She stood atop a dark cliff’s edge, staring into the horizon, watching the castle become engulfed in shadows from the coming storm.
A cold smile stretched across her lips.
Her fingers tingled with anticipation and sizzled with green bursts of electricity at the thought. Large footsteps padded up beside her and she faced the bright yellow eyes of her beast, her companion, Fenris. He huffed loudly and nudged her elbow once with his black nose. She scratched him behind the ear and he grunted.
“It won’t be long, Fenris,” Hela said, outlining every spire and rooftop of Hogwarts with her eyes. “Soon you can feed on as many little students as you can get your hands on.”
The beast vibrated with a low growl as Hela laughed.
***
Thursday’s attack.
It was already Wednesday, and your stomach clenched in anticipation. The high-pitched words of the dark witch, Malda, echoed in your mind. You sat by the crooked old woman in the basement, her stony eyes watching, as you waited for Mo and Valkyrie and thought about the day before…
Heat flushed between your legs every time you thought about Loki in the Room of Requirement. The way he held you and touched you, the way he said that he loved you. If anything, his words caused you more panic, since now that he admitted his feelings, you were utterly terrified that something would happen. As if his admission had jinxed your entire relationship. What if Vidar found out that Loki had warned you? What if Hela killed him?
Every thought weighed you down further and further. Tears stung your eyes, but you held them back. Now was not the time to be a blubbery little mess! Your friends needed you, Loki needed you, and the school needed you to have your shit together.
After Loki had reluctantly left, he told you to inform his mother of everything immediately. It was something you had planned to do anyway, but it was comforting to hear that he seemed to have some sort of plan in motion. He gave you an envelope, asking you to give this directly to Headmistress Frigga. There was a sad gleam in his eye as he did this, but you did not press him about it.
When you went to see Headmistress Frigga, she looked years older, as if the stress was finally catching up to her once bright and kind face. She acknowledged you before you showed yourself.
“Freya,” she said with a small sigh as she took a seat behind her desk. It seemed as if all the problems that ever existed were resting on her shoulders. You understood the feeling.
“Headmistress Frigga, I need to speak with you privately,” you said, emphasizing the last word.
She arched her brow, but lifted her wand and muttered a quiet enchantment. After settling the wand back down on her desk, she gazed at you with an eagle-like focus.
“I’ve been…in contact with Lo-Professor Laufeyson,” you said, trying to choose your words carefully. Not only was this the Headmistress you were talking to, it was also your boyfriend/professor’s mother.
She said nothing and so you continued. You spoke with her about seeing Loki in the Room of Requirement, omitting certain moments that made your cheeks flush and nipples harden. You mentioned Malda and Talon, and that there was going to be a coordinated attack on the school Thursday. Hela had some sort of army and planned to take over Hogwarts with it, though you and Loki firmly believed her rule would not end there. Then you leaned over and placed Loki’s envelope on Frigga’s desk. She lifted it with a graceful hand and opened it. It was a letter, with an elegant script you could only attribute to Loki. You wondered what he wrote, but felt it was rude to stare, so you looked at the floor until Frigga gently cleared her throat.
If Frigga was surprised by any of this, she did not show it. “Have you mentioned this to Odin?”
“No, Odin plans to kill Lo-Professor Laufeyson on site with the rest of Hela’s followers.”
“You realize that withholding key information from a Ministry affair is treason?” Frigga said. “Especially in a case like this.” Her eyes scanned you, as if trying to understand.
“You’re wondering why I’m protecting him, aren’t you,” you said, as more of a statement than a question.
She waited for you to continue. Heat rushed to your face as you dropped your gaze to the elegant carpet beneath you. How can I say it? You thought. But, the time for disguise was long past. If you were expelled, it would no longer matter, at least if you could help save the school…save him, it would all be worth it. You took a deep breath and raised your eyes to meet Frigga’s.
“I love him.”
You felt out of breath as you admitted this simple statement so boldly in front of his mother. There was a subtle shift of features on Frigga’s face, first surprise, concern, and then a small smile appeared on her lips. “He’s a very special man, isn’t he?” she said, her eyes twinkling.
The sound of footsteps broke you out of the memory and you found yourself back in the basement with the stone witch.
“Freya!” Valkyrie said as she bounded down the hall towards you. Mo was shuffling up behind her.
“Jesus Christ, I’m tired!” Mo said, panting.
Valkyrie smiled at him wickedly. “The Headmistress said that all students were to head to the Great Hall three times a day until tomorrow. We have to keep learning counterspells,” she said. “Unless you’d rather die at the hands of Talon.”
Mo gave her a look. “Funny how he just disappeared. So convenient.”
You drew your brows together. “I have a feeling he’s here somewhere, just under our noses. The teachers won’t find him.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Mo said, leaning on the wall.
Valkyrie and Mo looked at you as if you had any idea what you were doing. You took a breath. “Well, the teachers are trying to condense a year's worth of spells into about two days…I understand they’re trying to equip us as well as they can, but I can’t imagine a first year doing much damage. And then we have the ministry folk and the dementors, though I’m not sure how much we should trust them at all, especially the dementors. Those things would sooner kill a student than Hela herself if one was standing close enough.”
Valkyrie sighed. “We don’t really stand a chance, do we?”
Mo ran his hand through his hair and rubbed his face. “Why is this feeling more and more like a final stand?”
Valkyrie perked up for a moment. “Wait, Freya, you said that Hela was in your head this whole time, right?”
You nodded, not sure what she was getting at.
“Well, does that mean you share a connection with her? Maybe you can find out what her weaknesses are!”
“Val, I wish I could, but the minute she…came out of my head, I had no mental connection with her. Which was a major relief because all she gave me were bad dreams and headaches…” you said, trailing off at the end. Your eyes popped wide open. “I have an idea!”
Immediately you took a few steps away from them and sat down on the floor, closing your eyes.
“Um, are we supposed to get it?” you heard Valkyrie say.
You opened your eyes, a new fire in them. “When Hela was in my head, her presence suppressed my abilities and I couldn’t see visions anymore. But, now that she’s gone…I might be able to see something!”
You closed your eyes again, and the others were silent. It took several seconds for the world to fall away as you stared into the darkness. Moments passed and were not sure how long you were in this trance-like state of concentration. The abyss of your mind was more still than you thought, as if it were hiding from an intruder. You reached into yourself and tried to find something, anything.
It was like being in a void, unable to see or hear or touch anything. You frantically waved your arms around in your head, trying to feel something, but there was nothing.
Until you sensed something.
It was small. But it was there. With your mind, you reached out gently. Not too hard, because the key of this meditation was to focus, but not focus too much, just enough that something was within your radar, comfortable enough to open up beside you.
Closer the vision got, and you kept your mind still, reaching out no more, lest you lose it. It would come to you. It took more patience than you ever could exhibit to stop yourself from leaping into the vision instead of waiting, but wait, you did. And several moments later, a vision unfurled before your eyes.
You soared above the clouds until you reached a dark castle. The windows were painted glass with images of war and ruin. In moments, you passed through the windows and were inside the house.
The room you entered was some sort of grandiose bedroom with engraved pillars coming down from the ceiling to a fourposter bed.
Down you went, through the floor, into the second level of the house. Through the kitchen, which was so dusty that everything was cast in grey. You sank further still, past the sitting room and down a stairwell.
You were well below ground now, and the basement led to a tunnel. Floating through the tunnel, in the distance, there was a green and red glow. Your body whipped towards the light and you saw Hela standing in a chamber underneath this castle with her companion, Fenris.
A part of you bristled at the sight of the creature, but you held strong, watching what was happening.
In Hela’s hand was a dagger, though the blade was glowing green with a spell.
Hela was in deep concentration, chanting loudly while Fenris knelt in front of her with its eyes closed, breathing in time with her chanting.
It was an unnerving sight already, but then Hela opened her eyes and you feared she looked right at you. Then Hela plunged the glowing dagger into her chest and your mouth fell open.
She ripped the dagger through her ribs and screeched in pain as she tossed the dagger aside and shoved her hand into the cut. You gagged when you watched her rip her bleeding heart out from inside her own body and hold it out in her hand.
“My sweet Fenris, you will guard my heart from this day. I will not perish so long as you keep this alive within you.”
Fenris growled and salivated at the smell of the blood. Pools of spittle dripped to the floor and Hela placed her heart into Fenris’s mouth and it swallowed it whole.
Before you could take a step closer, you were whipped away from the vision and instead of returning to your body; you were in Headmistress Frigga’s office. She was crying, all alone, with Loki’s letter in her hands.
With a cautious step, you looked over her shoulder and tried to read the contents. Her hands covered up most of it but a small section. Reading it caused nausea to boil up in your stomach, which already churned with anxiety:
“Mother, I’m going to kill Hela the first chance I get during the invasion. I will send a signal when it’s time and I need you to create a diversion at that moment. Something big.
No matter what happens, promise me you will take care of Freya. Both of you deserved a better man than what you got.”
You were slammed back into your body and slumped over on the floor. Mo and Valkyrie helped get you up. Your head was spinning with everything you had seen.
“What did you see?” Mo said with panicked eyes.
Your voice was dry and lifeless. “Loki is planning to kill Hela during the fight. Only, I just saw Hela cast a spell to make herself invincible.”
