The Christmas holidays were coming to an end and while some of them were happy to be going back to Hogwarts, they all shared a common dislike; Umbridge. No one, especially Dahlia, wanted to be under her tyranny any longer and just wished she'd leave but it was clear that she wanted control over the castle and wanted the headmaster out. Dahlia may not trust Professor Dumbledore but he was still the best chance for the students in the case of an attack. Sirius was taking the coming end of the holidays badly. His cheerfulness of having a full house evaporated and he was now grumpy and had 'fits of sulking' as Mrs. Weasley said.

It was the last day of the holidays, Dahlia, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Crookshanks were in the girls' room. Ron and Ginny were playing Wizarding Chess while Hermione was reading a book on transfiguration with Crookshanks sat on her lap. Dahlia was also reading but it was one of her books from her personal library in her box and she used an illusion so it looked like a Defence book.

Ron was egging on his castle as it destroyed Ginny's pawn when the door opened and Mrs. Weasley popped her head in and said, "Dahlia, dear, could you come down to the kitchen? Professor Snape would life a word with you".

"Snape," Ron said, "what does he want with you?"

Dahlia shrugged as she stood and put her book on her bed. She began to think about what she could have done, at school or at Grimmauld Place, but there was nothing. She then began to think about her homework but she worked hard on it and knew even under Professor Snape's marking, with the fact that she was a Gryffindor and how he believed she was James Potter's daughter, she would have at least got an acceptable.

A few minutes later, Dahlia was downstairs and pushed the door to the kitchen open to find both Sirius and Professor Snape stood in silence, glaring at one another. The man who was legally her godfather and the man who should have been. The mutual dislike was clear as clean cut glass. Dahlia coughed, announcing her presence.

Snape looked at her and said, "sit down, Potter".

Before Dahlia could sit, Sirius said, "I don't think you should be giving the orders, it is my house, you see".

"Sirius," Dahlia said as she sat down, "please, don't". Sirius, for once, listened and sat patiently but his fists were clearly clenched, as if he was ready for a fight, and not the wizarding kind.

"The headmaster had sent me to tell you, Potter, that he wishes you to study Occlumency this term," Professor Snape said.

Dahlia didn't need to ask what it was, she already knew. It was basically the Midgardian magical version of what her sister was already teaching her about blocking her mind. It was useful and required less magic than the other blocking method but it wasn't as strong as her sister's teaching. She was, after all, not just trying to block her mind from Midgardian mortals.

"You will be receiving private lessons once a week but you will not tell anyone, least of all Dolores Umbridge. I will be teaching you, do you understand?"

"Why can't Dumbledore teach her?" Sirius asked aggressively, "why you?"

"I suppose it is the headmaster's privilege to delegate less enjoyable tasks," Snape said silkily, "I assure you, I did not beg for the job". Snape stood from his chair and added, "six o'clock on Monday evening, Potter".

He turned to leave but Sirius stood and said, "wait...how do I know you're not going to use these lessons in order to get to Dahlia?"

Snape sneered, "surely you have noticed that Potter is just like her father?"

"I have," Sirius said proudly.

Dahlia closed her eyes and put her head down, not wanting to hear more about how she was like James, how she even looked like him. Her eyes snapped open, however, a moment later when the sound of a chair slamming to the ground occurred and she looked to find Sirius leaping across the room, towards Snape. Both wands were drawn as they squared each other up, Dahlia jumped out of her seat and shouted, "STOP IT".

Sirius, through his anger, didn't hear her, but Snape did manage to glance at her before looking back to Sirius. Sirius began to say he didn't trust Snape, even though Dumbledore did, and Snape revealed that Sirius revealed himself when he went to the station as Lucius recognised him and now he was forced to hide.

"Are you calling me a coward?" Sirius bellowed and raised his wand.

"Sirius, stop," Dahlia said loudly as she tried to get between them.

She didn't know who pushed her but as they aimed to fight, and that was to get closer to each other to not only fight using magic, she was roughly pushed back. Falling, she banged her head on the table as she fell to the floor. She grunted and felt slightly dizzy as she pushed herself onto her back and heard Sirius saying her name. Bringing her hand up to her head, she felt drops of blood coming from her hairline.

"Dahlia," Sirius said and reached out to help her stand but she pushed his hand away as she jumped to her feet and ran, not wanting to be in the house, let alone the room.

Running towards the front door, she heard Snape shouting 'Potter' but she had already slammed the door behind her. She saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley along with Tonks and Kingsley coming towards the house so she ran across the street and hid behind the trees and bushes.

"Potter's ran off," Snape said when he left the house and saw the group of four.

"What happened?" Mrs. Weasley asked panicked.

"Doesn't matter," Snape said.

"Let's split up and find her," Tonks said.

Mrs. Weasley stopped Mr. Weasley and said, "Arthur, you go inside-"

"Molly-"

"Arthur, you've just been cured," Mrs. Weasley argued.

"Let me help," Mr. Weasley said, "with five of us, we'll be able to find her faster". They then all split up without argument, searching in different directions trying to find their missing saviour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dahlia had left Grimmauld Place and walked in the opposite direction to what the others did. She quickly realised how cold it was and it didn't really surprise her considering it had been snowing. She eventually came to a park bench which had a tree behind it, its branches keeping the snow off of the bench. She sat down and brought her knees up to her chest, the cold wasn't bothering her too much but she still hoped for some warmth, not wanting to use her magic in case anyone saw.

A few moments passed before a cloak was placed around her and she swiftly turned to see her sister smiling. Hela took a seat as Dahlia relaxed and asked, "what're you doing here?"

Hela answered, "I was having tea with Mrs...Violet and Johnathan-"

Dahlia smiled and said, "she finally got you to call her by her name".

"Yep," Hela said popping the 'p', "but she also calls me Hela now so we both win. Anyway, we were having tea when we decided to check on you through a looking glass and we saw you walking in the snow, without a coat on and your head bleeding. What happened?"

Dahlia shrugged as she took a deep breath and answered, "tried to stop people from fighting, it worked, but I got this in the process".

Hela reached over and moved some of Dahlia's hair out of the drying wound as she said, "I wish I could heal you".

"But you're awful at healing magic, I know," Dahlia said and both girls laughed.

"Hey, so is papa! Not everyone can be like you and be good at healing magic".

"I know, we all are good at different areas...sister, I think we might have a problem".

"What?" Hela instantly become on alert and stiffened.

"I was talking to Snape and he said Dumbledore wants him to teach me Occulmency".

Hela immediately shook her head and said, "sister, take no offence. You are powerful, especially having both Midgardian witch magic and Aesir, but you can't. When I've been teaching you to block your mind, you've successfully been able to block everything about us, but a skilled Legilimens might be able to detect it and know you're hiding something and had training".

"What do I do? Dumbledore will insist I learn, it'll look suspicious if I don't".

"You can't," Hela insisted, "I won't have you exposed, especially with the Avengers at the school. You'll have to find a way out of it. Please".

"I will," Dahlia sighed, "I hope you know how much trouble this is going to get me in..." Hela nodded. "How's everyone back in Niflheim?"

"They're okay, they miss you. You know you can come back at any time".

Dahlia closed her eyes for a moment before she said, "I wish I could. For weeks, maybe ever since I left, I've wanted to go back home. I miss everyone, everything-"

"You called it home," Hela said smiling.

"Yeah," Dahlia said hesitantly, "someone once said that the home is where the heart lies, my heart lies with family. I feel safer when I'm there with you, grandma, grandpa, Falcon, I even miss Akio with his 5am wake up calls for training".

Hela reached for her hand and held it in both of her palms and said, "then come home".

"You know I can't. I can't just disappear months into the school year, especially since the Avengers are there. If a child goes missing, I don't think they'll just forget about it".

"And what will they do? Storm Niflheim and get you back? I doubt those Avengers have even travelled to another realm. Besides, they would have an army waiting for them if they succeeded and I would be by your side if they ever got past them".

Dahlia thought for a moment, looking down at their joint hands and mumbled, "...maybe-"

"What?"

"I still want to learn mum's magic, how to use my magical core, strengthen it, and I can't do that without having teachers who have studied it themselves but you have witches and wizards who can teach me that on Niflheim. What if I stay here until the end of the year and tell Dumbledore that I won't be coming back, I'll make it clear to everyone so that no one believes that I've simply been kidnapped. Also make it clear in front of the Avengers so they don't get suspicious. I can go to Niflheim, learn both kinds of magic and train. I can work with you on finding a way to destroy the Horcruxes and Voldemort".

"You're willing to leave everything? Your friends...I want you with me more than anything but I need you to be sure. I don't want you to leave and end up resenting me for what you left behind".

"I can find a way to talk to them or even visit every so often. They can keep a secret...what do you think?" Dahlia asked nervously.

Hela pretended to think for a moment before she smiled and said, "I think I'll be picking someone up from the station come the end of June. I guess I should start finding the perfect teachers".

"DAHLIA," someone shouted and Dahlia turned to see Tonks running towards her. "We've been searching everywhere for you".

Dahlia glanced to her sister nervously as she let go of her hand as Hela said, "don't worry, I put an illusion charm around us. She can't see me or even that cloak you're wearing".

Tonks was now in front of them and asked, "what happened to your head?"

Dahlia stood, letting the cloak fall off of her shoulders in the process and answered, "it's nothing".

"You've got to be freezing," Tonks said taking her coat off in the process and putting it around Dahlia's shoulders, "Come on, let's get back".

"Until the next time, sister," Dahlia heard in her head and glanced over her shoulder to find her sister gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Returning to Hogwarts was a surprise for everyone as Tony Stark had managed over the break to get technology working in the wizarding world. He had created a classroom full of laptops and was teaching them how to us them. He said, for those who understood, that he had paced a special metal fabric around the wiring surrounding the hard drive and circuitry system that seemed to be the thing which magic affected. Of course, batteries were brought into Hogwarts so the laptops could be charged and even though some students wouldn't agree to it, they really did like Muggle technology. When questioned, Tony said that he would try to sell then in the wizard world but there were laws that he would need to look into before he could begin to sell the products. After that, you found the Avengers on phones around the castle, Muggle-born students would Skype home, but of course, what pleased Dahlia was seeing how much it irritated Professor Umbridge. She couldn't come up with an educational decree as it was a part of lessons, all she could do was ban such products in other lessons.

The new year didn't start off the best, however, with ten Azkaban escapees, including Bellatrix Lestrange. It was reported in the Daily Prophet and it mentioned Neville's parents, throughout the day as more and more people heard about what happened, she noticed that Neville was being stared at and whispered about. So, she took him to the room of requirements at the end of the day and practised spells with him, knowing that the anger he felt for Bellatrix would be good if he concentrated that anger on spells. It would make him determined and give him confidence and she was right. He did do better. Since the breakout, the whole of the DA was doing better, more motivated with the news that ten Death Eaters were loose. Neville even managed to master a shielding charm quicker than expected, with only Hermione beating him.

Dahlia had followed her sister's warning and refused to study Occulmency, against Dumbledore's wishes, and missed her session with Snape. Following that, Snape gave her a detention and as Dumbledore persisted for her to learn, Snape gave her detention for every time she failed to turn up for her lesson. She constantly refused to learn and became accustomed to turning up for detention and began to wash cauldrons before Snape even told her what to do.

It was the last week in January when Dahlia and the rest of her year were in History of the Muggle World and Realms with Thor and Steve. Dahlia was tired and drained, her muscles hurting from training with Akio in the Room of Requirement that morning. Usually she would be fine with early morning training but with lessons the day before, a DA training session, which she was teaching them a new spell from her defence books Sirius and Remus got her for Christmas, and an Astronomy lesson that night, she only had a few hours' sleep before waking up before everyone in the castle to train. Thankfully, she only had afternoon lessons that Friday but it still took a toll on her. The last thing she wanted was to go into a lesson that Thor was teaching but she knew she had to.

Entering the lesson and taking her seat next to Hermione, Dahlia quickly realised that if she had missed any lesson in the world, it should be this one. After gathering her quill and school book out of her bag, Professor Rogers stood to the side of the room while Thor began to write on the board what today's topic was. She froze, she should have known it was coming. They had discussed three of the nine realms already, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, and Nidavellir, it was only a matter of time before Niflheim was taught. Niflheim: Realm of the Dead was written on the board.

Thor put the chalk down before clapping his hands together and turned to the class and said, "today's lesson is on Niflheim. Now, from your research into the nine realms, what is it you know? I will tell you, if it is truth or not".

More than half the class put their hands up but it happened to be Sue Li, a Ravenclaw, who was chosen first. She answered, "depending on which books, scrolls, or version of the legends you read, Niflheim is sometimes referred to as being called Niflhel, Hel, or Helheim".

"Correct," Thor said, "however, I can assure you all that the name of the Realm of the Dead is Niflheim. There can sometimes be different names for the realms outside of the nine realms but to those across the nine realms, it is Niflheim. Next," he pointed to Susan Bones.

Susan looked unsure about what she had to say for a moment but soon answered, "the ruler of Niflheim is the Goddess of Death, Hela, who also happens to be Loki's daughter".

At this, everyone looked to Thor. Some never doing research and now only just finding out about Hela, while others who had read it wanted confirmation that the man they heard so much about could possibly have a child. Thor took a moment before he sighed, knowing that confessing Hela was Loki's daughter meant also confessing she was his niece and he knew they'd have questions. "yes, it is true," he said.

"Is it true half of her is dead?" Fay asked without putting her hand up and everyone put theirs down as they wanted the answer.

All across the room, people had different views on this. Many of them looked to Thor with wide eyes, wanting to know the truth, while others made faces of disgust, and some even laughed.

Thor answered, "not in the way many of you believe. On Hela's right side, she has pale skin, black hair and green eyes like her father. On her left, however, her hair is white and her skin has a blue tint to it and its sunken into her bone, making it seem like she has very little skin on that side of her body".

"Ew".

"That's disgusting".

"Who would ever date her?"

"Freak".

All words were heard across the room and Dahlia held her quill tightly in one hand while the other gripped her chair. She didn't want to look down in fear that she would find it broken but it wouldn't surprise her if it, or her skin, broke at the force she was emitting. When Dahlia looked to the two Professors, it seemed Thor and Professor Rogers would do nothing and seemed to only look around the room. Professor Rogers eventually said, "alright, enough. You're here to learn, not to judge someone on their appearance".

Thor nodded and said, "the whole universe is different. Shapes, colours, sizes, not everyone is the same as you. Who's next?" hands went back up and Hermione was chosen.

Hermione answered, "Hela once resided on the realm of Asgard but she has powers that with her touch, it can kill people. The people became scared of her, she became a threat. A prophecy was told that her and her brothers, Fenrir and Jormungandr, along with their father, Loki, would create a war. Ragnarok. The battle between monsters and gods that would destroy the universe. After the prophecy was told, Fenrir was kept on Asgard under the watchful eyes of the gods while Hela was exiled to Niflheim and Jormungandr was sent here, to the sea".

"Correct," Thor said seriously as he leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. "you will learn of Ragnarok but for now, it is a prophecy not to be taken likely".

'No' Dahlia thought, 'why did you have to bring up the prophecy, Hermione? Why did it have to be taught? Hela and their brothers were just children, they didn't know what was happening. They went from being a happy family one day to a prophecy being told the next and people fearing them. They never used their gifts against anyone. Fenrir and Jormungandr never attacked anyone in their animal forms, except the Warriors Three and Thor when they would pretend fight. Hela never hurt anyone with her powers, she didn't want to. They became a threat the day the prophecy was told, all thanks to Odin's paranoia. It was the Asgardian's fault'. Dahlia wanted to glare at Thor, she wanted to hex and curse him, she wanted to make him suffer like her family had suffered but she couldn't.