On Punching Gods and Absentee Dads

Enigmaris

Chapter 56: One Year Later

Summary:

Ron, Hermione, and Harry plan for the future.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

1 Year Later:

There was, if one knew where to look, a few places in Asgard that were perfect for being alone. The royal library was generally empty and perfect for a nap in a sunny window or a nice long solitary reading time. There were a few armories that were used for storing materials for war that had been put away and nearly forgotten, the dark dusty rooms were a bit uncomfortable, but they were guaranteed to be empty of anything living.

There was also, just outside the borders of the royal city, north of the Bifrost, a patch of ancient forest. And if one were to walk through that forest, through paths that were so rarely used that they looked nearly invisible, they would eventually find themselves going up until they ended up on a grassy lookout point. It was high enough and distant enough that no one could see you if you were up there, and it was almost always sunny with a bit of a nice breeze.

Harry had discovered this place, while flying around as a raven, a pretty little outlook that allowed anyone to see the entire beautiful vista of Asgard while also offering a measure of privacy. He rather liked this spot, it was very peaceful and calming. There was no better place to go if one was upset and wanted to work that out by themselves than there. Harry would often fly up there during the night, if he had a nightmare, to look out at the warm golden city that had stolen his heart.

Today Harry had gone up here to do some thinking. It was his 18th birthday, and by his annual request, there wasn't going to be a large feast for him to celebrate. His grandfather was working hard on trying to convince him to let them celebrate the Aesir way, but Harry didn't want to celebrate it with every single person in Asgard as well as 50 major delegates from other planets. He just wanted to spend it with his family and friends. So there was going to be a small party on earth today, at his parents' home in Godric's Hollow, which they had spent the last year refurbishing and putting back together again.

He knew there would be a feast in Asgard sometime this week, his family might think they were sneaky, but they weren't. The feast would appear not to have anything at all to do with him, but he'd still end up laden with gifts and having people tell him congratulations so it was pretty obvious what the feast was for. Still he appreciated that they at least tried to be subtle about it and let him have the day of his birthday for himself.

Harry sighed and settled his chin on his knee.

He lifted up his right hand and looked at the tattoo that had been emblazoned on there for over two years. It was still incredibly bright and crisp, nothing Harry had gotten up to since he'd gotten it, had caused it to fade. He traced the berkanan node with his eyes, it's shape and meaning familiar to him. Hope and wisdom. Ron had given him so much hope through the years, hope for friendship especially. Ron was the one who gave him the guts and the tools to go and confront his dad. His friend had if anything become more hopeful since the ending of the war, looking to the future with what was best called happiness.

Next there was the laguz. Harry smiled, the twisted node that connected to both his and Ron's, those lines represented the person who always, always, knew. Hermione's quest for knowledge and the truth had only grown more rabid after the war ended. She no longer had to put aside her curiosity to help Harry and Ron keep their heads. Instead she was free to go down and study whatever rabbit hole she wanted, egged on by both Tony and Bruce. He and Ron had happily been relegated to 'make sure she eats twice a day' duty.

He sighed and leaned back until he landed softly on his back, looking up at the blue sky above him.

We're all equal partners in this. Together we are at our strongest. I'm the brains, you're the brawn and Ron's the heart. Together we make one round, never ending and in balance.

Equal. Yeah. That's what they were, right? But for how long? Harry had already begun to notice that they were drifting apart. Not emotionally no, but physically. It had only been around 18 months since the final battle and Harry becoming a god. His aging had naturally slowed to what appeared to be a complete stop that day. They weren't even sure if he was going to age much at all and they wouldn't know for centuries yet.

But his friends were aging.

They were all eighteen today, but Harry looked younger. Right now, it wasn't terribly noticeable, just a few small things, but what about a year from now? Or five? Or ten? Or twenty? Harry was going to be stuck looking the exact same while everyone on earth would age. His friends would look like adults long before Harry ever would. They'd get married and have children and soon their children would look Harry's age and then they'd look older and Harry wouldn't have aged a day.

His best friends were going to look old enough to be his parents soon it felt like. His mother looked closer to his own age than they would. Harry's heart ached at the thought. He knew his friends would still want to be there for him, that was clear, but they were going to go places that he couldn't follow. He screwed his eyes shut at the thought. Eventually they would be parted and Harry would be left with nothing but the mark on his wrist to remember them by.

He hadn't talked to anyone about this. He didn't really know how to express that he was mourning something that wouldn't happen for decades yet. It had only hit him so hard this morning because Thor had mentioned how quaint it was that humans celebrated their birthday every year instead of every century at breakfast and Harry had felt like the breath had been punched out of him.

"Mate?"

Harry jumped up a bit surprised to see Ron and Hermione both looking down at him from two brooms.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked. "I thought…thought we'd meet up on earth?"

"Your mum picked us up." Hermione said. "She thought you might need to talk?"

"I'm fine."

"Is this the one where you're actually fine or are you just saying that?" Ron asked as he landed on the grass next to Harry. Harry rolled his eyes as both of his friends settled down onto the grass next to him.

"I've just got some stuff on my mind." Harry said. "I promise I'm okay, I don't want to talk about it right now. Please."

"Alright." Hermione said. "We do have something we want to talk to you about."

"Really?" Harry asked sitting up so that he was planted on his elbows. Both of his friends looked a bit nervous all of sudden. "What's wrong?"

"It's not wrong." Ron said, shifting a bit. "It's just me and Hermione were thinking. You know you're leaving to go to Alfheim for a year to study with the elves right?"

"Uhm yeah."

He would still be able to visit his friends and family but he would be essentially studying abroad on another planet for a full year to learn about enchanting. He was leaving in about a month.

"Well…" Hermione said. "We were thinking it might be nice to go with you?"

Harry had wanted to extend the invitation to go to Alfheim with him to his friends before, he thought it might be nice for all three of them to go and learn magic together after graduation. But there had been a few issues with that. The elves didn't want to teach anyone their magic who was mortal, they felt that sort of power would be used poorly by people who weren't going to live long enough to bear the consequences of whatever they magic up with it. That and mortal bodies couldn't handle the amount of magic that elves threw around on a daily basis, it would make them sick. Plus, Hermione was looking to go to university too and Ron himself was thinking of doing some sort of a gap year where he explored different parts of the magical world before deciding on a career.

He'd thought that this would be where they parted ways for a year, keeping in contact with letters and magical calls as they began to learn how to be on their own.

"Oh." Harry said. "I mean, you both know the elves don't want to teach humans-"

"They don't want to teach mortals." Ron corrected. "And there's an easy fix to that one."

"What?" Harry demanded sitting up fully, both of his friends smiled and reached into their pockets to remove two familiar looking apples. "What?"

"We talked to Idunn about it." Hermione said.

"And Odin." Ron added.

"And Frigga."

"And your parents."

"And our parents."

"We didn't want to leave you alone." Ron said. "We wanted to be with you. And since we have our shield brother bond, we can. It makes us as good as family to Asgard and Odin was willing to let us have an apple each."

"But…but…" Harry said. "What about your families? You'll leave them behind!"

"You're our family too." Hermione insisted. "That's why it took us over a year to decide if this is what we wanted Harry. Me and Ron have been thinking about this since your parents' wedding, if not longer."

"I don't understand." Harry admitted, feeling something warm and goopy begin to rise up from his stomach. "You can't…"

"We can." Ron said seriously. "I talked to every single one of my siblings and my parents about this, one on one. They all accepted what I wanted. I'm going to miss them all so much but mate, I'd miss you more. I know thanks to your mum that my family will be fine when they move on, we'll be apart sure, but they'll be happy together and they'll be able to watch over me. I can't say the same for you. You'd be on your own getting into trouble all the time."

"The point of our marks was to make sure you'd never be on your own." Hermione added, lifting up her hand to showcase her own mark. "I talked to my parents too and they understand me and this. I'll miss them Harry, and they'll miss me but this is the right choice."

Harry told himself not to cry.

"I can't ask you to do that." He said.

"Good thing you aren't." Ron said, lifting his apple up to the light. "We made this choice ourselves, you didn't even know we were doing it."

"But guys." Harry said. "This isn't just a few decades, I'm going to live forever. Until time stops existing unless I turn evil, you can't possibly-"

"That's exactly what we mean Harry." Hermione said gently. "It's not going to be such a huge sacrifice Harry. I'm going to have all of time to learn everything there is to know."

"And I'm going to have endless adventures with you two." Ron added grinning. "There's a limitless amount of alien foods I'll get to try to eat and so much more. I don't know what sorts of things I want to do with my life yet, but I'll figure it out and if I get bored with that, I'll pick something new."

"This isn't something you can undo." Harry warned. "It'll be permanent."

"Harry. We know." Ron said with a snort. "We've been thinking about this and debating it for over a year now! Do you think we would have gotten this far if we hadn't considered that maybe turning ourselves immortal might be permanent?"

"We want this." She said. "We really, really do. It's okay Harry."

Harry sniffled and quickly rubbed his face with his wrist to clean up the tears.

"That's not fair." He said. "You're not supposed to make me cry, it's my birthday."

His friends laughed at him, Ron pulling him into a quick side hug. When Harry had managed to compose himself, he looked back up to see that his friends were still holding the apples.

"Oh, go on then." He said. "It's obvious I can't stop you."

"Finally." Hermione said. "You're starting to see some sense."

"Thought he'd never figure it out." Ron joked.

Then both of his friends lifted up their apples and they ate. It didn't take long for them to eat the entire thing, core and all, licking their fingers cleans as they did so. Harry watched as the soul magic took hold, his senses nearly singing with it. When they finished his friends, both began to glow a bit, they swayed and leaned against Harry for support until the overwhelming sensations stopped. The apple had never been designed to make a big show of the transformation, it was meant to do its job simply and quickly. And so, Harry found that within a few minutes he now had two immortal best friends flanking him on either side.

The sun shone down on their group of three, warming the tops of their heads and their shoulders. There was a breeze just light enough to tickle their skin.

"You sure you're not going to regret it?" Harry found himself asking, the last struggling bits of his insecurities thrashing out one last time.

"We're sure." Hermione said.

"Yeah mate. You're not getting rid of us."

"Oh." Harry said. "That's good."

All three of them settled again, comfortable in the grass, in the little private space Harry had found for himself. They settled there in the air that smelt like flowers, right next to each other shoulder to shoulder. They settled there and all three of them greeted the new world they'd created for themselves together. They settled and they found there was nothing much to say in the silence of the moment.

Soon they would have to go back down into the city proper. Soon there would a small party on earth and congratulations all around. Soon things would begin to change and the worlds they visited would turn and grow. There would be danger and adventure in spades for the three of them, more than 100 lifetimes worth for them to explore and enjoy. Soon there would be more happy announcements to celebrate and more joyous memories to record. There would be trials soon, evil would rise again, and it was Harry's duty to meet it. But now it was not a duty he carried alone.

All of that would happen soon enough. But for now, there was time to settle and to be. So that is what they did. They rested for a moment, reveling in the knowledge that they were together. A complete unit made of three equally important parts. Eventually Harry's back began to feel a bit sore and he sighed, he pulled himself up and then held out a hand to both of his friends, pulling them up with an easy heave.

"Alright." Harry said. "Let's go."

His friends smiled at him, bright and happy. They both picked up their brooms and Harry let himself shift into a raven and together, they went.

Notes:

And that's it! Keep an eye out for a sequel sometime in the future. It probably won't be for a while, since I've got school and things to focus on but when I start writing it, I'll post another chapter to let you know so keep your subscriptions to this story!

Thank you so much for the support of this story! Your comments each week have brightened my days and kept me afloat as I struggled through grad school 3

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Warrior's & Heroes: The Missing Truth by Frankie34