Alastor Moody was a grizzled old man with a peg leg and a magical eye. He prowled across Loki's office, eye rotating unceasingly; even his magic threaded through the floor around him, a trick, Loki suspected, of unconscious habit.
"I have to say," Moody said, coming to a stop at his desk without sitting down, "I don't like the look of you. If not for Dumbledore, I would have refused, promotion or otherwise."
Promising start.
Loki brushed off his irritation. The man was honest; he could work with that.
"Tell me what you require," he said.
Moody looked at him darkly, then pulled out a list.
"This is what you should have at all times. This is what you should equip your top staff with. I'd like to get one for everyone who gets into the elevator, but I'm told it's not feasible on my budget. Replace the wandcheckers with aurors; replace these aurors with soldiers."
"Alright," Loki said. It looked like a headache, but a manageable one. Perhaps Bertha…
"I'm not done," Moody said. "You drink tea?"
Loki glanced down at the teacup on his desk.
"From now on you drink nothing but what you carry," Moody said. He tapped his hip-flask. "Save you a lot of aggravation down the line, I'll tell you."
"I don't think…"
"Take it or leave it," Moody said. "But don't blame me if you're heaving your guts when you're cleaving through the Baltics. I've seen it before."
Before Loki could deny any Soviet aspirations, he continued.
"Next. Tell me about your enemies. Who's after you right now?"
Ah, well.
"That… could take some time," Loki equivocated. "Have a seat?"
Forty-five minutes later and Alastor Moody was distrustfully lowering himself into a chair as Loki added yet another dot to the map in front of them.
"-the Czechnian mercenaries; they're mostly backers but they sent an explosive package last Friday. Very easily dispelled, but if it had gone to Bones or Malfoy…"
It was a sad fact that even the kindest conquests tended to make a lot of enemies, and Loki's was not one of them. Throw in Loki's extensive intelligence force through both humans and trackers and there was hardly a free spot on the map. At the least, Moody's look of general distrust was now mingled with respect.
Loki's finger drifted over the map, coming to rest over a dot slightly east of France.
"It's strange," he said. "This group has been trailing me for a while, and all signs pointed to them making their attack today."
Moody leaned over the map, frowning.
"Some kind of ambush? Have you checked the house?"
A faint crack sounded in the background and Harry turned sharply, thinking it was the sound of apparation he heard. Though it didn't make sense to hear it here- Loki was the one who came to pick him up from school and powerful wizards like him appeared soundlessly.
"Are you okay, Harry?" Jemma asked, tugging at his sleeve. He turned, realizing that he'd been craning towards the door, trying to make out the cause of the sound.
"Fine," Harry whispered, reluctantly turning back to trying to focus on the blurry potato cell image. Final examinations were just around the corner and he couldn't afford to lose focus. As was apparently traditional at this time of year, time had been cleared in their schedule just for study purposes. Jemma and Leo were passing notes back and forth frenetically. Harry flipped through his textbook. From the looks of things, he was the only one annoyed to be missing gym for this.
He looked out the window. There was a line of hydrangeas outside the classroom. A lazy bee drifted over the bushes.
"-need to follow proper procedure, of course," a voice sounded faintly, and Harry perked up.
"Of course," said the other.
The door opened and Headmaster Ranganathan appeared, trailed by two men- one brawny with black hair and suspenders, the other, bored, with white hair and a three piece suit. Harry frowned.
"Excuse me, Elaina?" the headmaster said. "I have someone here for… Mr. Potter."
Harry froze.
Dr. Marvis frowned, looking back at Ranganathan.
"I don't have a student by that name, Priya. Did you get the wrong class?"
The headmaster blinked. The dark man leaned over and whispered something to her, and her face cleared.
"Ah, no. He may be going by a different name. This is the boy."
She pointed to Harry, who was scribbling frantically. A murmur ran through the class.
"Harry Jameson?" Dr. Marvis said. "Again?"
"Yes," the black-haired man said, focusing on Harry. "It is for his godfather."
Behind him, the white-haired man moved his hand behind his back. Dr. Marvis recoiled as if she'd been hit.
"Pardon?"
"The boy," said the first one patiently. Harry kept writing.
"Surely it could wait until after study time-"
The man flicked his fingers again.
Dr. Marvis swayed a bit on her chair.
"I don't think-"
"The boy," the first one said.
Dr. Marvis sank back.
"Are you okay, Dr. Marvis?" a girl piped up from the front.
"Alrright," she said, putting a hand to her head. She flapped a hand towards the door, then looked at it as if surprised by its existence.
"Harry," said the man. He stared at Harry, eyes calm.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Harry said instantly.
"Certainly," the man said, watching as Harry stood up, shouldering his backpack. He could sense eyes watching him, but thankfully none of the Muggles spoke up.
Harry walked over, skirting past the man who opened the door and starting briskly down the hallway. The headmaster trailed behind them, looking around at the walls curiously.
"Come on, boy." The brawny man spoke up behind him, voice gravelly, patient. "The sooner you come, the less chance someone gets hurt."
"I really need to use the loo," Harry said.
The brawny man glanced at the white-haired man, who nodded.
"Very well then."
The two kept pace with him easily. The white-haired one was carrying his wand. Harry thought he was the boss of the two.
"I saw you," Harry said, without letting up his walk.
"I've been keeping watch for a while," the other man said softly. To Harry's surprise, his voice was slightly accented- Eastern European, maybe. He turned right,
"How did you find this place?" Harry asked.
The man shrugged.
"People talk."
Harry shivered, but kept walking. It was all he could do at this point.
"Here, this," the first one said, stopping behind Harry. "Bathroom."
"That's a girl's bathroom," Harry said, and the man grunted.
"Anyways, it's right here." He came to a stop in front of the restroom, mentally crossing his fingers. He started to push open the door but the brawny man put a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait."
The man entered first, and Harry watched as he looked around, taking in the sinks, stalls, and auto-flush toilets.
"Fine," he said. He turned to his partner and spoke to him quickly in a language Harry didn't understand. Then he walked back into the bathroom, leaning against the wall, while his partner stayed outside. "Go."
"I won't be long," Harry said, and the man grunted.
He went down to the farthest stall and locked it behind him, heart pounding loudly. He'd left his backpack partially open when he left the room and now he quietly, carefully slipped his hand in, making contact with soft silk.
The floor creaked, and he froze. The man was coming closer, walking towards the stall. Then, he turned back, muttering to himself, or perhaps his partner outside.
As carefully as possible, Harry donned the cloak, then he edged towards the back of the stall.
He couldn't perform great magic like Loki. He couldn't even cast Light yet. But, he did know how to do one thing. Harry took a breath and reached for the autoflush panel, thinking Light with all his strength. The panel popped.
A curse sounded from the end of the stalls.
He heard a thump against the door, and Harry ducked down, just as a spell blasted a hole through the door, bouncing off the tiles across. Harry crouched into the tiny space next to the toilet, heart pounding in his ears as the brawny man stepped in, looking around.
His boss followed and spoke sharply, the first sounding nervous and agitated. The white-haired man shot bolts around the bathroom, towards the tiles in the corner, over the toilet. One washed right over Harry's head, just short of his hiding spot.
"Podcenil Si Ho," the first one muttered, then, in English, "I told you."
"Accidental magic," his boss said dismissively. "He cannot be far."
He stalked out of the bathroom, and after a long look, the other followed.
Harry cautiously opened the door and crept around the corner, opening the little door at the end of the wall.
"Clearly, something else is happening here-"
"I don't know what that was."
Jemma and Leo were bent over the table, tooling with frenetic energy. Harry slipped in, pulling off his cloak.
"Hi guys."
Jemma jumped, hands curling into fists.
Leo dropped his soldering gun.
"Ow ow ow-"
"What," Jemma said.
"I," Harry said, kicking the door closed. "Er. I'm not an alien." He took a breath. "I'm a wizard. Those men are after me. Er… sorry about that."
Leo reached out to touch his arm.
"What does that mean?" Jemma said. "Magic isn't real- it's just insufficiently understood natural science, so you what- you, you drank a serum? Got exposed to some kind of gamma radiation?"
"Your godfather!" Leo said suddenly. "He's a wizard too, right? Only he's not related-"
"Can you do tricks, can you do spells-"
"What, do you wear a hat?"
"Potions, bibbity-bobbety-boo-"
"The candy! The sugar quills- I knew it-" Leo pounded his fist on the table and then removed it with a yelp.
"Magic wand-"
"Yes it's very exciting but this is kind of urgent here," Harry said loudly. He paused. "I'll tell you whatever you want," he said. "But I can't do that and run for my life, yeah?"
He waited and they fell silent.
"What do they want?" Jemma asked tentatively.
"It's my godfather," Harry said. "He's… kind of important, in our world. They'll probably take me hostage to get at him." Or so he hoped. The other options were looking pretty bad for his long-term survivability.
"So what do you want us to do?" Leo said.
Both of them looked a little bit excited, and just a little scared too.
Harry took a breath.
"Hide," he said. "Loki will come for me eventually, but I don't want you getting hurt. If they find you..."
"What about you?" Jemma said.
"I'm the only wizard here," Harry said. "I'm going to go after them."
"Do you have any magic spells?" Jemma said.
"Not really," Harry said. "But I have my cloak. I can sneak up and, I dunno, trip someone."
He'd think of something. He had to.
Leo spoke up, looking pale.
"I have a better idea," he said.
Ten minutes later, Harry and Jemma slipped back into the little room, panting.
"I have the stuff from the lab," Harry said, emptying his backpack onto the table.
"Careful with that, careful!" Leo said, agitated from his soldering.
"And I," Jemma said. "From the Matron."
"Was everyone alright?" Harry asked. "Did you see anyone?"
"Yes and no," Jemma said, adding something to a large phial. "And by you?"
"Confused, but alright," Harry said. "I saw one of them in the hallway, but he didn't notice me under the cloak."
They shivered.
For a moment there was only the sound of quiet work from the other two. Harry was going over the steps of the plan in his head, wondering what the others were doing and whether the effects of the confundus could be harmful.
"So," Leo said, over the nervous clinking. "What's it like to be a wizard?"
"Different," Harry said, smiling wryly. "It's… another world."
"It seems… different," Jemma said diplomatically. She was screwing something together with a set of tiny screwdrivers.
"This is… unusual," Harry admitted. "But there's good things too. Like flying."
"No way," Leo said, pausing. "On a flying carpet?"
"Or a broomstick?" Jemma added.
"Both!" Harry said breaking out into a grin. "But I've only been on a broom- I'll take you guys sometime, if I can."
"Deal," Jemma said, and Leo reached out a fist and bumped his.
"What else is different?" Jemma asked.
"I dunno, there's no electricity," Harry said. "But everything runs on magic. Magic lights, magic travel, magic cooling. I didn't even know what a refrigerator was before I got here."
"That's so cool," Jemma said. She glanced back down and quickly rescrewed the cap on the bottle she was mixing.
Harry shrugged.
"It's like a different country," he said. A country with magic brooms, owls to deliver your post, invisibility cloaks, Loki running most of Europe and the state and the war.
"It's ready," Leo said, breaking into Harry's thoughts. "Let's go out."
The hallways were quiet, even for the middle of exam prep. The three of them crowded under the cloak together this time, with Leo as far from Harry as possible and the controller under his shirt. The metal spider crawled along the corner of the hallway, a bit unbalanced from its load. For the first few minutes they didn't run into anyone. When they hit the corner, Harry stopped abruptly, pulling the other two back.
Headmaster Ranganathan was peering down the hallway.
"Hello, is someone there?" she said, moving forwards a bit. Her voice sounded off. "Harry… Potter…?"
They froze, Leo's hands shaking. Harry felt cold. This wasn't a confundus curse.
Harry linked his arms with the others, backing further up against the wall as the headmaster walked down the hallway, arms extended. It wasn't until she was far down the hallway that they dared move again, around the corner from where she'd came.
The dark haired man was at the end of the hallway, walking at a quick clip.
Leo glanced at Jemma and Harry and they nodded. The reengineered spider crawled away and then with one press, it jumped, latching onto the man's trousers. They held their breaths but he kept walking, heading for the stairs. Leo pulled forwards too, fiddling furiously with the controller, Harry and Jemma dragging along quickly as the range light blinked yellow, then green again. The spider's feet prickled quickly up the man's back, from the seat of his pants up the suspenders into the back of his collar. Then, very carefully, it turned, releasing its needle into the artery at the back of his neck. The man shouted, slapping at the spider and knocking it off- "Ouch," Leo said quietly, as it hit a locker and bounced off. He walked towards it as Leo frantically tried to regain control, then started scuttling away unevenly ("Not towards us!" Jemma hissed). The man turned towards them, eyes drawn to their spot. Then he took a step forward… and collapsed.
"Is he…" Harry asked, and Leo nodded, pale.
"He's still breathing," he said.
"I can't believe we did that," Jemma said, looking sick.
"At least he's not still wandering around the school," Leo said darkly.
"Do you know when he'll wake up?" Harry asked.
"Not for a few hours," Leo said. "He'll be okay."
Harry nodded resolutely.
"Now we just have to find the other one."
He turned around just as they heard a step.
"Brot?"
"Uh oh," Leo said as the white-haired man bounded up the stairs and stopped, wheeling around. Leo held the controller taut but didn't move as the man bent down, investigating. Then he turned, eyes falling along their location and then moving, scanning, until they found Leo's spider, in the corner. Leo pressed the controller frantically, skittering down the hallway. Harry saw what was going to happen before it did. The man took out his wand and the spider exploded in a flash of red, sleeping agent splashing over the tiles.
"I have to go," Harry said, moving. They grabbed his shoulders.
"Stay safe," Leo said.
"Remember what I told you," Jemma added.
He slipped out from under the cloak and bounded towards the white-haired man, leaping on top of him. The man rolled, immediately shooting off spells with his wand. Harry held onto his back, dodging and holding on as the man tried to roll him off, while shooting spells at him. "This is what you hit," Jemma had said, looking sharply at him in the hallway. She pointed. "Base of the neck. Top of the head. Front of the neck. Base of the jaw. Did you get that?" Now, he was holding on for dear life. A spell hit him, and Harry braced, but nothing happened, and the man ground his teeth, switching spells. Now, Harry really did squirm, dodging frantically as the death spell whizzed past his ear. The man grabbed his leg and tried to throw him to the floor, but Harry gripped harder, refusing to be thrown off. Slowly, the man's knees buckled. Harry scrambled off, catching him before his face could hit the tiles too hard. He bent down, gasping for breath.
The sound of fabric from behind him, and Jemma and Leo ran over to him, the cloak streaming behind them.
"What was-"
"I can't-"
Harry bent down, tired. Then he stood up, suddenly self-conscious.
"Thanks," he said. He picked up the man's wand, staring at the two forms in the hallway.
"So," Leo said, holding the other wand with a measure of hesitance. "Should we go back to physics?"
Jemma laughed hysterically.
In the end they went out onto the grass, and Harry shared the leftover chocolate frogs from his backpack.
"These things are so weird," Leo said, as Jemma bent down, watching them jump.
"I think they're kind of cute," she said, reaching down to pet its little head. The chocolate frog card had been Professor Dumbledore, and Harry made a mental note to thank the man when next he saw him.
"If you think this is weird, you should see Diagon Alley," Harry said.
"What's that?" Jemma asked.
"It's a whole place full of wizarding shops and stuff," Harry said. "A real overload." Maybe he could sneak them in under the cloak, he thought.
At that moment, a flicker went through the air and Loki appeared in front of them, faint and insubstantial.
"Harry," he said, with a note of urgency in his voice. "Are you okay? What is your status?"
"I'm here," Harry said, and the projection seemed to focus more.
"Stay put," Loki said. "There are hostile figures in the school. We're breaking through the wards and will be there in a minute or two at most."
It was weird knowing more than Loki for once.
"Yeah," Harry said. "We…" he searched for the appropriate word. "Put them down I guess. For now."
"We…" Loki blinked, seeming to see Jemma and Leo for the first time. "You and two Muggles?"
"Leo and Jemma."
"Leo and Jemma," Loki said, sounding familiar, if bemused. "Right."
"We built a sleeping serum into a mechanized spider with autoinjection capacity," Jemma said quickly.
"And then Harry pummeled the other one into unconsciousness," Leo added.
"I wouldn't say pummeled…" Harry said, embarrassed.
"Impressive…" Loki said. The haziness broke and the projection solidified- the real Loki was here now. He reappeared next to Harry and gripped his arm, looking tense. Harry could feel magic washing over him, the familiar tickle of diagnostic charms. He walked over and checked the other two children. Then he sighed. His hand was still around Harry's arm like a brace.
"You're all still alright, by any standard under the stars," he said. "And you say you did this with your skills?"
They nodded, and Harry told Loki the story from the start.
"Fascinating," Loki said. He held up the two wands, banishing them. "Full-grown wizards would have had trouble taking down two highly-trained assassins."
"I sincerely regret that you had to," here he tightened his grip and Harry flicked at his fingers. "But I can only express my gratitude that Harry had such loyal, creative, and ingenious friends."
Leo blushed.
"We didn't…" Jemma said, trailing off.
"What happens now?" Harry said, as Loki led them back towards the building.
"The school will be protected better, obviously," Loki said.
"But what about the assassins?" Jemma asked, and Loki opened the door.
"They're being collected and will face justice in our court system," he said smoothly. Indeed while they had been talking, Harry could see that other ministry workers had entered the hallway. The spot that the brothers had fallen was clear, a Muggle-dressed man Harry vaguely recognized saluted as they walked over, making caution tape and wet floor signs disappear, to Jemma and Leo's patent amazement. It was a weird contrast from the hallways of half an hour ago, Harry thought.
Loki bent down, noticing the smashed remains of their spider, and touched it, instantly restoring the critter, sans-phial.
"You fixed it!" Leo said happily, letting it crawl up his sleeve.
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked. "Not make it explode more, I mean."
"It's just a skill like any other," Loki promised. "You'll learn it in time."
There were other ministry workers moving through the building now, Harry saw. One was supporting Dr. Marvis as she wandered down the hallway, taking her into an office. Another line of students waited by the door to the counseling center, led by a ministry official with an official-looking clipboard.
"Here's where I stop, I'm afraid," Loki said, pausing a few minutes from the administrator's office.
A woman in a denim dress said, "This way please." She opened the door to another office- Professor Ranganathan's, Harry thought. He moved to go with them, but Loki held him back.
"Wait."
Harry stopped.
"Why…" he said, then froze. All at once, he remembered where he'd seen that woman's face. "No." he said.
"I'm sorry," Loki said.
"NO!" Harry said. "You can't- stop it-" He moved forwards trying to get to the door, but he couldn't seem to reach the handle. "YOU CAN'T ERASE THEIR MEMORIES-"
He turned back and threw a punch at Loki's arm. To his surprise it hit, and he hammered down more blows. "STOP IT!" He kicked, squirming, as Loki picked him up, trying to rend, trying to hurt, trying to make him go back. "IT'S NOT FAIR-"
Loki turned, and Harry shouted out, straining against the magic, but a moment later he was in his bedroom in Godric's Hollow.
"Bring me back," Harry said savagely. "Bring me back now!"
"I cannot," Loki said. "And besides that, it is done," he said, and Harry burst into tears.
Loki sat down awkwardly across from him, and conjured a handkerchief and a glass of water.
When Harry was done crying, Loki made a sighing gesture, magically drying his sticky tears.
"Are you done?"
Harry looked at the glass.
"Does this have something in it?" he asked.
"Yes," Loki said, and Harry crossed his arms.
"Why?" Harry said. "What did they do?"
"Nothing," Loki said. "They were very brave, and very brilliant."
"Then why?"
"It's the law," Loki said.
"I don't care," Harry said, gripping his sheets. "They wouldn't have told."
"Probably not," Loki said.
"I betrayed them," Harry said.
"You didn't know," Loki said.
"I hate you," Harry said, and Loki stiffened.
Then he grinned.
"I said the same many times, when I was younger," he said. "Sometimes I even meant it. But before I go I'll tell you something, if you promise to keep it a secret."
Harry frowned, eyes widening as Loki whispered in his ear.
"Okay," he said quietly.
Then, Loki did leave, and Harry sighed. He took a swig of the calming-draught laced water and fell asleep without taking off his shoes.
A/N: Oh look, five years to the day! Here's to picking up the pace. :p
Thank you to all my betas and prereaders, and all you people who leave reviews. :)