True to their word they booked a room in the hotel, however, calling it an apartment would be distracting from what it really was, a house on a small island with palm trees and all. Upon Dean's shocked question about how that was possible, the receptionist explained it. Every "room" they have is, in reality, a pocket dimension each with a different setting. They are ranging from old castles to even one simulating the moon. Hearing that Dean wanted to get that room, Harry couldn't be convinced, so he had to accept the beach house.
On the other hand, this wasn't that bad either. Because right now, Dean was lying on an air mattress sleeping and bobbing up and down in the waves. Sam and Harry were contently sitting under the palm trees reading books, Sam a book with useful spells and Harry a novel.
It had been five days now that they were at the Rabbit Hole and all three were quite content with how life was at the moment. The first day they didn't do much more than relaxing as well as the next day. After that, they did some more shopping, mainly for books. Harry also went to the fourth floor to buy some plants where he found a rare one for Neville and let it be delivered directly. If he had to take care for it...let's just say it wouldn't have survived the first day.
Harry also started to teach Sam some magic. However, it was only easy stuff like the levitation charm or minor hexes because he didn't know much more. That brought up a question from Sam.
"I wonder, this ball at the wand shop showed that you could also use mind magic." Sam still couldn't believe that he talked about magic without the need to kill some demon, as it was usually the case. "Why didn't you get a focus for that too?"
"Because I rarely use it. Sure, I train it to use it in case of an emergency. But other than that, it is much too exhausting in my opinion. To use it you need an extreme amount of concentration, and for the everyday use, it is too much for my liking. I stay with hand magic," he replied with a shrug.
They also made a tour to the Rabbit Hole's basement to see what could be found there. The entire thing was like a giant adventure park with different zones for different activities. You could find everything from a shooting ranch, where Dean instantly went to test their new weapons, to a vast area for something akin to paintball.
Though there you not only could use shooting weapons but also knives or wands. The entire equipment was enchanted. For example, if you used a wand, not the real spell you cast would be used but converted into a painting spell that indicated the spell's severity. So in case you would use the killing curse for example, not the real curse would leave the wand but a charm that would paint the target red if hit, indicating that the other would be dead.
Besides that, they also had things like broom racing which Harry instantly tried out. He only came out third, but for his first try, it was quite good.
The holidays couldn't have been any better. However, Harry quickly got to know why Loki always whined about the "Winchester luck" as he called it. There were only three days left, and Loki didn't show up yet, but Harry wasn't overly concerned about it. The pagan god would show up soon enough. Harry was just getting ready to swim some when suddenly the door to his room opened, and a blond woman entered.
"Oh, wrong room," she said and was just to leave the room when she became aware of who was the occupant of the room. In an instant, she was across the room and pinning Harry to the wall a knife at his throat. "Harry Potter, I would never have dreamt of seeing you here in America. You know there are quite a few demons or others who would pay a nice price to get you in their hands," she said with a malicious grin. "First and foremost, Lilith. You know she loves to possess children."
Loki just ported from America all the way back to Hogwarts and into the first year Gryffindor dorms. Walking over to that redhead's bed, he found the individual he was looking for sleeping at the end of the bed. Quickly placing a stunner on him, he picked him up and ported over to the Ministry of Magic. There he went to the head of the DMLE, giving the receptionist in the entrance hall a near panic attack. Was it his fault that they assumed the wrong reason for him coming to them?
Now he was entering the office of Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE.
"Loki, what do you want here? If you're here to produce chaos, I have to tell you that the Unspeakables always look for new...test subjects for their developments," she said without a greeting, observing him. However, she was confused as to why he was carrying a rat.
It seemed that she got warned by the reception.
"As much as I would like to play with your Department of Mysteries I'm not here for that." With that, he dropped the rat unceremoniously on the floor before snapping with his finger. In front of them, the rat transformed back into a man. "I got to know that your predecessor imprisoned one of my followers without any proof not to mention a trial."
"Is that..." she looked at the man on the floor in disbelieve.
"Peter Pettigrew aka Wormtail, betrayer of the Potter family, the murder of twelve non-magicals and an unregistered Animagus."
He waved his hand towards the said man to lift the stunner.
Pettigrew instantly started to look around confused, but once he recognised his surrounding, he paled drastically. "How? Why?" he stammered.
"Because you pissed off the wrong person, traitor!" Loki growled.
Wormtail's head snapped towards Loki before he tried to transform into a rat to get out of there. Loki, on the other hand, was utterly unimpressed by that and snapped with his fingers. That let the Animagus panic entirely because he couldn't transform anymore.
"What did you do?" he squeaked.
"I blocked your magic. Wouldn't want you to escape" Loki snickered with a malicious glee in his eyes.
"W-who are you?" in a panic he looked around trying to find another way out.
"Loki."
Pettigrew gulped visibly knowing that he was screwed. He knew very well about the pagan god since his "friends" were devoted followers of him. Bones watched this entire thing with much interest.
"I would never have thought that one day one of your kind would walk into my office. Not to mention, deliver me the proof to the innocence of an Azkaban prisoner" she chuckled. The Ministry was well aware that the pagan gods were real since they had to deal with them from time to time. However lately confrontations between them became quite rare, at least in Europe.
"If it had been any other deity or not concerned one of my followers, you would be right," Loki simply replied.
"But why, after all this time? I mean the whole thing happened over ten years ago," she inquired trying to get as many information about Loki's motives as possible.
Loki sighed. "I got to know about all this only recently and only out of sheer luck. Or believe me, I would have shown up much earlier."
Hadn't he broken into heaven with Harry he perhaps might never have gotten to know about it.
"I'll get Sirius Black retrieved from Azkaban immediately and set up a trial. However, the trial might take a few days since many things have to be prepared for it," Bones explained.
"As long as you get him out of that hell hole as quickly as possible...."
He knew very well what those soul-sucking demons were capable of. It was laughable that the Brits thought they could control them, but that wasn't his problem. He only cared about Black, and that would be taken care of soon.
It was a few days later, and the trial of Sirius Black just finished. Loki followed the entire thing with interest to make sure that everything went as it should. Now he leaned against the wall right next to the door to courtroom number ten where the trial took place. He waited for Black to come out. A few minutes later, the said man walked through the door.
"Thank Loki that I'm finally free," he sighed in relieve.
Loki chuckled. "You're right, you should thank me. I got you out after all."
Sirius spun on the spot so quickly that he got dizzy and had to take a few seconds to see clearly again before eying the man in front of him critically.
"Loki?" he questioned carefully.
"In flesh and blood" Sirius' eyes widened comically upon that, and he looked like a fish out of the water with how he opened and closed his mouth. "Though I have to apologise to you."
"Why? What for?" Sirius was baffled. Why would the deity have to apologise to him?
"I should have known...should have checked you're alright" he shook his head.
"How could you have known? I mean even you can't know everything" his confusion only grew.
"True. However, I claim to care for my followers and then I don't even check on you after what happened. No, what happened to you is at least partly my fault" Loki sighed. "But that is the past, and I assume that you very much would like to catch up with the present. What do you think about a good meal while we talk?"
"I could kill for a good meal," Sirius moaned.
Just at that moment, Bones left the courtroom.
"Ah Loki, good that I caught you before you left. I wanted to ask you whether you intend to stay longer in Britain or not" she enquired.
"At the moment I'm staying at Hogwarts. Though this shan't be of your concern. If you worry about the children I think that Professor McGonagall can confirm you that I behave myself...mostly" he replied with a snicker. "As I already told her, I'm not a monster, and I would never hurt children."
"Should I get to hear anything happening at Hogwarts... As I mentioned a few days ago, the Unspeakables always look for new test subjects." Bones gave him a stern glare.
Loki laughed before taking Sirius' hand and teleporting them to a restaurant he knew served excellent meals.
"Where are we?" Sirius asked, confusedly looking around.
"France, Côte d'Azur to be precise. They have this little restaurant here...you'll love it."
With that Loki set into motion and walked over to a small house with tables outside, he sat down with a nice view over the village's bay. Since it was a nice and relatively warm day, it was possible to sit outside.
"So ask your questions."
"Where is Harry? Is he okay?" Sirius blurted out the first of the thousand questions he had in mind.
"Don't worry, he is in good hands. At the moment he is on holiday in America and staying with two friends of mine. If you want, we can visit them tomorrow," Loki replied.
"Why tomorrow and not today?" right now Sirius looked a bit like a beaten puppy.
"Sirius, you need a good night of sleep as well as a few new clothes first not to mention a proper bath or do you want to scare off your godson?" Loki snickered. It wasn't that Sirius was dirty anymore or looked like wearing rags. Still, he also was far from looking like an average person. Only Loki's illusions kept the peasants from giving him a wide berth.
Sirius blushed upon that lowering his head knowing perfectly well that Loki was right. He was released from prison only a few hours ago after all.
"So you accompany my godson?" he inquired.
"Yes, I attend school together with him all the while giving the teachers some headache."
After that, he told Sirius all about what happened the last months, what they did and whom they pranked. Sirius found it hilarious how they pranked the little blond ponce Malfoy but on the other hand, was quite worried how a full-grown mountain troll could get into the school. Therefore, he was glad that Loki took it upon himself to teach Harry how to defend himself if something happened again. All the while, they enjoyed the fabulous meal the waiter served some time ago. Loki was quite content answering every question Sirius had not knowing that quite soon the infamous Winchester Luck would strike again.