Hostage.

'Elane has been corrup-'

Loki almost immediately suddenly felt the urge to grab a certain someone's (an old woman who had a daughter at Hogwarts that taught divination) throat and interrogate her regardless of how old she was but-

Loki exhaled and calmed down before-

'Did they do something to Elane?'

Loki's eyes glazed over Elane without letting even Cassandra notice what he was doing.

Loki's eyes narrowed but he quickly used illusions to keep his emotions hidden and his mind under wraps.

'Several things don't add up...she's decided to support me...that's probably why she doesn't have mental shields…Aunt Cassandra already knows I'm strong…? Seems strange…I mustn't jump to conclusions.'

'Allowing me to read through her mind itself is a greatly risky idea…but why would she do that? Contract?'

Loki looked back at Cassandra without letting her know then paid full attention to Elane instead. 

"What did you make for your big brother Elane?" Loki asked with a derpy smile on his face.

Elane *giggled* a little before shaking her head with a soft blush on her face. "Big brother first!"

"Aww…" Loki wanted to pinch the little girl's cheeks which were coloured like a strawberry's insides.

Loki wanted to surprise Elane with his gift for her after she gave him hers, but seeing how his little sis wanted to steal the show, Loki quickly poked holes into his dreams and wishes and snapped into existence a simple box that was wrapped in white silk and had a pastel ribbon on top.

Loki had only reconverted the object back from a rune but he made sure to do it in a showy manner to entertain Elane.

The box was small, just about two or three inches on all sides, enough for it to fit on Elane's tiny hands. The silk cloth had silly bunnies embroidered on it that were all munching on some grass stalks or carrots by themselves, they were animated.

Elane's eyes were immediately attracted to the simple box. She looked at Loki eagerly for a second to see if she could open it and Loki nodded calmly.

Elane's fingers gently pulled off the ribbon as she slowly tugged at one end of it to release the knot.

With the ribbon off, Elane went on to open the box and with her delicate fingers she lifted the cover.

Inside it was an extravagant silver glass necklace, that looked like a frozen teardrop.

Elane carefully pulled out the locket and flicked it open only to be surprised by what was inside it.

"Big brother!!! That's us!!!"

Loki simply nodded with a smile as he patted Elane like he was doing in the picture.

He had taken a note out of the two-way mirror's runes, a bit of tomfoolery with the protean charm and his illusions along with a worm of time and added it all to a necklace that would always mimic him and Elane inside the glass mirrors.

The illusions were supported by one of the simpler excess Beyonder Characteristics of Sequence 8 : Swindler he got from the mystical item of the demon.

It was a continuous live rendition of the two of them.

"As long as we're together it'll show up in the necklace as one picture.", Loki explained to Elane. "If I or you go too far away from each other then the picture will split down the middle to show us both individually. I have a complimentary one…" Loki said pulling out a necklace that was exactly the same.

"Instead of using those cumbersome mirrors, we can just use our necklaces to talk now, all the time.", Loki said showing Elane how useful the necklace was by spinning a small dial at the side of her locket which caused the sounds Loki was producing to be replicated inside it.

"Like it?" Loki asked with a smile.

"Yes!!! I love it, big brother!!!" Elane said happily quickly putting the necklace around her neck with small stars in her eyes.

He also gave the little girl his worm of time stuffy worm which she loved very much.

"Will I be able to make things like this too when I go to Hogwarts Big Brother!?"

"Hm~m. If Elane studies hard she will." Loki nodded.

"Study!?" Elane made a frowning face remembering all those other times she was forced to study in the orphanage with the other kids.

Loki brushed the little girl's head before asking her about her gift.

"What did you get for your big brother!? Is it a Dinosaur?"

Elane blushed for a second as she put her hands into her pocket to pull out a gift that seemed to have been packed as best as she could which was woefully inadequate when comparing it with Loki's gift-wrapping skills, but then she quickly pushed away her blush before showing Loki the small box she had gotten for him.

Elane couldn't look at Loki and he clearly noticed this, especially when she was trembling a little while holding the gift.

"Hmm? What's this?" Loki asked, looking at the paper box that was in Elane's hand.

"I worked hard to get it for you Big Brother!!" Elane said while looking at the floor of the Ice Cream store.

Loki gently picked up the box from Elane's hand and looked at it for a few seconds. He opened the box soon after and his eyes widened as he saw what was inside it.

When Elane peeked over her bangs to see Loki's reaction she spoke quickly in a soft but high pitched tone-

"IwanttomarrybigbrotherwhenIgrowup!"

A smile showed up on Loki's face almost instantly. He didn't know what to feel. There was a silly smile on his face as he heard that but he also wondered about something else-

"Elane, who taught you about marriage?"

Elane looked at Loki with clear eyes, she felt as if she was being tested and she didn't want to let down her big brother.

"All people who come to the orphanage are married!! They come to the orphanage to take my friends away!!! If I marry big brother I can take them with me!!!! So that big brother and Elane can always have friends!!!"

Loki just laughed a little but it made Elane slightly sad since she thought he was laughing at her conviction, but instead of tears she tried to cover it up by looking at Loki with an angry expression.

"Hmpf! Elane doesn't like Big Brother anymo-"

But Loki didn't let her say anymore. He just laughed a little while stuffing Elane's mouth with her ice cream, giving her a terrible case of brain freeze.

"Alright. I will keep you to this promise. When Elane grows old enough, I will marry Elane if she wants me to, ok?"

Elane's eyes widened cutely before a smile blossomed on her face as she stood out of her chair and rushed towards Loki to hug him.

Loki just calmly patted her back before shaking his head and returning her to her seat while trying his best not to laugh at the little girl's antics.

Loki and Elane talked for a while longer before Loki finally sprung another surprise on Elane.

"Elane, do you miss granny?"

Elane's brows furrowed a little when Loki said that. She tried searching for memories about who Loki was referring to but couldn't figure anything out since she was drawing blanks.

"Aww…you forget her so soon?? Wasn't it just yesterday when she gave you that plushie that looked exactly like you?!"

"Elane like doll?"

Loki nodded.

"But Elane doll was made by Aunt Cassandra?"

Loki deadpanned.

Elane frowned hard as she thought about what Loki was saying before she shook finally her head.

"I don't remmeber…"

Loki just shook his head.

'Grandma is going to be so disappointed…'

'But then does she want to leave the orphanage…? It seems like she's grown attached to the place…'

"Elane where do you want to live? If you had the choice would you like to live with our relatives or at the or-"

"I won't leave the orphanage!" Elane shook her head quickly with worry.

"Huh? Why are you so sure about it?" Loki asked softly, gently caressing her hair to calm her down.

Elane buried into Loki's hand and explained her reason quickly.

"I promised Elanora that I'd be with her for the entire time she was there! And I don't break my promises because I'm a good girl!"

Loki smiled at Elane's cute pout and simply nodded. "Alright. You can stay in the orphanage."

"Hm~m. But…will I get to meet big brother every day if I go to our new home?" Elane asked softly while twiddling her thumbs.

Loki almost wanted to tease Elane by saying yes, but he felt a little bad for taking advantage of his innocent little sister so he just shook his head and patted her on the head.

"I'll be with you anywhere you are. Didn't I just give you the necklace?"

Elane's eyes brightened up and she nodded with vigour. "Yes!"

Loki and Elane then spent the rest of the day walking around Diagon Alley and the muggle world. They spent some time watching movies like a Baby's Day Out before Loki let Elane return with Cassandra and he-

-left to go train under Prenelle and master the spell she wanted him to learn while studying under Nicolas to see what improvements could be made in his alchemical puppet.

'They're so worried its almost as if something really terrible is actually going to happen.'

'How silly.'

But then as Loki returned to his previous thoughts, his eyes narrowed dangerously as his divinity almost broke through his concealment.

'Thy tried to mess with Elane's mind?'

'Why?'

Loki kept frowning…

'Gelert Grindlewald…'

'What does this fool want exactly?'

Loki's hand tightened into a fist as he keenly recalled the corruption that had been intertwined deeply with Elane's Body of Heart And Mind.

He hadn't touched the corruption just yet since he didn't want to alert anyone about it going missing all of a sudden.

The purpose of the corruption was rather simple-

"They want to take hostage Elane's memories?"

"For what purpose?"

"She's not a Beyonder for her to suddenly lose control if her memories were erased…and neither is it something that'll impact her so terribly since she's still just a child…"

"What's the plan?"

"...too bad Aunt Cassandra doesn't know what Mr. Grindlewald wants…"

"Should I pay him a visit myself?"

"....also…why can't he use a wand though?"

"...Aunt Cassandra's memories about it are too vague for me to be able to understand what he was doing without a detailed investigation…or I could just ask Aunt Cassandra about it directly…"

"...but I don't want to derail her plan…I'm pretty sure she will turn soon after she's saved her daughter."

"Did she let me peek into her mind knowing that I would trust her?"

"Now that I think about it, how much does she know about me in the future?"

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