Chapter 24: Family, Part II
Loki watched the room as everyone drifted in. Ron and his two oldest brothers were piled on a large sofa, swapping increasingly outlandish tales that apparently had to do with work. Harry was sitting quietly to the side, watching them with a bemused smile on his face. Fleur was seated across from them, pouring tea for everyone in the room in turn. The Weasley matriarch was settled into her comfortable armchair, with an afghan across her lap, complaining about a chill. Luna rose immediately and began tucking a second shawl around her mother-in-law's shoulders, casting a warming charm on it as well.
"Thank you, Luna, dear," Molly sighed as the warming charm took effect. "That was very kind."
"Of course," Luna said simply, before cuddling back into the other armchair with Ginny.
A mountain of gifts had been piled under an enormous spruce tree, which was festooned with miniature root vegetables of all sorts, each glistening with a delicate rime of frost. Floating fairy lights danced in between the branches, illuminating dozens of tiny birds' nests in the boughs, each with a pair of miniature songbirds nestled within. The top was crowned with a larger nest, in which a pair of doves sat at rest, gently cooing.
The effect didn't stop with the tree. Garlands of fresh evergreen branches hung suspended from the edges of the ceiling, giving the impression that they'd all gathered in a forest clearing, rather than in a cozy room of a house.
Loki stared about, wide-eyed and silent, and Padfoot curled up at the lad's feet. Loki noticed his movement, and simply sat down on the floor next to him, without comment or pretext.
From his spot in the corner, he observed them all, unobtrusively, and cursed himself inwardly for a fool. Like he belonged here . He looked from person to person around this little gathering, feeling every bit an alien, him with his burdens, in this place where everyone chattered like they'd no worries at all.
"It's not true, you know."
Loki blinked in surprise at Luna, who was suddenly next to him. "What?" he said, brow wrinkled in confusion.
"It's not true," Luna repeated. "Look again."
Loki huffed, ignoring the odd woman's demands, and went back to observing the room.
They certainly looked carefree. A table full of tea and cakes, plentiful packages, everyone smiling at each other, either cheerfully or fondly, depending on who was looking. They had everything they could ever want, these pitiful little Midgardians with their small lives. How could they possibly feel any lack?
And that's when he saw it.
It wasn't much, really - mere traces. But underneath the jollity and celebrations, there were minuscule lines of tension. A crease in a forehead here, a tight corner of a lip there. Marks of suffering, both present and long past.
It all added up to a lot of cracks in the facade. Why the whole thing didn't fall apart, Loki couldn't fathom.
"You see now," Luna remarked, getting up from the floor. "Knowing makes all the difference."
Loki didn't have time to question what she meant. The tallest red-headed man stood in the center of the room, and pitched his voice over the hubbub they were all making. "Alright, everyone, quiet down," he said, clinking a spoon to his teacup.
"Speech! Speech!" Ron called, cupping his hands around his mouth like he were shouting.
Bill just laughed. "No speeches, not this time, Ron. I just wanted to say to all of you, how grateful I am to be here, among family. It's really been too long since I came back to England, and to be back home, with so many of us here at once," he said, beaming.
"Thought you weren't giving speeches," Charlie teased.
"All right, you," Bill said, tousling his brother's hair, despite Charlie's protest. "I'm done anyway. We can get on with things," he said, shoving Charlie over so he could sit down again.
"Are we ready, then?" Ginny said, eyes twinkling.
Heads nodded all around, and Ginny raised her wand in response.
A cloud of packages appeared in front of each person, suspended in the air. Some, like Molly's, settled around her gently in orderly stacks, while others bumped and prodded their recipients. One of Ron's buzzed around his face, preventing him from reaching a long, thin package at his feet that he was trying, unsuccessfully, to unwrap.
"Oi!" the redheaded man complained as the large, rectangular package bumped him in the nose.
"Open that one first," Ginny smirked, as Ron reluctantly took the annoying present in his hands.
Her brother's scowl disappeared when he saw what was inside. "The new Quidditch Through the Ages," he said appreciatively, opening the front cover. "And...signed?!"
"By every member of the Chudley Cannons that I could convince to speak to me," Ginny grinned.
Padfoot's cold nose on his hand drew Loki's attention, and the young man looked down. In front of him were a handful of packages in a line, looking as though they had queued up for him to open them.
Startled, Loki looked up, to see that Harry and Hermione were watching him.
"Go on," Harry said encouragingly.
The gift boxes were floating mere inches above the floor, and when Loki reached for the first one, it flew into his hand as if pushed. It was small, the size of his palm and only slightly thicker than his hand. It was wrapped in paper, deep red in colour with images of winged baubles glittering gold on the surface. Cautiously, he began removing the paper, revealing a plain white paper box with a logo embossed on the top. The top flipped open on its own, and something dark grey and glossy slithered out of the box.
"Oh, Harry," Hermione gasped, "what a lovely gift."
Loki picked up the fallen object, and found that it was actually two: a pair of gloves, made out of a silken material of some sort, patterned with scales.
"They're dragonhide," Harry explained.
Loki looked at him, puzzled. He needed no protection from the cold, after all. "What possible use would I have for such a thing?"
"From what I can determine," Harry said, "your magic is beginning to return. You should have enough now for potion-making."
"And I'd like to teach you," Hermione continued for him, "if you would care to learn."
Loki looked down, uncertain. "I...thank you."
"There are more gifts," Hermione said. "And mine's next."
Loki turned the gloves over in his hands one more time, before laying them carefully in his lap, and reaching for the second package. This one was much larger, and contained a small jar and not one but two large tomes.
"Cloudberry jam," Hermione said as Loki picked up the jar to examine it. "It's a delicacy in Scandinavian countries. And I thought these books would prove useful to you, as well."
Loki turned the volumes over in his hands. "'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi,'" he read aloud. "'Advanced Rune-Casting'. The first I presume to be for potions. But the second?"
"I think," Hermione said in response, "that you would be most well-suited to rune magic, at least until we can get you a wand for more ordinary spell-casting. You may of course use all my textbooks from Hogwarts whenever you like, but this work is based on some new discoveries in the field of Ancient Runes. I must admit," she said, somewhat sheepishly, "that I have not yet read this book in full, as it was only published in time for the Christmas trade. Do you suppose I could have a look, when you're not using it?"
Loki peered at her, considering, before slowly giving her a slight nod. Hermione smiled and thanked him - he wondered why, as she'd purchased the book to begin with - but instead of questioning it, Loki turned his attention to his remaining gifts.
He opened the rest in silence. There was a large, squarish box full of shiny metallic packets - sweets, apparently - along with other odd items that Ron said came from his brother's joke shop.
Ginny had given him a long green and gold scarf – her Quidditch team's colors, apparently. Loki's face twitched when he realized how very close they were to the shades of his own armor. He thanked her tersely, then moved on to the last gift.
It was the smallest present of all - not even a box, but rather a tiny drawstring bag made up of a shimmering silver fabric. If Loki had been any less adept with his hands, he would have had some difficulty opening it. Carefully, he drew the closure this way and that, adjusting the ribbon loops until they were loose enough to untie properly.
All of a sudden the neck of the bag fell open, and something slithered out, falling to the floor between Loki's crossed legs with a soft thud. He felt for it blindly, then his fingers skimmed the surface of a smooth, dome-shaped object. Loki took it up gently and held it up for closer examination.
In his hand was a torus-shaped stone no larger than his thumbnail. The surface of it was perfectly smooth, a lustrous white that shifted with the light, cloudy in places but almost transparent in others. Its highly-polished surface gleamed, as did the thin, pale grey cord looped through the hole in the center of the stone.
Loki looked up and found Luna watching him. "This is from you, presumably?" he queried, holding the item aloft, one eyebrow arched.
Hermione and Ginny exchanged a look. "That would be my wife," the redhead replied in fond exasperation, "though she'll deny any intentional punning."
"Punning?" Loki's eyebrow twitched a micron higher.
Hermione suppressed a snort. "It's moonstone."
"Wait, who got a moonstone?" Ron interrupted.
"Why, what's wrong with moonstone?" Loki and Luna said, almost at the same time.
"Ginny," Harry said with mock concern, "do you know your wife is giving fertility symbols to my houseguest?"
Loki's pale cheeks tinged almost purple with embarrassment, but before he could sputter a protest, Luna's serene voice floated above the ensuing din. "I'm sure Loki will find it quite useful."
If he had been sitting in a chair, he would have attempted to slide into it to hide. As it was, all he could do was cringe and stare at the floor.
"You know, Luna has a point," Hermione interjected, before any of the rest of them could comment further. "Moonstone is used to promote growth and healing, and its calming properties make it a key ingredient in the Draught of Peace."
"Yes, you can stop teasing the boy," Molly Weasley stated, giving the most likely offenders a taste of her very worst glower. "It's not like the properties that encourage pregnancy will affect him at all."
Loki had thought he couldn't possibly want to disappear more than he already did, but no, he had been wrong. At this point in the conversation, he would have taken any entrance to the Yggdrasil available - even if it took him to Muspelheim - and have been glad of it.
Fortunately for Loki, the topic of conversation meandered elsewhere, and even if it remained on conception and childbirth for rather longer than he'd wish, for now, at least, the focus was off of him.
Once the gifts were opened, there was a shift in the air, which even Loki picked up. Harry and Hermione looked worriedly at each other, then at George, who just nodded tiredly and sighed. Bill and Fleur were watchful, whispering quietly and between themselves, and even Charlie and Ron's animated Quidditch discussion had died down and taken on a somber tone.
Loki looked at the room again, and saw it. Molly Weasley looked tired, and her eyes were wandering instead of following conversations as she had done to this point.
"I suppose it's time," Hermione said to Harry, but she was looking at Molly.
Molly put up a token protest, but even Loki could tell she hadn't the energy to do more.
"I hate to be the first to go," Harry said as he stood, "but I've an early day tomorrow."
"We can go with you," Hermione piped up, including Loki and Padfoot in the decision with a sweeping glance at the pair of them. "Besides, we promised Neville we'd drop by."
"Neville was such a good boy," Molly muttered into the teacup that George had just handed her. "I wonder what happened to him?"
George's flinch was all they needed to make their goodbyes succinct. Bill and Fleur followed suit, promising to visit with the children tomorrow afternoon, if the weather was good. Ron, Ginny and Luna went with them, in the interest of giving Victoire and Dominique their presents this evening. Charlie stayed behind, clapping his much taller younger brother on the back, both of them waving off the rest of the family as they departed.
As they prepared to go, Loki kept looking back at the Weasley matriarch. It was a side of Midgardian fragility he had not seen before. Her mind was clearly damaged, and yet he found he could not dismiss everything she had said to him. A number of her words lingered with him still.
With a shake of his head, he tried to dismiss the errant, useless thoughts from his mind, as he stepped into the fireplace, and away.