It was only two more hours until it was time for dinner. Petunia had managed to drag Harley back out of the house to go dress shopping once they had all the food prepared and in the oven. Harley had to admit that being forced to shop wasn't too bad; her aunt had told her that she was allowed to pick out her own dress. Choosing and trying on the first dress she found, a soft blue color that complimented her skin tone and didn't clash with her hair, Petunia decided that the dress was decent enough and agreed. The teen was just relieved that neither of the had to waste time arguing.

When the two arrived home, the first thing Harley saw when she walked through the door was her uncle's already red face. But before Vernon could even say a word, the witch rolled her eyes, forcing the fattest Dursley's face to become an even darker shade of red.

"Now look here, girl. I won't be having any of your M—"

"Magic?" Harley interrupted, the left corner of her mouth lifting upwards.

"Mischief disrupting this dinner," Vernon stressed with gritted teeth. "I've already said how important this is." Her uncle stepped closer, baring his slightly yellowed, but otherwise flawless teeth under his bushy mustache. "If you do anything that will cause the termination of this deal, I'll knock the stuffing out of you, throw you in the tool shed and you will stay there until you're thirty! Magic be damned!"

"I couldn't care less about this, to be honest. I'm only going along with this over-exaggeration of a dinner party out of boredom, I'm afraid," the young witch shrugged. "Even though I know my opinion has no weight around here, as you and Dudley have more than enough to throw around, I believe this dinner will crash and burn, with or without my help." With this, Harley turned on her heel and trotted up the stairs with a sly smirk.

With a reluctant attitude only she could provide, Harley donned her dress and quickly cast a silent spell for her hair, forcing it to tighten its ends into perfectly, bouncy red curls. She worked in complete silence doing her makeup for the next few minutes until Harley realized that Kiyo and Vasuki were still wrapped around her.

§Mistress, we're bored…§ Kiyo hissed quietly.

From the sudden sound, the teen jumped slightly, not expecting the young snake to make herself known. §I'm sorry for ignoring you two, Kiyo. My pitiful relatives have been keeping me distracted. I only ask that you wait a bit longer until this charade is over,§ Harley explained.

At this, the snake huffed and blended back into her mistress' skin. §Bloody humans…§

Finished with her brief make-over, Harley emerged from her room. She felt quite proud of how she looked; not that she particularly cared about this event, but she didn't mind dressing up either. Barely a foot away from her door, she almost got barreled down by her hulk of a cousin, Dudley.

She hissed sharply as he pushed her into the wall, making an extremely uncomfortable grip on her chest, attempting to keep his balance. When he let go, she had subconsciously formed a ball of fire in her right hand, poised to throw when Dudley suddenly turned around. Before his eyes could catch it, the flame had already extinguished. He gave Harley the creepiest grin possible when he told her something that instantly made her want to run to the bathroom to take a shower. "Lookin' good, cousin." As if he had told this to a random girl on the street. For Merlin's sake, he even winked at her!

Harley quickly turned on her heel and raced back down the stairs. She managed to force any bile down that tried to sneak its way up but was unable to shake away the slimy feeling. "I have got to get out of here before I burn them all alive," she breathed.

Harley would be forced to look at Dudley's pig-like face again throughout the whole evening. She would worry about that later though. For right now, she leaned against the wall near the front door, attempting to keep a hold on herself before she did something she knew that she'd not only regret, but get sent to Azkaban for. Staring at her hand, the witch watched as a new flame grew steadily in the center of her palm.

Harley allowed herself to get lost in the dancing light. Doing so, she felt her shoulders lose their tension and her entire body in the process. She refused to let herself get lost in her anger. It was true, being intertwined with her fire magic has caused her to act more rashly and become angry much quicker. But Harley knew it would only be a matter of time before she had complete reign over her powers. She took a few calming breaths and stared further into the distracting fire. Suddenly, the front door was knocked upon.

The sound caused the witch to jump and quickly put out the flame.

"Potter! Answer that door! And there better be a smile on your face." Petunia hissed from the kitchen.

Taking a deep breath and plastering a fake smile on her face, Harley opened the door.

Only for it to fall from her face three seconds later.

"Draco?" she gaped.

Platinum blond eyebrows raised, a surprised Draco Malfoy stared back. Along with him, of course, were his parents: Lucius and Narcissa. "...Potter. You live… here?" he sneered slightly as his gray eyes darted over the structure of the two-story house.

"Sadly, yes. You remember the horrible family of Muggles I told you I had the misfortune of being related to via my mother?" she hinted. At Draco's nod, and from the sound of her uncle's heavy steps making their way down the stairs, she sighed and stepped away from the door. "Brace yourselves."

"Yes, yes, hello! You three must be the Malfoy's. I'm Vernon Dursley," her uncle announced. "This is my wife and son, Petunia and Dudley." As if they had synchronized it perfectly, both her aunt and cousin immediately appeared from the kitchen and from upstairs. It reminded Harley briefly of the many families she had once saw in an American movie on television called the Stepford Wives. Just like in the movie, everyone and everything was horribly fake and rehearsed. She didn't know if the Malfoys caught the way Vernon's eyes flickered towards Narcissa and Draco, but him doing so made her right eyebrow twitch in anger. 'Why is it such a big deal anyway?' Her aunt was the same, albeit a bit more subtle about it but over the years, Harley learned. The body language, dispositions, even people's speech changed when they were around someone black, dark or light skinned. It isn't always about being vocal about it anymore. The darker they were, the obvious it was.

Draco was born of the same race she was; they were both half black, you see. Harley had a more warm caramel like complextion, but Draco was born even lighter, like the color of sand, due to the Malfoys being historically pale. With that, came the famous blond Malfoy hair, only his hair had loose, soft curls. Most of the members of House of Black were well... black. Narcissa herself was darker in shade and had more of a cool, chestnut undertone and with relaxed, wavy black hair pulled into a tight bun as opposed to Sirius' or Bellatrix's long, wild and bushy.

Draco darted his eyes over towards Harley in question. The witch caught on quickly. "Dudley?" Gray eyes shined in amusement. She rolled her eyes and nodded subtly.

"A pleasure," Lucius answered. Harley watched with contained amusement as the Lord of the Malfoy family attempted to keep the sneer from making its way onto his face. "I am Lucius, this is my wife, Narcissa and my son, Draco." The young witch noticed the same fabricated disposition with the Malfoy's, only she surmised that if she were in their own home, they would look and be much more comfortable around one another. The Malfoy's only showed a face of aloofness to the public eye.

Both Draco and Narcissa nodded towards the Dursley's in greeting with small identical smiles, not bothering to waste their breath.

"Please, come in, come in!" Vernon insisted. "My son and niece will lead you to the living room while I help my wife in the kitchen." Vernon led Petunia towards the kitchen, leaving the five other occupants in the foyer.

Dudley took this time to stare shamelessly at Narcissa, unaware of Lucius' clenched hand around his cane. Harley's eyes widened and flicked her hand slightly towards Dudley. This caused a glazed look to develop in his eyes and he suddenly walked into the living room.

"Using Wandless Magic on your cousin, Potter?" snickered Draco. "Bit too underhanded for a Gryffindor such as yourself, don't you think?"

"Oh quiet, Draco, you know I'd be practically ruling Slytherin at your side if I had desired it First Year," Harley remarked with a roll of her eyes. With Draco's parents slightly stunned, she led them through to the living room where a Confounded Dudley had already turned on the television.

She politely offered them to sit on the couch before taking a seat herself. "If I may ask, Mr. Malfoy, exactly what business does a wizard of your caliber have in the Muggle world? Especially with a business as boring as drills. Because honestly, it sounds like some half-assed plan for you to either take me to Voldemort, or to convince me to collaborate with you in the war," Harley stated bluntly.

"Rather clever of you to deduce two obvious options, Miss Potter. However, this may come as a shock to you, but I had no idea you lived here," Lucius admitted. "Until now, the most I knew of your home life was that you had the terrible luck of living with Muggles. I will say that the only reason we are here this evening is simply for monetary reasons. Despite my disdain, I do have a rather extensive knowledge of Muggle businesses. Now, may I inquire as to how you and Draco became friends despite my knowledge of your school rivalry?"

Harley nodded her head towards her best friend's father. "It was during Fourth Year, after my name had been chosen from the Goblet, I believe. Ronald Weasley refused to believe my denial of entering my name, despite using common sense." She paused to roll her eyes. "Only a select amount students, which included Draco, agreed that I was telling the truth. He basically took Ron's place as my best friend," she confessed shyly.

"Sentiment, Potter? You're better than that," Draco taunted playfully.

Before Harley could fire a come back, both Petunia and Vernon walked into the living room, calling everyone to the table. The witch quickly erased the spell she cast over her cousin earlier and very narrowly dodged his heavy feet as he barreled past her. Without her aunt asking, Harley followed Petunia back into the kitchen and helped her serve dinner to the table. She took the only open seat across from Draco, and unfortunately, next to her cousin.

The dinner passed by smoothly with Vernon and Lord Malfoy passing business inquiries back and forth that Harley didn't care to listen to. In order to keep up the guise of being unfamiliar with their guests, she could not amuse herself with Draco and boredom had struck no later after her aunt had passed out the wine. Over the course of the dinner, Harley couldn't help but imagine being back at school and practicing her magic without distraction.

It was after dessert had been passed out and eaten that things became mildly interesting.

And problematic.

Watching Lucius Malfoy's facial reactions to her uncle's poor jokes was quite amusing. There was this slight twitch in his eyebrow every time Vernon made a bad pun. The forced laughs that both he and his wife gave were incredibly obvious but her uncle and aunt ate them up anyway.

It was around this time (9:15 to be specific) that Petunia gestured to Harley to help clear the table for the blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream that she had bought for dessert. From the kitchen, clearing scraps from the plates, she heard Lucius eventually bring up getting to know each other's families in order to save the rest of his family from Vernon's feeble attempts at humor. "Why don't you tell me about your son and niece, Mr. Dursley? Give these children a small break from all this business talk?"

Vernon, being the social (and money hungry) butterfly that he is, easily switches topics and begins bragging about Dudley trying out for rugby for the upcoming school year. "Other than boxing, there's no other sport perfect for my boy!" he chortles. He pats Dudley on the back. Dudley, who had been watching the television practically the entire time, grunts when his father does so and quickly offers a forced smile to the Malfoys. "He's been bulking up over the summer! He'll be the star and captain, no doubt."

Back in the kitchen, Harley snorted quietly and rolled her eyes.

"What about your boy, Mr. Malfoy? The young chap play any sports?"

Lucius smiles slightly. "Less… aggressive sports. Fencing, horseback riding and the like. Draco is more of a scholar than anything, very studious. And your niece?"

At this, Vernon paused. "She… isn't as bright as your son seems to be. Quite lazy in her school work. She's an orphan, my wife's niece. Troubled. Petunia tries to steer her in the right direction." Vernon lowers his voice slightly, "I think she… gets it from her father . Not very sharp either from what my wife's told me."

Draco stares irritably at the table, wishing he could burn a hole through it. 'Not bright? From her father?' Along with him, his mother too, glares above Vernon's head. Lucius, on the other hand, nods understandably and feigns concern. "That's too bad. I'm sure she'll come around eventually."

Listening in from her spot closest to the dining room, Harley grips the ice scoop tightly. Her right eye twitches slightly before she exhales a sharp breath and begins topping the slices of pie with the ice cream. 'Not again,' she thinks to herself. 'I can't keep losing control of my magic like this.' She assists her aunt with quickly serving the table with dessert, guests first, of course, and takes her seat next to her cousin.

She throws a brief, forced smile towards Draco. 'It's fine.' To which Draco returns with a roll of his eyes. 'Oh please.'

For the rest of dessert, Harley manages to block out anything her aunt or uncle have to say. That it is until the Malfoys decided to take their leave.

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, I believe it is time for my family and I to turn in," Lucius says as he pulls away from the table. To this, both Vernon and Petunia tut sadly. "And while I thank you for this rather wonderful dinner, I am afraid that I must rescind my business offer." Vernon's eyes widen in disbelief. "Mobizen Tools presented me with a more mutually beneficial deal. I apologize for disappointing you, Mr. Dursley… We shall let ourselves out." Lucius offers a small smile and guides Narcissa and Draco to the front door.

Quickly, taking one last bite of her pie, Harley stands, offering to walk them out, all the while struggling to hide the smirk from her uncle. When she opens the door, Lucius leads them out with Draco following last. He mouths to her, 'Owl me later.' She nods discreetly and gently closes the door. A petty snicker escapes her as she does so. Harley returns to the dining room to both Petunia and Vernon glaring venomously… at her.

Harley sighs. "What did I do?"

" You… you...," her uncle stutters.

"Me?"

"You… did this," Vernon hisses, teeth bared. His fists clench and his face begins to turn red. "You made him change his mind." He rounds the table rather quickly.

"How dare you even think that I would waste my time to make sure that your dinner was a failure?" Harley asked incredulously. Although, she found it severely unlikely of Vernon not to blame her of such a thing. This is the same man who once cuffed her around the head because his favorite bakery were sold out of chocolate chip muffins when she was nine.

"You jinxed it, brat, I know you did!" he growled. The hulk of a man moved closer to her with each step, until his sausage sized finger was pointed in front of her face. Dudley manages to pull his eyes away from the television, finding this much more entertaining and eagerly awaiting what will happen next.

"And when, perchance, do you think I had time to do such a thing?" Harley crossed her arms, left eyebrow raised and her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Earlier, of course, wh-when you claimed that this would be a waste of your time!" Petunia chimed in from behind her enormous husband.

"You two should write a book," the witch deadpanned. "Your business deals, failed or otherwise, have been no interest of mine."

"Don't lie to me, girl," Vernon bellows. "You know what your problem is?"

"Please enlighten me," Harley drawls.

Vernon practically jabs his finger in her nose. "You're jealous. " At this, she scoffs. "And for no reason at that! We feed and clothe you! A roof over your head! And what do you do?" he snarls. "You people ruin everything! You're a brat, and it's because of your father."

"And what do you mean by that ?" Harley clenches her teeth.

She stares down her uncle with a fiery glare. He matches the intensity she's giving out and offers her a nasty grin. There was no need for him to explain what he meant. Even Dudley knew what he meant.

"How dare you. How dare you speak of my father and I that way. And I'm telling you the truth, I did not cast anything on the Malfoys. Especially not on someone as strong as Lucius is, you disgusting —"

Slap.

The room spun for a brief second.

"They're wizards?!" Petunia screeched. "Oh my God!" She gasps, immediately taking a seat.

"Now look what you've done! It's always the same with people like you, starting problems for no reason," Vernon began to rant. But the room got warmer…

Petunia tried to catch a breath...

...and warmer…

Vernon and Dudley began to sweat immediately...

until it got unbearably hot.

"What — what's going on?" Dudley gasped. He struggled to take off his dress jacket and shirt, hoping it would give him some sense of relief.

"Girl… you…"

"Quiet."

Harley tried. She really did. She counted to ten, took deep breaths, but the room just got hotter.

She was just so angry. The chair closest to her caught fire.

Petunia jumped up from the table.

Then the floor.

Vernon jumped back, away from her.

And then it crawled up the dining room table.

Dudley fell over his chair backwards trying to get away…

And then it stopped. The fire slowly died away, leaving the furniture in the same state it was before.

Without hesitating, Harley raced up the stairs to her bedroom. Quickly glancing at Hedwig's cage, she wasn't surprised to see that it was wide open, as was the window, and both she and Hades were missing. She promptly transformed her dress and flats into her Converse, jeans and a sweatshirt using Wandless Magic. Using the same method and bar her Invisibility Cloak, she shrunk down everything in her room that she needed or wanted, threw them into her school trunk and minimized that as well. While she stuffed the small chest into her sweatshirt pocket, she ran out of the room and raced down the stairs.

She was about to go straight for the front door when she paused and turned towards the dining room. There, the Dursleys were still frozen with fear and sweating from the residual heat.

"Do not follow me," she demanded, and made her way out the door. Her uncle yells and barrels for the door, but she whips her Cloak over her head just as he re-opens it. He growls and slams the door while Harley walks down the middle of the road. She manages to make it to the park when she realizes a similar situation to this one.

"Fuck."

ϟ

"No, Loki."

'You never even gave me a chance...'

"No, Loki."

'All I ever wanted was for you to look at me like you did Thor...'

"No, Loki."

'Only for me to find out that I wasn't even really yours...'

A fierce shudder ran through the semi-conscious body of Loki... Odinson? Laufeyson? The abandoned Frost Giant wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

Was he the runt of a Frost Giant that Odin originally found as a child?

How long ago had he fallen the Bifröst?

The monster in the scary stories that mothers told their children when they stayed up late?

Minutes? Hours? Days?

Was he Asgardian; like he was raised and led to believe for most of his life?

Years?

He didn't know what to think.

He could have done it.

He could have