On Punching Gods and Absentee Dads
Enigmaris
Chapter 9: Ron Weasley and the Midnight Excursion
Summary:
Harry competes in a flying contest and Loki realizes just how little prepared he is to talk to his own son.
Notes:
Hey guys sorry the update's a bit later than normal. It's finals week and things are busy. I'll get back into the groove of things soon enough.
Chapter Text
Loki's teeth were about to crack. He didn't care as he watched his son, Thor and Tony get ready to fly against one another. They were setting up a track, the idea being that each person would fly through it one at a time to prove their prowess. Loki's jaw clenched as Thor ruffled Harry's hair and the boy didn't push him off.
"So we need to prove that we're the fastest and who can move the best." Tony said.
"I've got the paintball guns." Clint said.
"Paintball guns?" Loki asked, finally stepping forward.
"Well yeah. We're going to see who can dodge the best."
"By firing projectiles at them?"
"It's just paint it won't even bruise. Tony's in his armor and Thor's a god." Harry said, giving him a look as if to dare him to argue. Loki's tongue pushed against the back of his teeth. Everything in him begged to pull his son to his chest and declare that his son wasn't yet fit for this kind of activity and even if he was there was no way that he would allow anyone to fire a paintball gun in his direction. But then Loki remembered Harry's face when Loki had started his rant about the basilisk.
Right. He wouldn't treat him like a child. He could do this.
"Fine." He said as if it didn't matter. Loki looked away, missing the look of frustration and disappointment coming from his son. "Who's starting?"
"I will." Thor said his voice serious.
"Alright Thor, you'll start here." Clint said. "You have to fly through these trees without hitting any of them as well as dodge the paintballs that Nat and I will be firing at you. Follow the red flags that I set up, that's the course. Don't go above the tree line. Bruce'll be at the finish line with the timer. Each time you hit or are hit with something we'll add five seconds to your time."
"A fine race." Thor declared stepping forward.
Everyone got into position while Loki stared at the back of his son's messy head. How was Thor interacting with him so seamlessly? Thor could touch Harry on the arm or head and the boy didn't jump away as if he'd been touched by acid. Thor could laugh and joke and Harry didn't respond with a caustic, judgmental tongue. Meanwhile Loki couldn't even do one thing around his son without it ending in shambles.
It was just like Asgard all over again. Thor the favored one while Loki was the disparaged. No. No Loki wouldn't allow it. Thor would suffer if he thought he could steal his son away from him. Thor was going to back off after this. Loki was Harry's father. Loki was the one who was supposed to help him and make him laugh and protect him. He could do this. The difficulty of the challenge meant little. Loki was a master of strategy.
He'd gotten Lily Evans to fall in love with him. He could gain his son's affection.
Thor stepped up to the start. Everyone counted down and when Tony made a bell ring from his suit, Thor rushed off. Almost immediately Thor broke a branch off of a tree. Thor had many skills, but dodging had never been one of them, Mjolnir as a tool for flight was fast. That was about it though. It was a hammer designed to hit things and block blows. It was more inclined to break through an obstacle than move around it. Which perfectly matched Thor, in the end.
Thor followed the red flags and attempted to zip in between the trees, often clipping off branches on his way. He also had no sense of warning meaning that he got hit with the bright purple paint a far few times. Halfway through the flight Thor realized he'd never win on maneuverability so he poured all of his energy into speed. Probably banking on the fact that if he was the absolute fastest, even the hits he took wouldn't matter. A not terrible plan but he didn't account The Hawk's absolutely phenomenal aim.
By the end of his run Thor was covered in spots of bright purple paint. He looked like Barney. Harry and Tony were both jeering at him from the other end of the race while Thor dared them to do better.
"Well, kid."
"Oh no. Age before beauty. I insist."
"Are you calling me old?"
"You're the one who used those words not me."
"You're going down Potter."
"Brave words for a guy in a metal suit."
Tony lowered his face mask and told everyone to start the countdown. He rushed off right as the bell rang, his suit taking him quickly into the air. Stark's programming on the suit allowed him a greater range of movement. He had to go much slower lest he ram into any trees but he was able to flit between the trunks and thicker branches. Loki didn't pay as much attention to the flight as he would have liked, far more fascinated with the sight of his son.
It was just the two of them standing in the clearing, watching Tony follow the bright red flags. This would be the time to say something, anything to his son. 'Hello' seemed too simple. 'How are you' was ridiculous. 'Congratulations on slaying a basilisk if we were on Asgsard Odin himself would honor you with a feast for your bravery. I'm sorry if I made you feel poorly, I'm just worried'. No, no that was far too honest for him.
Maybe Loki tell Harry about how much like his mother he was. Just that morning when Harry had dressed down Thor in the middle of one of his tantrums. The fire and the kindness in his green eyes, his sheer indignation. It was like Lily was standing before him. He could see all the love and kindness in his eyes that Lily's had once held. Would it be odd if Loki told Harry that? If Loki admitted how glad he was that Harry had inherited his mother's heart and fire? It would serve his son far better than Loki's own.
No, no that would be odd wouldn't it? Harry hardly even knew his mother. Perhaps he didn't want to be reminded of her. Did he? Loki had no clue.
Why was this so difficult?
"So." Loki said breaking the silence.
"Yeah?"
"You mentioned the history OWL. Are there any classes you did well in?" He tried to sound nonjudgmental and only interested. He wanted to know what parts of magic fascinated his son. He needed to know. Harry shifted awkwardly and looked at his feet.
"I'm not sure? I don't really do well on tests."
"That's fine." Loki said, trying to find a way to comfort the young man without it being odd. "Not everyone can excel."
Ahead of them Stark was getting hit by Natasha and Clint both. His suit glistening in the afternoon sun making it easy for him to be spotted. With the narrow space left to maneuver Stark had little chance to dodge but he managed until Hawkeye started aiming at the armor's legs and feet. Apparently, his suit couldn't sense things from that angle and Stark couldn't feel the hits from the balls of paint. When Stark burst out from the trees and landed at the end of the race track, he immediately started to crow about having a perfect run. Bruce had quietly pointed at the man's now purple feet and the man had howled in outrage.
Next to him Harry laughed a little, the awkwardness from their stilted conversation falling away.
"Guess it's my turn." He said making Loki desperately want to conjure a helmet for him. "I'll see you on the other side. START THE COUNT DOWN!"
Harry straddled his broom, a newer design that looked so different from the Comet series brooms Loki had used back in the day. When the bell rang Harry blasted off. Unlike his competitors Harry flew insanely low to the ground, his feet tucked up against the broom so that he could be mere inches from the grassy forest floor. It allowed him to entirely miss the branches. He only raised himself up when a bush or bramble got in his way.
Loki's mouth dropped open as he watched his son fly. Harry moved with a grace that would've made professional quidditch players drool. He took sharp turns that had him flying along the curves of the tree trunks, missing the bark of them by a hair's breadth. Clint and Natasha tried to aim at him, but with the branches in between them and him acting as a cover he was much safer than the other two competitors had been.
It meant that he was covered from Natasha but Clint wasn't earth's best archer for no reason. His abilities were far beyond a normal man. He aimed in between the branches and summer foliage. Loki's heart leapt up as the paint ball moved towards his son's head. Harry without even turning his head flattened his body along the shaft of his broom and the ball flew right above his head, splattering on a trunk behind him.
He heard Clint curse and fire again. Harry, still laying on his broom, roughly pulled the broom so that he took a nearly right angle turn upwards, dodging both the paintball and a tree in front of him. He turned again before he broke the tree line, having managed to move between outstretching branches and then flew straight down again in a perfect Wronski Feint. He pulled up moments before the ground, his feet dragging along the grass. Clint kept firing but Harry had a supernatural ability to know when they were coming. His magic reaching out around him and warning him with enough time to dodge.
Harry flew out from the mix of trees free of paint and with a huge grin on his face. Loki teleported to the finish line right as Harry arrived. Loki knew immediately what he had to do. The James Potter in him rushed up ready to babble about how fantastic a quidditch player his son had to be. Ideas about seeker's matches and games they could play on brooms together filled his brain. This was the way to do it. Loki knew.
Before he could Thor bellowed his laughter and pulled Harry into a back breaking hug.
"I can't believe it." Stark said looking down at Bruce's time. "That shouldn't have been possible. My suit is…"
"Not as good as a wooden broom."
"Shut it."
Clint and Natasha came out of the trees. Clint shouting about how he'd never before missed in his life and he can't believe he'd been shown up. Natasha kept listing times she'd seen him miss which didn't help his case. Bruce was looking far too amused as he tried to comfort Tony. Thor took up all of Harry's attention. Loki knew he could steal it back but based on the glowing look on his son's face it wouldn't be appreciated.
The words died in his throat as he watched everyone congratulate his son on the amazing flying. Somewhere in Valhalla Loki had no doubt Lily was shaking her head at him for being a coward. But what was he to do? Lily would know what to do wouldn't she? Granted Loki doubted that Harry would be as fractious around his mother. There was no one in the nine realms who'd feel ill at ease around the woman.
He wished he could talk to her.
Everyone moved back to the Quinjet, with Harry the uncontested winner. Chatter filled Loki's ears as he tried to imagine what Lily would do. Well Lily wouldn't have allowed the contest in the first place. He still remembered how she'd scolded him for letting their baby on a training broom when Harry was barely a year old. But if the flying contest had happened, what would Lily have done? His wife would be able to reach their son. Loki didn't notice the looks that Harry was sending him, too focused on finding a way to reach out to Harry.
When they settled down in the Quinjet Harry had somehow managed to snag a seat farthest away from Loki. The flight back to the Tower was spent with Loki glaring at Thor for taking the seat next to his son and wishing that he knew what he was doing wrong. Harry had to like him, right? Loki didn't know how he'd react if Harry didn't want a thing to do with him.
They got back to the tower in short order and had lunch. Thankfully the others took the cue to make themselves scarce so that it was only Loki and Harry eating together.
"So. The flying, it was good."
"You think so?"
"Yes. It's not surprising you must have gotten it from me. I remember, I used to fly all the time." Harry's face was warming up to the conversation. All was not lost. "I used to practice in the hallways. Not flying but quidditch skills. I had this snitch I used to carry around and catch while me and the others were looking for trouble."
Then abruptly something shuttered down in his son's expression.
"What sort of trouble?" He asked.
"Oh you know. Pranks, mischief."
"And you'd just prank anyone?" Harry pushed.
"Well yes. We had a few people we liked to target especially but no one was really safe."
"Right." And with that Harry turned back to poking at his lunch.
"What does that mean?" Loki asked.
"Nothing."
"It doesn't sound like nothing."
"I just don't get it!" Harry said looking at him, eyes blazing. "Why do you sound so proud of that?"
"Having fun with my friends?"
"Terrorizing people!" Loki knew at the moment that they were talking about something very different. Was this Harry's way of taking him to task over the invasion? Loki prepared to explain himself.
"Harry, I don't take pride in that. I've never been proud of the mistakes I've…"
"You sounded proud of them."
"What…?"
"I saw you!" Harry said. "A memory of you go up to a student and use magic to lift him up by his ankle! He wasn't even doing anything and you just humiliated him in front of everybody!"
Loki knew immediately what memory that was. It wasn't one of his proudest moments. It was something that looking back he could feel nothing but disgust about. Snape might have been an absolutely awful sniveling fool but that had been cruel.
"And then when mum told you to stop you just said you would if she went out with you!" Harry said, his tone filled with hurt. "I just…how could you do that?"
"I can't defend that Harry I was…" Loki realized that saying he'd been trying to impress Lily wouldn't go well. "How did you even see that memory?"
That wasn't something that Sirius or Remus or Peter would've shown Harry was it?
"Is that what all your pranks were like?" Harry asked. Is that what you were like?
"I promise you that we weren't always so awful." Loki said trying to salvage anything from this sinking ship.
"Is that all you can say?" Harry demanded. "That you weren't so awful?"
His silver tongue left him while Harry looked at him like the world was falling down around him. The pain in his green eyes was devastating. Harry got up from his chair before Loki could marshal up a defense. Loki found himself sitting alone in the penthouse wondering why he couldn't even get along with his own flesh and blood. Perhaps it was better if Thor took the reigns. It was obvious Loki wasn't good enough for Harry.
Thor could weild Mjolnir. Thor had a good heart.
Loki didn't know how long he sat there stewing in his upset, the mid-afternoon turning to evening. Jarvis let him know that his son was in his room and wasn't taking visitors. Eventually Thor came to find him. Loki was torn between stabbing the thunderer, yelling at him, and pretending that he wasn't even there.
"I take it that the conversation didn't go well?"
"Well deduced."
"Don't be like that." Thor said. "What happened?"
"He thinks I'm a monster, a bully." Loki said after a few moments of silence. "And he hates me. He doesn't want me to be worried about me, he doesn't want me to hug him. He doesn't want to talk about school or quidditch or anything. He feels far more at ease with you than he ever will me and I ought to…How did you not explode when he told you about that basilisk?"
Basilisks were the one creature that even the ever confident Thor would balk at facing alone. Odin had demanded their extinction when Loki was but a small boy. He could still remember the warriors who went out to slay a basilisk and never came home, either eaten alive or turned to stone. Thor sat down in the seat Harry had vacated, a half eaten plate of food still there, now cold.
"I admit I almost lost my composure." Thor said. "Just the idea of him having been bitten? I know I almost broke the arm rest I was holding."
Loki snorted while Thor continued.
"I knew that he needed me to be excited and so I just…forced it."
"But how?"
"He's like you."
"He's nothing like me. He's just like Lily. It took me over six years to get Lily to even be my friend."
The fact that he didn't have six years of time for his son was left unsaid. The war was on and there was danger everywhere. He needed his son to trust him now before another tragedy struck.
"He's your son and I have a lot of experience dealing with you." Thor insisted. "I remember the first time you tried sky-walking."
"What does that have to do with it? You freaked out." It was pretty funny in retrospect.
"I did and then you didn't talk to me for three months because I was treating you like a baby." Loki laughed, his mind marveling over that. Thor reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "We need to find someone who knows Harry and we need to talk to them. I was lucky today that treating him like I did you all those years ago worked. That won't last forever."
"He's got so many scars, so many secrets." It's impossible was what Loki didn't say.
"And so you're going to give up on your son? No. I won't allow it. Now think, there must have been someone he mentioned. Someone you know."
His first thought was of Hermione but he had no clue where she lived. He couldn't turn to any of his own friends, they all thought him dead and that would eventually get back to Dumbledore. But then who?
"Ron." Loki said. "He's a Weasley. I know where Molly and Arthur live. I can see Harry's friend Ron."
"We'll go together." Thor said. "Hopefully we can convince Ron to help us. He seemed quite defensive of Harry on the phone."
"He did, didn't he?" Loki got up. "Jarvis, ask Tony to bring Harry some food."
"Of course sir."
"Come on Thor. Let's go get some answers."
Thor easily took Loki's outstretched hand and within moments a plume of green fie had taken them from New York to the outside of a very odd magical house. It looked larger than Loki remembered, new parts had been added since the last he'd been there. But it still had the same charm and feeling of home.
"It's…unique." Thor said trying to muster up a polite compliment.
"It's The Burrow and trust me, when we're actually invited inside you'll love it. At least for Molly's cooking."
"I'll take your word for it."
It was late here. Well past dinner time and probably around the time that normal people would retire for bed.
"Stay here." Loki said. "I'm going to find Ron."
"Be careful."
Loki carefully cast a spell, his magic searching for the people living in the home. He recognized the magic signatures of Molly and Arthur. As well as the magical markings of the children he'd met before going into hiding. The twins, who'd been mere babes at the time as well as Percy. There were two he didn't know. A girl and a boy. The girl must be Ginny, the one Harry had saved from the basilisk.
"Gotcha." Loki looked up to the tallest part of the house where there was a slightly open window. That had to be Ron's room. Loki conjured up some small flat stones and began to toss them with unerring accuracy. They landed on the windows with a clatter before falling back to earth. It took four hits before there was noise and the window swung open wider.
A young man who looked almost exactly like a younger Arthur had as a fifth year stuck his head out.
"I swear to Merlin, Fred if that's…" He trailed off and looked down at Loki. "Mr. Potter?"
"It's me." Loki said nodding. "Come down here. We need to talk."
Ron frowned and looked at him very suspiciously.
"What's the password to the Maurader's Map?"
"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." Ron nodded and the suspicion melted from his face.
"What do you want?"
"I'm having problems with Harry. Look, can we please talk in the backyard?" Loki begged.
"I'll be down in a tic." Ron's head disappeared and Loki quickly got Thor and led him to the backyard. Within a minute they were joined by the sleepy freckled face of his son's best friend.
Ron was carrying one of Arthur's old mage lights that the man had stuck to the end of a stick. Ron plunged the bottom end of the stick into the ground so that they had a better light source than the stars.
"It is an honor to meet you." Thor said.
"Yeah, you too sir." Ron said holding out his hand. Thor immediately shook it and the boy mostly hid his grimace at the strong grip. "Now what's this about Harry?"
"I keep…offending him." Ron nodded thoughtfully and crossed his arms over his white and blue pajamas.
"You were right to come to me. Tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave anything out."
Ron settled down on the slightly wet ground and insisted the rest of them did too as Loki told the story of what had happened today since the phone call that morning. During most of it Ron looked thoughtful, sometimes he gave Loki a dirty look but thankfully the red head refrained from saying anything until he was done.
"Well no wonder Harry's so angry with you." Loki opened his mouth to defend himself but Ron waved him off. "It's not your fault. You've not been here. It's Dumbledore's fault. Speaking of which, when you go after him leave a piece big enough for me to kick."
"Will do." Loki promised.
"Good. Now, about Harry." Ron said. "What I'm about to tell you, you've got to swear you won't tell a single soul that you know. Especially not Harry. He'll kill me if he finds out I told you anything. But if you want to help him you've got to know and I know he'll never tell you anything."
"I swear on my hammer never to tell a single soul." Thor said.
"And I swear on my wife's grave."
"Good." Ron said. "The first thing you gotta know is that Harry doesn't…know how to do touch."
"Touch?"
"Hugs, handshakes, high fives. All of it. He's not good with 'em. He likes being hugged and stuff but if you give him one when he's not expecting it he'll act like he's a cat that got sprayed with water. Best time to give him a hug is after a big quidditch win. Like when Thor hugged him after the flying contest. He takes those best."
"But why?" Thor asked.
"He never got touched as a kid." Ron said, his voice turning dark and frustrated. "I know I was the first person to ever give him a hug when we were 11, I gave him one just right after Halloween and he was spooked for three days after."
"Where did Dumbledore leave him after that night?" Loki demanded.
"With his Aunt Petunia." Ron said. "You know his mum's sister."
"Tuni? That vile, hateful woman?"
"Yeah, she's gotten worse with age." Ron admitted. "And her husband is even worse. Once I had to rescue Harry from their house before they starved him to death."
"What?"
And so the story of the flying car incident was revealed. Harry's mortal uncle had locked Harry up in a prison like room for days at a time because of magic that Harry hadn't actually done, only feeding him one can of uncooked soup a day. Vernon had even put bars on the window in an attempt to keep Harry inside. Ron and the twins had freed Harry and taken him to the burrow for the rest of the summer.
The longer Ron spoke the angrier all of them grew. Thor had to grip Mjolnir very tightly to keep another storm from dumping right on their heads.
"I've tried to be there for him as much as I can." Ron finished. "I send him food now over the summers so that he gets enough. Hermione does too."
"I will kill them." Thor said. "I'm going to…"
"Later." Loki said. "We'll punish them later."
Thor nodded his expression thunderous.
"I've got some advice for you." Ron said. "About Harry at least."
"Any wisdom you can give."
"Never say he's lying. People have done that way too often and it always pisses him off. Harry only lies when he thinks he has to so that he can protect the people he loves." Ron said. "If you make a mistake, apologize as soon as you can. Harry can't hold a grudge to save his life. We once had this huge fight in our fourth year and I apologized eventually and things were just fine after. He wants to get along with you, you just have to be willing to work with him."
Loki nodded. He could apologize, he could.
"Tell him how you feel." Ron said. "Be honest as you can. Harry doesn't read the subtle stuff right. His relatives taught him to always think the worse of everything. If there's anything not clear about what you say then Harry's going to think the worst. Every time. When McGonagall tried to put him on the quidditch team she wasn't clear about it and he thought he was being expelled for like thirty whole minutes. I promise you the reason Harry's acting like that is because he thinks you hate him."
"What? No I don't…"
"You didn't make him wear a helmet." Ron said. "In the flying contest. My mum makes me wear a helmet, even when we're just playing the backyard. He's probably thinks that you didn't say anything about him begin safe because you don't care if he is or not."
"I didn't want to suffocate him!" Ron just shrugged.
"So, we should be honest." Thor said. "I can do that. What else?"
"Don't freak out when he tells you bad stuff? I mean you can get mad but if you're not careful he'll never tell you anything ever again. Harry's told me practically nothing about his relatives and I know that the little stuff he does drop is just a fraction of the truth. If I freak out when he shares he won't ever again."
"Right." Loki said. "Okay. Okay. Anything else?"
"Tell him about his mum." Ron said. "And about you too. Harry's always been curious about his parents."
"When I tried we argued."
"That's cause of Snape."
"Severus Snape?"
Ron scowled and muttered about the greasy potions master. It took very little prompting for the passionate Gryffindor to rant about the head of Slytherin who liked to bully everyone, especially Harry. Apparently for the last 5 years Snape had been going after Harry as a way to get revenge for all of the pranks and bullying that Loki had done to Snape in their youth. It was childish and awful and Loki suddenly understood exactly why Harry had been so angry at him.
"You get it now, right?"
"Yes. Yes I do. Thank you so much, you've no idea how much I owe you."
"Just make sure he's happy. I don't care what you have to do but make sure my friend is happy. Please."
"We have a similar goal." Thor said.
"Good. When you guys get ready to come back to Britain you can come here. I know my parents'll side with you. They see Harry as one of theirs and no one crosses a Weasley like that."
"Thank you. I knew your parents well before all of this. I'm glad to know I can trust them." Loki said honestly. "Don't tell anyone we were here. Once Harry's recovered from his magical exhaustion we'll be coming back. Tom Riddle will not live to see this year end if I've anything to say about it."
Ron took his leave looking pleased with himself, the night having truly fallen. Thor and Loki, despite desperately wanting to take a detour to Little Winging, went back to the tower. Thor clapped his hand on Loki's shoulder.
"Go to Harry. Leaving him alone any longer won't do anyone any good."
"Yes, you're right."
It was very easy to teleport down a few floors so that he was right outside the guest bedroom that Tony had set aside for Harry. Carefully Loki knocked on the door.
"Go away Tony!"
"It's me." Silence met his declaration. Loki laid his head on the door and spoke as calmly as he could. "Can I come in?"
"I don't want to talk to you!" Harry's voice sounded closer to the door.
"Please, Starlight, I really need to talk to you."
"What'd you call me?"
"Starlight. I called you Starlight. It's what I used to call you when you were a baby because you were my bright spot of happiness." Silence. Loki wondered and feared if that that had been too honest. The door opened just a crack. A bit of his son's hair and one of his eyes stuck out through the opening.
"What?"
"Can I please come in and talk to you? I want to apologize for today, I didn't handle anything well."
"You want to apologize?"
"Please Starlight?"
It was a small eternity of waiting but eventually Harry closed his eyes and let the door fall open entirely. Loki swallowed and took a step inside. He could do this. He had to be honest, no more miscommunication.