True to his prediction, Harry slept for less than an hour before he woke up and apologized. "Never apologize for things like that, Harry. This what I'm here for," Loki told him. "And I'm guessing you feel a lot better having gotten all that off your chest."
Harry considered for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. I really do," he said amazed.
"A burden shared is a burden halved like my most recent father always liked to say," Loki said as Harry shifted off his lap to sit next to him. "Would you like to discuss how you want your study area next or albums first?" He remembered his other promise for the day as well.
"Study area first," Harry decided. Once he got to the albums he wasn't going to want to stop and he did kinda want his room a little less babyish. That didn't take long before they decided on a desk, chair, and a few bookshelves. Harry would pick through the area for what he wanted to keep after dinner and the elves would set up the new room tomorrow and put the rest of the baby stuff in storage. Once that was decided, Loki asked Tippy to bring the albums and he let Harry chose where to start. Harry chose to start the one from his father's baby years and then work forward.
Harry found it much easier to comprehend the fact that Fleaumont and Euphemia Potter were his grandparents despite his father being eons old once he saw the pictures of him growing up with them. It looked like such a happy home and it even gave him a better idea of what to expect with his father too. The kind of life that he wanted him to have. Especially once they got to the school years. Those started out with four boys, including the traitor. Loki pointed out his godfather Sirius aka Padfoot and his Uncle Remus aka Moony.
"Could you turn into an animal too?" Harry asked him.
"I mentioned that I'm a shapeshifter. That means I can turn into any animal. I even turned into a fly once," he chuckled. "For the purposes of the group, I had to choose only one though and chose a random page in the animal book, so my official animagus form is a stag and my nickname was Prongs for my antlers."
"That's so cool. Will I be able to change into any animal too?" Harry asked him.
"Possibly, but not likely. All my other children that are able to shapeshift at all only have one animal."
"I have siblings?" Harry asked with wide eyes. If he'd thought about it he would have realized that it was likely given how old his dad was, but he hadn't really considered it.
"You do. They don't particularly like the mortal world, so they've been waiting for me to get back, but I'm sure I could convince them to come visit if I told them about their new little brother. If you want to meet them that is."
"Yeah, I really do," Harry said emphatically.
"Okay then. I'll see if I can get them to visit over your Yule break or even on Yule. Do you want to meet them one at a time or all at once?"
"How...um...how many are there?" Harry asked suddenly realizing that there could be hundreds for all he knew.
"You have four brothers and one sister," Loki told him. "Technically I have one other son, but since I was a mare when he was born and his father was a stallion, he's essentially an immortal and semi-sentient horse with some minor powers. That doesn't mean I love him any less and all. Just that he's not really aware of the world around him and lives as a horse."
"Then all at once is good, yeah. Can you tell me about them?"
"Sure. The oldest is Fenrisulfr, but he goes by Fenrir to most people. Fenny to family. Then Jormungandr who goes by Jormy to family. Hela is my only girl. Then Narfi and Nari are twins and my youngest before you. Fenny shapeshifts into a wolf. Jormy into a snake. Hela doesn't have an animal, but she can shapeshift into an undead. Narfi and Nari are both foxes."
"Is being a demigod why I can talk to snakes?" Harry asked, prompted by the description of Jormy.
"You speak parseltongue? That's great!" Loki said cheerfully. "It is something that you got from me. I have something of an affinity for snakes. Even my sigil is two intertwined snakes. I would be careful who you tell among the mortals though. They have some crazy ideas about parseltongue being evil or some such which is crazy given the fact that among the speakers is Merlin himself which most people tend to forget and Parcelus who was a world class healer. But two dark lords have been parselmouths so obviously it's an evil trait. Mortals are stupid sometimes and you should always keep that in mind."
"Okay, so I'll keep it secret then," Harry agreed, both to do so and that it was stupid.
"Don't think it's a /big/ secret like our god status. If it gets out, then it gets out. We can handle it and I have plenty of information I can release that will help turn opinions around if necessary. It's just not worth the hassle unless it becomes necessary."
"So if I do slip, you don't mind if I tell people I got it from you?"
"Nope. Not a bit," Loki assured him.
"Okay. Good," Harry said turning his attention back to the albums. "Do you have any albums of my brothers and sister too?"
"I do, but not here. I would have to go back to Asgard to get them. I'll probably do that once you go to school when I have a spare afternoon and we can look at them your first weekend home."
"Okay," Harry agreed and tabled that subject to look more at the albums from the school years as James Potter. It wasn't long after that when his mother started showing up in the album. Mostly in the background at first, but slowly moved to the foreground until she was finally on his father's arm and they were clearly together.
"Was it weird dating someone so much younger than you?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yes and no," Loki said. "I think that's part of the reason that most gods give up their memories when they take on a mortal life, but still. Anyone I dated here in this world would be a baby compared to me and I've already been through all the gods and goddesses that I'm interested in. As you can see, I did wait until she was an adult before chasing her seriously, but many of the gods and goddesses I've dated have been eons younger than me as well, so it's just something you get used to. Plus growing up with her, even if it wasn't the first time I've grown up, helped to see her as a peer rather than a child."
"Okay. I /think/ that makes sense," Harry said, not quite convinced.
"You'll understand more as you get older," Loki assured him.
"If you say so," Harry chuckled about the time Bipsy interrupted them to let them know dinner was ready. The pumpkin pie was a big hit too. They went back to the albums and finished them through that fateful Halloween night, of course only with the minimal stories to the pictures. They had forever to get /all/ the stories. They just wanted Harry to at least /see/ them all. Loki went with Harry up to his rooms to look through the baby stuff, telling some stories about them too and helping him decide what to keep. In the end, Harry decided on three stuffed animals. A dog, a stag, and a wolf. The rest could be boxed up for his first kid. Or Loki's next one if he had another first.
Once that was settled on, Harry went to take a bath and then get in his pajamas while Loki went to his study to do some piecemeal work while he was waiting. Once Harry was done, he came to say goodnight, but Loki followed him back to his room anyway. "I missed far too many years of tucking you in at night," Loki said as he pulled the covers up over his son and set the three stuffed animals around him.
Harry smiled as his father kissed his forehead. "I missed too many years of being tucked in too," he said in almost a whisper.
"Yes. You did," Loki said sadly, running a hand through Harry's hair. "Goodnight, Harry. I love you."
"I love you too, Dad," he said with a smile before he was left alone to sleep.
Loki went back to the office to finish up what he'd started, but he wasn't long for bed himself after his sleepless night the night before. He would floo call Augusta in the morning and see if they could arrange to get the boys together for school shopping once their lists came.
