HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error.

Loki froze when Harry asked this since it was because of what he'd done.

It was because he'd given Harry's Dumbledore-loving corruption to Voldemort to destabilise his mental state that Harry was suddenly questioning the hand that fed him.

Loki had actually planned what he wanted to do with this. Given time, he had wanted to manipulate Harry to stand completely against Dumbledore.

It wouldn't have done very much, given how Dumbledore would've easily destroyed any such 'corruption' that he'd left behind, but it was supposed to be a message from Mr. Error for manipulating Gehrman Sparrow.

But Loki had forgotten about all this as soon as he'd learnt about Daphne's death.

The teachers all similarly froze too. Snape even dared to smile in the face of the surprise.

Dumbledore was the most surprised but he handled his expression well.

Almost immediately he looked at Harry's Body of Heart and Mind and found that his 'suggestion' planted in it was missing.

'Someone removed the corruption from him?'

'Perhaps being subject to volatile emotions due to Voldemort's desire manipulation degraded it?'

'Hmmm…or…'

Dumbledore mentally glanced at Loki but left the questions for later since Loki was not the problem at this time.

McGonagall looked at Dumbledore and Snape looked at him too, wondering what reason he would give his estranged 'disciple'.

Dumbledore started off with an audible *sigh*. He paused for a moment but then spoke again with a calm but sombre tone.

"You are right in a way Harry since stopping him was never my intention."

Harry's eyes widened and he quickly but patiently asked, hoping to give the benefit of the doubt to Dumbledore because he had known him for a while, but even then there was a seething undertone of anger and disappointment that laced his next question.

"Why?"

Harry's words were simple yet they carried a deeper meaning and they resounded loudly with everyone that was present in the location. Although McGonagall and Snape roughly knew what Dumbledore was about to say they still looked at him with a curious sense of fascination.

Dumbledore audibly *sighed* again and said, "Because I cannot currently go against him without worsening the situation for everyone else."

Harry's eyes shrunk in confusion but Dumbledore didn't give him a chance to ask any more questions. He looked at McGonagall and spoke to her in a calm tone.

"Please take them to Pomfrey Minerva." He then looked at Harry and spoke to him too, "We will speak again Harry. There are a few more things I need to take care of for a while before returning to your questions. Please wait for me to come back to you."

Harry was still confused but he nodded anyway and started to follow McGonagall when she whisked them away.

Loki was still lost, his thoughts roaming around Daphne and her death but he couldn't seem to bring himself to think much about it. It left him in a strange limbo that everyone around him noticed, especially Madam Pomfrey who pulled him out of his bed in the middle of the night while he was staring right at the blank ceiling without blinking his eyes.

"You're going to go blind if you keep that up."

"Wouldn't change what I saw though…"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head at Loki's response before she stopped dragging him and walked up to the potions station in her room.

"Help me make pepper-up potions for everyone. Students have probably caught a cold from staying in the Quidditch stands for the entire evening."

"Come on Madam Pomfrey, it's summer already, you really think they'd have caught a co- *cough* *cough* *cough*" Loki was about to argue but Madam Pomfrey suddenly stuffed a disgusting concoction into his mouth which he was forced to drink since Madam Pomfrey was somehow stronger than him who was a demigod.

"The hell was that for!?" Loki asked with a disgusted expression on his face as Madam Pomfrey put away the flask. She then looked at Loki and spoke with a soft *giggle*.

"Huh? Why are you laughing like that? Is there something on my-"

Loki touched his face and suddenly found himself smiling.

"Wha- Now way! You fed me a cheering potion!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA~" Madam Pomfrey burst out laughing as she looked at Loki who had an unwilling derpy smile on his face and then shook her head before going to chop ingredients to make her pepper-up potion. "Come on. Join me."

"Arghh…this is going to hurt tomorrow. All my muscles will be stiff from smiling so much." Loki complained with his brows furrowed, but his derpy smile made him look silly.

"It's fine. Sometimes a kick start is needed to get you moving."

Loki shook his head and joined her in making the pepper-up potion.

The night passed by smoothly and Loki found himself in a better mood by the end of it but not by much. Especially not when as soon as he returned to the Slytherin common room found Astoria passed out.

Loki's heart clenched as he saw her face.

Tear stains were strewn about and had marred her face. There were several scratches around her eyes and Loki found himself trembling at the thought of having to face her.

Loki was about to take a step back and quickly go to his room and lock himself away but Astoria woke up right then.

Astoria woke up slowly, with her reddened eyes blinking rapidly before they landed on Loki who was looking at her with trembling lips.

Astoria's lips trembled too and then she rushed towards Loki before burying her head in his chest as she started bawling again.

Astoria's small thin frame reminded Loki of Elane which made his heart only ache further but he couldn't do anything. His expression started to turn numb once again as he was about to steal his emotions to lock away his ability to feel pain.

But Astoria mumbled, "Did you see her- when- I mean- sorry…"

Loki's heartbeat quickened as a familiar pain stabbed his heart but he spoke softly.

"No. Mione was with her in her last moments. Daph sacrificed herself for Mione."

"I see…" Astoria's grip on Loki's clothes loosened.

"I…" Loki opened his mouth and closed it thinking if he should actually say what he suspected. He didn't know if it would be appropriate to give someone hope when he himself didn't know if it was the truth or false.

But simply lighting up a candle for someone only to extinguish it afterwards felt a lot more cruel to do in Loki's view.

Loki thought for a while as he watched Astoria bawl out like a baby for a while longer before he made up his mind.

'I will only speak about it when I have something concrete.'

'I'm sure the Greengrass family has their own ways of detecting if Daph is still alive or lingering about as a spirit somewhere.'

'I'm sure Tory would've gotten any such news from her parents if that was the case.'

Astoria's warmth however allowed Loki to open up a little more.

"I tried my best to use extraordinary means to save her…but I couldn't do much. Nothing seemed to work. It all just fell through. My expectations fell flat and…and nothing I did brought her back."

Astoria nodded and let Loki go. She wiped away her tears for a few seconds before she quickly looked up and spoke in a fierce tone.

"I want you to kill 'Him'."

Astoria's furious voice coupled with her trembling eyes as she made an angry frown on her face, for the first time since Loki had seen her.

And for the first time, Loki felt a deep sense of anger and hatred towards another person in his heart.

He hadn't even felt this angry when he was corrupted by Cheek's mindless servants. He had felt more hopeless then, not angry.

But today-

'Ah…'

'Yes…'

-today Loki felt his blood boil.

Before Astoria or Loki could speak any further Tracy entered the common room from the door and rushed to Astoria.

"Tory, your parents are here. They are waiting for you in Professor Snape's office."

Astoria put on a fake smile as her eyes glimmered before she nodded at Tracy who looked like she had bawled her eyes out too.

Astoria made her wait for a few seconds as she turned to look at Loki.

"Sorry for imposing on you Loki. I hope we can meet again sometime later."

Loki nodded his eyes similarly glimmering as he watched Astoria run away with Tracy out of the common room towards Snape's office.

Loki returned to the comfort of his room before sitting on his bed as a stray thought crossed his mind.

'It's all Voldemort's fault, isn't it?'

Miles away, Voldemort who was recouping his losses and trying to gain control of his body that was constantly rapidly losing control because he had unravelled his protections against Dumbledore's corruption that Loki had implanted within him, felt a strong connection through malice directed towards him.

He was about to curse whoever was stupid enough to make the connection with him to set an example, but a sudden vision stopped him.

His vision was simple.

The moment he tried to curse whoever was on the other end, he'd die by losing control.

Voldemort trembled.

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