'I could just read her mind…'
'But given that she's either a Demigod of the spectator pathway or has an item of the spectator pathway made out of a demigod's Beyonder characteristic, I need to be careful around her.'
'Well I'll wait until Helena reports back…I can probably decide what to do then.'
Days passed by in silence with no response from Helena.
Even the Hogwarts Honest Mill staff found their motivation simmering with Luna being the only successful one amongst all of them since she'd figured out that Umbridge was tightly protected from wackspurts.
It was on such a random day when Helena waited in Umbridge's window that she heard a-
*Knock* *Knock*
Harry knocked on the door that had been turned baby pink and had baby pink wreaths hanging from it as he waited outside trying not to start hating the colour pink.
The door opened on its own and Harry found himself walking into a room that was also filled to the brim with the colour pink, the wallpaper was pink, the china dishes and cups were pink, even the damn table was pink. Harry was confused because he'd never seen pink wood before.
And since nearly everything in his vision was one shade of pink or another.
'This is almost as bad as Lockhart's office with all his posters of himself.'
Harry's eyes finally set on the person behind the table as they tried to compensate for so much pink by narrowing and trying to take in less light.
Harry could swear that he could see Umbridge turning pink slowly but decided that his mind was playing tricks as he walked towards the table and nodded slightly.
"Yes, professor?"
Umbridge's smile widened as she looked at Harry with a soft gaze as she asked him a question.
"Would you like to join us, Harry? The right side? The side that fights for the common people? Like you and your friends? Like you and me?"
Harry was taken aback.
Not just because he was suddenly reminded that no teacher at Hogwarts had ever discussed politics with him or any other student.
It felt incredibly unprofessional and unbecoming of a Hogwarts professor.
But because he remembered Voldemort asking similar questions to Loki when they had fought at the end of the last academic year.
Harry's eyes hardened as his brain automatically classified Umbridge into the same category as Voldemort, not very close yet, but close enough.
"You-know-who is coming back whether you like it or not. And I don't want to be on the side that is most likely to stand by on the sidelines or even support him while he takes over the world."
Umbridge looked at Harry in silence but kept smiling as her face turned even more pink to Harry by the second.
And after a few more seconds, Umbridge calmly pulled out a quill and parchment and placed it on the table.
"Here…you may begin your detention…continue by writing the phrase, 'I must not tell lies.' until the parchment is filled, both sides."
After a while, when Harry had classified Umbridge into the exact same category as Voldemort, due to the 'special' nature of the quill Umbridge forced him to use, which carved the words he wrote on paper onto the back of his hands-
*clink*
Umbridge and Harry looked at the window that had suddenly cracked behind Umbridge herself, but noticing nothing wrong, they ignored it, thinking it was because the window was old or too cold.
*BBBEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP*
Loki woke up lazily wondering which one of his alarms had tripped and woken him up.
He looked around with sleepy eyes, scanning the room for the runes he'd set up to check if someone had tried entering it but none of them seemed to have tripped.
'The Sefirah castle?!?!!'
Loki immediately became excited since there was only one alarm inside the castle that he'd recently placed.
Loki pushed off the covers and got down from his bed, trying not to let the fall cold bother him as he performed the simple ritual of walking counter-clockwise in a square while chanting the honorific name of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth in his mind.
Loki bore the ravings that assaulted his mind when he was taken out of his physical body and sent above the grey fog with a smile.
'If it is what I think it is, then I couldn't be happier!'
Loki landed in the Sefirah Castle without a sound but then quickly ran towards his magical runic setup connected to his worms of time and started to count his believers by checking how many unique connections for magic the worms had approved.
And when he looked at the number-
"Seven?"
"It's still on Seven?"
-he frowned.
'That accounts for everyone, Mione, Sirius, Professor Snape, Fleur, Dominic, Grandma and Aunt Cassandra.'
'Then what even woke me up?'
'I don't remember setting an alarm for anything else…'
That was when Loki's eyes fell on the potion bubbling some distance away at the edge of the grey fog.
'Ah…'
'So that thing finally finished?'
'Well about time…I thought something had gone wrong with it and I needed to rebrew it for some reason.'
Loki quickly picked up the large pot-like cauldron that he was using to brew the potion and placed it on a table he conjured out of the grey fog.
The potion was bubbling in soft pink with a hint of purple as it bubbled with soft *pops* while releasing glazed bubbles like a soap solution.
Loki extended his fingers and created an illusory ladle which he used to stir the solution for a few seconds as he examined the changes in consistency and thickness by studying the swirls that formed within it.
'Hmm…it seems to have finished well.'
Loki pulled out his old body, which had been marinating in the different potions, which were there to remove signs of rot and mummification due to being abandoned in the Sefirah Castle, and examined it.
'It's not gone bad…and seems to have healed perfectly.' Loki thought as he flicked his flabby cheeks and watched them jiggle.
And with a simple flick of his wand, Loki levitated his old body and dropped it into the newly finished modified Polyjuice potion which would turn his body into a perfect vessel for Tom.
Finally, Loki's eyes landed on Tom's soul. Or rather the absolutely shredded pieces that were left.
Loki had tried fixing all the pieces one by one using several different methods and ways, but the result wasn't very good.
'I haven't even reconstructed it by ten per cent yet...'
'Should I just ask Luna to help me out?'
'Having worked with her for a couple of weeks now, I doubt she'll reject it, she isn't the sort to gossip even, but I can't trust her to simply keep it a secret without any assurance.'
'A notary then?'
'I'll have to buy one…again…from that wretched store…'
'Can't I mimic its functionality with something?'
Loki thought for a few seconds but the answer was clear.
He couldn't.
'Could I ask Laura for help? Since she could set up a law about Luna not betraying me?'
'But even though Luna wouldn't mind, that will probably sour our relationship…she seems to trust me…*sigh*'
Loki gave up lampooning about his trust issues and switched to lampooning about his lack of believers.
It had stayed the same for more than a month now.
'Did Klein also have to go through this?'
'...this is stupid.'
'I should've trimmed my expectations...I feel so dumb now.'
'I thought they'd multiply and then grow exponentially!'
'It was so easy to sell my newspaper!'
'Why is it so much harder to sell faith!?'
'And especially when the god is such a benevolent and kind being!?'
'Tsk. I should urge them on in the next Tarot Club session.'
_________________________________________________
A/N : Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 24 chapters ahead for just $3.