Chapter 49: Pixie Power

Exactly thirty minutes later, Lockhart went through the room and collected the tests under the cooing of the female students before he returned to the front of the class and began to shuffle through them.

"Tz, tz, tz, Mr Potter, my favourite colour is certainly not hot pink. Is that even a colour?" he scolded Harry.

"Oh, I would certainly say so, and I have to say…look at that, angry fans," Harry replied with a broad grin.

Every single girl in the class bar one looked at him reproachfully because as soon as Lockhart had read the answer, both his clothes and his hair had turned…hot pink.

"What?" Harry asked the girls, having to suppress his laughter. "Suits him and certainly fits his secret ambition."

"Becoming the next Gaylord?" Lockhart choked out, reading the answer to that question.

"Yep," Harry retorted, popping the p. "With how you groom yourself…I mean look at you, you probably need even more time in the morning than Draco, and that definitely is an achievement…your greatest actually."

Harry winked at Draco, who threw him a death glare upon the jibe at his appearance.

"Anyway, onto the practical part of this lesson," Lockhart said, in a blatant attempt to get away from the topic and continued the lesson with lecturing on Cornish Pixies.

"Aw, he didn't even read what I would get him for his birthday. But maybe all the better, it is supposed to be a surprise after all," Harry mused.

"What did you write to that question?" Hermione asked curiously.

"There, there, that would be telling, wouldn't it?" Harry replied with a grin that was purely evil. "So no getting rid of Lockhart until his birthday, understood Loki?"

Loki looked torn between pouting over the unfairness that he would have to endure that idiot for over half a year because his birthday was in January and anticipation for what Harry planned. In the end, he nodded with a huff.

"Very well, but only because I want to see what you concocted."

By now, Lockhart had pulled a large cage, which was covered with a piece of cloth, out from under his desk and placed it on said desk.

"My job is it to arm you against the foulest creatures known and your worst fears but know that no harm will befall you while I'm with you. Remain calm, and nothing will happen to you."

"If I'm getting any calmer I'll fall asleep," surprisingly Neville muttered loud enough for the entire class to hear him.

"You say that now but please don't scream, it will provoke them," he exclaimed.

With a flourish, Lockhart pulled the cloth from the cage to reveal about a dozen blue coloured pixies.

"Freshly caught Cornish Pixies!" Lockhart exclaimed.

Quite a few of the male students couldn't help but snort, Neville with them.

"Yes?" Lockhart addressed them.

It was Seamus who dared to speak up.

"You call those…dangerous?" he asked in disbelieve.

"Don't be so sure. Devilish little pests they are," Lockhart answered while grabbing for the lock of the cage. "Let's see how you can handle them."

With a twist, he opened the cage door, and in an instant, the Pixies flew out of their confinement to instantly lay waste to the classroom resulting in a few of the students to squeal in surprise. Unexpectedly though, none of the students and their belongings were touched by the little blighters, or not so surprising considering who was sitting in their midst. The little blue menaces probably instinctually knew not to piss off the god of mischief. Once the students realised that they calmed down again and smiled gratefully at Loki who grinned broadly over the chaos surrounding him.

Lockhart in the meantime looked in disbelieve at the Pixies who with delight destroyed his belongings while his students were amusedly watching. They talked with each other, pointing out things that the Pixies were doing when one of the Pixies managed to sever the chain that was holding the dragon skeleton in place under the ceiling. However, instead of crashing down on the students who ducked under their tables to avoid being hit, the skeleton nimbly landed before it began to dance "The Dying Swan" with the appropriate music playing.

"Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" Lockhart bellowed when he finally had enough of the pandemonium his classroom now was, pointing his wand at the Pixies but nothing happened.

On the contrary, one of the Pixies saw that and took it as its cue to seize the man's wand and throw it out through the window. Lockhart looked at it in shock before looking at the class, bolting up the stairs in the back of the classroom and into his personal chambers, slamming the door close.

"Oh, that so NOT going to happen," Loki said with a smirk and whistled sharply.

Each and every Pixy in the room stopped what it was doing and looked expectantly at the trickster. Loki though only pointed at the still locked door. The Pixies simultaneously saluted. With a wave of his hand, the door flew open, and the Pixies stormed the room behind it. Everyone could hear crashing, screaming and splintering of wood…and Loki's, Harry's and Sam's laughter while Neville and Hermione snickered. Served the blond ponce right.

"So that this wasn't a total waste of time here a few information about Pixies. As you could see, Pixies are blue and about eight inches high. They have no wings but can fly nonetheless. Pixies are highly mischievous and tend to grab people by their ears to lift them somewhere high," Loki lectured. "If you don't have the one on hand who created the species to ward them off – that's me by the way…hi – stunning and freezing spells are highly effective."

"You created an entire species?" Hermione asked in disbelieve but also curious, while in the background another very…girly…scream was heard as well as more crashing.

"Hey, I was bored and might or might not have taken enough care of how much magic I pushed into the prank at that time," Loki huffed.

"You can create new species?" someone else threw it.

"Yes and no," Loki conceded. "Anyone powerful enough can create a new species from an existing one…call it accelerated evolution. However, creating a new species from scratch, only the Primal Force of Life can do."

"Primal Force of Life?" someone wanted to know confused.

"How did we get from Pixies to the Primal Forces again?" Loki muttered. "Anyway, each universe has three Primal Forces, Life, Death and Balance though some call the last one also Fate or Destiny. Life is the one responsible for the creation of new life in the universe, populating planets, etc. Death, on the other hand, is responsible for what happens with a soul when whatever is dying dies, heaven, hell, or rebirth cycle respectively. The last one, Balance, on the other hand, is responsible for keeping the universe in balance. You see, it is never good when the scale tips towards too light or too dark, too good or too evil."

"Why? What happens then?"

Loki hummed lowly upon that question. "Imagine a world where looking at someone just that bit strangely would get you severely punished. Or one small smile would cost you your life."

"Ouch."

"Yep, that is the reason for why people like Riddle…the last Dark Lord…," Loki added upon the confused looks. "Will always fail. Sometimes it's not because they are stupid, or their plans are faulty but simply for a reason, that they are unable to work with the other side. Then the Primal Force of Balance has to intervene…mostly by weaving the fates of single persons or a group of people to get rid of the problem – hence why it is also called Fate or Destiny."

"So, you want to say that if someone leads us who is able to work with both sides, that we would flourish?" Draco said musingly.

"Yes, that pretty much sums it up," Loki answered with a nod.

Right at that moment the bell went and signalled the end of the lesson. Some of the students groaned as it often were when Loki lectured about something. As it happened, nowadays History of Magic was one of the most love class in the history of Hogwarts since Loki took over. Surprisingly each and every student that had to choose which classes to take for their NEWTs chose to continue History which had never happened before with any offered class.

"Why don't you take over DADA?" Neville asked half mockingly, half serious while packing the small mountain that was Lockhart's books away.

"Not going to happen," Loki instantly declined. "It is hard enough to keep one illusion going all day long for History and having to maintain another is pretty nigh impossible."

Neville nodded in acknowledgement. The rest of the students already left, only the four friends remaining. Loki looked towards the door that leads to Lockhart's private quarters through which no noise was heard.

"Ah well, I think he learned his lesson," Loki said and whistled sharply.

Instantaneously the Pixies came flying only to stop shortly before him.

"As long as you behave yourself and don't produce too much chaos you can stay here at the castle. But no malicious pranks or such that would endanger anyone is that clear?"

Loki had no problem with letting the Pixies live in the castle, and he doubted that his brother would say something as long as they didn't hurt anyone. Besides that, Pixies were mostly harmless…mostly.

It was the next morning before breakfast and Loki was currently sitting in one of the armchairs in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room. The others were still getting ready, and so he was alone, fiddling with the parcel in his lap. That was when the boy came down whom he was waiting for.

"Colin Creevey," he called out. The boy walked over, surprise flittering over his face.

"Morning Loki," he greeted the pagan tentatively. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"This is more about what I can do for you," Loki replied. "Yesterday you said, that you want to become a professional photographer."

Colin just nodded, not knowing what to reply to that.

"I have something for you," Loki told him with a broad smile, holding out the parcel that was about eleven inches large in each dimension.

A bit confused, Colin took it and sat down on the chair opposite. "Thank you…I think."

"Well, open it. I promise it isn't a prank," Loki said with a chuckle.

Colin carefully removed the brown wrapping paper to reveal a box that depicted a state of the art professional digital camera on the front. The boy looked at it in shock before looking up at Loki who was smiling broadly. With shaking hands, he opened the box to find that yes, it contained what was depicted on the front. A quick but nonetheless careful move later had the box sitting on the table and Loki with an armful of Colin.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou," the boy chanted over and over again.

Loki couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing.

"You're welcome. The camera is one of the best, hast unlimited storage capacity, doesn't need to be recharged and you can connect it to any computer to download the pictures. It also comes with a small printer so that you can print the pictures fully magical and moving. However, and that is the more important part, any picture that you take with it that explicitly shows magic will only show to those that are closely related to you, so siblings, parents, and grandparents. For anyone else it will just seem that something went wrong while it was taken," Loki explained once Colin calmed down enough to process what he was telling him.

"Why's that?" Colin asked curiously while returning to the box and unpacking his new camera.

"Some non-magicals tend to react violently when confronted with something they don't understand, it freaks them out. That's why there are safety measurements taken, so they don't find out," Loki patiently lectured.

"So, if I let's say photograph Hogwarts, I could show it other people that don't have magic because it doesn't show anything magical?"

Loki nodded slowly. "Yes, that would work, but I would ask you not to share anything that would reveal where you are. You see, while the castle itself is shielded from outside view, the surrounding landscape is not and nowadays it is quite easy to pinpoint a location by the landscape."

"I think I understand and it isn't that I wanted to post the photos on the internet…just want to send a few to my parents to show them what it is like here," Colin replied before taking a photo of Loki with a grin.

"Morning guys," Sam, who came down from the dorm together with Harry and Neville, greeted them when his eyes fell on Colin's camera. "Birthday or is Loki just his generous self?"

"You know Loki," Harry piped in. "He's a big softy in that regard."

That earned him a half transformation into a cat…cat ears, whiskers and a fitting tail which Colin instantly took a picture of.

"Oh, hello cosplay!" Harry exclaimed while looking at his tail, flicking it here and there. "Colin, I want copies!"

"Kitty, kitty, kitty," Luna cooed, petting Harry behind his ears which made him actually purr. "I like the new look, it's cute."

"Cute or not, we should go to breakfast we only have twenty minutes left," Hermione interrupted them after a quick peek at her watch.

It made Harry pout because Luna stopped petting him, but since he was quite hungry, he didn't complain overly much. They all set off towards the great hall.

"Say, do you think that it was a good idea to give Colin the camera? I mean, I have no problem with him taking photos but what if the wrong kind of person sees them?" Harry asked Loki in a low voice so that only Loki could hear him. "You know what can happen when…."

"Harry, don't worry any picture that shows magic or anything magical that cannot be explained by normal means, someone who doesn't have magic or doesn't know about magic cannot see it. I gave Colin the camera not only so that he can learn to work with it professionally but also so that those stuffed up pure-bloods see first-hand what muggle technology is capable of nowadays."

"Sly, and I think Michael will approve, especially after the stunt with the car yesterday," Harry chuckled.

The time went by after that, and soon Halloween approached with another feast that no one would forget any time soon. However, this time it was due to entirely different reasons than one might think.

A/N: 'til next chapter!