The Marauder's Map

A dream, a memory, and a book of runes toiled an unsavory soup in Harry's mind, not to mention the activities of the Defensive Against the Dark Arts class. This year was definitely on its way to being anything but normal. Silent was the dormitory. A room of shadows. While those around him slumbered, Harry laid awake, unable to sleep. Hermione had long departed to the girls' dormitory after they had conversed over the newest staff member for what felt like the millionth time. Now Ron snored away in the bed next to him. With very few options available, Harry took out the Marauder's Map, a wonderful gift bestowed upon him by the Wesley twins and woven together by none other than his father and friends. He could always rely on it, ironic given its mantra, for the map never lied.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered pointing his wand at the map. The crooked corridors and serpentine passageways of Hogwarts radiated across the parchment. Several inky footprints magically marked with their appropriately assigned names moved throughout the page. Harry spread the parchment out farther when a particular pair of tiny footprints caught Harry's eye. Mr. Laufeyson's name floated next to it, along with a first name. Harry caught his own breath when he recognized it from Hermione's book.

It read 'Loki.'

Harry could not pass up the opportunity and thought perhaps he was meant to follow it, so he dashed out of bed with the map in hand and left the Gryffindor common room under his invisibility cloak. The map led him down a dark corridor of the castle towards the room of requirement. With map in hand, and wand aglow, he followed the name.

The names "Harry Potter" and "Loki Laufeyson" drew closer and closer. Harry swished his wand about searching in vain, his heart beating fast. Harry squinted toward the end of the corridor, then down at the map. Only seconds away... Wand trembling in his hand, Harry glanced from the map to find the tall, pitch black haired assistant at the end of the corridor. He covered his mouth in his sleeve to mask his breathing. Harry could see the large orange font stamped across his back. He couldn't make out what Mr. Laufeyson was doing so he tiptoed closer to get a better look.

Loki traced his hand across the stone wall, searching for an entry point. A green aura glowed from his hand, pouring into its cracks like a wicked creamy smoke.

"Come on … " he muttered underneath his breath as he gripped the stone in both hands, almost as if he was attempting to pry open the wall, but it didn't budge. Harry furrowed his brows while his heart rate waned. For someone who could perform magic without a wand, he didn't seem to know how the room worked. Loki took two steps back when his first attempt failed. The green aura returned to his hands only in a more solid form, like two bright green spheres. Loki threw one hand out and fired a small green blast at the wall, to no result. Harry's eyes grew wide, wondering if he should intervene. Loki threw another sphere, and another, blasting the wall with zipping green orbs. Harry was stunned he didn't wake anyone, including some of the portraits. The wall remained intact, refusing to bend to his wishes with neither damage nor a door.

"Oh come on!" Loki hissed. He took a more defensive stance, both hands aglow, ready for an all out attack when he heard a small noise towards the left connecting corridor. It didn't sound like a natural or magical sort of noise. Since he had lived most of his life in the muggle world, Harry could have sworn it sounded almost digital. The Trickster paused. Harry held his breath. A strange man in work clothes with salt and pepper hair and a mustache to match entered from the left. To Harry, he looked like he just came from a muggle's office, or the Ministry of Magic.

"Loki!" the man scolded as quietly as he could. Harry gasped, slowly removing his sleeve from his face. The strange man not only looked out of place, but sounded out of place.

"What?" whispered Harry, thoroughly confused and curious. Loki kept his hands lit for the sake of light. The Trickster whipped his head around to make sure they were alone, even the snoring portraits concerned him.

"Mobius?! What are you doing here?" he hissed.

"Making sure you don't destroy anything else," said Mobius as quietly as he could. Loki rolled his eyes.

"Mobius?" mouthed Harry. It was a very peculiar name. Harry had never heard it before, wizarding or muggle. Harry checked his map under the protection of his invisibility cloak. Next to Loki Laufeyson, he saw the name Mobius M. Mobius. He thought for sure it had to be fake along with Loki, but the map never lied.

"This is the place, Mobius!" Loki whispered excitedly while gesturing to the wall with a glowing hand. The agent quickly glanced very skeptically from the wall to his Asgardian counterpart with one hand on his hip.

"What am I looking at?" asked Mobius with a mature voice filled with doubt. Another sound put them all on guard.

"What was that?" asked the agent, scanning the black abysses of the corridors. The Asgardian doused both of his light sources, snatched Mobius by the wrist, blending them both into the shadows. Another digital noise rippled in the darkness. Harry stood very still, only keeping his lit wand up for visibility underneath the invisibility cloak.

Suddenly, he felt a tug on the magical fabric from behind. Someone slipped it off, revealing Harry completely. Harry spun around, wand raised. Mr. Laufeyson stood before him, holding the cloak with a satisfied grin and curious eyes. Loki looked down upon him with catlike confidence, very different from the goof attempting to break into one of Hogwarts' most mysterious rooms. Harry inhaled sharply.

"How the -" breathed Harry. He spun half way around and back from where Mr. Laufeyson and the strange man once stood, to where he was now alone. No one could apparate inside the school.

"Hmm, there's not many people who can sneak up on me," said Loki slyly. Harry swallowed hard, perhaps he was not meant to leave his dormitory this late at night he thought.

"Impressive garment, for what purpose I wonder," said Mr. Laufeyson as he casually examined it while verbally toying with Harry, a talented predator for sure playing with his caught food. Loki watched as his hands disappeared behind it. Harry didn't realize how hard he was breathing.

"How did ... how did you-"

"How did I ... what?" asked Loki confidently. Harry and Loki heard the noise again. Harry's eyes darted to his map. Mobius M. Mobius was completely gone, replaced by a new pair of approaching footprints, ones that he really did not wish to see.

"Mischief managed," said Harry quickly closing it up.

"Nox!" he said, eliminating his small light, and stashing the map, only to turn to the harsh glare of Snape's wand.

"Potter," said Snape harshly. Spooked, Severus realized that Harry was not alone and glared at Lupin's assistant. Loki merely returned the glare with another devious smile.

"Well well, Mr. Laufeyson ... how we feeling?" taunting him from their last encounter.

"Exceptional," said Loki charmingly, disarming Snape's condescension. Harry noticed that his invisibility cloak was nowhere to be seen. Harry tried not to panic.

"Potter," continued Snape, "What're you doing wandering the corridors at night?" Harry struggled to come up with some excuse seeing as he was now caught twice, when Mr. Laufeyson answered for him at record speed.

"I was just escorting him back to his dormitory," Loki liked smoothly. Snape glared at him carefully.

"Is. That. So," he said in his slow manner of speaking, doubting every word. His harsh wand still pointed at the both of them.

"Harry was helping me with some work after hours," said Loki calmly in a strangely charming manner. Snape narrowed his eyes without showing any emotion in the lower half of his face.

"Oh really, and what work might that be?" questioned Snape.

"Work Professor Lupin had assigned me. He is … after all … the real Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," said Loki slyly. Harry backed up closer to him for fear Snape might implode. It almost seemed like Mr. Laufeyson wanted Snape to stun him again. The unfavorable potions master encroached.

"You … are exceeding ... arrogant," said Snape fiercely, pointing his wand at him. The God of Mischief had just about enough of these wizards and their precious need for magical sticks. Loki waited patiently, like the good predator that he was, allowing Snape to get closer before swiftly grabbing his wand, disarming Snape with a single hand movement, twisting it in his fingers before reversing it back in his face. Snape stepped back alarmed.

"God you are annoying, I will be taking Mr. Potter back to his dormitory. You know, do the job that I am supposed to do. And you will leave us, understand?" said Loki twirling the wand in his fingertips like a blade as to give it back to Severus. Hesitantly, Snape took it.

"Come Mr. Potter," said Loki, disappointed, leading Harry away from Severus and the Room of Requirement.

Loki guided Harry, with a bit of the young wizard's help, to the Gryffindor Common room. He still wasn't quite acquainted yet with the inside of the school. Harry couldn't help but make a few mistakes along the way, the thought of the disappearing man and the enraged potions master disturbed him, and he began questioning his own sanity. They both hesitated awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs before divulging from each other's paths, plagued by questions regarding each of their late night activities.

"So, why were you sneaking about tonight?" Loki said, beginning the interrogation.

"I ... I wasn't sneaking," said Harry, attempting to lie again. Loki raised an eyebrow and summoned his invisibility cloak with both hands, fingers outstretched. It materialized in a flash of green and gold, similar to the aura previously in his hands.

"How did ..."

"I am not your stiff lipped Potions Master. If you're going to lie, at least do better than that," Mr. Laufeyson urged playfully. Harry let his mouth fall open a bit confused and stunned. He wanted to ask about the mysterious man and his rash intentions, but Dumbledore's warning of anonymity grew stronger in the back of his head.

"You were leaving the … Library," suggested Loki. Harry knitted his brows together.

"Studying for … " Loki suggested again.

"For … transfiguration," Harry answered hesitantly.

"When you … "

"Got lost," said Harry, finally comprehending the game. Loki looked down at the magical fabric in his hand.

"Now you're getting it, not sure how you are going to explain this," he said, tossing him the cloak of invisibility. Harry clumsily caught it.

"You're … not confiscating it?" Harry asked.

"Should I?" Loki asked slyly as he crossed both arms, looking down at the poor pupil.

"I … I won't be out late again, Sir … " stuttered Harry.

"Hmm," Loki hummed sarcastically, stealing another look at the cloak, "Next time I catch you, I expect a better story, or you can deal with Snape on your own," he said sternly. Harry nodded, still a bit dazed and headed straight for the Gryffindor common room. Loki waited at the steps to make sure he actually entered the portrait door, and that it shut firmly behind him. Loki let out a large sigh of relief as soon as the youngster was gone.

From the shadows of an adjacent corridor, Mobius approached.

"That was close," said the agent.

"You don't say?" Loki snarked the obvious.

"You sure that was wise? We still have a killer on the loose," the agent said, concerned more for the boy's safety and poor decision making.

"Well, if he's up to no good, let's see what kind," answered the professional Trickster, "Besides … " Loki said as he summoned a piece of parchment to his hand, showing it to Mobius. "He had this in his possession. What do you suppose it is?" asked Loki. The TVA analyst took it with a look of slight judgment for Loki's sticky fingers but no real surprise. Mobius opened it gently. For its many folds, the thick parchment held no information for him. Mobius shook his head.

"It just looks like old paper to me," he said.

"Did you hear what he said, right before he tried to hide it?" asked Loki.

"No."

"Mischief managed."

Mobius looked up from the blank parchment with raised eyebrows.

"He's just a kid … You don't think … " Mobius hinted.

"No, no I don't think so," said Loki recalling his moment of kindness when Harry helped him up from the crushed floor, and when he asked for help setting the hippogriff free albeit with an unorthodox method, "but I don't think discovering him tonight was a coincidence," he concluded.

"Right … " said Mobius. Another untethered strand of thought pulled uncomfortably at his mind. "How did you discover him?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"How did you know he was there? I mean he was invisible," said Mobius. Loki thought for a moment, allowing his thoughts to go so far back when a certain scarlet haired, black suited Avenger crept behind him without so much as a sound. However, ever since the TVA captured him, all of his powers and skills had been put on hold. Ever since he stepped foot in this world, he felt as if he was rediscovering them one by one.

"Honestly … I'm not entirely sure, I just knew someone was there," he answered as honestly as he possibly could.