The minutes ticked away and still Nott failed to return and silence spread like a stifling blanket. Scorpius sprawled out over the couch, making sparks with his wand in the air. Eventually he aimed one at Frankie's pigtails and she kicked him in response.
"I'm bored." Scorpius drawled, sitting up and rubbing the shin where she'd hit him. He strode over to Loki, attired as he was when he crashed the German concert. "Nice scarf," he smirked and yanked it away.
"Scorpius, what are you doing?" Frankie laughed as Loki did a half lunge, inhibited by the manacles.
"Return it!" He hissed.
"No," Scorpius said smugly. "No I don't think I will." He draped it around his neck. "How do you think it looks on me?" He waved it a bit. "It's got our school colors and everything. Green and yellow! Slytherin and Hufflepuff!"
"I think you look dashing," said Al.
"I think you look stupid." Frankie rolled her eyes.
"You know what else this makes me think of?" He whipped it off and twisted it into his hands. "I feel you! I see you! The sun caught in your raven hair is blazing in me out of all control…" He reached a hand out to touch Albus' cheek and Frankie's expression was twisted into something halfway between a scowl and a laugh.
"If I could roll my eyes any harder I would," she managed.
"Scorp's being sweet," Albus said archly.
"Sweet? That song is terrible! Love me or I'll burn you to death – that's not a healthy relationship Albus," she said in a matter of fact tone.
"I meant what I said! But I have a better idea." He unwound the scarf from around Scorpius' hands. He held it at either end and started to twirl around with it while Loki's face grew redder. "Think of August when the trees were green!" He began in a lilting falsetto. "Don't think about the way things might have beeeeeen!" He trilled and Frankie started giggling. "Think of me, think of me waaaaaaaking! Silent and resiiiiiiigned!" He held the scarf up to Scorpius' face. "Imagine meeeeee trying too haaaaaaard to puuuuuuut you from my miiiiiiiind!"
"You two are such dorks!" Frankie burst out laughing. "But you'd better stop before you make him have a coronary," she said with a nod towards the fuming Loki. "Let me guess, this is the part where you threaten revenge for messing with your neckwear?"
He merely glared coldly.
Scorpius plucked the scarf out of Albus' hands and draped it around his neck. Grey met green in a twinkling smirk. "It does look better on you, though. Brings out your eyes."
"So are you two dating or something?" Tony suddenly broke in while the others looked on in alternate confusion and anger.
"Congratulations!" Scorpius threw up his hands then brought them back down for a slow clap. "Well done Captain Obvious!"
Thor frowned. "But his name is Stark not Obvious and there is but one captain amongst us!"
Scorpius pinched the bridged of his nose as he sighed. "It's an expression. No shit Sherlock. Of course we're dating. I don't waste my smoldering gazes on Albus for nothing."
"He does look a little like Sherlock, now that you mention it," Albus said thoughtfully.
"I didn't mention anything, and what do you mean?" Scorpius appraised Tony critically. "He doesn't look a damn thing like Benedict Cumberbatch and doesn't have half the sex appeal."
"Not that Sherlock, the American one. From that movie."
Scorpius made a face. "Heresy! You bite your tongue." He leaned in and leered. "Before I have to bite it for you."
"Gimme a break." Tony nodded at Steve. "You're going to give the hundred year old virgin here a heart attack if you keep acting like that. Also, just so you geeks know, the Capsicle here slept through the last several decades of pop culture and those two aren't from around here, so I'm the only one picking up on just how nerdy you guys are."
"I am not that old, Tony!" Steven said coldly.
"Notice he didn't say anything about the other part of that statement," Tony smirked.
"Because it's none of their business!" Steven looked appalled.
Scorpius swaggered over and used a thin finger to trace the lines of Steve's costume. "I could make it my business."
Steve paled and Tony laughed. "Now you really are going to give him a fit. I don't think he's even warmed up to the idea that guys can like guys yet. Also, aren't you like, fourteen? I'm pretty sure that's illegal even over here."
"Oh, I'll bet I could warm him up to it." Scorpius looked into Steve's eyes as the older man shifted uncomfortably. "And I'm seventeen!" He snapped at Tony.
"Alright, that's enough out of you, Casanova." Frankie dragged him by the collar away from the blushing soldier. "You want to be useful, come and help me make dinner. I'm sick of waiting down here while you try to bait this lot. It's cold and I'm hungry and I'm pissed that we're spending the night watching these guys hang around and do nothing instead of drinking and watching movies like we were supposed to." She turned to Albus. "You can watch them until we're done?"
He nodded. "Go. It won't be a problem."
They disappeared up the stairs again as Albus reclined on the couch. There was a moment of silence until Tony cleared his throat.
"So… dinner. Sounds tasty."
"You've clearly never eaten anything Frankie and Scorp have ever made. I love them dearly but I still don't understand how you ruin a frozen pizza."
"What are they making, anyway? Some kind of weird wizard food?" Tony grinned. "Something boiled in a cauldron with newts or toads or…"
"Probably spaghetti. Because it's easy." Albus swooshed his wand carelessly. "Don't be an arse. We eat food just like you do. And we don't have to give you any so you'd better behave."
Tony made a crestfallen expression. "And here I thought we were becoming friends."
Albus smirked and opened a second beer. Sitting up, he ranked a condensation-wet hand through his hair with a sigh. The water droplets slicked some of the unruly pieces of hair back and he looked up at the four. At the end, Thor shifted and Albus smiled.
"I have been wondering something young Albus."
"Yes?" From the corner of his eye, he watched Loki's lips press thinly together.
"I have not been able to summon Mjölnir, though it is enchanted to return to me always. Why should this be so?"
"It's safe. If that's what you're worried about." He took a sip. "Scorpius and I had to float it together to get it back here but it made it in one piece. We put all that stuff in a compartment in the mansion. It's enchanted to be unplottable like the house is, among other things, in order to keep people from finding it. That's probably why you can't sense it." He looked around. "Something you learn about this house – it was practically made to keep things hidden and secret. Even people."
"Whoa, whoa, back up there," Tony cut in. "Unplottable. What's that mean?"
"Means that Muggles like you can't find us unless we want you to. You could look for a hundred years with anything you've got – maps, radar, satellites – and you still couldn't figure out where we are."
"So what you're saying," Tony groused, "is that our people could be looking for us right now…"
"…and it would be completely futile? Yes." The grin he gave Tony was toothy and sharp. "Wizards aren't too fond of being discovered you see. Muggles have a nasty history of attempting to burn everything we own, including our bodies, in silly attempts to drive us out. So in general we think it best to keep a low profile. For everybody's sake."
"Then magic is feared on Midgard too?" Thor asked with an anxious look at his brother. "When I first came, those I met would have had me believe it did not even exist."
"You could say that." Albus drank. "Wizard-Muggle relations aren't exactly stellar on either end which explains the ignorance of it. These days, most Muggles don't know about us, though there have been plenty of witch hunts in the past. And for us, about once every generation somebody gets it into his or her head that Muggles need to be eradicated and there's a big fight over it." He looked at the half-empty bottle. "That's my father's claim to fame, you know. Last war. He led the forces of good, triumphed over evil and fate and death and half a dozen other things. Big damn hero."
"Yeah, you don't sound exactly thrilled by that," Tony snarked. "What's the matter, got something against heroics?"
He shrugged. "I suppose I ought to say something about the length of the shadow my father casts. But mostly it pains me that, despite even my father's own efforts to the contrary, he is remembered and my namesake is not." He waves his wand and letters float into the air. "Albus Severus Potter." With another wave, the words on either end vanished. "Severus Snape was a very good man," he whispers, "wrapped in the guise of a very bad one. And I only wish people thought of him more. Him and all of the others who paved my father's way to victory. But that is never the case. The only one remembered at the end is he who struck the victorious blow. Not even Frankie's dad gets half as much praise for his role in slaying the snake, even though Voldemort could not have died if he hadn't."
Thor shifted guiltily. "I am acquainted with this anguish if which you speak. Indeed, I fear there may be quite similar anxieties which lay at the heart of my brother's coldness."
"Oh?" Albus' voice was barely above a whisper.
"I am not your brother," Loki snapped.
"For magic is not appreciated on my world as perhaps it ought to be." He bowed his head. "Indeed, I myself have called it a coward's way compared to the might of wielding sword and shield. And though my brother stood by my side in many adventures, I fear I oft claimed the lion's share of the glory. You were of great help!" He exclaimed to Loki. "Many a time. Such as the time on Nornheim! I should have died if you had not cloaked us with your smoke. To suggest it was but a deceitful trick was unworthy of me and I apologize deeply for giving you offense through my words."
Loki opened his mouth for an instant but snapped it shut again and said nothing.
"You sound like a Gryffindor," Albus smiled wryly. "Albeit a very contrite one." The smile shifted into a slight frown. "Though at least you apologize for it. Unlike my own brother."
"A Gryffindor? Indeed, I have heard you say this word several times but I do not understand what it might mean, though such is the case of many things on Midgard."
"A Gryffindor is…" He laughed. "How to explain. Our school, Hogwarts, the school where every kid in England with enough magic in them learns how to use it, is split into four houses. And we're all sorted into those houses based on our supposed qualities. Frankie is in Hufflepuff – justice and loyalty, although most people insult them and say they're the dunderheads. My cousin Rose is in Ravenclaw, the house of "wit and learning," where the smart ones end up. My brother, my father, my whole family save for myself have been Gryffindors. Bravery and boldness. Chivalrous. Or so they claim. And Scorpius and I, we are Slytherins." He locked gazes with Loki. "We are cunning and ambitious. Underhanded, the Gryffindors would say. But we merely know how to win without being idiots." He smiled at Thor. "It's a story that I'm guessing sounds rather familiar."
Thor's face was red and his body slackened. "And your brother, he slights you? He insults your magic even though he practices the same?"
"With Gryffindors, it's not about the magic. Although given how powerful magic is I find it funny that your people thing that sheer brawn is the way to go," he scoffed. "It's more about its application. How magic is used. A Gryffindor would rather run up to you in a head on a duel. A Slytherin would be smarter about it. A proper Slytherin anyway." He drained more of his drink. "But that's not the only problem with me and James."
"He has wounded you in other ways?" Thor asked hesitantly. He continued to glance at his own brother, though Loki refused to meet his gaze.
Albus sat up, set down the now-empty bottle. With purposeful strides, he went into the adjoining room and brought back a bowl made of heavy silver with runes etched on to the sides. With a wave of his wand, he created a pedestal from one of the dungeon's rocks upon which he set the basin. Then he put his wand to his temple and slowly began to draw out a silvery strand.
"The hell is that?" Tony looked at the silver thread like it might suddenly jump to attack him.
"My most painful memories," Albus said softly. When the bowl was filled with pooling, shifting silver, he stood back satisfied. "Thor. If you would truly like to know of the discord between my brother and myself you have but to look. Come and see if you will." With a wave of his wand, the cuffs released the blond Asgardian. Thor took a hesitant step towards the pedestal. Blue eyes gazed into green and Albus smiled. "You may trust me. It is merely a vision."
"Uh, Thor, you might not want to…" Tony began but with a wave Albus silenced him again.
Thor bent over the bowl and vanished into it. Albus too leaned over and a second later he felt the tug of the memory take him.
"Thor!" Steve screamed, but the noise was far off, fading into darkness as the world of memory engulfed them both.
A/N: Quick note - the incident Thor is referring to on Nornheim was from the "give us a kiss" scene.