Firebird by NorseFan1

Chapter 11

She registered the lack of another person beside her and reached out, looking for him, but only finding the mattress and sheets. Ana opened her eyes to see the room was still dark but she could hear slight movements a few feet away from the bed.

"What are you doing up? It's still dark," she murmured blearily.

Loki leant down and kissed her. "I will be back soon, I promise. Go back to sleep. This will not take long."

It came back to Ana then why he was leaving, and everything they had discussed the night before. She pulled him back down to her and kissed him again. "I want you back here before the sun has been up for an hour."

"I will be, I promise," Loki responded, kissing her forehead before pulling on his overcoat and leaving. When she heard the door close she closed her eyes again and pulled the blankets around her in a cocoon. Anastasia had discovered she rather liked sharing the bed with him. And she needed to make up for the loss of contact now.

Cornelius Fudge's awakening was nowhere near as pleasant. He was pulled roughly from his bed and was being dragged out of the room before he even registered what was going on. He began to shout when the blade of a very large and lethal axe pressed against his throat.

"I would stay quiet, if I were you," the man, a large red haired and bearded man wearing armour, told him. As he was the one who was holding the axe pressed against his throat in one hand and had a tight grip on the back of Cornelius' neck in the other, he was going to take the offered 'advice'.

Apart from the man with the axe, there were six others there, and all of them were dressed in armour, even the woman.

He was dragged out of his large house before the group stopped. One of the men, the one with black slicked back hair, waved a hand at the sky, and the Dark Mark appeared above the house. Fudge promptly fainted.

Upon arriving back at Asgard, they saw Heimdal chuckling. "He did not last long, did he?"

"No he did not, though, I am surprised he lasted that long, after finding an axe at his throat," Thor responded. "We should put him in the dungeons until Lady Helena is found."

"Have you seen her yet, Heimdal?" Ullr asked.

"Not as yet, but I do not believe it will take long. The moment she remembers enough of who she is, she will make herself known."

She woke up screaming, sitting bolt upright before hands grasped her shoulders. She lashed out, hitting the person who had grabbed her and sent them stumbling back. The man was vaguely familiar, and not the baron, but she couldn't tell right now if he was a threat, but then something came to mind- he couldn't be a threat, he was Ana's godfather… but who was Ana? She drew her knees to her chest and hid her face, trying to think. Her mind was a mess and she was trying to figure it all out.

"Hey, it's alright… no one's going to hurt you."

She looked up. "I can't think properly. I know you… but I don't know you. Why is my mind a mess? My mother taught me how to organise it all, but now it is all out of sorts and I have memories I shouldn't have, and they are jumbled up with my memories!"

"Hermione-"

"Hermione's not my name- it's Helena… no, wait, it is Hermione, no it's not… why is this so hard?" She whimpered, pulling at her hair. "Where is Ullr?"