HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error.

With power coursing through his body, Loki stayed still for a few minutes, adapting to everything that was happening around him before he opened his eyes again and looked at the grey fog that was lightly swirling around him.

It had gotten much deeper than before. There was a qualitative change which Loki could feel had thickened his control over the Sefirah Castle.

And although he couldn't directly teleport into it, yet, he could feel that it would be really hard for anyone to divine anything regarding him as long as he didn't allow it.

Loki could now use the grey fog of the Sefirah Castle to cause a strong interference in matters related to him or his actions. This gave him another definite advantage against his enemies.

'Will Daphne be able to see a stronger connection between me and the Sefirah Castle now though?'

'I mean now that I'm so deeply intertwined with the Sefirah Castle and the grey fog, I doubt that her mystical items can keep protecting her..'

'Well, nothing that I can't handle when the time comes. I can probably steal the thought out of her mind as soon as she starts to show signs of losing control.'

'Or I could just borrow her mystical item and parasitise it with a worm of time and increase its powers and ability to keep her safe.'

'Would 'She' have left the area?'

'...well if he is still there, I'm sure I can fight him better this time around.'

'...I should get going then. I'm sure everyone else is waiting for me there.'

With that thought, Loki simply stole his divinity and placed it into a rune so that other people wouldn't be able to figure out about it.

He further hid it by obscuring its spirit thread using the grey fog of the Sefirah Castle lingering around him through their connection.

Loki nodded to himself when it was all done and with a soft *rustle* of the wind, vanished from the spot he was standing as he executed a flawless apparition.

Loki arrived at the scene of the fight and was glad to see the curtain that Sirius had put up was removed without any indications of it being forcefully torn down.

Although he had been pretty sure nothing would have happened to them because Laura had returned there to protect them in case something strange happened, he still felt a small joyful happiness sprout in his heart when he saw that things didn't have to go there.

The best danger in his opinion was avoided danger, at least when it came to others.

*WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

But all of it vanished the second he heard a familiar voice wail.

Loki's footsteps unknowingly and unhesitatingly quicked as he found himself scanning the crowds for a familiar face.

Soon Loki found himself looking at Hermione who was wailing like there was no tomorrow while kneeling in a puddle of flesh and blood.

Loki's heart wrenched a little at the sight since he always treated Hermione like his sister at Hogwarts. She substituted for Elane whether she liked it or not and seeing her cry made him feel an unstable twist in his gut.

'Why isn't Daphne comforting her?'

'Did something happen to Harry?'

'I doubt 'Adam' would've let anything happen to him…'

Loki quickly rushed to her side, someone tried stopping him, but when Sirius waved his hand, they stepped aside as Loki knelt beside Hermione and quickly wrapped his arms around her gently.

"What happened Mione…why are you being like this?"

Hermione kept wailing and crying for a few more minutes as Loki stayed patiently with her in silence. He continuously wiped away her tears while conjuring a simple glass for her to consume some water to calm her down.

Hermione took a few sips from the glass as Loki tried force-feeding her so that she wouldn't continuously be gasping for air as she wailed like a widow.

The tactic seemed to work as Hermione's reflexes kicked in while she tried to gulp down the water that was so forcefully being shoved down her mouth.

Loki searched around for Daphne but not finding her he rationalised it.

'She's gone to deal with the aftermath of whatever happened?'

'Did something so major happen that she had to leave Hermione crying here in the middle of the street?'

Finally, Hermione got ready to speak, at least in broken partial sentences as her throat was pretty worn out from crying so loudly.

"...Daphne…mess…"

"Huh? What did you say, Mione? Did Daphne leave a mess behind for you to clean up? You don't need to cry for that? I'll help you!"

Loki looked around and tried to understand the situation by studying the faces of the other Beyonders who were on the scene, that was when his face fell on Sirius who was looking at him with a terrible expression.

He looked like a man who had been through a war and had seen the deaths of each person he was stationed with.

The weight that Sirius had lifted off of him when he recovered while resting like a salted fish in the Black Manor for nearly an entire year after being free from Azkaban had all seemed to have suddenly returned to his face.

His face was long, his eyes were red and his hair was messy.

It looked like he had just had a long night.

Loki's subconscious had already gotten everything it would need to form a conclusion, but Loki's conscious mind had blocked it from reaching the end.

Loki knew very well what had happened, he just didn't want to believe it.

At least that was until Loki found himself staring into Hermione's tear-filled eyes as she finally spoke after taking a deep breath to calm anchor herself to reality before she spoke with tears flowing out of her eyes once again.

"Daphne…she died after pushing me away- It was so fast- One moment she was here- then the out-of-control Beyonders wailed- then she pushed me away- then they exploded…"

Loki looked at Hermione's eyes which were trembling as if she still couldn't accept the truth. All signs pointed towards Daphne having died but Loki didn't accept it so easily.

Loki's eyes turned cold as he stole his emotions, leaning fully on the single sharp edge that was his rational mind as several thoughts passed by his mind in a matter of moments.

'Can I use the Time Truner and create an illusion of her having died to save her?'

'No. If I'd saved her so easily, then 'She' was sure to detect me walking around. 'She' wouldn't have let me leave alive.'

'But why did Daphne kill herself?'

'Just to save Mione?'

'Not to make her sound bad, but she wouldn't have done that…'

'Not unless she knew she could survive this.'

'Does she have a plan?'

Loki stood up and quickly looked around the area, scouring it for even the smallest of clues to try and reverse the situation around.

But Loki couldn't find anything.

Not a twig or pebble out of place. No hidden messages. And no special clever tricks that one could see to piece together a solution to bring it all together.

'Perhaps she didn't have the time to leave behind a clue?'

'Maybe she trusted that we would figure it out easily?'

'Perhaps she wants me to use the Disk of Miracles to resurrect her!!!???'

The sudden idea gave Loki the impetus to test out his theory.

Loki suddenly vanished from where he was standing, apparating away, leaving Hermione behind in her shocked state. But seeing Loki's excited look, Hermione also remembered she could do something to see if Daphne was truly dead.

She quickly pulled out her priceless pendulum which she had purchased from her salary as the Hogwarts Honest Mill employee and performed a simple divination.

"Daphne Greengrass is dead."

Hermione repeated the statement seven times regardless of the immense amount of pain it gave her to handle.

However, Hermione didn't have to wait for the result, since Loki reappeared almost instantly with a deep frown on his face and his fingers trembling.

Hermione then finally dragged up the courage to look at the pendulum and what she saw caused her to wail almost instantly as if a dam of suppressed emotions exploded in her head.

The pendulum was spinning clockwise.

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