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"Honestly Ronald." Hermione scolds. "Could your eating manners be a little less barbaric?"
"He's hopeless, Hermione." Ginny rolls her eyes. "Brothers." She says the word in a very exasperated tone, and Ron glares at her.
Hela secretly agrees, but she can't say it out loud because everyone thinks she is an only child.
Months ago, the Second Wizard War had been declared over, with Harry and the Light Side as the winners. It would be the right time to tell her closest friends of her identity, if she's going to tell them at all. If they don't believe her she can just leave, and live another life as somebody else. She likes her life as Hermione Granger, but she isn't so attached that she cannot move on.
But she's not going to tell. She is going to live for thousands of years, has already lived that long, and she is not keen to change so quickly, unless she absolutely has to. A human's lifespan is practically nothing compared to her those of her family, and she can spare it. It's time that she seeked comfort and freedom outside of them by her own anyway. She would actually like to live as a human until at she can fake a natural death at an appropriate old age, with her friends by her side.
At the Ginny's mention of brothers, she wonders how her own brothers are doing.
Jor is probably stuffing himself while doing 'important national business'. He always had a sweet tooth and a large appetite, even as a child. She is younger than him by many years, but she still remembers that much.
Fenrir is perhaps on one of his ridiculous cases, or making goo-goo eyes at John. (A phrase she picked up from Nari, who says Vali does the same towards their angel friend. A child of a Norse god and a child of God. It is a very unlikely pair, but they fit somehow. She's seen them. They're very cute and too deep in the closet. )
Sleipnir is ... alone in that big mansion. Or more likely, out drinking with the closest townspeople and stopping small robberies. He is righteous that way. Maybe he got it from his father.
Hermione eats animatedly, chatting with her friends. It's odd to call them friends. She's never had any before. The only things that dared come close to her were her brothers and Mother, or lowly spirits who groveled at her feet.
There is distinct chatter around her and she feels warm. There were a lot of mourning and grief hanging around, after the war. But the new first years came and filled the blank spaces in the benches, and everybody slowly but steadily moved on.
The school's getting quite boring now, though. Now that Harry doesn't go on dangerous and possibly fatal adventures and near death experiences, there is nothing exciting going on. Not that she's complaining. Her friends have ventured too many and too close towards her doors.
And then the doors of the Great Hall burst open.
(Of course, she thinks to herself quietly. Of course something dangerous and door related happens when she's thinking of dangerous adventures and doors.)
The teachers are on their feet immediately, and so are some eighth and seventh years, still not recovered fully from the war.
Five men are standing there, tall and unblinking. The tallest - and he is very tall - looks like a big scary puppy, with long shaggy hair and a plaid shirt. The slightly shorter one next to him is wearing a leather jacket and a frosty smile. One of them has silver hair although he looks young, and is wearing jogging clothes and trainers for some reason. Another has very bright blue eyes and curly hair, with a black coat and a matching blue scarf. It's only September, though. The only one wearing a suit and holding an umbrella is older and not as tall as the others, but he is not any less intimidating.
Silence overcomes the Hall.
"Well that was anti-climatic." The leather wearing one says. The tall man elbows him hard in the gut, and he winces.
"But it definitely was dramatic." Mr. Scarf adds. Silver Hair elbows him. He tries to elbow back, but an umbrella comes out of nowhere and smacks his hand lightly.
"Ow."
The students blink.
"Wow," Lavender whispers to Pavarti. "They're fit."
Then everything explodes into pandemonium.
McGonagall quiets everyone down before asking, "Who are you?" in a tight voice.
"We wish no quarrel with you, nor do we pose any threat." The oldest says smoothly. "We are here for our sister."
Hela cannot believe her eyes. Her brothers are here, in her school. She has missed them so much. But she doesn't feel that happy for if her brothers, all of them, even Dean and Sam and Pietro - sorry, Philip - are here for her in person, it means there is an emergency.
She is also slightly angry at them for barging in like this, but she squashes that down for now.
Hermione slowly stands up. Harry grabs her robes to make her sit down, but she is already running across the Hall and into her brother's arms. "Fen!"
She then hugs all of them in turn.
"What is it?" She asks once they part. "Why are you here?" The look on her oldest brother's face is grim and joyous at the same time.
"Mother is on Midgard."
Time stops. Hel cannot breathe. She is filled with happiness to the brim, which leads to her hugging them all once again. None of them seem very happy about that, except for Fenrir who is a sucker for physical attention.
"Mother? Here? On Earth?"
"Must I repeat Jor's words, dear sister?" Fenrir says. She glares at him. He barely flinches, much to his credit.
"He is in SHIELD's custody." Jormungand looks like he's aged at least five or more years since she's last seen him, and it hasn't been long. If she's right - and she usually is - they probably came in their private plane, which means he had to deal with Vali, Nari and Fenrir all at once on his own. Sleipnir is the oldest, but he's not good at that kind of stuff.
(She wishes she could've seen Vali's face. Then she realizes they have to go back to America, and cackles inwardly.)
"Hermione?!" Ron sounds scandalized. "What are you doing? They could be Death Eaters!"
"I thought they were all in Azkaban." Hela says, voice light. "We put them there, I recall."
"Yeah, but... but..."
Hermione sighs. "I know what you're saying Ron. But they're my brothers, and I can confirm that they're no followers of Voldemort." It shows how far the Wizarding World has come when only a few flinch at the name.
"I thought you didn't have brothers." Harry sounds deeply hurt, and it takes all her years and skills of ruling a kingdom to mask her wince.
"I'm adopted, Harry. They're my biological brothers. I only found out myself two years ago. Believe me, I would have told you but with the war going on and everything I didn't want to burden you even more with my problems."
Never let it be said that Hela Lokidottir is a bad liar. It's a simple alibi made of a bold-faced lie and the half-baked truth, and she feels guilty as she says it convincingly enough that Harry, Ron and Ginny - and Neville and a few others - nod, looking relieved. She looks around at the still uncomfortably silent Hall. Then she turns to McGonagall.
---------
After a quick trip to the Headmistress' office, she drags her brothers up to her dorm, glaring all the way. She is ecastic that they are here, that she can see and touch and feel them much earlier than expected, and Mother is here on Earth, but she is still mad for springing this on her.
Now when she comes back her friends will be clambering at her for questions and it will be up to her to clean up the mess they've created. As the only daughter (as the only responsible one), this task has always fallen to her, so it's not really new.
But she doesn't feel comfortable with lying to her friends.
It's something she has never felt during her years at Helheim, and it feels strange too. She has never felt strange in Helheim either, and she briefly realizes how lonely and unattached she had been there. She is so glad Mother got her out. And she hates the Allfather even more.
She realizes she's been too lost in her thoughts when Vali says "Hela?" warily.
"Right, let's go now, where's the plane?" She waves her wand and all her belongings fly over, carefully stacking up in the trunk.
"Just outside the castle. Did some magic to change it into a carriage as a disguise." Jor answers.
They trudge back down the endless stairs. Nari carries her trunk as if it weighs nothing, and she hadn't even charmed it.They pass the Great Hall and she only manages to wink and wave towards her friends before disappearing out of sight.
She can't wait to see Mother. She wonders why he's here, and her forehead crinkles a bit as she thinks of everything that could go, that had gone, wrong. But she's not going to dwell on that. She is to see her mother for the first time in twenty years.
The flight to America has never seemed so long.
(Vali's face is very entertaining. She wishes she could record it, but she knows he would do something equally embarrassing to her, and she will never live it down. It's a shame, though. It would have been wonderful blackmail.
She may not be able to take a picture, but that doesn't stop her from making the plane shake a bit. Vali's choked yelps are as amusing as his terrified face and white knuckles.)