Wandering through the halls and corridors of Hogwarts, Loki used the marauder's map to track down a ghost that he wanted to speak to.
'Where are you…'
'Where are you…'
'Here?' Loki asked himself as he opened the door to a classroom.
Inside was mostly empty except for an ethereal ghost floating about, staring at nothing, moving ever so slightly as she drifted along with the thin draft leaking from a faulty window.
"Miss Ravenclaw.", Loki said, nodding in greeting as he stood in front of the sharp-eyed ghost.
Helena Ravenclaw, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, popularly known as the Grey Lady and the ghost of Ravenclaw, looked down on Loki who was smiling while looking at her.
"I will not speak.", Helena said as she began floating away but Loki's next words stopped her.
Loki nodded, "I understand that. But I'm not here for the newspaper.", shaking his head Loki continued, "I'm here for your mother."
"Mother?" Helena asked with raised brows.
"Yes. I need to find an item that was close to her, something she endeared very much."
"...you know…" Helena whispered, but in the empty classroom, it was easily audible to Loki. "...like him."
But then instead of feeling happy about it, Helena frowned as she spoke, "No. I will not help you.", after which she started to float away into a wall so that Loki couldn't annoy her further.
But Loki expected this to happen so he said something else, "I can help you get a Sequence 2 Ancient Bane Beyonder characteristic."
Helena froze in midair, turning towards Loki slowly, but instead of a shocked expression, Loki found her wearing an ugly mask of anger and indifference.
"Why do you think I need your help?" Helena growled.
"Well, you don't talk much so I assume you're a Sequence 3 Disiciple of Silence? And given how you're still stuck in this sequence even after a thousand years, I don't doubt you want to advance further but you are stuck for some reason? I might be able to help you?" Loki concluded.
The scowl on Helena's face deepened as she spoke in an eerily calm tone.
"If you don't leave this place and stop bothering me, no one will ever find you again." Helena threatened, causing the temperature in the room to drop by several degrees as the windows started to frost over and small snowflakes began to appear in the air, forming a thin layer of ice on the floor where the snowflakes touched.
Loki frowned, confused about what he'd done to earn the ghost's ire so he spoke calmly, "Why are you so angry about this? I'm only trying to help-"
"Get out!" Helena screamed, using her abilities as a wraith, emitting a silent shriek that instinctively caused Loki to suddenly feel as if a truck rammed into him at high speed.
But instead of leaving as Helena said, Loki reasoned about what had happened, trying to piece together clues strewn about their short conversation as he decrypted the hidden truths.
'She doesn't want to advance?'
'But why?'
'Is it because she already feels like she'll lose control?'
'Or because she's corrupted?'
Loki looked at Helena using his spirit vision brazenly, causing her to freeze as she felt someone gaze at her soul. Helena immediately turned around to reprimand Loki but before she could-
'No, she isn't corrupted…'
'Then-'
'Ah!'
"You don't like the pathway? Which means someone forced you to take up this pathway? Your mother? Is that why you don't like her?" Loki spoke.
Helena's eyes widened as her gaze trembled but she quickly recovered, except Loki had already noticed this change in her expression.
"So I'm right…you don't like your mother? I mean she's annoying for me too with what she's done, but-"
Helena gave a hateful look towards Loki and spoke each word slowly, "I do not hate my mother. Stop talking about things you know nothing about and leave me alone!!!"
Loki frowned.
Helena started to leave and Loki thought about revealing the Room of Conveniences and how Rowena was asleep inside it, but he didn't feel desperate enough to do so.
So Loki let Helena go and walked to the great hall himself, he needed to stuff himself with food, he felt quite hungry after taking a wraith's shriek point blank.
His mind wandered throughout the meal as he tried to think of the reason why Helena hated him so much, or even why she was so unreceptive to the idea of sharing information about her mother but he was quickly snapped out of it when he got Hagrid's letter.
'Come out of the castle after dinner. I've got something to show you. Burn this letter as soon as you read it.'
"...?" Loki was confused but he did as the letter said and after dinner walked out of the castle and waited for Hagrid.
"Loki! You're here." Hagrid nodded with a big smile as he patted his back, almost dislocating his shoulder in the process. "An' 'arry? Are you h're too?" Hagrid asked randomly to the air when suddenly a floating head appeared some distance away.
"Good, good, now both of you, keep quiet and keep some distance as you follow me. Make sure not to get spotted."
"You seem to be in a good mood?" Loki asked as he looked at Hagrid smiling more than usual today.
"Don't worry 'bout it! Now follow me!" Hagrid said as he began to march towards the Forbidden Forest.
Loki and Harry looked at each other with some confusion, both not having expected the other to be here at Hagrid's request but now that they were here they realised that this had something to do with the Triwizard cup.
Harry hid back in his invisibility cloak and began to follow Hagrid with Loki using his wand to cast the disillusionment charm as he followed behind Hagrid, making sure not to make any loud noises like Harry as he moved so that no one would catch onto him.
As they walked deeper and deeper into the forest, Loki noticed that they were moving towards a clearing that neared the centaur tribe. Through the trees, Loki spotted bursts of fire and heard the chattering of several people, but he remained confused as to their roots.
'Is someone playing around with fire spells?'
'Why did Hagrid bring us here though?'
'Is it a secret party or something?'
As they stepped through the forest, Loki noticed that the closer they got to their destination, the more and more barren it became.
It was almost as if all the creatures had collectively banded together and decided that it was time to vacate this area specifically. Not even little birds or even snakes lived in the area.
The trees had started to grow hollow and empty as if decay had set on them earlier while their leaves which had already fallen due to it being mid-November looked to have already decomposed.
There was no crunch under Loki, Harry or even Hagrid's feet each time they stepped onto dead leaves. The leaves just shattered into dust as soon as they were touched.
'Everything's dying…'
Loki frowned when he noticed this fact.
Soon the crowns of the dead trees cleared as the trees themselves had fallen away, revealing a creature so massive and monstrous that Loki found it hard to believe he wasn't dreaming.
'What the heck is that thing...'
Loki's lips trembled and his fingers clenched tightly into fists, every moment longer he stayed there he had the terrible urge to escape from there. His mind felt like it had taken a blow from a mountain and his body felt like it was in the frozen tundra.
He felt afraid.
Suddenly the monstrosity that was munching on a dragon, which was alive and desperately fighting against its imminent demise, turned its cylindrical head full of eyes to look in Loki's direction.
The sudden action nearly made his heart stop.
Loki could swear he smelled someone shit their pants at that moment.
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