The Palace of Asgard, ten days earlier...

"Well good morning to you young man. Thank you for finally letting your poor mother sleep for once... it's a shame you little brother didn't get the same memo."

Hermione scooped up five month old Bjarte from his crib, settling him comfortably in her arms. "My goodness, you're getting so big." He really was adorable she thought with a smile. With his father's hair, and his mother's dark eyes, he would be a handsome man someday, as would his twin brother Brandt. For now though, he was generally a contented, happy baby – except when it came to the vexed issue of sleeping.

His younger brother Brandt was still fast asleep – having been awake half the night - one small fist in his mouth. Both boys were teething at the moment, and they had been a sore trial to their sleep deprived parents. So much so that their father had taken to catching a few hours of sleep in one of the guest chambers after he fell asleep in three important meetings in the course of a week, and nearly caused a serious diplomatic incident in the process.

Chattering softly to the child in her arms, Hermione wandered out onto the balcony, looking out over the training yard. Below her a pair of young warriors were fighting under the eye of Dalan, the Captain of the Palace Guard. They must be new, she thought, given the amount of patience that the normally formidable Dalan was showing with their mistakes.

"Good morning" Hermione turned to see Jane, Queen of Asgard in the doorway. She didn't look very royal at the moment Hermione thought with some concern. Wrapped in her blue bed robe, her hair rumpled from sleep, Jane looked much better than she had done, but she was still too thin, and tired, her skin pale, and her eyes shadowed. The birth of the boys had been hard for her, and caring for twins, coupled with sleep deprivation had not aided her physical recovery, even with the support of Thor, Hermione and Frigga, and the engaging of an excellent nursemaid. Jane had never been good at allowing others to take over for very long.

"Thank you for taking care of him, has he been awake for long?" Cooing softly, Jane was just about to take her son back, when a wail came from the doorway. She sighed, smiling. "Here we go - breakfast time." She eyed her eldest son, who was playing contentedly with a strand of Hermione's hair. "As he's quite happy at the moment, would you mind hanging on to him while I sort out Grumpy first?" For a second, frustration showed on her face. "I was hoping we were past the teething issues for now, I wanted to get to Earth to see Eric Selvig. He wrote to me last week, apparently he's detecting some very strange gravitational anomalies that he wanted me to look at. Never mind, it'll wait. These two have to come first."

ooo0ooo

An hour later, Hermione had just finished dressing Brandt. Jane was dressing herself, while the little princes' nursemaid dressed Bjarte. Hearing cheering from outside, Hermione took Brandt with her to investigate.

Moments later she stuck her head back through the door. "Jane, are you dressed? Come and watch this..." Moments later Jane emerged, finally dressed and joined her friend and her son at the rail.

Down in the training yard two men were practicing, One was a burly, powerful blonde, the other, while almost his equal in height and reach was lean and much lighter in build. The King and Lord Chancellor of Asgard circled one another eyes focussed.

"This will be worth watching..." Jane said with a smile. "Thor says that these days Loki is one of a very small number of warriors able to give him a run for his money. I guess it's partly because Loki's style is so very different to his."

Hermione nodded, her eyes never leaving the figures below. Thor was like a lion, powerful, golden, brutally strong, the perfect Asgardian warrior. In contrast, her husband had always reminded her of a black panther, dark, lithe and more subtly lethal. His fighting style, more reminiscent of eastern martial arts, had been the gift of Frigga, his mother. Both men had abandoned their weapons of choice in favour of the sword for this bout, and the conflict had attracted a considerable audience – it was this noisy crowd that had first attracted Hermione's attention.

Finally, Thor appeared to have tired of waiting for his brother to make a move, and had lunged forward with astonishing speed for a man of his size, but trying to hit Loki was like trying to hit smoke, the lighter man simply slid away from under his blade, pivoting, perfectly balanced, his sword flicking upwards to parry his brother's stroke. Jane shook her head in admiration. "Thor is always held to be the ultimate warrior, but I have to admit I could watch Loki fight for hours, he's amazing to watch".

Loki was on the offensive now, his blade whirling, blindingly fast, testing out Thor's defences. Thor deflected hard, almost knocking the sword from Loki's hand, but, without any loss of balance, his brother spun around, absorbing rather than fighting the impact. The two men continued to weave, circle and parry, attempting to find a weakness in the other's defence, but despite some spectacular displays of skill which had the spectators roaring their approval, neither were able to break the other. Their allocated hour seemed to fly past, and even Jane and Hermione were shocked when Dalan rang the bell for the end of the bout. Both men stepped apart, breathing heavily in the heat of the late morning. Thor's hand rested affectionately on Loki's shoulder as they left the training ground together. As Thor paused to speak to one of the spectators, Loki tilted his face up to see Hermione and Jane watching them from the balcony. Emerald green eyes met brown, as he smiled up at her, lifting his damp black curls out of his neck.

"Hermione" Jane's voice was teasing...

"Hermione!" Hermione jumped, and turned back to Jane, aware that she had not been listening. Jane was smirking at her. "You're doing it again.."

"What?"

"The whole eye-sex thing. You've been together for what – four years? And you're still at the horny teenager stage. Seriously?"

Hermione suspected that she was probably blushing, much to Jane's amusement as she continued. "What you two need are children – there's nothing like a bit of sleep deprivation to slow you both down."

Jane became aware that Hermione's face had closed suddenly. "Hermione? Have I put my foot in it?"

Hermione's face was shadowed. "We always knew that we wanted children, but it's been two years now and – nothing. I can't help wondering whether this is how it will be. Maybe frost giant DNA and magical human DNA are just not compatible. Maybe it just isn't meant to be. It's hard though. I have no living family, and Loki is adopted, so a child would be our only blood relation. I would love to give him the family he's always wanted.

Jane's heart ached for the sorrow on her friend's face. Carefully avoiding disturbing Brandt, who was now asleep she hugged her tightly. "Hermione, you've been married for two years. I know it's hard, but you have thousands of years together. The one thing that you do have is time.

Hearing the door into the room open, the two women parted as Thor and Loki entered, relaxed and chaffing one another over their recent bout, dispelling the cloud that had fallen over their wives' conversation. Thor made a beeline straight for Jane, hugging her with his usual enthusiasm. She was less keen, pulling a face. "Thor – really, you're all sweaty. Go and get cleaned up."

Thor was unabashed, snatching a swift kiss, before heading for the bathing chamber. Meanwhile, Loki had removed Brandt from Hermione's arms, tucking him neatly into his left arm so that he could hold his wife properly. His green eyes smiled wickedly into hers. "Do you mind me all sweaty?"

Hermione reached up to draw his lips down to hers. "Not really, but let me know when you're off to get washed up, and I'll come and scrub your back for you"

Hearing them, Jane rolled her eyeballs. "Just like I said – horny teenagers... Someone bring me a bucket of cold water."

ooo0ooo

In a quiet corner of Knockturn Alley, a heavily cloaked figure slipped through the door of The White Wyvern. Even in an establishment known for not asking any questions, he seemed exceptionally keen not to attract attention to himself. Taking a cautious look around the small dark bar, he carefully approached three other hooded figures at a quiet table in the back of the room. Joining them, he stowed the large black sack he had been carrying carefully under the table. Had anyone cared to look more closely – which they tended not to in the White Wyvern, unless they wanted to draw some VERY unpleasant attention to themselves – they might have seen that whatever was in the sack appeared to be moving.

"Here – it shouldn't give you any trouble. I used the strongest Imperio that I could without killing it. When will you do it?"

"Tonight". The shortest of the other three, apparently their leader, looked frankly terrified.

The first man reached over the filthy tabletop to grip the leader's throat threateningly. "Don't let me down. You will find that I can be a useful ally – but a dangerous enemy and I have powerful friends.

"What shall I do with it when I have it?"

"Keep it safe, no one'll suspect you. I'll find you once the hue and cry die down." He leaned forward, threateningly. "Don't get any funny ideas about double crossing me... you will find that I can be VERY unpleasant. Do I make myself clear...?

All three men nodded enthusiastically. "Yes sir. You can trust us sir..."

As the first man left the pub, now without his bundle, he reflected that his working days would soon be over. If the contents of the vault were as valuable as he believed, he would be able to live in wealth and comfort for the rest of his days.