The Triumph of These Tired Eyes

by AnarchicMuse

In his several millennia of existence Loki Odinson, God of Mischief and Lies, had been many things; he had been a liar, a warrior, and a trickster, just to name a few, but never before had he been a loving father, he'd never been given the chance. However, the moment the tiny creature was in his arms, he knew he would do anything necessary to keep hold of what was his.

26. Chapter Twenty-Six

It took hours for Fenris to tire himself out. Hours of uprooting trees, terrorizing the wildlife, and howling at what little sky peeked through the thick canopy before he finally trotted back into the clearing, carrying a vaguely equestrian animal in his jaws. He dropped the animal on the ground beside Harry, then donned the skin of his human form.

"Eat," the wolf-man growled. "You are too tiny to be kin of mine."

"I've already said I'm not tiny, you're just freakishly large," Harry shot back, curiously poking at the animal. "What is this?"

"Meat, it will put more on your bones." Fenris nudged his catch closer to Harry with his foot. "Eat."

"No, I meant, as in species, what species of animal is this? I mean, it looks a bit like a deer, but, last time I checked, deer were herbivores and did not need incisors the size of my ring finger. And those hooves, have you…."

Fenris leveled Harry with an unimpressed look, then tore the back leg off of the not-deer and thrust it at him. "Eat."

"Well, since you asked so nicely," the teen muttered sarcastically and received a faceful of the bloody flank in punishment. "All right, I'll eat. But at least let me cook the damn thing."

He hurried away from Fenris' aggressive mother henning and toward the edge of the clearing where he collected a few armfuls of shredded wood from the base of the trees. He used that as kindling for a magically induced fire while a branch, whittled to a smooth point by his dagger, acted as a spit to roast a portion of the back leg over the fire.

Fenris' nose wrinkled in disgust as the meat slowly darkened and crisped until it was cooked all the way through.

"Don't make that face," Harry said as he removed his spit from the fire. "I'm not part-canine, I'll end up getting worms or the like from uncooked meat."

"More protein."

"More like more cramps, nausea, and maybe even a bit of colic." Harry scoffed before taking a tentative bite from the charred animal; he allowed himself a few moments to process the taste before admitting to himself that it wasn't all that bad, a bit stringy perhaps, but it had a nice spice to it. "How did you hunt when you were chained to that rock?" he asked between bites, finding the silence and the way Fenris simply sat and watched with his dark eyes a bit unnerving. "It didn't allow you to go any further than this clearing, right?"

"I did not hunt. In the time I slept, the animals became comfortable with my presence. They lived in the trees around me, when I woke I was able to lure them close enough to catch and eat."

Harry frowned. "It can't have taken them long to realize being so close to you was a danger. What did you do when they moved on?"

"I slept again."

"For years? Decades?"

Fenris tossed his head as if thrown off by the question. "Long enough for them to forget the danger and return."

Harry set aside his meal, suddenly unable to stomach another bite. "You're coming back with me tonight, yeah?"

"To Midgard?"

"Yes, I have a home there, away from this island, you'll no longer be held prisoner by those meant to be family."

Fenris' eyes narrowed in what Harry figured was either hope or distrust. "You would free me from this island?"

"Of course," Harry nodded. "But you have to promise me something. You cannot eat Odin and start the Asgardian apocalypse."

Fenris snorted derisively. "I would not eat the Allfather, he is old, too dusty. Besides, eating him would be too merciful a death. If I were to kill him it would be long, and painful."

"Well, let's just hold off on all plans of killing him for the time being. If you can promise me that, we can leave, right now if you want."

Fenris heaved a heavy, put upon sigh through his nose, but nodded his head sharply in agreement. "You have my word."

"I knew I could count on you," Harry grinned. "Now is there anything you'd like to take with you, a rock you're particularly fond of, maybe the skull of some animal you've been talking too to keep you company…No? All right, then I say we blow this popsicle stand."

"What is a popsicle stand?"

A wide grin, bearing just a hint of his usual mischief, lit Harry's face. "Oh, brother, I look forward to introducing you to the wonders of Midgardian dialect."

---

Harry felt as if he was comfortable enough with the basic layout of the Asgardian mountains to apparate directly to the cave in which his ride home was waiting; it was a bit trickier bringing Fenris along for the sole fact that he was so big and they were traveling quite some distance, but he managed and only lost half an eyebrow for his troubles.

"This is Midgard?" Fenris asked when the portal deposited them in a silent and obviously closed for the night Stonehenge. "It has not changed much in the time I was imprisoned."

"If I were you, I'd reserve my judgment for a later date," Harry snorted. "You've not seen anything yet." He held out his arm for the wolf-man to take. "One more trip and we're there."

"I do not like your sorcery," Fenris frowned.

"You wouldn't be the first of my family to dislike it," Harry said ruefully. "But I'm sure you'll come around. Now come on, I don't particularly fancy walking all the way home and you're not ready for muggle transportation."

Fenris reluctantly wrapped a large hand around Harry's proffered arm; they apparated with the usual sharp crack and landed on the hidden doorstep of Grimmauld Place.

"Home sweet home," Harry sighed as he tapped his wand against the wooden door, disengaging the various locks. The narrow front hall was darkened, but Harry could see a light shining from the direction of the kitchen and hear the soft murmur of voices. However, the moment the door slammed shut behind him, the voices cut off and were replaced by the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Harry?" Hermione's cautious voice sounded from somewhere down the hall. "Is that you?"

"It's me," he called out as he kicked off his shoes. "What are you doing up? Am I late?"

"Close to it. Come sunup, we were ready to take that portal and storm As-" Hermione cut off mid-sentence when she rounded the corner and spotted the beast of a man hulking less than a meter behind Harry. Ron, Neville, and Blaise weren't far behind her, but they too pulled up short the moment they noticed Fenris.

"Er, Harry," Blaise said. "Who is the tall drink of water and what is he doing in our house?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Harry said cheekily. "I mean, the resemblance is uncanny if I do say so myself. This is by brother, Fenris. Brother, meet my close friends Hermione, Ron, Blaise, and Neville.

"More mortals," Fenris sniffed.

"Well, we are on Midgard. Most of us will be mortal."

"Harry," Hermione cut in, voice just the tiniest but shrill. "I thought you went to Asgard to try and wheedle Fenris' location from your grandmother, not track him down and bring him home."

"No wonder you were almost late," Neville chuckled. "You can never just stick with the plan."

Harry shrugged unrepentantly. "It didn't even take me a quarter of an hour to wheedle it out of her. As a matter of fact, there was an underwhelmingly little amount of wheedling involved. I still had some time before I had to be home so I figured I could give it a shot."

"And by give it a shot, you mean find him, talk to him, and somehow convince him to come home with you." Ron shook his head in amusement. "You plan for him to stay here with us?"

The five teens turned to look at Fenris who looked positively giant and supremely uncomfortable in the narrow hall, he looked ten seconds from quite literally bursting from his skin.

"I'll admit, I didn't think this far ahead," Harry said. "But he definitely can't stay here, it's too small and there isn't a forest large enough for him to run in anywhere close to this place."

"He could live in Longbottom Manor," Neville suggested, "it's been empty for years. It's certainly large enough for him to live comfortably and it's got a few dozen acres of forest for him to run and hunt in."

"Does that sound all right to you?" Harry asked Fenris. "It'll be a bit more isolated, but you'll have the whole forest to do with as you please."

"So long as I do not ever have to return to that island again, I will make do."

"Brilliant. We could leave tomorrow afternoon, give Nev some time to work us into the wards if need be."

"Sometime in the afternoon?" Ron asked.

"Let's try for around three," Blaise suggested. "It'll take me a few hours to round all of my belongings up."

"Wait," Harry frowned. "What? No. I didn't mean all of us had to move."

Hermione rolled her eyes and exchanged amused glances with the others. "You don't really think we're staying here while the two of you move to Longbottom Manor?" she said. "When Fenris is off hunting you'll need someone to keep you company."

"Besides, we've got pretty much all we could from the Black family library," Neville added. "If you plan on finding Jormungandr anytime soon we'll need some fresh content to look through."

"I'd feel bad uprooting you all because of a rash decision on my part," Harry protested.

"Please," Ron scoffed. "We're moving from a dark old townhouse to an airy, countryside manor, it's no hardship."

"Well, when you put it like that…" Harry conceded.

"That was easier than we'd expected," Hermione said, beaming in satisfaction.

A suspicious frown tugged at Harry's lips. "It was," he agreed. "I expected a bit more anger from you especially when I showed up with Fenris. You tend to get a little bent out of shape when I deviate from a set plan or put myself in danger without your consent."

"And for good reason. But, honestly Harry, I can't say I'm all that surprised you went off by yourself to find Fenris. I'm sorry to say, you're becoming more and more predictable as you grow older."

"Well, that just won't do," Harry exclaimed. "How else will I keep you lot on your toes? A bit of unpredictability goes a long way in keeping life…interesting."

"Bullshit!" Ron proclaimed. "Unpredictability only ever leads to one thing when it comes to us. Trouble. And I've had more than enough trouble in this lifetime, thanks. I'll be happy if I never have to see another lick of action the rest of my life. A bit of peace and quiet is all I ask for."

Harry smiled and shot the redhead a pitying look. "If it was peace and quiet you desired, you never should have joined me in that train car."

---

Loki was gone. Loki was dead. In his place stood a creature of pain and blue and hatred. So much hatred. He was overflowing with it, it leaked from every crack, every crevice, it made room for nothing else. It was all he was and all he was ever going to be.

The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will.

Was that what he was? An ally? But that inferred they were working together. That they were equals. Was he even alive? He didn't know, couldn't tell. There was too much pain, too much blue.

He is ready to lead. And our force, our Chitauri, will follow.

He would not lead, they would never allow him to lead. The Chitauri would lead and he would follow.

The world will be his. The universe yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?

He was burning. Always burning. He couldn't see past it most days, couldn't think around it. Those days were bad, but the days were he could, where he could think and almost remember were among the worst. It was then that he wondered: who was he? Who am I? He would always receive a response. But it was wrong. Always wrong.

You are Loki of Asgard, and you have been gifted with glorious purpose.

This was no gift.

The pain that never faded, and the blue that never left became sharper, brighter, more intense.

Who am I?

You are Loki of Asgard, and you have been gifted with glorious purpose.

I am…

I am…

I am...

I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.

---

It didn't come as a surprise to anyone when, the moment they arrived at Longbottom Manor, Fenris took off into the woods, sparing only a second to grant Harry alone a gruff farewell. It had been days since any of them had seen him, if it hadn't been for the fresh animal carcasses that bore an unspoken but no less pointed message left at the main entrance every day or so, Harry would have feared that Fenris had run off to be alone again.

He'd been the slightest bit embarrassed by what he believed to be an unfounded fear, but Hermione assured him that it was normal considering how he'd lost several important people to him in a very short amount of time. It was only logical he would fear anyone else leaving him. Then, in true Hermione fashion, she steered him toward the library to 'distract him from his woes.'

The Longbottom library was several times larger than Grimmauld Place's, not to mention noticeably more organized, but, instead of providing Harry with the resources he'd need to find his fourth sibling, it only meant more books he'd have to pick through to find even the tiniest of clues. Blaise, Neville, Hermione, and Ron were always willing to lend a helping hand in searching the shelves for accounts of strange magical creature sighting or flipping through books in search of clues to Jormugandr's location, but they weren't as invested in the search as he was, something he didn't fault them for as he often felt guilty if they spent several hours out of their day in the library with him. It was all right if he spent his entire day among the dusty tombs, but they still had lives and families to attend to, the last thing he wanted to do was keep them from them.

His friend's often argued much the same thing in regards to him, trying to track down the last of his family was a worthy endeavor, but he shouldn't spend his every waking moment doing it. They had yet to succeed in actually persuading him to heed their words, but it was a work in progress. The only time they were ever really able to drag him from the library was for Weasley family dinner's, they were held every Sunday evening and had expanded to all of the Weasley children both by blood and marriage, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Blaise, and at least half of the surviving Order. Attendance was not optional.

Harry put up a token protest when the time came around to leave for the Burrow, but all it took was a delighted greeting from Mr. Weasley and a warm hug from the Weasley matriarch to bring him around.

"I swear, I saw you just last week, but you seem to be thinner already," Mrs. Weasley tutted, looking over the way Harry's clothing hung just the slightest bit loose on his frame. "I expect to see you taking third and fourth helpings tonight, and I'll see what I can do about boxing up a few leftovers for you."

"Believe it or not, but we actually are capable of finding ways to feed ourselves, Mum," Ron protested, pressing a kiss to his mother's cheek. "Kreacher takes care of us just fine."

That was the wrong thing to say and he knew it, Mrs. Weasley immediately launched into an impassioned rant about how a house elf wasn't able to put the same amount of care behind their cooking as a mother was. Ron shot Harry a wink when the dark haired teen used the woman's distraction to slip away.

"You owe me one," he mouthed, to which Harry nodded vehemently.

"What's Mum ranting about now?" Charlie asked when Harry gratefully slipped into the living room.

"House elves and cooking."

That was all the assembled guests needed to wince and turn away, they'd all been subjected to at least one of her rants pertaining to the inadequacy of house elves when it came to cooking comfort foods and none of them were all too eager to hear another. Fortunately, she tired herself out pretty quickly and, before long, they were all filing out to the back yard where several tables were lined up lengthwise to accommodate the amount of people present.

Food was dished up and conversation were had, but it didn't take long for talk to turn to what Harry, Neville, Ron, Blaise, and Hermione had been up to. A topic that all but Harry were more than happy to discuss for the sole reason that they got to complain about Harry and his reclusive habits.

"He spends all day in the library, Mrs. Weasley," Blaise tattled unrepentantly. "It's why he's so thin, it's all we can do to get him to eat."

"What is it you're doing in the library all day? Nothing's more important than your health, dear," Mrs. Weasley frowned, gearing up for a lecture. There was only one way to prevent the imminent telling off.

"I've been searching for what's left of my family," he said, accenting his voice with just a touch of wistful sadness. "I don't know if you're familiar with Asgardian mythos, but my father had four children before me, but because of their parentage and the forms in which they took, they were exiled from Asgard. My sister, Hela, has her own domain in the underworld where she watches over a portion of the dead; she was the first one I met, during the Final Battle when I was hit with the Killing Curse. I met Sleipnir next, on Asgard, he was there when I learned my father died." There was a sympathetic rumble along the table. "Fenris is the brother I've met most recently, he was being held on an island on Asgard." Harry turned to Remus with a bright grin on his face. "I should introduce the two of you one day, he's part wolf, but he has full control over his ability to shift between man and wolf. Perhaps he could give you some tips on becoming more connected with Moony."

Remus smiled in bemusement. "I would love to meet him. Though I suppose it might be a bit difficult to arrange a meeting what with him what with him being held on an island on Asgard."

"Well, I did say was. I brought him home with me, back here to Midgard. He was the main reason we moved to Longbottom Manor, so he would have space to move and run and hunt. Jormungandr is the only sibling of mine I haven't found, which is frustrating because he's a monstrous sized serpent supposedly hiding here on Midgard."

"A monstrous sized serpent here on Midgard?" Bill asked interestedly. "Where would he hide? In the oceans, perhaps?"

Harry nodded. "That's the only plausible reason no one's seen him. He would have no problem remaining hidden in the ocean. I've been looking into sightings of strange creatures that may be him, but the only places I have to look are the libraries in Grimmauld Place and Longbottom Manor, and there's only so much books written several decades ago can do for us."

"I'll do some poking around next time I head in for work," Mr. Weasley promised. "See if the Department of Magical Creatures hasn't had to deal with something like a giant sea serpent."

"I will too," Bill promised, a thoughtful look on his handsome face. "Being a cursebreaker you go to some weird places and see some crazy stuff. I'll talk to some of my colleagues tomorrow."

"That'd be brilliant," Harry said gratefully. "I'd really appreciate it."

"Does this mean now you'll stop skipping out on meals to peruse those dusty old books?"

Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry, suddenly reminded that she had yet to reprimand him for not taking better care of himself. As she launched into a stern lecture on the importance of eating three full meals a day with snacks in between, Harry didn't even bother hiding the poisonous glare he sent Blaise's way, nor the careful drag of his thumb over his throat.

"I will end you," he mouthed.

His fellow Slytherin only shrugged and silently laughed at Harry's plight. Smug bastard.

---

Both Mr. Weasley and Bill kept their promises and spoke with their colleagues on behalf of Harry the very next day. Mr. Weasley didn't have much luck finding anything thanks to the Ministry's general incompetence, but Bill, it seemed, had much better luck. Ron's eldest brother paid them a visit that evening with a book on famous cursebreakers and what he believed to be their first clue.

"I didn't have to look very far to find this," he told Harry as he handed him the thick tome. "The moment you mentioned giant serpent, I already had something in mind; the conclusion that he had to be hiding in the ocean was only confirmation." He reached over and flipped the book open to the biography of a man named Marek Goshawk.

"Goshawk?" Ron asked, looking over Harry's shoulder. "Isn't that the name of the lady who wrote our Charm books? Melinda Goshawk?"

"Miranda," Bill corrected. "And yes it is, he is her many times great uncle. Marek was a brilliant cursebreaker, by the time he was in his thirties, he'd visited every corner of the planet, seen some of the greatest archaeological sites to be witnessed by man. One of the last jobs he worked was in the Atlantic Ocean, not far from the coast of the United States; he'd been sent there to look into a frequent shipwreck site. The US government suspected that one of the first ships to have gone down in the area bore curses that sunk any ship that passed within five kilometers of it, they needed a skilled cursebreaker to eradicate them before muggles really began taking notice. The last thing they wanted was another Bermuda Triangle disaster.

"Marek was the cursebreaker they assigned to the job. However, he claimed that while he was out there, he spotted what he believed to be a mass of land that hadn't been notated anywhere on his map. Only when he drew closer did he realize that the island was moving, slowly sinking until it had been fully submerged; its silhouette was still visible beneath the water, however, and he could see that it was headed directly toward him. As it drew closer, he was able to make out a head that looked distinctly snake like, and a long body devoid of any fins or other such limbs."

"A giant sea serpent," Neville said.

Bill nodded. "Exactly. Marek tried to inform the Magical Congress of the United States of what he'd seen, but they didn't believe him. No such creature existed in either the wizarding or the muggle world. They told him it was likely just a kelpie who'd wandered over from Ireland and had taken on the form of a sea serpent to scare him off.

"Of course, Marek wasn't so easily dissuaded, he wanted to go back out to the site and search for the creature. Unfortunately, before he got the chance he contracted dragon pox and died."

Harry, who had been following Bill's narration nearly word for word in the book, looked up with wide eyes. "That sounds as if it could be something," he said. "Right? That could that have been Jormungandr?"

"Well, basilisks don't like to swim, as far as I can tell," Blaise said. "And there are no other creatures that sound remotely like he described."

"What if it really was a kelpie like the MACUSA believed?" Hermione asked.

"Ireland is a long way to travel for one kelpie," Neville said. "And if it had really taken on the form of a monstrous sea snake to scare Marek off I imagine it would have done something to actually scare him, not sink beneath the water and swim away."

"I say it's worth checking out," Harry said. "It's pretty solid as far as first clues go."

"Where was this shipwreck Marek was supposed to be heading out to?" Ron asked. "We're going to need to know where it is we're going."

"That's the thing, the book doesn't mention the location of where he'd been sent to for the job," Bill explained. "I suppose the author didn't think it was pertinent information, or perhaps they didn't want anyone who read it to go gallivanting off to some cursed shipwreck site in search of a creature that may or may not exist. I had Dad check the Ministry's archives for anything but there was nothing on Marek or his assignment; he said the MACUSA would be the most likely place you'd find anything pertaining to the two."

"Could they mail it to us if we requested it?" Harry asked.

"I'm sure they would," Bill nodded. "But it would likely take weeks for them to process the request, send someone down there to find what you need, and receive the proper permission needed to make copies of the documents and owl them back to you. I imagine you don't want to wait that long."

"Not at all," Hermione said. "Harry's a pain when he's impatient."

"I am not," the teen in question scowled, but he remained largely ignored.

"I figured as much, Dad's in the process of procuring an international portkey for you, it should be ready by the day after tomorrow at the latest."

"Bill Weasley, you are a dream," Harry beamed. "Thank you so much."

"It wasn't anything I wasn't happy to do for you. Hopefully next time you'll remember you don't have to do all the heavy lifting yourself." He shot Harry an affection smile. "Now, I'll leave you all to talk amongst yourselves, figure out the fine details."

Bill left through the fireplace and Harry, Ron, Blaise, Hermione, and Neville settled on the floor around the coffee table to discuss their next move.

"I don't think all of us need to go," Harry said, "it'll just be a quick visit, in and out, the more people we bring, the longer it'll take."

"How many should go then?" Hermione asked. "Two? Three?"

"Two should be more than enough," Neville suggested. "Harry, of course, and who else?"

"I'm fine with staying here, holding down the fort until you get back," Ron said. "Long distance portkey trips make me sick."

"I've made plans to have breakfast with my parents the day after tomorrow," Hermione said. "But if you need me to, I could reschedule, I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

"No, it's all right," Harry protested. "I'll admit you're the best when it comes to this sort of stuff, but we'll find some way to make due." He turned expectantly to Neville and Blaise, both of whom shrugged.

"I don't mind taking a portkey across the ocean," Neville said.

"And I've got nothing planned the day after tomorrow."

"Flip a galleon for it," Ron suggested, as he retrieved the coin from his pocket. Once Blaise and Neville chose their sides, he flipped it in the air and slapped it onto the back of his wrist. "And the heads have it. Your win, Nev."

"Do try and keep our Harry in line while you're over there," Hermione said. "I would hate to have to cut breakfast short with my parents because you've gone and broken the US."

"I'll do my best," Neville said solemnly, "but I can't promise the Magical Congress will still be standing by the time our portkey is scheduled to leave. Can you imagine the sort of trouble Harry could get up to in New York?"

---

Loki surveyed his surroundings with a silent sort of glee. A single tremor rocked his frame, but he quickly forced himself to be still before anyone noticed and took it for the sign of weakness it could be interpreted as. All the while he continued to speak, crooning sweetly to terrified mortals kneeling in the dirt around him.

You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

He was interrupted by a man, elderly, the survivor of a great war if the lines marring his face and the shadows darkening his eyes were anything to go by. Then the red white and blue nuisance arrived and his plan was once again in motion.

There was a man in red and gold then a plane and delight as he realized that everything was going to plan. But then there was thunder and hatred and Thor. Useless, horrible, so foolish it was cruel Thor was there, begging him to abandon his fight, to give up his glorious purpose. There was anger and pain and blue, so much blue.

He claimed they'd mourned him, Odin (thiefmonstertraitor)and Frigga (liarimpostertraitor). But he saw them for the lies that they were, they were honeyed words, meant to lure them back to their side. He would not be so easily fooled.

You give up the Tesseract. You give up this poisonous dream. You come home.

Home? Loki had no home. His only home had died on Jotunheim. Terrified and alone because of his weakness, his ineptitude. But never again. His days of being weak, of cowering in the shadow of his traitorous brothers were over.

---

Harry found himself in agreement with Ron that making a jump from London, England all the way to Manhattan, New York was just the slightest bit vomit inducing. When the portkey deposited them on the magical side of the Woolworth Building, the headquarters of the Magical Congress, it was all Harry could do to keep his lunch from making a reappearance all over the polished floor.

Neville laughed at his discomfort and gave him a firm pat on the back before going in search of someone who could lead them to the public archives. One of the sharply dressed women pointed them in the direction of the closest lift with clear instruction on which floor to stop at and which room the archives were located in.

Of course, they still wound up wandering lost for a good half hour, the building was enormous and there weren't any convenient maps mounted on every other wall, but a bit of good luck and some kind strangers eventually led them to finding the archives.

Unfortunately, the task they'd assumed would take maybe an hour, no more than two wound up taking much, much longer. The Goshawks had a ridiculous amount of records considering they mostly resided in Europe, and looking through the records on cursebreakers was all but pointless due to the sheer amount of documents that file possessed.

"How did I lead myself to believe this would be easy?" Harry muttered as he reached for yet another folder on the Goshawk family. "If we don't find what we need and get topside soon we'll miss our portkey and get Hermione worrying."

Neville hummed in agreement. "And that's the last thing we need, you've been giving her plenty of reason to worry as of late."

Harry's brow furrowed. "Have I?"

Neville nodded. "You've alwaysbeen reckless, it's something we've all learned to deal with" he said, "but I think you've got her worried that, after Draco and Luna and Loki, you don't care at all anymore, about yourself I mean. Jumping into potentially dangerous situations without any sort of backup, spending your entire day sequestered in the library without eating or sleeping or going out for a bit of fresh air and sunshine. Have you even thought at all about what you want to do once you've found Jormungandr? Once you no longer have any siblings to hunt down?"

"Of course I have," Harry said. "Sometimes that's all I can think about. But…I just don't know. I can either work somewhere in the magical world, which doesn't sound the slightest bit appealing, or find a profession in the muggle world, but I've not spent an extensive amount of time there in almost a decade. I don't know where I fit and it's…frustrating."

"You're trying to live in too many worlds at once," Neville mused. "There's a reason you don't see muggleborns taking up muggle professions after graduating; it's nearly impossible to live in both worlds at the same time. You yourself saw how difficult it was for Loki to balance his life with you with his life back on Asgard. It's either the muggle word, the wizarding world, or Asgard, you can't have all three, or even two. There can only be one."

"But that's the problem, I don't know which one I want."

"You'll figure it out, just give it some time. But until you do, you'll never really feel settled."

"What if I choose an option you all don't like?" Harry queried.

"We'll be fine with whatever you choose so long as you're happy."

Harry laughed softly. "You know just what to say, don't you?"

"I like to think of it as one of my many superpowers," Neville shrugged.

"One of your better ones." Harry shot him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Nev."

"It's what I'm here for. That and finding anything on Goshawk's final assignment, but I seem to be failing miserably at that last one."

"To be fair, so am I, and I'm the one who suggested this task."

"Lunch break?" Neville suggested.

"By the time we find the mess hall in this place, it'll be time for dinner."

"Even better. I say we pack up for the time being and go in search for something to eat. If we hurry, we'll have a few more hours to look before it's time to leave."

Harry only hesitated for a moment before nodding his assent. "I could eat."

"Good answer," Neville smiled as he began placing the documents and files they'd pulled from the shelves back in their proper places. Harry reluctantly moved to help, the faster they were done eating, the faster they could get back to looking.

They were down to the very last of the pile when a tremor shook the entire building, undoing all of their hard work.

"What the hell was that?" Harry asked, rubbing at where a thick parcel had collided with the top of his head.

Whatever response Neville had formulated was lost in the sudden wailing of an alarm, the ear splitting noise was horribly reminiscent to a caterwauling charm and caused Harry's already aching head to begin throbbing in earnest.

He and Neville immediately abandoned the trashed archive room and headed toward the nearest lift. The ride up was disconcertingly unstable and deposited them in an atrium completely unlike the one they had passed through only a few hours previous. The hall was crowded with witches and wizards pushing and shoving each other aside to reach the floo networks. Their desperation reminded Harry all too much of rats abandoning a sinking ship.

"Hey," he grabbed the arm of an ashen faced Congress worker, stopping the man in his tracks. "What's got everyone in a panic?"

"The city is under attack," the man explained, gaze darting around the hall nervously. "Some creatures on flying vehicles," the man explained. "People are saying they're…aliens."

"Aliens?" Neville repeated incredulously. "Where did they come from? What do they want?"

"Who knows? And who cares? They're putting the building on lockdown, if I were you, I'd get out of here before they do." The man shrugged himself free from Harry's grip and hurried toward the nearest fireplace.

"Our portkey isn't leaving for another three hours," Neville said, checking his watch. "Let's see if we can't floo out of here before they lock down on all travel."

"Look at the crowds around those fireplaces," Harry pointed out. "We won't be going anywhere through there,"

"Maybe we should just hang tight until this blows over then."

"Nev, aliens are attacking the city. There is no hang tight until this blows over. From the way the building was shaking earlier, I think it's safe to say they're doing some pretty serious damage out there."

"And with our luck, the building will come down on our heads," Neville groaned. "Why do I go places with you? You're like a bad luck charm, trouble stalks you."

"Why are you blaming me?" Harry exclaimed. "I played no part in these aliens' decisions to invade earth. Blame their leader or whatever."

Just then, another tremor shook the building and it let out a worrying groan.

"All right, all right, we need a plan."

"We could go out there."

"Harry," Neville sighed in exasperation.

"No, hear me out," Harry protested. "Right now we've only got three options; try for the fireplaces to no success, hunker down in the lower levels and wait to be crushed beneath sixty stories of metal, or we can try our luck at finding a building slightly less compromised, a little lower to the ground and out of the direct line of fire to wait for our portkey to activate and get us out of here."

"We don't know what's out there. What if these lizard creatures are the size of small houses and crush us beneath their scaly feet the moment we step outside?"

"The man said they were riding flying vehicles, there will be no crushing beneath scaly feet," Harry reasoned, rolling his eyes at his friend.

Neville pinned him with a withering glare he had to have learned from Hermione. "Regardless of whether or not we'll be being crushed, we're still stepping out into a situation that is all sorts of fucked up."

"Haven't we been trained to deal with situations that are all sorts of fucked up?" Harry's words were heralded by another tremor, followed by a stream of dust raining down on their heads.

Doors along every wall burst open and stern faced wizards dressed in dark uniforms poured into the hall, heading in the direction of the fireplaces and all exits.

"This is why Hermione is so worried about you," Neville huffed, though his words lacked any real heat. "Always leaping headfirst into danger."

That was the only confirmation Harry needed before they both sprinted towards the exit, reaching the revolving doors only seconds before the magical law enforcement did.

Outside was everything and nothing at all like they'd thought it'd be; debris and overturned cars already blocked off the streets, entire chunks had been torn from buildings, fires were raging everywhere, and a frankly terrifying amount of people were on the streets, screaming and crying and generally making nuisances of themselves. And, of course, there were the aliens, there was no other way to describe the creatures, flying overhead on their futuristic war machines.

It only took a handful of seconds to spot where it was they were coming from, an enormous black hole encircled in a swirling, blue energy hung in the middle of the sky. It was from there the aliens were emerging, like a swarm of angry bees from their disturbed hive.

"This is unreal," Neville muttered. "Only with you. Only when I'm with you does shit like this happen."

Harry was too transfixed with his surroundings to snap a reply. The street surrounding the Magical Congress building had sustained some heavy damage, but it was devoid of any alien lifeforms. The lizard creatures were wreaking most of their havoc directly below the enormous hole in the sky several city blocks away, but it was obvious that as more and more poured from the portal, the outlying streets would begin filling with the creatures.

He scanned the street for anywhere he and Neville could hunker down until their portkey activated, but he could find nothing that would provide them suitable protection. High rise buildings completely dominated this part of the city, which was less than ideal as anything that stood more than ten stories tall had a very high chance of collapsing before the night was through, and, knowing Harry's luck, it would wind up being the building he decided to take refuge in.

"There aren't as many options out here as I'd hoped," Harry admitted sheepishly.

"There aren't any," Neville cried, exasperated once again, or maybe he'd never stopped being exasperated in the first place, Harry honestly couldn't tell. "Let's go back inside. Maybe they have some contingency plan in place for this sort of thing."

"You think they have a contingency plan in case of an alien invasion?"

"Oh, you know what I mean. And even if they don't, being in there, even with the possibility of being crushed by a collapsing building, is tons better than running into what are more than likely hostile aliens out here."

Harry frowned in disapproval, but had to concede that his plan had failed spectacularly, it was time to give Neville's idea a chance. "Come on then," he sighed.

The two teens stepped into the revolving door meant to lead into the magical side of the Woolworth building and, after giving the proper identification, waited for something to happen. Anything. Nothing did. They turned the door manually, but still nothing happened, when they stepped out of the revolving door it was into what was obviously the muggle side of the building. Several more tries heeded the same result.

"Lock down must be in full affect," Harry noted.

"I blame you for this mess," Neville lamented. "All of this. We're trapped out here with aliens. Aliens, Harry."

"Come on, Nev, how bad can these things really be? Of all the planets in this universe they could have invaded, they chose Earth, stinky, smelly, already dying Earth. That shows they're obviously not the superior race. I mean, do they even have weapons, or are they just flapping around in the sky and running into things?"

"Incoming!" the terrified scream from one of the civilians still out on the street had Neville and Harry turning just in time to see one of the alien vehicles drift around the corner and come to a screeching stop just above their heads, one of the lizard creatures leapt from the vehicle and onto the street while the other remained hovering a safe distance in the air. There wasn't even a moment's hesitation before the creatures drew what could only be very large guns and began shooting bolts of the same sort of electric blue energy that ringed the portal into the crowd of terrified New Yorkers.

"Well, damn. Neville-"

"Yeah," the teen in question cut in before he could even finish his sentence. "I've got the guy on the ground, you get his friend."

"Don't worry about trying to keep the obvious shows of magic hidden if you can't, I'm sure the MACUSA has a fantastic cleanup crew. It's the least they could do considering they've pretty much abandoned these muggles to the mercy of angry flying lizards."

"There's no need to make their job harder than it's already going to be. I'm sure I can take that one guy down without revealing our world to a bunch of panicked muggles."

Harry grinned. "Best of luck to you then."

As Neville turned and charged toward the alien, easily dodging fleeing civilians and bolts of blue energy as he did, Harry scrambled onto the hood of a wrecked SUV sitting only a meter or so away from the hovering alien aircraft. Its single occupant was too busy firing its weapon into the crowd to notice him until he'd used the slight height advantage to leap onto the back of its vehicle. It turned with an angry, horribly inhuman screech but Harry was already upon it, stabbing his dagger into its skull through the point just behind its chin that wasn't protected by the chrome, helmet like headpiece that covered its head.

He jerked the knife free, ignoring the warm spray of blood that made his grip slippery, then launched himself off of the flying vehicle, rolled off of the hood of the SUV, and ducked around its front just in time to shield himself from the small explosion that resulted from the now pilotless aircraft colliding with the asphalt.

"What was that about them not having weapons?" Neville drawled sarcastically, appearing suddenly at Harry's side. Blue-black blood stained the front of his previously pristine shirt. "I think you said something about them flapping around in the sky and running into things."

"No need to rub it in," Harry muttered as he hauled himself to his feet. He and Neville looked back up at the sky where the aliens continued to fall from the portal.

"They're still coming," Neville frowned. "There has to be hundreds of them by now, thousands even."

"At least we're not the only ones putting up a fight," Harry said, pointing to where, several hundred meters below the portal, a robotic figure painted a garish red and gold was engaging the swarm of aliens with what looked to be miniaturized missiles.

"What is that thing?"

"Hell if I know," Harry shrugged. "But he can't take on all of these guys by himself."

"You think we should give him a hand?"

"I know we should."

"Of course you do," Neville snorted. "And I, being the good friend that I am, can't let you just run into a fight without some sort of backup."

A grin of unadulterated delight spread across Harry's face. "We're going to fight?"

"We're going to fight," Neville affirmed. "Hermione's going to kill us either way, we may as well deserve it."

Harry peeked around the side of the SUV to ensure that the few remaining muggles on the street were suitably distracted in their panic before drawing his wand and conjuring a Patronus. "Find Hermione, Ron, and Blaise" he told it. "Relay the following message: Research got a bit crazy, in need of backup as soon as possible." He turned to Neville with a proud grin on his face. "There I called for backup."

"She's not going to kill you any less because you told her research got a bit crazy. If anything, she's going to want to kill you more."

"Well, I tried," Harry sighed. "I'll get it right next time."

"Oh trust me, she'll see to it that there won't be a next time. At least not for you. You'll be lucky if you see a next week."

"Always with the threats. You know, I almost miss the days where you were too shy to string together a full sentence," Harry said as he picked his way through the wreckage of the crashed spacecraft. The alien had been reduced to a lump of charred flesh but its high tech, energy gun had survived mostly unscathed. He pried it from the creature's blackened fingers and began fiddling with the controls until he was fairly certain that, when the time came, he'd be able to shoot it without killing himself, Neville, or any nearby civilians. "Now, enough talking, let's go kill us some aliens."

---

Alien slaughtering didn't come right away, rather there was a lot of running (the portal looked a lot closer than it actually was) interspersed with saving muggles from burning vehicles and from beneath piles of rubble. As they drew closer to the epicenter of the attack, Harry and Neville realized that it wasn't only the two of them and a strange, flying robot fighting the army of aliens, there was a whole team of these guys. So far they'd spotted a woman in a skintight black suit that took an alien down using a nifty move involving her thighs around its neck, a man shooting a bow and arrow with amazing accuracy, and another man sporting an outfit made of the American flag and a lot of spandex.

"Let's stick to the outer perimeter," Harry instructed. "We don't know them and they don't know us, so it's best to just stay out of each other's way the best we can. They seem to have this part of the city locked down, so let's focus on the side streets, help muggles get out of the immediate range of fire and try to keep the aliens from making it too far out into the city."

"This would be a lot easier with more of us," Neville noted as they sprinted down the street to where three of the alien creatures were approaching an overturned bus full of muggles.

"I called for backup. You saw me call for backup," Harry said as he shot a spell that sent one of the aliens flipping over the side of the bus and onto the pavement with a meaty thud. "It just might take some time for them to get here is all."

Neville grunted noncommittally as he cleaved the creature closest to the left right in half with a slightly overpowered cutting curse. The third and final alien collapsed into the pavement thanks to a jelly legs curse, and was promptly speared through the chest with what had once been a stop sign.

Once that had been taken care of, Harry and Neville hoisted themselves onto the bus and began work on breaking enough windows to provide the muggles an ample amount of exits. Harry was in the process of helping a woman up through one of the broken windows when something grabbed his ankle and flung him from atop the bus.

"Arresto Momentum," he yelped in just enough time to make his impact with the street only faintly agonizing rather than the crippling, bone shattering collision it could have been. He huffed out a slightly pained gasp and rolled over just in time to avoid the blast of blue energy that scorched the pavement his head had just been resting on. It seemed that the first alien's rather intimate encounter with the asphalt hadn't killed it as much as Harry had assumed it had, the creature was up once again and mad as hell.

"You all right, Harry?" Neville called, peering over the edge of the bus, ready to leap to his aid.

"Yeah, I got it," he sighed as he rolled to his feet, narrowly avoiding another blast of energy. "He just took me by surprise."

All too aware of the muggles looking on in morbid fascination, Harry tucked his wand back into its holster and drew his dagger. He had enough wandless spells in his arsenal to defend himself with magic if need be, but he was fairly confident he could take on the lone alien with only his dagger and hand to hand abilities.

Before the creature could shoot another round of energy his way, he launched himself into a powerful lunge, colliding with its torso and sending them both to the ground. The alien's gun flew from its grasp when they fell, sliding across the pavement and several feet outside of its reach. It screeched in wordless fury and bucked Harry from on top of him; from its back it drew a secondary weapon, a staff that had been folded in three. He gave it a sharp flick, snapping it into its full length and igniting a familiar blue light at the end.

Harry ducked the first wide and absurdly powerful swing and circled around the back of the creature, he managed to land a solid kick in the small of its back before it swung around and jabbed at him with the crackling staff. Harry was only a second too slow and received a burning blow to his side as consequence.

"Careful," Neville shouted from his perch on top of the bus.

"Yeah, yeah," Harry muttered. On the next swing of the staff, he snagged the alien's wrist in an unrelenting grip; the partial shift into his Jotun form was almost effortless, the blue swept over his arms almost immediately and begin blackening the creature's skin. His free hand shot up in just enough time to deflect a blow aimed for his head and lock the alien's second arm in his grasp. His face screwed up in concentration as he willed ice to form up and along his arms, freezing the muscle beneath its skin and the joints beneath its muscles until they were two useless, frozen stumps.

Harry tore the staff from its grip and delivered a powerful kick to the middle of its chest. The alien stumbled back a few steps, screeching in pain and anger, it gave itself a swift shake before beginning to advance. However, it didn't make it more than half a meter before a swirling disk of color slammed into his chest, knocking it onto the ground. The disk, a faintly familiar shield painted red and blue with a white star etched in its center, ricocheted back in the direction of its owner, the man dressed in the American flag Harry had spotted earlier. He was running at a fairly impressive speed down the street, heading pointedly in their direction. Harry, however, didn't bother waiting around for him reach them, he hefted the stolen alien staff in his hand before driving it directly between the creature's eyes.

"Took you long enough," Neville muttered. "Thought I'd have to save your sorry arse."

"This beautiful arse never needed saving," Harry shot back.

At that moment, the walking American flag slid to a stop at his side. The man had to have run several hundred meters in under half a minute but he wasn't the slightest bit out of breath. "You all right, son?" he asked worriedly. "I saw him clip your side, but I had to get closer before I could get a clean shot at him."

"The thing tore my shirt but he didn't even break the skin." Harry turned so that the blond man could see where the staff had caught his side, the skin was slightly red but otherwise unharmed. "See? Never better."

"Never better?" the man repeated dubiously. "Even considering the current circumstances?"

Harry looked around nonplussed. "Current circumstances?"

"Yeah…the city is being attacked, by aliens."

"Aliens?" Harry exclaimed, then turned to Neville who was helping the last of the muggles out of the bus. "Nev, he said the city's being attacked by aliens!"

"Aliens? Is that what those creepy crawlies are?" the brunette responded. "And here I thought they were escapees from the city zoo."

Harry laughed, taking pity on the nonplussed man. "Yeah, mate, we noticed the aliens. They're pouring from a giant hole in the sky. Kind of hard to miss."

"Just checking," the man said, a small smile quirking his lips, though it quickly disappeared when an explosion blew out several floors of a building a few streets over. "I hate to leave you all alone, but you seem fairly capable of watching your own six. Can you get these people off the streets? Into the subways if you can, down into basements if you can't. As long as they're running around up here, the Chitauri will continue to use them as target practice."

"You know what these things are?"

The man nodded. "It's my job."

"I suppose I have one now too," Harry sighed. "All right. Good luck mate." He turned and marched in the direction of the crowd of cowering muggles. "All right, it's time to get off the streets. No, not into the building you idiots," he snapped when some of the muggles tried to make a run for the nearest high rise. "How many of those have you seen these aliens blow up since they got here? We go down. Into the subway."

Harry and Neville stuck with the group until they reached the closest subway entrance, only when the muggles were safely underground did they break off to find others in need.

"I've got to say," Harry said as they fought their way past a clump of the aliens, the Chitauri the American man had called them, "I kind of missed this."

"I didn't," Neville grimaced as he wiped Chitauri gore from his face. "Getting blood from underneath my fingernails is a pain."

"Not even a little?"

A Chitauri riding one of their flying death traps tossed a metallic orb no larger than Harry's fist between the two teens; it could be nothing but some sort of alien grenade and yet Neville didn't even hesitate before scooping it up and pitching it right back at the retreating alien. A sticking charm chased the softly pulsing orb and saw that it stuck to the underside of the flying vehicle. The explosion that followed only seconds later and the shriek of a dying alien was glorious.

"All right," Neville conceded, "maybe a little."

They took off running again, eyes peeled for their next fight, when a shudder, completely unlike the ones caused by the Chitauri blowing one thing or the other up, shook the earth. "I think one of those giant whale things just got axed," Harry mused.

A victorious roar echoed over the building and along the streets.

"Yeah, but by what?" Neville frowned.

At that moment a fresh swarm of Chitauri and several more of the flying whale creatures dove from the portal, they were greeted immediately by an enormous green creature that climbed up the side of a high rise like it was its own person jungle gym and began ripping the alien to shreds.

"I think by that."

Neville shook his head, eyes wide in bafflement. "A flying Gryffindor, a super fit American flag, and an acrobatic, green troll. Who are these people?"

It didn't take long for the fresh wave of Chitauri to reach them, before long the streets were flooded with the creatures.

"Have we ever faced odds like this?" Harry shouted as he cut down alien after alien in quick succession.

"A few times. But in simulations, never in real life, or facing something quite this mad."

"Did we ever win?"

Neville choked out a slightly hysterical laugh. "Nope."

"It's time to change that then, isn't it? I don't plan on dying tonight."

"No…neither do I."

Harry and Neville steadily worked their way through the crowd of Chitauri, ducking into recessed doorways or lobbies of the hopefully abandoned high rises whenever the sheer amount of aliens began to overwhelm them.

"I swear, the others better get here soon," Harry panted during one such break. "We could use a few more people on our side, maybe even the odds a little."

"That won't become a reality until they find some way to close that portal," Neville retorted. "More of those aliens will come through the moment we kill their friends."

"How would one even begin to go about closing it? It's a giant hole in the sky."

"Hell if I know, but they better figure it out fast. My fingers are going numb from holding my wand for so long."

"Out of practice?" Harry teased as he stretched the kinks out of his back, preparing to jump back out into the thick of things.

"You bet your arse I am, and I'd hoped to remain that way. I should have known that wouldn't happen as long as I remain friends with you."

Harry cackled his amusement, then leapt back onto the street, he immediately hit the closest Chitauri with a curse that caused his head to explode and followed it up with a bolt of energy that punched holes through several of their chests. Once Neville cleared the last of the cluster with a beautifully wielded whip of fire, they took off across the street. They slowly worked their way into the center of the battle, clearing street after street of Chitauri until they were less than a block away from the enormous building in which the portal was hovering over.

Harry started in surprise when, upon rounding a corner he spotted the redhead he'd seen choking a Chitauri out with her thighs earlier riding one of the aliens' flying ships; she was being trailed by at least half a dozen more all of which were doing their level best to bring her down. Harry raised his wand, prepared to lend her a helping hand when he spotted a familiar figure among the squadron of Chitauri. No, not just among them, leading them. He froze as his mind frantically tried to process what it was he was seeing, tried to come up with an explanation that made more sense than the one he'd immediately decided upon.

"Harry! What the hell are you doing?"

He let out a strangled yell when something grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards, behind an overturned car from the looks of it and out of the immediate line of fire.

"What're you doing standing in the middle of the street like an idiot for?" Neville snapped. "Were you trying to get killed?"

"Neville, wait no," Harry tried to move back out onto the street, but his friend had an iron grip on him. "I have to go back…I saw something. I have to see if it was real."

"What? What did you see?"

"My dad….Neville, I saw my dad out there."

Neville pulled up short, suddenly just as stunned as Harry had been. It was obvious that, of all the responses he'd been expecting, that wasn't even one of them. "Harry…." he said hesitantly.

"I know, all right? I know he's dead. But I swear it, I saw him just now."

"I don't get it. How could he be here? Why would he be here? Harry, this isn't the time to…"

"Too what? Go mad?" Harry snapped. "I'm not mad. I know what I saw."

"Okay, so what…he was fighting the Chitauri with the robot man and the American flag?"

Harry hesitated, finally looking unsure. "No," he said. "He wasn't fighting the Chitauri, he was-he was with them. Leading them."

"Your dad was leading the Chitauri? The creatures that have been actively trying to kill us all afternoon?"

"That's what I saw. He was on one of the ships. Chasing someone."

"This doesn't make sense, Harry."

"I know it doesn't. I know it sounds crazy and maybe my eyes really were playing tricks on me. But I have to see for myself, Nev. I have to. If it wasn't really him then fine, at least I know, and if it was…"

"Then he has a lot of explaining to do." Neville heaved a heavy sigh. "All right, fine. Let's do it, what direction was he heading in?"

"I think he's in the tower," Harry said, pointing up at the high rise that stood directly beneath the portal. It was an enormous, gaudy thing that had once bore what he'd assumed to be the owner's name across its face, but the letters had been destroyed over the course of the fight until only the 'A' remained. "Or somewhere around it. When you were pulling me back I saw him get knocked off his ship and fall in that general area."

"That's right in the middle of everything," Neville observed.

"I know."

"We'll have to fight our way past hundreds of those things."

"Probably."

"We just might die."

"We might," Harry agreed. "You don't have to go with me, you can stay here or join everyone else down in the subways. I can't ask you to risk your life for this."

"You don't have to," Neville sighed. "Honestly, I thought you'd have realized how this works by now, you get yourself into some kind of trouble and we watch your back to make sure you don't go and get yourself killed."

Harry let out a soft snort of laughter. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

Neville looked pointedly at their surroundings.

"Point taken. But I was thinking, I know we said we had no intentions of dying today, and I still don't, but if by some fluke of fate I do…this, fighting aliens in the middle of New York City with one of my best friends by my side, that'd be one hell of a way to go."

"It would be, wouldn't it?" Neville smiled. "But you won't be, so knock that thought out of your head and get ready to gank some aliens."

Harry nodded and shot his friend a broad grin. "I can do nothing but comply."

However, before they could leap over the car shielding them from the Chitauri's view and resume decimating the aliens' ranks, a Patronus in the shape of a Jack Russel terrier materialized before them.

"How crazy can research get?" Ron's voice asked. "I mean, what did you do, piss off a librarian? Anyway, Hermione's freaking out because they're not allowing us a portkey into the States, they're saying they're under attack, and, considering you called for backup, you two are right in the middle of it. We'll keep trying for a way to you guys, but in the meantime please try not to get killed, Hermione will never forgive you. Good luck and stay safe."

"Well," Neville sighed, "it looks like we're on our own for now."

"We've been doing all right so far," Harry said optimistically.

"Don't jinx it."

Harry rapped three knocks on the wood of his wand, then vaulted over the hood of the car. He heard Neville curse in exasperation just as he engaged a trio of staff wielding Chitauri.

"Last one to the tower is buying dinner!"

"Wrong," Neville refuted, joining Harry in the melee. "You're buying me dinner no matter what, Potter. After all this shit, it's the least you could do."

---

The tower was only a few streets over, but nearly half an hour had passed since Harry and Neville had decided to head in that direction and they were still nowhere near the high rise.

"We need a new plan," Neville gasped, downing several Chitauri in a row only for even more to immediately take their place. "There's too many of them and they just keep coming."

"Even if we somehow managed to close the portal, these things still outnumber us by a lot," Harry said. "We need backup, a lot of backup, but judging from Ron's message and what happened at the MACUSA, the wizarding world won't be coming to our aid. I guess they didn't think this city was worth saving."

"I don't think the muggles do either. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a bomb?"

Harry snatched a dead Chitauri's staff from the ground and used it to impale one of its comrades through the chest, granting him enough of a reprieve to turn in the direction Neville was looking. Sure enough an oblong object was approaching the city at a frightening speed.

"Those bastards," Harry muttered. He began racking his brain for some sort of spell he could use to stop the missile before it leveled the entire city, but it seemed as if there was no need; the red and gold flying robot soared up behind the explosive and, using what was no doubt a considerable amount of strength, yanked it away from its set course.

"He's going to put it through the portal."

"Smart man," Harry said approvingly as he returned his attention to the suddenly extra ferocious Chitauri. "Maybe it'll blow up the aliens on the other side, give us a bit of a break."

Neville only grunted his agreement, once again occupied in keeping from being impaled.

Harry drove his dagger into the eye of one of the aliens and was turning to take on the next, when an almighty explosion sounded overhead; the Gryffindor robot must have successfully directed the missile through the portal. There was a moment of absolute stillness, not even a full second, and then the Chitauri all around them suddenly flopped to the ground as if they were marionette's whose strings had been cut.

"What the…" Harry kicked at one of the aliens, but it was completely unresponsive.

"They're closing the portal!" Neville exclaimed.

Sure enough, the hole in the sky was slowly receding, closing in on itself meter by meter. The portal was only seconds from disappearing altogether, restoring the sky to its usual flawless cerulean glory when a familiar red and gold figure returned from its voyage into space. The robot appeared through the portal with only seconds to spare, but it was plummeting to earth and was showing no signs of stopping. Harry only had a half of a second to be worried before the angry, green troll leapt off the side of a building and plucked the robot from midair before disappearing from view.

"Well then," Harry sighed, looking around himself uncertainly.

"Is…is it over?" Neville asked, just as unsure. "Are they all dead?"

"I think so. They must have some sort of hive mind," Harry guessed. "And their mother ship was on the other side of that portal. Once the missile destroyed it they all just died."

"How convenient."

"I'll say."

"I suggest a quick break," Neville said, leaning heavily against the hood of a car. "Just five minutes to catch our breath, then we head to that tower to see what we see."

Harry wanted nothing more than to ignore the exhaustion setting deep in his bones and sprint the remaining distance to the tower, but if his friend needed a few minutes to rest after several hours of nonstop fighting, then he could do that for him. What was five minutes in the grand scheme of things? Nothing. Only three hundred seconds. "Yeah, if that's what you want to do we can. No problem."

Neville shot him and amused look. "Or we could keep going. I think I've got enough fuel in my tank to get up there, I can't promise anything about after we get there. You might have to carry me."

Though every joint and muscle in his body was screaming in protest, Harry nodded agreeably. He would carry Neville the whole way if he had to.

The other teen seemed to realize this, if the steadily growing amusement on his face was anything to go by, but fortunately he didn't take advantage. They walked side by side toward the tower, carefully picking their way through the piles of prone alien's and watching as the robot flew up to the enormous balcony like structure protruding from the side of the building, followed by the green troll not long after.

"If it's really him, he's going to be up there," Harry said.

"How are we going to get up there?" Neville asked. "I doubt they're just going to let us walk in."

"They just might," Harry said, nodding his head towards the familiar red, white, and blue clad figure jogging toward them from the other end of the street. As he drew closer, they could hear he was talking, which was odd considering there was no one with him.

"-or, Hulk and Iron Man went ahead to apprehend him. I'm headed for the tower now, meet us there." The man pressed at something in his ear and slowed to a stop when he drew closer to Harry and Neville. "Have you two been out here this entire time?" he asked, eyeing the blood and gore that coated the two teens.

"Yeah, I'm not a big fan of enclosed spaces, blame my aunt and uncle, that subway just wasn't going to cut it," Harry said. "We're fine, we still have all our limbs and everything. But listen, you seem to have a pretty good idea of what just happened."

"It's like I said earlier, it's my job."

"Exactly. So maybe you can help me out with something. During the attack I saw something…someone fighting with the aliens. Who was he?"

"Why do you want to know?" the blonde man asked.

"That's not important," Harry said impatiently. "You know who I'm talking about, right? He was only one man among a whole armada of aliens."

"I do…"

Harry curled his hands into fists in an attempt to stop them from shaking. "Was-was his name Loki?"

The change in the man's entire demeanor was immediate. "How do you know Loki?"

"Merlin," Neville breathed, "he's really here, isn't he?"

"Where is he?" Harry asked urgently.

Blonde eyebrows furrowed in anger and suspicion. "I'm not answering another question until you tell me how you know Loki."

"I already told you, that's not important."

"Why don't you let me be the ju-"

Harry whipped out his wand and shot off a spell faster than the other man could blink. "Confundo"

"Harry," Neville hissed, "he's a muggle. Are you trying to get arrested?"

"We've been using spells in the general proximity of muggles all day, one more won't make any difference." He turned to the confounded man and granted him a kind smile. "Shall we?"

"Shall we what?" the man frowned. "I'm sorry, I must have lost track of the conversation."

"You were just taking us up to the tower to meet your friends."

"Was I?" The man's confusion seemed to deepen, but he eventually nodded in agreement, albeit the slightest bit reluctantly. "All right then…shall we?"

"Lead the way."

The trio crossed the final few streets and ducked into the main entrance of the tower; the brightly lit, white and chrome lobby remained virtually untouched by the attack outside. The lift on the other side of the hall was still fully operational and slid into motion without the slightest of hitches.

"Good evening, Captain Rogers. The rest of the team has already assembled and are awaiting your arrival."

The lift's three occupants started and immediately began attempting to find the source of the disembodied voice.

"Who's there?" Rogers demanded.

"I am JARVIS. I ensure the smooth operation of everything here in the tower."

"Where's your body, JARVIS?"

"I am an operating system, a computer so to speak, I have no body. May I ask who your two guests are?"

"We're acquaintances of Captain Rogers," Neville spoke up.

"Yeah…yeah, they're acquaintances of mine. From…?"

"The battle, we met fighting the Chitauri," Harry provided. A small frown betrayed his confusion, his spell had been a bit hasty but he'd put a reasonable amount of power behind it, and yet the man, Rogers, was already showing signs of it wearing off.

Fortunately, the ride up didn't take much longer, only a handful of minutes later they came to a smooth stop and the doors slid open to reveal a cavernous room decorated in earthy browns and blacks; it was empty save for the brightly dressed figures standing in a tight cluster several meters away. The group was made up of two blonde men, the redhead woman, the angry green troll, and the robot whose head had folded back to reveal the face of a man.

"Cap," the robot man greeted as they stepped into the room, "JARVIS said you were bringing company."

"Yeah, they're acquaintances of mine…apparently."

The robot turned his attention to the two teens. "Hi, Tony Stark, I own the building. Who are you?"

"It's like the Captain said, we're acquaintances."

"Why did you bring them up here, Rogers?" the redhead asked.

"Uh…"

"Yeah, that was my fault," Harry said. "He wasn't too keen on letting us up here, so I had to…persuade him."

Immediately, every weapon, save for Rogers' shield, was aimed in their direction.

"What did you do, brainwash him?" the blonde haired man wielding a bow and arrow snarled.

"Nothing that extreme," Neville assured them. "He's been confounded is all, a bit like a blow to the head. It only causes confusion, makes it easier to persuade someone to do something they normally wouldn't. He'll be all right in a few minutes."

"And how did you manage to do that?" Stark asked, moving forward so that he stood at Roger's side. "And for what? Why come up here?"

Neville inhaled sharply and took an uncertain step back, but Harry went suddenly and uncharacteristically still. When Stark had stepped forward, he'd left a gap in the loose circle his teammates had been standing in, giving them a clear view of what it was they'd been clustered around to begin with.

Loki.

He was crouched on the floor, in what looked to be some sort of crater gouged into the marble flooring, looking pale, exhausted, and just a bit bruised, but unmistakably and inexplicably alive.

"For that, actually," Harry whispered. "Nev, I need a shield."

Neville didn't even blink before conjuring the strongest shield in his arsenal, just in time to block the sudden hail of bullets, arrows, and a strange beam of bright light. Harry blasted the six figures with a burst of powerful wind, throwing them against the wall and pinning them there from the crowns of their heads to the bottom of their feet with several sticking charms powerful enough to immobilize even the angry troll.

"Shit," Stark gasped when his robotic suit and the blue light in the center of his chest seemed to flicker, though neither died out completely.

Loki now remained the only figure facing Harry and Neville. The god slowly rose from his crouching position, his gaze flitted over Harry for only a few seconds before something terrible and angry crossed his face and he turned to the blonde man closest to him.

"I did not think you could be so cruel," he said. "Though looking upon it now, I should not be so surprised."

"Loki…what?"

"How long have you known?" Loki hissed. "Was it after you tossed me into the abyss? Or before? Is that why you put up such a fight when I tried to destroy Jotunheim. You knew what they had taken from me, you stopped me from enacting my vengeance because you wanted to see me suffer. You were always so careful, so clever in hiding your hatred from me." Loki paced like a caged animal. "And Frigga, I almost would not have suspected her, but only she is so skilled in crafting illusions."

"I hear nothing but madness from you." The man, it could only be Thor, his uncle, turned to Harry. "Release us child so that I may deal with my brother."

"If anyone's going to be dealing with him, it'll be me." Harry began moving across the room, taking slow but no less purposeful steps toward Loki. His uncle and his companions strained against their invisible bonds to no avail, but he paid them no mind.

As Harry drew closer, Loki took several step backs, almost as if he were afraid, but he recovered in a matter of seconds, and drew himself to his full height. "You are not real."

There was a horrible screeching sound, then an explosion of dust and crushed stone; a pipe tore itself free from the far wall and flew to Harry's outstretched hand. He used the momentum gained from its sudden flight to reach across the small distance that remained between him and Loki and bashed it into the side of the god's head with more force than he'd ever possessed. Enough force to send him crashing to the ground.

"Did that feel real?" he whispered venomously, then raised the pipe, prepared to rain another blow down on Loki before he had the chance to recover.

But then Neville was there, pulling him back and snatching his chosen weapon from his hand. "Merlin, Harry," he exclaimed. "At least give him a chance to explain himself."

Harry yanked himself free from his friend's grip, but made no attempt to reclaim the pipe or move any closer to Loki.

"You cannot be here," the god snarled. "You're not real."

"I'm sorry to say this is as real as it gets," Harry spat back at him. "I'm no illusion."

"Harry is dead."

"Wrong. Laufey told you I was dead." He laughed, a bitter thing that did nothing to mask his mounting hysteria. "It's funny, Frigga told me much the same thing about you. The only difference is, Laufey lied to you, she believed every word she told me. She thought you were dead. I thought you were dead because of me, I carried that guilt with me for months. And yet here you are, wreaking havoc in New York of all places." All of the anger seemed to drain from Harry, leaving him looking lost and confused and the tiniest bit betrayed. "How are you here? Why are you here? And why didn't you ever come back to me?"

Loki shook his head. "This isn't right," he said. "They said you were dead. I thought you were dead. I…I don't understand."

"Yeah? Well that makes two of us then. I'm trying to understand here, but it's just not making sense. What happened after the Bifrost was destroyed? After you fell?"

"He threw me," Loki corrected vehemently. "All I wanted was to avenge you, to make Jotunheim feel the same pain that I did. Thor took the chance at vengeance away to torment me, he wanted to see me broken. And when I finally was, he threw me into the abyss. I did not fall. He tossed me aside like the filth he'd always seen me as. But he could not be rid of me so easily, when Thor threw me the othercaught me, he pieced me back together, nurtured and cared for me as my own father never did, then he gave me the tools, the army, I needed to see you avenged."

"What are you talking about? Who is this other that caught you?"

Before Loki could even formulate a response, a deep, wracking shudder shook his body and he hissed in what was unmistakably pain.

Harry turned to Neville, green eyes wide with distress. "Please tell me you see it too," he said. "Something is seriously wrong with him."

Neville regarded Loki warily. "There's only one way to really tell. See if what he says out here, matches up with what's in here." He tapped the middle of his forehead.'

Harry nodded, and returned his focus to Loki. "Hey," he said softly. "Look at me." Their eyes met and held, and for the first time Harry noticed the blue, deep in color and ringing only Loki's pupil. "Legilimens."

Loki's mind had always been impenetrable to Harry, or anyone else's for that matter, and yet he was able to slip right in, as if he'd left the door wide open. The first thing he saw was blue, it clung to everything like a viscous fog and made it hard to see much of anything. But then the memories came; they were disjointed and out of order and yet Harry didn't once wonder what it was he was seeing.

"Oh Merlin," he gasped, tearing himself from Loki's mind with such force, he fell backwards and away from the god.

Neville was crouching beside him immediately. "What did you see?"

Harry scrubbed at his face, not at all surprised when his hands came back wet with tears. "It's him," he said. "But not. Whoever this man he's speaking of, the one who gave him the Chitauri and persuaded him to attack the earth, he's messed with his mind."

"All right," Neville said, trying to remain calm in the face of his friend's despair. "How can we fix it?"

"Nev, I don't think we can. What they did to him…it's so beyond our ability to fix."

"Okay, then what? What are we going to do? This is not you giving up."

"I…no, no of course not." Harry took a deep, steeling breath that still shuddered on the exhale and allowed Neville to help him to his feet. "Not giving up, it's sort of my thing, right?"

Neville nodded approvingly. "Right."

"Stupefy." The spell that normally would have slid off of Loki's skin like water, knocked him onto his back and into a deep unconsciousness. He knew, however, it couldn't last for more than a handful of minutes. Harry turned to Thor. "If I give him to you, what will you do with him?"

The god of thunder leveled Harry with a confused and slightly suspicious stare. "Who is he to you?"

"Isn't it obvious? I've been told on more than one occasion that the resemblance is uncanny," he said, a dull mockery of the same words he'd used in introducing Fenris to his friends. A dry smile twisted his lips in the face of Thor's confusion. "I'm his son. I'm your nephew. And if family means anything to you, you'll help me help him."

"Knew it!" Stark exclaimed. "Once they were side by side it was impossible not to notice. The kid's right, the resemblance is uncanny."

Thor's eyes flickered rapidly between Harry's face and Loki's, drinking in the similarities he hadn't noticed until that very moment. "You are, aren't you?" he finally concluded.

"Haraldr Ivarr Kaden Lokisson, in the flesh. I see my father's tales were not exaggerated in the slightest."

Thor frowned, sensing the subtle insult, but a small glimmer of hope shone in his eyes. "Loki would return to Asgard with me," he finally answered, "before his trial I will have the best of our healers both of the mind and body look over him; if he shows signs of being coerced into his actions we will take the proper measures to ensure justice is served where it is due."

Harry nodded and waved his wand, releasing the five adults and one strange creature from their place against the wall. The redhead woman and the blonde bow wielding man immediately reached for their weapons but held off on aiming at Harry.

"Hang on," the archer said. "You're going to acquit him, just like that?"

"If Loki's mind has been tampered with, he cannot be held accountable for his actions."

"What about all of the people he's killed? All the destruction he's wrought?"

"I'm not sure you understand the gravity of what's been done to my father," Harry frowned. "You obviously have something personal against him, you've been targeted by him specifically, but I can assure you that whatever it is he's done to you, the things that have been done to him are far, far worse.

"I looked into his mind, I saw what they did to him, what he endured would bring the most resilient man to his knees. Pain was their favorite tool, their only tool. They took his mind, his thoughts, his memories, everything that he is and was, and twisted it until he couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality. When he looks upon his family, all he sees is hatred, all he feels is pain. Constant, never ending pain.

"My father has been in my life nearly my entire life, there is no one I know better. That man, that despicable creature that waged a war on my home planet and accused his own brother of attempting to murder him is not the man who raised me. Because of them. Whoever they are, they broke him and remolded him into the creature you see before you."

Thor took several steps forward, moving into Harry's direct line of sight. "I will take him to Asgard and ensure that he receives the proper care if so needed. Of that you have my word."

Harry studied Thor's enormous form, sincerity bowed his shoulders and creased his brow. "I suppose I have no option but to take you for it. But if so much as a hair is hurt on his head, I will raze Asgard to the ground. Of that you have my word."

Thor nodded solemnly. "He will be held in my comrades' custody while we recover the Tesseract and work to harness its energy. We will depart for Asgard in the morning."

Harry nodded and allowed Thor to scoop the unconscious Loki into his arms. "You might want to find some way to restrain him, he won't remain unconscious for long."

"What did you do to him?" Rogers asked. "To me?"

Harry wiggled his fingers. "Magic. My father has been teaching me since I was young."

"And you?" the redheaded woman nodded to Neville. "That barrier you used to block our weapons was of the supernatural variety."

"Would you believe me if I said I was Asgardian as well?"

"No."

Neville shrugged indifferently. "It was worth a shot. Sorry, I'm not allowed to divulge anything to you, it's classified."

The woman placed a finger on her ear and began muttering to herself, Harry managed to catch a few words: "New developments", "son of Loki", and "magic" being a few of them before she nodded sharply and focused her attention on Harry. "We're going to need you to come with us."

Harry arched an eyebrow. "Is that so? Are we under arrest?"

"Not at the moment. We simply need to ensure you're not a threat to us."

"And if I am? What do you intend to do then?"

"Then the proper steps will be taken to neutralize the threat you pose."

Harry hummed softly to himself. "I'll go. Anywhere he goes," he nodded to Loki, "I go. But my friend will not be."

"Harry," Neville said warningly.

"The portkey will be leaving any minute now. I need you to go home and assure the others we're all right. I'll be there before the end of the night."

"Will you?"

"I will," Harry swore. "I won't leave before returning home and speaking with everyone. I have to speak with my brother as well."

Neville squinted suspiciously at the group of men and woman before him, silently sizing them up. "I'll be telling Hermione to expect you before morning. You know how she gets if you dare be late."

"We'll be needing you as well," the woman protested.

"That's not an option."

"I'm not asking."

Harry snorted and shook his head. "I'd like to see you try and stop him from leaving. You've got me, that's all you need."

"Ah," Neville held up his arm, presenting the rubber band he wore on his wrist, it had finally begun glowing blue, an indication that the portkey would be activating. "Just in time it seems. What should I tell the others?"

They both looked to Loki. Harry shrugged. "The truth, I suppose. Tell Hermione not to fret, I'll be home soon."

"That's never stopped her before." Neville grinned and gave Harry a small wave before he disappeared in a vortex of colors.

"What?" Stark gasped.

The redhead and the archer leveled their weapons on Harry, he rolled his eyes and held his hands in the air. "I surrender?"

---

Harry was taken via super modern and super spacious jet to the Avengers', as he learned the team was called, headquarters. A giant flying ship floating a few miles outside of the city. They were met immediately by a one eyed men in a black trench coat and a stern faced woman with a tight bun atop her head. Loki, who had only just begun to rouse, was taken down a separate corridor surrounded by at least a dozen heavily armed men and women, whilst Harry was led to a mirrored room with only a metal table and two chairs to furnish it.

The one eyed man followed him into the room immediately and sat across the table from Harry. He introduced himself as Nicholas Fury, the director of SHIELD, the government organization that employed, so to speak, the Avengers, then slid a folder across the table to rest in front of Harry.

"That is everything SHIELD has on you."

"Small folder," Harry said, eyeing the file in amusement, there couldn't be more than two sheets of paper in it. "Doesn't look as if there's much in it."

"There isn't," Fury admitted. "The name you gave us, didn't pull up in the database, but technology, facial recognition software to be exact, is a thing of miracles. We were able to find plenty under your real name, Mr. Potter; grade school evaluations, school attendance records, files on doctor's visits, but that wasn't what we're interested in. We wanted everything from after your eleventh birthday." He pointed to the folder. "That's all we got."

"Pity," Harry hummed. "Is there a point to this narrative?"

"There is, actually. The folder doesn't hold much, but the little it does have is pretty interesting stuff. The higher echelons of SHIELD are aware of the existence of the wizarding world, not many of us, but enough. We've been trying to get information from them for decades, trying to find some way to establish a relationship with the community. We've yet to be successful, but still, every now and then we'll get a trickle of information; we'll get lucky and hear about the dark wizard who tried to take over the British sector of the wizarding world or the seventeen year old boy who managed to take him down."

"Lucky indeed."

"Indeed. Even luckier that, only months after his triumphant victory over the wizard who shall not be named, that very same seventeen year old boy winds up here claiming to be the son of the god who tried to subjugate our world."

"I've yet to see the narrative's point."

"The point is, you're a good guy, Potter," Fury said. "We have CV footage of you and your friend fighting the Chitauri. So when you say there's more to this than we've all seen, I want to believe you. But I'm going to need more than what you've given my team."

"Why do I need to give you anything?" Harry frowned. "My uncle has assured me my father will be returned to Asgard where he will receive treatment for his afflictions. What do you have to offer me?" Fury made to answer, but Harry waved him off. "The correct answer would be nothing. There is nothing you have that I want. But it also goes the other way around, what information I had has already been given freely. There is one, however, who has something to offer the both of us."

"Loki."

"Smart man," Harry smiled. "Allow me to speak with him before he's sent back to Asgard, you can watch, listen in, and record to your heart's content; it's bound to be a treasure trove of knowledge for you."

"And what do you gain from this?"

"My uncle swears to do right by my father, but he is not the Allfather; Thor can do nothing if Odin chooses not to heed my claims. This may be my last chance to speak with him, to understand what and who caused this."

"And you would allow us full access to this conversation?"

"The fullest."

"How much time are you asking with him?"

"However much is needed to understand," Harry said. "But it shouldn't take more than an hour, I can be persuasive in my questioning when I so choose."

"An agent will remain in the room with you throughout the visit," Fury negotiated.

"Absolutely not," Harry denied immediately. "He will not speak with a stranger in the room, I'm still not certain he'll speak with me in the room."

"How will I know you won't take him and run?"

"No matter how much I distrust the Allfather, returning Loki to Asgard to be treated is the only way to fix what has been done to him. I will not risk that….Besides, you've taken my wand and my dagger, I'll be wanting those back."

"Guards will be posted outside of your room as well, the Avengers will be on standby in the next room. If you do anything I don't like, they'll be on your ass before you can say Loki'd."

"Why would I say Loki'd?" Harry frowned, but quickly shook the puzzling though from his head and focused on the topic at hand. "Sorry, never mind. Those terms sound fair enough, let's do it."

"I'll make the proper arrangements," Fury said, then stood and left the room.

Harry waited patiently for a little more than a quarter of an hour, the woman with the McGonagall-esque bun was the one to return and take him to yet another interrogation room, only this time it was Loki sitting across the table from him, not Fury.

"Have you betrayed me, Haraldr?" the god asked, looking several times more exhausted than he'd been when they'd parted ways less than an hour ago.

Harry smiled sadly. "Is that what your mind is trying to tell you?"

"All these memories, these thoughts, they're telling me you were working alongside Thor all along. They're telling me you were bitter that I'd kept you hidden from Asgard for so long, so you faked your death to get me out of the way, to take my place."

"Do you believe it?"

Loki folded his hands on top of the table, but Harry was still able to see the faint trembling that ran through them. "I don't know what I know."

"Not what you know. What do you believe, what do you feel?"

"You are my son, I held you when you were just a babe, so tiny and trusting. I've watched you grow, watched you become a better man than I could ever be. If you have betrayed me, I can't help but wonder if perhaps it is justified."

"In the eighteen years of my life, nothing I have ever done has caused you to turn your back on me, and I have done some pretty bad shit. I think it's about time I returned the favor. I won't ever betray you, I'll always remain by your side. I want to help you, but you need to help me do it."

"There is nothing I can do to help you."

"But there is," Harry said. "I need only thing from you. A name. Who is the man you speak of, the one who caught you and cared for you after you fell?"

Loki opened his mouth, as if to answer, but it clicked shut just as quickly as a full body tremor overtook him, shaking the entire table. His fingers gripped the edge of the table with such force it bent beneath his touch.

Harry was immediately on his feet and rounding the table. "He's hurting you, isn't he?"

"There will always be pain. Pain and blue and hatred is all I will ever be."

"No," Harry snapped. "Look at me, Dad. Look at me." He only continued speaking when unfocused green eyes shot through with electric blue met his. "You cannot let him win. I've not seen you give anything up in all the years I've known you, I'm not about to let you start now. The first step to beating him is resisting. Give me a name."

The entire edge of the table broke off in Loki's hands, but his gaze did not once stray from Harry's. "T-Thanos," he whispered. Then again, with more surety and a touch more strength. "Thanos did this to me."

---

Half an hour later, Loki had been returned to his cell where he intended to sleep his latest ordeal off, and Harry was standing in a room full of superheroes.

"I know very little of Thanos, only whispers of a mad titan obsessed with Death," Thor explained in reference to Loki's big reveal. "I can only assume that he is using Loki, at least in part, to collect the six infinity stones. Objects of immeasurable power, the Tesseract is one such object."

"What does he intend to do with them," the redhead, also known as Natasha or the Black Widow, asked.

"With them, he could do nearly anything. Though I believe it is safe to assume that he will not be doing anything good with them."

"Great, because this is exactly what we need," Stark lamented, "some crazy Titan trying to destroy the universe."

"But don't we have the advantage?" Rogers asked. "We still have the Tesseract, he failed in retrieving it."

"For now, yes," Thor agreed. "But it will only be a matter of time before he makes another attempt at reclaiming it. Next time, he will not underestimate us."

"Hard as this may be to believe, this isn't making me feel any better," Stark pointed out.

"By the time he has rallied his troops and prepared for his next attack, the Tesseract will not be anywhere in Midgard's proximity."

"Right, it will be on Asgard, with Loki."

Thor's gaze flicked uncertainly in Harry's direction, he had not spoken since returning from his short visit with Loki, an occurrence he had come to believe was most uncommon. "We all just witnessed what occurred in that room, did we not? If there is any more proof to be had, that was it."

"So you believe he's been brainwashed?" the archer, Clint, asked dubiously.

"Yes," Thor said without a moment's hesitation. "I trust my nephew's word. There is far more to this than any of us were previously led to believe."

"I have to agree," Rogers piped in. "I know lies and trickery are sort of Loki's thing, but that felt real. He wasn't faking. If Thor's people are able to confirm that his mind really has been tampered with and if they're able to fix it, we should let them."

No one was able to argue that point.

"So it's settled I suppose," Stark said. "Reindeer Games and Point Break'll be heading back to Asgard come morning. But what about you Loki Jr? You going with them or you plan on subjugating Midgard in place of daddy dearest?"

Harry smiled wryly. "Midgard is my home, I have no plans to subjugate it tonight."

"But maybe some other night?"

"I don't particularly fancy the thought of ruling my own world, it seems as if it would be far too much work."

"So you'll be going to Asgard then."

Harry shrugged noncommittally. "That's yet to be decided, I'm not entirely certain I'm welcome on Asgard."

"Because of what Loki's done?" the curly haired, bespectacled alter ego of the angry green troll asked. "But if he's innocent that shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Oh no, that shouldn't be an issue. There is another, much more pressing reason my uncle has not learned of my existence until today. How familiar are you with Norse mythology Doctor Banner?"

"I've read stories on Thor and Odin and even a few on Loki, but I'm no expert."

"Hm, well I should inform you that I'm not the first son of Loki, I'm the youngest of five as a matter of fact." To Harry's amusement, the assembled Avengers all made varying sounds of distress, but it was Thor's reaction he was most interested in. The god of thunder seemed to realize what he was getting at almost immediately if the way his entire face crumpled was anything to go by. "My siblings were treated rather horribly, by my grandfather specifically. They were exiled, tossed into oceans, chained to rocks, all because of who their parents were and a prophecy only Odin truly believed in.

"When I was born, my father recognized the danger I was in and so kept me hidden on Midgard. He told no one of my existence for fear that my grandfather would take me away from him. That is why it may not be the best of ideas for me to go to Asgard with my father and uncle."

"But Frigga knows of you," Thor protested. "You said that she was the one to tell you of Loki's death."

"That would be correct," Harry agreed. "One evening, my father left for Asgard, for only a day or two he'd sworn to me, and never returned. After several weeks with no word from him, I went directly against his wishes and traveled to Asgard to find him. I never did, but Frigga found me. It took some time, but once I had managed to convince her of my heritage, she told me all that had happened on Asgard; your brief exile, Odin's fall into the Odinsleep, my father's death. Everything." Harry crossed his arms over his chest as a dark look settled across his face. "That was a bad day for me. I've returned to Asgard only once since."

"She never said anything…" Thor muttered.

"I asked her not to. I knew exactly where Odin stood when it came to any children of Loki, I was not so certain about you. I had already taken a risk in revealing myself to Frigga, it would have been foolish to do so again."

"He thought I condoned what my father had done. But I would never…"

"You never condemned it either."

Thor looked truly distressed by the revelation. "No wonder he hated me."

"But he didn't," Harry said comfortingly. "Despite everything he's done and said these past few months, my father loved you a great deal. I grew up on stories about you, tales of the battles you and he fought in side by side, the tricks he perfected getting you out of scrapes are the very same ones he's used for me countless times. Loki never hated you, nor did I, I've been wanting to meet you my entire life." He laughed ruefully. "I suppose it's only fitting that my wish would be granted under such unpleasant circumstances. My life has never been anything but unpleasant circumstances and poor timing."

"No matter," Thor smiled bracingly, but Harry could still see the vestiges of pain dulling the shine in his eyes. "It has been a trying few days, but you bring glad tidings of family and hopes of redemption for my brother. I am pleased to meet you, son of my brother and nephew of mine."

Harry smiled warmly and dipped his head in an acknowledging nod. This was nothing at all how he'd imagined his first meeting with his uncle to be, he'd hoped at the very least his father would be there, alive and well, not being held prisoner in the next room over, half-mad from unimaginable tortures inflicted upon him by a mad titan. But, at this point, he would take anything he could get, the rest could be worked out later.

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A/N: I've been getting a lot of questions about how the Avengers would play out and what Harry's first encounter with Thor would be like. I purposely didn't respond to any as I didn't want to let anything slip. I hope it lives up to, if not exceeds your expectations as I know that this chapter is something many people, myself included, have been looking forward to.