"What was that about?" Hela asked, giving Harry a questioning look.
"Voldemort had been searching for my parents shortly after I was born," Harry began explaining. "he couldn't find them because they were hidden by advanced magic. However, they were betrayed by one of my father's best friends, Peter Pettigrew."
"Your father was friends with that disgusting little thing?" The disbelief was quite clearly heard in Hela's voice. Harry shrugged as if to say don't ask me, I don't understand either.
"Anyway, Peter eventually took Voldemort right to where my parents were hiding," Harry continued. "Voldemort went in and killed my parents before stumbling onto my mother's trap. Peter, the little coward that he was, ran away. Eventually, my godfather arrived on the scene, he made sure I was okay, and - in what was not one of his best moments - he gave me to a friend before running off to find Pettigrew. I believe he wanted to catch him then return to me, unfortunately, that friend of his was an innocent and rather naive man who was under the belief that Dumbledore could do no wrong and had everyone's best interests in mind. He took me to Dumbledore so the old codger could give me to my magic-hating relatives. As for Sirius, he cornered Peter but Peter was able to cause an explosion that killed lots of innocent bystanders, and he managed to frame my godfather for their murder and for his own crimes at the same time before he escaped by turning into a rat."
"Really? That mousy little… half-man was able to do that?" Hela blinked.
"Everyone underestimated the little mouse, bastard." Harry sighed. "He was even the one that helped Voldemort return after his apparent demise."
"So… did you feed him to the dogs or did you curse him until he broke?" Hela asked suddenly.
"A bit of both," Harry answered, a small smirk briefly appeared on his face. "I tortured him for a while but would stop every time he looked like he was close to breaking, then I healed him up before repeating for about a month or so. After that, I tortured him to the point where he was just coherent enough to realize he was about to die. I forced him into his rat form and tossed him to a dog."
"I underestimated you," Hela said, softly chuckling as she shook her head. "you are one crazy bastard." She added, sounding somewhat impressed. Harry looked at her for a moment, looking like he was about to argue before giving her a slight nod.
"Yeah," He agreed. "I guess so."
"I don't understand you," Hela frowned, staring intently at Harry. "you kill and torture but the second I try to do the same, you stop me."
"Huh," A humorless laugh escaped Harry's mouth before he could stop it. "and I still suffer for all of my choices."
"What do you mean?"
"When I killed Dumbledore, I had all of his loyal followers trying to go after me." He ran a hand across his face before he continued explaining. "It turned into a threeway war, my side vs the 'dark' and 'light' side. A few of them actually joined the dark side to take me out because I killed their 'beloved' and 'pure' Dumbledore. When I killed Voldemort I ended up destroying my entire world."
"How did that happen?" Hela blinked, looking quite confused.
"There were these weapons called nukes, they could all cause serious amounts of damage on their own, but when all of them all fired at the same time they destroyed my world. Could you imagine that? Imagine if finally getting your revenge on Odin could cost you Asgard?" Harry asked. Hela frowned.
"But Odin's death wouldn't have destroyed Asgard," She argued. "it would have left them without a ruler, there would have been a power vacuum that I could have easily filled."
"A vacuum that the Asgardians would know had only been created because you killed their king," Harry pointed out. "the king that was alive before the majority of them were born. The king that they had happily spent thousands of years serving and living under. They would have been terrified of you. But you are right, Asgard wouldn't have been destroyed, doesn't mean that it was the best thing to do though, does it?"
"So, is that you're only reason helping me?" Hela raised an eyebrow, somehow managing to adopt a haughty look despite her pale skin, bruises and cuts. "You don't want me to repeat the mistakes of your past?"
"Partly," Harry admitted.
"Oh? Let me guess, it's because you see yourself in me." Hela scoffed.
"Once again, partly."
"So you have a third reason for it, then?"
"So you have a third reason for it, then?"
"I'm a father now," Harry shrugged. "I love her enough that I am willing to become better than what I used to be. You see, I don't want you to repeat my mistakes, it's my position as a father and my own experiences that make what happened to you anger me so much. I would never allow my daughter to be treated how you've been treated, nobody should be allowed to be treated like you've been treated. And yes, I do see myself in you, so yes, I will do my best to help you." Harry sighed before pulling out a golden, two-fingered ring. "You want to do something stupid with me?" He asked suddenly.
"What?"
"You want to go back to Asgard for a bit?" Harry offered.
"What?!" Hela looked at him like he had just offered her Asgard itself.
"What I have in my hand is called a 'sling ring'," Harry began explaining. "it's a magical device that lets people travel, even through dimensions according to the nice bald lady that gave it to me," Harry added. "I haven't really used it yet, but… I believe that it can get us both back to Asgard, or at least I hope that it can."
"You… you'd take me back there?" Hela breathed, staring at Harry as if he was the most confusing thing he had ever seen. "But why? Aren't… aren't you afraid that I would cause more damage there?"
"Odin cut off your connection to Asgard, I don't think returning to Asgard would renew it," Harry replied. "you're not as strong as before so I'm sure that the Asgardian's could take you without my help, plus I doubt you'd be able to hoodwink them easily given that they've spent a lot of time becoming familiar with the god of mischief and lies. I'm offering you a small amount of time back in Asgard."
"And… and then what? You send me back here?" She questioned as she experienced a dozen emotions at the same time.
"If you want," Harry said in a voice that made it clear he knew that that was the last thing that she would ever want. "but what I'd like to do is offer to take you to Earth, or 'Midgard' as you Asgardians would know it."
"Midgard? Why?"
"Because I'm honestly not sure the Asgardians would want you around for long given that you tried to kill their king," Harry said apologetically. "besides, I'm not bringing you back to this place. I've only been here for a little bit and already want to murder somebody. If you come to Midgard I can get you a nice home where you can hopefully live in peace, and if you decide that you miss your fighting days then I've got a nice team of people that could end up making use of someone with your skill. So… what do you say?" Harry asked, putting the sling ring on.
A long silence fell between them, a silence that only refused to live up to the name due to the howling winds all around them. Hela stared at Harry, looking into his emerald green eyes with a frightening intensity. Harry met her gaze, refusing to look away.
"If this is some sort of trick, then I vow that I will do everything in my power to hurt you in ways that you can't imagine," Hela warned him, however, she did nod to show that she agreed to go with him.
"I've lost count of how many times I've heard that threat." Harry snorted before he used to ring to open a portal to Asgard.