A/N – Another completely new chapter or at least mostly new. Reviews and opinions are appreciated.
o-0-o
It didn't take much for Harry to get used to living on Asgard and before he noticed it, it was already well into the winter, or at least it was called the same way as it was on Earth. The only difference that he discover was that it was somewhat cooler than it was during the rest of the day.
He loved every single day he spent here, he felt here much better than he had ever felt on Midgard and for the first time he had friends, real friends, with whom he could spend his time and simple hang out. Nor caring about Dursley's or anything else, also if some of their customs or rules by which they lived were strange, he got used to them.
o-0-o
He walked with Ulf towards the training yard where they usually trained with under the watchful gaze of Sif, or at times Freyr, one of his many cousins, when he saw Sif dueling a girl that looked to be around their age, however he didn't see her yet on Asgard. He stopped in his tracks and took a better look of her, she seemed rather interesting with a long, black hair and when she turned towards them, he could see that she had keen, golden eyes.
"Looks like the rumors were true." Ulf said when he saw those eyes and Harry looked at him.
"Huh?"
"Ward from Olympus." He clarified and glanced at Harry "Don't ask me why you don't know about her."
"Very good." Sif said as she turned towards them. "Indeed, this is Atalanta, daughter of Hercules and Otrera, Princess of the Amazons." She paused and waited for them to nod. "Atalanta, those are His Royal Highness Harald James Thorson and Ulf Ullrson."
"Pleasure to meet you." She smiled and they repeated the words. They joined her and looked at Sif.
"You got here in a good time." Sif said with a wicked smirk on her face "Three is the perfect number for an exercise that I have in mind for you."
"Why do I have a feeling that it won't be anything pleasant?" Ulf sighed, gripping a handle of his axe and looking at Sif.
"Because her idea of training rarely is pleasant." Harry finished, gripping handle of his sword and holding a shield in second.
Sif smirked and they gulped in fear, they all too well recognized that smirk, only Atalanta looked curiously at them and gripped handles of her hunting knives tighter. "Your task is to disarm me, you can do whatever you wish to do and however you wish to do it. You may do it on your own or you can work together, how you do it, I don't care."
Harry looked at Ulf "Are you going to try on your own?"
"No" Ulf shook his head "We need to work together, or-"
"Or what?" Atalanta asked
"Or she will beat us, badly." Harry said with a wince and swinged his sword few times to get the blood flowing.
"Okay" She nodded and at the same time Ulf charged at Sif. Harry glanced at Atalanta and with a small smile they followed him. Weapons blades glowing in the sunlight as they clashed on the sandy surface of the arena.
Harry wiped sweat of his brow and looked at Sif who stood in the middle of the arena and seemed relaxed, as if she wasn't in the middle of the duel. He looked to the sides and saw Ulf get up from the ground, groaning and spitting blood from a cut lip. Atalanta seemed to be in a better shape than both of them, but he easily saw signs of fatigue visible on her, her breathing was ragged and she had s few small bruises.
"We need to get it done now." He said as he gripped hilt of his sword and tried to control his breathing.
"Easier said than done." Ulf said as he picked up his discarded axe and looked towards Sif. "She doesn't have a single scratch, while we are battered by her and she seems to be enjoying herself."
"She is certainly amused by our performance." Atalanta said, her voice soft and Harry could see that she was as tired as they were, she was just hiding it better. "We need to work together."
"Uh huh." Harry nodded as he glanced at Ulf "On three."
Son of Ullr didn't say a word, but Harry knew that he would join him and he counted in his mind those numbers, the moment he got to three he charged at Sif. With a corner of his eye he saw Ulf and Atalanta join him.
His eyes widened in surprise when he saw a stupid mistake done by Sif, she lowered her sword too much and exposed most of her neck. His sword flashed towards it, but he wasn't fast enough, he stopped move of his weapon when he saw Atalanta's knives touch back of Sif's neck.
"Do you surrender?" She asked
"I do." Sif said and pushed aside Atalanta's blade. "Nicely done all of you, you are free to go and do whatever you do. I would suggest that you get to know each other as you are going to train together from now on, at least with me."
They exchanged glanced with each other and Harry slowly nodded. "She is right, ya know?"
"Yes" Atalanta agreed
"How did you know that she was amused?" Harry asked as they walked into the Citadel
"I'm an empath, I can feel emotions of people to a degree, the stronger they are, the easier to read they are." She said and looked at Harry "I can tell you that you are curious and amused by something."
"Yeah" Harry nodded and looked at her "Since you are an Olympian, what are you doing here?"
Atalanta bit her lip and was silent for a moment, she finally looked at him and sighed. "It's a bit complicated, in short I'm a new ward of your grandfather to keep me out of reach of my grandmother, who hates me and tried to kill me."
"Grandmother?" Harry frowned and than his eyes widened "Since your father is Hercules, your grandmother is Hera."
"Yes" She grimaced and added with a smile "Also you are my cousin, third cousin if I remember the family tree correctly."
"That would be right." Ulf added and they looked at him, making him roll his eyes and sigh "In short, Harry your grandmother and her grandfather are cousins, so that makes you third cousins."
"Thank you." Harry dryly said and looked at Atalanta, he easily saw a pair of hunting knives on her belt. "No swords?" He arched an eyebrow
"Amazons mostly use bows and daggers." She explained as she fidgeted with one of them.
"Uh-oh" Ulf said cheerfully "Sif will love it."
"Yeah" Harry nodded with a smirk and looked at Atalanta "Small piece of advice, if Sif asks you to switch to swords, don't question her."
"Why?" She asked, her gaze switching between their faces.
"It's a long story." Harry drawled
"We have a lot of time and I'm not in hurry." Atalanta smiled, siting on one of the numerous stone benches that were scattered all over the Citadel.
"Okay" Harry nodded joining her "It will take me some time to tell it..."
o-0-o
Loki smiled when he saw Atalanta and Harry quietly talk, he didn't expect this to happen, but he also didn't mind it. "You have an interesting nephew." He heard someone say to his right.
He turned in that direction and came face to face with Athena. "Indeed dear cousin, as you have an interesting niece."
"Are you planning something for both of them?" Athena arched an eyebrow
"Plan for them?" He frowned "No, not yet, but I wouldn't mind them becoming friends. Also the fact that they are related is nothing to sneeze at."
"He is going to be introduced to the nobles during the feast that will be in a week time?"
"Indeed." He nodded "Winter Solstice celebrations, one of those events when you have all of the important people in one place."
"Friends and associates are only going to help him." She nodded and smoothed out her robe. "I will leave you as I have a meeting with your father."
"Of course, have fun negotiating the things you attempt to get out of him." He chuckled as he strolled forward towards his own chambers, celebrations were getting close and there were hundreds of delegations to be greeted.
o-0-o
"Did you find something?" Wanda asked as she looked at Strange who stepped out of a portal.
"I did." Strange nodded and looked at her "If you knew where to look, he wasn't that hard to find, it took me only a couple of guesses to figure out who took him from Private Drive."
"Who did this?"
"Is it that hard to figure out?" He asked and raised his hand the moment she started to gather her magic. "Let me explain first, will you?"
"Fine" She nodded
"It took me a bit of research, but I found that it was a doing of Asgard." He said and raised his hand to stop her "I spoke with Odin and we have an invitation to the Winter Solstice celebrations on Asgard. Which main purpose is to introduce their newest prince, Harald James Thorson to the nobles."
Wanda blinked few times and looked at Strange. "You are joking about it, right?"
"No, that's not a joke. James was Thor and now Asgard finally found their lost Prince."
"That's not a thing I expected to happen." She slowly said and looked towards the horizon. "I knew that James was a powerful wizard, but to be a Thunderer himself, that's something else." She was silent for a moment, inside of her mind were running thousands of thoughts, she was surprised, shocked and confused at the same time, as well as she felt some sort of fear, it was deep in her inside and buried under all of those emotions. She took a deep, calming breath and looked at Strange "So when is this feast and where?"
"On the day of Winter Solstice." Strange said "Where? On Asgard."
She nodded, summoned a portal in front of herself and stepped through it. She needed to plan several things and foremost she wanted to be alone for some time as her mind tried to organize itself.
o-0-o
Hrolf ducked under Harry's punch and laughed, he came to like that Prince of Asgard, he was a nice kid or at least behaved as such and he didn't mind spending time with him. He expected him to be stuck up or arrogant, but instead he found that he was more reasonable and while not humble, he was certainly not arrogant.
Harry flew forward as he lost his balance and Hrofl laughed even more. Harry looked silly as he almost crashed against the ground.
"How did you do it?" Harry asked as he regained his balance.
"Experience, you are good for your age, but I'm training for few more years." Hrolf shrugged off "So not much will surprise me, also think more and do less."
"Easier said than done." Son of Thor huffed, determination and stubbornness visible in his eyes.
"Keep trying." Hrolf chuckled and glanced at the sun "We have a lot of time as it won't get dark for a couple more hours, so we can spend a lot of time doing this."
Harry muttered something under his breath and after a moment once again fell into the opening stance of the classic martial arts style of Asgard. Hrolf's eyes followed his every move, he didn't want to get surprised by Harry, he rarely fought nicely and loved surprises.
He barely saw Harry's right hand shot forward and towards his face, he blocked that punch and watched out for the follow-up, they were usually done with both hands and he was right as moments later he was forced to block another strike coming towards his face.
"Not bad, not bad at all." He muttered to himself, teaching this runt some of more advanced techniques was going to be a fun thing.
o-0-o
Harry blinked few times and looked at the target placed at the end of the range, he pinched his nose to see if it wasn't an illusion and those twenty-four arrows in the bullseye were an illusion. He once again looked at the target and all of them were still there.
He turned towards Atalanta who was the one responsible for all of those arrows and was now lowering her composite bow after firing the last arrow. "How did you do it?" He finally asked.
"I'm an Amazon." She smirked "Archery is a thing that I'm supposed to excel at."
"But all of twenty-four arrows in the bullseye?"
"Practice." Sif said from the side, he could swear that he could hear some sort of amusement and maybe even sarcasm in her "If you were more focused on your own training maybe you would be able to have the same accuracy."
He ignored her remark, but his lip and grabbed his own bow, he notched the first arrow, looked towards his own target and carefully aimed, before drawing the bow and releasing the arrow. It flew threw the air and slammed into the middle of the target.
His next moves became mechanical as he pulled an arrow out of the quiver, notched it, fired and pulled the next one. Before he could blink, he emptied his whole quiver and he realized that he ran out of arrows the moment his hand couldn't reach for the next one. He placed his bow to his side and looked at Sif.
"Almost all arrows in the middle." She said "You could have done better, but still not bad."
He followed her gaze and saw that all of his arrows hit the target, but not all of them embedded in the middle of it. "It seems that I'm better in one thing than you are." Atalanta said
"Maybe in your dreams." He snorted and looked at Sif "So since we are done." He glanced at Ulf and saw that he was only halfway through his quiver of arrows "Or mostly done with archery, the next thing will be fencing?"
"Good that you asked." Sif smirked as she walked into the armory that was adjacent to the range where they were. Few minutes later she walked out of it carrying spear with dull, blunted tips. "For fencing you will wait for a while as this is one of things that you need to know."
"Spears?" He sighed and caught one thrown at him by her.
"Yes" She nodded "Weapon underestimated by many, while it can be used in a lot of situations, not to mention that your grandfather uses one."
"Gungnir." He muttered and took a better look at one that he was holding, it was a weapon that most likely saw hands of hundreds of users and dozens, if not hundreds of duels. Even with its age, it was in perfect condition.
"Yes and one day, you will be given it." She said "So you need to learn how to use it." She glanced at Atalanta "Follow me."
o-0-o
Jane looked at Harry with a smile on her lips, she was standing on the balcony of Thor's chambers and looked his son listen to what Loki was saying. She heard footsteps and turned to see who it was, she beamed when she saw that it was Thor. "Did you say something about him having issues with getting used to Asgard?"
Thor smiled, joined her and kissed her on the forehead. "I guess that you are right, yet he still surprises me."
"He is a nice kid." She said "Also he seems not to care about my presence, here on Asgard."
"Why would he care?" Thor frowned and she rolled her eyes.
"Men and lack of understanding for emotions." She muttered to herself and looked at Thor. "Because he could think that you try to replace Lily with me."
"No" Thor shook his head and paused for a moment "I don't plan on doing it, Lily was Lily and she is dead, I still love her, but she is dead."
"What about me?" She arched an eyebrow
"I love you." Thor softly said
"Good." She smiled and kissed him. "I also love you Thor Odinson." She whispered.
o-0-o
Harry sighed as he stood in front of the entrance into the massive Banquet Hall of the Citadel, he quite enjoyed being dressed in a more formal attire than he was normally used to. It consisted of dark brown loose breeches, red shirt with a rows of embroidery along the edges of it and at the shoulder area. To top it of he had comfortable leather shoes, narrow leather belt with a buckle shaped to resemble snarling head of a wolf, he had attached to it a small dagger, crimson red cloak that was short enough not to get tangled between his legs and the last, but not least a coronet. It was forged from a simple band of gold, in the center of it, just above the middle of his forehead, was placed a triskelion cut out of ruby and supported by two golden wolves.
"Relax" Thor quietly said as he placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry looked at his dad face to see warmth and understanding in his electric blue eyes "It's just a gathering of nobles and the most you need to do is to look good and exchange pleasantries, although most of them will be handled by your uncle."
"Well said." Loki nodded as he joined them. He was in his female form, he was wearing deep emerald green gown and simple golden jewelry. "It seems as a scary thing, but usually is much more enjoyable than it seems to be. Also I should be able to introduce you to some cousins and other relatives that you should know."
Harry's smiled at those words and nodded. "Let's do this." He firmly said
"Wait" Loki stopped him from walking forward, "Remember the rules, your father is supposed to come first with Jane, after that it's you and me." he explained and Harry nodded as he remembered one of many etiquette lessons that were almost beaten into his skull.
At the same time Thor and Jane stepped through the doors and herald on the other side announced their arrival. "His Royal Highness Prince Thor Odinson and Lady Jane Foster."
"Now" Loki lightly nudged Harry to follow him. Harry stepped through the doors leading into the Banquet Hall and looked around the room. It was a huge rectangular room, in one of longer sides there were sets dozens, if not hundreds of doors, allowing for a silent entrance or leave, as well as they were used by servants. On the other side of it, it was opened towards a terrace from which was visible Bifrost and Heimdall's Observatory, only thing keeping the wall from falling down was a colonnade ended with graceful arches.
At the shorter end of the room, on the other side from the entrance was a raised part of it, with a massive banners with golden triskelion on a red background hanging from them.
It was a cavernous chamber, filled with dozens of tables that could comfortably seat hundreds of guests and there was still a lot of space for servants to move between them, bringing new dishes and beverages.
"His Royal Highness Prince Harald James Thorson and Her Royal Highness Prince Loki Odinson." Herald announced and at the same time they walked into the room.
"Follow me, I want to introduce you to someone." Loki whispered to Harry, he nodded and followed his uncle/aunt through the crowd. He was curious what was their destination, as his uncle rarely was so mysterious. As they walked through the room, he could see that it was filled with representatives of various cultures, races and realms. He always knew that Asgard was a diverse realm, at least in terms of its population, but now he could see it with his own eyes.
"Remember to know what you say and how you do it." Loki said to him as they walked to a rather dark corner of the room.
"Uncle, you keep reminding me about it almost constantly." Harry grumbled as he felt some coldness creep up his spine. "There is someone hiding here." He said indicating space in front of them.
"Good eye, cousin dear. Not many can detect my presence so easily and I usually can stay hidden." Said woman that appeared in front of them, she was a tall, graceful woman with hairs black as night and skin white as milk, her eyes were in the colors of emeralds. She was wearing a long, green gown covered in rich embroidery, around her neck was a necklace made out of golden bones, if Harry was seeing them right.
"That would be my daughter, Hela." Loki said with a glance at Harry "Queen of Nilfheim, and one of my favorite children."
"Pleased to meet you." Harry lightly bowed his head and looked around for the sense of coldness and dread that he was feeling. "What's the reason of this cold I feel?"
"That would be me." Hela said "It's my aura that I surround myself with."
"And it usually keeps most of unwanted people away." Loki added with a sly smile and changed into his normal, male form.
"As if I had any need for it." She smiled and looked at Harry. "Listen to him and you should learn a lot today, just don't do anything foolish as I wouldn't like to lose my only first cousin so soon."
"Don't you trust in my abilities?" Loki sulked and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder and added quietly "Let's go, as there are few more people that I would like to introduce you to."
"Lead than" Harry said and followed his uncle lead, leaving Hela in the corner of the hall.
o-0-o
Thor walked through the crowd of nobles, ambassadors and hundreds of other guests, exchanging pleasantries when he saw two people in the crowd that he didn't expect to see on Asgard. Or at least their appearance was a huge surprise to him, as he was pushing his way towards them, his mind was trying to wrap itself around the fact that they were here.
"Hello Wanda." He said as he approached them.
Wanda jumped up and turned around, he could see mix of anger and surprise on her face. "Hello to you, James, we need to talk." She said slowly.
"Yes." He gulped and looked at her, she didn't change in any way since he had seen her more than few years ago. It also seemed that she had her explosive temper and an extremely short fuse. "I guess that you would like to talk about my son and your godson-"
"Isn't it obvious?" She cut him, her eyes burning with anger and barely contained rage. "He was taken from Earth and minds of his relatives wiped of memories of him. You didn't drop to tell me or anybody that you were planning to do it."
Thor winced as he heard her words. "We didn't have any other choice when we went down to take him to Asgard."
"Didn't have any choice? Really?" She snorted and looked at Thor "Was it that hard to send someone or come in person to tell me or Stephen what you did."
"I guess not." Thor admitted and looked at her "Are you done with all the shouting at me?"
She was silent for a moment, but than nodded. "For now, yes, but we're not done yet."
"Good." Thor smiled "If you want to meet Harry you will need to wait for a bit as he is somewhere in the crowd."
"How is he?"
"Quite good and already made a couple of friends. Also from what my brother told me, he is quite good with magic."
"Lily was powerful magically, so it is kind of expected for him to inherit at least some of her gift for magic." Strange added and looked at Thor "You want him to attend Hogwarts when he will be old enough for it?"
"Most likely, why do you ask?"
"Just to be sure." Strange said and looked at Thor. "You are aware that he has a good chance of developing mutant powers?"
"Yes" Thor nodded "Wings if I'm right, Warren Worthington II and Lily were cousins."
"He is going to be an extremely interesting person." Wanda said and looked at Thor. "I think that it will be better if I have an opportunity to meet him tomorrow, as if he has the same temper as Lily, he is going to have a tantrum."
Thor was silent as he thought about it for a moment and than nodded. "You are right, he also seems to be a bit of a hothead."
"He needed to inherit something from his father." Strange smiled and looked at Thor
"I'm not that bad." Thor laughed and glanced around the hall "I will leave you alone as other guests that demand my attention and will be greatly unhappy if I don't exchange some pleasantries with them."
"Go on." Wanda waved her hand and with a small smile, he walked into the crowd. This meeting was a thing that lifted a lot of weight from his chest and solved one problem before it truly arose, however it also reminded him about the issue with Sirius Black and the fact that he was stuck in Azkaban.
o-0-o
"If Hela is there." Loki muttered as he glanced at the darkest corner of the hall. "Than she should be somewhere here." He said as his gaze ran towards the brightest side of the room.
"Uncle, for whom you are looking?" Harry asked and Loki glanced at him.
"Someone that you should meet." He said and his gaze once again swept over the room, he smiled when he saw her.
It wasn't that hard to spot her, she was a tall, graceful person, she looked as if she owned this place. She had long, wavy chocolate hair and on top of them was placed a diadem that looked like a line of connected towers. She wore a simple red gown, tied with a thin belt, but even in such a simple clothes, it was obvious that she was a powerful and that angering her would be a stupid decision.
"Here she is." He muttered and strode forward, Harry following him. He stopped in front of her and bowed his head. "Good to see you, grandaunt."
She turned towards them, on her face was an image of serene calmness, her lips formed a small smile and in her hazel eyes were bright, warm fires. "Since when do you bow to the family, Loki?" She asked with amusement and extended her hand with a ring placed on the middle finger.
"I'm just showing you respect, that's all." Loki said as he bent to kiss her hand. "Also it's not everyday that you visit Asgard."
She smiled and her gaze moved onto Harry. "Can you be so kind to introduce him? I don't believe that I know him."
"Ah, yes." Loki nodded and looked at Harry, who seemed to be tense. "This is your grandaunt Rhea, Mother of the Olympians and Goddess of Cities." His gaze switched to Rhea "That would be son of Thor, Harald James Thorson."
"Come forward." She softly said to Harry, who glanced at him and after a subtle nod did this. "You resemble your father, quite a lot." She said looking at Harry and on her lips appeared a smile "Also even if my nephew didn't tell you, you have quite a potential when it comes to magic."
"And now I will need to make him realize that he isn't invincible." Loki sighed and for a moment he muted them out, instead being focused on the happenings inside of the hall. He wanted to introduce Harry to two for sure, even maybe three individuals before the feast would begin.
Even if his feelings about one of them were mixed at the best of times and usually were extremely bad, Harry needed to need that person. Loki took a deep breath, steeled himself and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "While I know that you would like to talk, we can't occupy one person time and there are few more that I would like to introduce you to."
Harry sighed and nodded. "To whom?"
"Two more nobles from Asgard and one person from Midgard." He whispered as they navigated through the crowd, while he tried to find ones to whom, he wanted to introduce Harry.
Finding the first one wasn't a huge problem, as he was standing out from the crowd as even for Asgard he was huge, as he stood well above seven feet, also color of his skin was different, it was ice blue.
"Frost Giant?" Harry asked, shock and surprise visible in his voice. Frost Giants or at least a good chunk of them wasn't liked on Asgard.
"My cousin, Utgarda-Loki." Loki explained "Also the most powerful one of chiefs that compete for control over Utgard."
"Indeed, cousin dear." Utgarda-Loki said as he turned towards them. As Harry looked at him, he had a feeling of looking at a glacier, calm and harmless, but when awoken, deadly and terrifying. "Don't be afraid of me."
Harry glanced at Loki who nodded. "Yes, he won't attack you unless provoked, so you have no reason to fear him."
"Why would he attack me?" Harry frowned
"I have no reason to attack you, but after what my uncle did." Utgarda-Loki said and frowned "After what my uncle did, Frost Giants aren't liked on Asgard and we are thought to be violent and temperamental."
"Oh" Harry nodded and frowned "So you are disliked because of what one of you did?"
"That would be right." Loki nodded and smiled at Harry. "It seems that my lessons on the basics of diplomacy got into your head."
"You are teaching him diplomacy?" Utgarda-Loki laughed "I saw something familiar in him, but until now it didn't make too much sense, now it makes a lot of it."
"Someone needed to do that and he is a bright student. Also I don't think that his father would be a better teacher than I am."
"No, I don't think so." Utgarda-Loki agreed with a smile and looked at Harry "What do you think about this gathering?"
"It seems interesting." Harry said after a moment
"It seems interesting for the first few times, after that you try not to fall asleep." Loki chuckled and looked at Utgarda-Loki "If you don't mind, cousin, I need to introduce my nephew to a couple more people."
"I don't mind." Utgarda-Loki nodded as he drifted into the crowd.
o-0-o
"How many more?" Harry sighed as he followed his uncle through the crowd.
"One." Loki smiled "I want to introduce you to the most important ones as the rest you will meet at a later time and now there is now need for it."
Harry released a sigh of relief and looked towards two people that were his uncle target. "They don't look like Æsir or any of immortals."
"Because they are humans." Loki smiled "Wizards to be exact and it would be a good idea for you to meet them."
"Okay" Harry nodded as they got closer to them, which allowed him to get a better look of them. One was a man and he was wearing a rather peculiar looking purple robe with hundreds of glittering silver and gold stars, he had an impressive beard and seemed quite old, as his hair were white. Second was a woman, she was wearing a more formal black robe.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall." Loki said in greeting
"Prince Loki" One named Dumbledore said and than his gaze landed on Harry "And that must be Prince Harald."
"Indeed" Loki smiled
"I was quite surprised by the invitation to this event." Dumbledore said
"I was one that helped to found Hogwarts, so it would be logical for me to invite you to the celebrations on Asgard." Loki replied with a sly smile "Also Harald is a reason."
"It will be an honor to teach a Prince of Asgard, your father, His Highness, was one of my favorite students." McGonagall said
"You knew my father?" Harry asked
"Indeed." McGonagall smiled "He was one of my favorite students and he was in my house, students at Hogwarts are divided into four groups and he was in mine."
"I think that it will be enough as there is someone else that you might want to speak." Loki said as he placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "One that you know and like."
Harry smiled and followed his uncle towards the terrace where he easily spotted Atalanta and she was accompanied by a tall woman in a simple gray dress, she seemed to be ageless. Her eyes were storm gray and hair were the color of freshly harvested wheat.
"Cousins" Loki nodded when they came to stop in front of Athena.
"Cousins" She repeated
"You can go and mind your own business." Loki said after a glance from Harry. "We will keep vultures away from you."
"Thank you, uncle." Harry nodded and followed Atalanta onto the terrace
o-0-o
"He is an interesting person." Athena said and Loki tilted his head. "I've watched him when he was studying or when he was with his friends and I expected to find another arrogant Prince, while he is more humble."
"He is certainly better than his father was when he was this young." Loki nodded and glared at one noble to keep him away. "Also he seems to be quite quickly making friends, not that I or my brother mind it."
"There is also his friendship with my niece." Athena added "That's not a thing I expected to see, she is usually stubborn and the Amazons usually dislike males."
"Indeed." Loki nodded "So you are here on a permanent basis or as a representative of your father for the feast?"
"More permanent as brother asked me to keep an eye on his daughter, even if she is a ward of your father, Hera isn't known for being reasonable or wise."
Loki winced and nodded. "That's true, I kind of hope that the two of them will be close friends."
Athena was silent for a moment. "I don't think that I would mind it, at least not too much."
"Thank you, dear cousin." Loki smiled and at the same time was heard the sound of horn calling them to the tables and from the doors set in the longer wall, erupted a steam of servants carrying various dishes and beverages.
o-0-o
Chancellor of Odin mastered hard art of seating noble guests without causing an issue, such as two sides of the feud seated nearby, or insulting guest by sitting him lower than one with lower standing than his. In the middle of the table were seated Odin and Frigga and from them to both sides were seated multiple guests. The most important ones were seated at the same table as they, while less important on lower tables and further away.
Harry was seated at the head table to his left he had his father and on the other side was sitting Atalanta, which was gleefully accepted by everybody interested in the seating as they at least knew each other and could talk during the feast.
Over the tables was moving steady stream of various meats prepared in all possible forms, freshly baked pies, breads, hundreds of vegetables, stews. As well as long stream of various beverages, it seemed as if this stream didn't have an end as servants were coming and going with even more of everything.
Harry thought that he got used to the a good food, but he was forced to change that opinion few times during the feast as dishes were even better than they were usually. Talks between one dish and another were mostly about casual or pleasant topics, so that they could just talk about something of no importance.
While the banquet lasted till the late hours of the night, Harry and other younger participants of it retreated earlier, or more correctly, were forced to retreat earlier, as tomorrow they would have lessons with their respective teachers and they needed sleep.
o-0-o
Dumbledore however didn't have as much time to get over the feast as on the next day he bad a meeting with two people that could have a huge impact on Hogwarts in the near future. Ones that nobody wanted to cross unless he was insane or knew what he was doing as many tried a similar thing and failed miserably, usually dead or at least imprisoned.
"Your Majesty, Your Grace." He politely said as he was ushered into one of the smaller and more private audience chambers of Asgard. He was only facing Odin and his wife Frigga, not even guards inside of the room. Yet he was sure, that outside were standing dozens of guards and even those two would defeat him easily. But it was also a sign that they trusted him and were willing to talk seriously, without courtiers hearing every single word.
"Headmaster." Replied Odin "We hope that our hospitality was up to your expectations."
"It was, thank you for inviting me for your Yule celebrations."
"It was nothing." Smoothly replied Frigga "We heard that you did a lot of good for Midgard and that you taught mother of our grandson Harald. We are merely curious about you and if you will be a worthy teacher of our grandson and Prince of Asgard."
"I can assure you that I provide the best possible magical education on Midgard for ones needing wands and I will provide the same for your grandson. However his birth won't give him any special treatment as I make sure that every student is equal."
"Very well." Nodded Frigga "Than what about wrong treatment of so called 'Mudblood' by certain groups of your students."
"I try to fight with it and I punish those that use those words."
"We will trust you, but we might withdraw our trust in you if we will hear that those words will be used in relations to our grandson or his friends." Said Odin after a moment of thought and sip of mead from his goblet.
"I understand and fully accept those rules." Nodded Dumbledore, while he internally winced as it could mean troubles.
"Due to importance of our grandson to the realm and to the family we will send with his some sort of guard, one that will be decided when he will be ready to go to Hogwarts." Continued Odin "He is future heir to the Throne of the Wolf and as such he and his well-being is of grave importance to us."
"Of course, Prince Loki discussed it with me and than I said that I won't have a single problem with it. I keep my earlier statement, but I would like to be warned about what will be his guard detail so suitable arrangements could be made."
"I think we can agree to that." Nodded Frigga after a glance at Odin "Also as a sign of goodwill we will allow you to access our archives, but under supervision, you can take copy of whatever you will find interesting."
"Thank you, Your Grace, may I observe lessons of your grandson, Prince Harald?" Said Dumbledore as he wanted to see how strong he was, as well as to gauge his personality.
"As long as you will be merely watching them, but do not interfering I think we can agree to that." Nodded Frigga, at the same time doors leading into the chamber were opened, through them slipped in short man with brown hairs and long brown braided beard "You will be his teacher in the near future and you should know something about him, Bragi will take you to the archives and to the place where Harald will have lessons, you can stay in Asgard as long as you wish to stay."
"Thank you, Your Grace." Repeated himself Dumbledore as he once again bowed to the rulers of Asgard.
o-0-o
"You are ready to meet him?" Thor asked Wanda as they walked through the Citadel. She was impressed by the change in James or Thor, when she knew him, he was a reckless, rash and foolhardy, now he seemed to be more focused, more mature and maybe even more patient.
"Yes" She nodded "I tried to protect him from Dursley's and I'm supposed to be his godmother, not that he knows that I'm her." She paused and her brows furrowed as she looked at Thor. "Speaking about his relatives, what about Warren Worthington and his godfather, Sirius?"
"With Warren I don't have the slightest idea how to deal with him." Thor said and paused "Sirius, though, his issues is going to be solved rather soonish."
"Does it include blowing up Azkaban or a part of it?" She asked with an impish smile
Thor shuddered and slowly nodded "Yes, it does, you want to join us?"
"Don't you already know the answer?" She asked, smirk on her face.
Thor sighed and she could see a lot of mixed emotions on his face. "I know and I fear that there won't be anything left from Azkaban."
"I will control myself." She said as they entered a room where Loki was teaching magic to Harry, who was yet unaware of their presence. In the room there were also two massive wolves that seemed to be asleep, but she could tell that they were aware of their surroundings and watched over Harry. She stopped to take a better look at him and easily saw how much he grew up since she briefly saw him over a year ago. But it was not the fact that he grew up that got her attention, it was how much he changed since that time.
The last time she saw him, he was a scrawny kid, that was afraid even of his own shadow, here was a kid in whom she could see some arrogance and that was certainly much healthier looking than one that she remembered. "He has changed." She whispered to Thor
"Aye, he did." Thor agreed, she could feel a hint or two of pride in his voice.
She let Loki finish explaining what he was explaining and cleared her throat to get their attention, the moment she did this, both of them looked at her. She could see curiosity and something else, hard to describe, in Harry's eyes, while Loki only bowed his head and smiled.
"Wanda Maximoff" He said with a mock bow "What a pleasant surprise."
"You should know why I am here." She said and her gaze slipped to Harry who seemed unsure of what was going on. "Harry, you may or may not remember me, but I'm your godmother."
"I'll leave you." Loki said slipping out of the room, she nodded in thanks and walked forward towards Harry. Who seemed to be somehow frozen in the middle of the room, as if he had troubles believing it was true.
"I have a godmother?" He finally asked as his gaze landed on her and she could see it land on Thor.
"You have, Prongslet." She chuckled as he sat down on the floor in front of him. It allowed to take her a better look of him and all of her earlier suspicions were confirmed, he changed in a good way.
"Prongslet?" Harry frowned.
"Didn't dad tell you about his nickname when he was on Earth?" She asked and glanced at Thor.
"I didn't have time to do it." Thor said as he joined her "So if you want, you can explain it to him."
"In short his shape-shifter or animagus form was a stag and by his friends he was called Prongs, so they decided to call you Prongslet." She explained "I also like it and that's why I used it."
"Prongslet." Harry softly repeated and smiled. "It sounds nice."
"Good." She nodded and looked at him, preparing for a tantrum to come. "I would see you soon, but I couldn't." She softly said
"Why, why you couldn't?' He asked, his eyes dangerously narrowed.
"My enemies." She said and looked at him "I'm an apprentice of Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, it gives me a lot of enemies and I have my personal enemies. If they knew that I was seeing you, they would attack you, just to hurt me."
He was silent for a moment, he saw him tense and than took a deep breath as all of his muscles visibly relaxed. "I understand." He said quietly and let out his breath.
"Thank you, while I won't promise that I will be here often." She said and looked at Thor "I will try to see you once in a while. Also I have something that you may like."
Harry looked at her, curiosity in his eyes. She smiled and snapped her fingers, causing a large cage to appear in her right hand. Inside of it was proudly perched a large golden eagle, it looked around curiously and bowed its head to Harry. "Is he mine?"
"Yes" She smiled "Wizards on Earth use owls as a main means of carrying messages and I thought that an eagle would be a better gift than some sort of owl."
"He would also need a name." Thor added "They are usually really intelligent birds and can help in a lot of situations."
Harry frowned, she could see him thinking over it, if she was going to guess, he would choose a name from Norse myths. "What about Hábrók?" He asked and eagle bobbed his head. "Seems that it's settled." Harry smiled and opened doors of the cage. Eagle flew out of it and headed for the open window.
"He will find himself a nest and be around." She said, seeing questions visible on his face. "Most likely somewhere high and remote."
"At Hogwarts they have an owlery so he is going to stay there when you will be at Hogwarts." Thor added and glanced at Wanda. "Lunch will be in I believe three or so hours, so you can occupy as much of his time as you want. After that he will have lessons with Sif, who is showing him and a couple of his friends how to use weapons."
"Uh-huh" She nodded and looked at Thor "You can go, unless you want to hear me tell him about some of your more embarrassing adventures from Hogwarts."
"No" Thor said as his cheeks flushed. She smiled when she saw him also run for the doors. She could see some amusement in Harry's eyes and heard him laugh, it seemed that he didn't see his dad being so easily scared of something.
o-0-o
Dumbledore stood on the terrace overlooking training fields and watched as Harry and several Æsir from his age group train a under watchful gaze of Sif, Goddess of War and from the looks of it one of their tutors.
"Impressive sight, isn't it?" He heard someone ask and when he turned, he came face to face with Loki.
"Aren't they too young for such training?"
"Weren't knights or members of their families starting their education at a similar age." Loki countered
"Point taken." Dumbledore nodded, a bit sour, for him training ones so young how to use weapons wasn't a good thing. "I'm watching it mainly to see how he will behave at Hogwarts and he is an interesting one."
"He is my nephew, so he is supposed to be interesting." Loki smirked and joined him at the railing "But you are also right, he is stubborn and convincing him sometimes is a challenge, I'm teaching him magic and he seems to have a powerful one."
"I see." Dumbledore said "I'm aware of the fact that Æsir are stronger than an average human is, so how much he will differ from his peers at Hogwarts."
Loki was silent for a moment. "I would say that quite a lot, he most likely is going to be taller, more bulky, brighter, more magically powerful and a lot stronger than humans are. Also he will have ethereal beauty of immortal beings, it didn't yet show in him, but it will in the next couple of years."
Dumbledore nodded, making a note to be prepared for large expenses for maintenance and repairs. "I must say that you have an excellent archives, I wanted to check on few things and I didn't expect to find so many lost things inside of them."
Loki smirked "My father and I might have a hand in it, he rescued everything from the Library of Alexandria and I did the same to one in Constantinople. Some of their texts were worth saving and the knowledge is power."
Dumbledore nodded and turned to watch Harry and his friends train, he could see that there was an extremely strong feeling of competition and rivalry between them, however he also could see a strong camaraderie between them. It looked like Hogwarts would need to prepare for the arrival of a Prince of Asgard or it could have rather unpleasant effects.