Loki lingered in a seat of an otherwise empty compartment in the Hogwarts-Express looking out of the window. He had been on the train early, and his compartment was at the very far end of the train, so it was unlikely that he would be disturbed any time soon. Therefore, he watched the crowd now while sucking a candy cane he popped up earlier.
His gaze fell on a pale blond boy that talked to a tall man with the same blond hair only longer. It was evident that it was his father. The man had a cane in his right hand with a snakehead as a handle. Loki smiled before he snapped with his fingers and the walking stick mutated into a real snake, which instantly started to crook. The man threw the animal away from himself, looking at it in disgust while the people around him began to shriek and jump away. Loki snickered.
Then his view fell on a group of redheads, from which two identically looking ones laughed their ass off at the performance he did with the blond man.
'Hmmm whether these are the twins who worship me?' he asked himself.
One of the twins looked in his direction, so Loki waved at him with a broad grin. The first twin poked the second one, said something to him and then pointed in Loki's direction. They both then disappeared into the train.
'Well, it looks like I'll find out very soon.'
He let his view glide over the masses on the train station again when he saw the boy he came for. Black wild hair, green eyes and...wait, he was far too thin for how an average boy his age should be. Loki narrowed his eyes and hoped that his suspicion was wrong when suddenly the compartment door opened, and the two redheads came in.
"Have you been,"
"the one,"
"pranking the older Malfoy?" they asked, performing a perfect twin-speak.
Loki grinned. "A prankster never confirms, nor denies any accusations and only makes counter-accusations. You know there is a time and place for the truth," he answered.
"The time is never."
"And the place nowhere."
All three broke out in loud laughter.
"You pal,"
"have to be our friend."
"Who are you anyway?"
"Because you are,"
"not a second year or above,"
"and no one else we know."
"Loki Laufeyson, at your service," he replied with a bow towards them and a snicker at the performance they both gave him.
On that statement, both their mouth flew open so fast and wide that Loki feared they wouldn't be able to shut them ever again.
"Don't tell us that you are."
"The one."
"The only."
"The absolute best."
"God of mischief,"
"mayhem"
"and absolute awesomeness!?"
"Well, the last time I checked there wasn't another one. Not within this universe anyway but that's something different."
With that, he conjured three lollipops, gave two to the twins and popped the third into his mouth.
"Our prayers have been heard."
"But why are you here?"
"To be honest, I've been bored...badly. My latest pranking targets were more inclined to kill me than enjoying my pranks. Everything else seemed dull. When I heard that a certain lad will attend Hogwarts from this year on, I also knew you would be here, I thought, the hell why not..." Loki told them with a shrug.
"Tried to kill you?"
"Tell us their name"
"and we show them how we think about that," they growled.
Loki laughed. "Thanks, but that won't be necessary. But you could do me a favour."
"Anything you wish from us."
"You see the boy over there with the wild black hair and the snowy owl on his cart?" he asked while pointing out of the window. The twins looked and nodded. "Would you please help him and direct him to my compartment?"
"Who is he?"
"The lad I came for, son of one of the Marauders," Loki smirked.
"You don't mean."
"Harry Potter?!"
"Yes, Harry Potter. Be nice to him, I fully plan to corrupt him to pranks," he said with mad laughter that would send shivers down the spine of every sane person.
In Hogwarts Dumbledore shuddered. It was like something terrible was going to happen soon, but he shrugged it away. Harry Potter was going to attend school from today on, and all his plans were playing out smoothly, so nothing to worry about.
How wrong he was.
On the Hogwarts train, Loki continued looking out of the window after the twins left. His view fell on the red-headed family again, especially on the youngest son. Right now, he got his nose rubbed by his mother, which seemed to annoy him.
Perhaps Loki also could get him into his little prank war at Hogwarts, but with a look at his soul, he flinched. This boy was a hypocrite and one of the worst too. His hygienic standards were next to non-existent and his manners; he didn't even want to start with those. No, that guy would not get anywhere near him and Harry. It might become problematic with the twins because he was their brother, but he could not help it. He could not stand hypocrites except for a good prank towards them.
He got ripped out of his musings when the compartment door opened once again. He looked around and saw Harry standing in the doorway.
"Hello, may I sit with you? Some red-headed twins called Fred and George said this is the only compartment which isn't full," Harry said sheepishly.
"Sure, sure, come in and take a seat. My name is Loki Laufeyson by the way, but just call me Loki," Loki grinned, this was the first step.
"Harry," he replied with a tentative smile. "Harry Potter."
"Nice to meet you, Harry. Your first year at Hogwarts?" he asked while standing up and helping the boy to put his trunk on the rack.
After putting his trunk away, Harry sat down at the window opposite of Loki.
"Yes. It really surprised me when I got my letter. Didn't think magic was real."
Harry was pleasantly surprised that the other boy didn't instantly fawn over him. He hated being at the centre of attention and feared that going to Hogwarts would be like it was at the Leaky Cauldron. Maybe even worse. However, sitting here now with a boy who didn't even react to his name gave him hope that not everyone in the magical world only saw the Boy-Who-Lived in him.
"It's my first year too, but I knew about magic beforehand, so it wasn't that surprising. I assume you are from a muggle family?"
They heard a ringing and shortly later the train began to move slowly before picking up speed.
Harry sighed. "I live with my aunt and uncle because my parents died when I was fifteen-month-old, I didn't know about magic until my eleventh birthday. It's a wonder they let me attend Hogwarts with how they reacted to the letter," he now looked sad, so Loki did not press any further.
That was when the compartment door opened for the third time, and the youngest redhead stood in the doorframe. Loki flinched and snapped with his fingers unnoticed by the said redhead.
"Hello, might I sit with you? Everywhere else is full," the redhead asked after a quick glance at Harry's forehead which didn't go unnoticed.
Harry, who heard the snapping looked at Loki when he saw it.
"Uh Loki, you have a big spider on your shoulder...," he stated, pointing at it.
The redhead, on the other hand, hearing that, paled visibly while turning around to Loki. When he saw a spider as giant as an adult's hand and hairy as hell, he started to scream and ran so fast that Loki thought he might have broken the current world record in 100m sprint.
"Did you just conjure that spider to freak out that red-headed guy?" Harry asked quizzically.
Just at that moment, the door opened once again, and the twins appeared in the compartment.
"Hey was that"
"our dear brother Ronniekins?"
"Running away, screaming, and crying like a small girl?" they asked.
"It seems Loki here scared him by conjuring up that big hairy spider there on his shoulder."
The twins looked at Loki, and both started to laugh.
"That was"
"one hell"
"of a prank."
"Sorry to say it but your little brother is an ass and a hypocrite. Hygiene also seems to be a foreign word for him. So sorry, but I do not like him. I hope you aren't mad about that," Loki told them in a voice like he was commenting on the weather.
Both twins started to laugh again.
"No problem with us."
"We don't know how often we told him to bathe."
"But he never listens," they shrugged. "We are Fred and George Weasley by the way."
"and who are you?" they asked, acting as if they didn't know.
"Loki Laufeyson," he replied.
"Nice to meet you, Loki."
"But we have to go now."
"Our friends are waiting." With that, they waved at them and vanished.
"So how did you know that this Ron is a hypocrite and an ass? I mean the thing with the hygiene was...obvious but the other things not."
Loki smiled at that. "I'm sorry, but that will be my secret for a bit longer, but you will eventually learn that I'm right."
"Hmmm okay."
Harry decided that he would have to see that for himself before he came to a conclusion, but he settled with it for now.
They did some small talk while observing the landscape flying by, talking about Hogwarts, the houses, and different subjects. How they expected them to be and many other things. That was when the compartment door opened again. This time a chubby boy their age stood there.
"H-hi I'm Neville. Have...have you seen a toad? Mine went missing," he asked shyly.
"I'm sorry I haven't seen a toad. What about you, Loki?" Harry replied.
Loki looked at the boy more closely. He seemed shy and did not find friends easily, but he was loyal once he made friends with someone. He also looked like he was friendly and might not decline a good joke. All in all, Loki liked him.
"Is this perhaps the toad you are looking for?" he asked after secretly conjuring up the toad from wherever it had been.
"Trevor!" Neville exclaimed, jumping forward, and grabbing the toad.
Harry meanwhile gazed at Loki who only shrugged. "I like him."
He shook his head and grinned. Until now, Harry learned that Loki could conjure up everything he liked, which were mostly sweets, with just a snap of his fingers. Loki also told him that he was not that trustful and only a very few people he liked could call themselves his friend. Luckily, Harry was one of those because Loki was funny, nice to have around, and had good pranks up his sleeve (Loki told him about some of his more or less harmless pranks). Therefore, if Loki liked that boy, he wanted to get to know him.
"Would you like to sit with us now that you have your toad back?" Harry asked.
"I-If it is okay with you," Neville stuttered, but his face brightened up.
"My name is Harry Potter by the way. That grinning idiot over there who happened to find your toad is Loki Laufeyson," Harry introduced them while kicking Loki against his foot.
"Hey, what was that for?"
"For you grinning like mad. You'll scare of Neville."
Neville who heard that blushed but sat down nonetheless.
After that, they continued talking now together with Neville, who they got to know was a so-called pure-blood and who was raised with magic. At first, he was shy, but after a while, he warmed up with them and a bit later, he told them everything he knew about the magical world and Hogwarts.
It was around noon, and they were in the middle of a discussion about Quidditch and different teams when it knocked. In the corridor before the compartment stood a woman with a trolley full of sweets and other things. Harry just wanted to get up to look at what was offered, but Loki was faster. He bought up the whole thing.
A few minutes later, he sat in the compartment with a massive pile of sweets and other food right next to him. Both Harry and Neville looked at him in disbelieve.
"Hey, don't make such a face and cheer up. We have enough sweets for the rest of the ride, and I don't have to conjure it up anymore," and with that, Loki threw them both a Pumpkin Pasties each.
They sat there for some time again talking about various things and eating through the massive amount of food when Harry grabbed a Chocolate Frog.
"They're not really frogs, are they?" he asked, of the opinion that nothing could shock him anymore since he got to know Loki.
"No, they are made from chocolate, and it's only a spell. They mostly only can make one real jump before it wears off," Neville explained.
Harry opened the box, and the frog jumped to the window, but Loki caught it before it could jump out and gave it to Harry.
"Thank you. Hey, there is a card in there, it says Albus Dumbledore," Harry excitedly exclaimed munching on the frog.
"Hmm? Yes, in each box is a card of a famous witch or wizard. Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts; you will see him when we arrive. Granny says he is one of the greatest wizards of our time."
Loki flinched on hearing that which was why Harry gave him a quizzical look.
"I happen to know that his power isn't what it seems to be. He also is the biggest hypocrite of this time, an even bigger one than this so-called Dark Lord," he huffed.
Now it was upon Neville to look at him questioningly, but it seemed they would not get the answer to that anytime soon, so they let it rest. Loki would tell them when he thought he should.
The rest of the journey, they continued talking about everything that came to their mind. The funniest moment was when Harry tried Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans and happened to pick one that tasted like vomit. Loki got one that tasted like salted herring.
Finally, they reached Hogsmeade Station and got off the train.
"Firs'-years over here!" a giant man called out.
Harry, who recognised the man waved at him, and the giant nodded in greeting.
"This is Hagrid he was the one who introduced me to magic and the magical world," Harry explained.
"Firs'-years over here and follow me!" he called out again.
When he had finally collected the first-year students, he led them down to a lake where many small boats were tied up.
"No more'n four to a boat. Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts soon."
Harry, Neville, Loki and a bushy brown-haired girl sat in one boat. After every student sat, the small ships left the shore and drove around a corner where they got their first sight of Hogwarts. It was huge with so many small and large towers you could not count and lights shining from every window.
However, Loki had an eye for something entirely different. He looked over to the blond boy whose father he had pranked at the train station this morning before he snapped with his fingers. The blonde's boat began to reel, and the blond and his companions who sat in the boat with him fell overboard. In his attempt to stop himself from falling into the water he grabbed the red-headed boy Ron in the boat next to him and drew him with him, so both landed in the water with a loud splash.
Loki had a tough time not to outright laugh his ass off. Even Harry and Neville, who tried to give him a scolding gaze, could not help themselves and snicker. The bushy-haired girl, on the other hand, was not even the slightest little bit amused.
"Have you something to do with that?" she asked in a bossy tone.
"How should I? I don't even know how to perform magic," he replied with an angelic smile on his face. Okay, it was a blatant lie, but he was not going to tell her, she should mind her own business.
After Hagrid helped the boys back into their boats, the ride continued until they reached some kind of underground harbour where they all got off. They climbed a stair at which end a stern-looking woman in emerald green robes greeted them.
"Welcome to Hogwarts."
She gave them a short speech about Hogwarts' houses and the house points, that good behaviour earned those points while lousy behaviour would result in lost points. At the end of the term, the house with the most points would win the House Cup.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes. I shall return when we are ready for you."
With that, she left through the door behind her leaving the soon to be students behind to wait.
Soon they would be sorted, and the year of study and magic will begin. Then again, in Loki's case, the year of massive mischief and mayhem! That let him grin evilly.