The sun's rays pouring in through the window created a warm updraft over Loki's face, causing his eyelids to flicker and open slowly.
Stretching for a bit to get comfortable, Loki pushed away the blanket that was on him and sat upright in his bed.
"Where am I?" Loki mumbled as he tried to get a clear view of the place through that gap in his eyes since he was rubbing them.
"Hospital Wing?"
"Yes young man, you're in the hospital wing." A kind and warm voice entered Loki's ears, waking him up fully.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Loki exclaimed but then he looked at his hands and realised something. "My ring!"
"Your ring and the other things on you are stored safely in a box over there." Madam Pomfrey said pointing at the box underneath Loki's bed. "I won't ask you how you have them since it is none of my business but I will ask you to be more safe in the future."
"Un." Loki nodded but with a worried expression he said, "Did anyone else see those items on me?"
Madam Pomfrey looked at Loki with a warm smile and brushed his hair out of his eyes before responding, "No, I removed them immediately after you arrived here. I don't think anyone else knows about them."
Releasing a sigh of relief that he hadn't realised he was holding, Loki calmed down and said, "What happened after I fainted? In fact how long have I been out?"
"You've been out for three days, you had broken ribs, a fractured nose and several other cuts, burns and lacerations all over your body. What did you do?"
"I was fighting Professor John.", Loki said with a frown on his face when he remembered the fight.
"That would explain why he's been missing." Madam Pomfrey nodded, "I assume the ring ate him?"
"Ah…" Loki felt a little confused that Madam Pomfrey was speaking about all this with a smile as if it was no big deal, but he decided to lie since it wasn't something he could afford to bear. "Maybe? I don't know since I haven't used the ring for long. I only got it after stealing it from someone."
Madam Pomfrey gave Loki a scrutinising look and after a few seconds relented.
"*sigh* Alright, I won't tell anyone about the ring, I will just tell them that you told me you defeated him by luck. I'm sure you had no scarcity of that."
Loki's eyes widened as he mumbled out a broken, "Ho- how!?"
"I know of the world within this one, and I happen to know a few things like you do."
Loki nodded, leaving Madam Pomfrey's secrets to her.
"After you lost consciousness, Professor Dumbledore visited. Harry informed him of the trials you faced together and informed him of Professor Quirrell's betrayal and imminent demise where you used the Flaring Sun Charm I gave you."
Loki nodded and Madam Pomfrey continued.
"Later, Professor Dumbledore gave me a little bit of blood from the Philosopher's Stone because of which, Hermione woke up after a bit. So you can keep the blood you stole from the stone."
"I see." Loki nodded, pretending to be relieved that he was not punished for stealing. "Thank you for helping me out. But won't the blood make me immortal?"
"It is my duty." Madam Pomfrey shook her head and carried on to explain, "The blood isn't what made Nicholas immortal. There are other reasons for that."
And then she frowned before speaking in a sombre tone, "I hope you take care of yourself better, ending up half dead like you were that day won't do you any good."
"Un."
"Keep this." Madam Pomfrey said slipping Loki a piece of paper but before he could look at it she was already speaking again.
"Now come on, get up, get ready, and leave. You might be able to catch the last feast in the Great Hall." Madam Pomfrey said patting Loki's back lightly.
Loki nodded and quickly changed behind curtains, wearing clean robes that had been delivered to the Hospital Wing by House-elves.
He collected all the items in the box, storing away his wand that he'd used to stab and kill Mr. A, the small flask of Unicorn blood and the vial of Blood from the Bloody Archduke Beyonder Characteristics went together in a different pocket.
While the paper crane origami he used to gain luck to make things go his way and the broken charm that Elane had given to protect him were stored away together in a new pocket.
Finally, Loki stored away the Ring of Harvest in his pants pocket to keep it out of sight from everyone, it was his trump card and the fewer people knew about it, the more effective it would be.
Exiting the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey's permission, Loki immediately rushed to a cubicle in a lavatory and performed a sacrificial ritual to store away all the important items like the Blood of the Unicorn, the vial of blood from the Philosopher's Stone, and the Ring of Harvest.
The curious thing to note was that the Blood of the Unicorn had lost its lustre and turned a murky brown due to the number of times it had protected him from Quirrellmort's assault of curses.
'I don't think it can be used anymore to protect me from curses but I might still find some use for it. And maybe if I squeeze it, I can get a little bit out of it? Or perhaps I can find a way to purify it.' Loki thought and chucked the flask into the Grey Fog.
After shedding all the important items on his person, Loki walked straight to the Great Hall.
As soon as Loki entered the Great Hall people started to murmur while pointing at him but he ignored them and walked towards Dominic who was as happy as ever to have Loki sit beside him.
"Word is you fought the Dark Lord and drove him away and protected something that was being hidden in the third-floor corridor?"
"Your rumours are right as always Dominic."
"Haha, I hope they are, otherwise I wouldn't know if I should scold you for not telling me or pat your back and congratulate you for achieving such a great feat."
"*sigh* I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you, I really did, but circumstances just forced me not to. Especially when everyone's Lord and Saviour Harry Potter only gave me twenty minutes to prepare."
"Is that so, then I shall hold the grudge to our lord and saviour and leave you out of it."
"Un."
"So how are you? Are you alright?"
"I should be, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let me leave otherwise."
"As she should."
Suddenly the hushed whispers and people pointing at Loki stopped. The source of the silence had entered the great hall and was on his way towards the Headmaster's chair, it was Albus Dumbledore.
"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully, "What a year it has been! Hope you will all spare my old man's rambles a little since it seems the House Cup here needs to be awarded and the points stand thus, in fourth place, Gryffindor with three hundred and twelve points, in third place Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six, and Slytherin, Four hundred and seventy-two.'
A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table.
Loki felt a little unhappy that the Slytherin won but he didn't say anything since it wasn't like his participation was going to change their view of him.
But before he could think anymore, Dumbledore spoke, "Yes, yes, well done Slytherin, however, recent events must be taken into account."
"First to Mr. Ronald Weasley, for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points!"
'Oh god! No not again! Dumbledore and his terrible writing.'
'If you add points so blatantly won't everyone notice how you're biased and favoured to a particular boy?'
"Second to Miss Hermione Granger for taking a stand against the darkest person when there was no hope to fight back, I award Gryffindor Fifty points!"
Hermione became embarrassed especially when Loki looked at her and wiggled his eyebrows, forcing her to hide her face in her hands.
"Third to Mr. Harry Potter, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor House sixty points."
Almost everyone was beyond themselves, the tables were cheering and banging their goblets on the tables to make some noise.
Gryffindor was tied for the house cup with Slytherin and everyone was extremely happy.
Dumbledore then opened his mouth while looking at a particular boy in the Gryffindor table and spoke, "It takes a different sort of courage to stand up to those closest to you and stick to what you think is right. And for that, for Mr. Neville Longbottom I award ten points to Gryffindor!!"
Not only Gryffindor, but all tables that were not Slytherein cheered loudly! Making it known to the world that Slytherin had lost their seventh house cup!
But then Dumbledore opened his mouth again causing everyone to grow silent.
"And last but not least, for Mr. Loki, for protecting his friends during danger and for fighting against evil by standing on the right side to help his dear friend! I award Slytherin fifty points!"
The hall grew silent for a second and then the Slytherin table burst into cheers and excitement.
Everyone had expected Slytherin to lose and were ready to cheer to the moon and back, but this sudden reversal of expectations threw them off.
Many people from across the table moved to shake Loki's hand irrespective if they called him a mudblood before or not.
'I guess, dumbbell master is a good guy after all, he helped cure Minoe too without reprimanding me about stealing, maybe he's not that bad.' Loki thought and nodded to himself.
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