The next morning after a very enjoyable evening, the Rockies won by 5 runs, Harry made his back to his house to check on his new phoenix egg. When he apparated into his living room, he saw he had a visitor waiting for him.
"Hello Fawkes." Harry said with a smile as he went and pet the phoenix. "It's not time for a burning day is it?" Harry asked his phoenix friend.
Fawkes trilled in the negative, and pointed his beak upstairs where Harry was keeping the egg.
"Jealous are we?" Harry laughed at the indignant look Fawkes gave him and Harry received a wing to the back of his head for his bad joke. Fawkes then pointed with his beak upstairs again to tell Harry to hurry up and get what Fawkes wanted.
"Hold on to your tail feathers, I'll get the egg for you to look at. Gods you and Hecate are so demanding." Harry grumbled as he walked into his bedroom to get the golden box. After a quick check to make sure everything was okay with the egg, Harry brought in downstairs for Fawkes to investigate.
When he arrived he placed the gold box on his table where Fawkes flew down and landed on and inspected the egg. After checking it over, and finding something he didn't like, he gave Harry a sharp glare.
"Don't look at me like that you flaming chicken." Harry said to Fawkes's glare. "I got the egg yesterday! I'm doing everything I can to make sure it's hatched properly."
Fawkes continued to give Harry a dirty look before he started to softly sing for the egg, which Harry could tell the egg appreciated if the tiny spike in magic it let off was any indication.
Seeing Fawkes had everything under control Harry went into his kitchen and whipped up some eggs and bacon, and cut up some pineapple and strawberries for Fawkes to eat. When he came into the dining room Harry put the plate of fruit down by Fawkes to eat when he was hungry and calmly ate his breakfast listening to the beautiful song of the phoenix.
After cleaning up after breakfast, Harry checked on Fawkes who was now eating the fruit left for him, and saw the egg was glowing slightly. Seeing how Fawkes wasn't concerned about the glowing, and Harry had never heard about that from books or any of the lessons he had on Phoenixes from Hagrid or Hecate, he decided to leave it in the hands of a phoenix. They knew what the hell they were doing.
After making sure the egg and Fawkes would be okay for the day, Harry popped over to the Underworld so he could have a chat with Thanatos about this quest. From Denver, the quickest way to LA where DOA Studios was, was through Las Vegas. Knowing how dumb demigods can be, there was a good chance they could be caught in the home of the Lotus Eaters. He needed to make sure if that was okay, as Hades was hiding two of his kids there, the satyr might sniff them out and cause all sorts of problems.
When he walked into Thanatos's office it was to a sight he never thought he wound see. He saw Thanatos and Enyo cuddling on his couch asleep. Harry quickly pulled out his camera and started taking pictures. He took out his cellphone and snapped some too so he could send them to Hecate. She would get a kick out of this.
After making sure he banished his camera back to his house where it couldn't be destroyed, and emailing himself the picture from his phone just in case it was broken or the picture deleted, Harry cleared his throat causing the god and goddess to fall off the couch at the rude awakening.
Enyo shot Harry a look that said he would pay dearly for the interruption of her sleep. Thanatos look horrified at the smile Harry was shooting him.
"How's it going guys?" Harry said with a smile, causing the immortals to curse his name.
"You better have a good excuse for coming here and ruining my sleep, or you are going to feel what it's like to have a broadsword shoved up your ass." Enyo said in a deathly quiet voice that caused Harry and Thanatos to shiver at the mental image of that punishment.
After clearing his throat, so it wouldn't squeak in fear when he talked, Harry asked, "I got a problem on this mission. It concerns the big boss man."
Thanatos sighed and helped get Enyo to her feet before saying he had work to do. She gave him a quick kiss goodbye before shooting Harry a death glare and teleported out of his office.
Thanatos looked at Harry after seeing Enyo go and saw the shit eating grin on his face and cringed. "So can we pretend you didn't see that?"
"Not on your life." Harry said with a smirk, which turned into laughter as Thanatos put his head in his hands and groaned.
"What was so important that you had to come and disturb me and my lady friend?" Thanatos said in an annoyed manner as he sat at his desk and glared at Harry.
"The brats are going to pass through Vegas. It's the quickest way to LA. Chances are with them being demigods, they'll get sucked into the Lotus Hotel. You know the place where Hades is stashing two of his kids." Harry said.
"Fuck. They have a satyr with them." Thanatos said as he rubbed his eyes in exasperation. "You can't let them enter the Hotel. I don't care if you have to introduce yourself to them, or knock them out. They cannot go in there. Hades will kill you and me if they find out about his kids." Thanatos said as he gave Harry and expectant look. Their asses were on the line if he fucked this up.
"I gotcha. I'll make sure they will not make inside the Hotel." Harry said to ease his boss's mind.
"You better not. Hades is still furious with Zeus over their mother's death. If word got out about them before Hades is ready to announce it himself, there will be a war between the brothers." Thanatos said in deadly seriousness.
"And we would be obligated to fight with Hades." Harry finished.
"Yes. So don't fuck this up. I don't care what you do, those kids are not to step one foot in that place."
"Will do boss man." Harry said with a mock salute before he apparated back to Denver.
"I swear that guy is going to give me an aneurism." Thanatos muttered as he glared at the set of horns behind his desk.
Harry landed in Denver and realized how late it was. Looking at his watch he saw he had 12 hours of brat free time before he had to make sure they didn't cause World War 3 by finding some people they weren't supposed too. Gods it was so hard working for Death sometimes.
"Hello Harry Potter!" A cheerful dreamy voice said from behind Harry. A voice Harry would recognize anywhere.
"Luna!" Harry said happily as he scooped her up into a large hug. "How is the hunt going for creatures?" Harry said as he set her down.
"It goes well Harry. I have found evidence that suggests the Crumple-Horned Snorkack migrated from Sweden to Montana. I'm on my way there right now. How's working for Thanatos working out for you Harry? You seem much happier now than the last letter I got from you." Luna said as she grabbed her friend in another hug.
"Montana is a great place to start. I hear that is where Artemis let's all the Jackalopes she makes run around. It's going well I suppose. I'm sort of on a mission right now for him. Preventing World War 3 and all that jazz." Harry said hoping she would not notice he didn't answer the question about being happy. He himself didn't have an answer to that.
"I see that this quest would be very different if you were not here to make sure they succeed." Luna said with a far off look to her eye and a very dreamy quality to her voice.
"What did you see?" Harry asked curious. Harry knew Luna was a legacy of Apollo. Her grandmother on her mother's side was a demigod child who was killed by a monster defending her mother when she was just a little girl.
"Flowers. I see flowers and panic." she said before she came back to her senses.
Harry was glad he had orders to keep the brats out of the Hotel now. Panic is never good on a quest. Especially one as important as this one.
"So can I interest you on a night on the town Luna? To catch up for old time's sake." Harry asked.
"We both know you can't get old Harry." Luna said knowingly as she hooked Harry's arm and started walking towards the downtown area.
Harry agreed with her with a nod of his head. He remembered the morning after his first talk with Thanatos. She had greeted him as the Master of Death and congratulated him on becoming immortal. When he asked how she knew that, she said she had seen it happen the first time she met him. It was always his destiny to walk with Death.
"You know, being immortal and working with my bosses kind of sucks sometimes Luna." Harry said as he steered her towards a restaurant he thought she would like.
"You got all night to tell me about it Harry." Luna said as she hummed a tune to herself as she put her arm through Harry's.
"Let me tell you about the shit I've been put through." Harry said with a laugh as he got to spend some time with one of his school friends.
They spent the evening swapping stories from their travels. Harry telling Luna about his training and what he did for Thanatos. Partially reenacting his battle with Sobek, and complaining about the quest he was supervising.
Luna told him about the species she was looking for and the discovery she made about the connection between Unicorns and Thestrals. How both species represented the two facets of mortal life. The unicorn representing life, while the thestral represented death. She gave him evidence as the blood of the unicorn healed almost any injury at the cost of a curse of half-life. This being as the animal representation of life was killed. While the blood of the thestral was a toxic poison that caused a person extreme pain and eventual death. The only cure being unicorn blood, further proving her claim the animals were opposites on the scale of life.
Luna also told him about her meeting a Rolf Scamander on her travels, and them going on a date. She said they were going on another as soon as he returned from a trip to the deepest parts of Africa looking for new magical creatures. She told him how things were going for people back home. How the Ministry was looking for him on the sly, while cleaning house of all the corruption allowed to fester under Fudge and Malfoy. They were hoping to find him through Gringotts but were quickly informed that the Potter accounts had been emptied and closed. They sent out small squads of Aurors to look for him all over Britain and the continent. They never thought to look in America, as Harry never knew anyone who lived there.
After a wonderful evening hanging out and catching up, Harry dropped of Luna at her hotel before promising her to write to her about all his adventures, and she warned him to stay alert around boars, they could be bad for his health. After agreeing to be on the lookout for boars, Harry left happier that he got to see one of his good friends from home.
Harry checked his watch and saw the kids would be coming in a few hours, he decided that he would pop to his house to check on the egg and to make sure Fawkes didn't burn his house down. One time he came back after leaving Fawkes alone and his brand new sofa was a pile of ash when he got back. Fawkes couldn't look him in the eyes for days.
When he arrived he saw that Fawkes was sleeping and that the egg was slightly glowing. He woke up Fawkes who gave him a positive trill when asked if the egg was close to hatching. When Harry asked why it was hatching so quickly, Fawkes got a smug look on his face and pointed one of his wings into his chest and puffed up proudly. Harry rolled his eyes and went to gather some extra supplies. He figured the best way to keep the brats out of Las Vegas was to take them to LA himself. That way there would be no accidents.
After getting some extra healing potions, because he heard how accident prone demigods were, he made a sandwich and packed some extra food in his bottomless pouch that he kept on his belt. Who knows if they would need food?
After checking on the egg one last time he apparated back to Denver and meandered his way to the train station to follow the brats when they got off the train.
When he saw the train pull up and saw them get off, Harry was about to follow them when he felt the presence of a god nearby. Not wanting to tip off the god that someone was watching out for the questers, he looked discreetly around hoping to spot the god and determine if they were a threat. Not seeing anyone hiding in the Mist inside, Harry calmly walked out of the station and into the parking lot and found the god who was watching the kids.
"Fuck! What the hell is Ares here for?" Harry quietly cursed. While Harry had never met Ares in person, Enyo had told him all about her insane brother's thirst for violence and war. If he was interested in the kids who were trying to prevent a world war, Harry might just have to step in and stop the War God before he does something incredibly stupid.
"Remember Harry, Enyo is the better fighter, Enyo is the better fighter." Harry kept muttering to himself as he watched the god follow the kids into a restaurant, hoping he wouldn't have to intervene.
Harry saw the God introduce himself to the kids and saw the shock in their eyes, he almost had a heart attack when he saw that Percy kid mouth off to Ares. He had killed people for less and this kid running his mouth. When he introduced himself to these kids he was going to give that brat a piece of his mind. Yeah some gods are stupid, you don't tell that to their faces though! That a very quick trip to visit Charon.
He saw the kids get up from their table and leave the restaurant while Ares put his feet on the table and had one of the waitresses feed him. It was no wonder Enyo hated her brother with the blatant abuse of his powers on the mortals. He was acting like the Death Eaters who use the Imperious to control muggle women and raped them. If they fought he was going to make Ares hurt, and hurt for a long time.
Harry followed the kids as they made their way through Denver towards an abandoned waterpark. He saw the kids trying to decide on what best way to get over the fence and decided to help them out by using his magic to open the lock for them like it was broken. Annabeth, Harry thought she was called, tried the lock and looked very smug when the lock was undone, causing the son of Poseidon to blush in embarrassment. The satyr also looked embarrassed as he had been arguing with the girl too.
Harry seeing a way to have some fun with the kids before he introduced himself, and seeing how it was obvious that they were doing an errand for Ares, the lazy fuck, it was probably a trap by Hephaestus to catch his brother and his wife together, again. Harry didn't understand why the Smith God just doesn't get a divorce. Word in the underworld is that Aphrodite only sleeps with Ares so Hephaestus gets mad enough to divorce her. She never wanted to be married to him in the first place. Granted, this information did come from a spirit of one of Aphrodite's children, so it had to be taken with a grain of salt. They were known for taking a small bit of truthful information, and turning it into something else entirely. The apple didn't fall far from the tree either, the Trojan War was fought because of a beauty contest, where the judge was bribed!
Harry quickly transformed his clothes into a security guard uniform and apparated in front of them. He was going to scare the shit out of the demigods.
Seeing that they were heads for the Tunnel of Love, what better place for Ares and Aphrodite go to snog, he walked up behind them and conjured a taser and shouted, "What do you kids think you're doing here?" as he pointed his weapon at them.
Harry had to work very hard on not bursting out in laughter at the look of shock and embarrassment on their faces at being caught by a 'mortal' security guard.
"We are here to pick up something a friend left here." The son of Poseidon quickly stammered out.
"Really?" Harry said as he saw them fingering their weapons thinking he might be a monster. "Well where is it? I'll help you get it. This place is closed for a reason. Some kids like you were up to no good and were killed on one of the rides. It is said that their spirits still haunts the park to this day." Harry said as he conjured a flashlight behind his back and shined it into his face to shadow his eyes, hoping to scare the kids.
"There is no such things as ghosts!" The daughter of Athena said hotly, looking at Harry like he was an idiot for believing in them.
The satyr was smelling the air in what he thought was a sneaky manner, he could tell there wasn't something quite right with Harry's scent. He was trying, and failing, to be subtle about warning his companions about his findings, and them completely ignoring him. Harry felt kinda bad for the guy, reminded him of Neville in first year when he tried to prevent them from going after the Snape and the Stone.
"It's fine sir. We don't need any help getting it. We will just grab it and be on our way." Percy said as he tried to dissuade Harry from following them to get whatever it was Ares wanted them to get. He was fidgeting nervously, playing with the hem of his dirty shirt.
"I can't do that. It's either I go with you, or I ask you to leave. Those are your two choices." Harry said sternly. Harry watched as they had a pow wow and were discussing their options. He saw the satyr finally get their attention that he smelled off. This caused the two demigods to shoot him wary glances. Harry smiled at them when they looked at him, causing them both to flinch.
When they finished talking, they came up to him and Annabeth said in a very tight voice, "We will go with you. The item is in the Tunnel of Love."
"Excellent! That wasn't so hard was it?" Harry said cheerfully rubbing his hands together as he saw the apprehensive looks the three kids gave him. He saw each kid fingering their weapons. He almost laughed when he saw Percy's weapon was a pen when not in use.
They walked to the Tunnel of Love in silence. The kids were waiting for him to turn into some sort of monster and attack him. Harry was impressed with their level of caution now that they knew something was off with him. If he was really a monster the kids would have been dead already from their lack of awareness. Besides their age being a factor, these kids were very inexperienced.
When they got to the Tunnel of Love Harry asked the obvious question, "Who uses a shield these days? I mean really. I know Captain America just came out and all, but that is defiantly the wrong color for a replica." Harry was so glad he could takes pictures inside a pensive, the kids face were priceless.
"You can see it?" stammered the shocked child of Athena.
"Well duh. It is a shield, in a boat in the shape of a heart, next to what looks like an expensive scarf, at the bottom of a broken ride." Harry said very slowly, causing Annabeth to flush red in anger as he was speaking slowly because he thought she was stupid.
"Who are you?" she said angrily. "We know you aren't a real security guard." She finished with a smirk showing that they uncovered his little prank.
Harry sighed, "You guys aren't very fun to mess with." as his clothes changed back to normal, surprising the demigods.
"Which god are you?" Percy asked very quickly pulling out his sword, Annabeth pulling out her knife, and the satyr whose name he couldn't remember pulled out his reed pipes very shakily, obviously very scared.
"Harry Potter at your service." Harry said with an exaggerated bow to the demigods.
"Why are you here?" demanded Annabeth as she lifted her knife higher.
"To keep you brats from dying." Harry said simply, causing them all to think it was a trap.
"What do mean keep us from dying? Why would you do that?" Percy said as he fidgeted in his sword stance.
Harry conjured a very comfortable chair for himself and his guests and said, "Take a seat." As he sat down. Seeing the kids not cooperating, he used a small banishment charm to push them into the chairs. "Now that we are all sitting," Harry said shooting the kids a glare, who were now panicking that they offended a god, "I was given the lovely task to make sure this quest is successful. And I am to do whatever it takes to make sure the Bolt is returned by you three kids by the Summer Solstice."
"Who wants to see the Bolt returned beside Zeus? Did he hire you? Are you a god? If so what are you the god of? I've never heard of a god with a last name before." Annabeth asked rapidly. This caused Harry to feel an ache in his heart. Hermione asked questions in a similar manner to Annabeth.
"I was not hired by Zeus or anyone on the council. I am not a god. I am an immortal sorcerer." Harry said simply.
"You're a wizard like Gandalf?" said Percy, causing Annabeth and the satyr to face palm at his stupid question, hoping it didn't offend the sorcerer.
"I like to think I'm a little stronger that Gandalf." Harry said with a chuckle. The kids seemed to relax a bit when he wasn't mad at the question.
"So who hired you if it wasn't someone on the council?" asked the satyr confusedly.
"That's a secret." Harry said as he tapped his nose with one finger. "What I can tell you it is one of the gods who is concerned that this war would cause unparalleled destruction in the world, and they want to avoid that, even if they might not like old thunderbutt very much." The sky rumbled at the insult.
"So you are here to make sure we succeed the quest because you are being paid too?" asked Annabeth curiously.
"You know what? I don't even know if I do get paid. I really need to see if I get a paycheck or something." Harry said striking a thoughtful pose in his chair.
"How do you not know if you are getting paid?" asked Percy.
"Obviously you have never worked for a god before. Don't worry about it. It might make your brain melt if I tried to explain it to you." Harry said.
The demigods started whispering amongst themselves about the information Harry had just laid out for them. After about 10 minutes they asked a very important question, "How do we know we can trust you?"
"I, Harry Potter, swear on the River Styx that I am here to ensure the successful completion of the quest to retrieve the Lightning Bolt, and make sure all the questers are alive and well at the end and back home safe." There was a flash of lightning and boom of thunder at the end of his oath sealing it.
"Wow." Annabeth said.
"Yup. How bout I get Ares shield without setting off the traps lain on it by Hephaestus. Sound good?" Harry said as he got up and walked to the empty pool where the shield was in the boat. Harry cast a detection spell to see what was done to it by Hephaestus before he tried to summon it. The spell outlined a wire that was attached to one of the Cupid statues surrounding the pool. After checking the statues he found they were cameras and that they would shoot wires to make a net when the wire was broken when the shield was moved. He also discovered that something would come out of the evenly spaced holes around the pool, they were shielded so he couldn't exactly tell what.
Harry thought about what he was going to do before he conjured a shield in the same dimensions as Ares' and used a switching spell to swap them. Seeing it was successful, he did the same with the scarf that was down there. When he picked up the scarf he could feel the very powerful enchantments on it. It was giving off the same scent as Amortentia. Harry quickly banished the scarf to his home where it wouldn't be affecting anyone on the quest.
"Bam!" Harry shouted as he tossed the shield to Percy. "Do I do good work or what?" The kids were speechless on how quickly he managed to retrieve the booby-trapped shield.
"How did you do that without setting off the trap?" asked Annabeth in disbelief looking at the shield in wonder.
Harry leaned in close and whispered, "Magic." Harry laughed hard when she started cursing him in ancient Greek.
"So what were you promised fir retrieving the shield?" Harry asked after Annabeth had stopped cursing.
"He promised us a ride out West. We kind of lost all our money and supplies at the beginning of the quest. It was blown up on the bus we were traveling on." Percy said as they were walking back to the restaurant.
"I can help you with that. I have a way that will get us there in about 10 seconds or so." Harry said as they made it back to the restaurant. Harry told them to stop before they walked in, "Now I need you guys to not mention me to Ares. Let me be your guy's secret weapon. Just say you were able disable the trap on your own. He's really dumb, he'll buy it. Just accept his ride West and I'll take care of the rest."
After getting the kids to agree, Harry saw the kids as they gave the shield back to Ares, while he seemed skeptical about them disarming his brother's trap, he did point out the truck that they could sneak in that will take them as far as Vegas.
While the kids were with Ares, Harry took a look at his bike, he could feel a very old type of magic on the helmet hanging from the handle bars. As he neared it he could sense the Mist trying to make him see it as a regular helmet, but Harry pushed so magic to his eyes and gasped at what he saw. There was Hades' Helm of Darkness. Harry quickly checked to see if there was anything that would alert Ares he took the Helmet off the bike.
After finding there were 6 different wards that would alert Ares and harm the thief if touched, Harry quickly started to break the wards down. While Ares was a god, he wasn't a god of magic. Hecate made him breakdown wards much stronger in much less time. Harry took a peak to see the kids and realized they were getting up to leave. Harry cursed and finished breaking the last ward as the opened the door to leave. He quickly conjured a replacement helmet and threw up some wards that would mimic the ones Ares had set up and quickly put the Cloak to avoid being seen by the War God as he quickly made his way over to the kids as he sent the helmet to Thanatos by portkey.
He got in the back with the kids, stunned the animals, shrunk them, and put them in a pouch on his belt in the span of three seconds. "We to get the fuck out of here quick. Grab on to this." Harry said as he picked up a rake and made it into a portkey. Hurry the fuck up we need to go!" Harry yelled as they hesitated to grab the portkey.
They changed their minds when they heard Ares roar in anger and an explosion as his rage blew up the street he was on.
The kids quickly grabbed the rake and they were gone before Ares could open the back door and attack the demigods for stealing from him.
When he ripped open the back of the truck, the kids were gone and Ares blew the truck up in his anger. He vowed he would make them pay for daring to steal from him.