Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all other characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this version of the Mask belongs to New Line Cinemas; I'm just using them for this story.

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

XyBulmaXy: Thanks, and I hope I continue to keep you interested

Jessica01: The italics were meant to be the song lyrics, for future reference; I don't blame you for finding it all a bit confusing, though

Sean Malloy-1: He won't be doing anything to the Dursleys- Harry's gotten over any rage he had against them- but there are others he'll be going after for purely personal reasons…

Harry Potter and the Mask of Loki

Blinking his eyes open, Harry realized that his glasses must have fallen off during the night; he couldn't quite see anything right now. He was about to get up and start feeling around for them, when he realized three things.

Firstly, that there was something clutched in his right hand.

Secondly, that he was in his dress robes rather than his pyjamas.

And thirdly, the thing in his hand was the wooden mask he'd found in Privet Drive the day before he'd left.

Sitting up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Harry stared at the mask for a few seconds before, finally, he smiled slightly.

"It was a dream," he said to himself. "It was all a dream…"

Chuckling, he raised the mask up to his face and placed it on, and wasn't surprised when nothing happened.

"I have got to get a psychiatric evaluation when I have the time…" he thought to himself, as he tossed the mask onto his bed, got up, opened the door…

And discovered Ron slumped outside the room, looking at least half-drunk, with more than a few faint traces of lipstick on his face, looking up at Harry in a manner that suggested he'd only just woken up.

"'arry!" Ron smiled, tipping his head and winking at Harry as he pointed an index finger at his friend. "Where 'ere you last night!"

"Asleep," Harry replied simply, as he grabbed Ron's hand and hauled him up onto his feet, giving his friend the once-over before looking Ron in the eyes. "Seriously, though, what happened to you? Did someone dunk you in the Firewhiskey bowl or something?"

"Nah… be'er!" Ron smiled, looking at Harry. "Got knackered out dancing with all that moosic that Mark guy put on, and, well, turns out Firewhiskey works be'er when you're knackered…"

Harry blinked in surprise.

He did not just hear that…

"M… Mark?" he asked, staring at Ron in surprise.

"Yeah, y'know, tha' friend o' yours you invited?" Ron asked, smiling up at Harry as his eyes rolled around the room as though he was trying to find something to focus on. "Green 'ead, plastic-looking 'air… yellow… yellow…"

"Suit?" Harry asked, his voice barely a whisper as he looked back at the wooden mask lying on his bed. "No… no… that's impossible…"

"Harry, th't you missed it is impossibibible; Mark was there!" Ron smiled, as he collapsed on the bed, still looking at his friend as though he wasn't quite sure whether Harry was there or not. "O' course, I shtill don't get how he could do all that stuuuuff…."

Then Ron collapsed onto the bed, out cold, and began to snore.

Harry sighed in relief; at least Ron wouldn't be asking him any awkward questions now. He had to find out what the mask was, how it could let him do all the stuff he'd done as Mark…

And then what? Harry asked himself. What do I do once I know what I might be capable of?

He shook his head; he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

Pulling out his trunk, he pulled out a pair of jeans and a blue-and-cream checked shirt, taking off his dress robes and putting the casual clothes on instead. He then put back anything else he'd taken out of the trunk in his time in the hotel- it wasn't much; only his pyjamas, to be honest-, but also took out his invisibility cloak and his wand, just in case he needed them, the mask clutched in his left hand as he slid his wand up his sleeve.

Pulling the cloak on, he headed out of the room, shutting the door as he left…

And then froze and backed against the wall as he heard someone coming up the stairs towards him.

"…sorry, Ginny, but I can't think of anything that would account for Mark's abilities," Hermione's voice said, as she and Ginny walked off the stairs and began to head towards their rooms, just down the corridor.

"You're sure?" Ginny asked, looking over at the other girl. Evidently, after Mark had left, the party had still gone on for a bit; according to the clock on the wall opposite, Harry had only been asleep for an hour or so after leaving the party…

Wait a minute; Ginny's asking about MarkHarry thought to himself, looking at the beautiful redhead in surprise.

He smiled. Must have made quite an impression…

"I mean, well, if he shows up again, I wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about him, is all…" Ginny explained, sounding a little bashful at her earlier comment.

Smiling slightly- an almost sad little smile, Harry noted-, Hermione patted the younger girl on the shoulder. "You know, you really should loosen up a bit; Harry wanted you to be safe and happy when he left you. I'm sure he'll understand if you like Mark."

"Yeah, I know…" Ginny said, her shoulders slumping slightly. "But, y'know, I guess a part of me sees it as… well, betraying Harry…"

Then they turned around another corner, and Harry couldn't hear either of them.

He swallowed.

Well, that adds a new dynamic to this mask, he thought to himself, as he glanced down at the piece of wood in his hand.

Then a thought occurred to him. If Ginny really was interested in Mark that way…

He shook it off. No point getting his hopes up; he had to attend to business.

Closing his eyes, he swallowed and focused, hoping that his guess was correct about the limit of the wards, otherwise he wouldn't be getting anywhere…

And then he opened his eyes, and he was standing on the outskirts of Hogsmeade village, the sun already starting to rise behind the large form of Hogwarts, visible at the tope of the hills only a short walk away.

Shrugging off the Invisibility Cloak and checking over himself, Harry was relieved to see that everything essential still appeared to be where it should be; his left eyebrow felt a bit shorter, but that was about it.

"Wha' the… 'Arry?" a voice said from behind him.

"Hagrid!" Harry said, smiling as he turned around to face the half-giant gamekeeper who'd first introduced him to the magical world.

"What're you doing here?" Hagrid asked, looking at Harry in pleased surprise.

Then a thought seemed to occur to him. "Nothing's…"

"No, everything's fine," Harry assured him, holding up one hand in a reassuring gesture; the other hand was tucked under his robe, hiding the mask from Hagrid. "It's just that, well… I need to check up on something, and I need to ask one of the teachers to get an answer."

"Ah," Hagrid said, nodding as Harry spoke. "Which one?"

Harry sighed. "Unfortunately, the one I've spoken to the least in my time here; Professor Binns," he said. Then he looked back at Hagrid. "I assume he stays here during the holidays?"

Hagrid nodded. "Yeah, he does," he replied, rolling his eyes slightly as he spoke. "Binns never had much of a life even before he died; didn' change it afterwards either."

"Right then," Harry said, looking over at the castle before glancing back at Hagrid. "Could you help me get in?"

"'Course," Hagrid said, reading into his pocket and pulling out a massive set of keys. "Nothing's been decided yet about 'Ogwarts, Harry; we can still get in and out easily enough."

He looked over at Harry curiously as the two of them started walking towards the castle.

"You sure yer all right, Harry?" he asked. "You look a little… well, I dunno…"

"On edge?" Harry answered, smiling slightly. "Just… had a lot on my mind, I guess…"

"Not sure about your decision regardin' Ginny?" Hagrid asked, smiling slightly at him.

Harry nearly stumbled.

"Wh… what?" he said, looking at Hagrid in confusion as he continued walking. "But… but how'd…"

"I know?" Hagrid asked, smiling. "Harry, ye may not have mentioned it to me, but that doesn't mean I didn't hear things."

His smile faded, and he looked at Harry with a more serious expression. "Ye're sure ye made the right call?"

Harry sighed.

"No, I'm not, to be honest," he said, looking down at the ground in front of him as he spoke. "But, well, what else could I do? At least this way she's safe… right?"

Hagrid didn't answer.

But, as the two of them continued to walk towards Hogwarts, Harry knew Hagrid had a point.

Had he made the right call leaving Ginny…?

He shook his head and glanced down again at the Mask clasped in his hand; if it turned out that the Mask could actually be used safely, maybe he'd be able to find a compromise for the situation he was in at the moment.

"Um, Professor Binns?" Harry said a few minutes later, he and Hagrid having split up after Hagrid had opened the doors to the castle, Hagrid claiming that he needed to attend to something in the grounds. Harry was pleased to find Professor Binns in his old classroom, apparently looking over old test papers, although what he did when he had to look at another one Harry didn't know.

"Hmm?" Binns said, looking up at the voice. "Oh… yes… Perkins, wasn't it?"

"Potter, Professor," Harry said, as he reached into his robe and pulled out the mask. "I wondered if you could tell me anything about this?"

Binns looked at the mask for a moment, and then floated over to examine it more closely, briefly ducking through Harry's arm to get a closer look at the back before pulling back to look at Harry again.

"An intriguing piece, Mr Presley," he said, looking back at Harry. Harry didn't bother correcting him; he wouldn't be coming back to this class, after all. "I would put it as being fourth or fifth century Muggle Scandanavian, possibly made in tribute to one of the Norse night gods; the grin suggests Loki."

"Loki?" Harry said, intrigued. "He was the god of mischief, wasn't he?"

"Indeed," Binns said, nodding at Harry's memory, although his face suggested that he was highly sceptical about the whole thing; evidently, mythology was, to him, much the same as legend. "Supposedly, he caused so much trouble that Odin banished him from Valhalla forever. Having been captured while in the shape of a trout, Loki was turned back into his normal form and bound away in a distant cave, trapped under a snake as its venom dripped onto him forever. However, there are certain groups who believe, to this day, that Loki was not imprisoned, but actually merely banished to what the Vikings thought of as Midgard- our world- because of his creation of an artefact that Odin disapproved of greatly; an artefact known simply as 'the Mask'."

"The Mask?" Harry said, instantly intrigued; could this be what he was looking for? "What was that?"

"Loki's main means of spreading mischief among the Muggles and wizards of the age, according to the tales," Binns explained, as he drifted around the classroom as though he didn't really care about what he was saying. "Supposedly, the Mask granted the wearer the power of Loki himself- shape-shifting, invulnerablility, the ability to create objects out of nothingness- but at the price of releasing the repressed side of their identities; what Muggle psychologists, I believe, refer to as the Id."

He snorted slightly, as though to convey his contempt of the legend.

"Naturally, there are those who have spent years, if not decades, trying to find the Mask and harness its supposed powers," he said, looking back at the piece of wood still held in Harry's hand. "It has been officially lost for the past thousand years; there are rumours that some Vikings, scared of its power, sealed it away in a box and threw it into the ocean, but the truth behind the fate of the original Mask is a mystery."

"I see…" Harry said, nodding thoughtfully as he looked at the Mask in his hands. "Well… thanks, Professor," he said, as he got up and headed for the door. "You've been a great help."