Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Hayley and Loki - Hogwarts
Hayley woke up, not sweating and dreaming of green light as always, but freezing and shaking from every point of her body. Hermione was really worried and looking at the other two girls, she saw the concern echoed in their eyes. Something was wrong.
After dinner, when Hayley didn’t even eat all that much, the girl came up and lied down, saying she had a headache, but that was three hours before and now she was freezing, even with the fire burning and four blankets piled on top of her.
“That’s it!” Hermione bit out annoyed, glaring at the girl on the bed, cursing inwards her stubbornness. “Lavender, go get professor McGonagall and Madam Pomphrey!”
“But Hayley said…” the blonde objected, the promptly shut up when she saw the dark look on the other girl’s face.
“Hayley is delusional right now and I’m not taking into account anything she says! Now GO!”
Hayley Potter, the girl who lived. Hermione read a lot about her and the demise of the dark lord, but while the books talked a lot about the actions of the madman, they were uncooperatively empty of references about the little girl that defeated him. So, it came as a shock when the small skinny girl introduces herself as Hayley Potter and become her first friend.
Hermione took one look at her slight frame and made sure that from that moment on the smaller girl stayed close to her and eat better, a little more every day. She wasn’t the only one worried about Hayley, Hermione thought with a smile, tucking the blankets better around her friend. Professor McGonagall and madam Pomphrey made sure – through some form of magic, no doubt- that the food around her was both nutritional and tasty. And strangely enough, professor Snape was around when they took their usual walk around the lake, right before the curfew.
The sound of steps approaching told her that the professor and the nurse have arrived and when the door opened a few seconds later, she rose to her feet.
“What happened, Miss Granger?” the transfiguration professor asked, while the matron drew her wand and started to cast spells over the prone girl’s body.
“I don’t know professor! She complained she had a headache at dinner, so she came up here to rest a little. But when I came up, she was like this, freezing!”
“Minerva, this is bad!” the nurse said shocked. “Her internal temperature is half of what it should be and in this rhythm she will freeze to death in a couple of hours.”
Silence descended at the nurse’s grim prediction but after a second McGonagall drew her strength and started to give orders in a strong voice.
“Miss Patil, go and announce the headmaster that we’re taking Hayley to the hospital wing. The gargoyle outside his office will admit anyone that comes in with a prefect. Take Mr. Weasley with you. Miss Brown, go to professor Snape’s office. He should be there at this hour and tell him I need the emergency kit, and to bring it to the infirmary.”
The girls ran to fulfill the orders given, Lavender looking a little upset she got Snape.
Hermione had to laugh a little at the other girl’s naivety. Yes, professor Snape might be a little strict, but his classes had the potential to be the most lethal. And despite being the head of the Slytherin House, he was fair to all his students, no matter what the rumors said.
Draco Malfoy found that out the hard way, on his own skin, she recalled with a smile. The blonde brat was all bark and no bite, as far as she was concerned, but he made one crucial mistake. He thought that just because Snape knew his father and was the head of the Slytherin house, it gave him free reign over the others. And strangely enough, he fixated on Hayley.
So when the dark haired girl wouldn’t even take him seriously, he started to brag about his father’s money and wealth, escalating the insults when Hayley kept ignoring him, until he almost cursed her.
His bad luck seemed to hold, because just when the curse passed his lips, Snape turned the corner towards the great hall and intervened. He cast a shield charm, completely stopping the curse and quickly put the boy in a full body bind. Hermione wasn’t sure what happened after, but a quick search made her glad Snape turned up when he did. The curse was meant to break slowly and painfully every bone in the body of the victim. She guessed either Malfoy was really weak with his cursing or Snape was really good with his shielding, because that particular curse at full power shouldn’t be stopped by a simple shield charm.
What happened after that, Hermione couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that the headmaster was involved and Malfoy’s parents, so most likely the brat was threatened with expelling if he doesn’t stop with everything. From that day on, Malfoy stopped insulting everyone actually.
Now, the girl that would smile so gently at Hermione’s crazy ideas was pale, shaking and fighting for her life, gently being levitated by professor McGonagall towards the fireplace.
“I’m coming with you!” Hermione announced, staring straight at professor McGonagall.
The professor quickly measured her and told her to get dressed first and then come in the infirmary. Hermione obeyed and when she arrived, both professor McGonagall and Snape were there, looking worried towards the last bed.
Severus Snape knew he was a moron, a stupid moron actually, but that was something he gotten used to for some time now. He had no idea how he should behave. The small sickly child on the last bed was the last remaining link connecting him with his best friend, Lily Evans-Potter, and yet he never talked to her outside his class, because he had no idea how. He never knew how to talk to children, which was ironic since he was a teacher, but every time he tried, his courage got lost somewhere on the way.
“What do you think, Severus?” Minerva asked worried.
“That this is no prank from a certain arrogant blonde Slytherin, as was no doubt your first thought.” The man answered sourly, thinking about the Malfoy heir; it was also his first idea, but he quickly discharged that line of thinking, it was a little too overt for him. If he tried anything else, next time would be more discreet, making sure nothing could tie it back to him. Not that Snape would let him get that far.
The brat was a pain in the ass and he had no problem pointing that out to Lucius. Old friends or not, he would not tolerate bullies or cruel people in his house and he made that very clear to the other man. No matter how much he tried to spin the story in his son’s favor, Lucius eventually realized that the boy he remembered from his past, grew up in a strong, stubborn man determined to do the honorable thing until the end, if that was possible.
His past was the problem as always. Many have been those that believed Severus Snape would have only one road in life, to become a Death Eater. They never thought to ask themselves if that was what he wanted. Minerva McGonagall did and to his shock she also asked him. The only things he wanted in his life were his potions and to make sure Lily was happy.
Minerva helped him with the first wish. She send him to her cousin, in the US, at the Salem Institute for Magick, to further his studies on potion making. When she contacted him, about three years in his master degree to tell him that Lily wanted to meet him even though they corresponded through letters every week, he got the surprise of a lifetime. She put this little bundle in his arms that made him freeze as the young Hayley opened her green eyes and giggled at him.
James and Lily explained the need for secrecy even from the Marauders, their friends. The dark lord was after them and possibly after Hayley as well. A prophecy made by an unknown seer that a child born at the end of the seventh month would be his downfall, marked Hayley. Severus tried to get them to move to America with him and stay there for the rest of their lives in order to protect the innocent child from the clutches of an insane megalomaniac, but they were confident in the Fidelus charm.
They still made him promise to watch over her should anything happen to them. James said they were covering all their bases, joking that when he made Sirius, Hayley’s godfather, he forgot how much of a child the other man could be.
As Severus feared, they were too confident in the world.
Three weeks later they were dead and Hayley was spirited away Merlin knows where.
Severus begged Dumbledore for the potion job at Hogwarts, and after Minerva convinced Horace Slughorn to retire, the headmaster had no recourse but to hire him. When the wizarding world found that out, there was a lot of bad press. Severus did the most muggle thing he ever did since stepping foot in the wizarding world: he sued all the publications that tried to discredit him and won all across the board, getting awarded fabulous sums of money, but he started teaching later that year.
And until she came to Hogwarts, he had no idea where the little girl was hidden. Then he suspected that Dumbledore send her to Petunia, Lily’s sister. If that was true, then as soon as the year was finished, he was petitioning the Wizarding Child Services to gain custody of her. And with Minerva and Poppy in his corner he was confident he was going to win. The hell with Dumbledore and his plans!
Looking at the headmaster, who just slipped into the infirmary, Minerva and Severus exchanged a look that didn’t bode well for their old teacher.
“Do you know what’s going on, Albus?” Minerva asked serious.
“I do not, but I have several theories. But I’ll only speculate after Madam Pomphrey finishes the examination.”
Severus cursed Dumbledore several times in the privacy of his own mind. The old man had the tendency to do whatever he wanted, and keep those cards he could wield close to vest. He never trusted Severus to what was important, thinking that he was after revenge for what James did when he was young. He never knew they made their peace a long time ago. Wasn’t he in for a rude awakening!
Still, the three teachers stood as patiently as they could, waiting for the matron to finish all the medical spell and potions on her young charge. Minerva was glancing at the clock every minute, Severus was clutching his wand tightly beneath his dark robes and Dumbledore was eating through lemon drops like they were going out of fashion. A few minutes later, the Medwitch turned to Hermione, said something quietly to her ear and walked towards the gathered professors as the girl slipped into an empty chair and started to talk to the other girl.
“It’s not good, headmaster. Her internal temperature is 20°C and continues to drop. The only things keeping her from slipping into hypothermic shock are her magic and her will. But even her magic is being syphoned away, little by little.” The matron said worried.
“What is causing it?” Minerva asked.
“The soulmate mark. It’s active.”
The soulmate mark was a unique and intriguing part of the wizarding world.
It was the impression of a witch’s or wizard’s soulmate’s palm, at the base of the neck spanning across the shoulder blades. In the beginning it’s nothing more than a shadow, barely there, but during adolescence, it darkens to a vivid coral color, than finally turns red when the two soulmates finally meet for the first time. No one can explain the reason for the soul mark, or why the magic decided that it would be a good idea for everybody to know exactly the most perfect person for them, but the wizards and witches weren’t questioning it anymore. Strangely enough, it didn’t matter if the soulmate was wizard or muggle, woman or man, and over time it made for some interesting pairings.
“What do you mean, it’s active?” Severus demanded to know.
“Exactly what it means, Severus.” The Medwitch cast a dark look towards her younger colleague. “It’s dark coral, almost red. She hasn’t meet her soulmate, I’m certain of that but we must find him quickly, because I’m pretty sure he’s the one in danger of hypothermia! He’s drawing her magic away!”
“It’s that even possible?!” Minerva asked surprised. “I have heard of soulmates drawing after they met, but not before!”
“There have been cases.” Albus told them quietly. “In times of great need and magical exhaustion there have been a couple of people that drew on their soulmate before they knew who it was and they were able to survive some extraordinary circumstances.”
“Like the killing curse, headmaster?” the potion master glared at the older man.
Severus had long suspected that the whole thing with the protective wards based on her mother sacrifice was nothing more that the innocent invention of Albus Dumbledore to keep the Death Eaters away from Hayley. Magic works unseen and if somebody believes in something, then that something is true. If the Death Eaters believe they can’t touch or find Hayley Potter wherever Dumbledore secreted her, then they won’t.
Not to disrespect Lily’s sacrifice, but something else, more powerful helped Hayley survive that night, in addition to her mother’s protection. If her soulmate was powerful, it became easy to imagine her magic latching onto his and drawing enough energy to help the toddler survive.
“Perhaps, Severus!” the headmaster said, his eyes twinkling cheerfully. Severus scowled, barely refraining from sending a rather nasty curse right between the man’s eyes.
“But that means she initiate the bond when she was eighteen months old!” McGonagall said, shocked.
“And it’s true.” Hermione said, coming next to the professors when she heard the discussion. “She had no idea that the mark means anything until Lavender and Parvati were talking about theirs.”
“So, it was always coral?” Severus asked curious.
“Yes, ever since she could remember, so she never made a big deal about it. But from time to time, she … I don’t know … loses time, or wakes up suddenly in a different part of the building than she intended. She said she always sees a man in her dreams. Tall, with black hair and green eyes, that’s dressed in a strange shiny armor. She tried to draw him, but she doesn’t have enough talent.” Hermione explained.
They were astounded. McGonagall, the most having never heard of such a thing before. It almost went against everything she knew about the soulmate mark. She was always under the impression that they could nothing more than just help you identify the person you are meant to spend the rest of your life with.
“So, it’s Hayley’s soulmate that’s freezing somewhere. We must find him!” McGonagall said after her world stopped spinning around her.
“We don’t have a way. We can’t exactly look everywhere in the world with below freezing temperatures for a black haired green eyed man dressed in armor!” Dumbledore pointed out rationally.
“But we can’t let them die!” the transfiguration teacher protested.
“We don’t have to.” Severus said quietly, remembering something. “When I was in America, one of my colleagues told me that her mother cast a spell to find her soulmate, after she felt him getting hurt and disappearing. The mother cast the spell on the bond between them, not on her soulmate.”
“Then we should do that, it’s no different than placing a tracking charm on a familiar bond.” Madam Pomphrey said, turning around and quickly start preparing another bed.
“Severus, can I ask you to bring him here?” Albus said looking at his potion master. “I will cast the spell that can track him down, but I’m afraid that will take away most of my energy. I need you to go and find him and then apparate directly here.”
Severus and Minerva knew that this is the opening they have been waiting for since the beginning of the year. They knew the headmaster was right. Casting a tracking charm on a bond he wasn’t a part of, will take most of his energy and the headmaster will be forced to recover for more than a week. That was more than enough time for them to put forward their own plans concerning Hayley.
“Of course, headmaster.” The potion master replied, trying to keep his voice neutral.
Dumbledore drew his pale wand, going next to Hayley and waving the wand in a complex series of movements, runes shimmering gently around the small girl. As the glowing runes gently turned around, time seemed to stretch, but finally a location appeared above her: 1267 miles, East by North East.
Severus quickly memorized the coordinates, and quickly made his way to the front gate, where the edge of the wards began. He drank a specialized potion that would temporarily increase his magical reserves to make sure he could make the leap and bring the man back, he was no slouch in the magical reserves category, but he never tested his limits, so it was better to be safe than sorry. He hoped that the headmaster’s calculation held true and took a deep breath and disappeared with a little ‘pop’.
When he reappeared, the first thing he noticed was the cold. Bitterly cold, with a freezing wind blowing his robes away. He was on a beach surrounded by sand and sea, illuminated by the frail light of the half moon. No wonder Hayley was hypothermic if she was feeling everything her soulmate was feeling.
Looking around Severus couldn’t see anything at the first glance. There was nothing around him, but dunes of sand and the frigid water. But at the second glance he saw a cloth rustling in the wind. It was covering a small dune that actually was the man he was send to bring back to Hogwarts. As fast as he could he crossed the beach and dropped to his knees next the man, turning him from his side to his back.
Well, Hayley was a very lucky young girl, Severus thought with a smirk. There were going to be a lot of broken hearts around these two. The man was very handsome and Severus was not ashamed to admit that to himself. Putting a hand to his face, he could feel the coldness beneath his palm and knew he had to be very careful bringing him to a more humane temperature.
Putting his arm around the other man’s neck to get the upper body off the freezing ground, the potion master was shocked when he wasn’t able to. He couldn’t even bulge the man. For such a lanky person there was a heaviness to his frame that shouldn’t be there even with the ornate and heavy metal armor. Regarding him with a suspicious eye, Severus cast a feather light charm on the man, raised him over the shoulder and quickly disappeared.
*
The first thought that came to mind when the man from the beach awoke was that he was still alive strangely enough. Not only was he not freezing, but he was lying comfortably in a huge bed, in a warm room. Which was a surprise. Last thing he remembered was the damn beach with the howling winds and the bitter coldness that nearly turned him into an ice statue.
Opening his eyes he took stock of what was around him. A room, a bedroom he corrected quickly in his mind, dark but warm gently illuminated by the crackling fire in the hearth. He was lying in a bed, but he could see a huge cabinet on his left side and an armchair. There was also a man reading in the armchair.
The man was tall, as far as he could see, with long dark hair, a prominent nose that he could see even in the weak light, dressed in some sort of robes, also dark from what he could see.
“Where am I?” he asked suddenly, making the other man pin him with a stare.
Severus looked up from his book at the unknown voice and sure enough, his house guest was awake.
“My bedroom, but if you want a place, then Hogwarts, Scotland.” The potion master said, calmly placing a book sign on the page he was reading and closing the book.
“You found me on the beach?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the man on the bed asked suspicious, trying to get up and only then noticing the third person in the room, a small girl tucked into bed with him “And why is there a child in bed with me?”
Severus smirked.
“What’s your name? I have to call you something!” the potion master asked.
“Loki… Freyasson.” The other man answered.
“Well, Loki, when I found you on that beach three days ago, you were hypothermic, stranded on a beach in Norway, of all places, barely alive. Now I don’t care how you ended up there, nor why, but what I can tell you is that you lucked out. My name is Severus Snape, the potion master here, at Hogwarts. You’re currently at a magic school.” He explained when he noticed the man had no idea what he was talking about.
Loki jumped a little. A magic school?! What were the odds that such good fortune would befall him, an Asgardian sorcerer?
“As for the reason Miss Potter is in bed with you, it has to do with the soulmate mark on your back!” the man said calm, but amused.
“What soulmate mark?” Loki asked suspicious.
“The handprint between your shoulder blades. That’s what our people call a soulmate mark, it identifies the other half of your soul. Do your people not have it?” Severus asked.
Loki was shocked. The man in front of him was very dangerous, smart and powerful if the magic pouring off of him was to be believed. Odin dictated long ago that Aesir must not tell the midgardians about their own abilities or the other realms, but Odin’s rules were usually subjected to his own whims, so he guessed since the man already figure it out, it wouldn’t hurt to be completely honest.
“I wouldn’t know, my race is almost dead. The remaining Jotunns are largely uncommunicative to other races.” Loki answered.
“Jotunns?” Severus asker confused.
“Yes, dwellers of a strange, icy world. I just found out about my heritage and confronted my father.”
“Then why were you freezing on the beach?” Severus asked throwing a suspicious look towards the man on the bed. “If these Jotunns live in a world of ice, you shouldn’t even feel the cold.”
“Because my Jotunn abilities were blocked by my adoptive father who hates Jotunns and nearly drove them to extinction.”
“Lovely man!” Severus bit out sarcastically, causing Loki to swallow a smirk. “As I was saying, to us that mark is paramount to finding our soulmate, the other half of your soul. It starts as a mere shadow, then darkens toward coral during adolescence and finally settling into red when you finally found each other.”
“So, my mark is red?” Loki asked, skeptical of the man’s rather fantastical tale.
“Yes, as it is Miss Potter’s, making you two soulmates.”
“But she’s a child!” Loki protested, hoping to whatever higher being there was out there, he didn’t mean he had to sleep with a small child.
“Don’t be a moron!” Severus bit back at the other man, rolling his eyes skyward. “You won’t be able to feel sexual attraction towards Hayley for several years as it is the case with couples that have a big age difference between them, but who find themselves when one is still a child.”
Loki felt a little better and took a second look at the young girl Severus was insistent was his soulmate. She was small and pretty, with dark hair, waving around her head and pale skin. Since her eyes were closed, he had no idea what color they were, but Loki was willing to bet they were emerald green, the same eyes that he had been dreaming about for the last couple of years. It was one of the reason he actually discovered Odin and Frigga were not actually his parents.
Looking at the man in the arm chair, he realized something. The man must have his own.
“So, where is your soulmate?” Loki asked curious.
“I do not have one.” Severus replied quietly and calmly. “I am one of those incredibly isolated cases that was born without a mark. Therefore without a soulmate. Which wielded two possibilities: either I cannot love, either my soulmate is dead long ago or won’t be born for hundreds of years. Which means I have no way to meet them. The bond knows that and the imprinting doesn’t take place at birth.”
“So, which one is it?” Loki asked curious.
“My soulmate will be born in six hundred years and even with a wizard’s incredibly long life, it would be impossible for me to meet him or her.”
Loki wanted to ask how the man knew that, but there was a note of deep sadness in his voice that made him realize his inquires would only sadden the man even further. He didn’t want that, especially after the man was kind enough not to let him freeze on the beach.
“So, can I stay here? With her I mean?” Loki asked, trying to change the topic of the conversation.
“Yes. Our laws are very clear, once two soulmates find each other and then they cannot be kept apart. So, you really have two choices: either stay as you are and become a member of the staff at school or I could concoct a potion that will regress you back to childhood.” Severus said looking carefully at the other man.
“Which is better?” the Jotunn asked, not bothering to mention that if he wanted he could transform himself into a child.
“For you, I guess the second choice. That way you could learn our magic, Loki – god of mischief!” the potion master smirked, amused that the man in front of him thought he couldn’t figure it out.
“How did you realize?” he asked surprised.
“You, Aesir, need to start giving us, mortals, some credit.” Severus said, smirking softly. “I knew something was off about you from the beach. It was impossible for me to be unable to pick you up, unless you had more mass than you’re frame suggested. Also, your name was a dead giveaway.”
“It has been a long time since I came to Midgard. You have grown!” Loki remarked amused.
“And just think, the wizarding world is about four hundred years behind the rest of the world…”
Severus stopped mid-sentence when Hayley started waking up. She opened her eyes and found another pair of green eyes staring back at her. “Hello.” She said awkwardly.
“Hello.” Loki smiled softly.
“Are you feeling better?” Hayley asked looking only at him.
“I am now.” He answered calmly, feeling like a part of himself that he never knew was missing finally settle down, deep within his being.
This little girl was going to be everything to him.
To be continued…