CHAPTER 9:
GONDÜL
A couple of weeks later…
After the light from the teleportation circle faded, Harry took in the farm. It looked old and run-down, and yet warm and lived-in in its way. He was almost immediately reminded of the Burrow, the fact that it felt like a home despite everything. Despite how ancient the buildings looked, this place felt more like home than the Dursleys' house did. Then again, the Dursleys viewed themselves as affluent when they were really effluent, upwardly mobile walking piles of crass excrement.
"So, where are we again, exactly?" Harry asked.
"Part of Vestfold," Rossweisse said(1). Instead of her suit, she was dressed in a tracksuit, her usual casual clothes, which she bought simply because they were cheap. Then again, even a cheap tracksuit looked very flattering on her. "Vestfold includes some of Norway's best farmland, and my grandmother has owned this farm for centuries."
"I can tell," Harry said. "But this was where you lived?"
"Yes. Grandmother raised me, as my parents were mostly busy on missions for Lord Odin. I can say that she made me who I am today."
"Well, you do flatter me, my little Rose. Though I didn't expect you to bring a boy here so soon. As much as I wanted you to get a boyfriend to look after you, I wasn't quite expecting this."
The voice came from the front door to the farmhouse, where an elderly woman waited. He could see the resemblance with Rossweisse, with the hair and some of the facial features. And despite looking to be in her sixties, she seemed filled with life, and piss and vinegar for that matter. Her trousers and shirt, both as careworn and frequently-mended as Remus' own clothing, hugged a figure that was surprisingly attractive despite the woman's apparent age. Her facial features, despite her age and all the lines and creases, were also quite attractive. She reminded Harry somewhat of Honor Blackman, the British actress, though her beauty was less harsh.
"Granny, it's not like that!" Rossweisse protested.
The old woman chuckled. "I know. I've heard quite a bit on the grapevine, even out here," she said. "But you're both friends already, so I've heard from that young pup Brynhildr. One of the better ones to get the title, I'm sure. Anyway, how do you do, Harry Potter? I'm sure my granddaughter has already told you who I am, but allow me to introduce myself. I am Gondül."
"Yes, I know. Rossweisse speaks highly of you, ma'am," Harry said, shaking her hand.
Gondül scoffed. "Enough of the ma'am business. It makes me feel old, and while I'm old enough to make the Flamels look like teenagers, I'd rather not feel my age. Still, I'm glad you're not putting on airs and graces like I feared. And you seem to be nothing like your father, thank goodness. Oh yes, I heard you may very well be Loki's son. He and I have something of a history. Don't worry, I don't intend to hold it against you. Anyway, come on in…"
As Gondül bustled around, making tea, she asked, "What brings you out here, Rossweisse? You're normally quite busy with your duties as a trainee Valkyrie. It can't be to show off Harry."
"Well, I wanted to introduce him to you," Rossweisse said, before blushing. "Not like that! No, I…aside from Atreus and Captain Brynhildr, we haven't had many people to talk to in Asgard. Mum and Dad are currently on that mission to the US investigating the rogue Dwarf cabal, the one engaged in arms dealing."
"Yes, accompanied by that neurotic Dwarf Atreus knew…Sindri, was it?" Gondül remarked as she brought the tea to the table. "So, basically, you two got antsy, and you, Rose, wanted to introduce Harry to your grandma, right?"
"Pretty much," Harry said. "I'm still trying to come to terms with everything, and the British Ministry of Magic is dragging the chain in exonerating my godfather. Rossweisse has been a great help, and I already consider her a very good friend. She actually told me something about you, about how you were famous even in Norse myth."
"Well, you and I both know that fame isn't all it's cracked up to be," Gondül remarked ruefully. "And yet, people have chased it since time immemorial. I remember that young pup Sigurd, the one who got involved with the original Brynhildr. We name our Valkyrie captains in her memory. Anyway, Sigurd would rather have a short, fleeting but famous life, as opposed to a long, staid one. Look where it got him too." The older Valkyrie harrumphed.
Harry nodded, not that he knew much about the story of Sigurd and the original Brynhildr. Both Rossweisse and the current Brynhildr had alluded to their story, and that it had a bad ending for both of them. They were tricked into marrying different spouses instead of each other. Brynhildr didn't take it well, apparently.
Of course, his life had been a little better. True, he was still persona non grata in Britain, and while Fudge was on the way out, according to the news he got, Fudge and his cronies were still sticking to their guns. As far as they were concerned, Harry Potter was a mass-murderer whose bodycount surpassed Sirius Black's, and worse, had killed many fine, upstanding Purebloods rather than Muggles. Lucius Malfoy had been one of those to survive, and was spearheading the campaign to have Harry extradited from Norway.
The Goblins, thankfully, didn't give a damn. They allowed Harry to withdraw money in Asgard, having a branch of Gringotts there, albeit not as popular as the Dwarf-run banks in Magical Scandinavia. Of course, that got him into a lecture courtesy of Rossweisse on the dangers of overspending, the need for prudency with one's money, and the many wonderful virtues of Max20 stores, which were the Norwegian equivalent of a pound store or variety store. She was obsessed with them, and whenever she went abroad, she always made a note to look up the location of the nearest variety store. Harry was somewhat bemused, but honestly, when she wasn't being obnoxiously miserly, it was actually an amusing little peccadillo of hers. He did offer to buy her stuff, but she refused in a manner that reminded him of Molly Weasley, though it at least heartened him that she wasn't after him for his money.
It wouldn't stop him from buying her something nice later on, though.
He was telling the truth that he considered her a friend now. Despite the bad circumstances under which they had met, and the revelations he'd had inflicted on him afterwards, she was easy to make friends with, if only because her compassion and understanding were what he needed during those dire times. Separated from his friends as he was forced to be, he needed someone like Rossweisse.
Of course, his friends had gone home for the holidays, and Hermione at least was promising to visit, along with her parents. She wanted to visit the libraries and bookstores of Asgard (of course!), as well as discuss magic with Rossweisse. Whether the Weasleys would be able to come at all depended on a number of factors.
Thankfully, Hedwig had been delivered here, and Remus had also opted to come to Asgard and stay. And with Sirius present as well, it meant he had some familiar faces. Though Sirius recently got in trouble flirting with some of the Valkyries, albeit the adult ones, though that was because a couple of them started fighting over him, much to Brynhildr's annoyance.
Harry had also accepted that Lily Evans (she refused to be called Potter) was now a part of him, as a Sacred Gear. He was still a little unsure as to her character, but Remus and Sirius' reassurances after they spoke with her helped, though Sirius at least found it hard to countenance that his friend was alive, well, and had not only effectively raped Lily, but was probably Loki. Remus seemed to take it more at face value, but Sirius didn't really want to ever consider the matter. Lily agreed to not press the issue for now, but Harry was worried that a confrontation was inevitable.
Despite being taken from what he had known, and forced into exile from Magical Britain, Harry was finally regaining some sort of equilibrium. He'd found some happiness in his new situation, despite the revelations he had had, to say nothing of his trauma from the slaughter in the graveyard. Hell, yesterday, he'd taken the first step in trying to work with his Jotunn powers. He'd tried wielding them under the supervision of Rossweisse. And he was able to use them well.
It wasn't that he was over the trauma of the slaughter. While it was done to Death Eaters, he was also out of control, a berserker. That scared him, enough for it to be a candidate for what he'd see a Boggart transform into. But he also felt he needed to get to grips with his new power sooner rather than later. Which was why he worked up the courage to try.
And it paid dividends. He found his control over the ice manipulation to be surprisingly intuitive. He could control it far better than he could his normal magic, oddly enough. Then again, he was part-Jotunn.
Learning how to use Weregild Lilja was far less intuitive. Lily explained that it was based on whether or not the target was an enemy of Harry's, and specifically that the target held considerable enmity towards Harry. In fact, the target had to mean Harry considerable harm, and this malicious intent would be turned back against the originator of the intent. Although Dumbledore's siphoning of her power had prevented her from harming the Dursleys, now, she was free to use it with impunity. But aside from Sanngridr, there were few actively against him in Asgard, and Sanngridr did so mostly because of his association with Rossweisse.
"Well, aren't you deep in thought," Gondül remarked, breaking into his reverie. "The tea'll get cold if you keep doing that."
"Sorry," Harry said.
"No, no, that's fine. Rossweisse gets like that too," the elderly Valkyrie said with a dismissive wave. "Especially when she's been deeply embarrassed. Like after that time those idiots in the trainee Valkyries spiked the punch bowl. Suffice to say, we learned that my granddaughter can't handle her drink after all, which is far from a good thing in a place like Asgard. We make Australians look like teetotallers by comparison when it comes to drinking alcohol, and yet my granddaughter would get tipsy off the fumes of a bottle of lager."
"Mormor…" Rossweisse complained, blushing in embarrassment, slipping into Norse, and the pair of them had what sounded like a minor argument.
"Leaving Rossweisse being a lightweight drinker aside," Harry said, after taking a sip of tea, "we came here on her suggestion for help with my abilities. Not wizarding magic, though I'll probably be learning that, but my Jotunn abilities and my Sacred Gear. I'm still ill at ease using the Jotunn abilities after all that happened, but I need some advice in advance."
"A Sacred Gear? I heard rumours about the Jotunn abilities and your heritage on the grapevine, but a Sacred Gear to boot? Given your track record, your luck must be mercurial," Gondül said, surprised and intrigued. "That being said, while I have had dealings with Sacred Gears before, I'm no expert. Jotunn magic, though? While I can't wield it myself, being a Vanir, I have fought both against and alongside Jotunn. Honestly, I would have suggested Atreus, but he might not be able to help."
"I had asked him, but he demurred, saying he never used such abilities himself," Rossweisse said.
"Oh, there's a good reason for that. Atreus is not from this timeline. He, along with Sindri and a couple of other passengers, came across to our timeline not long ago. His equivalent of the Jotunn didn't have as specialised a form of magic as those here do, and he's also part-Greek god to boot. I shouldn't say anything more. So, I can give you some tips and tricks. Then again, given how you're a wizard, it may be easier than you'd think."
"Why?"
Gondül held up a finger. "What is magic, at its most basic level? That's a surprisingly difficult question to answer, despite its simplicity. However, the best way to answer that is that magic is basically enforcing your willpower onto reality in order to change it. Some forms of magic use a rigid framework to help channel that willpower, like the runic magic my darling Rose specialises in, but wizarding magic, along with Jotunn and even Devil magic, is considerably more instinctive. And ice magic is actually one of the harder magics to master, believe it or not."
"Why is that?" Harry asked.
"Because you're violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics to some degree," Rossweisse pointed out. "That is a real law of physics. The law states two things. Firstly, that entropy, a fancy word for disorder, will always increase in a system. And secondly, thermodynamic equilibrium will result between two bodies of different temperature. In other words, put ice into warm water, and the warm water will heat the ice up until it melts. The water becomes cooler, yes, but it's because of the heat being sapped away to melt the ice, not because of the cold cooling the water."
"…In other words, heat goes to cold, not the other way around?" Harry asked, hoping he grasped the concept.
"Exactly!" Rossweisse said, delighted. "Refrigeration produces more heat than you'd think because of that. Ice magic is harder to perform because you are forcing a violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The entropy shortfall is still made up for elsewhere, mostly in the energy you use up from your own body, but that goes into theory we're not ready for."
"You mean I'm not ready for," Harry said pointedly. He knew Rossweisse would understand it, but he was another matter entirely.
"Sorry. Anyway, those who can master ice magic are often lauded. Serafall Leviathan, one of the Four Great Satans, is infamous for her mastery of ice magic, far beyond any Jotunn or indeed any Devil. The Sitri bloodline she originally belonged to were experts at water magic, but ice magic was a significant step beyond that."
"And not just her skill," Gondül said. "Serafall Leviathan is so powerful, she could freeze the entire world. Not just the surface of the world. I believe, with no exaggeration, that she could potentially freeze the Earth right down to its very core. And that would be extremely difficult to do, even for her. The Devils place a premium on power, as do many in the supernatural world, so is it any wonder that the Four Great Satans are potential destroyers of worlds? We should thank our lucky stars that they're peaceful, and far better than the Old Satan Faction, who may very well have decided to destroy everything, and damn the consequences."
"Oh joy," Harry said, putting his head in his hands. "And this is the kind of world I've been dropped into?"
"Indeed," Gondül said with a smirk.
CHAPTER 9 ANNOTATIONS:
So, we've had Harry and Rossweisse with Gondül. 'Nuff said.
Review-answering time! Jose19: I should also point out that, due to babysitting Harry, so to speak, instead of babysitting Odin, Rossweisse actually had more time to work on her studies and training, so she actually has more of a grounding in offensive magic now instead of being as specialised in defensive magic. She clearly knew offensive magic to a strong degree prior to being told to train by Rias, as she wielded it before she joined Rias' Peerage in canon, but here, she's basically a good all-rounder, albeit with specialisations in defensive and sealing magic.
On the bright side, though, Harry also prevents her from throwing herself into her studies too much, ironically. He stops her from an 'all work and no play' mentality. It helps that he actually values learning to some degree (even if he's not as fanatical as Rossweisse or Hermione), and values her for more than her figure. Rossweisse, due to her age, hasn't had any actual friends her age, save for family members.
All in all, thanks in part to Harry's influence, some of the rougher edges of Rossweisse's character have been shaved off, and while she does still retain her miserly tendencies, they're not as bad as they could have been.
Raven Marcus: This Harry? Ehh, I'm not sure. To have a chance at being paired with Sona, not only does he have to be smart, but he'd have to be good at chess. Well, unless Sona deliberately throws the game, but if I ever do a story that's Harry/Sona (which is unlikely: I'm still working on a Harry/Raynare fic, and Kuroka's the only other pairing I'm giving any serious thought to), I'm not sure I'd want to do it that way.
1. This is a real-life farming area in Norway, recently renamed as Vestfold og Telemark.
