Son of Hermes
Arrowsbane
I know you're lying, cause your lips are moving
Luke is a liar.
It comes naturally to him, words slip from his mouth like honey. He learnt quickly as a child, learnt that just because he was a kid did not mean that the world would be kind to him.
It's why he is so easily able to look innocent and surprised when he finds himself in a tent awaiting the first task. "Courage in the face of the unknown" is what he's been told is the theme of this task, and well, he was born to be reckless and daring. It's the mandate of all demigods the world over to go anywhere and challenge anyone provided they have the guts and skill to do so.
The overly-ridiculous proctor named Bagman bounces exuberantly into the tent, a purple velvet bag swinging violently in his hand. Luke leans backwards to avoid being smacked in the face and the bag instead slams into Krum's shoulder. Bagman opens the pouch and offers it to the four champions in turn, explaining that the contents of the bag are what they will face – Luke scowls when he withdraws a vicious looking beast with the number three stung about its' neck.
The miniature reptile glares up at him from poisonous green eyes, hissing threateningly, to which Luke responds with his own hissed promise of death. If the other champions hear the argument between statue and demigod, they don't say anything – each of them too wrapped up in their own challenge to care. Luke knows damn well that every single one of them had forewarning, just as he did. They had help from their mentors, something he had refused.
[Traditionally, a demigod would have the aid and support of their siblings, would carry their parents' sigil proudly as they completed each task. Here, in this world of magic and twisting staircases, Luke has no access to his kin, but the Weasley twins are more than ready to act as substitutes.
When he first saw the dragons spitting violent plumes of fire up into the night sky, Luke had panicked, wanting nothing more than to run like hell because suddenly all he can see is Ladon's hissing heads, smell the tantalizing apples and feel the dangerous heat against his skin. The idea of facing another dragon so soon gives him nightmares that leave him tossing and turning until his sheets are soaked with sweat, and starting awake in the night with a scream trapped inside his throat.
In the end, it's his pseudo-siblings who come up with the solution, suggesting a path that could not have been more obvious – although neither of them blame him for not seeing it. With a plan in place, the fear melts away from his heart and mind, leaving only a peaceful sense of self-assurance behind because he can do something that the overgrown salamander can't.]
Luke steps out into the daylight, squinting against the glare for a moment while his eyes readjust. The roar of the crowd is deafening, and for a split-second he is home again, stood in the amphitheater with Cabin eleven cheering at the top of their lungs. Then he remembers where he is, knows that here his supporters wear red and gold, have their hearts on their sleeves as if daring anybody to try and break them.
He breathes in. He breathes out. And then he bursts into a flurry of movement.
Luke steps directly into view of the Peruvian Vipertooth, eyes up the copper and black beast and then very deliberately makes a play for its undivided attention.
"Hey!" He shouts, waving his arms. "Hey you! Come and get me, you ugly bitch." He ignores the horrified gasps, the stern Scottish reprimand of 'language!' and the shouts of 'Is he insane?' from the stands. Luke's attention is firmly locked onto his serpentine opponent.
The vipertooth puffs up its chest and belches a dizzying amount of fire in Luke's direction. The demigod somersaults out of the way and lets out a bark of laughter. "You missed!" He taunts the dragon, who tries again. Luke dodges, using a one-handed cartwheel to avoid the torrent of flame. "Missed again!"
He does this several times over, allowing the dragon to box him into a 'kill zone' and then waits for it to breathe fire once more. This time, he doesn't dodge, instead he forces himself to remain stationary until just before the burning hot fire is inches away, closes his eyes, and focuses. In a split-second he disappears from the kill zone and reappears in the nest behind the satisfied she-dragon who thinks she's vaporized him, grabs the egg and teleports away to a crest of rock out of the reptile's range. The crowd screams in horror, obviously thinking him to be ashes and smoke, but Luke is too dizzy with his victory to give a damn. He just kicked some serious dragon-tail.
"Suck on that, you overgrown lizard!" He shouts triumphantly, raising the egg over his head and grinning like a maniac. He wiggles in a happy dance as the dragon handlers move in to restrain the furious beast.
"Whoa!" He yelps as he slips off the rock and lands on his arse, earning a collective gasp of surprise from the stands. Luke shakes it off and leaps back to his feet.
"I'm okay!" He shouts to the amusement of his audience. Playing the joker is something he's good at, and to be honest, it's the first time in a long time he feels really, truly happy. Like nothing can bring him down.
Hannah wants to scream at the suicidal idiot in the arena. Taunting a dragon? Is he crazy? She covers her face, barely daring to peek between her fingers.
The Peruvian Vipertooth is a vicious type of dragon, small and compact; it only grows to five meters long and is known for being very good at hiding and very, very quick on its feet. The copper hide blends seamlessly into its native land, and the few poor muggles who come across it are quickly stuck down by its deadly venom as it seems to have a particular love of human flesh.
So it begs the question as to why the demigod is cheerfully baiting it. Hannah screams in horror as the dragon belches flame only for the blonde teen to dodge. He's quick on his feet but that doesn't ease the overbearing sense of guilt that has made a reappearance in the pit of her stomach. Oh god, he's going to die and it's her fault.
Don't die, she prays. Please don't die.
Another burst of fire blasts through the air and Hannah squeaks as Hermione clutches tightly at her wrist. "Is he insane?" the brunette hisses at her and Hannah truly has no reply.
For a terrifying moment, Hannah thinks the dragon has flambéed him until a crow of victory echoes around the arena and everyone turns to see Luke standing tall on a ridge, golden prize in hand.
"Forget the dragon," Hannah says, turning to Hermione who is sighing in relief, "I am going to kill him for that. What the hell was he thinking?"
"I thought it was inspired," George quips, leaning forwards from the row behind the two fourth years.
"Yeah," Fred agrees, "It took us ages to come up with that strategy."
Hannah blinks. Then she frowns, and deliberately ignores Ron's fawning over Krum who is the last competitor.
"You mean to tell me that the suicide dance was your idea?" She hisses in a low tone. The twins beam proudly, are bold as brass. Hannah shares a look with Hermione and it seems that they are in agreement – the twins are in for a hell of a week once they are out of view of the teachers.
In the background, she can hear Bagman oohing and ahhing over Krum's daring moves.
"Sure was," The twins tell her happily, the crowd around them cheering for the Bulgarian as he finally snags the egg.
"What have I missed?" Hannah yelps as Luke suddenly appears in the empty seat next to the twins. George flashes her a cheeky grin.
"Nothing much," He tells Luke, "Hannah here was just saying how impressed she was with your performance." Hannah makes a strangled noise and resists the urge to choke him to death, reminds herself that she likes Mr and Mrs Weasley too much to murder one of their children (even if Ginny's fangirl tendencies are really annoying. Hannah is positive she once saw the younger redhead sniffing one of her jumpers).
Luke flushes a little, but his grin turns up an extra notch.
"You were very brave," Hermione offers, she still has her fingers digging into Hannah's wrist.
"I was terrified," The demigod admits, getting to his feet to follow the crowd out of the arena and back up to the school. "For a second there, it was like I was back in California."
Hannah deliberately says nothing. He's already made it clear than any attempts to apologize will result in a serious bout of childhood. "The Batman incident", while highly amusing, lasted for hours and involved the older teen bursting in on random classrooms in order to 'defeat the evil villain known as homework'.
[Professor's Flitwick and Sprout had suffered him with terse smiles, while McGonagall had sent him away with a sharp word – Snape had outright tried to hex him, resulting in outright chaos as the teleporting wonder flickered around the classroom before setting off a dungbomb and disappearing off for a 'well-earned' nap. Professor Burbage had been the only teacher to be amused, and had wound up roping the blonde into helping her do a short segment on Muggle superheroes.]
She allows herself to be caught up in the crowd, separated from the others as they enter the castle, and then wanders off down a corridor and up a random set of stairs that changes destination half-way through. Eventually, she finds herself on an empty rooftop – one of many turrets on the west side, and settles down to watch the sun move across the sky and down below the horizon. The cool November wind whips around her, tossing her auburn locks around wildly like leaves dancing on the breeze.
Eventually she will have to return to Gryffindor tower.
But for now she can pretend she is free.
Collecting Bubotuber puss is the single most gross thing Hannah has ever had to do. And that includes cleaning out the shower trap every week, something that is twice as gross as normal because Hannah is pretty damn sure that Dudley pees in the shower. She wrinkles her nose at the disgusting smell as yet another pod bursts, sending thick goopy streams of gunk sliding down the inside of the glass vials.
She ignores Lavender and Parvarti when they suddenly squeal loudly because those two are almost always kicking up a fuss over something they consider un-ladylike.
"Snake!" Lavender squeaks out, and Hannah snorts. It's probably just a garden snake.
He's wandering around aimlessly when he notices a pair of girls inside one of the greenhouses jump up suddenly, and Luke can't help but be curious. A second of concentration and he's stood behind them, resting an arm on the indian girls' shoulder.
"Whoa there," he warns the girls, pushing their wands down. "It's just an adder, she's probably looking for somewhere warm to live."
He bends his knees, crouching down and tentatively reaches out a hand.
"Cold, tired, sleeeeep." The little adder hisses blearily, and Luke's heart goes out to her. "Sstupid humans waking me up, go away, go away."
"It's alright," he tells her, "I'll keep you safe."
"Warm?" The adder asks, "Food?"
"Yes," He promises, waiting patiently for the little snake to trust him. Eventually she slithers over to him and allows him to run his hand down her distinctive zig-zag markings.
"Oh aren't you beautiful," he coos at the adder who happily bumps its head against his fingers and coils up around his wrist. Trowels clatter to the ground, and whispers begin to spread as more and more of the fourth years pay attention.
"What?" Luke asks, blinking innocently at the stunned group of Fourth years.
It's not that he's cooing over a snake that has their attention. It's that when he opens his mouth, his words are not in English. The only person to not immediately whip around is Hannah who continues on with her task as if nothing important has happened.
"I'm sure she's lovely Luke," Hannah grumbles, "but she's still venomous and she really can't be in a working classroom. Go find her a new home."
This time, it's Luke's turn to drop his jaw.
"Wait, you could understand me?" He says, eyes wide. Hannah looks up at him from her position on the floor.
"What?" she hisses carefully, raising an eyebrow. "Like it's hard?"
AN
In response to the Guest review, there is no other actor for Luke than Jake Abel. I can't help it, he's hot. I mean, I literally re-watch the Lightning Thief to see him go "Whoa, that's a sword. That's a sword." If you're curious, I picture Hannah as a younger Karen Gillian.
In case anybody was wondering about Hannah - she's lithe and 5'2 with freckles; she has wavy auburn hair that reaches the middle of her back and whiskey colored eyes. Her scar is lengthier than in canon and runs parallel to her hairline rather than in the middle of her forehead.
Genetically speaking red hair means that your parents both carried the red hair gene, which can skip generations: ex. I have red hair, but the only relatives I know of with red hair are my half-brother and my mom's maternal grandfather. As for her eyes, a couple like Lily and James who had green and brown eyes respectively have a 50% chance of producing a child with brown eyes, 37.5% of green eyes and a 12.5% of blue. So yes, her appearance is possible without godly influence. :3
Question – For those of you who watched Eurovision 2016, what the heck was the girl from Germany wearing? I loved the song, but I didn't get the outfit. Also, Poland – what the hell? Australia was wicked though – that girl has a powerful set of pipes. Whoa Cyprus, you rocked! Serbia… holy hell, I was impressed.