Chapter 42: Cunning!
If you want to read ahead by 10 chapters from her you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://www.patreon.com/Yggdrasil_Loki
-----------
So he moved through the forest, wand at the ready to eradicate anyone – or anything – that dared to test his strength. It was not too long before he came across a path, but he decided it wise to stick to the side.
His skills at Obliviation were incredibly limited, so anyone he came across would have to be permanently disposed of if he didn't want anyone to find out he had been here.
Eventually he reached an area where Loki told him to stop. 'The ward is only a few meters ahead. Give me a moment to check if it will detect you or not.' A moment later he continued, 'It is only designed to obscure noise and vision.'
With a slight nod, Harry moved onwards, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand as he went into the ward.
Immediately his senses were bombarded by the noise of inhuman roaring, and a moment later, a plume of fire bursting into the air and illuminating the clearing in front of him.
Wizards shouting followed a few seconds later as they rushed to ensure that what Harry now saw was a caged dragon was not a threat.
For a moment, Harry was stunned into silence. 'We have to kill a dragon?'
Loki hummed. 'It shouldn't be too much of a problem. Look on the bright side, they might kill the other champions so that the tournament ends!'
'I somehow doubt that will happen under Dumbledore's watch.'
'Probably not. Nonetheless, we must plot to ensure that we too are not reduced to dust – dragon fire is a lot more damaging than normal fire.'
Harry turned and began to move back towards the castle. He didn't want to stay here too long, lest he be discovered or roasted.
In the morning, Harry awoke slightly later than usual – a result of last night's activities. He could, of course, skip breakfast, but he had decided today was the day he would have his inevitable confrontation with the greater populace of Hogwarts.
So he walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, prepared to face the most annoying challenge of all: socialising.
As expected, he drew plenty a look as he walked the corridors, students pointing and gasping as most of them laid eyes upon him for the first time since the night he had came to Hogwarts.
He simply ignored them, however. If they weren't going to approach him, there was no point in doing anything otherwise.
Eventually he made it to the Great Hall, and without hesitance, opened the doors and strode towards the Gryffindor table.
For a moment, a hush descended upon the hall, but then it burst into chatter once again as he sat down.
Harry almost snorted aloud at the poor attempts at inconspicuous glances by the red-headed boy a few seats from him.
It only took a few moments for the boy's restraint to shatter, and he said, "You're Harry Potter."
Harry turned to him, a flawless fake smile upon his face. "Yes, I am."
"I knew you'd be in Gryffindor!" he exclaimed. "Your parents were, and you're the Boy-Who-Lived! The other houses didn't want to believe it when Angelina said she'd seen you sitting on our table at breakfast yesterday, but here you are! I'm Ron Weasley, by the way."
With a nod, Harry said, "Good to know. I wasn't sure what house I'd be in to be honest." That was true. He hadn't been sure how well the hat would respond to Loki's threats.
"You had to be in Gryffindor! Your parents-" It was around this point that Harry stopped listening and got on with a much more interesting task: eating breakfast. Loki would tell him of anything of importance came up, though he severely doubted that it would.
A glance around the Gryffindor table revealed that almost everyone was staring at him, though the emotions on their faces varied from awe to jealousy or skepticism.
Harry moved his gaze to the other table in the hall. A lot of Hufflepuff seemed to be annoyed at him, proven by their impotent glares. The reason why became clear as he laid eyes upon the Hogwarts champion sitting at the table.
In Ravenclaw, not as many were staring at him as at the Gryffindor table, though it was more than there were at the Hufflepuff one, and those that were did so with undisguised curiosity.
Slytherin, on the other hand, was completely different. A lot weren't sneaking glances at him, and the ones who were, whilst easy for him to see, wouldn't be detected by most.
Harry could almost sense the "cunning" thoughts moving through their heads. From what he knew, they were a lot more divided than a house like Gryffindor, and a single act wouldn't be enough to gain their alliance.
They would have to be worked on last - if he wanted their alliance, that was.
He looked to the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang contingents, sitting at the Ravenclaw and Slytherin table respectively.
Gaining allies from those schools would be hard, though easier in the lower years the school had brought with them.
Like with the Slytherins, he would settle for respect. He didn't exactly need people to be his allies anyway. In a fight that he was having difficulty with, schoolchildren would be utterly useless.
No, what he wanted was to be viewed as "good" in the eyes of the wizarding world - until he was powerful enough to defeat anyone in it, that was.
--------
Harry stared down at the newspaper in his hands, his face blank. He had managed to fix the problem of people seeing Loki when they looked into his eyes years ago, but if one were to look upon them now, it would have been an entirely different matter.
Instead of him, they would have seen the spirit within; a god, fallen from the heavens, but they wouldn't have known that, and they would have thought it a demon - a testament to the fury boiling within them, a lot of it Harry's.
'Calm yourself, Harry,' Loki hissed. 'Destroying the paper and killing a few students will do nothing for your reputation.'
-----------
If you want to read ahead by 10 chapters from her you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://www.patreon.com/Yggdrasil_Loki