Gods atop a mountain

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, his world or anything in it. That'll do, won't it?

Just want to tell you, that I kind of strayed from the myths in places and picked one version for my use. So don't go flaming me because the story doesn't follow the Greek myths exactly; I pretty much only used the names of the gods and their animals etc. And if the story about one of the gods is different to the ones you've heard, I'm sticking with my version and no flames about that either.

~*Chapter 1 - The Messenger God*~

Lightning flashed and lit up the smallest bedroom at number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. The boy in the room stirred. When thunder shook the room seconds later, the boy awoke, rubbed his eyes and placed his glasses on his nose. He heard a slight squeal from the room next door, his cousin Dudley was afraid of the thunder. Harry had to stifle a giggle. Sound traveled very well through the walls and doors here at the Dursleys'. He'd never been afraid of lightning himself. It was oddly calming and soothing. Some of the best things that had happened to him happened while claps of thunder were echoing in the background. After fixing his bed sheets and placing his glasses back on his nightstand, he went back to sleep.

A few moments later, lightning flashed again and thunder soon followed, indicating that the storm was coming closer. The sound was louder and the squeals from the room next door also increased in volume. Harry ignored all of this and tried to go back to sleep. As soon as he'd drifted off to sleep, the lightning, followed horribly quickly by the thunder, struck. Again, Harry attempted to sleep through the thunderstorm. But once again, just as he'd gotten to sleep the lightning and thunder came, followed closely by high pitched squeal. This time Harry gave up. The storm was too close and he was beginning to fear that the Dursley home would be hit.

Harry stood, grabbed his glasses and walked over to the window to see if any damage had been done by the storm. He stared out over the perfect, rain-soaked yard and into the back neighbour's swimming pool. He then remembered the dream he had been having when he was first woken by the storm.

"We can save the boy, Hera. We can save our son. But we must hurry, and we must go."

A woman knelt on the floor over a pile of cloth. She was beautiful and was crying. "Why can't we take him with us?"

"He is destined to save the world. He cannot do that from where we must go. Leave him. He will live."

The woman wept and a tall, strong shadow, that of a man, hugged her and drew her away from the bundle. "Goodbye, Harry."

Harry had often had dreams like this before. He'd always imagined what it was like when his father and mother had died. But this dream was different. These people weren't Lily and James Potter. And this dream hadn't seemed like the others. The others were clear, he knew exactly what was happening. Who was this Hera person? Who was the man? This dream was blurry, and yet, seemed to tell Harry something. It conveyed a stronger message than the dreams before him had. This dream, although being nothing like real life could possibly be, seemed more real than the others. The others had just been fantasies. They were things Harry had made up. A mixture of what he remembered whenever he was near a dementor, pictures he'd seen of his parents and things he'd invented. He had no idea what the house in Godric's Hollow really looked like. This dream was strange.

Harry sighed and looked out into the swimming pool again. Hedwig had been gone for three days. Today was Harry's birthday and he supposed that she was busy getting a birthday message from Hermione. Every so often, lightning flashed and lit up the pool. In it, Harry could see one of those mechanical pool cleaners. It was slowly trudging along the bottom of the pool; sucking up leaves that had managed to sink to the bottom of the pool. It didn't appear methodical, but while Harry watched it, it managed to move halfway across the pool. Harry stared as it attempted to climb the side of the pool. It reminded Harry of a beetle trying to get out of a jar. He smiled to himself as he thought about the last beetle he'd seen in a jar. Rita Skeeter. That annoying reporter. She'd gotten her comeuppance.

The mechanical pool cleaner slid back down to the bottom of the pool; its journey cut short by its inability to climb out of the water. Lightning. Harry saw it a split second before he heard it. He watched as it almost comically slid out of the sky to hit one of the perfect trees in the Dursleys' yard. This time Dudley's scream was accompanied by a yell from aunt Petunia and a growl from uncle Vernon. He'd probably think it was Harry's fault in the morning when he'd gotten a chance to survey it. Harry sighed. That'd be the rest of the summer with no food.

Harry left his place by the window and slipped back into his now cold bed. He only had a thin sheet. The people, if you could call them that, Harry lived with spent little money on him. He was to them, an unwanted pimple. Something horrible that you try to hide and put up with until the day when it goes away. And occasionally, it gets itchy so they feel the need to scratch it. Harry sighed as he placed his glasses back on his nightstand for the third time that night.

Lightning flashed again, but this time there was an unexpected silence. If it hadn't been for the disappearance of the light, Harry wouldn't have thought that any time had passed. He'd had that feeling before, but that was only during charms when Flitwick had cast a silencing charm on the room. He wondered what was going on. Suddenly, another flash of light came. There was still no noise. Harry looked at the alarm clock sitting next to his glasses. The second hand was still moving but the clock made no noise. Harry began to feel afraid. What if it was Voldemort doing this?

Don't be afraid, Harry.

Harry was immediately very, very afraid. Someone, or something, had just told him not to be afraid. That wasn't a good sign for him.

"Who are you?"

Don't be afraid, Harry

Harry began contemplating whether he would be exempt from the no magic for underage wizards rule if he did something right now. He sighed, it didn't matter anyway. He didn't know anything that would get him out of this mess right now. If only he had a sleeping potion. He could go to sleep and pretend that this night never happened. Then his thoughts turned to the tree in the Dursleys' backyard. At least he could try to forget.

Come with me, Harry

Harry remembered something Ron had told him 'never trust anything if you can't see where it keeps its brain'. This was going to be one of those times.

"How do I know I can trust you?" he'd momentarily forgotten about the thin walls of the Dursley house. Then he remembered. Then that memory was followed by that of the feeling of timelessness.

This is going to be harder than I thought.

Suddenly, the room went completely dark and then semi-dark again. There, standing in the middle of the room was a person. A person who seemed to glow like the moon. Or was this a person. He was smallish. He looked about Harry's age and yet, seemed as though he was years older. He had long blonde hair and if it weren't for the glow, Harry would have thought he was a she. He was slim and slight. He was wearing what looked like a toga and a pair of sandals with silver wings on them. His helmet-like hat also had a pair of wings and what looked vaguely like a wand in his hand. Harry deduced that this man must be a wizard because he carried a wand.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"Hermes," he said. This meeting reminded Harry of the first time he met Hagrid. The name Hermes sounded familiar. It reminded him of the woman named Hera in his dream.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked. Now that he could see the person, he wasn't so sure he wanted to. At least now he knew where his brain was.

"I am here because Zeus sent for you. Because I'm the messenger god, that means that I am the one who's entrusted with this."

So he was a god, not a wizard. None of this seemed to make sense to Harry. He vaguely remembered the name Zeus from somewhere, but still couldn't quite place it.

"Who's Zeus?"

"Who is Zeus?" Hermes asked him, incredulously. "only the King of Heaven, Ruler of the Gods, husband to Hera," Harry stared. "The most powerful man in the universe. God of thunder and lightning. Is none of this getting through to you?" The small god looked at Harry as though he was an idiot.

Now Harry knew where he'd heard all of these names before. 'Hercules' was one of Dudley's favourite shows. Then he remembered, vaguely a lesson about the Greek gods and myths before Hogwarts. The gods were real?

"What does he want with me?" Harry asked.

"He," Hermes said, looking scrutinizingly at Harry. "wants to see his youngest son."

"So, what does he want with me?" Harry asked. Hermes just stared at him, then walked forward and lifted the hair off Harry's forehead to inspect his scar. He nodded to himself then said

"You don't know. You never suspected why you had more magical power than anyone else around you. You didn't know why Lord Voldemort" He said the name mockingly. "wanted to kill you. Why you didn't die when you were one?"

"I've always wondered, but I never thought, that." Harry said, staring at the little god in front of him.

"This is going to take some time," Hermes said, flying up and standing on Harry's bed.

"Would you like to sit down?" Harry invited, looking up.

"Sorry," Hermes said, sitting on the bed, realising how uncomfortable Harry would have been staring up at him like that. Not that he wouldn't like it. He rarely got the respect he deserved around the other gods. It was nice to feel someone looking up at you. The fact that Hermes was small by god standards also added to it.

"What's going to take some time?" Harry asked.

"The story that I'm going to have to tell you before we go and visit your father." Hermes saw that Harry was about to ask a question. "No questions now, you can ask questions after I've told you the story. I might answer your question in the story. (a/n: do/did your school teachers ever do that to you?).

"Around thirty-five of your years ago, Zeus and Hera had an argument. They often have these, they're forever arguing and then Zeus goes off and has a child with some mortal woman. He likes to create demigods. So, Aphrodite, she's the goddess of love, suggested that they be reborn so that they would rediscover their love. So they gave themselves human bodies and minds. Aphrodite suggested that they didn't remember what they were doing on Earth until after they fell in love again.

"Apollo wasn't much for this idea because he thought someone like Hades might try to take over the world again. He wasn't sure they'd ever fall in love again. I wasn't to sure either, but Aphrodite sure was and she convinced us all. I'm not sure how she did it, though. Actually, I think I remember there was some blackmailing involved. Anyway, Hades didn't try anything; it was too short an amount of time for him to organise anything. All the while they were down there, didn't seem like long to us, Aphrodite was watching them.

"After a time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the two, who were called Lily Evans and James Potter (one of the muses came up with those), fell in love. Then they remembered where they were, but not until after they'd conceived you. So they thought they'd stay on Earth for a little while longer. Then that good-for-nothing Lord Voldemort came along threatening to kill them. He'd found out that they were gods and he wanted their power. So he went to kill them.

"They left their mortal bodies, and you, to fight for themselves. They knew the bodies would die, but the fates predicted that you would not. So they left you behind because it is said that you've got to be the one to save Earth from Lord Voldemort."

Harry breathed. His parents weren't dead after all. He still had a lot of questions, though. "So why didn't they tell me until now?"

"You're going to have to ask Zeus that one yourself," Hermes said, standing up again. "Are you coming?"

"How long is this going to take?" Harry asked.

"You're with the gods now, Harry," Hermes said. "Anything can be fixed before you get back."

Harry nodded.

"Now," Hermes said, looking at Harry's feet. "These should fit," he said, pulling a pair of winged shoes out of nowhere and handing them to Harry. "They're top of the line. Faster than any of the broomsticks they've got out here nowadays. All set?" he asked as he noticed Harry was standing up again. Harry nodded.

"Take my hand," Hermes held onto Harry's hand. A light appeared in the centre of the room like a beacon. Hermes jumped into the light, dragging Harry with him.

Harry blinked because the light was so bright. When he reopened his eyes he was amazed at what he saw. It was clearly midday because of the positioning of the sun. Below him was the most beautiful land he had ever seen. Dense forests stood beside ploughed fields. Birds flew and the sky was perfect. He was flying across a picturesque landscape. He was thinking that if this was a dream, this was incredibly cliched. Why was it that this land was perfect? Animals were walking together. All animals of every species congregated.

Harry noticed one small deer look up. It seemed to stare at him as though it knew exactly who he was and why he was here. It had the knowledge stored deep within its heart. But the deer couldn't have been more than a very young fawn. Something within Harry stirred. This place was like a home he'd never known. It was like returning home, but he was sure he'd never been here before in his life, even when he was living with his parents.

Eventually, they came to the civilised area of this world. Below Harry and Hermes were paved grounds and terracotta roofs. But what surprised Harry most about this place was that there was no sound. Since he'd met Hermes, it was almost like the only thing he could hear was his own voice, and Hermes. People on the earth went about their daily routines. They looked happy enough. Children sat together in story-telling circles. Or played together in nearby paddocks. Their parents were farmers.

Hermes led Harry past the town and further until Harry saw a mountain. It was taller than any mountain he'd ever seen before. He wondered if he'd be able to breathe up there. Then he remembered, he was a god now. Then Harry remembered what came with being a god, besides the responsibilities, immortality.

Hermes flew up the mountain. The entire journey, he had not said anything. Harry wondered how long it would take to get up the mountain. It did seem to be a long way up. But the speed at which they were flying was so fast that Harry thought the distance he had traveled in the last ten minutes was farther than the entire length of the Eurasian continent. This mountain, surely couldn't be that tall.

Eventually, the two travelers reached the top of the mountain. There, was a golden gate. It seemed to have no purpose as it opened as soon as Harry and Hermes flew past. Inside was what Harry had imagined the home of the gods would look like. There was ground, but misty fog covered it from view. But it wasn't cold like the inside of a cloud, it was warm. And it wasn't wet, it was dry. And there was light everywhere. Now, Harry's eyes didn't hurt when he looked at all the light around him.

"Come on, Harry," Hermes said, walking and floating toward the largest castle. It didn't take them long to get there, either.

Harry followed with his eyes wide open. He'd never been so curious about a place since he first learned about the wizarding world. The castle was elegant. It was the sort of castle little girls got to play with. The walls were pure white and there were turrets everywhere. With little baby blue and gold flags fluttering in the breeze. It was well designed. And Harry could tell immediately that it was designed for someone at least as big as Hagrid.

No one stopped them as they walked in through the main door. Harry hadn't seen a single person since they'd flown in through the golden gates. Hermes led him through several doors and down hallways. They flew up and down the staircases, because the stairs were so large the two small gods couldn't climb up the stairs. Hermes stopped in front of a pink door. Harry would have stopped in front of this door as well, because it was pink and every other room had a golden door.

Then the door opened. Inside, were two beings as big as Hagrid. One was a man with a flowing white beard to rival Dumbledore's and a crown decorated with lightning bolts identical to the one on Harry's forehead. The woman beside him was the same woman he had seen in his dream the night before. She was tall with blonde hair that came all the way down to her knees. She was beautifully slender with bright blue eyes. The two were deep in conversation, but when the door opened both turned around and stared at Harry.

Then, both of them rushed toward him and grabbed him in impossibly tight hugs.

"Harry," the man said. His voice was deep and booming, like thunder. It scared Harry a little, even though he knew that this must be his father. This would explain why thunder and lightning had an oddly calming effect on him. He took Harry out of the woman's grasp and held him up above his head. "You look wonderful." Harry's glasses slipped off his nose and onto the ground. Although he was so high up from the ground, he wasn't afraid. Being held by this man he hadn't known in fourteen years was oddly comforting.

The woman knelt and picked up Harry's glasses. She then took Harry from Zeus' grasp and rocked him like he was a baby. Harry had to resist the urges to fall asleep. He'd only had half a night's rest and his mother had begun to sing to him. "Harry darling," she whispered to him, placing the glasses gently on his nose.

The man looked at his wife and son and smiled. "Let's have a party," he said. "Hermes, you know what to do. I want all the gods here, not just the Olympians. Do not leave out anyone. When I say everyone, I mean everyone. Not just the people I usually invite. I want everyone here." Hermes smiled at Zeus and left the room with the bright pink doors shutting right behind him.

Harry fell asleep. He couldn't resist the call. He gently slept, not knowing what was around him. He was home.

~*~

Okay, that's the first chapter. I was thinking of making it longer, but decided that that was the best place to put it. Tell me if you liked it, but no flames about what I mentioned before.

REVIEW!!!