Chapter 8: Friends No More
Another two years passed, Sylvia sat back in the chair in the RoR – Room of Requirement – and started to think back her fifth and sixth years.
Unsurprisingly, Professor McGonagall made her and Tim Head Boy and Girl as seventh year students. She could guess how hard the decision had been because there were many students in her year who were capable of the job. The Quidditch team hadn't changed with her as Captain.
Ah, the relationship with Tim was better. But Matilda kind of forgot about their more than ten years' worth of friendship and hasn't had a word with Sylvia since that summer.
The diversion of the Hufflepuffs were growing worse. There was a person named himself "Clarence" and started targeting the pure bloods, especially Slytherin ones. They were all safe in Hogwarts but were told they should be careful at home. Clarence had quite a large group of followers which reminded Sylvia of Voldemort's Death Eaters.
Things continued to happen in the Avengers. Parker had inherited a pair of AI glasses from Mr Stark called "Edith" and caused masses of problems with a man called "Mysterious", who had "powers" made by some kind of high-tech illusions. Once again, Parker's school picked just the "right" place for a school field trip and a few students nearly died. Parker's identity of Spider-man was revealed by yet another illusional video and now everyone who has seen the news knew about it.
Sylvia passed the O.W.L.s test without effort, got nine "O" s and dropped History of Magic for N.E.W.T.s. The lessons were a piece of cake for her, and she spent more and more time on researching higher levels of magic.
Their new DADA teacher, Miss Herma, focused on duelling instead of defence. They had to use non-verbal magic for sixth and seventh year, and a lot of students cannot manage it.
"It has to be done, people!" Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher and Head of Ravenclaw squeaked after a lesson where only Sylvia, Tim, and Tiffany managed to preform non-verbal charms, "It's part of N.E.W.T.s test!" Then he sighed in frustration.
"That is absolutely impossible." Luke Birch, a Ravenclaw student in their year complained.
"You said that last year, and now you haven't improved a thing." Tim murmured under his breath.
Preforming a corporal patronus was also part of the DADA lesson. As the same, most people couldn't do it.
"Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!" Joey McCubbin shouted and waved his wand forcefully, but only silver vapours came out and faded seconds later.
"Your memory isn't strong enough." Sylvia reminded him kindly with a silver Thestral running around her, which she performed non-verbally.
"Miss Black is right, Mr McCubbin, you have to have a strong enough happy memory!" Miss Herma suddenly appeared behind them.
"I thought we were supposed to perform non-verbal ones." Tim pipped up. His silver hippogriff flew across the classroom.
"Thing is, most people can't do it verbally." Tiffany said quietly with her silver deer running around.
"By that logic, we're all out of the 'most people' circle." Davina's squirrel dashed forwards.
"Point." Rodfort muttered as his dragon flapped its wings.
Because they were the best year group in the whole school, the classroom was filled with corporal patronuses by the end of that class.
"Has anyone seen Potter?" Sylvia was using her ex-sister's last name now.
"Haven't seen her since yesterday with a bunch of Hufflepuffs." Davina told her, "Dunno what she's up to."
"Can't find her on the map as well." Tim said, "Same for about half of the Hufflepuffs."
"Strange…"
"Thought you don't care about her anymore."
"I'm caring about the students as the Head Girl. Come on, we're doing rounds after dinner." She quickened her pace. And let's hope we'll find them while we're at it.
Matilda and the Hufflepuff students didn't show up at dinner, nor when Sylvia did rounds with Tim. Worry started to swell in her chest.
She knew she was one of the targets at this time, but she didn't expect to be back stabbed at school, especially in Hogwarts.
If they're not on the map and not anywhere to be seen, that leaves two options. Sylvia went through all the information logically. Hogsmeade or Room of Requirement. The latter was more likely, but she had no chance of finding them without knowing exactly what they were doing.
The next day was weekend. Sylvia wasn't sure if Matilda had come back to the dormitory at night, but she was not in sight last night nor in the morning. She decided to drop the problem for now, for seventh year students had quite a lot of free time and freedom, and Matilda could be anywhere as long as it's not illegal.
Two years without communication with Matilda wasn't as hard as she thought, but she still missed the old days. They didn't choose the same subjects and Matilda wasn't in the Quidditch team, so there isn't a lot of necessary talks.
As mentioned before, she couldn't perform a corporal patronus before seeing the memories of her and her mother. She would usually think about her parents when she was in a bad mood. Her life had taught her not to trust someone too much, because they would either betray you or leave. The more you loved them, the more pain you would suffer when they were gone.
-Flashback-
"Which story do you want to listen, my dear?" Martha Malfoy sat on a cosy bed with a young girl on her laps. Her gold hair hung down like a waterfall.
"The Warlock and the Hairy Heart, mum." Young Sylvia said clearly.
"Why?"
"Because I'm interested in how the warlock became immortal and powerful."
"Do you know where magic comes from?" Mother suddenly asked.
Sylvia shook her head, "Is this another story?"
"Technically, yes." Mother smiled, "In the depths of our hearts, there is a magical core. That's the source of all witches and wizards' magic." She paused, as if thinking about whether it should be told or not, "The magical core is a very complicated magic, even the most powerful people didn't dare to research on it, because it might either destroy your magic, or make it more powerful than ever.
"Far off in the skies, there is a kingdom of magical people. Gods, many would say. There are no Muggles. Everyone has magic there. People might say it is only legends, but some say it's true. In the Wizarding World, we say that the first witches and wizards' magic came from the gods, thousands of years back. It has not been proven true, but nor has it been proven false."
"They live in the stars?" Sylvia questioned, "But what about Astronomy? Won't people see them?"
"No, dear, they're too far away to be seen." Mother continued to tell her about the stories of Odin, Thor, Loki, Frigga, Frost Giants and many, many more.
"Don't they get tired?" Sylvia asked with a yawn, "They have to live for about five thousand years! That's even more than Hogwarts!"
"They've got a lot to do." Mother told her quietly and gently put her to bed.
-End of Flashback-
Now she remembered. She had heard of Asgard before, but it slipped out of her mind. If I'm Asgardian and Frigga knew me… Remembering the conversation with Thor's mother, something suddenly ticked in her brain. I could be in the palace when I was there, and if so, the target's much smaller.
Her feet brought her to the library without her knowing during the trip to her own memories. Just about time.
Sylvia searched through the whole library for the rest of that day, trying to find something about the Norse Myths. Finally, she had her hands on a book titled Norse Gods. She was so excited that she barely noticed as twinkle of gold as she turned the book over.
That twinkle was what caused all of her problems.
Something pushed her mentally when her hands touched something cool and was not part of the book. Then it was all a blur before she found herself on the floor, panting.
Crap.
It wasn't Hogwarts library or anywhere near. Instead it was somewhere in a forest. Sylvia felt a little dizzy and couldn't get her mind working properly.
The first things that came to her mind was "where the hell am I?". Then masses of questions hit her hard.
She had to use Occlumency to push out the thoughts forcefully and get into focus.
"Curse Time-Turners." She growled and sudden anger came to her, "Matilda Lily Potter, you're doomed."
The question wasn't where now, it was when.
And the first thing she needed was to get to somewhere she knew.
"Thank Merlin." She murmured as she felt her wand in her pocket. She looked around to find the Time-Turner so she could get back when she found out the time but saw nothing apart from thick woods and undergrowth. "So, this is what they've been up to. They made a half-done Time-Turner so the pure bloods would be without me if I failed to get back in time." She laughed rather coldly, "Nice try, Potter, you outsmart me on this one, but we'll see who laughs in the end."
How on Earth should I get around without being asked who I am? That was a problem as well.
She first Apparated to King's Cross station and stared at the timetable. Ah, so it's January 9th, 2006.
2006?! That was before she was even born.
Damn.
The first location that popped into her mind was Avengers' Compound, but then reminded herself that it wasn't even built yet. The next one was Asgard.
She had no idea whether Apparation worked in space or not. It was worth a try.
Thinking hard on her memory of going to Asgard with Thor, she used up all her determination – even more than when she first learned how to Apparate – and started to spin.
Oops, forgot about all the Muggles at the station.
The Obliviators went to King's Cross station in a matter of seconds and wiped all their memories of a person appearing and vanishing in front of their own very eyes.
Sylvia didn't care about it. She was squeezed in space for the longest time ever and then, surprisingly, did it.
She was in Asgard.
She was in the place she had been before, and it hadn't changed much apart from the location of the small table.
She has got roughly twenty years to figure out how she should revenge Matilda Potter for this.
Sylvia turned as she heard footsteps and saw Loki.
"Hello, God of Mischief and Magic." She smirked.
"Who are you and how do you know me?" The younger version of Loki Odinson made it sound like and order.
"I'm Sylvia Black from the future and I'm not sure how to get back, yet."
"Have I seen you before?" His green eyes were darker than ever.
"Maybe." That was all she could say.
There was silence, then Sylvia found him trying to enter her mind.
"You're not going to succeed." She murmured. Loki looked surprised for a moment.
"It usually works." He glared at her.
"'Usually' doesn't occur to everyone." She replied, "I need to have a word with the Allfather."
"How can I trust you?" Loki narrowed his eyes.
"Well, I'm of Asgard, if that's enough for you." Sylvia narrowed hers too.
"I meant your identity." He growled, "All those people down there are Asgardians, I don't trust all of them."
How the hell did I trust him in the future? "I'm not very sure what you want."
Without warning he attacked with daggers pulled out of nowhere. She dodged the slash and pulled out her wand.
"This isn't like you. Jumping into fights is Thor's doing." She shot him a glare.
"You're from Midgard." He clarified, avoiding the question.
"Yes, but Asgard is my home." She replied, "You want proof? You have it." She shot an ice knife at him and it went right through his body as the illusion vanished. Sylvia sighed and turned around to see his real body. "That's more like it." She smiled.
"You think I'd really risk my own life in a fight?" He said without emotion.
"Nope, because you're a prankster." She continued to smirk, "Are you going to take me to the Allfather or not?"
"Fine. This way." Loki sighed and led the way.