Hello again! Second Chapter. Woo-hoo
Thank you SoulfulKarma668, CAD270895, and 3 Guests for your reviews. I very much appreciate them.
CAD270895: Glad to know you like it. As for wanting more, well, here it is.
Well, ChronosMoon, simple words: DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ!
Guest 1: I'm not thinking about pairings right now in this story. In the sequel (yes there will be one for PoA and Sea of Monsters; although PoA will have some changes) maybe.
Guest 2: I don't know about gods... But at least a monster will react that way. As for gods, I don't really know when to do it. When Percy goes to Olympus in TLT, there are only Zeus and Poseidon in the Throne Room. In this story Harry will go with Percy to the throne room. Any suggestions are welcome, though.
Guest 3: I'm really glad. You know, first fanfic, I need encouragement, and positive reviews give me just that!
Onward to the story!
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, Sirius wouldn't have died. If I owned Percy Jackson, Luke would have never died but redeemed himself before his possession by Kronos in Battle of the Labyrinth.
-Line Break-
"Cabin Eleven, fall in!" Luke shouted to the entire cabin in response to the conch horn that had sounded seconds ago.
Everyone followed Luke out of the cabin and up to the pavilion along with the other cabins, a dozen Satyrs, and Wood Nymphs that seemed to melt out of several of the trees. For the first time Harry saw all of the campers, there were maybe a hundred of them.
The pavilion glowed in the sunset, each pillar held burning torches, in the center was a roaring fire in a brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had their own table, covered in a white cloth, four of the tables were empty and cabin elevens table was overcrowded.
Chiron was there too, he stomped one of his hoof loudly to get everyone's attention. He raised his glass. "To the gods!"
Everyone else raised their glasses and repeated after him, Harry and Percy were the only ones who didn't.
Wood Nymphs came into view holding trays of food, fruit, cheese, fish and an assortment of barbeque.
Luke got Harry and Percy's attention. "Speak to your glass, whatever you want - non alcoholic though."
Percy went first he picked up his glass and cautiously said "Cherry coke." The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. Then he had a thought and said, "Blue Cherry Coke." the drink turned blue and Percy smiled.
Harry took his glass and said, "Butterbeer," the glass filled with a brown misty liquid.
"Beer? How did you get that?" Luke asked in disbelief making the entire table look Harry's way.
"Butterbeer, it doesn't have any alcohol," Harry defended himself as he took a drink.
Luke looked at the drink curiously and picked up his own glass, "Butterbeer." he tried a sip and then gulped down half the glass in a few seconds. "That's delicious, tastes like Butterscotch."
Most of the table ordered their own glass of Butterbeer and started talking about it, soon the other tables got in on the action (Except the Ares table for some reason).
Before anybody started eating, everyone stood up with their plates and made their way to the center fire, Luke gestured for Percy and Harry to follow him. One by one the campers started taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire.
"Offerings to the gods, they like the smell," Luke said as he dropped a cluster of fat grapes into the fire and muttered, "Hermes."
Percy stepped forward and thought for a moment, then scraped a big slice of brisket into the fire. Harry stepped forward and picked up an apple that was on his plate.
'Here you go… whoever you are,' Harry thought as he dropped the apple into the fire which quickly burnt up. When they returned to their tables and finished eating Chiron stomped his hoof again to get everyone's attention.
A man sitting at table twelve stood up with a loud sigh. He was a big man with a trimmed beard, black hair and wearing a leopard pattern shirt. His nose was a little red.
"That's Mr. D, he runs the camp with Chiron," Luke whispered to Harry.
"Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five currently holds the laurels." the man said in a bored tone.
Clarisse and her friends cheered from the Ares table.
"Personally," Mr. D continued. "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have two new campers today. Peter Johnson and Harvey Potts."
Chiron murmured something to him.
"Er, Percy Jackson and Harry Potter," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Huzzah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."
Everybody cheered the campers made their way to the amphitheatre where the kids from the Apollo cabin led a sing along. Everyone but Percy and Harry sung since they didn't know the words to any of the songs, so they sat there toasting marshmallows.
Later in the evening when the campfire was going out, a horn sounded again indicating bedtime, the campers filed into their cabins and got into bed, (and sleeping bags for the Hermes cabin).
Harry was not able to sleep. He had spent the last hour awake. He sighed and got up, grabbed his sleeping bag, tiptoed round the other cabin members and got out of cabin. Once out he wondered where he should go. In the end he decided on sleeping just next to the woods. So he made his way to the edge of the woods and placed his sleeping bag on the ground. He got into it and looked up at the stars. He was more comfortable here. He fell asleep sometime later.
-Line Break-
The next few days Harry settled into a routine. During the mornings he learned Ancient Greek with Percy from Annabeth. As it turns out all demigods have a natural talent in reading Ancient Greek. The rest of the day they'd rotate through outdoor activities. Harry wasn't good at horseback riding, wrestling, metalwork, gardening, in fact he sucked at almost everything. He was decent at canoeing but that was mainly thanks to Percy's help. Harry surprised everyone when he beat the Wood Nymph instructors at foot racing, which made them pout at him all day.
Then he found something he enjoyed, Archery. Chiron walked him through all the steps, he grabbed an arrow from the quiver strapped to his waist. He held the wooden bow and, like he'd done it a hundred times, drew the arrow back. He took aim at the target and let the arrow loose, the arrow pierced the very center of the target. Harry's eyes were wide in shock, he hadn't actually expected to hit the target, let alone the center.
The Apollo kids looked at Harry with slight smiles on their faces, their dad was the god of Archery so they all had natural skill with a bow.
"Harry, try that again," Chiron said in an impressed tone.
Harry retrieved another arrow and drew it back. Everyone was watching, especially the Apollo kids. Harry fired the arrow aiming for the center again. The first arrow split into four quarters as the second arrow struck it and hit the target in the exact same spot. The Apollo kids were cheering and patting Harry on the back. Several of them were asking Chiron if he could move into their cabin. The rest of them had run off to the Stoll brothers to put a bet down on Apollo.
"His father has not claimed him," Chiron said with a shake of his head.
Meanwhile Harry was staring at the target he'd hit, wondering if Apollo was really his father.
On Thursday Luke taught Percy and Harry how to use a sword. After they learned the basics the two learners spent most of the day sparring. Then the next day Harry tried the climbing wall for the first time, the lava running down the wall unnerved him a little.
Then on Friday afternoon, Luke taught Harry and Percy sword-fighting. Well, tried to teach at least, since none of the swords seemed to be balanced in Harry's hand. By the looks of it, same was the case with Percy. But then Percy managed to somehow disarm Luke, which left the entire arena stunned and speechless. They tried again, but Percy wasn't so lucky this time.
Harry liked archery better.
Then finally arrived the night that most of the camp had been waiting for the whole week. Friday night, the night for Capture the Flag.
"Athena and Ares always leads the teams?" Harry asked Luke.
"Not always, but often." He answered.
For this match Hermes had made an alliance with Athena and Apollo. They were going against Ares, Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus.
Fair enough, Harry thought, since Hermes and Apollo were two of the largest cabins.
"HEROES!" Chiron announced, "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary the entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed but not bound or gagged. No killing, or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" he spread his arms and the tables were suddenly covered in with equipment: helmets, swords, spears, shields.
"Whoa, we're really supposed to use these?" Percy asked. Luke looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Unless you want to be skewered by your friends in cabin five, yeah, I'd recommend it."
Harry felt like he was suiting up for a quidditch game, instead of the heavy bronze armor everyone were strapping to themselves, Harry found a few pieces of leather armor that looked like the things he wore for his matches to protect him from bludgers but allow him to move freely. He quickly strapped the armor on, covering his forearms, shoulders, chest, back and legs. When it came to weapons he immediately grabbed a bow and a quiver filled with arrows.
"Hmm, maybe I should put a bet down on Apollo," Luke mused out loud. "If you're not wearing a helmet you'll need to wear this," Luke passed him a stretchy blue sweatband.
Harry looked around and noticed that all of the helmets had either a blue or red plume to indicate which team you were on.
"Blue team forward!" Annabeth called out, the team cheered and followed her down the path to the south woods. Harry quickly wrapped the band on his left arm, strapped the quiver to his back and followed them. The red team shouted taunts at them as they made their own way into the north woods. As they set up the banner and started assigning campers to tasks, a thought came to Harry, Chiron had said 'All magical items were permitted'. A smirk came to Harry's face.
"What?" Luke asked, seeing Harry's face.
Harry didn't answer, he dug into his pocket and retrieved his trunk, after tapping it with his wand it grew to full size, opening it he rummaged around for a minute before he found what he was looking for. His broom and his cloak.
"What're those?" Luke asked.
Harry mounted his broom and kicked off the ground making his team gasp.
"A magic wand, now a flying broomstick, Harry you are such a stereotype. What's next, a cauldron?" Connor Stoll asked with a grin.
Harry threw his cloak over himself leaving only his head uncovered.
"Oh, this is so cool!" Travis exclaimed.
"Need a scout?" Harry asked.
Luke gave instructions for Harry to fly over the enemy territory, find the flag and report back. Harry covered his head and flew north, as he did he could have sworn he heard Annabeth say, "I was turning invisible before it was cool!"
Harry flew overhead and found he could see everything, he quickly found the flag guarded by a burly Hephaestus kid and one of Clarisse's sisters. After memorizing where it was he flew back to the south, he spotted Luke and a few others approaching the boundary between the north and south woods.
"Luke," Harry called and threw the cloak off his head. "The flag is straight ahead maybe 500 meters."
"What's the layout of the red team?"
"The flag is guarded by one of the Hephaestus kids and an Ares kid, most of the team is waiting for you dead ahead, to the east are another small group, Clarisse is with them heading for the creek, the west is guarded by Aphrodite girls but they seem to be distracted, looking at their reflections in a pond and trying to sort their hair."
Luke seemed to be thinking for a moment.
"Harry, how fast are you on that thing?" Luke asked. Harry smirked.
"Very," Harry said with confidence, if there was one thing he was proud and certain of, it was his skill on a broom.
"Ok, we're going to cause a distraction with the bulk of the red team, can you get behind their territory and grab the flag?" Luke asked.
Harry agreed with the plan, he gave his cloak to Luke to hang onto since he wouldn't be able to hang onto it and grab the flag at the same time.
Harry flew high overhead and back to the flag, he lowered out of sight and waited for the signal.
A few minutes later a loud commotion came from the wood to the south, metal clashing against metal and shouting.
"Now!" Harry muttered. He leaned forward and burst out of the foliage, before the two guards knew what was happening Harry grasped the banner, tugged it out of the ground and flew south quickly gliding over the treetops. The guards cursing at him the whole time. Harry pulled a whistle out of his armor and blew on it loudly, it was a signal to Luke to pull back.
Below him the Blue team broke off the battle and ran back to the south woods. The red team started cheering thinking that they'd drove the enemy back, they didn't even realize they'd lost their flag.
Harry looked up ahead and frowned, he saw Clarisse at the creek fighting Percy and winning, her friend surrounded him, for a moment Harry wondered why the hell he was alone there.
"Luke!" Harry called from above, Luke looked up just as Harry let go of the banner, Luke caught it and without a question continued to ran towards their own flag. He knew Harry mast have had a reason not to carry it all the way. Harry flew full speed towards the fight just as Clarisse knocked Percy back into the creek. Harry landed and quickly placed his broom against a tree before rushing forward with his bow in hand.
Harry draw back an arrow and without hesitation let it fly, the tips of the arrows were blunt so he knew they wouldn't kill, the arrow struck the hilt of the sword one of the Ares kids were holding, he yelped and dropped the blade into the creek just as Percy burst up from the water and slammed the blunt of his sword into another campers helmet to hard it flew off. Harry fired another arrow, it hit ugly number two's knee and made him fall to the ground in pain, Percy knocked another one away with his shield and sheared off his red plume with his sword. Finally Clarisse charged at Percy with her spear, Percy caught the tip of the spear between the top of his shield and the flat of his sword and snapped the spear like a twig.
"You idiot!" she screamed in anger. "You corpse-breath worm!"
Having enough of her insults and attitude Harry readied another arrow and let it fly, it struck Clarisse's breastplate so hard that the wood shattered, she fell back into the water coughing.
Suddenly there was cheering all around them, Luke ran into view holding the red banner and heading towards the boundary line. A couple of his brothers and half a dozen Apollo kids were covering his retreat.
"A trick, it was a trick!" Clarisse shouted as she and her cabin mates stumbled to her feet and staggered after Luke. It was too late, everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. The blue team exploded into cheers as the red banner shimmered and changed to a silver one with a painting of the winged staff with two snakes, the Hermes symbol.
Everybody picked up Luke onto their shoulders and carried him around.
Chiron appeared out of the woods and blew his horn, the game was over, the blue team had won.
"Nat bad, heroes," a voice came from next to Harry and Percy, "How did you both learn to fight like that?" the air shimmered and Annabeth appeared taking off a baseball cap that had obviously made her invisible.
"You set me up!" Percy accused. "You put me here so Clarisse would come after me while you sent Luke around to flank."
Annabeth shrugged. "That was the plan, I was going to have Harry with you but he turned out to be a pretty good scout instead, I was about to help you but then Harry swooped in to help."
Suddenly the celebrating stopped when a loud howl echoed through the woods followed by a loud growling.
"Stand ready! My bow!" Chiron shouted.
There, on the rocks above them stood a black hound the size of a rhino, it red eyes glaring at them and dagger sized fangs bared. It wasn't nearly as big as fluffy but it unnerved Harry nonetheless. It leapt at them. Quicker than anybody could see, Harry readied an arrow, aimed at the airborne hound and fired, the arrow struck the hound under it's chin but bounced away harmlessly, Harry had forgotten the arrows were blunt. The hound slammed into both Harry and Percy knocking them to the ground and slashing Percy's armor with it's claws. Before it could attack again a few dozen arrows suddenly sprouted from it's neck and it dropped dead at their feet, luckily those arrows weren't blunt.
Chiron trotted forward, a bow in hand, his face grim.
"That was a Hellhound! From the fields of punishment," Annabeth said in shock. "They don't… they're not supposed to…"
"Someone summoned it," Chiron interrupted. "Someone in the camp."
"It was Harry!" Clarisse shouted. "He knows magic, he must have summoned it!"
Several of the campers looked at Harry suspiciously.
Suddenly the campers attention was on something else, something floating over Percy's head.
"Um, Percy," Harry said pointing at it. Percy looked up at a green holographic trident floating above his head.
"Your father… this is really not good," Annabeth murmured.
"It is determined," Chiron announced stepping forward. All around them campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin reluctantly.
"My father?" Percy asked, completely bewildered.
"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god."
Just as everybody were getting to their feet trying to process what they'd just learned. A blinding white light flashed behind Harry, he spun around with bow in hand ready to shoot. He quickly realized that the light wasn't coming from behind him, it was coming from above him.
There was a collective gasp and everyone took a step back, even Chiron. Above Harry's head was a pure white bow in the shape of a crescent moon.
"Hail Hadrian Potter, son of Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, Forests and Hills, the Moon, Archery", Chiron spoke as if he could not believe he was saying those words.
-Line Break-
Harry moved out of the Cabin 11 that night feeling tired and miserable. His claiming had shocked everyone into silence.
When he looked at Annabeth after the claiming, she had a face that if there were different circumstances, he would have been laughing so hard that he would have been rolling on the ground.
He opened the door to Cabin 8 and stared in amazement at the sight in front of him forgetting his previous misery temporarily. It was not a cabin at all. The moment he closed the door, he felt as if he was in the middle of a forest. The woods seemed to stretch for miles in all directions.
The space above him was empty and seemed to extend into the sky though he knew that it was the same enchantment that was on the ceiling of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. It seemed that his mother was more claustrophobic than him.
Either the door was a portal to the middle of a forest, a stable one or his mother created a forest in a magically expanded cabin. He didn't know which one would be more impressive.
He took a deep breath filling himself with the sweet scent of the woods and let it calm him.
He could see a silver coloured tent with his name on it set up in a meadow near a steadily flowing stream. He opened the tent to see a sleeping bag and a silver-coloured backpack with a silver Swiss army knife and a silver watch and a long scroll beside it. In the corner, his trunk was lying.
He went over and picked up the scroll and began reading it. It was written in Ancient Greek.
Dear Harry,
The army knife beside this is a weapon made by me. Since your heritage is now revealed, your holly wand will not work for you anymore. Therefore this army knife consists of a wand in it too. It has four items actually: a sword, a bow and a wand. This wand is made of Moonlight Silver, the metal me and my Hunters use in our arrows and daggers (silver mined from the moon, blessed by me, very similar to Celestial Bronze), with a core of the tail hair of one of my own sacred unicorns. No one else will be able to use the except you. The army knife will always return to your pocket.
The sword and spear are made from the same metal. You will find them perfectly balanced for you. The bow it will turn to is very similar to mine. A quiver with unlimited Moonlight Silver arrows will appear automatically appear on your back. The weapon will know when you want to turn it back. (This weapon doesn't have a name yet. You can name it if you want to.)
The silver watch is basically a normal watch, but on twisting its dial anti-clockwise it turns into a shield. Same thing for turning back as the items in the knife. I just thought it will come in handy with the sword and spear.
Now, for the backpack, it consists of some clothes I have given you, don't worry, I'm sure you'll like them. They are enchanted to resize and fit you as you put them on. You will also find a laptop inside it. See, both Hecate and Hephaestus owed me a favor. I had Hephaestus make it with divine mechanism, so it won't attract any monsters. I asked Hecate to make it run on pure magic, so it won't need charging and won't go haywire at Hogwarts. It will shrink from pressing a button on the top right corner of the keyboard, if you need to carry it portably. Oh and the pack recognizes only your magical signature, so to open it, tap your wand on the crescent moon charm located at where the two locks meet. The pack is also magically expanded.
I hope it's not too much, but what can I say? You're my first and only child.
I had these forged and made long ago, I was waiting for you to get to camp.
I'm sure you're wondering how you were born, since I am a maiden goddess. First, let me make this clear, I DID NOT BREAK MY VOW. Okay, now that that's clear, here is what happened.
You see, your mother, Lily Potter, was hit by a infertility curse during a Death Eaters' (Voldemort's followers) attack, thus rendering her unable to bear children. She was desperately finding a chance to be a mother. Then, finally, she found a ritual, through which they could call upon any god or goddess who was listening to the prayer to grant them a child. She told James about it. He agreed to do it. So they did the ritual, I was listening, and maybe I was in a good mood, but anyways, I gave Lily one of my eggs. James knew about it. And, well, then you were born.
Hope you don't hate me.
Love,
Your Mother,
Artemis.
P.S. The backpack also contains your Gringotts card. It's like an ATM card. I had the goblins make it. Yes, they know about our existence. It will work in all ATMs and will take the money out from your trust vault. Spend the money wisely.
P.P.S. Oh, by the way, your full name is Hadrian. Harry was just a short form invented by James.
Harry picked up the army knife and admired it. It was silver and had an engraving of a deer on the upward face.
On the face of the deer engraving, there were two smaller engravings of a spear and sword on the left and right respectively.
Harry looked at the edges. Each edge (left and right) had two items that could be flipped. He turned the face upside-down.
The downward face was pretty much the same except for the engravings: instead of a deer there was a crescent moon, and instead of the spear and sword there was a bow and wand respectively.
Harry decided to look at the wand first. So he flipped out the wand. It was glowing silver, and had a perfectly sized holding place for his hand. It was eleven inches, including the holding place, a little shorter than he was used to, but he felt safe with this wand in his hand.
Next, he decided to admire the sword. The wand seemed to know what he was thinking, because he was suddenly holding the army knife again. He flipped the sword out. What he found was so awesome for him that he couldn't help but look at it in awe. ( hehe ;P )
The blade was about two feet long, glowing silver, perfectly balanced and rightly sized. On the hilt was a crescent moon also glowing silver. He tried a few strikes he moved much more gracefully with it than the camp weapons.
Then Harry flipped out the spear. It was about six feet long, a shaft with a silvery sharp head. Harry figured that he wouldn't use it as much as the sword since he had absolutely no training with polearms.
He willed it to turn back into the army knife and so it did.
Harry finally flipped out the bow. The knife turned into a silver colored bow in the shape of a crescent moon. He also felt a weight on his back. He reached and felt it, it seemed to be a quiver filled with arrows. He pulled one out, took aim at the trunk of one of the trees, pulled back the string, and let loose. The arrow hit exactly where he had aimed it.
Harry turned the bow back into the army knife, he had been so busy in checking out the weapon he hadn't even realized how tired he was.
He rummaged through the backpack, found some night clothes and changed into them.
Before going to bed, though, he checked out the one remaining item: the watch. He picked it up and looked at it. It was a simple silver analog watch. Harry put it on. It wasn't tight, but it wasn't falling off his wrist either. In fact, it perfectly fit his wrist. Harry idly wondered where his mother had gotten all the sizes.
He twisted the dial and the watch suddenly was a polished silver shield with a faint crescent moon on it. Harry willed it to change back into the watch and so it did. He placed the swiss knife in his pocket.
He yawned and got into the sleeping bag. He felt far more comfortable in it than he had ever felt even in his Gryffindor four-poster bed.
Okay, it was official. His mother was the coolest goddess. Ever.
He looked up at the moon, and said, "Thank you, mother." He saw the moon shine more brightly and smiled.
I'll look over the laptop tomorrow with Annabeth and Percy, was his last thought before he turned over and fell asleep.
-Line Break-
Another chapter done. Yay!
Hope you liked the chapter.
So, bye for now, readers! R & R please.