Last time...

"There. That wasn't so difficult, was it?" Potter asked with a saccharine tone, her smile all innocence.

"That was belittling and humiliating!" He snapped, sulking. He could at least admit to himself that was what he was doing.

"Merlin, your emotions are all over the place." She grumbled with a sigh. "I'd tell you it gets easier, but you're having to work through a lot more all at once than I did, so…who knows."

"Have we at least gotten the pre-negotiation apology out of the way?" He demanded, arms crossed. "I am the Heir of Slytherin. I should not have had to apologize to his pet!"

~I could eat you, you know, for the trouble you have given my little speaker~ Jör remarked, looming once more, displaying his fangs; something which admittedly made Riddle a little anxious, seeing as the venom dripped precariously close to his person…something he had no doubt the basilisk was doing on purpose. ~You clearly have no idea who I really am, boy. Care to find out?~

Chapter 93

"Care to meet Fenrir?" Potter inquired. "You wouldn't have had the chance to have caused him harm or betrayal, but since Jör got to intimidate you, I imagine he'll want his shot too. Hedwig is more of an opportunist. Sometimes I swear it's like she's more than only a magical owl."

"You said negotiations." He pointed out, cutting through her rambling.

"Pretty sure intimidation is a part of any negotiation." She countered. Point. It had certainly worked for him more often than not.

"Alright then, what's the worst that can happen?" He'd asked the question as a rhetorical thing, but she actually paused to consider it, and now he was concerned.

"On a scale? One being you lose a hand. Ten being he devours you; and by that I mean he eats you, craps you out, and then you have to reform yourself from my magic and his shite. I personally don't want to see what that looks like. Do you? No? Okay? Good." Potter rambled absent-mindedly, before making her way to the door where her familiars and worried cohorts waited. Meanwhile, he wondered just what sort of alternate hell like reality he'd somehow landed himself in.

…

The door opened again, and everyone turned to her. It was a rather jarring sight, seeing so many people waiting expectedly like that. The first time, when she'd asked for Jör, it hadn't quite registered. Now, it was hard to ignore. She wasn't seeking retribution for someone at the moment, so she picked up on more.

"Uh…it's a boy?" She offered. They all looked at her like they couldn't believe she'd said that, though Jareth was amused at least. "What? That's what you lot look like out here. What were you expecting?"

"You, covered in blood, on the verge of death…again." Snape reminded her, pointedly. "What are you doing in there?"

"I'm using my Familiars as an intimidation tool on the boy who had been your Dark Lord, if I have their consent. Do you mind?" Hera huffed, before her face broke out into a grin once more. "Fenrir, you want in? I'm pretty sure we could make him piss himself if we really wanted. Hedwig, how about you? Want in?"

Hedwig's eyes, though they weren't the same colour, always seemed to remind her of Jareth. There was an intelligence and mischief there that wasn't quite present in any other owl she'd seen, but Hera left it be. Hedwig's secrets were her own, though she wasn't sure what kind of secret an owl would have. Fenrir happily padded over, while Hedwig hooted softly her wish to stay where she was. The wolf grinned as only he could, and Hera couldn't help but return it. This was going to be fun.

…

"This is Fenrir." Potter announced, and now he knew he was in some sort of hell.

The damned wolf could also change its size, and it grew larger as it stalked towards him. Now, Potter sat next to him, instead of across from him as she had been. The table was gone now, something he wasn't concerned about but still shocked by. He hadn't noticed her banish it. He watched as Potter placed one of her hands in the wolf's mouth, held his breath as the wolf clamped down but didn't bite, saw the soft smile on her face as she touched her forehead to that of the wolf. Once she raised back up, the wolf let go, happily accepting her touch as she scratched behind its ears.

"Now you." She informed him.

"What?" He was sure that whatever colour he had drained right out of his face in that moment.

"What did you think I meant by 'lose a hand'?" Potter asked, quizzically. "You want to negotiate? You get Fenrir's consent first. Jör has already grudgingly accepted your apology, but I wouldn't ask much more of him right now. He's still embarrassed that you managed to surprise him, and he's not likely to fully forgive you for some time yet. Fenrir is a blank slate for you. You haven't betrayed him, haven't hurt him in any way. All you need to do is gain his trust, and this is how you do it."

"I have tried to kill you!" He reminded her. "Salazar's serpent certainly took offence to that. You think he won't?"

"You could walk away, I suppose, and we could try again later." She offered with a shrug. "I just figured since we were here, the opportunity was too good to pass up."

"Like the story?" He asked, hesitant and uncertain. He didn't want to lose a hand, but he noticed something in her eyes; there was a wary sort of look about her now, as if she didn't want him delving too deeply.

"Like the story." She repeated, watching him closely. Not a lie, but still…something was off about it.

He'd not put much stock in those stories, having written off the gods as wizards who took advantage of muggle naivety, but now…Now the wolf looked at him with knowing eyes and far too much intelligence. It knew he was afraid, knew he would rather be anywhere else, but still waited for him to make the choice. Shakily, he reached out his left hand. If he was going to lose one, he'd rather it not be his dominant one. The second the wolf clamped down, he jerked back out of instinct, but Potter put her hands on his shoulders even as he could feel the wolf's teeth pierce slightly into his skin.

"Don't." She whispered. "He isn't going to bite down if you just hold still."

It wasn't easy to do, staring at the wolf while his hand was in its mouth, but he did it. He didn't think this Fenrir would want him to connect his forehead with his own, and so he waited; the two locked eyes in an uneasy stare. Eventually, the wolf let go, licking at the small wounds that had occurred with the instinctive jerk back. He watched in fascination as the wounds closed themselves, leaving only the barest trace of a scar. Potter also watched with some fascination, caught in the moment as well.

"Well done." She nodded to him, before turning to the wolf. "I didn't know your saliva could do that."

The wolf seemed to sort of shrug before making its way over by the fireplace and flopped down next to Salazar's serpent.

"Big babies, the both of them."

If those two were her idea of big babies, he can see why she wouldn't have been intimidated by him in the slightest.

"I still can't believe you gave them those names." He remarked, now that he'd had a moment to breathe. The table was back, and she moved to the other side of it once more.

"I didn't name them. They spoke their names to me." She informed him. There it was again. "Well, except for Hedwig. I did name her."

"Meeting your familiars sounds like a story worth sharing, in the interest of negotiations." He tried, having a thought. Something about those names…

"Another time, perhaps."

Inwardly, he smirked. She was hiding something.

"Can you answer the question for me now?" She asked, and he paused for a moment in uncertainty. Had she asked him something and he not noticed? Sensing his confusion, she clarified. "When you first started out, what was it that you wanted?"

Oh. That.

"I wanted…I wanted to explore the world. No, that's not right. I wanted to explore magic. I had wanted to stay at Hogwarts originally, but with Dumbledore and I being at odds then, the idea became less palatable over time." He admitted. "With magic, you could explore it forever, and it would never be long enough. There would never be an end to the things one could learn. It was one of the reasons I'd started looking into how to keep myself from dying. The war certainly didn't help."

"What about more than just the world? What about the rest of the Nine, and all the worlds therein?" Potter posed, peaking his curiosity. "There are worlds outside the Nine too. Who knows what magic they have?"

"You mentioned realm hoping…" Riddle allowed, but couldn't help but remember the stipulation. "…through dreams."

"It's called sky-walking, and it can be done while awake once you know how." Potter remarked with a shrug. "You know, walking the branches of the world tree? Yggðrasil? I haven't attempted it awake yet, but I hope to try it soon. I'm still hesitant to try it right now till I have a better handle on what I'm already doing."

It all began to click into place. Jör could be short for Jörmungandr, who was the World Serpent destined to forever be wrapped around the earth, eating his own tail till the end of the world… Ragnarök they called it. Fenrir was the World Eater, though stories conflicted on why that was. He was destined to kill Oðin. He looked to them, and wondered. Could they be?

If they were…No wonder Salazar's Familiar had been angry at him. On one hand, it made him feel proud. He'd managed to surprise and subdue the World Serpent! On the other…Well, perhaps he was lucky that Potter wanted him to apologize to the serpent instead of having the serpent eat him. It would too, because she'd ask if it was what the serpent wanted, and 'Jör' had only grudgingly accepted his apology. He wasn't certain though, and that needed testing.

…

"What do you know of the other realms?" He inquired thoughtfully, his attention on Fen and Jör still soaking up the warmth coming from the fireplace.

Hera launched into her lesson from before the founding of the D.A. Riddle looked dumbstruck at the display of magic, and the visual of Yggðrasil in general. This time as she went through the realms, she was brief in her statements; hinting that she knew more without actually saying so. She also tried to remain unbiased sounding when it came to Ásgarðr, as she'd considered that perhaps her one dimensional view from Loki's life might leave a lot to be desired in forming a true understanding of it. It was telling him of Jötunheimr that surprised her more than anything else. She'd left it for last, but Riddle couldn't stop staring at it.

After that, they talked about her plan to bring magic out in the open again. They also talked about her worry that it was a bad idea, and the backup plan she'd only barely started considering to take magicals elsewhere if they could manage it. With her ability to sky-walk, plotting for a world would be easy, but it was getting everyone to agree that would take time. She just didn't know if it would come to blows with the muggles, and it wasn't like she thought that was the reaction they'd all go for. It was organizations like SHIELD and Hydra that worried her now.

"Are you…Are you bribing me?" Riddle asked, sounding oddly delighted.

"Only just figuring that out now?" Hera asked, blushing in embarrassment. She had thought she was being more subtle than that, but she wasn't about to admit it. "…Is it working?"

She was not expecting him to laugh, and she was most certainly not expecting it to sound so carefree; even he seemed surprised by the sound.

"I want in on whatever scheme it is you've got going on." The boy laughed. "Take the magicals to the stars, reveal magic to muggles. I want in. This is the most Slytherin thing I've ever seen."

"For that, you'd agree to lay off being a Dark Lord?" Hera asked incredulously. Really? All it had taken was a bribe? "You'd try to repair your magical core, achieve emotional equilibrium, and try to be a better person?"

"Being Dark isn't about what you do, it's what you are." Riddle corrected. "My magic is Dark leaning, even with what you did. But were that possible? No. I would not do it for that. I will agree to attempt to repair my magical core, the equilibrium thing, and…Really, Potter? Morals?"

"I'm not asking you to be a saint, you know." She huffed, which seemed to amuse him. "It's certainly not like I'm one either."

"Repairing my magical core and my soul, learning emotional equilibrium, and even trying my hand at a moral or two does not sound like the hardship you seem to think it would be for me. Had you suggested it before what your magic did had fully settled within my own, I don't think I would have accepted. Now that it has, it is easier to sense the logic in your plan. However, those things are simply incentives to get what I want." Riddle continued, before looking her dead in the eyes. "No. What I want, Potter, is to learn from the god of Magic."

She froze, unable to process his words. He wanted to learn from the god of Magic. Why would he ask that? It wasn't like she knew who that was for this realm specifically, and there was likely to be multiple. Oðin was viewed as the god of magic, but she didn't know if that was for all of Yggðrasil or not. Miðgarðr would be more likely to hold to Hecate than Oðin. Perhaps that is who he meant?

"There are many gods of magic." She pointed out warily.

"True," He allowed with a slight nod. "but I am only looking at one, Potter. Or, should I call you Loki?"

She managed a strangled. "…What?"

"You really didn't expect me to figure it out?" Riddle laughed at her, both in mocking and amusement.

"Not so quickly! We have barely had three proper conversations!" Hera snapped, panicked, which seemed to cause Riddle to sit up a bit. "Besides, I'm not Loki, not really."

"I know what I-"

"I was, okay!" She snapped again, and now Riddle looked at her with eyes wide. "That's the last life I spoke of, the one who tried to kill his entire people, the one who tried to kill himself when it didn't work! I…Can we call an intermission? I…I need to talk to the others."

"I'm not going anywhere."

…

Hera burst into the room, looking panicked at a little on the hysterical side. Draco had been chatting with Rhodey about muggles and how they did things, as he seemed the everyday sort and not the genius levels that was Stark; not that he couldn't hold his own with the man, apparently. However, the meeting with Potter and the deaged Dark Lord had taken longer than expected, and Rhodey had been shown to one of the spare rooms so he could sleep. Tony looked to be holding on through sheer force of will and caffeine, as did his godfather; Draco's father had disappeared sometime earlier, and Jareth popped in and out to check on the progress Hera was making. When Hera stormed into the room and started pacing, both his godfather and Tony perked back up.

"What happened?" Snape questioned rapidly. "Why are you hyperventilating? What did he do?"

She stopped and stared at him, tried to speak, and went back to pacing.

"Hera?"

"He wants to be taught by the god of magic." Hera revealed, trying to keep her voice even.

"That's…a tall order to demand in a negotiation." Tony remarked with a whistle. "Kudos to him for aiming high, I guess."

"He thinks I'm the god of Magic!" She shrieked.

Oh.

"Three conversations – Three! – and all it took for him to figure out I was Loki was seeing Fen and Jör, listening to my explanation of the realms while I showed him what it looked like!" Hera continued, speaking rapidly. "If that's all it took for him, what must the rest at Hogwarts think?!"

"Well…" Draco hesitated, and Hera paled. Her breath started to quicken, and she sat down before she could fall down, still looking at him in confusion. "Hera, you have to understand…I don't think you realize just how eye opening that seminar was. Most of the Purebloods and halfbloods had grown up with such stories, but understand that's all they were to us; stories. It's why Father was so surprised when you just announced I had visited another realm with you. I'm not saying that everyone at school knows who you'd been. I am saying that should you tell them, I don't think they'd be all that surprised about it."

Hera only put her head in her hands, mumbling. "I really am the worst kept secret."

A moment later, Tony was snickering, not the reaction anyone expected him to have.

"I can't believe it. You…you bribed him?" He managed through his giggles.

Hera looked up, curious at her brother's reaction.

"All that knowledge, and you just…you just…dangled it in front of him like the keys to the kingdom?" The man squeaked, shoulders shaking in mirth. "And this is…this is after you intimidated him with beings so powerful they have their own legends say they'll eat and/or destroy the world?"

She was cautiously smiling at this point.

"Did it…Did it work?" Tony barely managed to ask.

Her smile grew as her nerves appeared to settle, and she replied. "Like a charm."

…

"Then what's the problem?" Snape inquired.

"You mean, other than the fact that I'm not a god of magic?" Hera asked, defensive.

"Do you know that for certain?" Snape posed, causing her to freeze up.

"…What?"

"You do complicated pieces of magic as if they're nothing. You insist these things are easier than we're making them, that we could do them too if we stopped limiting how we saw magic. People already look to you as a source of information and advice." Snape continued. "You cannot definitively say that you are not a god of magic, because for all we know…you could be."

Hera looked up with eyes half closed, muttering. "This is a trap. This is a trap. This is a trap. There is no way I'm a god of magic. "

"Potter-"

"If that were true, and I'm not saying it is, would I really want to know?" She interrupted. "Especially right now?"

"Point." Snape nodded in acquiescence. "However, it does give you a place to bargain from. The boy who had been the Dark Lord wants to learn magic from you, Potter. Can you think of a better position of strength to argue from?"

Hera stopped to think about that for a moment. Though she wasn't, she couldn't be, Riddle thought she was the god of magic. He thought Loki was the god of magic, but that couldn't be true. She would have remembered that…right? It had been Oðin in Ásgarðr, not him.

But Riddle was certain, and willing to learn magic from her. She could put conditions in place, that if he broke them she'd no longer teach him. He was willing to attempt civility, to reintegrate the pieces of his soul, for the chance to learn magic from her…Strange, how the tables had turned. He even seemed willing to get in on the scheming for her other plans as well, if only because it sounded interesting. With purpose, she made her way to the door once more, only stopping when Snape spoke up in the background.

"Oh, and just so you know, Potter, at some point we will be talking about that compulsion charm you put on Salazar's locket."

She smiled, even as she opened the door, looking over her shoulder as she replied. "Of that, I have no doubt, Professor."

AN: If you know, you know, feel free to giggle here