I thought this was just a single chapter thing…
I'll leave it with the complete tag and if there's an idea sneaking up on me again. I'll post it.
He was certain after feeling that pull, he'd end up at the white station again.
It was only fair, right? To die and end up in a somewhat familiar place, maybe this time around he could meet his parents instead of professor Dumbledore…
Instead he was somewhere else he'd never been before. He could feel the power humming everywhere.
It felt like Hogwarts but ten times over.
At first he thought no one else was here. That is until he laid eyes on a man sitting on a throne. He had this… helmet? Sitting on top of his head with two enormous horns being the first thing noticed.
The weird helmet was funny; the throne looked ancient, made of the same earth under his feet. Multicolored streams of light that somehow reminded him of the Aurora Borealis surrounded the throne. This man was seated with his two hands occupied, somehow grabbing the streams of light.
The man was pale and had blue eyes, his dark hair reached his shoulders and even if his clothes were nothing to look at… he looked imposing. Not human.
This man was unlike anyone Harry ever laid eyes on, before.
"Are you God?" - He asked, after gulping. It was what came out of his mouth and the man smiled. Even if it was an amused smile it had an edge to it.
"You could say that- he admitted, in a pleasantly polite voice. His gaze fixed on Harry- I am a God. But I'm sure I'm not the God you know of. You must've pissed him off to end up here. Not that I mind the company. You know, it can get pretty lonely since not everyone can make it here."
Harry was exhausted. Everything the man said sounded like gibberish even if some alert part of him tried to pay any mind. But at this point he just wanted to lie down in any available surface and sleep for hours if not days on end.
Some of his utter exhaustion must've shown on his face, the man gave him a sympathetic look. And Harry jumped as a bed materialized next to him and all of the grime, blood, sweat and earth that covered him were cleaned without the abrasive feeling of cleaning charms. He felt properly cleansed, as if he'd just gotten out of the shower.
The man hadn't even moved an eyebrow. This was something no wizard could do… right. The man told him he was a God.
"You may as well lie down and we can talk once you can take it all in. Sleep tight, youngling."
…
Boredom could really do someone in.
It wasn't because he lacked interesting things, far from it. He knew a lot, more than he ever thought he could learn in a lifetime. As the one maintaining the time lines, he was privy to everything and everywhere at once. He couldn't go back to his original timeline even if he wanted to. Seeing your own death and meeting different versions of yourself… it could be said he'd seen all and nothing could surprise him.
That is, until this teenager sprouted out of thin air and dropped at his feet.
Loki could admit to himself somehow that his ego wasn't something to be sneezed at. But he didn't even entertain the thought of being the only God with a hold of time and space, far from it. And if he ever had it, sitting here and learning everything he knows… one of the ancient, nameless gods that roam the universe must be responsible for this.
The boy looked like hell warmed over, being in that particular position before, he wasn't really looking forward to spring the bad news he'd have to deliver to this young man who's barely out of childhood and looked old beyond his years…
This boy wouldn't be able to go back to wherever he came from, whatever happened to him before being dropped here must've been excruciating…
Oh well, he deserved to sleep peacefully before facing the music, so to speak.
Worlds collided and everything imploded.
Even if he listened and processed the worlds this God told him, Harry couldn't really bring himself to accept it. Doing so might pretty well imply his renouncing everything he ever knew, loved and cared about.
He couldn't go back on his own, that much he had surmised. He didn't come here out of his own volition either; he was apparated by powers unknown and then dropped here. For all he knew it might as well be Loki's doing, even if the God assured him he didn't have anything to do with it… but it might be another Loki…
Hell, his head felt like it might fall of and his poor brain could come out of his ears, turned into mush.
His options didn't look too bright, not any of them led to him going back to where he came from. He was out of time. He could travel to any time line and live there as long as he led an unassuming and discrete existence; so far he wasn't manifesting any other special gift besides being driven out of his main timeline for God-knows-why.
Even if he died it wasn't guaranteed he might meet those of his original timeline anyway. And there was a real possibility of him losing his mortality as a result of this.
Something else on a growing pile- Harry thought bitterly.
Was it too much for whatever had it out for him to give him a gods-be-damned break?
Whatever it was he had done, whomever he happened to piss off. Screw it.
He'd do it again just to spite them. He had nothing to lose now.
It figures.
When he finally got a grip on himself, Harry stood from his position on the armchair conjured for him.
"So my options are: Stay here and keep you company, live unassumingly somewhere in a timeline of my choice and see if I die and could perhaps go to the afterlife. Or go back in time in one of the timelines in which I exist, live again as Harry Potter and see if I can get assimilated and whatever brought me here doesn't happen again."
Loki just nodded. For someone who used to have a way with words, silence could be a loud statement.
This boy had something. As a fellow magic user he recognized someone powerful.
But it wasn't just power. Not really surprised at the decision made, Loki sent him on his way.
And kept watch over him, amongst his other preferred timelines.
He knew this wasn't the last he would see of Harry Potter. Even if he longed to be mistaken, at least this time.