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With her comms crackling in one ear and the sound of gunfire and thunder coming from beyond the stone walls, Ginny Weasley was making her way through a decaying castle with her wand at the ready. She was trying to work out defensive and offensive measures in her head, whilst searching out her quarry. She technically wasn’t supposed to be alone, but she could take care of herself and her teammates had their hands full trying to take down the endless stream of Hydra agents outside. This had been a challenging mission. She’d been working with the Avengers for some time now, but this was the first mission they’d been on, where they had actually encountered a dark wizard, and such large numbers of agents hellbent on keeping them from getting to him.
It didn’t make much sense to her. Any powerful wizard, especially one using dark magic, would certainly be more than capable of defending themselves, without such unnecessary measures of so-called protection. Whatever the reason might be, Ginny had seen her opportunity and taken it, slipping into the castle almost as easily as if she’d Apparated inside. Apparition, of course, was not advisable in an unfamiliar area. It would be far too easy to Splinch yourself. Ginny shook her head to clear her thoughts, turned off the noisy comm link in her ear, and pushed on. Stretching her wand out in front of her, she parted the dust swirling in the air, seeking an answer with a spell.
“ Homenum Revelio, ” she whispered.
She smiled as a familiar feeling settled over her. At last, she had detected a human presence nearby. She let her wand lead her deeper into the damp, dark architecture of the castle, which felt increasingly like a journey into a catacomb. Finally she arrived at an ancient set of doors, the wood swollen and cracking from the moisture in the air and the intricate metal rusting at the edges. Just as she raised her wand to attempt the Alohomora charm, the doors creaked slowly open.
Ginny was immediately on the defensive. The room appeared to be some sort of hall, and the chilly air emitted a strong odor of mold and mildew; the stench of age and neglect. As her eyes swept the room, they settled on a solitary figure, facing away from her.
“Ah, Ginevra Weasley… I’ve been waiting for you.”
Ginny froze as the voice reached her ears, the blood turning to ice in her veins. Nonetheless, she set her jaw and bravely stepped forward to face the man at the other end of the hall.
“Rodolpus Lestrange…” she said slowly. “You’re supposed to be rotting in Azkaban.”
He turned to face her. Clearly he hadn’t been out of the prison for long, his skin hung limp from his bones and held a sickly pallor and his eyes were sunken into his skull. He almost could have passed for an Inferi.
“Yes well, it pays to have powerful friends to get you out of tight spots.” His lip curled in a sneer. “Speaking of which, where are yours, little Ginevra?”
She grit her teeth, hating the sound of her name on his tongue.
“On their way, Rodolphus. I’d advise you to surrender quietly. No doubt, your foot soldiers have all been killed or captured by now.”
“Then they’ve served their purpose. I needed them to keep your friends occupied, you see. I needed you to find your way here on your own, and now I have you right where I want you.”
Shaken to the core, but unwilling to show it, Ginny took an offensive stance.
“What do you want, Rodolphus,” she demanded.
“It’s simple, really. Your mother killed my wife.” His voice turned darker. “Now it is my turn to take something precious from her.”
Ginny had barely enough time to process his threat and block him before he cast the first curse. They threw themselves into a bitter duel, jets of light flying everywhere, taking chunks out of the stone walls around them, hitting everything but their intended targets. A duel between 2 skilled practitioners of magic meant that each could easily avoid the other’s spells. It was a deadly dance, and it was only a matter of time before one of them faltered. Ginny just didn’t think that it would be her.
It happened in the blink of an eye; a simple mistake, a small misstep amongst the rubble that now littered the ground around them. Her foot caught on a large chunk of stone and Lestrange took the half second to disarm and body bind her. She fell heavily against the ground, her body rigid and stiff, unable to move. He walked slowly towards her, a sinister smile on his face.
“And now my child, you will learn what true pain is.”
He hit her with the Cruciatus curse, the body bind hex melting away to give way to pain so intense, she could feel it in every nerve ending. Ginny had never felt such raw agony. Her body seized and contorted in a desperate attempt to escape the fire burning through her. The Torture Curse had been aptly named, for as physical pain ripped through her body threatening to take her apart, pain also found its mark inside her mind. Horrible images flashed behind her eyes. Everyone she cared about, suffering, dying, and she could do nothing but watch on an endless loop. Had it been minutes? Hours? She could hardly tell what was real anymore, all she knew was the pain.
And then as quickly as it began, it ceased to exist, leaving her reeling, twitching on the cold floor, that suddenly felt as if it might scald her burning skin. She heard shouting, who was shouting? Then a sickening crackle and flashes of bright light, and a guttural scream that threatened to pierce her eardrums. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and curled up, desperately trying to hold the jagged pieces of herself together. Then soft, gentle hands were touching her face, a small voice was whispering something. Red permeated her vision, bringing with it a calm that washed over her like cool water until tendrils of darkness crept up from the edges of her vision, overtaking the red and plunging her into a silent, black oblivion.
“Could you stop that please?”
“Stop what?”
“The incessant pacing, Loki. You’re making me even more anxious, and you’re going to wear a hole in Tony’s nice granite floors.”
“Well you’re one to talk about putting holes in the floors, Bruce…”
“Hey! It’s a figure of speech! And you’re in my lab right now.”
Natasha appeared silently from around the corner, and let herself into the lab.
“Hello boys. What are we doing?”
“Well I’m working, and he’s worrying,” said Bruce, pointing his pen in Loki’s direction.
“I’m not worried, I’m concerned. There’s a difference,” the latter said indignantly.
“Riiiiiight. Well, you should relax,” said Natasha. “Ginny will be just fine, she’s in good hands with Dr. Cho.”
“Really, because she didn’t look fine when my brother carried her limp body into the building, knocking people out of the way as he went,” he snarled.
Natasha’s lips twitched, and she pretended to examine her fingernails.
“First of all, it’s not my fault that Thor operates in protective older brother mode nearly all the time. I wonder where he gets that from? And second, Loki, I am touched. I didn’t realize you cared so much.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Romanoff.”
She smirked and crossed her arms. She’d struck a nerve and she wasn’t about to stop.
“Hmm... Snapping at everyone, pacing like a caged animal, with that look on your face… yes, my keen intuitive sense tells me that you are… troubled.”
Her smirk grew impossibly wider. Natasha prided herself in her ability to know everything about everyone, sometimes before they themselves even knew. After all, she was one of the world’s most successful assassins, her skills were practically legendary.
“I don’t have a look on my face.”
“Oh-ho, yes you do,” an amused Bruce chimed in. He chuckled until Loki’s murderous stare wiped the grin right off his face.
Clint suddenly appeared at the door, coffee in hand. He stopped short upon seeing the three of them.
“Uh. I hate to interrupt… whatever this is, but Nat, Fury wants us for a debriefing and Tony wants to see you, Bruce. Sorry man... I got nothing for you.” Clint shrugged and offered Loki a sheepish look.
Natasha sauntered by, a hint of a smirk still gracing her features, and Bruce gave him an almost apologetic look, and then Loki was left alone. He was used to it after all, them being uncomfortable in his presence. He couldn’t exactly blame them for that. He still wasn’t sure why they were even putting up with him.
He left the empty lab and made his way across the compound towards the kitchen, intending to make a cup of tea while the others were busy. However, he found the kitchen was already occupied, and she had already put a kettle on the burner.
“Hello Wanda.”
“Oh hello,” she said with a smile. “Would you like some tea? The water is almost ready.”
“I’d like that very much.”
She turned and busied herself with the dizzying assortment of teas that Tony kept on hand.
“You don’t mind if I choose a tea for you, do you,” she asked. “I’m told that I’m quite good at it,” she added.
“No, I don’t mind,” he said quietly.
They spent the next few minutes in a comfortable silence, until Wanda pushed a steaming cup of tea across the table for him.
“Earl Grey with lavender, it will help with your anxiety.”
“Reading my mind, Wanda?”
“I don’t have to.” she said gently.
“Is it that obvious?”
“Could I offer some advice?”
He gestured for her to continue.
“It’s ok to care for someone. You think you have to keep it locked away, because you fear your affection won’t be returned. But I think you’d be surprised. Your brother is a prime example, he cares so deeply about you that he convinced us all to let you stay. You think you don’t deserve this opportunity you’ve been given, and it eats at you. You don’t believe that anyone else could care for you, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. You think you don’t deserve love, but everyone deserves to be loved, Loki.”
Wanda took a long sip of her own tea, while Loki simply stared at her. She must possess an old soul, for she seemed wise beyond her years. And she seemed to look right through him; it reminded him a little of his mother. Despite her words, he still didn’t feel like he belonged here. Although he didn’t exactly belong in New Asgard either. He was starting to think he wouldn’t ever really belong anywhere. And he was hardly convinced that someone other than Thor cared about him as Wanda said… particularly her , he couldn’t see how someone like her would ever want someone like him.
“You’re too hard on yourself, you know,” Wanda’s soft voice said from over her mug. “I’m sorry, it’s not always intentional for me to see a glimpse of someone’s thoughts.”
“It’s alright Wanda. This has been very… enlightening. Thank you for the tea, and the conversation, even if I don’t agree with everything you’ve said.” He stood up and took his mug to the sink. “And now I think I’ll be going.”
Loki was halfway out the door when Wanda cleared her throat and said one last thing that stopped him dead for a moment.
“I hope your wandering takes you where you want to be. You should know… the closeness that you crave, she craves it too.”
An hour later and Loki had wandered every inch of the compound, except for the med bay. His conversation with Wanda had completely unnerved him. He wanted to believe her, but experience told him he should keep his guard up.
As he continued to wrestle with his own thoughts, he focused less on his surroundings, and before long, he found himself in front of the med bay. After standing there for several minutes, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to just go in for a few minutes, would it?
He found Helen Cho almost right away. He gave her the bullshit excuse that he was just passing by and figured he should check on Ginny. Dr. Cho sounded like she believed it about as much as he did, and gave him a knowing smile.
“She still hasn’t woken up, but you’re welcome to sit with her for a while. It takes time to recover from an Unforgivable Curse if you survive it, and the after effects of the Cruciatus curse can be particularly hard on the mind.”
Loki nodded as he clenched his fists at his sides. He would have liked to get his hands on the wizard who did this, but evidently Thor had seen to that. He rained lightning down upon the man when they discovered him torturing Ginny. Wizard or not, he hadn’t stood much of a chance against an angry, protective god. Stark said he’d “cooked him like a Christmas goose.”
He didn’t know what he expected, but he wasn’t prepared to see her looking quite so peaceful as she slept. You would never know something was amiss, for no visible injuries marred her fair skin. He took a seat at her bedside and listened to her steady, even breaths and the quiet whirring and beeping of the various medical devices.
He lost track of the time he spent sitting there, keeping his vigil. At one point, after much contemplation, he reached over and gently took her small hand in his. She was asleep, she’d never know, so it couldn’t hurt. After a while the calm & quiet settled over him, and he dozed off in the chair next to her, still holding her hand.
That’s how Ginny found him when she finally stirred some time later. At first she was sure she was still in that hazy state between dreams and consciousness, expecting the vision to disperse. But then she blinked several times to clear the sleep from her eyes, and became aware of the feel of a hand wrapped around her own.
She laid there very still for a while, relishing in this turn of events. A slow smile spread across her face as her heart swelled against her ribcage, threatening to burst. Finally, she fidgeted a little under her blankets, and gave his hand a gentle squeeze to wake him.
The realization hit that he’d fallen asleep like that, and he tried to remove his hand slowly, only for hers to grip it in response. He looked up to find her bright blue eyes studying him, no trace of confusion or apprehension, but rather a kind of pleased astonishment.
“How do you feel?”
“Is this one of those times where I’m supposed to lie to protect your delicate emotional state?” She croaked.
“Which liar told you my emotions were delicate?”
He grinned at her and she started to laugh, stopping only to wince in pain.
“Oh ouch, bloody hell… my skull is splitting. You want to know how I feel? Shit. I feel like absolute shit.”
“I should let you rest, I can come back later.”
He moved to get up, and she tightened her grip on his hand slightly.
“No,” she said, “please stay. I want you to stay.”
There was so much that they both wanted to say, but it could wait. For a while, it was enough just to be close like this, with their fingers intertwined for the very first time.