Chapter Five

As the sun dropped below the horizon on Friday, Ron trepidatiously entered the D.A.D.A. classroom. It was dark and quiet. There was total darkness and total silence. Ron drew and spoke "Lumos Maxima!"

The tip of his wand illuminated like a torchlight.

He began to turn in a circle, searching the room for any activity.

When he turned back toward the entrance, an unseen force smothered his wand, casting him back into blackness. He tried to scream, but found his jaw wouldn't open.

Lights came on in the room. Ron saw that he was being restrained by a figure dressed fully in black. He wore a long leather coat that was wrapped around Ron's wand arm. His head was wrapped in a black scarf that obscured everything but his eyes. Ron knew those eyes. The blue irises pierced through to his soul.

"Professor Loki?"

Loki nodded as he released Ron's arm and removed the scarf. His hair was tied tightly back into a ponytail, which Ron had not seen Loki do before. The Lumos charm subsided.

"That's step one of tonight's lesson, Ron." Loki said in a surprisingly gentle tone, "You're getting a specialized one-on-one education tonight."

"I am?" Ron squeaked.

"On the importance and pertinence of my curriculum. Do you know what I just did to you?"

Ron could only affirm his ignorance.

"There was no magic for my invisibility. That was purely mundane stealth. I shut your jaw with high-level silent mind-magic. That's the sort of skills I'm looking to impart to the newest generation of wizards. Before we delve into that in detail, I'm going to show you why this is important."

Loki extended his hand. Ron moved back.

"It's this or expulsion, Ron. I swear to you, you will be alive when this detention is over."

Ron hesitated for several moments, then took Loki's hand.

He felt the air pressure increase around him, and a BAMF later, he found himself in Hogsmeade. A few people could be seen basking the late-summer eve, but many more were piling into pubs and shops to bask in the light of comfort and company.

"Want a drink, Ron?" Loki asked. "I'm buying." He pointed toward the Three Broomsticks.

"Uh…yeah."

They went inside. A few faces looked up at the newcome pair, and cheers abounded.

"Oy, everyone, it's Loki!"

Everyone in the pub looked toward the door.

"Hurrah for Loki!" Patrons sounded, raising their mugs to him.

Loki smiled broadly and spread his arms.

Several pub wenches rushed to him, nearly bowling him over in their embrace.

"Ladies, there's enough of me for everyone!"

Ron settled back into the shadows and sneered, resentful that Loki would receive such adoration.

Another woman pushed through the incoming throng of Loki fans. A curvy sort of woman. Ron took immediate notice of her, and so did Loki.

"Madam Rosmerta…" He purred, turning on a firehose of disarming charm. "How does this night find my favorite pubrunner?"

"Loki, you devil…are you trying to entice me?" She said, unable to hide her sprouting smile.

"I've already succeeded." Loki kissed her hand. She blushed like a schoolgirl.

"Just you tonight?" She asked.

"Sorry, no. I've got a student. Ron?"

Ron emerged from the shadows. He nodded reserved greetings to the other pubbers.

"This is Ron Weasley, Hogwarts seventh-year. We're on an educational field trip."

"Aye, I've seen him before." Rosmerta said. "Drink for ye?"

"Please. What's your poison, Ron?"

"Butterbeer." Ron answered, giving the first statement of real conviction since the night had begun.

"Two of those, Madam."

The drinks were served immediately. Ron noted the special service Loki was receiving.

"Why are you so popular here?"

"I'm their hero."

Ron nearly dropped his mug.

"You? A hero?"

"Yes. Wizards don't have to hide anymore. In fact, they now have a major leg up on the masses. People here are grateful to me for making it possible for them to live free."

"Hm." was all Ron would say. He saw Loki's point, but he wouldn't admit it.

"This is the pleasant part of our journey, so indulge the spirits while they last."

Loki slid Ron a butterbeer. Ron took a draught. He took a second, then slammed the mug dry. He noticed Loki was smirking.

"Special blend. Madam Rosmerta makes it just the way I like it. More?"

Ron nodded, reeling a little bit from the drink. It was much stronger then he was used to. Another slid his way. This time, Loki extended his own mug. Feeling the inebriated relaxation commence, he accepted the gesture, clinking mugs with his nemesis. They drained their mugs in single chugs and slammed then on the bar at the same time.

"Another one!" Loki bellowed.

Five butterbeers later, Loki and Ron were tipsy in their stools. Loki fell backward, landing with his head in the cleavage of the bar wench that rushed to catch him. He smiled slyly. Even in his mind-clouded state, Ron could tell Loki had meant to do that.

It sparked something in Ron. His liquid courage spoke.

"So Hermione just meant nothing to you, did she?"

Even in his position of relaxed ecstasy, Loki gawked at Ron.

"Huh?"

"Your hitting up on her on class. I'd have thought better of a Hogwarts professor."

"I paid her a sincere compliment. Her blushing just meant I paid it very well. I have a natural knack with women, and you take things far too seriously. You're a very jealous guy, Ron, and it's gotten you into a heap of trouble."

"Then you weren't moving in on her?"

"Of course not. Not that she isn't desirable. I can see what you see in her. But you've got to stop acting like this. Has the thought of her crossed my mind? Sure! I consider just about every woman I know in that context at some point."

Loki reached up and wrapped his hand around the bar wench's neck. She squeezed him tighter in her arms as he relaxed more totally.

"If you'd only be fuckin' direct about how you both feel, you wouldn't get so angry whenever some guy acknowledges her existence. If it took five butterbeers to ask me about that, then bring her here some night and get tanked. Maybe then you'll be able to spit it out."

Instead of getting angry, Ron slumped against the bar.

"It's so hard."

Loki's hand reached out and patted Ron's back.

"It always is. Did I ever tell you I met Harry Potter once?"

Ron jolted back up, nearly falling off the stool.

"When?"

"Around six years ago. When you were first-years. He wouldn't remember. He was unconscious at the time."

"Whu?"

"It would've been right after the encounter with Quirrel. Harry was recuperating for a while after his little adventure with you and Hermione getting the Philosopher's Stone. I saw him in bed when I answered Albus' call."

"What did he call you for?"

"To come get the Stone. Albus wanted it taken from anyone's access."

"Then you were the one who destroyed it?"

"It wasn't destroyed. It was consumed."

Ron just stared at him.

"The Stone wasn't what people thought it was. Ol' Nick was made immortal by leeching off its power, but someone that assimilates it into his body doesn't need elixir to live forever. I was born with one in me, and they're looking to get themselves put back together."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Philosopher's Stone was a shard of an ancient god. Anyone that had it had access to power beyond what most wizards could dream. Albus and I agreed the wrong people were after it, so someone had to take it from the world at large. It was a torturous undertaking."

"Wait…is THAT why you turn black and have that chalk circle in your office?"

"That's right." Loki nodded, raising a new mug of butterbeer to his charge for the evening. "I have a god inside me, and it's a mean one. The more pieces of it I take in, the stronger it gets. I get more powerful, but I'm in more and more danger of losing myself. It's itching to take over. It's been mostly manageable until lately, but right around the time of the EMP event, I took in another piece from someone else. Now, the god in me's really hard to keep under control."

"Then why did you do it?"

"The same reason I took the Stone per Albus' request. It had to done. Someone like Voldemort would be even more of a threat with the Shards in him. He'd be a god-man, too."

Loki threw himself back upright, now longer in a carnal mood. He slammed his sixth butterbeer back hard, drowning his encroaching sorrows in fermented bacteria shit.

Ron began to feel softer toward his hated professor. It was now his turn to lay a hand on Loki's back.

"You suffer a real burden, don't you?"

"More than you know. I'm to blame for the world at large."

"Seems like that's going well for you."

"In a while, you'll see the other side."

Loki snapped his fingers, and a high-tempo techno beat permeated through the pub from an unknown source.

People, fueled by ale, rose from their chairs and began to dance. Loki pulled a pair of wenches into the middle of the floor, kicking tables aside all the way. Snapping his fingers once more, flashing lights bombarded the room in a menagerie of colors. No one paid any mind to why or how; they danced.

Ron leaned back against the bar, trying to be invisible. Dances made him immensely nervous. He hadn't forgotten how he'd refused to take a step on the dance floor at the Yule Ball.

He didn't have to time to think beyond that rejected first step before a pub wench grabbed him and yanked him onto the floor.

"A friend of Loki's a friend of mine." She sultrily flirted.

The party carried on for the next hour, until the day gave way fully into night. Loki and Ron staggered out of The Three Broomsticks, leaning on each other to stay on their feet.

Loki let out a massive belch, expelling butterbeer fumes into the night.

"So Ron…you've seen the brighter side of my actions…now's it's time for the eclipse."

"Whur we goin' now?" Ron slurred. The reluctant dancefest hadn't burned off all of his stupor yet.

"Somewhere very different."

Loki extended his hand. Ron took it without hesitation.

Air pressure rushed up, and they teleported to a new location. They were standing on top of a hill sloping down into a narrow valley. A reinforced steel bunker was sitting half-buried on the soil below. Slits in the structure revealed gun barrels peeking out from within.

"The people inside that bunker have been holed up for months. They're too afraid of magic and monsters to come out. They're stocked with a huge arsenal. These folk abandoned their homes for fear of magi looters after the EMPs went off. They know who did it, and they're itching for a shot at me."

"Wait…you're going to charge the bunker? Why did we go drinking before this?"

"So this wouldn't hurt so much. Best keep back here, Ron." Loki dug his heels into the dirt, and shouted, "I AM THE LOKI!!!"

He sprinted down the hill toward the bunker and threw his coat off. The guns began to fire right away. Bullets ripped through his body, but he didn't slow down. He took a running dash at the wall of the bunker and fired his fist through it. The steel gave way like tissue paper, and Loki ripped the wall off. He ran inside, where screams and more gunfire erupted from inside. Ragged man who looked like they hadn't slept or eaten properly in months were thrown outside the bunker; after which Loki emerged to face them in open air. Ron could see the blood pouring from Loki's body slowing and eventually stopping as he tore into his opponents. Loki ducked and weaved as handguns were trained on him, narrowly slipping bullets that ripped into the landscape around them.

He slipped sideways from a Magnum round and advanced on the gunman. He punched the gunman in the back of the hand, which loosened his grip on the firearm. Fingers driven into the throat separated the gunman from his weapon completely. As the gunman fell gagging, Loki snatched the Magnum from his opponent's grasp and threw it at the hand of another gunman who leveled an M-16 at him. Breaking noises abounded as metal struck bone. The gun barrel lowered as Loki moved in and smashed the butt of the firearm against its wielder's chin. The gunman fell unconscious.

Several bullets tore into Loki's torso as the third gunman fired off all his rounds in a panic. Loki staggered back, once again spouting blood from multiple wounds. He stomped the face of the choking gunman who was still conscious on the ground beneath him. Blood and teeth burst from his mouth.

Loki laughed maniacally as he straightened once more from the onslaught of lead. His skin turned black and glistened like crystal. The light seemed to be actively repelled by his presence. The final gunman screamed like a little girl and tore off into the valley. Loki made a move to chase him, but caught himself. He made a savage grunt and curled himself into a ball. He screamed to the skies as the blackness faded from the flesh, and he returned to his pale self. Once again bleeding, he dragged himself to the entrance of the entrance and went inside.

One word was spoken.

"OUT!!!"

Five more raggedy people tore out of the bunker and ran off. A few minutes later, Loki emerged, holding a cache of weaponry. He gathered the weapons lying in the grass and gestured for Ron to come down.

As Ron descended the hill and gathered Loki's coat, he once again saw Loki's wounds were mending unbelievably fast. Loki handed him some of the arsenal.

"Ow…took more slugs than I should have. I had too many butterbeers."

"That was atrocious, what you did." Ron was reviled, partially from disgust, partially from too many drinks himself.

Loki only grunted.

"There's a lot of controversy going around about whether I'm a hero or a monster. The truth is, I'm both. It's relative to who you ask."

"Loki…why did you do that?"

"Three reasons. One, to show you the importance of mundane skills. Two, they were hiding from the world. I learned long ago that the world will find you no matter what you do, so there's no use avoiding it. Three…I needed their guns."

"What for?"

"We're taking them back to Hogwarts. I've foreseen some nasty activity going down there in the near future. It needs to be ready."

Loki extended his hand.

"Shall we?"

Ron took Loki's hand, and they were back in D.A.D.A. classroom at Hogwarts.

"Well, Ron…" Loki said as he removed his bloody shirt. His flesh was as unblemished as a newborn baby's. "I suppose you're wondering what good guns are in Hogwarts, what with modern tech not working in these walls? Well, modern would be a real specific term in this case, and it ties into the quantum lesson I have on Wednesday."

"That's everything's magic?"

"Yes…but also that is possible to have contrasting frequencies of electromagnetic fields. When you do magic, you delve into those EM fields, oftentimes generating one of your own via wasted energy from your spells. Modern digital technology in particular is so sensitive to EM fields, that a substantial blast of it will knock them out for good. Older tech stands up to them better, being more mechanical and less electronic. A digital camera would never work here; all the magic flying around would destroy it. But an old-timey photo machine would work. I've seen the school newspaper kids use those. So why wouldn't a simpler machine like these guns not work here? All there is a mechanism that creates a spark via a hammer that ignites exploding powder. Nothing EM about it. Which is why the EMPs didn't affect them."

Ron's jaw was hanging open. He'd never thought of those things before. Another thought twinged in his brain.

"All this time, I thought you were some sort of traitor to wizard and mugglekind. But with those electromagnetic pulses…"

"…liberated mankind from high technology by hitting the planet with the biggest blast of magic it's ever felt. It's fun to be vilified for doing what's needed. If I recall, that happened to Harry a couple years ago. Anyhow, we have three hours left in your detention. Now that we've dealt with your personal feelings toward me, it's time to get to the nitty-gritty. We need to get you ready for battle."

Loki settled into a ready posture.

"Attack."