A/N - Next chapter, this part of the story is going to be slow, but after it, the speed should increase. I can't believe how far this story has gotten - 701 favs, 878 follows, 226 reviews and it is in 26 communities. As always read and review.
o-0-o
Harry grunted from exertion as he summoned another bolt of lightning and sent it flying towards the nearest tree. Sweat was pouring down his brow and he was panting heavily as he tried to summon yet another one, his uncle didn't know the word mercy when it came to training magic.
"Not bad," Loki smiled, he was standing away and behind a powerful shield, just in case Harry wasn't able to direct lightning away from him. "Few hundred years of training more and you might be on the level of your father."
"Doesn't Mjolnir helps him with summoning lightning?"
"It does, but also you didn't develop your powers, so you are only using magic to make those lightnings, not an actual ability to control them," Loki said and walked to Harry. "For today it will be enough, you did what I wanted you to do and even more."
"And I burned most of my energy," Harry said, sitting down and looking at the charred stumps of nearby trees. "And blew up a good number of trees."
"Trees," Loki said and Harry nodded. "I will fix them." Loki snapped his fingers and stumps of trees were gone and in their place were fully mature trees, that didn't seem to be even in the slightest affected by the things that had just happened. It looked as if the time was reversed to the moment before Harry started to throw around bolts of energy.
"If you just could fix my issues with a lack of energy like that," Harry sighed getting up and stretching his pained muscles that wanted to scream in protest, "As now I want to eat, drink and sleep at the same time."
"Happens," Loki said and with a snap of his fingers, they were back at the spot from which they appeared in the forest. "Get rest and try to practice what I showed you today."
"Uncle, when you will be back?"
"In a couple of days," Loki smiled. "While teaching you is a thing that I enjoy, you also need to learn other things and I have many more duties to attend to. Some of them more, much more important than teaching you is."
Harry nodded and watched as his uncle disappeared in another of his trademark vortex of energy. He stood there, watching the empty spot in space for a couple of seconds, thinking what to do. It was cut short by the grumbling of his stomach that decided what he needed to do, sighing he walked to the canteen to grab something to eat.
o-0-o
Lucius Malfoy sat in his office, frowning, his Master was nowhere to be seen and any way to kill Boy-Who-Lived was out of his reach. No, there is a way to get to him, he thought as he looked at a ring with H out of diamonds set on a golden band.
"James Potter was a member of the club," he said to himself "So it is safe to be assumed that his son is also treated as a member of the club," He smiled nastily as he realized how easy it was going to be. Members of the club were known to plot against each other and some of them turned violent, really violent and some ended as open assassinations.
Now he just needed to find a somewhat competent mercenary or assassin to do the job, which wasn't going to be easy. He knew that someone in the highest echelons of the club was leaking data, but he didn't know who, which meant that he needed to be careful, even extremely careful in using club's resources. As that could be his downfall, he managed to learn that James was Thor, he also knew that he was working with the Avengers and through that with SHIELD.
SHIELD was a name that he didn't dare to speak, he hated it, organization that stood behind it and it's leader. Fury was a man that he grudgingly respected, but he also hated him, for being so deviously clever and ruthless as well as for destroying his first wand and making him limp on his leg.
He wasn't afraid of them, but he was forced to respect them, they had sources everywhere and he wouldn't have been surprised if they had some in the Ministry and the Hellfire Club. But SHIELD was far away, the bigger problem, at least for the moment was closer to him, its name was MI-13 and it's Director Peter Wisdom.
Wisdom was an enigma, with each question answered, two more appeared and Lucius hated that feeling when the smallest glimpse of information learned by him or his agents caused more questions to appear. Only two things that he for sure knew about Wisdom were that he was deadly, one of his agents saw Wisdom hunt down one of werewolves and kill the beast without a single problem, and that Wisdom was hated by the Ministry.
Ministry's hatred for Wisdom was partially Lucius doing, he spent years and a lot of money undermining position that MI-13 had and now it was going to pay off. They would be able to stop Wisdom's attempts to search his mansion and other estates, but also he could use them for some wetwork, one that he didn't want to get tied to him.
He pushed those musings aside and instead summoned himself a sheet of parchment and a set of his golden writing utensils. He needed to write a couple of letters and make sure that beginnings of the plot were put into motion.
o-0-o
Harry was a bit on edge when he was asked to come to Professor X office, he came to like and respect the principal of the Institute, but there was something weird in this summon. He knew that he didn't do anything bad or wrong, so he was curious what was the reason.
He walked to it and saw that he wasn't the only one as it seemed that Kitty and Rogue were also asked to come. "Any idea what he or they want from us?"
"Not the slightest," Kitty said "Though Warren said that we are going to enjoy it."
"Sense of humor of my cousin is an interesting one," he sighed and looked at them. "You didn't yet learn it?"
"I try to ignore it as much as possible."
"Well, there's that approach," he said and looked at silent so far Rogue. "What about you?"
"I don't have an idea, but it shouldn't be anything bad, we were after all asked to come to his office, not ordered or dragged there," she said and sighed "They could be less mysterious about it."
"Well, let's see what they want," he said as he opened the doors and stepped inside. He saw Professor X, Storm and Cyclops inside of it, waiting for them.
"Good that you are here," Professor said. "I've summoned you here because of a thing that will happen in a week time. A couple of students from Hogwarts will arrive here as a part of student exchange programme that I and Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts initiated."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Rogue asked, Harry could tell that she was not that happy with how the things were going.
"I want you to be their guides," Professor said "You are from different teams and ones that don't have too many duties in them."
"We understand," they chorused
"But why we, not someone else from the teams?" Harry asked "I can see a point why me, but why the girls?" He felt Kitty's glare and looked at her. "It's not that I have anything against you, I'm just curious."
"You are the least I would say scary and the most easy-going out of the whole X-Men roster, or at least you won't scare them as much as some other people." Scott said, his ruby glasses gleaming. "So we think that you are the best choice for this."
"If you say so," Harry said. "Can we leave?"
"You can," Storm said. "Black Eagle, I want to meet you on the afternoon of the day after tomorrow on the roof of the Institute."
"Of course," he nodded and followed the girls out of the room. He leaned against the wall there and slowly exhaled, "Why does everything needs to happen to me?"
"What do you mean?" Rogue asked as she looked at him. "Don't you have everything you want or need?"
"In a way, yes," he said and sighed. "But I was supposed to attend this school to escape from all the events that constantly happen on Asgard and its noise."
"Weren't you told that boring and quiet aren't the adjectives that can be used to describe this place?" Kitty asked. "The best two that you could use are exciting and loud."
"I noticed that," he dryly said and sighed. "At least it's not as bad as I thought it would be and I start to like it."
"So can you stop being so gloomy?"
"I will try," he said and sighed. "It's just that I want to relax and rest, not be a babysitter to some wizards."
"It won't be that bad," she said and added with a smile. "We might play a round or two of powerball to forget about it."
"Powerball? " he asked as he looked at them, excitement and curiosity visible in his voice.
"You will see," Rogue smiled. "It's a fun game, one that you should enjoy and have a lot of fun with it."
"Meet us at the entrance to the gym," Kitty said with a smile that didn't bode too well.
o-0-o
Harry could see that he wasn't the only one eager to play it as he could see most of the both teams of X-Men and from the training one as well. "The rules are simple." Bobby said as he looked at Harry, he was holding a ball in his hand. "You can do everything that is allowed in normal volleyball, but with our powers. However do not target people when playing the ball as it can be a bit dangerous."
"Okay," Harry nodded. "I think that I understand it." He slipped off his hand his bracelets, they were simple bands of steel inscribed with rows, upon rows of runes. He placed them on the ground and threw onto them his hoodie, stretching his arms he walked to Bobby.
"I see that you are ready," Bobby smiled.
"Yup," he grinned as he took a look around. He could see that all of them were eager to play and were done with warm-up.
"Want to start?" Bobby asked throwing him a ball.
"Sure," he grinned as he grabbed the ball and walked to the end of the court to serve the ball. As he stood there and watched the whole court. He could see that Warren gulped and over the face of Rahne flickered some fear as he jumped into the air and threw the ball up. His hand slammed into it with a loud clash that sounded like a thunder, it flew over the net and towards the other side of the court where everybody dodged as it flew past them, it slammed into the floor and flew towards the wall without slowing down too much, where it crashed into it with a loud noise.
"The hell was that?" Warren asked. "Did you try to kill us?"
"No," he smiled sheepishly. "I've got a bit carried away."
"You won't be serving." Bobby said as he looked at him. "Or the next time the wall might not survive." He indicated a spot where the wall was cracked a bit and some paint fell onto the floor.
"O-Okay," Harry stuttered, shocked by the amount of damage he caused. He knew that he was strong, but not that strong and he never expected to cause such amounts of damage.
"It happens," Bobby said as he reassuringly patted his shoulder.
"I guess," Harry said as he took position close to the net and waited for someone else to serve the ball. On his face was a smile as he saw a ball being sent over the net and Angel play it, his muscles tensed as he prepared for one of them to try to make an attack. As he jumped into the air he could feel as good as he rarely felt, all of his tensions and tiredness were gone. He could be truly himself, not a person that he was forced to be when on Asgard.
o-0-o
"That wasn't the worst game that I ever played," Harry smiled as they sat several minutes later sprawled over various couches and armchairs. He sipped half of his Coke and looked at Warren. "Although the next time we are playing it we need to do that outside."
"So that you can take a pleasure of breaking every single bone in our bodies?" Warren asked with an arched eyebrow.
"I'm not that bad," Harry smiled. "So I don't know what are you talking about."
"Really?" Bobby chimed in and Harry glared at him, but Bobby didn't crumble. "Some of those balls were easily able to break bones and outside they will cause even more mayhem."
"So?" Harry arched an eyebrow.
"Not everybody is invincible and not everybody is able to survive such a ball." Bobby quietly explained and Harry looked in his direction. Curious where his friend was going with what he was saying. "What I mean is while some of us have some level of superstrength, not everybody has body that will survive a mountain crash onto it. You are an exception to this rule as you seem to be made out of steel."
Harry was silent for a long moment as he mulled over those words as looked at the warm glow of the fire that was happily roaring in the fireplace. Crackling of it was the only sound other than beating of his own heart that he heard. He finally averted his gaze from the flames and looked at Bobby. "You are right," Harry quietly said. "It's just that I'm used to most of my friends being able to survive such things."
"But not everybody will survive it," Jean Grey said as she approached them, her long red hairs falling down her back in waves. They seemed to be even redder when she got close to the fire and hecould see some flicker of understanding for him and how he felt in her eyes. "You need to adapt to that idea and get used to it, I know that with the great power comes a great thirst to use it, but you need to control it."
"You know?" he arched an eyebrow.
"Harry," Warren quietly said and Harry could easily feel subtle warning in his voice, drop that topic and do it as soon as possible.
"What?" Harry asked as he looked at his older cousin. Some challenge visible in Harry's eyes, he hated being told what to do and what not to do.
"That's not the best topic for now, you-," Warren said.
"He needs to know," Jean said as she interrupted Warren and glanced at him, Harry was surprised when his cousin crumbled under her gaze. Harry was used to seeing Warren shrug off gazes as if they were nothing, yet here he was afraid of her.
No, Harry frowned, he isn't afraid of her, it's more that he has some or a lot of respect for her. And there is this fact that she is his girlfriend.
"I thought that you weren't willing to tell who you truly are," Warren said.
"I wasn't willing, but it has changed," Jean agreed with him, Harry could see that there was something going on between the two of them. If he was right about it, they were dating, heck, he was going to bet on the fact that they were dating. He knew from Bobby that the two of them was supposed to be dating each other, but he didn't see it yet. Now it was so obvious that hard to miss.
He closed for a moment his eyes, focusing on his Sight, when he once again opened them he saw everything as it truly was, without a single veil placed in front of them. When he saw Jean he focused on the inside of her and spotted a roaring inferno of fiery power, the moment he focused on it, the force formed an image of a large, golden bird with a widely spread wings and power coming of it in waves, upon waves. "You are a Phoenix," he simply said and at the same time Warren's, Bobby's and Jean's eyes widened.
"How?" Warren asked.
Harry shook his head, closed his eyes and the moment he once again opened them he looked at Warren. "Sight, ability to see through every single veil and layer of mist that is in front of your eyes, that is how on Earth it is called."
"How is it called on Asgard, than?" Warren frowned.
"Third Eye," Harry explained and looked at Jean. "No wonders you know about power."
"Yes," she nodded and looked at him. "I will help you with it, I know how it feels, so I can help you with learning how to fine tune it."
"Thank you," he softly said. "It means a lot to me."
"No problem, Eaglet." She laughed.
"Eaglet?" Bobby laughed. "Out of all possible nicknames I didn't think about this one for him."
"I like it." Warren smiled.
"If you want to use Black Wolf," Harry said and looked at them. "Okay?"
"Eaglet sounds much better than Black Wolf," Jean protested as she sat down in one of free seats. "What do you want from it?"
"Maybe I don't want it to be used?"
"How many times I need to tell ya, that I will use it just to annoy you?" Warren laughed and Harry slumped, he had forgotten how annoying Warren could be.
"Point taken," he sighed and after a moment looked at Jean. "So how are you going to help me with it?"
"Can you meet me tomorrow once the classes are over?" Jean asked.
"Not today?" he asked, his emerald eyes glowing softly with excitement and happiness.
"You are exhausted," she pointed out. "So no and I do not want to drag you back to your room."
"Fine," he nodded and looked at Bobby, "Fancy a game?" He asked, indicating Playstation.
"Why not." Brazilian teen nodded as they reached out for controllers.
o-0-o
On the following day the moment the classes ended Harry walked into the part of the mansion reserved for X-Men and into one of smaller training rooms inside of it. He sat down on a bench and waited for her. He was kind of curious about what she would show him as he have never suspected her of being so strong due to the fact of being a Phoenix. He should have figured that out when he heard her nickname, yet he didn't do it.
After all Phoenix was one of those beings that he was taught about when on Asgard and he knew that it loved to take on human hosts. So she was kind of an obvious choice and that nickname was telling a lot about who she was, yet he was blind and didn't see it.
Now everything made perfect sense for him, he was brought out of his musings when he heard footsteps echo through the corridor, he glanced in their direction and saw Jean walk to him. "Eager to learn?"
"Kind of," he said and sighed. "Normally I don't have such issues with control of my strength and I can choose how much I want to use. But it seems that magic that my uncle showed me, caused them it to awry,"
"Not only you," she nodded and he glanced at her. "I also have similar issues with control as you have and it is a matter of training and reining you emotions. Training with your uncle might just caused them to become more powerful and the control you had went out of the window."
"Training?" he snorted. "How is it supposed to help me?" If he knew what was about to happen, he would keep his mouth shut and wouldn't mutter a thing.
She only looked at him and he was slammed against the wall, his hands spread to the sides and without any ability to move. She walked to him and he could see mischievous fires in her eyes. "If I did it too strong I could crush you, too weak, I wouldn't send you to the wall. Do you see what I want to show you?"
"Yes," he managed to say as she released him and he fell onto the ground, breathing heavily. Even if physically he wasn't injured, his pride was trashed.
"Also meditation helps with it," she added and he stood up. "So for the next couple of hours I will help you fine tune your control and maybe I will teach you some meditation."
"Okay," he nodded as he followed her to the center of the room and sat down on the floor.
"While telekinesis is a thing completely different than your superstength," she said and he nodded. "There is the same principle, you need to choose force to the thing you try to lift or pick up. Too much and it will get crushed, not enough and it won't get crushed and you might not lift it of the ground."
"Yeah," he nodded and saw her throw in his direction a small ball, it shone brightly as it flew through the air. He easily snatched it and looked at it, it looked as if made from metal.
"Try to squeeze it harder," she said and he looked at her, making her roll her eyes in amusement, "Just do it, it's nothing bad or nasty."
"If you say so," he muttered as his fingers closed around the ball, slowly increasing amount of force that worked on it.
"Enough!" Jean said the moment the ball started to creak and deform. He opened his hand and on the surface of the ball there were imprints left by his fingers. "I wanted to see how much force you need to squeeze it, by the looks of it not a lot."
"What's the point of it?"
"So that you know where is the point where you start to cause damage," she said and briefly smiled "This ball has almost the same hardness as your average bone has, bones are slightly more elastic, but they would start to break around the same level as this did."
"So what now?"
"Learning how strong you can squeeze something so that you won't damage it," she said and smiled "It does sound terrible, but if you have fine control of your body and mind you should do it relatively easy."
He glumly nodded and focused on the ball, his fingers slowly squeezed it as he tried to see where was the point where it was going to break. It was going to be a long day as it seemed neither easy nor pleasant. Pushing those thoughts aside he focused on the task at hand, wondering how he could get it done.
o-0-o
Maria Hill looked at the photo of the valley where Durmstrang was located and tried not to smirk, she was right about the thing that was hidden there. She just didn't know that she was that lucky, this thing gave her more breathing room than she previously had and was a powerful lever if used properly.
Now she just only needed to get all other targets tracked down and located so that she could make a move against all of them at the same time. At the same time her gaze darted to the name Moscow that was written on the map, if Natasha's mission was going to be successful, she was going to have all the data or at least most of it, if she was not going to succeed in obtaining it, it was going to be a minor problem. Minor problem, but one that was going to hold her back a couple of weeks.
o-0-o
Natasha schooled her features as she walked out of the airport, everybody here could be a spy or agent working for one of hundreds of organizations. She corrected hat that casted a shadow onto her eyes and swept her eyes over the crowd, trying to spot less obvious agents. She tried not to roll them when she saw two agents that were hiding so badly that it was amusing for her, she slung her bag over the shoulder and called the nearest cab that lined the road.
She wanted to blend with the crowd and this was the best and fastest way of doing so, she was a native born Russian, so she had a huge advantage over most of spies that were attempting to get into this country. But even she needed to be careful.
"Take me to the Lubyanka Square," she said in perfect Russian, when she opened the doors of one that stopped for her. Driver looked at her for a moment, but nodded, it was a strange destination, not many traveled there unless they were working for intelligence or government.
She watched the streets as the cab rode to the center of Moscow, it was so long since she was for the last time here and so many things changed. She payed the driver generously and stepped out of the cab, she stood there for a moment, gaze of her eyes swiping over the landscape of the city.
She was silent for a moment, before she finally shake away those thoughts and walked to the large yellow neo-baroque building. It was Lubyanka Building, feared by many headquarters of KGB and Red Room and recently of FSS, one of many shards of once mighty KGB. The fall of the Soviet Union changed a lot of things and one of them was fall of KGB which fell apart and spawned a dozen or so of various agencies. She only hoped that her past friends still remembered her and were still in position of power as otherwise she could end up in prison.
She pulled out her old ID card and showed it to the guard that was standing in the lobby, he glanced at it, later at her and once more at the photo she had in her ID card. She could see a moment of uncertainty flicker across his face, but he nodded and waved her in.
With a small smile on her lips she walked in, it seemed that she was still remembered by them, she only needed to find her way to one of her friends. Friends that would provide her with all data she needed to aquire for Director Hill.
o-0-o
Freyr gripped reins of his horse as he and a large group of hunters and warriors stepped through Bifrost, they were accompanied by several dozens of wolves and hounds. He heard their howls and barks of excitement as they felt the time for hunt.
He was the first one to step out of Bifrost on the surface of Midgard, he looked around and saw a grim forest surround the spot where they landed. He could feel the stench of death linger in the air, he jumped into the saddle of his horse and placed helmet on his head.
"He is close," Hrimhari said as he walked to him "I and wolves can feel him."
"Heimdall?" Freyr asked looking at the sky that was mostly covered by a thick layer of leaves and branches, that was not letting through a lot of light.
"His Highness is right, he is close," Heimdall said in his mind. "He doesn't know that you are coming for him and he is an elusive one. I know where he is, but this is as close as I was able to get you to him. From now on you need to hunt on your own."
Freyr nodded and looked at Hrimhari. "Lead us, we will follow you and the wolves."
"Of course, Your Highness," Hrimhari nodded changing into a wolf and disappearing into the forest, wolves and hounds following him. Their howls low and piercing through the air.
Freyr allowed them to get few meters ahead of him before he blew his horn and spurred his horse into gallop, guards and hunters spread into a line to his sides. As they raced through the forest, his eyes were focused on the wolves that were running in front of them and were looking for their target.
He must be somewhere here, he thought as his eyes were swiping over trees and hundreds of small nooks and crannies that could have been used by wraith to hide. He was allowing the horse to keep running without him steering it, it was trained to do it and so far it didn't fail him.
o-0-o
Voldemort was hovering above the ground when he heard howls and barks that sounded foreign to ones that he usually heard. He looked in the direction from where they were coming and he saw massive black wolf, accompanied by dozens of snow white wolves that were running towards him with fangs bared.
A lump of ice appeared in his stomach or what used to be his stomach and he started to run, gathering energy to perform some magic. He didn't recognize them, but the way they were running told him that they were hunting him and nothing would stop them. Also there were two things that told him to run as fast as his legs could carry him, one, black one wasn't a normal wolf, if he had to guess, he would say he was a shape-shifter, and two, behind them he felt an extremely powerful wizard.
He flew through the trees and had only a moment of warning when a massive wolf almost tore him apart, its jaws missing him only by millimeters. He paled when he looked back and saw that hunters were getting closer, as they rode through the forest they looked like ethereal beings – tall, beautiful, glowing with power, dressed in golden armor.
He used all the magic that he had to apparate out of this forest and somewhere far away, he didn't care where he landed, he just wanted to be away from them and their wolves. Wolves that somehow were able to see him, suggesting that they weren't from this world.
o-0-o
Freyr saw a flash of light in front of him and stopped his horse, if his sight was right it was some crude form of teleportation. He looked around, his eyes scanning the forest for any signs of the wraith. "Hrimhari! Where is he?"
"Gone," Leader of Wolf People said as he trotted to Freyr's horse, "We almost had him when he disappeared out of the forest."
"Heimdall?" Freyr asked, shouting at the sky, "Can you find him?"
"At once, Your Highness," Heimdall said, he could tell that he was as unhappy as the rest of them was. "He somehow managed to get to Hogwarts, place of one of our battles with Frost Giants, be careful Your Highness, ghosts of the slayed are still in the area and they are hungry."
Freyr nodded, muttered a curse and looked at his warriors. "Gather around me, I will use magic to get us to the place where he is. Be careful as there are spirits of Frost Giants and other enemies of Asgard." He waited for warriors and wolves to make a circle around him before he started to say incantations for one of the most powerful spells used for teleportation. There was a flash of extremely bright light and they were gone from the forest.
o-0-o
Loki smiled as he walked onto the balcony of the Avengers Tower and saw Thor there, he wanted to speak with his brother, preferably alone.
"Where were you?" Thor asked when he spotted him approach him.
"Teaching your son how to use some of battle magic and how to change shape, at least into an animal form," Loki said and came to stop to the side of his brother. "You know that he has your gift for controlling storms and electricity, as well as strength?"
"I suspected that he will develop them," Thor said and looked at Loki. "How sure are you of it?"
"As sure as I can be, I helped him by making a storm above him, but other than that, he is able to summon and control bolts of electricity and does it quite easily," Loki smiled slyly and looked at Thor. "Also his animal form is one that I didn't expect to see, at least not with him."
"Oh?"
"Ice Wolf of Jotunheim, he is still a pup of it, but we both know how dangerous they are even as pups," Loki said and frowned. "I wonder if that is not because of his bond with our father wolves."
"You were one that was better in magic than I was," Thor said as above them rumbled a thunder. "At least in the theory of magic and creation of new spells."
"It's nothing to worry about as it will be a thing that will help him more than it will hurt him," Loki said and looked at the clouded sky. "Though he might hate me for accidentally unlocking full potential of his strength, as his bracelets will be insufficient in controlling it."
"Even if it is important, I guess it's not the only reason why you decided to talk with me," Thor said and looked at him. "You are worried by something that relates to him and don't know how to put it in words so that it will be less dangerous than it is."
"I'm known as Silvertongue, don't underestimate me," Loki chuckled, but as quickly as the chuckle appear it also disappeared with the same speed. "There is something that troubles me and is about him, even two things. One of them I will need to check in the books and scrolls that we have on Asgard, but second is more troubling, though not yet and it's a murky thing."
Thor growled and at the same time above the tower passed another rumble of a thunder. "Can you stop beating around the bush and tell me what's the problem?"
"Them, They are starting to play another game with us and it seems that they decided to choose Harry as Their target, though the dream he was shown is a worrying one," Loki paused and frowned. "I wonder what They want to achieve with this dream and the message sent by it, if the situation was as dire as They are portraying it, They would have spoken with our father."
"Did you forget that last time They were thrown into dungeon when They arrived in the Citadel without any announcement?"
"Because They interrupted hunt that father was organizing and They were lacking patience to wait for him to return from it," he said and looked at Thor. "But you are right that it doesn't fit Their normal way of doing things, it seems that someone will need to ask Them what is going on."
"I'm not going to do it, They always liked you, so you have a better chance of learning something from Them than I have," Thor said.
"If you wish I will obey your command," Loki bowed his head. "Though They might be more willing to speak to the Crown Prince and father of Harald, he is still a minor for three years."
"Than tell Them to explain Their behavior to our father, he will be certainly lacking understanding for Them doing such things," Thor growled. "And I assure you that he won't have qualms about throwing them into a dungeon."
"Yes, that would work," Loki said and twirled his scepter. "I will leave you brother dearest and go and talk with Them. I believe that it will be a very enlightening talk, for both of us."
He summoned himself a portal and stepped through it. Even if he had on his face his confident mask, inside some bones were rattled by what They had said.
o-0-o
Freyr looked around the spot where his magic deposited him and his group, he could feel a lot of mortal and even some Æsir magic in the air. Ahead of them was a massive castle perched on the shore of a lake and it was surrounded by a thick and dark forest.
"He is close," Hrimhari said, sniffing the air. "He is hiding somewhere around."
"Find him," Freyr said. "We will follow you, but you need to give us a trail to follow."
"Of course." Hrimhari transformed into a wolf and for a moment was standing in place before charging towards the castle, howls piercing the air. He kicked his own horse into gallop and followed Hrimhari.
o-0-o
Voldemort breathed out in relief when he appeared close to Hogwarts, he knew that he was somewhat safe here and nobody would hunt him here. He was about to head to the castle to find himself a host when he heard wolf howls.
"How did they find me?" he asked, nobody in particular and started to run towards the castle. Hoping that it's wards were good and strong enough to stop whatever was chasing him.
o-0-o
Dumbledore was walking out of the Great Hall when he heard low, piercing howl of a wolf close to the castle. He whipped in its direction and walked out of the castle to see the strangest sight he had seen in ages. A line of wolves was running towards the castle, led by the biggest wolf he had ever seen and behind them was a line of warriors on horses. Their armor shining in the sunlight and manes of horses flying in the wind. They looked ethereal and he could feel power surround them, power ancient and majestic, one that he didn't wish to tamper with or he would have been destroyed.
"We need to erect defenses of the castle," Snape said when he joined him. "They don't look friendly and are running towards the school."
"Wait," Dumbledore said, his gaze following one riding in the middle of the line. "I think that we are only witnesses and unwanted witnesses, at that."
"Than who are they?"
Dumbledore was silent for a moment, "If I was to guess, I would say Asgard. I had seen similar warriors when I was on Asgard."
They stood silent there, watching as those riders changed direction and were riding along the castle, not towards it. Howls and barks of animals accompanying hunters became more excited and louder, as if they were getting closer to something that they were chasing.
o-0-o
Freyr pulled reins of his horse and looked at a thing surrounded by wolves and hounds, he could feel evil flow from it in waves. He snapped his fingers and binding spells surrounded writhing form of a wraith.
"Hrimhari, are you sure that it is him?" He asked looking at the Wolf Prince that changed back into his human shape. "Bringing wrong person to Asgard would be an unpleasant and highly unwanted mistake, also His Majesty said that he wants to see one that almost murdered his grandson."
"It's the one, Your Highness," Hrimhari said. "I was able to get his smell from Your Highness cousin and it matches perfectly."
"Well, than, Tom Marvolo Riddle, you will come with us," Freyr said and reached out to lift the ghostly form from the ground.
"You can't do nothing to me," Wraith hissed "I'm great Lord Voldemort."
"And I'm Prince Freyr of Vanaheim, so watch your tongue." Freyr tied Voldemort to the saddle of his horse and looked at the sky. "Heimdall! Open the Bifrost! We have for what we had come."
A bright beam of light descended from heavens and whisked them away to Asgard to deliver their prisoner to His Majesty.
o-0-o
Harry made a circle around the Institute and dived towards the roof where he saw Storm waiting for him. He folded his wings and with a wide smile on his face he dived through the air, howl of the wind in his ears.
He opened his wings when he was just above the surface of the roof and gracefully landed on it, just in front of Storm. "You know how to fly," she said. "and know how to show off."
He nodded and looked at her, curious what she wanted from him.
"I know who is your father and I guessed what your uncle was showing you," she said without any formalities. "As you know one of many goals of this school is to help young mutants in mastering their powers. Your powers include flight and I would guess weather manipulation."
"If my uncle and father are right, those are powers that I should have," he said and looked at the horizon. It was cloudless, without a single speck of cloud coming towards them and a light, cool breeze was blowing from the ocean. "Though nothing yet showed up, excluding flight."
"Than how did you summon those lightning bolts when you were training with your uncle?" He saw her look towards the sky and somehow several clouds appeared on it without any visible cause. "Try to channel a lightning, those clouds should help you."
He looked at them, raised his hand into the air and he could feel all the power, just waiting for him to call upon.
Wild and temperamental power, but still a huge source of magic and power that he could call upon.
He reached out towards them with his mind, focusing on not getting intoxicated with the power he could call upon. He violently moved his hand towards a point in space that he saw and a lightning bolt flew from the cloud, to his hand and from there to the ground.
It impacted the ground with the force of a cannonball and left behind a large crater, he looked at it and blinked a couple of times. He never imagined that he could have so destructive power. Smashing trees was something completely different than this.
"Not bad, but it took you a lot of time," Storm said and he looked at her. "It took you over ten minutes, while it should take you a couple of seconds at most." She walked to the edge of the roof. "Watch."
He focused on her and saw her raise her hand into the air, but she almost immediately pointed it towards the crater made by his lightning. Electricity flew from the clouds, into her and through her it flew towards the crater done by him.
"Wow," he managed to say when he looked at the crater done by him, now it was much deeper and wider.
"That's how your lightning bolts should look like," she said. "Ideal would be without a single need for cloud and almost instantaneous, but that will take a lot of training that will take you a couple years."
His head slumped as he realized how much time and energy it was going to take.
He looked up when he felt her touch his shoulder, he saw her look at him. "It will take a lot of time, but you should see your power grow as you train. You are young and it will take something like two, if not more years for your powers to fully develop and reveal. So for your age it is good."
He nodded and was silent for a moment, gathering his stray thoughts. "So how we are going to train this power or ability of mine?"
"Through blood, sweat and pain," she said with a smile on her face. "the same way you train anything else. There is no other way to learn how to use it and you have this advantage that you have someone that can guide you." He looked at her, curious what she meant by those words. "When I was learning how to use my powers, I was doing it on my own and I needed to experiment a lot. You have someone that can tell you what you are doing good or not."
"There is no other way, is there?" he asked.
"There is not a single other way, so let's get to it," she said jumping into the air. "Join me here and we will start training."
His wings unfolded and he jumped into the air, following her and fully focused on her. He didn't want to miss a single thing she was to say.
o-0-o
Loki waited patiently as doors leading into the dungeon slowly opened in front of him and revealed hundreds of cells behind them. He walked through them and into the dungeons, he wanted to meet one of new additions to them, one addition that he had a large bone to pick up with. Personal bone at that and he wasn't going to miss an opportunity to have some fun.
Finding one that he wanted to talk with was far easier than he expected as someone was thoughtful and placed him in the closest cell. He smirked when he saw the wraith try to force his way out of the cell, but failing miserably.
"You won't get out of this cell," he said coming to stop in front of it.
"I'm mighty Lord Voldemort and those walls won't stop me," Wraith screeched, his voice high and annoying.
Loki only smiled at those words. "Believe me, those cells are designed to contain beings that are far more powerful than you are, ever were and will be. They are designed with gods in mind, not some loud and weak wraith."
Voldemort calmed down and was silent for a moment. "Who are you?"
"Finally some more intelligent question," Loki smiled. "I'm Loki Odinson, God of Magic, also known as a Trickster, Prince of Asgard."
"But Asgard was just a myth that our ancestors believed in, you are not real!" Voldemort screeched.
"I'm real and I know about your plots," Loki snapped at Voldemort, his gaze piercing and cold. He smiled when he saw Voldemort flinch. "You attempted to kill my nephew and you won't live for long."
Voldemort paled, remains of colors gone from his face, it was almost silver in color and devoid of any emotions. Loki could feel Voldemort's fear, even if the pale face was not a dead giveaway of his emotions.
"Good that you fear death," Loki smiled as he paced in front of the cell, guards that were patrolling dungeons completely ignoring his presence. "Everybody will face it, some sooner and some later. Nothing will stop it, not a single thing." He stopped and turned to look at Voldemort, "I know about your horcruxes and they are just trinkets, fancy ones, but nothing else."
"How do you know about them?"
Loki sighed and tried not to roll his eyes in amusement and disdain, he had bigger hopes for the supposed darkest wizard of his generation. "I pushed magic and its understanding further than some of my father's scholars dared to. I was one that taught magic to humans in the Northern Europe and one that guided them. So horcruxes are as I said fancy trinkets and nothing more, they won't save you from death."
"You dare to question me?" Wraith hissed, somehow finding courage and daring nerve to do so.
Loki sighed and stopped to look at Voldemort. "How simple it would need to be for you to understand that I'm far more powerful, far older and I had seen and know much more than you know or will ever know," he said and took a better look at Voldemort. "Also you have an extremely slim chance of getting out of here, alive. Better would be, no chance."
"But I am Lord Voldemort and I am immortal."
Loki snapped his fingers and Voldemort was launched against the far wall of his cell. Force field that made one of the walls of the cell disappeared and Loki stepped into the cell. "You almost killed my nephew, murdered my sister-in-law and hurt my brother," he said slowly, pronouncing each word, "Also you cheated Death, which is a thing that I won't accept and you used necromancy which is a branch of magic banned for a very good reason."
He could see Voldemort pale, from realization into what situation he had gotten himself. Loki turned around and stepped out of the cell, force field appearing back. He looked at Voldemort for one last time and walked out of the dungeons.
o-0-o
Reviews:
SeanHicks4 - You weren't mean, it just annoys me when people repeatedly say that grammar was bad when in my profile it is obvious that I'm not from an English speaking country.
Bows are always a questionable thing. Composite ones give bigger amount of force per size, but when you get into those proper size bows and by now he is using them, it really doesn't matter. Composite bows are great when you want to fire from a horse as they don't get stuck on too many things, while longbow is big and can get stuck. But when you have stable platform and full range of moves a longbow will be better.
Animagus form, well, I wanted something that would be different than something that can be found on Earth and since Rahne can change into a wolf and he has wolves as pets I thought about some magical breed of wolf. And quoting my friend 'God only knows what's running on Utgard/Jotunheim'. Good that you like it as I wasn't sure how it would be accepted.
Albionia - She looks like a toad and Amelia is rather civil, so she was forced to use it. When Harry will see her, his reaction will be less civil. Much less civil.