September 19th, 1998

Wendell opened the door, and immediately dropped his newspaper in favor of stepping towards the hallway. Cricket bat. He always keep it within convenient reach. Made him feel safer. Excellent batting average, back in the day. "Who are you?" he asked, anxiety rising up in him as he looked at the stranger sitting in his favorite leather chair.

The young man seemed unperturbed, though his vibrant green eyes were tired and his black hair tousled from what looked to be a lack of sleep. "I wasn't expecting you to remember me," he said, sighing. He stood up, stepping over towards the hearth and looking at some of the pictures there.

"I'm sorry—have we met?" Wendell had gotten over by the cricket bat now, and the phone wasn't too much further beyond that. Monica wouldn't be home for hours yet, said she had a surprise client come in—

"Briefly," the young man said, picking up a picture frame, "but again, I wouldn't expect you to remember me. My name is Harry. Harry Potter." And he changed topic so fast that Wendell barely had time to blink. "Who's this in the picture with you?"

Wendell decided to go for the phone. The police were better equipped to deal with the crazies. The picture Harry had picked up was just—well, another one of those silly things that Monica had insisted on keeping around the house, this one from when they had just gotten their new computer. Wendell had had someone over, maybe a technician of some sort—nothing that mattered. "Loki, I believe his name was," Wendell replied, frowning. So trivial Wendell barely even remembered. "Look, I don't know what you think you're doing in this house, but this is Australia and if you don't leave right this moment I'm going to have to call the police."

Harry set the picture down. "You've been set free," he said softly, and for a moment his eyes seemed to flicker the blue of the Australian sky. "You've been set free of her but it's all a lie. Here. Let me show you the truth of your existence." He smiled, patronizing. "Minus a few odds and ends. Some things are not for her to know quite yet."

Harry drew a stick from one of his pockets, and William's world turned upside down.

William was still sitting, numb, in the chair he had apparently shipped all the way from bloody England, when Monika—Melinda—came through the door, a remarkably tentative Hermione following closely behind. She picked up the newspaper from where he had dropped it a lifetime ago, smiling nervously as she walked across the sitting room to hand it to him. "Hey dad."

17 across had been left blank. The study of the end of the world.

Eschatology, he thought dully, though he couldn't remember where the word had come from.

He set the crossword down again, and looked up at Harry and Hermione's smiling faces."Well then." He paused a moment, struggling for words, before settling on the most practical thing he could think of: "What have I missed?"

Hermione's face crinkled up, something between laughter and sobs. "More than you could ever know."

A/N:

Updated 3/6/13

Chronologically, this takes place prior to the events of chapter nine (titled Bad Wings) of Aphelion and has some heavy allusions to some of the events that will be happening therein. I split Eschatology into two parts because I wanted the first chapter to be more-or-less standalone, with a second that would indicate how it fits more clearly into Aphelion continuity. So, ah – this chibi chapter, strictly speaking, isn't supposed to make much sense on its own. Since it's still from William's (extraordinarily limited) perspective he obviously doesn't have much of an idea of what's going on, so it's up to readers to piece it together until Aphelion updates. ;-)

This probably won't have any more chapters added to it – it was originally envisioned as a two-parter – but as Aphelion expands more things from Dr Granger's perspective may be added if anyone else prompts me with it.

Giftfic for the 400th reviewer of Aphelion, Nostalgic Beauty. Thanks for the support! =D The prompt given was to somehow, in Aphelionverse, have Loki meet Hermione's parents, particularly Hermione's dad, and preferably something humorous which is not my forte. This proved... to be a bit tricky to manage in the Aphelioncontinuity, but this is what I ended up with. I was going for something that could potentially be a standalone (like Here Be Monsters, the giftfic for the 200th reviewer of Aphelion) but I'm not sure if I quite managed it. If you read carefully, theoretically all the information's in there, but it might take a second read or something.

The second chapter is a "postscript" (in the form of a short second chapter), which has a fun segway into part three of Aphelion.

The other main bit about this: I decided to try to write from Hermione's dad's POV, who is not a properly developed character in the HP universe, and moreover knows next to nothing about either the world of HP or the world of Marvel. So, the challenge was - how to write things such that the reader could understand what was going on, even if thenarrator hadn't a clue - and furthermore, make such a narrator someone to sympathize with? Very interested in your feedback! I'd like to do another revision of this based on the constructive criticism y'all provide. :-)

Thanks to Twilight Card Mistress for the beta read on the first draft! Much appreciated. =D