As Harry started through the forest, the boy in his arms seemed to grow anxious, twitching and shuddering. He almost dropped him when he felt cold skin and looked down only to see that Loki's skin had darkened to a deep blue. Harry stopped and stared, transfixed by the change. He slowly knelt down onto the forest ground and reached up to move some hair away from the boy's forehead.
By now, Loki's skin was all blue. There was not a patch of smooth white skin left. Just blue. Harry looked over Loki's body, seeing the raised, tattooed skin and scarred blue skin. And red eyes as Loki's fluttered underneath their lids. Harry couldn't feel any curse, hex or any other type of spell that would cause someone's body to change color so the only other option that he could think of was that…
"Okay… so you're not human underneath that glamour. Right..."
Harry stared briefly before nodding. Loki needed medical attention and he probably wouldn't like it if other people saw him in this form. Harry knew he wouldn't. So how to get Loki up to the infirmary without the professors that were currently in residence seeing him? He sighed and was just about to continue to walk when he heard running hooves. He looked up, expecting to see Firenze again, but he didn't.
A thestral was coming toward him, wings fanned out alongside its' flank and loosely moving. The strange pale blue eyes of the winged horse were looking at him as it came to a stop right in front of him. Harry stared at it then down at Loki and stood up.
The thestral knelt down onto the ground as if it was waiting for him to get on. Harry raised an eyebrow and shuffled closer to the animal. The thestral stared at him expectantly, bending its head to look at its back before turning to look back at him. Harry snorted then moved around to the animal's back and gingerly slipped onto the animal's back. He guided Loki to sit in front of him and settled in. "Okay, we're ready. Could you take us to the infirmary, please?"
The thestral made a sound that might have been similar to a whinny but it was too eerie, too haunted, as it started to walk. It gained speed and took off a minute after beginning to walk.
Riding a thestral felt like riding Buckbeak back in his third year but a thestral was definitely too skeletal to be comfortable for more than a few minutes. The animal took the two of them over the forest and back down to the balcony that the hospital wing had. They landed with a clunk, hooves hitting stone. The thestral walked a ways, settling down after landing.
Harry slid off, using one hand to steady Loki then scooped him into his arms. He took a few steps away from the thestral and looked into its eyes. The thestral looked back at him then turned around and took off back into the forest. He watched it for a second or two then headed into the hospital wing.
"Loki, if you can hear me," Harry whispered as they reached the door. "Can you redo your glamour? You're all… blue and that's not a metaphor. Of course, I could try to mask your skin color but I haven't learned that yet. But maybe Poppy has something like student patient confidentiality?"
Loki turned around in his arms, groaning quietly. Harry stared back into Loki's red eyes as the boy in his arms weakly reached up an arm. Harry watched as Loki drew a shaky finger over Harry's scar then dropped his arm, closing his eyes again. Harry winced and opened the door and stepped into the hospital wing.
"Madam Pomfrey! I need you!"
"My dear, what have you gotten into now? Surely not when all of your friends are away for the summer and there's nothing to..."
Harry watched as Madam Pomfrey raced into the wing and stopped suddenly, staring at the boy in his arms.
"Oh my goodness! Who is that?" Poppy exclaimed as she closed the distance between them. She led Harry over to an empty hospital bed, though the beds were all empty, and gestured for him to lower Loki down onto it. It was still summer so the only people in the castle were occasionally the professors who lived here and Poppy, who had told him that he could call her by her first name. "Where did he come from? And his skin..."
"He… I don't know where he came from," Harry started as he sat down on the chair that Poppy conjured for him. The nurse pulled out her wand and started to run diagnostic charms over Loki, tutting at a few occasional things as a quill quickly jotted down her verbal notes. "Firenze found him in the forest. He said the teenager just appeared in the forest."
"And you followed him there?" Poppy remarked as she began to whisper healing charms. "Harry, could you assist me with him?"
"I did say I wanted to learn how to heal," Harry said as he reached out to take Loki's outstretched hand. He entwined their fingers, not really minding the coldness of the other teen's hand. It seemed to give Loki at least some comfort, knowing that someone was there. "And as to his skin… Have you seen anyone… like this before?"
"No, I have not," Poppy replied distractedly. "I shall have to ask Albus when he comes around next about this. Who would do something likes to a child? Was there anyone else with him when you found him?"
"No, I only saw him. He's obviously a strong wizard, though," Harry said. "He tried to stop me from coming near him with a magical shield."
"He did?" Poppy turned to look at him even as she performed spells. Loki finally fell asleep as they talked. Poppy instructed him on casting a cleaning charm and he flicked his wand over Loki's body and watched as all of the blood and dirt vanished. She gave him a list of all of the potions that they would need and he reluctantly withdrew his fingers and walked over to the nurse's office, where Poppy kept her potions. Loki made a noise, something akin to a whimper when he left and he completed his task at a hurried pace.
"I have never seen someone who has blue skin, red eyes and is a powerful magic user," Poppy said as she took the requested potions from him. "But the diagnostics charm did pick up on the magic and he is powerful. However, his magical core or what passes for his core has become exhausted. It's all but empty. Whatever he was doing right before you found him must have used it all up."
"He..." Harry trailed off as Poppy levitated Loki up into the air so as to tend to his stomach and back more easily. "As I picked him up, I felt… He had blood on his bottom."
Poppy gasped under her breath but nodded, her own skin going pale. "Yes, he has been assaulted by multiple people. Though, I shudder to think of whoever did this. My diagnostic charms have picked up higher than usual amounts of everything so if he was healthy, he would probably have been able to fight them off, with his magic and his own strength. Oh, the nerve of whoever did this to him."
Harry flinched. "I had thought he looked like me when I had… come back from the graveyard a few months ago but worse."
"Recovery will be long," Poppy said as she administered the potions. She flicked her wand at each potion vial and the concoction poured out of the bottle and into Loki's stomach. "He'll need to eat soft things for the next few days after he wakes up. He also..."
Harry watched as Poppy trailed off, turning to read what her parchment said. She muttered something under her breath, too quiet for him to catch. "What?"
"He… something or someone deaged him," Poppy replied. "He's really… Well, I don't know how old he really is but if I'm reading his magic correctly, it deaged him subconsciously. Harry, did he say anything to you about who he was or where he came from?"
"He said his name was Loki."
Poppy Pomfrey inhaled sharply, mouth open in a silent gasp. Her skin went pale and she took a step back, almost unconsciously.
"Madam Pomfrey?"
"Harry, he is a Norse god," Poppy finally spoke, stepping back to Loki's bedside. She restarted waving her wand over him, casting healing charms. His broken ribs, at least the one that Harry could see, mended with a soft crack. Loki didn't even twitch in his sleep as Harry had seen Poppy cast a sleeping charm.
"Uh… he's a god?" Harry turned to look Loki over, seeing the blue skin and the red eyes.
"If the history books are correct and they usually are, Loki was born of a union between the Jotuns, the frost giants. He is brother to Thor, the Norse god of thunder," Poppy explained, flicking her wand to gently lower Loki back into bed after tending to his injuries. Now, Harry couldn't see any evidence of broken bones. There were still bruises in the form of hands on Loki's neck that Poppy hadn't tended to yet. Harry had shuddered when he had seen those. "I am going to kill whoever did this to him!"
Harry's eyes widened and he stared at the healer. He knew that she was known as the Dragon of the Hospital Wing but this… "Poppy?"
Madam Pomfrey sighed and reached out a hand to smooth some hair off of Loki's forehead. "I am glad you found him."
"Are you sure he's a god? I thought… Well, I don't actually know anything about Norse gods."
"Loki is different. He was adopted by Odin, the leader of the Norse pantheon," Poppy said, muttering a summoning charm. Harry watched, squeezing Loki's fingers in reassurance as he moaned in his sleep, as a tube of cream or some kind of healing paste flew into Poppy's outstretched hand. "If I recall correctly, Loki is the God of Mischief and Chaos."
Harry nodded idly, filing that piece of information away in his mind.
Poppy handed the tube over to him and gestured toward Loki's neck. "This is for the bruises. I'll leave that to you to put on his neck."
"Okay. If he's allegedly the god of mischief..." Harry trailed off, pulling his chair closer to the bed and opening the tube of cream. He stood up and walked closer to the bed and gingerly started to rub some cream over the bruises on Loki's neck, tracing the blue scarred skin with his eyes and fingers. Goosebumps raised on the other boy's skin as he did. "We should keep him away from Fred and George in two weeks."
Poppy snorted out a laugh, eyes twinkling with mirth. "That would be a fine idea, Mr Potter. We will let Albus know about Loki whenever he gets back from his trip. Would you mind watching over him while I go talk to the other professors, assuming you've done your summer reading already?"
"Sure."
"And Harry?"
"What?"
"Be careful with him when he wakes up," Poppy said. "If he gets too agitated, call me. I do not want him irritating his injuries even if he is a god."
Harry nodded and shuffled around in his chair and finally ending up with his feet propped up on the foot of the bed. Poppy narrowed her eyes at him.
"I'll be careful!" Harry exclaimed quietly. "I brought him here, didn't I?"
Harry watched as Poppy left through the door then returned his focus to Loki. He wondered what Loki had been through and if he was actually a god. Poppy seemed to think so and the blue skin and red eyes certainly made that idea seem like the most logical. "Hmm, maybe Poppy knows of a book or two I can read about the Norse gods? That would certainly make Hermione happy to see me reading."
He grinned at the thought of his friends, at seeing them in two weeks. He had missed them. He had missed an alive castle, full of people and their own lives. Dumbledore had agreed with him at the end of his fourth year, at him living in the castle over the summer. Of course, having seen Voldemort come to life and receive a body made the next few months all the more dangerous. Especially since Snape had started to go to meetings.
Harry snorted, remembering the time that he had caught Snape coming back from a Death Eater meeting. The potions professor had frozen like a deer in the headlights as Harry looked him over, like the older man had thought that Harry would be disgusted. Albus had actually filled him in on Snape's side profession before the headmaster had left on his first mysterious trip.
Loki whimpered in his sleep, drawing Harry out of his thoughts and back to the present. It was an hour to dinner time but maybe…
"Dobby?"
The house elf popped into existence at the foot of the bed, a big smile on his face. "How can Dobby help Master Harry today?"
Harry smiled and gestured to the boy on the bed. "I want to stay with him but I don't want to nap. Could you bring the book that's on the top of my dresser?"
"Dobby can do that, Master Harry. Dobby will be right back." After a quick glance at Loki, Dobby vanished then came right back a second or two later with the requested book. "Is this the student that Master Harry found in the forest?"
Harry raised an eyebrow but nodded. "Yeah. Poppy said he's a… god?"
Dobby levitated onto the bed and stared down at Loki. "Hogwarts castle is protecting him from view, Dobby thinks. All the house elves sensed his presence."
"The castle's protecting him?"
"Someone is scrying him. The castle is shielding Master Loki like it is shielding you."
"Huh. Good to know," Harry remarked. "Me? It's shielding me too?"
"The headmaster told it too," Dobby explained. "The bad wizard is trying to find you."
Dobby nodded. "Does Master Harry need something to drink?"
"No, I can wait until dinner, thanks."
Dobby vanished and Harry stood up from the chair and walked around to the other side of the bed and hesitantly slipped onto the bed. He shuffled over until he was roughly a few inches from Loki's back and began to read.
AN: Merry Christmas and or Happy Holidays!
