Notes: Repercussions and other things. Also, I made up a revision to a textbook so Fury can make a point.

Warnings: None officially needed, but it's not a happy chapter. Also, this is my AU and Fury can believe anything I want him to believe.

Chapter Eight

On Monday morning, just before Defense Against the Dark Arts, Jane told Loki that Darcy had told her that Natasha had told her that Clint had said Thor had gotten detention for roughing up his little brother on Saturday.

"He did?" Loki asked, his heart sinking.

"Yeah. And then there was a house meeting, and all the prefects yelled at everybody about picking on people smaller than they were, and shaming Gryffindor, and then Professor Coulson gave Thor and Volstagg detention and told them he was completely disgusted with them. I guess it was pretty awful."

"My brother is never going to forgive me," Loki said numbly.

Jane looked uncomfortable. "I don't know about your brother, but… Darcy seems to think you should probably stay away from Clint, at least for the time being."

Before Loki could think of anything to say to that, Professor Fury came sweeping in, and the class fell silent.

Professor Fury had already told them his class wouldn't feature much practical work in the first term: he felt they needed a solid grounding in other courses, especially Charms, before there was much point in trying to teach them how to block unfriendly spells like hexes. Even so, the theory and history were very interesting: Professor Fury had been an Auror for years, retiring after the Second Wizarding War and eventually taking up the post at Hogwarts, and he illustrated his lectures with fascinating- not to say frightening- stories.

"Your textbook, which has been assigned to all years, is a revised edition," Professor Fury was saying now. "Can anyone tell me what that means? Mr. Banner?"

"It means there have been changes to the book since the last time it was published," Bruce said promptly.

"Right. Five points to Ravenclaw. Now, the publisher could have just as easily changed the edition number and said no more about it, but instead the designation revised is used, to make everyone aware there have been changes to the content. Does anyone happen to know what those changes are?" There was silence. Finally, Loki put his hand up. "Mr. Odinson?"

"There's a new chapter about Dementors," Loki said.

"Yes. Five points to Hufflepuff." Professor Fury tapped on the cover of the book. "This edition reflects the wizarding world's admission that Dementors- which for years served as the guards in Azkaban, the wizards' prison- are Dark creatures. Everybody always knew that, of course, but we fooled ourselves into thinking that it was all right because they were on our side, and anyway they were only torturing criminals." Fury looked around the room, as if expecting someone to argue that torturing criminals was perfectly fine. Whether any of the students actually believed that or not, nobody was stupid enough to say it, not with Professor Fury looking the way he did.

"Dark wizardry isn't just trying to rule over Muggles, or steal power in the wizarding world," Professor Fury said quietly. "It's not just hurting innocent people. It can also be deciding that someone doesn't deserve any rights or protections at all, no matter what they did before- especially if they're powerless. It's deciding that, because we're the good guys, we have the right to do anything we want to the bad guys. What we- the good guys- had to learn the hard way is, there have to be limits, and there have to be rules.

"I don't just mean laws. I mean the kind of rules you carry around inside of you. I mean that, if you aren't behaving any better than the bad guys, you can't truthfully call yourself a good guy. Some of the Darkest witches and wizards I've ever met didn't think they were working for Voldemort, but the way they behaved in positions of power actually helped his side. Letting the Dementors torture prisoners in Azkaban didn't make the wizarding world one bit safer, but it did make a lot of people think it was okay to abuse their power over others, to the point where it became really hard, sometimes, to tell one side from the other."

Professor Fury paused, looking around the classroom. "A lot of witches and wizards think we can't learn much from the Muggles, but they have always had the best poets. One of those poets wrote that the greatest treason/ Is to do the right deed for the wrong reason. You can just as easily reverse that: it isn't any better to do the wrong deed for what you tell yourself is the right reason. There are times when you do what you've got to do, for instance if you're actively defending yourself, or someone else, from danger. But when you are safe and have time to think about your decisions, the decisions you make show everyone which side you're on.

"And that, as much as the fact they joined Voldemort's side in the last war, is why the Dementors don't guard Azkaban anymore. Because doing evil to fight evil just ends up creating more evil."

There was a very long silence. Finally, Jane put her hand up. Fury nodded to her.

"Miss Foster?"

"Sir, can… can you tell if someone is evil just by looking at them?"

Loki froze. She couldn't mean him. There was no reason for her to be thinking about him, there wasn't, she didn't know-

Professor Fury was shaking his head. "No, Miss Foster." Loki tried not to look like he had been holding his breath, but then Professor Fury went on, "I can usually smell evil, though." He paused, glaring around the room. Loki suddenly wasn't the only one holding his breath. "Right now, for instance, all I smell is parchment, old wooden desks, and a bunch of little kids who play with owls and should probably take a bath tonight."

It wasn't a very funny joke, but everyone was grateful for the excuse to laugh.

~oOo~

Just as Jane had warned, Clint made a point of avoiding Loki in Herbology after break that morning. Thor had said the Hufflepuffs stuck together, but really all the houses did, you could hardly help it when you spent all your time with the same group of people. Loki was therefore pretty sure all the Gryffindor first-years would be just as mad at him as Clint was, for getting a popular student like Thor into trouble.

If Professor Sprout knew what was happening, she didn't let on: as usual, she instructed the class to break up into small groups- of four, this time- two Hufflepuffs working with two Gryffindors. Mitchell moved up next to Loki as Annie paired off with George. Loki expected Professor Sprout or Mr. Longbottom to have to direct a pair of Gryffindors to join them, but a curly-haired girl named Peggy and a tall one named Maria came right over.

"Can we work with you?" Peggy asked, looking determined.

"Sure," Mitchell replied, with a grim little smile.

Peggy and Maria acted almost normal, but it was still an intensely uncomfortable class. Loki got the impression there was a split among the Gryffindors, which surprised him. It was clear that Peggy and Maria, and maybe some of the others, didn't feel the way Clint did at all.

He said as much to his friends as both houses scattered after class.

"I don't understand it," he admitted.

George shrugged. "Maybe your brother isn't quite as popular as you think he is." His voice was sharp: Loki had finally told them, on Saturday night, what had happened between himself and Thor, and George was still mad about it.

Loki glared at his friend, and Annie spoke up hastily. "Really, it's not hard to see why they don't all support Thor. He got into trouble for picking on a smaller kid, and the prefects- including the Head Girl and the Quidditch captain- and Professor Coulson are all disgusted with him. I mean, they're Gryffindor- they're supposed to be brave."

"And chivalrous," Mitchell contributed.

"It's not exactly a Gryffindor thing, to beat up a kid half your size- " George said.

"He didn't beat me up," Loki protested.

"We've seen the bruise," Mitchell replied flatly. "Anyway, sure Thor is popular, but I bet a lot of the house looks up to the prefects, too, especially Rhodes, and they're saying Thor was in the wrong."

"I should never have- " Loki began miserably.

"Maybe not," Mitchell agreed. "But you didn't know your brother would get that mad, and anyway Potts gave you permission. It's not your fault that your brother's a jerk." Loki glared again, and Mitchell said stubbornly, "Well, he is. Or at least he's acting like a jerk right now."

Loki pressed his lips together in a thin line and stared after Clint, who was walking into the castle behind the other Gryffindors, his robe flapping sadly around his ankles.

"I have to go talk to him," Loki decided, and without waiting for his friends to reply he sprinted to catch up. "Clint? Hey Clint, wait a minute."

Clint- and the rest of the Gryffindors- stopped walking, but he didn't turn around as Loki came trotting up behind him.

"Clint? Look, I'm really sorry about what happened on Saturday," Loki began, and then reconsidered his words. Saying "what happened" sounded like he thought he had nothing to do with it. Dad and Professor Fury would both be scornful of an apology that started that way, let alone all these Gryffindors. He tried again: "I mean, I'm sorry I got Thor into trouble. I never meant to do that. I shouldn't have asked to watch your tryouts- I wasn't going to tell anybody anything, I swear, I just wanted- "

Clint turned at that, and the look on his face made Loki take a step backward.

"You wanted," Clint snarled, his face red and his eyes sparkling with anger. In a high-pitched singsong that reminded Loki of Fandral, Clint repeated, "'I just waaanted.'" Back in his normal voice, Clint went on, "And you always get everything you want, don't you, you spoiled little crybaby- " Even as he wilted under Clint's venomous words, Loki wondered how the other boy knew about that. Maybe he was only guessing- "with your own owl and your nice new books and- "

Loki put his hands up, and he wasn't sure if he was trying to make Clint stop talking, or just protect himself from the words. "Please, Clint- "

"'Please, Clint,'" Clint sneered, and Loki would have punched him then, just to stop him making that noise, except for the tears he could see in the other boy's eyes. "Just because you've always had everything, you have to go and ruin things for other people- "

That sounded… that sounded like maybe Thor wasn't allowed to hang around with Clint anymore, or something. And just for a second Loki felt a vicious stab of satisfaction- Can't show off how nice you are to firsties now, Thor- before the feeling turned into horror at himself for thinking such a thing. What was the matter with him?

And then he remembered Clint on the train, looking longingly at all the food Loki and his friends had with them, and how dirty and shabby Clint's clothes had been before he got into Gryffindor, and Clint's own brother putting hexes him and saying he'd never speak to Clint again unless Clint got into Slytherin-

And he, Loki, had messed everything up, and now Clint had nothing-

"I'm really sorry," Loki said quietly, starting to back away. "I didn't mean to do any of it."

"Just stay away from me," Clint snapped, also backing away, toward the other Gryffindors. And right now it didn't matter whether they thought Thor had been in the wrong or not, because of course they opened ranks to accept Clint back in, and that was actually a relief because if Loki had ruined that for him too-

And that was where it probably would have ended, except just then the corridor filled with older students hurrying to their classes. Loki didn't want to meet Thor right now, on top of everything else, but he was so busy looking out for Gryffindors that it never crossed his mind to watch out for Slytherins, too.

Which was a mistake, because suddenly there was a boy in Slytherin robes walking up to Clint, face set and angry. This boy was about Thor's age but nowhere near as tall. He was still a lot bigger than Clint, and there was a sort of wiry, ratty meanness in his face that made Loki want to avoid his notice.

Not that there was much chance of the boy paying any attention to Loki when his whole attention was focused on Clint. This had to be Clint's older brother, the one who thought it was funny to hex him.

"Not such a big shot now, are you?" the older boy taunted. "Where's your bodyguard now?"

Loki glanced around, hoping to see a prefect or a teacher, and Peggy, the curly-haired Gryffindor girl, reached out to Clint.

"Come on, Clint, let's go back to the common room," she said.

Clint's brother glared at her and kind of struck at her hand. "Shut up when I'm talking to my brother, you stupid little mudblood."

Loki froze- he had never actually heard anyone say that word before- and quickly glanced at George. He was relieved to see that, while his friend obviously realized it was a bad word, he clearly didn't know exactly what it meant. Loki had no idea whether Peggy was Muggle-born or not and probably Clint's brother didn't, either- it was just the worst thing he could think of to call her.

And as if all that wasn't bad enough, especially since Peggy looked like she was squaring off to stand up to Clint's brother, which anyone could tell was the worst idea imaginable-

"What did you call her?"

And there, of course, was Thor.

Clint's brother turned around with a sneer and repeated the word. Thor- who had a quick temper at the best of times- promptly drew his wand and shouted, "Langlock!"

Clint's brother had also drawn his wand, but it didn't do him any good since he clearly didn't know enough non-verbal magic to hex Thor back with his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. His face went purple with frustrated rage, but none of the gathered students laughed: both Barton and Thor looked murderously angry. Thor put his wand away as the other boy advanced on him, clearly ready to finish this with fists if Barton couldn't fight him with magic.

"Finite incantatem!"

Loki was pushed out of the way as the Head Boy, Stark, stormed into the middle of things, using a counter-spell to remove the tongue-tying jinx. He pointed at Thor- with his finger, not his wand- and then Barton.

"Stay right where you are, both of you." Looking completely disgusted, he turned to Thor and added, "Not you again. What is the matter with you this year, Odinson?" Barton, Loki noticed, just got a quick, angry glance that looked tired more than anything. Apparently Clint's big brother was already known as a troublemaker.

Thor set his jaw, glanced at the first-year Gryffindors, and then glared at the floor without answering. Stark, obviously giving him a chance, repeated, "Odinson? What's going on?"

Thor continued to say nothing, and none of the other Gryffindors spoke, either. Since Thor had drawn his wand first it was obvious who was going to get punished if nobody explained what had happened, and that wasn't fair. Loki could just see Thor thinking that of course a Slytherin prefect was going to favour his own house, and-

- And Loki remembered Stark, on the train, cheerfully laying out his plans for making their first trip to Hogwarts easier for Muggle-borns, and teasing Becky like she was a friend even though she was a brand-new prefect and a Hufflepuff, and being perfectly nice to a first-year student too stupid to realize trunks were supposed to be taken to the baggage car.

If nobody said anything- and it looked like nobody was going to- Stark was going to make a big mistake and punish Thor a lot worse than he deserved. And Thor would probably believe it was because Stark was in Slytherin with Barton, and that wasn't fair to either of them, and-

"He called Peggy a mudblood," a voice next to Loki's ear said suddenly.

Stark turned around sharply. Loki gulped. The voice was his.

"What was that?" Stark asked, his voice not quite so hard, as if he wanted to make sure Loki understood Stark wasn't angry at him.

Well, in for a Knut, in for a Galleon-

"He called Peggy a mudblood," Loki repeated. "Him," he clarified, nodding toward Clint's brother. It was too complicated, to explain what had led up to that, so Loki didn't try. "And Thor heard him and… got mad."

Stark's face, which had been very red, had by now gone pale. He turned to Thor first, putting his wand away as he did.

"How about it, Odinson? That pretty much what happened?"

"Yes," Thor said sullenly, staring at the marble floor.

Stark inhaled hard through his nostrils, the way Mum did when she was trying to keep her temper. "Barton?"

"What if I did?" Clint's brother sneered.

"We've talked about this," Stark said, his voice hard again. "And Professor Slughorn has talked to you about it. And Barton, I'm about through talking. See me in the common room at a quarter after six tonight- by then I'll know what your detention is going to be. Do not be one second late, and do not do anything to make me angrier between now and then. Now get out of my sight." Barton, surprisingly, melted away without another word, apparently deciding he had pushed Stark, and his luck, as far as he dared.

Most of the rest of the onlookers also began to drift away as Stark, rubbing his temples, turned back to Thor. "Don't hex people, no matter how angry you are at them, or how badly they're behaving. Just… don't. We'll call this fair warning." And then he looked at Peggy. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Peggy replied, her face set. "I know better than to let someone like that upset me."

Stark gave her a lopsided smile. "You did end up in the right house. I'm very sorry that happened. The only people who make a fuss about blood statuses are the ones who don't have much else going for them." He glanced around, as if looking for someone else, and spotted Loki. "Thanks, kid. I would have hated to make that mistake." Gesturing to everyone remaining to go about their business, Stark walked away.

"Loki," George whispered, behind him, "what is a mudblood?"

Loki didn't answer, because Thor was walking over to him with an unreadable expression on his face. He let himself start to hope- maybe Thor would realize Loki only wanted… Maybe he'd be glad his brother had spoken up for him…

Thor stopped a few paces away from Loki and said, in a savage undertone, "I do not need to be rescued by Hufflepuffs."

He said Hufflepuffs in almost exactly the same tone as Barton had said mudblood.

Loki felt himself going hot all over again, but this time it wasn't with shame or humiliation.

This time, he was just purely angry.

He couldn't think of a word to say to his brother, and he probably would have burst into tears if he had tried. Instead, he turned to Clint, who was still standing there.

"You want him? He's all yours," he spat, and ran out of the castle toward the owlery, with his friends on his heels.