Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter, Avengers, Star Wars, The Losers, etc...The use of these characters and plot points is purely for entertainment. No monetary compensation is gained from this publication.

A/N: This is a direct sequel for "Cradle Song" found under my author page. This will make so much more sense if you read that first. :) Please let me know if you enjoy.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it, Nev?"

Neville Rogers, soon to be Neville Rogers-McCoy, smiled when his sister sidled up to him, a smile spreading on her pretty face, a blush high in her cheeks, her flowy tea length dress settling gracefully around her calves as she wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned her head against his ribcage, considering she only came up to just under his armpit. He pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, setting his chin to the top of her head with a grin. She was just tipsy enough to allow it, even giggling at his antics and leaning back against him, even though she wasn't usually one to snuggle in any way. He huffed a little, trying to prevent a sneeze, when the flowers in the crown settled on top of her flowing magenta hair nearly went up his nose.

"It is a beautiful day," he agreed, looking out at the spacious backyard that he had helped into blooming when the two men he now called fathers had decided that that they wanted an early summer wedding before most of the flowers of their garden were ready to come up from the soil. The man who had loved him from the day the kindly professor had brought him to him, the only man he'd ever really known as a father, was dancing, barefoot and with his youngest brother on his hip, with the man he'd so deeply fallen in love with. The grumpy, golden-hearted doctor who had come into their town and their lives and settled them in way nothing but love could have been able to do, was laughing with his head thrown back, nothing but joy written on his face, as he laughed at the chubby fingers of the baby patting his face and swayed off-rhythm to the bluegrass tunes that floated around the yard.

He'd suspected from the day that his father had invited the doctor and his daughter to their home that this was where everything was headed. He'd never seen his father so relaxed, so settled into himself, and so…happy. Neville had never gotten the feeling that his father wasn't happy, but he'd always seemed a little lonely, like there was a little piece of his soul that his children couldn't bring joy to no matter how hard they tried. But, from the moment Leonard McCoy came to them it had been different. Not only for their father. Neville would be the first to admit that they hadn't realized it, but they needed Leonard, or Papa, and Johanna just as much as their dad did. It hadn't taken long for the kids to decide they were meant to be a family and it was a joy to watch their fathers try to deny just how quickly and thoroughly they were falling in love. Exactly none of them had been surprised when their fathers had come home, sat them all down, and asked how they felt about becoming a family.

"Nice that you finally caught up," Kurt had snorted.

"We were just waiting on you two," JoJo agreed before jumping at them both and wrapping her arms around their necks. That had been the cue for the rest of them to pile onto the two laughing men and there hadn't been a day they'd been apart since.

"They're so in love," Clarice sighed when he sat down on the porch swing and pulled her down with him.

"They are," he agreed after a while watching the man who'd raised them both dance with such joy, pulling her bare feet into his lap and rubbing them gently, "Who let you into the champagne, little one?"

He'd called her little one since they both hit puberty and he began to tower over her. At first it had been to annoy her, but as they'd gotten older and realized that she wasn't going to grow any more than she already had it had become a loving nickname. Only he was allowed to use it, just as she was the only one allowed to call him giant.

"Nana said as long I didn't try to drive she wouldn't tell Daddy or Papa." Clarice yawned and laid her head on the pillow covered arm rest, closing her heavy eyes, asleep in seconds.

"And the sickness she will be treated to the next days will be more than enough to make her realize that the wine is not as glamourous as she would like to think."

Neville looked up at the woman he called grandmother and grinned, "You're a crafty one, Nana."

"Where do you think your uncle learned it from?" She asked with a wink, "I've always worried more about her than any of the rest of you when it comes to drink. Have a glass or two if you'd like, love. I trust you not to overindulge. Dance. Enjoy yourself. I'll watch over Clarice for a time."

"Thanks, Nana."

"Not at all, my darling," She smiled and they switched places, Frigga placing Clarice's feet in her own lap and settling herself comfortably, swinging a little as Neville smiled at them both. He turned to go into the yard and subsequently into the party and was stopped short when his grandmother grabbed his wrist gently and brought his palm to her lips.

"What is troubling you, my lamb?" she asked quietly, her wise eyes looking up at him through her lashes, "You have ever been able to talk to me, have you not?"

"I have," he agreed, looking out at the yard, at Jake, Jamie, and JoJo laughing brightly as Uncle Thor swung all of them from one mighty arm. He watched Aunt Pepper swoop in between the grooms to dance away with Pavel shrieking happily. He watched as she danced over to Uncle Tony with the baby and watched as they both pretended that no one else noticed when he pressed his hand gently to Pepper's belly where their own children were growing. He didn't want to know what it had taken to convince his attention hungry uncle to wait their own announcement until after the wedding. He chuckled a little to see Kurt with Amanda, the young woman Kurt had been crushing on for the better part of a year. He'd invited her to the wedding though they were both a little young to call it a date. They were happily dancing to the music, Amanda giggling at the way he integrated his teleportation powers into his dance moves. And Kurt, Kurt was grinning in a way he hadn't for quite a while. Neville was happy to see that the friendship that had the potential to blossom into romance a little later down the line was helping to bring Kurt out of his difficult angst-ridden pre-teen times. The whole house was feeling the relief.

"Then, talk to me now." Frigga brought him out of his focus on his family by pressing another kiss to his palm.

"Have I been that obvious?" He chuckled as he looked back at her.

He couldn't help the vision of a much older woman that super imposed itself over the beautiful woman who looked hundreds of years younger than she actually was. Instead of gorgeous blue eyes that held the wisdom of ages he saw eyes as green as his own. Instead of caramel hair loose and curled it was white and tied back in a severe bun. Instead of coral colored lips curled in a smile the lips were set in a permanent line by too much conflict and hardship in one lifetime. Instead of a flowing dress, sleeveless and the color of deepest emeralds, the clothing was a grey suit, conservatively cut and topped off by a ridiculous hat. It was the final image he had of the woman he barely remembered. That woman hadn't laughed, had only very rarely smiled, but she had shown him in dozens of different ways how much she loved him. He couldn't remember much of his life before Professor Xavier brought him to the Rogers house. But, one thing he did remember was her songs, singing him to sleep, little nursey rhymes, her voice strong and steady, despite her advanced years. He could remember the little lights and pretty pictures she used to draw on the ceiling with her wand for him while he was falling asleep. When he'd mentioned it to Uncle Loki, his uncle had taught him what he knew about wanded magic but it had all felt so limited and he'd learned to make the shapes and pictures just with the power of his mind to help himself fall asleep.

"Only to me, my lamb." Frigga assured him, "You haven't been settled as of late. Not quite as content as I'm used to seeing you. What is it? What is causing you such distress?"

"That's just it, Nana," He sat on the porch and leaned against her legs, allowing her to run her fingers through his hair as she'd done for so much of his life, "I don't know what's wrong with me lately. I just… Something is coming and I don't know what it is. It's like if I could just turn around fast enough the something I keep seeing out of the corner of my eye would be right in front of me. It's been building for some time now and I can only think that if I could just catch a glimpse." He sighed. "Of course, I could just be restless with graduation having just happened. I could just be uncomfortable because I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. I just…maybe I'm imagining it all."

"You're not."

It was testament to how often his uncle appeared out of nowhere that he and Frigga didn't even flinch when suddenly Loki was right beside the porch swing. His clothing was bright, to reflect the happiness of the day, but his expression was dark.

"You are not imagining any of it, Neville." Loki said quietly, "Something has been building for years. Something that is about to come to a head. You feel it instinctively. I wish you'd said something sooner. We never trained that particular talent in you as you never informed me you'd been feeling anything at all."

"I didn't know what it was!" Neville protested.

"And one of the first things I taught you was to trust your intuition," Loki argued back.

"Boys!" Frigga chided softly, glaring at them when Clarice grumbled in her sleep, "Neville, your uncle is right, you should have told one of us. We could have saved you much concern over this. Loki, stop pestering him. There have been so many events in his life recently it's no wonder he mistook the sensation for other concerns."

Both he and Loki smiled at her angelically and she rolled her eyes.

"The last time the magic on this planet felt so corrupted was just after you were born, love," Frigga continued, looking down at Neville, "The magic itself was nearly screaming with the distortion of such darkness. We were just about to step in, as we always have when things have gotten so concerning on any world, when it suddenly ended. In a single moment the most concerning light was snuffed out. It has slowly been building itself back since. We could have interfered sooner, of course, but we have been distracted these past few years."

Neville turned his face to kiss Frigga's hand where it rested on his shoulder, knowing that the distraction was his family.

"Where is it centered?" He asked.

"You tell us," Loki knelt in front of him and put two fingers to his forehead, "Close your eyes and focus. Find where the magic pulses with darkness. Find where the evil spreads out."

Neville did as he was told, closing his eyes and finding the next level to the world as he had been taught so many years before. The magic around him, the magic he was used to and that he used to work greeted him like an old friend, reaching out to him, asking him to use it, caressing him with bright tendrils. He gently turned it away and followed it further with his mind's eye. And the further he went the darker it go until the magic was no more than a dark twisting mass full of pain and loneliness. He forced himself not to cry out, but felt the tears on his cheeks when he looked up.

"UK," he said, wiping his tears away, "It's centered in the UK. Where I'm from."

"Yes," Loki nodded, "Very good. I'm very proud of you. I know it's not easy. We'll work the skill until it becomes second nature." He pulled away and stood, leaning against the porch railing, looking at his mother and nephew, "There are small pockets of magic users all over Midgard. The community in The United Kingdom can get particularly…stiff-necked and are sometimes willfully blind. They like to think they are the oldest magic users in the universe and that their traditions are the only traditions worth anything." Loki rolled his eyes and Frigga and Neville laughed.

"We shouldn't allow them to get so out of control this time around," Frigga said quietly when they'd calmed.

"We shouldn't," Loki agreed, then set his hand on Neville's shoulders. Neville looked up at him in surprise then grinned when he realized that it was an invitation that his uncle was extending to join them while they made sure everything remained under control, as had been Asgard and her peoples' charge since nearly the dawn of time. He felt the pride swell in his heart and for the first time in months knew for certain what he wanted to do with his life, at least for a time. He only had one question for his uncle.

"When do we leave?"