On Punching Gods and Absentee Dads
Enigmaris
Chapter 6: Dense Cores and Prophecies
Summary:
Thor makes sure Harry is comfortable before going back to make sure Loki doesn't do something he'll regret. The last thing he wants to deal with is Loki's pouting if his son grows upset with him.
Notes:
Slightly shorter chapter this time around. I've got a lot of projects coming up due this week and next! I'm actually writing up a proposal so I can go on a NASA volcanology trip this summer. I wish writing proposals was as easy as writing about the Avengers. Wouldn't life be sweet then?
Chapter Text
Thor carefully stood once he was sure that Harry was completely asleep and made his way out of the room. He didn't mind that his clothing was wet, again. Most everyone had changed out of their wet things from the fight, Thor included. But he'd gotten wet again while trying to make sure Harry didn't fall asleep for three days while covered in blood. That wasn't a good look on anyone.
Now at least the young demi-god would sleep off his exhaustion clean and warm. Thor had never seen anyone lose control of their abilities in that way before. Loki had said it was normal, expected. But he was pretty sure that was a lie. There was something unsettling about the way the very earth had trembled and shook. Not that it made Thor fear the young man. No. It made him fear for Harry. It must have been absolutely frightening to lose all control, to risk harming everyone around him without being about to stop it.
It was obvious to him that Harry was kind, if a bit too witty for his own good. He'd confronted Loki, not for his own abandonment but for the others that Loki had left behind. Thor had watched as Harry had lost more and more control of his magic, even with all of the destruction he caused his magic had kept any of them from being hurt. Windows shattering sending glass over them but then magic shielding them.
Thor emerged from the elevator to hear that his brother had already returned. Loki was ranting to the rafters about what exactly he was going to do to Albus Dumbledore for this. It was rather explicit and violent, much more than Loki normally was. As he walked into the main living area he saw all of the Avengers, including the newly returned Clint, watching in horrified fascination as Loki yelled continuously, not stopping for breath.
"I am going to rip out his nails one by one and then I'll use them to scoop out his-"
Loki was pacing violently around the room. Everywhere he stepped ice spiked out dangerously. Green flames were curled from his clenched fists. Thor leaned against the doorway and just watched for a while. It had been ages since he'd seen his brother this…alive about anything. Even the whole mess with his coronation and Loki discovering his adoption had been done with less flare than this. This was the old Loki who twisted words so perfectly, making them sharp tools. The Loki who used flamboyant movements and had tones of voice different from deadpan.
How he had missed it.
"What are you doing there?" Loki demanded. "Aren't you supposed to be getting my son to bed?"
"He is in bed." Thor said evenly. "We fed him enough food to feed about three Volstaggs. I kept waiting for him to tell me he was full, but he never did. I think he would have kept eating if we hadn't run out. I cleaned all of the blood off of him and then tucked him in. He's dead to the world now."
"The kid packed away more than a family of 20 would on Thanksgiving Day." Tony added.
"I have to admit." Steve said from his position on the couch. "It was a little disturbing that someone so small could eat so much."
"Yes." Loki said, the magic draining from his hands. "That's to be expected. His magical core was severely depleted. His magic was instantly transforming most of that food into magical energy, I'd be surprised if most of it even hit his stomach."
"Okay…what is a magical core?" Bruce asked.
"It's just the area where magic pools in your body." Loki said. "The larger and denser the core the more powerful the magic user."
"Denser?" Thor asked.
"Oh yes. I never did tell Asgard about that." Loki said offhandedly. "I figured out why demigods are more powerful than us. Well, Lily figured it out, but I helped."
"And you never thought to mention this?"
"Didn't seem relevant."
"The answer to a mystery that had boggled our scholars for millennia wasn't relevant?" Had Thor really missed this? Loki opened his mouth to give an unhelpful answer, but Bruce cut in.
"Okay tell us. Why is your son more powerful than you?"
"It all comes down to biology really." Loki answered. "Human magic users are weaker than gods yes this is because the human tissue can't handle a lot of magic passing through it. If too much magic passes through them, they essentially get cancer. The magical version of it in any case. This means that their core needs to be smaller in order to limit the danger the magic possesses to them."
"So, magic is cancerous?"
Loki made a face that seemed to imply 'sort of', which wasn't comforting. Thor knew what the man meant though. It was true, even gods who bathed in too much magic seemed to change.
"It changes humans in terrifying ways. You-Know-Who had immersed himself in so much magic that he no longer looked human. His skin was bone white, his eyes were red sacs and his nose had fallen off, only to be replaced by two snake-like slits. The magic had changed him, deformed him. It'll happen to any human who goes too far." Loki explained. "Humans with naturally large cores tend to go a bit…round the bend. Their natural magic literally changing their brains so that most of the time they don't seem quite all there."
"Right so a lot of magic makes us either monsters or a bit kooky." Tony drawled. "What does that make the magical world like?"
"Chaotic. The most powerful tend to become the leaders which means that the most lunatic of the bunch tend to make the law." Loki answered sounding so damn fond of the very concept. "Don't expect the magical world to make sense. It very rarely does. I don't think it was meant to. Common sense isn't as important when everyone can just spell away a problem."
"That actually sounds really fun." Clint decided.
"Of course, you'd think that." Natasha said. Loki quickly continued to explain his findings.
"Now since humans are so fragile to large amounts of magic, but they still have the ability to use it, a solution had to be found. And you did. Humans evolved a method of storing magic in their bodies in a more efficient manner. Essentially their cores are very dense. Every inch of the core is packed with magic. This increases their power while decreasing the likelihood that they'll go mad."
"So, we've got a more efficient battery." Bruce surmised.
"Yes. Gods like Thor and I don't need to have efficiency. While our bodies can be changed by magic it generally takes astronomically higher amounts of magic. Our cores can grow and grow without really posing a threat to our health."
Loki turned around and continued to speak. His hands shaping the words that his mouth produced.
"A demigod retains humanities efficient magical cores while gaining the gods' ability to handle large core sizes. Essentially he's got a magical core my size while it's about five times as dense."
"Well shit."
"How well summarized."
"How'd you know his core is five times as dense as yours?" Steve asked.
"That's how dense Lily's was compared to mine." Loki answered. "I checked when Harry was very young. He had his mother's density, but it was growing quickly. I imagine if I checked it now, it'd be much closer to my size. It's why I placed a spell on him to limit his power. The plan had been to protect his body from the strain until it was better able to handle it. I didn't want my son going mad you know."
"And is his body ready for that sort of strain? Or was that…episode from earlier part of the problem?" Tony asked gently.
"No." Loki said. "Harry had a momentary lapse of control. Which is to be expected when he's under that amount of pressure. Not only has he discovered that his long dead father is alive, but it's me, the man who failed to invade earth. His entire world is at war and thanks to a crazy old man and a prophecy everyone thinks it's his job to end it. On top of all of that he's learnt that the leader of the light, the man he's supposed to follow has betrayed him in the worse way possible. Harry is expected to deal with this all while going through the throws of puberty."
"When you put it like that." Clint said. "I'm surprised there's still a New York."
Even Thor had to admit that the damage done was minimal compared to what it could have been.
"So, you're sure he's asleep?"
"He almost passed out on me while I was getting the blood out of his hair." Thor said. "I promise you, he won't be moving for some time."
"Good." Loki said. "Magical exhaustion is very serious. We need to make sure he doesn't strain himself at all for at least a week. If he does he could make himself very ill."
"Why are you telling us this?" Thor asked. "Aren't you going to be here?"
Loki got a very shifty look in his eye and Thor sighed.
"I'm only going to be gone for a little bit. Have a chat with Albus. Harry won't even know it's happened."
"I see you've learned so much from Odin."
"Don't you dare compare…"
"So, you didn't just admit to planning on lying to your son hours within getting him back?"
Loki looked as if he'd been slapped.
"Well…I…"
"No. I don't want to hear it. I refuse to allow you to ruin your relationship with Harry. I won't deal with your sulking when he kicks you to the curb because you refuse to grow up."
"If you're suggesting that I just let Dumbledore get away with this then…"
"I'm not. I'm telling you that I won't let you leave this tower until Harry's awake and able to go with you. He's the one who's been truly hurt by all of this." Thor reminded the man. "I know, I got a look at him while cleaning him up. The boy's body is littered with scars."
"What?" Tony asked. "You mean other than the weird one on his forehead?"
"He has puncture wounds, burn scars, scars from knives, scars from spells. A scar on the back of his hand that looks as if someone's carved words into it." Thor listed. "There's a huge one on his arm that looks like he'd been stabbed clean through with a pike. Other's still that look like handprints burned into his legs. There's no part of his body that isn't marked with something."
Thor didn't mention the small tattoo on his wrist. That looked like something special, something private. As he described what he'd seen each of the heroes got more and more upset. Outside clouds were beginning to stir. The anger he'd held back in favor of being as gentle as he could with his nephew was leaking out of him. He tried to be careful, no one liked it when the gods were angry.
Loki looked devastated, which wasn't surprising. When his brother considered something 'his', he was always distraught when any harm came to it. Granted, a son was a bit more important than a toy or magical trinket, but the principle was the same. Loki could oftentimes be overprotective of that which he cared for. Knowing that his failure had been so great would pretty much gut him. But it would be better for Loki to work through that now, rather than when Harry was awake and needed him.
"What were the words? On the back of his hand." Loki asked.
"I must not tell lies."
Loki's fists clenched together.
"Who would do that to a little kid?" Tony asked. "Carve that into his hand?"
In the distance thunder rumbled. It felt like those words were an attack on Loki, on Harry's heritage. It felt pointed and ugly. Mark the son of the god of lies with a command for truth. There was no way Loki hadn't taken it personally. Even if whomever had done it couldn't have even fathomed the slight they were making.
"I don't know." Loki said. "But I intend to find out."
"Do you see why I want you here?" Loki sighed but nodded at his brother. "Good, wait a week before getting revenge. It'll be good practice."
"Practice?"
"Of course." Clint said. "You're a dad now. Everything you want comes second to Harry."
"Including any revenge you want to get." Tony added with a smirk. "I mean really you won't even be able to prank someone if it would upset him."
Loki rolled his eyes at that.
"While that is true you all are forgetting that this is my son. He might be even worse than I am when it comes to trouble. By the end of the week your entire tower could be booby trapped."
"No way a kid who can lift Thor's hammer is ever going to prank us." Steve said.
"Well, we'll just have to see if blood comes through, won't we?"
"Are you honestly asking for your son to be a troublemaker?" Natasha asked, amused.
"Of course, then we'll have something in common."
Everyone rolled their eyes at the tone. It was odd being in a synchronized eyeroll but Loki made it happen so frequently. Thor finally decided to move out from the doorway and into the room proper. His clothing hadn't really dried at all but that was hardly the point anyway.
"Why are you so wet?"
"Because your son was covered in his own blood and letting that sit in his hair for the next three days while he's unconscious isn't the best plan. I gave him a bath." Thor said.
"That was nice of you." Steve said.
"I also used it as an excuse to see why he weighed practically nothing. Demi-god or not, the boy should have some weight to him."
"I noticed that too." Loki admitted. "I don't think he knows how much he has to eat now that the spells I put on him are gone. He'd need to nearly triple what a normal teen would need."
"Explains why he's so skinny at least." Thor said.
"Are you telling me that I've got a super-powered teenager getting ready to eat me out of house and home?" Tony asked in a way that was clearly joking.
"If it helps I could start paying rent. I did have money as James Potter. Although, I am technically dead so that would mean Harry has all my money. He could pay rent."
"I'm not asking a 12 year old for rent."
"Then don't complain about the costs of feeding him."
"Do you even have a sense of humor?"
"Not that I'm aware of."
"Back onto the more important topic." Natasha cut in. "Now that Thor is here, can we discuss the fact that the magical war isn't over? And what we're going to do about it."
A somber silence fell over all of them. Ever since learning about You-Know-Who and the war he'd waged they'd all been silently grateful that he was gone. That sort of evil wasn't something you wanted to face. Loki's family might be gone but at least the monster who'd destroyed them was gone too. Except now apparently, he was alive.
"How serious are prophecies?" Bruce asked.
And that was the question wasn't it? How serious was a prophecy? Loki got a stormy look on his face as he considered how best to answer that. Thor decided to start.
"It depends if it's a true prophecy or not. Anyone can predict the future, but only a select few can give real prophecies."
"If Albus was willing to lie to a god about his son over a prophecy, it's very likely a real one." Loki said. "The man may be an idiot but he's not stupid."
"A real prophecy," Thor said carefully. "is unavoidable. Its wording is exact if misleading. Trying to circumvent it will only lead to ruin, trying to control it will cause destruction. It will happen no matter what you do. Most real prophecies don't even make sense until they've already been played out."
"Then how could anyone be sure that Harry's part of it?" Bruce asked. "Are they just assuming it's him because of who his dad is?"
"I don't know the wording." Loki said. "It could be any reason at all. But we've got to assume that Albus was right in identifying my son. If we assume he isn't then Harry might not be prepared for the final confrontation, if we assume he is and he isn't, then at least he'll be overprepared."
"You don't mean to imply that you'd let your son face that monster?" Thor demanded.
"That's insane Loki." Steve said. "We should keep Harry here until the war is over. If that many Death Eaters are willing to swarm over him, he needs a guard at all times."
"We could set up some sort of schedule." Clint offered.
Before Thor could add on his support to that idea Loki cut in looking rather ferocious.
"Stop. Stop right there." Loki told them. "No one is putting my son under guard. We're not treating him like a child."
"Loki, he's not even 16."
"I know that. I know that much better than you. All of this hurts me more than it will any of you but these are the facts. Harry isn't a child anymore. The trauma he's undergone has aged him well past his years. You saw him fight Amora and those Death Eaters, that's not the sort of experience a child has. If we treat him like a little baby who can't defend himself instead of an equal he will leave so quickly the windows will shatter."
And Thor knew Loki was right. No body with scars like that could be called a child's body.
"I plan on keeping him safe, protecting him with all that I have." Loki said. "But no matter how much I hate it, I can't treat him like the baby I loved so much. With a prophecy in play I can't follow my first instinct and hide him away on some distant planet. Trying to trick fate will only hurt him further. I have to be smart."
More silence as they digested that. It was true. Locking Harry up like a princess in a tower would only in the end hurt him. Because if the prophecy was about him, then nothing would keep him from that final confrontation.
"So we need to know the wording then. This Dumbledore guy obviously knows it." Tony said. "Any other way we can get our hands on it?"
"All true prophecies given on earth are recorded magically." Loki said. "If it was given in Britain then that means that the British Magical Government will have it stored somewhere. Probably in the Department of Mysteries."
"So, can we just go and pick it up?" Steve asked.
"No. There are protections on those orbs." Loki said. "If you touch one that isn't about you, the magic will backlash so hard you're likely to either go completely mad or die."
"Why would they do that?" Bruce asked.
"To keep people from messing with fate. In Asgard, seers often won't even reveal the prophecies they give for the same reason." Thor guessed.
"So, what? Have we got to threaten it out of Dumbledore?" Natasha asked. "I'm good with threats."
"It might be our only option." Steve said.
"Harry could know it." Thor said. "He was the one who told us about it in the first place."
"Then we'll wait for him to wake up." Natasha said. "When me and Steve were talking about it earlier while Bruce was checking him out, Harry kept trying to answer our questions but it kept coming out as gibberish."
"Yes." Thor said. "I think Harry's going to be our best source of information on the current status of the war. He told me before he went to sleep that he wanted me to make sure Loki stayed here because a lot had changed since he'd left. But we'll have to wait a few days until he's coherent."
"So, what do we do till now? I mean, we're all fighting this You-Know-Who guy right?" Bruce said. "Cause we're the Avengers."
"I think fighting magical terrorists is in our job description, yeah." Clint agreed. "What do you say Cap? Wanna take a break fighting Hydra?"
"I think this might be a bit more pressing." Steve said wryly. "You up for it Tony?"
"You kidding? This is going to be my change to finally test out some of my different suits!"
"What about you Nat?" Steve asked. "You in?"
She lifted an eyebrow up at the question, which really, form her was about a declaration of undying support to the cause. Loki was looking a little…stunned at the show of support.
"I…You…thank you." He said. "But if you're going to be fighting Death Eaters. You're going to need some training. A magic war is very different from anything you've experienced, even you Thor. On earth, during a magic fight, it's considered ill form to actually touch your opponent. You all will need to learn how to identify human spells, know what can be blocked and what can't."
"Well we've got at least a few days until Harry's up and about. How about you get us started Obi-wan?"
Thor smiled as Loki took a moment to pull himself together. Then there was a determined gleam in his eye. He clasped his hands together, lacing his fingers together with both of his pointer fingers still pointed straight up. The tips of those two fingers touched his lips for just a moment.
"Let's go to the training room then. No time like the present." Then Loki's hands were free as he strode over to the elevator. "Come on! This is no time to procrastinate! Thor! I'll need you to be my test dummy!"
Thor rolled his eyes.
"Why did I miss him so much?"
"That is one of the world's greatest mysteries."
"Come on." Steve said. "Let's go."