An Apology
On Tuesday, the day after Dracos death, Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea to make the heads of each house wake up all the students early and take them to the great hall to announce something of great importance.
The very responsible headmaster of Hogwarts gave a speech about the unfortunate death of Draco Malfoy.
He told the students that it was an accident in the forbidden forest, and that Draco would he buried on the private property of Malfoy family graveyard, so the students wouldn't be able to attend the burial.
All classes were canceled for the day.
Dumbledore even had the nerve to add, "I warned all the students not to visit the forest. This is the consequence of what happens if you don't heed my words."
The students were left speechless. Some teachers were tense, Snape looked angry at the old man. "Albus." He called Dumbledore, only to get no response from him.
Snape looked at all the professors faces and made some sort of gesture, to which he got those quiet, understanding nods.
The old headmaster didn't look sad in the slightest, he looked happier to say the least, he sounded too enthusiastic for someone who cared about his own schools student, a child dying.
The Slytherins looked around and decided to stare at the last person Draco was seen with before his "accident"–Harry Potter.
Dracos mother, Narcissa Black Malfoy was also present during the announcement.
Loki could only imagine what it would be like if Frigga got one singular letter, stating that her son had died in an unfamiliar place–by accident at that.
Both of Dracos parents were told to show up in Hogwarts that exact day. However, his dad hadn't showed up.
Miss Narcissa Malfoy didn't hold in her emotions: she was sad, mournful and looked genuinely hurt.
When Dumbledore told informed miss Malfoy about something, the words had such a strong reaction on her, that her head turned away to Snapes direction.
Hearing the fact that her son ended up in the forest because of a detention with Snape made her head snap to the man in question. A look of disappointment written all over her face. After asking, "are you proud of yourself, Severus?" She ignored any answers or other attempts at a conversation with the potions teacher from that point on.
"How could you let this happen?" She asked Dumbledore, then gave a brief glance to all the grown ups. "Why did you let him go there? Did you professors not know that the forbidden forest is dangerous? Or do you not understand the concept of 'forbidden'? "
Her sharp, emotion-filled voice cut through their hearts, guilt creeping up on them. Snape looked even paler than usual, he hadn't uttered a single word.
The headmaster gave miss Malfoy empty words of apology that didn't ease the total distrust or resentment.
"You let my son die and you have the audacity to call yourselves professors?"
No teacher dared to talk back to her.
After Dumbledore asked the woman the reason to why Lucius Malfoy hadn't arrived. Miss Narcissa Malfoy told him that her husband was busy re-arranging his schedule, adjusting it to arrive and mourn for their son properly.
He was doing something so important, that he didn't even arrive in the school his deceased son had just started attending and died right after.
Loki thought that was a load of bullshit.
What sort of bloody father wouldn't go to the school and at least show that he cared about his child?
Now this was the type of world Loki was used to: death of his friends, absolutely disappointing fathers, emptiness in his heart, faking his emotions.
Loki shouldn't have been hurt by this at all, but he was and it frustrated him, this drove him crazy.
Loki didnt feel like getting up on this gloomy Wednesday morning.
Classes weren't difficult, but they weren't productive either. Teachers were letting students off the hook more than usual. No student got a detention.
Among those students, Ronald Weasley, made it known to the entire school that he had come across the scene of Draco Malfoy's lifeless body, stained with blood.
The professors, must've heard about it too, since they became so delicate towards the ginger.
Loki wasn't particularly pleased with Ronald getting off with light lectures. How could the Weasley talk so casually about what he had seen?
And what had gotten into these teachers? If this particular "accident" happened in Lokis world, Asgardians would have a moment of mourning, letting the spirit leave to Valhalla, then they'd have a giant feast and move on with their lives.
Six days went by after Dracos passing.
Loki had felt determined to distance himself from Blaise and Pansy, with no inclination to offer any explanation. Pansy seemed equally uninterested in having a friendly conversation with him, so there was no problem there.
Blaise, on the other hand was always on the lookout for him, attempting to engage in a one-on-one conversation with him.
Avoiding him was difficult for him, because they were roommates, who were taking the same classes, but Harry could still pull it off with illusions and spells that distracted Blaise while Harry made his escape.
It was especially hard in the mornings and at night, Blaise always woke up early and decided, that if he waited long enough for him to arrive in their shared room at night, he would get that talk Harry has been trying so hard not to have all this time. The problem with that one, was that Blaise wasn't used to staying up, which meant he was easy to charm to sleep.
Harry wasn't even hanging out with the Weasley twins anymore. He just wanted to keep unwanted feelings away from himself like he'd always done in his past life.
There was a not so surprising outcome to what the students referred to as "an accident", or what the headmaster assured him that they called it.
Wherever he went, everyone's eyes followed. The other Slytherins glared at him, sneering and whispering loud enough for him to hear.
No matter what derogatory remarks a bunch of school children said about him, making up false stories, he wouldn't give them the reaction they expect from Harry Potter. Instead of making a scene, he'd have to educate these children how one really corners another and makes them tremble in fear.
Obviously, this little prank wouldn't even be known by anyone at all, let alone be tracked back to him.
Another issue loomed. There were speculations being spread like wildfire about how Harry ran away and left Draco to fend for himself in an encounter with a dark creature.
Now Slytherins and Gryffindors had something in common, they agreed on isolating Harry to "leave him out" of the flow–as if they could. They couldn't get along any better.
Harry hasn't run into Neville at all these past few days. Other than the fact that he had one less friend to avoid, he still couldn't avoid running into his Ravenclaw friend in the library.
Hermione was unaffected by these inconclusive rumors about something so absurd as Harry being a pathetic coward who abandoned his dying friend to save himself.
The Ravenclaw came up with a whole script of all the arguments to tell him to convince she was on his side. Loki felt no lie in between her words. That made him feel better.
Even so, the sense of suffocation, eating away at him internally, persisted. Having insults being thrown his way by both Slytherin and Gryffindor students every step he took didn't make him feel better about himself or ease his guilt.
On Wednesday, when it was lunch break for all students, Harry and his book fanatic friend were in the library, reading quietly, some students also used this lunch break for the purpose of research. Ravenclaws, who looked the same age as the other two, gave Harry judgemental, disappointed glances, which he shrugged off.
Seemed like Hermione noticed those looks as well, because the same day, that particular group walked up to him in the library after classes ended and apologized for believing nonsensical gossip with no proof to back it up. They left right after, not waiting for his answer.
Even those Gryffindor students, who saw the graphic scene of Harry being carried like a toddler by Snape himself started spreading a new theory about it.
They made up stories like: Snape carrying the boy who lived after he fainted from fear of a beast; The potions professor dragging away Harry, who apparantly cried about how scary "that thing" was and how he ran to Snape for help, leaving Draco all alone with the creature, that later ended the other Slytherins life.
Those weren't even the worst ones. Some fifth and sixth years were even saying that he killed Draco out of jealousy.
He was sickened by that rumor.
Dracos death was Harry's fault, no doubt about that, but when some of the students assumed such things, he felt nauseous.
Loki kept remembering that dream.
Although this hearsay quickly died down, there were still those first and second years in Hogwarts who never stopped believing.
The Slytherins told the tail differently. They said that Draco stood face to face with the powerful creature, protecting Harry, who had to fight alongside him, but chose to stab Draco in the back and run away like a coward.
In the end, he is portrayed like a scared little rat and Draco like a noble, honorary pureblood.
Draco Malfoy was much more than a bunch of titles, he was Harry's friend.
His friend protected Harry while knowing that he might not have survived. Loki wishes the blond had ran, hid, got as far away from him as possible.
Loki didn't care about the kind of stories children came up with about Harry. It felt nice that they didn't stoop low enough to drag Dracos name through mud like they did with him the moment they saw an opportunity.
Apart from how the students perceived him, Loki had noticed, that the professors were treating him differently.
When Harry and Snape made eye contact, Snape stopped his eyes from wandering, but then he always looked away. Harry was completely ignored and wasn't even asked any questions.
That was odd considering how the professor never let anyone slack off, especially Harry. The only one suffering from Snape was Ronald Weasley, who lost 30 points in one potions class, because he couldn't answer a single question Snape asked, talked back to the professor and even shouted at him.
The other professors couldn't even look at Harry anymore. All the teachers ignored his very existance.
He had been treated like fragile, breakable glass by the potions master and like a blank space by the other teachers.
The difference between Snape and the rest of the professors was that only Snape hadn't suspected Harry of being a backstabbing wimp.
Loki knew that even grown ups could believe wild-spread gossip, that every student discussed all the time.
On Thursday, three days after his friends death, Loki realized something after looking around for a bit. It seemed like the defence against the dark arts professor was unwilling to step foot outside his office anytime soon.
The day after Dumbledores announcement about Draco, Loki had this amazing idea of taking the chance into his own hands and visiting the man.
But it wasn't like Harry could just barge in Quirrels office without anyone seeing it. The weariness came from the knowledge that he was already the subject of animosity for things he hadn't done.
Given the speculations surrounding his friend's death, the last thing he desired was to be suspected of being a serial killer.
He refrained from openly making a move on the man just yet.
There was one good thing about being unable to seek out and outright murder Tom. Harry couldn't do it without not being suspected, Loki could.
Three days passed.
During this period of time, Loki blended in the crowd of students, messing with his appearance a little, changing his facial bone structure, covering the lightning scar, changing his hair and eye colour, all for one purpose–to spy on Quirrel.
In case someone ever suspected him for what wasn't yet to happen, he made a duplicate of Harry and let him take the classes and avoid all his friends in Lokis stead.
Sneaking into the office was a piece of cake. Breaking the weak alarming spells around it took a minute to figure out. That's why slipping in undetected by Quirrel was easy.
The pale man almost never left his office.
But in case he did, Loki silently placed a tracking spell that lasted 24 hours on the man. In order for Loki to come up with the best plan to make this man suffer, he'd have to place that tracking spell on him more than once.
It was midnight when the tracker moved out of the office, startling a sleeping Loki, who teleported near the tracker immediately.
When his eyes caught on to the environment he was currently in, he froze.
Once more, he was in the forbidden forest.
Loki took a moment to calm down, catching his breath. After ensuring that nobody was around to see him do this, he quickly turned into a small bird and flew close to his moving target.
Flapping his wings to catch up to the man, he silently followed the cloaked figure.
Quirrel, or Tom was in search of something–most likely a unicorn–or reasons unknown to Loki. This must have something to do with Tom needing to drink a unicorns blood.
One of the things he needed to uncover was why? Why would this man need do go to such drastic measures for some animal blood?
Time went by and Tom still couldn't catch sight of even a single unicorn. Loki was getting bored from waiting for so long, so he sprinted up in the air. After making sure he was far enough, he used magic, enhanced his eyesight and found a unicorn for the sake of early sleep.
A small spark of magic and the unicorn was teleported in close range to that animal obsessed, unicorn blood-sucking, child murdering man.
It's presence wasn't brushed oft, instead the target moved to the unicorn the moment he noticed it.
Seeing how the horned creature collapsed onto the dirty, cold ground and got blood sucked out of its throat, Loki felt disgusted and done for the night.
The scene didn't play out for very long. Tom returned to Quirrels office. Loki gladly took off to sleep in his own room, switching places with his clone.
Luckily, Blaise was already asleep when Harry returned, which made things much easier for him.
He opened his eyes, snuck out of the bed in the morning and changed his clothes. Loki had better things to do than attend classes when his friends killer freely roamed around as he pleased, Harry's clone would continue the chore.
This time, he wouldn't spy on Tom, hed direct approach him. That's when his skin turned scaly and his bones disappeared, all his limbs feeling lost.
He slithered the hallways unnoticed, making himself invisible to students, slowly, steadily making way to his destination.
No longer would Loki wait, he needed Tom to beg him forgiveness for doing something so atrocious. Tom hadn't even used the famous killing curse, that's said to kill painlessly and quickly.
He had been aiming for Harry, so that must've been intentional.
One thing was for sure, that man was declared dead by an evil god of mischief, this was no longer up for his mind debate.
Although, Loki thought it obvious: While the oblivious students waited for that man's arrival to start the defence class, he had returned to the forest to collect more Unicorn blood.
The office reeked of something rotten.
He hissed, making Tom turn around with those glaring red eyes.
"Hello, Tom."
The desire to strangle the smug looking man with this tiny body was high, this snake was still a "trustful ally" to him–meaning a safe access for sweet betrayal for Loki.
"Little Loki, what a surprise. Where have you been all these days? I thought you left Hogwarts or got stepped on by a stupid child." Tom joked.
"What's the matter, little one?" Loki felt his heart burn with hatred at that nickname.
"I once told you not to call me that, mortal." He spit out the last part, the mans demeanor changed, eye twitching slightly, but his smile not wavering.
"What makes you think that I'm a mortal?" He asked, curiously.
"It's clear as day. You really want to live, you were afraid that a child would 'defeat' you, so you attempted to do that first, resulting in him being parentless and you being stuck like that. How sad... tuly tragic."
Tom looked more invested in listening as Loki spoke. "I think that you've been tricked then." He concluded. Tom, however, didn't seem to understand.
"I'll tell you my perspective. If you hadn't gone after him, that prophesy wowuld be useless, you wouldn't have to lose your body, your power would grow."
The word, "prophesy" made Quirrels face lack the curiousity he had on his face. The interest was replaced by a look of suspicion.
Loki jumped up on the desk."The mere fact of knowing it got you to where you are today."
Tom watched the snake move around his desk, stating his mind freely.
"Someone thought out every single move you'd make when you heard the prophesy. That someone has been pulling your strings since day one. And I think you know exactly who the puppet master is."
Tom's expression changed to realisation, then anger. "Albus Dumbledore."
Loki felt victorious as Tom swallowed up the bait he set up just for this man, now he would act more impulsively, making mistakes in his moves.
All that was left was to make him suffer to death.
Loki crawled out of the office.
It was a normal Saturday morning, Harry, having entered the forbidden library without permission, found himself absorbed in a book he hadn't heard of before.
Hours flew by, it was already afternoon when a familiar, annoying voice shattered the piece.
"Little Loki, come to me."
Loki was displeased, he didn't even get to finish the 600 page book. He put a bookmark in, put the book back to the shelf, turned to snake and appeared on Quirrels shoulder.
They were currently on the third floor corridor, in front of the door.
"Do you need me for something, Tom?"
Tom must not have expected such an appearance, because he let out a very embarrassing voice when Loki spoke.
The man composed himself and cleared his throat. "Today we are going to get something very important. I need you, since you've been here before."
"Here I thought you had already taken care of this thing, maybe I overestimated you."
Loki slid up to the door and peeked behind to see two red, blazing eyes looking down at him, observing his every move.
Loki turned back to the door and hissed. "What are you waiting for? Follow me."
So they entered inside the small room holding a Cerberus. Tom wasn't surprised, since Loki already told him what all the obstacles were. Tom acted quickly and put the angry beast to sleep with some music.
Loki pointed his tail to the door underneath the heavy animals paws, Tom used magic to lift up the three headed dog and put it away.
They jumped down, Loki had to use magic to soften their fall, since he got rid of the devil's snare when visiting this place last time.
Tom was grateful for Lokis help, but he had to say, "I had it all covered, little Loki."
"Ofcourse you did." Loki told him with sarcasm.
The door was still open, Loki crawled up on Quirrel and wrapped around his neck, resting and analyzing Tom's strategy in chess as the man walked.
"I must say, you're a good chess player. A pity I don't know how you really look like."
Loki spoke the truth. If it hadn't been for the fact that Tom killed Draco, Loki and him would definitely get along.
"I'm humbled to be complimented by the greatest snake itself."
Loki nodded and raised himself to Tom's face. "As thy should feel."
Tom laughed, making Loki gape at him.
Crazy bastard.
Later, they arrived in front of that mirror. Tom stood in front of it, touched it, inspected it, but he still didn't find the thing he was looking for.
Loki he used his seidr and felt a powerful substance inside the mirror.
"Need help, mortal?"
The man looked at the snake laying on his shoulder and smiled. "Be my guest."
Jumping off Quirrels shoulder, he landed on the mirror. Focusing, he thought of ways to get the philosopher's stone. He could get it from inside and then come back out.
Using magic to slip inside was way easier than crawling back out with the red stone in his mouth.
"Is this what you were searching for?" He asked.
There was a pleased smile on Quirrels face. "Yes. That's it, little Loki. Thank you, I couldn't have done this without you."
In answer, Loki let out a small laugh.
"Don't thank me yet, mortal."
Tom wore an expression of complete confusion."What do you mean, little one?"
"Stop calling me that!"
"Okay, fine. Loki, then." Tom sighed.
"What did you mean by 'don't thank me yet?' "
Loki put the philosopher's stone down on the floor, he looked at Tom and started. "I have a little surprise. I'll show you."
Quirrels lips quirked up in a smile. "You're spoiling me at this point, little Loki."
"Back away a bit."
The man did as asked. He waited patiently for whatever his snake ally was about to show him.
Magic flew through Loki, the serpents small frame glowing green, Loki felt himself go back to his human form and settle back into Harry Potters body.
"Surprise." Said Harry as he saw the flabbergasted face of the one who attempted to murder him twice, but failed because his family and his friend saved him.
"Wha–how?" Uttered a puzzled dark wizard.
"Magic ofcourse, how else?" Harry gave Tom a not so friendly smile.
"How did it feel?"
Tom raised an eyebrow. "How did what feel?"
"How did it feel to chase around a child and attempt to murder him?" He asked with an innocent looking grin on his face.
"Oh, and when you also managed to kill a different boy?" That beam suddenly disappeared, replaced by fury.
"Answer me, mister 'I want to live.' "
No sound was heard from Tom, he looked disoriented and angry.
"What? Cat got your tongue?"
An evil smirk emerged on his face. "Or was it a snake?"
That's when Tom decided to open his–well, Quirrels mouth. "So you've been playing me this whole time?"
Harry took a step forward. "I wouldn't say 'playing' you, it all started with me not wanting anyone in the forest to recognize me, I hadn't imagined that I'd be bumping in familliar faces in the forbidden forest of all places." Tom listened.
"At first, it wasn't so bad you know, I thought this companionship thing would work, but..."
Loki noticed as those red eyes landed down to the stone currently on the floor, Loki snapped his finger and it was gone.
"No, no, no. You won't be getting this just yet my dear friend."
An irritated scowl etched across Quirrels face. "Give me the stone Harry Potter." He warned.
"So I'm not 'little Loki' anymore am I?"
Harry observed Tom's conflicted facial expression, as if he was figuring out whether to attack the child in front of him or hug him. But it was all good, Loki had him covered with that.
"You won't be able to move anyway, so why should I give it to you?"
Tom realized too late that he couldn't move because of the snake venom Loki had injected in him when he was resting on Quirrels neck.
"Oh dear, are you tired from this exhausting trip? I figured, since you want to lay down so badly."
Harry conjured up a chair, making an angry and paralyzed dark wizard sit on top of it.
"Let me get straight to the point, I want to kill you, but I want to make it really painful."
He walked up to the man who glared daggers into him. "You are so angry at me, aren't you?"
Then he got this 'isn't it obvious' look.
"That's awful." Harry said with a childish voice.
"Maybe you should've thought before you decided to raise a wand to an eleven year old and ended up hitting the wrong target? And perhaps you shouldn't have used a spell that made my friend bleed out and die painfully?"
Those words made something in Quirrels stomach twist, he felt his heart ache. "Little Loki, I..."
Then Tom stayed silent.
"I will never forgive you for what you did." When he said that, Loki started building up his magic, creating apainful poison to use on Tom.
The paralyzed mans eyes dropped to the floor. "I understand." He said and then looked at the youth in front.
"I know this probably won't change anything but, I'm sorry little Loki, I never wanted to hurt you... but I was such a coward that I let this fearfullness blind me, turn me into this."
Harry hesitated with the use of his seidr. He paused the process of poison creation and let Tom continue.
Noticing this, the grown man went on. "I never wanted to die, yearned for immortality. All of this was because I didn't want to die a nobody, just an unloved orphan child. The fear of fading into obscurity drove me."
Tom looked like he was on the verge of tears, so Harry looked away.
"And there was Dumbledore, who hated me right from the start. That old man never had faith in me, thinking of me as a monster that I turned into on this path. I wanted to have someone who supported me and cared about me."
Finally, Tom finished what he wanted to say, so now Loki could make his move and finish him off with the poison.
But now, it was difficult for Loki to do it, his body felt so heavy, he couldn't move. He was afraid to kill someone, that was a first.
Looking at Tom, who had this intrigued and perplexed expression, he took a breath. "Have you even killed before, little Loki?" An unexpected question breaking the silence.
"Yes." Harry answered and glared at the sitting man, whose face looked like he didn't believe a word this eleven year old said.
A sigh escaped Harry. "Never have I hesitated this much before, looks like I've gotten rusty." He concluded.
Tom chuckled. "Like I'll believe such a lie. You, Harry Potter, the boy who lived killed someone? Sorry little Loki, but I'm not buying that lie unless you show me."
Did Tom tell Harry to kill him?
"Are you serious? I thought you wanted to live and be immortal."
Loki waited for an answer, expecting a lie, but not hearing it.
"I don't want to die, but at this moment, I feel like embracing it is the only option I have, considering everything I've done to you, all the people I took away from you."
Calming himself down, Loki injected his magic made poison into the man. It took affect almost immediately, Tom started to cough up blood, gulping for air.
Seeing this through Harry's eyes, Loki felt bad, regretting his choice. He should've made it less painful.
Tom told Harry to get close, Harry did so, moved the chair away and layed the man on the floor. Tom gripped Harry's hand, it was so cold.
Quirrels body could move, but Tom still accepted this?
"I..." Harry heard the weak voice.
"I'm sorry, Harry Potter..." he paused, then continued, "little Loki."
Loki watched as Tom's eyes lost their redness, losing the sparkle in them. He felt as life left the man as he took his final breath.
A single tear trickled down his cheek.
"I'm sorry too..."
Carrying Quirrels body with him, Harry buried the man in the forbidden forest, putting the philosopher's stone with him.
When Harry teleported back to Hogwarts, he didn't go to his room, he wandered the castle aimlessly. Harry even walked into Quirrels office. Somehow, it felt like the best place to be.
Harry turned into a snake and layed on that desk, feeling tired from everything. Exhaustion washed over him, making him fall asleep.
Everything was grey, there was a door in front of him.
Loki was here again.
He opened the door, when he looked inside, he felt his memories return.
Loki remembered.
He remembered the discussion held with Death eight days ago, Loki recalled the peculiar feeling he had that day, that something was amiss. He understood it was because he had forgotten that conversation.
Death told him before even starting the topic of their chat, that Loki would forget this afterwards.
"Mister Loki, the next few days of your life as Harry Potter will be reversed after you experience everything there."
Loki hadn't heard something this complicating in a while. "For what purpose do you want to turn back time by a couple days?"
The only answer he got was a smile, so he asked. "Why?" Loki blurted.
"Why are you doing this for me?"
Deaths smile did not waver. "Because you deserve to have a second chance. Even a god of mischief needs happiness and care."
Loki felt his hair being ruffled, he peeked up to see the tall man with that kind expressuon on his face.
"I wish you luck, mister Loki and I apologize for what you're about to experience next. It is necessary that you go through it and solve those problems with some newly attained knowledge."