26 Helga, and Planting the Seed.

1138 AD: 174 Years(17)

After the feast was done, I had the Magical beings rest within the Dorms, the work could be done later. The House Elves did agree to rest, but only after cleaning all the dorms, and the Elves quarters.

While Thor and Loki went to find themselves a room with the help of a couple Elves, Lady Jord took me outside. I followed her, wondering what that was about.

Lady Jord stopped near the Forbidden forest, where I think the Quidditch Pitch was bound to be if Wizards had survived, and spoke softly, "I truly believe this plan of yours could work. But how are you going to Terraform whatever land you select?"

I smirk at her, and simply take out the Goblet of Eternal Flames. I pass it to her, and say, "Those are the Eternal Flames. Usually capable of resurrecting anything or anyone, albeit with a half life, it can be used to "resurrect" a planet, or a moon. I will use those flames to bring the planet to life, while I hope, you will help me... bring life to the planet."

Lady Jord puts her hand in the flames, and brought out some amount of it, making her hand glow orange. She closes her eyes, and focuses for a while. I don't understand what she's doing, but it's probably something good.

After a minute or so, Lady Jord opens her eyes and smiles widely, making me smile in reflex. I can't help it alright, when someone smiles that brightly, you smile at them.

She looks at me, then the Goblet, and then at her glowing hand. She says, "You might not need to do all that, Prince Baldur."

"Why? My Lady?" I ask, confused. Because I don't think she can leave the planet, so I'm the best bet at doing all that.

"You misunderstand. You won't have to do ALL of that. Only some steps will be necessary." Lady Jord says, passes the Goblet back to me, and then without warning, shoves her glowing hand inside her chest.

"WHAT THE-" I shout out in shock, and fear, as I try and help her get her hand out.

She stops me with her other hand, and says, "Calm, Prince Baldur. I know what I'm doing." and then whispers out, "I simply haven't done it before."

I put a hand on my chest, to calm my heart, and keep an eye on her, ready to help if she needs it.

A minute later, Lady Jord takes her hand out of her chest, and along with it, brings out a crystal.. egg? What the hell?

I look at the rainbow coloured crystal egg with a raised eyebrow, and then look at a panting Lady Jord. She take a deep breath, calming herself down, and says, "This.. is a Seed of Life. I, being the Goddess Earth, can.. as you so eloquently put it.. bring life to any planet. But in most cases, I can't go there myself, so I haven't ever done it before. Now, I have an agent, you, who can go to the planet on my behalf, and plant this seed into the ground, which will make the planet grow trees, and create water. Ergo, create life."

I sulk a little, as my big reveal of THE GOBLET OF ETERNAL FLAMES! was proved pretty much unused.

"Of course you'll first have to bathe the Seed inside those flames." Lady Jord says as I'm sulking, bringing me out of my.. sulk.

"Umm.. My Lady? I get that the seed will bring life to any planet. But why are the Eternal Flames necessary then?" I ask. Because the seed itself was completely capable of turning any inhabitable planet into habitable, so why are the Flames even necessary.

Lady Jord snorts and looks into the forest. She says, "You think that because I'm the Goddess Earth, that my Seed will bring life immediately? It takes time, my child. Even this planet, Midgard, took millions of years to grow what you might recognise as Trees."

I blush, properly chastised, and ask, with trepidation, "How long will it take with the flames' help?"

Lady Jord puts a finger on the Seed, thinks a bit, and says, "2 Years. Maximum. Give that Goblet to me."

I do as ordered and pass the Goblet of Eternal Flames to Lady Jord. She keeps it on the ground, and puts the Seed inside the flames, while chanting Something. It has to be the language of the Elder Gods, or something older, because even AllSpeak could not translate it for me.

Half a minute later, she stops chanting and flips the Seed, like you might an egg. And dusts her hands.

"Done." Lady Jord says, nodding to herself. She then turns to me, and says, "You may keep this here overnight. The Seed has to absorb the Eternal Flames into itself, and it will at most take 10 hours. If you need the Flames for something later, I'd warn you to keep some separate, because the Seed will absorb all of it."

I immediately scramble around in my PD, and pull out another Goblet of Eternal Flames, and transfer a small amount of the Flames to it.

What? I'm paranoid! I made a replica. Never know when you might need it! Case in point.

Heaving a sigh of relief at not completely losing the Eternal Flames, I store the new GoEF back in my PD and turn towards the amused Lady Jord. Who's doing nothing to hide the smile on her face.

"Ahem!" I cough, and then ask, "Now what?"

Lady Jord shakes her head at me, and says, "Now you rest. All you have to do tomorrow, is bury this Seed deep, at least a hundred feet under ground. Then, the planet you plant it to, will come under my Jurisdiction, and then we can move forward. But until then, you need to rest."

I nod at her, and part our ways. Lady Jord goes underground, while an House Elf shows me to my room. It was a guest room, and was good enough for a night's stay, and I fall asleep almost as soon as I lay down on the bed, and barely manage a "Good night." for the elf.

~~~Dreamscape~~~

"Where am I?" I whisper, and hear my voice echo around, as I look around. Everything was black. I couldn't even see what I was standing on, but I could see myself.

I called forth my connection to the Light Dimension, and conjured a ball of light in my palms. Throwing it upwards, I watched it stop a few meters above my head. Still not seeing anything other than blackness, I sit down on my spot.

"..lo?" I hear a faint whisper if a female voice, making me stand up. Guessing where it came from, I start walking.

"An...dy here? Hello? Please! I want to talk to someone! Please listen!" The female voice sats again. At the end of it, her voice has so much despair that I start running.

"Hello! I'm here! Where are you?" I shout out, as even after a minute of running, I still can't find anything.

"YOU CAN HEAR ME!?" The voice says again, a bit happiness in her voice, and it starts getting closer.

"Yes, I can here you. Keep talking, so I can find you!" I shout. Maybe she's stuck or something.

"Umm.. Say something Helga! Hogwarts Hogwarts. Hoggy warty Hogwarts! Teach us something, Please!" The voice, Helga, which really sounds familiar, starts out with a trembling voice, but then starts singing.

Isn't that the Hogwarts song? Who is that, and why is she singing that. And why does Helga sound.. Helga! Helga Hufflepuff! But.. she's dead?

"...Bring back what we've forgot. Just do your best, we'll do the rest. And learn until our brains all rot." the voice which calls herself Helga finishes, right as I see her.

Well, at least an apparition of her. She's a ghost. If she's a ghost, then where the hell am I?

"I'm here!" I shout, waving my hand at her. Helga snaps her head towards me, and looks me top to bottom.

"You really like Gold, don't you?" She asks, raising her eyebrow at me.

I look at her, pausing in my running, and incredously ask, "Really? That's the first thing you say?"

Although, she's pretty right. Golden armour, golden arm bands, a gold necklace. Heck, my shirt while mostly blue, has a lot of Gold in it.

The ghost, who I recognize as actually being Helga, gets a little embarrassed, and starts talking, without stopping. She says, "Oh, sorry! I haven't actually spoken to anyone in a long time and I am so excited to actually speak to someone! Who are you? Where are we? How did you get here? Why are you here? Not that I don't appreciate your being here! I just-" She says it all in one breath, before I stop her.

"Whoa! Easy there, big girl! Breathe. One question at a time. My name is Baldur Odinson. What's your name, gorgeous?" I ask, flirting a little. Don't blame me! I'd seen her since when she was like 20, and she still looks 30 at Maximum! She's hot, and she's strong! Everything I love in a girl!

"Nice to meet you, Baldur Odinson. My name is.. Helga Hufflepuff. How did you get here?" Helga introduces herself, curtsying a little, and then asks.

I sit down, motioning her to do the same, and answer honestly. I say, "I don't know. Last thing I remember is talking with Lady Gaia, and going to sleep in the guest room of Hogwarts." I mentioned Gaia on purpose, as I need her to realise I'm not a threat when I mention Hogwarts.

"HOGWARTS? MOTHER GAIA? YOU WERE IN HOGWARTS?!" Helga shouts in surprise, standing up, and pointing her wand at me. Where did the wand even come from?

I nod, without standing up, and say, "Yes. I and my brothers were tasked by Lady Gaia to kill those... Dementors, and cleanse the world of their presence. We did it, and rescued the few Goblins, Dwarves and Elves present. Then I went to sleep.. and now I'm here. Wherever here is."

Helga nods, finally pointing her wand away, and then looks at me properly. Then she looks down at herself. Me. Herself. She switches her vision a few times, and then chuckles bitterly. She depreciatingly says, "I'm dead, aren't I? You knew who I was."

I nod, not bothering with lying and start my tale. I say, "I have a device, capable of showing me the past. Using that device, I saw the birth of Wizards, their growth as a race, the founding of Hogwarts, and then, the demise of most magical creatures. Which was how I recognized your face." Helga listened with her full attention, her face showing that she was remembering her last moments.

"But," I look at her intently, and say, "I didn't understand what exactly happened to you. As far as I could see, you invoked Lady Gaia, and asked her to seal each and every Dementor in the world in Hogwarts. But I couldn't see what exactly happened to your soul."

Helga was crying softly now, probably remembering what the Dementors did. The children, the teachers. Many of the House Elves. All Wizards. All dead because of one mad man.

I softly speak again, "Now, I know exactly what happened, and where we are."

"Where?" Helga chokes out, still crying.

"We are in the Astral plane. I didn't recognize it before, but now I see it. Your soul has somehow merged with the Wards surrounding Hogwarts. I.. don't know what happened to you all these years, and I won't even pretend to understand. But when I slept tonight, my soul somehow heard your voice in the Astral Plane, and pulled me to you." I finish, looking at Helga.

Helga stops her sniffling, and asks, "Is the Dark Lord dead? Is Ekrizdis dead?"

I nod, and say, "My Brothers killed him, and I burned his body myself. Not even ashes remained, after I was done with him."

"Good." Helga simply says, glaring at empty space, and we simply stay silent.

"So.." after a few minutes of silence, I speak up, "I don't mean to break the mood, and all. But how about we get out of this dark place?"

Helga looks at me, with angry tears in her eyes, and says, "There's nothing for me out there. The children I swore to protect, and teach, are all dead, their souls lost. I think I'll stay here. This is to be my punishment for not killing Ekrizdis earlier."

I shake my head at her. I argue, "The souls that the Dementors ate, have already been freed. As soon as the Dementors burned, the souls they had sent to the Realm of Anubis lost their tether, and were sent to their proper afterlives. You don't have to worry about that. As for your staying here? No chance."

Helga opens her mouth to argue, but I wave my hand at her, "I'm not asking you to live again, even as a ghost. I won't make you suffer that. Seeing an empty castle, when you're used to it being full, is... depressing, I know. Which is why, I'm not asking you to get back to the Physical Plane."

Softening my eyes, I look her in the eyes, and say, "What I'm asking you to do... is move on. Living in guilt, even as a ghost, is not an existence you deserve."

"He is right, my Daughter." A voice behind me says.

"JESUS- FUCKING ALL FATHER! WOULD YOU STOP DOING THAT?!" I shout at Lady Gaia, jumping a bit in the air, making Lady Gaia chuckle at me.

It's the 3rd fucking time she's surprised me like that. If I didn't have a healing factor, I was sure I would have died of a heart attack.

"Mother!" Helga whispers, looking at Lady Gaia in shock.

Gaia approaches Helga and puts her hand on her cheek. She whispers out, "Let your guilt go, my daughter. You have suffered enough. Ekrizdis is dead, the souls are freed, and the remaining magical beings will never suffer being killed by another human ever again. It's time for you to go, my child."

Helga starts crying loudly, and hugs Gaia, while I watch awkwardly from the side, finally done calming my heart. Moving away from the mother daughter pair, I stand a few feet away as they whisper amongst each other.

5 minutes later, I see Helga finally nod at her mother, and look at me. Seeing me standing there, she approaches me, and simply kisses me on my cheek.

I have a goofy grin on my face, as my hand touches the spot, and I ask, "What was that for?"

She blushes a bit, and says, "Mother told me what you did, and plan to do for the magicals. Plus, you answered my call."

I nod, and without hesitation hug her. Despite her being a ghost, I manage to touch her, due to the fact that I'm in Astral form too.

"What was that for?" Helga asks, still blushing, as we separate.

I smirk at her, and say, "You looked like a girl who needed it. Plus, 200 years of being in this dreary place? Yeah.. You definitely deserved a hug."

Helga blushes even more, and moves towards her mother. Gaia hugs her daughter, with tears in her eyes, and says her goodbyes.

"Goodbye Helga." I say, waving my hand at her.

"Goodbye Baldur. Thank you.. for everything." Helga smiles and says.

She then closes her eyes, and simply turns into silver dust, which flies away. I look at the flying silvery wisp for a few seconds, after which it disappears.

I wipe my eyes, and look at Lady Gaia, who was crying. Sighing to myself, I hug her too. She might have already had thousands of children, but losing a child is never easy.

"Thank you, Prince Baldur." Lady Gaia says, separating herself from me, and disappears from view.

Sighing loudly, and looking at the weird Astral Plane, I too exit. That plane was most probably something Hogwarts itself cooked up. And Helga, being connected to the Wards, ended up there.

Her departure doesn't mean the wards are down though. Gaia still powers those wards. Anyway, once I'm back in the Physical plane, I go to sleep. finally. My spirit needs a rest too, you know?

~~~

The next day, I wake up at dawn, as usual, being the Sun God. After I've had the breakfast the Elves cooked for me, I check on the Seed, and see that it has absorbed all the Eternal Flames, along with the Goblet holding them. Thor and Loki were still sleeping, so I don't bother them.

Lady Jord was standing next to the Seed, which was on the ground, and simply looking at it. I move closer to see what has gotten Lady Jord so fascinated, and I'm simply amazed.

The crystal Seed, which looked like a crystal egg, and was rainbow coloured, still looked like that. Only now, it was pulsing with a golden-red light. Once per second. And the most amazing part was that I could feel magic being emitted from it with each pulse!

Many of the magical animals still in Hogwarts lands, had come closer, feeling the magic pulses, and even a few Elves were there, all of them focusing entirely on the Seed.

"Baldur. Good, you're here." Lady Jord says, noticing me. I nod at her, and approach the Seed, and her.

Lady Jord picks the seed up, and hands it to me. I take the seed, look at it, and then at her. I ask, "And what do I do now?"

Lady Jord simply says, "Bury it, as I said, and come back. It will take a couple years at most for the Seed to... seed the planet with life, so I will warn you when it happens. But, don't go farther than the 4th planet from here. After that point, it'll take more years, as the connection between me and the seed won't be that good."

I nod, and start floating up, after activating my Mystic Mode.

Now, which planet should I choose? Mars is a good option, so is Venus. Although Venus is very hot, I can make it so the heat lessens on the planet. The moons of other planets are a good option, like Jupiter or Saturn's moons. But they are too far away.

Fuck it. I'll settle with Venus. It's hot, yes, But I can make it colder, so can Gaia. The planet's size is about equal to Earth, and it's gravity could be manipulated to be equal too.

Done with my thinking, I increase my speed, and start flying with full speed. Using the Sun to locate Venus, I reach it within a few minutes, at light speed. Well, few minutes for me. It was at most a few seconds for anyone watching from outside.

Relativity, man. My max speed is Light Speed, and it won't change. Ever. For me that is.

But. But, the way those outside my frame of reference look at me always changes. While from my frame of reference, my speed is equal to C, those outside will not be able to even see me pass them. Almost like a wormhole.

I always wondered how Captain Marvel had managed to bring Tony Stark and Nebula back to Earth in time, knowing that she couldn't access the Jump Points of the Xandarians. Even at Light speed, she should have taken years, centuries, depending on how far the ship, and Titan Planet was.

Anyways, once I'm in the Atmosphere of Venus, which is probably poisonous, so I keep my Mystic Mode active, and go down to the ground.

Without wasting any time, I use Ljosgeirr to pierce the ground with a high intensity beam of fire, melting the ground, and keep firing until I feel it's enough. Planting the seed underground, and covering it with the earth, I fly away, back into the atmosphere.

Focusing on what I want to happen, I channel my Sun Divinity in my hands, lighting them up, and write into the air.

"Restrict heat. Purify. Heal."

I actually wrote the Norse runes equivalent to those words. My intent causes the runes to spread, and cover the whole planet, and I can feel it making changes to the planet, helped along by the Seed.

The first rune will restrict most of the heat that Venus absorbs, which keeps it so hot, and cool it down. The second will purify the atmosphere over a long time, so it's breathable. And the last rune will heal the planet, helping the Seed do it's job. My work done, for now, I fly away.

I took at most an hour to do all that stuff, and get back home. It was a good trip. And I'll have to check on Venus again, after a year or so. All in all, a good start to a holiday.

~~~

A/N: I was originally going to take one of the moons if Jupiter, but then realized. Sun is too far away from it. The heat will barely reach the moon. Sure, Baldur could probably absorb more heat for the moon, but then it might tip someone off.

Venus, on the other hand, can simply reject unnecessary heat, as I wrote in the last part. It made sense to me, that's it.

Again, those disappointed by Helga's absence in the story, will forever be disappointed. It was time to let the witches lay to rest. Hope I gave her justice. And yes, I realize that her behaviour is not something Helga Hufflepuff would do, but she hasn't spoken to anyone in 200 years, so she was simply overwhelmed.

That's it.

Ciao!