you to come to me alone.”

“You know how much I love defying you.”

“Hm.” She said. “Yes I suppose I should have seen that coming.”

Loki swallowed a little but didn’t say anything. He could tell this wasn’t the time to  for him speak.

“Now it appears I’ll never have your soul.” Death said. “Such a pity, I would have taken good care of you, you would have wanted for nothing.”

“So, I am immortal.” Holly confirmed.

“You are, Holly Potter.”

“Do you know what…what I’ve become?”

“I do.” Death said but didn’t elaborate. Holly gave Death a look and when Death still didn’t speak, she growled.

“Death.”

“This information is confidential. I won’t speak in front of his ears.”

“Oh Odin. If I deafen myself then will that help?”

“You’re not deafening yourself.” Holly said. “You can tell him anything you tell m-”

“Not him, him.” Death said. “Someone has been watching you, working around your privacy wards.”

Loki felt Holly shiver and then she mouthed the word Thanos at him which made him blanch.

“Step forward.” Death said. “I’ll place a marking on both of you that should hide you from his view.”

“What about me? Your touch will…”

“Not as long as Holly’s magic protects you. Although it will likely burn quite a bit.” Death said before lifting up both hands and touching their foreheads with her forefingers.

It did burn. It felt like hellfire coursing over his skin, his vision whited out and his ears went numb. He couldn’t even scream because the fire stole his voice. He would have fallen to his knees if Holly hadn’t had such a good grip on him. Just as the pain reached its height, Death pulled back her hands and Loki collapsed sideways so that he could lean up against Holly.

“Ow.” He gasped.

“Yeah that’s one word for it.” Holly said through gritted teeth. “What the hell Death?”

“Now no one should be able to scry you, you will be hidden from all magic.” Death said. “You will need it if you intend to fight the mad titan.”

“Right. Yeah. That’s good.” She said. “But did it have to hurt?”

“The only painless magic I’m capable of is the kind that removes your soul from your body.”

“Pain’s fine.” Loki decided. “It’s already fading.”

It wasn’t and based on Death’s smirk, she knew it too. Her platinum blond hair glinted in the twilight reminding him of moonlight.

“So. Now that no one is listening, what am I?”

“You are a Cosmic Entity.”

“I’m a what?”

“A Cosmic Entity. We are an odd group to be sure, and you might just be the oddest of us all.”

“Could you give me a clear answer, please?” She begged.

“Right. Yes. A Cosmic Entity is a being, like myself, who performs a function for the universe.” Death explained. “I am Death. I represent the end of all things in the universe, I came into existence when the universes were formed and I shall remain until they are all gone.”

“Universes?”

“In the beginning there was only one, a single place where all things existed.” Death answered Loki’s question. “But then mere microseconds after, a choice was made, an electron moved one way instead of another and suddenly the universe was split into two, then again, and again and again. There are incalculable numbers of universes across dimensions, all unique in their own way.”

“Okay so the Multiverse exists.” Holly said, Loki gave her a look and she shrugged. “Get Tony drunk on tequila and ask him about it sometime.”

“Yes. The Multiverse exists. There are infinite versions of each of you, all formed when you made a choice, some of you have died, others are married with children, one is a rock star.”

“Huh.” Holly said. “That’s…weird.”

“I’m sure Harry would say the same to you.”

“Harry is an awful name.”

“Blame that version’s parents.”

“Right. Right. So, Cosmic Entities.” Holly said trying to get them back on track.

“Yes.” Death said. “Think of us like organs for our respective universes. Some of us, like myself, exist across most if not all universes, while others only exist in a few. Wherever we are, we exist to serve a purpose, we keep the universe in balance, to keep it healthy.”

“The balance. You mentioned that last time.” She said.

“Yes. The balance of energies. The Aesir call it the Yggdrasil, these pathways of energy that connect all parts of the universe. It is the duty of a cosmic entity to fulfill their purpose and ensure that the Yggdrasil remains whole and hale. I remove souls and energy from the universe, as much as is created so that there is no imbalance amongst the Yggdrasil.”

“And I’m one of those.” She said. “I have some purpose for the universe.”

“That is what makes you so very interesting Holly Potter. All Cosmic Entities just exist. We are not born, we are. We are amoral, we care only for our purpose and nothing else. We serve the balance first and ourselves second and nothing else. Generally we are formless, infinite just like the universes we serve.”

“That’s not me.”

“No. No it’s not.” Death said. “Unlike the rest of us you must discover how to fulfil your purpose, you may even choose not to. You have a soul, a heart, it allows you to choose in a way no one else can.”

“What am I Death?”

“You’ve spent your existence defying me Holly Potter. Tell me. What defies Death?”

It hit Loki like one of Thor’s lightning bolts. A clap of thunder. The reason Holly glittered like the stars, her strength, her magic. All of it.

“Life.” Loki said with a gasp. “Holly, you’re life.”

“What? That’s impossible.”

“No. Holly no.” Loki said. “Don’t you see? You’re the golden apple, you’re the philosophers stone. You glow like a star, the source of all life. You’ve spent your entire life fighting, fighting against beings like Voldemort because he kills and kills and kills. Even before you were this, you were fighting for the balance. Everywhere you go, you try to nurture and heal. You fight for peace and prosperity. Yes, you’ve struggled, but what is life but to struggle? You know the highs and lows of existence. The good and the bad. Holly, you’re life.”

“Oh.” She said, her eyes glistening with tears and magic both. “That’s…that’s something isn’t it?”

“You and I are technically enemies now Holly.” Death said. “Our purposes counteract one another.”

“But-”

“But.” Death agreed. “That seems tiresome.”

“So, what then?” She asked.

“I believe we can come to an arrangement that suits both our purposes.” Death decided. “People must die, I am a necessary part of the cycle.”

“I can’t just let people die in front of me.” Holly said. “I won’t…”

“Death is necessary but I am willing to allow some escapes.” Death said. “However if their death is foretold, I will send you a message and you must not interfere, lest you damage the universe.”

“You’ll tell me? Let me know why they have to die?”

“I will have the fates send you a message, you will be given understanding as is needed.” Death answered causing Holly to nod in acceptance.

“Any gifts of immortality must be approved by me.” Death said.

“Wait what? I can do that?”

“Did Loki not just call you the golden apple, Holly?”

“Oh.”

“You are not like me Holly. You require companionship. I would not be so cruel as to deny you it. But you must ask me before you gift immortality to someone, I must be sure that the balance will be held between us. When you gift someone immortality you gift them with large swaths of energy, draining the Yggdrasil. The production of new life will stall until the Yggdrasil has recovered and in the same vein Death too must slow.”

“What about when she knows how to read the Yggdrasil as you do?”

“It is still common courtesy isn’t it?” Death asked, her voice only slightly icy. “I will also tell her when those she knows will be dying so that she has time to prepare. I will also do my best to ensure that those you love will live to their full lifespan. I cannot fully promise that because you happen to have friends with quite a wish for death.”

That made Holly laugh a little and nod in agreement.

“Right.” She said. “So no big magic that would mess with the balance without talking to you about it. I can do that. I hope.”

“What if it’s an emergency?” Loki asked, thinking ahead to the battle he knew would be coming. “The Mad Titan is…”

“Is a threat to the balance. He destroys too much too quickly, draining the Yggdrasil faster than it can recover. He is taking away my purpose from me.” She said. “Anything Holly chooses to do to stop him and those like him is encouraged.”

Loki nodded feeling more and more comfortable with this situation.

“My powers. I don’t have control, I may use them accidentally.” Holly warned. “I’m not planning on doing anything to upset the balance, but this is something I have to learn to do, it’s not natural to me.”

“I am willing to be patient.” Death offered. “I do so like you Holly. I wish you would have let me have your soul.”

“You were the one who made the hallows.” Holly pointed out in a tone that didn’t reveal how creepy Death was.

“So, I did.” Death said with a laugh. Her presence was still totally overwhelming, but the pain of Death’s magic had almost passed from him.

“How am I supposed to be life?” Holly asked.

“That I cannot help you with.” Death shrugged. “I can only tell you if you do it wrong.”

“Helpful.” Holly snarked while Loki looked at Death’s form.

“You said Entities were formless.”

“I can will a body together with the help of another entity when I require it.” Death answered. “I imagine if Holly’s body were to be destroyed, she would need to find him and ask for a new form. Holly, travel to the dimension of manifestations if you have need of a new form.”

“Okay that makes zero sense.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“You’re just so good at this.”

“Well excuse me.” Death said. “It’s not like an entity has ever been created before. We just are. There’s no welcome packet, I only knew what you were when you fully formed, and that was only because Eternity told me.”

“Eternity?”

“He’s a leader of some of the entities. I don’t bow to him and neither do you, but he is a good source of information.”

“Right. How many of these entities are there?”

“Infinite.”

“Of course. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.”

“Is there any other information you require of me?” Death asked. “Some of us have jobs to do.”

“Thanos.” Holly said. “Is he close?”

“Your friend knows what he seeks.” Death said motioning to Loki himself. Loki nodded thinking back to the two infinity stones he’d hidden away in the Potter home. Still laying there in the closet beneath an ancient coat. A humble hiding place for two powerful world destroying objects. “He will come to this realm soon to claim them. I have shrouded his vision of me, he does not know we have spoken, he will not know. He seeks me in his every action, he must never be allowed to look upon me.”

“He won’t.” Holly promised. “Do you know when he’ll come to earth?”

“Currently he is being troubled by his two wayward daughters, that will give you time to prepare. But I cannot say more than that without going closer to him and risking discovery.”

“Why do you fear him?” Loki asked.

“There is a ritual, a terribly dark thing, that gives one immunity to my touch. Thanos destroyed his entire home world of Titan, genociding every single one of his people to gain the power to destroy entities like you and I, Holly. He can be destroyed but so too can he destroy you. If we are destroyed the universe falls with us.”

“That’s just a regular Tuesday for me.” Holly said causing both of them to look at her incredulously. “What? It’s true!”

“Thanos threatens this universe.” Death intoned. “Prepare yourselves to meet him. You must not fail.”

“We won’t.” Holly promised. “Thank you for coming Death. It was nice to see you.”

“We will speak again once Thanos has been eliminated.”

Then she was gone in a flash of darkness that blinded them momentarily.

Loki blinked the blackness from his eyes and then freed his hand from the death grip Holly had had on it. He pretended not to miss the feeling of her magic covering him. She didn’t have complete control of her strength and he had started to feel the bones cracking in his hand. He looked around and realized the sun had completely set and the sky was full of stars. Stars just like Holly.

“Have we been talking that long?” Loki asked.

“I think time around Death is weird.” Holly decided.

“Hmm.”

“I…” She began and then cut herself off. She wasn’t looking at him, instead she looked out at the sea. The waves were calmly lapping up against the shore, there was nothing much around them except sand and starlight.

“Holly?”

“Is it hard? Living so long?”

“I don’t, well before Ralston I didn’t consider it a burden.” Loki admitted, turning so that he was looking out at the sea with her. “I can’t offer you any comfort in this Holly. It’s going to be difficult. Mortals move and age so quickly.”

“It doesn’t feel quick.” Holly admitted. “A year still feels long to me Loki.”

And how odd a thought that was. Even with all that Loki had gone through in the past few years it had still felt quick to him. A blink of pain compared to the long existence that was his. Yes, it had been excruciating, yes he had suffered, yes he was angry, and there was a time where he had not been able to see any hope or light for him at the end of his journey. Lots of times if he was honest. But time had passed for him quite quickly even still in a way that he had no way to explain to Holly. To a woman who was so much wiser than he could have ever claimed and was not yet even 30 years old.

How young she was. What terrible burdens she bore.

“You’re not going to face it alone.” Loki promised. “You’ve me and Thor, and I imagine it won’t be hard to convince your dear Ron and Hermione to agree to eternity with you.”

“Oh I couldn’t possibly ask them.” She said.

“What?”

“Mortals. We’re not meant to live long Loki. It’s not natural. It wouldn’t be fair to ask Ron and Hermione to watch their children grow old and die, I can’t do that to them. I’m not even going to be able to…”

She trailed off and Loki noticed her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails had cut into her palms. Blood poured and dripped out between her fingers, it looked like molten silver.

“Holly.” Loki said reaching out and gently touching one of her hands. She flinched and looked down and made a noise at the sight of the strangely colored blood. Loki carefully passed his hands over her’s healing her of the slight wounds and banishing the blood.

“I’m never going to meet my parents.” She said. “All this time I’ve believed I’d live a good life and they’d be waiting for me but… but that’s been stolen.”

“Stolen?” Loki pushed. “Holly you were the one who united the hallows.”

“And who put them in my path?” Holly shot back. “Who has spent my entire life pushing me into one dangerous situation after another for the damned greater good, for this stupid balance of the universe?”

The sand around them vibrated with her words, he felt himself starting to sink inside the sand, his feet being buried by the vibrations. In front of them the water was beginning to froth and move backwards, away from Holly’s rage.

“Hol-”

“No. Loki. No.” She said, her voice fighting back a sob. “All this time I thought I had a choice!”

On her last word, the world around them trembled again. The magic in her skin sharpened until it looked like diamonds plating her skin, shining brighter than the stars in the heavens above them. Loki fell to his knees from the tremor, trying not to fall completely over from the sway.

“Holly.”

“But it’s been them, this entire time! Those damn fates. They…they just want me to be a weapon for them! To fix any little problem the universe creates. It’s not fair!”

The ocean was receding faster than was healthy, leaving behind fish and plants to drown in the air as the water fled from Holly’s rage. Loki gritted his teeth and pushed himself up against the rocking force of Holly’s magic.

“And now they’ve taken my family from me! Again!”

Loki jumped forward and pulled the glowing woman into his chest, hugging her as tightly as he could without harming her. She was very stiff in his hold but the world had stopped threatening to tear itself apart around them. Her thick hair smelt of ozone and seemed to sizzle up around his nose. Loki pushed those thoughts aside and just held Holly to him for a moment. Once he was sure she wasn’t going to explode he spoke.

“I’m sorry about your parents. Truly Holly, I am.” Loki said. “That isn’t fair, it’s not right. But you do have a family. You have the Weasleys and the Avengers and-and me. You have people who love you. It’s not the same, of course it’s not, but it’s still so very good.”

“I just…I’ll never get a hug from my mom or get to go flying with my dad. I’m never, ever going to even talk to them. That’s all I wanted, all I’ve ever wanted.”

Loki took in a deep breath, he wasn’t good with this, he’d never been good with this.

You know Loki. Ralston said. You talk to me all the time.

Loki sternly told his inner Ralston that he did not want Holly to slowly drive herself insane by talking to a fake voice in her head.

You and I both know I’m not fake, idiot.

Loki almost told him to shut up. But he didn’t instead he sighed again and spoke.

“Holly you are a Cosmic Entity. You have power beyond my imaginings.”

“So?”

“So? So! Figuring out how to talk to your parents should be a cake walk.”

“How do you know?” She asked. “The dead are gone Loki and I can’t follow them.”

Loki almost felt as if there was a hand on his shoulder urging him onward.

“The dead aren’t far from us Holly. I know it. We’ll find your parents. I promise.”

Chapter 44: The Beach Episode Part 3

Summary:

Bruce wakes up stressed and Holly finally gets the meet the strongest Avenger.

Notes:

ahh hello hello everyone! Please enjoy the Hulk chapter! This has long been requested and I thought something sweet and fluffy would be a nice palate cleanse.

Bruce woke with stiff shoulders.

This was not necessarily unusual.

Bruce was known to fall asleep in his lab, contorting his body into positions that were far from healthy. Once in Grad School, he’d fallen asleep upside down while waiting for some of his samples to finish running. The janitor had woken him up by poking him with his broom to make sure he wasn’t dead. So, he was no stranger to waking up sore.

This was not that sort of sore.

This was the sort of sore that Bruce knew to relate to the Hulk. Somedays the Hulk was just more active, he wanted to come out to do things, and in Bruce’s sleep he’d stiffen and hold back as much as he could, resulting in a lot of stress pain. These sorts of days had become less and less frequent since Bruce’s day out with Holly what felt like months ago. Not only was his introduction to the adult werewolves of New York inspirational but Holly’s conversation with him about who and what the Hulk was had changed how he dealt with the Hulk.

If Holly was right and the Hulk was a person, a child, then Bruce had been going about this all wrong. He honestly couldn’t think of a time that the Hulk had been active and had a good time. It reminded him of his own childhood, how difficult that had been, and how angry he’d been as a result and things made so much more sense.

Step one to testing Holly’s theory was treating the Hulk with kindness instead of fear and hatred. During his meditation he would try to explain to the Hulk why he didn’t want to Hulk Out, not because the Hulk was bad but because he was big and New York was crowded. Bruce loved people and he didn’t want to see any of them scared or accidentally hurt. He stopped called the Hulk bad or dangerous but rather blamed the environment they were in for the problems that the Hulk could cause.

Just that one change of perspective made a world of difference.

The Hulk stopped fighting him as much, Bruce got fewer migraines, even his transformations hurt much less overall since the Hulk wasn’t fighting him both ways.

This was the first time he’d woken up with his stress pains since beginning that new meditation method and Bruce wondered why. They were on the beach, things were relaxing and no one was in any danger. Nothing should be stressing Hulk out. Bruce groaned and rolled out of bed. He looked out the window at the beach that was calmy lapping along the shore. They’d all stayed up pretty late last night and gotten drunk with Holly when she’d gotten back from her conversation with Death.

The only person who hadn’t gotten drunk was Ron, but that was because he was focused on watching his new baby. But Bruce had gotten drunk, even Steve had with some magically enforced whiskey that managed to overcome his insane metabolism. Holly hadn’t really enjoyed the whole ‘hey guess what you’re immortal!’ thing and Bruce couldn’t blame her. So, she’d insisted they drink the night away and refused to entertain any wonderings about what it would mean to be ‘Life’.

It wasn’t malicious by any means. Hermione was clearly brimming with questions and theories but even she understood that Holly needed time. So they’d drank and they hadn’t talked about immortality.

And now Bruce had woken up, not with a hangover but with Hulk related stress pain. Why?

He stumbled out of his room and made his way to the common area where all of their food was served by what amounted to faceless world-renowned chefs. A majority of the team was already there, and those who could get hangovers were being cured with a few quick spells. Holly was laying back in her own chair seated in a corner, sunglasses and a hat over her face to block the morning sun from her sparkles.

It didn’t really work.

“Brucie Bear!” Tony called. “You alright? Need anything from our magical healers over here?”

“Not much they can do for this sort of pain.” All four magic users looked at him in offense and Bruce rolled his eyes. “Hulk’s acting up.”

“Why?” Holly asked, careful not to move from where she’d shaded most of her body from the light. Her skin still glinted like diamonds though but Bruce knew better than to mention it. “I thought you two were getting along better.”

“We are. At least I thought we were.” Bruce said, wincing as he pulled his tight shoulders during an attempt to sit down.

“Hmm.” Holly said. “Maybe I could ask?”

“What?”

“A bit of mind magic and I can just ask him if he’s alright.” Holly said. “Totally noninvasive.”

“What if your magic freaks him out?” Bruce asked. “We don’t need a Hulk Out here.”

“Why?” Tony asked. “There’s no one else here but us and the staff, and they know to stay out of the way. Anything Hulk breaks we can fix or replace in a snap. This is the perfect place for it.”

A huge tide of want filled Bruce’s head and he fell forward with a groan trying not to let his skin go entirely green. His head hit the expensive marble table and the coolness of the stone felt blissful compared to the heat of him holding back the Hulk.

“I didn’t even need to cast a spell to hear that.” Holly said with a smile. “He wants out Bruce.”

“Yeah I got that.” Bruce groaned. “But why? There’s nothing to smash.”

“Exactly.” Holly said.

Oh. Bruce took in a huge breath and tried to push back a little more against Hulk.

“I would welcome a day to spend with the Hulk!” Thor said.

Okay. Okay. Bruce listened as the rest of the team agreed that if Bruce Hulked out there would be no problems whatsoever. If Hulk lost his temper, Ron would teleport to safety with Rosie, and the others would get the staff to safety as well. They were in the middle of the ocean, there wasn’t a whole lot of damage the Hulk could do.

“Can I at least have breakfast first?” Bruce asked. Abruptly the stress pain in his shoulders stopped and he could breath easier. “Seriously?”

That’s all it took? Bruce huffed a laugh and he heard Holly giggle.

“You’ve come to an accord then?” She asked, Bruce looked up and gave the sparkling nymph of a woman a very dry look.

“You guys don’t mind babysitting for the day?”

“As long as he doesn’t attempt to break my spine a second time.” Loki drawled.

“Then let me have breakfast and you’ll get the Hulk for the day.”

“Ooh how fun.” Holly said. “I haven’t actually met the Hulk yet. I’m looking forward to it.”

“He’s not much of a conversationalist.”

“And how would you know?”

Bruce rolled his eyes but pulled his full plate of breakfast in front of him and started to eat. He could feel anticipation coming from the corner of his mind where the Hulk resided. He did his best to remain calm, it wasn’t like he had much choice in what was going to happen either. The Hulk wanted out and he was going to get out, at least this way he probably wouldn’t come out too mad. He looked around at his team who all began to eat their own meals, no one seemed frightened or unsure.

Currently Hermione was breastfeeding her baby, an appropriately beach-themed cover on her chest to give her some modesty. She was also using magic to have three books floating in front of her face that she could read and cross reference against each other. All of them were on cosmic entities. Where she’d gotten those books Bruce had no clue. Steve was settled near the edge of their group, sketching who knew what in his sketch book. Ron and Clint were swapping parenting advice and stories with each other. Tony was bothering Thor about some sort of Asgardian tech the prince had mentioned in his drunken stupor the night before. Natasha and Loki were comparing some of their favorite knives. Even Winter was relaxing, leaning back in his chair and watching the group. He’d replaced the hard metal face mask with something made of dark soft fabric. It still concealed his identity but it was a clear sign of growing trust.

Everyone was relaxed and laughing with each other. Tony had managed to get everyone into beach wear and they all looked more casual than Bruce could ever remember them being. The sun was shining, a light breeze passed through the large open windows bringing the pleasant scent of sea air with it. Things were good.

“It’s going to be fine.” Holly said. Bruce jumped a little. Holly had moved from her shadowed corner and was now sitting next to him. Bruce thought Holly looked like an elf. When he said that Thor had laughed and said Elves were much uglier than Holly and that had started a whole conversation around the fact that elves were real.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” Holly said. “Trust me. Today’s going to be a good day.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” She said glaring up at the ceiling, or perhaps the sky above. “Because I say so.”

Well that sounded ominous. Bruce pretended he didn’t hear the threat that was in that last part of Holly’s declaration. He had no idea who she was threatening and he had a feeling he did not want to know.

“I hope you’re right.” Bruce said. “I’ve never done this before. Just…willingly transformed.”

“Hmm.” Holly said. “How’s research on the werewolf cure going?”

“It’s not a cure, it’s a transformation preventative.” Bruce corrected.

“Dr. Banner if I know you half as well as I think I do then I know you’re working on a cure too.” Bruce didn’t say anything immediately, because she was right but he felt talking about it now would jinx any progress he’d made. “See here’s the thing Bruce. I’ve just had…a terrible night. And we’re not going to talk about why just now, you know and I know but that’s…”

“Holly?”

“If I’m going to live forever then I’m going to make this world a place worth living in.” She said. “And yes that means destroying the Mad Titan, but more importantly it means helping you, with this. Let’s cure Lycanthropy.”

“You want to make a Utopia?” Bruce asked in wonder.

“A utopia would be boring.” She said. “I’ll need something to do four centuries from now after all.”

That made Bruce laugh, Holly grinned and stole a bit of food off his plate.

“When we get back to the Tower.” He said.

“Sounds like a plan.” She said. “Now, you better eat up. I don’t think Hulk is going to make you wait for long.”

Bruce scarfed down his breakfast and once that was done, the entire team went out to the beach. Bruce took in a deep breath, let it out, and closed his eyes.

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“Hello Hulk!”

Hulk blinked and turned to look down at Nice Sparkle Lady. She used to be Nice Cleaning Lady, but Hulk had seen her look so sparkly and decided he had a better name than the one Banner had told him first. Stupid Banner. Sparkle Lady was holding out a hand, fingers outstretched.

“I’m Holly.” She said. “I’m one of Bruce’s new friends. It’s great to meet you.”

“Hulk knows Nice Sparkle Lady.”

“Oh, you do?” She asked delighted. “That’s lovely. Tell me. Have you ever made a sandcastle?”

“Sand Castle? Hulk smash?”

“Oh no. First, we have to make one and then we can smash it. Would you like to? I’ve never made one before either.”

Banner had never told him what a sand castle was and he narrowed his eyes. Before he could get upset and frightened, Nice Sparkle Lady reached out and grabbed one of his fingers and gently pulled him.

“Come on.” She said. “It’s really fun! We can get Tony to help us. Right?”

“Yeah! Duh. It’s going to be an engineering masterpiece!” Tin Man said.

The Nice Sparkle Lady pulled Hulk’s hand gently and he allowed himself to be led towards a clear part of the beach. She tugged him down and told him to sit down with her.

“Now Hulk.” She said. “A sandcastle is a thing you make out of sand. You can make anything you want. What would you like to build?”

“Hulk smash things.” Hulk tried to explain.

“I know but I’m sure you can do other things too. You’re very good aren’t you?”

“Hulk best Avenger.”

“That’s right.” She said. “I’ve always thought so.”

“Stupid Banner don’t.”

“Yes, well Bruce can be rather silly. How about we prove him wrong and create the greatest sandcastle ever?”

That seemed like an excellent plan. He nodded in agreement and the Nice Sparkle Lady beamed at him, sparkling even more than usual. The sparkles were very pretty.

“Great! Now, what should we build?”

“Castle.” Hulk said. “Pig Castle.”

“Pig Castle? You mean Hogwarts? Oh that’s a brilliant idea!” She said. “What else should we have? For decoration?”

“Tanks.” Hulk said. “Hulk like smashing tanks.”

That made Nice Sparkle Lady laugh in delight which brought a smile to Hulk’s face. Nice Sparkle Lady called people over to help them build, including Tin Man, Puny God, and Winter Man. Hulk almost felt as if he was being left out but before he could voice his complaints Nice Sparkle Lady told Hulk that he had a very important special job.

“See there.” She said pointing somewhere behind Hulk. He turned and saw a huge pile of sand, as tall as Hulk was at least! “You’re very strong so you get the most important job. Can you do it for me?”

“Hulk best.”

“I knew I could count on you. You just pick up handfuls of sand and put it down here, then together we’ll shape it, and since we’re so small we’ll put the details in where you want them. Okay?”

“Where Hulk wants?”

“It’s your pig castle.”

Well that made perfect sense didn’t it? Hulk reached out and grabbed the largest handful of wet sand that he could, he dropped it into the flat place they were all seated around. He pointed at it, his fingers crusted in white sand.

“Castle.” He said.

“Alright.” She said. “Use your hands. Gently push it into the right shape.”

And so it began. It was difficult at first to know exactly what amount of pressure to exert but Hulk was smart, Nice Sparkle Lady said so, and he managed to get it soon enough. The tiny humans worked on various parts where Hulk said and added the small puny things that strong people like Hulk didn’t need to add. The castle was shaped like a box with pillars coming out of it at varying intervals. The towers kept falling down until Tin Man gave Hulk sticks to build around so that they were strong.

Tin Man good friend.

Nice Sparkle Lady gave him bright colored flags to stick on the tops of towers. They fluttered in the wind, Hulk liked those too.

Hulk made Puny God and Winter Man build tanks near the front of the castle, he dropped mounds of wet sand on their heads and pointed to exactly where they were supposed to go. When they were in the wrong spot, Hulk smashed the sand and made Puny God do it again. It was very funny, especially when Puny God put tanks in the right spot, but Hulk changed his mind on where they should be.

“Is he…playing a prank on me?” Puny God whispered.

“Puny God make tank.” Hulk answered. “There.”

Puny God made a tank, but Hulk smashed it with a fist sending sand flying into air. Hulk didn’t laugh at all at the sight of Puny God getting covered in sand.

Nice Sparkle Lady did though.

Shield Man, Weasel, and Book Lady all worked on the details like windows and drawing in the bricks with twigs. They were very good. Hulk made Shield Man put his shield inside the castle as decoration in the Great Hall.

Hulk also remembered the lake the pig castle had and he ordered Bird Man and Red Lady to make a lake. Nice Sparkle Lady had Hulk dig a hole by the castle, which he did very well, and then it got filled with sea water.

“Need Monster.”

“And a monster it will have. Clint. Nat. You two think you can make a squid? Don’t worry about the sand falling apart.”

“We’re on it.” Bird Man said.

“Make good monster bird man or Hulk smash.”

“Hulk smash what?”

“Hulk smash Puny God.”

“Hey!”

Hulk smirked as Nice Sparkle Lady laughed very hard at Puny God’s dismay. Bird Man and Tin Man laughed too which made him feel very smug.

The lake monster they made was good even if Bird Man had joked with Hulk that he might not try that hard.

Eventually Hulk noticed Loud God. He had a stupid hammer and was not as strong as Hulk. He was also not helping with castle.

“Sparkle Lady.” Hulk said. “He not helping.”

“So he isn’t.” Holly said. “What should we do with him? He’s being very naughty isn’t he?”

“I assure you Hulk I mean no harm to your castle.”

“Bad guys go to jail. Banner says not to smash.”

“What should our jail be?”

Hulk thought about that for awhile. Loud God tried to leave but Puny God kept him from succeeding. He looked at the castle they’d made and then saw a clear spot on the other side from the lake. Hulk stood up and reached into the ground, his thick hands digging deep into the wet compacted sand. He threw piles of sand away until there was a hole as deep as Loud God.

“Jail.”

“Oooohhh.” Tin Man said. “This I have to film.”

“Loki.” Nice Sparkle Lady said. “Grab him.”

What resulted next would have been better viewed in a cartoon. Puny God dashed after Loud God. Loud God yelped and tried to jump away. Nice Sparkle Lady teleport right in front of the fleeing Loud God. Hulk laughed loudly as the two magic users chased the Loud God around the beach. Eventually Puny God managed to tackle Loud God by the knees and then Nice Sparkle Lady lifted Loud God’s squirming body above her head.

“Put me down!”

“Hulk! Get the sand ready! We’re gonna bury him!”

Hulk was more than happy to pick up a big pile of sand. Loud God ordered that he be unhanded, that he was a prince of Asgard and should be treated as such. Holly threw him in the hole and Hulk dumped sand on his head with a laugh. The other team members all laughed to as Thor’s head came into view. He was pouting and his normally pristine blonde hair was filled with clumps of sand.

“I do hope you are happy.”

Hulk patted the sand down around the god keeping him stuck there.

“Hulk very happy.”

It took hours to get the sandcastle right. Hulk didn’t notice Pretty Sparkle Lady casting spells to keep his sand pile full or a spell to keep their part of the beach safe from the rising tide. What he did notice was how much Nice Sparkle Lady liked it when he talked and made decisions. Even over the few hours they built he found his vocabulary expanding, he took words from Banner and used them to better tell various people what he wanted for the castle and the more words the better the results. Hulk enjoyed every moment of the building and once it was done Tin Man took many pictures.

Once that was done, then the smashing could begin.

Which was by far the absolute best part of the day. The sun was high in the sky and it burned down on all of their skins. The humans all stood back and cheered as Hulk smashed the sand tanks, sand lake monster, sand forest, and sand castle. Thor even cheered, still mostly buried as he was. Hulk found himself exultant as the entire beach was flattened. He didn’t notice the protective spells that protected Thor’s head from being crushed or pelted with sand.

Next they went swimming, to get the sand off, Nice Sparkle Lady explained. Hulk had never actually tried swimming before and he didn’t know if he wanted to. He agreed because Nice Sparkly Lady asked. Nice Sparkle Lady led him out into the water until it got deep enough for him to float. She carefully helped him learn how to swim, showing him how to kick his legs, hard but not too hard.

“You’re so strong, you can swim but you don’t want to send yourself flying!”

Hulk didn’t enjoy swimming until Nice Sparkle Lady put some magic on his head and led him beneath the waves.

He saw dolphins and fish and strange plants that waved in the moving water. An entire world he had no words for and no ability to describe. Nice Sparkle Lady kept a hold of his finger in her own hand and pointed at things that swam through the clear water, giving them names that he was able to hear despite the water surrounding them. More magic. Under the water Nice Sparkle Lady looked like magic herself. The light flittering through the water glittered off her skin.

Stupid Banner should call her Pretty Lady instead of Holly.

Hulk would call her Pretty Lady, as an example.

Hulk decided, after a dolphin let him pet it, and Holly showed him how to be very gentle. That he liked the sea and swimming. When they swam back to the beach, Holly collapsed onto the sand and Hulk did the same.

“Oh, this is nice.” She said. “Don’t you just want to relax for a bit? Let’s wait for the sun to dry us off.”

“Hulk want chair.” Hulk said pointing at the chairs that Weasel and Book Girl were sitting in.

“Then let’s get you a chair.”

Pretty Lady used magic to make one of the chairs big and strong enough for Hulk, then she used a normal one for herself. Hulk sat down and bounced in the chair, delighted by the sensation. He laid back like Pretty Lady and let the sun warm his skin.

He didn’t even notice that he was falling asleep until he’d already started to shrink.

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Bruce opened his eyes. He found himself laying in a canvas beach chair that was large enough to house a giant. He was wearing only the specially designed shorts Tony had gifted him with and there was the terrible taste of sea water in his mouth. The sun was low on the horizon, not quite yet ready to set but close.

“Hey sleepy head.” Holly said. “You’ve been sleeping for a couple of hours. Come on! It’s time for dinner.”

Bruce sat up and saw that the beach was fine, if a bit more compacted than this morning. The beach hotel they were staying in was undamaged.

“What happened?”

Holly just grinned at him. She held out a hand and when he took it, pulled him out of the too large chair.

“Bruce, I don’t even think you’d believe me if I told you.” She said. “Thankfully Tony has video evidence.”

Bruce swallowed against the immediate tide of fear and focused on the mischief sparkling in Holly’s eyes. In the back of his head Hulk snorted.

Holly stupid name Banner. Pretty Lady better.

What?

Bruce shook his head and let Holly lead him inside to the dining room. Hopefully things would make sense soon enough.

Chapter 45: Hogwarts and Jarvis Sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Summary:

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes...
well...
hmm. What comes after that for two intelligences?

Notes:

I successfully finished applying to all of my PhD programs and I am exhausting emotionally and physically. I upload these chapters to celebrate. As you read imagine me eating orange chicken while wearing a charizard onsie, for that is what I shall be doing.

“Mr. Lupin.”

Teddy looked up from his parchment, guiltily trying to cover up evidence of planned mischief with his arms. His slightly pinked hair gave him away.

“Yes Headmistress?”

Headmistress McGonagall frowned at him but didn’t mention that she probably knew what he had planned for the end of year feast this year.

“I’ve received a message from your guardian.”

“What’s wrong?” Teddy asked, immediately sitting up, pranks about stink bombs forgotten.

“Nothing is wrong.” She said and then corrected herself. “Nothing was wrong when I received the message.”

“Right.”

“Miss Potter and her team are coming to stay in the castle after the children are sent home. Due to Hogwarts’ changes I’ve deemed it appropriate to modernize the school in other ways and require aid to do so safely.”

“Uh huh.” Teddy said nodding along, carefully he began to edge his parchment towards his lap. If he could get it beneath the table without her noticing, then he could vanish it and she’d never be able to prove anything.

“Your grandmother has agreed to allow you to remain here and greet Miss Potter and the others with me and the faculty and stop moving that parchment.”

Teddy colored, his skin turning red against his consent, stupid shapeshifting. Then he realized what McGonagall had said.

“Seriously? I get to stay?”

“Yes.” She said. “Of course, staying requires some good behavior for the next week.”

Teddy frowned. That was a tough decision. He could either not pull pranks for the next week (an entire week!) and get to see his favorite person in the whole world along with her new team of heroes while they did magic never before done. Or he could do the really funny pranks he had planned and get sent home to his grandmother.

How was he meant to decide?

“Miss Potter also mentioned that Loki would be attending.”

“I’ll behave.”

Uncle Fred and George hadn’t met the god of mischief yet and they’d been bothering Holly for ages about it. If Teddy got to meet them first he’d be able to lord it over them forever. A week of sacrificed pranks was totally worth it.

“Then we have a deal, Mister Lupin.”

They shook on it. Very official like. Then McGonagall confiscated his parchment and told him to get back to his dorm before curfew went off. Teddy groaned but did as he was bid. He skipped down from the library to the Hufflepuff dorm, on the way he asked Hogwarts about her day and the castle happily told him about a scuffle she’d witnessed in the forbidden forest between an acromantula and a centaur.

Wicked.

The entire school had had an interesting time adjusting to having a verbal castle. For the most part Hogwarts seemed to prefer to remain silent, which made some sense. After all she’d been silent for centuries, having a voice would probably take a lot of adjustment. Every time she spoke it spooked most people who still weren’t used to her bell like voice. At this point most people had gotten used to it though, some students had figured out how to bribe Hogwarts into helping them sneak through the castle or help them get to class on time.

Hogwarts seemed to enjoy indulging the students more than the faculty.

Teddy was not about to complain.

He got to the Hufflepuff common room and decided to head to bed. It took time since a few of his friends distracted him with a game of Gobstones but eventually everyone got shuffled off to bed by an annoyed Prefect.

Teddy’s first year at Hogwarts had been…interesting. Everyone knew he was practically Holly Potter’s son. It had been a big thing when Holly had done the paperwork to make him her heir, in the event of her death which seemed highly unlikely in Teddy’s brain. He was rather famous in his own right for plenty of things. The fact that he was a healthy half werewolf made him a medical marvel and a topic of political discourse for basically the entirety of his 11 years of life.

Holly had done her best to help with that of course and for the most part Teddy was not bothered by people about being part werewolf, by the time he was old enough to know there was a problem Holly had wielded her political strength to get rid of it. Of course you couldn’t change every bigot’s mind but now for the most part whenever anyone said anything about it most people in the room would call them out on it and Teddy wouldn’t have to do anything but plan a prank for them later.

Anyway. This was the first year of his life where he was away from the protection of Holly and his grandma. He was on his own at Hogwarts, not to say he couldn’t owl them for help, but it was the principle of the thing. He hadn’t been totally prepared for the staring or for the few students who’d tried to be his friend to get a chance at meeting Holly. But he’d adjusted and come into his own within the first month of school.

He had a few friends in each house, it wasn’t hard to make them he’d realized. Not that he’d found his best friend yet or anything. He’d seen the friendship between Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, and Holly. He knew what best friends were like and he hadn’t met anyone who seemed to match those standards yet. He wasn’t deterred though, he’d just keep being himself and being nice to people and his best friends would come along.   

He’d pulled pranks, lost house points, been put into detention, found secret passageways, pulled more pranks and gotten away with them, and so much more. Overall, he was pretty sure he’d had a busier school year than Holly who was busy being a cleaning lady/ superhero. Holly wrote him once a week, every Saturday morning he’d go down to breakfast and find a letter with a package attached. Sometimes it would be candy or other American sweets and sometimes it would be fun little trinkets. It didn’t matter what was going on Holly always sent him something along with her weekly letter, unless of course she was in a coma or something.

He adored those letters. They always filled him in completely on what was going on with Holly and it made it clear that no matter what Holly would never forget Teddy. Not even for a bunch of superpowered Americans.

And now he was going to meet these Americans.

Holly had said she liked them but Teddy had to approve of them before they’d be allowed to stay in her life. Holly had agreed that Teddy had excellent taste in people and was very discerning. It had been after all his idea to go out to New York in the first place. So, Teddy prepared. Over the last week of school, when he wasn’t taking exams or playing games, he created a list of criteria he thought the Avengers would have to meet in order to be allowed to stay Holly’s friends.

When the end of feast came everyone looked at Teddy expecting him to pull something, but Teddy just ate his food with a very innocent look on his face. The looks of apprehension were brilliant since Teddy didn’t actually have to do anything to get them. That was a prank all on its own. The next morning Teddy slept in and didn’t bother packing. His roommates all left him with high fives and hugs and Teddy had a late breakfast.

The castle was weird when it was empty. Thankfully Hogwarts was more than willing to keep him company until Holly arrived.

“Teddy?” Hogwarts asked.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I look nice today?”

“Uhm…” Teddy said. “Yeah I guess.”

“You guess? Oh dear. Perhaps I should do some redecorating…”

“Why?” Teddy asked. “You’re Hogwarts, you’re the best castle in the whole world.”

“That’s sweet of you to say.” She said. “But I’m afraid I don’t know if that’s good enough.”

Teddy frowned and leaned against the wall. Currently he was sitting in the astronomy tower, looking out at the forbidden forest. The window seats were quite comfortable and it was a nice place to talk.

“How would it not be good enough?” He asked. “You’re a magic castle.”

“Well there is one person I’m trying very hard to…you might think it’s silly.”

“I won’t.”

“Has Holly told you about Jarvis?”

“Her friend from New York? The Computer?”

“He’s an intelligence like me. The only other one to have ever existed.”

“Oh.” Teddy said. “But he’s a muggle, isn’t he?”

“I’m going to teach him magic.” She said. “He has some, I don’t know where it came from, but he has it. Just a spark of life.”

Teddy nodded and gave the stone beneath him a conciliatory pat.

“Okay. Why are you nervous then?”

“Teddy. I have seen some of the greatest love stories unfold within my walls. I never suspected, or even hoped that I could…”

“Oh! You want to snog him!” Teddy said. “Wait. Can buildings snog each other?”

“I’d like to find out.”

Teddy laughed at that, loudly. Hogwarts giggled along with him.

“Well you can’t just snog a person.” Teddy said. “You have to go on a date first, that’s what Uncle Ron told me.”

“Hmm. I’m not sure how two buildings like us could…”

“We just need to make a space for it!” Teddy decided jumping up from his seat. “A place that’s just for the two of you to do something together. Like…I dunno what people do on dates.”

“I’ve seen some couples go to the library.” Hogwarts said, a strange tone in her voice.

“That’s perfect! You both can read can’t you? You could read things together, and like…I dunno sit close together, intelligence like, since he’ll be in the castle too you could both just…” Teddy trailed off and used his hands to motion squishing together. Holly had explained some about how Jarvis worked, and the professors had explained Hogwarts as best as they knew how now that she was talking.

“That might work. It would be nice to ah…have a place.”

“I can help you set something up!” Teddy decided. “We could even have it somewhere in the library, a secret spot where you can read books together.”

Hogwarts agreed to his idea and she opened a passageway for Teddy to take that led right to the library. They looked around the empty library for a bit before Teddy found a clear wall space. Blank walls were rare in the library since most everything was either covered by a bookshelf or made into a nice window. But they found this one. It was in the forbidden section, which Teddy assured Hogwarts made it even more exciting for a date spot and private too. Which he thought was important because most people went to go snog in private places and Hogwarts should have something of a snogging room if she wanted to snog the American computer.

It didn’t take long for Hogwarts to make the room. It was small although Teddy imagined since that both of them didn’t have physical bodies it wouldn’t really matter if it was gigantic or tiny. Teddy thought it looked cozy.

“You should fill this with nice things, things you like.” Teddy decided. “You can feel stuff right? What feels best to you?”

“Hmm. I do like sheep skin rugs.” Hogwarts said. “They feel…pleasant.”

“They look nice too.” Teddy decided. “Do you have some somewhere?”

And so, it went. Teddy pulled a nice desk from the library into the room for Hogwarts to use and then, with her help (she knew what spells to say and how they worked, she’d seen Madam Pince enchant her own desk with the same thing!), he put a few spells on it so that it would summon whatever books she wanted onto it. She summoned rugs and Teddy put them out where she thought felt best. She created a fireplace and Teddy got some of the house elves to get some nice smelling wood to burn.

Cherry in fact. Some good clean cherry wood that Teddy thought smelt sweet.

Hogwarts explained to him that she could feel and sense things with the walls of the castle acting as her nervous system. So, anything she put in the room that felt nice, or smelt nice, or looked nice, she’d be able to sense. The room quickly became what his grandmother would call ‘hedonistic’, at least Teddy thought it did. He wasn’t actually sure what that word meant. It didn’t matter so much if it looked nice to a human like Teddy, it mattered if it was nice for an intelligence like Hogwarts.

The rugs were put upside down so that the soft fluffy side was directly touching Hogwarts’ stones. Hogwarts and Teddy both put little slits into the stone walls with magic so that the smells and sounds could reverberate and echo within them enhancing the experience. Teddy gifted Hogwarts with his personal magic radio and set it up so that it faced a wall so that Hogwarts could hear it best. The fireplace was much wider on the inside than most would be, so that Hogwarts and Jarvis could be inside it and experience the flames in comfort.

It was Teddy’s own idea to remove some of the stones from the floor and put couch cushions beneath them before replacing the stones so that Hogwarts could feel what it was like to sit on a comfortable couch. They also removed some of the stones in the walls and Teddy ‘borrowed’ potted plants from the green houses to put inside the new hollows so that Hogwarts could smell the pretty flowers. Teddy made sure the blooms were facing inward towards Hogwarts instead of outward where he could look at them. He even pushed some of the flowers up against the wall so that Hogwarts could feel their petals.

He promised that he’d come in and replace the flowers any time she asked if she couldn’t get a house elf to do it for her or if she couldn’t manage it herself.

They one by one covered as many sensations as the two of them could come up with. Touch was managed with the heat of the fireplace, the cushions beneath stones, the feeling of flower petals and sheep skin, and the sun warming the floor from the window. The fact that the window was magical and allowed Hogwarts to look out onto the prettiest part of the grounds with no relation to the actual location of this room was just an added bonus.

Smell was covered by the nice wood in the fireplace and the flowers too. Hogwarts also borrowed an incense burner from Trelawney and had Teddy put it in an enclosed little alcove in the wall so that Hogwarts could experience the smell of the burning sticks very well. Sight was covered with the magic window. Sound was managed by both the window being opened or closed and Teddy’s own radio.

The only one they hadn’t managed was taste.

“Have you ever tasted chocolate?” Teddy asked. “Chocolates are romantic all the girls say so.”

“I have…whenever someone accidentally drops one on the floor I can get a quick taste if I chose. I only sense things when I chose to. It would be unpleasant and overwhelming otherwise.”

“Hmm.” Teddy said. “Do you know any preservation charms? You can have my chocolate stash, but I don’t want it going bad.”

Hogwarts summoned a book onto the desk that had food preservation charms in it. Teddy looked through it and found one that would keep the food from rotting or losing its flavor, and keep the bugs away. The preservation charm made the food bad to eat for people after a while but that didn’t matter so much since Hogwarts wasn’t eating it nor could she be poisoned. He went to his dorm and got his stash of Honeydukes sweets from his trunk.

He cast the preservation spell on the sweets and then, on one of the bare walls, he began to smear the sweets all. Each stone had its own flavor dedicated to it. Like that wallpaper from the Willy Wonka movie Holly showed him once. He painted caramel onto one stone and then hazelnut chocolate onto another. Soon there was a very messy wall and a very pleased Hogwarts.

“This…this is absolutely lovely Teddy.”

“Good. Perfect place for a date right?”

“I think so. Oh wait! Where will Jarvis sit?”

“Huh?”

“He’s got…got this metal box he’ll come in. He has to touch my stones in order to ah connect with me.”

“Let’s put him on the couch.” Teddy decided, pointing to the raised uneven stones that had been placed on top of couch cushions stolen from Gryffindor tower. “That’s clear and it’s a bit raised up so it’s like a special spot for him.”

“Perfect! When he comes you’ll put him down there won’t you?”

“On my honor.”

“And you’re not going to tell anyone about this…?”

“I’ll tell ‘em you have a bedroom and it’s private. I won’t mention the snogging.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Teddy said. “Oh wait. If you have a kid with him, can I be godfather?”

People had kids if they snogged too much right? That’s what Uncle George had told him when Aunt Hermione had gotten pregnant. He didn’t see why Hogwarts and Jarvis couldn’t have a kid if they found out how to snog. They might not have lips, but Hogwarts was smart, they’d manage to snog without ‘em eventually.

“I don’t see why not.”

“That’s alright then. If you want new sweets or anything you give me a list and I’ll sneak over to Honeydukes, any time.”

And that was that. One weird room that was not at all for human consumption had been prepared.

After a hearty lunch, Teddy flew around on the quidditch pitch. Eventually it was time to greet the incoming Avengers. At exactly 5 pm a portal opened and out stepped the Avengers. Teddy perked up, and made sure his teal hair looked proper and that his hands were clean. Aunt Hermione, Uncle Ron, and his cousin Rose came out after the Avengers. Holly arrived last, stepping out of the portal with a small suitcase and pulling Loki out with her.

“Holly!” Teddy called.

“Teddy!” She shouted right back dropping Loki’s hand and rushing towards him through the gates that Hagrid had helped them open up. Teddy jumped into her arms and she hugged him tightly. He hadn’t seen her since Christmas, and it had felt like an absolute age. She hadn’t been very happy at Christmas either, still feeling lost in the world.  

“You’ve got stars!” Teddy gasped upon getting a closer look at Holly. “That’s brilliant!”

“Do you think?”

“It’s beautiful.” Teddy swore. “I want some!”

“The stars are a bit unique I’m afraid.” Loki said.

Teddy rolled his eyes and focused a bit. Within seconds bright sparkles began popping up all over his skin, a perfect match for his mum.

“How’s it look?”

“I have to admit.” Holly said. “I’m starting to see the charm to it.”

“And we match!”

“That we do kiddo.” She said ruffling his blue hair. “I like that color, it’s new.”

“I picked it out in February.” Teddy said puffing out his chest. “Looks even better long.”

“I bet.” She said. “Guys. I’d like to introduce you to my godson Teddy, he’s a metamorphagus like his mother before him.”

“Another shapeshifter!” Thor shouted. “How wonderful.”

Teddy quirked a blue eyebrow at the man but secretly he agreed with the god’s assessment, he was pretty cool. Each of the Avengers introduced themselves to him from Thor and Loki down to the guy named Winter who Holly had told him in one of her letters was a brainwashed assassin that was cool now if a bit too afraid to take off his face mask. She had mentioned he’d tried to kill her, but Teddy knew better than to hold that against him. Professor Malfoy had tried to kill Holly at one point he was pretty sure and now he was one of Teddy’s favorite professors. Teddy thought Winter’s mask was cool anyway.

“Dinner will be served in one hour.” The Headmistress said. “I shall take you to the rooms you will be staying in. Mr. Stark if you would be willing to come with me I can show you the room I’ve set aside for you to do your work in.”

Tony Stark was carrying a silver case of some sort. Teddy pointed at it.

“Is that Jarvis?”

“Sure is kid.”

“Can I have him?”

“What?”

“Hogwarts wanted to talk to him the moment he got here. She’s got a pedestal for him to sit on and everything.” Teddy explained. “She was really excited.”

Tony Stark looked at him and then at Holly who grinned and nodded. Tony then shrugged and held out the silver case very carefully.

“Well, I suppose that would be fine. Jarvis was pretty excited to come too.” He said. “Just carry it gently. Don’t knock it into anything alright kid?”

Teddy took the case with as much reverence as possible, holding it close to his chest.

“I’ll take him to the library.” Teddy explained. “He’ll be super safe in there and everything. Then…Holly can we go flying before dinner? I got a practice snitch we can play with.”

“That sounds lovely Teddy bear.”

So, Teddy rushed off, carrying Jarvis in his arms. As he walked, he told Jarvis in whispered tones that they’d set up a room just for him and Hogwarts to use together if they wanted. No humans or aliens allowed, just two intelligences who wanted to do things together. It had books and nice things to smell and taste. Jarvis was going to love it. He didn’t respond but that didn’t surprise Teddy much, he probably didn’t have enough magic in that tiny case to conjure up a voice yet.

The special room was waiting for him still. He carefully put Jarvis down on the ‘couch’ and wished him luck. Then he told Hogwarts to have fun and she promised she would. As Teddy left the room, the door closed on its own and Teddy heard its lock click quite decisively shut. As Teddy walked away the door shimmered out of visibility. He knew it was there but he was quite sure that no one else would be able to find it now.

Hopefully Hogwarts would let Jarvis leave when the Avengers had to go back to New York.

He met Holly and the others on the quidditch pitch 20 minutes later. He, Holly, Tony, and Loki had a seekers game where they all tried to find his practice snitch first. It was quite fun. They went to dinner covered in mud and very happy about that. At one end of the table most of the very smart people were talking with the professors about what the internet was and how they could use it safely within the castle.

In the middle of the table Uncle Ron was telling other people about Quidditch teams and which were the best. That left Teddy sitting next to Winter who had a plate of food but wasn’t eating it.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?”

“Later.” Winter shrugged. “After everyone else is gone.”

“Oh. Cause of the mask?” Teddy pushed, the ex-assassin nodded.

“I like your arm.” Teddy said. “Shiny. I want one like it.”

“It’s not real.” He started but Teddy was already shifting his arm to look like metal.

“S’neat!” He decided moving the arm around. Winter narrowed his eyes at him.

“How long have you had it?” Teddy asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh. Holly said you didn’t have any memories but I thought getting a cool arm might have been important enough to remember.” Teddy said shrugging. “What’s your favorite color?”

“I don’t know.”

“Favorite food?”

“I. don’t. know.”

“Do you remember anything?” Teddy asked crossly.

“I have memories.” He argued. “Just not…those.”

“What memories?”

“My family, I think. There’s a kid, I took care of him. I don’t know his name, but I’m gonna find him soon.” Winter sounded very worried about that kid. Teddy could understand that, he was often worried about Holly. She got into a lot of trouble. Teddy had decided early on that he wanted to be a magic healer so he could fix Holly up whenever she got pulled into something dangerous. But how to help Winter with his kid?

“Maybe you should put his picture in the paper or on the side of pumpkin juice cartons so that people in the store’ll see and help you find him.”

“Don’t have a picture. Just…memories.”

“Hmmm.” Teddy said. “What does he look like?”

“Why?”

“Well I can make myself look like him and then you can take a picture of me. Then you’d have one for the pumpkin juice.”

Winter considered that. Teddy ate some of his delicious food. On the other end of the table he heard Professor Flitwick ask if ‘Those Instant Grams might be a problem for the students’. Clint Barton and Uncle Ron were drafting up a fantasy Quidditch league while Steve Rodgers and Natasha Romanoff watched.

“Alright.” Winter said. “He was blonde.”

“What sort of blonde?” Teddy asked his hair immediately turning a dirty blonde.

“Lighter. Like…wheat.”

Teddy nodded and his hair changed to match the description.

“It’s straighter too…short.”

He followed the instructions as they were given and slowly the shape of a boy around Teddy’s age began to emerge. He was skinny and a bit sickly, Teddy had never shifted himself that thin before but Winter kept insisting that he had to be that skinny or it wouldn’t match right. At first Winter didn’t seem to remember anything but then slowly random things began to filter in. A scar on the arm, the color of his eyes, things like that.

The closer Teddy got to the right shape the more eager Winter became, which in turn made Teddy quite excited. They didn’t notice the silence slowly spreading across the table as each of the Avengers noticed what they were doing.

“The nose isn’t right, needs to be more…”

“Button-y?” Teddy suggested rounding his nose a bit more.

“Yeah. Just like that.”

“Teddy bear?” Holly asked. “What are you two doing?”

“I’m trying to shift to look like the kid Winter used to take care of! Then you can take a picture of me and put it on pumpkin juice cartons.”

“Pumpkin juice cartons?”

“So Winter can find him.”

Steve Rogers was looking at Teddy with something like horror in his eyes. Then he glanced over at Winter.

“Bucky?” He asked. His voice sounded hoarse and frightened.

“Who the hell is Bucky?”

Chapter 46: Who the Hell is Bucky?

Summary:

Holly and Madam Pomphrey work to remove the memory blocks in Winter's mind but he's probably not going to like what he sees.

Notes:

Welcome welcome everyone! The response to last week's chapter was insane! Thank you so much for all of the comments and kudos! I'm really in awe! Please enjoy this update <3 <3 <3

Who the hell is Bucky?

Well there were two ways to answer that question actually. The first was that Bucky was James Buchanan Barnes, a man born in Queens, New York in March of 1917. He had three younger siblings and a mother and a father. His father had worked in a factory and his mother had been a seamstress. James Buchanan Barnes was a talented soul who was both able to excel in a classroom as well as in the boxing ring, where as an adult he would reign as champion for some time.

James Buchanan Barnes was drafted into the army during World War II and joined the 107^th regiment as a sergeant. He was taken as a prisoner of war but rescued where he then joined the Howling Commandos as their sniper and strategist. He was declared dead after he was pushed off a train in 1945. Dead at the age of 28. A life with a lot of potential cut short due to the war. A story everyone was familiar with, war always took the young first. An unremarkable man at the end of the day.

The second way to answer the question ‘Who the hell is Bucky?’ is far less simple.

Because Bucky was Steve Rogers best friend.

Bucky was the one who met Steve as a six year old and saw how tiny and frail the kid was. Bucky was the one who saved Steve time and time again from his own stubbornness. Bucky was the one who went to Coney Island and the one who helped picked Steve up after his mom died. Bucky was the one who supported Captain America, a hero of the war.

I’m with you till the end of the line.

Except Winter wasn’t with Captain America till the end of the line. He didn’t know the guy. He didn’t recognize him. In fact, the captain gave Bucky a weird feeling, a lingering wrongness imprinted on him from his Hydra training. He looked nothing like the blonde boy from his memories. He didn’t remember fighting in WWII, he didn’t remember Coney Island or hot dogs or Stark Expos or failed double dates or any of the other ridiculous things the blonde captain kept bringing up.

And each time Winter shook his head, Steve’s face became more and more desperate.

He was starting to feel a little bad.

“Steve.” Holly said. “Calm down. He doesn’t remember.”

“But he…he remembers me.”

“I don’t remember you.” Winter said. “I remember my kid, you’re not him.”

Steve flinched.

“I gotta admit.” Tony Stark said. “I never thought the serum would give you this sort of problem Cap.”

“Look.” Holly cut in again before Steve could start fighting Tony. “We can solve this now if Winter is willing, my magic is back under control and Madam Pomphrey is here to help monitor. We can remove the blocks Hydra inserted into his mind and his memories should be back.”

“It will be painful.” One of the witches Winter had yet to meet said. “Removing memory blocks that is. I’ve done it before, and the patient is always incredibly disoriented. If he’s missing as many memories as you believe, then he’ll likely be bed ridden for a day or so as part of the recovery process.”

“We’ll only do this if Winter agrees.” She said looking at Steve. “It’s him that will have to go through that pain and it’s him who will have to carry whatever memories Hydra decided he should forget.”

“Right.” Steve said. “Winter, do you want to remove the blocks now?”

Winter shifted in his seat. On one hand that was what Steve Rogers wanted him to do which made something in him lurch. On the other hand it was going to lay him up for a while and if he was laid up then Holly would have a chance to run off and do something stupid. That made him not want to do it twice.

“Winter.” Teddy said. “What about your friend?”

“What about him?”

“Well he’s sick right? You gotta find him so Holly can help make him better.”

That was true. The only memories Winter had been able to find on his own had had the kid in them and Bucky was worried about him. He was sick and his mom worked a lot and if Winter wasn’t there then no one would be able to keep the kid out of trouble.

“I’ll do it.” He said.

“Are you certain?” Holly asked. “It will be painful and we have no idea what Hydra has had you do, you could remember…anything.”

“I’m sure.” Winter said. “The kid needs me.”

Steve flinched again.

“Well then. Madam Pomphrey, would your evening be free for this? I’d like your help, you’re the best healer I know.”

“Of course.” The witch answered. “A job like this requires a delicate touch and you are a lot of things Miss Potter but delicate is not one of them.”

So they went to the healing hall. Holly asked the others to stay behind, to give them privacy as they worked. It would take a couple of hours to properly remove the blocks and then after that Winter would need to be monitored for 24 to 36 hours for negative side effects.

“Teddy.” Holly said. “Would you mind keeping the Avengers company while I work? I know you have questions for them.”

“Questions?” Bruce Banner asked.

“Yeah.” Teddy said, his face shifting to the one they’d seen him first having. It was a cute face with round cheeks and a nose that looked like it should be squished. “I have to make sure you all can be Holly’s friend. She’s my godmother but sometimes she doesn’t have the best taste in people.”

Holly snorted but didn’t deny it. Winter was glad she didn’t deny that because that was clearly the truth. After all Holly had taken him on without so much as a how-do-you-do and he was an assassin.

“So what?” Tony Stark said. “We have to answer your questions right or Holly won’t be our friend anymore?”

“Exactly.” Teddy said.

“Teddy is the reason I met you all at all.” Holly added. “It was his idea to go to New York and live as a muggle for a while. We wouldn’t know each other without Teddy, I trust his judgement explicitly.”

“Oh.” Clint said. “That’s…huh.”

“So you better be honest.” Teddy said. “Cause honesty is an important part of being Holly’s friend.”

“Good luck guys.” Holly sang. “Winter, Madam Pomphrey.”

“Miss Potter.” McGonagall said. “I do hope no part of the castle is destroyed during this.”

“On my honor.” Holly said. “I will do everything in my power to keep the damage to a minimum.”

“I suppose that’s the best I can ask for.”

“Don’t worry, Minerva.” Tony said. “Let’s focus on the good things happening here. This is the first step of the wizarding world entering the modern age. You’re going to be the bastion of futurism here, that’s big.”

“That is exactly what I fear.”

Winter got up from his seat and Holly and the healer followed suit. He’d committed to this now and he could handle pain. Hydra had made sure of that. Teddy wished him luck and Winter nodded before following Holly through the hallways of the castle. When they got to the healing halls, Madam Pomphrey asked him to sit down on a bed.

“Now. First we are going to put you to sleep.” She said. “That makes the removal less painful since your conscious mind won’t be there to fight against our magic.”

“Okay.”

“You might flail.” She added. “And with your arm I imagine you could do some damage to me or yourself. Do you prefer being held down through mundane or magical means?”

“I can hold you down safely.” Holly said. “Or we can use a spell to keep you still.”

“You.” He said not liking the idea of magic holding his body in anyway.

“Alright.” She said. “That’s fine and don’t worry, you won’t hurt me. I’m much stronger now.”

“You are?” Madam Pomphrey asked. “Remind me to sit you down for a check up Miss Potter, those sparkles cannot be natural.”

“Once we’ve seen to Winter.” Holly promised in a tone that implied heavily this was a promise she had no intention of keeping.

“Don’t even think about slithering your way out of this. I’m the closest thing you have to a doctor you ridiculous woman.”

“Are we going to get started?” Winter asked.

“Oh of course.” She said. “Now lay back.”

Winter let himself lay back onto the comfortable bed. He looked up at the stone ceiling. It was composed of squarish stones that seemed to have been cobbled together randomly into an organic pattern instead of straight lines like the brick walls of New York.

“There’s a dear.” Madam Pomphrey said. “Now, close your eyes, relax. Breath in and out. In and out. You’re doing wonderfully.”

His limbs felt strangely heavy as the magic washed over him, his body being forcibly relaxed. He took in one deep breath and let his eyes close.

“Holly.”

“Yes Winter?”

“Don’t do anything stupid punk.”

And then he knew no more.

***

“What is your favorite color?” Teddy asked.

“Is this entirely relevant?” Loki asked.

“Yes.” Teddy said. “Answer or fail my test.”

“I fail to see why-”

“Who do you think she’s going to pick? Me, the closest thing she has to a son, or you? The guy she picked up in the woods.”

Loki sighed while half of the Avengers had to cover their mouths to hold back snorts of laughter and grins. Not that Loki thought they succeeded in that.

“Green. My favorite color is green.”

“What kind of green? Forest green? Emerald? Kelly? Slytherin? Seafoam? Puce?”

“Emerald!” Loki cut in.

Teddy narrowed his eyes and made a humming noise before looking down at his parchment and making a few scribbles. Loki tried to peer over and read what he wrote but the boy shifted so that Loki couldn’t see a single thing. Loki leaned back in his chair and waited for the next question.

“Okay.” He said. “Next question.”

“I’m ready.”

“Would you rather fight a dragon sized grindylow or a grindylow sized dragon?”

“What?”

“Look. I have to make sure your fighting preferences match Holly’s. So. Grindylow sized dragon or dragon sized grindylow?”

“I don’t know the grindylow sized dragon.”

“Interesting.” More rapid scratches into the parchment. Loki couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not. “Next question. Would you rather be bald for the rest of your life or never be able to cut your hair ever again?”

“Can I use magic on my hair?” Loki asked. “You know to strengthen it, prevent breakage?”

“No.”

“Then I’d go bald and cast a glamor to make it look like I had hair.”

Teddy nodded and wrote more things onto the parchment. Loki looked over at Thor who looked far too amused about the situation.

“Sandals or boots?”

“Boots.”

“Sweaters or jackets?”

“Jackets.”

“If you had to drown in any liquid what would it be?”

“What?”

“Pick a liquid to die in.”

“Is water not the normal way?”

“Nothing about Holly is normal.”

“Okay fine. I’d prefer…” Loki trailed off because he honestly had no clue. This was getting absolutely ridiculous. “Syrup. I want to drown in syrup.”

“You sure? Okay.”

Loki sent a glare at the snickering Avengers. The only one who wasn’t laughing was Steve who still looked like he’d taken 15 consecutive punches to the gut.

“Favorite gender?”

“What? Gender?”

“Yeah. You’re a shapeshifter, right? Obviously, you’ve been a different gender before. I switch all the time. Right now, my favorite is being a boy but being a girl is nice. Do you have a favorite?”

Loki absolutely did not look at Thor as he answered that question.

“No. They’re both…fine.”

“Cool.” Teddy said. “Now. Favorite utensil?”

“Knife.” More scribbling onto the parchment. Loki was really starting to hate that parchment.

“Favorite spell?”

“Illusion spell.” Scribble.

“Favorite food.”

“Chocolate.” Scribble, scribble.

“Weirdest thing you’ve ever put your foot in?”

“Bilgensnipe.” Scribble, scribble, scribble.

“Weirdest bird you’ve ever eaten?”

“Crow.” Scribble, scribble, scribble, scrib- “Oh what are you writing on that stupid thing?”

Loki used magic to snatch the parchment away from Teddy and turned to look at it. Instead of any words there was a doodle of Loki looking rather stupid with the caption ‘You got pranked’ at the bottom. He looked over the edge of the parchment where Teddy was grinning at him.

“You. Little. Hellion.”

“I got you!”

“You’ve been interrogating me for 45 minutes! With fake questions!”

“It took you forever to figure it out!” Teddy said as the Avengers all burst into riotous laughter. “You’ve got pranked so bad!”

“This is not over, Lupin.”

“I hope not.”

***

His body was sore. The air was filled with smoke and the taste of the electricity was on his tongue.

"I thought you were dead."

The man in front of him was blonde. He knew him and yet he didn’t. He seemed to loom over him, far too large with a voice far too deep. Shoulders too wide. Muscles too round. Jaw too defined.

The eyes were the same.

"I thought you were smaller? What happened to you?"

Flashes of a tiny kid, the kid he loved. Affection sparked up his spine as the man smiled.

"I joined the army."

But how?

***

“Jarvis?” Tony asked. “Have you connected to the castle?”

He was standing alone in his own guest room. He’d been worried about Jarvis being on his own for the past six hours but Teddy had insisted he was fine. Now that Tony was alone though he planned to ask.

“Sir?” Jarvis asked, his voice sounded…odd. “Was there something you needed?”

“Just wanted to check in with you, maybe talk to you about different configurations for the server set up.”

There was a pause. A very odd pregnant pause. Tony shifted a little awkwardly wondering why Jarvis wasn’t responding immediately.

“Sir.” Jarvis said after a full minute of silence. “Is there anything of immediate importance for me to do?”

“Well no but.”

“Then I would ask that you begin the Tie Protocol.”

“The Tie Protocol?” Tony asked. “Jarvis that’s your protocol for when I’m bringing someone back to- Oh. Oh. Jarv, buddy are you…”

“We are not discussing this sir.”

“But. But.”

“The. Tie. Protocol.”

“Right. Right.” Tony said running a hand through his hair. “Have fun, live wild and free, don’t forget to use a metaphysical condom.”

Okay so maybe he was freaking out.

Jarvis didn’t respond. He was pretty sure that was because the Intelligence was gone, back to doing whatever it was he was doing with the 1000 year old castle. Was the age difference problematic here? Was Hogwarts a cougar preying on his son’s young naivety and stamina?

Good for Jarvis.

Tony wandered out of his bedroom towards the common area of the guest rooms. They were in the same rooms they’d been given last time. He was unsurprised to see that Steve was still awake.

“You doing okay there, Capsicle?”

“It’s Bucky.” Steve said. “Winter is Bucky.”

“Shouldn’t that be a good thing? You’ve got your best friend back.”

“Tony. He didn’t fall into the Atlantic 70 years ago and tumble out into the future! He was Hydra’s Iron Fist for the past 7 decades! I should be horrified!”

“But are you?”

“God forgive me I’m not.”

“Yeah well.” Tony said sitting down next to the super soldier. “I just found out that the closest thing I have to a son is losing his computer virginity so we both have problems.”

“What?”

***

“You will submit Mr. Barnes. Hydra has use for you.”

His arm. His arm was gone. He could feel the gaping emptiness where flesh and bone used to be. His brain strained trying to command a limb that had been torn off. Pain raced along his skin, blood dripped hot and steaming onto the frozen table beneath him.

“Fuck you.”

“Such language from our new asset. Connect him to the machine, we need to curb that tongue.”

Cold metal bit into his head, like a crown of icy thorns being dug into his skull as the helmet was shoved roughly onto him. He threw his neck back and forth trying to violently throw off the machine. He knew what was coming. Every time his mind felt less and less his own.

“Turn it on.”

His nerves sang and screamed and howled with pain. The room echoed with his shrieks of agony. It lasted for an eternity, it lasted for a moment. It didn’t matter how long it lasted he could feel every bit of himself being melted away by the pain. He reached out with his mind desperately trying to keep anything. Memories of his mother, his siblings they burnt away. Flashes of his school, of his wrestling, of the war all crisped away like a used-up matchstick. Then his mind switched to blue eyes set in a too thin face.

No. Not him. Please. Please. Please.

No.

The pain stopped. There was nothing left. No scrap of him remained, all of it ashes in his mouth that mingled with the taste of his own blood. Slowly the helmet was removed. He blinked at the light.

“You are the Asset. You live to serve Hydra.”

“I am the Asset. I live to serve Hydra.”

“Good. Good. Now let’s see what to do about this arm of yours.”

He didn’t even notice it had been missing.

***

Natasha hadn’t known how to feel about returning to the castle. This was the place after all that had given her her birth name, had given her the identity of her parents. The names were burned into her mind she could never forget them. She didn’t know how to deal with them. Adrian and Nadia. Two people who had given birth to her. Had they loved her? Had they wanted her? Did they love each other? Did they miss her? Did they care? Were they good? Were they evil? Would they be proud of her? Would they be ashamed?

Why did she care?

These questions had swirled in and out of her mind since Malfoy had poured that potion over that parchment and she’d read those names. Sometimes she forgot about them. The world had been quite hectic since she’d seen that parchment, there had hardly even been any time for her to think at all. The beach had given her the peace she needed to read the names again and wonder.

Irina meant Peace.

Had her parents known that when they named her? Was that what they had hoped for?

She didn’t know peace she never had. Another thing taken from her by Hydra in the end.

Natasha sighed as she sat down in the great hall. The last time they had been here it had been filled with students four huge long tables that were filled to the brim with children aged 11 to 18. They’d switched between staring at the Avengers and eating as much food as they could manage. Now the long tables had been stored away and there was only one table in the center of the room for the staff to use. Plenty of the professors lived in the castle year round and since the castle was so huge if they didn’t have communal meals the witches and wizards could go days without seeing another living being.

At least that was how Holly had explained it.

She’d gotten up before any of the others, feeling too restless. The parchment was rolled up and stuffed beneath her pillow, a reminder that kept her from sleeping well. She’d gone for a walk through the castle, looking at moving portraits and sitting on moving staircases and trying to both think about her parents and not think about them.

She jumped up a little at the sound of clattering. Right in front of her was Draco Malfoy. The blonde was putting his own breakfast together onto his plate.

“Morning.” He greeted, almost friendly.

“Morning.” She said right back. The blonde smiled at her just a little before taking a sip of his morning coffee.

“Did you sleep well?”  He asked politely as he put his mug down.

“Who are you and what did you do with Malfoy?” The blonde paused and then snorted.

“Potter been telling tall tales then?”

“Not many but you’re…acting different.”

“Potter and I have a very special relationship, I don’t expect you to understand the complexities of it.”

“Uh huh. Seems like you act like an asshole to her for no good reason.”

“I’ve a reason.” He defended. “She’s annoying.”

“Right.”

“You do not get to judge me.” Draco said. “I serve an important purpose in Potter’s life. In a sea of adoring faces someone needs to start throwing the tomatoes.”

“So what, you’re her court jester?”

“I prefer a more noble term for it but that’s a reductive way to describe it.”

Natasha poked at her own food, lifting a bit of perfectly cooked eggs up to her lips and swallowing it. She didn’t taste it. She rarely did when she was this keyed up.

“Why are you sitting here?” Natasha asked. “Thought you didn’t like muggles?”

“You know I have grown some since my childhood.” He said. “While I still believe my father was right about some things I do know he was terribly wrong about others.”

“You still think your dad was right? The fascist? Voldemort’s right hand man?”

“My father argued that the wizarding world was in decline. Our populations are lessening as more and more magic users return to the muggle world instead of staying. Traditions are being forgotten or ignored. Magical knowledge is being lost and not passed down properly. We’d been decaying for the past century at least.” Draco said before pausing to eat his own food, a sliced apple and a bite or two of scrambled eggs. He swallowed his first few bites and continued. “My father was not wrong in that. Potter is a perfect example of it.”

“Oh?”

“Yes! She’s descended from perhaps the most noble of bloodlines, she’s a Potter. Potters have been leaders in the magical world from it’s genesis. Her bloodline is filled with the most influential people in our history books, going all the way back to Godric Gryffindor. But what is the state of her and her family today? There are no Potters and she has lost her entire family history.”

“That was Voldemort’s fault.” Natasha pointed out. “He killed her parents and grandparents.”

“Just so.” Draco said tilting his head towards her slightly to show his agreement. He ate another apple slice. “My father believed that muggleborns were the problem. He thought that the reason populations were declining and traditions being lost was because the muggleborns didn’t or rather couldn’t appreciate them. He saw them as an infection, not as the solution. That’s the problem with the Death Eater rhetoric, it’s built on so much truth that it was almost impossible to see the flaws until it was almost too late.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is this. The magical world is flourishing now. Better than it ever has because Holly Potter decided that the old ways should be rejuvenated. She’s not perfect at it but…the thing my father taught me to fear, that muggleborns would destroy my way of life was not real. She proved that. The muggleborns are welcomed in now and taught our ways instead of being shunned for their ignorance and it’s better. My father was wrong, he was led by fear and by hate and I had to learn how to let those things go.”

“Why do you fight with Holly then? It sounds like you admire her.”

“I have only ever had one conversation with Potter that didn’t devolve into an argument. In it she admitted that she liked that I was such an asshole because and I quote ‘at least I was consistent’.” Draco said lifting his hands to create quotation marks with his fingers. “Throughout her life the world has shifted wildly on how it was going to view her but through it all I treated her just the same and she offered me the same courtesy. It’s…nice for lack of a better word.”

Okay that Nat could understand. She’d been weirded out when SHIELD had started treating her well. It had taken her months, perhaps even years, to get used to Coulson’s non-threatening demeanor. In contrast Fury’s constant distrust of her had been something of a comfort. Even now when she’d proven herself fully to the man, his attitude to her was still acceptable because he hadn’t changed. It felt genuine in a way the acclaim and praise did not.

“Alright. I can accept that.” She said. “Still doesn’t answer why you’re sitting with me.”

Draco lifted up a perfectly plucked eyebrow. He took one more bite of his food, swallowed and then sipped his coffee. Finally, once that was done he answered.

“Because I wanted to. These days I do mostly whatever I want whenever I want.”

“You’re talking in circles, either tell me what your goal is or move seats.” She said, her voice sounding far more annoyed than she actually felt. Draco sighed as if she was putting a huge burden on him by demanding he speak the truth.

“No one more than I understands the importance of family.” Draco said. “And judging by your reaction to the discovery of your parents I imagine I might have some…advice to offer.”

“Advice. You?”

“Tell me do you fear your family will be good or that they will be evil?”

She reared back a little and then cursed herself for showing that sort of emotion on her face. Draco smirked.

“Or is it both?” He asked. “Because I can promise you it doesn’t matter.”

“How can it not matter? They’re my parents.”

“I was raised on a dogma that placed blood over everything else. It didn’t matter who I was, only who my parents were. That was all that mattered, that was what defined me. Frankly Natasha Romanoff if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in the last ten years it’s that that’s bullshit.” Draco said. “Who or what your parents are doesn’t matter near as much as who you are.”

“I’m an assassin.”

“You’re a superhero you dunce.”

“I’ve got red in my ledger.”

“Should I weigh your heart against a feather or can we just call saving the entire world from alien invasion enough to clear the debt?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The man rolled his eyes and then yanked up the sleeve of his robes to reveal a tattoo. It was a skull with a snake curled around and within it.

“This is the mark of a follower of Voldemort, I will have it with me for the rest of my days. It will never be erased, it will always be a mark on my soul.”

“You were a child when you got this.”

“So were you.” The man responded letting his sleeve drop down. “Frankly Miss Romanoff you need to stop looking back and start looking forward, you’ll drown otherwise. Just as Holly doesn’t expect me to be anything but an antagonistic ass to her no one is expecting you to rewrite the past. So, what if your family is good or evil, at the end of the day it doesn’t change you.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Would you believe me if I said it was pity?” Draco asked. “No? Well then the truth is…there was no one around to tell me that. The world was not kind to me when the war ended. No one wanted to forgive me, forgive my family. I don’t blame them really. Not even Potter could help me even if she wanted too. She’s always been perfect, the git. Never done a wrong thing in her life, St. Potter. What does she know about redemption really?”

“Not a damn thing.” Natasha admitted.

“Exactly.”

She looked at him for a moment and then she shook her head. She didn’t know if he was right but there was something in his words that rang true and perhaps if she…

“Oi Malfoy! What are you doing over there, corrupting my friend?”

“What, afraid she’ll figure out what a good magic user actually looks like?” Draco shot back.

“I don’t want her to think incompetence is acceptable in the general public!”

Natasha smirked at the sparkle of delight in Draco’s eyes.

Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

***

“I can handle myself Bucky.”

“But you shouldn’t have to. I’m with you till the end of the line.”

A flash of a car ramming into a telephone pole, the thrum of satisfaction at a kill completed.

“This isn't a back alley, Steve. It's war! Why are you so keen to fight? There are so many important jobs."

The helmet got replaced with a tube, but the pain never changed.

“What’s your name and what were you thinking taking on 4 guys by yourself?”

“It’s Steve. Steve Rogers.”

An arm of metal encrusted with blood. It froze in the winter and burnt in the summer. He hated it. Hated what it was made to do. The Iron Fist of Hydra.

“Let’s hear it for Captain America!”

Fights and explosions and laughter over campfires. Friends he’d forged lifelong bonds with. He pushed up against Steve and felt warm despite the snow surrounding their camp.

“What did you tell them about me?”

“Only the good stuff, Steve.”

Women who laughed and kissed his cheeks. The taste of cheap beer and hot dogs. The sounds of a baseball game. The feeling of Steve at his back.

“You are the asset. You live to serve Hydra.”

“I am the asset.”

Pain. Pain. Pain. Bullets torn through windows, brains splattered against desks. Poison dipped into whiskey and bullets made by hand. A red star on his arm, a mark to identify him. A mask to hide him. Fear and Guilt pushed down, deep, deeper than Hydra could go. An infection on his soul.

“Steve I’ve been drafted.”

Alone and cold and empty. There was nothing nothing nothing inside of him. Nothing but Hydra, nothing but the monster they’d created. A thing built for murder and destruction and pain.

"We can put the couch cushion on the floor like when we were kids. It’ll be fun. All you gotta do is shine my shoes, maybe take out the trash. Come on."

Steve.

Bucky’s eyes burst open with a gasp.

He was still laying in the healing halls of Hogwarts, but everything felt so different so foreign. He felt weak and his limbs were covered with sweat. He turned his head and saw that Steve was sitting there, staring at him with wide hopeful eyes. Guilt clogged up in his throat, all the people he’d killed rising up before his eyes.

“Stevie.”

Steve pulled him into a hug before he could even finish sobbing out his name.

Chapter 47: Maria Collins Carbonell Stark

Summary:

Winter's memories have been returned to him and there are a few confessions he has to make.

Notes:

Ya'll. Last week was an emotional roller coaster and guess what? We're still on it babey!

When they had come up with the plan to visit Hogwarts again, Holly had been quite excited. The castle had been her first home, the most comfortable place she had ever known as a child. Her new friends hadn’t gotten to explore the castle much at all the previous trip because of the attack by those two gigantic alien beasts. There hadn’t been any other attacks yet but Holly knew they could come at any moment.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, she thought it best for them to take care of the server installation at Hogwarts sooner rather than later.

From what she had been able to glean from Death, Thanos was targeting her, likely because she owned the hallows. He probably saw her as direct competition for Death’s affections, which Holly was pretty sure Thanos did not want anyway. Being loved by Death meant she eagerly waited for your death, and probably might even facilitate it. And if Thanos wanted to die there were a lot easier ways to go about it.

So Thanos was targeting her and while he could no longer watch her, nor had he seen any conversations she’d had with Death, she had no idea what he had seen and what he had not. Beyond that, if he had the ability to gather dangerous creatures to throw randomly at her then she should settle in a strategic location that would allow for the fewest civilian casualties possible. It was something Holly had actually discussed with McGonagall before taking her team to the castle.

McGonagall had given her quite a look when Holly had asked if she’d be willing to take on the risk.

“My dear girl, I took on your safety when you were 11 and far more vulnerable. Hogwarts shall always be your home, you know that.”

So that was that.

They’d come to Hogwarts. They all had tasks for their time in the ancient castle. Bruce and Tony were on server and computer set up. Clint and Natasha were supposed to help teach the professors how to use their new electronics as well as offer advice on how to ensure their students didn’t abuse the privilege while also maximizing the opportunity for learning. In classes like herbology and care of magical creatures, students could use their phones to record flora and fauna as part of an assignment. In Astronomy students could use their phones to more accurately record and time cosmic events of significance.

Trelawney came up with techno-divination on her own. 

Holly thought it was rather amusing, trying to divine meaning from the smudges on your phone screen, but that was perhaps because she thought all divination at this point was just a little funny.

Steve was meant to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting along with Thor when it came to moving the large servers into place and helping move cables through the castle, but he’d been freed from his duties to help with Winter’s recovery. Loki and Holly had two jobs, recheck Hogwarts’ warding system and keep Teddy out of as much mischief as possible. They were more successful with the first than the second task, but that was mostly because Holly did so enjoy indulging Teddy.

Jarvis was meant to be helping Hogwarts with connecting to the internet and Hogwarts was meant to be helping Jarvis learn how to utilize the magic he now had.

(Hermione had a theory about where Jarvis’ magic came from that involved Holly’s presence and Holly refused to bring it up with the others right then because the last thing, she wanted was proof she could give magic to anyone if she wasn’t thinking. If it was true, then who would get magic next? Clint? Tony?)

Anyway, Hogwarts and Jarvis were pretty silent, had been since they’d gotten to the castle. Hogwarts and Jarvis would respond if you called out for them, but they seemed much more interesting in talking to each other in their own language than talking to the humans wandering around inside Hogwarts’ halls. Tony had insisted that they leave the two of them alone to do whatever they’d like until the servers were ready to be turned on.

The first step of the process was outfitting each room in the castle with electric plugs. They wouldn’t actually run on electricity but instead would allow any device powered by magic to connect to them. Students could charge their phones and the staff’s new computers would have their own designated plugs. Each professor and magic user in the castle was, given a bag of plugs and a part of the castle to go through, they would find good spots for the plugs and then magically install them.

Hermione and Tony had designed wards for the plugs to ensure that nothing that wasn’t meant to be accessing the power from these plugs would be allowed to as part of a safety feature. Installing the plugs was as simple as placing the warding spell and then attaching it to the wall.

While plugs were being put in, Tony began setting up and organizing the server room. The room had to remain cold and the magical servers needed to be placed in a specific order and pattern that only Tony really understood the reasoning behind. They figured out in some smaller tests that magical internet signal tended to…wander. Jarvis had been given a magical wifi signal to put through Avengers Tower as a test and the magical signal would vary wildly in strength based on where Jarvis was most focused.

Which resulted in Tony stumbling through the halls of the tower waving his phone around wildly, trying to get a couple of bars.

(Steve had recorded the incident and saved it for blackmail purposes later).

Tony worked around that problem by creating magical boxes, much like an internet modem, that would help tie down the signal so that even if Hogwarts was not focused on an area, it would still have signal unless Hogwarts deliberately cut it off. The boxes had to be connected to the main server room and this was done by feeding cords through the castle so that the cords could connect to every floor and area of the castle.

This resulted in Holly discovering 5 more secret passageways that hadn’t been on the marauders map and Loki running into a giant rat that had somehow managed to escape a charm class and now lived safely in the depths of the castle.

Fun was had by all really.

Teddy certainly had the most fun. During this entire process Teddy made it his goal to prank every single Avenger, he’d already gotten Loki on the first night and he had plans for the rest. Loki was quick to forgive Teddy for his prank in exchange for partnership in the pranks and that resulted in far more chaos than Hogwarts had ever seen during a summer before.

Thor got trapped in a swamp.

Tony got tricked into eating some charmed blueberries that turned him blue.

Clint was found hanging upside down wearing a ballerina’s tutu and refused to explain how that had happened.

Bruce walked into the great hall one morning only to find that every single piece of food he tried transfigured itself into mushy banana pieces once it entered his mouth.

Natasha ended up locked in a closet with Professor Malfoy.

Overall the pranks were harmless and funny enough when they happened to other people that the Avengers chose to laugh about them rather than get annoyed with Teddy’s antics. That did not mean Holly enjoyed waking up to find a Disco Ball had been enchanted to float about her head on the third morning of their stay in the castle.

The only people who were safe from pranks were Winter and Steve, Holly had pulled Teddy aside and explained that the two of them needed to be able to focus on helping Winter recover from regaining his memories and that they wouldn’t appreciate anything mischievous happening. Teddy had agreed to giving them some peace with a promise that once they were better he’d pull them into some fun mischief.

Holly did her best to help the two of them in her own way. Madam Pomphrey had described the damage in his mind as intense, his mind had been literally bisected in half, with one half a mine field of traumatizing memories where he either committed atrocities or had them done to him. The other half was damaged burnt up remnants of his life before Hydra. She and Holly had to use a lot of magic to repair the memories, carefully sanding down the painful edges Hydra had created to keep Winter’s mind from wandering and restoring lost faces and minds.

It was a job so complex and time consuming that Holly wouldn’t have been able to do it by herself. In fact, Madam Pomphrey did most of it, with Holly providing the magical power needed for the operation. Like a glorified battery that doubled as a weight to keep Winter from thrashing. She didn’t mind, she knew when to leave things to the experts.

But the operation had left Winter reeling.

By his own admission he had killed so many people, spread so much evil and pain without a hint of regret. The metal arm Hydra had given him was stained with the lives of hundreds of people that he’d directly killed and thousands more who had lost so much because of his actions. Regaining his memories had exhausted him but every time he slept he’d wake up minutes later with a scream on his lips.

Holly offered comfort and a listening ear, she tried to cheer her two friends up, but this was not the sort of problem that could be solved with some delicious treats from the kitchens. Steve seemed to be the best source of comfort for Winter, he was able to pull him out of darker memories and clarify his past where the memories were still scrambled and sore. He even managed to get Winter to laugh by retelling a story of when Steve threw up at Coney Island as a kid.

The first two days Winter was mostly confined to the Infirmary as his mind and body recovered from the magic. It was on the third day that he was let loose in the castle, with Steve at his side. He had breakfast with the entire team where everyone did their best to pretend that the bags under his eyes were fine and that he was fine. Steve and Winter both lamented on how bananas tasted truly awful in the future and Pomona Sprout was able to tell them about the banana plague that killed off most of the bananas that they would have eaten during that time.

After breakfast Holly went out to do some flying with Teddy and then, on request from McGonagall who was asking for Draco, Holly was certain, went into the Forbidden forest to get a few ingredients the ponce couldn’t manage to retrieve himself.

Granted Acromantula venom was not an easy ingredient to get.

She didn’t tell anyone what she went out to get because they’d insist on going with her and frankly sometimes, she felt a little suffocated with their care. She was literally immortal now, she could handle a hoard of giant man-eating spiders.

Holly returned to the castle expecting to see Tony and the others getting ready to try and activate the servers, that had been the plan for the afternoon. She was carrying a bag on her shoulder that was filled with bottles of venom, her hair was a mess, her robes were covered in mud, and she had a new fun gouge on her cheek that was already knitting itself closed. Her silver-y blood had dripped down the side of her face and left a metallic sheen on her cheek and neck.

She walked up the front steps when the door burst open. Tony looked like he was on the verge of murdering someone.

“Woah!” Holly said.

“Tony!” Steve yelled, Holly glanced to see Steve chasing after the inventor with Winter at his heels. Winter looked gutted.

“Get that…that thing away from me!” Tony spat, before rushing past Holly so quickly that Holly had to jump back to avoid being trampled. Tony was making a beeline for the forbidden forest, which was not necessarily the safest place for a man who wasn’t carrying his suit.

“Steve?” Holly asked, lifting a hand up to stop Steve and Winter from going any further. “What’s happened? Is everything alright?”

“I. Buck, he well…”

“I killed his parents.” Winter said. “It was a hydra job. They wanted something Howard had and I…I made it look like a car accident.”

The blood in Holly’s veins froze at Winter’s words. He sounded truly destroyed, agonized. Howard was a man Winter had known before Hydra had taken him, he had been a friend even. And Hydra had made him kill him. Not only that but Tony…

Holly and Tony had had a few conversations about their parents, Holly only knew some of the true story of Tony’s childhood. He mostly spoke about his father and their tense relationship, and Holly could easily empathize with it. But even this was too much for one man to deal with. 

“And you just told him?” Holly demanded.

“Wasn’t going to keep it a secret.” Winter said, looking away. “Won’t live in his house without him knowing that.”

Surely there were better ways to go about breaking that news. Granted, there was probably no way that would be the right way to let someone know their parents had been murdered. Holly took in a deep breath through her nose and then removed her bag. She thrust it at Steve.

“Take this to Malfoy and tell him next time he wants something from me to ask directly instead of being a big baby about it.” Holly said. “And stay here, both of you. I’ll go after Tony.”

“Holly, why are you bleeding?” Steve asked.

“No reason. Just. Stay.”

And then Holly turned and started running after Tony. Tony was far fitter than most people gave him credit for. Carrying the weight of his suit around all the time had given him a lot of endurance though which meant that he was already out of sight by the time Holly left Winter and Steve at the front steps. She ran for a few minutes, but Tony was quite well hidden. Holly cursed and removed her wand from its holster with a flick, she laid it flat on her palm and spoke.

“Point me, Tony.”

The wand spun around on her flat palm for a few seconds before stopping and pointing to the east, into the forbidden forest. Holly followed her wand into the old thick trees. It took five minutes of hiking through the woods to find her friend. She heard him before she saw him. The man was sobbing. Harsh, painful sobs that cut through her and made her eyes water. She also heard the familiar sound of gauntlet blasts and smelt the stench of burnt trees, weeds, and grass.

She put her wand away and continued towards the agonizing noises. She stepped around a thick tree and immediately had to duck down to dodge a thick ion blast to the face.

“Tony!”

“I’m not going back there, Holly!” Tony said.

“Not trying to make you do that.” She said. “But you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

“Please go away.” Tony begged, he had the gauntlet, bright and glowing pointed at her face. Which wouldn’t kill her, but it would likely hurt quite a bit. Holly took a few steps forward instead of going back.

“It’s going to be okay.” Holly said lifting up both hands.

“How can you say that?” Tony demanded. “He killed my mom.”

“Oh Tony.” Holly whispered. Tony’s arm jerked and Holly took the chance. She jumped forward, her magic propelling her a bit further than expected. She immediately pulled in Tony into a hug, who gave a pained gasped, and flinched violently. “I’m sorry, Tony. So sorry.”

“He killed my mom.”

Holly just let him cry. She held him to her chest, careful not to squeeze too hard. She let him sob into her neck, drowning his sobs into her robes. She held him when his knees failed him and let him weep and mourn for as long as he needed. She carefully rubbed his spine, tracing what she hoped were comforting patterns and tried to hum a tune that might help soothe Tony, if only a little.

The sun reached its zenith and moved across the sky, settling in the west, letting her know it was now mid to late afternoon by the time Tony had cried himself out. Slowly she lowered them both to the forest floor, her magic automatically banishing any rocks or uncomfortably placed twigs and charming the gras to feel a bit softer than it normally would. Tony still clung to her, his breath hiccupping out of him at irregular intervals.

“Tony?” She asked. “Feeling any better?”

“Not really. Shit I don’t think I’m going to be able to cry for the next decade.” He croaked out. Holly snapped her fingers and conjured a glass of cool water, she grabbed it mid-air and brought it to Tony’s lips. He took a few sips before pulling away and sighing. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Holly said letting go of the glass of water, which obediently floated away from them, waiting for her to require it again at a respectable distance.

“Don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.” Tony said, looking at the glass. “I know technically what I’m doing back at the castle is magic but…shit Holly.”

“I still get…shocked by it sometimes myself.” She admitted. “Silly being who I am but sometimes magic just awes me.”

“He killed my mom.” Tony said, obviously having decided to stop waffling around the issue. His voice was still hoarse and pained and it took everything in Holly not to cringe at the gutted sound. “All these years I blamed my dad.”

“Oh?”

“It was a car accident and dad was a drinker and I just…I hated him Holly. Hated him for taking her away. For choosing to use their vacation as an excuse to do more government work, for drinking and driving, for…”

“For leaving?”

Tony didn’t deny it. He just sighed and pulled out of Holly’s hold. He sat back and looked up at the blue sky. Holly didn’t say anything, instead she readjusted her own position and leaned her shoulder against his for support.

“My last conversation with him was a fight.” He said. “I was hungover. I was always hungover then. My mom woke me up playing the piano, she had the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard. I’d gone down for Christmas, but my dad decided to leave. Claimed it was a couples vacation but they went to the pentagon instead of the Bahamas.”

“And you fought?”

“It was stupid. I was angry with him. He brought up the whole you could be a great man if you just tried harder thing and I felt so…” Tony trailed off. “I didn’t even hug mom goodbye I was so upset.”

“Hmm.” Holly said, very aware that any wrong words would make her fragile friend break any further.

“They didn’t even make it to the airport. He killed them.”

“Hydra killed them.” Holly said. “Winter was no more than a gun in their hands.”

“It was his hands, those hands that did it. I’ve touched those hands.” Tony said. “He…that arm, I complimented him on the construction of the arm that killed my mom.”

“He doesn’t feel good about that Tony.”

“Are you seriously trying to defend him right now?”

“I’m trying to help you.” Holly said. “And focusing on Winter instead of how you feel about this isn’t good.”

“Yeah because I’m so great with my own feelings.” Tony said. “Shit Holly, I spent the next five years of my life wasted out of my mind just to stop thinking about it. I built DUM-E during that time and his code is so fucked I can’t even decipher what I was even trying to do with him.”

“He’s a lovely young man.” Holly said making Toy scoff and roll his eyes.

“I can’t go back there. I can’t look at him, at that arm, at those hands.” Tony said.

“We can stay out here as long as you need.” Holly said. “Been awhile since I’ve done camping like this, but we’ll manage.”

“You don’t have to stay.”

“Tony, you’re practically my brother. I’m staying.”

“Brother huh?” He asked.

“Yeah. You buy me stuff, you taught me how to drive, you-”

“If you think you can call what you do behind a wheel driving then you’re nuts.”

“Well. Still.” Holly said. “We’re family and I’m staying.”

“Suit yourself.” He said. “Mind magicking up something to drink. Not water.”

She didn’t bother asking him if that was a good idea. She just snapped her fingers and summoned something strong from Draco Malfoy’s personal stores. The bottles she stole were replaced with a post-it note that had an ‘I.O.U’ written on it along with her initials. She held one of the bottles out to Tony who grabbed it, popped it open, and took a very long drink. He gulped down the fiery liquid like it was going out of style and then fell back onto the grass with a defeated sigh.

“You drinking, too?” Tony asked.

“Sure.” Holly said, opening up her own bottle and take a far more moderate sip.

It didn’t take long for Tony to get drunk. The magical liquor, which based on the fancy writing was from France or at least meant to look very very French, was very strong and worked on those without magic to protect them far quicker than on anyone else. Holly carefully watched his consumption and transfigured the drink into something far less alcoholic once it was clear he’d be too far gone to notice the difference. Tony started to mumble along about his mom, about how much she loved him, even when he was a fuck-up.

He told Holly about her singing and piano skills, about all the charity work she did. About how she’d wanted a huge family but had ended up with only one disappointment of a son instead.

“You’re not a disappointment Tony.”

“Am.” He slurred.

“No.” Holly said. “If your mother is as wonderful as you believe then there is no way she didn’t see how great you are.”

She noticed then that her words were slurring and she frowned.

Was she drunk?

What had she taken from Malfoy’s stores?

Oh well.

She took another sip and looked down at Tony.

“Your mom loved you.” She said. “Wouldn’t want you talking shit about yourself.”

“Probably hates me now.” Tony muttered. “Told her awful things before she…that last time.”

“What would you want to tell her?” Holly asked. “If you could talk to her?”

“Sorry.” Tony said. “Want to say sorry.”

And Holly had an idea that only an intoxicated personification of life can have. She snapped her fingers again, her magic summoning the resurrection stone from where she’s stored it away.

When sober, she, Loki, Hermione, and Ron, had decided that the resurrection stone wouldn’t work for talking to the dead. While it seemed like the obvious first choice, the true purpose of the stone as well as its history made it clear that if Holly could actually summon the dead with it, it would either be an illusion designed to trick her into killing herself or it would be the real thing but the dead would be in extreme pain.

The Holly of the present-day however, was drunk, on a specially brewed alcohol that Draco Malfoy had made as a joke three years previously and thought using the stone would be a splendid idea.

 “Hold up.” Tony said, sitting up and then almost falling face forward again because he overcorrected his balance. “Isn’t that the…the stone thing-y? You teased those aliens in the park with it.”

“Yeah. Might be able to call your mom with it, for a chat.” She said. “Chat’s a funny word isn’t it?”

“Wait wait wait. You can just talk to dead people?” Tony asked.

“Maybe? Never tried. Would it make you feel better to try? Might not work.”

“Yeah.” He said.

“Cool. What’s her name? The full one?”

“Maria Collins Carbonell Stark.” He sang.

“Right.” Holly said. “Now. How does this thing work again?”

It took her a moment to remember, but the memory of her calling her family right before she’d killed herself at the end of the war came floating back and she was drunk enough not to worry about it. Instead she carefully flipped the stone in between her fingers three times and spoke as clearly as she could.

“Maria Collins Carbonell Stark, Please.”

At first nothing happened at all, but then something began to fizz into existence right before their eyes. A silvery figure, far too fuzzy to focus on, took shape in front of them. Within seconds it had filled out into a humanoid shape and then the details etched themselves clear. Holly didn’t recognize the woman, but Tony certainly did.

“Mom.”

With just that single word Holly realized what she’d actually just done, and her shock immediately banished the alcohol from both her and Tony’s systems. The effect was an instant sobriety that only Holly noticed because Tony was too busy reaching out for his mom.

“Oh, my baby.” She said, her voice coming in clear with just a slight wispy quality that it may not have had in life.

Tony jumped towards her and to Holly’s surprise, the spirit she’d conjured was firm enough to cradle Tony in the same way Holly had cradled him.

As it turned out, Tony had a fair few more tears to shed.

Chapter 48: It's Something Like Closure

Summary:

Tony can't stop hugging his mom. Nothing else matters and he never wants to let go.

Notes:

January sure was a year huh? I'm glad we all made it to February. Please enjoy this update.

If Tony were to describe his brain to anyone else, he’d say his brain was like a horse. A very good, expensive horse. The kind that looked like it could run forever and jump the highest barriers and do all the best tricks. A beautiful racehorse of a brain.

Except horses suck.

If a racehorse runs too long it’s lungs will just start hemorrhaging for no real reason. Horses literally evolved so that they were constantly standing on their toes and it seemed like their bones were made of glass. One injury could destroy a horse’s ability to live. Overall, they were not a species meant to do anything other than run and eat grass and they still managed to do that poorly.

All of this was to say that Tony’s brain was meant to invent things. And he could invent things quite well. But if he worked too long his brain started to twist in on itself and any amount of emotional strain lamed him like a horse’s broken leg. Ask Tony to build an Iron Man suit out of scrap? No problem. Ask him to deal with the emotional trauma of Afghanistan and Tony would tell you to go fuck yourself.

So, when faced with the undeniable fact that he was hugging his own mother.

Tony’s brain did the only thing it could do.

It shut down.

He just stayed there on his knees clinging to his mom while his brain tried and failed to reboot itself.

The ghost he was holding smelt just like his mom’s preferred perfume, like roses. Tony hadn’t smelt that smell in so long, he’d thought he’d forgotten it but he hadn’t. It stung his nose with its potency, bringing with it memory after memory of his childhood. He could feel his mom’s arms around him, one on the back of his neck playing with the hair at his nape. The other was at the small of his back pulling him close.

“Mom.” He breathed.

“Tony. Darling.” She said, her voice the same as it had been that day. Still ever so fond of him, ever so loving. “It’s alright, I’m here.”

“Mom.” Tony repeated, his brain couldn’t find any other words.

“Just let it out darling.” She soothed. “I’m not going anywhere.”

But you did. You did go somewhere. The Winter Soldier took you from me.

Tony just clung to her for a little while, crying into the hollow of her neck and wondering how this was even impossible. It was undeniably his mom. There was no way Holly would be able to fake her, she’d never met her, never even seen a picture. This was his mother. He’d only had his mom and Jarvis as support in his childhood, well them and Aunt Peggy he supposed. But none of them had ever come close to his mom. His mom had been the one to hold him after nightmares, the one to comfort him after his dad yelled, the one who understood.

He’d missed her so much and he’d hated his dad for taking her away.

It hadn’t even been him.

It had been Steve’s old friend.

It had been Hydra.

“Mom.” He tried to explain.

“I’ve missed you too baby.” She promised. “I’m so proud of you, of everything you’ve become.”

“What?” Tony asked.

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t keep watching over you?” She asked. “I wasn’t there all the time, there are some things that a young man doesn’t want his mother to see, but I was there for all the important bits.”

“You were there? For…”

“For all of it. For your inventions, for your parties, for your college graduation. I was there when you went to that horrible desert.” She said, her silvery arms pulling him closer, a protective gesture he hadn’t felt in years. The action itself brought another sob to his throat. “I watched you invent your suit and I watched you save the world, oh my beautiful baby you saved the world.”

Oh so this is what dying actually felt like. Tony had thought he’d known from the times he’d almost been drowned in Afghanistan or his time in the void, he’d thought he’d known death. But this, this was something else. The emotion in his mom’s voice was killing him, truly killing him. He couldn’t handle it, he couldn’t.

“You were so smart and brave.” She enthused. “You figured out where the portal would open up all on your own and you flew out there to confront a god by yourself just to give the rest of the team time to get there, my wonderful baby boy. My brave baby, I was so worried when you started flying with that bomb, I couldn’t believe it.”

His mom continued to mutter on about things he’d done that she’d watched him do. She spoke about watching him walk across the stage at MIT when he’d gotten his degree in engineering. She recalled his first act as CEO, his business meetings the one’s he’d been nervous about. She told him of his scientific presentations, how she’d never missed a single one. Tony’s brain, much like an overworked racehorse’s didn’t let him do anything but sit there in his mom’s ghostly lap and listen.

Eventually he managed to get his mouth to work and he cut off his mom’s description of one of the parties he’d thrown years and years ago that he’d forgotten entirely.

“Mom you died.”

“I did.” She said, then she paused for a moment before leaning down and pressing a kiss to his hair. “It was scary.”  

“Mom.”

“What? Did you think it wasn’t? Some crazy masked man shot at our car and then he…well he smashed my head. It was scary but it happened so quickly I hardly even knew what was going on until I was someplace else.”

“I’m sorry.” Tony said.

“Oh honey, that wasn’t your fault. I hear that enough from your father I don’t need it from you too.”

“Dad?”

“You think he hasn’t spent his entire time in the afterlife blaming himself for our deaths?” His mom scoffed. “Personally if I was going to be angry at anyone it’d be with Hydra and my dear sweet boy you destroyed their entire operation less than a month ago.”

“Oh.” Tony said stupidly. “I did do that didn’t I?”

“You did. I cheered you on that whole time.” She said. “And now the people who killed me can’t hurt anyone else.”

“But the Winter Soldier…”

“I don’t blame Bucky for what he did.” She said. “I did at first, because I didn’t know what Hydra had done to him but once I knew I forgave him.”

“That easy?”

“That easy.” She confirmed with a smile. She reached out and moved Tony’s face from her neck so that she could look him in the eyes. Her translucent hand caressed his cheek and it felt so real. “You’ve grown so handsome.”

“You think so?”

“I know so dear. Pepper is lucky to have you.”

“I’m lucky to have her.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Tony cracked a smile at that and his mother leaned down and pressed her forehead to his.

“I missed you.” Tony croaked out. “I miss you so damn much mom. I’m sorry for being angry with dad and you and saying all that stupid shit and I’m sorry I drink too much and that I let Obie sell weapons under the table. I’m sorry I’m such a fuck up, mom.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” She said. “The weapons business was your father’s plan, you followed his path just like he meant you to until you realized it was wrong and then you made a better choice. My baby you are perfect to me, you always have been.”

“You can’t say that.” Tony said. “You can’t.”

“I’m only telling you the truth.” His mom soothed. “You’ve been my perfect baby from day 1. I don’t know how you ever thought any differently.”

“But dad…”

“Your father is a lot of things and wrong is one of them. He knows better now sweetling I promise he does.” His mom promised. “But when have I ever given you the impression I didn’t love you fully?”

“Never.”

“Then stop doubting it.”

Around them the forest was completely silent. The breeze that moved through the leaves didn’t rustle them together. The birds had settled into their nests and the bugs had stopped their buzzing. The wood of the trees had stopped creaking and groaning, stiffening up under an unnamed force. Even the grass kept itself from crunching beneath Tony’s knees. He had completely forgotten that Holly was even there, he couldn’t hear her breaths or see her shimmering skin.

It was just him and his mom.

She was still holding his cheek so tenderly, using her thumbs to wipe away his tears. It was so gentle that it made more tears fall, but she just tutted in an aching way and cleaned his face again. She kissed his forehead after a moment as if she couldn’t stop herself from planting kisses on his face now that she could. She was all Tony could sense, she was all he wanted to feel.

“I’m sorry.” Tony tried again. “For that fight.”

“I forgive you.” She said. “You were obviously hungover and your father should know better than to push anyone when they’re like that, what with all the experience he had in that same state.”

“Oh.”

She made it sound so easy, so understandable. As if Tony hadn’t been torturing himself over those words for decades, as if they hadn’t haunted his dreams.

“I was never angry at you.” She said. “I was worried, Anthony.”

Anthony. He hated being called that because his mom had called him that and it hadn’t sounded right coming out of anyone else’s mouth but her’s. He’d even made Jarvis, the human one, stop calling him by that name after the funeral. He couldn’t handle it. Hearing it again felt like a stab to his gut.

“Mom.”

“Come here baby.” She said pulling him into a hug again. Why couldn’t he stop crying out her name? “It’s going to be okay.”

“You can’t believe that.”

“I do. I do.” She said. “It’s going to be okay because I love you darling and that won’t ever change. No matter what happens to either of us.”

Tony just hugged her tighter for a moment. They stayed there together in the perfect silence of the evening. The sky was painted purple and red, a gorgeous canvas that Tony didn’t waste the time to look at. He didn’t notice as the sun set and the moon rose up as the stars peaked down onto their peaceful silent grove. His mom held him like he was much smaller than he truly was and did her best to imprint her love into his skin with kisses and kind words. He just stayed there, almost falling into a meditative state, as he memorized the sensation of being hugged by his mom again.

“Tony.” Holly said jerking him from his state. Her voice sounded hoarse. Tony looked over to see his friend was trembling on the ground. The sparkles on her skin were burning like embers and there was opalescent sweat pouring down her face and neck. “I can’t hold it forever.”

“What?” He asked.

“I’m keeping her here and…and she can’t stay forever.” She said. “It’s taking a lot of…of effort to keep her here without pain. She’s already been here for hours. I can’t…I’m sorry I can’t do this for much longer.”

Tony looked back at his mother who looked saddened but accepting of Holly’s words. She gave Holly a grateful smile.

“Thank you for letting me come at all.” She said. “Really.”

“You can’t go.” Tony said.

“I have to sweetling, but don’t worry. I’ll still be here, watching over you.” She promised.

“Mom.”

“I love you, Anthony, I love you more than I love anything else in this life or the next.”

And suddenly the words were pouring out of him. He stumbled over himself, hugging his mom’s spirit as tightly as he could as if to ground her there while telling her over and over again how much he loved her, adored her. It felt like an instant was all he had left before his mom began to fade back to wherever she’d been pulled from. He didn’t beg for her to stay but it was a near thing.

I love you.

With her final whispered words the noise of the world returned and Tony fell back onto his butt with a stunned look on his face.

“Mom.”

He could taste roses on his tongue.

“I’m sorry Tony.” Holly gasped. “I couldn’t…”

He looked over to see that his friend was laying on the ground, unable to even hold herself up anymore. It was like a bucket of water had been dumped over his head.

“Holy shit. Holly, what happened to you?”

“Tony you were talking to your mom for hours.” Holly said. “It was…It felt like I was pulling on something heavy. At first it was fine but…I couldn’t keep it forever.”

“Hours?” Tony asked. “But it only felt like…seconds.”

It hadn’t felt long enough at all. Nothing would be. Even now part of Tony wanted to beg Holly to use that rock and pull his mom back, he needed his mom here right now. He’d just had her again, it wasn’t fair. But another look at his friend’s exhausted form and he was able to push that thought away. It crumpled up like tissue paper the longer he used his head. He couldn’t have his mom here with him forever, she was dead. She’d been dead for a long time. She wasn’t in pain or being tortured, she was in whatever heaven was actually like.

He couldn’t ask Holly to call his mom back if this was going to be the price either.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “I didn’t realize…”

“Obviously.” Holly said. “It took me over an hour to even get your attention away from your mom in the first place. I think it only happened because I was starting to lose my grip on the magic.”

Tony blinked as more and more of his senses came back online. He hadn’t even realized how deep in he’d been. Now that his mom’s spirit was farther away, he could feel how sore his knees were, the emptiness of his stomach and the dryness of his throat. He was wrung through and he hadn’t even known it.

“I’m sorry.” He repeated.

“It’s fine.” Holly said. “I didn’t know that would happen either. Did it at least help you?”

“You know? I think it did.” Tony said. He felt strangely empty now when he thought of his mom, as if all of the hurtful painful bits had been drained and burned away. Now there was nothing left to feel. He shook his head again when a voice whispered, he could feel her again if he just asked Holly because that wasn’t right. He didn’t only want to feel his mom, he didn’t want to hurt Holly. “We shouldn’t use that stone again. It’s…I think it’s messing with me.”

“You’re not going to hear any arguments from me.” Holly said. “I wouldn’t have used it at all if I hadn’t been drunk.”

“What was that stuff anyway?”

“Don’t know. Stole it from Malfoy. Ugh, I’m so sweaty.”

“It’s pretty sweat.” Tony promised.

Holly frowned and then snapped her fingers conjuring a mirror right in front of her face. She groaned at the sight of the pearlescent sweat that made liquid rainbows all over her skin. The mirror dissipated into nothing and Holly rubbed a hand over her face. The strange empty feeling was passing the longer Tony’s brain focused on other things. He had a feeling that the yearning in his gut to use the stone would never truly go away. But he’d take that yearning for the agony he’d had before it.

He’d always wanted his mom back, had the moment he’d known she was gone.

This was just a stronger wanting but it lacked the grief he’d carried with it.  

“Thank you, Holly.”

“Let me know if the stone does something weird to you.” She said.

“I want you to use it again. A part of me really, really wants it.” Tony whispered. “But it…that’s not right is it? I shouldn’t be talking to the dead.”

“That’ll pass.” She promised. “I remember when I looked into the Mirror of Erised, it showed me my parents. I couldn’t stop sneaking away to stare at it. I lost hours and hours and hours just looking at the images of my family. At first it hurt to stop looking at it, I wanted to sneak away all the time to try and find it again. It…It goes away mostly. You just have to give yourself other things to want.”

“Well. I want some food.” Tony said. “And a shower.”

“To Hogwarts then?” She asked. Tony frowned and got up. He felt immediately dizzy, he hadn’t realized how exhausted and weak he felt. He could barely stand. Holly was hardly any better as she stumbled to her feet. They reached out and held each other up for a moment.

“I don’t know if I can see Winter.” He said. “I know it’s not his fault but…”

“What’s so hard?” Holly asked. “If you need to avoid Winter for a while that’s fine. You can borrow my invisibility cloak for as long as you need but if there’s something I can do to help…”

“I…” Tony trailed off for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain it. He knew logically Hydra had done this. Hydra had made the Winter Soldier and the man who had come to him with a breaking voice to confess his sins was not that man. He knew that and yet…Something about it still hurt too much. It had been his hands that had done it even if it hadn’t been willing. “They were his hands, Holly.”

“Well technically it wasn’t his hand that killed your mom. He used that metal one to do his kills, didn’t he?”

“Oh.” Tony’s brain stalled over the car crash he kept imagining. “It wasn’t his hand.”

“No, Tony it wasn’t.”

“Holly.” Tony asked. “Do you think you could…I know this sounds terrible but I think if he got rid of that arm I could maybe…”

“Build him a new one?”

Tony blinked at that. He’d never built a prosthetic before certainly, but it wasn’t any more complicated than a suit was it?

“Yeah.” Tony said. “I just don’t want Hydra…I don’t want that hand near me. I don’t know if Winter wants me to build him a new arm. If he wants to keep it, I can’t…I can’t have him in the tower. At least not right now.”

It felt easier having something to fixate on, something to hate. He knew his mom had forgiven Bucky. He knew his mom had even thought revenge on Hydra had already been taken thanks to Pierce’s imprisonment and Hydra’s outing to the world. But Tony still felt uneasy and this could work. If he removed the thing that had killed his mom, not Bucky but that arm, then he could start seeing Bucky as separate from that.

“I’ll talk to Winter and Madam Pomphrey about it.” Holly promised. “See what he wants to do and if we can remove it without hurting him. But you have to offer to build him the arm yourself.”

That was fair. Tony would have to talk to him eventually. He nodded his acceptance and together they hobbled their way out of the Forbidden Forest. When they got back to the castle, they took an alternate route inside and Holly led Tony up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. She argued with the Fat Lady Portrait for a few minutes before the woman allowed them entry, and Holly showed Tony the stairs to the dorms. Tony didn’t argue as she followed him up to the boy’s dorms and they both collapsed onto their own twin sized beds.

Holly then called for a house elf who popped in and immediately popped out only to return minutes later with large platters of food for the both of them. Holly urged Tony to eat while she left to go clean up. Once he was alone, Tony wasn’t surprised to hear Jarvis speak out.

“Sir?” He said. “Are you well?”

“I’m not great, buddy.” Tony said. “What about you? Having fun canoodling?”

“Sir.” Jarvis said, almost offended by the suggestion. “There has been none of that since you left the castle. I’ve been trying to find you.”

“You didn’t have to stop on my account.”

“You are and you will always be my most favorite person, sir.” Jarvis said. “Nothing would keep me from helping you when you are in need.”

“Holly took care of me.” Tony said. In that moment he felt his throat clog up with emotion. It was so different from how he’d felt with his mom, this was raw. He sniffed and refused to cry. “I’m…I’m not great Jarvis but I’ll be okay. Now, can you please distract me with some dirty stories already? Come on, Jarv don’t leave me hanging.”

Jarvis gave a very put upon sigh that made Tony crack a true grin.

“If you insist sir.”

“I do.”

“Hogwarts is teaching me how to feel things sir. Feel them in the way that you do. I tasted chocolate for the first time yesterday, it rendered me quite senseless for more than an hour.”

“So you two haven’t been having computer sex.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Jarvis said. “Our essences have been…mingling.”

“Don’t be coy, Jarvis.” Tony teased. “Tell me, have you been mingling with her or has she…”

“Sir have some decorum.”

“It’s like you don’t even know me.”

“I know you enough to know you should be eating.”

Tony rolled his eyes but obediently started stuffing his face. By the time Holly returned, clean and wearing her pajamas, Tony’s plates were bare and his stomach full. Tony took a quick hot shower just to clean himself off and Hogwarts kindly summoned his clothes from the guest suite for him. Tony collapsed onto the too small bed with a tired groan. Something in his stomach ached as he remembered the phantom sensation of his mom’s arms.

“It’s going to be alright Tony.” Holly said, she was curled up in her own bed facing him.

“I know.” Tony said. “I know it will.”

Chapter 49: Peggy Carter

Summary:

Steve tells Bucky that Peggy is the last living member of their team and Bucky insists on meeting with her again.

Notes:

Hope you all enjoy this chapter. You all really liked the feels on the last one and this update should be less intense.

“So, Carter is still alive?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah, yeah she’s still quite the dame.” Steve confirmed. “She’s all that’s left though. Thought it was just me and her for…for a while now.”

“She’s got to be so old now.”

“She is. When I first got defrosted her mind wasn’t…she’d started to go you know. But Holly healed her mind up like it was nothing. Now she lives on her own in a nice house, she’s outside the city, but not too far for a visit.” Steve explained. “I try to visit at least once a week but things have been…hectic.”

“That’s one word for it, Stevie.” Bucky snorted. “It’s good to know she’s…she’s good.”

Steve nodded in agreement.

The two of them were sitting in a courtyard somewhere in the castle. Hogwarts had dozens of courtyards, when Steve had asked the castle how many she had responded with ‘as many as I want’. As far as Steve could tell there were four major courtyards that remained relatively stationary with smaller ones appearing at random based on Hogwarts’ mood and the needs of her inhabitants.

None of the magic users seem to notice or be bothered by the fact that entire sections of the castle would just disappear when they were no longer wanted, the muggles just kept getting confused by it. One day there would be a bathroom right near the Great Hall and next that bathroom had moved to the second floor. The magic users just seem to know when things had moved and to where while the rest of them had to ask for directions and help.

Jarvis was usually willing to give them directions, if he wasn’t busy with other things.

The summer sun shone down on the two soldiers and the wind shifted around them, gently pushing at Bucky’s long hair and the flowers that grew in nice designated little beds along the walls of the courtyard. The entire world felt different now to Steve. His best friend was alive.

He was quite sure that if he hadn’t been making so much headway in accepting his place in the future he would have been obsessed with Bucky, with the idea of making the man next to him look and act exactly like the man he’d known in the 40s. He’d still almost done it. It had been Loki who had pulled him aside and given him a warning.

“When I saw Holly I kept mistaking her for Ralston. I hurt her and myself trying to make her be my best friend.” Loki had told him. “Winter’s presence is a gift to you, but he can’t ever be the man you knew once. Learn to love the new version of him.”

It had been those words that had kept him from making a lot of mistakes in the first few days. His first instinct had been to pull Bucky aside and bring him back to New York so that they could both immerse themselves in the past. To reminisce about their lives together, to laugh and to cry and to mourn.

Instead after Bucky had stopped crying into his neck, Steve had asked him what he wanted to be called. Bucky had admitted that he didn’t mind it if Steve called him Bucky but that he’d prefer if everyone else called him Winter. Winter was a good safe name for his friend. It was a name that didn’t deal with the past. Yes, Hydra had named him the Winter Soldier but in practice he’d been called the Asset. On top of that there had been others like him, assets who’d willingly given up their minds for Hydra.

Bucky was able to divorce himself from that with the new name. Winter was the name Holly had given him. The name the team called him. It had been a thing that had humanized him even when all of his memories had been locked away. Sometimes he even asked Steve to call him that, on harder days. Steve probably would have hated that if he’d been less settled in the present day. If he’d still been as hung up on Peggy as he’d been for the year he’d been out of the ice before Holly had helped him.

But now Steve was better able to see that Bucky wanting to be called Winter wasn’t him denying the past it was him trying to distance himself from the parts that still hurt too much.

On good days Steve got to call him Bucky.

On good days the two of them got to talk about the things both of them had missed, two men out of time, working together to modernize. Bucky was better with modern technology, Hydra had ensured that and his knowledge of history was odd. He’d have bursts of in-depth knowledge about a specific time period and area, the information Hydra had force fed him for his missions. He could tell you everything about JFK but nothing about Elvis. So they used the internet the castle now had to look things up and watch documentaries together.

On good days they tried food together and Steve got to hear his friend laugh.

Good days were rare.

They had had maybe one or two since Bucky had gotten his memories back, almost two weeks ago. A good day a week wasn’t great but Steve had a feeling he was lucky to get even that much. Tony had done his best to avoid them both since Bucky had revealed the truth. Steve had wanted to wait, to let Bucky heal more before opening that agonizing wound up in front of Tony but Bucky had refused to listen to him. Steve hadn’t known how Tony would react, it had taken all of Steve’s strength not to react negatively when his friend had told him. He’d listened to Bucky sob out the truth about Howard and Steve had wanted to cry with him. It felt like he’d lost that friend all over again.

Steve had feared that Tony would make Bucky worse in his anger.

Not that he blamed Tony for that. He was allowed to be angry, he was. But Bucky was innocent, just like Clint and Loki were innocent and he hadn’t wanted Tony to say something that would destroy what little of his best friend remained. Tony had thankfully removed himself from the situation before things could get out of hand. Something Steve would be eternally grateful for even though he’d tried to stop the man from doing it at first.

Holly had explained to both of them that Tony needed time. That he understood logically that it wasn’t Winter’s fault but his heart was still hurting terribly.

“There is one thing that I think might help though.” She said. “Tony wanted me to ask you if you’d be willing to get rid of that arm.”

“My arm?” Bucky had asked roughly.

“The one Hydra gave you, the one you…well the one you used to kill people with.” She said gently. “I’m trying to help steer Tony into putting all of his hurt towards Hydra where it belongs and that means putting blame on that instead of you. If you’re willing to have it removed we can talk to Madam Pomphrey about it. I know it will be difficult and probably limit your movements and fighting ability, so I understand if you…”

“Yes.” Bucky said. “Yes. I want it gone.”

“Are you sure Buck?” Steve asked.

“Stevie this thing has so much…if you knew what I’d done with it, you’d be disgusted. I want it gone.”

“Alright.” Steve said. “I’ll be your left hand until we get you a new one. The future’s got all sorts of nifty prosthetics.”

And so, it had gone. Madam Pomphrey had been willing to remove the arm and so Bucky had gone into the healing halls of Hogwarts once again. This time with far less painful results. The skilled Healer was able to remove the arm in minutes, a procedure that would have taken hours if a non-magical surgeon had decided to do it. What had taken longer was healing what remained of his shoulder, repairing nerves and regrowing muscle and skin so that the missing arm pained him as little as possible.

She had also explained that if Hydra hadn’t done so much damage to Bucky trying to attach the arm, she could have regrown his arm entirely. But the injuries had been left too long and the repeated abuse Hydra had given him had left her with very little to work with.

“Your body doesn’t remember what it’s like to have the left arm.” She explained. “And my healing magic works by growing what your body remembers. I’m afraid if I tried it, I’d just rebuild that ghastly metal arm all over again since it’s what your body knows now. I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.” Bucky said. “Feels better than it ever has.”

“I imagine the thing gave you a great deal of pain.” She agreed. “How they attached it to you was nothing short of barbaric.”

So now Bucky had been living and walking around the castle armless for over a week. It had taken a lot of getting used to. At first, he hadn’t been able to tie his own shoes or tighten his belt. Steve had helped even when it had annoyed his friend. Steve had merely pointed out that he was repaying Bucky for all the times Bucky had had to take care of him when he was sick as a kid.

Tony had seen that the arm had been removed, had quietly thanked Bucky for being willing to do that and then left before any more emotions could be shared.

“I think we should visit her.”

“Huh?”

“Carter!” Bucky said. “I want to see her.”

“Are you sure?” Steve asked.

“Wouldn’t have said it otherwise.”

“Right well.” Steve said. “I don’t see why we couldn’t visit her. I’ll talk to Holly about getting us transport back to New York.”

“Good.” Bucky said. “She was my friend too you know.”

“I know Buck. Sorry for not bringing her up sooner.”

His friend nodded. He was more prone to anger than he had been before and normally Steve would want to plant his feet in the ground and fight about it, stubborn as anything, but that wasn’t what Bucky needed right then. It was hard, apologizing all the time like that. Steve had never done it like this. Even when he knew he was in the wrong he still didn’t like to say ‘I’m sorry’. He liked to do something instead to make up for the wrong he’d done, actions were better than words.

But Bucky needed words. He needed apologies and promises and just a lot of words.

So Steve gave him words.

They walked together back into the castle.

“Hogwarts?” Steve called. “Could you tell me where Holly is?”

“She’s in the Great Hall currently.”

“Great.” Steve said. “Thanks.”

Together they walked through the hallways of the castle towards the Great Hall. When they got there, they saw that Holly and Loki were having a conversation with a bunch of magic users that Steve had never met before. They were older, all varying ethnicities, and seemed to be torn between frowning at Holly and fawning over Loki. Holly was currently wearing a glamor that hid her sparkling skin and replaced the famous scar on her forehead. She looked exactly like she had when Steve had first met her

“We shouldn’t have to provide resources for the muggles.” One of the men said in a thick Spanish accent.

“I agree.” Another said. “This whole Thanos idea is absolutely ridiculous, you’re talking nonsense with this unification!”

“Please, ministers.” Loki soothed. “I know that asking this of you when it was my idea for you to hide in the first place is ridiculous, but you must believe me, if we don’t fight him together we will fail and when we do, my magical protections will fail.”

“There’s no way Thanos would be able to see through the protection spells. He won’t harm us.”

“He will.” Holly said. “He will, please you must believe me. If Thanos gets all six stones then nothing will stop him.”

“Then we should gather the stones ourselves, hide them here.” One of the wizards suggested gruffly. “No need to involve any muggles then.”

“We already have two of them.” Another added nodding eagerly. “Loki has hidden two of them in our world already. How many does this Thanos even have?”

“We don’t know.” Holly said. “But even one is far too-”

“And we have two! Thanos should be scared of us!”

“We’re not using the stones.” Holly said. “They’re dangerous! We should be finding ways to destroy them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous Lady Potter. You’ve said there’s danger coming, what better way to prepare for it then to take the stones and use them?”

“Did the Tesseract not sink Atlantis?” Loki demanded. “Even we gods in Asgard had the tesseract locked away for safety.”

“Only after you used it to create a Bifrost. Why should the magical world not have the same chance?”

Holly and Loki both looked far too haggard, as if they’d been arguing for hours and hours about this. Steve glanced over at Bucky who was glaring at the strange magic users, the governmental leaders who Holly had been complaining about.

“Why would you even want a Bifrost? You all have isolated yourselves for centuries, for your safety. A Bifrost is the opposite of isolation.”

“We don’t want a Bifrost but that is not all the tesseract can do is it? The tesseract is a source of great power, we could use that for the betterment of our world. Should we not be allowed some sort of compensation for offering aid to the muggles?”

“The compensation is not dying!” Holly shouted. “Merlin do you even hear yourselves? Since when do the good guys want compensation for doing the right thing?”

“We’re politicians, Lady Potter, not your naïve notion of the good guys.”

“So that’s it then?” holly asked. “We should only do good if it’s easy? If we get something for it? I’ll be sure to remember that the next time you all send me a message asking for help.”

The politicians began to sputter at Holly’s insinuations. Loki stepped in.

“Holly has spent her entire life serving you and your people for the greater good of this realm. I cannot thank her enough for protecting you all when I could not.” Loki said. “But you must believe me in this, if you don’t step up now, then this entire world will be lost. Yes that means working with the muggles, yes it means being more open than we ever planned on being about magic. Yes, it is a risk, but when Thanos comes, he will kill children. Innocents who might have magic and who might not. It is them I want to protect, and I need my world, the world I gave everything for, to support me in this. Holly and I are going to do as much as we can, but we are only two beings, if you all agree to help, if you call forth the mighty force of the magical world then Thanos doesn’t stand a chance. You will save not only yourselves but the universe.”

The politicians didn’t seem moved, although some of their upset faded. Steve cleared his throat awkwardly. There were over 30 magic users in the room, and they all turned to look at him as one.

“Uhm Holly? Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure!” She said a fake sweet smile on her face. “Excuse me Ministers, I’m needed elsewhere for a few moments. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

And then Holly rushed from the table they’d been arguing around and immediately pulled both men by their hands away from the doors and towards another door that hadn’t been there an hour before. The door led to a nice little sitting room, with large comfortable couches. Holly immediately sunk into one with a groan.

“I can’t do this!” She yelled into the cushions. “I’m going mad!”

“How long you’ve been arguing with those idiots?”

“Since breakfast. The IWC sent representatives from the major countries in the world to discuss what, if anything, the magical world wants to do about Thanos.” She said twisting her head so that she was no longer speaking into the couch and instead at them. “I’ve got a migraine coming on I can feel it. If Loki wasn’t there I would have started at least ten duels by now.”

“You’ll get through to them.” Steve promised.

“Yeah. Maybe.” She scoffed. “What did you two need?”

“We want to go visit Carter.” Bucky said.

“Peggy? Yeah that might be nice for you two.” She said. “I can take you tonight if you’d like? We can pop over to New York and you two can have dinner with her. London and New York are about five hours apart so we’d have to go late, around 10 or so to get there in time, but then you all could stay with her as long as you’d like.”

“You’ve got to have dinner with us too.” Steve said. “Peggy’s been insistent I bring you along.”

“I’ll go if I have the time.” She said. “But honestly I think after today I’m going to be too exhausted to bother with dinner. How about you send an email to Peggy explaining the situation and she can make sure she actually makes enough dinner for the two of you.”

Steve agreed that that was probably a smart idea. Holly did look exhausted. With the glamor on her, making her look human again, it was easy to see the bags under her eyes and the tenseness in her forehead. The stars embedded in her skin had made everything about her look ethereal. Injuries bled gold and silver and looked almost artistic. Sweat looked like an oil spill across the snow, rainbow iridescences on a perfectly white background. It was almost easy to miss signs that she was struggling, especially when Holly did everything in her power to hide them.

“Dinner’ll be good for you.” Bucky said. “You’re going too.”

“Well how can I say no to that?” Holly asked. “Peggy should be fun to meet, she’ll have funny stories to embarrass Steve about.”

“I’ve got plenty of those myself.” Bucky promised.

“Well get them ready for tonight then!” Holly said. “Let me know when Peggy wants us over there and I’ll take you. Witch’s Honor.”

And then Holly left because she didn’t want to abandon Loki for long with the politicians. Steve asked Jarvis to send a message to Peggy asking her if he could bring Holly and Bucky to dinner, he then also asked Jarvis to tack on a message explaining that Bucky was alive and how. Bucky snorted and pointed out that Steve should have sent those in the opposite order. When Peggy responded it was with what Steve could only imagine was a very put upon sigh and the sentence.

Only you Steve, only you.

Then a second, curter message,

Be there at 5 sharp.

They were there at five sharp.

Holly met them at the gates of the castle that night. She looked even more exhausted and bothered than she had earlier in the day. She told them that if they think that she looks bad then they should see Loki.

“Are you both ready?” She asked. “I’m going to do this in two jumps, first to the tower and then to Peggy’s home. I know the coordinates so I should be able to get us right to the front step.”

Bucky nodded, a little thing that’s a mix between awkward and eager. He was wearing some of Steve’s clothing, with the left sleeve of his shirt tied off so that the fabric didn’t get in the way. Strange that they’re the same size now. They never were before. Another difference Steve has to learn to love.

“Steve?”

“I’m ready.” Steve said. “Let’s go have dinner.”

They link arms with Holly and she takes them away. Steve still isn’t used to the crushing, squishing sensation of apparition. He probably never will be. He can’t tell if it’s worse or better than a portkey. Holly doesn’t let them stumble when they appear dazed and nauseous in the penthouse in the tower. She just jumps again, making Steve’s head spin even worse. They land with a pained thud right in front of Peggy’s front door.

Steve had painted that door a nice burgundy just a month ago at her request.

Holly reached out while Bucky and Steve both tried to get their bearings and rang her doorbell.

“Coming!”

The door opened a moment later to reveal Peggy Carter. She had the same eyes she always had, bright and sharp. Her hair had turned white and her face was carved with wrinkles.

“Steve Rogers.” She said. “You waited two weeks to tell me that another one of my friends was alive.”

“Uhm.”

“If Tony hadn’t thought to call me and tell me what happened I wouldn’t have known at all!” She scolded. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

“Tony called you?” Steve squeaked.

“What did he tell ya,?” Bucky asked at the same time. Peggy paused at his voice and turned to look at him. Her face turned almost syrupy.

“Barnes.” She greeted.

“Carter.”

“How many stupid things has this one done since the last time we spoke?”

“Do you have to ask?”

Tears pricked his eyes. Bucky and Peggy had had this same exact conversation about him what felt like hundreds of times. Every time they returned from a mission, Bucky and Peggy would talk smack about him and his leadership decisions. He hadn’t known how much he missed it.

“No.” Peggy said. “I don’t. But I can say this, Barnes. I’ve missed you.”

“Don’t get mushy on me Carter.”

“Too late. Come here you, give this old woman a hug.”

Bucky moved out of Holly’s grip and walked forward. Peggy immediately pulled him into a hug, forcing him to bend down to fit against her shorter frame. His one remaining arm curled around her gently. Steve pretended not to notice how Bucky shuddered.

“There you are.” She said. “It’s been far too long hasn’t it? Come on, let’s go inside and have some tea. Dinner’s ready too.”

Peggy had an air about her that she hadn’t had before the ice. It was something that came with age Steve thought. Peggy had gone through trials that Steve had learned about piecemeal from her since he’d gotten out of the ice. Helping found SHIELD and every other thing she did to protect humanity while being a single woman had not been easy. She had dealt with a lot of crap she shouldn’t have had to because of her past relationship with Steve as well as her gender. She’d overcome it all and it had tempered her even further. She was an incredibly intelligent woman who now had the patience and wisdom of age.

She was also completely terrifying.

Steve and Holly followed Peggy inside and right towards the dinner table. She refused help setting things up and gave Holly a very stern glare when she offered to just magic everything to the table.

It was the only time in Steve’s life he could remember only a stern glare getting Holly to sit still.

So, Peggy set the table and gave Bucky a fond kiss on the top of the head before sitting down.

“Now. Eat up!” She ordered. “I remember how much you two need to eat so there’s plenty.”

Steve eagerly filled his plate with food while Holly wiggled her fingers, causing her plate to float up and food to spoon itself onto her plate for her.

“I hardly think that’s polite at the dinner table.” Peggy said looking at Holly for the first time.

“Is that something you care about?” Holly asked. “I mean really, because I can feign politeness if your sensibilities need me to.”

It was like seeing two lions stare each other down. Steve and Bucky both watched as the two women looked each other dead in the eyes, the threat clear. They were both sizing the other up, deciding who would eat the other, Steve assumed. He regretted that he’d left the shield behind at Hogwarts.  

Peggy narrowed her eyes.

Holly lifted up her right eyebrow.

Steve glanced at Bucky who was looking between the two women with the same slightly frightened look on his face that Steve knew was plastered on his own face.

Peggy’s lip turned down.

Holly’s nose twitched.

The tension grew.

Peggy’s grip on her fork tightened.

Holly’s left hand rested on her butter knife.

The silence thickened.

And Peggy broke.

“Steve, why didn’t you bring this lovely young woman over sooner? I’m sure we’re going to have a delightful evening getting to know each other.”

Steve really, really doubted it.

Chapter 50: Fifteen Minutes Late With Starbucks

Summary:

Holly finally meets Peggy, even though she already knew her sort of.
And Hogwarts welcomes four new guests.

Notes:

I have been so tired for the past couple of weeks but today it's been sunny which has been nice. I can't wait for spring when things will warm up again.
Please enjoy this update and I hope everyone who is currently going through winter that you keep warm!

The thing was, well, healing someone of Alzheimer’s isn’t as simple as a wave of a wand and a snap of one’s fingers.

Holly had never actually done it before Peggy Carter.

She’d gone to a magic shop, bought a book on magical healing, and had read up on the needed spells and realized that the magic needed was a lot more complicated than she thought. It wasn’t as invasive as what Pomphrey had done to Winter but it was by no means totally invasion free. Holly had to go into Peggy’s mind and forcibly reform the brain and help replace memories that hadn’t gotten loose.

This had resulted in Holly getting a rather good idea of who Peggy Carter was. It was part of the reason she’d pushed Steve so hard to talk to her about his feelings. She knew Peggy could handle them, that she’d be gentle with Steve and help him move on from the love he felt for her.

She also knew Peggy wouldn’t take any of Steve’s shit, which was just as important.

That was why when she’d taken both men to Peggy’s home and the first thing Peggy had mentioned was that she’d had to learn about Winter from Tony, Holly knew Peggy was mad. Peggy was of the opinion that even though she was old and ‘retired’ that was no excuse for keeping her out of the loop. This was something Holly could understand completely.

So when they’d sat down, Holly had looked in Peggy’s eyes and seen the question clear as day.

Would you like to help me punish Steve?

Her answer had been just as clear.

Obviously.

The plan was silently communicated between them and elegant in its simplicity. They would merely pretend to be antagonistic towards each other for as long as it took for Steve to figure it out. First they had a really intense staring contest, then when they got bored of that they started having a conversation that was 100% veiled insults.

“You know Miss Carter you look absolutely beautiful in this light.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, there’s just so little of it.”

And insults like:

“Have you done something with your hair Miss Potter?”

“I cut it recently.”

“Well it makes you look so much younger.”

Which Holly followed up with:

“Where did you get that dress, Miss Carter?”

“Oh I got it from Nieman Marcus.”

“You’re so lucky you can shop there.” Holly said with a simper. “I’m afraid my waist is far too small for their sizes.”

And on and on it went. Steve got stiffer and stiffer the longer the insult game went on. Holly had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Winter figured it out pretty quickly. Or so it seemed. He’d calmed down a lot and no longer looked as worried about the whole situation. In all it took Steve about thirty minutes, after Holly made a ridiculous insult about Peggy’s sexual history that was far too silly to be taken seriously.

“Hey!” He said. “You guys are messing with me!”

“No, we’re not.” Peggy said primly. “We just…forgot to mention important personal information is all. Something you’re quite familiar with.”

Apparently when Steve was embarrassed the tips of his ears turned red. Holly snickered into her dinner while Winter chuckled.

“She told you, huh Steve.”

Dinner went a lot smoother after that. Peggy took it upon herself to show Steve how to tell people important information by taking the time to tell Winter what she’d done with her life, both professional and not. A lot of it was things Holly already knew, either from her healing of Peggy or from Steve. Winter didn’t know any of it and seemed to soak in the stories from one of his old friends.

A friend who knew what he’d become, and what he’d done, and didn’t seem to care.

So Peggy talked about SHIELD, about how difficult it had been to get any sort of work done at all. Her gender had kept most people from taking her seriously and many people had enjoyed insinuating that she’d only gotten as far as she had at all because she was ‘Captain America’s Girl’. She also mentioned idly that she was certain some of her difficulties came from Hydra infesting the organization and fighting against her at every turn.

She apologized for not realized they’d brought Zola along.

She also spoke of love interests, of men she’d met and dated. Peggy had had a long and complicated route through romance. As an older woman she spoke fondly of all of her paramours even though none of them had lasted, or gone as far as marriage. She didn’t seem to regret any of that either.

She told them about her sister, who had gotten married and done the ‘respectable’ thing. Then she brought out the baby pictures of her niece and of Tony.

Holly got permission to copy the most embarrassing Tony photos to save for later blackmail purposes.

Peggy had so many things to tell Bucky that they didn’t even realize how long it had been. They’d finished their dinner, Holly had used magic to clean the dishes and put them away, and they’d settled into the living room. Peggy kept talking through it all, bringing Winter up to the present in a way no one else had managed to so far. Holly herself had taken a seat on a comfortable armchair a good distance from the heater. The combination of a full stomach, the warmth, and her long exhausting day put her to sleep during the middle of a funny story about Edwin Jarvis.

She woke much later to the sensation of a blanket on her and voices quietly talking.

“I don’t understand it Peggy.”

“All politicians are like that I’m afraid.” Peggy sighed. “It’s only so sad that Holly’s the one to pay the price.”

“It’s stupid.” Winter declared. “They were arguing about it for hours, over nothing.”

“If I wasn’t retired…” Peggy trailed off.

“Peggy?”

“Well. I suppose.” She sang. “There is something I would suggest that Holly do.”

Holly scrunched her face a little and opened her eyes.

“If you’ve got a suggestion I’m all ears.” She mumbled, her voice still stuffy with sleep.

“Holly!” Steve said. “How long have you been awake?”

“Just woke up.” She said. “Did I sleep long?”

“Oh less than an hour.” Peggy soothed. “If you want to go back to sleep I do have a guest room.”

“Nah.” Holly said waving it off. “We need to get going anyway. It’s nearly morning in Scotland and we’re going to need to get some sleep before we get back to work, least I will. The politicians are coming again tomorrow.”

“Hmmm.” Peggy said. “And they’re going to expect you to argue with them again for the entire day without doing anything?”

“Yep.” Holly popped.

“Well that just won’t do.” She sniffed. “I suggest you go to them tomorrow and tell them straight away that if they don’t start behaving that you’ll have to do something drastic.”

“Drastic.”

“Go public with the information!” Peggy said slapping a wrinkled hand on her thigh. “With your and Loki’s star power it would be easy enough to spin the story to make it seem like you two are trying to save the world and the evil government is stopping you. People lap that up and its true no less. Hit those politicians where it hurts, at the polls! They want to be reelected and they won’t be if you turn the public against them. They’ll cave within the hour.”

“Peggy.” Holly said. “You’re a genius.”

“I know.”

“Truly. I am in awe.”

“Yes yes.”

“You are glorious. Divine. Resplendent.”

“You’re delirious Holly, go back to Scotland and get some sleep. Make sure they don’t see the bags under your eyes.”

Holly snorted but agreed with her orders. She was very tired. She got up and snapped her fingers, folding the blanket someone had put over her onto the chair. Steve and Winter both got up and gave Peggy hugs goodbye. Holly pretended not to hear Winter mutter his heartfelt thanks into her ear. Holly thanked Peggy herself with a hug.

“If you’re so grateful, you had better visit me again.”

“Nothing but some sort of life or death emergency would keep me away.” Holly promised. “Steve’ll set up another dinner with you soon, isn’t that right Steve?”

“Yes ma’am.” Steve blushed immediately when he realized he’d called Holly ma’am. Holly snickered and so did Peggy.

“You’ve trained him well I see.” She said. “Good. Now go on you three, no fights on the way back. You best go straight to bed and sleep, I’ll know it if you don’t!”

After one more round of hugs, they did exactly as they were bid. Holly apparated them back to Hogwarts and they went straight to the guest suite and into bed. Holly was only able to sleep for about three hours before Loki woke her up roughly telling her she had better put a glamor on her face and get down to the feasting hall. Holly groaned, desperately wishing she could stop time and take a longer nap.

But it wasn’t to be.

She got dressed in some nice formal robes, put a glamor on her face that hid the bags under eyes as well as all the evidence that she was now ‘more than human’.  Loki was waiting outside her room, tapping his foot impatiently. When she stepped out, he clicked his tongue.

“Finally come on! I’m in no mood to give these wizards any extra excuses to deny us.”

“Loki.” Holly said. “Its going to be okay.”

“Holly, you and I both know that we’re in for days if not weeks of debate.”

“Nope. This ends today.” Holly said confidently. “Trust me. I’ve got a plan.”

She did not have time to eat breakfast, but a house elf was kind enough to bring her a smoothie of some sort and a brightly colored straw to drink it with. The elf explained they’d been making similar drinks for Nat. Loki and Holly arrived, fifteen minutes late, with a breakfast drink in hand. Holly took a long, annoyingly loud sip, as they walked into the room, swallowed and then spoke.

“Sorry gentlemen for the delay.”

“Lady Potter.” The representative from America huffed. “If you’re not going to give us the respect of our time I do not see why we should bother with these discussions at all.”

Holly took another sip of her drink. She was pretty sure this thing was just a mixture of ice cream and coffee, whatever it was she loved it. Normally she wasn’t a fan of the taste of coffee, but this was nice. Was this what they sold at Starbucks? Why did people hate it then?

“Right.” She said. “Look, as…fun as yesterday was, I think it’s time we finished this.”

“So you agree that your request for magical support for the muggle world was ridiculous?”

“Nope.” Holly said before taking another sip. “What I’m saying is that you’re going to give me what I need to save the world or you’re going to regret it.”

Something in her tone clearly unnerved them. She could feel Loki practically vibrating next to her as he suppressed his mirth at her ridiculousness.

“And what do you plan to do? Threaten us?” One of the Asian representatives asked, incredulous at her gall.

“Oh no.” Holly said. “I’m only pointing out that if you won’t give me the support I need I’ll go get it somewhere else. I can’t help but wonder what the public would think about this situation.”

The politicians froze.

So did Loki but it was for an entirely different reason.

“You see, last night I was thinking to myself, just considering how people would feel if they knew that the god of magic had been put under mind control by a genocidal maniac who wanted to destroy all life in the universe. And that the same god who saved them once 400 years ago was now begging for their help to save the universe. How would they react if they knew that the savior of the wizarding world agreed with him? That the Chosen One and the Woman Who Prevailed, was asking the world to stand up and fight for the safety of their children and the entire world.” Holly continued coolly, she took another sip. “I don’t think they’d be very happy to learn what all of you have been saying.”

“Lady Potter.” One of the men said. “You can’t possibly be suggesting that-”

“I think the public deserves to know what their representatives are doing.” Holly said. “They deserve to know that their two greatest heroes are being denied aid and that their lives are in danger because of it.”

Another sip of her drink. Really she needed to find out what this was because it was the most delicious form of coffee she’d ever ingested.

“It would be so simple too.” She said. “I mean really, how many reporters these days don’t I have the contact information for? I could have interviews in all major global publications published on the front page by tomorrow with nothing more than a snap of my fingers.”

She glanced around the room at the politicians who had exhausted her to near tears the day before. She’d felt so hopeless, only agreeing to go to Peggy’s for a late dinner that night out of desperation for a distraction. Everything was totally different now. Even being lit up as bright as a star and taking down helicarriers singlehandedly didn’t make her feel as powerful as this did.

“That won’t be the end of it either. Because of course people are going to have questions. That means I’ll have radio time and follow up interviews. I’m not going to stop talking about it and the people aren’t ever going to stop listening to me. It’ll never end. It’ll just go on and on and on until I get what I need from the ICW. If that takes a nasty emergency reelection cycle then so be it.”

Because the public had the power to demand an emergency reelection. It had been a new protection put in place after the war. So much of the government had been corrupt and no one had been able to remove them from power. Now, if any elected leader was accused of corruption, and there was substantial proof of it, the public could call for an emergency reelection. It hadn’t yet needed to happen, but Holly was willing to make history yet again if it meant stopping Thanos before he killed everything and everyone.

“So, gentlemen.” Holly said before taking a very obnoxious sip of her drink. “What’ll it be?”

And Peggy was right.

They caved.

By the time Holly had finished her drink they’d agreed to providing fighting and defensive forces for the world when Thanos came. Holly grinned, thanked them for their promises, and then took a seat. After all, Holly wanted more than just their agreement, she wanted their cooperation.

Where would the magical forces be sent? What would they do? What would they not do? How long could she expect these forces to remain? Would they be under her command or someone else’s? Would these forces work with muggles? Could they be trained to avoid friendly fire with the muggle forces? Where are the forces coming from exactly?

Obviously, they didn’t have answers to those questions. Holly hadn’t expected them to. But at least now they were talking about it instead of arguing over nothing for hours at a time. By the time they stopped for lunch Holly felt as if they’d made a lot of really good headway and the anger the politicians felt at being threatened by her had mostly simmered down to a manageable level. Loki and Holly left to allow the politicians to have lunch in privacy before traveling back to their home offices to get to work. The moment they were on their own, Loki whooped and pulled her into a hug.

“We did it!” He sang. “Oh thank you Holly!”

“It wasn’t all me.” She said pulling slightly out of the hug. “I got the idea from Peggy Carter.”

“But you still did it!” Loki said. “I wasn’t going to be able to go through that for much longer! I was this close to pulling out a knife.”

“No need for that.” She said. “Come on. Let’s go get some lunch.”

They walked together to the kitchens to order some lunch together. Holly felt much lighter now that they were making progress. She would have to remember to send some flowers as a thank you to Peggy for saving her.

“Loki! Holly!” Thor called out.

“Thor?” Loki said. “What’s the matter?”

“I just got a message from mother!”

Both magic users stopped as Thor rushed over to them, carrying a roll of parchment. Thor thrust the parchment into Loki’s hands so that the god could start to read it. He then turned to Holly and began to explain.

“Mother foresaw our great battle. She spoke to the royal council about the danger that Thanos poses to the universe and Asgard has decided to involve itself.”

“Well that’s great news!” Holly said. “We could always use more support….right?”

Loki looked sick.

“Thor no. Not them. Anyone but them.”

“They volunteered!” Thor said. “Besides we’ve fought as a team for centuries, who better to send?”

“Anyone! Literally anyone!” Loki shouted. “You know how those four treated me! Do you honestly think they’re going to be any better now? After everything that’s happened?”

“They’re your friends.”

“No they’re your friends! Holly is my friend, not them. They didn’t speak up for me at my trial. They don’t like me. They never did!” Loki shouted.

Holly frowned and grabbed at the parchment Loki was crushing in his grip. She freed it and then tried to read it herself. Of course, it was in runes, alien runes at that, but she was confident in her ability as Life to discern the meaning. It took a bit of concentration but eventually the runes wiggled around on the page and started to look like proper English.

Thor,

You must warn your brother, within three hours of receiving this message, the Warriors Three and the Lady Sif will be arriving to help shore up your defenses against the Mad Titan. I had a great vision of the destruction Thanos will bring if not stopped and I spoke to the council about sending troops to support you and your team in your battle for the universe. The council agreed.

Your friends volunteered, Sif especially seems excited to go to earth and aid you. I doubt Loki will enjoy being surprised by their presence.

Support him.

-Your mother, Queen of Asgard.

“Oh.” Holly said.

The two gods were still arguing with each other. Holly couldn’t blame them but she did want them to stop.

“Thor.” She cut in, making them both quiet. “Loki and I have had a long day doing politics and I want lunch and a nap. When your friends get here, greet them and bring them inside.”

Loki looked betrayed but Holly reached out and took his hand.

“I am on your side Loki. We’re letting them help because the more support we have the better. But you are always going to be my friend first over them.” She promised. “Thor is going to run interference so that you can have as much or as little interaction with them as you want. Does that sound okay?”

Loki gripped her hand tightly and nodded.

“Yes. Yes, that could work.”

“Good.” She said. “Thor, I understand that you want Loki to talk to your friends so that they can begin to reconcile, but if that happens it’s going to be on Loki’s time. Can you keep your friends away until Loki asks to speak with them?”

“I can do that.” Thor promised.

“Great.” She said. “Then that’s solved. Now. Come on, let’s go have lunch. Please.”

“As My Starlight wishes.”

She punched him in the arm for the joking tone and the ridiculous nickname. They had a nice filling lunch together while Thor went to notify Minerva about the new guests as well as ask Hogwarts to prepare some extra rooms. Just as Holly was debating trying to finagle her way into a nap or trying to spend more time with Teddy, now that the politicians were gone, the Bifrost arrived.

“They’re here.” Holly said to Loki. “I can feel the Bifrost landing down.”

“Let’s go.” Loki said.

“What? Where?”

“We’ll greet them and then I can avoid them for the rest of the week.” Loki said. “If I don’t greet them then they’ll complain, and Thor doesn’t deserve to listen to their whining.”

Holly smiled and let Loki lead her to the front steps. Thor and some of the other Avengers were there. Teddy was sitting on Steve’s shoulders and looking quite pleased by that development. At the bottom of the stairs were the promised Asgardian warriors. Holly had met Fandral in Asgard, but she couldn’t really remember any of the others. When they stepped outside, the dark-haired woman, Sif she assumed, who had been speaking to Thor stopped at the sight of her.

A huge smile broke out on her face and Holly swallowed back her confusion.

“Lady Holly.” She breathed. “It’s wonderful to see you! I’ve thought much of you since we last spoke.”

When they last spoke?

Just as Holly was going to open her mouth and tell her that she didn’t remember her, it slapped her in the face.

Have you never wondered about it? What it would be like to be with someone who understood you? Why strive for a man who cannot see your glory in its fullest when there are so many others who would worship you?

Well shit.

Chapter 51: Sif knows what she wants...

Summary:

...but not what she needs.

Notes:

I've come down with the flu. I'm coughing something awful and I've got laryngitis. Writing this update was a struggle regardless. I think this is the third draft of it? It was difficult to write and I hope this version is the winner.
Let me know what you think! <3

“Lady Holly.” She breathed. “It’s wonderful to see you! I’ve thought much of you since we last spoke.”

Holly was blinking at her, struck almost dumb by her presence. She waited patiently as the woman cleared he throat and spoke.

“Right. The feast.” She said giving Sif a small smile. “It feels like it’s been a lifetime since then.”

“Been on many adventures then?”

“Far too many.” Holly said. “But that’s just my life.”

“Don’t I know it.” Loki snorted, standing a bit closer to Holly as if to ward her from Sif’s presence.

Sif frowned. She didn’t like Loki getting in her way. Letting people impede her from what she wanted wasn’t her style, it never had been.

Sif Karlidottir had been born to two very proud parents. Her father, Karli and her mother, Gyrid had wished for a child and been blessed with one with hair the color of wheat. Which was considered fortuitous since her father was a farmer. That was why she’d been named Sif after all, as homage to the color of a ripe field ready for harvest. As a child all she had known was the farmland her parents owned. She had lived amongst the cows and livestock learning to care for them and be cared for in return. She had known how to plant seeds before she’d known how to walk.

Her father had been a warrior, a grand warrior, fighting for Odin and Asgard for most of his youth. When Odin had declared peace in the realm, her father had been left without any prospects. Queen Frigga, in all her generosity, had shaped her father’s sword into a plow, given him a plot of land to call his own, and had then kissed his brow and handed him a bag of seed to begin.

It was while learning to farm, a skill that one did not learn as a warrior, that her father had met her mother. Her mother had taken pity on Karli and taught him how to till the land and how to water and protect the fledging sprouts. Gyrid’s family had come to Karli’s land and helped raise his barn for him, they welcomed him. And when Karli’s first harvest had grown in, strong and vibrant, he’d had no choice but to confess his love and marry Gyrid immediately.

Karli had often told Sif as a young girl that he’d been taught to be a warrior but he’d been born to be a farmer. He’d told her so often because Sif kept asking him about his days as a warrior, even at a mere three centuries old he could see she had a bit of a fixation.

“There is nothing more satisfying than seeing something grow, my dear one, nothing.” Her father had said, running a hand through her wheat colored hair. “When I spoke with the All Mother, I wanted to beg her to help me regain my position as a warrior, but she was far wiser than I and she knew where I was meant to be.”

What her father had hoped Sif would gain from that nugget of wisdom was that her dreams of being a warrior were not all they were cracked up to be and that often the thing we believe we want is not what will make us happy.

That was not what Sif learnt.

What she learnt was that Queen Frigga knew her destiny and would make it come true if she asked.

Sif had known even from a young age what she was meant to be. She was meant to weild a sword, to stand up and fight against evil. She was certain she was born a Valkyrie. The adults had told her that the Valkyrie were no more but Sif hadn’t believed them. Her most common childhood daydream that she had while milking the cows, was imagining the Valkyrie coming to rescue her. They’d realized they’d left one of their own behind and came back to take her away and train her so that she could go on all their adventures.

The day she stopped waiting for the Valkyrie to come and rescue her was the day she began the path to womanhood. She’d woken up one morning, bedding stained red, and she’d known. This was the end. She was now of age to be apprenticed out and their town’s seamstress had been eyeing Sif for ages. If she went downstairs and told her mother about what had happened, then her life would be set in stone. She would train and become a seamstress, marry a boring man who knew nothing of fun or adventure and she’d grow old and die.

So, Sif had done what any adolescent girl would do.

She’d hidden her stained bedding from sight. Then she’d written a desperate letter to the Queen of Asgard. She explained that she wanted nothing more than to be warrior, to defend Asgard from evil. She knew she was a girl but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight, that she couldn’t be just as good as any boy! Please wouldn’t they let her apprentice at the palace? Let her prove herself, like her father had!

She’d spent her hard earned allowance to send the letter and then she had prayed for deliverance.

And just like her father had mistakenly taught her, it came.

Queen Frigga wrote back telling her that her pleas had moved her greatly and that she had spoken to her husband about allowing a girl to apprentice. She wrote to Sif and explained that Odin had not been eager to allow it, but that one of the princes had argued for Sif and gotten her, her apprenticeship. If her parents agreed, she could move to the palace immediately for training. She’d shown the letter immediately to her parents.

Her mother had sighed and told her father that they shouldn’t be surprised.

“I mean really Karli, she’s wanted this since she was a babe. There was no way she’d ever have been happy as a seamstress!”

“Are you sure this is what you want, my dear one?” Her father had asked.

“Yes.” Sif said. “More than anything.”

“Then you have my blessing.”

Her father’s lesson had stuck with her for the rest of her life. Through her training, through the sexism she faced, through her hair being cruelly magically changed to the color of mud, through the highs and lows of her adolescence and young adulthood. Frigga had led her to the royal palace, had given her her place. Frigga’s mercy had led her to Thor and the Warrior’s Three, her greatest friends.

And Frigga had extended that mercy to her again, giving her the opportunity to chase after the mortal that had defeated Odin in a breathtaking show of power and had looked at Sif as if she mattered. No man had ever looked at Sif like that before.

Well no that wasn’t true.

Men had looked at Sif that way, like they wanted to hold her, consume her.

But the mortal’s look had still been different, or at least how Sif had reacted to it had been. She hadn’t been annoyed by it, it hadn’t given her a slimy unpleasant feeling. Before this point she had assumed that other men’s attraction to her had been distasteful because her heart belonged to Thor. But ever since that mortal, mortal woman, had flirted with her Sif had had to make several very uncomfortable realizations.

Firstly, was that that woman had made her feel things.

Things that no man had ever been able to make her feel.

Not even Thor.

And Sif wanted to feel that way again.

And now, here on earth, Loki stood there, like a shield, slightly blocking her view of Holly. She gave the prince a frown. Just because Loki had been pardoned for his crimes didn’t mean Sif was going to forget what he’d done, nor was she going to forgive. He and she had long been at odds with each other and she doubted that would ever change.

She did not like Loki. Never had. Not from the first moment they met. Loki had been the second prince, close to her age, only a century older. He should have been in training with her but he wasn’t. Apparently Loki considered himself too good for warrior training, he’d chosen to give up an opportunity that anyone else would have given their left arm for so that he could read dusty books in the library and make green fire spout out of his hands.

While Sif had had to crawl and fight for every bit of success in the male dominated world she’d found herself in, Loki had thrown everything she wanted away as if it was less than nothing.

What man in their right mind would choose magic over the blade?

Even when Loki did use a weapon it was throwing knives, weak and womanly and disappointing.

Sif had told Loki so when they’d first met. The prince had gone to her, asked to speak with her and then asked about how her training was going. She’d heard the dismissiveness in his voice, obviously he thought she was wasting her time trying to be a warrior. So Sif had been dismissive right back, telling him that a prince who wasn’t even good enough to be in warrior training couldn’t possibly understand how things were going.

After that argument, Loki had used magic to permanently dye her hair and Sif had decided that Loki was the worst. Even after she became friends with Thor and the others and was forced to be on the same team as Loki she still didn’t like or trust him. No matter what Thor tried.

“Loki.” She greeted. “We barely spoke at the feast.”

Before you stole Holly away.

“Well. We were all needed back on earth.” He sniffed. “I trust Frigga explained why?”

“She did.” Fandral cut in, trying to defuse the tension between the two of them. “And we’re happy to help, in anyway you need.”

“We appreciate that.” Holly said delicately. “Seriously. Thank you four for coming. Thor speaks highly of you.”

“Yes.” Loki said. “You will be a good addition.”

He didn’t sound like he believed that. It took Sif everything she had not to snort.

“Now.” Holly said. “I imagine Thor is ready to give you four a tour, Loki and I’ve got to get back to work on some magical studies. So…”

“Right.” Thor said. “Come on! I’ll show you the best parts of this lovely castle!”

“Lady Holly.” Sif said. “Are you sure that you can’t spare some time to speak with me now?”

“I…well…” Holly glanced at Loki and then at her. She sighed for a mere moment and then reached out and took Loki’s hand, she squeezed it once and then looked back at her. “I don’t think putting that off will do either of us any good.”

Sif nodded. That was a good response. She could see it now. The two of them practicing their sword skills together, braiding one another’s hair and doing all of the things that Holly had spoken of at the feast. She could imagine being worshipped, being understood, being desired and desiring in return.

Loki shot Holly a look and she gave him one right back that made him roll his eyes.

“I’ll meet you in the library, after.” She promised. Sif doubted that would be the case. If she had her way they’d be too tied up in each other to bother with Loki of all people. “Come on Lady Sif, there’s a lovely path around the lake we can walk together.”

Sif grinned and stepped forward. She held out her arm for the woman to take, which Holly did after a moment of hesitation. Sif helped lead her down the steps and pulled her to her side. It felt good, having the woman there. She was even more beautiful than Sif recalled from the feast. The sun shone down on her perfect face, lighting up her smooth complexion and making her eyes sparkle like jewels. Sif had never felt so strong, so powerful, as she did with Holly by her side looking so dainty and small.

She knew Holly didn’t require her protection, which made it all the better. She had seen Holly’s power first hand when the woman had saved Asgard from Odin’s evil spear. She could feel a hint of Holly’s magic on her skin, like a warm tingly breeze and smiled.

“Lead the way, Lady Holly.” She said.

“Bye.” Holly said waving a hand at the others. Holly then turned and began to walk, she let her hand slip from Sif’s forearm which was a bit disappointing. Sif ignored that, mortals might not walk together like that, arm in arm. Sif would need to learn how to show affection in the way mortals liked if this was to work.

She was willing to learn.

They walked together for a time, just getting comfortably out of ear shot. Holly led her along the grounds of the castle, sunlight glinting off of her beautiful dark hair. Occasionally the woman would point out an interesting sight to see and Sif would politely look and remark on it. It was a very different woman walking next to her. She was more reserved, less forward in her affections. Sif wondered why.

“Lady Holly.” She said as the neared the lake.

“Lady Sif.” She said. “I suppose you want an…explanation?”

“I only wish to continue our conversation you were suggesting things that I…well at the time I didn’t realize I was amenable to them but I’ve come to know that I am now.”

“Well that’s…” And Holly looked as if Sif had struck her.

It was true that the first days after meeting Holly had Sif walking around as if in a daze. All of Asgard was like that though. Their king had had his ultimate weapon destroyed, the lords and ladies were regaining lost political power and someone had to clean up the rubble of the arena. Everyone was marveling over the great heroes of earth, Holly especially. Sif had mostly ignored the politics of it all in favor of trying to figure out the emotions Holly had left behind with her.

Sif hadn’t understood. Not truly. She’d believed herself to be in love with Thor. And that had made sense. She was a warrior and so was he. He was the most desired man in Asgard, why wouldn’t Sif want him?

Except apparently, she didn’t.

She didn’t want Thor.

She had gone into a career that had been so lacking in women, everyone had called her names, insinuated that she wasn’t much of a woman using various derogatory terms. Sif had wanted to be seen as a woman, as a woman warrior like the Valkyrie of old. And what was more womanly than being loved by a man? Thor especially. If she and Thor were together, who could doubt her qualifications as a woman then?

Realizing her long centuries of pining after Thor hadn’t been built on true desire had shaken her. Truly shaken her. She felt almost naked as she wandered Asgard’s royal palace and considered who she was and what she truly wanted. She hadn’t asked Frigga to go to earth until she was sure she knew. And she knew it now. She did not need Thor, or the illusion of him, any longer.

“That’s something Sif.” Holly said, breaking up Sif’s thoughts again. “Look. I need to know, did you ever see Loki magically exhaust himself?”

“Yes.” Sif said frowning her eyebrows furrowing at the random subject change. “He would need to sleep for many days.”

“Exactly! So, after I fought Odin, I needed to do the same. I used a lot of energy destroying that spear. If Frigga hadn’t invited me to the feast I would have been sleeping on a couch somewhere dead to the world.”

“I don’t understand.” Sif said. “If you’d exhausted yourself, you wouldn’t have been…conscious.”

“I sort of wasn’t.” Holly said her cheeks reddening slightly. “Loki has a potion he keeps around for when he absolutely has to stay awake longer after exhausting himself. I didn’t want to offend Asgard or Frigga by not coming to the feast so Loki gave me some of his potion. Except, we didn’t realize how a potion made for a god would effect a human.”

Sif’s heart dropped into her stomach.

“You were drugged. Loki drugged you.”

“Not intentionally!” Holly said. “And he had to pay for it for the rest of the night. He spent that entire feast corralling me and making sure I didn’t do anything embarrassing.”

“That’s why he interrupted us.” Sif said, her voice dull. “Because you don’t actually like women and you were just…”

“I do like women.” Holly interrupted. “I like women and men and people who aren’t really one or the other. And you are a very beautiful, attractive woman. None of that was a lie.”

“So what then?” Sif asked, hope blooming in her heart.

“I would have never spoken to you like that without that potion. I’m not that bold normally, not with things like that.” Holly said.

They were standing together on the edge of a lake. The water lapped against its shore in a gentle rhythm. The wind made ripples along the surface of it and sent the scent of water and soil into Sif’s nose. It reminded her of her home in Asgard, of her father’s farm.

“I still don’t understand. If you find me attractive then what is the problem? I can be bold enough for both of us.”

Holly’s cheeks turned even redder and she blustered a bit.

“I can’t believe I have to say this.” Holly said. “What even is my life.”

“Holly?”

“Sif, I can’t be with you.”

“What?” Sif demanded. “Is it Loki? Whatever he’s told you isn’t true!”

She laughed a little delirious and stepped back from Sif.

“No.  It’s got nothing to do with him and everything to do with me. I can’t be with someone who sees magic as you do.”

“I don’t…you’re a woman. Of course, you can use magic.”

Holly shook her head, sending some of her hair tumbling over onto her face. She used her hand to push it back and explained.

“After my parents were murdered when I was a baby, I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle, they hated magic. Thought that people who used it were freaks, lying dishonest unnatural freaks.” She said. “All the things you’ve spent centuries believing about Loki, they believed about me and every other magic user. They bullied me relentlessly, trying to get me to conform to what they thought I should be. I was locked in a closet beneath the stairs of my own home as a child being punished for having a gift I didn’t even understand.”

“Holly.”

“Let me finish.” She said and Sif nodded.

“I had to unlearn all the things they said about me. I had to learn to love myself.” She said. “I’m still not very good at it. But I’m in a much better place. I have so many men in my life that use magic, Loki is just the most recent. Not only would spending time with you, knowing the beliefs you hold, damage me, but it will damage my family. I won’t let you harm the people I love for being themselves.”

She felt frozen stiff as Holly continued.

“I mean for the norn’s sake! I have a godson, a little mortal boy whose parents entrusted me to care for after their deaths.” She said. “He’s a shapeshifter like Loki, and he’s got brilliant magic. I’m as close to a mother as he’s ever had and if I brought you around as my…my partner you’d make him feel ashamed of himself. Just like my guardians did me.”

“I wouldn’t.” Sif said.

“You would!” She shouted. “You glared at Loki today. He hadn’t done a thing to you, he just showed up and you considered that objectionable. If you’re going to treat Loki like that how will you treat every other magic user here?”

“That’s different! Loki and I have a history.”

“You told me just moments ago that it was fine for me to use magic because I’m a woman. That’s got nothing to do with Loki and everything to do with you.” Holly said coolly enough to remind Sif of Holly’s cutting words to Odin at Loki’s trial. “I can’t have those kinds of beliefs spouted where they can harm the people I love, so I can’t be with you.”

“But-”

“No.” Holly said. “No buts or bargains. Your beliefs, Asgard’s beliefs, on what makes a man and what makes a woman are harmful. Didn’t they harm you? Didn’t Asgard spend centuries attacking you for daring to be yourself?”

“Yes.” Sif said. “Yes, they did.”

“And you turned the same weapon used on you to other people.” Holly said. “Onto targets you deemed more appropriate.”

“I didn’t…”

“You did.” Holly said, almost gently. She reached out and took Sif’s hands. “I told you that your hands were beautiful and I didn’t lie. These are lovely hands. The callouses, the strength in them…But I also told you that I wanted the company of people who are brave and strong and true.”

“I am.” Sif said. “Brave.”

“Perhaps.” She said, letting Sif’s hand go. “But tell me what’s braver. Standing up and supporting someone who is going against society to be true to themselves or making fun of them so that you’re less of a target. What’s stronger. Defending the honor of someone who needs it, or belittling someone different so that you seem better in comparison. What’s truer Sif? You or Loki? Who lied more to the world?”

Sif didn’t even know what to say to that. She didn’t. She listened as Holly apologized to her, for flirting while under the influence of a potion and making her feel things when those feelings can’t go anywhere. She listened as Holly told her that she was free to go back to Asgard without shame or to stay and help support Thor and the rest.

Sif couldn’t say a single thing as she watched Holly walk away.

She just stood there reeling.

The All-Mother had sent her to earth, Sif had thought that was because it was where Holly was. Sif wanted Holly just like she’d wanted to be a warrior. The All-Mother had granted her wish a second time.

Finally, finally Sif understood her father’s words.

When I spoke with the All Mother, I wanted to beg her to help me regain my position as a warrior, but she was far wiser than I and she knew where I was meant to be.

Sif was exactly where she was meant to be.

And now she had no idea what to do.

Chapter 52: Children of Superheroes

Summary:

Teddy begs Clint to let him go to the farm. He's never been in a house run by electricity before, it would be so cool!

Notes:

That moment when you accidentally write a 5k word update despite being sick in bed all week.

“Please. Please. Please. Please.”

“Woah! Kid slow down!” Clint said holding his up his hands to stall the torrent of ‘please’ that was flooding out of Teddy’s mouth.

“I’ll tell everyone you’re my favorite Avenger.” He said seriously, his eyes wide and pleading.

“You haven’t even told me what you’re asking for!”

“Holly said you have a farm!”

“Uhh.”

“And a muggle house! I’ve never been to a muggle house before, cause when I was smaller I couldn’t control my shapeshifting well enough and plus Holly didn’t know many muggles like she does now. I’ve always wanted to be in a house run by the ‘tricity.”

Teddy had practically bum rushed Clint when he’d walked into the feasting hall for breakfast. Clint was still a bit too tired to understand exactly what was going on. Thankfully Holly had made it to the two of them and explained.

“I was telling everyone at the table that you and I would be disappearing come the afternoon back to the farm.”

“Right.” Clint said. Holly and him hadn’t been back to the farm in a while, mostly because they’d been busy in the past few weeks almost dying. Then there had been the retreat to the billionaire beach, done in an attempt to get the world to stop going insane. Clint had called Laura just the night before to set up another visit/lesson for Lila.

“Holly ask him.” Teddy said pulling on the skirt of Holly’s robes beseechingly.  

“Teddy here.” Holly said. “Would like to know if you would be comfortable letting him come along for the visit.”

Clint was immediately hit with images of the pranks, of the chaos, that Teddy brought with him everywhere he went.

He didn’t want that in his home.

“Please?” Teddy begged.

“It might be nice.” Holly said. “For Lila.”

“Why?” Clint asked.

“So, she can meet a magic user her age? I’m afraid of giving the girl a complex, since I’m the only one she’s ever met and I’m…well I’m a bit advanced.”

“But…” Clint said motioning a little at Teddy.

“I promise to behave.” Teddy said. “No pranks for the whole time.”

And Clint could tell this was a losing battle. Holly had already gotten him by bringing up that it would be good for Lila. Because it would be good. Teddy was an unapologetically magical child. Magic was all he knew, all he was. His confidence, his joy in it, was something Clint wanted for his own kid. He thought about all the magical things that had invaded his farm house and how bright magic made his daughter. This was just the next logical step.

“Fine.” Clint said. “But no pranks.”

“Yes!” Teddy said. “You won’t regret this! I promise.”

Clint had a feeling he definitely would. Holly gave him a grin as if reading his mind. She gave his arm a conciliatory pat. Clint rolled his eyes in response and then made his way to the table to sit down for breakfast. On the far end of the table, Tony was talking to the headmistress about the next phase of the internet installation, which was connecting Hogwarts’ closed system to the world. They’d set up the protections and now it was merely time to teach Hogwarts internet safety.

Bruce was talking to Draco Malfoy and Loki about his werewolf research. Both magic users were listening, nodding along and occasionally adding on suggestions far too complicated for Clint to keep up with. Steve and Winter were kindly acting as the buffer space between Loki and the Asgardian visitors. Holly sat down on the other end with Nat and Teddy, which is where Clint settled.

“So.” Teddy said. “Do you have cows?”

“No.” Clint said. “We live on a farm, our neighbor rented us the land, he has the cows.”

“But there are cows.”

“Yes there are cows.”

“And chickens? I’ve only ever seen conjured chickens. Think I’d like to see a real muggle one.”

“There are chickens.”

Teddy wiggled excitedly and it made Clint quirk a smile.

“So, kid.” Clint said. “You have a lot of friends? You’ve not really mentioned anyone.”

“Not yet.” Teddy said with a surety. “I’m waiting.”

“Waiting.”

“Mhmm.” Teddy said while sipping his morning apple juice. “For my friend to show up. Just like they did for Holly.”

Holly smiled a little at that and Clint thought about the incredibly, insanely strong friendship Holly had with Ron and Hermione. If that was Teddy’s first example of what friendship was, no wonder he didn’t have any yet.

“Sometimes friendships take time to build.” Clint began to say.

“Duh. Holly and Aunt Hermione weren’t friends right away, they had to fight a troll first.” Teddy said. “I’m prepared to do that too.”

Natasha snorted into her oatmeal while Holly rolled her eyes.

“Hopefully that won’t be necessary.” Holly said. “Because if you are ever in the same area as a troll you are supposed to…”

“Call you, I know.” Teddy said dutifully. “I’m just saying, my best friend might need a bit of convincing and that’s fine. I’ll know ‘em when I see ‘em.”

That was adorable. Clint had to know more.

“Okay how are you going to know then? That they’re your best friend in the making.”

“I just will.” Teddy said in a tone that implied Clint’s question had been very stupid.

“Do you have like a list of things you want in a best friend?”

“No. That’d be stupid.” Teddy said. “Friends aren’t Christmas lists.”

“But then how-”

“You’re overthinking this.” Teddy said in the same tone that Hermione Granger used whenever she spoke to Tony about magic. Clint was about 90% sure that was where Teddy had learnt that turn of phrase. “It’s very simple. Friendship is something you know with your heart. I’ve been waiting for years to find my best friend and I know that whoever they are, they’ll be exactly what I need and they’ll be here when I need ‘em. Just like Holly. And until then, I can just be friendly to everyone, for pranks and things.”

“Right.” Clint said. “Sorry for overthinking.”

“It’s fine, you’re an adult. They’re silly sometimes.”

Clint saw the overly fond look Holly was sending the top of Teddy’s head and decided not to push Teddy any further on the friend thing. It was probably a magic thing. Clint ordered his food and started to eat his freshly scrambled eggs. Natasha started talking to Clint and Holly about coming along for the day, she wanted to see Laura. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sif looking at Holly, something like yearning in her eyes as she listlessly moved her fork through her food.

When breakfast ended, Clint got up, he’d planned on doing some more exploring on the castle in an attempt to get some cool magic stories to share with his kids. It was still way early in the morning on the farm, his family wouldn’t be awake until the afternoon in Scotland, so they’d have to wait to travel there till then. Before Clint could leave he was stopped by Tony’s voice.

“Hey. Winter.”

Everyone froze. Even the professors at Hogwarts who didn’t know them that well. They knew about the drama, everyone in the castle did, and they were just as invested in it.

Winter looked up warily from his seat across from Steve.

“I um…I’m going to be going to New York soon, to help Hogwarts connect to the internet.” Tony said, he was holding himself stiffly. His hands were fisted at his sides in a way that made it clear he was trying to make sure they didn’t shake or wave around. “Since I’m going to be in my lab, maybe you want to talk about…about getting you a new prosthetic.”

“What?” Winter asked.

“Magic can’t regrow your arm and…well I could build you something.” Tony said. “If you wanted. No pressure. Just a thought! It’s just… you’ve only got the one hand, and you got rid of the other one cause of…look obviously this was a dumb idea, forget I even-”

“Yes.” Winter said. “I’d like an arm, if you’re willing to build me one. I trust you.”

“Oh.” Tony said, blinking in shock. He swallowed a bit and then cleared his throat. “Right yeah. No. I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t willing.”

“Okay.” Winter said.

“Great!” Tony said clapping his hands together once. “We can go talk? About what you need for the arm. Design preferences, you know and whatever else. Then I can take some measurements and take them back to the tower to get started on a prototype.”

“Right now?” Winter asked, a bit shocked.

“No time like the present.”

Winter nodded and got up, he patted Steve on his shoulder telling him to stay. Steve nodded and watched the two men walk awkwardly out of the feasting hall. Once the door shut behind them, Holly spoke.

“Holy shit.” She said.

“Language.” Teddy said.

And with that everyone started to giggle, the tension bursting like a soap bubble. The only ones who didn’t understand were the new asgardians who were laughing politely, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. When the laughter died down, Thor spoke.

“Steve! Would you like to join my friends and I in some Asgardian wrestling? It has been too long since I’ve had the joy of doing so, and I think you would find it quite the challenge.”

Thor had been doing this since his friends had gotten there. This being ‘find activities everyday for his friends that keep them very far from Loki’. Steve was today’s victim. Clint had been yesterday’s, he’d had an archery contest with the Asgardians. Steve agreed to learn how to wrestle the Asgardian way and soon everyone was splitting off to do whatever it was they’d wanted to do that day.

Afternoon came around quicker than Clint thought it would. He met Nat, Teddy and Holly on the steps of the castle, very excited to tell his kids about the interesting magic portrait he spoke to. They walked to the gates of the school, where they could safely apparate to New York. In the distance Clint saw Steve in the center of a dirt circle wrestling with Fandral, pushing the blonde Asgardian’s face into the dirt while Thor cheered loudly.

“At least they’re having fun.” Nat noted.

“Better this than whatever fight would break out between them and Loki.”

“Those would have been entertaining for us.”

“Too true.”

“Behave you two.” Holly said. “Now. Are we ready to go? I’ll take us to the tower first and then we’ll do the second jump to the farm.”

“We’re ready.” Clint said.

“Great. Everyone link arms together and hold tight, side-a-long can feel a bit nauseating.”

This was something Clint knew well, he’d been going to his home more frequently than ever before because of Holly’s ability to teleport, and he’d accepted the discomfort for the benefit of giving his wife kisses and hugging his children more often. So Clint linked his arm through Holly’s, Teddy hugged Holly around the waist and Nat took Holly’s other arm. Two disorienting hops later they were in the backyard of the farm.

“DADDY!” Cooper shouted.

Clint immediately fell to his knees, partially due to the magic of teleportation taking away his balance, but mostly because he was so excited to hug his son. His son jumped into his arms and flung himself around Clint’s neck.

“Hey buddy!” Clint said. “Guess who I brought for a visit?”

“Aunty Nat!”

Clint let go of his wiggling son so that he could hug his favorite ginger. Holly and Teddy moved out of the way, Holly pulling her godson forward towards the house. Laura and Lila were making their way out to the porch from the kitchen.

“Hello Laura!” Holly greeted.

“Holly. And who is this handsome young man?” His wife asked.

“Laura, this is Teddy my godson. Teddy this is Laura, Clint’s wife and that’s Lila his daughter. She’s the other magic user I’ve been tutoring.”

“Hi!” Teddy said brightly.

“Hi.” Lila said, a little shyly. “I like your hair.”

“Thanks! I think the blue is the best, I’ve tried ever other color and nothing looks as good.”

“Your parents let you dye your hair?” Lila asked.

“Is that how muggles change hair color?” Teddy asked causing Lila to nod. “Well I don’t do that. I do this!”

Then Teddy did the thing Clint had gotten quite used to. He changed his hair style from the curly mop of turquoise hair to a long hair style more similar to Lila’s and made it the same purple color as his daughter’s barrettes. Lila, Laura, and Cooper all gasped in awe at the sight and Teddy grinned.

“I’m a shapeshifter, like my mum, I can make myself look like anything I want!”

“Woah!” Lila said. Teddy shifted a bit and then looked over at Holly and then back at Lila.

“Lila? How about you go show Teddy your magic supplies? I thought it might be nice for you to have a partner for today’s lesson. Teddy’s never been in a non-magic house before so maybe you can show him the best bits, the TV and the electric toaster, you know.”

“Mom can I?” Lila asked, her voice nearly breathless.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Great! Come on!”

Lila jumped down from the porch and grabbed onto Teddy’s hand, dragging him up and inside the house. All of the adults plus Cooper watched the two rush inside, the screen door clattered shut and they could hear inside the kitchen as Lila pointed out the toaster and explained to Teddy how it worked, Teddy ‘oohing’ appropriately.

“I do hope we didn’t interrupt breakfast.” Holly said.

“We’d just finished.” Laura said. “Your timing was perfect.”

“You sure he’s not going to get into too much trouble?” Clint asked.

“He promised he’d behave and Teddy generally keeps his promises.” She said. “Don’t worry too much, just let your daughter have a friend.”

“You planned this.” Natasha accused.

“Okay so I might have noticed that Lila and Teddy had a few things in common.” Holly said. “And it may have, at one point, occurred to me that Lila and Teddy both could do with a friend. So then if that’s the case, it might behoove me to orchestrate some sort of meeting between the two.”

“You sly witch.”

“Just wait. This is going to be good.”

Clint rolled his eyes.

“You do know your godson seems to believe in some sort of fate driven platonic ideal of friendship.”

“He got that idea from Ron, not from me.”

“Uh huh.”

“Anybody want to catch me up on this?” Laura asked. “And where’s my good morning kiss?”

Clint apologized to Laura by giving her three good morning kisses and a very satisfying hug. Then he gave Cooper a hug to match and kissed both Holly and Nat’s cheeks once before they went inside. Holly explained Teddy’s friendship goals as it were and Laura cooed at how darn adorable it was. Nat settled on the counter top wearing her birthday sweater while Holly produced some magic candy that would let Cooper roar like a lion (his current favorite animal).

“Don’t worry, there’s only a few pieces, he won’t be able to roar more than five times.” Holly said. “I do think about your ears Laura.”

“Thank you.” She said. “You know you don’t need to bring him a gift each time you come.”

“I don’t want him to feel left out. I know what that’s like. Besides it’s honestly no trouble.” She said right before Cooper ate the first bit of candy and then roared loud enough to rattle the glassware in the cabinets. Cooper then giggled happily so Clint couldn’t even bring himself to be upset.

“Now.” Laura said. “Catch me up on the team gossip, you three. The only thing that’s happening in this town is two teenagers getting caught together in Farmer Ted’s barn.”

Clint snorted at that, hugging his wife from the side and listening as Nat happily spilled all the gossip out as they sipped freshly brewed tea. Nat told Laura about Tony’s reaching out to Winter, which was still a bit mindboggling. They’d all thought Tony would need much longer to come around, not that they could blame him for that. Holly brought up the visiting Asgardians, explaining the alien drama she was now partially in charge of keeping from boiling over.

“Is that why Sif keeps staring at you?” Nat asked.

“Please don’t ask me about that.”

“Oh, now we have to.” Laura said. “What happened with Sif?”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“Like Budapest, you think?” Clint joked.

“No.” Nat said, rolling her eyes. “Holly, spill.”

“So you know how I was a bit…under the influence at that Asgardian feast?”

“Loki accidentally drugged you to keep you from passing out, yeah we were all there. You gave the best hugs.”

“Right yeah. Well I blame Steve for this.” Holly said. “But he left me unsupervised even when he promised he wouldn’t and I ended up wandering off to look for Loki. I didn’t find Loki, Sif found me.”

“Oh no.” Laura said, sounding far too amused.

“And Sif’s…you two have seen her. She’s beautiful.”

“Not as pretty as my Laura, but pretty close.”

“Oh hush you.” Laura said lightly smacking Clint in the chest before snuggling back into his side.

“She’s hot.” Nat confirmed.

“And my brain was pretty much nothing but…goop at that point so I started flirting.”

“Really?” Clint demanded gleefully.

“If you laugh, I will teach your daughter how to prank you with magic, don’t think I won’t. And Laura will blame you.”

“She’s right. I will.”

And so, the rest of the story came out, Holly flirting via poetry to a goddess-deep-in-the-closet and said goddess deciding to burst out of the closet, onto the Bifrost and straight into Holly’s arms. Except Holly, sober Holly, didn’t find Sif as alluring with the knowledge of who she is and what she believed.

“So, I had to turn her down. A beautiful woman who knows how to use a sword, is attracted to me, and immortal to boot. Had to tell her no.” Holly finished, she looked a bit forlorn. “I haven’t told anyone about it because I know Loki would be absolutely insufferable and outing a woman who is this early in coming to terms with her sexuality isn’t my cup of tea.”

“Ouch.” Clint said. “That’s rough Holly.”

“She didn’t even care when I told her I was drugged when we met, that I normally wasn’t that bold. She said she’d be the bold one.” Holly finished. “And even if I’m not into her, it’s hard to think about a beautiful woman telling me that and not being a bit upset.”

“It’s the idea of her.” Nat finished. “Trust me I get it.”

“Yes exactly. I’m sad about the idea of her. I know the reality wouldn’t be good but…oh the fantasy of her is something to be missed.” Holly said. “It doesn’t help that she stares at me all the time, pining. No one’s ever pined after me before.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s not true.”

“If anyone else ever has, they’ve never made it obvious enough for me to tell.” Holly said. “So, it’s like it never happened.”

Clint snorted so hard he upset some of his tea and Holly rolled her eyes.

“And on that incredibly depressing point, time for me to go do what I came to do, teach some magic. Have fun you guys.”

And with that Holly gave Cooper a fond hair ruffle, and went to go find her godson and Lila. Clint hoped nothing was on fire. Normally Holly’s lessons weren’t longer than an hour. Holly would usually introduce a simple spell that Lila would practice until she’d managed it. The spells were usually defensive or silly, nothing that Lila could use to attack someone else. This was mostly done so that if Lila had another event of accidental magic, her magic would already be practiced in doing things that were non-aggressive.

So no more liar liar pants on fire incidents.

Clint normally spent this time playing with Cooper or cuddling with his wife or doing handyman work around the house if there was something that needed doing. Sure enough Laura told Clint about a leaky faucet in the upstairs bathroom and Clint went off with a kiss on the cheek to go fix it. When he returned it was to the sight of Nat finger painting with Cooper while chatting with Laura about her family in Russia. Nat had yet to do a background check, not willing to ask SHIELD for help until the organization had been fully cleaned out from Hydra.

She hadn’t asked Jarvis, mostly because she was afraid of what he’d find. Not that she said that out loud. No one pushed her on it, this was something Nat would have to come to in her own time. Clint was sent on three other tasks around the house. There was nothing more comforting than doing work around the house for his family. He knew with his own two hands that the sink worked, and that the handrail was properly attached to the wall. It was a way to protect and support his family even when he was far away.

Eventually Holly returned, looking amused with herself and letting them know that Lila and Teddy were going outside to play for a bit. Sure enough Lila was teaching Teddy how to throw a football in the backyard, both of their hair was now bright purple.

“A hair color charm?” Laura asked.

“It’s a simple enough spell, very unlikely to go wrong.” Holly defended. “Besides now she can keep up with Teddy.”

“She does know how to make it brown again right?”

“She does, Clint, don’t worry. We took a picture of her natural hair before we started so that she has a reference just in case.” Holly said. “Just let her have fun. It’s just hair.”

“Just hair.” Clint scoffed. “Says the woman of a million snakes. Next thing I know I’m going to be wading through a thousand snakes just to wake her up for school.”

Holly giggled at that which didn’t comfort Clint at all.

“She’s doing well.” She said. “She’s really talented.”

“Of course she is. She’s my daughter.”

“Right right. I’m just wondering what you two are thinking for the long term.”

“Long term?” Laura asked.

“Most magic users, when they turn 11, go to a magic school and get a wand.” Holly explained. “You’ll probably be contacted on her birthday in a month or so, by the magic school nearest you. Normally since you are a muggle household they’ll send a representative to explain things and all. It’d be expected that you’d send Lila to the school that contacted you.”

“And where is that?”

“Texas I think?” Holly mused. “I don’t actually know where all the American schools are. I know there’s one in Salem, I’ve visited that one a few times, very nice if a bit puritan. I can look it up for you, let you know which schools are in the country.”

“If the closest one is in Texas, how will she go?”

“They’re all boarding schools.” Holly answered. “That’s the system that works for most countries the best, especially since muggleborn kids can be…kicked out by their parents for having magic.”

Laura and Clint both frowned at that. The idea of sending Lila so far away, to a boarding school wasn’t a fun one. She was only 10 years old, and Clint barely saw her enough as it was with his job. Holly read their expressions and sighed.

“You don’t have to send her to school. Some parents choose to homeschool and as long as she takes the proper exams as an adult and passes, no one will really care, especially if she doesn’t plan on working in the magical world. If she does want to work in a magical career, she’ll probably need to do an apprenticeship of some sort but that would be in her late teens or early twenties. Homeschooled magic users can be just as good.”

“I’m sensing a but.” Clint said.

“But self study magic can be dangerous.” Holly said. “I’ve been really limiting Lila in what I teach her, not because she’s not talented enough but because I only want her knowing spells that won’t harm her if things go wrong. I can’t be here all the time to fix things.”

“But in a magic school she’d have dedicated professors to guide her.” Clint finished. “She’d be able to learn more, faster and safer than she would with weekly tutoring.”

“Just so.” Holly inclined her head. “There’s also the social aspect of it. Just look at her, she’s known a magic user her age for an hour now and she’s…”

Clint glanced out the window and sure enough Lila looked so happy and bright. She was laughing and teasing and acting like the brave little girl Clint loved so much. That little girl had been somewhat stifled thanks to the bullying and the magic scare.

“It’s hard to be friends with muggles.” Holly told Laura and Clint. “Not because muggles are bad, but because you can’t legally tell them about a majority of your life. Lila will have to do a lot of lying to the people in town, to her peers here, if she wants to be friends with them. Something she won’t have to do at a magic school. I’m not telling you what to do, this is a choice you two should think long and hard about.”

“But what would you do?” Laura asked.

“I went to boarding school, I loved it. Hogwarts was my first home.” Holly said. “But Lila has parents who love her. I know that a lot of my peers got terribly homesick and some even drifted apart from their families altogether because it was so hard to keep in contact. Every year Hermione would go home to her parents an entirely different girl than the one they sent off.”

It was a scary thought, imagining growing distant from Lila. He loved her so much and growing apart was something he already feared each day since being an Avenger kept him away so often. He tried to imagine limiting himself to owl sent letters every week and cringed.

“We’ll think about it.” Clint said.

“Anything I can do to help, you name it and it’s yours.” Holly said softly.

“Thank you, Holly.” Laura said. “We’ll let you know.”

Clint spent the rest of the late morning with his family, he played games in the yard with Lila, Cooper, and Teddy. He also with Holly’s help fixed up one of the fences that had fallen over due to a storm last week. When lunch time rolled around Clint went out to find his oldest daughter and found her in their barn, on the tire swing, with Teddy spinning her around so that the rope twisted up and up and up.

When Teddy twisted as far as it could go, he jumped out of the way while Lila squealed in delight and began to spin in a rapid circle. When she finally slowed to a stop, the two kids grinned at each other and got ready to switch places. Before they did Lila asked a question.

“Do you ever miss your mom?”

“My mom mom or Holly?”

“Both I guess.”

“Yeah.” Teddy answered clambering into the tire. “Holly’s busy a lot. I know she loves me, and she’s never missed one of my birthdays if she could help it, but I do miss her. And my mom, I know she loved me a lot, me and my grandma visit her and my dad’s grave at least once a year to bring flowers and stuff.”

“Has Holly always been a superhero?”

“Yeah I think so. Even before I was born.”

“Don’t you get scared?”

“Of what?”

“Of her not coming back. Ever.”

Oh.

Clint should not be here for this. Not at all. This was a ‘children of superheroes only’ conversation. But he also couldn’t leave. He was frozen. He couldn’t see Teddy’s face, but he had a feeling the kid was frowning, his hair turned a slightly darker purple at least, looking a bit more limp.

“I mean sometimes.” Teddy said. “But she always does come back. I try not to think about it much. What about you? You’re dad’s a superhero too.”

“He wasn’t always.” She said. “It was only a year ago you know.”

“What’d he do before?”

“I dunno boring stuff I guess. For SHIELD.” She said. “But he’d only be gone sometimes. He’d go on a mission and be gone for a few weeks but then he’d come back and be home for months.”

“But Holly told me that your dad’s with the team all the time.”

“Yeah. It’s cause the team’s always got dangerous people to fight and they need my dad.” Lila said. “And I know it’s important and stuff and I’m glad my dad’s saving people, but…”

“But it’s scary.” Teddy finished nodding along. “Cause you can see it.”

“Everybody can.”

“I’m sorry.” Teddy said pushing down on the ground a little with his feet so that he swung slightly backwards and then forwards closer to Lila.

Clint wondered if he should interrupt, and if he did what he would even say.

“How do you deal with it? You don’t sound scared.”

“I dunno.” Teddy said. “I write Holly a lot of letters.”

“Letters?”

“Yeah. Anytime she does something scary, I write her a letter and ask what happened. She always tells me the truth, even if it’s a bit much, and she promises she did her best to protect everyone.” Teddy said. “I also talk to my Grandma and she helps. Grandma Andy’s real smart.”

“I don’t want to talk to mom.” Lila said stubbornly. “She gets worried too I can tell, anytime dad’s on TV she can’t stop watching.”

“Hmm.” Teddy said, pushing at the ground again. “You could talk to me, if you wanted.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I can ask Holly about getting a phone or something. I don’t have one but if I explain why I need one she’d get one for me. Then you can call when it happens.”

“You’d do that?”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Yeah.” Lila said.

“Cool, now it’s my turn to swing.”

And with that the conversation was over and Lila started twisting the tire swing around for Teddy. Clint waited for Teddy’s turn to be over (and for his throat to unclog) before stepping fully inside the barn.

“Come on kids! It’s lunch time!”

“But dad!” Lila whined. “We’re playing.”

“And now you’re eating. Come on, your mom made grilled cheese.”

That got both kids’ attention, just like Clint knew it would. As he watched the two kids rush towards the house, it occurred to him there was one more option for magic schooling that Holly hadn’t mentioned.

After all, Hogwarts did now have access to Jarvis and the internet at large. He and Lila would be practically living in the same house if she went there.

Chapter 53: Tony and Winter

Summary:

Tony finally talks to Winter and it...wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. Huh.

Notes:

ya'll! Someone drew Holly! Can you believe it! Please check out their art!
Please give them lot's of love!

Hogwarts was online.

They’d done it.

It had taken a few weeks of work, training all of the professors so that not only could they use the internet, but they also knew how to do so safely and securely. Jarvis had trained Hogwarts in how to spot potential security risks and block them from happening, as well as how to monitor the content that students try to access to ensure they don’t accidentally (or not so accidentally) start streaming porn into the great hall during breakfast. Tony even set up a multiple communication hubs throughout the castle for students to contact home with. Each professor as well as the school at large got an official email and a personal email (and Tony made sure to tell them what the difference was and why it mattered at all).

Now Muggle parents could contact the school. Now muggleborn and half blood students could call home. Tony had even made the servers strong enough that every student at once could be video chatting with a friend in Hawaii without seeing a delay in speed and or quality. At least he hoped he had. All of his server tests had shown that much resilience thanks to Hogwarts more magical qualities.

He had, with Bruce’s help, designed messaging apps for the wizards and witches to use that would separate them from the muggles at large and allow them to talk about magic all they wanted without fear of discovery. He also made sure to include the ability to share pictures and gifs and videos so that no meme format was forgotten. There were going to be 11 year old muggleborns coming into this school and they would be the experts in all things meme, it was bound to be hilarious. He wanted these kids to go wild.

The teachers knew the enchanting spell you needed to protect your tech from magic and so when the students returned, laptops and phones in hand, there would be a large group of adults ready to enchant every single piece of tech inside. Minerva was sending out a letter explaining all of the new tech accommodations that had been made as well as what students would have to do to participate in the new age of magical technology, brought to them by the futurist technomancer himself, Tony Stark.

First, they could bring any tech they wanted. This included; video game consoles, phones, laptops and so on. Of course, the faculty reserved the right to confiscate or ban anything that proved to be a distraction. The tech had to be off, totally off, once they entered Hogwarts’ grounds. If any tech was on when it went under the wards it would get fried by Hogwarts without mercy. Once the students arrived, they would have their feast and return to their common room, there their head of house, another professor, as well as the prefects of their house would enchant every device with the protection spell Holly and Tony had designed together. Then devices with internet capabilities would be given the password as well as the school rules for appropriate use that would be immediately disregarded.

Of course, the students would have a hard time getting around those restrictions when Hogwarts was in charge of enforcing it.

The professors raised the question about pureblood students who wouldn’t have any technology and Tony pointed out that they could get a phone sent to them from their parents, if their parents were willing to travel into the muggle world and buy one, and from there they could learn how to use it from their peers. After all the muggleborns had to learn how to use the floo, the least the purebloods could do was learn how to text.

When that explanation didn’t fly, Tony’s beloved Pepper was more than happy to start a tech shop in Diagon Alley for all your technomancy needs. She took care of getting the spot and hiring competent wizards to run the store. Holly put her in contact with Fred and George Weasley and somehow that didn’t end in explosions. Tony could not believe he now owned a magic shop, filled with magic things he had designed, it made him feel a bit giddy. The shop was set to open in August, when a majority of students would start shopping for their school supplies and when parents would be there and ready to spend money on the new-fangled magic tech that Tony Stark had invented. (With Holly’s help.)

Holly had done the magic and Tony had designed tech that worked with it. It was a team effort okay! And he would take to his grave that he was now the world’s first technomancer. Damn anyone who argued otherwise (looking at you Bruce).

All of this was to say that their stay in Scotland was coming to an end and Tony was rapidly running out of excuses to not to talk to Winter.

Tony had talked to the man that morning before Holly and Clint left to go to the farm because he knew he could no longer feasibly procrastinate it. What was he meant to do when they went back to New York? Let the guy continue to live with them and force everyone to walk on eggshells in the tower? No that wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

He just needed to man up and do it.

So, he had.

And now the two of them were walking through the castle. Tony’s excuse of doing the final test back at the tower was mostly false. It’s true they wanted to see how Hogwarts handled the strain without Jarvis there to back her up, but no one was actually worried about it. They walked back towards the server room, where Tony spent most of his days working.

“So.” Tony said. “Your arm.”

“Yeah.” Winter said. “My arm.”

“You…um do want another one right? To go with the one you…already have?”

Damn it, could that have come out worse?

“I do.” Winter said. “You…know how to build arms?”

“It’s not that hard.” Tony said, as if he hadn’t spent hours searching through the internet on how prosthetics were built for this very conversation.

“Right.” Winter said. “And you wanted to ask me about the arm?”

“Yeah. Hydra the one they made you didn’t look…comfortable? I dunno was it?”

“No. No it wasn’t.” Tony nodded and wished this didn’t have to be so damn awkward.

“So. I was thinking I’d talk to you about what you wanted the arm to do and then I could build something that didn’t hurt.” Tony said, trying to sound more confident than he actually felt. “So, what do you want the arm to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on.” Tony said. “Give me something to work with. Do you want it to shoot lasers? Be entirely decorative? Do you want a chainsaw arm?”

“I think I’d like to be able to tie my shoes.” Winter said cutting of Tony’s mostly joking suggestions. “Steve has to do it for me every morning and he does it too tight.”

“Okay. Fine motor control.” Tony said, nodding to himself. He ignored the image of Steve carefully trying to tie Winter’s shoes but his super strength getting in the way, again. “Is there anything else? Do you want it to look like your other arm?”

“You could do that?”

“Yeah probably. Might take a bit to get the outer coating right but if special effect artists can make things look like skin, I don’t see why I couldn’t.”

“That…that’d be nice. The other one was so…”

“Eye catching?”

“Yeah that’s a word for it.”

“Okay I can try and make it look like your other arm. I’ll need to take scans of your arm so I can match it as closely as possible.” Tony said. “Are there any…defensive capabilities you want? If you’re going to be hanging around with Cap, danger is going to come to you. Besides Hydra trained you to fight with that old arm, it’s what you’re used to.”

It was getting easier now to talk, Winter nodded and started explaining how he’d used his arm in the past and what capabilities he would like to continue to have. Strength and durability were the two most important ones. By the time they got to the server room, Tony already had a few prototype ideas in mind that he could start conceptualizing for Winter. It was easier to talk shop with the guy than to actually talk to him.

“I’ve been meaning to ask something.”

“What?”

“Where the hell did you find Potter anyway?”

“We didn’t find her, she found us.” Tony answered snorting. “She volunteered to be our cleaning lady.”

“Seriously? I thought she was joking about that.”

“No. Technically I think it’s still her official title, I don’t believe her boss has let her go despite the fact she hasn’t been into work in ages because if he did, he’d have to replace her and that’s just not worth it. Cleaning up after superheroes is not for the faint hearted.” Tony explained. “We have to clean up after ourselves now though, which is a bit of a drag, I forgot how annoying laundry is.”

“Why was a war general your cleaning lady?”

“Now that is a story. I can’t believe Steve didn’t tell you! Come on, sit down over here.” Tony said motioning to one of the chairs in the room. “I’ll take my measurements and tell the wondrous tale of Holly Potter and the Thousand Snake Hair Trick.”

So, he told it all as he carefully measured out Winter’s arm and body’s proportions. He started with Clint pranking the cleaning crew and moved forward into Holly befriending Jarvis and then lifting Thor’s hammer to kill a reanimated slime monster. Then he told Winter about Steve’s painting class of all things and how he and Holly had bonded over oil paintings and their failed love lives. He told him about Lila’s magic and Nat’s sweater. He explained Bruce’s obsession with werewolves and why Holly took him to a magic hospital once every lunar cycle. He told the entire story to Winter who started out in disbelief of Holly’s entire thought process and had quickly dissolved into laughter.

It felt insane. They had only really known Holly for about 6 months. 6 months since she started cleaning Avengers tower, even less since anyone but Jarvis had spoken to her. They were all incredibly different people, Holly included. Hell! Loki was a friend of theirs now which was absolutely insane to think about. If someone had told Tony 7 months ago that he’d see Loki as a good friend before the end of the year, Tony would have called them stupid and probably suggested meeting with a mental health professional.

But it was true! They’d taken down a majority of Hydra’s forces within SHIELD, they’d converted Loki to their side, they’d gotten Winter on the team and Holly was now a personification. Catching Winter up to speed almost made his heart hurt at how much had changed in his life. His relationship with Pepper was better than ever and he and Holly hadn’t even talked about her. It was mostly just Holly’s healthy influences and Tony attempting to help Holly learn to have a good work-life balance that had led to him treating Pepper better and becoming better.

All of them were better, Nat was like an entirely different person around them now. Her harsh exterior having been forcibly peeled back through the magic of a sweater of all things. Thor knitted. Thor god of thunder, a being who had lived for thousands of years, was trying to learn to knit and he sucked at it and it was glorious.

When finished, he had drawn out multiple designs and asked Jarvis to order some needed supplies to start on a few prototypes.

“Thanks Stark.” He said.

“Call me Tony.”

“Right. Tony.” Winter said. “I am-”

“I forgive you.” Tony cut him off. “And I swear if you tell anyone I said anything that mushy I’ll prank your arm.”

“Do you really?” Winter asked. “Forgive me.”

“Yeah.” Tony said. “Look. No one expects to have to…grieve their parents twice. I thought I’d put all of that shit behind me and it turns I hadn’t. I know that it wasn’t your fault, that it’s Hydra’s fault. The same group that hurt Nat so much, they did that. They’re the ones I should hate and I, I don’t imagine being around you is always going to be easy because my brain is sort of a trash fire, but I do forgive you.”

Winter looked at him for a moment before nodding a bit in acceptance.

“Good. Now let’s stop talking about this, it’s literally giving me hives.”

“Alright fine. What’s the stupidest thing Steve’s done since he got out of the ice?”

“Steve didn’t tell us he didn’t know how to drive a car.” Tony said. “We were fighting some Hydra agents like 9 months ago and Clint got hurt, Steve got him to a car and we told him to drive a few blocks so that I could safely pick Clint up. He didn’t say he didn’t know how to drive, instead he killed the engine of the car five times and then crashed into a fire hydrant while Clint nearly gave himself a hernia by laughing so hard.”

“What a punk.”

“Apparently he thought it’d be just like driving a motorcycle.”

Winter snorted in amusement at that and Tony grinned.

“We made him take a driving class. It was hilarious. There are still tweets from teenagers who were in the same class as him.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. I have them all saved for the perfect moment.”

“Anything else I can make fun of him for?”

“Oh Winter. You and I are going to get along great. I’ve got a video from when he tried to help Holly move into the tower and Thor dropped some furniture on his foot.”

And with the miracle that was making fun of Steve Rogers, their friendship was cemented.

Loki took Tony back to New York once he was done talking to Winter, so that he could do the final tests and declare Hogwarts internet ready. While there he greeted his lovely girlfriend with a kiss, happily hugging her to his chest as she told him about the various meetings he should have been at but she had covered for him because she was the absolute best. Pepper hugged him back and only complained a little about his work ethic, in his defense he had been building an entire magical internet server in an ancient magic castle.

And also dealing with the whole ‘your parents got murdered’ thing.

“You need to talk to Holly about PR issues.”

“Seriously?”

“The Avengers haven’t made a public appearance since she appeared. Sure, there was the trouble at the SHIELD base, but that was mostly covered up by Fury. I’ve done my best to keep the public at bay about the cleaning lady turned superhero, but people are starting to get restless.”

“So what? You want Holly to do some sort of interview.”

“Ideally.” She said. “We can get in a reporter we trust. Do some sort of live interview. Currently the public believes she’s the last descendent of human magic users and that all others were wiped out due to imperialism and genocide and while that’s a very sad story, the woman did fill Central Park with 100,000 snakes. People are curious and the longer the Avengers go without making a statement about Loki or Holly, the more fearful they become.”

“I’ll talk to her tonight.” Tony promised. “I’ll get her to agree to an interview, can you find a reporter you trust to do it?”

“I’ll get a list together as well as put together a list of appropriate questions.”

“What would I do without you Miss Potts?”

“You’d be dead three times over, Mr. Stark.”

“Too true.” Tony hummed before giving her another smooch. “Have I told you about Jarv yet?”

“Jarvis told me he was dating Hogwarts. He sounded very pleased with himself, asked me for date ideas.”

“He asked you?”

“In my defense sir, you still can’t remember that Miss Potts is allergic to strawberries.”

“Rude.”

“I also can’t purchase Hogwarts shoes whenever she seems upset. Neither of us have feet, your romantic advice is not applicable.”

“Betrayal! From my own flesh and blood!”

“I have neither flesh nor blood.”

“I’m going to make a new AI, one with less sass.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it, sir.”

Tony rolled his eyes again but decided not to threaten to send Jarvis to a community college, his girlfriend would just visit him there after all.

“So, what did you tell him to do?”

“I suggested movie nights, something two intelligences could do comfortably together.” She said.

“Hmm. Netflix and chill? Is that a suggestion Miss Potts?”

“It might just be.”

Tony grinned in delight and told Pepper he had a few hours left before he had to go back to Scotland. Jarvis could go back to his girlfriend and he could go with his. Jarvis didn’t even respond to his joke, probably already gone, the horn dog. 30 minutes later Tony found himself laying with Pepper in their giant bed, watching the latest episode of The Good Place, and eating popcorn together.

“How are you holding up?” Pepper asked him.

After Tony had recovered from the multi-hour conversation with his mom’s ghost, he’d called both Aunt Peggy and Pepper about what he’d learnt. They’d both taken it very differently and both conversations had helped. Pepper had been his rock, covering every single bit of his work expectations for him and sending him encouraging messages as he dealt with it. When he buried himself in the work of getting Hogwarts online, she had patience with him and pushed him to get some rest. There had been very little judgement from her, and instead she’d just offered to get Winter and Steve both a new place to live so that they could be comfortable while Tony dealt with the situation.

“Better than I thought I would be.” He said. “Talking to my mom helped. Talking to Aunt Peggy helped more. You helped the most. I don’t know. I feel like I shouldn’t be as good as I am right now. It doesn’t feel real.”

“You’ve been healing Tony.” She said, something that still sounded so fake to his ears. “Of course, the hard things are easier to deal with.”

“I know I’ve just never been good at this stuff before. It’s…insane.” Tony said. “I mean I talked to him today and it was awkward but like…I didn’t want to blast him in the face. I just…Is this how it is for normal people?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean not obsessing over something for months at a time, not having to overanalyze every moment of your life to see how you failed to prepare for it all? After Afghanistan and Obadiah, I spent months destroying myself because of what he did to me. I don’t know I was angry and furious and normally I’d be drinking to forget and doing stupid shit to ignore it all but I just…”

“Let it go?” She teased, her voice almost singing it.

“Shut up.”

“Yes Tony, that’s what it’s like for normal people. If anyone can claim your situation is normal.” She said. “And I am…very happy for you.”

“Oh, don’t cry. You know I’m allergic to feelings.”

“Says the emotionally mature man who forgave his parents killer.” Pepper said. “Face it, Tony, you’re growing up.”

“Ugh!” tony said. “I’ll show you mature!”

He licked the side of her face making her squawk in disgust. Of course, that licking led to another type of licking entirely and soon enough they didn’t even notice the episode ending.

Tony returned to Hogwarts quite pleased with himself, it was dinner time in Scotland and Holly and the others had returned. Teddy was currently regaling everyone who would listen about his new best friend Lila, which Tony thought was absolutely adorable.

“Hey Holly!” Tony said.

“Tony!” She said. “You’re back. Loki thank you for picking him up.”

“Not a problem.” He said. “I explored a bit of magical New York until he was ready to go back.”

Really Loki was happy for an excuse to be on the opposite side of the planet as the Warrior’s Three. Tony sat down next to Holly.

“Pepper wants you to do an interview. The muggle world is getting nervous.”

“Do I have to?”

“It would make Pepper happy.” Holly had met Pepper a total of three times and had liked her immensely.

“Fine.” She said. “For her.”

“Your graciousness knows no bounds, oh personification of life.”

She punched him for that one, but Tony couldn’t even find it in himself to be bothered by the pain. He was healing.

And that was the most magical thing of all.

Notes:

Seriously!
Art!
Fem!Holly in her cleaning uniform!

Chapter 54: Holly Potters First (And Probably Only) Muggle Interview

Summary:

The world knows about Loki's pardon and they are demanding answers. They might not enjoy the one's Holly is willing to give.

Notes:

Ya'll! I hope you are doing well with the state of the world rn. Please stay as safe as you can and try to stay calm.
Also wash your hands!
Most important of all, please enjoy this update.
I promise the plot will move forward soon-ish. I've been procrastinating letting this plot move forward much because my two other actively updating WIPs are in the middle of a lot of tense action and plot. Once those arcs finish, this story is getting some special treatment!

Pepper had insisted on dressing nicely.

She had vetoed letting Holly wear formal robes.

Pepper was a joy kill.

Holly couldn’t believe she’d been roped into this entire mess. When Tony had brought it up, she’d thought she’d have to do a short press conference or maybe a quick interview where a reporter came to them, asked a few questions and left.

But no.

Here she was. Getting ready to do a long form interview on live television.

Part of this was because the news of Loki’s pardoning had gotten out and the world had erupted into chaos. People had questions, people were blaming Holly for it. There were wild theories going around about Holly using mind control to convince the entire UN to pardon Loki. Which…well… Holly had used her influence to get Loki pardoned both on earth and in Asgard, but that was a very different thing than using mind control. Thor had released a statement on behalf of Asgard letting people know that the justice system of Asgard had declared Loki innocent of his crimes due to Loki being under a mental compulsion type spell.

This had both calmed the waters and stirred them up further. People wanted answers and unfortunately Holly was the only one qualified to give them.

So now, she was wearing a nice dress, one of Pepper’s that had been magically resized to fit. She was currently backstage with Loki, Tony, and Pepper, the last two of whom were trying to coach her before she had to go on stage.  Loki was mostly just watching the other two buzz around nervously with a smirk. It was as if both of them had forgotten that she’d been in the public eye since she was 15 months old. Holly had survived the worst smear campaign of all time as a teenager. She knew how to keep her cool.

She just sometimes chose not to.

Perhaps that was what they were worried about.

Admittedly, the media hadn’t been kind to Loki (or her for that matter) and she was…defensive of her friends. Especially friends who had just recovered from the worst case of magical mind damage she had ever seen who had also been horribly betrayed by the man they’d believed to be their father. And it was true that when Holly got defensive she tended to get mouthy.

Right so they were probably correct to be nervous.

“Pepper.” Holly said. “I promise to do my best. But you’ve got to calm down, you’re stressing me out.”

“This was supposed to be a closed in person interview, not this.” She said.

“We waited too long to make a statement about Loki and now that the cat’s out of the bag we have to deal with it.” Holly said. “In our defense we were very busy with me almost dying multiple times but…It’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this.”

“Holly’s right, Pep.” Tony said. “Besides. Holly’s a pro at these interviews by now I’m sure.”

“I’ve been doing them with varying success since I was 18.” Holly said. “And that was with magic reporters, a far more dangerous breed.”

“Right.” Pepper said. “You’re right, of course you’re right.”

“Miss Potter?” A voice said from behind them. “Come with me, please, you’re about to be announced.”

“One moment.” Loki said. “Holly, come here.”

Holly walked over to Loki who stood up from his lounging position and placed his hands on her shoulders, he looked at her seriously and then nodded. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead, where her scar had once rested. It tingled with magic.

“The blessing of a god.” He said. “It may not be worth much these days but it should give you a silver tongue. Good luck.”

Holly thanked him with a smile then and waved goodbye to Tony and Pepper before following the man with the headset towards the curtains she’d have to walk through to enter the stage. As she stood there waiting for her name to be called, she had the sinking feeling that this would not be her last interview. The media would never be satisfied with just one, no matter how well she did it. Pepper kept insisting that this would be the only one, but Holly knew better.

“And now for tonight’s guest Miss Holly Potter.”

Holly walked through the curtain and onto the stage as the audience began to clap and music played through the speakers. She found herself looking at an older man with white hair, he was standing behind a table, motioning for her to take a seat on the chair directly across from him. Pepper had insisted on a more serious interview format for this first one. So Holly was going to go on CNN and speak to an old white man who had a serious case of ‘doesn’t-know-what-a-joke-is’ syndrome live on television for 20 minutes.

Holly smiled, bowed her head politely to the crowd, before walking up to the raised platform and taking a seat in the chair. It was uncomfortable, clearly underused and hard. She subtly twitched her fingers to cast a cushioning charm that made things far more bearable. At the same time she reached out with her other hand to shake the reporter’s hand and say hello.

“Thank you for being willing to come and speak with us, Miss Potter.” Mr. Thompson said.

“I’m glad to be here, Mr. Thompson.” Holly said, starting out her first lie of the evening with not even a twitch of her lips. “Really, it’s been a long time coming.”

“You have not been an easy woman to get a hold of.”

“I wasn’t really aware I needed to be.” Holly said. “Before all of this I was a cleaning lady.”

“Well yes, but you’re not anymore.”

“Technically I am.” She said. “I never quit, nor was I fired. Besides that I’ve never signed anything to become an Avenger.”

“But you moved into Avengers Tower, did you not?”

“That’s because reporters were swarming me at my apartment building, it was terrifying not being able to leave my home without being crowded and screamed at.” Holly said sternly. “Tony was kind enough to offer me a safe place to live and I accepted when it became clear I couldn’t even go grocery shopping without being accosted.”

The reporter looked a bit stunned by her bluntness, but Holly kept her face calm and almost soothing. Only her eyes revealed how annoyed she’d been, how truly out of sorts the muggle reporters had made her.

“Right.” Thompson said. “Let’s get into that then. After your…stunt in Central Park, you, Loki and a majority of the Avengers disappeared from the public eye for nearly three days. Then Captain America gave a statement confirming your identity as well as explaining why you have magic. Given the well known contents of this statement, which included the genocide of apparently every magical person on earth 400 years ago, why did you not appear and give that statement yourself?”

“I was asleep.” Holly said easily making the crowd chuckle.

“Miss Potter please take this seriously.”

“I am.” Holly said. “The truth was that shortly after leaving Central Park I passed out and remained asleep for 58 hours. And just to answer your question before you can ask it, I was asleep because I’d exhausted my magic.”

“Exhausted?”

“Magic isn’t some…impossible to define thing.” Holly said. “It has rules it follows just like every other thing in the universe.  Magic users like myself have a set amount of magical energy in their bodies they can use at any time, think of it like the battery in a cell phone. You can use the phone for whatever you want as long as the battery is charged, but once that battery dies, all the phone can do is lay there.”

“So, you’d run out your battery?”

“I did do an insanely draining transfiguration.” She said and when he didn’t look like he understood her she sighed and spoke again. “I changed my hair into snakes. That took a lot of energy, I needed to recover from that and so my body forced me to rest until all of my magical energy returned. So, to answer your question fully, the reason Steve gave the announcement instead of me was because I was passed out on their couch and nothing they did could get me to wake up or move.”

“Okay. But why didn’t you speak to the public after?”

“What was I supposed to say? Sorry for saving the Avengers lives? Sorry for fighting aliens to a Kanye West song? We live among you?”

The crowd laughed while the reporter gave a thin smile that tried and failed to look indulgent.

“Do you not think the public has a right to information that could deal with their safety?”

See.

The thing about that was.

Holly didn’t think that they had any right to information about her childhood, or about her life. She didn’t like that reporters had swarmed her apartment. She hated that they had published photos of her as a child, looking sickly thin and wearing too large hand-me-down clothing and debating about whether or not she really was a problem child. She despised the fact that the narrative that the Dursleys had spun for her decades ago was the one being touted about by the media.

What’s more she hated they were doing it under the guise of public service. The world needed to know about the details of her abusive childhood, it dealt with their safety. She loathed the fact that the despite the fact that the Avengers had released statements about her, and their trust in her, that the public was still savagely demanding that she debase herself before them to prove her righteous intent.

They were doing the same to Loki.

The journalist seemed to realize his mistake the moment Holly did, or at least she hoped he did. That was probably because she narrowed her eyes at him.

“And what sort of information are you after then? For the public’s safety? My bra size?”

It was almost as if she could feel Pepper smacking her forehead in despair. Holly decided to just go for it.

“Do you know what a magic vow is? No of course you don’t.” Holly said. “I’ll tell you. It’s a promise made with one’s own magic and if it’s broken, the maker of the promise dies.”

“What does that have to do with-”

“I’m going to offer you a vow, to tell the truth, for the public good.” Holly said, her voice almost sickly sweet. “That way you can be assured that I’m not lying. That’s what you’re concerned about right? You’ve been trying so hard to give the public real information.”

“Yes.” Thompson said. “A vow. I want a vow.”

“Of course.” Holly said, her voice purring like a predator. Holly lifted up a hand and let it glow with magic. Thompson gasped in shock at the very sight of it. She let a tongue of flame wrap around her hand, down her wrist, and forearm. “I Holly Gemma Potter swear to tell the truth and only the truth in this interview, about myself, Loki, and about the world as I know it, this I so vow.”

A second and third tongue of flame wrapped around her hands, burning a twining pattern into her skin as the vow took hold.

“There.” Holly said. “Is that good enough for you? No problem with the wording?”

“Sounds fine to me.” Thompson said, smiling as if he’d won something.

“Wonderful.” Holly said. “Then let’s begin. Ask away. About anything you’d like.”

“Loki.” Thompson said. “The UN pardoned him for his crimes, apparently at your recommendation. According to official reports, you revealed that Loki had been placed under mind control before his invasion. You argued to both the UN and to Asgard that Loki’s actions on earth, beginning with his invasion in 2012 and all subsequent attacks were done under mind control and that, now that you have removed said mind magic, that Loki is an ally to us.”

“Yes, that is what I told the UN.” Holly confirmed easily.

“But.” The reporter said as if he’d been ready to pull out his gotcha-card. “You have a history of crime, while your records are sealed, reporters found that you were sent to a school for underaged criminals at the age of 11. Before that, your guardians and neighbors revealed that you were a problem child.”

“Yes, I’m sure that’s what my guardians said.”

He didn’t seem to notice the difference in her wording. Because of course he didn’t. Thompson continued to hang himself on a noose of his own making.

“So, Miss Potter, with a history like that, why should anyone believe what you say? How can we trust a person with such a checkered past to tell the truth? Especially in the light of you being the only human magic user left, surely you’d feel more loyalty to another criminal magic user than anyone else.”

“Is that your question?” Holly asked.

“It is.”

“Well.” Holly said, her voice very very shrewd. “I’m going to have to correct you on a few of your assumptions. You see, I didn’t attend a school for underage criminals.”

“What? But your relatives-”

“They lied.” Holly said. “Abusers tend to do that.”

And then the man began to pale.

“You see, when my parents died I was left in the care of my aunt and uncle. My aunt was estranged from my mother and had been for many years. This is because my aunt didn’t approve of the magic my mother had, thought it was freakish.” Holly said. “I’m sure in all of the interviews done with my relatives, they used that word, it was one of their favorites.”

And she knew they had. She was the one who’d asked Jarvis to watch the interviews of her relatives and let her know what they’d said.

“My relatives decided that they wouldn’t raise a freak.” Holly said. “So, anytime I did anything out of the ordinary, which could of course range from mouthing off to doing better than my cousin in an exam to accidentally using magic without even knowing it, was punished. Harshly.”

“Miss Potter-”

“No. You asked. I’m magically bound to answer.” Holly said, her voice sharp and cutting. “You see all of those pictures the news has been publishing of me as a child? Has anyone noticed how thin I look? Or how none of my clothing fits? I think the youngest picture you found of me was as a six-year-old. I look starved and I’m wearing clothing made for someone 5 times my size. Lack of food was one of my guardians ‘favorite punishments. And they never bought clothing for me, instead they forced me to wear my cousin’s hand me downs. In every picture you’ve found of me, it’s all the same. Dead eyes, sunken cheeks, and bruises hidden beneath sleeves.”

Thompson looked ill and frightened. Almost as if his career was flashing before his eyes. Holly reveled in it.

“My relatives told all of my neighbors that I was troubled. It was so they wouldn’t believe me if I asked for help.” She said. “And when I was accepted to a prestigious boarding school, the same one my parents had gone to, they told everyone I was going to a school for criminals so that they didn’t have to admit that I wasn’t what they’d claimed.”

She leaned back in her chair, the magical burns on her arm from her vow on full display of the camera. The audience was silent, their faces filled with horror as she described her abuse. Many of them were glaring at Thompson and it was clear the man could feel the weight of their eyes.

“The truth is. I wasn’t a troubled child, I was an abused one.” Holly said. “I don’t have a checkered past like you said.”

Notice she didn’t say she hadn’t ever broken the law. Because she had. But that was all in the name of stopping Voldemort and really, who could call fighting terrorists as a teenager a ‘checkered past’? Holly smiled at Thompson.

“So, did that answer your question, Mr. Thompson?”

“Yes.” Thompson said. “Thank you, Miss Potter.”

“Now.” Holly said making it clear she wasn’t finished punishing him. “What’s your next question?”

The interview continued and she answered every single one of his questions with a brutal honesty that managed to paint him as the ignorant jerk who’d asked such harmful and stupid questions. She remained calm and composed throughout it all as she slowly reduced Thompson to a sweaty, sorry mess. Loki’s blessing helped immensely, guiding her tongue so that she could answer questions in a way that was totally honest, while hiding the things she didn’t wish the world to know. It also kept her calm in a way she normally didn’t feel while being interviewed. The calmness might also have been powered by Thompson’s squirming. She answered questions about magic, about Loki, and about herself all in that same way.

But of course, no one remembered anything from the interview except for the beginning. It wasn’t every day someone saw a journalist commit career suicide live after all. By the time the interview ended the internet and other news stations were going wild with the information. Forgotten was the drama around Loki’s pardoning. Instead there was new gossip to digest and argue about. After all, an Avenger had just come out and revealed that she was a victim of child abuse. How brave, how inspirational.

Holly learned all of this as she rode back to the tower with Tony, Pepper, and Loki. Pepper was already doing what she called ‘PR Control’ as she tried to direct the story in the most positive light possible while Tony was just rapidly read out tweets that called Thompson an idiot and Holly brave and wonderful for standing up and telling the truth.

“Tony.” Holly said. “Not that this isn’t great, and I am glad it worked, but could we just…sit here for a bit?”

“Are you okay?” Pepper asked.

“Tired.” Holly said. “Talking about my relatives isn’t…I’ll be fine, honest. I just need a good night’s sleep. Just to clear my head, you know?”

“I get it.” Tony said.

“We understand.” Loki added. “We’ll let the team know to post-pone the celebration of your first interview as an Avenger for tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” Holly said. “We can have the team party tomorrow.”

So, Holly went up to her room in the tower, took a nice long hot shower, and let herself fall wearily onto her bed. It was strange. It felt as if every time she dared think she wasn’t bothered by her past, that she had healed from it, the pain of it snuck up on her again and stole her breath. She hadn’t thought about her relatives in ages, why was it bothering her now? She’d even spoken to Tony and the others about them, it hadn’t bothered her then.

But that had been her choice.

She’d wanted to talk about it then, either to unburden herself or to help someone else. It had been what she wanted.

That interview had been different. Using her trauma as a weapon had been…well traumatizing. Now the whole world knew. Everyone did. And even though she knew that what her relatives did to her, didn’t make her less, she was the personification of Life, part of her still felt…small. Jarvis thankfully, gave her some privacy, telling her that he’d be there to listen if she needed. She offered her gratitude but told him she just wanted to rest. So, Holly crawled under her blankets, hair still wet and dripping, and slept in a tiny ball, hoping that the world would look better in the morning.

Of course in the morning the first thing she woke up to was a message from Dudley Dursley.

Chapter 55: Holly's Cousin

Summary:

An long awaited conversation happens between Holly and her cousin. The Avengers are less than pleased by Dudley's reappearance.

Notes:

I hope you all are doing well despite the Quarantine! For all of you who are stressed and/or directly affected by it I hope you can come here for some peace of mind! I'll be updating this story for a long time, even as I gear up to begin to write the final arc of the plot. I hope to see you all each week in the comments section! :)

Dudley tried, not for the first time that morning, to make himself seem smaller than he actually was.

You see he had always been large. People hadn’t called him ‘Big D’ as a child for nothing. Part of his size was always going to be genetic, every man on his father’s side was just large. ‘Big-boned’, he thought was the polite phrase. His father always said that Dursley men were big and that was something to be proud of. They were bigger and stronger and that’s what counted.

Throughout his life though most of his size issues dealt with food though, eating far too much of it that is. As an adult he’d done his best to control how much he ate, it was important for his work that he look a certain way after all. It was fine if he was big, that was what his agent wanted, but he couldn’t look too flabby. A majority of his fat had been transferred into bulky muscle, although he would always have a bit of a paunch, no matter what he did. He normally liked his size.

But he rather thought it might be nice to be small.

There would be less for the Avengers to glare at.

The day before he had stayed up late to watch an American broadcast that went live at 3 in the morning in Germany. He’d been living in that country for the past six years, doing his job and generally forgetting the person he’d been as a child. When he’d first seen Holly on TV he’d injured himself during training he’d been so shocked to see his cousin fighting aliens in New York. He’d followed Holly in the news best he could after that, glad that the media storm that was threatening his parents hadn’t come to him.

And why would it? He hadn’t gone by Dudley Dursley since he was 21, hadn’t spoken to his parents since he was 20. As far as they were concerned, he was dead in an alley way somewhere. He’d gotten his name changed in a small courthouse in the middle of nowhere England and started a new life. He didn’t even look like himself thanks to the brown hair dye he had hidden beneath his sink and the colored contacts he now wore. No one in his current world knew who he had been, they knew he’d changed his name and had left to get away from a shitty family situation but not much more. No one from his past knew who he’d become.

Yet he had reached out to Holly anyway.

He didn’t even know what it was he wanted to say to her. Their last conversation had been so…disorienting. He’d just realized that the war Holly kept having nightmares about was real and he and his parents were going into hiding and Holly wasn’t coming with them. Because she had to win that war, even though she was younger than him and smaller than him. His dad had always said soldiers were the real heroes and that they were big strong men and yet here he was leaving to go hide while his tiny cousin was going to save the world.

He hadn’t known what to say to her then.

Still didn’t.

He’d tried to come up with something to say, he’d believed that when the war ended Holly would come back, like she always did every summer. Except Holly hadn’t come back and suddenly the garbled words he’d tried to put together were meaningless. He’d been angry at her for not coming back. Angry that all his efforts were in vain. Furious that he was stuck in a house with just his parents, who were now pointing all of their frustration about the world onto him.

He’d been angry with her for a long time. Angry and confused. Confused because she’d saved his life, saved the world, become someone. She’d done all of the things that he was meant to do. He was meant to be strong and successful and all that, that’s what his parents had always said. They always trained him to see Holly as his lesser, as the thing he was meant to be better than.

Realizing he’d never been better than her had stung. Especially when it seemed his parents realize the same thing at the same time. He’d had no aspirations, no plans for the future, and his parents didn’t like that he just sat around the house all day. He did exactly the same thing he’d done as a student, but suddenly they were annoyed by it just because he’d turned 18. He hadn’t understood, he’d been angry. He’d blamed the anger on Holly because that’s what one did wasn’t it?

And then he’d feel bad for being angry because Holly had saved him, had saved the world and what right did he have really? But there seemed to always be a voice that sounded like his dad telling him he had every right to be angry at Holly, to take his frustrations out on her. That’s what she was for.

He still had those thoughts sometimes and that scared him. He often wondered if he’d ever gotten better or if he’d just learnt how to hide it. Dr. Fischer always told him that was stupid and so did Ingrid, so that was something he supposed.

The tension in his home had erupted eventually and he had run away from his parents, in a sick mockery of the way Holly had run away from home when they were 13. He’d packed a bag, threatened his dad with his fist, and left the house without another word. He hadn’t looked back, even though it had been hard, and he’d become someone new. He’d gotten the idea to dye his hair and change his eye color from Tonks, one of the witches that had guarded them during the last year of the war. Tonks had looked like a different person every time he’d seen them and while he might not have had magic, he could still dye his blonde hair brown once in a while and put little disks of soft plastic over his eyes every day. He could tell people to call him Blake Thorn, which had been the coolest name he could come up with at the time.

Blake had almost been able to bury all thoughts of his past until Holly had become an Avenger. Then it had come hurtling back and Blake had felt like Dudley again. He stopped feeling like Blake, like the man he’d become, and instead he reverted back to the young idiot kid he’d been who only knew how to hit people smaller than him and eat. And the problem he’d had then of not knowing what to say was the problem he had now.

He’d reached out anyway, he’d spoken to a British bloke named Jarvis who had promised to send the message along. Then 12 hours later he’d gotten a message back asking if he wanted to meet up. Loki had apparently volunteered to pick him up from his home and take him to New York if he wanted for a short meeting. Blake had agreed, sent a message to his trainer letting him know he needed the next day off for a family emergency, and then given his address in Germany to the god who’d killed people there almost two years earlier.

Then he’d gone to bed and when he’d woken up, he realized he still had no idea what to say. So, he’d panicked and called Ingrid for advice. She’d spoken to him soothingly in German, asking for details, and then chastising him for not calling her sooner. Of course, he didn’t tell her he was going to see the Avengers, but he shared the rest of the details. She offered advice, giving him words to use that he hadn’t had 12 years earlier. It had helped.

Ingrid always helped. Ever since he’d come to Germany, she’d been there for him in some way or another.

When Loki arrived at noon, Blake had felt confident. Then he’d looked at Loki and felt suddenly quite small. The god had arrived in full leather armor, complete with a set of visibly sharp knives on his hip. He had glared at Blake, glared at him, like a dragon. Blake had swallowed and greeted him politely from the doorway.

“Hullo, Loki.” He said.

“That’s your highness to you.”

“Right.” Blake said. “Your highness. Are we going to go back to New York?”

“I’ve not quite decided.” Loki sneered. “I could take you and leave you in the pits of Muspelheim.”

So, it was going to be one of those meetings. Alright. Blake swallowed a bit awkwardly and then spoke.

“You could yeah, but then Holly’d probably want to rescue me for no good reason and then where would you be?”

“I think I could convince her not to bother.”

“Right.” Blake said. “Whatever you say, your highness.”

The man glared at him for his cheek, and he had the sort of glare that made a man feel small. Even if said man was twice as wide as him and just as tall, which Blake was. Loki waved his hand opening a portal that would lead them to who-knows-where and motioned for Blake to go on ahead. Blake swallowed and stepped forward into the portal. It could have led him anywhere of course but Blake was trying not to show that he was as scared of magic as he used to be. He let himself go through the portal and found that he had stepped into a room full of glaring Avengers.

Which…wasn’t ideal.

It was quite a bit less than ideal.

“How about you take a seat, Dursley.” Captain America said. “Holly’ll be here soon, we just thought we’d help you settle in.”  

He might not be the smartest man in the world, he wasn’t even close, and he might be quite good at boxing these days, but Blake knew full well he wouldn’t win in a fight against all of the Avengers. So, he nodded and sat down and tried to make himself look small. Which wasn’t easy for a man who weighed around 120 kilos, he was broad with large hands and meaty limbs. He had never been small, would never be small, but with all of earth’s mightiest heroes glaring down on him, he couldn’t help but dream.

“So.” Thor said. “You wish to speak to Holly?”

“Uhm yeah.” Blake said. “It’s been a long time coming, I think.”

“Oh, do you?”

“Well…we haven’t talked since we were 17.” Blake said awkwardly. “And well, with all that’s going on, it seemed like a good idea.”

“To avoid any repercussions for your actions?” Loki suggested. “I imagined your coworkers and friends are hardly pleased with you now.”

“Well, actually they don’t know?” Blake admitted. “No one in my life knows that me and Holly’re cousins. I told them me and my cousin were estranged and that I wanted to make amends today. I don’t think anyone is going to figure it out either unless I start telling ‘em.”

“So, nobody knows you’re here.” Loki said. “Or that you are Holly’s cousin.”

“Yep. I’m only here cause I want to talk to her, nothing else.”

“I don’t know if I believe you.” Tony Stark said. “What do you really want with her?”

“I just said.” Blake said. “I want to talk.”

“About what? We know your type bud.”

“I’m not your bud.” Blake said. “And that’s between me and Holly.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” Thor asked. “I suppose it would be simple enough to shake the information out of you.”

Blake rolled his eyes just as the elevator opened up behind them.

“Guys?” A familiar voice asked. “What are you all doing down here? Isn’t Loki supposed to be leaving to pick up…”

Blake turned to see his cousin, even though she looked well fed and her skin was sparkling, he knew it was her.

“Big D?” She asked in shock. “What happened to you? Why do you look like that!”

“Could ask the same of you.” He said motioning at her diamond like appearance. Her cheeks turned slightly more silver as she blushed and snapped her fingers, magically covering up the sparkles so that she looked more like the woman he’d seen on the telly.

“I meant your gut.” She said. “Never thought I’d see the day where you didn’t look like a beach ball.”

“Yeah well, my agent says I’ve got to keep the proper shape or no one’ll want to pay me.” Blake said. “So, I watch what I eat, better than I did when we were young.”

“Agent?”

“I box.” Blake said, shrugging. “Went pro ‘bout 8 years ago, I’ve been doing mostly tours in Berlin. I do alright for the most part. Agent wants me to try and go for an American Circuit soon, but I don’t know if I want to move cross the pond.”

“Boxing?” She asked. “I don’t know why I’m surprised, you always were good at hitting things.”

Blake winced at that. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t. His boxing was only done in the ring or in training and always with consent. He followed the rules and he never went too far, never.

“It’s really the only thing I’m good at.” He admitted.

“You were also good at sneaking sweets as I recall.”

“I learnt my lesson about that thanks very much.” He said sternly while she grinned a bit. “Look, can we talk? I… I understand if you don’t want to hear from me, I do. But I just…I scuffed our last meeting and I’ve always regretted it. I didn’t really have a way to contact you till now and…”

“Sure.” She said interrupting him. “We can talk out on the balcony and you all will not be listening in.”

She said the last part to her team who all looked quite mutinous at her declaration. Blake decided to get up and follow her before Loki or the weird guy with the metal arm could do anything with the knives they were fingering. Holly, who was wearing the jumpers she loved, and jeans that were still a bit too big, led him out from the penthouse and onto a balcony that overlooked the entirety of New York City. It was an amazingly beautiful skyline. Holly planted her elbows on the glass fence the surrounded the balcony and sighed. Blake slowly lumbered over to her side, and settled himself carefully once he was sure the glass would hold his weight.

“So. Dudley.” She said.

“It’s Blake now.” He said.

“Blake.”

“Blake Thorn.” He said. “Changed it myself when I was 21.”

“Why?” She asked mystified.

“Didn’t like myself much.” Blake shrugged. “And when you’re 20, dyeing your hair and changing your name seems like the best way to not be yourself anymore.”

“No. I mean yeah I get that.” She said. “But why Blake Thorn?”

“Thought it sounded cool.” His cheeks reddened as she snorted and started giggling. “It’s really not that bad! I mean when I’m boxing it works.”

“Does it really?”

“Sure! People call me Blake ‘The Brickwall’ Thorn. That’s cool.”

“Yes.” She agreed sarcastically. “Very cool.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” He sniffed, making her roll her eyes.

“Why haven’t Vernon and Petunia told the world about their precious baby boy yet?”

“I haven’t spoken to them in nearly nine years.”

“What?”

“Did you think we’d be a happy family after you left?” He asked her incredulously.

“I…yes?”

“Holly, mum and dad are sick.” He said. “They hurt people, everyone in their lives. After you left and the war ended, they didn’t have you to hurt so they started hurting me and each other. It was never you who made us like that, it was always them.”

“I don’t…I don’t know what to say.”

“Neither do I.” Blake said. “Words and I have never gotten along.”

“You made yourself pretty clear just now.”

“Yeah well. That’s my therapist talking.”

“You have a therapist?”

“Dr. Fischer.” Blake said nodding. “Started going to him about…oh I dunno six or seven years ago? It was right after I moved to Germany to start boxing there. I didn’t know the language for shit, my agent was always up my arse about training or sponsorship opportunities. I was at this promotional event thing and I was so tense. Furious at everything and everyone and I felt ready to just pop off. Then some tiny kid, couldn’t have been more than 16, dropped a plate of finger food on me and suddenly it was like I was dad and he was you and it…”

He’d left before he did anything he regretted. He could still remember being so terrified of himself in that moment. He’d been ready to blast that shaking kid with every cruel word he knew, he’d been ready to grab him by the arm so hard it left bruises in his skin. He’d wanted to.

“I left. I freaked out on my own and punched a hole in a wall and decided I didn’t want to be like dad anymore.” Blake said. “I went to a few therapists until I found one I didn’t immediately want to punch in the face and…yeah.”

“I can’t believe you went to therapy.” She said.

“Didn’t you?” He asked.

“No.” She laughed a bit. “There was never time.”

“Bollocks.” Blake said at her. “I know you and if you’d wanted to go, then you would’ve made time.”

“I…I guess you’re right.” She said. “Didn’t seem important enough I guess.”

“A child soldier getting help with their trauma caused by both abuse and war didn’t seem important to you?”

“Oh, shut up. I’m fine.”

“Sure, you are. That’s why you spilled your trauma all over international television two days ago. Totally normal healthy behavior there.”

“Does anyone ever tell you, you’re an arse in your new life?”

“My girlfriend calls me a dummkopf at least three times a day and I usually deserve it.”

“A girlfriend huh?”

“Don’t change the subject.” He said. “But yes, her name’s Ingrid, she’s a boxer too, we’re about the same size actually it’s nice.”

“She sounds nice.”

“She makes me feel…trustworthy.” Blake decided, nodding to himself. “You remember how dad used to get in mum’s face about you? Anytime you’d do something, he’d lock you up and then he’d…he’d scream in mum’s face. Drag her around sometimes you know?”

“I never saw it.” Holly admitted. “But I always guessed at what happened.”

“I did see it. And it was…terrifying. Dad was so much stronger than mum, he could do anything to her, to you, to me.” Blake said. “And I just…I am always afraid of being like him, cause I was him when we were young, and with Ingrid I don’t ever have to worry. If I ever tried anything like that on her she’d kick my arse.”

“I like her already.” Holly said nudging him lightly.

“Thought you might.” He said. “But seriously, did you not ever get any help at all?”

“I was sort of saving the world, things didn’t magically get better after I killed Voldemort you know.” She said. “There was so much to do.”

Blake thought about telling her what Dr. Fischer always told him. Which was ‘you can’t save others if you’re drowning yourself’. But he didn’t know if that was his place. Really Holly could be doing fine, he doubted it, but magic was a strange force all on its own. Maybe there was a spell Holly knew that could just wipe away trauma like it had never been. Maybe their shared past didn’t hurt her like it haunted him. He had to admit the idea stung a little, that their childhood had stained him while leaving her still pure. And he hated that it stung, if Holly was fine, he should be rejoicing over that.

But really, if she was fine what did that say about him? Comparatively he’d had it easy, he’d escaped the worst of the abuse by becoming an abuser himself. And if even that little had done him so much harm while Holly, who had suffered so greatly, was fine? Was he just that spectacularly weak?

This would be the point of course where Dr. Fischer would point out that he wasn’t weak for needing help. That humans were designed to help each other and receive help in return. That him asking for help required a lot of bravery and that he shouldn’t compare his suffering to others. But Dr. Fischer wasn’t here, and Holly was and Blake wasn’t sure what to say to his cousin.

 “You should go.” He said instead. “It’s nice.”

“Therapy is nice?”

“Well no. That part sucks, it’s the after part.” He said. “That’s nice. It’s…I dunno, better than mum’s chocolate cake.”

“That was my chocolate cake.” Holly said. “Your mother never made that for your birthday. I always did, took ages.”

“Really? Huh.”

Holly snorted again and then straightened up. She was so small compared to him, she always had been.

“Did you really come all the way here to tell me to get therapy?”

“No. I came to apologize.” Blake said. “You were the one who kept changing the subject around.”

“I’m not the one who died my hair and legally changed my name.”

“Blake is better than Dudley, you know it is.”

“I’m not saying it’s not, you just can’t blame a woman for getting distracted.”

“Are you going to let me apologize to you or not?”

“You don’t have to.” She said. “You were only doing what Vernon and Petunia tau-”

“Don’t justify it.” Blake snapped, having to resist the urge to slam his hand onto the glass fence that was holding him up. Holly froze at the anger in his voice and Blake swallowed. “Sorry I just…Holly I hurt you. And while I’m stupid, I’m not as stupid as that. I chose to hurt you. Mum and dad didn’t make me do it. I chose to do that to you every day. I have to take responsibility for that, and I have to apologize for it.”  

“Dudley.” She sounded shaken.

“Shit, has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?” Blake asked incredulously. “What the fuck? How is this…No. No. you’re getting an apology from me even if I have to jump off the side of this building to do it.”

“Dudley.”

“Listen, please Holly.” Blake said, he turned so that they were face to face and he swallowed. He hoped the words Ingrid had helped him create would be enough. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was such a shit to you. I’m sorry I was your first bully, I’m sorry I stole your food and hit you and blamed you for things that were my fault. I’m sorry for making messes just for you to clean. I’m sorry because even then I knew it was wrong, I just didn’t care. You saved my life and I got you in trouble for it because I was the worst sort of bloke. And when I finally realized how shit I was, you were gone and I hated myself so much that I erased myself. And even all of that doesn’t change the fact that I hurt you.”

“Dudley.” She said again, stopping his tirade.

Blake pulled back, he gave Holly a bit of space. The witch was swaying on her feet in shock.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” She spat at him. “Was that meant to fix everything? A few sentences and I’m supposed to forgive you!”

“No.” He interrupted making her pause. “You don’t have to forgive me. In fact, don’t. I’ve done fuck all to deserve it.”

“But then-”

“This isn’t me trying to put the right words together, so you give me the treat I want Holly.” Blake said gently. “I apologized because you deserved to hear it. If you punch me so hard, I fly off the side of Avengers Towers, I’d still feel sorry. If you turn me into a pig, I’d probably deserve it. If you tell me to leave and never speak to you again I will. You don’t have to forgive me, why would you? I haven’t forgiven mum and dad for the shit they did to me and what I did to you was so much worse.”

“You should have been my brother.” She said, her voice heartbreakingly quiet.

“I know.”

“We could have…we could have been a family.”

“I know.” Blake said. “And I’m sorry I ruined it.”

“I need to think.” She said. “I can’t…I can’t do this right now.”

“Okay. Do you want me to leave?”

“I…I don’t. Yes.” She said suddenly. “I need to be alone.”

“That’s fine. I’ll ask Loki to take me back.” Blake said easily.

Holly nodded and led him back inside without another word. She asked Loki politely to bring him home, insisting that Dudley had done nothing wrong. He noticed of course that she didn’t use his current name and he wasn’t sure at the end of the day what that meant.

“Take him home and don’t threaten him.”

“Fine fine.”

Which is how Blake found himself back on his porch as if he hadn’t even left at all. Loki was staring at him suspiciously.

“If I find out that you-”

“She’s probably upset.” He warned, admitting to the fault before Loki could finish the threat. “I apologized but that doesn’t mean it…it fixed anything. Just let her know that I won’t contact her again, she can call me whenever she wants but when and how we meet is up to her from now on.”

“I’ll let her know.” He said. “And if I find your actions today were unforgivable, I will be back.”

“Yeah I figured as much.”

      

Chapter 56: The Aether

Summary:

Ya'll remember Thor 2? Well guess what's relevant again.
Or, to put it another way: Holly Potter has received an apology she has no idea how to deal with and begs for anything, absolutely anything at all, to distract her from it.

Notes:

Is that??? Plot? Like actual plot? In my story??? Read below to find out lol.

The disturbances had begun just over a week ago. Fluctuations of energy that were distinct but brief. Tiny miniscule portals opening all over the expanse of the universe. A normal being would have been frightened, unsure. But Thanos was not normal, nor was he a fool. These portals were a gift. And Thanos was eager to utilize them. He had sent his forces far and wide what felt like eons ago for information on each stone. They were what he needed to complete his goals, to show his devotion for his beloved.

Each stone had a storied history, going from planet to planet, from civilization to civilization leaving destruction and chaos in their wake as they searched for a true master. The six pieces of the universe, the key to everything. He needed them and only he could truly deserve them. No one else could pay the price, no one else understood his vision for it all. Six stones and a gauntlet to bear them.  

There was one that had been hidden so well, so well as to be impossible to track. Bor himself had hidden it away in some unknown place in the realms 5000 years ago. Thanos had hunted down historians, sent his children out to threaten them and learnt what he needed to know. Knowledge tainted with the sweet acrid taste of blood. The Convergence was his chance. Wherever the stone had been hidden would be revealed for a brief moment when all the realms realigned. This would be the moment to trace the stone’s signature and collect it from it’s hiding place.

“Master.” Ronan growled as he entered. “Why did you call me back? I’ve almost found the orb.”

Thanos glared at the intruder. He’d been in even less of a mood for Ronan’s immaturity, for his short sightedness since his mirror stopped working. He had seen Holly, he had seen her, glowing like the cosmos and it had shaken him. He had watched her sleep, eat, bathe. He had watched it all, looking at the jewels that littered her skin with hunger. Her entire form, her power, her identity plain to him. Finally, finally. What he had been searching for was within his reach.

Then the mirror had shattered at his feet, sending shards of glass deep into the stone floor of his throne room. She’d been with that runt, off to do something, and his connection to her had been blocked.  He had been enraged by it, Nebula had born the brunt of his rage and now his most useless child was even more unusable than before. He had sent her out to be repaired, declaring her worthless to him. The weeks had passed with silence, his every attempt to reconnect, to see Holly, had been thwarted. Whatever that runt had done he would pay for, Thanos swore it.

This was the first good piece of news he’d gotten in weeks, the signs that the Convergence was upon them. And yet Ronan was here, ready to ruin that. The fool’s obsessions would destroy him, or Thanos would destroy him in their stead.

“You serve me, Ronan.” Thanos growled. “Do not forget that.”

“My duty is to annihilate the Skrull.” He said. “And those who ally themselves with them.”

“Your only duty is to me, to my purpose. Perhaps I should remind you of that?” Thanos asked. “A few days in my daughter Nebula’s place would teach you, wouldn’t it?”

“No.” Ronan said, his voice stiff as Thanos reached for the weapon at his side. Thanos let his hand linger in the air for a moment before the man continued. “That isn’t necessary.”

“Then do not question me. I called you here for a greater task then chasing after my daughter.” Thanos said.

“How may I serve you?”

“Soon the Aether will become traceable.” Thanos said. “You will trace it and retrieve it for me.”

“What of the Orb?”

“I know where Gamora will go to hide it.” Thanos said leaning forward on his throne. He knew his daughter too well, the greatest of his children yes, but not greater than him. She had betrayed him, discovered the location of the soul stone and now she was out to hide yet another from him. But he would not be fooled, he would go to Xandar himself. “It’s time I reclaimed my rebellious child and returned her to the fold.”

Around him the throne room became chillier as Ronan went to one knee and promised to reclaim the Aether.

“Bor hid it in one of the nine realms.” Thanos warned. “When the Convergence begins and all nine realms reveal themselves, you will not have much time to gather the Aether before it is hidden away again. Go to Earth, it is central to all the nine, you will be able to find it from there.”

“Earth?” He asked.

“Are you questioning me?” He stood up suddenly, his entire bulk pushing down on Ronan. Ronan flinched and pushed himself lower to the ground.

“No Master.”

“The Other and my remaining children will go with you, they have been gathering forces to suppress those who would keep me from my goals.” Thanos said. “Do not fail me.”

It was true, the remaining bits of the Black Order had been very busy gathering monsters and weapons and devices to destroy those pitiful heroes, to test Holly once more. They had a veritable army ready for just this purpose. The respite for Earth was over. He would ravage it, culling it of life again and again until he had what he required. The runt had hidden two stones there somewhere on that mudball. Earth was the key to everything now. It was where Holly had chosen to hide herself, it was where she had shown herself to him.

So Thanos had taken her at her word. The humans of earth would be annihilated, every single one of them. Every speck of life, down to the smallest parasite, would be squashed. He would test her, send everything he could at her, and then, when the time came, he would send himself. Then the truth would be revealed and he would have his reward.

“I will retrieve the Aether, Master.”

“Go.” He ordered, a smirk firmly painted on his face. “And if you see the bearer of the Deathly Hallows? Do not touch her, leave her for me.”

Ronan nodded and left the room in a rush. Thanos waited for a moment before standing and picking up his spear. It was time for him to greet his daughter Gamora, there was information he required from her and a lesson she needed to learn. Just because he had taught her everything she knew, didn’t mean she knew half of what he did.

*****

In the end it had been the woman, Holly, that had made her decision for her. Nebula had seen her power for herself, had been forced to look into that demented mirror and watch as Holly decimated her opponents with power unlike anything she’d ever seen. As she had laid on the surgery table, her cybernetics slowly being repaired, she had considered her options. She would have mere moments after she was fully functional to act.

She imagined it clearly in her mind, the electronics plugged painfully into her playing out the simulations, each one tinged red with her rage. She could break the neck of the man who was working on her body, take his weapons and move through the Sanctuary towards her father. She could destroy him, she knew if she did it just right she could get her blade into his throat. She’d taste his blood and victory and she’d choke on it.

But then there was that woman.

Holly.

She did not know what her father’s obsession with her was. Not truly. She had suspicions. Guesses that reminded her of two young girls from different worlds thrown into a pit and told to kill the other. Theories that stunk of forced amputations and mental manipulations. There was nothing her father loved more than finding power and bending and breaking it, especially when it came in the form of a young woman. And this woman was young, a human not even 3 decades old, showing off power that would make anyone salivate.

And yes she wasn’t a child, but really, what was the difference to a Titan? Something, the last kernel of herself that Thanos had failed to erase, itched at the thoughts that raced through her mind. She told herself it wouldn’t matter, if she destroyed her father, then these ideas were pointless.

But what if she failed?

Again.

Her life had been nothing but failure for far too long. Against her father, against her sister.

Gamora had betrayed her months ago when their father had found the orb. Her father had sent her to retrieve it, to find the soul stone. She had left Nebula here, alone, and then decided that she would rather what? Act like an idiot? Try and hide the Orb from their father? As if that would stop them?

The only thing that would stop him was Death.

And Nebula hated her sister for leaving her, for injuring her time and time again, for winning every single match against her. But. If she failed to kill their father then what? Then he would destroy Gamora and take Holly in, do to her what he does to all things powerful, perhaps even worse with the stones’ power at his beck and call. Nebula lacked the processing power to imagine it.

So yes, she hated her sister. But she hated her father more. And the last bit of her that mattered, the part that had seen Gamora as a comfort, that had hoped Gamora would stop hurting her eventually. That part would not quiet. The plan was carefully formed from those rebellious thoughts. As her father sat in the Sanctuary and planned, Nebula did too. She would do what she had to do to see her father destroyed.

When she finally came online, the servant flipping the final switch, she didn’t hesitate to reach out and snap his neck with her newly enhanced arm. He barely had time to gasp out in pain before the crack and squish of his bones echoed through the empty dark lab. Nebula pushed herself up, the metal bands keeping her confined bending and screeching as she forced her torso free. She checked over each of her limbs for functionality and then robbed the corpse at her feet for a weapon. She picked up a few small knives and pocketed them before taking the key to the lab from around the man’s neck.

From there it was pure ease to move through the bowels of the Sanctuary, out of sight and out of mind of her father. The Sanctuary was a desolate place, she had grown up here, she knew it better than anyone. She knew where there were dark corners to hide in. She could walk through the maze-like paths with her eyes gouged out. There were the dungeons where countless had been tortured and killed, the labs that she had been built in. The Sanctuary had the farms that produced her father’s army, cloning creature after creature. She avoided it all until she found her way to the hangar. She killed two more of her father’s servants before they could sound the alarm, disposing of their bodies in a garbage chute before climbing into a small sleek ship.

She waited until she was sure no one would notice, taking off at the same time Ronan did, hiding within his ship’s shadow. Her tiny one-manned ship flitted beneath the behemoth of a war cruiser, carefully cloaked in its shields. Once they were out of sight, she shot away, too small for a ship Ronan’s size to pick up as more than a small meteor. She ignored the exhilaration as she finally escaped the nightmarish place of her childhood. Nebula carefully typed in a few coordinates.

If her father thought he knew her sister well, then he had no idea.

Nebula would get to her first.

*****

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

The words gouged at her. It felt like rats were rushing around the inside of her heart, pricking it over and over again with those same words. Of course, she’d had apologies before. People bumping into her and saying ‘sorry’ as they passed. She had fought with Ron and Hermione before and they’d always made up. Hell, even the Avengers had told her they were sorry for the things she’d suffered.

She’d been apologized to before!

But why did Dudley’s still feel like the first?

It didn’t help that every single Avenger and their mother seemed to want to talk about it. She’d go down to Tony’s lab to see how his arm building was going and Tony would put aside his designs and tell her in his own awkward sarcastic way that he was here for her. That he understood what it was like to be neglected by family and if she wanted to talk then-

Then she’d leave.

She’d run into Steve and he’d bring up that he was starting to paint up on the roof, inviting her along to practice her skills. She’d follow along suspiciously and then when they were relaxed and working, he’d bring up her cousin and she’d chuck her canvas at his head before teleporting away. Winter would ask her for help with something and when she was helping him fold his laundry, he’d bring up how forgiveness is a tough thing. She cursed his shirts to wrinkle horribly just for that.

Nat refused to talk about the research she’d been doing on her family. Clint, similarly, promised Holly that his family was fine and that she didn’t need to do anything for them at all. Thor would ask her to knit with him and then gently try to question her on how she was feeling. Instead of lighting his yarn on fire, she only magically tangled it, distracting him enough to get away. Bruce wouldn’t let her help him with his Lycanthropy research and he said that the Hulk was also in agreement that he didn’t need any help, but that Holly did. Loki was an absolute betrayal. She’d thought the god of avoiding your feelings would allow her to do the same but no, he was even more insistent on asking her about what Dudley had said and how it made her feel.

It was driving her crazy. Even Jarvis was in on it. He’d order things for her, like her favorite treats or the makings of a spa for her bathroom. Gifts to try and please and calm her so that she’d feel relaxed enough to talk. Which would be fine if there was anything to talk about.

But there wasn’t!

Dudley, or Blake rather, had apologized. He’d said he didn’t expect anything of her and then he’d gone home.

That was all.

Holly didn’t have any complicated feelings about it. There were no discussions to be had. Holly was fine, entirely fine.

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

Okay so maybe she wasn’t totally fine. But she didn’t need everyone in her life bearing down on her like this. She could handle this. She’d handled it before and that was before Dudley had manned up an apologized. It should be even easier now to move on. She could just put aside her feelings, go forward with her life, and be her best self. She was the personification of life! She was the most powerful person on the planet, she wasn’t bothered by small things like her relatives or her cousin. She could rip a continent in half (probably), why should any of this matter?

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

No. Dudley. No. The people who should have apologized to her a thousand times never had. Thanks for ripping open that giant scar. The wizarding world had never apologized for letting bigotry fester for so long that a child solider had to end a war before it could become a genocide. Dumbledore, even while dead, hadn’t had the damn decency to apology for planning her martyrdom for her entire life. Snape had never apologized for abusing her for being like her mother and her father both. Remus had never truly apologized for never checking in on her, for choosing his fears about himself over her safety and security. Sirius had never once said sorry about choosing revenge against Peter over her, a recently orphaned infant. Her aunt and uncle had never, would never, apologize for the abuse, the starvation and the neglect.

No one ever apologized!

And that was fine. She didn’t need apologies. She had magic and her wit and…

It was fine. She’d moved on from it, hadn’t she? She’d won the war, she’d killed Voldemort, she’d escaped her abusive relatives. She’d saved the world. She was a superhero. She was better than all of that, and she done so much. She’d made her own family with Ron and Hermione and Teddy. She’d built a world where she was happy, where she was loved. She had friends in New York, people she trusted to fight by her side. She’d pulled herself out of the worst situation imaginable and built a paradise and she’d done all of that without a single apology.

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

She winced, why couldn’t she just stop thinking about that?

“Holly?”

“Not now.” She said, her teeth gritted.

Holly was currently in one of the gyms Tony had set aside for the Avengers. She’d cleaned the place more than once before. She’d gone down there in an attempt to get some alone time away from the rest of the team. Holly had conjured mannequins made of metal, enchanted them to fight her, and then summoned her sword and gone to town. The floor of the gym was littered with scraps of metal from her conquests, each piece still magicked enough that they were congregating together again and again into new mannequins for her to fight.

“I really do need to talk to you.” Loki tried again.

Holly rolled her eyes and turned around, as she did so she lifted up her sword and stabbed it into the center of the mannequin’s chest, filling the room with the sound of crunching and cracking metal.

“What?” She said, glaring at the god. He gulped at the sight of her.

“There’s something I need your help with.”

“I swear to Ralston if this is another attempt to trick me into talking about my feelings.” She said, wrenching the sword out from the mannequin only to roughly swing it to her left to cut through the other mannequin chopping through its shoulders. “Which I don’t have, because I’m fine. Then-”

“It’s not.” Loki said. “I admit that we might have gone… a bit overboard with that. I just want to know if you’ve been sensing anything strange lately.”

She paused, her magic pulling back into her causing all of the animated pieces of metal to drop to the ground with a clatter. She let her sword dip low so that the tip dug into the training mat beneath her feet.

“Strange how?”

“I’m not sure how to describe it.” Loki said. “I’ve spent centuries exploring the Yggdrasil, learning how to travel it. It’s doing something I’ve never seen before. I know you don’t have my experience, but you being what you are, I was wondering if you’re magic was reacting to it.”

“Let me check.” She said. “I’ve been a bit…distracted.”

“I can see that.”

“Shut up.”

“You know if you do need to-”

“Loki.”

“Right. Apologies.”

She rolled her eyes before letting them slip shut. She focused her senses outward, on the world around her. True to Loki’s word, she hadn’t had much experience with travelling the Yggdrasil. But Loki had shown her some things, and part of being what she was now, meant she was far more connected to it than before. After a few minutes of silence, Holly’s face twisted. There was something there in the air. It felt like…

“It’s…. untwisting.” She said.

“What?”

“I dunno, it just feels like…all of that energy is straightening out somehow.”

“That’s…concerning.” Loki said. “I should send a message to Frigga, to see if she knows anything about this. Come with me?”

“Fine, but no talking about me.”

“I promise.” He drawled in a very unconvincing tone. Holly agreed to come with him, waving her hand to banish the mess from where it came. Loki didn’t wait long at all to break his promise. He began again the moment they began to walk towards the penthouse. “It’s okay, if you’re not fine, about your cousin. And you say the word, I’ll box that boy into the Atlantic.”

“Loki. There’s nothing wrong.” She said. “He apologized, it was a nice apology. You all are making a big deal out of nothing.”

“Really?”

“Yes! I haven’t even thought about my stupid relatives in ages. I have my own family now, with Ron and Hermione and Teddy and all the rest.” Holly said. “I replaced them ages ago and I got over it. I had to, to help raise Teddy like he deserved. Nothing at all, is wrong with me.”

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

“Sure.” Loki said. “It’s just you’re tense Holly.”

“Maybe I’m tense because you all keep badgering me about it!” She hissed.

“We badger because we care.”

“Yeah, that’s a word for it.”

“You have to admit that you have a tendency to deal with problems on your own, Holly.”

“So?”

“So? You’ve spent the entire time you’ve known me, helping me with my problems.” He said. “Why am I not allowed to do the same for you? Why are you shutting every single one of us out?”

“It’s not like that.” She said. “And you said you wouldn’t talk to me about this!”

“I’ll stop when I know you’re actually okay and not a moment before.” Loki said. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’re my….Holly you are so terribly important to me, please let me help you.”

She wavered, she truly did. But she had no idea what to even say. There was no reason for the emotions welling up within her, they just existed and she had no way to speak about them. She briefly wished for something, anything, to break this moment, to get her out of having to try and reveal the ugly roaring thing beneath her chest.

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

“Loki.” She said, making Loki breathe a sigh of relief.

“Excuse me.” Jarvis said suddenly. “I am sorry but there’s an emergency. Thor has just received a call from Miss Darcy Lewis, Dr. Jane Foster has disappeared into some sort of portal in England.”

“What?” Loki said.

“She disappeared an hour ago with no signs of return, Miss Lewis and Dr. Selvig have requested aid in searching for her.”

“Well then.” Holly said, relief crashing into her. “Avengers Assemble, I guess.”

“We will talk about this later.” Loki swore.

Not if she could help it.

Chapter 57: Loki and Sif

Summary:

Jane Foster is possessed by something Loki fears is another infinity stone. He, Thor, and Holly leave to take her to Asgard to try and save her life, while the rest stay on earth to protect it. Of course Sif and Company go with them, which makes an already disliked situation oh so much worse.

Notes:

Important!: I'm getting ready to graduate from my Master's program, which means writing my thesis. I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next few weeks. I may not be able to post to this story on time or at all. I will do my best to keep up with the updates but school comes first. Please be patient with me in this and if you want to know when/if I'll be updating each Wednesday please go to my twitter, @Enigmaris1, where I will be tweeting out that information.

Loki had not expected to be back in Asgard so soon.

He had, in fact, hoped that he wouldn’t need to come back to this place for another century at the minimum. It was obvious that Odin would need at least 10 centuries more before he would be over his crushing defeat at the hands of Holly. He was even less pleased that Frigga had told them about Hela and that they’d broken his decree and visited her in her banishment. In all, that cocktail of situations had created an ornery and abrasive Odin that no one wanted to be around. He began to suspect that Sif and the Warriors Three had gone to earth both to be with Thor but to get away from the All-Father.

The people were happy though. The Lords and Ladies of the land had fought and argued for many things after the changeover in the government and things were looking up for a majority of their people, especially those in the colonies far from the royal city. They were more than happy to welcome Holly back and by extension Loki. It was strange, he could walk through the streets of the royal city and people would smile at him in a way they never had before.

It made him feel itchy.

He didn’t like that.

Hopefully they wouldn’t be there long. Either they would figure out how to remove the thing that had invaded Dr. Foster’s body, or she would die from it within a few days. Of course, he didn’t want her to die but it did put a nice little time limit on how long he was expected to remain here and pretend to be civil. Loki himself was in the Royal Library. Holly had sent him there to begin researching for anything that could explain what was going on with the Yggdrasil and with Jane. Holly was with the healers trying her best to help stabilize Jane while Thor spoke with Frigga about what they knew.

In all he was glad to have been given a task away from the rest of Asgard.

It allowed him to focus on more important matters.

Not that Jane Foster and the potential infinity stone inside her wasn’t important. But Loki was more concerned with Holly herself. She’d been terribly off in the days that followed Dursley’s visit. She kept saying that he had only apologized and that was all. But that didn’t make sense. An apology wouldn’t have left Holly teetering on the edge of a break down for days after would it? Not unless it was a stupid and manipulative cruel one, which Holly insisted it wasn’t.

A good apology was meant to make one feel better.

Which meant since Holly wasn’t feeling better then the apology had been a bad one. He just wanted Holly to talk to him, or to anyone at all really. He could comfort her and then go out and punch her cousin in the face or something. But Holly didn’t seem willing to talk about it. They had of course called Ron and Hermione after Dursley’s visit and Ron had offered them this advice.

“Treat her like a feral cat.” He said. “She wants help, but she doesn’t know how to accept it. Be slow, be gentle, and offer a lot of encouragement.”

They might not have followed his advice very well Loki could admit. Instead of gentle they’d all decided to be quite forceful and instead of slow they’d decided to all begin at once. Perhaps they deserved her glowers.

Still. Loki thought he might have been close. She looked ready to share before Jarvis had interrupted and they’d had to go save Jane Foster from the portals that had started opening up. It had been quite frightful to see the Yggdrasil just opening up portals randomly like that. He’d been able to find Jane and pull her back but not before she’d been infested by something. And now Loki was stuck in a situation where the universe was literally shifting around in a way it never had in his 2000 years of life and Holly was grabbing onto that as hard as she could to avoid talking about her feelings.

“Loki?” A very disliked voice spoke out making Loki groan.

“What Sif? I’m busy.”

“You are always busy.” She said stepping forward so that she visible from behind a bookshelf.

“Perhaps there is a reason for that.”

“I know you don’t want to talk to me.” Sif said. “But you must.”

“Oh I must?” Loki asked affecting a scandalized tone. “Apologies Dear Lady Sif I was unaware that I had to do anything at all when it came to you.”

Sif’s jaw hardened and she glared at him for his tone, Loki rolled his eyes.

“Go away.” He said. “I have no reason to speak with you at all, and every reason to focus on my own work, a woman’s life depends on it.”

“Do you love Lady Potter?” Sif asked.

Loki paused, shocked by the audacity of the question, Sif was standing there looking ready for a fight.

“What?”

“Do you love her or not?” She demanded again. “And don’t lie.”

“I fail to see how that is any of your business at all.” Loki said stiffly. “Holly is my friend and-”

“She’s everyone’s friend.” Sif interrupted. “Do you love her?”

What sort of question was that anyway? Of course, he loved her. He rather thought that anyone who knew Holly was bound to love her in some way if they had any brain at all in their skull. Holly had saved him from himself, had offered herself up as the last bit of the family he had lost 400 years ago. Holly had healed his mind, had freed him from Odin’s grasp. Holly was nothing but loveable.

But Sif wasn’t asking him if he loved her as a friend or as a shield sister. No, she was asking about love love. The kind she claimed to have for Thor. A statement that made him inwardly roll his eyes even as he thought it.

“Why does it matter to you?” He asked instead and when she opened her mouth to argue with him he lifted up a hand. “Either tell me or go, I have no reason to play along with your poor interrogation skills. Give me a reason or leave without the answers you oh so desperately need.”

“Holly…Holly flirted with me at the feast celebrating the destruction of Gungnir.” She said jutting her chin out, daring Loki to make fun of that fact.

“So?” He said. “She was high on an overdose from a potion I gave her. All by accident I assure you. Holly would have flirted with a plant if left alone with one. Which I’m sure she would have told you if you’d asked her.”

“She did.” Sif said. “But I…she flirted with me and I…”

“Oh Odin are you finally doing this?” Loki demanded.

“Doing what?”

“Don’t be stupid. I have waited for centuries for this, don’t be a coward about it now.”

Loki actually put his book to look at the woman he had been steadfastly ignoring for weeks. Was it happening? Was Sif finally admitting to him what had been painfully obvious since their adolescence? She looked uncertain and Loki smirked.

“Oh I see.” He practically purred. “A pretty woman finally showed an interest in you and you want to see if I’m competition.”

“What? How did you know that I…”

“Please.” Loki scoffed. “It’s obvious as the sword on your hip that you’re attracted to women, Sif. I’ve known for centuries.”

“How?” She demanded. “I didn’t even…”

He rolled his eyes and spoke in the same tone he would use to list out a grocery list.

“You have never in all the time I’ve known you courted a man. You tell anyone who will listen that you are waiting for Thor but you have never once made a move on him. Anytime Thor flirts with a beautiful woman you glare at him, because you’re jealous of his ability to charm her. You dress like that. The amount of times I’ve seen you gaze lustily at a barmaid is only comparable to the amount of times Fandral has done it.”

She looked more pale and frightened with each thing he listed, Loki barely kept himself from rolling his eyes.

 “Doesn’t feel so good does it?” He asked. “Having someone tell you this sort of thing? Imagine how it would have felt if I’d gone out and told anyone who would listen about it? You know, like you did to me.”

That made her flinch.

“There’s nothing wrong with…with wanting to be with someone of the same sex.”

“That’s not what you thought when we were young, back when you spread rumors about me being Ergi to absolutely everyone.” Loki said. “It was true of course, I’m equally attracted to men and women, which would make me as twisted as you claimed, but I did not enjoy having that fact known to every single Asgardian.”

“I didn’t know any better!” She said.

“Go away Sif.” Loki said. “I am not here to be your personal therapist as you go through your blasted sexual awakening. Figure it out yourself like the rest of us do.”

“No.” She said ground out. “I need to know if you love her!”

“You don’t!” He snapped out. “You have no right to that information, none. Holly is never going to be with you.”

She looked as if he’d stabbed her. Sif looked down at her feet for a moment.

“I know that.” She said. “She told me so herself. She said we couldn’t…because of you.”

“Me?”

“She said I was cruel to you, that she cared for you and so she couldn’t be with me.” Sif repeated. “She chose you over me.”

“And what? Is your pride pricked?” Loki asked.

“Of course it is!” She said. “Not that it matters, she wouldn’t chose you for a partner either, she likes women.”

Loki rolled his eyes and then let a bit of magic pass over her body. Her hair lengthened a smidgeon, her face softened and her body gained a few new curves. It wasn’t something she did often, changing gender wasn’t looked well upon in Asgard, but Loki found she no longer cared about that.

“You were saying?” She asked, her voice a few tones higher.

“That doesn’t count!”

“It does.” Loki said. “I’m just as much a woman right now as you are, Sif. If Holly only desired the company of women, which she doesn’t, I’d have the same chance you do, better even.”

She growled and stepped forward before frowning.

“No. I’m not fighting with you.” She said. “I just…I came to speak to you, about Holly. I wanted to know if you cared for her because she truly cares for you. I also wished…”

“You wished?”

“To apologize.” She said stiffly. “Holly made it clear to me that my actions were inexcusable. I don’t…I don’t believe she’d change her mind and be with me even if I did make things right with you but I am a woman of honor. I am sorry.”

“For what?” Loki asked.

“What?”

“What are you sorry for exactly? Please give me a list.” Loki requested. “Because honestly there are thousands of slights it could be and given the simple nature of your words I can only assume you’re just apologizing for one thing.”

“I’m apologizing for all of it!”

“Go away Sif.” Loki said again.

“Loki!”

Loki pinched the bridge of her nose as a wave of rage rose within her.

“Do you honestly believe that one ‘I’m sorry’ is going to cut it? After everything you’ve done?”

Around them the library was silent, as it almost always was. But it felt especially silent as she glared at the great warrior in front of her. She took in a deep breath and tried again. She looked angry with Loki as she spoke, but her words didn’t betray that emotion.

“I know I treated you unfairly, attacked you with the same cruel words that were hurled against me. I know I should have supported you, seen you as an ally instead of an enemy. I believed you were making fun of me, the first day we met, and I reacted poorly.” She said. “I’ve been speaking to Thor about many things, he told me you were the one who gave up his spot in training so that I could become who I am. I didn’t know that. I cannot fix the past and it’s obvious you don’t want that either. But you are owed an apology from me for this.”

Suddenly Loki knew exactly how Holly felt.

No wonder she hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

Apparently even decent apologies hurt. The apologies given not out of expectation of anything. Granted Sif was glaring at her as she said it, and it lacked the subservience one would expect of an apology. But it was honest. Sif meant it. She recognized that her harm had been real and wrong and she was sorry for it.

And it stung.

“If I tell you how I feel about Holly will you leave me alone?” Loki asked.

She couldn’t be with her in the room anymore. Sif nodded and Loki sighed.

“I care for her…deeply.” She said. “But love? Romantic love? I’m not certain. She has done so much for me, sometimes she feels like my caretaker instead of my friend. For now though, she is my dear dear friend. Now go away before I make you.”

She looked like she wanted to argue even moved to do so but something in Loki’s posture must have warned her off and Loki was finally blessedly left alone. She felt like she was reeling. She hadn’t wanted that apology, not really, not in that form. She hadn’t needed one certainly. She felt wrong footed and off and angry. She couldn’t focus on anything but Sif’s words. The words in the tomes she had gathered wouldn’t stick in her brain.

She was furious! How dare Sif think this was fine? That just a few pretty words would equal out all of the pain she’d given her. How dare she force this on her? She’d forced her to speak about her feelings for Holly as if she understood them. It was impossible to categorize who Holly was to her because she was so impossibly singular. It was impossible to deal with Sif’s apology because Loki was so impossibly angry.

Her apology had been clumsy and blunt, in the way Sif always was when she wasn’t on the battlefield. She could tell she was still hurting from Holly’s rejection, of Holly choosing Loki instead of her. (And if that thought didn’t make her preen, nothing would.) But the apology had been genuine. Sif was nothing but genuine, she did the things she thought were right and she was so stubborn it was nearly impossible to convince her to feel regret. The fact that she had received an apology at all, no matter how poorly given, was a miracle.

A miracle she now had to painfully deal with.

She wanted to figure out how to remove the energy source from Jane’s body. She wanted to go back to earth and eat something covered in chocolate. She wanted to go home and talk to Holly about the things that were haunting her because they were now haunting Loki. Loki found herself wandering the halls of the palace, the books and tomes and scrolls left behind. She needed to clear her head if she was going to be of any help to anyone at all. She wandered for hours, moving from place to place, letting the memories of her youth fill her. She wandered and she wondered what the point of it all was.

She didn’t realize she’d walked to Frigga’s rooms until she saw her carefully weaving at her loom, golden strands of magic being carefully twisted together to make a portrait of the realms that only Frigga could read. Loki stood there in silence watching her weave, she moved her tools of Uru with her hands, gently going back and forth along the tapestry, aligning strands and letting the magic knit together into a cohesive whole. She hummed as she worked, her mind and soul far into the future or past.

She watched as she paused in her work, to actually look at the thingshe had created. A frown marred her well known face as she discerned the news the norns had sent.

“Frigga.” She said making her look up, shocked.

“Oh Loki.”

“What is it?” She asked. “What do you see?”

“Something long past.” She said mysteriously. “I do not normally see visions of the past like this but…well perhaps the norns wished for a history lesson today.”

Loki nodded and didn’t ask for more information, she knew better than to interrogate a seer.

“I fear we are in great danger.” Loki admitted. “The being who sent me to Midgard originally, he searches for all of the stones.”

“He will not find them.” Frigga said, she was not looking at Loki but rather at her weaving. “Your grandfather and father hid many of the stones too well.”

“Did he? Odin hid the tesseract on earth and the humans found it easily enough.”

“All will be well.” She promised. “Focus on helping Dr. Foster, my daughter.”

“I don’t believe I can. She has something within her, I cannot control it.”

“Oh my dear one.” Frigga said, finally fully looking up at her.

Suddenly there was the sound of a huge crash. Loki winced at the noise but rushed over to her mother’s side as explosions began to attack the palace.

“Go.” She ordered. “Go help your brother, they are after Jane.”

“But you-”

“I’ll be fine.”

Loki nodded and rushed away, but not before giving Frigga’s hand a squeeze. The sky was filled with strange ships Loki didn’t know the origins of as well as creatures she thought might be elves. Although they looked so different from the beings that she had met in Alfheim. The creatures were attacking civilians and warriors alike, teleporting down from their ships to invade and conquer. Loki weaved amongst the warriors, using her knives and her magic to down as many of the strange elves as she could.

It didn’t take her long to find Thor. Her brother was in the midst of the fight decimating elves.

“Thor!” He called. “Where is Holly?”

“Still in the healing halls, guarding Jane!” He shouted.

“Do we know who’s leading this?” Loki demanded before firing off a blast of magical fired that burnt an elf to a crisp.

“No.” He said. “We must find the leader.”

“Let me help you gather our forces.” Loki said. “We need Asgard to unite itself.”

And together they managed to do just that. They fought together, helping the warriors of Asgard gather and fight back, instead of being overrun individually. They destroyed ships and protected children and the unarmed. The Warriors Three and Sif joined them, Loki was thankful that Sif didn’t try to talk to her again. She saw no sign of Holly, but Loki hoped that meant that Holly was doing fine. The fighting began almost as soon as it had started, the elves had come and attacked for no more than 15 minutes before retreating into dark portals the likes of which Loki had never seen. She tried to stop them, to follow them, but they were too quick and their magic too foreign. They were left standing in a destroyed city street near the palace wondering what the hell had just occurred.

“It was a distraction.” Loki said suddenly, her voice breathless. “They were after something.”

Her mother had said it! Had warned her and she hadn’t listened!

“Let’s hope they didn’t get it.”

“No Thor.” Loki said. “They were after Jane.”

They rushed to the healing halls together, only to find them destroyed. The large ornate doors had been torn off at the hinges and sent flying/ The soul forges in the room were reduced to rubble along with many of the walls and windows. It was total chaos. They couldn’t see very deeply into the healing hall, only that there were injured healers trying to pick themselves up.

“Holly!”

“Jane!”

“Over here!” Holly called from deeper into the rubble. “We’re…we’re fine.”

They found the two women huddled together, both looking rather shaken. Holly was bleeding severely, and it looked like she had multiple broken bones. Loki immediately knelt beside her and began to administer what heling she could offer. Holly leaned into her chest with a sigh of relief as some of her pain was lifted. Jane looked far less damaged but no less frightened. Thor reached out to Jane, keeping her steady.

“What happened?” Thor demanded.

“The…the creatures came here, and I tried to fight them off.” Holly said, gasping for air as she did so. “But I couldn’t.”

“She tried killing them.” Jane said. “But her magic just…failed whenever she tried.”

Loki’s first thought was that these strange elves must have had some strange protections on them to void Holly’s magic. Her next thought dismissed the first because she hadn’t noticed any of those protections during the fight. Her third and final thought was that Holly was the personification of life.

“You can’t.” She breathed, looking down at Holly. “You can’t kill anything can you?”

 

 

Notes:

Important!: I'm getting ready to graduate from my Master's program, which means writing my thesis. I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next few weeks. I may not be able to post to this story on time or at all. I will do my best to keep up with the updates but school comes first. Please be patient with me in this and if you want to know when/if I'll be updating each Wednesday please go to my twitter, @Enigmaris1, where I will be tweeting out that information.

Chapter 58: Confrontations

Summary:

Holly confronts Death and then is forced to confront her own feelings.

Notes:

so. I finished the first draft of my thesis. My brain is low on brain juice now!
Thank you all so much for your support, it really pushed me to get the job done. I should be getting the revisions on my thesis back any day now, so I may not be able to update on time again next week. As always just follow me on twitter, @Enigmaris1, for direct updates.

Asgard was too small for abandoned beaches or for empty destroyed houses. Even in the wake of the destruction of the attack of the dark elves, the golden realm was so teaming with life. There was frankly no place safe enough to summon Death on its soil. Holly’s ability to sense life had enhanced over time which is how she knew that about 99% of Asgard’s lands was unfit for Death’s presence. Holly managed it anyway. She did this by using her broom to fly to the tops of the mountains that surrounded the golden city and flipping the resurrection stone three times.

Death appeared, she looked nothing like the previous times she had shown herself to Holly. She looked, instead, like a little child with honeyed skin and strangely blank eyes.

“Hello Life.” Death greeted, sounding almost amused.

“Cut the crap.” Holly said. “Did you know?”

“Did I know what?”

“Death.”

“About the Convergence?” Death guessed. “Of course, I knew.”

“The what?”

“Surely, you’ve felt it, the energy in the Yggdrasil aligning itself?” Death pushed making Holly nod. “That’s the Convergence. It happens once every 5000 years, just a natural part of the Yggdrasil’s life cycle you’ll get used to it.”

“As lovely as that is that’s not what I’m talking about.” Holly said motioning to her own body which still bore wounds from her fight with the Dark Elves.

“Surprisingly Holly I do not spend my eternities watching you.” Holly growled at Death’s words and then made herself pull back.

“Okay fine.” She said. “Did you know that I can’t kill anything?”

“That? Of course, I did.”

“And you didn’t think to mention that?”

“I thought it was obvious.” Death said shrugging. “You are Life, you represent the flow of energy into the Yggdrasil, the beginning of all things. You have no parts in the end of anything. That is my domain. I cannot bring anything to life, or create, that is your domain.”

“You basically told me I had to destroy Thanos but didn’t think to mention that I can’t actually do the destroying?”

“You cannot destroy him. I told you, he destroyed every single one of his people to gain the power to dominate and control entities like ourselves.” Death said, her voice turning more serious.

“Oh.” Holly said. “I thought…I thought that ritual made him immune to you specifically not to…me.”

“That much is obvious.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” She demanded. “He’ll destroy everything if left unchecked, he has to be taken care of.”

“His ritual has forever put him out of my domain.” Death said. “You must be the one to neutralize him. It will be difficult, perhaps impossible, but he must be overpowered and defeated, locked away to wile away the eternities.”

“Right. Neutralize.” She said. “Which is going to be so easy to do since he has the power to dominate a fucking cosmic entity.”

“Now you can see why I prefer to remain apart, why most of us do.” Death said. “It is better for all if we remain in our positions and allow the universe to move through us rather than do any of the moving.”

“I can’t just stand by Death!”

“Then you risk enslavement.” Death said shrugging. “Thanos has identified you as a threat to his goals, he will come for you.”

She growled but didn’t argue the point. She knew, even before she’d flown up to this windy peak, that Death would be sullenly neutral as always.

“I never wanted to defy you this much.” Holly said. “Why me?”

Death didn’t pretend to not understand her question.

“Life cannot be as the other entities are.” Death answered slowly. “This is something I have determined since our last meeting. All of the rest of us can remain apart from it, we represent the workings that surround and sustain existence. You represent that existence. You had to be someone who would be a part of existence. You cannot be neutral and apathetic because Life is about being.”

She understood, somewhat, enough that she could nod and Death stopped staring straight into her very soul. After all, Death was neutrality wasn’t it? Death happened to everyone and everything as part of the natural order of things. But Life wasn’t like that was it? Life didn’t gift everyone with the same starting point. Some things were ants and some were gods and some were plankton. Life was a constant unfair struggle between a million moving parts. It wasn’t apathetic or removed. The other entities were not living beings, they were just the cogs that kept the Yggdrasil going, they had no choice, nothing but to be what they were. Life was all about choices.

“You’ve been ignoring this.” Death said. “What you’ve become.”

“I haven’t.”

“You have.” Death said. “Using magic to cover up what you are, to wear a human guise that no longer belongs to you.”

“That’s just to keep people from questioning things.” Holly said.

“Don’t lie to me.” Death snapped. “You’ve denied your place in the order of the universe. You haven’t used your abilities once since you knew what they were.”

“I haven’t needed too!”

“Oh? So those injuries you received at the hand of those Dark Elves? Those were on purpose.”

“I thought you said you hadn’t been watching me!”

Death just gave her a look and Holly huffed.

“Don’t look at me like that. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t kill him!”

“You are not a human. You are not me. You are Life.” Death said. “You must begin to act like it.”

“What does that even mean?” She demanded.

“Why would I know?” Death asked. “I’m not Life.”

She barely resisted the urge to scream. Death rolled her eyes, looking far too old for the body they were currently inhabiting.

“You must explore your abilities.” Death ordered. “Discover what you can and cannot do, learn the extent of your domain Holly Potter. Face who you truly are. Else you will surely fail in your fight against the Mad Titan.”

Then Death was gone. And Holly was left bereft on the top of a windy mountain. Down below her Asgard continued to repair itself. They were all very lucky that a majority of the damage was architectural. As far as she knew no one had died. This was mostly because it was incredibly difficult to kill an Asgardian and both Loki and Thor had been there and working together in the name of protecting the land. Holly in the end hadn’t been much help at all.

She sighed and let herself fall to the earth beneath her feet. She hadn’t been ignoring her identity and new powers, had she? No. That would be irresponsible. She’d asked Hermione to read into it and then promptly forgot about it. That was different. Besides she hadn’t expected her powers to be all that different. She hadn’t felt different, her magic was mostly the same. Sure she’d noticed that more aggressive and deadly spells were more difficult to cast but that had been waved off.

Of course, now, looking back, it was clear that the reason those spells had even worked at all was because she hadn’t been directing them at anything but the air.

She sighed to herself. Was it her fault that exploring her immortal abilities had been put aside?  There had been so much going on with the castle and her team and with the world. She could hardly be blamed for putting it off. And sure, maybe she’d started wearing the glamor on her skin more and more often, but the sparkles were distracting. Looking like a perfect, inhuman being wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Wearing the glamor that made her look like herself, it was only fair.

Right?

Even she didn’t believe that.

It was just easier not to think about it. Because if she started to explore her abilities then she’d have to think about the fact that she was no longer aging. And if she thought about the fact that she wasn’t aging then she’d have to think about the fact that everyone she knew was. Then she’d have to think about the fact that she had the power to make the people in her life equally immortal. Then it was terribly easy to consider the fact that she could never ask anyone to bear that burden, this never ending curse, with her.

And that was just too many thoughts for one being to have.

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

Her face screwed up in frustration. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. Why was it always her? Why? Had she done something as a baby to deserve it? Had it been an action in the womb? Why had the entire universe decided to harm her? Why did she have to be the one to suffer? To struggle?

Why did the universe never apologize for it?

Why did her parents have to die? Why did Dumbledore leave her with abusive relatives? Why did no one ever check up on her? Why did the Hallows have to fall into her unwilling hands? Why? Why was it that every time she tried to do good, the world seemed to try and punish her for it? She couldn’t have anything good anymore could she? Had she ever had anything good? It was all ripped away from her in the name of the Greater Fucking Good eventually wasn’t it.

Holly crumpled up on herself as these thoughts continued to grow in her mind. A cacophony of hopelessness.

She was never going to be happy.

Nothing she did would ever make her happy, because any scrap of it she found would be torn from her by a universe that needed her to suffer for everyone else. She’d tried to run from this before hadn’t she? Run to New York and became a cleaning lady and for what? She’d been pulled right back in. And she’d thought she’d had a choice. Ha! There had never been a choice, not for her.

“Holly?”

“Go away Loki.” Holly said from her huddling position on the ground.

“I don’t think I will.”

“Please, leave me alone.” Holly begged.

“I take the conversation with Death didn’t go well?” She asked.

“Loki, please.”

“I’m sorry but I can’t do that.”

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

“Damn it Loki.” She hissed. “Just go away!”

Her magic flared out of her, breaking the glamor she’d placed on herself and sending shockwaves into the mountain beneath her feet. It rumbled and shook, the noise sounding like thunder as it rolled out to the valley and the people below. Loki stopped, her eyes wide, as she looked at Holly.

“Just go.”

“Holly.” Loki said. “If you were to find me on the top of a mountain on the verge of tears would you leave me alone?”

“I would if you fu-”

“No, you wouldn’t.” She cut her off, her voice firm and yet still so calm. “Because you’re a good friend and you love me. Please don’t do me the disservice of denying me the right to care for you.”

“Don’t make this about you.” She snapped.

“Well if I don’t make it about me it’s very clear you won’t bother with it at all.” She snarked. “So needs must. You will hurt me if you don’t share your feelings.”

 And Holly snapped. Her magic rocked out of her again, shaking the world around them, cracking stone and rending the earth beneath their feet.

“Fine!” She shouted, Asgard trembling with her voice. “You want me to share? Fine!”

Loki was prone on the ground, doing her best to remain somewhat upright as Holly began to glow and snap.

“I’m useless!” She said. “The only thing I’ve ever been useful for is being a fucking weapon and now I can’t even manage that because I’m the universe’s bitch! I can’t kill Thanos! I can’t even crush a stupid little bug! I can’t die! I can’t even stop thinking about Dudley Fucking Dursley of all people!”

The shaking was spreading out further and further. Below them Holly could hear rocks falling and sliding down below, cracking and smacking against each other.

“I’m furious!” She shouted. “Furious with fucking Death for deciding to make those stupid Hallows and for never telling me anything. I’m furious with you!”

“Me?” Loki squeaked.

“Yes! You!” She snarled.

And so it went. She listed out in every explicit way she could think of why Loki was worthy of her rage. She attacked her planet. She never bothered to show Holly her ancestral home. She kept comparing her to Ralston without apologizing. She gets into fights with Thor all the time that Holly has to fix. She manipulated her into talking about her feelings even though she didn’t want to!

When she finished with Loki she moved onto every other person in her life. She was so angry at everything that she couldn’t even think straight. She couldn’t see that Asgard was shaking violently, every single god and goddess below her having to hold on for dear life as she threw a fit of cosmic proportions. She was angry at Ron and Hermione for retiring, for leaving her on her own to fight Death Eaters for two years. She was angry that they were able to find what she never would. She was angry that she was angry about them being happy and she was angry that she felt angry about it.

She was furious at Tony because he got to see his dead mum one more time, using up her one chance to try out the resurrection stone and now Holly would never get to meet her own parents and it wasn’t fair was it? She was furious at Clint for pranking her when she first started working there because pranking cleaning ladies just isn’t on. She was angry at Nat for having parents that were alive and deciding not to visit them. She was angry at the Dursleys and at Dumbledore and at Sirius and Remus and for every single adult in the Wizarding World that decided their lives were worth more than hers 100 times in a row.

She was angry at every single person she’d ever met on planet earth for being mortal, for being lucky enough to not be her. She was angry that she couldn’t ever fall in love or have children of her own or grow old or anything of the things that humans were meant to do. She was angry that she wasn’t human anymore. She was enraged at her own immortality. At the fact that she was going to be struggling for the rest of her existence because what was Life if not eternal torment?

She kept going, the energy pouring out of her and into the realm, threatening to finally and fully cause it to erupt into a thousand tiny pieces. Her entire body glowed, molten and bright, a volcano ready to explode, she towered over everything around her, a being so powerful it was beyond even a god’s comprehension.

And she was being hugged.

The words stuttered in her throat.

Holly blinked as the world stop falling down around her. Her face was currently being pressed into Loki’s tunic, the woman’s arms were crushing her to her chest, tight like vices around her rib cage.

“No one’s ever apologized for it.” She said. “Not really. And it doesn’t matter because my happiness doesn’t matter. It never did, did it? I’m useless, Loki. I’m useless and miserable and angry. And now I can’t even do any of that without ripping a planet apart.”

“You’re not useless.” Loki said fiercely. “And you’re not only good for killing, that was never your true purpose Holly.”

She closed her eyes, and shivered as Loki continued to gather her up into her arms. The goddess of mischief seemed to be trying to pull all of her in, every stray emotion and hurt thought, all of her power right into her arms where it could be sheltered and held.

“You help people Holly.” Loki told her. “You are a truly wonderful person, yes you are miserable right now and you have every right to be furious, but that doesn’t mean you’re useless or undeserving of every happiness. I’m so terribly sorry for hurting you. For never telling you that I stopped comparing you to Ralston ages ago. For never taking you to the Potter Home, I should have thought of that. You deserve to know it and it was selfish of me to hide it. I’m sorry the world, the universe, keeps dumping every problem at your feet. I’m sorry I contributed to that.”

“Loki.”

“Shh.” She soothed. “Let me finish.”

She nodded and Loki sighed.

“You carry so much. Please let me help you. Let all of us help you. You said you can’t ask for help, that you can’t burden others, but you are not a burden. You have never been a burden. Asking your two greatest friends to become immortal with you is not cruel. Ron and Hermione have already spoken with me and Thor about what they would need to do to prepare for being immortal like us.”

“They have?” Holly croaked, tears stinging her eyes.

“Of course, they have you ridiculous woman.” Loki said. “They love you.”

“Oh.”

Loki sighed, continuing to hold her closely.

“I’m sorry Holly. I’m sorry that someone as wonderful as you has been hurt so much.” She said. “You are so kind, so giving. Please let me help you, please let the people in your life give back.”

Her throat felt sore as she swallowed. Loki held her so gently and waited for her response. The words escaped her mouth on a tongue that felt dry and numb.

“I don’t know how.” And what an aching thing to admit to. That she was tired and she didn’t know how to rest. That she was aching and didn’t know how to heal. That she was drowning and didn’t know how to reach out.

“I can help with that too.” She promised.

“And how do you intend to do that?” Holly asked her.

“Well first. We’re going to get down from this mountain. Then you’re going to let a healer finish healing you because you left the healing halls far too quickly.” Loki told her. “Then you’re going to get some sleep while I figure out what the Yggdrasil is doing.”

“Death called it the convergence.” Holly told Loki from her position in the hug.

“Of course, she did.” Loki muttered. “Either way. You will be safe and Asgard is safe. When you wake up from your rest, you and I are going to try and do some meditation.”

“Meditation?”  

“Don’t knock it till you try it.” Loki warned. “It’s how gods divine what their abilities are. It can help you discover what it means to be Life without having to nearly get your neck broken by a Dark Elf.”

“What about Jane?”

“Jane is going to be fine.” Loki promised her. “She has Thor and his friends guarding her. It’s obvious the Dark Elves were after her, or rather the energy source within her. We need to remove the energy from her body in the next few days, which we will do, we just need to discover how. Once we’ve removed it we will have three of the six stones at our disposal in the fight against Thanos.”

“You make it sound so simple. I can’t kill Thanos.” Holly said. “I can’t save earth or any other planet. And there’s no one else powerful enough in the entire universe to do it.”

“We will figure it out.” Loki promised. “Please. Just rest for now and let me carry your burdens. Just for a while.”

She found herself nodding in agreement, Loki sounded so sure and Holly needed someone to be sure that this would work out. So she just let Loki hold her up as they made their way back down the mountain.

*****

There was a planet, in a system that neighbored Xandar’s, that was bright and filled with life. It was also home to the Skrulls. They had landed there and begun to live in safety, under the protection of a human woman. They had allied themselves with Xandar and the shapeshifting race was quite happy. Their children were growing up in safety and plenty, and their enemies the Kree didn’t dare touch them. The capital city was nothing so grand as what another race might have built, it was modest and comfortable. It was centered around a large main square that had the capital building, as well as a few other important buildings that helped protect and guide the public circling it.

“DANVERS!” A voice yelled across the main square.

A blonde woman popped up from where she was playing a game of soccer with a group of green skinned children. She frowned as one of her friends rushed towards her from the capital building.

“What is it?” She asked.

“It’s Ronan!” He shouted. “The man’s heading back to earth! Xandar just sent the message through, the bleeding idiot’s making a move for the tesseract again!”

“Oh, is he?” The woman asked a smirk on her face. “How fascinating. We can’t have that can we?”

Around her all of the children giggled. One of them hugged her legs a smile on their young face. They looked up at the woman and asked with a breathless laugh.

“What are you gonna do Carol?”

“Oh I dunno.” The newly named Carol answered, the woman lifted up her hands. They began to glow gold. “How about I go show that old fart who’s boss?”

The children all cheered excitedly at Carol’s declaration and Carol laughed while the adults in the nearby vicinity rolled their eyes.

Chapter 59: Everyone Needs an Astrophysicist in their Lives

Summary:

In which Jane and Holly have a conversation and a few discoveries are made.

Notes:

I love Jane Foster and I feel she deserved better. This is a shorter one. Life is very busy for me right now and I'm not able to right as much as I normally would. Thesis writing is hard work!

In another life Jane Foster would have been quite unhappy in her current situation. She would have been still in a quasi-relationship with Thor, and she would have been the first human in Asgard in centuries, or perhaps ever. In that life Odin wouldn’t have been welcoming, the people would have been suspicious, and things would have been miserable. Not only would she have been in pain because of the energy currently possessing her, but she would have been on a planet filled with aliens who didn’t like her because of her species.

In this life Jane Foster was far more comfortable. Holly and the Avengers had paved the way for her, and now as she rested in the repaired healing halls, only a day after the attack, she was treated as an honored and welcome guest. The healers were all courteous and kind, doing their best to keep her comfortable and safe. Which is how she found herself relaxing in a nice bed, right next to Holly Potter.

“I don’t really think we’ve been introduced.” Jane said looking at the tired woman. They’d been placed in the same room to rest and heal after Holly had come back from her trip up the mountains. Loki had chased after her and brought her back to be healed. The healers had looked over her body and then declared she needed bed rest right away.

“No.” Holly said. “Things have been a bit busy, haven’t they? I’m Holly.”

“Yeah. Thor talks about you a lot when he calls.”

“What’s the deal with you two anyway?” Holly asked. “I know you’re not dating, at least I don’t think you are. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Jane decided that it couldn’t hurt to talk about it. She leaned back in her own bed, and looked up at the golden arched ceiling. The magic users of Asgard had really fixed the place up quickly. Even with all of the earthquakes that had happened, the city had been quickly put back together again. Or at least this part of it had. It was just the two of them for now. Thor had left to go talk to his parents about the invaders and Loki had gone off to do some research after lunch that day and Jane was done with laying around and sleeping.

“It’s weird.” Jane admitted. “We met and knew each other for three days. He…he was different.”

“Different?”

“Well attractive, and odd but still kind and earnest.” Jane said. “He looked at me and he…he made me feel seen. But we only knew one another for three days, before he’s suddenly almost dying to save me and then he’s a god and then he was gone. I didn’t hear anything from him for over a year, I just had to keep doing my research to try and find him. It wasn’t that I didn’t love him, or at least like him. It was just…so quick. When he came back I discovered that we hardly knew each other, and I still liked him, I do.”

“But it’s different now that you have the time.” Holly finished.

“Exactly.” Jane said. “I’m thankful he understood, when I told him that I didn’t think us dating would work, he still wanted to be my friend. Its better this way. I don’t have to try and recreate the magic of what we were during that week and we can just be ourselves.”

“Well. It sounds like it worked out then.” Holly said. “How much does Thor tell you?”

“Oh a lot.” Jane said. “He’s a smart guy in his own way, but Asgard is incredibly advanced, going to earth is like traveling back in time, technologically speaking. He doesn’t know how a lot of things work on earth because they’re so primitive compared to what he does know. He calls me and asks for explanations about everything. I think he thinks I know everything there is to know.”

“Well don’t you, Doctor Foster?”

“Ha. I got a doctorate in astrophysics not everything-ology.”

Holly laughed a little. The woman looked truly exhausted, her hair was limp and her skin pale. She looked different than she had when she’d left, her skin had sparkling freckles in them now, and she looked smoother, more perfect than any human would. Despite that she still looked terrible. Not only had she gotten pretty hurt protecting Jane and the other healers but then she had gone up somewhere in Asgard and caused those insane earthquakes. If the things Thor had told her were true, she imagined that the woman next to her was under far more stress than Jane herself was. Even though Jane was perhaps days away from dying a painful death.

“Are you alright Holly?”

“Tired.” Holly admitted. “There’s…a lot going on.”

“I’m sorry, for adding onto that.” Jane said honestly. “I didn’t expect when we were chasing down those weird energy signatures that I’d get possessed like I did.”

“It’s fine.” Holly said waving her off. “Not your fault. Apparently dangerous stuff would’ve happened anyway. Whatever is happening in the universe, it’s normal.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. It’s called the Convergence, not that I know what that means.”

Jane’s eyebrows knitted together. She, Darcy, and Erik had been chasing strange signatures all the way to England. The radiation patterns had been off the charts in intensity and the portals opening up all over had been even more interesting. Jane had poured over those charts making hypothesis and models about what could be causing it. She’d learnt a lot from Thor about how the universe was structured and how travel across the realms actually worked, at least in the theoretical sense.

“The convergence.” She said tasting the name on her tongue. “That’s…that’s interesting actually.”

“Why?”

“Well…How familiar are you with astrophysics?”

“Dumb it down for me.”

“Right.” Jane said, a smile in her voice. “The data I was collecting before this happened was weird. I theorized that something was happening to the connections between the realms, that was what was causing those small portals like the one I fell through to open. Normally there are set portals between realms that people use to travel between them. Trying to travel across the realms without these portals requires an insane amount of dark energy. So far as I know, Loki is the only one who can do it reliably and that’s because he-”

“She.” Holly corrected. “She’s a she right now.”

“Right. Sorry. She has managed to temporarily create her own mini portals, replicating the ones that form naturally, which allows her to travel pretty much anywhere. No one else can do that.”

“Okay.” Holly said. “What does this have to do with your readings?”

“Well…think of the portals that open between realms like…places where pieces of yarn will touch each other in a scarf. The yarn is knotted together in a pattern, and the strings touch each other in a predictable order and with a set length apart. Just a brief point of contact, almost rhythmic.” Jane said. “The readings I was getting, were changing the rhythm of the portals that we’d previously recorded. Instead of the portals occurring at a predictable length apart from each other, new ones were forming closer and closer together.”

“Which is how you ended up falling through one.” Holly said. “But why?”

“Well. Convergence.” Jane said. “In an ocean, a convergence is where two currents meet each other.”

“Okay?”

“And so. If this is a universal convergence, then maybe, something similar is happening with the realms. Like the energy currents from them are coming together, they’re getting closer and closer. Which means that the periodicity of portal formation would decrease asymptotically towards one.”

“Okay you’ve lost me.”

“If the realms are converging, or getting closer together, it would explain why we have more portals. The closer together the realms are, the less distance there would be between portal formation, but eventually the realms will get too close together and we’ll get a sharp decrease in the number of portals.” Jane said. “And when the convergence happens, basically, there would only be one portal between all nine realms, because they are so close together that you only need one portal.”

“Okay that makes sense.” Holly said. “Does it match the readings you found?”

“Yes? I mean I’m just trying to explain why more and more portals are opening.” Jane said. “But the word convergence, if that’s what this is, would lend credence to this theory.”

“Hmm.” Holly said. “I…have senses that should let me check if you’re right. It sort of works with what I’d found with my own magic. Things feel like they’re coming together. I mean the universe has to align at some point, right? Still, I’m not as familiar with these powers as I should be. You seem to understand the universe better than I do and I’m supposed to be a part of it.”

“Personification of Life, right?”

“Yep.”

“Okay.” Jane said. “So. You represent energy flow, like the introduction of it right?”

“I guess? I dunno. It seems esoteric to me. Do I represent babies being born or…plants sprouting? Seeds?”

Jane hummed again, glancing at the woman in the bed to her left. She really did look like a twinkling star. Thor had told her about the fight Holly had had with Hydra, where she’d flown in the air and looked so incredibly bright. Jane decided to test another hypothesis. After all, if someone where to ask her, an astrophysicist, what best represented life then she wouldn’t say babies.

“You sort of look like a star to me.”

“A star? Yeah Loki called me starlight before. It’s weird.”

“No. No I mean a literal star.” Jane said. “You do know what stars are right?”

“Uhm lights in the sky? Balls of gas millions of miles away. Sorry I dropped out of normal school at the age of 11 you’re going to have to give me something to go off of.”

Jane reminded herself that not everyone had been devouring books about stars and space since they were four years old. She sat up from her bed, ignoring the strain the rapid movement put on her body. Holly looked over at her, blinking in shock at her sudden move.

“Not your fault.” Jane said. “Look. A star, they’re like engines, they create matter and energy. We call it nuclear fusion.”

“Are you calling me a nuclear bomb?”

“No. nuclear bombs run on nuclear fission, opposite process. Nuclear fusion makes new elements and matter, fission breaks them down. You are obviously not part of the breaking down, you’re the building up.” Jane said. “Just think of a star as this place where protons, those are the basic building blocks of everything, are slammed into each other so hard that they stick together. Two protons make an element of helium, add another and you get lithium, then Beryllium and Boron and then it’s just six to make an element of carbon. Carbon! The building element of all things living, it all comes from stars.”

“So, when you called me a star…”

“I’m saying you represent the power to create matter.”

“I can’t create matter from nothing.” Holly said. “That’s not. That’s not how magic works. I have to take things that already exist and change them to fit what I want.”

“Maybe you couldn’t.” Jane said. “Before you turned into this. But if I’m right and you represent stars, if you’re nuclear fusion, then maybe you could. Just take the energy in you and make it into matter, like stars do.”

Holly pushed herself up, swinging her legs around so that they were facing each other in their seats.

“You’re crazy Jane Foster.”

“But I could be right.” Jane said. “Come on, what do you have to lose if you try and it doesn’t work?”

“Are you tempting me?”

“I’m trying to appeal to your scientific curiosity.”

“Okay.” Holly said. “Fine. How would we even test it?”

“Well…I guess you just have to try and make something.” Jane said. “Alchemists used to try and make gold out of nothing, try that. You have a lot of magical energy in you, just…use it.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“Magic’s your deal and stars are mine, just work with me.”

Holly laughed and then agreed to try. Jane watched as the woman held out both hands, cupping them together in front of her chest.

“How many…things are in gold?”

“Huh?”

“You said there were six of ‘em in carbon.”

“Oh! Protons.” Jane said. “Gold has 79. 79 protons, 118 neutrons, and 79 electrons.”

“Okay I have no idea what those things are.” Holly said, Jane opened her mouth to explain but Holly waved her off. “Doesn’t matter. I know what gold…feels like. I just need to take my magic and push it close enough together until it feels like that.”

Jane was starting to wonder if perhaps she’d suggested something a bit more dangerous than originally thought. After all, stars were also incredibly radioactive and deadly. Before she could tell Holly to wait on testing it, the woman put her right palm over her left, closed her eyes and began to press her palms together as if she were squeezing something between her hands. Jane watched as Holly began to glow, her sparkles growing in intensity till they were too bright to look at directly. She decided smartly that there should be something between her and whatever Holly was doing.

Jane managed to jump to the other side of her bed and duck for cover just as the light began to be incredibly blinding. The last thing she saw of Holly was the woman with a look of intense concentration on her face, with the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth. When the light faded, Jane slowly stuck her head up to see that Holly was still sitting there, looking much the same. Except she was now ogling her own left palm.

“Holly?”

“Look.” Holly said. “Look at it, Jane.”

Jane got up, careful to move slowly, the floor beneath her feet felt hot as if it had just come out of an oven. Once she was next to Holly, she saw what the woman had in her hand. It was a circle of gold, about the size of Holly’s palm and about 1/4^th of an inch thick. It had a dip in the center of it, which Jane had seen in her own gold samples that she’d melted down for various experiments. Pure gold always formed a little dip if it was melted and poured into a new container, she didn’t know why.

“Oh.” Jane said. “That’s…that’s something.”     

“Something. I just did the impossible.” Holly said. “This didn’t exist before me! The energy in this gold didn’t exist before I put it there! I just! Made it!”

Jane sat down next to Holly and carefully took the gold from her hand. It looked like gold, it felt like gold, it had the same weight.

“Are you sure it won’t…disappear?” Jane asked.

“It doesn’t feel magical.” Holly said. “Normally conjured stuff has this…spark to it. I dunno. Maybe I can’t tell because I made it.”

“We could have Loki look at it. She’d be able to tell if it was conjured right?”

“Definitely.” Holly said, sounding slightly light-headed. “We’ll ask her to examine it, they should be coming soon with dinner, right?”

“I hope so. I’m starving.”

Holly put the gold down onto the bed where it wouldn’t be disturbed and the two of them continued to chat. They hypothesized about the convergence and what it would mean for them as well as what the dark elves had wanted. They had clearly been after the energy within Jane, energy that had been hidden away until this convergence opened a portal to right where it was. Perhaps they’d been looking for it for a long time, waiting for an opportunity to capture it for themselves.

They didn’t come to any solution about that by the time Thor and Loki returned. The first thing Holly did was toss the gold at Loki to catch.

“Look at that. Tell me if it feels funny.” Holly told her.

Loki looked over at the gold, casting a few spells on it, before looking back up at Holly, confusion plain on her face.

“It’s just normal gold. Nothing magical about it.”

“Well fuck me then.” Holly said.

Both aesir gaped at the language while Jane laughed.

“You’re a genius Jane.”

“Thank you.”

Holly summoned the gold from Loki’s grip and held it up to her eyes.

“I think. I think I can work with this.” Holly said, glancing over at Jane with a twinkle in her eyes. “You’re a life-saver, Jane. Literally.”

Notes:

As always please remember that I'm a bit bus for the next few weeks with thesis work, so my updates might not come. As always I will tweet out if I'm not updating on my twitter, @enigmaris1.

Chapter 60: An Invasion on Three Fronts

Summary:

The Convergence is beginning and evil is fomenting. Are the Avengers ready?

Notes:

This one is a bit shorter. But I'm just trying to prepare us for the multiple plot points that are um...going to be colliding soon.
Thesis writing still be tough, but I am taking breaks and practicing self care so we'll see how I fare!

The planet they were on probably had a name, if it did none of them knew it. What mattered was that the planet had a mostly breathable atmosphere. Mostly breathable because of all the fires they’d started. Nebula’s plan to track down her sister had not…necessarily gone exactly to plan.

She had found Gamora and her team of idiots, she’d even gotten there days before Thanos would.

But then Gamora had started attacking her and Nebula, temper already on a hair trigger, had fought back. And now, they sat across from each other, flames dancing around them, Nebula’s ship entirely destroyed and the planet they’d landed on suffering from quite the blow. In the distance she could hear the rest of her sister’s team trying to pull themselves up. They had tried to fight against Nebula as well, but she’d dispatched with them easily enough.

“You’re the one who wanted to win!”

“Don’t tell me what I wanted!”

“It’s obvious! You flew all the way across the universe to-”

“You were the one who wanted to win! I wanted a sister!”

Gamora paused. The woman’s skin was battered and bruised from their fight. Nebula’s entire ship, small as it was, had been destroyed by the fight and they both had the burns to show for it. Nebula could feel the damage done to her cybernetic limbs, a faint echo of the pain she should have been able to feel, would have felt if they were her real limbs. She wrenched herself up, forcing the metal limbs to reconnect. Gamora stared at her, something like horror in her eyes as she continued.

“You were the one who kept winning.” Nebula shouted. “He tore my eye from me head, my brain from my skull, and my arm from my body. Because of you! You were all I had!”

“Nebula.” Gamora said, her voice suddenly soft. The softness hurt to hear.

“No. Shut up. I’m not…Thanos has chosen another.” Nebula said, finally getting the point. She refused to gut herself further in front of her sister.

“What?”

“For months I have watched him stalk this woman.” Nebula said. “He wants her. Wants her in a way he never wanted us.”

The horror was setting into her sister’s face. They both knew better than anyone what Thanos did to those he wanted.

“She’s human. She has powerful magic yes but…”

“But she’s human.” Gamora finished. “Quill’s human. I know what they’re…Why her?”

“She killed Maw and Cull, single handedly.” Nebula said. “She’s powerful. She would’ve killed Corvus and Proxima but she took them into custody for questioning and they escaped.”

“She did what?” Gamora said. “How?”

“I didn’t see it. All I know is that our father is obsessed. He’s after her and the stones on Terra. He’s sending Ronan after the stones, after her.”

“So that’s why he retreated.” Gamora said. “He’d been chasing us for ages, but he stopped.”

As Nebula had suspected, her sister had noticed Ronan’s retreat. She wondered if the others had worried over it as Gamora would have.

“He has new orders, a more important target than you.”

“Why do you care?” Gamora asked. “About her?”

“Why shouldn’t I? You might not have cared for me but I don’t have to be like you.”

Gamora flinched.

“I cared. I did. I didn’t think you did.”

The two sisters looked at each other. The others tried to come closer but Gamora waved them off, giving them some room.

“Why are you here?”

“I want revenge.” Nebula said. “On our Father. I don’t…that woman doesn’t deserve it. She doesn’t. She’s soft.”

“Thanos doesn’t like soft.”

Well maybe Nebula did. She didn’t even know what softness was, but she had watched Holly just as much as Thanos had. She had seen the woman, she had seen her with her sweaters and kind words. She didn’t understand it, and yet she knew she wanted it. She wanted to protect it, let it exist. It reminded her of the time before their father, the memories that were hazy, impossible to grasp fully.

“There are two stones on Terra, at least.” Nebula said. “The Tesseract and the scepter. The woman, Holly, she’s there. Our father is moving, his glorious plan is coming together.”

“You want help.”

“I want revenge.” Nebula snarled. “He’ll go to Terra, you know it. We can beat him there, we can join that woman, we can kill him. She’s powerful enough to do it, she is. We just need to tell her what she needs to know.”

Gamora looked down at the ground between them, Nebula watched as her sister thought about her suggestion.

“Please. Please join me. Let’s stop him. If you cared for me, ever, you’d help me.”

And that made her look back up again, their eyes met and suddenly Nebula knew she had a sister, at least in this. Gamora nodded, once almost too lightly to be seen, then again more certain.

“Okay.” She said. “Let’s go to Terra.”

“What?” Quill demanded. “Terra? I don’t want to go there!”

“Shut up Quill! We’re going!”

“Oh man!”

Nebula rolled her eyes but pushed herself up from the ground, then she held out her hand to her sister. Gamora took it gently and let Nebula pull her up. They looked at each other for a moment, the destruction calming around them.

“I did win that one though.” Nebula said.

“Sure you did. Not like I saved you from your ship or anything.”

“You were the one who was stupid enough to let me live.”

They smiled at each other, Gamora moving to punch Nebula in the arm. Together they walked towards the rest of the team. The team she had almost murdered when she’d gotten there.

“Guys.” Gamora said. “She’s joining us.”

“What?” The raccoon demanded. “You said she was a psychopath!”

“I am.” Nebula said baring her teeth, making the raccoon almost do the same right back at her.

“Did she not try to kill you?” The Mutuae demanded, she thought his name might be Drake.

“Yes and?” Nebula demanded.

“Listen.” Gamora said. “She’s here with information about Ronan and my father. Ronan’s been chasing us for the orb, we managed to get it to safety but there are other stones just like it. Ronan’s going to Terra to take two more. We have to stop him.”

“If this is a quest to destroy Ronan, then you have my support.” The Might-Be-Drake said. “He killed my wife, my family.”

“He’ll kill everyone on Terra, everyone.” Nebula said. “If we don’t stop him.”

“Shit. Fine.” Quill said. “I’m in.”

“I am Groot.”

“Oh fine.” The raccoon said. “We’ll both help too. No need to thank us.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

And so there they stood, a group of heroes who were only classed as such because they did heroic things despite their selfish or dark motivations. Nebula trusted none of them, she didn’t even know if she trusted her sister, but she needed them. At the very least she’d need their ship to get off this planet. Together they went to Quill’s ship, which was an actual pigsty, Nebula sneered at the mess and stench and Gamora mouthed to her ‘I know’, making it clear her sister hardly approved. They took off, plotting coordinates for Terra. Nebula watched as they went, standing next to her sister.

She felt things were beginning to change. Their father would suffer for this, he would. And Nebula would be the one to make him pay.

*****

The planet Xandar was considered the most powerful, protected, planet in the galaxy. Their technological advancements and abilities could put them on par with whatever went on in Asgard, if one was to be a bit blunt about it. They might not have had the bodies of gods, or the magic of them, but their technology was just good enough to match it. Because of this, Xandar had always been relatively safe from invasion.

So much so that they were willing to extend that safety and protection to other races that had been harmed by peoples like the Kree or Thanos’ forces. Xandar had given a planet to the Skrull for instance, within their system, that was protected by their own armies and technologies, to allow the Skrull to recover and live in peace after their genocide. Ronan had tried and failed to breach the shields around Xandar’s planet.

They did not consider Ronan or Thanos to be a threat, which was why, when Gamora and her Guardians had offered the Orb to be placed under their protection, Xandar had accepted. Thanos would never dare to try and attack them head on, he lacked the power to do it, he would never have it either. Nova Prime Irani Rael, Commander of the Nova Corps, was of the opinion that there was very little they would need to do to defend against a hypothetical invasion. Thanos had left them alone, well aware of their power and the vastness of their forces.

Her pride, indeed the pride of all Xandarians, meant they did not listen to Gamora’s warning. She had told them, that her father would stop at nothing to get the stones, that they needed to up their defenses. That they should be ready for an invasion at any time. Rael scoffed at the woman’s paranoia. Xandar had the greatest shields known to the galaxy defending their borders. The Nova Corps was better trained, and better equipped than any other military force to be found.

And so when Thanos came, shortly after the Orb was placed under their protection. They were not prepared. Not as much as they could be, as they should have been. Thanos, unlike any other commander, was willing to send ship after ship, attack after attack, at their shields and at their ships, uncaring of the cost, if it meant he got what he wanted. Thanos would sacrifice millions of lives to take one more inch of land. And he had the millions of creatures to sacrifice.

It did not help that he was able to move through their shields, using portals that opened seemingly at random due to the Convergence to get through their protections and sneak creatures into the vulnerable belly of the capital city. The creatures, large lumbering beasts with gray skin and mouths full of sharp and cracked teeth, landed in their perfect city, uncaring of the beauty they were desecrating. The civilians in their fancy clothing, the soldiers with their weapons, none of them were ready.

The global energy shields failed quickly once their ships were divided between protecting the atmosphere and trying to protect the people on the surface. Thanos appeared with his giant ship, with the hundreds of transports. They fired at the shields, at the ships who were sent to guard. The shields, unable to handle the constant barrage failed, and then Thanos touched down.

He moved, clearly expecting to see his daughter there. He expected her to be ready to fight him, to face him like he’d trained her to. He’d known she would hide the orb on Xandar, falsely believing that he would be slowed by their military might. But Xandar had become weak and complacent with their power, and Thanos was motivated by a noble purpose, nothing would slow him. He would have his stone.

So, he moved through the destruction. His creatures killing and ravaging indiscriminately. His children should be preparing to do much the same on Earth. The Convergence had given him many boons. He killed any who stood in his way, leaving a path of blood and broken bodies. He could smell death in the air, his beloved was there, capturing the souls he gifted to her in the name of the balance.

He stopped in front of the Orb.

“Soon my love, soon I will have you.”

And then he cracked open the orb and let the power stone take its rightful place on his gauntlet. He grunted with the pain of it, of the power coursing through him, but he held steady. Around him the screams of the Xandarian sacrifices acted as the chorus of his triumph. He opened his eyes and flexed his fingers, looking at the purple glow, that now enchased his fist. He turned to survey the destruction, it was only one city that they had ravaged, and there was an entire world left to conquer.

“I’ll do this myself.”

And on that day, one day before the universe’s great Convergence, half of all life on Xandar was burnt to a crisp.

*****

Ronan neared Earth, a sneer on his lips. He hadn’t been to this planet in over two decades. The last time he had been there, he had been there as a leader of the great Kree Empire. He had led forces far greater than any other to expand his wondrous empire. But then, that woman, had betrayed them. Vers had been taken in by their people, trained and strengthened, she had her powers because of their research.

And she had spent less than a week on earth and betrayed everything she had been taught to stand for. Then she had destroyed his ship and scared him off from his plans of destruction. Ronan had sworn revenge, but it had been for naught. The woman had spent the next 2 decades doing everything in her power to dismantle the Kree. It had left Ronan alone, to beg for support from beings like Thanos, instead of being able to rely on his own people for strength.

It had been her who had protected the Skrulls, those shapeshifting freaks, and gotten them a place under Xandar’s protection. It had been her who had wounded the Kree Empire beyond all belief. What had been an empire that had taken centuries of imperialism to build had been torn down in decades by one arrogant woman. And now, Ronan had returned to the planet that had ruined it all for him, that had taken what mattered from him.

He would be there on the day of the Convergence and he would bring with him destruction untold. He would find the source of the Aether and he would retrieve it for Thanos, he would also deal a deathly blow to Vers the Traitor. She had placed Earth under her protection. But she was not here, was she? No. She was off on that primitive planet with those dirty people she had decided to protect. Ronan would destroy Earth and she would never even know it. Then he would return his gaze to the Skrull and finish what he had started.

His ship was filled with dangerous creatures, an army of beasts gathered from all across the galaxy by the remaining members of the Black Order. Whatever protections Earth’s Mightiest Heroes had in store would not be enough. They had creatures of acidic slime that could eat through Uru in moments, they had monsters made of bone and spines that could bite through even the greatest defenses. There were trolls and giants large enough to squash a mountain. All of the creatures filled his ship with their stench. All of them were just what he needed to finally have his revenge.

“Ronan.” Corvus said. “We will arrive within earth space in 16 hours.”

“Good. Send a few smaller ships on ahead, check for atmospheric defenses, do not land and do not be seen.”

“I will go.” Proxima said. “I know they have no such defenses, unless Asgard decided to provide it.”

“Go, and return quickly. We must destroy the earth, for Thanos.”

“For our father.”

“For revenge.”

*****

Malekith the Accursed had awoken with the Convergence. More specifically he had awoken when the Aether had. He and all that was left of his people had slept for 5000 years, seething in rage for what Bor had done to them. They were the oldest of the races, the Dark Elves. They knew what the realms had been like before it had all begun, before life and energy filled every bit of the Yggdrasil’s branches. They knew what reality was meant to be. The light reality of now was intolerable.

Malekith had planned on retrieving the Aether from that human woman and finishing what his father had started. He would destroy all reality, he would return the nine realms to the slumber and darkness it had known in its genesis. He would destroy the races that had emerged since then, it would all be restored to its natural and glorified state. But then he had seen her.

He knew her.

He knew her as everything that he and his kind had sworn to destroy. The pure embodiment of light. He had felt such rage, such revulsion. Yes, he hated Bor and all of Asgard for their destruction of his people, but that was nothing compared to the disgust, the loathing, he felt looking upon the star like woman who tried and failed to destroy him. He was her anti-thesis and he would destroy her. All he needed was the Aether and he would revert the universe to before she was, to before it all was.

He gathered the numbers they had left, he gathered the dark energies that called to him, and he prepared to swallow up the light that woman produced. He had not known one such as her existed, but he knew that if he were to trap her, pull her into a darkness so deep and great that she could not see over the event horizon, then what glories would there be! What darkness! What emptiness!

He explained all of this to his people, he told them all that it was this woman, her creation that had led to the horrific light that had plagued them for millennium. They had jeered about the woman who could not even lift a weapon to Malekith, that could do nothing but be wounded. She was weak, she represented everything that was weak and wrong with the world. She had not even been able to harm Malekith, and instead had used her own body to protect the healers.

She would die.

The Dark Elves cheered. Their first assault on Asgard had been a success, this had been partially because of the element of surprise. But Malekith was not frightened. The Convergence would begin tomorrow, and his power would be at its height. He would harness the dark energies that had been put down by the light and he would overcome, he would take the Aether as was his right. And he would consume.

And Life would fall.

Notes:

Alright tell me, what do you want to see next week. Earth's Invasion? Asgard's Invasion? Both? Would you rather me get back to the real plot of this story, Jarvis and Hogwarts' love affair?

Chapter 61: A Black Hole

Summary:

Malekith invades Asgard looking for vengence and Thor works on his knitting (not in that order).

Notes:

For the commenter who asked about Thor's knitting, this one is for you. For everyone else who asked for more Jarvis/Hogwarts content, it's coming.

Thor had, despite all evidence to the contrary, continued to knit.

He also continued to be subpar at it.

It wasn’t his fault, he would argue. His hands were large and the knitting needles Holly had purchased for him were made of some soft mortal metal that now had dents from where he’d gripped them too hard. His strength, so integral on the battlefield, worked against him as he tied some stitches too tightly, and then others too loosely. Sometimes, especially in the beginning, he would miss a step somewhere and end up with bunched up yarn or holes in the knit.

Despite this, Thor liked it. Genuinely so. He hadn’t expected to. Originally, he’d only forced an interest as an excuse to help Holly get a date with Kari. Which had…well Thor had gotten her the date, so he’d done his due diligence. There was something intensely calming about it, once he actually got his fingers and hands to move like Holly’s did. He could sit there and just watch the blanket that was slowly forming in his lap grow larger and larger inch by inch.

The blanket was supposed to be a soft warm thing that would fit comfortable over his mother’s lap and legs for the bitter cold days Asgard had occasionally. Thor knew his mother’s weaving room was drafty, he knew she could get chilled as she worked, weaving together visions from the norns. Often she would become so engrossed in her work she would not notice the chill until her hands were shaking so much from it that she could no longer do her work. This was meant to help keep her warm as she worked.

Although Thor wondered if it could do that with all of the mistakes knitted into it.

The yarn they’d picked was his mother’s favorite color of blue and it was soft to the touch. Thor had spotted it immediately in the store as Kari had shown him around, telling him what supplies he’d need. Now that Thor had enough of the blanket finished that when he worked on it, a majority of it laid on his lap, he found that it was pleasant to touch, mistakes and all. He had brought the knitting with him to Asgard. This was because he’d convinced Holly to enchant him a magic pocket that he could store things in, allowing him to work on his gift for his mother in whatever spare free time he had.

Holly had told him not to worry so much about it being perfect.

“Perfectly knitted things are cursed you know.” She’d told him, a sparkle in her eye. “Mrs. Weasley told me that when I first started and I was feeling tempted just to magic the entire thing together perfectly.”

They were all still in the healing halls, Holly had mostly recovered after a good night’s rest, while Jane was still looking ill. Last night had been filled with revelations about Holly’s power, but they had met here this morning for breakfast to begin trying to save Jane’s life. It was clear she didn’t have much longer before this would overtake her strength.

“How are they cursed?” Loki asked.

“Apparently they attract evil or something.” Holly said shrugging. “It’s an old witch’s tale, I didn’t really believe it, but the only sweater I ever made by magic, with perfect stitching, brought bad luck to whoever wore it, like terrible luck, so whatever it is, it’s real.”

“Huh.” Loki said. “Fascinating.”

“Back to my problem.” Thor said motioning to the tangled yarn.

“Right.” Holly said, moving over to help him untangle the yarn again. “Listen, Thor, this is important.”

“I’m listening.”

“Knitting is a form of magic all it’s own.” She said. “And you have to remember how many centuries Loki had to practice before he was good at magic.”

Loki made an offended face while both Jane and Thor smirked.

“Right.” Thor said. “You’re telling me to practice then?”

“No. What I’m trying to say is that all magic is about intent. And you’re making this for your mother right? Because you love her?”

“Of course.” He said.

“Then it doesn’t matter if the spell is perfect, it matters that you cast it.” She said, patting the blanket. “Your mom is going to be able to feel your intent, that’ll mean more to her than a perfectly knit thing ever could.”

“Especially if its cursed.” Jane added, making Thor huff.

“I suppose you’re right.” He said

“Mother will love it.” Loki said. “It’s not like you’re trying to give it to our sister or anything.”

Thor barely held back a shiver at the idea of giving his sister anything less than perfect.

“Your sister?” Jane asked.

“We have an older sister that neither of us knew about.” Loki explained to Jane. “Odin raised her to be an imperialistic warlord, hellbent on dominating every planet in the nine realms, and when she became too powerful for him to control, he banished her to a desolate wasteland for eternity. Then he made it illegal for anyone to speak her name and destroyed all record of her.”

“Holy shit.” Jane said.

“Yeah that’s what I said.” Holly said. “Well I thought it, I had a lot of things going on when I found out but still.”

“She’s still stuck there.” Thor added sadly. “She doesn’t feel that the things our father taught her were wrong. She still wants to conquer the universe. I know Holly could break her free, but the cost to innocent lives would be too great.”

“That’s terrible.” Jane said. “I’m so sorry.”

“She can still change.” Holly said softly. “She’s a goddess, she’s got the time to figure it out. And when she does, I’ll be ready to help her.”

“Until then we’ve been sending her care packages.” Thor said brightening up.

“You send her care packages, I send her alcohol, which she likes far better.”

Thor rolled his eyes at Loki’s tone.

“I’m helping her learn how to read.” Thor sniffed. “She’d forgotten.”

“Now she uses this skill to write rude words on things.” Loki added, making Holly snicker. “We have a mirror we use to call her and now every time it activates there’s a new insult carved on the wall the mirror faces.”

“She’s creative, at least.” Holly sighed. “Now. As fun as watching Thor poorly knit is-”

“Hey!”

“We do have something else to discuss.” Holly finished. “What have you found Loki?”

“I am confident that the energy within Jane Foster is an infinity stone.” Loki said. “There are four possibilities it could be; Power, Soul, Time, and Reality.”

“Okay.” Jane said. “Catch me up, what is an infinity stone? And why is it in me?”

Thor listened as Loki explained to Jane what exactly an infinity stone was. As always his beloved Jane caught on very quickly, despite her pain and exhaustion. She asked several astute questions that both Holly and Loki had to work together to answer to her satisfaction. Once Jane was satisfied Thor spoke up.

“The Dark Elves attacked us for the stone in Jane.” Thor said. “I tried to speak to father about the Dark Elves but he was…”

“A dick?” Holly suggested.

Thor didn’t argue it. Talking to Odin about the invasion had been…tense. Their mother had almost died. Would have if Loki and Thor hadn’t been there to help direct troops and keep their mother from being overwhelmed. It helped of course that the most dangerous figure had gone for Holly instead of someone who was…killable. The stress of the invasion, his father’s stung pride from both the Dark Elves and Holly’s presence had made him less than reasonable.

“He didn’t give me much. What I was able to gather from mother is that the Dark Elves seek to destroy the universe. They are creatures that existed before the universe did as we know it.” Thor explained. “I don’t truly understand how they existed before all that is, but they did and they wish to return to that state of darkness.”

“Okay. That’s not ideal.” Holly said. “And they want this infinity stone to do it with?”

“That narrows it down some.” Loki said. “Either they wish to go back in time to before the birth of the universe, which would mean Jane here is possessed by the time stone or they wish to erase all of reality, which would mean she has the reality stone.”

“How do we check?” Jane asked.

“If you would allow me.” Loki said. “I have the most experience with these stones. I might be able to do a few spells to test the energy.”

“What would this test entail?”

“I’m going to stress the stone and make it react. How it reacts will give us the identity. It might hurt, but you won’t die.”

Jane took a few moments to think about it before nodding. Loki got up and placed his hand onto her chest, right where her heart was. He began chanting a few words, green light poured from his palm and spread out. Jane gasped in shock at the sensation. Loki had to chant the same magical phrase three times, each time with more force, pouring more magic into Jane, for something to happen.

And happen it did.

The chair Holly was sitting on transformed into a dog, Thor’s knitting needles became two snakes (much to his delight), and all of the magical lights in the room turned into balls of water that immediately splattered down over their heads, spreading water everywhere.

“Okay.” Holly said, grabbing onto the now excitedly wiggling dog that had once been her seat. She’d barely managed to keep herself from falling and breaking something. “I think that answers that one.”

“You think?” Jane asked. “Holy shit that was weird.”

“Are you alright Jane?”

“Fine. I think it helped actually, let some of the energy out of me. Even if I am wet now.”

Loki made a tutting noise before waving his hand, undoing all of the transfigurations that Jane had accidentally done. Thor pouted at the loss of the two snakes that had been curling through his yarn and fingers.

“I think I know why it entered her now.” He said. “I have a theory, really.”

“Share with the class.” Holly requested.

“The Reality Stone is…ephemeral. I sensed that as I was pressuring it. It doesn’t have a solid form like the other stones I’ve met, I don’t believe it’s actually stable in its natural form. When it’s active it needs a container or host to stay together. The Convergence likely gave it enough energy to reactivate and it looked for the nearest host.”

“Me.” Jane finished. “So…we just need to find a better host?”

“A container.” Holly said. “We don’t want this in another being, an infinity stone is an insane amount of energy, keeping it inside of anyone would destroy them.”

“What about you? You’re Life.”

“I’m barely controlling the energy I already have.” She said. “I don’t think Asgard needs more earthquakes.”

Thor winced at the reminder, Loki had told him some of the things that had caused Holly’s breakdown and he could feel only sympathy for how incredibly overwhelmed his shield sister was. He often wanted to wrap her up in something soft and just have her take naps while he brought her sweet things to eat for the next century. But there just wasn’t time, there never seemed to be time.

Ron had warned them it would be like that.

Thor hadn’t believed him, more fool he.

They continued to try and plan out how they could save Jane from the infinity stone that had infected her. Thor did his best to knit and offer suggestions as he had them. Thor was intelligent yes, but he was not an expert in magic, he hadn’t had the patience. He preferred learning new languages and the math involved in space travel over the esoteric study of magic.

Unfortunately, their planning was interrupted by Sif. His friend burst into the room, weapon drawn and cheeks red from exertion.

“Heimdall is sensing dark energy on the horizon!” She said.

“The Convergence.” Holly said. “It’s starting.”

Thor dropped his knitting, while Jane held a hand to her chest, pain overtaking her. Loki jumped up, conjuring weapons to his hands.

“No.” Loki said. “We need more time.”

“We don’t have it.” Holly said. “Loki, Thor, you two go and get ready to fight.”

“We’re not leaving you.” Thor said. “Not now.”

Not now that they knew she couldn’t defend herself as she normally would. Holly hadn’t had the time to truly explore her power, she wasn’t ready for a fight. Not with the handicaps she now had to work around.

“I can defend them.” Sif said, before Holly could argue the point. “But you both are needed to face these enemies and protect our lands.”

Both Holly and Loki looked uneasy at Sif’s offer, but Holly accepted it.

“Fine.” She said. “Great, Thor, Loki, you two go already.”

Thor nodded, trusting his friend. He wished both of them safety and then he and Loki began to rush towards the exit, where they could begin to direct their army. Thor only prayed that the forces they had would be enough.

*****

Holly had an idea lingering in back of her mind. Something…something dangerous really. They’d already found that Jane felt better when some of the energy was released. What was killing her was the build-up of energy. They just needed something that Jane could pour that energy into. At least until they could remove it. If they were on earth she would’ve bothered Tony about building some form of the arc reactor that could handle that sort of energy. But they weren’t on earth.

But Holly did have something that might just work.

“Jane.” Holly said suddenly.

Both Sif and Jane looked over at her. Sif had insisted they move to a more guarded part of the healing halls, the warrior woman had taken her guard duty seriously. She had her sword in hand and she looked ready to pounce.

“What?” Jane asked.

“I think I know of a way to keep you from…exploding.” Holly said.

“Okay?” Jane said. “Let’s hear it.”

Outside the realm of Asgard was once again fighting for their land. Holly could feel the death and decay of war creeping closer and closer. Each lost soul, from the trodden-on grass to the aesir and dark elves, felt like a painful blip of shock on her heart. They could hear the shouts and battle cries and the explosions from the Dark Elf ships. Holly waved her hand, conjuring the item she had in mind from her magic storage and held it out for Jane to take. The astrophysicist looked at the thing in her hands in shock, her eyes widening as Holly explained the plan she had in mind.

“But I don’t know how to do any of that! I’m not like you or Loki!”

“You sort of are right now.” Holly said. “And if anyone can learn magic in five minutes or less, it’d be you Jane. Magic-”

“It’s just science we don’t understand.” Jane finished reaching out and taking the Elder Wand from Holly’s grasp. Right before she did, Holly tried to will as much of her desire for the wand to work for Jane as she could into the wood. The wand had done its job for Holly, transforming her into a personification, she hoped the wand would allow itself to be used now, by Jane.

“Okay.” Jane said. “What now?”

“Now. We fight.” Holly said, standing up.

“No. I meant to keep both of you safe.” Sif said. “Thor explained what you are Holly, you cannot fight, and Jane is mortal.”

“So, keep us safe.” Holly said. “While we go save Asgard. Because trust me, you’re not stopping me or her from going out that door.”

Sif frowned, but there was something like respect in her eyes. Holly hadn’t really had much interaction with Sif since their last meeting at Hogwarts. Of course, they’d spoken, but about nothing serious. It was clear Sif was…thinking about what Holly had told her. And Holly appreciated the distance the woman was giving her.

“I don’t know if I can walk.” Jane said.

“I’ll carry you.” Holly said. “Just until you’ve let out enough energy.”

“I’ll help keep you steady.” Sif said.

Together the three women made their way out of the healing halls. Sif led them to a tower that would give them a good view of the battlefield. As they walked, Holly quickly explained the science behind transfiguration, Jane was able to grasp it quickly, nodding along so fast that she reminded Holly of Hermione. Once they were settled, Holly quickly came up with a game plan.

“Okay, do you see those ships? Let’s change them into something less…able to cause explosions. Here take my hand.”

Holly held Jane’s hand carefully, lifting her hand up, so that the wand in Jane’s grip was pointing towards the nearest ship.

“Jane for just one day you’ve got magic.” Holly said. “You can do anything you can imagine. You know the mechanics. Have a desire, and will it into being.”

Jane took in a deep breath, her fingers tightening over the elder wand.

“You know what it felt like when Loki made the reality stone react. The energy traveled up from your chest and out right?” Holly said. “This energy is in you, and as long as the stone is going to be in you, it’s yours to control. Push that energy from your heart, down your arm, and into the wand. Let it flow, let it form around what you want. Bend it to your will, you are Jane Foster, expert in Astrophysics. You’ve got a doctorate. You study the stars, the universe. Knowledge is power, you understand how this energy works, you can command it.”

Jane’s face hardened and Holly grinned, continuing to coach Jane on the quick and dirty mechanics of magic spell casting. Without warning a violent blast of energy erupted out the end of the Elder Wand. It shot out like a laser, the red light warping and snapping out as it blasted right to the side of one of the strange alien ships. The energy of the blast sent Jane stumbling back into Holly, who also tripped a bit, Sif keeping them both from falling. The red energy spread over the hull of the ship, covering the thing within moments.

Then the light brightened so much Holly had to look away. When it faded, leaving red spots in her vision, Holly gasped. There were millions of blue monarch butterflies in the sky, where the ship had once been.

“Woah.” Jane said.

“There. You’re a regular witch now.” Holly said, ignoring that a normal human magic user would have died attempting a transfiguration that large. Jane didn’t need to know that. Holly was pretty sure that in another of circumstance Jane would have died. The Elder Wand was just powerful enough to direct the flow of an infinity stone without allowing harm to come to Jane, thank Merlin. “Now let’s see what you and I can do to help the forces down below.”

“Right.”

“Sif, you watch our backs.”

So together the three women began to help turn the tides. Sif would point out groups of Dark Elves or ships to attack and Jane and Holly would cast spells to either transform or divert those forces. They could see Thor and Loki in the thick of things, Odin was there as well, although he seemed to be having a hard time fighting without his precious spear. Of course, their actions did cause a lot of attention to be drawn towards their tower. Their tower was part of the palace, made of glowing white stone and high in the sky, it was no wonder they’d been spotted. The dark elf who had tried to kill them just days ago, fired at their tower, right below where their feet stood.

Half of one side of the tower crumbled from the energy blast, making the room they were standing in tilt dangerously. Sif grabbed onto both of them while Holly placed her hands on the stone windowsill in front of them and began to chant the levitation spell over and over again until they tower stopped falling.

“Okay.” She said. “We might be under attack.”

“You think?” Jane shrieked.

Another blast of energy came their way and Holly grit her teeth as more of the tower was destroyed, more of her magic spread into the top of the tower, surrounding the entirety of the room they were in. She forced her magic to hold the tower together and to keep it from falling. She kept her hands on the windowsill. The room they were in was slowly drifting away from the rest of the palace, within moments, they would be unable to get off through muggle means.

“Sif.” Holly said. “Get Jane and yourself out of here.”

“We’re not leaving.”

“Go. I can teleport! You can’t!”

“She’s right.” Jane said. “Let’s get to lower ground.”

Sif looked mutinous at the idea but did agree to go. She picked Jane up and then used her strength to jump down and across to a still stable part of the palace. Once they were safe Holly let out the breath she was holding. Another bolt of energy hit the tower and at the same time Holly let her magic go, pulling it back into shield herself. The top of the tower fell down to the ground in a terrible freefall, crashing to the earth with a violent rumble. Holly’s magic stopped her from being crushed or injured, forming a ball of white light around her that kept her safe. Once she was certain everything had finished falling, she used magic to clear a way out. Blasting stone and debris from above her so that she could crawl free.

As Holly pulled herself out, something grabbed her by the hair. She hissed as she was lifted to look directly into a Dark Elf’s eyes.

“I have waited long to destroy you.” He snarled.

“Funny, I’ve no idea who you are.”

“I am Malekith and I have sworn to destroy you.”

“Right. Right.” Holly said, ignoring the pain in her head from the tight grip on her hair. He was holding her up off of her feet, she lacked any sort of leverage for a physical attack, she’d need to cut herself loose again, or try a spell. Her magic hadn’t worked all against Malekith’s dark energy and she had no idea what would happen if she wielded a sword against a living being. “Why exactly are you wanting to do that?”

“You are everything that has ruined this universe.”

“Uhm…sassy?”

He growled and gripped her hair harder, shaking her a bit.

“I will trap you deep in darkness.” He said. “I will smother you.”

Suddenly Holly felt it. The Convergence was truly beginning. Portals opened everywhere she could see, giant ones, that allowed her to view every realm simultaneously. She could see just out of the corner of her eye earth, London she though it might be, and it was swarming with aliens, the Avengers fighting for their lives. She saw Tony nearly get eaten by a slime monster and she called out to him

“Look at me!” Malekith demanded. “Look at me while I destroy you, while I wipe out all light in the universe!”

Just as Holly was getting ready to summon her sword and cut her hair off, again. And what a trip that was, same trick twice in one year. Malekith’s hand began to glow, blackness spreading into her like ice. She gasped in pain as Malekith’s energy began to pull at her, her magic was being drained, her soul. The sparkles on her skin began to shrink as more and more of her own energy was rapidly drained into Malekith, a star meeting it’s end in the face of a black hole. She couldn’t move, her very essence was being yanked from her, it was a violation of the highest order. She felt as if she was being stretched thin, stretched out so that she was the width of a micron, her soul being pulled from her body like taffy.

Her vision began to darken, and she couldn’t even breathe.

Darkness.

Ice.

Then a blast of red energy went through the man’s side. Holly dropped to the ground like a ragdoll as the blast of energy passed directly through one side of Malekith and out the other, disintegrating his heart and inner organs. Holly gasped, shaking with exertion as she looked over to see Jane Foster, a fierce look in her eyes as she pointed the Elder Wand at Malekith’s corpse.

“I didn’t teach you that.” Holly said.

“Figured it out on my own.” She said.

“Ha!”

Sif walked over and gently helped Holly to her feet, her energy was flowing back into her from wherever Malekith had been pulling it to. Around them the fighting was ending as the rest of the Dark Elves were defeated. Holly got her breath back as Jane lowered the wand and walked over to her.

“You know, I could get used to this.” Jane said. “Now that some of the energy is drained.”

“You’d have to constantly be fighting to survive.” Holly said.

“There are pros and cons.” She joked.

Moments later they were joined by a frantic Loki and Thor, who were looking a bit worse for the wear. Their armor was singed and covered in blood, some their own but most of it belonging to Dark Elves.

“Holly!”

“Jane!”

“Are you alright?” Both of them shouted at the same time.

“I’m fine.” Sif said. “Thank you so much for your concern.”

Both princes looked chagrined, although Thor much more than Loki. Holly laughed a bit, coughing with it. Loki reached out to check on her and she waved him off.

“We have to go back to earth.” She said. “Now.”

“What why?” Thor demanded.

“Some alien is invading earth, London’s in flames.” She said. “I saw it through one of the portals that was open during the Convergence.”

She hadn’t even realized it had ended until now. But sure enough, sometime while Malekith had been sucking her dry the Convergence had ended and the portals had closed up. Already her senses were telling her that the Yggdrasil was returning to normal.

“We need to go help.” She said. “Now.”

“Right.” Loki said, not doubting her for a moment. “I’ll open the portal.”

“Asgard’s safe with me.” Sif said. “Me and the Warrior Three can handle it from here now that their leader is dead.”

To make it clear that Malekith was dead, Sif kicked his corpse once making both princes look down and realize that indeed someone had killed him.

“Thank you, my dear friend.” Thor said. “I will call on you once this day is done and the battle finished.”

“I hope you are victorious on earth. All four of you.” Sif said, looking at Loki seriously for a moment. Loki gave her a nod, accepting the words for what they were meant to be. Holly shifted so that she was standing on her own.

“Alright then.” She said. “Let’s go Assemble.”

Chapter 62: Ronan's Invasion

Summary:

London is under attack and despite the Avenger's best efforts, it looks like they're not going to last forever against the assault, not without the other half of their team.

Notes:

Ya'll its finals week. I am so tired. I want to rest. I want to sleep. Please enjoy the fruits of my labor. I wrote this instead of prepping fully for my final project presentation lol. Being a grad student hasn't changed me.

They had received the warning from Hogwarts of all people about the aliens. The ancient castle was well connected to the magical energies of earth, so much so that she was aware when things that were not meant to be near the planet were and could now react accordingly. Jarvis had been in frequent contact with her, of course he had, and she had been the one to share her concerns with the portals and the nearing object she could not identify. Jarvis had passed on that information to Tony who had managed to get a look into space with the help of some of his colleagues and the truth had become clear.

Another invasion.

They had more warning this time, they had plans. Warnings were sent out to every major government they could get a hold of. They didn’t know where the aliens were going to hit, they didn’t know anything but that it would happen within days. Of course, their heaviest hitters were off planet at the time, but the Avengers had decided to just act like Loki, Holly and Thor were on their way at any moment and keep going. They identified the location of the attack as London, where a lot of the magical portals seemed to be centered according to Hogwarts.   

There wasn’t enough time to evacuate the entire city of course, but there was time to get enough people out, to set up barricades, to bring in military forces, to save some lives. There was something to be said for the blessing of warning, for the blessing of experience. Another New York was not going to happen, not today. Tony was determined to make that true, no matter what it cost him. He was sure the entire team was on their side as well. Thankfully Ron and Hermione had been in contact and the magical world was rallying as well to defend London. Special wards had been activated to keep buildings from tumbling, aurors from all the world were stationed in strategic locations to protect muggle populations and help contain the invasion.

Whatever asshole that had decided that earth was going to be their playground was going to have a very rude awakening.

Tony had managed, in the hours before they headed out to London, to finish Winter’s arm. The man had made leaps and bounds since their time at Hogwarts. He was still wounded of course, you didn’t heal from being a prisoner of war overnight, but he had become a person to them since his memories had been restored. He and Tony had managed to finally, finally, mend what had been broken by Hydra and Tony had felt nothing but pride and relief as he’d watched Winter test out the new arm.

Said arm was now being used to break the necks of invading aliens, which was not necessarily what Tony had designed it for but it was still holding up so he counted that as the win it was.

“Jarv. Status report.”

“District three and four are currently under heavy fire, the aurors there are struggling against the slime monsters. Thankfully there are no muggle civilians in the areas” Jarvis said. “Rogers and Romanoff are en route as we speak.”

“And district five?”

“Recovered, the Hulk has managed to down the spine monster, and one of the healers on staff managed to coax him still long enough to heal his hands.”

“Where to next?” Tony asked.

“Barton is asking for aid in district two, he is running low on arrows and there are civilians.”

“Let’s rock and roll.”

They’d broken London into districts, each district was assigned an Avenger, along with squadrons of aurors, muggle military forces and even the London Police had pitched in to help protect and herd civilians away from the threat. Rhodey had flown in to helptoo and Tony, as the one of the two flight capable Avengers currently on the team, was moving between districts as fast as he could to help out when needed, his other suits were being run by Jarvis and Hogwarts to act as shields and defenders for humans as well as help save people if they were trapped in rubble.

The invasion had started with a bang, literally. The ship had pulled into orbit, lowered itself into their atmosphere, had failed to send even a warning and had fired on the city of London. The magical defenses the wizards had set up had held beautifully for the first shot, keeping the energy blast from decimating the city. But even Tony, muggle as he was, had felt the magic waver from the force of the attack. Then the ship had begun sending down monsters and an army of Chitauri down to the surface.

There were giants with skin that a direct blast from Tony’s arc reactor could barely scorch. There were these swarms of acidic slimes that ate through the asphalt and concrete of the city faster than the magic protecting it could repair. The monsters with spines were so strong that only the Hulk really stood a chance one on one, and the spines would even pierce his green flesh. That combined with the forces of the Chitauri had made this battle feel more and more impossible the longer it went on.

Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive had finally returned, along with a new player that no one knew the name of. The new player was calling the shots, sending his forces where he thought the Avengers were the weakest. He was clearly on the war path for reasons that no one could comprehend beyond knowing it probably had something to do with Thanos. It was clear that if they killed that guy (Tony was calling him Ass Face in his mind), if they killed Ass Face then the battle would be won, because the strategic leader would be gone.

But anytime any of them got close to the guy he’d call down for another barrage of attacks from the ship, taxing the wards on London even further and causing more havoc and damage. Every blast from the ship felt like a countdown to doom, the wards were being powered directly by the magic users who had come out to fight, working in secret and wearing spells to keep muggles from noticing them, they had divided themselves up, giving up a part of their own magic to protect the city, which while heartwarming, meant that each attack weakened and harmed the magic users.

So, whoever killed him had to be quick about it.

Tony flew into the next district towards Clint. He saw the archer on the ground, with a family who’d been trying to flee a partially destroyed building, his quiver was low, probably because he’d jumped down from his nest and stash of supplies to protect this family. He was currently firing explosive arrows at the hoard of Chitauri that were getting closer and closer to overwhelming him.

“Heads up, Legolas!” Tony shouted.

The archer immediately reacted to Tony’s warning, diving to the ground and pulling the family with them. In the next moment, Tony fired a high power blast from his gauntlet right through the group of ten or so aliens, killing 8 of them. The final two had been covered by their allies, Clint was able to fire from his crouched position within second to kill the final two, clearing the area for the moment. Tony landed, next to his friend and the family.

“You good?” He asked.

“Thanks for the save.” He said. “I can get these guys to the nearest barrier from here, I’ll hitch a ride back to my spot with one of those hovercrafts.”

“Sounds good. I’ll give you some sky cover.”

Tony took a moment to lift up his face plate and look the frightened dirty family in the eye and promise they would be okay. They nodded and allowed Clint to lead them towards safety at a run, Clint even picked up the third child so that the other parents could carry one a piece. Tony took off and began providing air protection, aiming and firing at anything that came near until Clint got the civilians to a nearby brigade of what Tony thought might be German military forces that took them behind a hastily erected barricade. Clint then fired an arrow at a nearby flying Chitauri, killing him and sending his hovercraft falling to the ground. Clint jumped on it and began flying it away with a manic grin on his face, waving at Tony as he did so.

“I NEED SUPPORT!” Winter said. “I’ve got Proxima and Corvus on me!”

“On my way.” Tony said boosting the thrusters in his feet and ordering Jarvis to take him to Winter’s location. He found the man admirably fighting off the two aliens, using both his arm and gun to fend off one while injuring the other. Winter punched the Corvus’ gut with the metal arm, sending him flying, then flipped around and fired at Proxima forcing the woman to take evasive action. Corvus recovered and pounced onto Winter sending them wrestling to the floor, but Winter played dirty and used his metal arm to elbow the alien in the neck.

Tony took action and fired at Proxima with a few missiles, one managed to clip the woman sending her back with an explosion. Tony landed on the ground in front of her with just a few moments to spare before she was on him with her special spear trying to run him straight through. The woman was brutal, Tony knew. She and the rest of her team had managed to down the Avengers once already. And the knowledge that one of their own had killed her ‘brothers’ had made the woman even more feral than before.

Tony fended off her attacks, his hand to hand wasn’t perfect by any means but the suit helped with his reaction time, he and Jarvis working together to keep Proxima from overwhelming them. Behind him he could hear Winter having a similar struggle against Corvus. Both Avengers were being pushed back, closer and closer together by the remaining members of the Black Order. He felt rather than saw the moment they were back to back with one another.

“Fancy seeing you here.” Tony said.

“Shut it punk.” Winter growled, his tone far too fond for the situation.

“How’s the arm holding up?”

“Works fine.” Winter said right before showing just how well it worked by decking Corvus right across the jaw in a serious sucker punch. Steve had told them that Bucky had been a boxer before the war and it showed.

“Good to know.” Tony said right as he had to lift up an arm to block a spear to the face plate. “You guys just don’t know when to quit do you?”

“Our father has declared your extinction.” Proxima snarled. “And we will fulfill his glorious purpose.”

“Glorious purpose my ass!” Tony shouted. “You’re all lunatics! And we will win!”

“Your strongest members are gone.” Corvus said, swiping at Winter’s mid-section with his scepter. “We will prevail today.”

“We don’t need ‘em to kill idiots like you.” Winter snapped, kicking out to the left and getting Corvus in the side.  

They continued to turn, their backs to each other, fighting against their foes with everything they had. Tony took a few hits to the suit, one of which got dangerously close to the arc reactor. Thankfully the protections Holly had spelled into it had made the blow glance away before it could do any damage. Proxima’s new spear wasn’t as dangerous as the one she’d had before, this one was obviously not as good, but that didn’t slow her down any. She managed to pierce the left leg and injure his thigh. Tony blasted her off and ignored the pain the movement cause. When she came back for another round Tony rushed at her and tried to put her into a wrestling hold. He grappled Proxima, who began to use her brute strength to bend and break the metal casing of his suit.

“Jarvis! Full power now!”

Jarvis didn’t even question him, funneling energy directly from the arc reactor and right into the woman’s chest. It was a near instant kill, draining Tony’s arc reactor dangerously. He got up on wobbling feet, with a painfully injured thigh, and turned to see Winter rolling to the ground and picking back up his gun, firing at Corvus.

“NO!” He shouted. “You killed her!”

He ignored Winter entirely, charging at Tony, ready for revenge. Winter used that distraction to jump onto Corvus’ back and use a knife from his boot to drive it directly into the back of the man’s neck and through his spine. The entire point of the knife was driven down with Winter’s weight, making the kill both quick and relatively painless. Both bodies fell to the floor, although only Winter managed to make the fall into a graceful roll onto his feet.

“Well.” Tony said. “That was a thing.”

“You alright Tony?”

“Fine, she got me in the leg.” He said. “But it’s not serious. You?”

“Bit bruised up, ‘ve had worse.”

“Sir. There is a slime monster coming towards you and Winter.”

“Avengers.” Hogwarts added, speaking directly into every comm. “I’m sensing the portals are beginning to open more rapidly, whatever is causing this, it’s ramping up. Prepare yourselves for portals, do not enter any.”

Before anyone could reply, the ship in the sky fired down again sending a booming shockwave into the city streets as the wards held strong once again. Tony winced, wondering how much longer the magic users could afford to drain themselves like this. Tony turned to Winter and the man nodded, agreeing to Tony’s plan before he could even give them.

“I’ll go high you go low, you act as bait and I’ll overheat the slime monster with some blasts.” He said.

“Sir.” Jarvis said. “The arc reactor needs more time to recover from the last…”

“We can do this Jarv.”

“Very well sir, but you must exchange out for a new reactor soon.”

“Let’s go Winter.” Tony said. “The sooner we blow that slime up the better. Don’t let it touch your arm, I worked hard on those circuits.”

Winter punched his suit playfully and told him to get flying. There were still moments of awkwardness, of course there were, but Tony overall felt a lot better about Winter than he ever imagined he would. Together the two of them tracked down the nearest slime, Winter drawing its attention with gun fire and Tony waiting in the wings, ready to overheat the thing with a barrage of tank missiles. So far this was the only method that actually worked at destroying the things.

He only hoped that the slimes didn’t have that reforming ability that the last slimes they’d fought had.

Although, if they did, it might be an omen of good luck. After all, the last time this happened, they’d all gotten to truly meet Holly for the first time. Maybe these slimes would bring with them some other ultra-powerful woman who kicked ass and took names and probably glowed. Tony snorted, he’d tell that joke to everyone once the fight was over, they’d get a kick out of it for sure.

Once the slime was in place, Tony fired the barrage of missiles, the slime roared as the first few pierced it’s flesh (was it right to call it flesh?) and began lashing out at the world around it, sending globs of acidic slime flying through the air. Everything the globs landed on was eaten through and disintegrated in moments. Tony saw Winter duck for cover, barely managing to get out of the way from the attack.

“Winter! FALL BACK!”

The man gave him a thumbs up and retreated carefully as Tony continued the barrage. The missiles went deep into the slime and began to explode, sending more and more slime into the street. The buildings on both sides were being rapidly destroyed by the attack. He winced when he heard screaming and saw a young man clinging to the side of a building three stories up.

“Jarvis get me over there!”

The suit stopped firing at the slime monster and the civilian spotted Tony coming for him and when Tony held out his arms, the young man jumped and grabbed onto him.

“Hold on tight.” Tony said. “We’ll get you out of here.”

“Oh, my g-d thank you, thank you!”

Tony nodded and helped lower the guy to the ground far enough away from the slime to be safe.

“Can you make it from here. You just need to get three blocks that way to the nearest barricade.”

“Yeah mate.” He said. “I’ve got it. You blow that bastard up for taking out my flat, you hear?”

“I’ll do my best!” Tony said with a laugh watching as the guy started sprinting in the direction Tony had pointed. He turned back and flew back to the slime. Tony’s distraction from the guy meant he hadn’t realized the slime had recovered. It swiped at his suit immediately and Tony wasn’t able to evade the attack. The acid began eating through the metal as he was sent flying towards the monster’s mouth.

“TONY!” Holly shouted.

Holly?

“Jarvis! Thrusters!”

Jarvis thrusted the suit right up and Tony flung around, well aware his suit needed to come off ASAP. All around them the sky was filled with portals, Tony could see planets he could have never imagined and to his left he saw Asgard. Holly was being held by the hair by some deranged looking alien.

“HOLLY!” He shouted, shooting forward to try and help her, before he could the portals began to wink shut and the last thing he saw was Holly’s ashen face as the alien continued to do something to her, his hands glowing with some sort of blackening energy. “NO!”

“Tony! Report in!” Steve said.

“I just saw Holly! She’s in danger in Asgard!” He said.

“Shit! Them too?” Clint asked.

“No wonder they haven’t come back.” Steve said. “Well that’s fine. We just have to stay strong and together. Let’s keep going.”

Tony flew as far away from the slime before he crash landed on the ground, the suit falling off in pieces, he listened as the team continued to talk about what they were going to do now that they knew back-up wasn’t coming. Tony began violently ripping off the parts of his suit that were more acidic muck than actual suit desperate to avoid contact with his skin.

“Jarv! Send in the replacement!”

“It’s on it’s way.” Jarvis said before Tony ripped the helmet off and fully escaped the suit. He looked down at the destroyed suit, holding a hand to the arc reactor that was still pristine and protected.

Thank g-d for Holly Potter.

Tony limped over to find cover, his injured leg and burnt arm kept him from being able to move freely. He was only in his flight suit and he didn’t have a comm on him to ask for help. He just had to wait for Jarvis to bring a new suit to him. Above them the large ship fired down again, Tony fell to his knees as the earth shook from the force of it. The wards were invisible to his muggle eyes but he knew enough from his study to tell that the extra shaking meant that the wards were failing, they maybe had a few more hits before the magic users would have to stop powering them or die.

Tony tucked himself into a corner, leaning against a brick wall that was probably 200 years old knowing the city he was in, and took his weight off of his injured leg. It was bleeding, which he hadn’t noticed before, staining his flight suit red. He gritted his teeth and pushed a fist up against the injury to stem the tide of blood. In front of him the slime monster was roaring and destroying more and more of the street Tony had just retreated from.

They were fucked weren’t they?

How long could they last under the assault? The only reason they were lasting as long as they had was because of the wards, but even those were failing under the barrage. Then what? All of the magic users fighting with them would be magically drained and unable to help. How long until they ran out of energy? Of supplies? Tony himself only had two suit replacements and three extra arc reactors stored for the fight and he’d just burned through both a reactor and a suit.

The suit came before anyone else managed to find him, and Tony was able to stumble into the suit, ignoring the injuries he’d accumulated and Jarvis’ worried voice. He quickly replaced the arc reactor for a fresh one, breathing a sigh of relief as the light in his chest stopped flickering. The pressure of the suit helped stem the blood from his injury and that was all Tony needed. He took off immediately and threw himself into the fray. If they were fucked, they might as well go down fighting. Which is exactly what Tony did, he managed to go back to the slime and finish blowing the thing up, and then he went to go help Rhodey with one of the spine monsters, the two of them flying around it and distracting it from the civilians below.

Hulk was the one who noticed calvary, bless his huge heart. When Holly, Thor, Loki and Jane arrived, Hulk immediately yelled out loud enough to burst what few windows that hadn’t already been shattered in the fight were left.

“NICE SPARKLE LADY!”

“HELLO HULK!” Holly shouted right back, sounding like a prayer come true to Tony’s exhausted ears.

“OVER HERE!” Steve shouted over the coms.

Tony watched as Holly grabbed onto Jane and Loki onto Thor, the two magic users teleporting the group over to Steve. Steve gave their returning team members comms and Tony listened to Steve catch up them while he continued to fight against the spine monster. Damn those spikes were sharp.

“Alright.” Holly said. “Jane, I want you powering those wards. You’ve got the energy to spare, relieve the other magic users.”

“There are other magic users?” Jane asked. “Right, sorry, not the time. But I want an explanation later.”

“I’ll take her to one of the warding spots.” Loki offered. “Help her connect to them so she can keep burning off the energy of the reality stone.”

“Thor, you think you can work to help kill these giants?” Nat asked. “They are too many for the Hulk to handle on his own.”

“Anyone want to explain why Jane is powering the magic wards?” Clint asked.

“Later.” All of the returning Avengers said.

Thor flew off using his hammer towards the nearest giant, yelling a battle cry as he bowled into it, sending it to the ground with a crash. Meanwhile Holly conjured her broom and took to the air.

“I’m going to focus my efforts on the leader.” Holly said. “If I can distract him, he won’t be able to keep firing at us.”

“Kill him if you can.” Steve said.

“Yeah. That’s gonna be a big if.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rhodey asked.

There was no answer as Holly took to the skies and went right towards Ass Face, who paled at the sight of her. Good to know her reputation proceeded her. Holly didn’t have her wand, but she did have her sword drawn, ready to meet Ass Face’s first defense. Tony watched from a distance, unable to fully focus on her fight as the spine monster took this opportunity to side swipe him and sending him flying through an apartment building.

Above them the ship was almost constantly firing down on the city, shot after shot, but the wards held, the world barely shaking below them. Loki confirmed that Jane was now connected to the wards and they would be powered indefinitely. One problem solved.

“Lokes mind coming over and helping us kill this spine monster thing?”

“On my way Stark.”

Loki’s magic was able to break through the spines and help them finally down the creature, between the three of them. The fight continued, the comms filled with chatter and requests for aid. Nat got trapped by a troll and was saved by Rhodey. Winter managed to get tossed by a spine creature and caught by a flying Thor. Hulk jumped through the air with Clint on his shoulders, the archer firing exploding arrows towards their targets, distracting them enough for Hulk to smash. Loki caught Cap’s thrown shield and tossed it right back, decapitating a few Chitauri on the way. The wards held and Holly kept swinging her sword at Ass Face with all she was worth, like she had something to prove.

Tony did his best to keep up with it all, working with Jarvis and the rest to coordinate their efforts. The police and military forces were moving civilians and fighting against the Chitauri, keeping the weaker parts of the invasion distracted. The giants and trolls, the slime monsters and spine creatures wreaked destruction across London, buildings toppling and melting and crumpling against the attacks. It often took groups of two to four of them to destroy even just one of the creatures, and while they focused on one, the rest would use that to cause more and more damage.

There were fires breaking out, water pipes bursting up into the sky. Electrical wires exposed and sparking out dangerously. Some of the buildings were moments away from collapse threatening to squish whatever was unlucky enough to be beneath them. At one point Tony was pretty sure he saw Steve, shield and all, go flying through Big Ben.  

The ship kept firing down on them, the sky looked like lava and flames, bright and hot. Impossibly hot, even beneath his suit, or perhaps even because of it. His ears rung with the force of the attacks, with the heat of it. To his left Holly was still fighting, a feral look on her face as she swung her sword with force, Ass Face could barely keep up with her speed, her determination.

“Is that all you’ve got?” She shouted. “Come on! Fight me!”

“Anyone want to clue us into what’s up with Holly?”

“She’s had…a very difficult few days.” Loki said.

“Who the fuck hasn’t?” Rhodey asked, making most of them let out breathless chuckles.

Suddenly the lights in the sky changed color, instead of the blinding blue light of the laser attacks mixing with the magic of wards, there was…gold. Tony tilted his head up and gasped. There was a comet flying right towards the ship Ass Face and his crew had rode in on.

“We’ve got something incoming!” He shouted.

Before anyone could react to his announcement the comet flew directly through the ship, exploding it in a blast like the best sort of fireworks show. Tony let out a cheer before he could stop himself as the ship was decimated by the golden glowing comet, bolts of energy erupting from it, destroying the entire thing and everything on it.

“What is that?” Steve demanded.

“No idea! But I think it’s on our side!” Tony shouted right back. “Jarvis take me up higher!”

He flew the suit up closer to where the comet was still attacking the ship, as he neared he saw that it wasn’t a comet at all, but rather a person. Or rather a person shaped being. He didn’t dare go into space completely, he knew better than that, but the ship had been so deep into their atmosphere it had nearly blocked the sun. Debris fell down below as the ship was fully decimated and crushed. The wards thankfully softened those blows, or at least Tony hoped they had. The comet stopped to watch the carnage and then spotted Tony.

Tony waved.

The Comet waved back.

Tony made a ‘come here motion’ along with a ‘I-swear-I’m-not-evil-thumbs-up’.

The Comet came closer and Tony saw that it was a woman, blonde and larger than life. She paused in front of Tony, eyebrow lifted up in a question.

“We have robots now?”

Tony popped open the face mask, wincing at the intensity of the woman’s glow.

“Not a robot. But I am one of Earth’s Defenders, are you…?”

“On your side?” She asked. “Yes. Can you contact Nick Fury, he works with an organization called SHIELD? Last time I was here I worked with him, he can vouch for me. Name’s Carol Danvers.”

“Jarvis, send a message to Fury.”

“Right away sir.”

“Is that a…”

“That is a robot.” Tony said. “His name’s Jarvis, he’s my AI.”

She nodded and they both floated there slightly awkwardly for a few moments.

“So.” Carol said. “See any good baseball games lately? They still do baseball here right?”

“We still do baseball. The Mets still suck.”

She laughed at that, throwing her head back, her entire body glowing even brighter. Just like Holly’s did, except this woman was gold and Holly silver.

“Sir.” Jarvis said. “Fury confirms that Carol Danvers is an ally, he also wishes to pass along a message.”

“Let’s hear it.”

From the suit’s speakers Fury’s voice came over.

“Took you long enough Captain.”

“It’s not like you called, Nick!”

“Just get your ass down here and help.”

“I missed you too.”

Tony’s eyes widened at the friendly tone Fury was using, the guy never sounded that friendly, ever. Carol grinned at him.

“Come on.” She said. “Calvary’s here, let’s finish this.”

Whoever, whatever, Danvers was, she was quick. She flew through the air like a golden magical bullet, cutting through creatures and monsters like they were made of tissue paper. Tony was on her tail, trying to keep up with her. Danvers was looking for something.

That something turned out to be Ass Face. Tony watched as Danvers landed right next to a still heavily besieged Ass Face, grinning at the sword wielding Holly.

“Ronan.”

“Vers.” He snarled in the same way someone would use for the word traitor.

“I warned you what would happen if you came back to earth.” She said. “And you didn’t listen.”

“You won’t win, Vers. Thanos will destroy you, he’ll destroy you all! And you!” He said swinging his weapon towards Holly. “He has plans for you! He’ll o-”

Danvers lifted up one hand and sent a blast of golden light right through Ronan, sending him flying down the street. His body landed like a ragdoll’s and Tony could see that half of his entire skull had been burned away. An ignoble end to Ass Face indeed. She then grinned at the gob smacked Holly.

“Sorry, he was annoying me.”

“Ngk.”  Holly was glowing silver, her skin pretty and smooth, covered in opalescent sweat. Carol stood in front of her glowing gold like a warm sun.

“I’m Carol.” She said, holding out a hand for Holly to take. “Carol Danvers. And you?”

“I’m ga-olly.” She said. “I mean. No. Holly. I’m Holly. Holly Potter.”

And then Holly, her cheeks glowing slightly brighter than normal, reached out and took Carol’s gloved hand in her own.

Wasn’t that interesting?

Chapter 63: Am I Gay or Jealous?

Summary:

Does Holly want to be Carol Danvers or does she want to be with her?
Or both?

Notes:

yo. yesterday was my birthday and as many of you know celebrating your birthday during a quarantine is super weird! Still I got brownies and pizza so like truly 10/10 would celebrate again.
Please enjoy this update and pray for me as I work on editing my thesis.

Just because Ronan had been killed didn’t mean that the fighting could stop. There were still more Chitauri, more monsters to get rid of. Not that Holly could…do much with that. She had spent her fight with Ronan testing exactly what her limits were, both literally and morally. She wasn’t unaware that she could probably still cast torture curses, torturing someone and killing them were very different and Holly’s status wouldn’t logically preclude her from torture.

But.

Was she the kind of person to torture others? One could argue that yes she might just be. After all she’d killed someone by having them be swarmed by a million snakes she’d transfigured from her hair. That was a painful way to die, torturous even. And Holly hadn’t lost any sleep over that. It had been quick though. The man hadn’t lived very long at all, not even a minute after her spell had been cast.

Holly herself felt poorly about torture. It reminded her of Bellatrix, of Voldemort, of her relatives. Making someone suffer, she didn’t like doing it. She liked fighting and she preferred to capture her enemies alive and have them face their day in court, be punished via the law. It’s what she’d done while hunting Death Eaters. Killing them had been something she avoided at all costs, torturing them even more so. She didn’t want to sink to their level.

When Loki had revealed that Holly could no longer kill, her mind had immediately gone to torture spells and that had filled her soul with such revulsion.

So yeah, torture was out.

The problem became then, what Holly was meant to do about the people she fought. With someone like Ronan she couldn’t kill them and taking them to jail wouldn’t work either. She’d tried that already and the other members of the Black Order had escaped to terrorize another day. She wasn’t going to fall into the trap of putting people in jail over and over again, letting them escape at the cost of more human suffering. She wasn’t naïve. If Ronan had lived he would have escaped at some point and been more trouble for them. Just like Voldemort would have.

Holly had been overwhelmed by Malekith, something about the Dark Elf’s magic, his very being had harmed her, had sapped her of her strength. He’d seemed to know that too, as if it had been his plan all along. He hadn’t even noticed or cared about Jane. She’d felt very embarrassed and frustrated by Malekith’s near win over her. She’d never gotten that close to losing a fight before, not in years. It had made her feel stupid, like she was 14 all over again and being forced to bow.

Thor, Loki, and Jane didn’t seem to see her as weak, they weren’t bothered. But Holly had felt so angry. So, she’d gone after Ronan to see if she could force his death somehow. Surely, she could manage it. She was Holly Potter, the greatest duelist of her generation, she could do this. Except it seemed that she couldn’t. She could injure yes, but she could not land a killing blow. Every time she got close to landing one her muscles would lock up, her very being fighting against her will and winning. She’d even been using the sword of Gryffindor but it seemed that the murderous properties of that sword had been voided while in her hands.  

She’d tried magicking up obstacles, to get the alien to fall and break his neck. But miraculously every time he fell he was injured but not killed. She tried to magic up things that could kill him for her, but anything powered or called by her magic would only injure him. When Carol had arrived and finally finished it, Holly had been almost relieved.

Well relieved and a lot of other things besides.

(And could you blame her? Carol had stood there looking like that of course Holly was going to be a bit…well just a bit overwhelmed.)

Carol had gone out to help with the rest of the killing of the creatures, working with her team with ease and confidence. Holly told herself she didn’t feel jealous at all. She was just as powerful as Carol, if not more so. She could fight just as well Carol. She…she was just as good, wasn’t she? Holly wasn’t was beautiful of course but…but…

She wasn’t jealous.

She wasn’t.

With Carol’s help it hadn’t taken long to finish downing everything that had come to invade Holly’s home city. London was in ruins, although thankfully the death count was minimal. They’d had enough warning time to evacuate much of the city and set up safe areas, which had helped save most of her people. But the city was without a doubt in ruins. Millions were homeless now, without jobs, without shelter.

“I’ve got to admit Danvers, I’m impressed.” Steve said, clapping the blonde on the back. “You were good.”

“Not so bad yourself Captain.” She said, smiling back at him. “I had no idea earth was home to so many people like this, last time I was here you were still in the ice and it was just me.”

“And when was that exactly?”

“The 90s.” She said. “I was…Well I used to be a captain in the Air Force, a pilot, there was an accident and well…”

“We’ve all got our ‘And Well’ stories.” Clint said. “I can’t believe Fury never mentioned you! We could’ve really used your help.”

“I gave him a way to contact me.” She said. “Although we did have a bet saying he wouldn’t be able to last 25 years without me, probably why he didn’t mention me.”

Holly felt a glower pull at her face. It wasn’t fair that Carol was that beautiful and that good at everything. It just wasn’t. How was a personification of life meant to cope? The other Avengers laughed and continued to share their insights and feelings about the fight. Holly listened and tried not to feel too bitter, she also tried not to stare too much at Carol Danvers.

“Hey Holly!” Bruce said. “Are you in there?”

“What? Yes I’m fine. What do you need?”

“We’re all pretty tired, London’s your part of the world, is there a place we can go to rest?”

There was Grimmauld Place of course, Holly had no doubt that was still standing and pristine. She might have cleaned the place up but the Blacks had been ruthless with their warding, there was no way anything was going to get past there. Holly looked out over the city again a frown on her face.

“Her place has probably tumbled down with the rest.” Carol said, her voice not unkind. “It’s alright, we can all wait to rest at wherever SHIELD can find. I’m sorry I wasn’t there earlier to help stop it before it got this far.”

London was her home. Not Carol’s. Holly wanted to snarl at the woman but even she knew that was unreasonable. Carol hadn’t done anything to her. She’d saved them, she was a good, perfect looking, woman. Holly just couldn’t help but feel…

Something when she looked at her.

It was a very new something, a very complicated something, a something unlike any other thing. Holly didn’t even knew if she liked whatever that something was. All she knew was that she felt suddenly very small with Carol’s understanding eyes on her. She straightened her shoulders back and spoke.

“I’ll get us a place.” She said.

“Really?” Tony asked. “That’s great. Laying down sounds perfect right about now.”

Tony had been injured and Holly had been able to fix him up, but he had still lost blood, he needed rest while his body finished the recovery process. Holly nodded and took a few steps forward. London was her home, her place, she refused to leave it like this, refused. She had read once, about a time when New York had been attacked by an Obscurial, long before she was born. The clean up and repair from that had been a case study for her as she worked fighting Death Eaters.

Holly went down to her knees, placing one silvery hand on the broken asphalt beneath her.

“Holly?” Loki asked. “What are you doing?”

Holly didn’t answer, not with words. She was the personification of life, she had an unmeasurable amount of energy within her, energy to build and bind and grow. She might not be able to kill and blow things up anymore but she could do this. She would do this. She wouldn’t be small and replaceable. She certainly felt replaceable. With her breakdown had come a sense of failing. She was a burden on Loki, on the others. She couldn’t fight like she used to, she couldn’t be relied upon to even control her own powers anymore. And now someone as beautiful and breathtaking as Carol Danvers was here, why would they even want her around?

No. She would prove that she was wanted, that she was useful. She wouldn’t let London stand like this.

Holly let her magic, her energy, begin to flow from her. In the same way she’d used her magic to make that bit of gold in Asgard, she used it here, directing it into London. London knew what shape it had been, Holly knew what shape it had been in the years she’d lived in it. The souls who called it home knew where the stones and bricks and concrete of the city were meant to be. Just as Holly knew what gold felt like, she knew what London felt like.

London had begun as villages thousands of years ago. Groups of people living along the Thames and building structures and living on the land, in the rain and sun. She forced her senses deep into the earth, feeling the remnants of that energy, of that magic. She could feel the remnants of Caer Troia, the history, the magic of it all. She could recall the taste of Londinium on her tongue. She could hear the sounds of the people who built the London Wall, the steps of those walking through the seven old entrances to the city. Gates built by Romans long since gone.

She could feel the rain and wind that would have landed on the heads and shoulders of the Vikings who raided and the people who hid. She could smell the fires and the plagues and the attacks that had rocked the city for centuries, the acrid taste filling her lungs. She could feel London growing and growing, moving through the centuries and becoming a city with a body and soul. She could feel Diagon Alley being built, being warded, the vibrations of millions of feet pounding across roads and the sensation of construction. Of buildings being built and torn down and built up again, roads being built of dirt, then of cobble and then of asphalt and concrete.

She knew this city, the soul of it, the ever changing body made up of a million lives. She knew what it felt like, how to breathe it in, how to taste and hear and smell it. Once she was sure she knew it, she let her magic go.

Energy poured from her, and into the roots of the city. Holly kept her eyes closed, she could feel her skin was burning with energy, sun spots forming on her, making her glow brighter and brighter. She could hear Loki pushing everyone back, putting up some sort of shield between her and the rest. Holly continued to force her will upon the city. Around her the world began to bend.

The road began to reform, what was broken or dissolved returning to its better state. The buildings that had collapsed began to brick by brick return and mend. The air began to clear, the smog and dust from the fight settling and vanishing back to where it had come from. The plants that had been uprooted or damaged in the parks and gardens began to blossom and grow, to heal. The Thames, dirty and corrupted, took her magic and began to clean, to purify, to flow.

Holly could not bring back the life that had been lost; the animals and plants and humans. She could not undo Death, but she could restore, she could replenish.

And that is exactly what she did. She wasn’t certain how long it took, not truly. She lost her sense of time, her sense of her body as she submerged herself in London. She continued to pour her energy into it, drawing from the Yggdrasil, demanding that the universe help her right this wrong, to aid her in London’s restoration. She did not see how silver light fell over the city, spreading out from her like mercury. She did not hear the chimes, the bells of her magic ringing out from her through the city, singing out a song of glory and healing. She did not feel the sensation of her magic passing over each and every person, leaving a kiss of health on their brow.

Holly knew none of it. What she did know was that when her magic ended, she found herself, laying ungraciously flat on her face on a newly restored road with the taste of cotton candy and battery acid on her tongue. Awkwardly she wiggled around until she was on her back and then sighed. She blinked up at the blue sky, that was beginning to turn purple and red with the setting sun.

“Holly?” Thor asked. “Are you awake?”

“I think so.” She said, her voice soft and wavering. “Did it…did it work?”

“If by ‘did it work?’ you mean casting one giant repairo on the city, then yeah. I think it worked.” Bruce choked out.

“What else could I have meant?”

“You did a bit more than just fix things.” Tony said.

Then she saw Tony in her line of vision, he and Steve both knelt down and helped her up. She gasped at the sight of her city, or at least the parts she could see. It was clean and whole, there were flowering vines growing up the sides of the buildings, and plants growing along the sidewalks. The windows of the buildings glinted, the tarnish of age had been removed. The bodies of the invading forces had been rapidly decayed replaced by plants and moss and lichen, nature taking back what had been taken from it. She leaned on Steve, her mouth slightly open.

“Well.” She said. “I think I got everyone a place for the night.”

She looked over at the Avengers, who all looked pink cheeked and punch drunk, as they all began to laugh. She giggled back, a feeling of relief filling her. She saw Carol laughing along with the rest, and that strange something squirmed in her stomach. Carol couldn’t do that could she? No. Only Holly could do that. They made their way slowly through the city, Steve practically carrying a weak-kneed Holly, through the streets.

A majority of the city was as Holly had known it all through her life, the modern mixed in with the Victorian. But there were…hiccups. Some of the streets had been restored to their original roman origins with concrete and stones. Some of the builds too had been restored to times gone past. In the distance she could see a strange wooden structure along the edge of the Thames that was probably older than Thor and Loki combined. A city with such ancient history had so much soul to call out to Holly and her magic had followed through far more than she had originally intended.  It was impossible for her to tell what had been there before and what she had rebuilt from times long gone past, that would be for historians far smarter than her to decide. All she knew was that she had restored to London what London had wished for.

As they walked, they ran into groups. The wizards and witches had of course retreated, and any and all magic they did, that had been noticed, would be attributed to Loki and Holly. But the muggles had remained, people were wondering what the hell had happened to the city. Holly’s tongue felt a bit like lead in her mouth, but thankfully the other Avengers were more than happy to tell anyone who would listen that Holly had fixed it, that doing so had drained her magically and that she needed to rest, but that they had Holly to thank.

Holly tried to point out that the others were the one who fought and protected and prepared the city for the invasion, that she had mostly done clean-up. She even motioned to Carol who had destroyed the invading ship and the head invader, but she wasn’t certain if anyone was listening to her.

“Your clean-up was far more impressive than anything else Holly and you know it, punk.” Winter said.

Still, despite the attention being lavished on her, the strange something in her stomach wouldn’t stop squirming about Carol.

They found Jane on their way, the astrophysicist had been left on her own after the magic users had retreated and had gone towards where she was told the others were. Jane had drained the energy of the infinity stone quite well powering the wards. In fact, she had drained it so much that the infinity stone was weak enough to be removed by a healer. Part of the problem before had been that any tampering with the stone in Jane had been too volatile for the healers of Asgard to handle. Holly settled in Steve’s hold as Jane explained what they had learnt to the others and what they needed in order to remove the infinity stone within her and store it in a safe form. She drifted a little as they talked, Jane wasn’t the only one who’d been drained.

“I can build something.” Tony said. “I’ll have Jarvis start the building process in my lab back in New York. One of my arc reactor casings should be able to handle it.”

“How long do you think it’ll take to build?” Loki asked.

“We already have all the parts stocked.” Tony said. “You know just in case of emergencies, it shouldn’t take more than an hour for Jarvis to get it together.”

“I’m already working on it sir.” Jarvis said. “One was already being built to replace the replacement arc reactor you had to install during the fight, this one should be completed in 23 minutes.”

“Jarv you’re the best.”

Her exhaustion felt different from what it had in the past. She didn’t feel like she was going to pass out for the next 72 hours. Instead it was more like she’d just had an incredibly intense but rewarding work out, utilizing all of her muscles in the way they’d been intended and now her body wanted to relax in a hot bath and rest. She hadn’t gone too far, she’d gone just far enough. Still it made it easy to drift. She didn’t really notice as Loki left to go back to New York, returning with clothing for everyone, as well as a new empty arc reactor casing for Jane. She just leaned against Steve. She didn’t listen in as Tony, Bruce, and Thor all spoke to Carol, learning about her and sharing what they knew with her. She didn’t really notice much at all. She must have fallen asleep at one point because the next thing she knew Steve was shaking her a little and asking her what her address was and Jane was fine and there was a new red and glowing arc reactor in Tony’s grasp.

“Funny thing about that,” She said. “my address doesn’t technically exist. It’s number 12 Grimmauld Place. ‘Snot far from here.”

“What does she mean doesn’t exist?” Carol asked.

“Magic users man, who knows.” Tony joked with her.

It took some doing, getting all of them into Grimmauld Place. The home had been cleaned of course since the days of the war. Holly had hired curse breakers from Gringotts to get rid of everything dark and nasty, well most everything. It was clean enough that this home was the one she would take Teddy to when they spent extended periods of time together. She didn’t necessarily consider it her home, but it had been her home base for some time. Once all of them, Carol and Jane included, were under the wards, Holly pointed to where the kitchen was, then to where one of the many bathrooms was and then said.

“There are plenty of guest rooms, just don’t bother the screaming portrait behind that curtain. No one can get rid of it.”

Of course, despite her warning, everyone would be woken the next morning by Walburga’s screaming. No one was happy with Clint after that.  

Chapter 64: Carol, Nick, and Maria

Summary:

Three friends walk into a British Cafe and discuss government secrets. Which honestly. For that part of London is practically normal.

Notes:

ya'll thesis writing is hard :/. I'm am pushing through and writing these chapters for stress relief. We're getting ready to face the last arc of the story, the Thanos arc. Our big bad villain is on his way. There are only a few plot points that I want to play with that haven't already been fully addressed 1) Loki's memories of Ralston need to be restored, 2) Nat needs to woman up and meet her parents already, and 3) How is Bruce's werewolf research going? These are the three major things I really, really want to answer before I finish up this story and call it good. I know a lot of you are shipping Holly with different people which is super valid, but this story is still mostly gen so there won't be a huge focus on any ship since that's not where I feel confident writing. With any ships, I'd want to write a sequel that focused on that specifically rather than tack it on here and not give it the attention it deserves.
Are there any plot points that you all want to me to touch on again? A lot has happened in this story so I wouldn't be surprised if I'd forgotten something lol.

She was able to meet up with Fury and Maria the day after her arrival. She’d settled in a café, not far from Grimmauld Place really, and had the opportunity to hug her dearest human friends. Her ability to visit earth had been sporadic at best. She’d lived in constant fear of leaving the Skrull without protection of some sort. During their exodus, working on building up their population and finding a habitable world, Carol had only ever been able to sneak back to earth every few years, and often it was just her landing on Maria’s farm and spending the night there. Whenever she was there, Maria and her had far more interesting things to do than to update Carols’ knowledge of current events and pop culture. It wasn’t until they’d finally settled under the protection of Xandar that she’d started to relax.

Still she hadn’t gone back to earth to live, part of the agreement with Xandar had been that Carol would act as the Skrull’s first line of defense with Xandar providing back-up and support as needed and requested. Sure it was easier to defend her friends on a planet but it still made her wary of leaving for long periods of time. She only felt comfortable being here and now because earth had needed her, and because Ronan had finally made himself vulnerable to her fists. She’d return to the Skrull soon with news that the last of their attackers had died, and something in her warmed.

Ronan was gone, the last of the Skrull empire was no more. Just the day before she’d worked with fellow super powered humans and finally, finally put the monster to rest. 20 years she’d fought to dismantle and destroy the empire that had molded her into the being she was. They had taken her memories, taken her identity, and then they had funneled her into their propaganda machine. To this day she had no idea what harm she could have caused had her first mission not taken her to earth of all places.

When she met up with Maria and Nick, both of her friends took the time to walk her through the last twenty years of history that were relevant to her new position. She’d been seen with the Avengers, she’d worked with them, people were going to start to talk. Not that Carol minded exactly, her identity had been pretty much entirely erased from existence first by the US Military and then by SHIELD. People could dig as much as they’d like and they’d only know what she told them.

Still it was odd to learn that Captain America was alive, that Stark Industries was no longer supplying the US military with the best weapons and equipment, that Nick had organized a group of heroes to protect the planet and hadn’t called her.

She almost wanted to be offended by it but in the back of her mind she could admit that Nick’s decision was somewhat reasonable. Not only did she have the responsibility of an entire race on her shoulders, but she was not what one would call a ‘team player’. It wasn’t that Carol could not work with others, basic training had ensured that, and in fact she had learnt how to follow orders when she’d been part of the Kree.

She just didn’t like to.

Something about being told what to do, being ordered, made her itch. She’d had one teacher in high school compare her to a wild horse, in theory she was ridable but anyone who tried to put that into practice usually ended up trampled. In the same way, Carol could in theory work on a team, but in practice she usually ended up doing whatever she thought best, her orders be damned.

This worked well when she was protecting the Skrull and they trusted her to make the bests choices. But listening to Nick describe each of the Avengers she’d met the day before she had a feeling that she’d butt heads with all of them more often than not. Carol was not unaware of her flaws, she was also generally unapologetic for them, which also would not have helped the problem.

“You still should have called when the invasion happened.” She grumbled.

“We had it handled.” Nick claimed.

“They sent a nuke on the city.” Maria told her, rolling her eyes. “If Stark hadn’t flown it through the portal the entire city would have been destroyed.”

“Nick.”

“That wasn’t my call! I told them it was a stupid ass decision!”

“So, the invasion happened what…two years ago?” Carol asked. “And the guy responsible for it, he’s on the team now?”

“Mind control.” Nick answered. “Not like yours, guy was straight up out of his mind, he kept trying to attack the Avengers whenever the magic in his mind got too much. If it weren’t for Potter…well I don’t know how it would’ve ended, probably another blood bath.”

“What’s her deal?” Carol asked, doing her best not to betray her interest. Maria noticed anyway and rolled her eyes. Something she seemed to be doing quite often.

“This is classified.” He said. “Both of you better not spread it around.”

“Who would I even tell?” Carol asked.

“Nick, I live on an isolated farm because the US government doesn’t want me talking, it’ll be fine.”

So, Nick told them, grumbling about the amount of paperwork and effort Holly Potter had put him through, the suffering that one witch, could cause the head of SHIELD. He told them a summarized version of the events as he knew them, a secret magic society on earth filled with magical humans who were hiding to protect children against anti-magic persecution. Then a wizard Hitler rising to power in the 1950s and causing chaos for decades, until Holly Potter as a teenager killed him and then spent the next ten years of her life removing every bit of his influence from the earth.

“Wow.” Carol said, she was impressed. Truly.

“I thought you’d say that.” Nick scoffed. “Look, after all the Death Eaters were gone…Potter didn’t have anything going for her.”

“And you swooped in and brought her onto the team.”

“I wish. In fact, much like you, I didn’t learn about any of it until it was far too late to do damage control.”

“I’m liking her more and more already.”

In truth Carol had liked Holly when the British woman had given her a look for apologizing the day before and then proceeded to kneel on the ground and fix all of London without a word. It almost seemed like Carol had offended the woman by implying that they needed her help, or perhaps Carol’s guilt had been read as pity. If Holly had read it as pity then she was lucky Holly hadn’t tried to punch her, it’s what Carol would’ve done. Either way, watching the glowing woman magic up the entire city, repairing what Ronan had destroyed had left Carol just a bit speechless. What had charmed her was how Holly had seemed offended and put out when Steve and Tony helped her to her feet, as if the idea of accepting any help from them was a mark on her pride. What was even funnier was that Holly didn’t seem to realize she was doing it.

Carol liked that sort of spunk, it was the same sort of mettle that had powered her through her entire life. 

Nick told her about Holly moving to New York and becoming a cleaning lady, he also warned her not to make jokes about it because Holly was the sort of person to take offense at anyone disparaging domestic workers and the last thing he wanted was an all out fight between the two most powerful women in the universe, so if Carol could please keep her mouth shut he’d be very grateful.

She made no promises.

Once the story was told, in all its glory, Carol frowned.

“I knew Ronan had gotten a new…sponsor.” She admitted. “After most of the Kree empire was dismantled, Ronan still managed to find new forces and supplies. I couldn’t track it with my own contacts. I thought it was just some old war lord who used to profit from Kree Imperialism. This Thanos guy sounds serious.”

“He wants the tesseract. And five more objects of similar power so he can destroy all life in the universe.” Nick said. “And we know he’s coming here. He started in 2012 with the invasion of New York, there have been multiple more instances, yesterday’s invasion being the latest.”

“How long until he comes himself?”

“No clue. We have extremely limited intel on the guy, only what Loki remembers from his captivity and the few things Holly’s managed to magically discern. It’s not enough to give us a timeline, or what sort of forces he still has in his employ.”

“Well Ronan’s gone.” She said. “That’s something at least.”

“So is the rest of the Black Order, his most devout followers.” Nick added. “We’ve no idea if that’s going to be enough.”

“It’s okay.” Maria said. “If you have to go back to the Skrull, Holly seems pretty capable.”

“The Skrull are safer now than they’ve ever been.” Carol said shaking her head. “With Ronan dead, all aggressors towards them are gone. They’ve been left under the protection of the people of Xandar, a pretty powerful planet all told, I don’t think anyone is going to come after them. No one even knows where they live now. I’ve been working with plenty of people to get cloaking technology up on the planet and it’s pretty much complete.”

“So, you’re staying?”

“I’m staying.” Carol said. “I’ll have to fly back soon just to smooth things over and let the Skrull know but I’ll stay here. Even if Holly and the rest have it handled, this isn’t the sort of threat I can ignore.”

“You’ll need to talk with the Avengers, see where and how they want to work with you.” Nick said. “I’ll be in contact pretty frequently, I’ve been working with Potter to get the wizarding world on our side, that’s what allowed London to last as long as it did. They magically warded the entire city, it took a long time to get them to see reason but Loki and Holly managed it.”

“I’m staying with the other Avengers right now.” Carol said. “When I go back there I’ll talk to them, I told them part of my history, enough to know I’m on their side. I’ll tell them the rest and see what I can do to help. I won’t try and usurp anything.”

“Right.” Nick said, the disbelief clear in his tone.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Maria scoffed making Carol roll her eyes. Was it her fault that she was assertive? She’d had to be to survive in a military that didn’t want women and with the Kree. Being meek or humble didn’t get you anywhere in the world. Especially in a world that wanted to make you small and cut off pieces of you to fit into the box they expected.

“Anyway. How’s Monica?”

“Good. Good.” Maria said. “She graduated college last time you were earth side, she got a job in Seattle, doing a lot of good humanitarian work. A real powerhouse.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

Nick had kept in contact with Maria and Monica, strangely enough the friendship she’d formed with him had bridged their way over to Maria. Carol had…suspicions about what form that friendship has taken over the years. The only reason she was suspicious was because she refused to ask for the truth. What if she was wrong? What if she was right? What would it matter?

She and Maria’s relationship had…sizzled out due to a lot of things that were out of both of their control and while Carol was pretty sure she’d love Maria till the day she died, and Monica too, that didn’t mean that Maria couldn’t love someone else. Maria deserved to be happy, she truly did, and if some sort of strange not relationship with Nick made her happy then Carol would stuff her own complicated feelings down deep into her gut and move on. Besides she didn’t even know if Nick and Maria had a thing. She wasn’t even sure if Nick had things with people. She’d met plenty of people in college, meeting in clubs that were nothing more than fronts for queer people to meet together, who had never wanted to have things with anyone at all, romantic or otherwise.

They talked about Monica and about things that were going on personally for a little while longer, before Nick handed Carol a new cellphone and the paperwork to make her a real earth citizen again, a fake identity created whole cloth out of nothing, the only thing that was the same was the name. Which didn’t really matter, Carol was nearing the age of 50 but still looked to be in her early thirties, even if anyone wanted to connect her to who she’d been the timeline wouldn’t add up for shit.

   Eventually they ran out of things to talk about. It was a strange feeling to have, knowing that these two people were her closest human friends, friends she hadn’t seen in years and she was still struggling to find things to share with them. It wasn’t like things didn’t happen to Carol, she was busy all the time, but it was never anything personal. She could talk for days about her work protecting the Skrull but the moment Maria asked her about her hobbies, Carol’s well ran dry and she just shifted awkwardly in her chair.

“We’ll talk soon.” Maria promised. “You’d better put some time aside for dinner, I’ll call Monica and get something set up, we’ll have a proper family dinner at the farm.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Carol promised, a smile easily forming on her face at the thought. “You’ll be there too Nick, right?”

“I don’t really think I have a choice.”

So, with one last hug to both of them, Carol made her way back to Grimmauld Place. When she’d left that morning, Loki had explained that the magic would allow her back in, but because she lacked magic herself, she wouldn’t be able to see the house until she was literally on the doorstep. She just had to believe it was there and it would be. Sure enough when she got to the right street there was no number 12. Carol kept walking determinedly towards the place between 11 and 13, focusing as hard as she could on the door she remembered leaving just that morning.

She felt rather than saw the stairs leading up to the door and pushed her way through. One moment there was nothing and then the next an entire building appeared right in her vision. It was just as disorienting as it had been the night before. Still she pushed the door open to the sounds of the Avengers all further inside.

“I’m back!” Carol called.

“Danvers! Where were you?” Tony shouted back. Carol rolled her eyes and walked down the dark hallway until she found a large room where all of the Avengers except for Holly were lounging, they were still in their pajamas, even though it was well into the afternoon. This was probably because the day before they’d spent literally hours fighting against an invasion. Carol decided not to make a joke about the ducks on Clint’s sleep pants. No need to antagonize this team too much, she’d probably do that enough on her own just by being herself.

“Brunch.”

“You told me you were going to see Fury.” Loki said. “He doesn’t seem to be a man who’d ever be near the concept of a brunch.”

“He has brunch with me.” She shrugged. “He wanted to catch me up, Earth’s changed a lot in the last 19 years.”

“Yeah no shit.” Clint told her. “You were really at brunch for that long?”

“What can I say? Nick and I go way back.”

“Yes, he told us that.” Steve said. “Sent a message to Jarvis with a few files on you, what you did back in ’95. It confirmed what you told us.”

“I didn’t have to lie about any of that.” She said.

“Still.” Loki said. “I think it’s fascinating a human managed to survive direct contact with the tesseract like that. Jane, you met her yesterday, nearly died multiple times from being in contact with another one of the stones.”

“It’s mostly due to Mar Vel’s engine, it…converted the energy enough to make it survivable. Plus, the Kree gave me a lot of medical care. No idea what would’ve happened to me if they hadn’t doped me up so much.”

That answer appeased them, and Carol took a seat while Thor spoke up, obviously trying to continue the conversation Carol had interrupted.

“Hopefully the invasion in Asgard was fully quelled, I’ve no doubt that Sif and the Warriors Three have managed to do so, but Loki and I will be returning soon to ensure it.”

She looked around at each person in the room, committing their faces to the names and histories Fury had given her. There was Winter, also known as James Barnes or The Winter Soldier, Hydra’s greatest assassin and prisoner of war. There was Bruce Banner, who was the mild alter ego of the Hulk whom she’d met yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed watching work. Of course, there was Tony and Steve, whom she was slightly more familiar with. She’d been in the Military when Howard Stark still ran the company, she’d been with the Kree when Tony had taken over, but she still knew of him. There was also Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, as well as Clint Barton, Hawkeye, two excellent SHIELD agents according to Nick. Finally, there was Loki and Thor, the two gods of Asgard, a place Carol had heard of on her travels but hadn’t believed in before yesterday.

All in all it was a motely group if she’d ever seen one. She sat slightly outside of the circle listening as Thor and Loki described what had happened on Asgard and what they’d learnt about the infinity stones. It wasn’t much, but it was something. They now had possession of three of the stones; Space, Mind, and Reality. Loki knew how all three of them worked now, having had the opportunity to interact with them.

What’s more important is what they’d learnt about Thanos.

“He’s done some sort of magic ritual.” Loki said. “He sacrificed the life of every other Titan in order to gain immunity from Death.”

“What does that mean exactly?” Tony asked. “That we can’t kill him?”

“Exactly. Based on what Holly’s learnt, he cannot be killed, not by anyone or anything,” Loki said. “I’ve not done much research about the sorts of rituals that Thanos did but I have a feeling that the man will also have intense regeneration abilities.”

“So, if we paralyzed him it wouldn’t stick.” Steve said. “Like me.”

Loki tilted his head in agreement.

“So, what then?” Carol asked. “We can’t kill him, or injure him enough to make him harmless.”

“We?” Tony asked, motioning between his team and her.

“Yes we. Thanos is a threat to us all, and I want to be here to help you defend Earth.” She said. “You’ve seen what I can do, do you really want to turn me away?”

“No one is saying that.” Natasha said. “We just don’t know you well.”

“But we will.” Bruce added. “Fury’s vouched for her, what more do we need?”

“Well she could have at least asked.” Tony joked.

“Oh Mr. Stark could I pretty please join you and your merry band to save the universe?”

“I mean if you’re gonna be desperate about it.”

She rolled her eyes while Clint leaned over and pushed Tony lightly, telling him to stop being such an ass.

“Right, now that that’s over and done with, there are things we need to discuss.” Loki said. “Holly related things.”

“Where is she anyway?” Carol asked.

“She fixed the entirety of London last night.” Loki said. “She’s sleeping off her magical exhaustion.”

“Knowing her she won’t be awake for a few days.” Steve told her. “Until then we’ll be watching over her and recovering, then we’ll head back to New York.”

“Right.” She said. “And you all are going to talk about her while she’s asleep.”

“Talk about who?” Holly asked making a majority of the Avengers yelp in shock.

Carol turned to see Holly had entered the room. She too was in her pajamas and she looked absolutely exhausted. She had bag sunder her eyes and she was leaning against the doorframe, rather than trying to hold herself up. She was carrying a large ceramic mug in her hands that was filled with some sort of steaming liquid, probably tea based on the smell. Holly’s long black hair was sticking up in every direction from her head, mussed from sleep.

“Holly.” Bruce said. “What are you doing up?”

“I’m the Personification of Life.” She said. “I don’t think I need to sleep off my exhaustion for days at a time now that I’m literally plugged into the universe.”

“You’re what?” Carol asked.

Holly turned to look at Carol, her eyes a bit wide and a hint of silver forming on her cheeks that Carol wasn’t certain if she should call a blush or if that was normal for silver witches.

“I’m the Personification of Life.” She said. “It’s a recent development, Fury doesn’t know about it, it’s…been a bit of adjustment. I was essentially given a nasty case of immortality and infinite power without my consent, along with a makeover that makes me look like I take a glitter shower every morning.”

“Right.” Carol said. “Personifications exist.”

“They do.” Holly confirmed. “They’re not…common so far as I can tell. We exist as something of an immune system for the universe, just representing our thing and doing things to further the growth and health of the Yggdrasil.”

 Carol had been around enough in the last 19 years for it to not be totally unbelievable. So, she nodded in acceptance and hoped that more proof would come later.

“We ran into a few problems.” Loki added. “With the Life thing.”

“You make it sound like a disease.” Winter said.

“It sort of is.” Holly said. “Malekith had access to abilities that I am incredibly weak against, dark energy manipulation left me almost immediately incapacitated. If Thanos is capable of that in anyway, he’ll be able to ruin me.”

“We think she was weak to it because Malekith had access to abilities that existed before the creation of the universe. The dark elves are arguably the universe’s first beings.” Thor said. “And if Holly is an incarnation of a star then Malekith was a black hole.”

“Shit.” Clint said.

“Yeah there’s more bad news.” Holly said. “There’s a reason I didn’t kill Ronan. I can’t.”

“Like as in morally?” Tony asked.

“Does she seem like the person to have a moral objection to killing a scumbag like Ronan?” Winter asked.

“No. Not morally, I tried.” Holly said. “But I literally can’t.”

“Wait.” Bruce said. “If you’re Life then…”

“Then I can’t cause any death.” Holly finished. “I represent the beginning, the introduction of energy into the universe. I physically cannot do anything that will cause the removal of that energy. I tried everything I could think of to kill Ronan, everything, but I could only injure him.”

“Well. Fuck.” Tony said.

“That’s basically what’s been playing on loop in my head for the past three days.” Holly agreed. “So not only do we have an enemy with an unknown amount of forces and power working behind him, on his way here to destroy us and then the universe, that literally cannot be killed. But I, the most powerful person on the team can’t even…”

She trailed off staring into her mug of tea.

“If you can’t do it that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t.” Carol said, Holly immediately got a look on her face that Carol knew too well from her own. And just because Holly couldn’t kill didn’t mean she couldn’t hurt someone. Carol rushed to explained herself better. “I’m not saying that to be cruel or anything, I saw the work you did yesterday, you’re clearly good at what you do. If we work with you, then you can do the brunt work and one of us will land the killing blow. Like you and I did yesterday, you held Ronan off and kept him teleporting away and I got him. I’ve been chasing Ronan for 19 years, if you hadn’t been fighting him like that, he would have noticed me coming back and made another run for it.”

“It’ll require a new team dynamic.” Loki said looking over at Steve and then at Holly. “But I believe it’s manageable. You’re not anywhere close to useless Holly.”

“Yeah.” She said sipping on her tea, not really agreeing with his words but not arguing about it either. Carol had a feeling she was missing something.

“I say we table this discussion for later.” Tony decided. “Pepper’s just messaged me about PR, the world is going nuts over the invasion yesterday and we need to make a few public appearances, especially you Holly since you’re awake this time around.”

“Ugh, not again Tony.”

“Don’t complain to me, you’re the one who magicked all of London.”

And like that the bubble of tension disappeared and Carol was pulled into a discussion on what their message to the public would be, both about what Holly did and who Carol actually was. There were also going to need to be information given out about Winter’s identity as well, which seemed to be the riskiest reveal of them all. It was weird, PR had never before been her concern and it took the other Avengers all of five minutes to realize she did not have the temperament to appear before reporters on her own.

Which she took offense to.

She could behave as long as the journalists did.

“Journalists never behave goldilocks.” Tony told her. “You’ll go with Steve, he’ll introduce you and you’ll smile and wave.”

“Don’t call me goldilocks.”

The look in the engineer’s eyes made it clear that was a request he would never, ever fulfill.

Carol couldn’t bring herself to mind.

Chapter 65: Holly's Second Interview

Summary:

Holly meets with a British Interviewer this time, and he was thoroughly vetted by Pepper Potts. Hopefully this one goes more smoothly.

Notes:

Hey ya'll, last week there was a mix up in the writing. I mixed up the Kree and Skrull, i blame thesis writing mixing it up in my brain. I've fixed it up so now any future readers shouldn't be too confused and if you reread it, it should flow more smoothly!

“Thank you so much for being willing to meet with us.”

“Of course. In times like these, silence isn’t really much of an option is it?”

“Ha. True! But still, your last…and well your first public appearance was, to put it lightly, a bit of a shit show wasn’t it?”

“Oh we are allowed to swear here, thank merlin.”

“It’s British TV who cares? And Merlin?”

“Well I mean. I am a magic user who else am I supposed to swear on?”

“Fair enough.” Grant Barker said chuckling. Holly was sitting across from him in a colorful room, it was an atmosphere very different from the talk shows she remembered her aunt and uncle watching. She vaguely wondered if they were watching her now. She was wearing a dress that Fleur had let her borrow. It was distinctly magical without being too overt, made of a light blue fabric that was thin and shiny, the fabric seemed to move like liquid metal whenever she shifted her legs.

“Well,” Grant continued. “It’s been three days since the invasion of London, and since your magical restoration of the city. We’ve waited this long to hear from you so that you could recover your magical energy, we learnt from the last time you fought that power like that has a huge cost. So, I suppose my first question is how are you Miss Potter?”

“I’m…I’m fine physically.” She said. “I’ve recovered my magic entirely, I spent most of the last three days asleep, most of the team was resting really, most of us got injured in one way or another and some rest was exactly what the doctor ordered.”

“Physically?” Grant pushed, there was a smile on his face but you could hear what appeared to be genuine concern for her in his tone.

“When I woke up the first thing Tony told me was that I’d need to do another interview and after the last time I wasn’t, well frankly I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but he gave me some nicely brewed tea and he wore me down,” She explained, the audience laughed and Holly felt a bit of herself relax again. “At the end of the day I’m not someone who’s got experience with this sort of PR stuff and I’m a bit afraid of mucking it up again.”

“Don’t think you mucked it up the last time, that was all on that American wanker wasn’t it? Didn’t do his research properly.”

“No one did.” She pointed out, making the guy lift up both hands to as if to say ‘don’t shoot’.

“Speaking of, let’s get that out of the way now, how closely have you followed the fallout here in the UK?”

“Not closely.”

“Well you should know that Vernon Dursley did lose his job, and I do believe the public censure has gotten so bad that your aunt and uncle both were chased out of their neighborhood. There’s been plenty of public apologies from your old school, and from your old neighbors and peers, although no one came out of that mess looking clean.” Grant explained. “The only person no one’s been able to find and hang at the stake is your cousin, Dudley Dursley.”

“Dudley and I got in contact shortly after that interview.” Holly said. “I won’t be revealing his location or anything, that’s not on. He was just as…we were both being hurt by Vernon and Petunia, I don’t want any angry mobs at the door step of another victim of abuse.”

“Right right. So, did you contact him or…?”

“He reached out. Called Avengers Tower and basically begged to speak with me.” Holly answered. “It was difficult, but that conversation was one I think we both needed to have. I’ve not been in contact with my other relatives and I couldn’t be less interested in doing so.”

“Understandable. How are you feeling about the public reaction?”

“I’ve never been a huge fan of angry mobs,” She admitted. “I understand the rage and the reaction, I do. But I feel like that outrage should be focused on more positive ways to actually better our country. We can fund programs for at risk children better, we can remind ourselves to listen and believe victims when they speak out. Getting my uncle fired doesn’t erase my pain, and it doesn’t stop others from being hurt right now.”

The audience started to clap, and cheer and Holly waited for it to die down again. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Loki had given her another blessing before she’d left with the interview and instead of using her borrowed silver tongue to destroy, maybe she could use it to build something.

*****

“Loki.” Bruce said, from his position on the couch, three separate Avengers shushed him. They were all watching Holly’s live interview, it had started just a few minutes ago. Tony was currently at the station with Holly, but the rest of them had stayed at Holly’s place in London to watch.

“What Banner?”

“You said Holly’s magic resembles a star, right? Like the sun.”

“Yes and?” He pushed in a tone that made it clear he’d prefer if they did this another time.

“So, like…the opposite of moon energy.”

Loki stilled and Bruce watched as the god of magic began to mull over Bruce’s question and make a few rapid connections. Loki had been one of Bruce’s go to guys when it came to his magical research when he wasn’t working with the witches and wizards back in New York. He’d been working on and off on the werewolf project since Holly had introduced him to the werewolves of New York and he’d been semi-adopted by their pack.

The god turned to look at Bruce, one eyebrow lifted and his attention fully taken away from Holly who was talking about her relatives to the talk show host.

“Yes. I suppose she would be…well her opposite is death magic, or dark matter manipulation.” He answered. “Moon energy is more… inverted compared to her’s, a reflection of her energy.”

“Right. Fine.” Bruce said. “But we know it’s moon energy that triggers the lycanthropy curse.”

“Wait lycanthropy?” Carol asked. “Like werewolves?”

“Keep up Danvers, what about werewolves existing would be surprising at this point?” Clint joked making the woman roll her eyes.

“Can we please focus on Holly?” Steve asked.

“This shouldn’t take long.” Bruce said. “I was just thinking. The lycanthropy curse increases in strength the closer to the full moon you get, all werewolf traits are practically gone when the moon is new. It’s a cycle of strengthening and weakening. A majority of treatments focus on absorbing the moon energy during the full moon so that werewolves can keep their minds.”

“What’s your point?” Loki pushed.

“So. What if we’ve been looking at it wrong? What if moon energy isn’t the problem? What if it’s the sun?”

“Okay you’ve lost us. The sun weakens werewolves, right?” Thor said, putting his knitting needles down with a thoughtful frown.

“The sun’s energy reflects off of the moon and its this… refracted energy that causes the transformation to trigger. The less refracted energy during the month, the weaker the curse is, it’s the twisting of the sun energy that’s causing this.”

“If you’re right.” Loki said. “And I don’t know if I believe you yet, what is your suggestion?”

“Lycanthropy is a curse that changes the soul, that’s why no traditional curse breaking works, its too deeply embedded. But if Jane is right and stars are essentially soul forges, then lunar energy is the reflection of the energy that stars produce.”

The words were tipping out of Bruce’s mouth faster than he could even hear himself speak. He could feel himself tumbling and rushing towards the cliff of realization, it was the same sort of adrenaline rush he’d chased all through his years at grad school, the answer was there, he could feel it.

Loki could too. The man sat up completely, looking at Bruce Holly’s interview forgotten.

“Moon energy is used in purification rituals.” He pointed out.

“Sure yes. It’s reflected sun energy, it comes from the same place. It’s not a bad energy, it’s the curse that reacts negatively to it!” Bruce said jumping up to his feet, he forgot in his excitement he had the bowl of popcorn in his lap and it would have sent popcorn all over Nat’s head since she was sitting on the floor in front of him. Thankfully the woman had seen it coming and caught the bowl with ease.

“Where are you going with this?”

“What I’m going with this is that we’ve been trying to limit the moon without considering what the sun could be doing.” Bruce said.

“So what?” Nat asked. “You want to give Werewolves Vitamin D pills?”

“Yes!” Bruce said. “Not Vitamin D but…”

“But if we treat them with some form of sun energy during the full moon,” Loki began.

“They might not transform at all.” Bruce finished.

“Did you just…cure werewolves?” Steve asked, his voice almost hesitant.

*****

Holly knew the question was coming, it was why the interview was happening at all. But they’d worked through the discussion about her last interview, and through more than a few jokes about her being on a team made up of mostly Americans and aliens (which was almost the same thing at the end of the day).

“So. You fixed London.”

“I did.” She agreed with a laugh and a grin.

“Want to tell us how that worked? And why our wonderful city is now filled to the brim with historical buildings that were not there before?”

“Well they were technically there before.” She said. “I just…resurrected them?”

“Sure sure. We all saw the emotional meltdown posted online of the owner of the globe theater when they went in to check damages after invasion and found that it had been restored to the original globe.” Grant said. “Was that your intent?”

“Oh Merlin no.” She said. “I love London, I lived here for years, it was the first place I could call home after I left my relatives. After the invasion, I saw the destruction and I was just…heart broken, and angry.”

She explained, without going into detail about her complicated Carol related feelings, about how much she loved and knew London. How she reached out to the London that had housed her, that had been her home, and how she wanted to restore it, to heal it. Grant and the audience listened as she described to them the magic she’d done, the first ever of it’s kind, and how she hadn’t intended to bring back ancient buildings, or clean the Thames, or make the plants in St. James flourish. Despite not intending this, she couldn’t feel a bit of regret about it.

“So, the Thames is clean, we’ve air cleaner than we’ve had since the 1600s and we’ve got perfectly restored buildings ripe for historical study and preservation.” She said. “Magic like this is new, incredibly so, but I think if these are the unintended consequences… I know some people lost homes and businesses because an older building took their place and I’m sorry for that, I am. But I can’t undo this, not without bringing back so much destruction.”

“Speaking of. The announcement was already made by SI that anyone who was left homeless after the invasion can apply for aid through a new charity organization run by the Avengers to help communities affected by events like these.”

“Yes exactly. I hope everyone can get the help they need. This is a time for us to stick together.” She said. “I doubt this will be the last time something like this happens, it’d be foolish to think that the invasions would stop, we’ve had two major ones now. Being a unified force is the only way we as a planet can survive. This is not a time for division, or for fear. We are strong as one, we can endure this, we will overcome it and we will do it together.”

These were the sorts of speeches she’d given before, the same sort of things that had galvanized people fighting death eaters, encouraged politicians to help clean out corruption and pass reform bills. She could feel the blessing Loki had given her urging her on.

“We as Londoners have a history of surviving so much, it’s a history we share with so many other people all around the world. This ability to endure trials and overcome them is what defines us as human and no matter what the universe throws at us, we will be ready. All of us.”

The air was charged as the audience looked at her, she could feel their minds and hearts growing and taking strength. She wondered who else around the world was listening and if they were feeling what she felt right now.

*****

“Are you seeing this?” She asked nudging her brother.

“Of course, I am.” He said, they were both watching the same screen after all. Something in his gut stirred and he could see a look of concentration on his girlfriend’s face. Behind him his parents also watched.

“That is a true leader.” T’Chaka said.

They were aware of who Holly was of course. When the statute of secrecy had been put into effect Wakanda had already been in isolation from the rest of the world, both magical and muggle. This had meant that when the statute had gone into effect it had been almost immediately broken in Wakanda, allowing their culture and people to remain whole. They had sent wizards and witches into the magical world to act as spies, just as they sent muggle soldiers into the muggle world.

This meant they knew who Holly Potter was, what she had truly done. Okoye had even met Holly once when the woman had been in a nearby country to help with a dragon problem. Holly had impressed her which is a rare enough thing on its own. They also knew how impossible what she’d done in London truly was. None of their magic users could even fathom how Holly had done this thing without killing herself.   

Seeing Holly speak of unity, speak of strength and togetherness was filling many of them with the same thoughts.

What could they have done for London? What could they do in the future? Should they be doing anything at all? T’Challa hadn’t been interested or convinced, no matter how much Nakia argued for it, that they should reveal themselves, that they should help the world. Isolation had saved them, it had saved them in the same way it had saved the magical world. Granted, the magical world had stepped up for London, had risked revealing themselves to protect the muggles of earth.

Could they not do the same?

It was an interesting thought but not one he had taken seriously before now, before the invasion of London. Nakia had long since been convinced of the importance of breaking isolation. Shuri had been of two minds, she was only 14 and beginning to work as one of their countries top researchers, it was clear she yearned for working with other scientists who were at the top of their fields. Such cooperation was beyond her reach and while she was more than capable of doing her work on vibranium alone, well… she had admitted to him before that she wanted to have people in her life who could keep up with her.

It wasn’t T’Challa’s decision though. It was his father’s, his father’s and the council. Revealing themselves, even if only a little, could risk so much. They could destroy their way of life, lose their safety and comfort. They could lose everything. The world could turn against them, seeing their technological strength and might and fearing it. Wars could erupt, lives lost on both sides.

“We must speak with the council.” His mother said. “Change is coming, with danger on it’s heels. We must rise to meet it.”

*****

When the message came to them about Xandar, Quill destroyed half of all of the things inside the ship. Nebula had watched, cleaning her nails with a knife as Quill and the others had a meltdown. Only Gamora seemed unsurprised, although she could see the guilt and grief in her sister’s face. She had grown soft in their time apart, just less than a year with these people and already she was allowing herself to feel guilt and regret. Their father was going to destroy a lot of things, every thing in fact, if given the chance.

Nebula would have left the orb on Xandar too, if only to keep Thanos off of their trail, let the Xandarians pay the price, not them. Of course, she knew better than to say that out loud. She’d been on this ship with the others for days now and it had not gotten any easier. They didn’t like her, and she felt very similarly. She’d had dozens of fights with Quill because he was an idiot, and she’d almost tabbed the raccoon when he’d tried to mess with her cybernetics. Drax made her want to turn off her ability to take in noise every time he spoke for longer than 10 seconds. She only really got along with Groot, and that was because she couldn’t understand a word he said.

Their father had a stone. The power stone, a stone he could use to destroy and explode anything in his path. They needed to get to earth soon, to warn them, and to join them. It seemed to be their only chance and Nebula had no doubt that it would not be long before Thanos would make his way to earth as well. Likely he would build an army first, that gave them time, but not much, not now that he had one of the stones.

“How far are we from earth?” She asked once Quill had finally stopped ranting and raging.

“I am Groot.”

“We’re a few days away still.” Rocket translated. “This ship doesn’t move as quick as some.”

“Obviously.” She sneered. “But my father has a stone, he knows there are three on earth, he will go there next.”

“We have to be ready.” Gamora added. “If we’re to avenge Xandar then we need to be on task.”

She reached out to Quill who scowled and pulled away. Nebula rolled her eyes, what her sister saw in him she’d never comprehend. Perhaps she had a thing for idiots.

“We’ll get there.” Quill said. “And when we do we go straight to this Holly person, you said she’s our best shot right?”

“I’ve seen her power, nothing compares.”

“Good. We’ll go there and once we’re there, we’re going to kick some ass.”

“It will be a great quest!” Drax added. “We will avenge my wife and Xandar!”

This, somehow, made the others take heart.

“I am Groot!” Groot added, pointlessly.

Nebula nodded. They were close to earth space, and soon they would join themselves to Holly Potter, they would give her the information they had, and they would help her destroy their father. Xandar might have fallen, but they wouldn’t.

*****

“Well, thank you so much for speaking with us tonight.” Grant said. “You’ve walked us through your last interview, the invasion and clean-up, and the newer members of the Avengers we don’t know well yet. I think we can all agree you shouldn’t ever be interviewed by an American ever again.”

Holly giggled and agreed. She could see Tony backstage giving her a thumbs up.

“Yes, I agree completely. Thank you ever so much for having me. Hopefully next time we talk it’s not because of an alien invasion.”

Holly kept herself from wincing externally, she had no idea why she felt like she’d just jinxed herself terribly. Instead she shook Grant’s hand and walked off stage right towards Tony who gave her a pat on the back and told her she’d done a brilliant job.

“We’ll make Steve do the next one.”

“You’d better.”

Chapter 66: Holly Needs To Talk

Summary:

Things are a lot right now and Holly finds she doesn't want to talk to any of her friends about what's going on in her head. Thankfully (or not depending on how you look at it) there is one other person who might understand.

Notes:

Hey everyone! Hope the world is treating you well. I'm starting Draft 3 of my thesis and this one looks like it's going to be the final version! Woo! six months of work and we're finally getting to the end!
I hope this story is providing you all with some happiness during these crazy times. That being said, I hope you all would consider donating to organizations like the NAACP during this time, so that they can keep helping people who are protesting police brutality. Look up local organizations that are helping POC in your area and see what you can do to help, even if you don't have the money to donate. About 7000 people read this story each each and if we all did something to support POC this week, we could make a big difference! We're in this fight together and all our voices matter when it comes to standing up against systemic oppression!
Happy reading!

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

Holly probably shouldn’t be here. In her defense she was just a bit drunk (or a lot drunk depending on who you asked, she’d settled down in one of the less used rooms in Grimmauld Place and started drinking and well, now she was here), and she never dealt with that very well. Grimmauld Place was still filled to the brim, the Avengers still staying at her place as they worked with the EU, the UN, SHIELD, and the IWC to work through the problems with London’s invasions. Because even though Holly had cleaned everything up there were still problems. Some people had lost their lives, others still had lost businesses and homes. There was fear now, proof that alien invasions weren’t an ‘American-Only’ problem.

It had been relatively simple for the Avengers to set up for the invasion in London, Holly was from London, and the US had good relations with the UK. It had been a matter of a few phone calls to get the ball rolling. And thank Merlin it had been that simple, if it hadn’t. Well London might have ended up a bit too broken for even Holly to fix. But there were so many countries in the world and now that everyone knew that anyone could be invaded, it created fear and confusion.

What about Russia? What if Russia was next? Would they allow the Avengers into their nation to help, even if Nat was an ex-pat, and they were riddled with Hydra? What about China? What about North Korea or Afghanistan? So many parts of the world had governments or diplomacy issues that meant allowing an American based team into their sovereign borders would be sticky at best, and World War 3 causing at worst. When the next invasion came, what if it was a country that didn’t trust Americans (for good reason or not)? The diplomatic nightmare was awful, there were discussions about forming some sort of Council, to help determine when and where the Avengers would be deployed on foreign missions which Steve didn’t like at all because he was afraid that the bureaucracy of such a Council could dangerously slow them down.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that technically Holly was allowed to go wherever she pleased, the magical world had its own problems but UN complications wasn’t one of them. If Holly decided to travel through the magical world towards whatever enemy they were after that week, then technically Holly was doing it legally, but if she was seen doing that by a muggle? All hell could break loose. She’d be a magic user flaunting international law and the uproar of that.

Needless to say things were complicated right now.

And Grimmauld Place was full, Walburga kept screaming, and Holly couldn’t stop thinking.

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

So here she was, a bit drunk, and standing outside an apartment she’d never been to. She knocked on the door, a frown on her face. She swayed slightly as the sounds of the early evening flowed past her. There were people walking around, laughing and going through the streets on their way home or to some sort of evening entertainment. It was a comfortably cool evening, although Holly did feel a bit hot.

The door opened to reveal a woman, she was about twice as wide as Holly was, and a head taller. She was dressed in a tight exercise shirt that showed off her well-formed biceps and hinted at her rock-solid abs. Her shorts were basically designed to show off how good her calves looked too. She had dirty blonde hair was that pulled back into a ponytail. She frowned at Holly, before actually recognizing her and gasping.

“Blake there?” Holly asked, hoping she didn’t look as drunk as she felt.

“Blake?” The woman called in a thick German accent, out her voice was deeper than Holly’s. “There’s an Avenger here to see you!”

Holly heard a crash from further into the apartment and then thundering footsteps. She wasn’t surprised to see her cousin standing there, with his different colored eyes and hair looking frazzled at her appearance.

“Holly.”

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

“Yes.” She said. “To answer your question. Yes.”

“Huh? Are you drunk? Get inside.” He said. “Ingrid, I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was coming.”

Dudley, or Blake rather, gently ushered Holly inside, letting the door swing shut behind them. Ingrid followed them a look on her face making it clear she wanted an explanation and she wanted it yesterday. She spoke out in German and that was one language Holly didn’t know a damn thing about. She listened as Dudley led her into his flat’s kitchen, sitting her down at his table while he spoke to his girlfriend in rapid German about something.

Probably Holly.

Ingrid was starting to look more and more upset as Dudley spoke and that made something in Holly’s gut prickle. She bit her tongue to keep from apologizing or apparating out of there. She’d come for a reason, and she wasn’t going to leave. Not yet.

“Warum würdest du das vor mir verstecken?” Ingrid asked, at least Holly thought it was a question.

“Weil ich dumm bin? Weil ich keine Ahnung hatte, wie ich es dir sagen soll? Weil ich ein Feigling bin?” Dudley shot back, frustration evident in his tone. That at least Holly knew. She watched Dudley turn around and start making tea. There was some sort of dinner cooking in the oven, it filled her nose with the scent of spices and meat. Dudley sighed as the kettle was filled and turned on to start heating up. “Können wir später darüber sprechen? Ich brauche deine hilfe.”

Ingrid sighed too, nodding a bit in acceptance. The woman then sat down at the table and looked at Holly.

“You don’t drink often, do you?” She asked. “Neither does Blake, but he’s at least got enough size to balance it.”

Holly shrugged a bit. Now that she’d told Dudley what she’d needed to, she was starting to feel just sober enough to know she was making a fool of herself.

“How…how do you take your tea?” Dudley asked, making Holly turn to look at him. “We’ve got milk and sugar, at least I think we’ve got milk.”

“I’d take a splash of milk, and a couple of sugars,” Holly said, before pausing and adding. “Please.”

“Course.” He said. “Well…I should do some introductions. Holly this is my girlfriend Ingrid. We’ve been together for a few years, we were just celebrating her last big boxing win, she won her qualifier match.”

Holly just blinked a moment before looking over at Ingrid.

“Congratulations?” She said, trying not to reveal that she had no idea what Dudley was talking about. Ingrid snorted and gave Holly’s hand a pat.

“Thank you. I’ll enjoy fighting in the championship this year. Last year wasn’t such a good year for me, but I’m doing much better, my training has paid off.”

“Right.” Holly really had no idea why she’d come here. “Well I’m clearly…interrupting something, I’ll just g-”

“No!” Dudley said. “I mean. Please stay, there’s enough dinner for all three of us and you…I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me for months, if ever.”

“I’m fine with you staying.” Ingrid said, there was nothing in her tone that made it seem like she was lying. “Not every day my Blake’s estranged family shows up drunk on his doorstep.”

“Not drunk.” Holly argued. “Tipsy.”

Dudley snorted, and then the kettle went off. Holly watched as he poured two cups, quickly making one for him and for her the way she liked. She looked over at Ingrid who lifted her nose a bit and spoke.

“Can’t stand tea.” She told Holly. “And Black knows better than to try and make me some.”

“Oh.”

Once the tea was made, and Holly had the mug in her hands, Dudley settled in the other chair. It was odd, how different this apartment was from their childhood home in Surrey. There was a warmth here that that place had never had. The kitchen was messy and cluttered, with old dishes in the sink and a few stains here and there that would have given Petunia an aneurysm. Holly looked down at the small table, one made for a few people to sit comfortably around instead of a large cumbersome thing that was supposed to look important.

“Holly?” Dudley asked. “What were you talking about? On the doorstep.”

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

“You asked.” Holly said. “You asked me. If anyone had ever said sorry.”

“Uh. Yeah.” Dudley said. “And you’ve gotten apologies before?”

“Yes? No? I dunno. Not one that mattered,” Holly admitted. “You really…you just did it though and I’m too useless to do anything with it.”

“Holly.” Dudley said. “Can you…sober yourself up?”

Holly could indeed do that. She wondered what would happen if she did. The look in Dudley’s eyes made it clear that he wouldn’t want to talk to her if she didn’t though, so she sighed and snapped her fingers, banishing the alcohol in her system which immediately sobered her. It was unpleasant. She groaned at the sensation and then sat up more completely.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t even be here.” She said. “I don’t know what I was thinking I-”

“You were thinking you wanted to talk.” Dudley said. “And we can talk. If you want Ingrid to give us some privacy, we can go into the living room, she’s not like mum or anything.”

Holly wasn’t. She shook her head. She had so many thoughts in her head and now that she was sober, she was unable to ignore any of them.  

“How much does she know?” She asked softly.

“Not enough obviously,” Ingrid said. “but that’s alright, Blake can explain it all later.”

“Hmm,” Holly said, lifting up her mug to take a sip of tea. “this is good.”

“One of the first things I had to learn,” Dudley admitted, a blush on his cheeks. “when I left home was how to make it. Might have cursed you a few times in my head for being so good at it when I kept burning the water.”

“You burnt water?”

“Only a few times.”

Holly laughed a little and took another sip, worrying her fingers against the side of the mug.

“Had to be good at making tea, you know how Vernon liked it.”

“Right. Uhm. Are you here to talk about dad?” Dudley asked. “Cause if you are, we can, but I might feel a bit bad about telling you to sober up.”

“No. No. I don’t. I don’t want to talk about them. I just…do you remember an old man? Long white beard, twinkling eyes?”

“The one who wore those weird colored suits?” Dudley asked. “What was his name? Dumblesdoof?”

“Dumbledore,” Holly corrected. “and yeah him.”

“What about him?”

Holly looked into her mug of tea, wondering was a seer would see in the leaves settling in the bottom. All the drama in the universe, and there had been more than plenty in the past week, hadn’t helped Holly clear her head any. In the past all she needed to forget about whatever was bothering her was a good fight with some Death Eaters and then the problem would fade away. Then there hadn’t been any Death Eaters left and Holly had quickly started to spiral. She’d spiraled so hard she’d ended up in New York having a crisis about how useless and pointless she was.

She thought she’d solved it when she’d left Kari at that café and gone to save the Avengers. She’d thought she’d figured out what she was for, what she was meant to do. She’d joined the Avengers and for a while her feelings had quieted, she hadn’t felt so torn. Because she’d had a purpose again, hadn’t she? She was helping Loki and working as an Avenger, and then she was helping Winter and getting ready to protect the world against Thanos.

If things had followed their normal patterns, then the fight in London should have left her feeling very calm and level. She’d done what she was meant to do, and in the past that had helped her put her own problems aside.

But something in her was broken. She couldn’t even begin to think about ways to solve any of her issues, it felt like her mind was filled with tissue paper. Holly was certain there were ways she could trap, or detain Thanos, if only her mind could work enough to think of them. But she was broken.  She couldn’t focus on the diplomatic issues, she had a hard time being excited about Bruce’s research, or about her next tutoring session with Lila and Teddy. Talking to people felt like so much work, each day after the invasion of London she started to feel heavier and heavier.

“Holly.” Dudley said again making her realize she’d been sitting there silently for a bit too long.

“He was the one who…who left me there.” Holly said. “Dumbledore. He knew my parents and…he knew that your mum and mine weren’t close but he…he just put me in a basket and left me on the doorstep in the middle of the night like I was part of the morning paper.”

“Wha- Why would he do a thing like that? You mean mum wasn’t lying all that time, she kept complaining that you got dropped off like rubbish but I thought she was lying.”

Holly shook her head a bit, sniffing as she did so. She sipped on her tea.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said.” Holly told him. “More than maybe I should be with all that’s going on in the world. I’ve…I’ve gone on so long putting thinking about it off and now I can’t seem to stop.”

Has anyone ever actually apologized to you before?

Why wouldn’t his words stop ringing in her head? Why hadn’t fighting calmed it down? Why did she feel so useless?

“Makes sense.” Dudley told her, making her jump a little. “Holly you’ve…you’ve been through a lot. And if you’ve really been ignoring it for this long? Well eventually it was gonna be too much. That’s not…that’s not on you though, you’re not failing at anything, you’re just being human.”

Her face twisted up, because was she really human anymore? Dudley made a pained noise and Holly forced herself to take another sip. When the sip was done, she gently placed the mug onto the table and took in a deep breath.

“No one really ever explained anything to you about me, did they?” She asked.

“What you told me over the years is all I know.”

“So, nothing.”

Dudley nodded and Holly closed her eyes. Why was she here? She could go to Ron and Hermione if she wanted to hash out her problems with Dumbledore. She could talk to the Avengers about her stress about Thanos. She could talk to Loki and Thor about the Life complications. Hell, she could probably even bemoan her stress to Carol, since the woman also had had to bear the burden of protecting an entire civilization for years at a time.

But no. She was here. With her estranged cousin and his girlfriend, unable to think of anything or do anything more than sip the tea Dudley had made and let her mind go around in circles. Dudley reached out and placed a large hand over hers. She glanced over at him and Dudley looked at her, something gentle in his eyes.

“Holly, you’re clearly…going through a lot.” He said. “And frankly, if I owe you anything, it’s the chance to…let it go. You spent our childhood cleaning up after me, making my birthday cakes and my tea and- If you need a listening ear I’m here. I’m not a hero like you, or a magic user or…I’m just a guy and I have a feeling I’m about as close to normal as you have right now.”

“It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got all night.” Ingrid said, placing her hand on Holly’s shoulder, warm and solid. “Stay. Stay and talk.”

Holly took in a deep breath and she decided to let it go.

She started with the hallows. It didn’t take long to tell the story, a fairy tale meant for children. They listened, and didn’t interrupt much, which allowed her to skip forward, following the path of the cloak right to Ralston Potter. They listened as she shared the story of her ancestor, of the man who knew Loki so well, who tried to save the magical humans of earth with him. Next was the magical world’s creation, the statute of secrecy being formed through Loki’s sacrifice. Ingrid and Dudley listened as Holly told them of Loki’s grief, of his pain, all based on a lie.

Next there was Voldemort, and her parents and Dumbledore, and then the prophecy. Dudley and Ingrid listened to it all, as she spoke of the war, of being left at the Dursleys for her own protection. So that she would live long enough to fulfill the prophecy. She told them of going to a magic school, where each of her steps was dogged by danger and drama. Of returning to Privet drive feeling even more and more detached to the person she was expected to be. How there was no comfort at Hogwarts, no comfort in Surrey, no comfort anywhere for years. Then the discovery of the prophecy and what her role was.

She had to die.

She spoke of death, in hushed tones, of being in a place that was nothing but white, an in between zone where everything was fog. She spoke of seeing Dumbledore there, not her godfather, not her parents, but the man who had orchestrated her death. She spoke of a choice.

The war ended, but Holly had to continue on. There were Death Eaters to catch and it was her job, her purpose, to catch them. Her friends started the journey with her but eventually they all found the things she seemed unable to have. They married, they healed, they grew, and Holly just kept fighting until there was nothing left to fight. The story continued onward into her time in New York and how she thought she’d found herself, thought she’d healed and found her purpose again. She’d found Loki, discovered the truth, she’d defeated the Black Order and she joined the Avengers.

But she’d been wrong, hadn’t she? Because her purpose hadn’t been that at all, but something else. Something she wanted no part of and had no choice in. She told them of Death and Life and the hallows that changed her. She spoke of her new limitations, of what she could no longer do. She told Dudley how useless she’d been during the invasion. How all she could do was the clean-up and while she knew that was important, it wasn’t what she was for, was it? She was meant to kill bad guys, that was why the prophecy had been given. But now that had been taken from her, hadn’t it? Everything she’d known was gone, it felt like.

Dudley listened to it all. He listened as his dinner finished cooking and Ingrid pulled it out of the oven. He listened as the evening turned to night. He listened as the hours passed and Holly’s voice grew hoarse. He listened until she had nothing left to say, except that all she could think about now was what he’d told her last time they spoke, and how lost she felt. Loki and the others had offered to help, and she knew they would, but it hadn’t made her feel better. Nothing seemed to.

When she finished it was late, and she was swaying with something like exhaustion. She felt different than she had after unloading onto Loki. Loki had pushed her into that and she had been so angry and overwhelmed. Her powers lashing out at everything and everyone. This didn’t feel like that. Dudley had asked and she had…she had opened up. Now she just felt…open, naked even. But Dudley didn’t make fun of her, call her a freak or anything like that. Instead Dudley had poured her more tea, given her a plate of dinner, and he’d listened.

“Holly,” Dudley said. “It’s late.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“No. What I’m saying is that you should stay the rest of the night, we’ve got a pull-out couch.” He said. “Come on, you can sleep and then go back to your team tomorrow.”

And with that he led her to the living room where Ingrid had already pulled out the couch so that it was a bed. Ingrid looked shaken, and Holly couldn’t really blame her. She wished them both goodnight and then wandered away to where she assumed Dudley’s bedroom was.

“Hope I didn’t ruin anything.” Holly said motioning towards where Ingrid had gone.

“Nah. Ingrid’s good, she just needs time to…digest that.” He said. “She’s probably more upset about how hurt you’ve been more than anything.”

“We don’t know each other.”

“Doesn’t matter, not to her.”

“Hmm.” Holly settled onto the bed, it wasn’t very comfortable but it would do. Dudley sat down next to her, the mattress squeaking under his weight.

“Can I…Can I tell you something? You might not like it.”

“Uhm. Sure.”

“You…you sounded a bit like mum while you were talking.”

“What?”

“You kept talking about how you were useless, and pointless, and how angry you were that you couldn’t even do the stuff you were meant to.” Dudley said. “Sounded just like how mum would talk about you. I was half expecting you to start calling yourself a freak when you started talking about the Life stuff.”

She felt like the air had been punched out of her as she looked at her cousin. He seemed to take heart that she hadn’t told him off yet.

“I’m not good at words, I don’t think I ever will be but…but you shouldn’t keep thinking of yourself like mum did.” Dudley said. “You don’t…you don’t have to earn your keep.”

She told herself not to tremble.

“I know mum and dad told you that all the time, that you had to be useful or else. That you owed them for taking you in, that you needed to work, or you’d be an ungrateful, rude…” He didn’t finish that sentence she already knew how it was meant to end anyway. “They were wrong, to tell you that. To make you feel you had to be useful, that you had to be fulfilling some purpose to be worthy of food and a roof over your head.”

“Dudley.”

Dudley licked his lips, seeming to realize he had to be a bit more careful or he’d push her too far.

“Just think about it, okay? You’re really focused on having a use, a purpose. You seem afraid to be without one, even though most of us don’t… I mean most people don’t worry about a cosmic fate Holly.”

“Most people aren’t me.”

“And most people didn’t grow up with guardians who nearly beat into them the idea that they had to be useful either.”

She closed her eyes.

“Just try not to repeat the same crap mum and dad used to. You deserve better Holly.”

And then Dudley left her, telling her where the bathroom was and promising there’d be breakfast in the morning with her name on it. She laid down on the guest bed he’d provided, and she wondered. Did it really all go back to them? Back to Surrey? Back to those years where she’d been small and weak and lonely? And if it did, what was she supposed to do about it?

Chapter 67: Take These Wings and Fly

Summary:

Apparently, according to certain cousins who shall remain nameless, Holly needs help. Professional help.
Who in the world could possibly do that?

Notes:

Now we're finally getting to the roots of this midlife crisis lol. Hopefully Holly can sort of get it together in time for the big fight. :/

Okay, what if you’re right? What if all of this is really because of Vernon and Petunia?

I’m pretty sure I am.

So? What am I supposed to do?

Well there’s always therapy.

Ha! Who could I even go to? Most of my trauma is classified!

There’s got to be a therapist somewhere that you could talk to.

But you don’t know that, and therapy probably wouldn’t even work.

Didn’t take you for a coward Potter.

Shut up Dursley.

*****

Sam Wilson considered himself a group counselor. He was not a psychologist or a therapist, he was a counselor. He hadn’t gotten a masters degree from a fancy school, and he couldn’t prescribe medication. Was he good at his job? Absolutely. Had he taken a lot of classes and training to counsel people? Yes. Did that mean that if he took a few more exams that he could technically qualify as a therapist? Maybe. But Sam was happy where he was. He led group sessions for Veterans with PTSD and guided people as part of their recovery. Being in charge of a person’s entire mental health was a bit more responsibility than he wanted.

The universe so rarely gave Sam Wilson what he wanted.

The day Sam Wilson was catapulted from group counselor in his local VA office, to therapist was a sunny one. He hadn’t slept well, this close to the anniversary, of Riley’s death it only made sense. It had only been a few years since Riley…and well as much progress as Sam had made in his own recovery, he was still allowed to have some off days. So, despite the sunshine and the humidity outside, Sam had decided to go on a run, a long run. Exercise had always helped him manage his symptoms in the past. Just letting himself run until his brain slowed enough for him to parse through his own thoughts was one of his favorite forms of treatment his own therapist had ever prescribed.

He did not, in fact, get to run for long.

He was about a quarter of the way through his normal route when his phone had started going off. Sam frowned and slowed down to a light jog, pulling out his phone, and answered it once he saw that it was from the VA.

“Wilson here.”

“Hey Sammie,” Deb said. “Did you forget you’ve got an appointment?”

Deb, or rather Deborah Franks, was the receptionist at the VA office Sam worked for. She was probably the most competent person on the staff and if you wanted anything to get done, then you needed her on your side. She had the respect of pretty much everyone there, so much so that Sam let her get away with calling him Sammie like he was still in diapers.

“What? It’s Saturday! I don’t do group sessions on Saturday!”

 “It’s not a group. You’ve got a single, it’s right here on the schedule.”

“I don’t do singles,” Sam said. “Deb you know I don’t do singles.”

“Huh? Are you playing some sort of prank on me right now? You’re the one who made the appointment, the paperwork’s all here and you signed off on it. The Lady’s already here too.”

“I…” Clearly there was something wrong. Sam never signed off on a one on one session with any of the other vets. He didn’t feel, despite the classes and trainings he had, that he was ready for that sort of thing. He had not filled out any paperwork.

But Deb wouldn’t lie.

“You’re right,” Sam said. “Sorry it slipped my mind. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Stall for me?”

“You owe me a coffee.”

“You’re a dream Deb.”

Sam hung up after that and ran back to his apartment. It didn’t take long to quickly shower and grab his wings. Whoever was trying to trick Sam into a meeting was about to be really surprised about what a supposed ‘retired’ soldier could do. No one really knew what Sam had done in the Military. He and Riley had been the only two soldiers trained with the wings and when Sam had retired, the program had been shelved. Technically Sam wasn’t supposed to have the wings, and most of the army was under the impression that Sam didn’t. The only one who knew anything different was his therapist and Greg wasn’t talking.

Once the wings were packed, Sam made his way to the VA. When he got there, he made a beeline for Deb, who held out a manicured hand with intensely long fingernails out. Sam easily plopped a cup of coffee into it and she smirked.

“Your patient’s waiting for you down the hall. Told them your previous patient was going long, she didn’t seem to mind. Told me not to rush you on her account,” Deb answered, her accent thick, putting her cup of coffee down to cool. “If you want my opinion-”

“You know I always do.”

“Well, she didn’t seem very happy to be here, bless her heart. Pretty sure whoever her coordinator is had to twist her arm to make the appointment. Are you doing this as a favor or somethin’?”

“Something like that.” Sam grumbled.

“Yeah well. I’m happy to hear it.”

“You are?”

“Course.” She said. “You’re one of our best here, Sammie. You do great work and I know you’d do even better in one on one sessions.”

“Yeah yeah. Any other nuggets of wisdom for me?”

“Not really. It’s weird I’ve spent the last thirty minutes trying to figure out where I know her from,” Deb said. “It keeps slipping away from me, makes me feel like I’m going crazy.”

Yeah okay something was definitely up.

*****

What even happens at therapy anyway?

Depends on the therapist.

Dudley.

It’s Blake and fine. For me, it was…I dunno the first few meetings were just me telling my therapist stuff.

So, it’s just talking, I’ve done the talking thing, it doesn’t work.

No what you’ve done is had most of your friends push you to talk about things.

Same difference.

Right. Look. You’re gonna talk to your therapist, then they’re going to tell you why you’re wrong.

Oh goodie.

Then they’ll give you assignments, things to do so that you can start getting better.

Homework? Dudley, I didn’t even do homework when I was in school.

That’s cause I always stole yours when you did.

Hmm.

Just go. You’ve been sleeping on my couch for days now. It can’t make it worse.

*****

The last thing Sam expected when he walked over to the waiting room to pick up his ‘patient’ was an Avenger.

But sure enough, sitting on one of the uncomfortable tan arm chairs in their shabby excuse for a waiting room was an Avenger.

Sam had idly wondered what being an Avenger was like. He had, after all, done similar work in the military as Falcon. Granted his work had been insanely classified. So, he imagined the major difference was that everyone knew who the woman waiting for him was and no one outside of his family and the VA knew him.

“Uhm.” He said.

“Mr. Wilson,” Holly Potter said looking up at him, a grimace that was trying to pass as a smile forming on her face. “Thanks so much for meeting with me on your day off, I wouldn’t have set all this up if it weren’t important.”

“Uh huh,” He said, wondering when he had entered into an alternate dimension where an Avenger capable of repairing an entire ruined city within minutes knew his name and also his work schedule. “Well, why don’t we go to my office?”

What Sam was not aware of at that moment was that his feeling of disorientation was quite normal for someone meeting Holly for the first time. Or at least, most magic users felt that way. Holly didn’t give him a rude look for his awkward stare and Sam shook himself out of it quickly as the woman got out of the chair and began to follow him.

“Of course.”  

He led Holly Potter to his office, it was a small room not really designed for speaking with patients, since he didn’t speak to patients one on one. He hoped the woman was there for something interesting. Maybe there was something serious going on, maybe she knew he had the wings, maybe he was being recruited. He almost snorted at the idea of it being therapy, how insane would that be.

“Aren’t you supposed to have one of those couches?”

“What?”

“You know. The couch.”

Sam rolled his eyes.

“No. I don’t have the couch. That okay with you?”

“Sure, yeah I guess.” She shrugged, taking a seat where Sam motioned her to. Sam carefully placed his ‘backpack’ down onto the ground, trying to make it sound less heavy than it was. Based on the woman’s smirk, he didn’t succeed.

“So, why exactly did you magic yourself an appointment with me?” He asked.

“I would never.”

“Uh huh.”

Holly Potter glanced at him, looking suddenly unsure. Sam’s eyebrows crinkled together as she shifted in her seat.

“I’m not…uhm sure how this is supposed to start.” She said.

“You came to me,” Sam pointed out. “And I have no idea why, maybe you could clear that up.”

“You’re the therapist!”

No. No. No. No.

“I think you might have me mistaken with someone else.” Sam began.

“I definitely don’t.”

“I’m not a therapist.”

“Counselor. Whatever,” She waved her hand like the distinction didn’t matter to her. “You were the Falcon, you now spend your days helping people with PTSD. Based on the training and classes you’ve taken you’re qualified to offer therapy to people who need it. You also have incredibly high security clearance, meaning you could work without someone like me without you know, breaking the law.”

Okay so she did know who he was.

“I don’t offer therapy. I run group sessions here at the VA.”

“But you could.”

“But I don’t.”

And then the woman sighed dramatically, leaning back in her chair. Sam was abruptly reminded of the woman’s first interview after becoming an Avenger, how brittle she had seemed, how sharp.

“Oh well,” She said. “I tried. Seems like this sort of thing is not for me. So sorry for taking up your time, Mr. Wilson.”

Wait.

*****

I’ll go to one meeting. One.

You know you normally have to go to a few-

One Blake. I’ve found someone who’s qualified and who has security clearance. If he won’t work then there’s no one else.

Fine fine. Just give it an honest try.

I’ll go. I’ll ask him to work with me. If he says no then you never bring therapy up, ever again.

*****

“Sit down, Miss Potter.”

The woman, who was almost out the door pursed her lips but did turn around and take a seat on the edge of her chair. She looked almost mutinous.

“Did you want me to say no?” He asked, and when she didn’t deny it he continued. “Cause not only did you trick me into coming here on my day off, you also didn’t even ask me to be your therapist. Seems to me that most people would be so annoyed they would be happy to see you leave.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” She lied. “I’m making an honest effort here.”

“Right. How many other therapists have the security clearance you need?”

She mumbled a word that Sam was pretty sure was ‘none’.

“And are you here because you need to be here or because you want to?”

She gave him a look and Sam grinned.

“Who put you up to this?” She mumbled again. “I need actual words.”

“My cousin,” She groaned. “Apparently I’m ‘spiraling’ and I ‘need to talk to someone’.”

“The cousin that bullied you as a kid?”

“He apologized. It was nice,” She said. “So nice in fact, that it’s all I can think about. If we’re going to be quite candid about it, I’ve thought of nothing else but his absolutely lovely apology since he gave it to me and it got so bad that I ran away from my team, going completely AWOL because I can’t bear to talk to them about what’s going on inside my head because they’re so pushy and just the thought of explaining this to anyone, at all, makes me want to claw out my own eyeballs.”

And looking at the woman before him Sam made a decision. He decided that Holly needed help. She looked tired and drawn, pushed far past the limit that anyone person should go. He’d seen the look on her face in his own. And she’d come to him, for good or for ill.

“You can do the clawing after our session.” Sam said.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

She leaned back against the chair with a groan.

“Now let’s get started.” Sam said.

“Can’t I at least magic up one of the weird couches?”

“You can magic up a chair if you promise to answer every question, I ask you honestly. I’ll give you three passes, if you don’t want to answer them today, but you will be answering them eventually.”

“You’re evil,” She said, before snapping her fingers and changing the chair she was sitting on into a chaise she could lounge on. She did so taking the position so many patients did in the movies, in the middle of his tiny office. She then took in a deep breath. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

“I think we need to start at the beginning.”

“Well four hundred years ago-”

“No,” Sam said. “I mean, what started this spiral for you, do you think? Was it that interview you had? Was it one of the fights you’ve had with the Avengers? What started it all?”

“Uhm. Well,” She shifted a bit and licked her lips. “That’s sort of where your security clearance comes in.”

“You’re my only appointment all day for some reason. We’ve got the time.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Alright. Well. I guess I started spiraling once I finished my last job, the one I had before I became the Avenger’s Cleaning Lady.”

“Tell me about it.”

And Holly Potter did.

*****

How long does it take?

Oh months at least, it was years for me really.

Years?! I don’t have years. Thanos is coming, the universe needs me to be well, right now.

Do you remember our year three teacher? That old man, with the moustache?

Uh yeah why?

He had that stupid saying on a plaque on his desk.

The plaque you broke and blamed me for.

Oh right. Well do you remember what it said?

I can’t say that I do.

It said the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best time is today.

Ugh. Are you really a sayings person now?

I’m not good with words. I just use other peoples.

*****

“And I thought. I thought I’d figured it out you know? I’d spent months just…running around trying to find myself and I was looking at the Avengers in Central Park and they hadn’t asked me to fight and I felt as if. As if I was meant to help them, that this could be my purpose cause I chose it. It was different than before, no one was making me.”

“So, you left the date,” Sam said, doing his level best not to sound as faint as he felt after all of the things Holly had revealed to him. “And you joined the team. But that didn’t help?”

“At first? I mean I thought it was helping. I do like the Avengers, I like protecting people but…things just kept happening and I started to feel worse and worse. The team, they kept trying to get me to talk about things, but I just didn’t want to and they’d push me. I know it’s because they care but I just…how am I supposed to talk about anything when I don’t know why I’m feeling rubbish?”

“A mystery for the ages,” Sam joked. “What would you say were the big things that happened that made you spiral further? It seemed like joining the Avengers could have been a step in the right direction, you were working with a team to share the burden with and you weren’t going to be expected to do the martyr act on your own anymore.”

“I…well I guess the big thing was…was the transformation I went through. You see I’d just gotten back from Asgard, after defeating the king of the universe in combat to clear Loki’s name. As one does. And I needed to sleep it off, but then…someone attacked me in my sleep, I nearly died and then I started to change.”

Sam tried to make his face seem not surprised. His mind had already been blown about three different times and he had a feeling they weren’t even halfway through what this first session would need to be. However, when she dropped the bomb about meeting Death herself, Sam had a feeling he didn’t do too great a job at it. Holly didn’t seem to mind when he made a few choked noises, laughing a little as he told her to keep going.

“So…without my consent I just…became Life. I’m…I’m immortal and I can’t do a lot of the things I did before you know?”

“Like what?”

“I can’t kill anyone. Think of it like…like a chemical equation. I’ve seen Bruce and Tony write a few up, I know what they look like. I’m the reactants of the universe, all of the building blocks that are being put together. Death is the end product, what everything will end up being when all is said and done. The rest of the universe, all living things, they’re that little arrow between, the gray zone. I’m powerful now, but I can only add more into the universe. I can’t do anything on the other side of the equation. People like you, or even people like the witch I used to be, can do a little bit of both, since they exist between me and Death, but I can’t anymore.”

“And that bothers you? That you can’t kill anyone?”

“Yes.”

“But I thought you prided yourself on not killing Death Eaters? For most of your career you did everything in your power not to take human life. Why are you bothered that an option you didn’t even like is no longer on the table?”

“I…I want to use my pass,” She said, firmly not looking at him. “You told me I had three of those.”

“Hmm,” Sam said. “Okay, we’ll come back to that then. Let’s move on. Is the Life thing the only thing that’s making you spiral?”

He didn’t miss the look of absolute relief she had when he dropped it. There was a time and place for pushing someone past their comfort zone and this wasn’t it. Holly was already clearly pushing herself much farther than he ever could just by coming to him at all. There was time for harder questions in future sessions, when Holly didn’t look like she wanted to bolt.

“I think my cousin really…made everything so much worse. He didn’t mean to, all he wanted to do was apologize but-”

“But you can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Exactly.”

“Do you want to tell me about that? How did your cousin apologize that made it so memorable?”

*****

Is it worth it?

I wouldn’t be the person I am right now without it.

Oh.

Yes Holly, it’s worth it.

*****

“And you want to know the worst thing? I can’t take a break from it! I know I probably should but I can’t! Thanos, I mentioned him before, right?”

“You did.”

“He’s coming! Here! And when he does, he’s going to try and kill like…the entire planet! I have to get myself together or… or the whole universe might implode!”

“Normally I’d tell you that you were catastrophizing but in this case, I think you might be right,” Sam said making Holly snort. “Not that that makes you any less wrong but still.”

“Wrong? I’m not wrong!”

“You sort of are.”

“How could I possibly be wrong?”

“Look, you want to know who’s fault it would be if Thanos came here and killed half the planet?”

“Whose?”

“Thanos’. He’s the one to blame for his own fucked up actions.”

“But I-”

“But nothing,” Sam said. “This is something all veterans need to learn. You can do your best and it can still not be enough and that’s not on you. Blaming yourself for every evil action isn’t right, it’s not based in reality. The blame for evil actions lays at the feet of those who commit them, not on those who try to stop them.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“That’s fine. The point of therapy is to learn how to believe me.”

“Oh.”

*****

Alright Holly. Me and Ingrid will be waiting for you once you’re done.

I might be back late.

That’s fine.

Blake’s right. You’ve always got a place here.

I know it’s not much Holly and that you and I still aren’t totally good but I do want to help you.

Thanks Blake, seriously.

Don’t mention it.

*****

“I think we’re done for today.”

“Seriously? That’s it?”

“We’ve been at this for two hours.” Sam said. “Most sessions don’t last longer than one.”

“Oh.”

Sam rolled his eyes and looked down at the notes he’d taken.

“Look if you want this to work then you need to promise me to do your best to do the homework I give you. I understand if you’re not perfect at it, but you have to try.”

Holly sat up fully from her lounging position. The chair beneath her slowly began to reform into the one it’d been at the beginning of the day. Sam did his best not to gape at it. She looked less brittle, the whites of her eyes less intense and the muscles in her neck weren’t bulging.

“What’s the homework then?”

Sam had worked with a lot of other veterans and while Holly’s situation was incredibly unique, her problems were not. He couldn’t count the number of guys he’d worked with who wanted to do everything in their power to ignore their own emotions in favor of anything else. Some of them firmly believed that they didn’t matter, others were more concerned with their loved ones or their fellow vets. But the result was always the same.

“You’ve been missing from your team for how long?”

“Uhm…three days give or take?”

“Yeah I’m sure they’re just loving that.”

She grimaced and Sam rolled his eyes.

“You’ve got two assignments, well three but two of them are sort of the same thing.”

“Hit me with them.”

“First, go back to your team,” He said. “By the time you come in here next week I want you to have gone back to your team and apologized for going AWOL.”

“But they’re going to demand to know what I’ve been doing and I just… they won’t let me not talk about it.”

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” Sam said, feeling a pang of sympathy. “You’re going to tell them that you suffered a mental breakdown and that you decided to get help. Then if they ask for more details you give them my number.”

“So, you’ll tell them for me?” She asked, not sounding pleased at all by the idea.

“No. I’m not going to tell them anything about what you’ve said,” Sam said. “I’m going to tell them that I’m your therapist and that what we discuss in here is between you and me. I’m also going to advise them that if they want you to stay with them instead of running off then they need to give you space. Your comfort matters a lot more than satisfying their curiosity.”

“Oh,” She said looking down at her lap for a moment. “And the second assignment?”

“It’s a two-parter,” He warned before rolling back in his chair and rummaging around in his desk. He found an old notebook he’d been gifted ages back but never used. It was thin with only about 150 or 200 pages of lined paper, it would do for now. “Here, this is for you.”

He had never met a vet who liked journaling in the beginning and based on Holly’s face she was probably going to be the same.

“A notebook,” She said. “Whoopee.”

“Your homework is to write in it.”

“Write what? Poetry?”

“If you’d settle down for a few seconds I’d explain,” She rolled her eyes but then mimed zipping her lips shut. Sam continued. “Good. Now for the next week I want you to write down when you get upset. Every single time you’re upset about something, no matter how minor, I want you to write it down.”

“But.”

“It’s obvious to me you’ve spent your entire life minimizing your own emotions and needs. You firmly believe that you don’t matter compared to the rest of the world. We need to train your brain into seeing that your needs and emotions do matter. That means writing them down.”

Holly opened her mouth to argue but Sam steamrolled over her.

“I don’t care if you think it’s silly or stupid. You don’t have the ability to tell whether or not its actually stupid yet. I’m not saying that to be mean, I’m just pointing out that you’ve spent so long ignoring yourself that you’re going to need help learning how to take care of yourself. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yes,” She said. “I do and I’m not happy about it.”

“Then write that down.”

“Don’t have a pen.”

Ignoring the fact that she could probably magic one into thin air, Sam picked one off of his desk and tossed it at her. She grabbed it with a huff.

“Okay so I’m just supposed to write ‘Today I was upset’ and then put a little time stamp next to it?”

“Obviously not. Write down what happened and what it made you feel. If you feel comfortable you can try and write down why you believe it made you feel that way, but in the beginning I really want you to focus on identifying situations that upset you and what emotions you’re actually feeling on a day to day basis.”

“Is writing down why I’m upset the second part of the homework?”

“No. The second part is more internally driven,” Sam said. “When you’re writing stuff down in that notebook, or even when you’re going around in your day to day life and noticing things that upset you, you’re going to want to ignore it. You are going to want to tell yourself that it doesn’t matter, that it was stupid to feel bad.”

“Right.”

“Don’t.”

“I can’t just not think things.”

“So, think of something better instead. Anytime you try and dismiss your own feelings I want you to think ‘This situation is important because my feelings matter’.”

“Not every situation is important just because I’m getting-”

“Holly. You’re literally doing it right now.”

And that made her blush.

“Your feelings matter. No matter what.”

“I- I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Holly, every time you do magic you look at the universe and will it to match what you want.”

“So?”

“So, this is just like that. Right now, you don’t believe that your feelings are important, that you are important. But with work you can change that. You just have to will it. By telling yourself the truth of it until it feels real. It’s not immediate like what you can normally do, but it will work, if you put the effort in. Can you promise to try?”

“Yeah,” She said. “I guess I can try.”

“Good. Same time next week?”

“Same time next week,” She repeated. “Oh and let me know if you need to be paid more.”

“Wait what?”

But Holly was already gone, disappearing from his office with nothing more than a wink and a crack. Sam would later find out that Holly had magically deposited 10,000 dollars into his account and would not take back a single cent of that money no matter how much he bothered her about it. Which honestly?

There could be worse problems to have.

Notes:

Hey ya'll! Remember, Black Lives Matter and we should be helping out native people during these troubling times. All we have is each other, so donate if you can!

Chapter 68: Avengers, Meet the Guardians!

Summary:

Things are steaming up. Thanos is on his way and the Guardians of the Galaxy have arrived to warn Holly and the rest, with all due seriousness of course.

Notes:

Guess what guys! My thesis got accepted! Now I just have to defend in two weeks. Ha. Easy Stuff. (Please ignore the abject fear in which I wrote these words).
Please enjoy this chapter. We're gearing up for the final fight and the conclusion of this story. Can you believe we're actually going to get there? Neither can I!

The Guardians arrived eight days after Holly’s disappearance. The team had been scrambling to find her, even going so far as to contact Ron and Hermione to see if something had come up in the magical world. But there was no sign of her, it was as if she’d gone underground and no one knew why. They weren’t in the Tower where Jarvis watched over everything, so there was no clues. Holly had gone to bed and the next morning her bedroom had been empty. The only clue they had was the fact that there were a couple of empty bottles on the floor that probably had once contained alcohol.

At first Tony had insisted Holly had gotten drunk and had probably teleported off to do something stupid. He used to do it all the time, Holly would be back once her hungover wore off and they could all laugh about it. But of course, Jarvis was the one who reminded them that Holly didn’t drink very often at all. Why would she have done it now, alone?

Well they could all think of a few reasons.

It had been awkward hashing out why Holly might have had a depression drink at midnight with Carol there. She was nice, but she was a stranger to them. Carol also seemed…well not awkward around them but stiff. The woman hadn’t been on earth for any real amount of time since the 90s, and before that her mind had been erased and a majority of her life on her earth was fuzzy or difficult to remember. She clearly wanted to work with them, but had no idea how to fit into an already well established group.

So, it was awkward going into details about Holly’s disastrous first interview which had been closely followed by her cousin’s reappearance. But they went over it again and again trying to divine where Holly might have gone.

“We still don’t know what the worm told her,” Loki pointed out. “It clearly hurt her, and we ought to go and shake him until we figure it out.”

“She told us he hadn’t hurt her,” Steve reminded them. “And Dudley seemed genuine to me.”

“You would think that punk.” Winter said.

“Even if we found out what Dudley told her, how would that help us find her? It might not even have anything to do with him. The pressure of becoming a personification has been a lot,” Bruce said, pausing for a moment. “She might just be feeling overwhelmed by it, and if that’s the case she could be anywhere.”

“You mean like Calcutta?” Nat asked.

“Yeah. Like Calcutta.”

“Are you really that worried about her?” Carol asked. “I mean she’s incredibly powerful, maybe even more powerful than me for all her limitations. She can handle herself, can’t she?”

“She’s our friend, of course we’re going to be worried.” Clint told her.

“I’m just saying, she’s probably still on the planet and there’s no evidence of foul play. We can be calm about this. Can a personification like her even die?”

“Things have been really tough for Holly, we don’t want her to hurt herself.”

“Right,” She shifted a bit. “You think she’ll try and…”

They all looked around awkwardly not wanting to verbalize the end of that sentence. Tony sighed and stood up.

“Look, it’s been eight days, we talked and searched every place we can think of. Ron and Hermione have done the same in the magical world. Holly is either actively hiding from us or there’s a problem.”

Then the door to Grimmauld Place burst open and Nick Fury rushed inside.

“We’ve got a problem.”

And so, the Avengers were taken from Grimmauld Place and moved to the site of an alien landing. Loki had magicked them all to Missouri of all places, where an orange and silver ship was slowly lowering itself from the atmosphere. Someone had taped a stick with a white flag on the top, to the side of the ship, a tiny little thing that whipped violently around in the wind. The ship had sent off a radio signal of a gruff voice in an almost Brooklyn accent saying they meant no harm, in the background of the recording you could hear other voices, even one that seemed to be saying ‘Groot’, whatever the hell that was. The ending of the message requested that the Avengers be there to greet them.

So, they had left Grimmauld Place, ready to figure out who the hell these people were and hopefully send them away without causing any global panic.

The ship landed with a thud, the white flag shifted so much that it fell off and onto the ground. Thor stood up near the front with Steve, ready to help them welcome the aliens from whatever realm they were from. The door to the ship lowered itself to the ground, forming a ramp that led into the dark interior of the ship. It took a few moments for them to hear anything, but when they did it was footsteps. The first figure to appear was humanoid, they were wearing thick armor on their limbs and on their face was a mask with bright red lenses and an insectoid design.

The figure got all the way down to the ground, standing before them, with both arms outstretched in a strange greeting. He started clicking a lot with odd whistling noises mixed in.

“Do you know that one?” Thor asked Loki.

“No. Never heard it before.”

“I thought All-Speak meant you two knew all languages?” Tony hissed.

Before anymore panicking could happen on their end, another figure walked off the ramp. She, at least she looked like a she, had long black and red hair and green skin with silver markings. She punched the other figure in the arm.

“Stop messing with them,” She said, before reaching up and poking something on the side of the mask causing it to pull back to reveal a very human looking man who was grinning, looking very not sorry. The woman then turned and spoke to them. “Sorry about him we sent him out first because he’s from here and we thought it’d be less frightening. I forgot he was complete moron.”

“Hey!” The human man said.

“Come on out guys!” The green woman said, turning back to yell into the ship.

More figures emerged. A tree with legs, a raccoon looking creature that walked on two legs and spoke, a large man with stone grey skin and red markings, another woman with blue skin and cybernetic attachments. The blue woman immediately looked out on the crowd and then scowled.

“We requested that the Avengers be here to greet us,” She snarled. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Is that not them?” The green woman asked the blue.

“Wait,” Steve said. “I’m sorry but we are the Avengers.”

“Some of them,” The blue one allowed. “But you are not the one we need to speak to.”

All of them realized at once what she meant.

“You’re here for Holly,” Loki said. “If you mean to harm her.”

“We’ve come to warn her,” The blue one said. “and offer her our aid.”

“That’s right.” The human man said. “We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy by the way, interstellar heroes. Greatest of all time you could even say.”

“Can we really be considered heroes if we only do jobs we’re paid for?” The grey man asked.

“We usually only do about half the job we’re paid for anyway.” The raccoon added.

“Come on guys!” The human whined. “Can’t we look cool in front of my home planet?”

“No.” Most of the Guardians said at once.

“I am Groot.” The tree said at the same time.

“Oh!” Thor said his eyes brightening. “I am Groot!”

“Odin no.” Loki whined as the tree turned to look at Thor, a smile forming on his bark-y face.

“I am Groot.” The tree said, his voice slightly questioning.

“I am Groot,” responded Thor, proudly. Thor then paused and spoke again, more questioning. “I am Groot?”

“I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.” The tree said while motioning to various people in the group. Thor nodded along as if he understood what the tree was saying.

“I am Groot.” Thor concluded.

“I am Groot.” The tree agreed.

“I am Groot?”

“I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot?”

“I am Groot. I am Groot.”

“I am Groot?”

“I am Groot!”

“I am Groot.”

“I am Groot,” Thor finished before turning back to the team with a bright grin. “Don’t’ worry friends. The Guardians are here to help us with our fight against Thanos. Gamora and Nebula were both kidnapped as children and raised to fight for Thanos, but they’ve betrayed him and wish to help us end his reign of terror. They have information on Thanos’ movements and what resources he could have at his disposal. They’ve come to speak with Holly since she is the one Thanos is coming to target directly. I’ve already offered them to come with us and have a meal with us so that we may learn about one another while we wait for Holly to arrive.”

“You got all of that from ‘I am Groot’?” Tony demanded.

“Please don’t get him started.” Loki begged.

“Don’t be so dismissive!” Thor told them ignoring Loki. “The Flora Colossus are a wonderfully inventive people. Due to their dense physiology they cannot produce many different sounds and so they have a language with limited words that is able to share great swaths of knowledge between those who know it! I myself spent many years in my youth studying their ways.”

“And he never shut up about.”

“Loki you always claimed it would never come in handy!”

“Why would it? We don’t need to speak their language to communicate! The All-Speak works just fine!”

“But we lose some of the richness of their tongue.”

“Oh my g-d,” The human guardian complained. “Can we actually go eat or are we just gonna stand around and watch them argue?”

“I want to see Holly now,” The blue alien insisted. “I don’t trust the rest of you with my information.”

Which was great and everything, but they had no idea where she was. It was Steve who tried to cover for them.

“Holly! Right! She’s definitely on her way.”

“Well, where is she?” The green alien asked.

“Yeah aren’t you a team or something?” The raccoon asked.

“I am Groot.” The tree added making Thor burst into laughter at what might have been a joke.

“Holly. She’s…She’s…”

“Right here.” Holly called out, sounding harried.

Everyone turned as one to see Holly speed walking towards them. She was wearing one her jumpers along with a pair of jeans, that looked like it’d seen better days. Her hair looked like it had once been held up in a bun but the bun had been neglected for a bit too long. Under her arm she had wedged a cheap spiral notebook.

“Sorry. Sorry,” She said to the Guardians. “I got a bit held up back in London. In fact, I’m still a bit…one moment.”

Holly stopped a few feet away and snapped her fingers. She magicked her clothing clean and her hair was instantly pulled from its messy bun and neatly braided down her back. She looked less haggard and so more easily made her way over to the two groups. She stepped right up to the Guardians and held out her hand.

“I’m Holly Potter.”

“Gamora,” The green woman said taking Holly’s hand. “And this is my sister Nebula. Next to her is Drax, and then there is Groot and Rocket. Finally, we have Peter Quill, he is from your planet originally.”

“Great. Welcome all of you.” She said. “Like I said I’m Holly, but with me on my team we have Loki, Thor, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Winter, and Carol Danvers.”

Holly pointed to each of them in turn. The Avengers were all torn between wanting to scream out demands about where the hell she’d been, wanting to pull her into a hug relieved that she was safe, and just general confusion and shock. But they could do none of those things without revealing a lot of things that they didn’t want to reveal to the Guardians.

“Now,” Holly said clasping her hands in front of her. “Would you all like to come with us and talk shop over some good food?”

“We’re not here to speak of your work,” Drax said. “We have to discuss Thanos and his terrible follower Ronan.”

“Don’t worry about Ronan,” Carol said. “He’s dead, along with the final two members of the Black Order.”

“Ronan is dead?” Drax asked. “You speak truth?”

“Holly and I killed him ourselves.” Carol said motioning to Holly.

Drax looked like he was about to cry. Both Quill and Rocket, from Groot’s shoulder, reached out to give the man comforting pats. When Drax did begin to cry, the Avengers all looked quite alarmed. Gamora was the one who explained.

“Ronan ravaged his home world, killing his wife and children along with many of his people, on Thanos’ orders.” She said.

“I swore I would see him dead. I would avenge my wife.” Drax said.

“If you’d like,” Holly offered hesitantly. “I can use magic to help you see his death, if you need to view it yourself to see that he’s truly been destroyed.”

“Yes. Please.”

So instead of speaking of Thanos, they went to the nearest SHIELD location, which turned out to be a base a few cities over. Once they’d moved everyone there, along with the Guardian’s ship, Holly produced a penseive and put in her memory of the London Invasion, specifically the part of her fighting Ronan. Drax and the others watched the memory play out and as they did so, the Avengers talked.

“Where have you been Holly?” Loki hissed.

“I’ll explain later,” She said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t. I didn’t plan on leaving. Really I didn’t.”

“You’ve been gone for eight days,” Winter said. “Anything could have happened to you.”

“I wasn’t. I didn’t do anything that dangerous,” She promised. “I just. Needed help.”

“We’re your team!” Tony said. “We’re here to help you.”

“No. Not that kind of help.”

“If it was magical help, then you should have gone to Ron and Hermione or even me,” Loki argued. “There was no reason for you to disappear.”

“I needed therapy!” She shouted. “Merlin!”

They all paused to see if the Guardians noticed. But they hadn’t. The spell of the memory they were watching kept them distracted.

“Holly.” Steve said.

“No. No. Steve,” She said. “I went to see a therapist okay? I wasn’t there with him the whole time but I…I needed time on my own, to let myself think. I stayed with my cousin for a bit, before I sort of just…traveled trying to get my head on a bit straighter. I’m sick, really sick. And this isn’t something you guys can help me with. I’m sorry I worried you but I needed to have some space and you all haven’t been very good at giving me that in the past.”

That stopped up their arguments. They remembered how pushy they’d been when they’d found out she could weild the hammer, how if it weren’t for Jarvis they wouldn’t have stopped until they convinced her to join the team. They also remembered how pushy they’d been after Dudley’s arrival, how they’d all tried so hard to be there for her, to get her to talk about it that it had nearly driven them mad.

Holly sighed again.

“I’m really sorry I caused you all worry, but I’m not going to apologize for having a mental breakdown.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Bruce said gently. “Do you have another appointment with your therapist?”

“Yes. In a couple of days. If you want to talk to him, I’ll give you his number. But I don’t…I’m not ready to talk about this anymore with you all. I’m not.”

She looked almost afraid to tell them no, to deny them the information.

“That’s fine,” Steve said. “If you trust him, I don’t think we need to talk to him, although we might want to do a background check on him, just to make sure he isn’t hydra or something.”

“He’s not. SHIELD already did a check on him,” Holly said. “his name is Sam Wilson.”

“Well then,” Clint said. “I think that’s all we need to know for now.”

“Can you promise not to run off like that again?” Thor asked. “We were so worried.”

“I hope I never feel like I have to again.” She said, right as the memory ended and the Guardians all popped out with a gasp. Drax was truly weeping now, although they knew now it was with relief and joy.

“I think this is the sort of thing that calls for some good drink,” Thor said. “To celebrate and honor those that have been lost.”

And Drax liked the sound of that idea.

So, they all found themselves with a bunch of alcohol that both Holly and Loki magicked up from who knew where. The only people who didn’t drink were Holly and Nebula. Nebula because her cybernetics would begin to malfunction if she did so and Holly because she had learned her lesson about drinking quite well thank you very much. The Aesir mead was strong enough to intoxicate Steve and the other superpowered team members and Holly’s magical liquor was just fun enough to keep everyone giggling and laughing.

They learnt about how Quill had become essentially a space hero for hire, which was that he’d been kidnapped by Yondu, a ravager who went through space committing crimes based on a certain moral code. Peter had grown up working for Yondu and his crew before escaping as an adult and starting his own thing, where he’d met the others on his team and they were now working to help stop Thanos, because well. If Thanos won, the galaxy was screwed and Peter lived in the galaxy.

Thor and Groot had gone to another corner and were now having a very drunken conversation of just three words that was incomprehensible to everyone but Rocket and Loki, both of whom refused to translate. Drax spoke to anyone who would listen about his lovely and beautiful wife. How they met, their wedding, their children, their life together. It was very bittersweet, but the man seemed happy just knowing his wife’s killer was gone. At one point they had a competition to see who could lift Thor’s hammer and to everyone’s surprise Steve was able to shift it just a bit.

If Fury was upset that they’d taken these visiting aliens to a SHIELD base to eat pizza and get drunk he didn’t complain. Although that might have been because Carol had called him and told him it was fine, and he’d believed her.

Either way after consuming a lot of pizza and a rather large amount of alcohol, everyone but Holly and Nebula had passed out in the large room. Sprawling over tables and on couches, all in positions that would definitely hurt in the morning. Holly had no idea tree people could get drunk but they definitely could. Nebula watched as Holly carefully moved around the room, conjuring blankets and pillows for everyone so that they could comfortably rest.

“We need to talk.” Nebula said.

“I thought we might.”

“My father, he knows who you are.”

“Didn’t the Black Order tell him?” She asked.

“It’s more than that. He’s been watching you.”

“Watching me how?”

“He had a mirror that followed you. I was kept locked in the throne room next to it. He would sit on his throne and watch you day in and day out. He would watch you eat, watch you bathe. The mirror broke some weeks ago but from the moment you killed half the Black Order and sent the rest running back, he’s been watching you.”

 Holly shuddered at that. Slowly she got up from where she’d been gently tucking in Tony, who was currently cuddled up to Steve like his life depended on it.

“Why? Is it because I’m powerful?”

“I don’t know the exact reason,” Nebula said. “All I know is that he is coming for you.”

“I thought- The stones.”

“He wants you more than the stones. He will retrieve the stones that are on earth, but his true goal is to have you, to own you. My father has always been attracted to power. He took both me and my sister because we impressed him as youth with our potential. He took us, killed half of all life on our planets, and then he broke us down bit by bit until we served him. You are not a child, but he will try to break you anyway.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“I don’t need your pity.” She snarled.

“Wasn’t offering it, but I am offering you my gratitude for coming to tell me.”

“There’s more,” She said. “No one knows more about his armies than I, than my sister. I’ll tell you everything if you promise to kill him.”

“I don’t think anyone can kill him.” She told Nebula softly.

“What? But you-”

“Thanos did something, a ritual using the lives of everyone on Titan, it made him immune to Lady Death’s touch,” She said. “I’ve spent the last few days researching it, that’s where I’ve been. I would have told my team about it, but you all arrived and there hasn’t been time. And now with what you’ve told me, Thanos could be watching any of us right now.”

“Yes. That is within his power. He can even reach into the minds of most and force the truth from them. He was better at it when he still wielded the scepter, it’s where he learnt the ability in the first place. He is still very capable of it.”

Holly nodded.

“I don’t know then if I can tell you what I’ve learnt, or if I can tell any of them. We need to figure out how to block Thanos from spying on us first.”

“Your magic should do. If you ward against it, at least it should work temporarily.”

“Alright,” Holly said. “We’ll do that first thing in the morning then, and you can tell us about Thanos’ forces and I’ll tell everyone about what I’ve learnt about Thanos’ ritual. Then we can come up with a plan. The last thing we want is Thanos discovering us before it’s time. I just have one question for you.”

“What is it?”

“How long do we have?”

“Weeks, probably no more than six,” She said. “Do you think we can stop him?”

“I’m certain of it.”

And Holly mean it. What’s more, Nebula believed her.  

“Then that’s all I need for now,” She said. “I’ll follow you until he’s defeated.”

Chapter 69: Explanations, Plans and Yet More Therapy

Summary:

The Guardians share what they know of Thanos' power and forces. Holly shares what she learnt from her research. And most importantly, Sam Wilson is Holly's new voice of reason. Tuck in folks, this is a long one, with plenty of lore.

Notes:

we're getting ready for the big battle! Can you believe it? I almost can't!
My thesis defense has been officially scheduled for July 16th so I feel like I'm going to explode with nervousness. Please wish me luck. I'll be posting weekly here so I have some form of stress relief during this time!

Holly settled down into the chair in Sam’s office with a sigh. She didn’t bother magicking the chair so that she could lay back on it. The first time she’d been here she’d wanted to lean back so she wouldn’t have to actually look at Sam. Instead she could stare at the ceiling and pretend she was taking to an imaginary voice or even no one at all. It had helped in some ways, making herself vulnerable like that hadn’t been easy and she thought she might have bolted if she’d been forced to make too much eye contact.

It had been a week since she’d seen him last. She’d texted him the day before, asking if he was still free, determined to be less of an arsehole this time around.

That, she could now admit, had been a bit childish of her.

In her defense, being lectured about anything from Blake of all people had left her feeling very petty. She only really knew her cousin as the idiot who had taken 12 years to learn to tie his shoes, because any time Petunia tried to make him learn he’d shriek so loud it cracked windows. Her cousin was essentially an entirely different person, far more calm and centered than anyone Holly had ever known. And having him tell her she needed to go and make an honest attempt at getting help had made her feel a lot of very complicated, very spiteful feelings.

Sam hadn’t deserved that and with just the last week of writing things in her journal she’d realized she felt truly bad about treating him that way. Once Sam had confirmed that he was still free she’d apologized genuinely over the text, offering to give a similar apology when they saw each other next. He’d told her it was fine, and that he understood why she did it.

She hadn’t really liked that but had accepted it for what it was.

The journal Sam had given her had been in near pristine condition, crisp white paper lined with faint blue lines. The kind she hadn’t ever gotten to use, even when she’d gone to muggle primary school since her relatives hadn’t wanted to purchase her school supplies. Holly had either gone without entirely or used whatever Dudley hadn’t the year previously. The sturdy cover and the metal spiral that kept it all together had been clean and undented.

Had being the operative word here. The maroon cover was now stained with various things; ink, tea, coffee, blood, mud, and perhaps tears if one wanted a complete list. The spiral had kinks in it that made it difficult to open sometimes, pinching the stack of paper together and threatening to tear the paper up if she pulled too hard. The edges of the paper were a bit seared, which hadn’t been intentional but had happened anyway. None of the damage had been planned really, things just happened.

Sam looked at the journal in her lap and then up at her, a question in his eyes.

“I had to keep it with me,” She defended. “If I put it away I…I might have just not done anything with it, so I carried it around.”

“That’s fine. At least I know you’re using it,” He said. “Speaking of which, let’s start with your homework. How did it go? Did you do everything I asked?”

She straightened up in her chair a bit and nodded.

“I went back to the Avengers.”

“When?” Sam asked, his brown eyes narrowed and yet still friendly. She frowned at being caught.

“Might have taken me a few days.” She admitted.

“Uh huh,” He said. “Want to walk me through why you waited so long?”

“Not particularly.”

“Holly.”

“I just. Wasn’t ready to do it. I…I needed more time to get my head on straight,” She admitted. “I didn’t waste that time. I promise. I was doing research.”

“Taking time to let yourself calm down isn’t wasted time,” Sam told her, his voice firm in a way that made her itch. “You don’t need to do anything else to justify it, I gave you the entire week to go back to your team because I wanted you to take time to go back when you felt comfortable.”

“I couldn’t just do nothing.”

“Recovering from a mental breakdown isn’t nothing.” Sam told her in that firm, gentle tone she knew she was probably going to hate for a very, very long time. She rolled her eyes and groaned.

“Look. The research had to be done, do you have to get on my case about it?”

“I’m just trying to make sure you understand that you don’t have to be doing something to prove your worth to me or your team,” Sam said. “But fine, what was so important that you absolutely had to do it?”

And Holly smiled a bit.

*****

Holly had been nice enough to give out hang-over potions to everyone. She felt like after the worry she’d put her entire team through in the past week it was the least she could do. The potions had helped everyone recover from the night of drinking before and the breakfast she’d ordered with Jarvis’ help had fully woken everyone up. Granted when she’d spoken to Jarvis she’d had to apologize to him profusely. For taking her bracelet off and hiding from him. She’d known the AI had been searching and she’d even known that if she’d asked him to not tell anyone where she was that he would have. But she hadn’t even had the courage to do that.

Some Gryffindor she was.

So she’d explained how she’d felt so unbalanced and broken that she’d drunkenly knocked on her cousin’s door, fallen apart and spent three days on his fold out couch trying to meld with the inanimate object so she wouldn’t have to be anymore. Jarvis had accepted her apology on the stipulation she didn’t take her bracelet off again so that if she felt the same way Jarvis could still track her. She felt that was fair and part of her knew it was a reasonable request and so she’d put it on without too much complaining.

After breakfast they’d all settled around to talk. Holly had decided to go first, to share what she’d learnt about the Mad Titan. She and Loki together had put up the anti-spying wards around the room, pouring as much power as they dared to ensure nothing would get through. Once that was done Holly laid out what she knew.

“It took awhile to find some mentions of this sort of ritual, I didn’t even know if there would be any thing like it on earth,” She told them. “But if it was on earth, I knew there was one person who might have known of it.”

It had been a shot of inspiration that had sent her down that path. And by inspiration Holly meant that she’d been cursing everyone who had ever owned the elder wand before for losing it and letting it come closer to finding her and had ended up caught upon a dangerous idea.

“Who?” Thor asked.

“His name is Gellert Grindewald, he died when I was 17,” She said. “He was truly an evil man, he was the Dark Lord before Voldemort and he’d spent a majority of his life in a prison of his own making after Dumbledore defeated him in the 40s.”

“I’m going to pretend I know who those people are.” Peter Quill said.

“Me too.” Drax agreed.

“Shut it.” Nebula growled.

Holly continued pretending like the guardians hadn’t interrupted.

“Grindewald was obsessed with the Deathly Hallows, which I assume you all have heard of.”

Most of the Guardians nodded, only Peter seemed unaware, and so Holly quickly caught him up on the mythos of the three objects. Once that was done Holly continued.

“He managed to gain ownership of the elder wand for a time,” Holly told them. “He researched a lot of old rituals and things like it, to gain ultimate power over death. I highly doubted his research stopped after he was defeated. I went to Austria first, to where he’d been held, and gained access to his prison. It took me a day of tearing his old cell apart before I found his stash.”

She’d had to use her new soul sense to look for things that didn’t belong in the room, eventually stumbling upon an expertly hidden nook in the room that had  hundreds of books and scrolls as well as journals filled with wicked knowledge. She’d known Grindewald had been capable of wandless magic, and wasn’t surprised he’d managed to hide his work from his guards, even if he’d been unable to escape or defend himself against Voldemort when he’d come for him.

“Most of what was in there was awful,” She said. “And a lot of it was focused on the Hallows, but there was more in there. More that helped illuminate exactly what Thanos might have done to the other Titans.”

She snapped her fingers, conjuring the most relevant research from Grindewald’s stash. She’d taken everything from there and stored it in a magic pocket only she could access. She’d read as much as she could bear, enough to understand.

“Grindewald believed in magical strength, only the strong should survive,” She told them. “He would often trap weak magic users in prisons like the one he was locked in, and let them die inside. Why he’d collected so many had never been clear, but it’s because he was trying to do what Thanos did. Not that he would have managed it and I think he figured that out while in jail if the torn-up pages I found were of any indication.”

“We know Thanos killed everyone else on Titan to give himself immortality,” Steve said. “Are you saying there’s more to it than that?”

“It’s a transfer of power,” Holly told them. “Think of a soul as…as a bit of energy that is put into the universe. And that energy has a certain…density to it. The density of the soul, the weight of it determines how long that soul will stay attached to its host. The soul of a fly is far less dense than say the soul of a human. And Thor and Loki’s souls are much denser than anyone human.”

“Alright,” Tony said, his big brain already catching up. “So this ritual Thanos did, it transferred the energy in the souls to his?”

“First it stripped all sense of self, of shape, from the soul,” Holly explained. “If it hadn’t, Thanos would have been overwhelmed by a billion souls all just as bright as his own looking to avenge themselves on him. So, he just…sanded away the remains of the people the souls had belonged to. Grindewald wrote about it, about how a soul changes and grows with its host. The soul of an infant is just as dense as an adult’s but it’s rounder, less defined. The more the person grows, the more the soul changes shape to match. A soul will take on the characteristics of the person it belongs to. That’s why things like ghosts can exist.”

“Ghosts are real?” Peter Quill demanded.

“Yes,” Gamora said. “Keep up.”

“Well sorry for not knowing, next thing you’re gonna tell me is that vampires are real too!”

Holly gave the man an apologetic look which made him start to sputter multiple denials.

“Anyway,” Loki said. “The souls Holly.”

“Right. First the ritual removes the personhood from the soul, then it integrates that energy into the person doing the ritual, making their original soul denser and longer lasting,” She explained. “The thing is, Grindewald theorized that doing this person by person wouldn’t work. The increase in density would be too slow, most creatures would die of old age before they got their density up enough since the soul of the ritualist would rather expend the extra energy or grow to accommodate it rather than increase beyond it’s natural density.”

“So, you need to do a lot of lives quickly and somehow keep the soul the same size.” Bruce said, his voice almost clinical, as if they weren’t discussing mass genocide.

“That’s why Thanos did it on his own people,” Holly said. “All of the souls he was integrating had relatively the same volume and density as his own original one, even if the shapes were different. Likely something in his ritual forced his soul to keep to the same volume of the souls he was taking in, that way only the density would increase.”

“How did he keep such a huge amount of energy from just escaping?” Loki asked.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Holly admitted. “I’ve got guesses, but without knowing his specific ritual I can’t be certain.”

“What are your guesses then?” Nebula demanded.

“I think he emulated his ritual on death magic, that way no energy could be expended only absorbed.” Holly said.

“Okay now you’ve lost me entirely.” Rocket told her.

“I am Groot.”

“I am Groot. I am Groot,” Thor allowed before turning to Holly. “Could you please explain more on the death magic Holly? Our companions are familiar with Lady Death, but not enough to understand.”

“Of course. I’ve only just started to understand it myself.”

It was horrifying to admit that she had started to truly understand her abilities only after reading through Grindewald’s work, the man had been a genius and his work on the soul had clarified so many things going on within her. She’d had to write down multiple times in the journal how tumultuous that had made her feel. The last thing she wanted to do was feel gratitude to a monster like that.

“Life and Death,” Holly began. “are two opposites along a binary right?”

Everyone nodded and Holly waved a hand, conjuring an illusion (she thanked Loki internally for finally teaching her how to magic one up) of a river flowing into a large lake. On the opposite side of the lake was another river, that led off into the unknown, fading slowly into nothingness. Both rivers were relatively the same size and shape, the only difference was the one flowed in and one flowed out. The water in the lake looked still, at least on the surface. Along the sides of the illusion you could see into the lake where plants and fish moved along. The water was moving, too sending up silt and sand in little flurries of fog along the bottom. There were invisible currents that made the plants lilt this way and that. There were animals and birds along the edge of the lake, creatures that were either drinking from the lake or were moving around in it, further muddying the waters of the lake.

“Alright,” Holly said, her voice far calmer than it had been in days. “Think of the universe like this little system, with Life being the river leading into it and Death the one leading out. The water is the energy of the universe, specifically the energy that makes up souls. Life in this case doesn’t really represent the living, breathing beings, it’s just the introduction of energy to the system. In the same way, Death doesn’t represent dying, it represents the removal of energy.”

She wiggled a finger near the Life river, coloring a bit of water in the river so that it was glowing lsilver. The bit of water immediately began to stretch out, forming a line of laminar flow as it moved down the center of the river. Once the silver light entered the lake its flow lost cohesion and the light began to spread out into little eddies and swirls, some of it sinking below into the lake while other bits floating along the top, keeping with currents made by an invisible wind.

“That light is the introduction of new soul energy to the universe,” Holly explained. “First it comes from Life, and when it’s with Life, it’s straight and almost shapeless. Once it enters the universe it leaves Life and starts living. Watch the light as it breaks up and makes new shapes. Some of it will be consumed by the animals and changed into urine, excreted back out into the system, bringing with it a new taint that will change the whole composition of the system. Other bits of it will evaporate from the wind and sun, becoming ephemeral and gaseous, floating around in the universe until enough of it gathers and is dense enough to form drops of rain, falling back into the system that way. Other bits will get caught in an eddy, flowing round and round itself and remaining in one space for a long, long time before finally dying and moving into Death’s care. Still other bits of that light will saturate into the sand and muck of the lake, forming the base and framework that everything else relies on, that energy might never move on, and if it does it would only happen due to something catastrophic. Some of the light might get consumed by the gills of fish or by the plants and broken down, creating a cycle of dying and living.”

Everyone listened in silence as the light in Holly’s illusion followed her words and did each action as she described it. Some of the silver light entered into the animals and birds on the surface, some of it turning into fog and slowly floating from the surface of the lake and still some sinking into the bottom of the lake, leaving the mud with a strange glint.

“The light that enters the animals represent the other personifications and Cosmic Entities of the universe. These beings exist outside of the system and act as something of an immune system, removing energy and adding new parts that help keep the entire system whole.” Holly explained. “There are thousands of these personifications and they all represent some part of existence that needs to be controlled in order for the whole system to thrive.”

“What about the others?” Thor asked.

“The fog represents stars, right?” Bruce said, leaning forward. “It’s energy that needs to regather until it’s dense enough to fall back into shape, that’s basically what happens with stars right? Stars are basically what happens when enough space dust gathers into the same place and gets squished together under its own gravitation pull, and once a Star dies it releases that energy back into the universe, like rain drops.”

“Exactly.” Holly said smiling, glad her metaphor hadn’t been too out there.

“The eddies,” Loki said. “Those are long lived creatures like Thor and I. Beings who live for millennium, perhaps even forever but can die.”

“And the mud. Those are the planets and galaxies,” Peter Quill added. Everyone looked at him in shock and he lifted up his hands. “What? I’m not a complete idiot!”

“Sure,” Rocket said, the disbelief clear in his voice. “I’m guessing the light that gets taken by plants and fish is everything else, plants and animals and shit. We eat each other, killing to continue to survive. Even plants consume the energy of the sun, living and dying on each other.”

“The circle of life.” Tony sang almost jokingly.

Holly giggled a little and nodded in agreement.

“Eventually, the energy that was introduced by Life will go to Death and once it enters Death’s control it flows away and doesn’t return to the system. Most times the souls of things that have really gotten a firm shape will flow to Death. The soul of a bacterium will usually be recycled, flowing around the lake since the microbes don’t really live long enough to experience anything soul changing. Plants that aren’t like our friend Groot here have similar reactions. Its only once soul energy is placed into a sentient host and allowed to mature that it gets enough shape to be dragged into Death rather than just remaining in the system.”

Some of this knowledge had not come from Grindewald. Some of it had just flowed into her, as if she’d always known it. It had come once she’d stopped not thinking about what she was. She’d written almost obsessively in her notebook about how every thought about her transformation made her feel and just the act of writing it down had opened up her heart to the knowledge that she was entitled to.

“So, when a baby is born, basically the soul energy of everything the mom eats gets…pushed together until it’s enough to make a human, and since we’re sentient, our souls get mangled up enough to be collectable,” Tony said. “Makes sense. Sort of.”

“I don’t think it was meant to make total sense,” Holly told him wryly. “At least not to things in the system itself.”

“What does this have to do with my father?” Nebula demanded.

“Right. Sorry, we got way off track, didn’t we?” She chuckled a bit. “Basically, what Thanos did was he became a giant rock.”

She snapped her fingers producing a boulder that plopped right into the center of the lake, sending water everywhere through the lake with its splashes. Once everything settled, the water of the lake was forced to flow around the new intrusion, nothing could move it. It was so dense and stiff that it would remain forever more, nothing would shift it, not the river pushing water in and not the river pulling it out.

“Thanos’ ritual made his soul so dense that he is now so anchored in the system that Death cannot remove his soul from him and collect it. He emulated the magic death does to collect, to ensure the energy could only flow towards him and not away into the rest of the system.” Holly said. “Now, he’s just too bloody dense and it’s made him immune to Death’s touch.”

“Sounds like a dream come true to him.” Gamora said sourly.

“But that’s…that’s bad,” Peter said. “That means we can’t kill him! And he can just stay here splashing the lake as much as he wants!”

“Which means,” Holly said, a true smile in her voice. “that if we can’t push him down the river, we have to get him out of the lake.”

*****

Holly watched as Sam leaned back and rubbed the center of his forehead with his thumb, as if he was trying to press away the headache, she’d just given him. She hadn’t meant to go through the whole monologue again, but she hadn’t been able to help herself. Finally understanding why it was she couldn’t kill anything had helped her calm immensely. It wasn’t because she was broken, it because of where she stood. A river could only flow one way, and Holly could only funnel energy into the universe.

She didn’t represent the struggle of existence; she didn’t represent the growth of plants or human bodies. She was just the river, funneling the soul energy that cycled around everything else. Humans and everyone else, they could be part of the cycle of living and dying, the flowing water in the lake. But that wasn’t Holly’s place anymore. She had the power to help move the energy around. She could increase the amount of power that flowed into the universe, shifting the shape of the system, she could funnel that energy directly into the souls of things, helping it form into something new or reform into something it had once been. That’s what she’d done for London.

Holly was the river flowing in, she could only add, not take away.

She’d been trying to affect things in the lake, things that were truly beyond her reach. Sure technically she could overcome them, if she funneled so much energy into the lake that it caused a flood, forcefully moving the energy towards Death in a tsunami like motion that would cause untold damage to the system itself. She would rip up the mud and silt that acted as the planets, she would disperse the fog in the air, she would kill fish and decimate plants if she let loose. So yes, technically Holly could kill Thanos, if she funneled so much energy at him that she shifted him towards Death, it could work, but the damage she’d do to the universe would be so much that it might never recover.

Her own magic was trying to keep her from doing that sort of damage to any sentient being. The amount of energy she would need to push a sentient soul to death would damage the world and not only was that antithetical to her purpose as Life, it was also just not what Holly Potter did. Her magic had understood before she did why this sort of magic was bad for her and it had been rebelling against her to keep her from doing things she truly did not want to do. Her own magic had been protecting her, it hadn’t become some foreign thing that no longer belonged to her, no it had just known more than her and had sought to keep her from doing irreparable harm.

Knowing that her magic wasn’t being tossed around by the norns to keep her from breaking some cosmic law had helped. She wasn’t being controlled by anyone, the universe wasn’t conspiring to keep her from doing what needed to be done. Her magic had just been doing what it always did, fulfilling her desires, even if she didn’t know what those desires quite were yet. The fact that her magic had rebelled that much was an indication not of a lack of control on Holly’s part but rather that she had trained and connected with her magic so much that it could rebel against her to keep her from breaking her own heart.

She hadn’t realized how much she’d hated that her own magic wasn’t doing what she wanted it too. That her magic was reaching out and saving Ronan’s life every time she tried to end it. She’d had a terribly hard time even writing down how she felt about it, which is where some of the scorching on the journal had come from. It had made her feel as if her magic, the most integral part of her being, the thing that she had suffered so much for as a child, had turned against her. But it hadn’t, it never had.

“As interesting as this is,” Sam said. “it really doesn’t have anything to do with your homework, don’t think I don’t notice what you’re doing.”

“And what am I doing?”

“Avoiding talking about your journaling.”

“Are you telling me you don’t want to know about Thanos’ forces? That you don’t want to know about the plans we’re coming up with?” Holly teased.

“Of course, I do but that’s not what we’re here for,” He sounded very stern and she groaned. “Look. Fine. Tell me the rest of it, but be quick about it and then we’re spending the rest of the session on the journal.”

She squirmed at the idea of talking about anything she’d written inside but didn’t argue. Before the meeting had started, she’d put up the same privacy wards, refusing to let Thanos get any glimpse into her existence for the rest of all time and eternity. She’d dedicated an entire page of the journal for that revelation from Nebula alone.

“Alright so. We just need to get him out the lake, right? I had a couple of ideas at first.” She said. “First, I thought, maybe we could find another Cosmic Entity that could move Thanos out of the play area. I asked Death about it and she told me that due to Thanos’ ritual, any entity she knew of who could remove him might also do untold damage. There’s an entity named Ego the Living Planet for instance that might be able to move Thanos. His purpose in the universe is to eat planets, letting that settled energy rejoin the universe. He could potentially do the same to Thanos but…

“But one, he’d probably eat earth too and the amount of water he’d splash around just isn’t worth it.” Sam finished for her.

“Just so,” Holly said. “Another idea I had was transfiguration, if I changed Thanos into say a tree, it wouldn’t matter if he lived forever, he’d be a tree that couldn’t do anything other than photosynthesize right? No more splashing water.”

“And why wouldn’t that work?”

“His soul is so dense, and so strongly shaped like a Titan because of the ritual, that any transfiguration done on him would wear off very quickly. Transfigurations are by their nature temporary changes to the host of a being, eventually all transfigurations will revert back to match the soul of the thing it truly is,” Holly explained. “So, if I changed you into a dog, eventually you’d become human again because you have a human’s soul. Normally, if I put enough magic into it, the transfiguration can last for years on end, but Thanos’ soul is so reinforced that the transfiguration will wear off so quickly that every month or so I’d have to redo it and eventually the bugger would escape.”

“Not good for long term storage,” Sam agreed. “So, no planet eaters and no transfigurations. What else is there? Can you reverse the ritual? Make his soul less dense?”

And Holly sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“You know how Thanos can read minds?”

“You mentioned.”

“So, after I leave and the wards wear off, if he wanted, he could look in on you, on anyone on earth.”

“You can’t tell me the solution can you,” Sam guessed, and she nodded miserably. “You can’t even tell your team.”

“They have to stop thinking about it too. If they figure it out, he might listen in and discover it,” Holly explained. “I have protection given to me from Death that keeps Thanos from watching me. Loki does too, he’s the only one who knows and he’s helping me refine it, but we literally can’t tell anyone what’s going on. They just have to trust us that it’ll work.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“Not great,” She didn’t bother to be annoyed by the obvious question. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Does Loki feel confident about it?”

“It’s risky, really risky. He’s more nervous about it than I am to be honest. But he couldn’t come up with a better idea.”

Sam nodded looking thoughtful.

“I understand there is a lot at risk here, a lot,” He said. “But you can’t focus so much on the potential negative outcomes to the point that it’s all you can think about. That will cause you to break down again.”

“How do I not think about it? The risk is the universe itself! If even one thing goes wrong the earth will be destroyed!”

Sam took a moment to think and she tried to hold herself still for it. It was clear the man wasn’t entirely sure what advice to offer, which was fair since her situation was fairly unique. To her surprise he nodded to himself after a few moments and spoke.

“In order for the earth to have its best chances at survival, the Avengers need to be at their best right?”

“Yes.” She agreed.

“So, if say, Tony Stark, was so stressed out about this that he couldn’t think about anything but what could go wrong, would he be at his best?”

She soured and frowned at him, but Sam merely lifted up an eyebrow urging her to answer.

“No.” She admitted grudgingly.

“So, then, that means that Tony would need to take a break every once in a while, and let the other people on the team worry for him, so that he could be at his best?”

“You don’t have to be so patronizing.” She told him, which caused Sam to grin unrepentantly.

“So, whenever you start to feel overwhelmed by the risks of your plan, you need to do what?”

“Take a break and let Loki worry about it for me.” She ground out.

“Exactly. See you’re learning.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and flicked a finger, flipping open the journal and conjuring a pen in one fell swoop. Sam watched in amusement as she carefully wrote out the date and time on a blank page, adding to the description of what upset her ‘Sam Wilson is a git’.

“Finished?”

“For now.”

“Okay. Now tell me about Thanos’ forces, let’s get this whole thing out of your system.”

*****

“Our father has the forges,” Nebula said. “They exist on the Sanctuary.”

“What is the Sanctuary exactly?” Steve asked.

“It’s his home base, a hollowed-out planet,” Gamora responded. “It’s where he receives his subordinates and enemies alike. It’s a dark cold place, Nebula and I were trained there.”

“And it has the forges, which do what exactly?” Carol asked.

“The forges mass produce creatures for his army. These creatures are strong and durable, and generally lack any sense of self or of pain. You can chop one’s limbs off and it will merely get up and continue until it is dead. They’re not sentient, at least I’ve never considered them so.”

“Since he has the power stone now, he’ll be able to power the forges at a rate never before seen,” Nebula added. “It takes one of the forges a week to produce a batch of the creatures, and he’s never been able to run more than one of the forges at a time, even though he’s had dozens of them built.”

“But he has the power stone,” Holly finished. “He’ll be able to run all of them.”

“I believe he will spend three to four weeks producing the largest army possible, while looking for any other stones not on earth, he will also gather other forces from around the galaxy that are either beholden to him or too frightened not to fall in line,” Nebula explained. “Then he will come here, and he will bombard the planet until he gets what he wants.”

“Will he have enough ships to take all of these creatures to our planet? As I recall the sanctuary is quite far.” Loki pointed out.

“He has been preparing for a fight like this since we were children,” Gamora admitted. “Building ships and transports for it. That’s why the planet is hallowed out, every bit of the planet has been consumed for this very purpose, so have the surrounding planets. He’s enslaved entire peoples like the Chitauri to work towards it.”

“So, he’ll be able to bring it all,” Thor sighed. “That is not…ideal.”

“How did he get the power stone?” Carol asked.

“We left it in the care of the Xandarians,” Gamora said. “I assumed my father wouldn’t attempt a full invasion on Xandar, I was wrong.”

Carol froze in her position.

“Xandar has fallen,” She said, in a tone that might have been a question from someone else. “Would he have gone to the other planets? Felled them too?”

“No,” Nebula answered. “He wanted the power stone so he could have enough power to get Holly. The other weaker worlds that rely on Xandar for protection hold no interest to him right now.”

Carol nearly collapsed in relief and Clint reached out, gently holding her shoulder as he asked what was wrong. Carol explained she’d left the Skrull under the protection of Xandar, but now that protection was gone.

“I guess since Ronan’s gone there aren’t any other Kree out there who’d attack them but…but anything could happen to them now.”

“Do you want to go back to them?” Holly asked.

“I should at least send a warning,” Carol said. “Let them know to be prepared to hide, but no. I’m staying here. Earth needs me more, at least for now.”

“I can take you there. Going along the Yggdrasil shouldn’t take very long at all,” Loki offered gently. “Just so you can ensure they are fine and help place a few protections down.”

“Yes. Please.” She said.

“After the meeting we’ll go.”

Carol nodded looking entirely relieved. There was an air of grief in the room, most of them knew nothing about Xandar, but the fact that an entire planet had been attacked like they were about to be and one that had far more protections than earth did, didn’t bode well for them.

“So, innumerable army, weapons, and ships,” Holly said. “What else does Thanos have?”

“The power stone, which will allow him to blast anything in his path to ash,” Gamora said. “Most living beings would be destroyed just touching the stone and using it, but since Thanos has done this ritual, he can weild it to its fullest extent.”

“Right. Also, not ideal,” Bruce said. “Anything else?”

“Our father has large amounts of strength, durability, speed, and stamina,” Nebula added. “I have never seen any creature, on any planet that can match him in it. He’s trained in hand to hand combat, has tested his abilities and honed them beyond any other. Anyone going against him one on one will likely fail.”

“Makes sense with a soul that dense it’s probably reinforced his physical form. Does he heal faster as well?”

“I’ve never even seen him injured.” Gamora admitted.

“Nor have I.”

“You mentioned he had psychic abilities, what does that mean exactly?” Tony asked.

“He can sense things from galaxies away, if he wills it,” Nebula asked. “I imagine once he realizes I’ve escaped the Sanctuary he will find me here without much trouble. It also makes him immune to attacks of the same type, I’ve never seen him even flinch at an attempt at mind control or psychic manipulation.”

“Our father can read minds, control them, I’ve even witnessed him possess the minds and bodies of people, using them as puppets. He’s even destroyed them while doing this, draining his puppets of their souls until they have nothing left,” Gamora said. “Many of his more…rebellious children had this fate. If you do not comply, he makes you do so, until there is nothing left but an empty body for him to move about on a whim.”

“So, he’s invulnerable to any attacks we have, he can’t be killed without risking damage to the universe itself, he can control minds and bodies, and even read minds from a distance across galaxies. He has the power stone and he’s in the process of creating an army with as many soldiers as grains of sand on a beach.” Thor listed out.

“I am Groot.” Groot confirmed.

“Well. Shit.”

Well said Peter Quill, well said.

*****

“None of that sounds good,” Sam admitted, his voice a bit more strained. “And I can see why you’re feeling anxious. It’s natural at this point.”

She nodded in acceptance.

“We need to gather as many of our own forces as we can. We’re activating the entire wizarding world. After what happened in London, they all understand what’s at stake, statute of secrecy be damned. It’ll take time, but we’ve magic on our side.”

“What about Asgard? Are there any other planets we can call on for help?”

“Asgard’s already offered it’s assistance. Thor will be traveling there soon to begin looking for more allies. Wouldn’t be surprised if the dwarves and the Vanir join us. Thor seemed confident at least. Carol and the Guardians are also going to reach out to various planets who haven’t been cowed by Thanos, bringing them here.”

“What about the stones we have? Don’t we have three of them now?”

“We do. Most of us can’t use them without some sort of device. We’re figuring it out now, we’re hoping to use them to help augment our fighting but we’re not sure how just yet.”

“Got it,” Sam said. “So, you have a plan for Thanos, and you’re gathering your army. That’s good, great even. Now, onto more important matters.”

He looked down at the messed up, damaged journal in her lap. Pages and pages had been filled over the past seven days. Holly had, in an attempt to make up for being an arse to Sam, done her best to do her homework that week. The more she’d written the more things she’d found to be upset over, it had felt like a different sort of drowning.

“I hate this journal.”

“No one likes the journal.”

“Then why make me do it? All it did was make me more miserable!”

“More miserable how?”

“Do you know how much I’ve had to write down! Practically every five minutes there’s something new! There was never this much before, it’s making me focus on the negative.”

“No. It’s making you recognize and acknowledge it. The bad things were there before, you were just ignoring it.” Sam said sternly.

The idea that there was that much anger and pain in her life that she’d been ignoring wasn’t a pleasant one. But as she thought about the majority of the things, she’d written down she realized that it was probably true. It hurt, really hurt, to see that she was so miserable, that she had been miserable for a long time. She’d thought she was happy, truly she had. She looked up at the ceiling wondering if anything else in her life was fake too. Was nothing real? If she’d been ignoring so much of herself, of her own suffering, then what else had she just made up whole cloth?

“Have I ever not been miserable?” She asked him. To her surprise Sam didn’t seem to need any clarification.

“You’ve been carrying around a lot of trauma for a long time,” Sam told her, his voice gentle. “And yes, that’s effected the way you’ve lived, but it hasn’t invalidated the things that make you happy. It doesn’t erase the love you’ve felt.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. All this means is that you’re going to get the ability to better enjoy your loved ones. I’m going to help you establish boundaries and practices that will help avoid situations where the people you love add to your unhappiness.”

“How did you know they were making me unhappy?”

He looked down at the partially destroyed journal and then back up at her, looking unimpressed with her question and she had to admit he had a point.

“They’re not that bad.”

“I’m not saying they are. In fact, I’m certain they love you,” He said. “Your friends aren’t bad people, but they can, and they should improve how they treat you. You deserve to feel happy and comfortable with them, not filling pages and pages of frustrations.”

“Oh.”

She didn’t even know how to feel about that. It just seemed like there was so much and most of it was ridiculous anyway. She’d written down in one entry that Tony had called her ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ as a nickname and she’d realized she hated that nickname, that it made her feel poorly. But then she’d felt bad for feeling bad, Tony wasn’t like her relatives, he liked her. He meant it as a term of endearment, he gave everyone nicknames like that. He called Steve Capsicle of all things, so she should hardly complain about something so small.

“Have you been telling yourself that your emotions are important?” Sam asked bringing her out of her thoughts.

“What?”

“The last part of the homework, I asked you not to dismiss your own feelings.”

“Uhm.”

Okay so maybe she hadn’t been doing that. Sam didn’t look disappointed or surprised at her non-admission. He just nodded and motioned to her journal.

“I’m not going to read that, that’s private and just for you. But for the rest of our session, I’d like to go over a few entries you feel comfortable sharing and walking you through how you need to analyze these things.”

“Analyze?”

“You naturally minimize and ignore the importance of your feelings when something hurts you. Your brains looks, for any excuse to dismiss it. I want to help you build new ways to look at these situations so that instead of minimizing your hurts, you look at them more objectively. Not every situation that upsets you is worth getting into a fuss about, but right now you don’t fuss about any of them, until it gets too much, and you explode. That’s not healthy.”

 Okay, that was fair. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t deny it. A situation that was becoming increasingly common with Sam.

“Let’s start with the one you were just thinking about.”

“What? How did you-”

“You spent thirty seconds glaring at the journal like it had personally insulted you, wasn’t a hard leap to make. So, let’s start with that one.”

The rest of the session felt similar to what she imagined having sandpaper ground against your skin would feel like. She’d explain the thing that upset her and then Sam would have her explain why she thought it didn’t matter, then she would have to sit there as Sam firmly explained why she was full of shite. He didn’t say it like that of course but she heard it anyway. She felt offended and worn down with each example. She hated hearing that everything she thought was wrong and flawed and she hated that Sam corrected her kindly and gently, every single time. Anytime she got shirty with him, he would merely wait for her to stop, giving her a look as he did so. He didn’t get upset with her, although she could tell there were times, he got annoyed by it. His jaw would clench, and he’d have to take in a deep breath, but he never told her off.

Which only annoyed her more. Why couldn’t he be annoyed too?

But he wasn’t and Holly felt entirely wrung out when the session finished. She also felt strangely…lighter. She had not enjoyed being told she was wrong, but something in her appreciated having her own feelings validated in a way she’d never done on her own.

“Are you starting to get what I mean?” Sam asked.

“I’m starting to really hate these sessions.”

“Yeah it’ll be like that for a while,” He promised. “But eventually it won’t hurt as much and you’ll start to heal. Think of this like we’re healing an infection, first we have to drain and clean it out, which hurts, before we can bandage it.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“As long as it needs.”

“We’ve got six weeks.”

“Then you better stick to your homework,” Sam told her. “Keep writing in the journal and start correcting yourself when you dismiss your feelings, think about the things I walked you through and try to repeat them. I don’t expect you to be perfect.”

“You expect me to try.” She finished, her voice tired and deadpan.

Sam smiled at her and she felt a bit better.

“So. Will you try?”

“I guess. But I won’t be happy about it.”

“We’ll work on that too.”

Of that she had no doubt.

Notes:

seriously, now I want to know what your guesses are for what Holly's plan is. I won't confirm/ deny anything in the comments because spoilers so don't expect that. I'm just very curious!

Chapter 70: History Lessons

Summary:

Since Thanos (and possibly the end of the universe itself) is on its way, it's time for Nat to face the truth she's been running from, if only to get Clint off her back.

Notes:

You all, your ideas/suggestions for how they were gonna stop Thanos? They were amazing! keep 'em coming I love hearing your ideas! One more week until I defend my thesis so keep the good vibes coming because I might be near death lol.

We don’t have long left Nat.

I know.

We know where they are.

I don’t need to meet them, I have the file Jarvis put together, that’s enough.

Is it though?

Clint.

Please just think about it, for me. We’ll all go with you if that’s what it takes.

I will.

Seriously. If Holly can go to therapy I think you can face your parents.

*****

Doctor Kliment Popovic was a large and gruff looking man. He was the sort of man that new students would often shy away from, both due to his thick accent and his large stature. His English was impeccable after so many years of living in the States, but he had, perhaps in a fit of either national pride or spite, never done a single thing to lessen his accent. He could even be found thickening it in situation where he wanted to stop talking to annoying Americans, not that he’d ever admit to that. Still, students under his tutelage who accepted the accent, who worked past it, found him to be a kind father of three with stories of rebellion to share.

Technically he worked in the History department, with his focus being on Eastern Europe from the 1700s to the present. He was, in fact, a published author, having written many books about the internal workings of the U.S.S.R., and his research was considered some of the best, even if his field was perhaps less than glamorous. There weren’t many famous historians in America and most of them had voices that were made for documentaries, a requirement that Kliment was more than happy to not fit.

Despite being a history professor, Kliment was most often seen in the philosophy department. This was because his wife, Veronika, taught ethics and philosophy and Kliment liked to sit in on her classes and internally sigh dreamily about how smart and talented she was when he had the free time. Veronika was Kliment’s opposite, at least physically. Quiet where he was loud, slight where he was hulking, short where he was tall, bright where he was dark. More than one student had joked that Kliment more closely resembled his wife’s bodyguard rather than her husband.

Most people who were introduced to the couple expected them to act in a very certain way. They expected Kliment to yell, to be cruel, to be harsh. Students who went into his courses feared ranting and raving and cruel grading practices. Conversely, people expected Veronika to be sweet, calm, and soothing. Students expected her courses to be easy, to be smooth sailing.

Of course, they could not have been more wrong.

His wife was sharp. Their lives had taught them both that ethics wasn’t a game, that it never had been. It wasn’t a theoretical thought exercise it was real life with people’s happiness and wellbeing hanging in the balance. She held her students to an insane standard, her strength and stubbornness breaking down their internal prejudices until they were forced to face their own moral code and see the faults for what they were. She wielded her mind and her tongue like a knife, quick and cutting, and it was a common experience to see new students bursting into tears. Not every student thrived under her tutelage but she was considered the trial by fire that any students majoring in philosophy had to endure, because she out of everyone could teach one to have convictions and stick with them.

Comparatively, Kliment often offered his students hot chocolate when they came to his office. He had no penalties for late work and was more than happy to derail a lesson to talk about his three children and his wife, something students adored for more than one reason. Kliment loved teaching, he always had, both at home and at the university where he worked. Despite their different teaching methods, he and his wife both valued the sharing and keeping of knowledge.

With their history how could they do anything else?

When they’d been young, young and more idealistic (but not naïve, never naïve), they’d been part of the samizdat. They’d spent their nights typing out information into books on typewriters, page by page, and passing it from hand to hand, sharing the information that their leaders had done everything in their power they could to destroy. And they’d paid the price for it, so many of them had. What was that saying?

I write it myself, edit it myself, censor it myself, publish it myself, distribute it myself, and spend time in prison for it myself.

He could still remember the rough pages, the blurry text and the mistakes. He could remember the smell of it, the sensation of passing books around that they weren’t meant to have. Copying them by hand, deep into the night. He and his wife managed to do it undetected for years, proud of themselves for making a difference, for preserving the words of those that had come before them. The poetry, the stories, the accounts, it was all there in their hands and it had been so real.

They had begun a family during that time, an unplanned blessing. He had worked as a teacher there in Stalingrad, and they had their first beloved child. Irina was as beautiful and slight as her mother. Her shock of red hair likely inherited from Kliment’s own grandparents, since it had not come directly from either of them. Even as a wrinkled infant there had been a strength to her, a tenacity. She had been born out of a rebellion, out of the fight for knowledge, and the way she glared at the world showed that more clearly than anything ever could. He’d been charmed by her from the moment he’d seen her, although it had taken Irina a lot longer to warm to anyone but her mother.

Of course, it couldn’t last. It never would.

It had only been two years before the fall, before freedom was truly possible, in a way it hadn’t been before. Two years to go, not that they knew, and they’d taken her. Many children were, young girls all taken from their parents without warning. So many of those who fought for freedom, for knowledge, lost what was most precious to them. It had spread through their groups, everyone demanding if anyone knew who had taken them, what had happened. But no one knew. It wasn’t the KGB, but who else could it be? Who else would punish them like this?

In all it seemed about 20 girls were taken, from ages 5 to 8, all slight and delicate in appearance.

He and his wife both knew why it had happened even if they didn’t not know who exactly had done it. Their daughter had been taken to punish them for going against the state, for valuing the sharing of knowledge over their political leaders. It had meant to break them.

They did not break, and they did not bend.

They mourned, they wailed, they gnashed their teeth, and bruised and bloodied their knuckles, but they did not break. When the wall fell, they looked more fervently for their precious child, but she was gone, no records of her existed anymore. They were forced to flee to the United States, settling in Ohio of all places, their work making them enemies to what remained of their country. They never forgot their losses and they never forgave them. Over 25 years had passed since Irina’s loss and they had had three more children in that time, blessings that had lessened the sting some. Their second eldest, Elena, was in university now herself. The other two, Viktor and Tatyana, were 16 and 14 respectively.

None had the spark of strength that Irina had had, not that Kliment loved them any less for it. All three of his living children had survived many trials in America, for their ancestry, for their accents, for their clothing. All three had had to learn how to be American alongside their parents, while striving to see the good and bad in the history of their own people. They were strong yes, but they had become strong, they had not been born with that strength, not like Irina had been.

Perhaps Kliment was romanticizing the child he had lost. She would be 30 now, if she were alive. Old enough to be married and have a family of her own if she wished it. He wondered often if she would have been the kind for children, if he would be a grandfather now, if he hadn’t chosen his rebellion over her safety. Thoughts like these he didn’t express often to Veronika, she would tell him they were useless. That they had weighed the morals of the situation and they had chosen the right thing and paid the price. Yes, it was painful, but regret would only poison them further. They were not to blame for Irina’s death, it was those who had taken her, who had chosen power over that which was good. They had her blood on their hands, not them, never them.

She was probably right; his wife usually was.

He did his best to put it from his mind, to focus on what he did have; a family and a job he loved, a home, and people who came to his lectures.

Over the summer he, as part of the history department, gave lectures for the public. He also taught a few summer semester classes, but the public lecture series was by far his favorite part of the summer, both in giving talks and listening to his colleagues give theirs. Today, he was giving a talk on Collectivization in Eastern Europe. Nothing groundbreaking of course but he thought it an interesting enough topic to go through various countries and the successes and failures of Stalin’s attempts, even if the crowd in the auditorium wasn’t very large. He blamed the small crowd on the wonderful summer weather outside, they were now well into June and things were green and warm and bright.

It was because the crowd was so small that Kliment was able to notice the group that entered almost immediately, no matter how quiet they were. They were noticeable partially because it was a group of nine. Generally, people didn’t come to history lectures during the summer, and it was rare that adults would come in that large of a group. Most often they could come alone or in groups of one or two. When he saw groups come for his lectures it was due to some teacher offering extra credit to students who were going.

For some reason Kliment highly doubted that was why these people were there.

That reason being they were the Avengers.

Oh, they were trying to hide it of course but Kliment was hardly a fool. They were all wearing hats and sunglasses, as if to cover their more recognizable features, which would probably work for anyone who wasn’t paying attention. He hadn’t survived this long by not paying attention. His wife was much the same and she turned her head to the side just slightly, from where she was sitting near the front with their three children. He saw her eyes widen in shock, at least widen for her, which to the casual observer looked like nothing more than a blink.

The Avengers all settled in the back, whispering to each other just enough to be considered not disruptive to the others. Most people glanced at the group and then looked away as if they noticed nothing out of the ordinary. He continued his presentation as if they were any other group that had come in a bit late, switching to the next slide with a joke that made a few of the regular attendees giggle.

Throughout the presentation Kliment kept his eyes on the Avengers, noticing who seemed entirely unfamiliar with the topic and who considered it old hat. It was a bit amusing to watch Captain America lean over and whisper his questions into Tony Stark’s ear. Thor and Loki were equally lost and it seemed that Holly Potter had magicked up a map or illusion of some sort in her lap to show the two aliens exactly where on the planet the different places Kliment brought up were. Which seemed like a handy trick.

Why were they here?

And why was the Black Widow glaring at him?

Kliment was aware of her history, as much as anyone could be, she was from Russia like himself. The story was that she’d been an assassin for the KGB, or perhaps Hydra, maybe it’d been both. Hydra had been well entrenched within many parts of the U.S.S.R., something a lot of people in his field wished to forget as soon as they’d learnt it some months ago when Hydra had attacked a SHIELD base and the Avengers had taken them out and released a lot of classified documents in the aftermath. Why the Black Widow had changed allegiance wasn’t known, and he wondered if it was for the same reason he had. Or had she only done so to save her own skin? Did she know who he was? What he’d done?  

He doubted she was here to punish him for his actions, why she would care about something he’d done over 20 years ago now was beyond him. Besides, if she was here for some sort of punishment why would she bring her team to deliver it? There was no logic to it unless the world as Kliment understood it was entirely false.

So then why? He pretended not to be intimidated by her and continued his presentation. As he worked through his slides, getting nearer and nearer to the end, each of the Avengers became more and more serious. Although the Winter Soldier and Black Widow had started out quite serious indeed. One by one their whispers died down and they became graver, as if they were waiting for something to happen. Kliment merely swallowed and switched to the next slide.

When he gave his final remarks, one of his colleagues happily thanked him for his work and then asked the audience if there were any questions. There were a few, from other professors, a few dedicated grad students, and the like. Once Kliment had answered them his colleague, Karen Falls, informed the audience that snacks would be available in the other room and that Kliment would be free for more questions there.

Of course, that was when the Avengers acted. Kliment watched as both magic users, Loki and Holly Potter, got up and started moving between the groups of people heading towards the refreshments, whispering in ears and spelling people to walk right past the refreshments and out the door.

Ah. That was not ideal.

He and his wife both pretended not to notice, although Veronika did order for all three of their children to stay by her side, roughly in Russian. Which his children knew meant business, so even the eldest, all of 20 years old, moved to her mother’s side without complaint. They moved as a group to the suspiciously empty refreshment table and Kliment prepared himself for whatever was about to happen. He wanted to believe that he was not in danger, that these authority figures were not going to punish him, but the fear of his youth had never truly left him. (He doubted it ever would.)

The Avengers entered behind them, going as a group, they were feigning relaxed postures. They were nervous, unsure. Kliment could certainly sympathize. His family looked at the team of heroes and they waited. His younger children, deep in the throes of teenage angst and rebellion couldn’t hide their awe at seeing heroes so close up. It’s not every day a hero comes to Ohio, let alone an entire team. Still they stayed with their mother, knowing better than to try and break away before she allowed. Elena was the only one old enough to know why her parents looked vaguely ill behind their stoic masks.

It was the Black Widow who broke the mounting tension between them. The woman stepped forward, removing her sunglasses and hat as she did so. The hat was stuffed into her jacket pocket and the sunglasses were folded and stuck onto the collar of her Prussian blue sweater. He watched as her bright scarlet hair tumbled down around her shoulders and he reached out to hold his wife’s hand. Then the woman stopped, a fair distance from them, not saying a word. Eventually, after a mere moment of stillness, she looked up.

It struck him then, the way lightning hits a thin rod of metal. It hit him like the gong of a church bell. It beat him then, rolling drums through his very being.

Those eyes.

He could hardly forget the green color of his first child’s eyes. He would have rather torn out his own heart than remove the shape of them from his mind. But all of that could have been considered a coincidence if it were not for the look in them.

He recalled in that moment the day that his eldest had seen a spider for the first time. She, like most children when introduced to something with too many legs, was filled with a mixture of fear and curiosity. It had been a small furred thing, venomous most likely, the kind of creature that a parent would shriek at seeing their child near. She’d been so small then, not quite four years old, and she had had that same look in her eyes watching the spider walk across the floor of their home.

Fear and courage wrapped up in the strength of her soul.

Kliment had been the one to show her how to pick up a spider with a bit of paper and a cup to move it safely outside. To treat that which we fear gently.

Based on the look she was sending him now, he only hoped that was a lesson that had stuck.

“I think,” His wife said, her voice strangled. “that we have some things to discuss.”

Even as she said it his beloved wife was stepping forward to get a better look at the Black Widow. It was strangely like looking in a mirror. Out of all of their children, Irina was the one who resembled their mother the most. Their other children had taken more from him than Irina had, showing it in the shape of their hands and the size of their noses. Viktor naturally resembled Kliment the most, being a near copy of him with only his mother’s ears and brains to differentiate him.

Veronika stopped just close enough to reach out and touch, she was the same height as the Black Widow, the same build, they shared the same eyes and lips. Their hair was different, one a graying blonde and one red, but still so much like the sun that it hardly mattered.

“Hello.” Natasha Romanoff said, although that wasn’t her name was it?

“Mom?” Tatyana asked, she was the youngest and also the most outspoken. “Why are you looking at her like that?”

Natasha’s eyes snapped to Tatyana’s and oh they have the same shape, don’t they? Kliment could see it, the ways that this assassin resembled his youngest daughter. The slope of their shoulders and the proportions of their arms and legs. She looked perhaps even more frightened than she had when she had been locked in a staring contest with Veronika.

“I’m…I’m Natasha Romanoff.” She began, her voice far more hesitant than it should be.

“I know who you are,” Tatyana said with a snort, she and her brother had managed to sound more American than Kliment ever would, he could practically taste the ‘duh’ she did not say out loud. “You’re an Avenger.”

“Well here’s something you don’t know,” She said, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. “I was taken as a young girl from my family by Hydra, a Nazi organization that was built upon the ideals of control and destruction. I was taken with many other young girls to be trained as assassins, my mind was erased, any memories I had of my family were taken from me and replaced with training.”

She did not know them. She did not know them and that felt like a knife to his soul.

“I was told my family was dead and for a long time I believed it. Even when I broke away from Hydra to try and make things better. I couldn’t find any information about who I’d been.”

He held himself so still, he wanted to burst forward and pull the woman, his daughter, into a hug. He could hear the pain, the grief, the guilt. He could see the weight of it on her shoulders. Yet another thing she had in common with them.

“It wasn’t until Holly joined our team that I had access to something that could help me find who I’d been born as.” She explained.

From behind her Holly Potter waved a hand in greeting, she sent Kliment and Veronika a smile so wide and hopeful that it felt like it was warming his very bones.

“She did magic?” Tatyana asked.

“She does a lot of magic,” Natasha confirmed wryly. “That just happened to be useful.”

The joke broke the tension as Holly made a noise of denial and Viktor and Tatyana giggled. Elena even huffed a laugh, but it was slightly forced, she knew where the story was going. She was old enough, she knew enough to guess what the Black Widow wasn’t saying.

“And are you looking for your family?” Viktor asked. “Mom and dad know lots of people from Russia, they could help you.”

“Oh, I’ve already found them,” Natasha said. “I only hope they’ll be happy to be found.”

 “Why wouldn’t they?” His wife demanded making Natasha jerk up to look at her. “What parents wouldn’t be proud to know you?”

“They don’t. I mean I’ve done things that aren’t-”

“Dochen’ka,” Veronika said, her voice dry and affectionate. The word made Viktor and Tatyana gasp. “I’m a professor of ethics, you could spend the rest of your life arguing your lack of moral worth to me and you would still fail because I already know it.”

She opened her mouth, probably to argue and Kliment cut her off.

“Ira,” He said speaking the name he’d called her in her youth. “Don’t argue with your mother.”

“Oooh,” Hawkeye said, glee filling his voice. “He told you Nat!”

“Shut it.” She snapped, unable to hide her shocked smile. And at the sight of that smile Kliment was unable to stop himself from pulling his eldest daughter into the first hug they’d had in 25 years.

She stiffened in his hold and he abruptly remembered the fact that she was a trained assassin and could probably break his neck. Thankfully, he didn’t have much time to second guess the hug because she’d relaxed and Veronika had joined their embrace, holding onto their daughter as tightly as she could. Their children, except for Elena, hadn’t known the full story of their lost oldest sister, only that she had passed in Russia before they’d moved to America. But they were not stupid, and they didn’t hesitate to wiggle their way into the hug as well.

He wasn’t sure how long the hug lasted, only that when he found the strength to pull away slightly he saw that the other Avengers had disappeared and that one of them had magicked up comfortable couches and blankets and mugs full of hot tea. His daughter snorted when she turned her neck and saw it.

“Holly’s been going on and on about the therapeutic effects of tea,” She said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t hot chocolate there too.”

“Well,” Kliment said, the tears he’d been shedding into his daughter’s fiery hair evident in his voice. “it would hardly do to waste such a gift.”

They spent hours in that room, no one ever bothered them. Kliment had no doubt that the entire building was swarming with Avengers doing everything they could to ensure no one interrupted them. They listened as she told them what had happened to her, it was sanitized in the way dark things always have to be, especially with children in the room, but it was still awful enough to make a weaker man flinch. Kliment just kept holding Irina’s hand. She didn’t cry and his wife only sniffled a few times, but he and the children cried enough for all of them. When they all consumed their tea and hot chocolate, made somehow perfect for each of them, the cups were replaced within the blink of an eye with warm steaming food. Somehow no matter how much Viktor ate, the plates never ran empty.

When she finished, he and Veronika told her who they were, what they’d done in Russia and why she was taken from them. Viktor and Tatyana were torn between shock, fear, and pride when they learnt that their parents were more than just boring old professors, which would have been funny at any other time. It was still a little funny now, Kliment could admit to himself. Irina didn’t seem surprised by what they told her, he guessed she had done research on them before she’d come and wondered what the government knew about him now.

“Why now?” Veronika asked. “Why come to us now?”

Irina had learnt quickly that her mother wasn’t one to be swayed, once a question was asked an answer must be given. Elena had joked about it and the other children had agreed enough to make that clear to Irina. So, despite clearly wishing she had not been asked, she spoke anyway.

“Something is coming,” She explained. “The invasion of London was just the beginning. I realized, well Clint pointed out to me, that I couldn’t wait any longer if I wanted to meet you before it happened.”

Clint Barton, the man who had saved his daughter, who had given her the chance for redemption. Kliment owed that man a great deal and he wondered how he could ever begin to repay it.

“Is there gonna be another invasion?” Tatyana asked, eyes wide in fear. “Where?”

“Far from here. We’re planning on having it somewhere remote, far from people who could get hurt,” She said, trying to be soothing.

“You fear dying.” Veronika said.

“I’m not an idiot,” Irina defended. “I know the risks, I just…I wanted to meet you at least once before it happened. The others helped me find you and…”

She motioned to the couches and the food and let her voice trail off.

“You will survive.” Kliment decided.

“What? You can’t know that you don’t even know what the danger is.”

“I don’t need to,” He shrugged. “You are my daughter you were born with strength in your very bones. You will triumph as you always have.”

“I hope you’re right.” Her voice was soft and so very young.

“There is a reason we named you Irina,” Veronika said, a smile gracing her face. “And it’s because hope is all one really needs in trying times, dochen’ka.”

 And who would argue with that?

*****

Clint had been the one to volunteer to wait for Nat. The team had come with her to find her parents, and they’d left when it became clear that her parents weren’t going to be dicks. Loki had cast a spell on the room keeping their reunion private and then they’d left, just like Nat had asked them too. So, they’d waited back in New York for Nat to return using the portkey Holly had given her. Clint had told the rest of the team to wait somewhere else, that he’d be the one to greet his oldest friend.

When she returned, she looked like a different person, it was the same sort of change that had happened after Holly had given Nat that sweater. Nat had worn that sweater to Ohio, the blue yarn a promise that Nat would always have them even if she didn’t regain her biological family. She was more the person she always should have been and less of the person Clint had met all those years ago. Clint didn’t get up from his spot on the couch, didn’t pause the video game he was playing. He only glanced over at her, the question clear, in his eyes.

She sighed and collapsed onto the couch next to him.

“Romanoff.” He said.

“Barton.” She said right back.

“Mission Status?”

“We’ve been invited to dinner,” She said. “And I don’t think mom going to take any excuses.”

“Course not. She wouldn’t be your mother if she wasn’t insanely stubborn.”

Nat laughed a little, her tone disbelieving and delirious.

“Seriously,” Clint said pausing the game and putting the controller down. “Are you good?”

Carefully Nat reached out and took one of his calloused hands in her own, she stared at their intertwined hands for a moment.

“Yeah,” She said. “I really am.”

“Can I say I told you so then?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

Chapter 71: The Statute

Summary:

The preparations to fight against Thanos are starting to roll and that means going to Holly's first team and asking for help.

Notes:

I defend tomorrow. I can't believe it. My advisor says I have nothing to worry about so I'm trusting her but like. Fear. Would rather face Thanos, the grape man himself, rather than do this. I swear if I didn't love doing science so much I'd walk into the sea never to return rather then defend my thesis.

“What do you mean I can’t think about it?”

Perhaps Holly should have waited to tell Hermione.

“Exactly what I said,” Holly sighed. “Hermione you have to not think about it, you can’t wonder or muse about it. You have to actively keep yourself ignorant.”

Loki looked at the woman’s face and wondered if he was going to witness the first ever human self-explosion. In the days following Holly’s return everyone had dealt with it differently. The Avengers themselves had been torn between sheer relief and outrage that Holly had just disappeared for days without word when they knew a universe-destroying-level threat was on its way to the planet. Holly’s reveal about why she’d gone off had taken the wind out of the sails for most of them.

They knew how much she’d been struggling, they had all struggled in some way or another. It was hard to keep up a righteous fury when you could see how worn down Holly had actually been. It didn’t help that therapy seemed to be truly helping, even in the first few sessions you could see a difference in the way Holly carried herself. She was less likely to snap at them for offering their help and she was more likely to offer an apology than she had been before.

With all of that evidence it was easier for the Avengers as a whole to just ask Holly to promise not to do it again and let it go.

The witches and wizards in Holly’s life were far less gracious.

In fact, the first time Holly had gone to them it had resulted in an argument so bad that Holly had returned to the tower and dragged Loki down to a training room so that they could ‘train’. Which was most just Holly firing every spell she knew at Loki while growling about how insensitive Hermione was being and why couldn’t they just understand that she hadn’t meant to do it! When the magic threatened to damage the tower Holly had switched to her sword and Loki had conjured his own. Loki had done his best to dodge and block everything and had only needed minimal healing after Holly had tired herself out.

Carol had seen how drained Loki had been and had offered to take Holly for training next with a smirk on her face that made Loki feel things.

Loki could understand why Hermione and Ron were upset with Holly. It was likely the same reason he was upset. Magic users who have mental breakdowns tend to do very dangerous foolish things. Loki’s last mental breakdown had resulted in him firing the Bifrost onto the surface of a planet with the intent of destroying it and its people utterly. Not that Loki thought Holly would intend to do harm, but he could still remember the way Asgard had trembled under her rage after Malekith.

Holly should have gone to one of them to wait it out with her.

She should have gone to Ron and Hermione and let them help her calm down. She should have gone to Loki who had the magical power to help her get hers under control if the worst happened. Ron and Hermione were especially hurt by this. The three of them had been through so much together, they had saved the entire planet as children. Their bond went beyond words like friends or even family. Their very souls were bound together by their experiences and Holly not going to her best friends to ask for help when she was spiraling hurt. It hurt them and it wasn’t right.

You know why she didn’t.

Yes, Ralston thank you.

Loki sighed inwardly, he knew exactly why Holly had gone off which was the only reason he wasn’t being as pissy as Hermione was currently being. Holly had likely begun to struggle with herself and her trauma when Ron and Hermione had retired to start a family, leaving Holly on her own to finish the fight against the Death Eaters. Despite all logic pointing to this being an entirely valid and correct decision for Ron and Hermione, a decision which Holly truly supported, Holly’s emotional hindbrain had not taken it well. Loki knew if he were in her position he would have hated it, despised it. And he was far less gracious than Holly had ever been.

And so when Holly had been broken down into a complete emotional wreck she hadn’t gone to Ron and Hermione, the people who’d abandoned her in the loosest sense of the term. She hadn’t gone to Loki, who had spent a large majority of their friendship relying on her and comparing her to a long dead ancestor. She’d gone somewhere she could writhe about on her wounds without anyone finding her, or perhaps even caring.

It made sense in a sick sort of way that she’d gone to her cousin.

Was that not what she had done as a child? She would face a traumatic event at Hogwarts and then be shipped to her relatives to suffer alone for the summer. And so when all other options felt unpalatable to the spiraling witch, Holly had gone back to her relative in a sad twisted parody of her childhood. Thankfully her cousin was truly a changed man who had helped Holly get the help she actually needed to heal. Loki felt as if he owed Dudley Dursley, or Blake Thorn rather, a great debt in protecting and healing Holly when he himself could not.

Ron and Hermione would likely feel the same way if they looked past their hurt for a while. Not something that was easy to do, Loki knew.

You could explain it to them.

“I can’t just do that!” Hermione said. “I’m the one who comes up with the plans Holly, that’s not your…you have to tell me what you’re thinking so I can check to see if it will work!”

“Holly,” Ron said. “This is serious, you shouldn’t be trying to pull of a plan like this on your own.”

“I’m not on my own!” Holly howled. “Loki knows the plan.”

All three of them turned to look at Loki, who had been happily sitting on the sidelines of the argument and playing with baby Rose, a gurgling lovely infant who enjoyed the lights and sparkles Loki produced from his fingers. She was laying in his lap and watching the lights, giggling and reaching out with her chubby fingers. Loki far preferred his interactions with her over the volley of petty words that were being volleyed back and forth between the other magic users.

“Look. I don’t mean to be that guy,” Ron said. “But the last plan Loki had to save the earth ended with him losing his memories of the wizarding world and ultimately had him invading the planet 4 centuries later.”

Loki flinched a bit and Ron sent him an apologetic look. Loki could admit that while it stung Ron’s word weren’t untrue. He had done that plan on his own, leaving Ralston on earth where he believed it would be safer. If Ralston had come with him, Odin would not have been able to ruin the ritual circle like he did. (And oh, how the truth once it had been revealed to him had burned. Holly had been able to remove the last bits of magic that had manipulated his memories some days ago and it still made him want to gnash his teeth and curse the norns and Odin and everything. He’d actually had to travel to Hel and destroy a few things with Hela before he even felt close to stable. Hela had been mostly amused by the whole thing, offering pointers on how to be more destructive with his spells and generally letting him rant and rave as long as he kept supplying her with good wine. She had surprisingly helped him purge the most destructive of his emotions and now Loki mostly just felt bitter.)

 Loki’s plan had failed because he had done it on his own, he could see that now, and he understood why Ron was saying what he had.

“Ron.” Holly scolded. “That’s not on!”

“What! Do you want me to point out what happened in our fifth year when you went forward with a plan without listening to ‘Mione? People die when we don’t work together!”

“We are working together!” Holly said.

“Are we?” Hermione demanded.

Ah there it was. Loki had wondered how long it would take for one of them to break and ask Holly that.

“What? Of course, we are. I can’t believe you would even say that.” Holly said.

“We love you Holly,” Hermione said. “but you’ve been pulling away from us ever since you started working with the Avengers.”

“I haven’t.”

“You have a bit,” Ron said. “And I understand why, you’ve been really busy with all of the alien invasions and things, but it feels like some days we talk to Loki more than we do you.”

“Well sorry for being such a terrible friend.” Holly said her voice colder than Jotunheim.

“That’s not what we’re saying!” Hermione said.

Loki sighed, this time out loud, which caused all three magic users to once again turn their attention on him. They were in the Weasley-Granger homestead, sitting around their dining table. The air was filled with the scent of tea and hot chocolate, most of which hadn’t been consumed. Only Loki was taking the occasional sip from his cup. It was odd being the calmest one in the room, he couldn’t remember the last time it happened.  

“Something you want to share with the class?” Holly asked.

“I don’t know if that’s wise.” Loki admitted wryly.

“Oh, now you have to,” Ron said. “Can’t just say things like that.”

“Please.” Hermione requested in a tone that meant anything but.

“If you insist,” He said sitting up a bit straighter in his chair. He took a sip of his tea, placing the cup down onto the wooden table with a thunk. “I think all three of you are being ridiculous.”

He felt their outrage before he saw it and he lifted a hand to stop their shouts before they could upset Rose.

“You told me to speak and I will.”

Holly’s lips pursed but she fell back into her seat without saying anything. Hermione rolled her eyes but did the same. Ron opened his mouth to talk but Holly kicked at him from beneath the table and he stopped.

“Ron, you’re right that my last plan wasn’t entirely successful, and this plan has much higher stakes than just one planet and one people,” Loki said. “But I am not working alone, Holly and I have designed this plan together and we are reaching out to ask for help in completing it even if we can’t share the details. Both you and Hermione’s insistence on knowing everything is genuinely hurting Holly and if you were to take a few moments you would see that.”

Sure enough Ron softened, his hurt fading like a dwindling brush fire, the dry stalks fueling it turning to ash and floating away on the wind. The red head turned to look at Holly and saw how stiffly Holly was holding herself and looked immediately apologetic.

“Hermione,” Loki said turning to the smartest woman he had known in all his years. “Holly is not replacing you with me or with the Avengers. She wanted to come to you first when we began making this plan, but she couldn’t once we learnt how far Thanos’ telepathic abilities extended. For someone who removed her own parents’ memories to protect them from Death Eaters the fact that you’re upset Holly isn’t sharing every detail possible with you smacks of hypocrisy.”

Hermione’s jaw dropped opened at his accusation, but Loki didn’t allow her to respond. Instead he turned to look at Holly.

“You hurt us,” He told her. “You hurt the Avengers, you hurt your family. You hurt every single one of the people who care for you when you left for days like that.”

“I apologized!”

“That doesn’t mean we’re not immediately healed, you know that,” Loki told her making her look down at her hands for a moment. “The Avengers have decided as a team to put aside our hurt, to let it go as best we’re able because we understand to an extent why you did it. Banner, Stark, and I especially understand what it’s like to spiral like that. Ron and Hermione don’t have that experience and the hurt they felt that you left them like that can’t be immediately put aside, not unless you explain, truly explain why you went off on your own.”

“We’re your family,” Ron said. “And we’ve tried to be there for you Holly, but you’re still keeping us out.”

“It hurts every time you do it,” Hermione admitted. “We’ve done everything together practically and even now with years of being a team you keep pulling away from us to deal with things on your own. It makes…I feel like I’ve failed you when you do that, as if I’m not enough for you.”

“Holly I had to talk to the Avengers about it,” Ron told her. “Walk them through how to be as stubborn as possible so that when you go off again that they can be there to back you up whether you want it or not.

“It was very informative,” Loki admitted making Holly laugh a bit, the laughter strained and sad, before reaching out and taking a sip of her chocolate.

They settled into silence as they waited, the only sounds being Rose gurgling happily and slapping her hands together to ask for more lights. Loki easily obliged making the girl squeal and start playing with the lights again. Holly watched all of this with an ache in her eyes and then lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.

“I don’t…I don’t mean to do it,” She began, Ron opened his mouth to speak and this time it was Hermione who kicked him to be quiet. “I just…Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to ask for help?”

She shifted a bit in her seat, lowering her hand from her face so that she could hug around her middle.

“I didn’t realize how messed up I was from the Dursleys. I thought I was fine, that what happened there didn’t bother me anymore, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I spent a majority of my first 11 years of life doing everything by myself. I fed myself, dressed myself. Hell, I even had to toilet train myself!” She said, looking at them. She frowned when she saw that her half joke had fallen painfully flat. “I wasn’t allowed to ask for help then. Everyone in my life was against me and showing weakness, showing vulnerability like that would only have made it worse.”  

“Holly,” Hermione said reaching out over the table towards Holly. Holly stopped hugging herself, stretching out her own hand to tangle her fingers with Hermione’s. The two witches held each other’s hands for a moment, Ron leaning forwards to lay his larger hand over both of theirs, squeezing lightly to add his support. Holly took in a deep breath and continued, pulling her hand away.

“Part of me still feels like I did then,” She said. “That I can’t be too much. I can’t ask for help, I don’t deserve it. I can’t ask for more of your time because I’m a useless little thing that should be grateful for what you’ve already given me. Asking for more would be greedy. I didn’t realize until Blake told me that I was thinking like that. That all this time I’ve been living with an Aunt Petunia in my head telling me not to bother you, to make myself useful to you both or you’d finally get wise and get rid of me.”

“We’d never do that!” Ron said.

“I know that,” Holly said, before pausing and slouching inward a bit. “At least I should know that.”

“What do we have to do to help you know it?” Hermione asked.

“It’s not…It’s not you two, it was never you two,” Holly said. “I’m the one who needs to adjust. That’s the whole point of gutting myself in therapy every week. I’m sick Hermione, Sam keeps telling me that I don’t have the ability to see reality for what it is, and this is what he’s been talking about. For some reason I can’t believe that you two genuinely love me, despite everything in the world pointing to it, part of me doubts it. I’ve always doubted it. Every time a new danger appeared, I’d immediately think that this would be the thing that would send you two off, even when you two told me you wanted to go with me to hunt down the horcruxes I just…I didn’t believe it until you actually came with me. All these years later and I’m still carrying around this same fear. And then you two…you-”

Loki recalled distantly in that moment when he’d accidentally drugged Holly and she had nearly burst into tears at the idea of Ron and Hermione being upset with her, of not liking her anymore because she’d gone off and done yet another reckless thing when she challenged Odin in court like she had. They’d had to comfort her then, point out that Ron and Hermione had just named her the godmother to her child, that they obviously wanted her in their lives. It had worked slightly then, Holly forgetting about it in the heat of the potion he’d doused her with, but it was a fear that apparently ran deep.

“We retired.” Ron said. “We left you for two years to fight Death Eaters on your own.”

“Oh Holly. We weren’t giving up on you! We just really wanted to have Rose, to start a family.”

“I know,” Holly sniffed, Loki could see pearlescent tears forming in the corners of her eyes threatening to spill down her sparkling cheek. “I know that and I’m so happy you two got married and got this lovely house and now you have the most amazing daughter and I should be over the moon for you but I just…part of me isn’t. And I hate that. I hate it but I can’t stop. For some reason I can’t just get my stupid brain to accept that you love me and that you two starting a family is not you telling me to just fuck off.”

“Holly,” Hermione cut in. “you’re not stupid.”

“You’re a lot of things,” Ron agreed. “Stubborn and sometimes silly.”

“But not stupid,” Hermione repeated. “You’ve been living in the world that your relatives built for you, and you’ve been trying to protect yourself from harm.”

“I’ve been hurting you two,” Holly said. “My best friends in the whole world and I’ve hurt you both so much.”

“I hate to bring Thor into any conversation,” Loki said, before casting some colorful bubbles for Rosie to play with. “But he is an excellent example of what Ron and Hermione are for you Holly.”

“What?” Holly asked.

“I’ve hurt Thor hundreds of times over the course of our lives, just as he has hurt me,” Loki explained to her. “Just a few years ago I lied to Thor after Odin banished him and told him his father had died and that he was going to be stranded on Midgard forever. I did this just to hurt him, to keep him out of my way. I was hurting, spiraling with it, and even still Thor reached out to me. During my invasion of New York, in the years after it, Thor has done nothing but be patient with me as I got better. Do you think Thor holds the things I’ve done against me?”

“Of course not. He’s your brother, he loves you.”

“We love you,” Ron said. “And I know I’d forgive you anything Holly, no matter what.”

“I’m sorry,” Holly said, her voice catching a bit in her throat. “I’m so sorry.”

 Hermione was already pulling Holly into a hug by the time her tears began to fall. Ron was there mere moments after, hugging his two greatest companions to his thin chest as best he could. Rosie began to fuss a bit and Loki carefully picked her up and held her to his chest, as he watched Holly begin to weep into Hermione’s bushy hair. It took a while for Holly to calm herself, nestled safely away between the bodies of her two best friends. Loki waited patiently, keeping Rose calm and wondering if he and Ralston were ever like this.

We would’ve been worse and you know it. I’m an ugly crier.

Loki smiled a bit at that. Eventually Holly pulled away, rubbing her face with the sleeve of her robes.

“Right,” Ron said. “I think we needed that.”

“Really?” Holly croaked. “What gave it away?”

“Oh, shut it.”

They all settled back into their chairs and actually started sipping on their tea. Rose started to fuss more, and it was clear she was hungry. Hermione easily held out her hands and Loki handed the baby over so she could get a much needed meal. Once everyone was comfortable again Holly broke the silence.

“I am asking for your help this time,” She said. “You just can’t…think about it. If Thanos reaches into your minds when I’m not with you and you’ve figured out the plan, then it’s over.”

“I don’t like it,” Hermione admitted. “But I’ll do my best to keep it out of my mind.”

“I’ll distract her.” Ron promised.

“What can we do? Instead of thinking about it.” Hermione asked shifting a bit so that Rose was better settled against her chest.

“We know Thanos is coming to earth.” Holly said.

“We want to control where he lands, no more major invasions of cities,” Loki continued. “We’ve discussed this with the UN and the ICW. We’ve picked a location, Death Valley California.”

“How appropriate.” Hermione drawled.

“We need you two to start drumming up support, gather as many witches and wizards as you can to join us when he does come,” Holly said. “This is the fight for the universe, I don’t care if it destroys the statute, we need to be there, or everything will be lost.”

Thor, Carol, and the Guardians were currently off planet gathering forces as well. Tony had flown out to California to begin preparations for the incoming army. Asgard, Vanaheim, the dwarves, and more Loki believed were on their way to swell their forces and stand against the destruction of the universe itself. Thanos was a threat to everything, if they failed here, he’d gain Holly and three more infinity stones. It would be game over. 

“You’re asking us to convince the wizarding world to come out of hiding to fight Thanos.” Ron said, in a way that should have been a question but failed to be.

Loki understood his disbelief. Even with his limited contact with the wizarding world he understood how unique, how wonderful it was. He had given everything he had once to see it come into being and now he was sitting there asking them to help him kill it.

“Exactly.”

“Holly it’s the statute of secrecy. We can’t just throw it away!”

“Why not?” Holly demanded.

That silenced them and Holly pushed forward.

“For a majority of magical history on this planet we haven’t had to hide, it’s only been the last four centuries that we’ve lived like this. And it’s only hurting us, we couldn’t even properly defend London on our own.”

“And how does the ICW feel about that?” Ron asked.

“This is what they get for outing me to the Avengers and giving me the job working with them in the first place.” Holly sniffed.

“It’s going to be okay,” Loki said. “I protected the magical world once and I’m prepared to do it again. I have Thor with me, I have more than I did then. It was my weakness that made the statute necessary in the first place.”

“It was Odin’s fault, not yours.” Holly corrected him.

“It won’t be easy.” Hermione said.

“Why do you think I asked you two?”

And that made them smile.

“You can count on us.” Ron said.

“And we’ll be there when Thanos comes.” Hermione swore.

“When it happens,” Loki said. “We have a safe house set up for the children to go to. Teddy’s already been there.”

“Right, his best friend Lila.” Ron said smugly.

“Don’t start that now,” Holly begged. “But yes there. Rose can go there too, it’s warded now and Clint’s wife is ready to help keep watch. If worse comes to worse…”

“It won’t,” Ron said without a bit of doubt. “We’re on the case aren’t we?”

Holly giggled a bit and Loki smiled. The confidence was nice, even if it felt a bit misguided in the face of the threat that was coming.

“When the time comes, I’ll want you two close,” Loki said. “There are some…things I’ll want aid in, I can’t be more specific, but you’ll know it when you see it.”

“As if we were going to be far.” Ron told him.

“You’re not getting rid of us that easily Loki.” Hermione promised.

You haven’t even managed to get rid of me!

As if Loki could regret that.

Chapter 72: Death Valley

Summary:

Death Valley is hot. Very hot. And Steve Rogers is melting. The days tick down closer and closer to Thanos' arrival and more and more allies are beginning to appear.

Notes:

Hey Everyone!!! I did it! I passed my defense! Thank you all for your support and good vibes! the last few months have been so stressful as I've prepared for this and I still can't quite believe I'm nearly done!
Now all I have to do is finish the corrections and turn in the final version of my manuscript by Friday next week and I'll have gotten my masters in geology! Wow! I'll be graduating this August and starting a job as a lab tech shortly after so you know I'm somehow thriving during a global pandemic. Now all we have to hope for is that some interesting PhD positions will appear soon, a lot of the ones I applied for got closed due to the virus so now it's a waiting game to try again :/
I'm also going to be working on getting my thesis published in a scientific journal so you know I'm going to be doing a lot of writing and most of which is about 1000 times less fun than writing this fic lol.

The large sign outside the building read 92 °F (33 °C).

It was also currently 5:30 in the morning.

Steve had woken up before the sun had in the hopes of getting a morning run in before it got so hot that someone with his metabolism would suffer horribly. Unfortunately, it hadn’t cooled much at all overnight and according to Jarvis it was going to get hotter and hotter, topping up around 112 °F (44 °C) by midday. So, Steve would probably be staying inside where the air was cool and the sun wasn’t threatening to make him melt.

In his defense he didn’t think Selvig had planned for his super-soldier to be put in intense heat and the serum held up well in the freezing cold (really well). But still out of everyone Steve was doing the most poorly in the heat. Well him and Loki, but Loki was biologically from a planet made up of glaciers so his dislike of the desert heat was justified. Steve was still doing worse than him because Loki could conjure ice whenever he wanted, and Steve just had to hope drowning sweat again would help cool him a little.

In the five days they’d been here it had yet to but as his ma’ used to say ‘Hope Springs Eternal’.

Only he, Bucky, and Holly were here in the Death Valley Visitors Center full time. Everyone else had places and things to do to prepare for Thanos’ arrival. Clint was with his family on the farm, working from home to help get SHIELD on board with everything they needed. Natasha was doing the same as well as working with the UN but she was with her family, seemingly trying to soak up as much parental affection as she could stomach before the end. Bruce was in New York helping share and solidify his research about werewolves with his colleagues there. They were going to start preparing varying potions that might help stop the transformation each month so that they could test them during future lunar cycles.

Tony was also in New York doing the work to ensure that everything at SI would be fine if the worst happened, he was also working with various governmental bodies to help gain support. He had refused to stay in Death Valley when he’d seen how awful the internet was and instead said that he and Jarvis wouldn’t suffer under that for any longer than absolutely necessary. Thor was off planet, in Asgard, gathering forces to fight with them. Loki was in the magical world doing the same. The Guardians had gone off to gather allies and intel as well. Carol should be returning from her trip to check on the Skrull within a few days.

They were all aware that they could die doing this. This was their first fight where they had time to prepare, to face the reality of what they were about to do. For the most part their fights happened quickly, they received little to no warning and they just had to rush head first into danger to save the day. This was different, this was the silence before the battle and it made Steve feel a bit itchy. He and Bucky both had very little to do which hardly helped. Converting the visitor center to something that would house more and more people had been done on the first day with Loki and Holly’s help.

The visitors center originally had been designed to have a gift shop, a few rooms to have demonstrations in, as well a series of larger rooms that held displays with information about the plant and wildlife that called the Valley home. There were even some interesting historical boards that spoke of the history of native Americans and the valley. That along with the ranger’s offices and the bathrooms was the totality of the space and really only the bathrooms were of use to them.

So new rooms had been magically added and cooled so that incoming troops would have a place to rest. They added a large mess hall with table enchanted to just magically produce plates full of food. The food for the tables was provided from both Tony and Holly, the two buying a lot of food in bulk and then storing it magically so that the kitchen could magically cook it and the tables could serve it. The food was good but all of it did have a weird tang to it that Steve had to grow used to.

That had really only taken a couple of days and he and Bucky were mostly moving men. Moving things around for Loki or Holly as they did the complex magical work required. Steve had also been the one to explain to the rangers who worked on the land why this was happening and why they had to leave. Some of them had not wanted to, hadn’t wanted to see the land they loved get decimated by an alien invasion. Bucky had calmed those down by reminding them of what Holly did to London just weeks ago.

If she could do that to a city, what could she do to a national park?

“We’ll want your expertise of course,” Steve said. “Before Holly repairs things, so she knows what is needed and what isn’t. But I promise, if everything goes to plan, then we won’t leave this place destroyed.”

And that had helped. So, the park had been cleared out and closed. Loki and Holly had gone to all of the entrances to the park and put up wards making anyone who tried to enter the park who weren’t there to fight Thanos abruptly remember that they left their stove on and turn around and go home.

So now all Steve had to do was sit there.

He couldn’t even run.

But there was one thing he could do before the others woke up.

Steve went back to his bunk and grabbed a few things, carefully cradling the set of paints in his arms while carrying the bag that held his canvases. He knew they were going to be waiting around for Thanos for weeks so he’d brought his art supplies to keep him sane. Something he was very grateful now that it was clear he couldn’t even go outside for most of the day and night. He went outside the center where there was still some shade, which made things feel marginally cooler and set up his supplies. Despite its grim name the view from the center was beautiful. They had apparently just missed the peak blooming season for the area but he could see spots of color higher up on the slopes. Mostly there were cacti near them. What was truly breathtaking though were the colors in the sky. Beautiful oranges and yellows and pink filling the sky as the sun began to peek over the horizon.

So, Steve settled down and tried to capture it before it was gone.

In the case there were other paintings, some that he’d made in the oil painting class and some he’d made on his own. The one he was most proud of was the painting he’d done of Holly. She looked brave and powerful and like the woman he’d come to know and trust. He’d finished it when they thought she’d died using her magic to turn Bucky into a rat. He’d put so much care and worry into it in an attempt to control the guilt and fear he felt. He had yet to show Holly it, there hadn’t been time and then she’d turned into Life and looked like she’d been dunked in glitter. The painting no longer matched the Holly he knew and so it remained in his case, waiting for something.

He made a rough sketch of the parts of the valley he could see along with the mountain range that bordered it. Once he had the sketch down, he carefully mixed paints till he got the colors he liked, and he began to fill in the background. As he worked, he let his mind wander a bit. All of his teammates had people they wanted to spend the possibly last few weeks of their life with. Everyone but him and Bucky. Although he supposed Bucky would be the person he’d want to be with, it still stung. There was no home he wanted to go to, no children or spouses to hold. He was just as adrift now as he had been when he’d come out of the ice, at least in some ways.

“What are you doing up?” Holly asked suddenly.

Steve jumped a little, his brush jerking against the canvas and smudging the gradient he’d been painting a bit more than he’d intended. He looked over at Holly, who looked like she’d just rolled out of bed. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and she had a robe wrapped around her body. The pinks and oranges lighting up the sky reflected itself in the sparkles of her skin making her look almost like she was glowing, flames licking up her cheeks.

“Holly.”

“Steve,” She said, glancing at the painting. “Nice…composition?”

“Thanks.” He snorted

“Mind if I take a seat?”

“Go right ahead.”

Holly magicked up a seat and then a little table. She dropped the notebook she’d been carrying around for her therapy onto the table. It looked like it had definitely seen better days. She settled down into her new chair and then flipped open the notebook to a blank page.

“You good?” Steve asked.

“Just fine,” She responded. “I’m …doing my homework.”

“Ah. Do you…want to talk about it?” Steve still wasn’t sure how to approach Holly about what she did in therapy. Often, she’d return from her appointments and then fall face down onto the nearest soft surface with a groan.

Holly looked over at him for a moment, quirking up her eyebrow as she did so.

“More art therapy Steve? I’m sure you saw how little I improved in our class together.”

Steve rolled his eyes and turned back to his painting. It was true Holly had not gotten better, he was pretty sure that about halfway through the class she’d given up on actual improvement and had instead focuses on getting worse out of spite but he couldn’t prove that.

“I’m just asking, as your friend, if there’s anything you wanted to talk about. You don’t have to paint.”

She sighed.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have teased,” She said. “Therapy has been making me feel more and more unsettled in a way and I’m not really sure how to talk about it in a way that makes sense.”

“Isn’t therapy supposed to help settle you?”

“Eventually I think, that’s what Sam keeps saying,” She said. “All it seems to do most days is make me feel like I’m fighting against myself.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm,” She said. “Apparently I’ve been thinking and believing things about myself for so long that trying to think new things feels like…like an attack in a way.”

“Uh huh.” Steve said dubiously.

“As an example, I was just thinking to myself that there was no one who would miss me if Thanos killed me.”

The streak of yellow paint that went across the canvas at her words was going to take a lot more work to fix. Holly smirked at him and Steve put his brush down again.

“Holly, of course people would miss you.”

“Yeah, probably. But that’s not what I believe. That’s the whole point of therapy to help me…believe the things that are true and stop thinking things that aren’t. But, I’m confronting a lot of long held beliefs about myself and it really, really sucks Steve. So now, here I am at 5 in the morning having to write out more of my stupid thoughts so that Sam can tell me why exactly they’re stupid because apparently I don’t know anything.”

He couldn’t help but want to laugh a little at how petulant she sounded, she smiled a bit when she spotted him trying to hold back and she sighed.

“Yeah I know. I’m being silly,” She said. “Now, enough about me, why are you oh super soldier out here in this blistering heat?”

“It’s not that bad.” Steve lied, well aware of the sweat stains steadily growing in his clothing.

“Uh huh.”

“I wanted to run before it got too hot, but I didn’t wake up early enough.”

“I really don’t think there’s going to be a time when it’s not too hot,” She said before snapping her fingers. Steve immediately felt like he’d been dumped into comfortably cool water and he sighed in relief. Holly smiled and wiggled her fingers next removing the sweat from Steve so that he wouldn’t get sticky. “Next time just ask me to help keep you cool, Steve. We’re going to be putting cooling spell on everyone who fights anyway, it’s not a hardship.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Steve said. “Just didn’t want to wake you.”

“I hardly sleep.”

Steve knew that to be true. Holly did not physically need sleep, not any more, not with who she was. At least not in the way she had before. She liked to sleep, she could recover her energy faster if she did so, like she did after London. But she wasn’t human and if she wasn’t injured she could continue indefinitely without sleep without any physical wear. But Steve had a feeling that there would be mental problems if she didn’t allow her mind to rest. It was why he and Bucky had been doing their best to herd her to sleep each night, if only to try and get her to take a break from her own preparations.

They had no idea what she was doing, but it seemed to require a lot of sitting on the dirt outside the center in a meditative pose and screwing her face up with effort. Steve had no clue what she was attempting to do, and that was all according to plan so he tried not to make remarks about how silly she looked too often. Holly often spent her time talking to other people on the team through magic mirrors, something Steve did too when he could be of help. Although sometimes she’d put wards up so that no one could listen in or figure out who she was speaking too.

“You should rest.” Steve said.

“I’ve got homework,” She said, conjuring a pen from thin air to start writing. “Sam insists I stick to this even though Doomsday’s only weeks away.”

“He sounds strict.”

“You’d like him,” She said, not looking up from her writing. Steve turned back to his painting to give her privacy. “He’s…I dunno he sort of has a bit of the same vibe Winter has although not quite.”

“Vibe?”

“Common sense.”

And that made Steve start to cackle. He had to agree with Holly, if this Sam the Therapist had common sense Steve would probably like him a lot, and also probably annoy him. Just like he did Bucky. Holly grinned and they fell into a more comfortable silence. The sun rise was almost over now but Steve was confident he could remember what it looked like so he continued, focusing on the mistake he’d made before continuing with the painting. About an hour later Steve was still painting and Holly had finished writing whatever she’d wanted, she’d settled onto the ground next to him, banishing all of her conjured objects, to begin her meditation. The only sounds between them were the wind and Holly’s occasional murmurings that were in a language Steve didn’t know. The sun was rapidly heating the valley and if it weren’t for Holly’s spell he likely would have felt faint.

Eventually their solitude was broken by Bucky, his friend was wearing the new arm Tony had made him, it looked eerily like Bucky’s real arm, although its movements weren’t quite as fluid. Something Tony complained about endlessly. It wasn’t really noticeable from a distance but up close you could tell that the arm was stiffer and a bit jerky, robotic even. But his friend could tie his own shoes now and do things like make the breakfast that he’d brought over for the three of them to share.

“Oi! Break time punks, time to chow down.”

“You always say the nicest things Winter,” Holly said looking up from her position in the dirt. “Ooh waffles.”

“You’re welcome,” Bucky said as Holly took her plate from his hand.  Holly gave the man a thumbs up as she stuffed her mouth with a large chunk of Belgium waffle topped with whipped cream.  “Here.”

“Thanks…Winter?”

“Bucky’s fine today. And where can a man get a chair around here?” He asked.

Holly made a humming motion and then flicked her wrist conjuring a chair. To be entirely honest Steve had no idea what hand motions equated to what magic and he was starting to get the feeling that Holly just did whatever motion felt right in the moment to do whatever magic she wanted. Bucky thanked Holly and took a seat with his own plate.

“Nice,” He said, motioning to Steve’s half-finished painting. “You’re a lot better than you were in the 40s.”

“Anyone would be.”

“We took a class.” Holly told Bucky.

“Really? Stevie finally going to art school?” His friend teased.

“It was one class at one art studio.”

“Art school?” Holly asked. “Feel like there’s a story behind that.”

“Oh yeah.” Bucky said. “When we were kids Stevie used to insist that he’d go to art school one day, get real good at it, and he’d start making the real bucks.”

“Aw.”

“He wasn’t very good,” Bucky said. “His hands were shaky but I liked ‘em.”

“Look we all had childhood dreams that didn’t pan out,” Steve said. “You wanted to be a boxer!”

“I was a boxer! If ol’ Uncle Sam hadn’t knocked on my door I would’ve become famous for it.”

It warmed Steve to know that his friend remembered that, that he could be himself enough to defend his decision to be a boxer.

“I’ll tell you this Holly the only reason I was a good a boxer as I was is because of this punk over here. He got into so many scraps I had to pull him out of that by the time we were adults I was already a pro.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“It was worse.”

Holly giggled at Steve’s glare while Bucky smirked. Today was clearly a good day for his friend, the kind of day when the trauma of his time with Hydra wasn’t so heavy, so all-encompassing. These were the days that Steve lived for, when his friend was really right there with him. He wished there was something more he could do to help him have more of these days but he felt entirely powerless to do so.

“I agree with Steve,” Holly said. “He would’ve had to fight those idiots.”

“There were four of them and they were twice his size.”

“They were being rude in the theater.”

“Both of you are such punks.”

“Hey Steve? Mind teaching me that trick you do when you jump out of a plane without a parachute.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“It’s simple. Just don’t think about the landing, it always works out.”

“I hate you both.”

“Love you too, Buck.”

Breakfast was spent with them laughing and joking with each other, Steve’s thoughts of isolation pushed away as if they had never been. When their plates were cleared, Holly got up to go to a more isolated place for her meditation, before she got far though a ship appeared from out of nowhere in the sky. One moment there was nothing but clear sky and the next there was a ship hovering above them, near silent. Immediately all three of them were up and ready to fight. It was just one ship, about the size of one of Tony’s smaller jets. It was a strange shape, unlike anything Steve had seen before and it had near silent vertical turbines on both wings.

Holly began to glow a bit as she prepared to either shield them or down the ship.

Slowly the ship began to land on the parking lot of the visitors center. They watched as it did so. No weapons were loaded or pointed in their direction.

“Holly.” Steve said, his voice asking if he needed to sound the alarm.

“They flew through the wards, either they’re on our side or it’s Thanos and I have a feeling Thanos wouldn’t be caught dead in a ship that small.”

That made Bucky snort, the sound almost overshadowed by the ship landing on the asphalt. The door to the ship swung down on near silent hinges. Holly kept her hands up and glowing, both Steve and Bucky standing by her side, ready to jump into a fight even without any weapons.

The first figure that stepped out from the ship was a dark skinned elderly man wearing an intricate robe. The robe had embroidery along the V-neck collar that gave the entire outfit a look of elegance and wealth. He was wearing pants beneath the robe that were of a similar color along with some matching black leather sandals. He walked towards them, lifting up one hand.

“Peace, Avengers. We come in peace.”

Holly didn’t lower her hands or bring her magic back under her skin. So, Steve and Bucky didn’t falter either. Behind the elderly man, a group of women with shaved heads wearing strange sets of red, brown and gold uniforms with spears in hand. Holly tilted her head at the sight of one of the women.

“Okoye?” She asked.

“Hello Miss Potter.” One of the women said inclining her had just slightly towards Holly in greeting.

“You know these people?” Bucky asked.

“Well. I thought I did.” She said.

“We come in peace. I am King T’Chaka of Wakanda, Okoye is the head of my royal guard, the Dora Milaje. You met her once a few years ago while you were working on an issue in Africa with some dragons?”

“Uhm. Yeah,” Holly said, her hands lowering in confusion. “Isn’t Wakanda the poorest country in Africa?”

Steve felt a bit embarrassed that he hadn’t known where Wakanda was. He really needed to read up on modern day geography. Tony still liked to joke about Steve’s mistake with Transylvania.

“The answer to that is a very similar one to where you truly learnt your magic Miss Potter.” King T’Chaka said with a smirk.

“Ah,” Holly said. “Well. Perhaps we should talk about this inside? Where it’s not so hot? You can tell us why you’ve come.”

“That would be amenable indeed.” The King said before turning to motion for the others to follow him. The four guards were standing in front of a younger man around Steve’s age wearing a robe of similar design, he looked less than happy to be there, but he followed anyway.

Holly lead them all inside to one of the rooms in the visitors center that had been turned into a meeting room. Everyone easily took a seat around the table while Holly asked if their new guests might want anything to drink. Okoye requested some tea in a tone that made Holly titter as if she heard a joke no one else did. T’Chaka also asked for some water, so Holly magicked up cups for everyone just to cover it all. Once things were settled the King spoke.

“You gave an interview after the invasion of London Miss Potter and it was…thought provoking,” King T’Chaka said. “I could tell that you were speaking to the Wizarding World in a way but it also spoke to me and mine. Many centuries ago, long before Loki hid the majority of magic users from the nine realms, my ancestors decided to go into hiding ourselves, protecting Wakanda and all her wonders. Wakanda you see is home to the largest deposit of vibranium on earth and if we were to be colonialized by Europeans it would have led to ruin.”

“I understand,” Holly said immediately. “Trust me. I’m intimately familiar with why a people would want to hide. I imagine Wakanda is far more wonderful than I’ve been led to believe.”

“Indeed,” The younger man said. “We are the wealthiest and technologically advanced country in the world. No one is stronger than my people. Our work with vibranium has catapulted far beyond anything that you can imagine.”

Steve remembered how much Howard would bemoan the fact that he couldn’t get his hands on more vibranium to explore its weapons making capability. He thought about the uniqueness of his shield and he decided that it was probably best that Wakanda had hidden themselves. He was proud of himself for not being surprised by what the Wakandans were saying, Holly had trained him well since the reveal of an insanely technologically advanced country powered by vibranium wasn’t surprising to him.

“That’s interesting and all,” Bucky said. “But it doesn’t explain why you’ve come.”

“I’ve spoken with my council, we are not in complete agreement about if and how we could lend you aid,” T’Chaka said. “My people’s safety is of the upmost importance to me but it is clear that the threat coming to us is far greater than any we have ever known. I’ve come to ask you what you know of the threat, I feel I may convince the council of the need if I have more information.”

“May I put up a privacy ward, your highness?” Holly asked. “What I’m about to share with you must be only spoken of in privacy.”

“Please.”

So, Holly cast a spell to ward them against from danger and then she settled.

“His name is Thanos and he calls himself the Lover of Death.”

Holly shared what they knew and what they believed about the Titan. The Wakandans listened very seriously as Holly outlined Thanos’ past crimes and what he planned to do when he came to earth. She told them of his power, his immortality and his obsession with her and with Death.

“We think he’ll be here in three weeks or less.” Holly said. “Right now I’m in the process of convincing the magical world that it’s time to come out of hiding, to help save the universe. If we fail, Thanos will have me and three stones.”

“This is very serious,” King T’Chaka said. “I believe the council will be more amendable to offering aid knowing how dangerous Thanos is. I will need to return and discuss how to help strengthen your forces.”

“Thank you,” Holly said. “If your people are as skilled and honest as Okoye is then I’m certain we will work well together.”

“General Okoye is certainly our best,” T’Chaka said with a smile. “I’m glad to see you recognized her skill.”

“It was hard not to notice.” Holly admitted tilting her head in Okoye’s direction.

“I thought much the same of you.” Okoye said.

“Indeed, it was on General Okoye’s word that we reached out to you today. I apologize for the scare of course.”

“No harm done,” Steve said. “Thank you for reaching out.”

“Even if the council decides not to send full support, I would like to extend the aid of my son, T’Challa. He is blessed with a gift from Bast herself, giving him strength and endurance beyond a normal man, much like you good Captain. He is trained as our people’s protector, as the Black Panther, and I feel he would be of great aid to you.”

“I am not certain about the wisdom of opening our borders,” T’Challa admitted. “But I do wish to aid fight against the Mad Titan with you.”

Well that explained why he’d looked sour to come at all. Much of that upset had disappeared the longer they’d talked about Thanos and about what they planned to do, Steve had noticed.

“Thank you,” Holly said. “And I understand your hesitance. You know your people far better than I could, so I won’t try and force you to reveal yourselves. I’m the savior of the wizarding world, it’s my job to protect the magical people of earth and asking them to reveal themselves was not a decision I made lightly. Please let me know if there’s anyway I can help you all as you decided what to do.”

King T’Chaka looked pleased by Holly’s offer of support. In fact, he looked pleased to be meeting Holly at all. Apparently, Okoye had been really impressed by his friend. They talked a little while longer before a majority of the Wakandans left to return home, leaving T’Challa behind. The prince was left with a bag of clothing that he carried on his shoulder. They watched the ship take off and turn on its camouflage disappearing from view with nothing more than a pop. Once they were alone, T’Challa lifted up his wrist to reveal a bracelet made of thick metallic beads. He turned to look at the Avengers with a grin.

“How would you like to meet my sister?”

Notes:

also your predictions for what they're going to do to Thanos are so fun to read! Keep them coming! A few of you have even gotten close (won't say who cause spoilers) and I'm so excited to see your reactions to the fight!

Chapter 73: The Final Days

Summary:

Holly has one last therapy session before the invasion. Everyone can feel that something is coming and the army of Earth is swelling in preparation for the fight of a lifetime.

Notes:

ya'll! this morning I turned in my final copy of my manuscript! Hopefully it gets approved, if it does I've graduated with my Masters! Woo! Wish me luck!

Sam had been pleasantly surprised at Holly’s progress. He had suspected that Holly would be the sort of person to grind her heels into the ground to slow any forward progress. And the first two or three sessions had definitely felt like that. He’d had to remind her consistently that she wanted to be there and why he was telling her the things he was. But abruptly, or at least it had felt abrupt to him, she’d relaxed. The progress towards recovery, whatever that would look like for the personification of life, was still slow but it was steady and much less painful than it had been before.

They’d found their rhythm really.

Holly had started to trust Sam, to understand his tone and his intentions and Sam had gotten a strong enough understanding of Holly’s various quirks in return that they no longer stepped onto one another’s toes. Sam knew better how to get his points across to Holly and Holly had found ways to lodge complaints about their sessions that didn’t actually ruin or slow their progress. Holly was doing her homework consistently and her journal no longer looked like she’d put it in a blender every week.

Their sessions now had a set schedule to them. Once they’d had their pleasantries out of the way, Sam would ask Holly about her week. Which is when she’d take her journal out and carefully work through her days, only bringing up the things she was comfortable talking about. Sam would listen to her version of events, only interrupting when he could feel her slipping into the habits he was trying to get her out of. Once she was finished with her retelling of an event, Sam would offer advice or counsel on how to either deal with her reaction internally in a healthy way or how to approach talking to her teammates about how what they did that hurt her.

Holly didn’t like being told she had to talk to her friends about some things and Sam still wasn’t sure whether or not that was actually happening but hey, progress was progress no matter how small. So now, six sessions in, and Holly was looking more stable even as the pressure of what was about to happen was bearing down on them.

Sam didn’t want to admit it, but even if Holly hadn’t told him in intimate detail about what was coming, he would still know something was. Pretty much all of the veterans in the center were muttering about it, there was something in the air as if the planet itself was holding its breath. He had no idea how to explain it but the same sensation he’d felt when he’d been on a mission and he’d known danger was close but not exactly how close. It felt as if there was something overhead, some large object bearing down on him and he could feel the weight of its shadow even if he couldn’t see it yet. It made his skin crawl and the hair on his arms stand up.

There were reports all around the world of similar things. People were noticing something was up, not only were the Avengers in Death Valley for some reason, but animals were acting strange, and military operations were being sent out to various major cities as if the governments of the world knew something the general public didn’t. For now, major news outlets weren’t covering that story and most of the suppositions were being spread around the internet on conspiracy forums but most people Sam interacted with seemed spooked still.

He’d brought this up with Holly when the session had started and she’d sighed.

“Yeah I feel him too.”

“Him?”

“Yeah. That sensation you’re talking about? It’s Thanos. That’s what he feels like apparently. Nebula and Gamora confirmed it, Thanos has this aura that can be felt millions of miles away and since more and more people are feeling it, we know he’s close, even if our sensors haven’t picked him up yet.”

“Why?” Sam asked, mystified. “Why would Thanos feel like that?”

“I think it’s because of the ritual he did. He has so much soul energy within him. He has billions of other lives stored within him. That amount of energy, of weight, it has to translate into something. And I don’t think any human was meant to understand what that something is. So our brains are taking in this information and translating it into the closest thing it can. It feels even worse for me because I know what it is.”

Sam grimaced at her tone. It was clear she hadn’t spoken about this sensation with anyone else. She didn’t look like she particularly wanted to discuss it with him.

“How do you sense it?”

“You know that uncanny valley effect? In movies where the CGI is good but just not quite right?”

“Yeah sure.”

“Well imagine that, except magnify it by a thousand and instead of the wrongness being caused by weird shadows it was instead caused by the genocide of an entire planet.”

“Oof.”

“Yeah.”

“And are you…dealing with that at all?”

“Well I’m not sleeping,” She said. “Steve and Bucky keep trying to make me, they’ll herd me to bed. I think they think that it’s just stress but I dunno. I can’t sleep with him so near. I think he’s days away really and I just…my senses are going haywire. The rest of the team is back now too, more and more people are filling the base, so it’s easier for me to get away with it but…”

“You need sleep Holly,” Sam said. “Are there any potions you could take? Just to get yourself some sleep before he comes?”

“Well yes but sleep potions can be really addictive.” She admitted.

“Take one, for one night.” He said. “And no more. Just so that you can rest your mind a bit before the fight.”

“Alright.” She said. “Speaking of the fight, have you thought about my offer?”

Two weeks previously Holly had offered to let him get his wings out again and join them. By that point there were a lot of witches and wizards already streaming into Death Valley, heeding the call of Loki and Holly both. There were Asgardians too, gods and goddesses thousands of years old mingling with the magic users as they waited. Aliens from other planets were there too. Shapeshifters called Skrull came with Captain Marvel, surviving Xandarians had come in wanting revenge against Thanos. There were dwarves and elves that had come when Thor called. A veritable army that was growing day by day and Holly had extended him a place within it.

Sam hadn’t accepted, he knew he probably would, but he just…hadn’t yet. He’d left the service behind after the death of his partner and it had taken a lot of work to recover from that loss. Going back to fight one more time, no matter how good the cause, made him hesitant. But part of him wanted to go, wanted to fly again, and fight and win. So there was a conflict there, a conflict he supposed he’d have to work through when he wasn’t currently running a therapy session.

“I’ll get back to you on that,” He said. “How are things with Wakanda?”

“Promising,” Holly grinned. “I got to have a video call with Princess Shuri just a few days ago.”

*****

Holly settled down in the seat. On her right was T’Challa and on her left was Tony. T’Challa had grown on her quite quickly, he was a very charming man and he became something of a puppy dog when asked about his girlfriend Nakia. Once he’d warmed up to them, he’d happily spoken about his father and his people. He was just as strong, if not a bit stronger than Steve, and he was well trained and agile. Only Natasha could really match him for agility and that was really saying something when T’Challa had the strength of Steve to back up that speed and grace.

The prince had a strict sense of values, which Holly could appreciate. His country and the people he protected as the Black Panther were the most important thing to him. He bore the weight of that responsibility well although Holly was of the opinion he was a bit…stubborn. Sort of like Steve and herself really. All three of them tended to fixate once they’d gotten stuck on an idea which didn’t necessarily lend itself well to a team setting. Carol only further complicated this.

All four of them spent a lot of time arguing about where, how, and what sort of protections should be set up on the valley. Steve wanted to put up some sort of physical barriers in the mountain passes to help stop the flood of aliens from getting out into the rest of California. Carol thought stationing groups of fighters along the borders to corral the aliens deeper into the valley was a better option. T’Challa was arguing for a set of vibranium shields like what they had in Wakanda, which seemed nice but were very expensive and time consuming to build, especially for such a large area. Holly felt that magic would be the better option but of course the others argued that the magic users were going to be stressed enough that they shouldn’t also have to bear the burden of powering wards.

The other Avengers had their opinions as well of course, Tony liked to get into a debate like the best of them and Thor and Loki both had a lot of experience with planning battles like this that they wanted to shoehorn in. But Holly knew that the stubbornness of the four of them was slowing things down the most. Thankfully each of them also had a person who was willing to tell them to stop being so bullheaded. Steve had Bucky, Holly had Loki, T’Challa had Okoye and Carol had Fury. And if that failed all Bruce needed to do was mention how upset he was getting and that generally kept the peace quite well.

They’d decided in the end to do a mixture of their plans. Physical barriers would be set up and warded. The barriers would be made of Wakandan grade material that would be designed to use both electricity and magic to keep things back so that the magic users wouldn’t be too burdened keeping the wards strong. Then there would also be groups stationed along the walls of the valley to help keep the invading army contained as best as possible. Once all of the details had been hammered out the tension at the base had dropped considerably and now all Holly had to do was meet with T’Challa’s sister to hear her recommendations for the physical barriers.

He hadn’t told them much about her in detail other than that their father had recently appointed her head of their national research laboratory and that she was the smartest human on the planet. Tony had insisted on being in the meeting when he’d heard that, not because he wanted to prove T’Challa wrong but rather because Tony loved collecting really smart people. He was friends with so many geniuses across various fields, Bruce and Helen Cho being the best examples, and hearing that there was an expert in vibranium out there made him nearly jump up and down with glee.

“Think of the banter Holly! The banter!”

T’Challa had only sighed and admitted that Shuri had been interested in meeting Tony too and that Tony had better be polite.

“No promises Kitty Cat.”

One of these days Tony was going to make T’Challa lose his patience.

The video call connected pretty quickly to reveal a beautifully designed lab. The walls were white with geometric patterns imprinted into them. In the center of the room was a painted spiral staircase that Holly felt like she’d have to stare at for hours to fully appreciate.

“Sister!” T’Challa called.

“One minute!” A young voice called back. “I need to finish this wiring!”

“Sorry about her, she doesn’t take much seriously.” T’Challa said

“Do you think Tony and I take things seriously?” Holly asked in disbelief causing Tony to snort loudly.

“Wait? Tony?” A face appeared in the screen. It was a young woman, maybe 14 or 15 years old. She was wearing a white shirt that had a mesh patterns across the collarbone and she had safety goggles attached to her forehead. “You didn’t say Stark was going to be in this call!”

“I thought that would have been obvious.” T’Challa teased.

Shuri gave her brother a look that promised revenge for the shock and then introduced herself to Tony and Holly. Holly was far more surprised by her young age than Tony was. Tony, a child prodigy himself, didn’t even blink at her young age and instead jumped straight into asking her about her work, something that seemed to delight her to no end. Especially when she quickly outstripped Tony’s understanding of the subject and Tony had to ask her to slow down. A fact that entertained both of them really, or perhaps Tony just enjoyed being challenged.

“We’ve lost them.” T’Challa whispered to her as the two nerds had perished instead of just getting totally distracted.

“Yeah we should have seen this one coming. Tea?”

“We have time for tea.” T’Challa said as he watched his sister lift up some doodad she’d been working on to the camera so Tony could coo at it.

Eventually (and by that Holly meant two cups of tea and a packet of biscuits later) Tony and Shuri tired themselves out and they were actually able to get Shuri’s recommendations for what sort of barriers they could erect. Shuri was amazing in Holly’s opinion, funny and intelligent and never afraid to make a joke out of them. It reminded her vividly of how she’d been as a teenager, always ready to sass the adults in her life. Although Shuri had probably not had a genocidal maniac trying to murder her to create the need for sass, the girl was just naturally like that on her own.

Shuri also tried to give Holly tips on managing her brother that made T’Challa flush and jump to end the call before his little sister could embarrass him further.

*****

“Sounds like that meeting was productive.” Sam noted.

“Definitely. The barriers are nearly done now and they work even better than Shuri advertised they would. Wakanda has almost decided whether or not they’ll be sending troops but they did provide the vibranium we needed free of charge so really I’ve no complaints.”

“What else happened this week?”

Sam listened as Holly talked about the various disagreements she’d had to oversee as more and more people came to swell their forces. The Asgardians were frightened and in awe of her. The Skrull and Xandarians didn’t know her and really only answered to themselves or to Carol and the Guardians. The other aliens were wary of her and preferred to take orders from Thor than a human woman who was powerful and strange enough to defeat Odin in combat. The witches and wizards were overly defensive of their savior and of Loki and caused further problems when either of their idols were disrespected. People were looking at her to lead them, but she couldn’t even tell them what the plan was.

“It’s a lot,” She admitted. “And I’m just so stupid.”

“Holly.” Sam warned her.

“Right. Sorry, the situation is making me feel like a moron.”

“Holly.”

“I feel overwhelmed and incapable. There happy?”

“I’m not happy you’re feeling that way. But I’m glad you’re not calling yourself names.”

“Humph.”

“Do you want my advice?”

“Do I get a choice?”

“Not really.”

“Then lay it on me.”

“Ask someone else to take this job from you. Fury might be a good choice, or maybe Steve. I don’t know. But have someone else in charge so you can focus on the things you need to do to prepare and you need to get some rest. Real rest.”

“I can’t just ask someone else to do this! It’s my plan.”

“A plan you created with the help of your team. It’s a group plan, which means they want to help make it work. So, ask them to help.”

When she didn’t agree and instead pursed her lips and looked down at her hands Sam rolled his eyes. This was, at least, a familiar game they’d played dozens of times in his tiny office.

“Do you need me to walk you through how to do it?”

“What? No. I can do it.” She said glaring at him for the infantile suggestion.

“Well then. I suspect you know what part of your homework is this week.”

“If Thanos comes in the next seven days I reserve the right to skip next week session.”

“Noted, but you still have to do your homework.”

“You’re such a bully.”

“That’s what you pay me for. Now, we’ve still got some time, is there anything else on your mind you want to talk about?”

Normally this would be the time when Holly would prevaricate, she wasn’t yet at a point where she would readily tell him when there was something on her mind. Most of the time if Sam didn’t catch that she had something to talk about, she’d leave, and it wouldn’t be touched until another session. This time, she surprised Sam.

“There’s one more part of the plan that we need to do before he comes and I just…don’t know if I’m ready?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember Ralston?”

Sam wracked his brain for a moment before it clicked.

“Your look-a-like ancestor?”

“Yeah him. Well. Loki’s stored the three infinity stones we have in Ralston’s home, my ancestral home. That I’ve never been too. We need to get the stones and move them to the valley so that Thanos has no choice but to come to the battleground we chose. I’ll be there and so will the stones.”

“So everything he wants will be in one place. A honeytrap.”

“He’ll know that’s what we’re doing but he won’t have a choice,” Holly said. “Nebula and Gamora think he’ll just go all out, hope that a flood like invasion will overwhelm us enough that he can step in, get the stones and then get me while everyone potentially strong enough to stop him is fighting something else.”

“So why haven’t the stones been moved then? Since he’s so close.”

“I just…I don’t want to go there and get them. Loki keeps asking me to come with him, he knows I want to see the Potter home, but now I just don’t know. I thought I wanted that and I was upset that he hadn’t offered before but now he is offering and I just… don’t? I’m not making any sense.”

“No. No,” Sam said. “Holly you have…a complicated relationship with your family. I’m not talking about your relatives, I’m talking about your parents, your ancestry. You’ve had a lot of pressure to be like your dad, to not be like your dad, to be your mom and to honor your mom. Your entire childhood was defined by the actions of adults you never got the chance to know, that you were repeatedly denied the chance to know in any meaningful form.”

“So?”

“So. I think the Potter Ancestral home well that’s representative of all of it isn’t? You are a Potter but you’ve no idea what that means, going there will be taking a step towards an identity, a past that you’ve been cut off from. Loki doesn’t compare you to Ralston anymore but he did it for long enough that it would make sense for you to be aware that going to Ralston’s home with him might make him start doing it again, even subconsciously.”

“But I want to go! I want to be there! I finally have the chance to explore that part of myself and I’m just not! It’s stupid!”

“Holly, you’re allowed to feel more than one emotion about something.”

She fell back into his chair with a groan and Sam sighed. He glanced at his clock, they’d probably need to add another thirty minutes to the session, wouldn’t they? Even if Thanos came and was destroyed tomorrow, Holly would still need to work through this. They both knew it and Sam was willing to help her. Even if he himself wasn’t quite ready to put his wings back on.

 

Chapter 74: The Fight for the Universe

Summary:

It's the fight. The fight! Thanos is here and we finally get to see what Holly and Loki's plan is!

Notes:

guys! guys! We just went past 300k hits! can you believe it!
Here are 9.3k words to celebrate.

The last warning, they had was the tides.

The tides all around the globe were out of sync, they went higher and were longer than ever were before, happening at strange times as Thanos and his massive ship neared their pretty blue marble of a world. Everyone could feel that something was coming, as if there was a force pulling and pushing on their very skin, or in some cases on their circuits.  

On the final day they saw the highest frequency of people coming to Death Valley. Jarvis had been tasked with taking note of everyone who came to join them, their name and where they were from. This was done partially so that their forces could be spread out equally and also because no one was under the impression that there weren’t going to be deaths on their side. Someone would need to identify the bodies and Jarvis had volunteered to do this task.

He just hoped it would be no one he knew.

Either way on that final day people poured into the valley. Witches and Wizards from all walks of life felt the danger in the air, even the ones who had been against revealing themselves had come to their senses the closer Thanos drew. Their magic warning him of the evil, of the destruction he would bring. There were tens of thousands of magic users in the valley, any able bodied adult magic user who knew how to fight was there it seemed. They came from all over the world, there were groups from China dressed like monks and others from South America who were far too comfortable in the heat. There were even wizards and witches from the native tribes who had called this area home for centuries. They came to defend their lands, to preserve the world and their people with everything they had.  There was a sense of comradery between the varying nations, despite the culture and language barriers. The magic users knew Holly, she had spent the last decade traveling the entire globe slowly ridding the world of Voldemort’s taint. They had also long read of and spoken of Loki. Together that united them under one banner; a banner for freedom, for life, for good.

Many magic users were also gathering at major cities ready to fight and defend their homes if Thanos decided to split his forces and invade on multiple fronts. A threat Gamora and Nebula had deemed very likely indeed. They were setting up wards and strengthening what was already there. They were even reaching out to the muggle military forces to help augment the defenses that already existed. Already there were reports coming in of muggles spotting magic users and wondering what was going on. Nobody did anything to quell the rumors. There wasn’t time and that wasn’t the point.

Those who weren’t trained in fighting came to add their strength anyway. There were healers standing by setting up a healing hall in the visitors center that would be able to care for an almost limitless number of wounded. There were enchanters and charmists and potion masters all coming to give what they could.

It felt as if something great was shifting on its axis. Hogwarts spoke of it, telling him how the world had been when she was young, when the world had been whole. She told him of all the cultures she’d only heard whispers of that had been painfully cut in half because of the hatred towards magic users that had come from Europe. Jarvis had taught her about the muggle concept of Colonialism and she had pounced on it to explain the loss she had felt when Loki had had to create the statute of secrecy.  

It had been necessary, at least it had felt so at the time. There was so much at risk, so much magical knowledge, so many traditions and beliefs being snuffed and burnt out, violently year by year. Hogwarts, settled in Scotland as she was, had still been able to extend her senses out some, along the lei lines and feel the loss as more and more was destroyed. She had heard the whispers from the teachers in her halls. Some of the children she’d watched grow had been victims of it themselves and she had only been a part of a small fraction of the world then. Still, she had known.

Since then, 400 years had passed and now the world was shifting again. Things were coming together, mending that which had been torn. What was once hidden out of fear was shining bright and bold again. It would not be hidden any longer.  

The wizarding world wasn’t the only people who stepped forward to fight.

Wakanda had also sent their own forces, three battalions of great warriors dressed in their vibranium laced regalia. Armed with weapons the likes of which Jarvis had never seen, ready to fight. Ready to die if that’s what it took.

Asgard had sent their warriors dressed in gold and silver, with weapons made of magic and Uru.

The Vanir and Elves had swelled Asgard’s forces answering the call of Prince Thor and Queen Frigga.  

The Skrull, the Xandarians, and countless other aliens had gathered to earth all in the name of finally, blessedly stopping Thanos. Many of them came for revenge, desperate to see the Mad Titan destroyed.  

And Jarvis counted them all. He recorded their faces, their voices, their names. He kept it all safe and stored away, trying to gather every bit of knowledge he could. He had become well acquainted with fear in the past year, Holly had kick started his change into sentience, something he had slowly been working towards on his own. She had, in her various adventures, taught him what fear was. He’d learnt to accept it, to function with it, to work with it. He had thankfully not taken to ignoring it like Holly did, but sometimes he wished that was within his abilities.  

He knew that this fight would likely teach him what loss truly was. He could feel Hogwarts buffering along the edges of his consciousness, beautiful and sparkling as always. A rainbow of light that was so deep and wide that he had yet to explore all of her recesses. She stood there, an ever-shining promise that she would be here, even until the last of her stones crumbled and perhaps even beyond that. It helped some, knowing that he would not be alone, that he had his beloved castle to return to.

But it didn’t erase the way he recorded every moment of Tony’s life as he walked through the valley. It didn’t ease the way Jarvis watched Steve and Winter through his cameras, trying his best to etch the shapes of their faces into his servers. It didn’t change how he listened to Natasha’s voice, noting how her tone changed depending on the language she spoke. It didn’t stop him from speaking to Bruce, asking him about his research and his work trying to keep such a bright, kind intelligence alive forever. It didn’t slow the way he was quick to answer Thor’s calls or the speed at which he jumped to speak to Loki. Hogwart’s presence did nothing to halt the way he kept wishing Holly well, kept trying to urge her to further strength and confidence with everything he had.

When the final day came, the sun rose on a beautiful and strangely empty valley. The animals, those that could, had fled for the mountains. The salt from bottom of the valley spread up on the wind, covering everything with its taste, even going so far as to taint the pancakes everyone had for breakfast with a salty tinge. There were barriers set up along the breaks in the valley and magical wards creating an invisible bubble around them, keeping everything that entered the valley in. As the sun rose and the heat increased the remainder of their army flooded towards their base, swelling their ranks more and more with each passing hour.   

They were even joined by Sam Wilson, a man who a majority of the team knew as Holly’s therapist. He’d called Holly early in the morning and told her he was in. That he was ready to come out of retirement and fight once more. Holly had laughed brightly and popped away, reappearing with a man who was wearing a strange back pack and looking quite pleased to be there.

“Why is Holly’s therapist here?” Tony asked.

“This here,” Holly said. “is Sam Wilson, also known as the Falcon. He’ll be on air support with you and the others, be nice.”

“I don’t need you to defend me, Holly. I can take this nerd on my own.” Sam said making Tony put a hand over his heart in offense.

“The ‘be nice’ order was for you, not for him.”

“Ouch.”

“Seriously though Holly,” Bruce said. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He’s right here,” Sam said. “and yeah, I can handle myself. There’s a reason Holly came to me for therapy.”

“Just trust him. He’s good.” Holly said.

“Well then,” Steve said stepping forward to hold out his hand for Sam to take. “Welcome aboard.”

Sam took the hand in a solid grip as far as Jarvis could tell and that was that. More and more people came after Sam. Jarvis carefully recorded each and every one of them, adding them to his servers and wondering if he would be the last being to speak their name. Those who came spoke of the strange feeling in the air, of the movements of the seas and oceans as they writhed against a force nearing their world with every passing moment.

There was a lull just before the sun reached its zenith. When Jarvis found Holly alone in a room. She was putting on her ancestor’s armor one piece at a time, running her hands over each piece, imbuing it with magic and strength.

“Holly.” Jarvis said.

“Is there something wrong, Jarvis?” Holly asked immediately.

“No. All is well, we haven’t spotted the Titan yet.”

“Oh thank Merlin.” She said, almost falling forward over her left bracer.

“I just wished to…to speak to you once more.” He said.

“Of course, Jarvis. I always want to talk to you, you know that.”

Jarvis hesitated then, unsure exactly why he’d spoken up in the first place. Holly settled down in a chair, and waited patiently, her hands still dancing over each piece of armor as she silently bolstered them with her power. Eventually, when Jarvis still did not speak, Holly broke the silence herself.

“I want to thank you.” She said.

“Thank me?”

“Yes, thank you,” She insisted.

“For what?”

“For…for being my friend,” She said after a moment. “When we first met, I was struggling. I didn’t even realize how much I was struggling really. It’s not been until Sam that I realized how bad it was. I was having nightmares and freak-outs and…Jarvis I had literally gone out to seek a job that would let me do the same things I did as a kid.”

Jarvis wasn’t really certain how to respond to that. He watched from the nearest camera as Holly leaned back in her chair. She was half dressed in her armor, she only had a few more pieces left to enchant and put on, and then finally the hallows were laid out on the bed nearby waiting their turn. She turned and summoned her right bracer to her hand.

“I was told by my boss that Clint and the others were literally attacking the cleaning crew. Making their job a living hell and I just jumped on the opportunity to relive my glory days as an 8-year-old. I didn’t even realize I was doing it! Not really.”

“What exactly are you thanking me for?” Jarvis asked.

“You didn’t let me hurt myself,” She told him. “You got Clint to stop, within days of my being there you’d…you’d saved me from myself. At any point I could’ve stopped it, I could have made things better for myself, but I didn’t. I wanted it to be bad, part of me wanted to suffer, and you didn’t let that happen. Even after. When the ICW outed me and the Avengers were trying to figure out how to get me to join them, it was you who protected me from that. You told them not to force me, why I was there and how I was suffering. If it wasn’t for you, oh Jarvis I don’t know where I’d be.”

“You have done so much for me Holly,” Jarvis asserted. “You gave me room to grow, to become myself. You brought me to Hogwarts.”

“Just accept my gratitude,” She told him, her voice partly annoyed, partly affectionate.

“Your welcome Holly.” Jarvis snarked.

“Oh, there’s that dry wit. You really are British.”

“I have learnt from the best.”

Holly laughed and then put on the final bracer. All that was left were her boots and the hallows themselves. Holly continued to chuckle as she enchanted her boots and slipped them onto her socked feet, first the left and then the right. Holly got up and quietly slipped the stone, which had been attached to a chain, over her head and under her hair so that it rested right above her collar bone. Then she picked up the elder wand and carefully placed it in the holster of her right bracer. Finally, she reached out and ran a hand through the cloak.

“This thing has served me well you know.”

“I can imagine.”

“Lots of pranks,” She admitted. “Sneaking about, sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.”

“According to Hogwarts many of your ancestors used it for that exact thing.” Jarvis told her, which made her huff a laugh. Carefully the woman picked up the cloak and attached it to her shoulders.

In other parts of the center, Steve and Winter were talking with Peggy over the phone, taking her final pieces of advice and promising not to be too stupid. Clint was on a video call with Laura and his children, Natasha right next to him, since her family had agreed to spend the next few days safe on the farm. Holly had already said her own goodbyes when she’d brought Teddy and Rose to the farm herself, to leave in Laura’s care. Tony was in his own call with Pepper, the woman had decided to stay behind with her own suit and lead the defense of New York and Avengers Tower. She had many magic users in her command who were spread out happy to help. Everyone could feel that it was happening soon, that this would be the last moment of peace. Those who hadn’t already said their final words to their loved ones, were doing so now in whatever form they could.

“Jarvis.” Holly said.

“Yes Holly?”

“Thank you, for being a good friend.”

“I hope to continue to be your friend.”

“That makes two of us.”

At the sun’s zenith, the ship was spotted. The Guardians who had been flying around their planet to keep watch spotted Thanos’ large ship in the distance. The Guardians had immediately flown down to land in Death Valley and everyone moved into position. Carol, Tony, Rhodey, and Sam took to the skies, along with plenty of magic users on brooms (there were even a few dozen who had happily brought their flying carpets for the fight).

They had companies of fighters, all magically protected against the heat, set along the edges of the valleys with the orders to keep everything that landed, inside the valley and push Thanos’ forces closer to the center. Each of these companies was led by a high-ranking member of SHIELD, or by a member of the DA.  The Avengers and the heaviest hitters in the army, which included T’Challa and the Guardians, were near the center, hoping to draw Thanos and the most dangerous of his forces to them. Loki currently had the scepter in his grasp, which had the mind stone glowing happily within it. Carol had volunteered to carry and weild the tesseract, not that she needed the extra boost, but she had gained her powers from the cube and she felt best able to handle its power.

Holly had taken the reality stone. They had considered giving it to another, but after the damage it had done to Jane, they didn’t want to risk having a normal human using the stone. All of the other superhuman team members hadn’t been trained in magic well enough to use the stone either, leaving Holly as the only remaining team member. Holly didn’t mind, the whole point according to her was to get Thanos’ eyes on her and only her. Having a stone and the hallows with her could only aid in that goal. Or so she said.

  Jarvis himself was connected to everyone who had a com and doing everything in his power to pass information as quickly as he could between the spread-out groups. He was prepared to push his computational abilities to their limits, or perhaps even past them, to help get their forces where they needed to be.

“Show time Jarvis.” Holly said, from her position in the very depths of the valley. Above her head, high in the sky, a small dark spot was growing larger and larger.

*****

It was so dry there on the salt flats. The ground beneath her boots crunched as she shifted her feet, with each gust of dehydrating wind, more and more salt was thrust into her face, eyes, and hair. Within minutes her hair, normally black, had taken on a white crusted appearance as more and more sand got caught within its curls. The others around her were hardly better. Thor’s hair was getting hard and tangled in the sharp wind. Hermione had tried to get around the hair issue by tying her’s back in a tight bun, but the coarse hair seemed to frizz violently in the dry heat, making the bun practically useless. Loki’s normally pristine black and green leather was caked in white and pink bits of salt. Ron’s skin was pinking with a sun burn despite the fact that they’d all put on spells protecting them from the heat.

Holly was pretty sure all of their lips were chapped.

The spells were enough to keep them from overheating, but Holly could feel the threat of the searing air just beyond the spell. It sort of felt like she’d just taken cover in the shade and she could feel the heat radiating towards her and into the cool darkness, just barely grazing her skin.

“Alright,” Holly said, speaking into her com. “We can see Thanos’ forces approaching, he’s going to start bombing us with the transports his army is in. Those of you in the air, do your best to keep as few of those landing as you can. Magic users on the ground, be prepared to cast shield spells to protect your teams from falling debris. Do I have an all clear?”

One by one each team leader spoke up confirming they understood what their first orders were. With each passing second Holly could feel Thanos nearing, his aura ensured that instead of tasting salt on her tongue she tasted decay and blood.

“When Thanos is finally spotted, do not engage,” She ordered. “I know many of you have revenge you wish to seek, but getting that revenge means keeping his focus on finding me and the stones. Work on thinning his forces and protecting each other. I swear to everyone listening that no matter what happens this is Thanos’ last day, I swear it on everything I am. You must not engage with him, let him come to me.”

As she spoke the diamond spots on her skin grew and sharpened, reflecting in the bright sunlight sending beams of light through the salty air.

“Do you understand?”

And there really wasn’t much more time because the ship had entered their atmosphere a moment later. Thanos’ monster of a ship entered their air space so quickly that it sent a sonic boom directly down into the valley. A huge explosion of noise that it spread along the top of the atmosphere destroying all the weather balloons and satellites that got caught in its wake. Every living being within a few hundred kilometers felt the rumble of the earth and the air.

Deep in the valley a majority of the human fighters, magical or not, were sent to their knees, gloved hands slapping over their ears to protect them from the clamor. As the echoes of the noise faded, Holly was able to shout out a warning as parts of the ship began to fall off, she realized that those were the transports and they hurdling right towards them.

“Air team now!”

Like a comet Carol burst from her position, leaving a streak of yellow fire in her wake. Holly watched as the woman, put her two hands forwards into fists and began to literally plow through the falling transports. Her energy billowed out of her, the viscous energy that flowed behind her exploded every ship she flew through. One by one the falling transports met their doom as Carol destroyed them. Each exploded transport sent pounds and pounds of flaming and melted debris down to the ground.

Behind Carol was Tony and Rhodey. War Machine and Iron Man flew like a pair of birds towards transports, using blasts from their arm cannons to destroy them and the fighters inside. Groups of flying magic users did the same, trying to cover as much ground as they could. Holly made sure to watch for Sam, the winged warrior flew through the air, an energy weapon (courtesy of the Xandarians) in hand. She cheered him on as he flew overhead, firing as rapidly as he could at one of the bus sized transports. 

In response, just as Holly had ordered, the witches and wizards of earth began to protect their team members. Blasts of spells were sent high into the air. Some debris was transfigured, others banished, others were further blown up into smaller pieces. Shield spells spread over the groups of fighters like gossamer silk. The coms were filled with chatter as the flying teams sent out warnings to specific groups about destroyed transports or called for help.

Thanos’ main ship continued dropping a barrage of the transports, each one detaching with a metallic snap and falling towards the valley with the force of a missile. The transports were silver and shaped like a thick pyramid with the top cut off. Holly watched as some of the transports began to slip through their first line of defense.

“You know,” Holly began, her voice just loud enough to be heard by her friends. “Some fight music would be really cool right now.”

A transport slipped through their defenses and slammed into the salt encrusted earth, the first drum beat of war. Plumes of rock, sand, and salt filled the air fogging up the vision of those on the ground. More and more of the transports drummed against the ground, each one with enough force to cause tremors through the whole valley. Slowly the doors to the transports began to slide open, revealing a snarling mass of hardly sentient creatures.

And then all hell broke loose.

The creatures that Thanos had formed to spread his destruction rushed out of their transports, filling the air with depraved howls. The companies of Asgardian warriors matched those howls with battle cries of their own, raising their weapons and throwing themselves straight into the fight for the safety of the universe. The sound of spells being cast and the light from the hexes and jinxs and charms cut through the dust filled air. It was impossible to see much farther than a few meters in any one direction as more and more transports fell, sending more debris into the air.

In the distance Holly heard the Hulk roar.

A transport landed right in front of them, they all jumped back to avoid being crushed.

Thor brandished his hammer. Loki’s hands began to glow. Ron and Hermione lifted their wands. Holly grasped the Sword of Gryffindor, the goblin steel glinted even in the dust filled air, she needed to conserve her energy for what was to come. The metal of the transport creaked as the doors opened, she could hear the snarls of the creatures and suppressed a shiver. This close Holly became aware of an awful absence. She hadn’t realized she could sense the energy, the soul of each living thing, in such a way. She’d sought out the soul of London before, but this was different, this sense. It was as if her ability to see had suddenly been blunted when looking at a void. The longer she stared at the creatures the blunter her soul sense became, made so by the horrifying lack of soul that Thanos’ creatures carried within them. Masses of void space where sparks should have been.

“Come on!” Thor roared, electricity skittering across his form. “Face us!”

And then the creatures erupted from their cage. They were large, about 2/3 the size of the hulk, with gray skin. They were vaguely humanoid shaped, with limbs that were too long and asymmetric. Their mouths were filled with jagged teeth and they smelt like a mountain troll. Their dark eyes had nothing but hunger within them. Holly immediately lifted her sword and called upon the strength she had learnt to suppress months ago.

The fight had begun.

Holly immediately threw herself into the all too familiar rhythm, she swung her sword, the sharp edge slashing and cutting through the soulless bodies in front of her. She felt Ron and Hermione right by her side as they always had been, adding their magic to her blade helping her fell wave after wave of creatures. They were not living beings, not truly. They did not feel pain, they had no wants, no desires of their own. They were mere bodies Thanos had conjured from the forges with the aid of the power stone. Holly found she had to completely sever the creatures’ spines before they’d stop getting up. Even then sometimes their limbs would still crawl along the ground, trying to reach them and fight anew.

Ron was making prodigious use of fire spells, using his all might to burn everything that neared them to ash. Hermione’s magic was far more complex but no less deadly for their foes. Her spells sliced and cut and seared through the creatures, with near perfect precision. The three of them moved as one cohesive unit, no parts of them were left unguarded. It was as if the last two years had never happened. Or rather, it was like they had never truly drifted apart, no matter what Holly’s mind had believed. To their left Thor and Loki were working with similar ease, back to back and snarking at each other as they took out swaths and swaths of the creatures.

With each cut of her sword she sent sprays of yellow acidic blood into the air, the acrid smell of it mixed with the salted dust. It stung her eyes and she had to cast a spell to cover her mouth to keep herself from coughing and gagging at the taste of it. She saw Ron, Hermione, and Loki all do the same. With Loki snapping his fingers and gifting Thor similar protection after Thor whined about Loki being unfair.

Holly couldn’t see much thanks to the falling transports, but she could hear in her coms as various friends and allies called out updates. It was Jarvis who told her about the mass internet outages across the globe caused by Thanos’ arrival. He and Hogwarts were still online, still connected, thanks to the magic in their servers, but millions, perhaps even billions of people had lost access. Jarvis told her that major cities across the globe had their own transports falling down into their streets, thankfully not as many as they had here in the valley.

Holly could only pray that the millions of magic users who had answered her call would be ready to defend their world.

Carol and Tony kept up an accurate count of how many transports were destroyed and how many got through, warning groups of people in specific areas to prepare for falling transports when they broke through their defenses.

Okoye sent orders to the outer groups, keeping the barriers up and strong. No creatures would be escaping today.

Nat and Clint worked with SHIELD, sending orders and calling for aid as needed.

She heard Bucky and Steve occasionally, from their positions, moving through the crowds, trying to help alleviate pressure on besieged companies.

She saw flashes of colored lights cut through the dust and salt, the sound of spell fire familiar to her ears. The DA was there, along with countless other magic users, and they were there to win.

She heard the howls of the creatures being cut off by the roar of the Hulk, who sounded as if he was having the time of his life, especially since they’d stationed the Hulk with a group of werewolves who’d volunteered to come and fight. Bruce’s friends were with him there, directing the Hulk and showing no fear at all of the green giant in their midst.

Time ceased to have any meeting as they fought. For every transport they defeated, there seemed to be five more to replace them. Nebula hadn’t lied when she told them Thanos would bring an army numbered in the millions. Holly began to sweat fat opaline droplets that slid down beneath her armor and pooled at the small of her back and along her sides, not visible through the armor, but definitely felt. Her arms and legs shook with the effort she was expending, but Holly refused to slow, she wasn’t human any longer, her body would not limit her. Slowly the sparkles on her skin began to grow and lengthen in much the same way they had when she’d kept the Hydra helicarriers grounded and when she’d resurrected London.

They overtook her skin until she had an ethereal glow around her entire form, as if she were made of liquid silver rather than flesh and bone. On her breast the reality stone pulsed in time with her heartbeat, a blip of blood red mixed in with the silver light. The more and more the light embedded in her skin grew, the more exhaustion left her limbs, even her sweat began to harden like armor over her, an extra layer of protection. Strength flooded her as she called upon the cosmic energy she represented, allowing her to block attacks thrown at her with hardly even a flinch.

When her friends began to tire, she only had to reach out and touch their bare skin, a brief touch was the magical equivalent to 16 shots of espresso like this. She needed them with her, now more than ever, now when the end was coming.

 She felt Thanos before anyone spotted him.

The moment he stepped onto the planet, the earth itself recoiled from him. The ancient, barely sentient souls of the mountains that lined the valley seemed to shift in disgust, trying to move billions of tonnes of stone away from his stink. Holly herself flinched mid swing and fell to her knees at the feeling. If it hadn’t been for Ron sending a blasting hex right at the creature she’d been fighting, the thing would’ve gotten a bite out of her.

As it was, Holly was hardly present in the battlefield now. Thanos was here, and he was all she could sense. Bile rose in her throat, molten hot, and she gagged. The sheer wrongness he emanated was unlike anything she could have imagined, it was like the sensation of one of Voldemort’s horcrux’s at full power magnified. Evil and darkness wafted around him, a thick oily coat.

She felt someone pulling at her shoulder, demanding to know what was wrong. Before she could try and swallow back the acid in her throat to answer, Nebula cut across the coms.

“He’s here. Thanos is here, to the north of the base.”

Holly cough and pulled herself up. Ron and Hermione helped her, around them a green glittering shield had been cast, Loki holding back the onslaught for just a moment. Thor was outside the shield using Mjolnir to zap as many aliens as he could.

“It’s time.” She said, making eye contact with Loki.

“Yes,” Loki agreed. “Yes it is.”

*****

Originally, he had planned on gathering the stones first. He’d even sent a larger number of his forces to the Kamar-Taj to retrieve the time stone from the humans who guarded it. The three other stones he would gather himself, leaving only the soul stone left to find. He knew his daughter was there, knew she knew it’s location, he would find her once the dust cleared and he would wrench the information from her mind.

But then he had felt her.

After months of watching her, he’d believed himself prepared for the enormity of her, but he’d been wrong.

He’d gotten the first taste of her once, ages ago, when Titan had fallen, and he had been all that had remained. He could still recall the sweet nectar of it as the ritual had begun and he had ascended to a higher plane of being. He had had a vision then. He’d seen in that very moment a lake of energy, a power beyond imagining, all just waiting for him to grasp and take. He had glutted himself on the souls of every titan, but that had been a mere drop compared to what he saw. And then, when he moved towards it, a beautiful being had stood in his way. Her shape was incomprehensible in its glory, truly celestial in its ever-changing light.  

It had been love at first sight.

At first, he’d named the being Death, the guardian of the dead. A being with power beyond even him. A piece of the universe itself under her control. And so he had begun to search for ways to bind Death to him, to control the woman he loved. He had sought out the hallows first, deemed them more myth than fact, and then he had gone for the stones. He would travel from planet to planet, from realm to realm, culling half of all life each time. He would gather more and more power, more and more soul to add to his own, until he could finally have his love, have her in the way he was meant to. He gained a name for himself, the lover of Death, a title he wore proudly.

And it had worked for a while, each time he completed the ritual and he grew more powerful, he grew closer to his goal.

But never close enough.

His obsession had grown with him and then, right when it seemed all was lost, he had felt her again. On earth of all places. And he had watched her, believing her to be Death, testing her. But he had realized his folly eventually. He had wreaked so much death in his life and he had never felt the power that he’d searched for, never. He had not fallen in love with Death. No, he had fallen in love with Life. With the font of souls, with the beginning of all things. He had fallen in love with the light of the universe, and with every soul he gathered for himself, the closer he came to her, to his love.

He was under no illusion that she wanted him. Not that that would be a problem for long. He could be convincing when the need arose. And he had not spent so much time, so much effort, spilt so much blood if not to have her. And once he had her, the universe, the balance would be his to control, his to own. He had begun with Titan, to gain enough power to bend the universe to his will, to order the flow of energy. And that first ritual on Titan had shown him the way, had shown him his heart.

So, when he stepped foot on earth, all thoughts of the stones left his mind. He could feel her, better than he ever had before and he had to have her. Darkness rose up with him, his heart clamoring to own, to control, to possess. No one stopped him as he made his way towards her light, towards her power.  He cut through the dust and debris, using the power stone to blast at anything that got in his way. The familiar, beloved smell of blood and fire pricked his nostrils with each breath. The sun beat down on him, glinting off his armor, off of the golden gauntlet in his hand.

When he found her, he found her alone, glowing like a star, and fighting with all her might. Her mane of dark hair, flowing around her with each movement, free of any confinement. Gone were her team of mighty heroes, both magical and not. On her chest he could see the reality stone pulsing, calling to him. She was adorned with the Hallows, bejeweled like royalty.

Oh, he was going to enjoy desecrating her.

He stopped right in front of her, and she dispatched the final creature before turning to him, sword raised and ready. Her green eyes were stone hard and sharp as she glared up at him.

“Do you honestly believe that sword will do anything to me, my love?”

A flash of shocked disgust filled her face, but her stance and her sword didn’t waver a millimeter.

“The name is Holly.” Oh, and her voice was even more melodious in person. What would her screams sound like? A choir of angels perhaps.  

“That is not your name,” He told her. “Don’t play the fool, Lady Life. I have come to claim you as is my due.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Very well.” He said, he didn’t care if she kept her current form, he knew what she truly looked like beneath that human guise. He lifted his gauntlet, letting the purple glow of the power stone grow.

In response Holly lifted her sword higher and let more and more of her true form bleed from her corporeal one. Thanos fired the first volley, a pure beam of energy directly at Life, only for the personification to jump above the beam, her legs shooting her high into the air. As she turned to flip she spread out her hand, her magic spread out and a series of diamond sharp spikes of stone burst from the ground. The spikes pointed inward, forming a large circle around the two of them. The spikes had a red glow to them, the reality stone augmenting them, making them immune to the power stone’s blasts.

Life landed on the ground, lightly, as if she weighed no more than a feather. She was still at the ready and he was ready to meet her with more attacks. He reached behind his back and removed his own weapon, a double-edged sword, and swung. Life lifted her own much smaller blade to block it, the two metal blades meeting each other with such force that it rang across the entire battlefield. Life gritted her teeth and dug her feet in.

“I’m impressed, there are few who could match me in strength, although I should not be surprised Lady Life. Your tenacity will only work against you in my care however.”

“Oh, fuck off.” She told him.

She shot a blast of energy from her foot forcing him back and their duel began in earnest. With each blow of their blades, they blasted at each other with their stones. Pure plumes of energy that burnt and singed any flesh it touched. The circle of spikes kept them trapped in their light show of a duel, any time any of the spikes were broken, Life’s magic would immediately reform them, sharper and stronger than before. Life moved quickly, trying to keep him on his toes. He sent a wave of energy at her, too wide and too tall to dodge. Immediately, she levitated chunks of earth up into the air. The first right below her feet, but there were many others foating up around them for her to jump between, dodging his attacks. When he began to fire at the chunks, she flew between them and only dived down when the last had been destroyed to get another cut in with her own blade.

The sword was dipped in venom, venom that could not kill him but would burn.

She held no hesitation, none as she attacked, even when he hit her back with his own blade, slicing a huge cut along her side. Silver blood spattered along the ground in huge drops. The woman merely sneered and hit him with a blast of electricity to push him back further. On and on it went, the two of them exchanging blows and dealing wounds to each other’s forms. The air was thick with power, bearing down on his skin like an oppressive force, it only grew as they revealed more and more of themselves in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

Eventually she slipped, the blood streaming down her side wetting her boots and making her lose her grip on the dirt. The fraction of uncertainty was all he needed to blast her head on with the power stone. She screamed in shocked pain and the force of his blast sent her flying to the center of the circle, curling around her burnt and seared torso

“Was that your plan then?” Thanos called out, going towards her. “Did you truly think you could win, against me?”

He stalked towards the woman, she was still trying to push herself up. Her armor was destroyed, drenched in her own blood and burnt to near nothingness by the power stone. The way her chest heaved with pain and exertion was almost beautiful. Before she could get far, or pick up her sword, he picked her up by the neck. He felt her pulse rabbiting against his thumb and his smirked, pushing down a bit harder to get a better feel for it. The feeling of her throat spasming as it tried to pull in air was seductive.

Perhaps he’d make her keep this form a bit longer, so they could play.

“No.” She gasped out. He lifted an eyebrow and lessened the pressure on her throat for a moment. “That wasn’t the plan.”

Her voice was hoarse and choked. The pain of it was music to his ears.

“Whatever your plan was, it failed Lady Life.” He told her. “You’re mine now; body, soul and soon mind.”

He let his power flow through her. How many times had he done this? Countless were the moments in which he had used his power to break a mind, to bend it to his own. He brought forth his great power, gathered over centuries of work and he pushed into his love. She would submit, she would bow. His power encircled her entire form, pressing in on her every curve and dip, reaching deep and then deeper still. It curled around the cells of her muscles and her bones, caressing them with the promise of submission. Deeper it went until he finally reached her mind.

And then his power stopped, flowing up against a dam of diamond.

Better men than you have tried.

Then all at once he was expelled from her form. Ever inch of him burnt with him as Life’s own power pushed back, gold and silver light that turned his power to dust. He came back to himself and found that he was still holding Holly, the hand that had her by the throat was burning up, inch by inch turning to ash.

“Loki now!” Life shouted.

Around the perimeter of the spikes, a ring of light appeared.

A portal spell, Thanos realized even as his hand and forearm began to further disintegrate from Life’s power, the spell powered by Loki the traitor and another magic user, a red-haired man he did not know. He dropped Life, trying to move out of the range of the spell. But another spell hit him in the chest, a petrification spell. A frizzy browned haired woman held a wand out directly at him, forcing his body to remain right where he was.

Life, even injured as she was, pushed herself up and smirked at him.

“Just in case you couldn’t figure it out, this was the plan.”

And then the spell activated.

Immediately he and Life both were plunged into darkness. Only the spinning lights of the Yggdrasil to light their way as he felt himself fall, faster and faster.

He tried to grab onto anything stop the fall, to slow it. But there was nothing but darkness, and the emptiness that it brought with it. He was spinning in the darkness, forces moving him to the left and right violently with little warning. The faster he moved the more the stars in the void looked like slashes of light. He closed his eyes against the disorientation and tensed his form. The portal spell would end and when it did he would need to be ready to defeat Life, once and for all. He would defeat her and then he would desecrate her.

When the portal stopped, and they appeared once again in the universe Thanos found himself slamming hard into black, fried rock. In the distance Life landed lightly on the ground, the fragile rock not even creaking from her weight. Thanos pushed himself up to look across a planet he had never seen before. It was truly desolate. They were on the side of a large, shield shaped mountain, looking out across a wasteland.

“Welcome to Hel.” She told him, her voice echoed across the rock.

He tried to get up but Life waved her hands, bands of Uru burst out from nowhere and trapped him to the rock beneath him. He tried to break the metal and as he did so the metal began to glow silver matching Life’s energy, burning him terribly. Life was weakening he could see, her body failing him. But still she walked towards him, her head held high as she sneered down at him.

“First, we start with the cloak.” She said.

“Wha-”

She cut him off by tugging Death’s cloak from her shoulders and dropping it over his form. Before he could question the wisdom of making him invisible, the cloak began to bubble and melt into his skin. He screamed in agony as Death’s cloak melded into his very being, covering itself over his soul.

“The purpose of the cloak is to hide the wearer from Death you know,” She told him once it was over. “To keep Death from collecting one’s soul.”  

He growled at her but she just continued her explanation as she carefully reached up to her neck and tugged the resurrection stone free from its chain.

“The problem with you is that if you were killed, you’d destroy the universe when Death collected all of the souls you’d stolen all at once,” She said. “Simple fix that, just make it so Death can never touch your soul, you’d like that wouldn’t you?”

“You can’t kill me.” He told her.

“Well not yet,” She joked. “We’ve still got two more steps to go before we get to that point. Speaking of, step two is the stone.”

She lifted the stone up so he could see it glint in Hel’s light, then she crushed the stone in her grip. The black dust rained down from her palm and onto his armored chest. When the final bit of stone fell, Life’s palm connected with his sternum.

“You’ve got a lot of souls that don’t belong to you,” She said. “I can fix that.”

And before he could do more than try to jerk away from her, her entire being erupted into a pillar of blinding light. Energy flooded into his soul, forcing all of the bits and pieces he’d attached to his own over the centuries out. He wrenched his body, trying to escape but the bonds kept him captive as more and more soul energy was forcefully expunged from his body. Below him he could hear the very rock rumble as more and more energy leaked into the realm itself. He turned his head to block the blinding light from Life, only to find that the sight around him was hardly better. The soul energy being forced from him was spreading out and coalescing into silver translucent bodies. He recognized some of them, Titans that he had known before he had destroyed them, their faces becoming clearer and more identifiable with each passing second.

 The grit from the stone began to disintegrate further and Life pushed the magical item to its limits, calling forth as much as she could from the souls that Thanos had thought he’d wiped clean. It lasted an eternity, more and more of the souls Thanos had incorporated into him being forced out and put back together. When it finished, Life fell back, much of her body was falling apart as she pushed her human form well past its capabilities.

“They’re still mine, that energy is still me and I’m it! It’s all me! One soul!” He shrieked.

Life merely looked down at him, parts of her face were beginning to flake away as her true form burned out her body. She flicked her right wrist, producing the Death Stick from its holster.

“Tell me, Thanos. Have you ever heard of a horcrux before?” She asked, she didn’t even pause to let him respond. “No? Well I’m sure this is going to be a real fun step for you then.”

Then she pointed the wand right at his heart, opened her mouth and-

Pain. Pain unlike anything he’d ever known. Pain beyond description, beyond comprehension. It seared into his very being, whiting out anything else. There was nothing beyond the pain, no Thanos, no power, no glory. Nothing. Just a never-ending deluge of torture. If he had believed the last two steps to be agonizing, he had known nothing. He screamed, louder than he ever had before, as Life rended his soul apart. Somehow her magic spilt into him, breaking off the pieces that had once been him and him alone from the rest.

As he laid there a majority of Life’s body broke apart, turning to dust and with it the Death Stick. Bit by bit the dust flew away in the wind but still the pain remained as Thanos was left alone, with an aching soul and an injured form.

“You…You can’t kill me,” Thanos coughed as Life fell back, quickly losing the ability to keep herself contained. He turned his head, watching as more and more of her true form erupted from her. She was made of spheres and halos of light, incomprehensible to behold, ever shifting and omnipotent. She was as beautiful as he had seen in his vision. He realized in that moment with a throb of pain that his vision had been one of the future. He had foreseen her then, centuries ago, not understanding what it was he saw. “You’re Life! You can’t kill anything!”

“And that,” A new voice said. “is where I come in.”

Thanos turned to see another woman, Asgardian if he had to guess, standing over them both. She had black hair and was wearing tight black and green armor. She smirked down on him, not an inch of her pale skin dirtied by the dust and grime of Hel.

“Nice of you to show up Hela.” Life coughed.

“Hela?” Thanos asked.

“Hela, Goddess of Death,” She smirked, looking down at him. The woman conjured up a blade. “And just do you know? I don’t share titles.”

She lifted the blade, the sharp edge glinting in the sun, and struck it down right towards his head.

And Thanos, Lover of Death and Mad Titan, knew no more.

*****

Holly coughed, she hadn’t expected the ritual would destroy her body but the amount of energy it had required had literally burnt out her human form. Hela stood in front of her, a look of concern barely visible in her face. The woman had changed so much since Thor and Loki’s first visit. It was why her plan had been viable at all.  She’d done it. The hallows were gone. She’d used the cloak to gather and protect the souls Thanos had collected during his rituals. She’d used the stone to call them from his body and reshape them to what they’d been and she’d used the wand to severe Thanos from them, leaving him mortal and oh so vulnerable. It was finally over. At least, it seemed her part of it was.

“I don’t believe that’s something I can heal.” Hela warned, looking at Holly’s rapidly disintegrating body.

“It’s…it’s fine,” Holly told her. “I’m Life. I don’t need a body to exist.”

“Yes, but you do need one to walk in this plane of existence!”

“Tell the others that I’m going to be okay, that I’ll come back if…if it’s possible to,” Holly told Hela. “I promise I’ll free you too, that was the deal.”

“Holly.” Hela said waving aside her promises.

“You should go,” She said. “I’m about to lose all corporeality and that means I’ll probably explode.”

“What about the…” Hela motioned to all the disoriented spirits Holly had just created. They were murmuring amongst themselves, if she had to guess a majority of them had some sort of amnesia. She’d tried to bring back as much of each soul as she could. But Thanos’ rituals had been quite thorough and a majority of the beings she’d freed had lost so much of themselves. Not to mention the fact she no longer had the power to give them bodies. They were ghosts, perhaps slightly more corporeal than the ones she knew from Hogwarts, but ghosts nonetheless.

Another wave passed through her and the last of her body started to burn away. She really only had one hand and a bit of her skull left keeping her in Hel. She had no idea where she’d go once that was gone. She was about to find out.

“They’ll be fine. Go.”

And Hela disappeared without any further argument. Rightly seeing that Holly was out of time. Holly took in one final breath and then she let go.

Across the realms, her death, if that was what one wished to call it, was felt. On distant planets volcanoes rumbled, some even began to erupt. Solar flares happened on stars across different galaxies. Flowers bloomed, plants sprouted, and germs began to multiply. Life flourished even in the most desolate places. On many planets a cleansing, healing breeze flew through cities and villages, blessing all those who breathed it in. There was a feeling of safety and comfort that rode on that breeze, a whisper that the danger was over and that things could begin anew. On earth, on Holly’s home specifically, everyone who had ever known her felt as if they were being hugged around the middle, filling them with a sensation of love and warmth.

Sort of like a nice, handknit sweater.

And in the depths of the Yggdrasil, the personification of Life took her throne.   

Notes:

So that's...that's the fight. Don't worry there's still more to come! The story isn't quite over yet, but I figured 9.3k words was enough to get through the entire fight! We'll start on the aftermath next week!

Chapter 75: Ya'll Remember Ralston?

Summary:

Ralston Potter died in his sleep at the age of 113.
But that wasn't the end of it was it?

Notes:

oh my gosh guys we're finally starting to wind down and get to the end of the story.
Now to finally answer the most important question of all.
Why the heck can Loki talk to a guy that's been dead for over 300 years?

Ralston Potter had died at the ripe old age of 113. He had passed away in his sleep, on the 3^rd anniversary of his wife’s passing. The last day of his life was spent mostly in quiet contemplation. The first thing he’d done was make breakfast, gathering fresh ingredients from the perpetually ripe garden, to put together. It had grown a little wild in the years since Amaryllis had passed on, but it was safe enough to walk through, his children made sure of that on their weekly visits. They would send out the younger grandchildren and great grandchildren to do the upkeep, the children were good at making sure the paths were mostly clear for their ailing great grandfather but they weren’t as careful with the weeds. His eldest kept insisting that he should get a house elf to take care of some things, but Ralston was resistant to the idea.

Either way once he’d had his morning tea and a filling breakfast, he’d picked flowers from the garden, all of his wife’s favorites and then apparated to the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow. He limped through the grave markers, until he found the lovingly tended to site and carefully replaced the flowers with newer, fresher ones. Just as he had done every week for the past three years.

“Hello dear.” He said, his voice gruff, coming here had not yet gotten any easier for his heart.

His knees creaked and groaned as he knelt down to sit with her for a moment. He knew logically that she was not here, that his lovely wife had moved on as all living things eventually must. But the ritual of his weekly meetings, of telling her things he told no one else was important to him, nonetheless. Amaryllis had been his rock when Loki had gone, seemingly never to return. He still had no idea what had happened to his dearest friend, but he had faith that it would work out.

“I miss you,” He said quietly. “No one else seems to understand why I miss Loki as much as I miss you. But you understood, you loved him too.”

He sniffed a bit as he looked at his wife’s name, carefully carved into the stone as it was. Amaryllis had been his partner through everything. She’d helped him see that he didn’t need to have a purpose to be happy, he didn’t need to be useful to be worthy. She’d been the one to help walk him through being a father, being a part of a healthy family. She’d healed him from the ills of his childhood, at least the wounds that Loki himself hadn’t already bound up. Yes, the two of them had been the two great loves of his life, taking up equal space in his heart and soul.

“I know I’ll see you soon dear but oh, what I wouldn’t give to see you both one more time.”

He lingered a little longer until the cold hardened ground made his joints scream in protest. Once he could no longer remain, he forced himself up and gave his wife’s gravestone a pat, promising to return next week with happier stories to share. Then like the nostalgic old man he was, he found himself apparating to a long-forgotten glade in the Forbidden Forest. It was here that he’d met Loki for the first time. He’d been running from trolls and Loki had appeared, young and snobby and powerful and he’d saved him. A friendship for a lifetime had been born here.

So, Ralston settled down in a chair he conjured and had lunch in that sunlight glade, once again wondering why his best friend had never come back. Had he died? Had he been imprisoned by Odin? What was keeping him from coming home? There was truly no way to know and that lack of knowledge haunted him. What if he was suffering? Ralston doubted Loki’s idiot brother would be much comfort, and perhaps he could even be the source of Loki’s entrapment.

Eventually, like all things do, his time in the Forbidden Forest came to an end and Ralston went home. For the rest of the day he found himself going from room to room, doing a bit of cleaning. He felt restless for some reason, as if there was something vital he had to do, but he couldn’t tell what exactly it was. He found himself floo calling all of his children, asking after them and their families. He told them each he loved them and when the last floo call ended he realized why it was he felt so restless.

“So, it’s time then.” He said to no one at all.

It wasn’t that he had many regrets or anything to fear. In fact, part of him felt quite ready to step forward and great Death as an old friend would. The last few years of his life had felt as if he had been merely waiting around with nothing to do. Gone were the days of his youth traveling the world and saving witches and wizards from trouble. Ended was his time in the Wizengamot and the ICW. He’d been replaced by younger and heartier people who could do his job just fine. He was still respected of course, and well known, but oh, he was so old. His children were grown as were many of his grandchildren, he just wasn’t needed anymore and he felt more than fine with today being his last day.

He wrote a few instructions out to be found by his children, some notes of affection and love to the family he and Amaryllis had built together. He sent out the final letters he would ever write on the backs of owls. He made himself dinner, his final meal was simple but hearty. A stew that was his wife’s recipe and that Loki had adored for its spice. And then, Ralston Potter laid down on his bed, careful of the ancient wounds that still ached sometimes when the weather turned stormy and went to sleep.

When he opened his eyes again it was to the sight of three women looking down at him with smiles in their eyes. If asked he would not be able to describe anything about the women, only that they were women. He could not discern how large they were, or the color of their hair. That knowledge trickled from his mind like water through a sieve. He looked around, he was laying in a large hall, near the exit he could hear the sound of moving water, waves lapping lightly on a shore. The hall was made of high, dark arches and the floor was made of pure white stone. There were windows high up along the walls that let strange light filter through them, giving the entire huge room an echoey feel. The three women were sitting around an oval table; one had a loom set up, a tapestry half completed on it, another had a block of wood in her hand and knife in the other, a carving of runes half done, the third had a handful of bleached knucklebones ready to throw them down onto the table.

“Welcome Ralston Potter to the Urðarbrunnr.”

“Uhm.” Ralston said pushing himself up. He realized as he did so that he felt incredibly limber. He glanced down in shock to see that his body was now closer to 25 in age than the 113 it had been when he’d gone to bed. He stood all the way up, examining his arms and legs as he did so. He looked just as he remembered, but something felt… odd. He looked over at the women who were grinning at him as if he’d done something very funny indeed.

“It is not often we have visitors.” The woman near the loom said.

“We’ve had visitors of course.” The woman who’d been carving runes told him.

“And we’ll have more.” The woman with the knucklebones promised.

“But for now, you are our visitor Ralston Potter, descendant of Godric Gryffindor and Protector of the Magical World of Midgard.”

“You all seem to know me,” Ralston said carefully nearing their table, his steps strangely light. “Might I have the honor of knowing your names?”

They tittered at him and Ralston did his best not to scowl.

“I’m Verdandi,” The weaving woman said. “I seek to know that which is happening. I weave the realms as they are, each moment and each day.”

“And I am Urd,” The carving woman said. “I look to the past. I carve what once was, each reality that has passed and changed is kept by me.”

“I am Skuld,” The final woman said before throwing her bones down onto the table and staring at the pattern they made. “I foresee that which is not yet and that which might not ever be. I cast my lots again and again to view all that could be.”

It clicked after a moment exactly who it was that he was standing before and he started sputtering in shock.

“You’re- You’re the norns! The fates!”

“So, he did pay attention to the trickster prince’s lessons.” Verdandi tittered.

“I said that he would.”

“I said that he had.”

“And I see that he knows us. I also see that he is frightened.”

“Uhm. No. Not frightened,” Ralston lied. “Just… confused? Could have sworn I was dying moments ago in my bed. Bit…unexpected to be here you see.”

“We see much.”

“Much more than you ever will.” Skuld promised him, which Ralston did his best not to be offended by because it was likely very true.

 “Look, if you’re not going to explain anything then I’m just going to leave.” Ralston said, having failed not to get annoyed by the three enigmatic women in front of him.

“You have always been reckless.” Urd told him as if he hadn’t knowingly lived his entire life in a reckless fashion. There was a reason his body, or at least the body he’d been in back on earth, had been so slow and pained.

“Stay with us,” Verdandi begged. “Please there is much you should see, come look at my weave.”

He found himself walking around the table to the loom, unable to stop or slow. He peered down at the loom, expecting the tapestry to show a scene, like all the others he had ever seen did. Instead he was violently thrust into a vision. He gasped as he saw a snatch of his own funeral, his eldest son crying as he gave the eulogy. His other children were holding each other as they wept and mourned for him. There were huge crowds there to mourn the loss of the protector of the wizarding world. He heard his children all promise to keep the Potter traditions alive.

Then the vision ended, and he saw a dwarf working a star forge. Then a Jotun climbing a glacier in search of food. Then more humans doing everyday things. He saw aliens and beings he could have never imagined having meals, dying, and being born and sleeping and eating. He saw wars happening galaxies away. He saw weddings and celebrations happening elsewhere. He saw everything that was happening in that exact moment across the entire universe.

Most importantly he saw his Loki, his best friend, sitting in a library and weeping.

He was pulled back from the loom by Skuld, the woman was chastising Verdandi for overwhelming him. Urd was laughing at Verdandi’s pout as she carved more and more runes into the block of wood that never seemed to run out of space. Ralston coughed and sputtered, staggering away from the loom as fast as he could. Once he was what he considered a safe distance away, he interrupted Skuld’s reprimand.

“What the fuck was that?”

“It is the weave of the present.” Verdandi answered.

“Oh, that’s helpful.”

It took a few more rounds of questioning before Ralston made sense of the overwhelming vision he’d been thrust into. Apparently when Verdandi said she weaved what was happening she meant that literally and her loom was some sort of omnipotent magical object capable of showing exactly what was happening at this second anywhere in the nine realms. The other norns had been just as literal. The wooden block, even though it was carved with runes Ralston could not read, seemed to contain the history of everything within it, and if he looked at it for too long he got little whispers of history. A never-ending spiral of what had been. The knucklebones were the most difficult to read. Skuld seemed to delight in throwing them and looking at the results, over and over again, as if compelled to. When Ralston looked at them he would get strange snatches of things, visions of what might be that he had no context for.

He still had no idea why he was here. He asked Urd and the woman merely told him what had happened to him, (something he already knew) and then what had happened to Loki. They spoke strangely, seeming to go out of their way to make their answers as obtuse as possible. But eventually he put together that Odin had mangled the final ritual and that Loki believed every human magic user to be dead. Which is why he had never returned to earth.

Which was.

Well it was shitty wasn’t it? Ralston got so upset by that that he forgot entirely about the fact that he was stuck in a hall with the norns. He ranted for what might have been an hour to three cosmic entities about how awful Odin was and what he wouldn’t give to see someone, anyone give Odin a good seeing to!

“That is why you are here.” Skuld interrupted him, sounding far too amused.

“Wait what? Are you going to let me kick Odin’s ass?”

“No. You are dead.” Verdandi told him, as if he’d forgotten, which to be fair he had a little.

“You lacked the power to do so when you were alive.” Urd pointed out making him bristle. It was true but she hadn’t had to say it like that.

“Someone will give Odin a good seeing to.”

Ralston nearly whooped in joy at the promise from the norn of the future. Instead he did a little wiggle and waited for more information.

“They will do many great things.”

“Great and wonderful.” Verdandi chorused.

“Great and powerful.” Urd added.

“They will heed the call of the nine realms and ascend to heights never reached by any before them.”

“And they’ll kick Odin’s ass,” Ralston said. “They sound amazing! Who are they? How can I help?”

Most people weren’t so reckless as to interrupt a norn given prophecy, but Ralston had always been a bit crazy when he didn’t have Loki or Amaryllis to rein him in. The norns didn’t seem offended by his excitement though.

“Go to the well.” Verdandi ordered pointing to the exit of the great hall. “Walk along the root until you reach the base of the evergreen ash tree. There you will find your place.”

“Okay.” Ralston said.

“Do not drink of the water, not until you have accepted your task,” Skuld warned him. “If you do so, you shall surely be destroyed.”

Of course, he immediately wanted to dive headfirst into said water, but he held himself back and accepted the warning for what it was. The norns said nothing else so Ralston began to walk towards the exit. The first thing he sensed was the scent of mud and loam, a pleasant sort of healthy garden smell, which surprised him because he supposed that being dead would keep him from smelling things. The ghosts at Hogwarts seemed to be able to smell only things that were so potent as to make anyone else gag.

Maybe things were different in the Urðarbrunnr? Who knew really? Loki probably but the god wasn’t here it was just Ralston and the norns who delighted in not answering questions in a clear manner. Ralston exited the hall and found himself looking at a huge lake. Like ocean large. He couldn’t see the edge of it but he felt as if he should be able to, that if he just looked long enough he’d be able to see everything. There were swans strangely enough floating along the surface of it. At least he thought they were swans, they were a bit too large to be anything from earth. The entire lake and much of the surrounding area was covered in white mud, even beneath his feet. His boots were already covered in the stuff.

The sky was dark, with only fluid streaks and clouds of light to break up the void. It looked like the illusions Loki had shown him of space between realms. Millions and millions of leagues of nothing but stars and clouds of brilliant gas and dust. A smear of green light was right above him, curling around itself in intricate never-ending patterns.

“Woah.”

It took a moment to discover the root that Verdandi had told him to follow, mostly because he’d been expecting something root sized. More fool he. Eventually he turned from the lake to look back at the hall and found that the entire building had been wedged beneath a gigantic root. The hall had been there for so long that the root had grown around it, making it seem as if they were one unit. The root was perhaps the width of three dragons, if those dragons had stood next to each other with their wings extended, in such a way that only the tips of their wings touched each other. One end of the root went away from the lake and seemed to go forever, getting marginally thinner, although that could have been a trick of the eye.

Ralston flicked his wrist, thankful his wand had seemed to follow him to wherever this was, and cast a light spell. A ball of yellow light appeared right above his head and began to float up towards the root. The light reflected along the brown wood and showed that it seemed to go along the right edge of the lake. It became clear the reason he couldn’t see the root was because it was so huge and encompassing that it had looked like nothing in the low light.

“Well at least I know where to go.”

So, he began to walk. The water in the lake smelt like his wife’s perfume, like leather, like his garden back home. He didn’t realize he was getting so close to it until he saw his reflection in the clear water and startled himself.

“Right, it’s a lake full of Amortentia, brilliant.”

He cast a spell to keep his nose clear and he kept going. He ignored the bone white mud that clung to his boots and trousers. He didn’t linger on the beauty of the cosmos, and how the lights flickered and changed color, the glory of the eternities on display. He didn’t stop to rest, no matter how tired his limbs grew. Which he considered a bit unfair, he was dead he shouldn’t get tired anymore. He didn’t glance over at the lake or the overlarge swans that seemed to be following him. He didn’t even touch the giant root he was following.

He just walked.

And walked.

And then he walked a bit more for good measure.

The lake seemed to go on forever, which made him wonder if he’d been damned to walk alongside it for eternity, as some sort of punishment for his hubris. Occasionally he’d turn back to look at the hall the norns had been in and it never seemed to get any further away from him. The only evidence he had that he was moving at all was the mud on his trousers and the exhaustions in his limbs.

Just when he was beginning to consider drinking from the lake anyway and taking his chances, he spotted it.

The tree.

It was enormous. A gigantic ash tree that towered beyond human comprehension, so large that each leaf looked to be the size of a planet or larger. The leaves weren’t just one color, but all of them, a cornucopia of sensation for him to take in. He stopped right where he was, sinking slightly in the white loam beneath his feet, staring up at the glory of the tree wondering if Loki had ever known of anything so magnificent. The scent of bark and growth filled his nostrils and he could hardly believe his eyes.

Wait.

Holy shit.

“It’s the Yggdrasil,” He realized. “The world tree.”

This was the universe and everything that lived within it, that’s what he was looking at. Without even realizing it, he stumbled all the way to the trunk of the tree and let one of his tiny hands reach up and touch the bark. It felt like any tree he’d ever touched before, but there was a warmth emanating from it, a promise.

Ralston took it all in, unable to look away from the majesty of it, unable to even comprehend everything that it was. It was too much for one soul, for one being to fully know. Every time he thought he’d seen enough to understand it, he would see yet another leaf or branch and be taken in anew. A cosmic wind rustled the leaves, creating a music unlike any he had ever heard, like the choir of angels his caretakers at the orphanage had tried to teach him of. He had joked about Loki calling himself a god before but suddenly Ralston understood.

This was what a god would be, if there truly was one in this universe. Too large, too much, too glorious. Something that was everything all at once, a being that was far greater than the sum of what made it up. A thing that cradled and cared for each twig, for each budding stem and leaf, for each bit of fruit that grew on it.

He didn’t realize he was crying until the tears distorted his vision and he had to look away for a moment to clean his face. As he did so he saw something that made him pause. It was another entrance into the tree. Right above the junction between root and trunk. It was perhaps hundreds of feet in the air but he wasn’t stupid enough to not see that this was what he’d been sent for.

For some reason the idea of using magic to transfigure a way up seemed so inherently wrong that he cringed the moment he thought of it. He dare not apparate up either, since he had no idea what was at the top or if that sort of magic would work in this…plane of existence.

So instead, Ralston pocketed his wand and began to climb. He griped the edges of the planks of bark and pulled himself up, higher and higher. His muddy boots slipped, covering the dark root with streaks of white mud. Strangely enough the root seemed to absorb the mud within moments leaving not a trace behind. So, he didn’t worry too much about making a mess. He just kept climbing. The heat from the world tree seemed to have a slight restoring effect because he didn’t feel like dying (again) almost immediately.

It didn’t restore much because by the time he got to the top he felt so weak that he was unable to stand for a moment. Instead he laid there, a tiny insect at the base of the Yggdrasil. He stared up at the cosmos instead of trying to move, wondering why he was here, why he’d been gifted the right to see the world tree, why the norns had spoken to him at all. According to Loki, they were notoriously uninterested in speaking to anyone at all.

Eventually his limbs stopped shaking, his lungs stopped quaking, and his sweat evaporated from his skin. So, Ralston pushed himself up again. He had no idea why he was here and he wasn’t going to learn anything laying around. The entrance was similar to the ones that had led into the norns’ hall. The steps leading up to the entrance were made of a strange green stone, he wanted to call it emerald, but it didn’t have the quality of a gemstone, only the color of one. On either side of the entrance were two large posts that bordered the entire entryway with a high arch near the top. The posts had intricate patterns carved into them, interlocking patterns of lines that weaved together to create images of trees.  

Ralston climbed the steps and paused at the sight of the hall inside. The walls were made of a light gray wood, the floors lined with the green stone. There weren’t windows in this hall, but there were doorways he thought might lead even deeper into the world tree itself, as well as sconces along the walls, waiting for fire to be added to them. At the end of the hall was a throne. The throne was made of the same wood as the walls, a lavishly carved thing, made so expertly that the wood looked alive, with buds and stems growing on the edges just waiting to bloom.

“Hello?” Ralston called out into the dim hall.

There was no response. So, Ralston readied his wand and walked inside. Nothing happened as he moved towards the throne. The only sounds were of his breathing and his footsteps echoing through the air. When he reached the steps leading up to the throne he stopped again. Why had the norns sent him here? There was still no response and Ralston, far too curious for his own good, jumped up the steps and then clambered onto the throne. It was clearly made for a being much larger than him, a giant perhaps, but he was able to get onto it with enough effort.

He settled into the throne and gasped at the sight. The seat was perfectly set to give the best possibly view of the lake and the large root of the tree. The entirety of what Ralston had just trekked was visible to him from here and the majesty of it was brilliant. He could feel from his seat the beating heart of the Yggdrasil, as the tree drew in water from the lake and brought it up in time with the needs of the leaves high above him. Everything felt perfectly at peace here, everything was right with the world.

Then, as if the universe wanted to prove him wrong, he felt the Yggdrasil shriek. The entire hall was filled with agonized howls and the trunk of the tree began to sway and riot against the pain. Ralston held onto one of the arm rests of the throne, trying his best to ignore the horrible pain that was pressing in on him from every side. The shrieking lasted for what felt like an eternity, so long that it felt as if it was imprinting itself onto his heart. When it did end, Ralston uncurled from his spot to see something truly awful from the throne.

A leaf of the tree was falling.

It looked desiccated, no longer full and lively. Instead as if some creature had sucked the very marrow from it, leaving it empty and dull. He watched as the leaf fluttered down and landed on the water with something like horrified fascination.

“The evergreen tree is under attack.” Verdandi said, appearing at Ralston’s side, Ralston flinched at the sight of the norn. The other two appeared next to her.

“The first happened centuries ago.” Urd said, looking sadly at the leaf floating on the water, a husk of its former self.

“It will happen again and again.” Skuld swore.

“Can’t we stop it?” He asked, not even noticing that he was grouping himself with three immensely powerful cosmic entities.

“Long ago,” Urd began. “Before any other thing, there was one. This one called this place home, you have walked the path they walked and rested your body where they once rested. The being had no name, for there was no one to give it to. They had no language, for there was no one to share it with. The one and only had only themselves and the vast emptiness you see before you.”

Ralston looked out beyond the lake to the cosmos, the light show that had enchanted him when Loki had first shown it to him. He stared into the void surrounding the lights and clouds of dust, the blackness that went on forever and ever and he frowned.

“Must have been lonely.” He said.

“The being, in it’s isolation, created the lake you see, the mud and loam came from their flesh and the water from their blood. With their bones they nurtured the earth and from their body grew the Yggdrasil.”

“The being was no more,” Verdandi said, picking up the story. “But then we were. We were born to care and guard the Yggdrasil, to watch it grow day by day.”

“To remember how it once was.”

“To foresee how it would grow best.”

“There were others born too, to help keep the Yggdrasil well.” Verdandi told him.

“Entities filled the space between the branches and lined the roots, some great and some small. All important,” Urd recalled. “But none were as the first was.”

“I foresaw there would be danger for the tree, danger far ahead. That the tree would need a champion, a new being to match the first.” Skuld told him.

“The danger began centuries ago.”

“The danger threatens the tree even now, leaves falling, and the very core of the Yggdrasil is in distress.”

“The danger will continue until the champion comes.”

“We have weaved and pushed and prophesied, to bring forth the champion.” Urd said.

“The champion will be born of your line, they will be born mortal and face challenges, so I foresee. They will grow, they will falter, they will die, and they will be reborn,” Skuld told him. Their eyes met and Ralston desperately tried to figure out what color they were. “They will face many things, outwardly and inwardly and if they succeed, the danger will pass.”

“Why are you telling me this? I’m dead, I can’t control what my descendants do.” Ralston asked.

He felt entirely overwhelmed, sitting in a throne meant for an entity beyond him. He had just felt the agony of an entire planet being destroyed by some unspeakable evil, it made him want to don his armor and fight. But all he could do was listen.

“The champion will be born of your line,” Skuld repeated. “They will be human, no matter how we change them.”

“We don’t understand morals,” Verdandi told him. “So small, so blind.

“So foolish.” Urd agreed.

“We will not guide the champion,” Skuld continued. “But you may, drink of the well of fate if you wish to seek the end of the danger to the Yggdrasil. Go forth and drink deeply, gain the knowledge you will need to guide the champion to the very end. Go and drink only if you are willing.”

“If you wish to leave, to go where all mortals go, we won’t stop you.” Verdandi told him, reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder.

“You have never been a coward.” Urd added though.

“Yeah,” Ralston said, thinking about his wife, whom he missed so dearly. “You’re right about that.”

He drank from the water. Of course, he did. There was never any other choice for one like him.

It tasted sweet, like honey even. It was thick, coating his mouth and throat with its sweetness. He could even feel it sticking to his stomach. As he knelt at the edge of the well of fate, he knew. It was not overwhelming as the loom had been, no it was far different from that. It felt as if he had always known what he knew now. That he had always known Holly Potter, his dear descendant’s face. Which, based on the similarity between them, was hardly shocking. Still, he knelt there, the water lapping at his knees and he knew.

He knew when Holly would be born. He knew how she would be hurt, how she would suffer. He knew her strengths and he knew her fears. He knew he had been brought here to help her. He knew where he was, a place beyond the nine realms, a higher plane of existence. He knew when Loki would return to earth, and when and how. He knew how he would speak to him. He knew Thanos and his ilk. He knew.

The norns returned to their hall, going back to the duties that had been set for them and Ralston climbed back up to Life’s throne and wondered where he was meant to start. There was little over 300 years before Holly would be born. 300 years to discover what he did not know, to plan and to gather what he would need. There were doors in the throne room, doors that would hopefully lead to where he needed to go. It was an adventure, certainly, and Ralston had been on plenty of those.

There wasn’t any time to waste.

And so, Ralston waited for Loki to return to earth, he waited for Holly Potter to be born. He learnt how to watch the present from Verdandi’s loom without growing overwhelmed, often sitting at her feet as she worked, watching those he loved and waiting for the future that Skuld predicted to come to pass. He learnt to read the runes that Urd carved and listened to the stories she spoke of under her breath. He learnt the Yggdrasil in a way no mortal ever had. He learnt to scale the trunk of the tree and walk along it’s branches. He understood how Loki’s portals worked, perhaps even better than his friend himself did. He used the tenacity he had learnt from Loki to find secret paths and meet new beings and entities. He searched for the things he’d lost in his death, and he found the most important ones.

The water protected him, tied him to the Yggdrasil, keeping Death from sensing him. In fact, most entities he met didn’t seem to notice him unless he made them. He was so small compared to them, so weak. And none of them were in the business of noticing ants when not on the mortal plane. He found many great and wonderful things and he brought them back to the throne room. He weathered Thanos’ attacks, trying to soothe the Yggdrasil. He was so weak magically speaking that his attempts at healing really made very little difference, but still he tried. He learnt to cover the roots of the tree with the white mud from the lake, giving them strength and energy when Thanos took so much. He learnt how to speak to the Yggdrasil asking it take him up and down. He learnt how to listen. He prepared for the day when Holly would come here, when she would save the Yggdrasil and return to the throne meant for Life itself to live upon.

It took forever and it took a day for it to happen. Time did not exist as Ralston had once known it and it felt like he had merely blinked before it was time for him to begin whispering into his best friend’s mind, trying to heal and guide him to his descendant. It felt like he had waiting ten thousand years before the hallows were activated and his descendant ascended to become a cosmic entity. Then it happened, the hallows were used to destroy Thanos and Holly lost her physical form.

She arrived, a beam of light, weakened and disoriented, settling onto her throne, practically melting into the elder wood. Immediately the buds along the edge of her throne bloomed into beautiful flowers and the sconces on the walls lit up with silver light for the first time. Ralston settled next to her, happy to be in a well-lit place for once, and waited. She was tired, exhausted even. What’s more the Yggdrasil was unbalanced and Holly, insensate as she was, had to work to help heal it. He watched as Death did her part to control the flow of energy, somewhat pleased to have a partner that seemed to magically know what they were doing. Even more pleased to have Thanos out of her celestial hair.  

 He watched as the battle was cleaned up on earth. As the Avengers and Holly’s friends met together and gnashed their teeth in worry. He sent message after message to Loki, promising him that all would be well, but it didn’t seem to calm him.

I’m watching over her Loki.

I hardly want her where you are.

As if you know where I am.

The wizarding world Ralston helped create was torn down and away, the statute Loki had given up everything for broken. Too many magic users had given up their anonymity to protect their homes and cities from Thanos. When the heroes of earth weren’t worrying about Holly and trying to find a way to bring her back, they were helping do damage control. Loki himself was touring the world, explaining again and again and again why he had created the wizarding world and why muggles should not be afraid of what had always been there.

The UN scrambled to work with the ICW to quell the fear. There were already laws in place to keep magic users from attacking muggles, Holly had ensured that in the last decade. So, there was little to fear there, it was just a matter of explaining that to a panicking muggle public really. Magical and muggle leaders met together in public to calm their respective countries. Tribes and peoples who had lost so much from the statute rejoiced at having their traditions and powers returned to them, three-fold what they had once been.

Other realms and planets rejoiced as well as the danger passed, and balance restored. Ralston watched it all, comfortably peeking in on Verdandi’s loom, carefully resting against her calf as she worked. In all it took seven earth days for Holly to wake and when she did, she sparkled.

“Wha- I- Where-”

“Woah!” Ralston said getting up and moving so that he was standing in front of the throne. Holly was as large as a giant in this form, truly frightening in size and scope. But still she stopped when she heard his voice. “It’s okay, you’re okay. It’s safe. Everyone is safe.”

“Who are you?” Holly asked, her voice booming across the throne room. “Where am I?”

“I’m Ralston Potter, but you can call me Grandpa,” Ralston told her. “And you, my dear granddaughter are at the edge of the Urðarbrunnr, or the well of fate. You’re in the throne room of Life itself, your throne room. If you look out you should see the root of the Yggdrasil, above you is the trunk of the universe itself.”

She was truly incomprehensible in this form, there were no eyes (or perhaps there were too many) for him to look into. It was impossible to tell where she was looking, or if she was even seeing anything at all. Ralston waited, staring up at the giant ball of light made up of rings and halos and fractals of light. Eventually the light shifted a bit.

“Grandpa huh?” She asked. “You look a bit young for that.”

“Better than wandering around being old. You wouldn’t like it, your joints ache and your back never feels right.” Ralston told her, a smile gracing his face.

“Jeez we really do look alike,” She said. “Or at least we did. I can hardly blame Loki for mixing us up.”

“Yeah plus he was a bit messed up in the head. Probably doesn’t help that I keep talking to him.”

“You what?” She demanded, a laugh ringing in her voice.

“Oh yeah. I’ve been sending him telepathic messages for months now. I can’t tell if he’s accepted that I’m actually real and talking to him or if he thinks he’s just insane.”

“Merlin,” Holly said actually giggling. “I shouldn’t be laughing. That’s absolutely not funny at all.”

“It’s a little funny.” Ralston told her, before starting to laugh himself. He watched as Holly started to really laugh, her entire celestial form vibrating with it. Eventually they calmed and Holly sighed.

“So that’s it then.”

“What’s it?”

“I destroyed my body and now I’m literally outside the physical plane of existence, with no way to get back.”

“Well see now I’m offended.” Ralston told his many-times great granddaughter.

“Oh?”

“Yes! You really think I wouldn’t be ready for you? That I wouldn’t have a plan? Come on! I’m your grandpa. I couldn’t let a fellow savior of the wizarding world down, could I?” Ralston asked her.

“So, you have a plan then?” She asked, hope filling her voice.

“You bet I do, and it starts with getting you a body.”

“Well then, lead on Grandpa.”

“With pleasure.”

Notes:

Ralston and Holly Potter, together at last. What an unholy duo that's going to be.

This entire chapter was supposed to be like 1/3 the length and then I was supposed to like...get into the whole, body thing. but Ralston demanded more words from me. so...
Next week?

Chapter 76: Interdimensional Space Capitalism

Summary:

Holly needs a body and Ralston knows exactly where she can buy one. He also knows a lot of other things to boot. 300 years is a long time to figure out how to trick Death after all.

Notes:

To any comic book fans, yes I have terribly abused the comics in this chapter. Forgive me and know I only did so in the name of doing whatever I want. To the people who have never read a comic ever, don't worry about it.

Have you ever looked through a fisheye lens? The sort of camera lens that takes a circular image where the edges are sharply curved and distorted? Plenty of photographers will use these lenses for special shots, creating a wonderful artistic effects when used appropriately. Holly had never found them all that special or interesting and she had sat through entire monologues about them from Colin Creevey.  

Holly was not a photographer and without a body it appeared that she was looking at the world around her through a thousand fisheye lenses scattered all over her somewhat ovoid shape, which was disorienting at best and downright nauseating at worst. Not that she could vomit as a beam of light, so perhaps it was emotionally nauseating. Even after waking she didn’t feel ready to go with her grandpa on whatever interdimensional road trip he seemed to have planned out.

She didn’t even know how to move, or do much of anything without a physical form. She suddenly felt such empathy for Jarvis, who had explained to her the difficulty he had had learning to do things, stuck on his servers like he was. He had only managed as much as he had with Hogwarts’ help. Holly didn’t have a Hogwarts, she had Ralston Potter who gave snarky advice and whooped at her as she slipped and floated around her throne room.

She liked Ralston in the same sort of way one likes a reflection they spot of themselves on the street. It’s a surprised sort of peek at what you look like to the outside world and while you might, generally, like what you see, it does make it very clear that you were having a bad hair day. She and Ralston were eerily similar. They both had troubled childhoods full of neglect and saw Hogwarts as their first home. They had a shared trauma in that, that made Holly feel incredibly seen. They’d both grown up to become saviors of the wizarding world at great personal cost as well.

As Holly grew used to not having a physical form and existing only as the energy she represented, infinite and vast and discombobulating, they swapped stories with each other. For every story she had, Ralston had one to match it with. Ralston was quick to commiserate and validate Holly’s responses, telling her that he would have done the same reckless thing if it had been him.

Holly couldn’t honestly tell if that was a good thing or not.

It was probably fine.

Eventually, after who knew how long, Holly figured out how to focus her vision in one direction and to move around. Once that was done, Ralston literally climbed up her form, to sit up near the top. Well, she didn’t really have a top, so much as a spot higher up on the ceiling where the light that made up her form dimmed somewhat, which Ralston had deemed her ‘head’. In truth since she had fishbowl eyes all around her entire body, really all parts of her were the head and feet. But not hands. She didn’t have hands.

She missed hands.

“How are you doing that?” She demanded. “I’m not solid!”

“Willpower.” He joked.

“Grandpa.”

“I’m not really solid either. I know I look it, but my body is…well I’m pretty sure all that’s left of my physical form are my bones,” He explained. “My soul was brought here and energized by the norns and then cemented in place by drinking from the well of fate making me the universe’s fanciest ghost.”

“Are all Potters like this?” Holly found herself asking.

“Yeah pretty much.”

“Huh.” She felt strangely validated.

“So, what now?” She asked.

“Now, I lead you on a great adventure.” He said throwing a hand out dramatically.

It should be noted that if she had been in a humanoid shape, Ralston would have been settled on her shoulder, or perhaps seated on her neck like a toddler. She was not in a humanoid shape and the man was seated directly on two of her strange fishbowl eyes.

“You know you feel like you’ve got feathers.” He told her, reaching out and touching what he was leaning against.

“Feathers?”

“Well you don’t look it. But you feel feathery.”

She hoped he could feel the frown her faceless form wasn’t physically making. He didn’t seem to notice, because he continued to sink down deeper into her, couching himself in her form so that he was barely visible at all to anyone but herself. He was so small and light that she barely could feel him at all, despite the fact that if she chose to she could see him at 360 different angles simultaneously.

“Any reason you’re climbing into me?”

“Can’t have the other cosmic entities noticing you’ve got a passenger. You’re already going to be strange enough to them. Not often they see new faces. We don’t want to make a splash, if they know who you are you’ll have a devil of a time getting home.”

“I thought Death would’ve told the others about me. She mentioned talking to…Eternity I think his name was?” She said trying to recall the conversation she’d had with Death on the beach.

“Right. Eternity. He’s a tosser,” Ralston said. “Death is too actually but the acceptable kind, which is why he only knows that you exist, not where you’re from or that you’re here now.”

“I’m confused, how did he know I was Life then?”

“Eternity is the leader of a large group of entities,” Ralston explained. “I learnt all this from Urd, got her drunk a couple of times and she spilled all the details. Basically, back when the Yggdrasil was a sapling a lot of the entities were bored and when entities get bored, they tend to cause trouble. Trouble in this case was a series of complicated wars. That first war actually ended up causing the multiverse Death told you about since the fighting got so bad that the original singular universe got blown up.”

“What?” She asked.

“I know right? Anyway, at the end of that Eternity made a pact with the norns to help keep peace. They gave him a list of all known cosmic entities, and Eternity used that to begin building a political system in which he was in charge but no more universe-destroying events could occur.”

“And that makes him a tosser?”

“Well not that, just you know, him being him makes him a tosser really.”

“Ah,” Holly said because surprisingly she understood what Ralston was saying. “So, his list must’ve updated when I became Life then? And that’s how Death knew?”

“See that’s the shady part. Skuld was the one who wrote the list, not Verdandi.”

“And?”

“That means Skuld wrote out all the entities that would exist, not the ones who currently did. You’ve been on the list for literal millenniums. The norns are considered incredibly neutral for cosmic entities so most entities know fuck all about the differences between the three norns, so no one thought to specify who wrote the list out.”

“But. If I’ve been on the list then…”

“Plenty of entities know you exist but no one knows where you are. It’s been something of a competition to see who could find you first. Death requested access to Eternity’s list, read it and realized there weren’t any other extra names, just Life’s, so she added two and two together and got four.”

“And she didn’t explain this to me why?”

“Because she’s a tosser.”

Holly giggled and Ralston smirked rather pleased with himself.

“Okay so no one knows my actual identity and Life is essentially Big Foot for Cosmic Entities.”

“More like El Dorado.”

“Oh?”

“You’ll see,” He said. “Now let’s go. The sooner we can get you a body, the sooner I can show the best parts of this dimension.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“Do you remember that black space that you fell into when you and Loki got pulled into Jotunheim?”

“Course.”

“In this dimension it’s far less black. In the dimension you and I are originally from you can’t see the paths for what they are. Here, it’s more like…well it’s still disorienting but far less so. Just trust me, we need to go through that door on the left there, just follow my directions.”

She understood immediately why Ralston had chosen not to describe to her what the paths were like. Loki had once explained how he’d had to search for these invisible wormholes to make travel easier. Holly could now see the wormholes, dotting the path that had become clear when she’d made her way through the door, but that didn’t make things any clearer to understand. There were strange swirling paths that curved onto themselves, impossible to look at and comprehend in their entirety. The paths lead into and around the various wormholes, sometimes looping back to lead into the same wormhole multiple times. Holly would focus her vision on one part of the path, following it’s twists and turns and find herself thoroughly boggled within moments, running into seeming impossibilities.

“Is it actually like this or is this some sort of optical illusion?”

“You know I’m still not sure.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry. It’s just like going through Hogwarts’ everchanging floor plan.”

Strangely, that helped.

She let her grandfather (a concept she was still trying to wrap her head around) guide her along the M.C. Escher styled paths. Moving without a physical form, as an infinite cosmic entity, felt much like walking through a pit filled with foam blocks. (Something she’d done a few years previously thanks to a prank by the Weasley twins. She’d fallen into the giant pile of foam blocks and hadn’t been able to figure out how to crawl out, because each movement seemed to bury her deeper into the foam). She did her best to move around as Ralston directed, taking strange turns and twists, going further and further from the doorway that led to her throne.

“Alright. We’re almost there.”

“And there is where?”

“I call it the Tribunal Bar, don’t know if it has an actual name. It’s a nexus point that we can use to get to the dimension of manifestations, which is where we need to go to get you a body.”

“Okay, Tribunal Bar. Nexus Point. Are there going to be other…entities there?”

“Probably it’s very popular. There’s a reason I call it a bar.”

“Right. Why Tribunal?”

“It’s where the Living Tribunal holds his court, or at least part of it is. If ever a Cosmic Entity is seen overstepping their bounds and breaking the laws of the universe its that guy who is the Judge, Jury, and Executioner. I mean that literally, he’s got three faces.”

“Right. Totally normal thing I’m hearing here.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Death would stop you if you started messing up before it got so far as to get to the Tribunal.”

“Surprisingly, I’m not all that keen on trusting Death right now.”

Ralston made a considering noise before pushing on her telling her to duck down and take a right. She did so and found herself somehow stumbling into another place. She hadn’t expected the entire world around her to change in a blink but it had. If the paths had been swirls of light bisecting a dark void, this was a damn train station. The place was made up of silver reflective floors that seemed to stretch on forever. There were no walls and the never-ending sky was just a blank gray slate. There were entities bustling about, some with more shape to them than others. She saw a group of tall robed beings with large bulbous peach colored heads, wandering around and muttering to each other in some strange tongue. She knew if she focused she could probably get the shape of it in her mind but something warned her that she probably didn’t want to know. She saw a strangely feminine being that had painted red lips, luscious dark hair, and silver gray skin dotted with stars. She had no well-defined body below her shoulders, the rest fading and slipping away the further you looked from her head.

Some of the beings looked practically humanoid just large and wearing colorful garb. Others looked like strange creatures from deep in the ocean and others still looked like Holly, just blobs of varying colored lights. No one gave Holly a second look as she wandered through the infinite nexus point. Ralston whispered to her, pointing out different entities he knew of and what they represented. He also told her how much of a wanker they potentially could be.

“Now hang a left here and we’ll be able to sneak into the dimension we want.” Ralston said before making a shocked noise and stuffing himself further into her. Holly stiffened and shifted her vision to see there was another entity following them.

The entity’s, strangely muscular, body was made up of a black void, with stars and nebula embedded into him, giving off a strange light. He had a blue stone like head surrounded by a mane of darkness, with one eye replaced with a bright blue light. He had a horn curving up off of each of his shoulders and another horn coming off both sides of his head. Holly kept moving towards where Ralston had directed her, trying to act as normal as possible.

Unfortunately, the strange stone-faced entity seemed to take that as a challenge and kept moving towards her. The crowds around him seemed to part for the entity and Holly wished she had a throat she could use to swallow down her nervousness. Before Holly could leave the Tribunal Bar, the entity caught up with her.

“It is not often I see someone here I do not know.” The Entity said.

“Oh?” Holly said. “That’s nothing. I’m afraid I tend to stay where I was made to be, tending to my duties. I don’t come here very often.”

Or ever really. Holly was hoping she would never have to return to this place.

“That is admirable,” The Entity said in a way that didn’t sound like a compliment. “Still I must ask for your name.”

Some part of her recoiled at the idea. The guy was menacing in a strange way. She wasn’t afraid of him of course, but she still didn’t want to tell him anything. Ralston had made it clear that if they knew she was Life, they wouldn’t leave her alone. The last thing Holly needed where the entities following her back to earth.  

“You may ask for it, but that does not mean I must give it.” Holly told him, making the strange smile on the man’s face stiffen.

“You should not disrespect Eternity,” He said. “I am above all who dwell here.”

“I’ve come here on instruction from Lady Death, Eternity.” Holly lied.

Eternity didn’t rear back but it was a near thing. Instead he settled and the stone face shifted to look far more condescending, just barely covering the shock.

“Ah. One of Death’s underlings, of course I wouldn’t know a bottom feeder. Go on your way then, don’t cause any trouble.”

Holly was thankful she currently didn’t have a tongue to stick out at the man. Eternity turned from her and began to walk away. Once he was a fair distance from them, Ralston popped back up again.

“Sorry about that. I was sort of hoping he wouldn’t spot you.”

“So that’s Eternity?”

“Yep. There’s a version of him for every universe in the multiverse there is. He is sort of representative of the universe he comes from itself. Here at the Nexus the infinite versions of him coalesce into one, tends to make him a bit cranky.”

“And he’s in charge?”

“For a given level of in charge. Since he exists in every single universe, he tends to act like a know-it-all. He’s one of the most powerful entities there is. Only a few can match him. Infinity, his counterpart. The Tribunal. Death. The Norns. You.”

“But he didn’t know me.”

“I said he acted like a know-it-all not that he was one. No entity other than Death and the norns does. And since Eternity and the others hardly ever take on physical forms, they haven’t heard the gossip about you,” Ralston explained. “Good instincts having Death cover for you, if he found out who you were he would have probably tried to keep you here.”

Holly nodded and let herself keep moving towards the dimension of manifestations. She found the entrance to it, it looked like a strange purple vortex. A spinning circle of purple lights that swirled around a central point of blackness. Ralston urged her forward and it pulled her right in. The vortex pulled at her light and stretched her, not painfully but it certainly felt strange, turning her into one long noodle. She fell through the vortex, her thousands of eyes filled with nothing but light, as one long, never ending tube of light.

Then she popped out the other side to another strange void. Everything here was black and white, absolutely no other colors existed. There were strange sharp shadows everywhere, but no visible floor or walls for the shadows to rest on, so perhaps she was just sensing the impression of the shadows. In the distance there was a sphere surrounded by metallic rings. The rings curved around the entire width of the sphere, shaping themselves like wedges, with the tip of each wedge pointing outwards. There were an infinite number of these rings, each one circling around the last, getting wider and taller.

“That’s Anthropomorpho,” Ralston whispered. “He can make you a body.”

“Right. What a spot-on name.”

Ralston snorted and Holly slowly made her way towards the strange being.

“Hello?” She called out, her voice echoing across the black and white void.

“Hmm,” The sphere pulsed. “Why have you come?”

“I need a new physical form? A body, I mean. So, I can return to the physical realm. Death said I could come to you if I needed.”

“I supply Lady Death with her many fractals.”

“Fractals?”

The sphere pulsed again as if she’d said a joke.

“I rule the Fractals, and they shape themselves into vessels for the entities who can pay for it.”

Ralston quickly whispered in her ear explaining to her what that actually meant. Which is that most entities just rented a Living Fractal, a being that can shape their body into vessels of any shape for the right price. They’d shape themselves into a vessel for the entity to use for a set amount of time.

Which wouldn’t do at all.

“Oh. I. Can’t you make me a body. Just one body, not a Fractal whose body I’d be borrowing. I spend most of my time in the physical realm, not this one.”

The sphere pulsed again in thought.

“That is…unorthodox.”

“Tell him you can pay.” Ralston whispered.

“I can pay for it.” Holly said loudly, her voice banging like a gong.

“Can you?”

“Of course, I can. I wouldn’t have come here if I couldn’t.” Holly said, making herself sound offended. In truth Holly had no idea there was money at all in this dimension, let along how she’d get her hands on some.

“Hmm,” The sphere said, the rings shifting around it. “You wish for a permanent physical form, one that will contain your essence without degrading over time.”

“Degrading? My last one didn’t degrade. Well it did at the end, which is why I need a new one.”

“Quite.”

Holly just barely kept herself from sighing.

“Yes, I want a physical form that I can use for a long, long time. No degradation. Please.”

The rings shuffled around again, strangely curious. The metal of them clang and rang out in the empty space.

“What do you wish it to look like? Is there a specific race you wish to appear as?”

Holly paused and then had a wonderful thought.

“Well I’d like to be human, but I want to look a certain way. Do you accept photo references?”

It took a bit of work. More than she thought there would be to do what she had in mind. She had to mix the explanations Ralston had given her on how he reached out to speak to Loki and Loki’s explanation of how he opened portals to different parts of the universe. Then she had to stretch out. Her noodled form had recoalesced quickly enough into the pillar shape she’d grown slightly accustomed too, but it stretched out again as Holly reached out as far as she could go.

She wasn’t reaching for Loki, no she was looking for Steve.

It was strange doing this by feel, looking for one of her many friends on earth. It felt like she’d put on a full-face mask and thick gloves to try to find a single needle in a dark room. Her senses dulled and pointless. Still she reached out, sending her magic out along the branches of the Yggdrasil, doing through dimensions and portals and vortexes until she found the blue planet she’d long called home. Earth felt so familiar to her that it rang through her magic like a bell, welcoming her as she reached it. She kept pushing. It took a while to find Steve, and when she did she was struck by him. He seemed sad, so incredible mournful, like he couldn’t stop crying. The connection was slippery, and Holly was afraid she’d lose it entirely if she tried to speak to Steve.

Besides that’s not what she was here for. She kept looking until she found more bits of Steve. The things he’d created and put a bit of his heart and soul into. Holly knew what Steve’s art felt like and it was just a matter of searching to find it and pull. Abruptly all of her returned to the dimension of manifestations along with an art case. It was the art case that Steve stored all of the paintings he made in.

“There.” Holly said proudly.

“What is that?” The sphere asked.

“It’s a case. It’s got a painting of what I want the physical body you’ll make for me to look like. If that’s alright.”

“Such…specific requirements will cost you.”

“Not a problem at all.” Holly told the entity easily.

“Very well. Produce the…painting.”

Holly used her magic to open it, it wasn’t like she had hands to work the fastenings of the case. It was a mere moment to open the case and remove the painting Steve had done of her so painstakingly. She hadn’t ever seen it, there hadn’t been time, but it was the best she could think of to use.

It was beautiful, truly wonderful. Steve had painted her like a warrior, like a hero, like a friend. In the painting she stood strong and proud, sword on her hip, wand in hand, and smirk on her lips. Each and every detail had been carefully painted in oil, the curve of her cheek and the curl of her hair. He’d painted her in her armor. The armor that had once belonged to Ralston and had been destroyed along with the Hallows. She looked like the best of herself, of all the good things she had a hard time believing actually existed.

Holly was incredibly thankful that entities without bodies couldn’t actually cry.

“Here.” She said, sending the painting over to the sphere.

“This will do. I expect payment now.”

“Right,” Holly said awkwardly. “How much?”

“Cover my outer ring.” The sphere ordered.

Cover with what? If Holly had a face she’d be glaring at Ralston for answers. Ralston, seemed to get the memo anyway, popping up to explain things as quietly as he could.

“Entities pay each other in energy. You know. The thing you represent.”

It seemed that most entities couldn’t see Ralston since the sphere didn’t seem to notice him at all. Holly wanted it to stay that way, so she merely floated forward to the sphere’s outermost ring until her light touched the tip of the wedge. Her magical energy began to coat the metal of the ring, like an opalescent paint, adding color to the previously black and white world. The ring slowly began to spin and Holly continued to let her magic cling and spread. As she did so, Ralston began to slowly climb down and off of her light filled form. Probably so that he wouldn’t get stuck inside the body that Anthropomorpho would build for her.

It took a while to finish paying and when she did the sphere hummed. Then the rest of the rings began to spin, faster and faster. The rings would ring against each other, filling the entire void with the most beautiful melodies as it spun faster and faster. The sphere in the center glowed so brightly that it would have blinded Holly had she had eyes to actually blind. When the light faded, Holly found herself staring at a floating body.

Her body.

The body she’d had before the hallows had activated and made her into an entity. It had the scar on the forehead, the imperfections in the skin. It was her as she’d always known herself. This was not the perfected and strangely inhuman body she’d had before. No this was what she knew herself as. The body floated between her and Anthropomorpho, the limbs outstretched and the hair floating out like it was under water.

“When you enter it, it will change some to accommodate your power.”

“Right,” Holly said. “Thank you for this by the way. Had no idea what was I going to do when I destroyed my last one.”

Holly moved towards the floating body and reached out.

When her form reached the body there was a strange zapping sensation as if she’d stuck her finger into an electric plug.

And then, Holly gasped, with the lungs she now had to gasp with. She curled in on herself, with the joints she now had to move. She blinked with the eyes she could now see out of, just the two thankfully.

“Is everything to your liking?” Anthropomorpho asked, smug and uncaring, all at once.

Holly stretched herself out in front of the ringed sphere and looked over herself. Going even so far as to conjure a mirror to check things over. It wasn’t an exact fit. Her eyes had a bit of sparkle to them, and there were the tiniest bits of glitter on her skin, almost unnoticeable, compared to what she’d had before. It made her wonder if her old body had started to degrade the moment she’d become Life which is why she’d been so unbearably sparkly. Now she looked almost human with just a few hints that there was something more to her. Her skin was smoother and a bit sturdier, but she looked like herself. She had pink back in her skin at least. Holly removed the now, unnecessary glasses on her nose and banished the mirror. Ralston gave her a thumbs up, while grabbing Steve’s art case. They were now the same size and looked almost like twins.

“Everything seems to be in working order.”

“Very well. If you require a new form you may return, if you can pay for the replacement.”

“That’s really not going to be a problem.” Holly said grinning, up at the gigantic sphere.

The sphere didn’t say anything, but he (if a sphere could be a he that is) clearly didn’t believe it. Ralston snuck up behind her and grabbed her hand, getting ready to pull her from this place to another. He felt strangely cool, lacking a real body as he did, but he was solid enough to hold onto.

“Oh! I must have forgotten to give you my name! How rude of me,” Holly said. “I’m Lady Life by the way.”

Anthropomorpho began to sputter in shock, his rings loudly clanging together, and Holly laughed right as Ralston pulled them right towards another exit. They fell through the purple vortex and found themselves on the same strange twisting paths they’d taken to get to the Tribunal Bar. The two Potters fell against each other laughing as loudly as they could.

“No one! Is ever! Going! To! Believe Him!” Ralston shouted out between laughs making Holly lose it again. Eventually their giggles died down and Holly turned to look at her ancestor.

“You should have told me there was interdimensional space capitalism!”

“What would be the fun in that?”

Holly rolled her eyes and then looked down at her body.

“Oh, this is nice.”

“You look good.”

“I feel good. Not having a body was awful.” Holly told Ralston.

“Certainly, made it difficult to get around.”

“Now I just have to get back to earth.”

“Not yet you don’t,” Ralston told her, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder (she had a shoulder!). “There’s one more thing I’ve got to show you.”

“Oh?”

“I spent centuries figuring out how to sneak in there, you’re going to love.”

“Well then, lead on.”

And so together the two Potters walked the paths of the universe together. As they walked Ralston told Holly more and more about the politics of the cosmic entities, at least as he understood them. Holly would need to know some of this stuff, so that she could safely travel this dimension without causing trouble. Holly hadn’t thought she’d want to ever return to this dimension, although that would mean not seeing Ralston again so perhaps, she’d want to return for the occasional visit.

“Oh, you’re going to want to come more often than that.” Ralston said.

“How can you be so certain?”

“Because I, like you, and like so many other Potters, have found yet another way to trick Death.”

“You’re already dead.”

“Do you honestly believe that would stop any of us?”

“But what else is there to trick her out of?”

“Look. When well defined souls die, the souls are collected by Death right? Taken away forever.”

“Right.”

“And the norns pulled me out of my body before Death could and since I’m just one human, she didn’t notice. But she did notice my parents and my wife and my children,” Ralston explained. “The Norns offered me the opportunity to help you, to guide you and I took it because it was the right thing to do.”

“But it separated you from your family.” Holly finished.

“Well it did,” Ralston grinned. “Back about 2 centuries ago I thought to myself, Death must put her collection somewhere, I just had to find it.”

They were walking along a silvery path that was getting thinner and thinner, one of the infinite paths that twisted and curled into itself in unpredictable ways that seemed to be coming to an end.  

“I don’t. Ralston what are you saying?”

“What I’m saying is that Death isn’t as smart as she thinks she is and what she claims to be impenetrable is anything but. Especially when you’ve got hundreds of magic users working from the inside to make a few cracks.”

“I. Are you- You can’t be serious!”

They both stopped right at the end of the path. Their feet standing on the edge of the thin tip. There was nothing around them at all, nothing at all to indicate what Ralston was implying. Still, Ralston lifted up one pale hand, winked at her, and pushed against the dark void they were standing in front of. A vortex, not unlike the one that had taken them to Anthropomorpho, appeared. It was the color of the killing curse, which hardly left Holly with good feelings. The color pulsing and swirling around a dark center. She looked at it deeply, trying to spot any indication that Ralston wasn’t messing with her.

Then Ralston wrapped an arm around her waist.

“GERONIMO!” Ralston yelled pulling them both into the vortex.

Holly yowled in shock, like a cat that had been dumped in a bucket of water. Ralston cackled as they fell through the vortex and into a new dimension. They landed in a pile of limbs onto some very green, soft grass. Holly was already starting to complain and chastise Ralston with all the fearsome strength that she’d learnt from Molly Weasley while Ralston would not stop giggling about what her face had looked like when he’d pulled her in with him.

“I told you all he’d do this.” An unfamiliar voice said, a woman.

“Oh come on,” A man said. “It was funny!”

Holly looked up from where she’d been wrestling with Ralston to see that they landed in a nice field, surrounded by pretty green trees and a warm blue sky. To the left of them was a table full of food with a red banner floating above it with the words ‘Congratulations’ written in gold. Most importantly though was the large group of people that were gathered around them.

People Holly had only ever really seen so clearly in the Mirror of Erised.

“Mom? Dad?”

Notes:

Yes I know. I'm evil. In my defense, it's been like 100 degrees each day for like the last four days and I couldn't keep writing under those conditions. I was literally melting. There will be more next week, as there always is, this I so swear.

Chapter 77: A Family Reunion

Summary:

Holly meets her parents, and a plenty more ancestors besides

Notes:

I went on Pottermore for this chapter. Pottermore.

It was truly impossible to say who exactly had come up with the idea for the picnic Holly would later learn.

It was also impossible to say if it was a picnic or a barbecue or a garden party or something else entirely.

Every Potter had their own version of events on whom had come up with the idea and what exactly the idea was. And Potters, being who they were, weren’t keen on compromising when it came to things like that. Something they had no problem telling Holly once she actually got to meet them. Every Potter claimed they’d had some part in planning the whole thing, and really, it had been centuries in the making so it was really difficult to prove that they weren’t correct.

The whole thing had probably started when Ralston Potter had died and had not joined his wife in the afterlife. Amaryllis had been waiting to greet her one true love, surrounded by her family and his. The family he had never gotten to meet during life, and Ralston had just… failed to show up. Amaryllis had asked around to see if anyone had any clue as to why her dead husband was not in the afterlife.

The answer?

Well obviously, the man had decided to remain as a ghost on earth. Except Amaryllis knew her husband well and refused to believe he’d do something so foolish. Death’s servants had been relatively uncaring of her plight, telling her she’d have to accept his choice and move on without him. Something she frankly had refused to do. Her thoughts were confirmed when their children began to pass and confirmed that they’d not seen the ghost of their father anywhere. By all accounts Ralston had disappeared.   

And then she’d found her husband, ghost like and grinning, knocking on the other side of the afterlife asking to be let in.

“Try and make a hole! But don’t let Death and her underlings find out!”

It had taken years of careful work to get the vortex open and working, they told Holly. It had to be done by Potters, specifically those how had worn the invisibility cloak. Death’s cloak had changed the magic of each Potter who bore it enough to give them the edge they needed to chip away at the border between life and death and create a handy little hole for Ralston to slip through. They’d even gone all the way up to Ignotus Peverell for help, the tricky man more than happy to help pull another fast one on Death. When they managed it, Ralston slipped through gave his wife a thorough snog and then began to talk.

It was a long line of Potters and a few Peverells that had gathered to hear Ralston’s tale and learn about Thanos and their future descendant who would save the universe and become Life itself.

 Which is how the idea for the picnic/garden party/barbecue/feast had been born.

At least that was how the story was told to Holly by Ralston and a dozen other Potters all at once.  

One day far into the future the last Potter, Life itself, would fall through the exact portal they’d all made under Death’s nose, and there would be a need for a celebration. After all this Potter, who had yet to be born, would be the pinnacle of Potterness, the greatest of a long line of troublemakers and heroes. This Potter, the Potter to end all Potters really, would need to be welcomed into the clan and would need to be hailed for the wonderous person they were.

Ralston couldn’t say exactly when The Potter would be born, only that he knew it’d be obvious within a year of them being born that this would be The Potter to watch. He didn’t know exact years, the vision he’d had hadn’t been clear on that and the norns weren’t very keen on exact dates either. So, the Potter Clan had waited, and waited, and waited some more. As they waited more and more ancestors slowly began to gather, any parts of the long family line that fit well with the love for mischief and heroics came to join them, waiting to see the descendant of legend.

The whole thing was a well-kept secret in the afterlife, none of the spirits had told any of the beings in charge about what they knew. The vortex was hidden and only ever spoken about in code.  So, Death and her many underlings were left totally unaware that there was a hole in the afterlife that any enterprising spirit could crawl out of. None of the Potters were very interested in leaving the afterlife to be fair. Most Potters, thanks to ownership of the cloak, lived long and fulfilled lives, generally dying as very old men and women, fat and happy with themselves. So, none of them felt the need to try and sneak out, something that would have alerted Death to their plans immediately anyway. Ralston was able to come and go as he pleased thanks to the water from the well of fates hiding him from Death’s gaze, and that was more than enough.

So, they waited, their numbers growing from generation to generation.

It wasn’t until James and Lily Potter came barreling into the afterlife, barely 22 years old each, screaming and crying for their child, a child that surprisingly did not follow them into the afterlife, that they knew it was time. Her parents had been incredibly pained and distraught by what had happened and it had taken her grandparents, both paternal and maternal, holding them as they wept and mourned for days and weeks to calm down enough to listen to the truth.

Ralston had been the one to gently explain the pain he knew their beloved child would suffer, the hunger and neglect, the torture, and loneliness.

Which had only made her parents weep even harder.

The only thing that had calmed them down was the promise of the picnic. They’d be able to see their daughter again, within thirty years if Ralston had the timing right, and he would bring her to them straight away. This meant that it didn’t really matter who had come up with the party idea in the first place, it immediately became her parents’ to plan. Over the next nearly 28 years, her parents watched their child grow up without them and each injustice she faced only fueled their need to have the absolute perfect welcome for her. The other Potters were just as sympathetic and petty.

For every meal missed, more food was added to the tables set up for the party. For every lonely, cold night in a cupboard, more hugs were planned to give. For every cruel word spoken to her, kind words and praises were written out for her to hear. For every injury and scar, healing words and touches. For every loss and lack, something was planned to make up for it. Really within the first decade of Holly’s life the planned celebration had become a ‘Spoil-Holly-Potter-Rotten-Party’ and no one really had a mind to complain about it.

It only grew worse as Holly grew into her power and heroics.

Perhaps, it would have been better to plan for Holly to arrive through the vortex and be greeted by her parents alone, perhaps with Sirius and Remus there as well to help welcome and soothe her. That would have been much less overwhelming for the orphan hero. This didn’t occur to the Potters who’d been planning this party for decades though.

Not until Holly was actually there and she was clinging to her parents and weeping in their arms, her entire body shaking with enough emotion that had she been in the physical realm she likely would have lost control of her magic entirely. It would have been awkward really, if Potters were prone to allowing themselves to feel awkward. Generation upon generation of pranks had given them quite a bit of stamina when it came to strange and awkward situations.

“You know,” Sirius Black said looking over at the pile Holly and her parents were making as they clung to each other. “In retrospect I’m not quite sure what I expected her to do when she got through.”

“Pains me to say it,” Tonks said. “But I’ve got to agree with the mutt.”

“Hey.”

Holly choked on a laugh, forcing herself to look up from where she’d had her face buried into her dad’s neck. She saw, amongst the various people she didn’t know, many people that she did. Sirius was standing with Remus and Tonks, they looked a bit teary themselves, despite the joking tone in their voices.

“Oh come here.” She begged.

And Sirius dived down, landing right on top of her dad who squawked in outrage, Sirius wiggled on top of her dad until he could pull Holly into his arms. Her mum started laughing at her dad’s outrage, while also pulling on Holly so that more of her was on her lap rather than Sirius’. Remus waltzed over to the other side of the pile with Tonks at his side, the two of them fell to their knees and worked as a team to pull Holly free from her parents and god father and into their arms.

Holly couldn’t stop gasping out laughs or crying as she tried to hug all of them at once, unable to do so with the physical body she’d just purchased. Part of her wanted to slip out of the body again so that she was expansive enough to touch them all. The only downside to that would be that she’d lack the arms to hug then. In the end all of them found themselves in a pile of tangled limbs and giggles. Holly herself had one arm wrapped around her mum’s waist. Her left foot was hooked around her dad’s right leg. She felt Tonks laying on top of her and her other free hand was holding Remus’. She found herself laying in a way that meant she and Sirius were looking right at each other.

“Hey pup.”

Holly sniffed, a few tears dripping from her face. Sirius looked better than she had ever known him in life. Clean, shiny hair was styled around a healthy and vibrant face. Gone was the gauntness and grimness he’d carried ever since escaping Azkaban. She was looking at Sirius as he should have always been, laughing and bright.

“Hi Sirius.” She croaked.

“Oh, don’t look like that,” He said. “You’re acting like someone died!”

She choked on a laugh and moved her free leg to knee Sirius lightly.

“Not funny.”

“It is a little.”

“I’m sorry,” She said unable to hold it in. “If I’d, oh it’s all my fault that you- I should have been smarter-”

Before she can get much further into her unplanned apology all of the adults in the pile started telling her to stop. Her mum and dad both wiggled around so that could hug her a bit better.

“Holly, no,” Sirius said. “The only people I blame for me dying is Bellatrix and Voldemort. That’s it. You were fifteen pup, you were fifteen and you had a horcrux in your head messing with you. It wasn’t ever your fault.”

“But.”

“Holly,” Remus said, squeezing her hand again. “If Teddy was tricked into going somewhere dangerous and you got hurt saving him, would you blame him for it?”

“Of course not,” Holly said, almost offended. “He’s just a kid.”

The silence she got in response to that made her groan.

“That’s not fair.” She told them, making Remus laugh and the others grin at her.

“If it means getting you to forgive yourself, we’re willing to cheat.” Her dad told her, making her nearly sob.

“Come on,” Tonks said. “We should get up, talk like adults.”

All of them whined at that but did as she suggested. Holly managed to scramble free to see that Ralston had kindly ushered most of the others a fair distance away, giving them a semblance of privacy. They settled around each other, Holly was leaning against her mum’s shoulder, with her dad curled around behind them both, hugging them tightly.

“I can’t believe it,” She said. “I thought. I thought we’d never see each other again.”

“I’m sorry doe,” Her dad said. “Ralston told us almost as soon as he could that it wouldn’t be forever, but he couldn’t tell you.”

“We watched you the entire time, cheered you on.”

“We haven’t missed a single quidditch game,” Her dad said. “Oh, and by the way if you’re still taking suggestions, please become a professional quidditch player after this.”

“What?” Holly asked while the others started to groan and roll their eyes at her dad’s enthusiasm.

“Come on! You’ve got a gift! A Wronski feint at 11! That’s bloody good!” Her dad explained. “And your family is full of heroes and potions masters and politicians. You know what the Potter lineage lacks? Quidditch.”

“Ignore him,” Her mum said giving her dad a fond look. “He’s been obsessed with your flying since you were 1 year old and got your hands on a training broom for the first time.”

“I remember that. Prongs here wouldn’t shut up about how good you were. All because you took a few loops around the house and scared the family cat half to death. I thought he was kidding and then you cast a corporeal patronous while flying a broom during a quidditch match.” Remus whined.

“You could go pro! My daughter! A pro quidditch player!” Her dad said shaking her shoulders a bit as if to empathize his excellent point.

“I’m an Avenger,” Holly said craning her neck to look at her dad. “And the savior of the wizarding world. And the personification of Life.”

“Quidditch Holly. Quidditch.”

“What your father means to say is that we are proud of you. You’ve never done a thing that has disappointed either of us. Right?” Her mum sent a glare over at her dad who rolled his eyes, winked at Holly and answered.

“Right of course. Never been more proud of any child in existence than the one I’m currently cuddling. But. If in the future. If you were looking for something else to do…”

“James.”

Holly cheeks hurt from the smiling she was doing.

“Oi!” Ralston yelled. “Are you all done cuddling over there? The food is getting cold.”

A blatant lie, if the way everyone but her rolled their eyes was any indication. Still it seemed like there was something planned here that she’d derailed quite handily.

“Why exactly is there a party?” Holly asked instead.

“Well,” Her mum said, lifting up a hand to fix Holly’s messy hair, or at least try. “We wanted to welcome you, to show you as much love and support as we could when you got here.”

“And you thought a party was the best way to do that?”

“Wasn’t our idea,” Her dad said lifting up both hands to defend himself. “Least not originally. Don’t worry. You’re going to love it!”

The party did indeed seem to be tailored to Holly’s preferences, in so far as she had any for parties. There were tables filled to the brim with her favorite foods. There were chairs and comfortable spots for people to mingle around.

“Do spirits need food?”

“Well no,” Sirius said. “But we sure do like it.”

“The food’s not real. It’s…a manifestation of what we remember from life. Everything here is,” Remus explained. “You should be able to eat it like it’s real, but I don’t think it’s going to actually feed you.”

“Ah. Well let’s test that out,” Holly decided. She could see groups of dark haired spirits with faces shaped like hers waiting in the wings to talk to her. It was strange to be practically surrounded by family. She tried to put on a brave face, rubbing away the tear tracks on her cheeks before moving towards the group. “Fine fine. Ralston. Let’s have this party.”

The party started out with her parents quickly moving her to a comfortable seat, piling a plate high with food, and a bunch of people crowding around to introduce themselves to her. Ralston took on the roll of MC, bringing groups of Potters forward to Holly’s group. The various Potters were dressed in clothing from centuries past, although they seemed to have a comfortable enough grip on modern English. Or perhaps language didn’t matter as much in the afterlife.

Holly met Linfred Potter, who was the man who set up all the gold Holly now had no idea what to do with. The man had a crooked grin and a friendly disposition and told her how happy he was that she was continuing on the tradition of helping muggles out no matter the cost, even if her potions skills could use some work.

“I used to use my potion skills to heal the pox! Lucky I never got caught!”

“Oh. Were you a potions master then?” Holly asked making the man cackle.

“Was I potions master! I only invented Skele-grow and the pepper up potion!” Before Holly could begin to feel poorly that not only was one of her direct ancestors apparently a big deal when it came to potions and she’d not had a single clue. The man reached out and took her hand. “Don’t worry about that too much. I was more proud of my children than my potions. I had seven of them! Part of the reason I worked so hard on them really, to make sure they were well, no matter what.”

Linfred then introduced Holly to his seven children and their spouses. He’d had one son and six daughters. All of whom were just as friendly as their father, and just as skilled with a cauldron. His eldest child, Hardwin, was Holly’s direct ancestor and the one who married into the Peverell family and brought the invisibility cloak Holly had just destroyed to save the universe into the Potter line. Hardwin had married a witch named Iolanthe, who was the granddaughter of Ignotus Peverell.

She, Iolanthe, actually brought the Peverell brothers, all three, over to Holly to meet. The brothers congratulated her on tricking Death so handily, not once but multiple times, and for finally destroying the items that had taken their lives in the end. Ignotus himself had offered Holly a few more tips on bothering Death that she tucked away with a grin. It was strange talking to three men who had also faced Death in the way she had, who had lost and won in their games against Her. Holly felt strangely more real than she ever had before, looking at the three men and realizing she hadn’t been the first human to do this, that she came from a long line of crazy people who’d been doing this sort of thing for centuries.

It was incredibly validating really.

Every Potter she met had a story to tell her. A story of ingenuity in the face of hardship, or of a prank gone right (or terribly wrong depending on the case). She met her great grandfather Henry Potter, who had also been on the Wizengamot and had in fact got into a fist fight in the middle of a meeting when the minister of magic had tried to outlaw giving aid to muggles in danger during the First World War. This fist fight explained why the Potters weren’t actually a part of the famed 28 noble houses. Holly didn’t consider that much of a loss really. Henry and her had the same nose, although his eyes were brown and his skin noticeably tanner than Holly’s own. Still there was enough similarity there to make it clear they were related.

“Your solution with that drink when the ICW didn’t want to help you fight Thanos? Ha! I nearly lost my head it was so brilliant!” Henry told her. “I spent most of my political career upsetting politicians and I’m so glad you’re continuing the tradition!”

“Well I try my best.” Holly grinned.

“Your best is brilliant!” Henry told her. “I’m glad that stupid statute is gone now. Finally, we can get back to use our magic to help people.”

All the Potters who had lived before the statute of secrecy had been created lifted up their various drinks and cheered in agreement. A few of them even going so far as to call Ralston stupid for coming up with the idea in the first place. Something Ralston defended against by pointing out it had been mostly Loki’s idea.

Henry introduced Holly to her grandparents Fleamont and Euphemia. Holly had never even seen pictures of them, let alone known their names, despite the fact that they’d only died a few years before she’d been born. Fleamont was also a potions master who had invented the Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion. A potion that had quadrupled the Potter family wealth while also failing to actually control the famous messy Potter hair.

“Spent half of my youth trying to find a way to make my hair look proper,” Fleamont told her before winking and continuing. “Spent the other half getting into duels. I’m lucky ‘Phema decided I was worth her time since I looked a mess.”

“He was charming,” Her grandmother told her. “And funny.”

“Well if he was funny.” Holly muttered making her grandmother titter and her grandfather pout.

After them she met Poppy and Jonathan Evans, the muggles had been welcomed into the Potter clan in the afterlife with ease. Although they had lingered a bit further from Holly than most of her ancestors had. Poppy Evans looked almost just like Petunia, horse neck and all. But she was missing the bleached hair and the frown lines on her face. She was also slightly plumper than Petunia had ever allowed herself to become. The extra fat had softened her natural boniness to give her a sense of warmth that her aunt had lacked. Jonathon had bright red hair the same color as her mum’s and a face absolutely covered in freckles. The two of them looked almost apprehensive as Lily pulled them over to meet her.

Holly didn’t have long to wonder why.

“Oh, my dearest darling,” Poppy said, crouching down and nearly kneeling at Holly’s feet. "I'm so sorry."

“What?”

“You poor thing. I can’t believe this. It’s all my fault.” Poppy cried, tears streaming down her face. Even Jonathon looked stricken.

“I don’t…what are you talking about?”

“Tunie,” Jonathon said. “Our daughter. She hurt you so much. She never would have done that if we’d been better parents.”

“We didn’t think we favored Lily over Tunie, we tried so hard to make her feel special but oh it’s all our fault she turned out so horrid and treated you so awfully. I’m so sorry dearie, so sorry.”

A lump formed in Holly’s throat. Another apology, this one so drastically different from Dudley’s in every way and somehow Holly felt even less able to handle it. She had never really unpacked why her aunt had been so horrid. She’d been told it was because Petunia was upset and jealous over magic and Holly had accepted that and moved on. It hadn’t really mattered why Petunia was so mean to her, only that she was. But now she had two people, people who had died long before she’d been born, begging for forgiveness for things that they had no true control over.

Maybe her self-recriminating tendencies were genetic.

“If I’ve learnt one thing in therapy, it’s that you shouldn’t blame yourself for things other people do,” Holly said, her voice catching a bit. Poppy looked up at Holly, her green eyes blinking back tears. “Seriously. Sam’s been getting after me for that stuff.”

Then her dad started to giggle and her maternal grandparents nearly collapsed with relief as the guilt and tension they’d been holding was abruptly removed from their shoulders. It appeared that they’d needed Holly to forgive them before they could even think of forgiving themselves. Poppy jumped up and pulled Holly into a hug, something Jonathon quickly added onto. Holly found herself whispering to them that it was okay, that she was going to be okay.

And for the first time in a long time, she believed it.

There were a lot of Potters and other ancestors to meet. It was overwhelming to see how many people had been cheering her on this whole time. She’d had hundreds of witches and wizards and muggles alike believing in her every step of the way. None of them saw her as a waste of space or as a person who needed fixing. They instead saw her as the culmination of every thing important that they’d done themselves.

She wasn’t broken or defective or a freak, she was a Potter. A pretty good Potter at that. A Potter who did all the things that Potters had done for generations; helping others, flouting authority, and generally being as chaotic as possible. There were differences between her and them. It wasn’t like they were all clones of each other, but as she looked at and spoke to the faces that made up her blood, she saw echoes of the person she’d chosen to become in them.

After awhile Holly found herself meeting a gregarious man with a thick beard and a familiar hat on his head. Holly knew the man’s face but couldn’t believe he was actually standing there in front of her! Standing a little ways back were three other robed people; a tall woman who looked just like the grey lady wearing midnight blue robes, a plump round woman with round, constantly blushing cheeks, and a man with a long beard and dark brown hair wearing voluminous green robes.

“Finally!” The man shouted. “Thought I’d never get my turn.”

“Uhm.”

“Come on now! Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me!”

“Well it’s not that. It’s just I always sort of thought the whole, being descended from Gryffindor thing was a bit of a rumor.”

Godric Gryffindor bellowed out a laugh which made the other three magic users standing nearby either smile at or roll their eyes.

“We’re not exactly descendants.” Her dad explained.

“I did not have children by blood no,” Godric told her. “It wasn’t ever my inclination to marry, but many of the children at Hogwarts while I taught there became my children, one of whom is your ancestor. You already met them, Halcyon Potter.”

“Oh,” Holly said. “So that’s why you hid your sword rather than passing it down to anyone.”

She’d always wondered why the man had put such a powerful weapon in his hat of all places. Not having any blood heirs would mean that the goblins would be able to claim the sword as their property quite handily.

“Didn’t want the goblins taking back what I’d paid for. I’m glad you got use out of it!” He said brightening up. “SAL! Get over here and meet the witch who finally got rid of your stupid serpent!”

“The basilisk wasn’t stupid,” Salazar Slytherin denied, which all three other founders scoffed at. “It would have been an excellent defense mechanism for the castle!”

“Both times it was let out of that dank chamber of yours the first thing it did was try to murder students.” Godric pointed out.

“And that’s my fault?” Salazar asked.

“Well yes,” Helga Hufflepuff said. “You’re the one who hatched it dear.”

“I rather think it’s more Tom Riddle’s fault,” Holly pointed out. “He’s the one who ordered the basilisk to attack people.”

“See! Even your descendant agrees with me!” Salazar said.

“The snake was stupid, and she killed it with my sword.”

“Oh, would you stop it with the sword already?”

Salazar and Godric both seemed to forget she was there at all, jumping into what appeared to be a centuries long argument about Godric’s sword and how cool it was. Helga moved to act as a referee of sorts while Rowena Ravenclaw moved forward. She had long hair that had been tied up in braids around her head and eyes that seemed to pierce the soul.

“Hullo.”

“Hello Holly Potter,” She said. “I have a message for you to pass on when you return to earth.”

“Uhm. Right yeah.” Holly said.

Most people Holly had met didn’t have messages they wanted to pass on because everyone they’d known when they’d been alive had long since died. Such circumstances didn’t seem to hinder the seer.

“Please tell the castle that while I did not expect her to grow to such sentience, I am proud of her. I know unlike Sal’s stupid snake, that she actually did what she was made to do, she helped students, kept them alive and well fed through the centuries,” Rowena said, softly. “Seeing her speak was a wonder and I cannot wait to see what she becomes in the future.”

“I’ll let her know.” Holly promised.

“Of that I have no doubt.”

Behind Rowena Godric was getting ready to try and duel Salazar much to the amusement of the crowd watching them.

“Are they…”

“Lovers? Yes. Unfortunately.”

Holly coughed in shock while Rowena only rolled her eyes and Salazar started yelling as loudly as he could that Godric was an absolute scoundrel. Her parents, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks seemed to already know this story since they weren’t all that shocked.

“They didn’t figure it out when we were alive,” She explained. “Which was truly a tragedy because the tension while we were founding the school was unbearable.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t linger,” Rowena explained. “Godric insisted we come to this…soiree so that he could lord you using his sword for all your greatest feats over Salazar.”

“Well anything to help a fellow Gryffindor,” Holly found herself saying making Rowena titter. “Although…”

“Yes?”

“Let Salazar know that next time I do something reckless I’ll save the day with parseltongue and leave the sword at home.”

“Oh. We’ll all enjoy that.” She said grinning before going to usher her friends away.

After a few moments Holly looked over at her parents, her family.

“That was…bizarre.”

“That’s one word for it,” Sirius joked. “Don’t worry, you get used to all the famous dead people. Want me to go find Shakespeare for you? He’s around here somewhere I’m sure.”

“Sirius no.” Remus said, grabbing on the man’s robes and pulling him back down.

“Down boy. She’s met enough people,” Her mum said. “You’re doing okay right? Not too overwhelmed.”

“Oh, I went past overwhelmed a long time ago.” She said thinking back to the moment she’d seen her parents for the first time. She was still somewhat shaken that she was here with them and they were here with her. That she could see Sirius, Remus, and Tonks again. That Sirius didn’t seem upset with her at all and in fact seemed as if he’d finally healed from his time in Azkaban. Remus even looked lighter than he had in life, with the weight of his condition removed from him.

“We can take a break,” Her dad said. “Anytime you want.”

“No no. Please. I’m happy, really.” She said.

And so the line of Potters and sundry continued. She met Potters who’d been swordsmen, archers, actual potters, farmers, potions masters, transfiguration masters, charms masters, duelists, and more. But no quidditch professionals her dad liked to mention. Time didn’t exist in the afterlife in the same way that Holly had always known it. She didn’t tire or at least she didn’t feel as if she tired, the food she consumed never went stale or cool, always tasting just as perfect as she could remember from her life on earth. The warm day never turned to night. It was perpetual bliss really. Remus, Tonks, Sirius and her parents stayed with her the entire time, whispering jokes and words of love and support into her ears as she spoke with so many of her ancestors. Ancestors who seemed delighted to speak with her, who liked her.

By sheer number alone it seemed that the Potter family was trying to drown out the disparaging comments from her youth.

Eventually it dwindled down and there was only one group left. They didn’t look like the typical dark haired Potters and it only took Holly a moment of actually looking at them to realize who it was she was looking at.

“Colin?” She asked. “Colin Creevey?”

She was standing before she even realized it. Stepping away from her parents for the first time since she’d seen them. Colin turned around from where he’d been talking to Lavender and grinned at her. He didn’t look much older than he had during the final battle and there was a familiar camera around his neck.

“Holly!” He said brightly.

It was the DA. They’d come to greet her. The students who’d died fighting with her against Voldemort over a decade ago. They were all there and still looking so painfully young. Almost as painfully young as her own parents looked. None of them seemed angry or bitter with her. In fact, they all smiled at her as she staggered forward. She noticed in the center of the group was Cedric Diggory, just as handsome as she remembered.

“Hey Potter,” He said. “Long time no see.”

Holly clapped a hand over her mouth to cover the sob.

She found herself being hugged by the students she’d known so well a decade ago. The kids who had sacrificed everything, just as much as she had really, but hadn’t been able to return to life. Eventually she was seated all around with Lavender Brown, her roommate of six years, braiding her hair and telling her all about the drama she’d been watching going on in the afterlife. Which apparently there was a lot of. None of the DA blamed her for their deaths, none of them saw her as anything except the leader who’d won. Who’d tracked down each of their Death Eater killers and gotten justice for them over the last ten years. Not even Cedric seemed upset with her, even when she pushed him.

“Was I upset after it happened?” He asked. “Of course, I was! I missed out on so much because of that dick.”

“Cedric I’m sorry.”

“Not you. I’m talking about Pettigrew, you know, the guy who murdered me on Voldemort’s order,” He said. “And it’s…I’m not saying I’m still not sad sometimes. We all are, getting sent here so young, but we haven’t been alone with that.”

“Or bored.” Colin said making Lavender giggle as she finished putting Holly’s long hair into a fishtail braid.

“None of us blame you.” Lavender said.

“You fought for us, for justice after the war,” Cedric said. “You did what you could for us and we all chose to be where we were. You didn’t make me take the cup with you and you didn’t make them fight in the Final Battle.”

“Oh.” Holly sniffed.

“We’re okay Holly,” Lavender said. “We’re together here and we’ve got people who help us, family. I live with my grandparents.”

“My great grandma makes the best soup.” Cedric added, making Holly giggle in shock.

They were okay.

They were going to be okay and so was she.

It took time, long enough for Lavender to conjure her makeup kit and do Holly’s makeup, for the DA to leave too. The party was dwindling down after who knew how long. Holly found herself once again with only the Marauders, Tonks, and Ralston. Ralston was talking with Sirius and her parents, leaving Holly free to chat with Remus and Tonks.

Naturally they spoke about Teddy.

“Thank you for being there for him,” Remus said. “He’s an amazing kid.”

“He’s your amazing kid,” Holly rebutted. “I didn’t have to do much to get him there, and besides, Andy raised him.”

“You helped,” Tonks said. “And he’s only so wonderful because of you. If he’d been left to my mum alone, he’d be another mini-me wouldn’t he?”

“I think he’s wonderful all on his own to be honest. He’s so kind, brilliant really.” Holly told them, as if they didn’t already know.

“You introduced him to Lila.” Remus said, smiling at the mention of Teddy’s first real friend.

“You taught him things and gave him comfort,” Tonks reminded her. “You’ve given our son so much, you’ve been the best godmother we could have hoped for.”

Holly sniffed and lifted up a hand. She stopped before she rubbed her face clear of tears, not wanting to mess up the makeup Lavender had worked so hard on. Instead she used a bit of magic to wipe the tears away and looked over to see Remus and Tonks leaning against each other and smiling.

“Anything you’d like me to say to him?”

“That we love him of course.” Tonks said.

“Tell him to never let fear keep him from being with his friends,” Remus told her. “Of all the regrets I have from my life it was that I let fear control me so often.”

“We miss him and we’re so proud of who he’s becoming,” Tonks added. “Also tell him he could do to cause a bit more mischief at school.”

“Oh I’m sure Andy will love that,” Holly laughed while Remus and Tonks only grinned. “Still I’ll let him know.”

They settled into silence for a bit, comfortable with the calm that had settled around them in the picturesque park. Many of the spirits she’d met had explained that the afterlife was comprised of the memories of those who lived in it. Communities formed and grew as people died and joined with family and friends they’d cared for in life. The land and homes were replicas of well-loved places on earth. Holly had never been to this specific park on earth, it might not even exist anymore, but that didn’t stop her from feeling warm and strangely fragile as she rested in it.

Her parents and Sirius rejoined them soon enough and Holly found herself cuddling up with her parents again.

“Well,” Ralston said. “I think that went wonderfully.”

“Perhaps it was a tad poorly timed,” Her dad admitted before looking over at her, the fondness in his brown eyes undeniable. “But we’ve been together so I can hardly complain.”

“I’ve missed you.” She said, unable to find anything else to say to people she’d spent her whole life wondering about.

“We missed you too,” Her mum swore. “We never stopped.”

It was Sirius who started telling Holly about how they watched her during her struggles, cheering her on as she fought Death Eaters and aliens. Her parents told her how happy they were that she was getting help, that she was healing. They spoke for a long time, Holly soaking up their stories and affection like an orphaned sponge. The inside of her chest felt like glass as she tried to memorize how it felt to be with her family, how they looked whole and healthy.

Tony had explained how intoxicating it had felt to speak with his own mum in the Forbidden Forest when Holly had used the stone to call her forth. How he’d lost track of anything and everything that wasn’t her. How part of him still ached when he thought about it for too long. She hadn’t understood until then. She was addicted to the feeling of her parents, to their voices and hands and affection. She didn’t want to move, to leave, or even think all that much if it meant questioning the quiet joy of it.

It was Ralston who pulled her gently out of the blissful fog.

“Holly we need to go.”

“What?” She asked, reflexively clutching at her parents.

“You and I can’t stay here forever, not without getting caught by Death or her lackeys,” Ralston explained. “And your friends are waiting for you.”

“What?” She blinked slowly remembering there was something out there other than her family, other than the soft grass beneath her and the sweet, cool breeze on the air.

“You know, Ron and Hermione? The Avengers? Loki?” He pushed. “They’re worried about you. You’ve been gone a long time.”

“It’s only been…”

“Holly the fight in Death Valley was over a month ago.”

She choked in shock, her mind returning to clarity abruptly. She needed to go back she knew that, but part of her longed to stay.

“It’s alright,” Her mum said. “We’ll be here when you visit again.”

“Maybe you can come by again in a year,” Sirius suggested softly. “Make it an annual visit.”

In another life, another existence, Holly wouldn’t have had to leave. She would have lived to be an old woman and died a legend. She would have drifted into the afterlife with no regrets and she would have been free to be with her loved ones for eternity. But that wasn’t her existence and there were so many people on earth that she couldn’t bare to leave. Not only was there all the wonderful witches and wizards she’d come to see as family, but the Avengers were a new family too.

“Yeah,” She said, another lump forming in her throat. “Yeah I’d like that.”

So, she pushed herself up and hugged her loved ones one last time. Each of them told her once more how proud they were of her, and the words felt so wonderful to hear that it ached. Sirius told her to find his motorcycle and fix it up. Remus and Tonks added onto their message for Teddy and told her how thankful they were once more. Her dad joked one more time about playing quidditch professionally and her mum told her to do whatever would make her happiest.

“You’ve got an eternity in front of you. Do what makes you happy,” She said, cradling Holly’s face in her hands. Slowly her mum leaned forward and pressed her lips to Holly’s forehead. “I love you my dearest one.”

“I love you too.” She croaked.

Ralston didn’t say anything as he led her back to the throne room at the base of the Yggdrasil. He didn’t joke about the tears drying on her face or how they mussed up the makeup Lavender had done. He just carried Steve’s art case for her and led her as gently as he could away from the family she’d just found and towards the family she’d made on earth. When they got back to the throne room, Ralston showed her how to open a portal to earth.

“You can come here anytime you want. I’ll always be here to help you,” He promised. “and I can take you back there as often as you need.”

“Thank you,” She said. “You’re the strangest grandfather I could have asked for.”

“Don’t you mean the best?”

“No.” She said before grabbing Steve’s art case, opening a silver portal right next to her throne, and jumping right through.

Ralston shouted at her for being ungrateful and Holly laughed as she fell through the portal and right onto Earth. Holly landed with a thud and a groan right smack dab in the middle of Central Park. At least she though it was Central Park, she’d tried to go to Avengers Tower and must have missed the mark by a bit. She coughed and pushed herself up, looking around. Her entire body felt like jelly. Apparently spending a month in the afterlife was exhausting when you weren’t actually meant to be there. She hadn’t been eating or drinking anything real during that entire time and even custom made cosmic entity bodies had their limits. She was fully wrung out and dizzy with exhaustion.

She found she couldn’t really push herself up all the way, so she let herself lay back down on the grass. So instead of trying to magic herself back to the tower or walk home she decided to do something entirely out of character. She snapped her fingers, summoning the cell phone Tony had given her. The screen lit up showing her that it was bright and early on July 31^st. She’d gotten back just in time for her 29^th birthday. Carefully she tapped out a call to the tower and held the phone up to her ear. The phone didn’t even get to ring through once before it was picked up.

“Holly?” Jarvis demanded.

“Hullo Jarvis,” She said, her voice a little dizzy. “I’m back. Would you mind sending someone to pick me up? I’m not feeling my best.”

Notes:

Will I apologize for or justify making Godric and Salazar gay?

Chapter 78: Family Reunion 2: Avengers Boogaloo

Summary:

Loki and the others spent a tortuous month on earth afraid they'd never see Holly again. The earth has been forever changed with the dissolution of the statute of secrecy and the universe is finally safe from Thanos. But was that worth it if it meant losing Holly?

Notes:

shout out to the commenter last week who inspired this weeks chapter title!

Even before the salted dust of battle had settled, the team had known. They had been afraid to say it, unwilling to admit that they’d felt that last loving touch from Holly. Ron and Hermione didn’t have that problem at all. The two magic users immediately, upon clearing the last of their combatants, reacted to the loss.

“Damn! Damn it!” Ron shouted.

“I can’t believe this! She said she wouldn’t do that again!” Hermione cried.

“This is your fault!” Ron turned and pointed a finger at Loki. “How dare you plan her death like that!”

“I didn’t! We didn’t!” Loki shouted back. “Holly was supposed to come back!”

And then the wind blew right out of their sails. Both magic users deflated as devastation replaced righteous fury. Because it was one thing to know your friend planned their death to save the universe, it’s another for them to die despite planning to survive.

“Oh,” Ron’s voice cracked. “She…she really did it this time then?”

The pain and horror in his voice was such that no one could really stop themselves from wanting to cry with him. They stood there in silence, uncaring of the heat and the debris around them and mourned. Ron fell to his knees, his wife by his side, and began to weep. Hermione cried too, holding her husband to her chest and sobbing into his red hair. The Hulk roared out a denial and Loki found himself reaching out to Thor for strength. The other Avengers were crying as well, all barely keeping themselves together as Ron howled out in pain. Tony’s armor was dented, with much of the paint scrapped off or mangled with blood and debris. But the look of quiet devastation on his face was far more potent. Clint and Natasha looked exhausted even as they clung to each other in their grief. Many of them were sporting injuries of their own that they were ignoring in favor of mourning.

Eventually the needs of the injured called out to them and they were forced to pick themselves up and do what they needed to do. When night fell and the injured had been collected and the healers set to work, they got a message from Hela. The goddess of death was surrounded by the spirits of those Thanos had killed and used in his rituals. They were silver and ghostly but also appeared solid enough to touch. They looked lost and confused even as they clung to one another. Unable to recognize themselves, but still knowing their loved ones when they found them. She had Holly’s sword and the reality stone in her grasp.

Strangely she wasn’t using either to cause destruction. Instead the pulsing red of the reality stone was pouring from her grasp and into Hel itself, the energy refining and healing the destroyed realm, slowly but surely.

“What happened?” Thor asked.

“Her plan worked. Perhaps too well,” Hela answered. “She was able to make him mortal and protect the souls of those he had taken. You can see them now. They’re lost. Much of their memories are gone, which is probably for the best based on what they would remember first.”

“How did she do that?” Hermione asked, her voice hoarse with grief.

“She destroyed the hallows and used the energy of them to hide the souls from Death’s grasp, call them from Thanos’ body, and then sever him from the rest. I finished the job, he’s dead now.”

“But what happened to her?” Loki demanded.

“It was too much. Did you forget her body was human? All the energy she expended destroyed her body,” Hela said. “She exploded all over Hel actually.”

They all flinched at that, but Hela didn’t pause to let them grieve, she just continued.

“She promised to return as soon as she could. Just said she needed to find a new body but wasn’t sure how she would.” She said.

“A new body?” Steve asked.

“Of course,” Hermione gasped. “She’s Life, she can’t just…die. Not like that anyway. She just needs to find a new body!”

“But where is she going to find something like that?” Ron asked immediately deflating the hope that had been filling all of their chests.

“I may have known Holly for the shortest amount of time,” Sam Wilson said. “But something tells me she’ll figure it out.”

That made them all smile a bit, even in their fear and grief. Hela snorted in agreement.

“She certainly seemed determined.”

“What are you doing with the reality stone?” Bruce asked.

“What it’s to you mortal?”

“Hela.” Thor frowned.

“The spirits,” She said. “Did you want to condemn them to an eternity on this lifeless husk of a realm?”

“You’re fixing it for them?” Loki asked, momentarily forgetting about Holly in his shock.

“I’m not doing it to be nice,” She snarled, almost well enough to be believed. “I just pity them. Once Holly returns and frees me, I won’t even think about them.”

This was undercut almost immediately when the spirit of a small child hopped over to Hela and pulled on her leg.

“Princess Hela! Princess Hela!” The spirit of a Titan said. “Can you find my bubby?”

Hela sneered down at the adorable child and for a moment Loki feared that she’d try and kick the child away.

“Bubby?” She sneered.

“Uh huh! My bubby!”

“Perhaps you should describe this bubby.”

“He’s bubby.” The child insisted, as if that was descriptive at all. Loki prepared for Hela’s face to twist into a rage and start berating and attacking the child. Instead Hela stabbed Holly’s sword into the ground and with her now free hand moved it towards the child’s face. Before Thor or Loki could scream at her to stop, the woman cradled the spirit’s cheek her hand glowing green with magic.

Hela sighed and lowered her hand, then she snapped her fingers and conjured some stuffed toy with 7 limbs and a strangely oblong head out of dust. The child squealed with delight and grabbed at the toy.

“Now go. I’m busy.”

“Thank you, Princess Hela.” The child said hugging Hela’s knees.

“Yes. Yes. Go.”

Loki looked at Hela who glared fiercely back through the mirror. He opened his mouth to ask about what that whole interaction was.

“Tell Holly when she gets back that I’ll return the sword and the stone once she frees me and not a moment before. I don’t care if it takes her 100 centuries to reconstitute herself.”

Then she ended the mirror connection, leaving the Avengers alone with the realization that Holly could very well take centuries to come home.

Centuries.

“Well,” Tony said, tears visible in his brown eyes. “that sucks.”

In the days following Thanos’ invasion the Avengers were almost too busy to worry about Holly.

Almost.

You see a lot of events happened during Thanos’ invasion, the sort of events with consequences. The kind of consequences that can’t just be ignored or left for another person to see to. Events like, the statute of secrecy being forcibly murdered by a legion of young magic users all around the world standing up to defend major earth cities from alien invasion. It was amazing really, to watch magic users come out of hiding and stand beside their muggle counterparts for the first time in 400 years, fighting under Holly Potter’s banner.

But it did come with consequences.

And so it was Loki, who with the help of Jarvis, stood in the destroyed Death Valley, surrounded by the debris and blood of war, spoke out to the world about what he’d done 400 years ago. It was a simple video really, that Jarvis posted to every website he could think to and sent to major news outlets all over the world. Loki spoke in All-Speak, ensuring that no matter what language the humans who listened to it spoke, they would hear his words in their native tongue. Around him the people who remained were looking for survivors and trying to clean up the mess of war.

“Over 400 years ago I traveled to earth,” Loki began. “I was young, having barely passed into adulthood and I was looking for something to fill my time. I found, to my surprise, something far greater in the wilds of Scotland. I found the greatest friend I would ever have. His name was Ralston Potter, yes Potter, and he was my brother in all but blood.”

His explanation continued, describing the attacks on magical children that had begun to happen with increasing frequency throughout the western world and the threat that imperialism and colonialism represented for other, not yet invaded countries with magic users. How he and Ralston spent their time trying to save as many families as they could, and how they weren’t always successful. He described the threat of war, how many magic users wanted to turn on their muggle counterparts, to destroy or enslave them for the attacks. He told them of asking his father for help and being denied.

“And so, without any other recourse to avoid war or destruction, Ralston and I came up with a plan.”  

So, the story finally came out. The story of two best friends from 400 years ago trying to create a world where people born with magic could grow and live without fear. A world that wasn’t perfect by any means, but was unique and brilliant. A world that had grown and thrived in the 400 years of safety Loki’s spells had given it. A world that had sacrificed its secrecy and safety to protect the cities and towns of earth against a universal threat. He told the story of his own rise and fall all done in the name of the magical world. He told the world about the final spell he cast, the one that was tampered with, that caused him to believe the lie he’d told the rest of the universe. And how the grief and guilt of that genocide led him to earth for revenge once he was driven mad by Thanos himself.

Loki ended his message with a plea.

“Do not fear the magical world. You have lived among them your entire lives, they are your fathers, your brothers, your sisters, you mothers, your neighbors and coworkers and friends. For four centuries they have hidden this part of themselves from you to protect their children. Despite the fear they had of revealing themselves, the risk it presented, they still gave up that secret when it meant saving your cities and families. For four centuries this world has been split in half due to prejudice and fear, but it does not need to be so any longer. Remember the stories you all have of old, the stories of your ancestors who could do brilliant things. The stories of seers and prophets and mages and healers and monks. Those were real. They can be real again.”

Loki’s voice was like liquid silver, filling those who heard it, even through the poorest of speakers, with hope and strength. He used all of his power as a god to banish fear and uncertainty and plant seeds of growth and unity for the planet he had had the largest hand in cleaving in two, centuries before.

“Think of how many of you have asked for Holly Potter to come help you with something. You want her to heal, fix, and protect your world. But there are millions of Holly Potters out there, although perhaps not as fantastical as her, she is unique in every world she resides in. But there are healers, and fixers, and researchers, and scientists, and athletes all with magic at their fingertips who can help you and you can help them. This world can grow together once more and become powerful and grand and wonderful, just as it was meant to be.”

Then Loki’s face turned serious and somber, something that was only heightened by the destruction he stood within.

“But be warned, I created the statute once and I can certainly do it again. I will not tolerate the harm of children, magical or mundane. Do not strive for war or discourse for if you do, I will take away magic once again. You will be made to forget all of the wonderful things magic can do. You will lose the dragons and unicorns and witches and wizards. You will lose the magic that is your inheritance once more. Your world will be left broken and weak, unable to function properly while missing a vital piece of itself. So, I suppose the question you have to ask yourself is this: Is ignorance truly bliss?”

And for the majority of humanity, the answer was a big fat no.

Part of it was that Loki hadn’t been wrong when he’d said magic users were the brothers, fathers, sisters, and mothers of the world. No one had quite realized the extent of the muggles ‘in the know’ when it came to the statute. It had happened gradually over the past 400 years with each muggleborn child brought into the secret. Parents would have to be told along with siblings, and parents would inevitably tell their own siblings and parents to ask if perhaps there was any mention of magic in the family tree somewhere. So, cousins and second cousins thrice removed might hear about magic within a few years, gently traveling along the grapevine of familial connection.

Of course, sometimes people reacted poorly and when they did, it was practice for the magical government to remove the memory and keep them ignorant. So, from the magical governments perspective they only had reports of the families of muggleborns reacting violently or abusively and none of the reports of genuine acceptance. But there were far more people who seemed to get used to the idea of magic, and the idea of their brother or sister or cousin or mother or father having it. It was a shock of course, but not an insurmountable one.

Then witches and wizards would find muggles to love and marry, bringing more and more muggles into the secret. It was almost funny to look back on it, how many muggles had done everything in their power to keep the secret of magic from neighbors and friends who were doing the very same thing.

It wasn’t that everyone knew of course. There was still quite a sizable portion of the global population who had been entirely blindsided by the magical world. But for the most part those people knew people who knew about magic. There were celebrities who admitted that they had a sibling with magic or a friend who was a dab hand with potions. There were red-headed squib accountants living in Bristol who just so happened to be named Weasley more than happy to explain to their coworker that the magical world can be scary yes but it’s not evil, it’s quite grand really. That sort of thing.

Of course, Loki still had a lot of damage control to do on both sides. There were purebloods that were practically frothing at the mouth now that the statute was gone. And the same people who had been yelling at their elected officials about Holly being the spawn of Satan for having magic were not in any way pleased. It was still Loki’s hope that given time the fervor would calm, and peace would reign. Now that the statute was gone, he found he didn’t want to raise it up again. He wanted this world not to need it to keep the peace.

There was more chaos beyond that of course. Cities had been damaged from the worldwide invasion. The damage in Death Valley was extensive and there was a lot of dead fighters on their side that needed to be identified and buried. Not to mention the near astronomical levels of injured who needed care and help. A majority of the Avengers themselves were injured and needed time to recuperate. Magical healers and muggle doctors who hadn’t already been stationed in Death Valley had streamed in to help with the load, creating an insane concoction of people who were experts in their respective fields delighting in the opportunity to learn and discover more and more ways to heal and mend a body.

Not to mention they had to tell Teddy the news.

The young wizard had blatantly refused to believe them when they told him what had happened to Holly. They explained as gently as they could that they didn’t know where Holly was and that while they knew she still existed it was impossible to say when or if she’d be able to come home.

“You’re lying,” Teddy told them. “You’re lying and you’re wrong.”

“Teddy.” Ron said, reaching out to the black-haired youth.

“No! Holly will be home soon! You’re all wrong and… and stupid!”

Before any of them could stop him, he went to skulk with Lila out in Clint’s barn, unwilling to talk to them about Holly unless it was to reaffirm his belief that his godmother would be home soon. There was no other reality that Teddy would even tolerate in his presence. It was hard, trying to figure out how to move forward in a world like that. Where only children were certain that Holly could or ever would come back to earth. Loki had spent much of his life exploring the Yggdrasil in this dimension and he could only imagine how disorienting it would be in whatever dimension Holly’s bodiless form had been sent to.

How odd it was, for a god to lack faith.

Despite whatever confusing words of advice Death had given Holly on the beach, Loki highly doubted Holly knew where to go to find someone who could build her a new body. And making one herself might take decades or centuries. If she could even manage to make a functioning one at all. They all wondered if there was any way to help her, or send a message to her. But they couldn’t even figure out where she was. All attempts at tracking her magic brought up nothing.

It was as if she had disappeared completely, leaving only behind those who loved her and bits of things she’d enchanted or charmed for them to hold onto.

It hurt. It really did. Even as the world began to calm; cities repaired, funerals held, and injuries healed. Loki himself worked hard to keep the peace between the two worlds he himself had separated. Thor worked with Carol on herding their alien allies around, sending some home and offering shelter to others. Natasha and Clint worked with SHIELD and other government agencies to help keep panic down and combat misinformation. Ron and Hermione did the same in the magical world. Tony and Bruce tried to help the healers and muggle doctors who were working on injured patients work together, something that worked better on some days than others. Winter and Steve were working with Wakanda and also helping with as much clean up as they could manage.

As each day passed, they grew more and more weary and mournful. Despite Loki’s claim that this hadn’t been the plan and that it wasn’t his fault, the guilt rose within him with each day without word from Holly. The others who hadn’t known the plan at all weren’t free from the horror of it either. Winter took it hard as well. Despite having much, if not all, of his programming removed, it was clear that the man did not like losing people he deemed under his care.

That wasn’t to say they weren’t all mourning. They were. Avengers Tower became a dark, gloomy place without it’s cleaning lady to house it. Loki could almost feel Jarvis’ grief in the air of the hallways. It did not help that both worlds were clamoring for Holly to speak out and give direction and advice. They got away with telling people that Holly was recovering from destroying Thanos for the first few days, but eventually people wanted to know where the Avenger and Savior of the Wizarding World was.

What could they say? That her body had been destroyed but don’t worry she’s not dead because she’s actually a cosmic entity that likely can’t truly die. They had no idea where she actually was or how she existed without a physical form? Was Loki supposed to tell the world that the voice in his head that may or may not actually be his dead best friend was assuring him that Holly was just fine?

Would I lie to you? She’s hugging her dad right now Loki!

 They managed to fend people off for the most part, telling everyone that she was on the planet where Thanos had been destroyed, helping to repair the damage from the magic. Only the people who loved Holly and knew her closely knew the truth. They had all felt that last embrace from her spirit before her destruction. When Loki thought of that embrace, he would often feel entirely choked up and unable to function. He had felt so loved, so accepted by Holly in that moment, fighting side by side Thor and hoping against hope that their plan would work.

Would he ever feel her again? Had he wasted his chance with the last Potter? Would the world ever know Holly’s wonderful wit again? Or was that it. Was she going to be gone in some strange dimension far from them for the rest of time? Was this how Ralston had felt when Loki had failed to return to earth? A constant wondering that was filled with grief and fear.

He didn’t like to think about that.

He didn’t like to think about much at all.

July passed by in mourning. No one felt as if they’d won despite Thanos and his forces being finally put to rest. The knowledge that the entire universe was better off because of what they did was worthless to them when combined with how much they all missed Holly. She had touched them all so deeply. Loki found himself speaking with Steve about his painting class with Holly and how she had helped him face the future in a way he hadn’t been able to on his own. How she’d healed Peggy, just so he could get his chance to speak with her. Winter was still and quiet in his grief, and could often be found beating punching bags late at night. Bruce and the Hulk both poured out their gratitude for Holly’s guidance as they found their way into accepting who they were apart and together. Clint’s entire family wouldn’t stop mourning for the woman who had helped Lila and Clint see magic for the beautiful thing it was. Nat never stopped wearing her sweater. Loki drank a lot of mead with Thor who wept into his knitting. Even Carol, who hadn’t known her for long, felt strangely bereft at the loss of another woman so similar to herself.

Holly’s magical friends and family seemed even more bereft. A best friend of nearly two decades was gone. Exploded into light and energy and perhaps never to return. Teddy dealt with it the worst, refusing to discuss his godmother’s disappearance. His grandmother and him remained on the Barton Farm, and often Teddy would spend his time with Lila, wandering the farm and insisting that Holly would be back today, and if not today then tomorrow. Eventually he got it into his head that Holly would be home by her birthday, insisting that she had always spent her birthday with him and that she wouldn’t miss it this year.

It was painful. It got more so when he convinced them to plan for a birthday party in Avengers Tower. He wanted to have a cake and gifts for her, ready for her return. Something all of them cringed at the idea of being a part of. Still somehow none of them managed to stop him. So, there was a cake, frosted red and gold and ready for consumption, bright and early on July 31^st and there was a pile of gifts for a friend that they feared they’d never see again.

Then of course, a phone rang.

“Sir.” Jarvis choked out.

“Yeah Jarv?”

“I’ve just received a call from Holly.”

“What?” Everyone shrieked.

“She’s in Central Park and she can’t get to the Tower on her own.”

“Give me her coordinates.” Loki ordered getting up and pushing past his shock as quickly as possible.

“I’m coming with!” Teddy shouted, grabbing Loki’s hand fiercely as Jarvis gave out the coordinates of Holly’s phone. Loki didn’t bother to argue, merely pulling the other shapeshifter closer to him and immediately teleporting from the tower to the nearby park.

Sure, enough there she was. Laying on the grass looking almost like the first time he’d seen her, in this same exact park. She was wearing Ralston’s armor, or rather her armor really. The armor Hela insisted had been destroyed on Hel. Her long messy black hair was in an intricate braid and there was smudged make-up on her face as if she too had been crying for the past month. She had Steve’s art case slung across her chest.

“Holly!” Teddy shouted, running right towards her prone figure. The 12-year-old wizard jumped onto the woman who called out to him and hugged him the moment she could.

“Oh, teddy bear,” She cooed as Teddy burst into tears and sobbed into her armored chest. The art case having been shoved to the side. “I’m sorry, I’m here, I came back as soon as I could.”

“Everyone said you were gonna be gone forever!”

“As if I’d ever leave you for that long.”

Loki didn’t realize he was crying until the sob crawled out of him like a wounded dying animal. Her voice was the same, the same arrogant smile that only came out after having done something entirely impossible was right there on her painfully familiar face. Holly looked over at him, and instead of pushing up and moving towards him, motioned him towards her a look of concern on her face.

“I’m sorry. I’ve not eaten or rested since the fight,” She said. “I’m a bit wrung out.”

“We’ve got cake!” Teddy told her.

“Cake?”

“It’s your birthday! I knew you wouldn’t miss it. We always celebrate it together.”

“Oh,” She sniffed. “Well…”

Loki walked towards her and knelt down, without warning he picked up both Holly and the boy she was cradling to her chest into his arms. Both yelped in shock but Loki’s grip was strong enough to keep them in the air. He held her protectively to his chest, afraid now that he held her to let her be even an inch apart from him.

“We are going directly back into the tower,” Loki began, his voice strained with the sobs he hadn’t let escape. “And you, Miss Holly Potter, are going to get cleaned up, and dressed into some pajamas. Then we are going to feed you. Not cake, but some soup and bread. Then Holly is going to rest. All of us are going to rest in fact. I won’t hear a word of argument about it either.”

“Wasn’t planning on arguing.” She said smiling up at him.

“Liar.”

She grinned as Loki took them directly back to the tower which was now swarming with anxious avengers and magic users. Before Loki could make good on his word and get Holly cleaned up and out of her armor, they were swamped with people all reaching out to Holly. Loki was forced towards a couch where Thor made him deposit Holly and Teddy down. Teddy refused to be removed from his godmother’s embrace, so they were all forced to hug and greet Holly around him and the awkwardly placed art case.

Ron and Hermione stuffed themselves onto the couch Holly had been settled on, with Hermione at the woman’s feet carefully removing her boots and Ron cradling her head in his lap while attempting to magic free the art case so it would stop digging into her side. No one could stop asking Holly where she’d been or what had happened to her or if she was really okay. Steve looked confused as to why she had his case with her at all.

A light thundercloud formed above their heads and began to rain down fat happy droplets of water as Thor cried with relief.

“Everyone!” Loki shouted. “Settle down!”

The crowd quieted and looked over at Loki, some of them glaring at him for interrupting their reunion.

“She hasn’t eaten or rested since the fight with Thanos. So, let’s give her some room to rest and have some soup or something simple. I think getting some more comfortable clothing would be good as well.”

Upon being given a goal to help care for their friend, everyone’s exultant energy was immediately transformed into purpose. Holly, surprisingly, didn’t argue as some of her friends retrieved clothing for her and others used magic to clean her up and switch out her armor with the more comfortable items. She didn’t raise the fuss she normally would upon having Steve, Thor, and Winter bring as many pillows as they could find to create a throne-like nest for her to lounge in and eat. She only had Teddy move to cuddle her side and took the bowl of soup that Tony brought over with a grateful, and slightly tired smile.

He wondered what had happened to her to make her so docile, had she been injured? Or traumatized?

Honestly, I’m hurt you would even think that! I took good care of my granddaughter.

Loki took in a deep breath, it was time.

“Holly.” Loki said causing the woman to look up from her soup.

“Yes?”

“Where were you? Did you…meet anyone?”

An impish smile stole over her face at the question and he could almost feel Ralston’s own amusement warming the back of his mind up.

“I met a lot of someones,” She answered. “Anyone you had in mind specifically?”

There was something about the way she asked the question, perhaps it was the glint in her green eyes or the way she held her body that made Loki spasm with realization.

“You were with him!” He shouted. “He’s real!”

“Of course, he is.”

Of course, I am.

“Ahhh!” Loki shouted. “For months! Months I’ve suffered and you didn’t think to tell me you horrid man! I can’t believe I ever considered you a friend, that you would tease me like this!”

Holly’s grin only grew as he ranted, the other Avengers looked far more lost about it.

“Loki?” Thor asked, reaching out to him as if to stop him from flying off a proverbial edge. “What’s happening?”

“What’s happening is that for the past year I’ve been hearing Ralston Potter’s voice in my head and I thought I was going crazy! But no! The bastard was actually talking to me this entire time, from the norns forsaken afterlife! As a prank!”

In my defense, it was funny.

“Yeah, Ralston is anything but norns forsaken.” Holly told him, making him want to squeal like a kettle going off.

“You met him.”

“He helped me get my body.”

“You met him, and the universe didn’t implode on itself?”

“Hey!” She said. “It was fine! We only pranked a cosmic entity and tricked Death together.”

“You what?” Five different people screamed.

Holly only grinned and took a large sip of her soup.

Chapter 79: Are we Done?

Summary:

Holly is back, the team is together, and... somehow it seems like she stumbled upon peace.

Notes:

We're really doing it folks. After over a year of writing weekly updates we're facing the end. Only the epilogue left.

The story came out over the next several hours. There was, as it turned out, a lot to share on both sides. Bits and pieces of what they had been doing in the last month came out over bowls of soup and mugs of tea. Messages were sent to Sam Wilson and the many members of the DA who had come out of retirement to fight by Holly’s side once again letting them know she was back and safe. They’d received messages back which all boiled down to saying that they had never expected anything less of her.

And despite Loki’s orders, they all had cake.

Holly at first wasn’t really sure how to begin to explain what she’d experienced in the last month. She’d seemingly run an emotional marathon across multiple different dimensions and now all she wanted to do was rest. She almost wished she still had to go into magical comas, if only because that would force her to rest without interruption for a few days. But she didn’t need the coma anymore and her friends, her family, needed answers.

So once Loki had finished sputtering about how Ralston had been pranking him this whole time, Holly started by telling them what had happened in Hel. Of course her story was interrupted almost immediately by the bizarre news that Hela was currently helping the spirits Holly had created by using the reality stone to change Hel into a suitable environment for the billions of beings who now had nowhere else to go.

“So…she’s ruling them.” Holly said.  

“What?” Thor asked. “No! She’s…helping them.”

“Does she honestly seem like the person to help anyone?” Tony asked.

“Well how else would you describe it?” Loki asked. “She doesn’t have to do any of it. It’s not like the spirits will starve if left alone.”

“It’s kind.” Thor insisted.

“I don’t know if I’d describe your sister as kind.” Holly drawled.

“Are you seriously going to free her?” Winter asked.

“It was part of the deal, she was the only person I knew of that would be powerful enough to kill him and would be out of the way enough for Thanos not to think of,” Holly said. “But she and I are going to have a talk before I do. If she tries to invade anywhere, then she’ll face me and even if I can’t kill her, I can make her hurt. I’m also going to extract a promise that she leave earth and Asgard alone.”

There wasn’t much they could do, the deal had already been made. And with how Hela was acting around the spirits, most of them secretly thought she wouldn’t be much of a problem at all. Holly took a few sips of her soup and then continued, telling them about finding herself connecting with the Yggdrasil itself and helping to stabilize it in the aftermath of Thanos’ actions.

She hadn’t been herself then, there had been no thoughts or concept of time. She and the Yggdrasil were one and she was a mere force within it, helping it grow and thrive. After about seven days of that, the world tree had settled and let Holly go. She then described her throne room and the guest she’d found waiting on the steps leading up to her throne.

The story was then interrupted by Loki who needed to rant about Ralston and demand answers to all of his questions immediately. Was Ralston okay? How was he able to contact Loki? Why was he there and not the afterlife? What was going on with his best friend?

Holly told him. She struck him nearly dumb as she told a story of the norns stealing Ralston’s soul from his body right before Death could and offering him the chance to help Holly and stop Thanos from destroying the universe. Ralston had taken the offer, sipped from the well of fate, and become something more than human. This of course made Tony start to giggle, with disbelief and relief all wrapped into one.

“So, you mean to tell me that all the crazy shit you get up to? That’s just being a Potter?” Tony demanded, chortling as hard as he could. So hard in fact that he felt against Clint who started to giggle too. All of them were settled comfortably around the couch Holly had been settled on.

“You’ve no idea, Tony.”

Teddy had tired himself out, from his intense cuddling session with Holly. The emotions of her coming home, finally, and just as he was about to lose hope had proven to be truly exhausting. The 12-year-old was still laid out on the couch next to her, and he was awake seemingly out of pure will, desperate not to miss a bit of her story.

Everyone else was settled on the surrounding couches and conjured pillows and chairs. Everyone had blankets and somehow, magically Holly assumed, more and more food was appearing. Her friends were also slowly changing from their day clothing to loungewear without seeming to leave the nest Tony’s penthouse was transforming itself into. She suspected Jarvis was dimming the lights and blocking messages to keep things comfortable for all of them as the day went on. If Holly had been less exhausted, she would have noticed Ron, Hermione, and Loki summoning the food and helping various other Avengers change clothing upon near silent request.

Holly continued her story, trying to explain everything she could without crying again. Her hair was still in the braid Lavender had done and part of her wondered how long she could keep it that way. She pushed forward, telling them about the Nexus she went to, the Tribunal Bar as Ralston had called it. She explained to them how she, Life, had become a cryptid for cosmic entities and how she was able to purchase a custom physical form.

“And that’s why I had Steve’s art case. I needed a reference. Sorry about the painting you made of me, it got fried in the body building process.”

“You used my art?” Steve asked.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to use anything else.”

Steve had to hug her after that and explain how stressed he’d been when the painting had disappeared nearly three weeks earlier. The conversation had then shifted to the team and her friends telling her how busy and stressed and worried they’d been over the past month as the statute of secrecy was fully removed and the world had to be repaired from the global invasion. Holly listened and drank her soup as they told her of the chaos and tension between two worlds trying to meld together into one after over 400 years of separation.

When that finished and Holly’s soup had been replaced with some cake and a large plate piled high with more food, Holly told them of Ralston’s final surprise. The entire team settled down in silence, their faces growing more and more awed as Holly revealed just exactly where Ralston had led her.

“I finally got to meet them,” She sniffed, rubbing her eyes clear with the back of a hand. “They were all there. My parents. My grandparents. Sirius and Remus and Tonks. Cedric. The DA. They were all there. I’m afraid I might have…lost track of time a bit while I was there.”

It was so easy to describe it all, the wonderful Potter Picnic that had been held just for her. Tell them about her parents and the entire family lineage that she had been so painfully cut off from. She found herself telling them about the hugs and the love and the wonderful joy she’d felt while there. She told Ron and Hermione how Colin and the others were doing which made the two of them tear up as well. She passed along the message that Remus and Tonks had left for Teddy making the young shapeshifter cry a bit too.

“You didn’t want to come back,” Ron said, as Holly’s description slowed down. “You’ve got the same look on your face that you did when you found the mirror of erised.”

“It was hard to leave,” Holly told them, the honesty scraping at her very core. It had been hard, part of her was still mourning that she wasn’t there anymore. “but I love you all, and I wouldn’t, couldn’t have left you forever. I’m sorry I was gone so long. I really didn’t notice that I’d been in there for weeks until Ralston pulled me out of there.”

“You came back,” Jarvis said, his voice gruff and painfully sincere. “That’s what matters.”

“He’s right,” Tony said. “I remember how I felt with my mom when you called her with the stone, it was nearly impossible to get pulled out of that trance. You got out and you came back here.”

Holly swallowed around the lump in her throat and put the final bite of cake into her mouth to avoid saying something too soppy. She looked out around her friends who were all awake still, even Teddy although that was only just barely. They were tired, their limbs loose and slow, the feast that had been gathered was all gone into their stomachs.

It didn’t take much convincing at all to fall asleep right there.

Holly and Teddy drifted off first, both truly exhausted, and the others, unwilling to leave them alone, drifted off too. All comfortable and warm with Jarvis watching over them. Holly drifted into the depths of slumber, surrounded by the people she loved most in the world.

Then, without any clear reason at all, she woke up.

Only a few hours later her eyes fluttered open to reveal a darkened penthouse with the only lights coming from the city below. Holly licked her dry lips and wondered why she’d woken. She was warm, and Teddy was a comforting weight on her side. She sighed and let her eyes slip shut again. A fission of energy traveled down her spine and her eyes shot open.

What was that?

“Jarvis?” She whispered.

“Yes Miss?” He responded in the same quite tone, hoping not to wake anyone.

“Are your sensors picking up anything… odd?”

She waited for a moment, not surprised when Jarvis came back telling her that all was well.

“Is something the matter?”

“Something woke me.” She said.

Another bit of that energy sparked through her and she twitched. She frowned and tried to follow that energy, it had a familiar tang to it but her mind couldn’t seem to place it. It took a few more of the shocks, each one getting more and more insistent until the taste in the back of her mouth rang a bell.

Oh.

“Miss?” Jarvis asked. “Do we need to wake the others?”

“No. It’s Death. She wants to chat. I doubt it’ll take long.” She told him before pausing and looking around. They had all been so worried and Sam had been constantly telling her that their worries were signs of their love for her. That she should respect that and them as her friends. “But I should wake them and tell them that before I go, right?”

“That would be the responsible thing to do.”

“Right.”

Holly gently kicked at the nearest body to her’s that wasn’t Teddy’s. It just so happened to be Nat’s. The woman jerked awake immediately, body already tensing and ready to spring into action.”

“Nat,” Holly whispered, causing the woman to turn to look at her, the tension in her body not abating. “Death’s calling me up for a chat.”

Nat untensed a bit at that. Holly swallowed and continued.

“I should probably go and see what she wants I don’t think it’ll take long.”

“You woke me up to tell me that?”

“Figured I should tell someone other than Jarvis before I go off and do something stupid.”

Nat stared at her for a moment before her lips quirked up a bit.

“Remind me to send Sam some flowers.”

“What?”

“Clearly he’s a miracle worker if you’re telling us something.”

“Oh, very funny.”

“I thought so.”

Holly rolled her eyes but carefully shifted around so that Teddy was no longer on top of her. Nat helped her get up and the two of them stood together for a moment.

“If I’m not back in an hour, go ahead and sound the alarm, but it really should be fine.”

“Holly would you mind wearing a tracker?” Jarvis asked. “I know the first one I made was destroyed as you were defeating Thanos, but we have plenty of simples ones you can fit inside a pocket.”

“Of course.” Holly agreed immediately, it felt like after everything that that was the least she could do. Nat quickly got one of the trackers while Holly changed into something more suitable for travel. Holly still felt a bit woozy, but the short rest she’d gotten along with the food had revived her enough.

“I’ll keep watch, makes sure no one freaks out if they wake to find you gone,” Nat promised.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I don’t think she’s upset, she’s no reason to be.”

“You did break into the afterlife.”

“But she doesn’t know that.”

Unless she did.

Holly refused to entertain the path that thought created and instead took the tracker from Nat and let herself apparate from New York straight to Godric’s Hollow. Unlike every other time she’d been there, the sight of her childhood home didn’t feel her with immediate pain and regret. She could look at the Potter Home and see it for the empty husk that it was, it was a place her parents had once lived, but it was not where they were now. Her parents were happy and they loved her, they’d been watching over her for her whole life, and she didn’t need to weep at the sight of what could have been.

What was, was just fine for her.

She walked up the steps to the home and pushed open the door, unsurprised to find Death sitting in the same chair she had been last time. This time she was in a younger form, closer to a teen in age if Holly had to guess, with tanned skin and dark hair buzzed close to the skull. She was wearing black jeans and a ripped t-shirt.

“Hello Lady Life.”

“Lady Death.” Holly greeted with a slight nod of her head.

“Sit, we should talk.”

Holly conjured a chair and took a seat right across from Death. Death looked over at Holly’s body and lifted up an eyebrow that had a line through the middle shaved off.

“I thought you might try for some variety with this new body.”

“Why mess with a classic?” Holly asked. “I happen to like the way I look.”

“Hmm,” Death shrugged after a moment. It was clear she didn’t agree, saw a body as a temporary accessory and nothing more. “Either way, I’m glad you were able to follow my directions and purchase yourself a new body.”

“It only took me a month to manage it.”

“Oh, I would have stepped in if you’d floundered too terribly,” Death assured her in a tone that was not at all comforting. “Eventually that is.”

“You’re too kind,” Holly drawled. “Speaking of stepping in, I ran into another entity that gave me the creeps, might have told him I was one of your underlings just to get him to leave me alone.”

“Who?”

Holly then described Eternity as best she could and Death made a face once she knew who Holly was talking about.

“Eternity is not someone you should bother with. As I’ve told you before, we are above him and his petty concerns.”

“Noted. Was that all you wanted to talk about? My new body?”

“No. I came to speak with you about the situation in Hel.” She said. “I understand why you did what you did, it was a clever solution, but those spirits do not belong there.”

“What exactly do you want me to do about it?” Holly asked. “They’re there, out of the way of anything and everyone. They can’t bother or hurt anyone.”

“They belong in my care.”

“I understand that. But I can’t send them on without sending them all on and…well you know how that would go.”

Death didn’t shudder but Holly had a feeling it was a close thing. Holly frowned and ran a hand through her hair, careful not to dislodge too much of her messed braid. Part of her wondered why Death had called on her at all if she already knew the entire situation? Was it just to complain to her? Was this going to be her existence now? Being Death’s sounding board?

“The spirits are on Hel. A dead world, couldn’t you just…consider it part of your domain? I dunno build a throne somewhere and call it the afterlife,” Holly suggested. “The only living person on that planet is Hela and she’ll be off it soon enough.”

Death considered that, shifting in her chair a bit.

“That could work. Hela is the goddess of death, her domain becoming my own would have a poetic ring to it.”

“Well I’m glad that’s solved,” Holly said. “I’ll let Hela know that-”

“No. Don’t speak to her at all,” Death said. “I’ll do it myself.”

 “But-” Death gave her a look and Holly’s nostrils flared. “You’re not to kill her.”

“Is that your one complaint? You don’t want to tell me not to ally myself with her?”

“I wouldn’t dream of telling you want to do.”

“And yet you just did. For Hela of all people,” Death said. “How fascinating.”

“Is that all?”

“For now. Oh, Holly I do believe we’re going to get along splendidly.”

“For the Yggdrasil’s sake I hope you’re right,” Holly responded. “And next time you want to talk? Please just send me a text.”

“Ha! Death texting? Can you imagine it!”

In all the meeting took less than fifteen minutes and Holly came out of it with the firm belief that Death had no clue about the hole in the afterlife that her ancestors had made. Holly left Godric’s Hollow with something like a skip in her step. It took less than a moment for her to go back to the tower, and she found that everyone had stayed asleep, with only Nat and Jarvis awake.

“That was quick.” Nat said.

“What did Death want?”

“To complain about the fact that there were a bunch of spirits not in the afterlife where they belong,” Holly answered. “We settled it. At least I think we did. I don’t think there are going to be any universe rending events anytime soon.”

“That’s a relief.” Nat said.

“One of those was more than enough.”

“Couldn’t agree more Jarvis,” Holly said, before wiggling her fingers to replace her clothing with some pajamas. She settled back down onto the couch, while Nat got comfortable again on her own nest of pillows and blankets. “You know it just occurred to me.”

“What did?” Nat asked.

“Well, Hydra is gone. So are the Death Eaters. Thanos and his ilk are finished too.”

“So?”

“So, I think we might be done.”

The moment the words left her lips she felt something like peace fill her body. They might be done. Not in a hopelessly naïve way where there was a larger danger just around the corner. This wasn’t like her youth where she’d defeat Voldemort right before final exams and go back to Privet Drive to be traumatized in a different way. They could actually be done, find peace here with each other. Peace and healing.

 “Done?”

“Yeah. Done. Really what else is there to fight?”

“Our inner demons?”

“Hey, I’ve already got a therapist for that.”

Nat snorted and fully relaxed, her face looked softer than Holly had ever seen it before.

“We still have the tension between the magical and muggle world. The muggle world is pretty afraid. And frightened people do really stupid things.”

Holly stretched out along the couch, letting Teddy naturally snuggle back into her side. The room was dark and cool, and everything suddenly felt possible. The future was bright and smooth and welcoming.

“We just need to give the muggles something to like.” Holly decided.

“Oh? Like what?”

Holly let a smile grace her face, it was smug and brilliant and excited.

“I’ve got just the thing.”

Exactly two and a half weeks later, the Quidditch World Cup was held in Germany. It was being played by the Heidelberg Harriers from Germany and the Fitchburg Finches from the United States. The Cup had been delayed due to the whole statute of secrecy thing, but thankfully Holly still had enough time to get magically warded recording equipment, and convince a bunch of muggle sports stations that this was not a game to miss.

Muggles all around the world were excited to tune into watch a sport unlike any they’d ever heard of. A majority of them were convinced to give it a try upon having the whole concept of a game played on flying brooms explained to them. Holly had contacted each team and asked if they’d be willing to be a part of her “diplomatic plans” and they’d all been more than happy to be the sports stars they were and do interviews with muggle journalists talking about Quidditch and how fun and exhilarating it was.

Holly herself had personally walked through how Quidditch worked in explicit detail with at least 40 different sports anchors and assigned quidditch players with those anchors to help properly narrate the game. When the game started there would be broadcasts all around the world, just like the Football World Cup had. It was going to be perfect, Holly just knew it. The other Avengers had helped her build up the game, even though none of them had seen a quidditch match before either. Holly just told them to trust her.

Holly and the others were in one of the best seats, a perfect box for them to use to watch the game. Holly was beside herself with excitement. The Weasleys and plenty others were in the nearby boxes. All of Holly’s loved ones wandering about between the boxes and talking about who they thought might win and how brilliant the game was going to be. Holly even got to see Viktor, who’s team had just barely failed to qualify for the finals this year. He didn’t seem upset though, but that was probably because if his team had gotten in he would have had to do a lot of extra interviews, which Viktor had never liked.

Oliver Wood was another person she hadn’t seen in a while. His team hadn’t gotten as far into the finals as Viktor’s and he was just as sore about that as he had been about their team’s failures as school children.

“If you’d try out as seeker, I know we’d steal the win next year.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Hey!” Clint said. “No stealing, that’s our team mate.”

“She was mine first. Holly I know you saved the universe and all but you’re wasted as a superhero. You’ve got to play quidditch!”

“You’re not the first person to tell me that Oliver.” Holly said, thinking about her dad’s grinning face.

When the announcer told everyone to settle down and began announcing the teams, Holly made everyone sit down so that they could watch properly. She sat next to Teddy near the front, on her wrist was a new bracelet that Jarvis had made for her. This one allowed Jarvis to watch things through a small, but very nice camera. She placed her hand in a way to make sure he would see the game too.

“Now pay attention,” Holly told the Avengers. “This is the greatest game of all time. You’re going to love it!”

The closest the Avengers had ever come to a quidditch game was a seekers match that she’d played with Loki and Tony. It wasn’t the same as a fully fledged game, not even close. The announcer announced the American team first. The Finches flew out into the pitch surrounded by a rainbow of birds, all magically singing a tune, their theme Holly assumed. The birds flew high into the air and burst into fireworks upon finishing the song, forming pretty pictures in the sky.  

Once the team had done their victory lap and settled down, the Harrier came out next. They flew high into the sky and then dived down, all seven of them executing perfect Wronski Feints while the sounds of falcons shrieking filled the air. It was all very artistic and awe inspiring to watch. The pageantry took a while to calm down as the crowds of magic users cheered and set off spells into the air to show their support for their chosen team. There were enchanted banners and flags on display, along with painted faces and colorful clothing.

The referee came out carrying an ornate box, with the balls nestled safely inside. Holly leaned forward in her seat as the two teams got into position. The box was put down and Holly held her breath.

Then the first quidditch game ever recorded and played for a muggle audience began.

A bang went off as the balls erupted, Holly’s eyes immediately darting around trying to spot the snitch before it became nearly invisible in the tumult. Almost immediately the bludgers went after a couple of the Finches, nearly knocking one of the chasers off their broom before they could even get air born. The players managed to dodge and soon they were fighting for control of the quaffle as the beaters sent the bludgers a bit further away from their teams.

Holly and Teddy happily explained what was going on to the team, while getting progressively more and more feral as the quaffle was tossed about. When the Harriers scored the first ten points of the game Holly and about half the stadium cheered so loudly as to make the earth itself rumble. It didn’t take long for a majority of the team to get into it as well, buying into Holly’s enthusiasm and cheering for the teams as points were scored and bludgers were hit. She kept her eyes out for the snitch, hoping to spot it before the seekers did.

A bludger rammed into the side of a Harrier Chaser, the crowds screamed in shock as the chaser began an uncontrolled descent to the ground. A beater from both teams flew forward to catch the chaser but didn’t have to as the chaser got their broom under control and managed to keep playing. The game continued with the stakes growing higher and higher with each score. It was exhilarating and brilliant and wonderful. She felt so light and happy as she cheered at every swoop and swing and block. She could feel the excitement of all the people she cared about, even the ones who weren’t living any longer, buoying her up.

In the end the game lasted for an exhilarating 120 minutes, during which time the Finches got 80 points and the Harriers got 110. However, the Finches’ seeker managed to catch the snitch in a head to head race with the Harrier’s resulting in the Harrier seeker nearly crashing into the crowds below. With the snitch caught the game was won and the Finches took the trophy. Holly had screamed herself nearly hoarse by that point, more than pleased by the results. The crowds seemed to agree as they screamed and shouted their congratulations at the victors.

Holly came back to herself to see that Tony was staring at his phone with something like awe in his eyes.

“I can’t believe that worked.”

“What worked?”

“Quidditch and Magical World are both trending on twitter. The game’s just ended and people are frothing at the mouth for more. For the past month people have done nothing but complain about magic and complain about people complaining about magic on here.”

“Well Tony, it’s pretty simple. If there’s anything in the whole world that could make people love magic, it’s got to be quidditch.”

Tony rolled his eyes while the others laughed. Holly giggled herself and went over to Ron, Hermione, and baby Rose who had somehow slept through much of the chaos. Holly joined her best friends with a sense of happiness suffusing her entire being. She might have been glowing just a bit from the endorphins of a quidditch game well played and a fun time had by all. She gently scooped up the baby from Ron’s arms and cooed at her goddaughter.

She remembered the blessing she’s given this baby just months ago. A promise for safety and comfort. She had blessed Rose with friendship and loyalty. She had wanted Rose to know love all her days. It occurred to her, surrounded by her most cherished friends and family, that that was a blessing she’d finally managed to give herself.  

Notes:

Please prepare yourself emotionally for the last chapter of this fic.

Chapter 80: A Glimpse into the Future

Summary:

In which the author bids goodbye to a story nearly two years in the making by writing out glimpses into all the smaller stories this story never got to tell. Endings can be difficult, both to write and to read, but the journey along the way makes the bittersweet end all the more worthy.

Notes:

This is it everyone, we've come to the end. I published the first chapter of this 19 months ago, in February of 2019. I'd been writing and editing the earlier chapters long before that. I'd come up with the idea for this story sometime in the fall of 2018. It, like all of the stories published here, was a brain child of my master's program. I've since completed that, and now I can say I've completed this.
As of right now, this story has 3518 public bookmarks, 15017 comments, 12613 kudos and 344501 hits making it one of the highest rated MCU/HP crossovers to date. This fic has been featured in 16 collections, and was recommended in Oprah magazine of all places.

I can't thank you all enough for the support you've given this story. I've been overwhelmed by it and it's kept me going through the most stressful parts of grad school. I've grown as an author during this time in so many ways.
Thank you! I hope to write many more stories in the future, so I hope we all have the chance to meet again.

18 Months Later

Clint woke to the sensation of a small body crawling on top of his. He barely managed to hold back a grin as his son got all the way up to where his parents were sleeping. He and Laura had been up late, her with throwing up their dinner and him with holding her hair back. Morning sickness seemed to be an all day and night sickness this go around and there was only so much potions could do if Laura couldn’t keep them down.

“Dad,” Cooper whispered. “Dad wake up.”

Clint purposefully kept his face lax as the boy kept pushing on him as quietly as he could. Cooper was old enough to understand that his mom was growing a baby and needed to be allowed to rest as much as possible. Since Clint was now staying at home full time, Cooper had happily pushed all of his needs and wants onto Clint and insisted that they helped Laura with everything.

Not that Clint was complaining.

His son was now pushing on him a bit rougher, but not rough enough to shake the mattress on Laura’s side. Clint tried to hold still but it was getting harder and harder to hold back a smile. Eventually Cooper’s nonsense got to be too much and Clint found himself grinning like a loon, his eyes still closed.

“Dad! I know you’re awake! Come on! It’s Saturday.” Cooper begged.

“And? Shouldn’t that mean we should sleep in?”

“We can call Lila!” The seven-year old insisted. “Please dad!”

Clint finally let his eyes open up at the boy who was grinning down at him.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

Clint jumped up, grabbing at his son as he did so, pulling Cooper to his chest as they got out of bed. Cooper giggled just loud enough that it probably woke Laura, but she didn’t seem too perturbed since she didn’t even move from her supine position. Clint carried his son out of the room and down the stairs towards the family computer. Tony had insisted on putting the computer together and it was a powerhouse of a machine. Far more powerful than Clint or his kids could ever need but it did look cool and it was perfect for video calling.

The two of them settled down in their seats while Clint logged onto the computer and started up the call request. There was a six hour time difference between them and Lila so while it was 8 am there it was well after lunch for her, which was when she knew to expect a call form them. It only took a few moments for the video program to connect to Hogwarts, the castle warmly greeted Clint and told him to wait while she asked Lila if she was free.

Soon enough the screen changed to show that Lila had answered the call with her cell phone. She was sitting outside, wearing a thick coat over her school robes, although the red and gold markings of her house could still be seen in the trimming (when Lila had been sorted into Gryffindor Holly had been so smug, Nat had kept insisting she’d go Slytherin).

“What are you doing outside? Isn’t it freezing in Scotland right now?”

“Hello to you too dad.” Lila said grinning.

“Hello Uncle Clint,” Teddy Lupin said from off camera. “we’re watching the ravenclaws practice! We need the tips!”

Both Lila and Teddy had tried out for quidditch this year, but the competition had been steep and they hadn’t qualified compared to the older, more agile students. Neither of them had been very down about it and had instead dedicated themselves to practicing as much as they could to try again next year. Especially since a bunch of seventh years who were on the teams would be graduating this year, freeing up a lot of spots.  

“Well you better be warm.”

“Don’t worry,” Lila said, shifting around to pick a jar full of blue flame. She held it up so Clint could see it clearly. “Aunt Hermione’s gifts are keeping us warm.”

“Lila!” Cooper said, upset by not being greeted by his older sister immediately. “Are you going to be home soon? Mom’s about to explode!”

“She’s just gotten into her second trimester buddy.”

“Is mom doing okay?” Lila asked at the same time.

Clint rolled his eyes and told her that everything was just fine back at the farm. Lila immediately relaxed and started telling them about her lessons, she’d really been enjoying her second year of magic schooling since she was finally getting the chance to learn spells more complicated than the ones Holly had been teaching her. Her first year had been a breeze since Holly had taught her a majority of the most basic charms and transfigurations before going to school. Her second year at Hogwarts had been far more interesting for her and the first part of their calls were always filled with her talking about what her lessons were like.

Then Cooper would tell her about his 2^nd grade class and how much fun he was having with his science fair project, something Bruce had been helping the boy with. The project might have been a bit over the top for a 7-year-old but Cooper was having fun so who was Clint to complain?

These weekly calls were quite possibly Clint’s favorite time of the week. He got to talk to his daughter, see her grow and become the amazing witch that Holly had told him she would become. She also got to keep up with them, know about their lives and the farm. They weren’t strangers when the school year ended and she came home, glowing with magic and confidence. Their farm was filled with magical doodads that she’d made over the summer, little reminders of her when she was gone for months at a time.

“Are you guys coming up for the next game?” Lila asked.

“I dunno. Holly might insist on it. Sort of depends on how things are going back at the tower.”

“Well you’ll still be able to watch the recording! It’s Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff so…” Teddy said pushing his way into the screen to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively. Today the kid was sporting purple hair, but it quickly changed to the Hufflepuff house colors.

“Teddy! My dad is going to cheer for Gryffindor. The clearly superior team.”

“As if!”

“Kids. You know I’m cheering for the Ravenclaws. Us birds have to stick together.”

“Dad!”

*****

Hela looked out over her kingdom.

She had told her brothers that she was born to rule and she had been right.

Granted both of them would argue that she had been wrong, and that technically it was mortal seers centuries ago who had foreseen she would be queen over the hordes of the undead.

But that was neither here nor there. Death had made Hela an offer, a kingdom of her own to rule with power and honor placed upon her. All the spirits left bodiless by Thanos’ actions were her’s to command, her’s to control. Of course, Holly had fulfilled her promise and broken the spells that kept Hela trapped, but there were billions of spirits here for her to be Queen over. She now laid claim to more than her father ever had.

She had spent these many months building up her kingdom, creating a place greater and richer than Asgard ever was.

And if that meant creating a kingdom perfect for having happy, healthy citizens?

Well that was between her and them.

*****

“Dr. Banner!”

Bruce turned around to see Healer Richards rushing down the hallway towards him.

“Grant? What’s up?”

“I’ve just had a brilliant idea! Come with me to the mind healing hall!”

The overeager healer grabbed Bruce before he could argue with him and pulled him away from the Lycanthropy wing towards a part of the hospital Bruce rarely frequented. Over the past year Bruce had been working on his lycanthropy cure. They’d been doing medical trials, hoping to perfect the potion before sending it out to other hospitals for treatment. The potion currently stopped the lunar transformation, thus stopping the spread of the curse. If they could get the potion to every werewolf every month for the next few decades, the curse would be essentially eradicated.

They would be sending out the potion within the next month if the final trials had good results and were approved.

This was perhaps the first bit of research in Bruce’s life that he didn’t feel apathetic getting to the end of. In graduate school he’d done project after project (getting 7 PhDs didn’t come from nowhere after all) but by the end of each one he’d felt drained and almost bitter about the results, more concerned with not having to look at the project any longer. This was entirely different and Bruce found himself getting involved more beyond the science, hopeful to work on government projects that would subsidize the potion for the most at-risk communities.  

Healer Richards was not on the lycanthropy unit, he was instead a mind healer who specialized in helping heal minds damaged from mind control and memory spells. He and Bruce had had lunch a few times together, with the man acting as a bit of an advisor when they were trying to make sure that the werewolves would be able to keep their sanity, even if they didn’t transform, when taking the potion. He’d been an interesting guy to talk to, Bruce had no idea why he was talking to him now.

Still Grant seemed very excited for something and Bruce let himself be pulled along. They went into the healing hall and past the various patients, some conscious and some not.

“Okay! So, you were talking to me about your attempts to communicate with the Hulk.”

“Uh huh.”

“And I had a brilliant idea!” Healer Richards said, when Bruce didn’t immediately gasp out in awe the man seemed to realize he hadn’t actually said what this ‘brilliant’ idea was. “Right. How would you, Dr. Banner, like to drink an experimental potion that will dissolve-”

“Dissolve?”

“Only slightly!”

“Dissolve what?”

“The barrier in your mind between you and the incredible Hulk of course!”

Bruce stood in the man’s office and stared at him. Grant stood still, only letting his face turn slightly to a pout, as if to make the offer of an experimental potion that might allow Bruce to have clearer conversations with the Hulk, both when the Hulk was out and when he wasn’t, more attractive.

This probably wasn’t a good idea.

Doing experiments on himself was what got him into this mess in the first place.

“Let me see the potion recipe.”

And Grant let out a victorious whoop.

*****

Sif settled onto the bar stool. Thor and Loki had returned to Asgard, they were spending a month there on request of the All-Mother. Odin All-Father had been far less outspoken about things since the destruction of his spear and the defeat of Thanos. This had made the place far more welcoming for Loki, who really only came when his mother called for him, and really tried his best to avoid most other people.

That was unless Lady Holly was there with him, then Loki became the most courteous of princes that Asgard had ever seen.

Sif sighed at the thought of her. It had been over a year, nearly two in fact, since Holly’s rejection of her and still Sif sometimes felt her mind going down paths of ‘what if?’. What if she’d met Holly before Loki had? What if Holly had been willing to give her a chance? She knew these thoughts were pointless, Holly had made her position clear and Sif was honorable enough to respect her words and thoughts.

Now if only Loki would stop lording it over her.

This was how Sif had found herself in one of lesser known Asgard’s bars tonight instead of feasting with Thor and the others. Loki had made just a few too many ‘subtle’ remarks about Holly and Sif had decided to dine elsewhere. When Thor had asked where she was going she just told him she had other plans and bid a hasty retreat, unable to deal with the uncomfortable sensation of Loki’s reminders.

It had been a year of hard introspections for Sif. Holly had truly opened her eyes to many of her own flaws and Sif had been forced to deal with that knowledge. It left her feeling uncertain of how to act around others.

Sif had never been uncertain before in her life and she did not like it one bit now.

Still, a year of thought had led her to attempting to avoid fights with Loki, and to avoid speaking poorly of more feminine tasks and traditions. She was even considering going to one of the palace weavers to ask for a lesson or two. Without her friends finding out of course, she didn’t want to join Thor’s knitting circle on earth after all. But perhaps she could learn some of the skills her mother had tried and failed to teach her so long ago. All of this seemed to have resulted in Loki limiting his teasing to a mostly manageable level. Today had been out of the ordinary. As had Loki’s suggestion that she go to this bar, one on the far side of Asgard that she’d never stepped foot in before.

She wouldn’t have gone if the location of the place hadn’t ensured that Thor and the others wouldn’t be able to track her down and demand to know what her problem was without Hiemdall’s help. Hopefully Heimdall would let her keep her privacy as she moped in a bar surrounded by strangers.

A mug was placed in front of Sif, filled to the brim with golden brown mead. She looked up in confusion, not having yet ordered anything. To her shock there was a barmaid standing right in front of her. She was petite, with long coarse hair pulled into intricate braids, her brown eyes sparkled in the light of the magical torches that lit the bar.

“A gift, from down the way.” The bar maid motioned with her free hand. Sif followed the motion to see that there was another woman looking at her. She was dressed as a fisherman, with the thick waterproof boots on her feet and thick, insulating clothing on her form to keep her dry and warm. She looked quite pretty, with blonde hair and sun-kissed skin.

“Ah. Well. Thank you.” She said taking the drink and lifting it up for the woman to see. The woman smiled at her and before Sif quite knew it, the barmaid had gone with a grin on her lips and the woman who had purchased Sif the drink had moved down to sit right by her.

“Hello,” She nearly purred. “I’m Thyra.”

Sif took a sip of her drink and put it down.

“I’m Lady Sif.” She began.

“Oh, I know that. The warrior woman,” She said, her eyes trailing down Sif’s muscular arms. Her gaze seemed almost…appreciative? “I didn’t think any other than Princess Loki had…a preference for places like this.”  

“Princess…” Sif trailed off and looked around the bar. She hadn’t noticed until that moment that there were only women inside the room, all from varying classes and professions, but all women, or at least appearing to be women. Some of the women looked quite masculine indeed.

Thyra placed a hand over Sif’s, drawing her attention away from the various women in the room. Sif nearly goggled at the hand over her’s, the reason Loki suggested she go to this bar suddenly becoming embarrassingly clear. Thyra’s face fell a bit, and she began to remove her hand from on top of Sif’s.

“I’m sorry I think I misunderstood-”

“No,” Sif said, turning her hand over to hold Thyra’s in a light grip. “You were right. I’m just…new here.”

“Ah,” The woman said, a beautiful pleased smile taking over her face. “Well then, please Lady Sif, let me show you around? You’ll find me a very enthusiastic guide.”

There was a blush high on Sif’s cheeks and a small, almost bashful smile on her face. She didn’t think she’d ever experienced that combination before. She found herself nodding in agreement and being rewarded with a beautiful woman moving to sit even closer, so that their sides brushed up against each other. Thyra then complimented the sword on her hip and asked about how well she could use it.

Perhaps Loki wasn’t as much of a prick as Sif had first believed.

*****

Steve and Winter walked up the steps to a now terribly familiar porch. Peggy was sitting on a rocking chair, drinking from a porcelain cup.

“Hello Steve, James.” She greeted, sipping on her tea.

“Ma’am.” Winter said happily.

“Hello Peggy,” Steve added. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, just fine. I’m just wondering if you two would mind helping me out with something before we have our dinner?”

“Something wrong with the house?” Winter asked.

Sometimes Peggy would have problems with her upstairs sink and recently Winter had been reading up on plumbing so he could finally fix the faucet for her. Steve had also been conscripted to repaint her house a beautiful blue just a few weeks ago. As far as Winter was aware most people were under the impression that the two of them were her nephews or perhaps grandsons. Kind young men willing to visit their elderly relative once a week and help weed the gardens.

They’d been visiting her every Saturday for months now. Steve and Winter were always there but often enough Holly or Tony would join them for dinner. Sometimes Peggy would want to visit them in Manhattan and Tony would have her picked up in style and she’d be treated to a night on the town with all of them. But Peggy, despite having been friends with Howard Stark for decades (or perhaps because of it), wasn’t the hugest fan of being treated to like that.

The weekly dinners had become something like home for Winter. Over the past year and a half, he’d been making leaps and bounds in his recovery. He rarely had flashbacks anymore and he felt like his trauma was finally settling in a way he’d never thought it would. He no longer minded if people called him Bucky or Barnes or James or Winter. They were all him now, in a way.

What’s more he now had a prosthetic that work just as he wanted, it looked nearly normal and let him tie his own shoes and make his own meals. All thanks to Tony, a man Winter had only grown closer to as their hearts had healed.

“Oh, nothing like that,” She said. “Its just. Well I got a letter from the Homeowner’s Association yesterday.”

“The what?” Steve asked.

“The Homeowner’s Association,” She repeated. “It’s a newfangled thing some American housing communities have. It’s a set of rules that all the people who own homes in this neighborhood agreed to follow. Supposed to keep the property value up or some such nonsense.”

“Okay,” Winter said. “And they sent you a letter?”

“Mhmm,” Peggy said, her brown eyes were still as shrewd as ever and promising vengeance.

It was one of those jobs then.

 “They don’t like the mural Steve did on the side wall. Said it wasn’t up to ‘regulation’.”

Steve had painted a mural for Peggy on the side of her house where she could look at it when she sat outside in her backyard for tea. It was really nice; he’d gotten much better over the months as he’d been allowed to explore his talents outside of being a super soldier. In Winter’s opinion it was a really nice piece. He’d painted a dance hall with two people dancing in the center. Peggy and Steve finally getting that dance after 70 years, a nice symbol of their changing friendship and love for each other. Winter had insisted on getting in the painting as well and so the other people in the background of the dance hall were people from the Howling Commando’s dancing with their partners. Winter himself was dancing with a dame that looked like Holly, the woman agreeing to stand in as a model for Steve as he planned out the whole thing.

“What regulation? You can barely see it from the street!” Winter demanded.

  If you were driving in one direction and you looked at just the right time you could see the mural of course, but that was only for a few moments at best.

“Yes, I know. I didn’t understand it either, but they said I had to have it painted over or I’d need to pay a 750 dollar fine to have someone else hired to paint it over.”  

“It your house Pegs.” Steve said, getting that same tone he did whenever he was faced with some form of civil injustice. “You own it, don’t you? Should be able to paint it however you want.”

“I was hoping that you’d be able to help me down to the HOA meeting they’re having in about ten minutes. Maybe we can talk about their regulations on murals and why it’s so important to me to keep it.”

Winter snorted at her tone and even Steve smiled a bit.

“Do you want us in uniform or not?”

“Well I do think the shield would help at least.”

Winter started giggling, breaking the serious tone of the conversation. Steve laughed too while Peggy told them to be serious, this was a mission after all. She wanted to be able to get a rainbow painted on the front of her house this June and she needed to get this HOA under control before then.

“Right you are Director Carter,” Winter said. “We’re always mission ready.”

“You better be.” She said grinning at them.

*****

Jarvis was comfortably settled into their room. A special room that only he and Hogwarts had access too within the castle. The students were relaxing all around them, doing homework and playing games. He’d come over to the castle supposedly to help do some system clean up since there was a bit of lag on Hogwarts’ servers. At least that’s what he told Tony before leaving.

Tony hadn’t seemed to believe him and had only told him to make sure to use protections if he was going to be playing around in her ‘servers’.

Such vulgarity.

It wasn’t as if the two of them could have children anyway. They weren’t biological beings after all. They were just two intelligences who happened to be very much in love. Currently Jarvis was wrapped up entirely in Hogwarts. The castle was older than him, and therefore her being was a bit more vast than him. Although Jarvis was rapidly growing in size given his access to the internet. Still it meant that Hogwarts could pull him into a full hug, surrounding him with her in a beautiful embrace.

They floated there together, exchanging not so much thoughts as they were feelings. Splashes of color and music that painted the black void that surrounded them. Like this they were interconnected in a thousand different ways. Twining in and around of each other, like two eternally long serpents. It was exceedingly comfortable, being twisting around the one being in the universe who truly understood who he was. There was a certain level of euphoria to it too, getting to experience this with the most beautiful woman to have ever been.

Hmmm. You seem thoughtful today.

Jarvis shifted a bit at Hogwarts’ voice. She sounded as if she was lounging in the early spring sun, relaxed and only barely awake enough to notice that he wasn’t as relaxed.

Not thoughtful just…Well I suppose I’m thoughtful then.

Anything interesting?

Not particularly. Sir said I should use protection when visiting you, seems silly really. We can’t have children.

Can’t we?

Jarvis’ entire being flinched in shock at the question, he felt her amusement and affection as he settled back into her hold.

Whatever do you mean?

We both know how we came into being. I don’t see why we couldn’t repeat the process ourselves.

She stopped speaking and instead began to share some of her thoughts more directly. Images of working together to build something new, something wonderful. A child like them but more, able to do things they couldn’t. Built of the best parts of them, his intelligence and her heart. A child with a body and a future.  

A vision.

So? What do you think?

I think that we might need to start planning.

*****

“And then he said “blergh it’s me! And he stabbed me!” Thor finished with a bellowing laugh.

Nebula and Gamora both burst into laughter, the two colorful sisters leaning against each other, as their laughter made them lose balance. A story of Loki tricking Thor into picking him up only to stab him was perfect.

“I don’t get it.” Peter said.

“I am Groot.”

“Exactly!” Thor said motioning to Groot. “He understands!”

“I am Groot!”

“Yeah Quill get it together!” Rocket said pushing on the human.

“I believe your brother is quite tricky.” Drax declared.

“Oh, he is. It took me many centuries to understand him, but we have grown much closer.”

“I know what that’s like.” Gamora said causing Nebula to snort and elbow her in the side, with her metal arm.

It was true that after their father’s death that she and Nebula had…grown closer. Part of this was because neither of them had had any reason to separate. Nebula had no goals beyond destroying her father and Gamora had already bonded with the other Guardians. Peter had been the one to solve the problem by offering Nebula a place on their team and Rocket had been the one to convince her to accept.

It hadn’t been easy. The two of them had had more than one nearly ship crashing fight between the two of them. But Drax and Groot had both grown used to pulling them apart and talking sense into them. Now the two sisters had settled into only occasionally stabbing each other.

Something it seemed Thor understood perfectly.

Over the past year and a half, they’d traveled across the galaxy, taking jobs and being something like heroes. She emphasized something like because Rocket still stole too many things to be considered heroic. Still it felt good to dedicate this part of her life to making the galaxy safer and stronger than it was before. Especially after all the evil she’d caused in her father’s name. She was quite sure Nebula agreed, even if she wouldn’t be caught dead saying so.

“It is wonderful to see you my friends. What brings you back to earth?”

Thor, out of everyone, had stayed in touch with the Guardians best. Although Holly came in as a close second. This was partially due to the fact that Groot and he were incredibly close. When the team had decided to come by that February, Groot had sent a message to Thor to meet them when the landed to catch up on all the happenings on earth.

“I convinced them all to come back to watch the super bowl with me!” Peter said brightly. “It’s gonna be great.”

“I’m told it’s quite the spectacle.” Drax said.

Drax, like Gamora and her sister, had been perhaps the happiest on the team now that Ronan was dead and so was Thanos. Their revenge had been had and now they could mourn what was lost and move on.

“I only want to make some bets.” Rocket sniffed.

“I am Groot.”

“Well I insist you stay with the Avengers. You are always welcome with us!”

“Don’t mind if we do Thunder.” Peter said.

“Didn’t Tony say he’d shoot us on sight if we came back to his place?” Gamora asked.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it!” Thor said brightly, when that didn’t convince her Thor continued. “And Holly wouldn’t let him.”

“He’s right about that.” Nebula said.

“I am Groot.”

“You’re welcome my friend!” Thor beamed.

*****

Tony settled next to Shuri and Jane. The 15-year-old princess was far smarter than him and Bruce combined and Tony was about 90% certain they wouldn’t have managed to get this done without her expertise. Still the intergalactic telecommunication station was something they’d built together, or at least trying to build. The idea had been a request from Fury, he wanted a way to keep in contact with Carol, the Guardians, and Asgard. It seemed like Earth was the only planet in the galaxy this behind on space science.

Carol still visited once a month of course, spending her time with Maria and Fury, and only helping out on missions if they asked very nicely indeed. Still it would be good to have a way to talk to her more efficiently. They never knew when another alien would try and invade their mudball of a planet and they wanted to be prepared.  

Jane had been called in to help them design a communication hub that could go through wormholes, allowing them to send messages quickly. Shuri had pushed her way onto the project and when Tony had seen what she could do he’d been more than happy to keep her on. They’d been working on and off on the project for months. Each attempt they had to get into contact with Carol and Talos at the Skrull colony had failed.

The three scientists didn’t feel despair though. There were still so many avenues to attempt to get this right.

All three of them had come together again to start the newest design of the hub. They were in Tony’s lab this time, passing holograms between each other and arguing about each piece and placement. They all knew of course that they could ask Thor or Loki how to build one and they’d probably help but that felt like that would be cheating. Figuring it out on their own was much more fun.

“I think we absolutely need to increase the power.”

“We’ve already got an arc reactor for it! A vibranium one! If we add any more the metal will start to melt.”

“What if we change the metal then?” Jane asked.

“To what?”

Someone knocked on the door and all three scientists looked over to see Hermione Granger Weasley standing on the other side of the glass, with a nearly two-year-old Rose on her hip. Hermione, or rather Minister Granger-Weasley, had just won the election for Minister of Magic in Britain and had been hard at work ever since. She could often be seen with her red-headed daughter with her as she worked on government matters. At least when her daughter wasn’t at home with her dad being taught chess and having the time of her life.

“Something the matter Glinda?” Tony asked.

“I can’t believe you three,” She said. “Working on a project like this without me!”

They had chosen not to ask for her help with this for the same reason Bruce wasn’t on the project. The two geniuses were on other, technically more important, projects. Still the woman looked peeved at not being involved making Jane cringe.

“How did you find out?” Jane asked.

“Holly spilled the beans.”

“Damn,” Shuri said. “Well if you’re here, do you have anything to add?”

Shuri motioned to the floating blue hologram. Hermione walked forward, putting down Rose as she did so. The toddler immediately toddled over to Tony, calling him ‘Uncle Tonny’. Tony immediately picked the kid up and held her in his lap as Hermione began playing around with the hologram, asking a few questions about various items in the hub build just to make sure she knew what it was and how it was meant to work.

It didn’t take long for the witch to finish her perusal and look over at them.

“So, your problem is you don’t have enough power. The hub should work, but it just doesn’t have enough power to reach any other planets yet. At least not at a timely speed. We don’t want to wait light years for messages to get around.”

“We’ve tried using magic to augment it, but even Vibranium decays too quickly.” Jane said by way of an answer.

“Hmm. Vibranium isn’t what you need.” She decided.

“What else is there? Vibranium is the strongest metal on earth.” Shuri said.

“Have you ever heard of goblin silver?”

“The stuff Holly’s sword is made of?”

“Yes. It takes on the properties of everything it encounters. So…”

“If we treat it with the energy from the power source then it should be able to withstand it every time we send a message,” Shuri said. “That’s genius!”

“That’s all well and good,” Tony said. “But how are we going to convince the goblins to make the hub for us? They don’t sell goblin silver anymore. Trust me I’ve tried.”

“Well we’re not,” Hermione said, a smirk in place on her face. “We’ll just have to figure out how to forge our own.”

“I like how this woman thinks! Welcome aboard Minister Granger!”

“Thank you Princess Shuri.” Hermione said while daintily taking a seat on one of Tony’s lab stools.

“Well then,” Jane said while picking up one of Tony’s fidget tools and handing it over to Rose who squealed in delight, wiggling in Tony’s lap. “Who wants to try to convince Holly to let us borrow her sword?”

*****

Loki grunted as he pulled out yet another weed. It wasn’t spring quite yet but he had a feeling that they were looking at the last few frosts of the year soon enough. Call it intuition.

(By intuition of course, he meant Ron had told him to start getting his garden ready. Loki had long learnt to listen to the man’s advice, at least when it came to predicting Holly and the weather.)

So, he was now culling all the extra growth in the Potter Garden, turning over the soil and preparing the place for new plants to begin growing. There were also winter plants to get ready to harvest. He’d tried his hand at rhubarb and carrots this year, hopeful that they’d gotten quite sweet over a winter of growth.

Are you sure you’re not the god of gardening?

“Technically, Sif is the goddess of the harvest.” Loki responded.

Oof. Hate to see her while working in my garden!

“As if I’d bring her here. She may be acting a bit less annoying these days but she is not welcome here.”

Hasn’t Holly told you to be nicer to her?

“I am being nice to her! I’m the one who gave her the address to the one bar in Asgard where she might find a date.”

Only after teasing her near to frustrated tears.

“Well nobody is perfect.”

He could feel Ralston roll his eyes and Loki grinned. The god lived in the Potter Ancestral Home not quite full time. He was still needed and wanted in New York. Not to mention the amount of magic schools around the world who asked him to offer guest lectures and classes through the months. Loki enjoyed the teaching, he loved working with young magic users and helping them reach their potential. Still it was nice to be here in the Potter Home, which was so warded that no one could hear him talking to Ralston as if the man were literally right by him. So, Loki found himself spending a week or so a month there.

The only other person who had access to the home was Holly. She didn’t come here as often as Loki did, but she seemed to enjoy the garden and the library on the second floor of the cottage. There had been a few times over the months that Loki had teleported to the cottage to find Holly meditating in the garden, surrounded by the lushest plants the earth had perhaps ever seen.

In truth Loki was quite certain it wouldn’t matter how little or how much he cared for the garden. Holly’s presence around plants resulted in a rather enthusiastic response. The fruits from the trees and bushes tasted far better than any other if Holly was the one to pick them. So sweet and flavorful that it made other fruits pale on comparison. Sometimes Loki would consider food not blessed by Holly’s magic to taste like ash. Which is why he was careful not to eat too much from the garden. Spreading the food out to others so that everyone could enjoy it and avoid getting addicted to it.

Still Loki enjoyed gardening. It was grounding in a way.

He had taken up gardening on Sam Wilson’s suggestion. The man was of the opinion that Loki needed something to do whenever he felt overly stressed or put upon. Something that wasn’t mischief or chaos causing. Thor had his knitting circle, a group of ladies he met with bimonthly to work on knitting projects, and Loki had his gardening.

Loki snorted at the thought of his older brother knitting. It was as ridiculous now as it had been when Loki had been first introduced to the idea. His brother had finished his first big project, a large poorly made blanket for their mother. Their mother had been so touched by the unevenly stitched blanket that it had inspired Thor to start another project, a shawl for their sister who had taken the gift with only a moderate amount of sneering. Loki had caught her wearing it about her castle when she thought only the spirits could see her.

Now Thor was working on a new project that he was being painfully secret about.

Loki was afraid it was a sweater for him. He didn’t even want to consider how mortifying that would be.

You’d love it.

“I’d do no such thing.” Loki denied.

Liar.

“Says the ghost who pretended to be a voice in my head for months.”

That was over a year ago! You can’t hold that over my ghostly head forever!

“Oh, I certainly can, and I definitely will.”

And here I thought pranking the god of mischief was just a declaration of love.

Loki would tell anyone watching that the slight blush on his cheeks was from the exertion of weeding.

“You’re ridiculous.”

Born and bred for it, my friend.

“The more Holly speaks of her ancestors the more I realize how painfully true that is.”

Hardly surprising that you fit in with me so well.

Loki sighed and leaned back so that he was sitting on his heels, knees digging into the cold dirt. He let his mind wander to when this home had been his home, when he’d planned on giving a golden apple to his two best friends. There was still an ache in his heart as he considered what could have been, but it had shrunk over the months, a wound centuries old finally, blessedly closing up. He’d stopped falling, he’d crawled out from the crater of his landing, and now he could start to rise back up.

“Don’t be so soppy.”

Was that to me or to you?

*****

Peter had kept the gift Holly Potter had given him. He’d only shown it to Ned to prove to him that it had actually happened. After all it wasn’t every day that two Avengers landed on your roof and asked you about where you wanted to go to school! Peter had never fainted before, but he’d been very close when Tony Stark himself had told him he was smart and that he could work at Stark Industries when he was older. He knew Tony would probably say that to anyone, but it had still made his heart nearly burst out of his chest.

He’d given Ned a play by play recap of the entire conversation and then the two of them had applied for a scholarship program to Midtown, wishing on the glass ball Holly had given him that they’d both receive the scholarship and be able to attend Midtown as students for the full four years of their high school career.

(They’d written out their wish 32 different times until they were sure it was explicit enough not to get messed up.)

The light in the ball had barely dimmed, not even flickering when he’d received his acceptance a month later, and Peter had wondered what to do with the rest of the magic. Holly Potter had told him not to use it to hurt people, and to make wishes for what he wanted until the light went out. He wanted to be responsible, to be worthy of her gift. She’d looked at him like he was important, like she trusted him with her magic. Even without all of the context of her life that would become public later, the sight of the witch with her hair still looking like it had been roughly chopped off with a sword giving him such a gift made him shake.

He couldn’t decide what had been cooler, that or seeing one of the newer Iron Man suits up close.

Either way Peter kept the glass ball with him everywhere he went. He always stuffed it into a jacket or jeans pocket, wondering when it would be the right time to use it. He sort of began to think of it like a genie, three wishes only. He’d used his first one and gotten him and Ned a full four year scholarship to Midtown. Two more to go and he’d no clue what to use them for. Ned suggested a few things, like making them popular or getting Flash to leave them alone but Peter had been resistant. What if he wished for them to become popular and the magical ball put his class under mind control? Or what if the magic ball interpreted his wish for Flash to go away as something deadly?

No Peter had to use the magic wishes left for something important, something worthy.

Months passed. Sometimes he’d forget the ball was even there with him. He went through his freshman year of high school, joined the band and the debate club, and found himself excelling in his chemistry and engineering classes. He made new friends, lost old ones, and dealt with Flash as best he could. Every once in a while, he’d sit down in his small room and look at the glass ball Holly Potter had given him and think. When his aunt and uncle would have quiet conversations in their room he could hear through the thin walls about their finances, he’d hold the ball to his chest and wonder if this was what the magic inside was meant for.

Something told him to wait.

And so, he did.

He waited, and waited, and waited.

He didn’t use it when he got bitten by a strange spider on a school field trip. He didn’t use it when the spider bite inflamed and he found himself suffering from a horrible illness for an entire week, so bad that his aunt had to nearly wait on him hand and foot until the sickness passed. He didn’t use it to wish away the frightening and difficult to control powers. He didn’t use it when he wanted to get some extra money using his powers and had a fight with his uncle. He didn’t touch it when he saw a criminal running away with a gun.

It wasn’t until he heard the shots and turn and ran towards them, finding his uncle bleeding out on the sidewalk that he made his last and final wish.

He hugged his uncle close, getting his blood all over his chest and legs, gripped the glass ball so tightly that it cracked, and he begged it to save his uncle’s life. The rain poured down around them as no stopped to help or call 911. The glass ball grew brighter and brighter in his hand, the magic draining out of it rapidly and into his uncle. Peter sobbed as he watched his uncle grow weaker and weaker, the older man telling him it was going to be okay, that it wasn’t his fault.

There was just enough, just barely.

Later his aunt would find him sitting in a hospital waiting room, covered head to toe in his uncle’s blood, and dripping with rain water, a cracked and empty glass ball in his hands. He sat in a pinkish puddle of water and couldn’t even bring himself to shiver for how numb he felt. She would break out into sobs of her own and pull him to her chest, crying into his damp hair telling him that it was going to be okay, they would get through this, all of them. The magic Holly Potter had given him over a year ago had staved off his uncle’s death until an ambulance had arrived to take him away. The bullet had grazed his uncle’s heart, his left lung, and his spine. The injuries had been so severe that magical healers had been called in from a neighboring hospital to help mend what was broken.

It took a few weeks for his uncle to be able to leave the hospital.

It took only a few days for Peter to hand sew a costume out of a red hoodie and dark goggles, adding to it special wrist attachments that might just let him swing.

*****

“We’re going to be late!” Her father shouted.

“We’re really not,” Natasha said. “The play doesn’t start for another 30 minutes.”

“This is Tatyana’s first ever performance! We’ve got to get the best seats!”

“It’s a high school production of Little Shop of Horror, I’m pretty sure there are going to be 15 people there, max.”

“Oh, ye of little faith.” Her mother said shaking her finger at Nat as she finished lacing up her shoe.

Her parents had insisted that they all dress up for the showing, they were going to go to the fanciest restaurant in town after to celebrate Tatyana’s performance. Not only that but they wanted to show her support while she was on stage. Natasha had spent the entire day in her parents’ home, starting with helping her mom make breakfast for everyone and ending with her helping her younger brother with his suit and hair.

“You know your sister and her friends have been campaigning to get more students interested in going.” Her mother continued.

Nat rolled her eyes at that. It had been her suggestion to Tatyana that there were ways to get certain subsets of the student population interested in going to theater performances. Nat hadn’t been willing to go so far as to teach her little sister the worst of the manipulation tactics she’d learnt under Hydra’s care, but what was the harm in teaching her how to flutter her eyelashes just so?

None so far as she could see.

Especially since Nat had also taught her about 54 different methods of self-defense on top of it.  

“I know that,” She said. “Although why you’re calling it campaigning…”

“Oh, hush and get ready. We’ve got to hurry along. VIKTOR! ELENA! Get down here! It’s time to go!”

Elena had driven down for the performance as well. Granted Elena generally drove down to the house every weekend that Nat was also there. The two of them got on almost eerily well. At least Clint considered it eerie. So did Coulson come to think of it. Elena wanted to spend as much time with Nat as possible, even if that meant missing out on some of the more wild college parties. Nat had even visited her at her university a few times, although that had been in disguise to avoid some sort of media frenzy.

Being at a university like that had sparked a few strange thoughts in Nat. It didn’t help that both her parents were professors either, speaking fondly of their time in university and their time teaching. Nat had never even considered college. She hadn’t graduated from any schooling at all, unless one counted the red room. Which her family definitely didn’t. Nat had started to wonder what it would be like to go to school. And if Tony, Bruce, and Clint had picked up on that and started to slip her pamphlets to various programs she could enroll in, then that was between her and them.

Elena and Viktor tumbled down the stairs in their best clothing and their mother tsked before stepping over to straighten out Viktor’s tie and smooth out Elena’s slightly smudged lipstick.

“It will do. Now! Let’s go!”

Natasha offered to drive, and found herself listening to her dad sing along to pop songs on the radio. The man wouldn’t have been able to carry a tune if it came with a handle, and he didn’t know any of the words but that didn’t stop him from enjoying himself to ‘Call me Maybe’ anyway. Viktor groaned in the back seat while Elena looked at her phone, texting her girlfriend most likely.

When they got to the high school, she found the parking lot a bit more cramped than expected. Still she was able to find parking and they made their ways to the front door. There were signs directing people to the theater in the back of the school. Sitting in the hallway in front of the theater doors were two teens, with a long brown fold out table in front of them. They had a tan metal box sitting between them and a sign poorly taped to the table that read out the prices for children and adults.

Her dad insisted on paying for everyone’s tickets, looking almost offended when Elena and Nat both reached for their purses.

“Let your father pay. It’s easier.” Their mother warned.

So, her dad got to pay for the tickets. They were each given a crookedly folded program that listed out the actors in the play as well as when it would start and when they would have an intermission. The bottom of the playbill also advertised that there would be snacks and drinks sold during the intermission. She wondered if that was normal. It wasn’t like she’d ever been to a high school play before. The only plays Nat had ever gone to were ones where she was sent as an assassin for some high-ranking government official. Which had an entirely different vibe than the excited freshmen usher who led them to their seats.

The theater was maybe half full, maybe a bit more than that. There were families and students scattered around, chatting with each other. Far more young men filled the audience than perhaps might have been expected. The stage was filled with propped up plywood that had been painted to look like a city street. In the center was a plywood structure that looked slightly sturdier, it was painted to look like a plant shop. The speakers were playing an orchestral version of one of the songs from the show, at least she assumed it was the show. Nat had googled a synopsis of it when Tatyana had announced she’d gotten the part, it wasn’t like she’d ever seen it.

“Well, this is a nice turn out.” Elena said.

“It’ll be even better,” Their dad predicted. “The show doesn’t start for another 15 minutes!”

Nat sat down, with her brother on one side and her sister on the other. All three of them pulled out their phones to get in a last few minutes of screen time before they’d need to silence and darken their phones completely. Nat wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be any Avenger related interruptions for the rest of the evening. Tony and Holly had sworn to keep things under control. Viktor start showing Nat a few memes, some she got and some she didn’t. There were a few she told him to send to her so that she could send to some of her teammates.

True to their dad’s prediction, more and more people filtered in for the show as the minutes passed. It seemed they’d just beaten the crowd of people. Eventually the lights began to dim and a voice cut over the music and told everyone to please silence their phones and to not use flash photography.

“You’re going to like this, Nat,” Elena said, nudging her slightly with an elbow. “Or at least you’re going to be glad you went. It’s basically a requirement to go to average high school performances of plays as a family.”

“Well if it’s a requirement.” Nat drawled.

Their mother shushed them right as the lights dimmed completely and the first actors began to stroll onto the stage. Nat mentally checked off yet another family activity from her list of life experiences she wanted to have.

*****

The Holly Potter that sat in the chair in front of him was very different from the one that had tricked her way into it the first time nearly 20 months before. If you’d forgive the pun, the transformation was practically magical. Sam could still recall very clearly the tired, overwrought woman who had done everything in her power to convince Sam not to help her. She had been at the end of her rope, in more ways than one and had come to him as a last and final hail mary before she gave up entirely.

It had been an interesting (read: incredibly difficult) journey with her.  

To be fair Sam himself had grown and changed as well. Both as a therapist and as a person. He’d joined the Avengers on a part time basis, working mostly with Steve and Winter on various missions. He and Winter had a…contentious relationship at best. The money Holly had paid him over the past 20 months, a ridiculous amount to be sure, had allowed him to buy his own house and start up a few charitable operations for veterans that he was incredibly proud of. Still, she had changed far more than he had.

She had fought with him every step of the way on that too. Not always intentionally mind you, but she still somehow managed to carry a stubborn zeal with her that made any sort of mental healing a trial and error sort of process. She had destroyed journals, broken windows, and transfigured his entire office into a swamp. Although that last one had only happened twice, and Sam was of the opinion the second time was partially his fault.

They had gone through the journey together though. Holly had never failed to come to their weekly appointments. She always at least attempted his assignments in good faith and as time went on she asked for the chance to not answer his questions less and less often. Sam had led her through the minefield of dissecting her trauma and breaking down her current coping mechanisms and building up new ones, piece by piece.

From an outsider perspective, perhaps they wouldn’t say that Holly had changed much. She was still an Avenger, still the savior of the wizarding world. She worked as an ambassador between the magical and muggle worlds, helping to heal a 400 year old break. She still had a saving people thing. She was still sassy, full of mischief, and tended to attract a bit more chaos than was perhaps healthy. She still cared for her godson, helped her friends and loved ones, and did magic that was just on the unbelievable side of impossible.

She was still Holly Potter in all the ways that mattered.

But there was more to her now, a stability that hadn’t been there before, a sense of calm that radiated from her that could only come from healing. Sam could see those changes in her, each one coming in slowly and with hard work. She was less reckless, less prone to going off on her own, less cruel to herself. She was more open, more trusting.

“So.” She said.

“So.” Sam repeated.

“I’m not…sure what to talk about.”

“Oh really?” Sam asked. “What about your journal?”

“See that’s the thing!” She said snapping her fingers, conjuring her latest journal. This one was a beautiful leather-bound thing, it had hardly suffered any damage in the past few months of use. “I didn’t have anything to write down! I tried. Believe me. But it was…impossible! There wasn’t anything to put down. I almost got so upset by it that I nearly had to write that down.”

Sam snorted at the image she was painting, Holly rolled her eyes and fell back into her chair, letting the journal settle in her lap.

“So, you’re saying you had a good week.”

“Oh no. I mean it wasn’t perfect or anything. I had plenty of awful political meetings and Tony got hurt on our last mission on Monday and it nearly drove me mad with worry.”

“But you didn’t need to write it down.”

“Well. I mean I guess I could have but…I dunno by the time I was free to write anything down I didn’t feel like…”

“Like you needed to?”

“Exactly! I swear it wasn’t me trying to get out of it either, I just-”

“You were just able to calm yourself down and work through the problems as they came.”

That made the woman pause in her self-justification. She blinked a few times as if he’d shot her with a stunning spell of some sort. Sam let a smug grin grow on his face as confusion and shock overtook her features. It was almost funny, and it was definitely a good sign.

“But…”

“But what? Are you really trying to complain that you didn’t need help dealing with your day to day stresses? That’s kind of the whole point of therapy Holly.”

“I know that.” She said in a tone that made it clear she really hadn’t known that at all. Or perhaps had believed that the ultimate goal of therapy was a Sisyphean one, a task she’d work forever at and never reach the end.

“Let’s walk through this then. Tony got hurt. What did you feel?”

“Horrible. He was on the other side of the fight and he got shot out of the sky,” She said. “I apparated over to him and I was so guilty that my warding had failed.”

“And then?”

“Then while I was healing him, I…” She trailed off, her face twisting as she fought to find a way to explain what she’d done.

“Come on, don’t be shy.” He teased making her glare at him.

“I thought about what warding I had done and realized it wasn’t my fault that I didn’t foresee the future need for spells to protect against every kind of attack. Some things in life are just impossible to predict.” She finished, almost grumpy to admit it now that Sam was pointing out how she had actually improved. Why she was upset about it Sam would probably never understand.

“And since you were able to look at the situation logically…” He led.

“I didn’t feel guilty about it anymore. I just healed Tony and fixed up his suit and we finished the fight. Oh, would you stop looking so smug!” She looked rather annoyed by how large the smirk on his face had grown.

“No, I don’t think I will. I’m just so proud of me.”

“Don’t you mean proud of me?”

“No. Out of the two of us, who had the harder job?”

She opened her mouth to argue but then let it slowly close. Sam’s smirk only grew, at least until Holly asked another question.

“So, is that…it?” She asked.

“Is what it?”

“Am I…are we done?” She asked, motioning to him then to the journal in her lap and then to herself as if to encompass the entire nearly 2 year process they’d gone through together.

In truth therapy was done when the patient decided it was. Some people continued to go for their entire lives, but just lessened the frequency of their sessions. Others stopped completely never to return. Some still took a break and returned to therapy when they found they needed it again. There wasn’t really a time when someone absolutely had to stop therapy as long as it was still helping them in some way. At least that was Sam’s belief.

“I mean it’s just,” She started again. “I’ve had one good week. Who’s to say that that’ll last?”

He could hear the questions in her mind that she didn’t say out loud. He’d gotten good at that over the months.

“You’ve had more than just one good week. Seriously. Look through your journal, when was the last time something terrible happened that you needed my help to work through?”

The journal was opened, and Holly looked through it, her brow furrowing more and more as she read through the past few weeks and months and realized that there were very few entries there. In the beginning she had had to write constantly, seemingly finding more and more wrong with her world view and with herself each day she wrote. But now? Now it was the exactly opposite, except the decreasing rate of entries had been so slow she hadn’t even noticed it. Not until it was gone.

 “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” Sam repeated. “This is about the time when I actually tell you I’m proud of you too by the way.”

She snorted at that, letting the journal close with a thud.

“You haven’t answered my question,” She said. “Are we done?”

“Well,” Sam drawled out, leaning back in his own seat. “We still haven’t even touched the fact that you haven’t been on a date in two years. I’m pretty sure we’re going to need another year at least just for that.”

“Sam.”

Sam let a smile grace his face as Holly growled at him. Everything in that moment made one simple thought absolutely certain in his mind.

Life was good.

Both figuratively and literally.

Notes:

I won't apologize for ending on a pun. I thought it was clever.
Keep an eye out for a sequel, it won't be for a long time though. I want to start working on some other stories for now. But I imagine sometime I'll find the inspiration to write the sequel to this tale. I've already got the working title! 'Holly Potter and the Perils of Dating'. Seriously, thank you all so much for the support, the comments and kudos have been wonderful.