I love Hogwarts and I love lokitony, and this was the result. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it :) Harry & friends do not appear in this story, and that is why I did not list it as a crossover fic. Basically, I took the context of Hogwarts and immersed the Avengers within it. Some professors do remain though :) Liberties have been taken with this fic!

- Chapter 1 -

The Unofficial Duel

'Hey, love!'

Loki ducked as a leather bound book sailed over his head neatly and landed on the lawn beside him. He picked it up and realised it was his copy of 'Advanced Potion Making'. Sure enough, the annotations in the book's various margins were there, neatly written in Loki's beautiful cursive.

'You forgot your book!'

Grinning from the nearby archway overlooking the lawn was Bruce Banner, his posture lazy as he leaned against one of the school's many pillars. Bruce always looked like a bear, not a grizzly, a smaller sized black bear maybe, his height menancing and suggestive of an understated power that could be provoked and unleashed under the right circumstances.

'Thanks.' Loki replied in a way that indicated otherwise. Nothing roused his ire more than speaking to anyone outside his circle of friends from Slytherin. Slytherins should stick with Slytherins, and Hufflepufs with their own kind. He knew from experience how hostile it could get when mixing with members of other houses. Each house was rightly...territorial. Especially Gryffindors.

'No problem.'

Biting his lip, Loki turned away furiously and started across the lawn, already feeling the heat creeping up his neck and blossoming across his cheeks. Why did he have to be so nice for? I hate creeps like him. We have nothing in common, what, does he want to be friends? The thought softened Loki's expression a little and something in his chest squeezed painfully. What if...what if Bruce Banner wanted to be friends? Maybe they could even go down to Hogsmeade together one day...but he was getting ahead of himself. Remember, no expectations, no dissappointment.

Without knowing it, he had been approaching the end of the lawn and therefore, his favourite spot for reading underneath an oak tree. Except that he had wanted to head down to the Great Hall for lunch and then to meet Amora and Skurge.

Taking a deep breath, he mentally cooled himself down before turning around – and found himself staring right into Bruce's kindly, bespectacled eyes.

'What the – you scared me, Banner.' Bruce had followed his trail across the lawn like an oversized mastiff. Recently, he had been doing that, tailing Loki to all his lessons, bumping shoulders with him in the Great Hall on purpose, fetching books from their unreachable positions on the library shelf for Loki and all his actions were making Loki horribly confused and unsure of his own feelings towards Banner. He didn't know whether to hate him or trust him.

'Had to investigate that curious expression of yours.' Bruce's eyes twinkled as he continued, as if relishing the confused and affected look that appeared on Loki's face. 'So, I was wondering if maybe you would like to get a drink down at The Three Broomsticks someday?' A pink flush had spread across Bruce's cheekbones as Loki thought he likes me, and then Bruce said 'O-only if you want to, of course.'

'I'd gladly -'

Before Loki could even open his mouth to reply, another voice sounded across the courtyard, this time loud and brassy and annoying as hell.

'Oi, Bruce! Flirting with the greaseball again? Awww sweetheart, you shouldn't lead men on, didn't your mother tell you that? I'm sure she mentioned something about speaking to strangers, especially sneaky, black-haired 5th-years.' Tony's wide smile at seeing Bruce soon transitioned into a severe narrowing of the eyes at the sight of Loki.

Loki had to supress the urge to whip out his wand from the folds of his robe, pointing it in an instant at that hateful Tony Stark and shout 'Sectumsempra'! Nothing would please him more than to watch Stark bleed to his death in front of him and the whole school. The image provoked a snide chuckle from Loki's throat and he was sure Stark's eyes couldn't get any narrower.

'- and then she said in that mean tone of hers, 'Bugger off,'. Oof, gotta take that hard huh? What's a man gotta do, when he's in love – There you are Tony, you found Bruce yet? Oh, I see him.' Just then, Clint Barton had stode out of Transfiguration class with Thor Odinson and was delighting the latter with stories of his latest conquests. Or latest non-conquests, because clearly, Natasha Romanoff was hardly interested. But Clint was a man that would never take 'No' for an answer, and was evidently quite roused up by Natasha's rejection.

'Yeap, you do. Hanging around that hooked-nose fella again.' Tony's voice dripped with malice and mockery. Big-shot that he was, he had to throw his weight about sometimes. Already, the students in the courtyard had appeared to stop breathing and everyone was quite still as they stood their ground and watched, anticipating yet another Slytherin-Gryffindor showoff. 'I don't think we ought to make friends with people who hang out with others of his kind.' Tony spat bitterly.

Except the odds are hardly in my favor, Loki thought bitterly. One Slytherin against three Gryffindors? This was a good time for Amora and Skurge to arrive and come to his aid. He wished Professor Snape was still around to fend for the Slytherins.

'What's going on?' and then Thor was suddenly in the picture, his blond mane hanging above his face as usual, covering his eyes in an almost fashionable way. 'Brother?' He flinched when he caught sight of Loki, then attempting to make his way towards him, he called Loki's name.

'No! You stay away, Thor. I am not your brother,' he hissed in what was decidedly an undeserved tone of hatred because Thor turned away in a look of reproach and grief. Loki had no patience with Thor's antiquated way of speech nor his overly masculine affectations. Unable to watch anymore, Thor had stalked off towards the Great Hall, ignoring Clint's repeated cries, probably to drown his sorrows in butterbeer. He probably didn't think that Tony and his brother would actually come to blows. After all, this situation had been fairly common to Thor, usually watching as Tony and his brother exchange words and then each would walk off in the opposite direction. No harm done. Maybe Tonyand Clint could be cruel in their teasing, but Loki levelled the playing field with Amora and Skurge on his side. Plain popular boy politics.

But with the main deterrent gone, both Loki and Tony had their restraints off. Dangerous.

'I don't think you should use that tone against your own brother.' Tony was approaching Loki now, stepping on the grass, a hand menancingly in the folds of his robes. He didn't like it when Loki insulted Thor, or anyone from his gang and could feel his skin prickling from the insult and blood rush to his ears, throbbing, the noise defeaning.

'I don't think you should tell me what to do,' Loki said cooly, his own hand reaching for his wand. The air between them sparkled with animosity and there was a collective hush around the students gathering to watch.

Bruce attempted to mediate. 'Cool down,Tony, Loki wasn't -' but Bruce didnt finish his sentence because he was knocked unconscious by a red flare from Tony's wand. It was a stunning spell, and it had hit Bruce squarely in the middle of his broad chest. Those damn trusting Hufflepuffs. Though it was probably a bad move, considering how strong Bruce could be when he wanted to. During last year's Quidditch finals, Bruce had armstronged, not on purpose, but by the sheer force of his size and strength, a few of the Gryffindors' bludgers out of the way including Clint Barton. Luckily, Hufflepuff's team had only him and not much else to worry about, otherwise, even with Tony on the team, Gryffindor could have eaten some serious dirt.

'Ooh...that must hurt.' Clint winced.

'Don't worry. It's nothing compared to what's coming for our little snake here.' Tony smiled, but somehow it did not reach his eyes.

'I'd like to see you try...mudblood.' Loki muttered, but it was loud enough for Tony's sharp ears and with a cry of 'Flipendo Tria!', the unofficial duel had started.

Loki could feel himself being pushed backwards by the force of the knockback jinx and mentally cursed himself for letting Stark get one up on him. Brandishing his wand, he countered Tony's next blast of fiery energy and sent back a blue bolt himself. Both wizards ducked and dodged, rolling on the ground when necessary, but they kept their eyes on each other, unwavering, spewing hatred and spite. After a while, it became obvious that both wizards were evenly matched, although Loki knew more spells than Tony. Tony's mastery of spells however, was not to be underestimated.

'Go for it, Tony! Beat that slimey bastard down!' Clint's cheering could be heard clearly across the yard. At least he had enough honor not to interfere. Wizard's duel was soley between two participants and two only. Clint would probably serve as Stark's second, if Stark was knocked out, but Loki had nobody to serve as his second. A sinking feeling stirred the bottoms of Loki's belly. He must survive somehow, and god knows, Stark was quite the ferocious duelist. Where were Amora and Skurge when he needed them? Probably making out in a stairway somewhere.

They kept at it for a while, sending spells whizzing across the lawn, which had turned into something resembling a mini battlefield, their spells hitting bricks from the old school builing and unlevelling chunks of earth and grass, when they were interrupted.

The voice was sharp and brooded a no-nonsense attitude which immediately foretold the arrival of its owner – the formidable professor McGonagall.

'Stop this ruckus immediately!'

With two disarming spells in quick succession, both the combatants were now unarmed. The boys parted, hands on knees.

'All of you, get back to class now!' The crowd dissipated immediately at the scathing tone of her voice, including Clint. 'Someone send for Madam Pomfrey. Tell her there's been a fight and a student requires her immediate attention.' and her eyes betrayed the merest hint of worry at seeing Bruce's inert body. A first-year Gryffindor, eager to please the head of her house, immediately ran to get the matron.

'Stark, Laufeyson, I hope you learn to get along with each other, because starting this evening, you will be seeing each other a lot more often than the entire school would care for – in detention. 7 pm, my office. Sharp.' she turned and as the boys opened their mouths to argue, spoke in a clipped voice. 'I don't care who's at fault here, all unofficial duels are not allowed as long as you're in Hogwarts! No more magic from those wands, this is a warning. And don't be late, or I will make you clean the gillyweed from the school's lake!'

Behind McGonagall's back, both boys gave each other the middle finger.

'You – what?'

'Landed myself in detention. Steve, don't you ever listen to anything I say?' Tony rolled his eyes. Steve Rogers had his head permanently in the clouds and only came down to earth once or twice in an hour to listen to his friends. Today, Tony had no patience with his ditziness because he was so worked up about the detention later and he wanted someone to complain to. Clint was no use because he was so fucking obsessed with Natasha Romanoff from Ravenclaw and was busy flirting with her at their table.

Thor was still upset that his brother had gotten into a brawl with Tony and was even more upset with Tony for 'leading Loki on'. He had repsonded huffily when Tony tried to joke with him and now sat alone at the table, sullenly shovelling mashed potatoes down his throat.

And so that left Steve out of his circle of friends. Steve Rogers, prefect, Head Boy to be.

'Thor's pissy, he's on his period, so don't speak to him okay?' Thor's rage is a well-known topic throughout school.

The thing was, Tony was fucking nervous about sitting in such close proximity with Loki. He despised the boy and the very thought of sitting near him was unsettling to say the least. A small groan left Tony's mouth. Professor McGonagall had promised more opportunities to come. Tonight would not be the last.

'Huh? He has periods? I knew the Odinson family was strange but...' Steve knitted his eyebrows together as he took a bite out of his mango pudding. 'Do you think he can get pregnant?' Tony sighed. Steve was real fun, but he could be a downright annoying blonde sometimes.

'Since having your period is clearly evidence of the existence of a fallopian tube somewhere, I'm sure he can.' Flashing Steve a half-hearted grin, he excused himself from the dining hall and headed with a heavy heart towards McGonagall's office.

Supper with Loki.

Just...great.