Hermione landed with bruising force into a landscape unlike anything she had ever seen before.
A dry, desolate mountain landscape, full of swirling dust, heavy clouded sky, lit by a weird, greenish yellow light, it looked sick, dead.
A thin strong hand reached out to grip hers, pulling her to her feet. With a gasp of relief she looked up into her husband's eyes. As she stood up straight though, the world and her stomach lurched simultaneously. Leaning over a convenient rock, she was suddenly and violently ill.
In all the years she had known him, she had never known Loki to carry something as utterly mundane as a pocket handkerchief, but here he was, at the precise moment she needed it, producing a perfectly laundered specimen, monogrammed, she noticed with a smile, in his favourite emerald green.
"Thank you – where the hell are we?"
Loki's face was grave. "Svartelfheim. The Aether has found its way home. It was those gadgets of Selvig and Banner's reacting with the wards around Hogwarts that threw us through the Convergence, but it was the Aether that drew us here without a doubt." His hand cupped the side of her face for a second. "Are you alright?" Hermione nodded. He gestured towards the rock. "I mean the….has - this been happening - recently?"
Hermione shrugged. "Motion sickness. Clearly being hurled between realms doesn't agree with me."
Loki looked skeptical, but decided that then was not the time to pursue the matter. Smiling for a moment he looked her up and down. "And more to the point why have I never seen you in that amazingly sexy outfit before...?"
Hermione was just about to throw back a snarky retort, when Loki shouted a warning.
Four dark elves were upon them only seconds later. There was little time for magic. Hermione's wandless stunner bought her a couple of breaths, time to reach for a weapon, but then it was knife work. Hours spent sparring with Loki meant that it was all muscle memory, but nothing could prepare Hermione for her first kill. As the stunner sent the first elf reeling backwards a movement in the corner of her eye spun her around, her stiletto knife buried in the side of a second elf's neck, spraying a mist of black blood across her face. She had no time to react though. A strong arm closed around her throat, and she caught the flash of an obsidian blade.
Hermione had done this a hundred times in practice. Without thinking she reached back, grabbing her attacker at the back of the neck, dropping to her knees, she sent the other elf flying over her shoulder. There was a sickening crack by her ear, and her attacker landed in a heap at her feet. From the unnatural angle of his head it was clear that she had broken his neck. Turning to assess the situation, she saw Loki dispatching the last of the four that had initially attacked them. Another two that she had not been aware of were lying dead at the feet of Thor and Harry, both of whom had black blood on their blades. They were looking at her as if she had just grown a second head.
"Brother, Hermione. Are you alright?"
Hermione nodded, breathing hard. Looking down she realised her hands were shaking as the adrenaline worked its way out of her system. Loki was right in front of her, strong fingers, not altogether steady either, lifting her chin. "You did very well alskling - exceptionally well in fact." His voice was warm and soft, giving her a moment to gather herself. His fingers brushed the side of her face. "Here, let me get that." She hadn't been aware that she was injured until she felt the warmth of his magic on her cheek. It must have been the knife, she though, shocked at how close the elf had come to killing her.
"There, your beauty unmarred - and the elf blood gone at no extra cost. It wasn't a good look on you"
Harry and Thor were busy scanning the landscape. "Do we know where Fletcher and Malekith have gone? Assuming they are not on the other side of the realm by now."
A familiar voice came from above them as Iron Man flew into view. He looked around at the scattered bodies and bloodstained blades. "Ooh did I miss the fun? Malekith is this way. But I don't think it looks too good for your little smelly friend." "
Thor looked at his brother bleakly. "You know that this plan of yours is probably going to get us killed?"
Loki met his gaze steadily. "Yes – possibly."
Turning, they ran over the crest of a hill, stopping, horrified. Malekith stood in a swirling vortex of red light, above him, the clouds had parted to show the aligning realms above. The lifeless body of Mundungus Fletcher was slumped at his feet.
In that horrified moment, it was Hermione that took command. "Thor, Tony, can you keep the – fiery thing under control. I don't think brute force is going to beat Malekith. It needs magic."
Loki stared at her. "I cannot beat him Hermione. I'm good but not that good."
Beside him, Harry hefted the Elder Wand determinedly. "No, but I think the three of us together might have a chance. Come on."
ooo0ooo
The burst of raw power from Harry, Hermione and Loki hit Malekith like nothing he had ever known. He tried to draw the Aether back within him, but wielding it, controlling it was drawing strength from him that he could ill afford to lose. The Aether was slipping from his grasp. Desperately he summoned every last ounce of his will. He had not slept for five thousand years to once again have the Asgardians snatch victory from him at the last moment. But the power of the three was literally tearing him apart...
The dust and lurid light of Svartalfheim was starting to give Hermione a headache. Either that or it might be the strain of trying to control an insane Dark Elf with the universe's ultimate power boost coursing through his veins. She could feel the Convergence coming closer, the boundaries between worlds stretching and thinning. They were running out of time. Harry was on her left hand, his face intent and focused, the elder wand in his hand, she did not need to see Loki to know that he was on her right, power streaming green from both hands, intent on the writhing creature before them.
Behind her she could hear Tony and Thor battling the Kursed – from the sound of things they were having a lot more fun than she was, but there was no time to dwell on that at the moment, when all hell was breaking loose.
She could feel rather than see the moment that they finally succeeded, feel the twitch that came through her wand as the elf's body finally gave way under the tremendous strain, ripping apart in a shower that Hermione really didn't want to think about too closely.
Behind her she heard a crash as the Iron Man was hurled past her into a cliff, staggering dazedly to his feet a moment later.
"Loki. We have this – go help Thor with that - thing..."
The Aether was spiraling, searching for a new host. Harry's voice held just a hint of panic.
"Hermione, the Casket!"
Leaving Hermione and Harry to finish the Aether, Loki raced toward the the Kursed. Realising the creature was focused entirely on beating a cowering Thor with a large rock, Loki saw his opportunity reaching for the huge blade hanging at the creature's back, slamming it clear through its back, activating a gravity grenade on its belt almost simultaneously.
Hermione flicked the large ornate box, which she had been carrying in a miniaturised form all day, with her wand, sending the lid flying open. Loki's lure worked like a charm, and the sinister red liquid poured in in a matter of moments. A second flick of her wrist closed and sealed the box. She permitted herself a sigh of relief – for once their plan had worked.
She felt it even before she heard Thor's howl of rage and anguish.
Felt the pain slice through her, turning her knees to water and driving the breath from her body.
Felt the blade shattering breastbone, ribs and spine. She looked down, expecting to see it protruding from her chest.
There was nothing.
Only a dreadful keening sensation of emptiness, of a terrible loss too horrific to contemplate.
ooo0ooo
Still reeling at the foot of the cliff, it was Tony Stark that saw it all.
The huge jagged blade had been pushed clear through the Kursed's body. At least a foot of it protruded from the front of his chest.
And impaled on that same protruding blade, face grey and blank with shock was Loki...
Hermione's scream of anguish was something that Stark would remember for the rest of his life. More like a wounded animal than a human being.
Seconds later Loki's body dropped to the ground, legs giving way beneath him, hands clutching the wound, gasping for breath.
Among the chaos, it seemed almost anti-climactic when the gravity grenade, triggered by Loki's last act exploded, sucking the Kursed through into god knows where….
They had won... thought Stark. But it had never felt more like losing...
ooo0ooo
Hermione and Thor were at Loki's side already, desperately trying to stop the bleeding, but Loki was blue around the lips, struggling like a drowning man.
Hermione looked up at Harry, who was still by the casket - her eyes were dry, with a pain far beyond simple tears.
They should have had eternity - Harry thought numbly - thousands of years together. Instead they got less than five.
Ordinary mortal couples could expect longer than that...
As he approached, Harry realised with horror that the blade had severed Loki's spine, well above his diaphragm. He was going to suffocate long before he bled to death. Long before they had any chance of getting help or healing, and Loki had already expended far too much magic on defeating Malekith to heal himself.
His friend, his brother. The love of Hermione's life and the father of her barely conceived child...
No more
His parents, Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad Eye, Dobby, Fred, Remus, Tonks. He had lost so many already.
No more
Was he the Master of Death or not?
The Elder Wand still in his hand, channeled all of the power and grief and rage that ripped out of him like an explosion and everything went black...
Please don't hate me...
M x