This chapter is dedicated to thephoenixandthedragon4ever, who predicted where this was going almost as soon as Harry showed up in "One Hand One Heart"

Harry opened his eyes, and found himself in a bare, vast white space, which looked disconcertingly familiar.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me" He looked down. At least this time he seemed to have managed to keep his clothes on...

"You've been here before haven't you – Master of Death" The voice behind him was soft, and definitely feminine. But there was something underlying it. Something – familiar, yet different.

He turned slowly. The woman before him was tall, and slender, almost on his eye level and breathtakingly beautiful, her bone structure elegant and exquisitely defined – narrow delicate and high cheekboned. Long curling black hair framed pale perfect skin and huge green eyes.

Green eyes? Black hair?

Oh not again!

Clearly similar thoughts were going through her head, as her eyes widened, taking in Harry's appearance.

She smiled. "You called – and here I am." She reached up, touching his face. Her fingers were icy cold. "... but you are still of the living. Why are you here?"

Harry was no fool. He knew his mythology. This could only be one person...

"Because – Hela - sister – I have come to bargain for the life of our Father"

Her eyes narrowed, and for an uncomfortable moment he saw the corpse flicker beneath her veneer of beauty. "Your Father?"

"Well – ancestor anyway – from the middle ages. I've done some research. A Black family legend tells of a time when the family was on the point of dying out. The entire bloodline existing in the body of a single person - a daughter, gifted in magic, and of great beauty – named Melisandre . Her father was fiercely protective of her honour, and confined her to a tower within his castle, to be attended only by women. Each night he would personally lock her chamber door, and return in the morning to unlock it.

Yet one morning she told him of a strange dream that she had had. Of a young man, dressed like a prince, tall, dark and slender with great green eyes. Who had visited her and talked to her - and loved her.

The father put it down to the strange fancies of young girls, and determined that the time was right to find her a husband.

But that morning, her maidservant found blood on the sheets, and within months it was clear that the girl was pregnant. It was not an easy pregnancy, and the girl died giving birth to the child – a boy.

In those days, it would have been deemed quite acceptable for her father to have killed the infant. But the grieving man looked at the child and fell in love with it, for it was all that remained of his beloved daughter. And so he acknowledged him, raised him as his heir. And since then, throughout the Black family there have been occasional throwbacks. With the Black family hair, but with bright green eyes instead of the usual grey. And without exception, these green eyed throwbacks have been exceptionally powerful wizards, sometimes with the power to transform themselves...shape shifters.

And have discovered that my great great grandfather on my maternal grandmother's side was also a Black. A renegade son that abandoned the family to marry a muggle girl, taking her name and disappearing when they married." He smiled. "My mother had the green eyes too, but her hair was red."

Hela smiled. "The old dog. I knew that he and Thor used to visit Midgard..." she shook her head. "But how can you be certain that it was him?"

Harry thought back to the moment that he had stepped out of the floo that day, following Hermione into the bar of the Leaky Cauldron, and to the moment that he had first met Loki, Prince of Asgard.

"I don't know quite how to describe it. The first time we met it was as though something – clicked. As though – without any influence from me, my magic recognised his. He felt it too."

Hela's eyebrow raised – inviting him to continue.

"When we first met – he called me brother. And from the look of surprise on his face, and yours, that is not a title he gives easily."

Hela was silent for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Very well, we have established your right to bargain for his life. But I still do not understand why? I will be frank with you - brother. Our father has come into my power on several occasions over the centuries, and he has always managed to evade me through his own guile and trickery. Yet never in all that time has anyone come to me to plead for his life. I got the impression that my dear affectionate Grandfather Odin – currently experiencing all the torments of the damned in my kingdom – would have been glad to be rid of him." She shrugged an elegant shoulder expressively. "And I grow bored, and lonely among the dead... I would be glad of his company."

Harry's hands were on her shoulders, green eyes meeting green.

"Then, sister - take me instead."

He had truly shocked her. Finally and completely stunned her. There was that death's head lurking beneath her skin once more. Eventually she recovered enough to ask one single question.

"You would offer up your life for his. Why would you do that?"

Harry smiled and shook his head. "Because he is worthy. Because my friend – my sister - has given him her heart and soul and I would not see them broken. Because – because I have seen too many children grow up without a father."

Hela shook her head bewildered. "'Worthy'. I have heard my father called many things but never that. Liesmith, coward, trickster, bringer of chaos, betrayer." They had been walking together through the empty space, but now she turned to face him. "What do you see in him that no-one in a thousand years has seen?"

Harry paused, marshaling his thoughts. "Because I know what it does to you – growing up, knowing you are different, believing that there is something fundamentally wrong with you. I had ten years of it – he had a thousand. Because he has tried to meet impossible expectations, and failed, but never given up – never stopped caring. Because he has done terribly wrong for all of the right reasons. And because no one has ever cut him an inch of slack, even when what has happened was not of his choosing – on which subject I hope that you have thought up something truly and spectacularly horrific for Odin – because really – who does that to their son?

Because he has finally found balance, and happiness, and a purpose, and to take it all away now is not fair...

But honestly. Because he is my friend. And my brother. And I value him, as his own did not for too many years..."

Were there tears in Hela's eyes? She turned around, and clapped her hands.

Before him stood Loki and Hermione. The hideous wound still gaped in Loki's breast, but it did not appear to affect him here. Hermione was crying.

"Hello Father, we meet again... did you hear all of that?" Loki nodded, his eyes on Harry, although his arm was around Hermione's shoulders, comforting her.

"Harry – I cannot let you..."

"QUIET. Or must I break out your grandmother's thread to ensure your silence. You two are here only to witness this. You have no say in this matter."

Hela turned her attention back to Harry. "Brother. I accept your offer. With conditions. For I cannot take your soul unless you are dead, which you are clearly not. But I may accept your service – for the customary one hundred years. At the end of this time, you may choose to stay, or you may return. Barring disasters, Hermione, Loki, Thor, Jane – and Sif" Hela winked knowingly "will be there, waiting for you – and when you return you will have the long life which has been gifted to the others."

Harry didn't hesitate. Loki and Hermione watched, numb with shock, as Harry knelt, to pledge his loyalty to Hela, Queen of the Underworld for one hundred years.

When it was done, Hela turned to Hermione and Loki. "Take care of his body. It will not decay, but should it be destroyed, he will be unable to return."

Hermione nodded – too overcome to speak. Loki's eyes were blazing, with rage, or grief Harry couldn't tell.

Hela faced him, taking his hands in hers. "Father. Today you have been given the greatest gift that can be given. Don't waste it in anger and bitterness. Make it count. Value it by becoming the man that he knows you to be.

Now say goodbye..."

ooo0ooo

Hermione opened her eyes

She was back in the dust of Svartelfheim.

Thor was still crouched over Loki's still motionless body. Absorbed in his grief, he had failed to notice Harry's body slightly behind him. Tony Stark was slumped exhausted against a rock in the ruins of his armoured suit, he had moved close to Thor to simply be with him when he needed someone.

Hermione didn't think that Thor had even noticed that they'd been gone. Maybe they hadn't. Maybe time moved differently in - well - wherever they'd been.

Loki showed no sign of coming around. Her heart sank. Had Hela tricked them? Had she taken both Harry and Loki?

She had no idea what was happening back on Earth. The best thing would be to return the living, the dead, and those somewhere between to Asgard first.

Squaring her shoulders, she looked to the sky. "Heimdall - six to bring back please..."

OK, so I've sort of resolved things. Has Hela tricked them? Will Loki live? Tune in for the next installment folks...

Merrick x (ducks and runs for cover)