Within a week of my little revelation most of the gossiping had died down and I had become old news. Most people were talking about Fred and George's new business and how much fun they were going to have with the skiving snack boxes. I still got the occasional glare or snide comment from the Slytherins and Cho couldn't help but look smug about me being outed. But Cedric was by my side the entire time, supporting me no matter what happened. Which was I wanted to make his birthday that was coming up on Saturday. He had done so much for me and put up with so much that I just wanted help him have a day away from everything, but to do that there was someone I need to speak to first. So, when I had a double free period on Wednesday morning, I started to put my plan to work.
"Where are you going?" Cedric asked me when I ran in to the great hall to grab some toast before implementing my plan.
"Um, to study," I said with a mouthful of toast.
"Why don't I believe you?" Cedric laughed.
"I don't know, babe," I said picking up my backpack and giving Cedric a quick kiss on the cheek. "But you should."
When I got to the doors of the great hall, I turned around to see Cedric laughing and shaking his head at my less than convincing story and quick exit. Most people probably would have been suspicious behavior but Cedric knew me better than I knew myself most of the time and knew he could trust me.
My first stop was at the kitchens where I intended to talk to my favorite little house elf, Dobby. As soon as I walked into the kitchens all the house elves started fussing over me and tried to feed me a hundred different types of food which I politely declined. I finally found Dobby at the back of the kitchens, washing up the dishes used to make the schools breakfast.
"Miss Elsa! What is you doing here?" Dobby squeaked when he saw me and ran over to hug my legs.
"I came to talk to you, Dobby," I said as Dobby let go of my legs and sat down on one of the stools.
"You coming to talk to me?" Dobby said in shock.
"Of course, Dobby. You know I like spending time with you," I told him. "I mean, I did come to visit you last week, didn't I."
"I is guessing so. Dobby just never thought that people are actually liking to spend time with him," Dobby said as he wiped away tears with the old tie that he had on.
"It's not only me Dobby, but Cedric, Harry, Ron and Hermione do as well," I told him. "But I do have a favor to ask."
"I is doing anything for you, Miss Elsa."
"Well, it's Cedric birthday on Saturday and since I'm not the best at cooking..."
"Don't you be worrying. Dobby will be making the best cake for Mr. Cedric's birthday," Dobby said excitedly.
"Hang on, slow down there Dobby," I laughed. "I was going to ask if you could help me make the cake. But if my plan works, it won't be here at Hogwarts. So, you would have to come with me."
"Of coursing Miss Elsa! Dobby is excited to be helping you!" Dobby said even more excitedly.
"I'll let you know if everything works out as soon as I can," I told the sweet little house elf as I walked out of the kitchen. Now I just needed to speak to someone about the second part of my plan.
"Hey Mum!" I said after I teleported into the Avengers Complex behind her and scaring her. I tried not to laugh as she jumped and fell of the chair that she was sitting on, scattering the exam papers she had been grading all over the floor.
"Elsa! What are you doing here," she asked as I helped her up off the floor. "It everything okay? I mean, I know we spoke on the phone after what happened with that horrible woman at school. But nothing else has happened because if it has, I will go to that school with you and personally deal with her."
"Mum, calm down! Nothing is wrong," I laughed, watching her fly in to full protective mother hen mode. "I just need to ask you something."
"Sorry, princess. I didn't mean to over react," she said, laughing at herself. "Now, what is it that you wanted to ask."
"Well, it's Cedric's birthday on Saturday and I wanted to do something special for him, you know since his dad still refuses to speak to him, and I was wondering if I could use the old Manhattan brownstone?" I explained as she raised an eyebrow at me with a small grin on her face. "You see, I've managed to convince one of the house elves to help me bake a birthday for him and I want to keep it a surprise and honestly, after everything that has happened, I think we both need to get out of Hogwarts for a day."
"Of course, you can, sweetheart," Mum said as she pulled her keys out of her bag and tossing me the keys to the Brownstone. "You might want to go in a couple of day early and fix the place up. No one had been there in years and it's probably covered in dust."
"Try me that won't be a problem," I told her, pulling my wand out of my robes pocket and pointing it at the pile of papers at the floor and waving it over them. Mum watched as all her papers rearranged themselves into order and neatly placing themselves back on her desk.
"Remind me to have you clean up more often," she laughed. "But I'll get FRIDAY to contact Lumiere so he can get the system back up and running."
"You know, I still can't believe you let me call the house AI after a fictional, talking candlestick," I said with a smile.
"How could I say no?" she told me.
"Say no to what?" Dad said as he walked into the rooms, not noticing it was me Mum was talking to at first because I had my back to him.
"Why you guys let me call the brownstones AI Lumiere," I told him as I turned around to face him.
"Elsa! What are you doing here!" he asked, walking over to me and picking me like he did when I was little to hug me.
"Cedric's birthday is on Saturday and I wanted to clear something with Mum so I can surprise him," I said as he put me back down on the seat and sat down next to him.
"And what has the brownstone have to do with any of this?" Dad asked sounding skeptical and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh, for even sakes Steve!" Mum sighed. "She had one of those cute little house elves helping her bake him a cake and she can't do it at Hogwarts because it won't be a surprise and if she does it here there is a good chance of Tony finding out, who will then tell Cassy who you know will tell Cedric."
"That's sweet of you, Snowflake," Dad said as he visibly relaxed and smiled. "I'm sure he will love it."
"Thanks, Dad. I really hope he does," I said to him. "But there is one more thing I need you guys to get for me."
Late on Friday night after everyone had gone to sleep, I crept out of my dorm room and teleported into the Manhattan brownstone. Is had been so long since I had been there and I wasn't surprised to see that everything was just as we left it. I had told Dobby the address and asked him to be come around about an hour after I got there. Placing my backpack and the second part of Cedric present down couch and called out to the house AI, hoping that FRIDAY had reactivated him.
"Hey, Lumiere. You there?" I asked.
"Of course, ma chérie. And I must say, I have missed talking to you Miss Elsa," the AI's French accented voice echoed throughout the house.
"Good, for a second I thought I was taking to myself," I laughed as I went to turn on the light but forgetting there was no switch thanks to one of Tony's 'upgrades'. "Hey, Lumiere, can you turn the lights on and connect to my phone and play my work out playlist."
"It would be my pleasure, mademoiselle," Lumiere said as the lights turned on and Shake if off started playing over the speaker.
"Thanks, Lumiere," I said as I rolled up the selves of my shirt and pulled out my wand. "Now to get this place cleaned out."
Figuring the kitchen would be the best place to start, I started to make my way over and since I knew I was alone, I knew no one would judge me if I did something stupid. So, I let go and started singing alone and doing some crazy dance that I honestly had no idea what it was.
"'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake it off, I shake it off"
"I see you still love to sing and dance, ma chérie," Lumiere said to me.
"Only when I can't be judge and so I can let go and have fun," I laughed.
"Then be my guest, mademoiselle," Lumiere said, making me shake my head at the fact that my parents actually let five-year-old me have the house AI programed to be a complete copy of a Beauty and the Beast character.
"Thanks, Lumiere," I called out to him. "Now, let's get rid of this dust. Tergeo."
With a simple wave of my wand all the dust that was covering the kitchen disappeared, living it as clean as the day we moved in. Slowly I made my way through the house, cleaning each room as I did. Within the hour, I had cleaned the entire house and set up the mini loft for Cedric's birthday.
There was only one thing left to do and that was to bake his birthday cake, which meant I had to wait for Dobby. Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait long because as soon as I sat down to wait for him there was a loud crack and Dobby was standing in front of me.
"Hello, Miss Elsa," Dobby said excitedly. "Is you being ready to make a cake."
"Of course, Dobby! Let's get started!"
"Where are you taking me?" Cedric laughed as I pulled him out of the common room.
"It's a surprise!" I told him.
"So, you're not even going to give me a hint," he asked.
"What part of surprise don't you understand," I giggled.
When we were outside and far enough away from the students, I took hold of both of his hands and pictured the Manhattan brownstone in my mind and within seconds we were standing in the living room. Cedric looked around the room, trying to figure out where we were.
"It's my old family home in New York," I told him as he walked over to one of the photos on the wall to look at it.
"That explains why the little girl in this photo with your dad looks a lot like you," he said as I walked over to see what photo he was looking at.
"That was taken when I was six years old. It was Halloween and all my friends wanted to dress up as monsters or ghost or kinda ironically, witches," I laughed. "But I insisted as going as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. So, Dad being Dad made a big fuss when I walked down dressed in a yellow princess dress and insisted the we dance to the song Beauty and the Beast which of course meant me standing on his feet."
"That's really sweet," Cedric said as he smiled looking at photo. Mum had managed to take the photo at the exact moment Dad picked me up to spin me around. Both Dad and I were laughed and curls were falling out of the half bun in my hair. It was a time in my life when there were no dramas, no bad guys, no worrying about people finding out about my secret. It was just Mum, Dad, Loki and me having fun as a family.
"It seems like it was a life time ago," I sighed as Cedric wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on the top of my head.
"If it feels like a life time ago for you, ma chérie," Lumiere said, startling Cedric who looked around the room to see who was talking. "Can you imagine what it feels like for me? Life is so unnerving, for a servant who's not serving. He's not whole without a soul to wait upon."
"Who was that?" Cedric asked in a worried voice.
"No need to worry messieurs. I am Lumiere, the Rogers family AI."
"He's our version of Tony's FRIDAY and Cassy's SOLO. Mum and Dad let me have him programed so he was like Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast," I told Cedric, as I pulled him over towards the couch. "But for the reason that I brought you here. Your birthday!"
The first thing I did was run over to the kitchen and pull the cake out of the fridge. I carefully lifted it out and placed it on one over the cake stands, not wanting to ruin what was mostly Dobby's hard work. I may have helped bake the actual cake, but Dobby did most of the decorating.
"So, this is what you have been up to, that's absolutely amazing," Cedric said when he saw me back out of the kitchen. "Love, you really didn't have to go to all this trouble."
"Yeah, I did. It's our last year at Hogwarts and so much had happened, so I figured you deserved it and a day away from school," I told him, putting the cake down so he could see the Hufflepuff themed birthday cake. "Besides, Dobby did most of the hard work with the cake. I, uh, didn't inherit the cooking gene from Mum and Gran."
"Elsa, I don't know what to say," Cedric said as he looking down at the cake. "You are one of the most amazing and caring people that I have ever met."
"Wait, that's not all!" I said pulling his presents out from under the couch and handing them to him.
I was basically bouncing on the seat as he opened his presents, hoping that he would like them. I had Mum and Dad get it all together for him remembering something that Cedric had said over the summer holidays. When Cedric unwrapped the paper and lifted the lid of the box off, his eyes lit up. He carefully lifted up what was inside and looked at me in shock.
"Is this what I think it is?" he asked me, not wanting to get his hopes up.
"Mum, Dad and me thought it was about time you got your own Avenger's uniform. I mean, you did say you wanted to join," I said to him.
"Elsa, I...Are all of you sure about this?"
"More than sure. Dad meant what he said, you would be more than welcome on the team. But it's completely up to you."
"Of course, I want to join! Elsa, thank you so much!" Cedric said as he pulled me into a tight hug. I knew it was more than just joining the team to Cedric, it was joining part of the family. After how his dad had been treating him and kicking him out, he had no place he thought he could call home. But now, as part of the Avengers team, he would never feel like that again.
"Well, are you going to have a look at the rest of your uniform or not?" I laughed as Cedric let go of me and wiped the tears away from his eyes.
"Yeah, of course," Cedric said excitedly.
Authors note: Just ignore Clint and only pay attention to the basic design of the uniform and imagine that that both are short sleeves, not just the one.
The uniform was very similar to Clint's, with a military look to it and made from heavy duty fabric that could survive a battle. It had short sleeves and the usual gun belts and all the usual attachments that went along with it. Just like all our uniforms, gloves and combat boots were a staple in it. But unlike Clint's black and dark purple colour theme, it was black with a dark yellow gold, but like Clint's you had to look closely to see the secondary colour.
"And after Clint found out how handy you were with bow and arrow," I told him as I reached for the package that was from Clint. "He wanted me to give you these."
Cedric unwrapped the last package to find a custom bow quiver that Clint had made for Cedric. It took a lot to impress Clint when it came to archery skills, so the fact that he had them made for Cedric really meant something.
"Wow, this is so much more advanced than what I used to use with Grandfather. It perfectly balanced and feels so light weight," Cedric said as he held the bow in his hands.
"There is a lot more to it than a regular archery set as well. There are explosive arrows, Loki is very familiar with those," I laughed. "Grappling attachments, electric shock attachment and so much more. But you would have to ask Clint about that, he asked me to tell you that he would be happy to show you how it all works during one of the school breaks."
"He doesn't mind if I use it. I mean, it's kinda his thing," Cedric said cautiously.
"Not at all," I said, reassuring Cedric. "He's taken a major step back from the team so he can spend more time with his family. He's actually happy that someone has stepped into his spot. He actually said that 'Hawkeye was more than happy to hand the quiver over to the Hawk'."
"The Hawk?"
"Yeah, I think that's going to stick as well," I laughed. "Trust me, most of us didn't even get to pick our codenames. Except Tony and Cassy."
"Thank you, Elsa. I you have no idea how much this means to me," Cedric said.
"But wait, the days not over yet," I said pulling him up from the seat.
"Where are we going?"
"The loft sitting room in the library," I told him as we walked up the stairs.
When I pushed open the doors to the loft, I stepped back to Cedric could have a look at my hard work. I had attached fairy lights to the roof and then used Asgardian enchantments to merge them into the roof so it looked like a night sky. I had also moved all of the furniture out of the room and replaced them with pillows and blankets and set up a projector screen, with Star Wars: A New Hope opening scrawl paused.
"I thought it was well past time that you finally watched Star Wars," I said.
"Love, this is amazing, thank you so much."
After watching the original trilogy and eating almost half the cake, Cedric and I had every intention of watching the prequel trilogy but got a little distracted. By the time Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had made their way to the Gungan underground city, Cedric had pulled me over to him and was hovering over me as he kissed me. Star Wars was all but forgotten as I ran my hands through Cedric's hair.
We hadn't been alone without the risk of someone walking in on us since Asgard and I had forgotten how much I has missed just being with him. So, when he started to kiss me along my jaw and down on to my neck, I didn't stop him. When I felt his hand trail up the bare skin on my leg, I could feel my heart start to beat faster. We both knew where this was leading to but neither of us wanted to stop.
Detangling my hands from his hair, I ran my hands down his neck, on to his shoulders and finally on to his neck, where I started to unbutton his shirt which he quickly shrugged off. After everything that had happened, I just need to be with him, as close to him as I could. He was the one thing that kept me sane, kept me grounded when everything went wrong. He was my safe place, my home and saved me every single day without even knowing it. I loved him more than he would ever know.
By the time we got back to Hogwarts it was around five in the evening and the entrance hall was strangely crowded. Cedric had his arm around my shoulders as he gently guided me through the crowds while clutched the left-over cake that was in a Tupperware container in my hands. We finally spotted Danny in the front of the crowd, his blonde hair shinning in the candle light and desperately tried to get over to him and the rest of our friends.
"Hey, everyone! I brought cake!" I said happily but no one really seemed to be paying attention to me. "What doesn't anyone like cake anymore?"
"It's not that, Spangles. It's just..." Cassy said waving to something on the wall.
"It's what? I can't see!" I said standing on my tiptoes, trying to see what was going on.
"Hang on, love," Cedric said as he lifted me up and walked forward so that we could both see what was going on. Then we saw it, hanging on the wall, declaring worst news Hogwarts had ever heard.
"High inquisitor? What the hell does that mean?" Cedric asked.
"It means only one thing," I said to him. "Fudge is one step closer to taking over Hogwarts."