A brief thought passed Loki's mind but it was too brief for anyone else to capture.
'If I want to swindle them, I have to begin by swindling myself first. Especially since I am probably an open book to 'Him'.'
Loki looked at everyone in the room, Lupin, Severus and finally Dumbledore.
"Believe it or not, I didn't hear or see anything related to the Hidden Sage this time, at least not that I know of." Loki began.
"When I performed the divination earlier, the first thing I saw was a deep darkness. I didn't understand what this darkness was, since the more I looked at it, the deeper it seemed to suck me into the abyss. There were trees around me, ones that I could see because of the darkness, but ones that I could hear because of the rustling of leaves."
'Was it Tom's location that he saw?'
'Did he divine about the shard that Tom exchanged with Harry on that night?'
'But to be able to divine about even a hint of the prophecy that ties the two together, a prophecy I created…'
'A lie?'
'But his Body of Heart and Mind is clearly recounting the same events he speaks of…'
'The Hidden Sage helped him break the anti-divination measures? Or perhaps directly gave him the information in some way?'
'Why?'
What no one realised was that Loki had never mentioned whose location he had divined. He was currently recounting the location of Voldemort that he had tried to divine just to confuse everyone.
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed softly but Loki didn't let it affect his 'practised' speech. And then he continued speaking about what he'd already know about Harry through divination in the Sefirah Castle.
Loki was using facts from the divination in the Sefirah Castle to sell his importance. To give off the impression that his divination was somehow special. Somehow empowered by the Hidden Sage because of some special unknown reason.
'If I keep them chasing after lies, they'll never think of looking at the truth.'
"Before I could investigate anymore about the scene, I was kicked away from it and began to see something different."
"I saw Harry Potter opening an owl mail and picking up a coin to pocket before I saw him suddenly standing stiffly as he stared in the direction of the Whomping Willow in the Hogwarts Grounds before walking up to it in a daze as I saw the inside of the Shrieking Shack with Sirius Black in it."
"Although that was all I saw, I was left with a deep sense of danger and worry when I finished the divination. As if I'd been the one that was actually turned into a puppet and not just Harry." Loki ended by focusing on his memories of being corrupted by the bone knife that scratched him earlier this year.
'Hmm…coming in contact with a 'Her' will would likely do that…'
'It was perhaps coming into effect to work to and corrupt the boy as soon as he saw it in his divination.'
'But the Hidden Sage must've helped him break it.'
'Again…why?'
'What's so special about the boy?'
'Apart from the deep sense of misfortune that is related to altering his fate?'
There was a soft pause before Dumbledore nodded and asked a simple question, "That answers a few of my questions. I apologise for taking you down a harsh memory lane."
"Not at all Headmaster, it would be my pleasure to be of any help."
Dumbledore nodded before looking at Loki and asking him with a smile, "Would you perhaps happen to know anything about Gehrman Sparrow?"
'If someone as powerful as 'Him' was acting in the school this year, the Hidden Sage is likely to have shared information about 'Him' with what is possibly his blessed…'
But Loki almost froze when he heard that name from Dumbledore but a timely interruption from Lupin saved him from the awkward pause that was about to develop.
Yet it didn't escape Dumbledore's trained eyes. 'Shock dominated by surprise and distrust?'
'Did the Hidden Sage tell him not to trust anyone else with this information?'
'So this was what he wanted to really ask me about…' Loki thought, loudly enough for Dumbledore to read it.
'I guess he heard about it from Professor Snape or McGonagall and he's probably come across the True God himself, he wants to learn anything he can about the 'Him'.'
"Gehrman Sparrow? That was the same name Sirius gave us when he said that a student in the castle helped him." Lupin interrupted.
Dumbledore then slowly turned to look at Loki once again.
"If I'm not wrong, you were looking for information about him at the beginning of the year in your divination office?" Dumbledore asked again.
Loki matched eyes with Dumbledore and nodded.
He let some of his fear of being questioned by a spectator show since he wanted to sell his next lines fully.
"The reason I was looking for Gehrman Sparrow at the start of the year was because after I learned about something, I became afraid."
During this statement, Loki simply littered his Body of Heart and Mind with thoughts about the Hidden Sage to make Dumbledore conclude that it was the source of Loki's information.
And so Loki continued.
"From what I understand, Gehrman Sparrow is an alias of a student at Hogwarts who is connected to a True God's family directly. I don't know much else about this family or even the student behind the alias itself since any divination about them is easily deflected."
"This was the source of my fear and the reason I wanted to seek information about Gehrman Sparrow. Since I suspected that a True God's family should best be avoided completely unless one wanted to get entangled with them. I wanted to know more about them to prepare to avoid them." Loki added.
"But things don't always go as planned. The more I learnt about the True God the more afraid I became of 'Him'. I'm sure Professor Lupin can attest to it since that is what the boggart turned into when it confronted me."
Dumbledore turned to Lupin and he nodded, "I can produce the memory if you want me to Professor Dumbledore."
Dumbledore nodded and turned back to look at Loki, his eyes swimming across Loki's thoughts on his body of heart and mind, thoughts of fear of being parasitised and thoughts of suddenly finding he wasn't who he thought he was all along.
'His abilities relate to parasitism?'
'Is that how 'He' took over 'His' descent vessel?'
Snape frowned since Loki had never informed either him or McGonagall about this and so he asked Loki the most logical question in that moment, something that Loki was betting on from the beginning.
"What was the name of this…god?"
Loki was betting on it, since everything that he had said till now didn't point to any dangerous outer deities and given how knowing about the god hadn't killed him or turned him into some sort of corrupted monstrosity, Loki felt that Snape would think it was safe to know about.
Dumbledore froze when Snape asked this question. He almost wanted to flick his wand and wipe away everyone's memories of the question ever being asked.
Loki looked at Snape *gulped* nervously and then looked at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore was quick to capitalise on Loki's fear to stop anything from happening without making it seem like he was afraid himself.
"You don't have to speak if you're afraid. But do remember Hogwarts is always a safe place for those that reside in it since they will all always be protected irrespective of their status-"
"'Amon'." Loki interrupted and closed his eyes in fear as he uttered the word.
Loki was trembling. Most of his fear came from thinking about how he'd almost died when he'd contested for the body with the True Creator.
But what none of the people in the room could see, was that Dumbledore's hands trembled slightly at the mention of Amon. He almost had to placate himself to keep his emotions in control.
Everyone in the room was slightly unnerved by Loki's reaction and they all felt the hairs on the back of their necks lift for a few seconds but when nothing happened, they all relaxed a little.
"You can stop here, Mr. Loki. I can see it makes you uncomfortable, you don't need to continue." Dumbledore asked, his eyes gleaming as he studied Loki's swirling thoughts on his body of heart and mind that was completely unprotected.
With a light self-pitying smile, Loki spoke after he nodded in acknowledgement, "Thank you, professor. But I think everyone should know about it so that they can better protect themselves."
"Is there anything else you've heard about the Amon family from the hidden sage?" Snape asked again, irrespective of Dumbledore's stance on the matter.
Loki *gulped*, smiled wryly while looking at everyone in the office as if he were evaluating something and then spoke softly in the silence that amplified his voice a thousand times.
"Well…I don't know if this is true or false…but I did learn that he was closely related to the founders of Hogwarts…"
Loki with his enhanced vision, clearly saw Dumbledore's pupils dilate, as if he'd just been given a shocking piece of information that defined his life. But Dumbledore was quick to cover it all up with a grandfatherly smile as he looked at Loki and nodded before speaking.
"That will be all Mr. Loki. Thank you for staying back and answering this troubled old man's silly questions. Let me know if you ever have something that you need help with from me. You may leave now."
Loki looked at Dumbledore and smiled happily.
"The pleasure was all mine Professor. Thank you for making Hogwarts such a pleasant school. It feels just like home."
Loki bowed and was going on his way out before he noticed a hat on a stool inside a glass case *wink* at him as he left.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N : Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.