The New Marauders and the Trickster God

Chapter 36: Bugs and other Nuisances

Now it was Skeeter's turn to frown. "Merlin, your friend must be extremely powerful to just revive them like that. But my dear, what did he want in return?"

"Nothing fancy, just that I collect and deliver something to him," Harry shrugged.

"Very altruistic of him," Skeeter said with a nod and a slight glance at her notepad before she turned to all of them, deciding to leave the topic alone...for now. "So now that you're alive again and reunited with your son, what are your plans for the future? And can you tell us something about what awaits us in the great next adventure?"

James sighed, not in the mood to answer the reporter's questions which made Lily chuckle.

"Unfortunately, we cannot tell you anything about what comes after death, but for our future, Harry and we plan to take a vacation. After that,..." Lily answered, trailing off in the end with a shrug. "Maybe visiting and getting reacquainted with old friends. I heard that Alice and Frank got better after having been...ill for a long time. It would be nice to see them again. We were friends, after all."

Fortunately for them, that was the moment Loki arrived and looked strangely at Skeeter.

"Mrs Skeeter, what a surprise to see you here," he said in a sugar-sweet voice. One that promised retribution of the worst kind should she dare thinking about printing anything that would paint Harry or the Potters in a non-favourable light.

"Oh, Mr Laufeyson, you're Harry's school mate and friend, aren't you? I heard that you created quite some mischief over the year. Is there any possibility that it is connected to the recent happenings over in America?" she enquired in eager anticipation.

Though the reaction she got wasn't what she expected. Loki looked at her with indignation as if it was an insult to even ask him such a thing while Harry snorted.

"Mr Potter, something you want to enlighten us about?"

"Only one thing: I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good!" Harry now cracked up and vanished without a trace leaving behind a reporter with neon pink hair, three shell-shocked adults and one speechless pagan god.

"Did...did he just apparate away?" Lily finally brought out while James and Sirius had to suppress their laughter.

"Uhm...no. He teleported himself...," Loki muttered in reply earning himself questioning looks from nearly everyone around him.

"What's the difference?" Sirius asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Well, with Apparition, you actually create a shortcut through space from your original point to your destination. Through that, you get sucked hence the getting sucked through a rubber tube feel to it. That's also why the further away you want to apparate, the more magic you need to cover the distance. On the other hand, the sound results from the sudden disappearance of a large body. Henceforth it creates a momentary vacuum that instantly gets filled with the surrounding air...physics...nothing you'd understand anyway.

"With teleportation, you transform your body into a stream of energy. In that form, you travel through the surrounding streams of energy – ley lines and such – and rematerializes at the destination. Since that travel happens at light speed, it seems to be nearly instantaneous, and you can go everywhere without needing too much magic." Loki explained, but more than a few people only looked at him as if he decided to grow a second head.

It was evident that almost no one understood even one word of what he had just said.

"Fascinating," Skeeter spoke up happily as if she just won the lottery. "Very well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll be on my way then. It was nice meeting you."