Broken. That was one of the many words to describe the so called savior of the wizarding communities. And many blamed the Ministry for doing it, claiming her power had gotten too strong.

It never even occurred to them that maybe she just wanted to be left alone to grieve and move on with her life.

And to make matter worse they had quite firmly bound her to a man she hated with a passion, Draco Malfoy. They claimed to be protected the Black bloodlines.

Inbreed filth.

The last time her 'friend' Hermione saw her out and about, the girl had stared. She had known her former best friend had taken the sealing hard, but this? This was far worse than she could stand to see.

Robin Potter-Black (she refused to take Draco's last name) looked and acted like a living inferi. She was practically skin and bones, and ribs could be seen under her many-times-too big shirt. Her skin was sallow and yellowed, and her brilliant red hair, which she once took such good care of while in school, was lanky and matted.

But it was her demeanor which set the tone. She was meek and subservient, often flinching if people came too close or even looked like they were about to hit her.

All of it screamed domestic abuse. About the only thing presentable about the former witch were her clothes...but that could be accredited to the fact Draco picked them and had the house elves dress her.

House elves. They had been more active of late, ever since the first sealing of Robin. In fact if one were to pay attention they would say they were quietly rebelling.

One by one, the number of bound elves were dropping like a rock. But because no one bothered to look or hell, even do a census of who owned which elf, the pure bloods were oblivious.

The pure bloods kept giving elves laundry, and thinking that they still owned more, completely unaware that they had released their servants. That if given the right signal, would leave them bereft of anyone to cook, clean or order around.

And they weren't the only ones. Werewolves, hags, Veela, centaurs...all those subjugated by the wizards were in quiet revolt against them, merely waiting for the signal to take the fight to them.

All because they sealed away the one witch of an old line who dared to treat every equally. The so called 'Master (or Mistress) of Death'.

Still didn't save her when they caught her after the battle of Hogwarts and sealed almost all of her magic away, leaving her barely a squib. They couldn't take the Hallows, those vanished within seconds of her capture, but they could take her magic.

Or so they thought. All they knew was that she was weakened greatly and her magic bound so tightly that it barely came out anymore. No one considered the fact that such a thing might eventually build up inside her and kill her explosively unless it was being drained regularly enough to keep it stable.

Had they thought of that, they might have been able to stop what was to happen a few days after she finally managed to escape Britain.

Draco had a meeting with one of the magical agencies from America and he took his 'trophy wife' with him. While she wasn't beautiful to the eye, she was still the defeater of the worst Dark Lord since Dumbledore defeated his former lover. Having her on his arm, even in her state, was enough to impress even the most idiotic of people.

However all that changed in an instant the second a piece of skyscraper fell on him and crushed him to paste.

Robin watched the death of her 'husband' dispassionately. His death freed her from one shackle, but not the rest. That would take time and more importantly a little help from her patron goddess.

Hel was a bitch to serve, but she at least agreed that the binding of her powers was not acceptable for her newest avatar. Hence the meeting with the random government agency where her presence was all but demanded. It got her to a point where a little nudge from a goddess could cause Draco's death and free her from a few of the bindings...like the perimeter ward that only lifted if Draco allowed it.

Fortunately when she 'let herself go', Draco became so disgusted that he let her do whatever she wanted so long as he didn't have to look at the formerly proud Gryffindor. If she wanted to deal with werewolves and the other non-human species, then he could care less.

He didn't notice or care that bit by bit, her magic was being drained steadily.

I have given you the opening you asked for. Do not disappoint me.

As you command, my Lady.

Being in the service of Hel, the Norse goddess of death, wasn't nearly as bad as one would think. Robin accepted the new status as Hel's Avatar among the living, because she had accepted one simple fact years ago.

Death is a part of Life. You can't have one without the other. Because of that, the Hallows accepted her as their master and didn't curse her like the previous fools who sought to use their power.

Robin knew she had a limited amount of time to pull this off. She went into one of the abandoned apartments, her cloak hiding her from the fighters and police alike.

Taking a quick shower (her first one in months) she cut off what was left of her hair. All that was left now was short fuzz. She washed off the saffron she had placed on her skin to make it sallow. Yellow coloring washed down the drain...she felt sorry for whoever had to clean the trap out. She ditched her over-sized shirt and pants...they were bought by Narcissa in exchange for being among those spared when the Purge hit.

Never cross a Black. While Narcissa hated that Draco had to die, even she knew the boy was too much like his father to live. Besides, the boy had never acted like a true Black in his life.

She found some clothes waiting for her when she got out of the shower. Hel wanted her avatar to look presentable when she ran. She donned the long white dress and shoes meant for running without question.

She left the apartment and headed to the park, where the fighting had yet to hit. According to Hel, it was the best place to use the Tesseract to return to Asgard.

She had to time the execution perfectly, or she would be dropped off on some random planet she had never heard of...or worse, Jotenhiem.

Fortunately her phoenix form, which she had perfected before being sealed (she was now stuck as a rather pissy songbird who enjoyed forcing Draco awake before four in the bloody morning...and not once did he ever manage to hit her with a curse. Oh how Narcissa had laughed her ass off when she found the source of his cursing) could handle the ride of the bifrost.

The trick was to latch on at the last possible second to hitch a ride off Earth.

Loki gave his grip on the Tesseract a speculative glance. He could have sworn he felt some sort of bird latch on to the free spot on his end at the last second. But he didn't see anything grab on...until they reached Asgard when a phoenix of all things appeared behind him without warning.

Heimdall and Thor were very surprised. Loki wasn't, he had felt those claws all the way there while traveling via the Bifrost. Still, he did enjoy the look of absolute shock at the sight of the bird.

Suddenly Heimdall turned back to Earth, his gaze widening exponentially.

"Something has happened."

"Not an attack?" asked Thor worriedly.

"Not on your end, no. It feels as though a massive amount of magic has been removed from the Earth. I can no longer see the dragons, unicorns or any other magical creature. It's as if they vanished."

"Father must be told."

"But first we must insure your brother stays put..."

Loki rolled his eyes, and he could have sworn the phoenix who had hitched a ride was laughing at the other two.

Something told him that the next few months were going to be far more entertaining than he could have hoped.

Odin, it turned out, was not happy. Like Heimdall had sensed, all the magical creatures (particularly in Britain for some reason) had vanished the second Thor and Loki touched down in Asgard with the jewel of Odin's treasure room.

And the magicals were obviously in a state of panic. The fact that a few of said magical blood went missing as well, along with a castle, a good portion of a forest, a joke shop and the bank in Britain had yet to become news.

And watching the entire thing from where Heimdall normally stood was a phoenix, laughing at it all.

The Marauders would be so proud!

It wouldn't be a week for the full scope of the vanishing to hit the magicals, and by that time someone finally noticed that a certain girl was missing and while her husband remained paste on a sidewalk in New York.

It would take them a full month to finally realize that maybe her escape and the missing people/animals/places had something in common. And even then it wasn't until her former best friend pointed that fact out for everyone.

Loki was in his room, and he wasn't allowed to leave the palace or go farther than the gardens for at least a year and a day. Normally this wouldn't be too bad, except he was bored. And this generally did one of two things.

Either got him to raid the library, again, for the thousandth time, or prank someone.

And with the mood he was in, it was more likely to be the latter which would remove said problem. Sadly Odin would most likely be upset and he would be in even more trouble than he was right now.

So he sat down and tried to find a book to entertain him for a while.

Only to get up and look for the source of that damn song bird. It wouldn't shut up!

Eventually he found it...and stared. He knew for a fact there weren't any robins or ordinary birds in Asgard. They tended to get eaten. Or fried by Thor for waking him up. Morning and Thor didn't mix well...then again neither did Loki's wake up pranks and Thor. Last time he nearly got a black eye courtesy of that oversized hammer for the ice water trick.

The bird looked back at him, amused, before flying off.

At least the singing had stopped.

Loki awoke to find himself in Hel's realm.

"Hello Father."

"Hel. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I wanted you to meet my Avatar. She's in Asgard right now and I would prefer it if Thor didn't fry her like the song birds."

Loki looked at the figure beside his daughter. It was the phoenix who had hitched a ride at the last second. It burst into flames and became...the irritating song bird from earlier.

"Why is your avatar in Asgard? Shouldn't she be on Earth?"

"The humans tried to seal her away. The only way to break most of her bindings was to have her go with you. Coincidentally she did do something rather amusing to the humans."

"And what's that?"

"She took their magical creatures away. And a castle, forest, bank, and a joke shop."

Loki stared.

"This girl was the one responsible for the chaos in the magical communities?" he asked.

"With a little help from me of course. She presented a convincing argument that even Odin can't refute. Just wait until you see what she does when she goes back."

"Considering how bored I am, I'm all ears."

The song bird turned into a woman. She didn't look like the healthiest specimen and her features were blurred. Which was somewhat odd. All he could tell was that she had red hair and green eyes.

"I plan to move the scheduled magic cleansing a few centuries. Instead of it recycling the magic in three hundred years, I'll reclaim it and have the magic come back in three generations...just long enough for those arrogant bastards to get my message."

"And what message is that?"

"Don't mess with a Black."

"Isn't the current generation so dependent on magic that most don't even bother to do mundane tasks and neglect their normal education?" asked Loki. He could see where this was going, and he liked it.

"Extremely. I know a family who's matriarch is so dependent on magic that she has it knit jumpers, do the dishes, laundry and summons things...and she has the voice of a damn harpy."

Loki laughed, his voice with a bell like chime. He could grow to like this current 'Master of Death'. She had style and a sense of humor he could get behind! Not like the previous one who bored both father and daughter to tears.

"Now for the second reason I brought you here... We need your assistance in getting these bindings off, or at least making the chain that much longer."

Loki was all ears. As Hel described the bindings in question, his frown deepened. Apparently the wizards were so afraid of the current Avatar that the forced a perimeter spell on her, one that was set to another person. Because of her nature, Hel couldn't put one on the girl.

However since she was in Asgard, he could bind the girl to him and give her free reign. It would loosen enough of the bindings to destroy the choke hold that the wizards put her in.

Considering she just provided free entertainment in the form of some jumped up magical descendant's suffering, he was more than happy to help. Maybe she could alleviate his boredom while they were at it.

Loki was trying hard not to laugh as the mystery phoenix (not so mysterious to him since he was introduced) let loose what appeared to be a water balloon on Thor...and it just so happened to have a color changing potion in it. Thor's hair was neon pink for a week. Best of all was that no one could pin it on Loki since half the time he was in his room reading. Apparently the castle that Hel relocated happened to be the Hogwarts castle, and the Ministry was still trying to find it and the forest. According to Hel, the centaurs were rather pleased with the new world she put them on.

Plus they didn't have to deal with the acromantula colony anymore, which really made them happy.

His only complaint was that the girl insisted on reading over his shoulder.

At least she didn't sing right next to his ear. Plus the look on Thor's face when he realized that yes, the bird he just fried for singing at four in the morning was in fact still alive and would just not shut up.

Loki gave her little treats for doing it while the idiot was hung over. She had an interestingly high pitch which just sent waves of pain in his head.

Loki rather enjoyed it for one reason. It tended to make Thor crash into things.

Plus she had a nice voice. Too bad Hel never told him the girl's name.

Hel laughed as she watched the little bouts of chaos her avatar had caused in her name. She, like Loki, enjoyed a good laugh at other's expense.

One of her favorite things to do was watch the Ministry tie itself into tangles trying to find the school before September. The loss of the Forbidden Forest didn't bother them nearly as much as losing an entire castle. No one noticed the missing joke shop, with the twins inside along with their rather bubbly assistant. Or the fact that Narcissa, Andromeda or the Longbottom family were gone completely. Hell, no one even noticed that the merfolk in the Black Lake were gone.

Then there was the chaos Robin caused in Asgard. It was good to see her father laugh like that again. He normally didn't bother with lighthearted pranks, since he had a bit of a problem with Thor's childish behavior.

However seeing said god as a female cracked them up.

At this point she couldn't wait for Loki to finally fall for her avatar's human form, break the bindings, and return to Earth to perform a ritual that most Magicals forgot happened regularly every half millennium or so. The one where magic was at it's lowest point and the rate of squibs tended to jump.

Generally it caused the fall of magical societies, like Atlantis and Camelot.