Angrboda stood quietly for a moment, her gaze sweeping across the gray hills. The wind tugged at her braid, carrying the smell of rain and earth.
Then she turned to him. "Now what?"
Loki adjusted his posture, expression already brightening. "Now? We go to where they have invited us... Hogwarts. What else?"
She just stared at him.
For a full minute, she said nothing.
The silence stretched until even the wind seemed to pause.
Loki frowned, tilting his head. "What?"
Her tone was patient, almost too patient. "Why aren't you opening a gate? Teleporting us? Isn't that what you do?"
He gave a small, knowing smile, his two fingers up, "Two reasons."
She waited.
"First, the golden curse," he said, raising his hand slightly. The faint shimmer of the cuff reappeared, humming once before fading. "Forcing it for such a long distance might leave me drained for days, and I rather enjoy being conscious."
"And the second?"
"The second," he said, eyes glinting, "is that we are finally here. On Midgard. I thought we might-" he paused, as if finding his words, "how do mortals say it? Right, look around."
Angrboda folded her arms. "Look around."
"Observe," he corrected, a hint of mischief in his tone. "Have a little fun"
Her lips curved just slightly. "You mean roam around causing chaos everywhere."
"Well," he said with a shrug, "if you insist on reducing it to something like that "
She looked out at the wide fields again. "Then we will roam. But just for a while."
"Excellent," he said pleased. "We can start there." He pointed vaguely toward the mist covered ridge. "And when we have had our fill of grass and mud, we will make our way to the city. Pick up a few things on the list."
Angrboda nodded. "Outskirts of London first, then somewhere else."
Loki smiled. "A compromise. How civilized we have become."
"Don't get used to it," she said.
He laughed softly, "Too late."
"Ohh-" Loki began, dragging the sound out as though the thought had only just occurred to him. "Before that…"
Angrboda didn't even turn. "There's always a before that."
He ignored her, snapping his fingers once.
The change rippled through him like shifting light. His hair still being the same, the gleam of green in his eyes dimming a bit, but most importantly his facial structure changed.
Long gone was the god, and the edge of divinity. Now was a child around eleven, slipping neatly under human skin.
His cloak dulled to gray, and changed into a long coat. He looked more like a well dressed kid than a god who had fallen through the sky.
He smiled at the reflection in a shallow puddle. "There. I look honestly cute, don't I?"
"That you do," she said, still not looking away. "Like a sweet, innocent kid."
He straightened, smug. "Thank you. Your turn."
Her shift was quieter. A slight lowering of presence, braid shortening, silver warming to chestnut. Her coat darkened, practical and human.
Loki raised an eyebrow. "You barely changed.'
"I didn't need to. This is the change."
He hummed. "Want to hold hands, darling?"
She started walking, but her hand stayed behind her, open for him to take. "Keep talking and you will be walking alone."
Loki caught up easily, slipping his hand into hers. "What a tragedy that would be."
She ignored him, still committed to the annoyed wife act.
She hadn't wanted to leave the children behind, but Loki insisted, and leaving him alone unsupervised would indeed be a tragedy.
Not for him but for every poor mortal around him.
The man had the emotional depth of a spoon and the dramatic timing of a playwright. If he ever found himself walking alone, he'd probably turn it into a three act opera before sundown.
The two of them crossed the wet field.
A God and a Giantess, now looking like teenagers.
The mist rolled as they moved, until they became only silhouettes against the pale horizon, heading toward whatever came next.
----
They walked for a while without speaking. A narrow road cut through the fields, damp gravel crunching softly beneath their steps.
It was a small village.
A single main street, a few shops with shutters closed early, chimneys letting out thin trails of early smoke.
Most of it was silent, except a cart wheel turning somewhere behind a cottage, and the occasional bark of a dog.
Angrboda slowed as they reached the first row of houses.
Mortals passed them without a second look,a man carrying firewood, a woman locking her bakery door, a teenager cycling past with a bag over his shoulder.
None of them glanced twice. Maybe to them, they were two children of a nearby village.
So their disguises held.
Loki watched them with a quiet satisfaction.
"What a peaceful life." he murmured. Not a hint of mischief in his eyes.
Maybe the trickster was actually admiring for once.
Angrboda didn't answer immediately. She was watching a child hop over a puddle, shoes splashing mud.
The simplicity of it. The ordinary rhythm of life in Midgard. Unlike Loki, she was not that connected with other realms.
So, to her this was fascinating.
When she finally spoke, her voice was softer than before. "Midgard doesn't look like the stories."
"It never does," Loki said. "Mortals always change faster than the gods keep track."
Well sir, our life is pretty small, and so our civilisation fast.
You can't blame us.
They passed a corner shop.
Loki paused, staring at a display of newspapers outside it.
They were flat sheets of advertisements, photographs of faces he obviously didn't recognize, bold headlines about politics and storms.
He leaned in, studying the print. His looks amused, "Charming," he said. " It's chaotic out here."
They walked a bit further until they reached a small building tucked between two cottages.
A wooden sign hung above the door:
Ridgeview Inn.
Loki stopped.
"This will do."
Angrboda raised an eyebrow. "Do what?"
"Stay for the night. Our lodging."He glanced sideways at her. "Or do you prefer sleeping outside?"
She watched him for a moment, as if waiting for the punchline.
When it didn't come, she sighed quietly.
"How are you planning to pay?"
Loki smiled. "I won't."
He stepped forward.
The inn sat at the corner of the village's narrow street, a two story building with whitewashed walls and a slanted roof still dripping from last night's rain.
Warm light glowed through the front windows. The place smelled faintly of old wood, damp coats, and something vaguely herbal. Maybe tea, or whatever the keepers brewed to stay awake.
Inside, the lobby was small.
A counter, a row of hooks for coats, a few chairs. The place was clean, warm, and quiet.
The innkeeper was a tired man with half buttoned shirt and white hair.
He blinked at the two disguised teenagers as if unsure to see them.
Two eleven year olds, this late at night. Who can blame him?
Loki walked to the desk with the confidence and said, "Room for two, please."
The innkeeper blinked again,"Where are your parents?"
Loki didn't hesitate. "Dead."
The man's face softened out of sheer human guilt.
Angrboda's expression on the other hand, didn't change.
Though a tiny sigh escaped her, and she nudged Loki.
Out of everything, this man had to say dead.
The innkeeper nodded quickly but was still hesitant to handover a room to two children.
So Loki did, what he does the best.
Trickery.
A flick of the hand, and the innkeeper slid the registry forward.
Loki pretended to sign.
The pen didn't actually touch the paper, but the man nodded anyway.
"Payment?" the innkeeper asked.
Loki reached into his coat and placed a few crisp notes on the counter.
They weren't real.
It was an illusion to satisfy his eyes for three seconds.
The innkeeper pocketed nothing, remembered nothing, and waved them upstairs with a tired smile.
They walked up the narrow wooden stairs. The innkeeper downstairs wiped the counter. His mind skipping neatly over the nonexistent transaction.
Reaching the room, the door closed behind them, and Angrboda spoke first. "You scammed him."
"Temporarily," Loki corrected. "I froze his memory for a moment. He will forget the exchange before he finishes his morning tea."
Angrboda stepped beside him. "You know you can't keep doing that."
"That's why," Loki said calmly, "we get what they call money tomorrow."
She gave him a look to explain.
Loki raised both hands. "Relax. I am not here to steal from mortals. I have gold, I just need a proper place to exchange it."
It was the sort of trick Loki could do in his sleep, and the sort mortals never noticed, because mortals rarely remember anything that doesn't inconvenience them.
At the top of the stairs, Angrboda muttered, "Next time, use real money."
Loki nodded, surprisingly sincere. "Tomorrow. Once I exchange it."
Angrboda sat by the window, watching the moonlight creep over.
Loki lay back on one of the beds, hands behind his head.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Angrboda broke the silence.
"Tomorrow afternoon, then?"
Loki nodded. "Tomorrow afternoon. We exchange gold, get mortal money, buy the things on the list… and make our way to Hogwarts."
She turned from the window. " And how will we reach London so quickly?"
" Simple" he said, "I will teleport us both."
Angrboda's expression shifted immediately, subtle tightening around the eyes, and a small pull at the corner of her mouth.
She remembered perfectly well what he had told her in the field.
"But you said you can't- "
"I," Loki interrupted smoothly, "might or might not have lied about that."
Her eyes narrowed. And just as she was about to stand up, he continued as if he had done nothing wrong. "Long distance teleportation is tiring, yes. But not as much as I might have exaggerated."
Angrboda stared at him for a moment longer, and Loki held her gaze with the confidence of someone who has done this quite a lot.
To be fair to Angrboda, Loki lying wasn't surprising.
What was surprising was how often he did it while sounding perfectly reasonable.
It was practically a personality trait.
Angrboda finally exhaled slowly. "So we walked all this way because…?"
"Because," Loki said, lifting a finger as if explaining, "roaming is part of the experience. Would you really want our grand return to Midgard to begin with a single, boring jump?"
She didn't answer.
But she made up her mind.
One day, she was going to murder him.
And he was going to deserve it.