Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers.

Authors note: Thank you to those of you who reviewed and welcome to the new followers and favourites.

Chapter 64: Cottage Grief

Walking to the path in front of the cottage where her mother was taken from her was so much easier than being within reach of it, where Dahlia held Hela's hand tighter than ever and Hela could sense how nervous she was. She pulled her closer and said, "it's okay, you don't have to get closer if you don't wish".

Dahlia looked to the house and held back her tears at the sight but reached for the rusty iron gate, but a sign had risen from the ground at her touch, up through the weeds and tangles like some fast-growing flower. A wooden sign that said

On this spot, on the night of 31st October 1981,

Lily and James Potter lost their lives.

Their daughter, Dahlia, remains the only wizard ever

To have survived the Killing Curse.

This house, invisible to Muggles, have been left

In its ruined state as a monument to the Potters

And as a reminder of the violence

That tore apart a family.

Neatly and round lettered wording and scribbles had been added by others who had come to see where the Girl Who Lived had escaped. Some signed their name with everlasting ink, others carved their initials into the wood while others left messages. The most recent a lot clearer and shining over fourteen years' worth of graffiti. All saying similar messages, "good luck, Dahlia, wherever you are". "If you read this, Dahlia, we're all behind you!" "Long live Dahlia Potter".

Dahlia let go of her sister's hand to reach out to the sign and traced some of the messages on the board and in the corner of her eye saw her sister shaking her head in surprise. "You never saw this?" Dahlia asked not taking her eyes from the messages, surprised that they were there.

Hela answered, "no. It must only be active when someone of Midgardian magic is here. There must be fourteen years' worth of writing here…if I had seen it, I would have known".

"Known I was alive," Dahlia said then looked to her sister, hand still on the board, "stop blaming yourself. You couldn't have known".

"But I could have. All the torturing I did, the killing, if I had just asked the right questions maybe I would have been told you survived. But I didn't want to hear excuses, just their pain. The full story of the fake Potter marriage didn't get out on Niflheim until years later, even that was rumours, but the council knew. I asked them when you first died to do tracking spells for you, but we could never find you. I was in denial. I guess the fear I brought everyone when I was grieving, the effects on Niflheim, scared any wizard that died after the war in telling me you were alive. They probably thought it might not be you or the tales of you being alive and Dumbledore hiding you, training you in safety," she rolled her eyes at her own words, "were false. Especially considering no one ever laid eyes on you until you went to Hogwarts. Probably thought if they got it wrong and gave me hope I'd send them to Mareritt".

Hela closed her eyes and looked down to the ground in regret but looked to her sister when Dahlia said, "or maybe they were warned by the older souls, those who've known you for years not to tell you unless they were certain I was alive, in fear of hurting your feelings again. I've told you before, I've never heard a bad word spoken about you by any souls. Only admiration, loyalty, love…sympathy and a little fear. But you have to have some fear towards the person that's supposed to protect you, how else do you expect them to believe you can scare the people wanting to harm them away if they don't see the fear themselves. Hela, it's in the past. We're together now, that's all that matters. We all have regrets, but we can't change them".

"You're right," Hela nodded.

"I know I am," Dahlia said smiling which made Hela laugh. Dahlia reached out for the gate and tried to push it open, but she couldn't. She tried again and again to open it, but it wouldn't, "it won't open," she said.

Hela hummed amused and said, "let me show you something". Hela reached for Dahlia's hand and guided her palm, so it was facing towards the house and let go and said, "close your eyes". Dahlia did as instructed. Hela continued, "I want you to release your magic, only a little, just enough to gather your surroundings. Like you would do in training with Akio".

With her eyes closed, Dahlia released her magic from her fingertips, not seeing that as the purple specks were released, they were hitting a barrier. Spreading along the surface of the barrier, from just a few feet above Dahlia to the rusty gate and then touching the floor. Hela smiled while Dahlia frowned and said, "I can sense something".

"Open," Hela said just above a whisper.

Dahlia did as she said and let off a light gasp when she saw her magic forming a wall, "what is it?"

"Magical barrier," Hela answered, "this certain barrier keeps everything inside frozen in a moment, everything would still be the same on the inside as it was the day the spell was cast but would look different to anyone on the outside. A spell used on monuments or important places to make sure it doesn't get damaged or invaded by thieves".

"But there's nothing in there," Dahlia said confused, "it looks empty".

"When we're stood here, yes, but I can sense it's not as empty as we're led to believe. Time for you to learn how to break barriers. I want you to close your eyes again, but this time focus on the barrier. Not what you can feel, but beyond that. Every spell has layers, threads that link it all together. I don't want you to break it apart, who knows whoever casted this spell put any alerts in place of it breaking, I just want you to find every thread and then there should be a loose one. There always is in every spell, in case something goes badly wrong".

Dahlia took a deep breath before she did as her sister asked. For a minute she tried to feel the threads her sister spoke of but felt like a failure as she couldn't and began to think she was doing something wrong. Just as she was about to give up, a splash of colour appeared in her mind, threads and threads of different colours, some thicker and larger than others that were small and thin.

She gasped and felt her sister touch her arm and whispered, "it's okay. When you find it, don't break it, just coat it in your magic".

She worked her way through the complexed twists and turns of the threads and overlapping, trying not to touch any in her mind when she found a green one. Shrivelled and bent, flashing as less power was getting to it than the rest of them. She coated it in her magic as she felt herself being guided forward losing herself in the magic of it all.

"Open your eyes," Hela whispered, and Dahlia did to see herself on the other side of the barrier. She lowered her hand and looked behind her to see the barrier shimmering for a moment before it disappeared. The two sisters smiled, and Hela said, "soon you'll be able to do it without closing your eyes, the threads of magic will come naturally. See". Hela only had to look at the barrier for a moment before her own magic took way and parted the barrier immediately before closing it again.

They then turned back to the cottage, the cottage that now had short grass, the rubble still scattered but seemed newly fallen, the ivy covering the house gone and Dahlia was able to see clearly through the windows, belongings of those lost there. A cottage frozen in time almost. That's when Dahlia lost her smile and took a step back and said, "maybe this wasn't a good idea".

Hela lost her smile but wasn't surprised as she said, "I know it's a lot to take in, we don't have to go inside if you don't want to".

"It-it-it could fall apart," she said nervously, "the roof is unstable, it might all fall".

A moment of silence passed as the two sisters knew it was an excuse to leave so Hela said, "you know that I wouldn't let that happen. We can leave, it took enough courage for you to come this far".

"And you," Dahlia questioned as she looked her sister in the eye, "you remember the memories here first hand, I only know what I saw when I was locked inside my head. How can you stand being here?"

A small smile graced Hela's lips as she answered, "because you're here. I thought I lost you here, now you're here, all the memoires don't seem as painful anymore. But, if it's too painful for you to be here, we can leave. It's always going to be here if you ever wish to return".

Dahlia bit her lip and twiddled her fingertips staring at her sister then to the house and especially to the right upstairs where her nursery would have been. She kept her eyes focused on that spot as she said, "I have to go inside, I have to see it for myself". Dahlia then walked past her sister who stayed stood in the same spot as Dahlia walked up to the wooden door and reached for the handle to find it locked which didn't surprise her. She reached for her wand and sighed as she forgot she couldn't use, 'Alohomora' to unlock the door as it would alert the Ministry, she was doing magic outside of Hogwarts. So, she concentrated on her magic like her sister said and the door opened of its own accord and all the lights switched on too.

Despite the right upper floor of the house being damaged, it seemed in pristine condition thanks to the spelling on the house, not even a cobweb in sight. She took a step through the door and was greeted with the cream-coloured entryway then the hallway, at the end leading to the kitchen. There was a pram pushed up against the golden-brown staircase and pictures along the staircase, all frozen in place, clearly Muggle pictures. Next to the staircase, behind the front door was a small sitting room, the door open enough that Dahlia could see an antique brown leather couch with two arms chairs, a bookcase and a side table with a radio on. It had a small golden chandelier and a painting of men sitting at a table on the wall. It seemed very Gryffindor by the colours, red, gold, golden brown seemed to be the main colours, right down to the rug that was red and gold.

Dahlia chose not to enter the smaller sitting room but chose the door to the right to enter the main sitting room. Going through the door showed an open floor plan with the dining room and sitting room being connected, leading to the patio doors that gave a good view of the large garden, even at night. The main sitting room was a lot more welcoming than the smaller one, that seemed more for men, but it did keep mostly with the Gryffindor colours.

There were wooden beams on the ceiling that seemed to go throughout the house, adding that vintage feel but in the living room, they came down the halls too but thinner after being embedded into the walls more. In between the walls were a warm colour of yellow with a hint of gold. It contrasted well with the brown furniture, yellow and brown patterned curtains, a cream coloured flowered design rug and the two soft plumb red couches with yellow pillows. One of the couches were in front of the fireplace while the other was in front of the window. A painting above the fire of different animals, lions, tigers, zebras all in the wild. There was also a large square foot bench, perfect for the couch's height for the occupants to put their feet up but it was currently being used as a book bench, several children's books laying on top of it which made Dahlia question was she being read to the night of her mother's death before going upstairs. There was other furniture around the room like two cabinets on either side of the fireplace with pictures on top, candles on the windowsill, a side table between the two couches and a toy chest overfilling with toys. Dahlia noticed almost all the pictures in the room were of her.

She stepped further into the room and touched the couch, a couch her mother probably touched and accidentally fell asleep on under the fire's gaze a hundred times.

"You learned how to walk in here," Dahlia was shocked and turned quickly, forgetting about her sister being with her as it seemed she followed her into her house. Hela smiled sadly, "you had been taking a few steps here and there for a while, but you'd get impatient and just fall and crawl as you got around faster that way. I was here with Lily, papa was on his way and Lily and I were trying to get you to walk and of course you were being stubborn but as soon as papa showed up, you shouted `Dada' and then you just walked to him". Hela then let off a small laugh, "Lily thought it was a conspiracy, because when papa finally put you down, you wouldn't walk again and wanted everyone to pick you up, but we all tried our hardest not to. Only took a few hours and you began to walk all over. Are you okay?" Hela asked once she saw the tears in her baby sister's eyes.

Dahlia looked away a second and closed her eyes, pressing her lips tightly together to try to banish the tears before she looked back and nodded, "I'm fine, just…I knew there'd be a lot of stories here, but I just didn't think it would hurt this much".

"We can leave," Hela said as she came close to touch her sister's arm to offer comfort.

Dahlia immediately shook her head and tried to smile, as hard as that was, and replied, "no, the stories here shouldn't hurt, I should be happy with the time I had with mum".

Dahlia then began to walk back, and Hela's hand dropped from her arm and Dahlia continued to walk back until she was in the dining room. It was the same yellow hinted gold colour as the sitting room but was occupied by a large dark rosewood eight-seater table. There were two china cabinets against the wall made from the same wood. The chandelier was different to the one in both sitting rooms, this one wasn't gold but was made purely of glass and lit the room brightly. There was a door to the right side of the room that Dahlia assumed led to the kitchen. Dahlia looked to the patio doors to the back garden and thanks to the light, it lit it up enough that she could see flowers of all kind around the garden, a white swing bench in the middle right side of the garden but there was a metal table and chairs to sit four just outside of the doors.

"Tell me a story about this room," Dahlia turned and asked her sister.

Hela shrugged, "we weren't in here much, mostly in the sitting room. Lily and papa were in here though when I was playing with you or you were sleeping, and I was with them, looking over everything she had gathered on Jora. Like a battle room of preparation, the amount she had found, all the theories she had would spread across the table and sometimes onto the floor".

Hela walked to the closest china cabinet to her and kneeled to the side of it and placed her palm on the side. Dahlia frowned at what she was doing but then the bottom side of the cabinet disappeared, and Hela pulled out a cream coloured office box with a lid on and as Hela stood and brought it to the table, the china cabinet repaired itself.

"How is that possible?" Dahlia asked.

"Magic, obviously. Only Lily, papa and I could get access to it, all the information on Jora and his location in this box. There's an extension charm on the box, we shouldn't leave this here, there's things about Jora that no one knows but us in this box. Information about our family that no one should know".

Dahlia reached and touched the top of the box and she could feel the magic that kept it hidden all these years and said, "we shouldn't leave any of mum's things either. They shouldn't be left here on display for others, frozen to represent a war. I don't want anyone to have any of mum's things when they do decide to take the wards off this place. It'll happen one day".

Hela nodded, "I know. Do you want to do it today or come back?"

"We're already here," Dahlia said.

Hela hummed then walked out of the dining room and into the kitchen. She returned a minute later with two of the same boxes as Jora's information and said, "kitchen through there, then there's a toilet and small storage cupboard. I remember Lily keeping these in there, all charmed with extendable charms for when she first moved in. Some stuff couldn't be moved with magic itself. I thought we could get all your things together too".

"Good idea," Dahlia said as she reached for one box then said more quietly, "I'll do the nursery".

"Dahlia," Hela sighed.

"I can do it," Dahlia said determined, "I can face it. What am I saying, I've already lived through that room once, then had to live through the memory of what happened again, I'll be fine".

With that Dahlia turned to walk back through the sitting room and to the stairs but Hela stopped her as she said, "top of the stairs to the right is a room and a bathroom, go left if you want the master bedroom and the nursery. Be careful. I've managed to charm the floor to stabilise itself but there's still the issue of the wall missing".

"I will be, don't worry," Dahlia said then walked out of the sitting room and up the stairs.

As she walked up the old golden-brown staircase and as she climbed each step, she noticed the pictures on the wall were all her mother's side of the family, pictures of her grandparents and her great grandparents. Dahlia made a quick reminder to not forget to take them down as they didn't belong in the Potter cottage. The stairs creaked at the top and Dahlia didn't know it that was through age or through damage that the cottage had suffered.

Even without her sister telling her it was to the left, she could tell from the rubble that made it out into the hallway from the explosion where her nursery was. Not just that, she remembered from seeing her memories what the hallway view looked like from her room and knew exactly where it was in the house. The hallway had the same beams on the ceiling as the rest of the cottage, but they didn't come down the walls like downstairs but the walls here were the same cream as downstairs with pictures hung. Dahlia didn't take much notice to the hallway as her eyes were focused on the nursery door, still open and didn't seem like it would close thanks to the small pieces of rubble in the way.

She walked down the hallway, past the master bedroom to which the door was slightly open, but she didn't look inside, knowing she would have to go in there later to collect her mother's belongings. Reaching the nursery door, she saw the destruction left in the wake of Voldemort's attack. The wall to the front of the house was completely blown away, the flooring damaged so that the closer you were to the viewing the outside, the more damaged the floor was so at some parts you could see to downstairs. It seemed that there were boxes marked with months on scattered across the floor, as if Dahlia's baby things were in the process of being sorted and stored away, those were scattered across the room and Dahlia remembered how they flung in the memory when Voldemort crashed through the door.

Her crib was shockingly still intact, even though there was rubble inside that fell from the ceiling then Dahlia's eyes drew to the floor where she knew her mother had fell.

"I love you so much".

"Not Dahlia, please, not Dahlia. Please not my baby".

"Not Dahlia, please. Take me, kill me instead".

"Have mercy please not Dahlia. She's a baby, please, I'll do anything".

"Avada Kedavra,"

Her mother's body falling limp to the floor, a painless and quick death but all unnecessary.

Dahlia leaned quickly against the door frame, her legs becoming limp as she slid down the door frame, her chest heaving as she lived the memories again, as if the flashes of that night wouldn't go away. She began to take slow and deep breaths to stop herself from hyperventilating, but it didn't seem to be working as the tears began to stream down her face. She pulled her legs to her chest, trying to curl herself up, hoping to keep her tears quiet so her sister wouldn't hear.

A few minutes passed of tears and sniffling when she felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped in surprise but calmed when she saw her father kneeling beside her. "Dad," she said and looked past him to see Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hela stood near the stairs.

"Come here, sweetheart," he sighed and leaned close, so he could wrap his arms around his daughter and she stayed curled up but now against his chest as he whispered, "everything's going to be okay".

"No, it's not," she sobbed now freely, "I'm so stupid and weak, I can't even walk into the room".

"Don't you dare," Loki said as he pulled away just enough to look into her eyes and cupped her face to wipe her tears away. He continued, "being affected by your mother's death is natural, especially with what you have lived through already. You are neither weak nor stupid, if you are then so are Hela and I for not returning here sooner". Dahlia put her head down at that, not thinking about how it would look to them. Loki tilted her chin up with his fingertips and said, "as much as you like to show you're not, you are still a child. You are allowed to cry and scream and shout if you want to and you've handled it perfectly, better than most would".

"I can't get angry," she shook her head, "when I get angry it's like I'm letting him win, like I'm letting him out".

"You're not," Loki insisted, "you have control".

"And if I don't," she almost snapped, "if I lose control and he takes over again and this time I can't come back, what happens then?"

Loki gripped her arms, not enough to hurt her but enough to make sure she knew he meant business as he said, "if this about you dying again, forget it".

"If it came between me dying and other little girls growing up without their parents, it's not a choice when I can stop it".

"Exactly, it's not a choice. Your life comes before theirs, always".

"Dad-" she began but he interrupted.

He stared her straight in the eyes and said, "I've told you before, I will not let you die, I will not lose you again, I will watch this world burn before that happens".

"That's selfish," she said as she pushed his arms off her, "he'd kill hundreds, thousands, maybe more. It's not worth my life. You should be happy, you get rid of a child that is causing you so much trouble. A child of two worlds which you know will bring even more trouble from other realms and beings. A child that is the reason the woman you love is dead".

"Dahlia," he seethed in warning.

"You shouldn't love me, not when I might have to die, not with the trouble I'll bring. You should leave Midgard and leave me here, I don't need you. You should be used to that," she then stood quickly and walked down the hallway, past her shocked siblings and down the stairs.

Walking out of the house and past the barrier, Dahlia walked down the street, wanting to get away from the cottage and the family she had just hurt. She saw a pub not too far away and saw men outside drinking beers, so she turned and went down a small street thinking of ways of how to get away. She couldn't Apparate, she couldn't call upon Eclipse as she was too far away, and it would take the young Thestral time to get there, she couldn't flag down a random car or even get on public transport as it was late. That's when the thought came to her.

She stopped on the sidewalk and held out her wand hand, her right hand, and hoped it would come. Thankfully, the Knight Bus answered her call and came almost immediately. She smiled as it pulled up and saw Stan Shunpike stood at the back as usual. He looked surprised and Dahlia quickly noticed the Daily Prophet to the side, probably about her again and he said, "well if it isn't Dahlia Potter, 'course paper says different now".

"Can you get me to Hogsmeade?"

He whistled, "cost you eighty sickles that will".

"I can pay when we get there".

Stan then gestured for her to get on board and began to print her a ticket when a growling interrupted, and they looked to see both of her brothers were there. Stan asked, "two more?"

They ignored him as Jörmungandr said, "Dahlia, off now".

Dahlia shook her head, "no. What I said to dad goes for the two of you too, you barely know me, not like you'll miss me". Fenrir had no patience, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her off the bus, almost tripping her in the process with a protest of "HEY".

"Watch it," Stan said and got off the bus.

Fenrir turned to him, eyes red, teeth sharp. He used his other hand to grip the conductor's neck and growled, "leave now before I tear out your throat and gorge on your remains".

He pushed him back and Stan stumbled back onto the bus and shouted, "ERNIE, GO". The bus quickly left, disappearing into the wind.

Dahlia ripped her arm from Fenrir's grip as he returned to normal and said, "seriously, that wasn't necessary".

"What you said to papa wasn't necessary. You get angry and blame yourself for your mother's death, that's clear, but that's no reason to say that," Jörmungandr said.

Dahlia turned and began to walk away but they began to follow her, so she stopped and turned and said, "stop following me. Just leave me alone".

"No," Fenrir said with a roll of his eyes tired of his sister's behaviour.

"Why not? You hate me, you should be glad that I'm willing to leave," Dahlia said.

Both boys looked shocked then glanced at one another before looking back and Jörmungandr said, "we've never said we hate you, we don't".

"Liar," she accused, "we may not have been reunited for long, but it didn't take me long to realise when you're lying. When we were in my mind, I asked you did you hate me for existing and you both said no," tears sprung to her eyes as she said that. "Looking back, I can tell you were lying, you both answered too quickly".

Fenrir shook his head and tried to take a step forward but when he moved Dahlia took one back. He sighed, "it wasn't hatred".

"What was it then? Dislike? Detest? Loathing? Disgust at having a half-Midgardian sister".

"We were surprised, that's all," Jörmungandr said, "your biology has nothing to do with it. You're our sister, we've grown to love you".

"Half-sister," she stressed 'half', "I'm not one of you, I never was and never will be. I'm not eating that apple, not now, not ever. I'll die in the next century like I'm supposed to, and I can just be an unfortunate memory to you".

"Dahlia," Fenrir stressed clearly angry now, "your short mortality is not something that is up for argument or discussion".

"It's my body, my mortality and if I choose to extend it then I will but I won't. Why would I?"

"To be with your family," Jörmungandr said frowning as if the answer was obvious.

Dahlia shook her head, "what family? Those who hate me for my birth, leave me constantly, the reason I get hunted down and almost killed in my own school because they're killers and prophesised for destruction. Why would I want to be related to monsters like that?"

Dahlia quickly turned, not being able to stand the looks of shock and sadness as she knew that would happen when she called them monsters. So, she quickly ran down the street, thankful that they chose not to follow this time.

She heard the church bells striking the hour when she ran past and stopped when she saw the graveyard gates and wondered about her mother again, like she hadn't stopped doing that evening. Glancing around, she couldn't see anyone in sight, so she pushed the gates open and began to search the grounds, looking and hoping that her mother would be there. She saw familiar family names like Abbott, possibly a relative of Hannah Abbott and shockingly, Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore. There were more familiar names, some several generations were buried with each other and Dahlia didn't realise just how long wizards had been living in Godric's Hollow, but it seemed some families had moved away while some remained from the dates on the gravestones.

The headstone she was looking for was only two rows behind the Dumbledore's. It was made of white marble which made the writing easy to read in the dark and as she came closer, a weight was pushing down on her chest like she could barely stand to breathe. She stood at the grave and read the engraving

James Potter, born 27th March 1960, died 31st October 1981

Lily Potter, born 30th January 1960, died 31st October 1981

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

"Hi, mum, you're probably really disappointed in my right now," tears filled her eyes and a single tear fell, "but I have to protect them. I get everyone I love killed or they die for me, the cottage is proof of that. I can't let them die, not when they've spent a thousand years apart. Pushing them away keeps them safe and alive". She then fell to her knees, the tears streamed down her cheeks as she said, "I'm sorry, it was all my fault. You never should have been put in a position for my life or yours, you never should have stepped in front of my crib. I miss you, mum".

Authors note: Please review.