Lily followed Dumbledore and McGonagall into the Headmaster's Office still holding Harry's hand. Severus had excused himself when they left the Great Hall. Her childhood friend reminded her somewhat of her brother—although Loki would never be less than impeccably dressed and coifed. She was disappointed in her old friend and didn't know if she would ever be able to forgive him for how he had treated her son. She didn't know a whole lot, but wizards tended to treat goblins like they weren't there. The amount of gossip they had reported to her was substantial. The rumors all pointed to Severus Snape being a bitter, angry man that hated everything not Slytherin, but especially Gryffindor and no Gryffindor more than Harry Potter. Lily could only think that Severus was taking his hatred of James out on Harry.

"I ask that you give Severus a chance to redeem himself to you," Dumbledore said as the door to the office closed. "You know he still considers himself your friend."

Lily glared at the headmaster. She could admit that she had let her temper get away from her during the confrontation in the Great Hall. She had also been deliberately provocative in order to shock a response out of the man.

"If he truly was my friend, he wouldn't take out his hatred for James on our son," Lily replied.

Dumbledore stroked his beard and said, "Severus told me that Harry exaggerates the animosity between them. I would also point out that Severus has saved Harry's life twice."

"I exaggerate?" Harry exclaimed. "When have I ever complained about him other than to my mates?"

"And why not?" Lily asked. "If even a fraction of what I've heard is true, you should have talked to your Head of House about it."

Harry looked at the ground and said nothing. Lily lifted his chin and smiled at him kindly. Finally, he said, "Nobody ever listens to me when I complain."

Lily glared at Dumbledore and McGonagall, before turning back to Harry. "Have you ever brought anything to your Head of House?"

Harry shrugged. "I told her about the Philosopher's Stone First Year, but she waved me off without investigating."

Lily glared at the professors again, before sighing. "This is Petunia's fault. Her and her lump of a husband. He is never going back there again—and he shouldn't have gone there in the first place."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "After your sacrifice and apparent death, I constructed Blood Wards that only worked with someone related to you by blood, it was the best choice."

She glared at him. "I was adopted by the Evans family. Petunia and I don't share blood."

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair hard. "That's impossible. The Blood Wards took effect."

Lily paused. She didn't actually know what her father had done when he placed her in the Evans home. "Perhaps my family did something when they placed me with the Evans Family that gave us enough of a connection, but surely there was something else you could have done other than subjecting Harry to those creatures."

"Lily," Dumbledore said, scandalized. "Even if you were adopted surely, you loved your family."

"I loved my adopted parents," Lily said, "and at one point I loved Petunia, but she was the one who cut herself off from me and said she never wanted to see me or my family ever again. Even a cursory examination of my son shows that they didn't treat him like family."

"It was the only way to keep him out of Lucius Malfoy's grasp," Dumbledore explained.

"And why isn't Lucius Malfoy rotting in Azkaban like he deserves?" Lily asked.

"There was not enough evidence that he followed Voldemort of his own free will," Dumbledore explained.

"You mean he bribed his way out of prison," Lily growled. "You know there was an 18th Century Irish Philosopher that said something that is often paraphrased as 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' Perhaps you should have done something rather than relying on whatever that prophecy you refused to explain to James and me said."

Dumbledore stared at her, flabbergasted.

"And why don't you explain to me the circumstances where Severus was forced to save Harry's life—something that should not have happened at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore coughed and rallied. "The first time was when a possessed professor tried to knock Harry off his broom during a quidditch match. Severus kept up the counter-charm until the possessed professor was forced to stop."

Lily looked at Harry who shrugged. "It could have been," Harry said. "My friends thought it was Snape jinxing my broom—they saw his lips moving. However, it was really Quirrell that was after me that year."

"That year?"

Dumbledore spoke up, "The second time was during an incident in the Shrieking Shack last year during a confrontation with Sirius and Lupin."

Harry snorted. "Is that what Snape said? We had just worked things out when he busted in and mucked things up. I'm not saying that it was his fault that Pettigrew got away and we almost got kissed by Dementors, because Professor Lupin forgot to take his Wolfsbane Potion, but he certainly didn't save my life then. He also made things worse with the Minister and Sirius when we tried to explain what had happened and he told them we had been confunded."

Lily pressed her hands to her temples. Severus was always willing to believe the worst of Sirius. She decided to ask something that had bothered her since she regained her memory. "Why did my real family never come for Harry? They were sure he was dead and your Blood Wards wouldn't have stopped them, being his family."

Dumbledore had the grace to look embarrassed. "I put an anti-scrying charm on Harry that redirected scies to his crib once Hagrid brought him to Hogwarts. I specifically prevented family from seeing him too, since I wasn't sure which pureblood families James was related to."

A bell on Dumbledore's desk rang. He sighed. "Someone is waiting outside my office trying to get in." He glanced at a small picture frame. He started and shook his head. "Well now… This new visitor will certainly have something to contribute to this discussion."

Lily stood and moved back to the side so that she wouldn't be visible from the doorway, pulling Harry with her.

Her jaw dropped as James Potter swaggered into the room, his actions reminiscent of her supposedly dead husband in their Fifth Year—at his most arrogant.

The man who she thought was dead said, "Here now, Dumbledore. I was in Diagon Alley hunting down a problematic family member, when I heard that not only was my son alive, but you'd managed to get him embroiled in a tournament that has historically been a death sentence. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Dumbledore grinned at him, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "Would that problematic family member be your wife?" He gestured toward her with his eyes.

James turned looked at her. His face slack in surprise. "Lily!?" His eyes swept up and down her, taking in her armor. She had worn it, not knowing if she would have to fight her way out if Dumbledore refused to relinquish her son. "How did you survive? Why are you dressed like…" His eyes snapped back to Mjolnir.

Suddenly, James started to laugh bitterly. "Why is my life such a joke that the best thing in my life was a lie…"

"Are you really my dad?" Harry asked.

James's expression softened and he said, "Yes, Harry. I am really your father."

Lily was confused until she recognized the facial expressions that James was displaying.

"Brother?" she gasped.

"What?!" exclaimed the other three occupants of the room.

"My parents are brother and sister?" Harry gasped, horrified.

James, who she was now certain was really Loki, glared at her before standing in front of Harry and putting an hand on his shoulder. "It's true that we were raised as… siblings, but we are not blood relatives."

"We're not?" Thor exclaimed.

James—no, Loki—turned to sneer at her. "No, Sister Dear, it appears that Odin has been keeping secrets. I was merely some plot against his enemies that didn't work out."

It pierced Lily's heart to see James look at her like that. She wasn't sure what she would have done if James had not been Loki and yet still survived. The thousand plus years as Thor were more than enough to drown out Lily's sexuality, but she had loved him. Not that she didn't love Loki, but it was a different type of love.

Loki's face softened and then hardened again. "Change back. I don't want to look at you with her face."

"Harry doesn't know yet," she hissed.

"He'll find out sooner or later," he said relentlessly.

"If you ever loved me," she said, her eyes glistening, "you will not make me do this right here, right now."

"Are you really my parents?" Harry asked, also on the brink of tears.

Loki and Thor both looked at Harry.

Loki spoke first, speaking kindly to their son, "Our people are very long-lived, Harry. Your mother's father, who for a long time, I thought was my father as well, once chose to punish both of us for various reasons by regressing our ages and putting us with other families to grow up again—removing our memories of each other and our previous lives. We grew up, met, fell in love, and got married, not knowing that we had once considered ourselves siblings. In our long life, previous to this, we had a complicated relationship. Your mother's father favored her, and I admit that I was jealous of her. Unlike in her life as Lily Evans, your mother was brash and foolish—which speaks more poorly of her people than her, now that I think of it."

"And your father was prideful and arrogant in flaunting our customs," Thor added. "And I would point out that if our mother had a favorite, it was you."

Loki shrugged and said, "To be honest, your mother, in her bumbling way was one of the only ones who even tried to treat me well and it is true that her mother cared for me."

"You know that Mother, at least, considers you hers," Thor interjected again.

Loki shrugged again. "When we nearly died to Voldemort's wand, your mother's father retrieved us and wiped our memories of our lives as James and Lily Potter, restoring us to our old lives. Your mother managed to irritate her father again and got herself banished again, this time without losing her memory. Something must have happened to cause her to remember her life as Lily. I followed her here and remembered being James in the process."

"It was 'We've Only Just Begun' by The Carpenters," Lily murmured.

James paled and nodded.

"Are you going to fight all the time?" Harry asked sadly.

Thor glared at Loki. He had always tried to treat Loki like his brother. Admittedly, now that she remembered Lily's life she could understand a lot of Loki's resentment and that he had bungled their relationship, if not as much as Loki had.

"I.. I promise to try to get along," Loki told Harry. "We have a long history, both good and bad. Sometimes it will be hard to forget it." He looked at her. "We both love you and want what's best for you. Please be patient with us."

Thor turned Harry to face her. "Our family won't be normal, but it's true that we both love you."

Harry sighed. "At the Dursley's, I always wanted to be normal, more than anything, but I guess I can forgo normal if I can have two parents that love me."

Thor's face clouded. The love that she had once had for Petunia was all that kept her from destroying the woman and her husband.

"We will talk more Albus," she told her old Headmaster. "You owe both James and I an accounting of Harry's time at Hogwarts and an explanation of how his name came out of the Goblet of Fire and what his options are. However, James and I need to talk to Harry in private. Will you lend us a room so that we can do so?"

Dumbledore hesitated before finally nodding. If Thor knew the elderly man, he really wanted to be present for this meeting. However, he obviously knew it wouldn't be allowed.

"Minerva, will you show the Potters to an unused classroom where they can talk?" he asked his Deputy.

"I trust that neither of you will share the personal matters that have been revealed here?" Loki asked.

Dumbledore nodded agreement. "Yes."

"Very well," McGonagall agreed. "Follow me."

XXXXXX

Loki looked around the classroom McGonagall had led the three of them to. He wondered again if Odin was behind his courtship and marriage of the disguised Thor. He once again discarded it as unlikely. He waved his hand and sent a pulse of magic to look for listening charms. When the search came up empty, he waved his hand again and set up a privacy ward.

"The room is clean," he announced.

He watched Thor as she tried to figure out how to explain her circumstances to their son. It was odd—the old Thor had always worn his emotions on his sleeve. For the most part, Lily had as well, if not so exuberantly. This new Thor that seemed to be mostly Lily at the moment, but she had Thor's larger-than-life presence. His supposed brother had always dominated any room that he entered, while Lily's self-confidence had always focused inward, more independently. She had had her own charisma—that of a witch who knew that she could accomplish whatever she set her mind to. Thor on the other hand, had always pulled others along with him—assuring the room that if you followed him, you could accomplish anything. Thor currently looked like a more composed, female mirror of one of the few times that Loki had seen him at a loss for what to do. The mixture of mannerisms between her two lives would be interesting to study if they hadn't stirred such a whirlwind of confusion within himself: playing with her hair like Lily or puffing up her cheeks like Thor.

Deciding to throw his erstwhile brother a bone, Loki said, "Allow me to properly introduce myself, Harry." He changed back to is normal form and clothes and gestured grandly. "I am Loki, King of Asgard."

"King of Asgard!?" Thor and Harry both exclaimed.

"Yes, Sister," Loki explained with a small sneer, "after your banishment, Father could not put off the Odinsleep any longer. I was the only remaining choice for the throne."

"Congratulations," Thor said uncertainly.

"I don't understand," Harry said. "Asgard? Like the Norse gods?"

"In a manner of speaking, Harry," Thor explained. "The home of our people is called Asgard. It is one of the Nine Realms. Our people have had intermittent contact with Midgard, what you would call Earth and another of the Nine Realms, over the millennia. Our most recent formal contact was with the Norse people a little over a thousand years ago. Because of our extraordinary gifts, they called us gods and worshipped us. Are we gods in the modern, Western sense of being omniscient, omnipotent, or immortal? No. Nor did we create the realms."

"Being Lily was good for you," Loki said wistfully. "You never could have explained it that well before."

"I can't deny that," replied Thor with a touch of embarrassment. "Without the expectations I originally grew up with, I found myself interested in a broader range of topics. I can see now why magic has always fascinated you, Brother."

After a moment of surprisingly congenial silence, Harry said, "I've heard of Loki. The God of Mischief, right?." He grinned. "Appropriate for a Marauder, I'd say. Who were you, Mum? Were you also famous?"

Loki grinned. He couldn't help it.

Thor stared at the floor for a few moments before huffing and steeling herself. "My real name is Thor."

"Thor? The God of Thunder? Really?" Harry exclaimed. "I thought Thor was male."

Loki burst out laughing. "Normally, he is."

With a touch of fear in her eyes, Thor changed back to his normal self.

"My mum is a man?" Harry said, confused.

Thor, who was over a foot taller than Harry, crouched down to look him in the eyes. "Harry, while it's true that I was born a man and have spent most of my life as one, I am still your mum. I carried you within me for nine months and love you more than anything."

"Can you change back?" Harry asked, not quite being able to meet Thor's eyes.

Thor nodded and changed back, standing up again.

"I'm sorry, Mum," Harry said. "It's a lot to figure out."

"It's alright," Thor said gently. "I understand." She smirked. "Your father has also spent some time as a woman—usually for one of his tricks."

Harry looked at him. He shrugged. "It's true. But I have never been acknowledged as the paragon of manliness that your mother has."

Harry looked thoughtful until a look of horror flashed over his face. "Is the story about the horse and Sleipnir true?"

Thor giggled and Loki huffed. "No," he replied, "that myth is false. You are actually the first child for either of us." He grinned. "However, the story of Thrymur hiding Mjolnir and Thor dressing up as Freya in a wedding dress to get it back is true."

Thor groaned and then smiled. "I admit that I made a prettier bride at our wedding."

Loki grimaced and turned his head to avoid looking at her.

An uncomfortable silence reigned.

"If you're both gods, more or less, what does that make me?" Harry asked.

Thor and Loki looked at each other. "I'm not sure," Loki admitted. "I don't know what Odin did to us when he banished us. It might be that you're human or you could be an Asgardian/Jotun hybrid."

"Jotun?" Thor asked.

"Yes," Loki said with a sneer. "My true name is Loki Laufeyson."

"You expect that to make a difference to me?" Thor asked, rolling her eyes. "You're still my brother. Besides, Father's mother Bestia was a Jotun."

Loki blinked. He had forgotten that detail.

"Is there a way that you can check if I'm Asgardian, Jotun, or human?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Loki said. "I can do so."

He approached his son and with a wave of his hand directed his magic into him. Ironically, most of the denizens of the Nine Realms: Midgardians, Asgardians, Jotuns, Vanir, and others were largely the same. This is why Odin could be born of an Asgardian and a Jotun parent. The primary difference was in their magic which often manifested physically—in large size and blue skin in Jotuns, for example. Harry contained a mix of Wizard, Jotun, and Asgardian magic, although the Jotun and Asgardian magic were largely suppressed for now. The suppression would wear off by itself naturally sometime within the next decade. The Wizard magic must have come from whatever Odin did to Thor and himself to make them Lily and James. Loki knew that Odin could do this because he had converted a large portion of Loki's own magic to Asgardian magic when he had taken him in and suppressed his Jotun magic which is why Loki looked like an Asgardian rather than a Jotun most of the time.

Loki directed his magic toward Harry's scar as he was interested in seeing what Thor had done to protect their son. Harry's scar magically was a mass of sacrifice-driven protective magic that was cocooning a cyst of some of the most disgusting magical residue that Loki had ever seen. He examined the residue more closely—there was a tiny sliver of soul there that was leaching off of Harry's life and magic! The soul-sliver parasite was mostly held at bay by the protective magic, but the protective magic was weakened by a draw from somewhere else.

Harry and Thor were looking at him worriedly. He relaxed the scowl off of his face and took a deep breath. "First of all, Harry, you're a mix of Midgardian, Asgardian, and Jotun. However, the Asgardian and Jotun parts of your magic are currently temporarily suppressed. This suppression will wear off naturally over time or I can remove it if you want me to. This means that you will have an Asgardian lifespan and develop gifts similar to your mother and me. More worryingly, there's a dark magic residue in your scar that needs to be removed as soon as possible. Your mother's sacrificial protection is mostly keeping it at bay, but some of the protective magic is being drawn off, so it's not at full strength."

Thor grimaced. "That's probably due to powering Dumbledore's Blood Wards to protect Petunia's home."

"Why would he protect Petunia's home, making Harry more vulnerable?" Loki asked.

"Err… That's where I grew up," Harry offered.

"What happened to Sirius or any of the other, many more appropriate people that could have raised him?" Loki demanded.

Thor scowled and said, "Long story short: Sirius was thrown into Azkaban without a trial for supposedly betraying us. Dumbledore sent him to Petunia's to keep him out of Malfoy's hands, who bribed himself out of Azkaban."

"Malfoy and others claimed they were under the Imperious," Harry offered.

"Sirius is in Azkaban?" Loki asked, horrified.

Harry shook his head. "He escaped last year. He's been on the run ever since. I met him and Pettigrew last year. We caught the rat, but he managed to escape before we could prove Sirius's innocence."

"Wormtail was always slippery," Loki said with a grimace. He shook his head. "I can't remove the residue myself, but Frigga should be able to do it with Eir's help."

"You'll love your grandmother," Thor told Harry with a smile.

"Right. Let's go tell Dumbledore that we need to take Harry for a few days to get this taken care of," Loki said.

"Okay," Harry agreed readily. "I just need to let Hermione know that I'll be gone."

"Hermione, eh?" Loki said with a smile. "Tell me all about your girlfriend."

"It's not like that!" Harry protested. "She is a girl and my friend, but she's not my girlfriend."

"Why not?" Loki teased as he changed back into James.

Author's Note: This is the last installment of this story for now. This story was a lot more of concept than plot, so I don't know where it will go from here. I don't know when or if I'll get back to it. As usual, I have too many concepts and stories floating around. I do hope you enjoyed these snippets.