A/N: I own neither Harry Potter, or anything involved with it, nor Marvel's Thor. This is done for fun only. As you'll be able to tell, it's set in Harry's 5th year of school, well before the events of the Thor movie.

Loki could never explain his fascination with Midgard. He'd found the realm amazing and visited it every chance he could get, sometimes spending years at a time there. This, of course, had gotten much easier when he figured out how to do so without the use of the bifröst. He never cared for relying on Heimdall to travel. The two had never exactly gotten along, and he always suspected that the guard would one day decide not to bring him back home.

One of the things he loved about Midgard was watching it develop. He remembered when their only decent method of travel was horse drawn carriages, when traveling across an ocean took months. Over the years, through his visits, he'd watched as the Midgardians developed. After the Industrial Revolution, as they called it, it sometimes felt hard to keep up.

This odd fondness he felt towards their developments was why he sometimes used their methods of transportation despite being perfectly capable of just magicing himself wherever he needed to be.

On one of these occasions he was in London, planning to take a train across the British countryside. He had no real interest in his destination, he would likely simply go back to London or some other city. While they could be annoying, they were also more interesting. He waited in King's Cross Station, watching the comings and goings of the mortals with amusement.

The amusement stopped when he saw something that he was rather certain was not supposed to be able to occur in Midgard- someone had walked through one of the barriers between the platforms. He frowned, walking over. He would have to investigate this. He placed a hand on the platform. Or, rather, he placed a hand through the platform. He stepped through it and was surprised to find himself elsewhere.

Fascinating, magic in Midgard. No one paid him much notice, and he was able to overhear enough to establish that this particular platform was exclusively for a train to some kind of school that taught magic. He had no interest in seeing a school, but he would have to find a way to learn more about this. He had always been under the impression that the only magic in Midgard was when someone from Asgard decided to visit, as he was doing.

Asking did not seem like it would warrant anything other than confused looks about why he needed to know, surely there was a reason that he hadn't heard of this in his many, many centuries of visiting the realm.

The deity left the station at this point and went to a nearby café he had found and rather liked to think this through and ponder the situation more. When on Midgard, he found that pondering was best done over a well-brewed latte.

He knew that his magic would allow him to find a place with a… What did they call themselves? Witches and wizards, that's what they were saying. He had spells that could take him even to places he didn't yet know of. It was handy for finding the best restaurants, but he did need to be wary with it until he knew more about these people and their magic. While he was certain he could overpower a handful, a roomful might be a push.

He frowned as he contemplated this. These people should be used to the idea of a person just appearing in a place, so discretion wasn't too necessary. A place with only one or two would be safest, preferably "good" wizards (he'd heard reference to "bad" ones and, while those would likely be who he found himself preferring to be around, they seemed more willing to hurt them).

"That should be sufficient," he murmured to himself. He considered, for safe measure, making himself invisible but realized he was dealing with users of an unknown magic. They may be able to tell he was there anyways, at least until he learned how to make sure they didn't. He'd had that problem with infrared cameras.

He went over the requirements he would use for the spell to make sure there were no "loopholes" the spell could use to bring him somewhere dangerous- as a trickster God, his magic had a nasty habit of tricking him when he wasn't careful- Loki decided that this plan was safe enough. He continued sipping his latte for some time, savoring it. He was in no sort of hurry.

After finishing the latte, he wandered until he found a rather deserted area. While the Midgardians were rather oblivious, they would likely notice a person vanishing in the middle of the street and he preferred to be more discreet than that.

Today was not a terribly good day for Sirius. There hadn't been many in quite some time, although he'd been lucky enough to get a few in the past year, but today was not one. Harry had gone back to Hogwarts. The other Order members were off on assignments- something he hated not being allowed to do. Arthur and Molly returned to their home now that their children were no longer there, and undoubtedly had things they were doing for Dumbledore as well.

He sat in the kitchen. He knew that there would be Order meetings in his house, and the friends he still had had promised to visit him whenever they could, but he would still be left alone with only Kreature for company for a good amount of time. For the first time since the Weasley kids and Hermione had arrived there for the summer.

This was not a good day.

Yes, he had gotten to actually leave the house to accompany Harry to the Station, but that memory only just barely helped, and it certainly didn't change the fact he'd be alone. In this blasted house.

When he heard a knock on the door, he rather literally lunged towards it. As he was sitting in a chair that was pulled up to the table, this was not terribly effective and ended with him falling and taking a few chairs with him. He swore to himself but got up anyways, walking over to the door eagerly. There was only one person who could get to this house that he wouldn't want to talk to- it would be considerably longer before he could tolerate Snape- and it was highly unlikely to be him.

He pulled the door open, smiling brightly until he saw a stranger. A somewhat tall, thin and pale man with black hair and green eyes that reminded him of Harry's who was wearing muggle garb stood there.

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously, his wand now at the ready.

"That is actually something of a long story," the stranger answered with a pleasant smile, "One that I'm not certain you would believe." His eyes darted down to Sirius's hand clenched around his wand and back at the gaunt man's face, "Would I be correct to assume that you are a wizard?"

Sirius stared at him for several minutes, his hand relaxing slightly at the sheer shock that came over him as he realized what the stranger had just said. "You're not?"

"No."

"How the hell did a muggle get here?" Sirius was not asking the stranger, he was asking himself.

"A what?" the man asked with a bemused smile.

"People who can't use magic."

Sirius glared as the man laughed at this. The stranger shook his head, "Ah, I'm afraid you are making some very ill-informed assumptions. I am not a… muggle as you call them, I doubt I would fit into your definition of 'people' either."

Stepping back slightly, Sirius raised his wand to the man's neck before growling, "What the Hell are you?"

"I am Loki Odinsson from Asgard, I do not know what words you would have for me, though I have been considered a God in times long past," he replied, looking at the wand with amusement.

A chill ran down Sirius's spine. He didn't believe this for a second, but he also didn't know what to do with someone who reacted so casually to being threatened like that. His mind ran down the list of magical creatures he knew of, trying to think of something that could explain this.

"Is this a bad time? I apologize for this, but I really wasn't sure of a decent way to find out about the magic you have here," the stranger, Loki he called himself, said.

Sirius frowned, "How did you get here? You shouldn't be able to get here if you aren't a wizard." Or if you hadn't been told how to get here.

"I use a different kind of sorcery that may not follow your rules," he explained, "There is a terribly useful spell I have that allows me to find places or people. I wished to speak with a 'witch' or 'wizard' who was alone and less likely to attack me—"

"Don't bet on that," Sirius growled.

"-and ended up here. I meant no harm," Loki finished with a reassuring smile.

Even if he was insane, he hadn't done anything threatening. Sirius hesitated, his loneliness and common sense battling as he tried to decide what to do.

Loki had long ago learned to tell when he was not wanted, and now may or may not be the case. He raised an eyebrow as he watched the 'wizard' who appeared to be having an internal struggle. Quietly he said, "If you will only tell me where I can go to learn more about witches and wizards, I will leave and never bother you again."

Loneliness won out, loneliness and self-denial that perhaps this person was a wizard who hadn't gotten a letter from any of the schools and found a way to manage his powers himself. He knew it was unlikely if not impossible, but it was a nice thought. Helping some poor, lonely wizard realize what he really was and that he wasn't alone after so long. God he had gotten sappy in Azkaban.

"You genuinely mean no harm?" he asked, lowering his wand.

The trickster smiled at him, "None at all." For now, at least.

"Come in, then, I'll try to tell you what you want to know," he said, getting out of the way and gesturing inside, his wand still in his hand.

Loki stepped in with a word of thanks and looked around, raising his eyebrow. He could tell that this had once been a rather grand place but it was now dark and dreary. Somehow the air had managed to actually feel thick with despair or something like it.

"Charming place," he said. The other man snorted at that, leading him into a room he could only assume was the kitchen.

"You should have seen it before we started cleaning it," he muttered. Loki decided he would rather not think about that. The man gestured for him to sit down before saying, "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you, ah…" he paused, "I'm afraid you never told me your name."

"Sirius Black," he replied, raising an eyebrow as he waited for a response.

Loki nodded, "Is it common for people here to name their children after stars or just wizards?"

"Er… neither," he replied, relaxing a bit that the name didn't get any response. Definitely didn't spend time in the wizarding world, then. Although, didn't they put it in all the muggle papers as well? "My family has some odd ideas about names. Although 'Loki' is rather unusual as well."

He nodded, "I imagine that many of our names are here." Except Thor, of course, it seemed that many Germanic cultures saw fit to name children after his brother. The trickster doubted highly that many named their children after him.

"Where are you from?" he asked, wondering if that might help explain things.

Loki looked up at him, "As I told you- Asgard."

"What country is that in?"

"While I imagine there are towns named after it, it is a separate realm," he replied with a smile.

Sirius frowned to hear that he was keeping up with that story. He shrugged anyways, "So, what do you want to know about wizards?"

"Everything, although I imagine you'd like me to be more specific."

"Could help."

"How does your magic work, then?" he asked, green eyes glittering intensely as he looked at his host.

Sirius scratched his head, not sure how to answer that, "You wave your wand, say a spell, and it works."

"Wands are required for magic here?"

"You don't need one?"

Loki smiled, conjuring up a glass of wine. "No," he said simply before bringing it to his lips and sipping gently at it.

Sirius again stared in shock at what he had just seen. Spells without words- sure, they taught that. Spells without wands rarely happened, and only when the person was in extreme stress and it happened without the person meaning it to. It was never this controlled.

"Ah… How did you…?" Not the most intelligent thing he'd ever said.

Again he smiled, this time an infuriatingly smug "I know something you don't know" smile, "Magic."