Disclaimer: Don't own.

Chapter Five

The next morning found Harry and Fenrir meandering their way from the castle to the Bifrost, ignoring the Asgardians who were pointing at them and whispering to each other. It was nothing new to the wizard. Instead he was paying attention to the surroundings, committing them to memory. It was a habit he had picked up during the war, pounded into him by Mad-Eye Moody.

He could almost hear the paranoid wizard's voice. "Know your surroundings, Potter! If they aren't familiar, make them familiar! Then maybe you won't die."

Shaking his head with a ruefull smile, Harry was glad he had taken that advice to heart. There were many times when it saved not only him, but his friends and allies as well. "I wonder what Heimdall will have to say to me, what do you think Fenrir?" He asked the wolf that stood head and shoulders over him. The wolf huffed and nuzzled him with a pathetic look in his eyes that just made the wizard laugh. "Oh, don't give me that, beggar. You know that the rabbit is for later!" Before he left he had been given food for both his companion and himself, and currently had a giant raw rabbit shrunk down in his pocket with a preservation charm on it so it didn't start stinking. His own meal was similarly shrunk and in the other pocket.

With a put upon sigh, Fenrir trotted a bit ahead, reaching the Bifrost a moment before Harry. He was laying a little ways away from Heimdall, looking as put down as if Harry had never fed him. Laughing, the wizard reached into his pocket and tossed the tiny rabbit, wandlessly unshrinking it as it sailed through the air towards the wolf. Fenrir fell upon his meal ravenously.

Rolling his green eyes and readjusting his glasses, Harry turned towards Heimdall who was smiling, though it seemed like the man rarely did that.

"You are good for that creature." The god said, his voice slow and deep. It reminded Harry of an avalanche. The wizard shrugged slightly.

"I don't know, he seems the same to me. He's an intelligent fellow, though, more so than people give him credit for."

Heimdall nodded. "I observed your conversation with Odin last night. You have given the King much to think about, and for that I am grateful."

His brows furrowing in confusion, Harry replied. "Er... Okay. So you really see and hear everything then?"

Heimdall nodded.

Tilting his head, Harry asked, "That's got to be uncomfortable, having to witness when people get... intimate, right?"

Heimdall snorted. "Originally I'll admit I was disquieted, but for centuries I have been forced to witness acts of intimacy, as you so delicately put it."

"But still, you know every time one of your friends is getting freaky with someone else." Harry shuddered. Just the thought of having that sort of knowledge was kind of creepy.

Raising one eyebrow, Heimdall said, "Getting... freaky?"

Blushing, Harry ducked his head. "You know, having sex." Jeeze, he was somewhere around eight hundred years old, and still blushed like a teenager when sex was mentioned. Granted, he physically was a teenager, but still.

"You have an interesting way of speaking, world-traveler." Heimdall replied.

"So glad I could entertain you." Harry drawled. "Anyway, Odin said you wanted to talk about something, most likely this Ragnarök thing, and my part in it. How in the world would I stop some big 'end of the world'?"

Heimdall motioned to Fenrir, who was contently cleaning his paw, the rabbit gone. "You have already started, young world-traveler."

"Um... Fenrir is supposed to kill Odin somehow, right?" Harry smiled as the wolf stopped mid lick when his name was mentioned, looking comical with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his eyes intent on the two men. "He doesn't look like he could kill anyone."

Heimdall observed as the wizard moved closer. The Master of Death and the King of the Forest. He could not have found a better match had he tried.

"Yes, well, with you around he seems more at ease somehow. I suspect part of it has something to do with the effect the phoenix tears had on your vocal cords. Before you arrived, however, he was just another wild and often violent animal. The only other person he was so calm around was Loki. And even Loki couldn't lead him into the heart of Asgard as calm as he is." Heimdall explained.

That cause a whole slew of new questions to rise in the wizard's mind. "Fawkes' tears did something with my vocal cords?" He asked first.

Heimdall smiled. "I'm surprised you didn't notice, young world-traveler, that when you are calm and speak in a soft voice, others around you become calm. When you are happy and jubilant, others are as well."

Harry blinked. "I-uh... I guess I've never had the chance to notice, really. Is anything else in my body changed that I wasn't aware about, if you don't mind telling me?"

Heimdall waved a dismissive hand. "I would not deny your curiosity, wizard. You've had so little chance to ask questions of someone without fear of bias. Ask any that plague you whenever you think of them. You will always find me here, after all. As for the changes to your body, I believe that the venom of the Basilisk gave you resistance to most, if not all poisons. You retain the ability to speak Parseltongue, even though the soul fragment that gave you that extraordinary gift. As for the things the Hallows have bestowed upon you... well, no even I am sure of their full extent."

"Thank you." Harry breathed. Heimdall was right, no one had ever answered a question of his without trying to also push their view upon him. He filed away the fact that there were other things the Hallows gave him than the obvious twisted immortality for later. "I do have another question. Loki, Fenrir's father... what happened to him?"

He sat beside Fenrir, spellbound, as the All-Seeing recounted a tale of banishment and jealousy, of lies and love.

At the end, he sat back against Fenrir's shoulder. "Poor Loki." He murmured.

"Loki? Most who know that full tale sympathize with Thor, not the lost one." Heimdall said curiously, but there was a hidden quirk to his lips.

Harry shook his head. "Thor and Jane Foster can see each other again, I think. But Loki was lied to for most of his life, and that's a pretty big secret to keep from a kid for a few centuries. It's no wonder he felt the need to prove himself to Odin, or was jealous of Thor. It's obvious to see Odin favored Thor, though Loki had no idea why." He ran his hand through Fenrir's hair, absently thinking it was long past time to give the large animal a bath. "It's no wonder he grew up a bit messed up. Though I'm sorry he froze you... But if you think about it, he didn't kill you, shattering you when he could have. I don't think he really held any malice towards anybody."

"You knew one like Loki." It wasn't a question. Harry answered anyway.

"Yeah. His name was Severus Snape. The situations weren't very similar, but the results the same. A misunderstood man who was just trying to make his way in the world by doing what he thought was best." Green eyes were drawn to the edge of the rainbow bridge. "And suffering for it."

Shaking his head to clear the melancholy thoughts, Harry stood. "So how would I go about preventing Ragnarök?" He asked after a long, pregnant pause.

Heimdall gestured to Fenrir. "Like I told you, you have already set the wheels turning by befriending the beast. Just continue as you would, and everything else will fall into place around you."

"So... be myself? I can do that." Harry replied. "Are you hungry, Heimdall? I think I packed more than enough for two."

Heimdall paused. It was not often that someone treated him like an equal. Usually those around him were too uncomfortable, knowing that he knew their every secret, to treat him like anything other than a greater man than they. He had never been so casually invited to a meal.

"I... would like that... Harry."

Another chapter! And I have escaped from my sisters house with nary a scratch! Yay!

Lionna

PS: The poll will close on the day I post chapter eight! Get your vote in now if you want your voice to be heard! So far Loki/Harry is in the lead!