Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Greek gods. JK Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter and whoever first wrote the Greek myths.
CHAPTER 4 TRUTH?
The next morning Harry came downstairs and poked his head into the living room. He saw Hermione sitting on the couch with a large book on her lap. "Good morning Hermione. It looks like you've been on the couch all night and not getting any sleep."
"Well you can't really blame me, especially after that bombshell you through onto my lap yesterday." Hermione said testily, "besides Dionysus was keeping me up with his drunken songs. I can't believe Ginny slept through his songs, but then again, I assume she does not have the sight or hearing to see the gods like you gave us. By the way how could you sleep through all that racket, that Dionysus was making?"
Harry nodded his head to Hermione's assumption then said, "Well after centuries of being with him, you get accustomed to it." Harry added with a mischievous smile, "besides I am used to Ron's snores which are so loud it normally drowns out everything else."
Hermione squirmed a little not knowing how to respond to this, but then she looked down at her lap and saw the book and one phrase jumped out at her 'Apollo is known to be unable to lie.' "Is it true that you cannot lie? That you can only tell the truth?" Hermione asked abruptly.
"Truth is a very slippery concept. How can you be sure that someone is telling the truth? For to them it could be the truth but to you it could be a lie. Also truth can be hidden in what appears to be a lie. Also someone could answer the truth but mislead you while saying the truth, making you forget the original questions that you had asked. Am I telling the truth or am I telling you a lie?" Harry said with a knowing smile, that now was quickly becoming annoying.
Hermione threw up her hands in exasperation, "you are playing with my mind!"
"What are you two talking about in here?" Asked Fred coming into the room.
"Oh nothing really, we are just playing mind games. Aren't we Hermione?" said Harry with a twinkle in his eye that just gave off a small glimmer of the radiant sun hidden underneath what appeared to be a fifteen-year-old human boy.
Hermione just let out an exasperated sigh, shoved the book to one side and stomped out of the room. Harry still smiling followed her into the yard. Ron seeing them exit the house quickly put his fork down and hurried to join them, still yawning. As he reached the outer doorway, he had to quickly step aside to let Aries wander through the house, curious about how mortals live. As he stepped outside he heard Hermione's exasperated voice saying, "why can't you simply answer the question, Harry?"
"Oh but I did." Said a now widely grinning Harry, the sun was glowing from his face.
Before Hermione could retort Ron quickly ran up to Harry covering his eyes and gave a harsh whisper reminding Harry to put a damper on his radiance. At this Harry blushed like the setting sun; then quickly realizing what he was doing closed his eyes took a deep breath and let it out, the radiance had disappeared. But before anyone could say anything more out of the little clump of trees, that Ron and Hermione first got to see the deities, came Artemis just laying her silver bow over her shoulder. When she saw the expression of exasperation on Hermione's face she asked, "were you asking Apollo, whether he can lie or not?" At Hermione's nod Artemis laughed out loud, "you should never ask Apollo that. He enjoys confusing people and yet still speaking the truth. I'll answer that question for you. Yes Apollo cannot lie. But that doesn't mean he speaks the whole truth. He has the skill, honed over centuries, where he only tells part of the truth and lets you figure out what he means by those part truths. For example, there was a small kingdom in Greece where a King came to get his beautiful daughter's future told to him. And Apollo here, told him that his daughter would marry a monster. The king assumed automatically, when Apollo said 'monster' he was referring to a big hulking creature that was so ugly that no one could look at him. But Apollo meant Cupid, who had caused so much heartache for Apollo that Cupid seemed monstrous to him." Artemis smiled at her twin and asked him, "remember Daphne?" At this Harry's smile vanished as he clutched his heart. "Please don't remind me. She was my first true love. Thanks to that monster, Cupid, he made her scorn me with his blasted iron tip arrows. And made her want to live the rest of her life as a laurel tree." Everybody in the yard fell silent at the growl that came from Harry's mouth when thinking about Daphne.
But after a while, Hermione tentatively asked, "But Harry, when you were first talking to Aphrodite you called him your dear nephew, but now you talk about Cupid so differently, why?"
"Because Hermione, as long as he's not around me with those lustful arrows, he is quite the mischievous nephew I enjoy."
At this Hermione realized that it wasn't Cupid that Apollo did not like it was the iron arrows that he despise so much. At this conclusion Hermione beamed, but before anyone could say anything more Mrs. Weasley stuck her head out the door and shouted to the three in the yard, not seen Artemis at all, "Are you three packed? We are leaving for Sirius's house after lunch. You better finish packing before then."
Ron looked at Harry and Hermione, they nodded, who then yelled to his mother's retreating back, "WE ARE ALREADY PACKED."
"Well, bring your luggage downstairs and pile them up by the fireplace." Said Mrs. Weasley her eyes darted up the sky and said half to herself, "it seems that the sun is not as bright as it once was. That's interesting." She shook her head and went back inside. Ron and Hermione turned to Harry whose face had whitened, as he breathed, "so that's why this body feel so hot." He then turned to his friends and said, "I'll be back as soon as I can the sun needs its heart back for a while." He then turned to his sister and asked, "Artemis, would you mind taking my place for a little while while I heal the sun? you are the only one I trust out of our siblings, to act out my part well. I'm sure Aries would get frustrated waiting to get into a fight if he was the only way to save the world. As for the others Dionysus is just drunk all the time he's not sane enough to take my place and if I asked Aphrodite I think she would spend most of her time as me in the mirror which is definitely not me." With a sigh and a little laugh Artemis agreed.
She stepped forward Harry put out his hands and closed his eyes. And before the bewildered eyes of his two best friends, Artemis transformed. Artemis's green light dimmed and became flesh, she grew an inch, her long hair receded back into her head and became messy and jet black. Glasses appeared on her face and the ever present lightning bolts scar became visible on her for head. In a few seconds, there stood two Harrys. Ron and Hermione looked between the two and could not tell the difference between them. With a smile the real Harry gave a wave bent his knees and shot up into the sky heading to the sun.