As his feet hit the ground, Harry's legs almost gave way beneath him as he gasped for air.

"Oh Merlin," Hermione's voice groaned somewhere to his right, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"It gets better," Neville promised as Harry hung off his arm, panting for breath as the feeling of being forced through a tight rubber tube still lingered. "It's only like that because we're not related. If Harry was a Son of Demeter then he wouldn't have felt a thing, but since he's not it meant that his essence was forced through mine."

"Dude. That sounds dirty," Seamus' voice chuckled.

Rolling his eyes, Harry let go of Neville and slowly pushed himself upright, the feeling of 'Misting' even worse than that of a portkey. "Is Camp Half-Blood nearby?" Hermione asked slowly as Harry looked up and down the room they had appeared in.

"You could say that," Seamus agreed cheerfully, "It's only around two hours away, give or take."

"This is the Montauk train station," Neville corrected slowly, "There's kind of an unofficial rule, you have to make your way to the Camp on your own."

"It's this Rite of Passage thing you know?" Seamus explained, practically bouncing away from them and starting to enter a code into one of the lockers and causing it to pop open. "Neville IM'd Chiron and he told us to take you this way, the Romans have something like this, only their one involves a dog or something," the Irish boy continued as he pulled two backpacks from the locker and held them out.

"Can't we just do the Rite of Passage thing later?" Hermione asked nervously, accepting the backpack and unzipping it with a grimace, "I'm not exactly an outdoorsy person."

"Hogwarts has the boat ride in first year," Neville pointed out simply, "And we had to do it when we first discovered we were Demigods. It's just tradition."

"Exactly!" Seamus interrupted, "This is just the scenic route. Each new Demigod has to pass through the Barrier on their own. It's also impossible to Mist through the Barrier, but that's just semantics."

Discovering that the backpack had a couple of bottles of water and some protein bars, Harry continued to dig deeper into it, pulling out a laminated piece of paper that he unfolded to reveal a map of the area. "Is that Camp Half-Blood?" he questioned slowly, pointing to the large orange archway on the map, the one with thick red dotted lines leading up to it from the 'You are Here' sign on the train station.

"Yup," Seamus confirmed, "Now remember, you're allowed to use magic in America, just try keep muggles from seeing it. And, now to arm you!"

"Arm us?" Hermione squeaked, as Seamus began ruffling through the locker.

"Aye, the way to Camp is sorta dangerous, full of monsters and the like," Seamus replied, "Though from the stories I hear, you two won't have much of a problem with that."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Harry, just about everyone knows the things you get up to year in, year out," Neville explained, "We know about the Troll, the Cerberus, and Quirrel in first year."

Seamus picked off where Neville finished, "Yep, not to mention the basilisk in second year, we were all impressed with that one!"

Harry flushed at being called out on his past misadventures and coughed to gain Seamus' attention. "So, weapons?"

"Ah right, sorry, got carried away there," the Irish boy apologized as he pulled a sword that looked to be around half a metre in length.

"This… this is a sword," Hermione squeaked out as Seamus shoved the faintly glowing sword into her hands.

"Here we go," Neville muttered, looking uncomfortable as he stepped back.

"This? This isn't just a sword," Seamus blurted, sounding scandalized as he snatched the sword back from Hermione and cradled it to his chest. "This, is a celestial bronze xiphos. A double-edged one-handed weapon commonly used by Demigods young and old! She's 21 inches in length exactly, and is a comfortable starting weight for a beginner swordsman like yourself."

"Never tell a child of either Hephaestus or Ares that a sword is just a sword," Neville piped up, "They get defensive."

"And," Seamus continued with an annoyed glance in Neville's direction, "To top it all off, look at that," he exclaimed, lifting the sword so they could see the base of the hilt where 'S.F' was roughly scratched into the metal. "I made these swords myself, I finally got my celestial bronze licence last holidays," he added proudly as he presented the sword to Harry, "Yes, yes. I know. I'm awesome."

"But this is a sword," Hermione repeated slowly, apparently missing out on Seamus' little rant. "It- She is a very pretty sword, but I don't know how to use a sword."

"It'll come to you," Seamus dismissed, "You're a Demigod, it's in your blood."

Awkwardly gripping the sword and testing the uncomfortable weight of it in his hand, Harry looked between Hermione and Seamus nervously, "But shouldn't we get some training first? I mean, these are actually swords. And how are we going to hide them? They don't exactly fit in our pockets."

"Actually they kinda do," Neville corrected, "Pretty much all the weapons we have at Camp are enchanted, they'll shrink when you put them in your pockets. And don't worry, you'll be taught how to handle weapons properly once you reach the Camp."

"But I don't know how to use a sword," Harry said slowly, "What if I end up stabbing Hermione by accidentally?"

"Uh you could try not to?" Seamus offered with a shrug, holding the second sword he'd pulled from the locker out to Hermione before pausing with a frown. "Maybe not," he mused before shoving the sword back into the locker and sticking his head inside, "You look like the kind of girl to use one of these," he exclaimed as he pulled out a bow and a full quiver which he handed to her.

"I uh-" Hermione stuttered as she looked at the bow in her hands like it'd come alive in seconds and attack her, before blinking up at the more experienced Demigods with a lost expression.

"You'll be fine," Seamus dismissed, throwing his arm over Neville's shoulder, "Like I said, try not to get caught with the weapons. The Mist will change them to look like something more acceptable to Mortals, the only problem is that since they're weapons, the 'more acceptable' items for them is usually a gun. So yeah, don't whip them out in public. We'll be waiting for you at Camp."

Opening his mouth to argue, Harry was cut off by Seamus exploding into red mist, a grimacing Neville being pulled along with him. "Did they just leave us here?" Hermione blurted, looking panicked at the mere idea of having to do this alone.

"Hermione! Hermione relax!" Harry exclaimed quickly, dropping his bag and grabbing onto Hermione's hands as she dropped the bow and arrows and raised them to tug at her hair. "We'll be fine. We've got water, we've got food. We've got a map, two weapons and our wands," he listed calmly, not as affected by the sudden 'abandonment' as Hermione was. "And I may or may not have my invisibility cloak in my pocket," he admitted sheepishly, having refused to leave without it.

"But we're not ready!" Hermione argued, staring at the bow lying on the ground at their feet with wide eyes, "We're not prepared."

"Were we prepared to go after the Philosopher's Stone in first year?" Harry countered, "Were we ready to go rescue Sirius last year? I'm the Boy-Who-Lived, and you're the brightest Witch of our year. If Seamus and Neville can do this, then so can we. No offence to either of them," he added guiltily.

He and Hermione started at each other for a moment, the panic in her eyes fading into nervousness instead as Harry watched. "Harry, I'm not ready," Hermione confessed, "I'm not ready to be a Demigod. Yesterday I was just Hermione, and I loved my parents, but now I'm a Demigod and my parents aren't really my parents. I… I don't know if I can do this," she explained, her eyes filling with tears.

"Hermione. Your parents are still your parents," Harry said softly, pulling his sister in all but blood into a hug. "James Potter was the man who fed and changed me as a baby, not whoever my Godly father was. James Potter is the one who gave me his name, not my Godly father. James Potter is the one who died for me," he finished, "And my Godly father hasn't even tried to contact me. As far as I'm concerned, James Potter is more my father than the God that conceived me."

Pulling back slightly, Harry raised an eyebrow at Hermione as she wiped her eyes and nodded. "You're right," she murmured, "We should go."

"Really? That quickly?" Harry said before he could stop himself, cringing back as Hermione picked up her backpack and fixed him with a 'Really?' look.

"Don't think for a second that I'm over this," Hermione declared, "I'm not ready, but I'm prepared. I can break down later."

"Wait… that's what you got from that?" he asked slowly, wondering how Hermione of all people could miss the point entirely.

"No," Hermione denied, sending him an annoyed look as she picked the bow and quiver up and awkwardly put it back into her bag, "But I'm ready to move on now. No point in crying over something that doesn't matter anymore. Mum and Dad are more my parents than anyone else, and that's all that matters."

Harry was unable to stop himself from smiling at Hermione as he picked up his own backpack, sliding it onto his back and offering her his arm. "Shall we?" he asked formally, his smile turning into a grin as she rolled her eyes but slid her arm through his. "So I know Seamus said it would take around two hours, but do we really have to walk all that way?" he asked as they started towards the door.

Hermione looked panicked again for a moment, before a devious look appeared on her face, "He said nothing about taking the bus," she corrected innocently.

Staring at her expression in shock, Harry could only allow her to drag him out of the locker room and into the station itself. "Who are you, and what did you do to Hermione Granger?" he asked dumbly, making his bushy-haired friend let out a concerning slightly evil laugh.

PANDEMONIUM

"If we turn left at the highway, we'll just need to follow it along until we reach the state parks. From there we can either follow the road until we reach the service road, or hike through the forest and save some time."

"Harry? Harry!"

Jumping in shock as his name was screamed into his ear, Harry quickly turned his attention towards the annoyed looking Hermione walking beside him. "Yeah?" he asked cautiously, watching as her eye twitched at him.

"Hike in the forest to save time? Or follow the road which is safer?" Hermione pressed, Harry absently realising his feet were already hurting from just walking.

"I guess we should follow the road," Harry suggested slowly, "Remember what Seamus said yesterday about our scents? And if the forest is monster infested, then it's probably a bad idea to walk through it."

Hermione hummed under her breath as Harry looked around guiltily, realising he hadn't been showing any tact in front of the occasional muggle walking past them at what was apparently around three in the morning. "That makes sense," she agreed, "Especially since most 'mythos' are magic resistant and we don't have any warriors with us.". When he started at her with wide eyes, Hermione just snorted and rolled her eyes at him, "Honestly Harry. Nobody here cares that we play Dungeons and Dragons, if we want to talk about our latest quest then we'll talk about our latest quest."

Nodding slowly, Harry just decided to go along with Hermione's cover, knowing a little about DnD from before Hogwarts. "And with how low our, uh, levels are? It's probably not the best idea to go wandering through said monster infested forest," he said slowly, "Especially since as Wizards we can't use armour or weapons."

"Exactly. So we go around the forest? It may take us a little longer to get there, but once we learn the teleport spell, we can just teleport straight there instead of walking," Hermione continued, acting more like she was just planning aloud instead of talking to him.

When Harry nodded, Hermione folded up the map and slipped it into her pocket, tightening her grip on his arm as they walked. "Are… are we doing the right thing?" she whispered, making him frown over at her.

"No idea," Harry admitted bluntly, "You're the one who makes all the plans, I'm the one who follows my gut."

"And what does your gut say about this?" Hermione asked softly.

"My gut tells me that even if I hadn't changed my mind about leaving early, then having a couple of extra days to prepare myself for this wouldn't have helped," Harry confessed. "I still feel like I'm just going to wake up and find out it's all been a dream. And I know that the Camp is where it's all going to hit home for me, that once I reach the Camp that it's all going to be real. Why? What do your plans say about this?" he asked, a flicker of nervousness rising up in his chest at Hermione's question.

"Well it's not like I've ever done anything like this before," she said slowly, "I can't make a plan without knowing the variables. And since I don't know anything about the variables of this world, I can't make a plan."

"So… winging it?" Harry asked innocently, grinning down at his friend as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Merlin, you're such a Gryffindor," Hermione muttered, scrunching her face up as Harry instantly reminded her that she was a Gryffindor as well. "I hate you," she pouted as he laughed, her grip on his arm relaxing as she leaned her head against his shoulder while they walked. "What…" she began after a short silence, "What do you think the Camp is going to be like?"

Honestly? Harry wasn't sure about what to expect at the Camp. Seamus made it sound like a home away from home, while Neville made it sound rather like Hogwarts. And while Hogwarts was a home away from home to Harry, he got the feeling that Camp Half-Blood couldn't be any less like Hogwarts if it tried. And part of him told Harry that this was good, but another part of him was afraid that it'd be exactly like Hogwarts where it 'mattered'. The last thing he wanted was to be 'The Twice-Blessed' instead of 'Harry Potter', it'd be just like being the 'Boy-Who-Lived' all over again. Harry kind of wanted a place to be himself, where he didn't have to worry about how he acted because of his 'fame'.

"Do you, do you think Neville and Seamus have already told people that I'm Twice-Blessed?" he asked, ignoring her question in favour of his own. "I mean I know we need to tell, uh, Chiron? But do you think we could not tell anyone else?" he explained hopefully, "I don't want to be stared at anymore."

"Oh, Harry," Hermione exhaled, pulling back to watch him as he stubbornly kept his gaze on the pavement. "I don't think it would matter, even if you could keep it a secret," she denied, making his attention snap to her fully as he turned his head to face her. "Even if you're not a Twice-Blessed to them, you're still the Firstborn Son of Eris, and if the other's reactions were enough then I don't think that you'll get any peace either way."

"Of course I won't get peace, Eris is the Goddess of Strife," Harry snapped without thinking, pausing and grimacing before glancing over at Hermione guiltily. "Sorry, I'm just…"

"Confused?" Hermione finished when he trailed off, "You're not the only one."

"I hate my life sometimes," Harry mumbled.

"If it makes you feel better, then I hate your life sometimes too," Hermione agreed, "I've forgotten what a normal school year feels like, and every year with you makes things stranger and stranger. I hate to see what you do next year, it's going to be hard to beat the Olympian Gods."

PANDEMONIUM

"I always hated forests," Hermione said suddenly, making Harry glance over at his exhausted friend. "Dad loves hiking, but personally I hated it. The nature got everywhere."

"The nature got everywhere?" he echoed, biting back a yawn as Hermione's jaw popped during her own. "So you're probably not the Daughter of Demeter or Artemis," he pointed out slowly, trying to distract her from their aching feet by proving he was listening during her earlier 'Olympian Gods 101' lesson.

"Artemis doesn't have children," Hermione corrected instantly, "And you've seen me during Herbology, Harry, you know I don't have a green thumb."

"I know, I just thought 'What if Hermione's Mum isn't Athena?'," he pointed out defensively. "Athena's a Virgin Goddess as well," he said quickly, realising his mistake as Hermione opened her mouth. "I just can't think of who else it could be. Unless there's a Goddess of Bushy Hair," he added jokingly.

"If I could raise my arms I'd hit you," Hermione dead-panned, making him chuckle as her face scrunched up in thought. "What about… Hecate?" she questioned, "She's Goddess of Magic, and I'm not only the brightest Witch of our year, but I'm also a Muggleborn?"

"You're arrogant, that's what you are," Harry teased, grinning again as Hermione raised her hand threateningly.

"Oh yeah? What about you?" Hermione countered, a tired smile on her face as she rose to his challenge. "Who's the God of Bad Luck?"

"Most likely my father," Harry muttered, both of them freezing as a loud haunting howl echoed through the air, sending shivers down Harry's spine reminiscent of a dementor's aura. "Told you so," he groaned as he and Hermione automatically pulled out their wands, looking up and down the road to make sure there were no muggles around.

"What was that?" Hermione asked nervously, grasping his arm as he started running through all the offensive spells he knew.

As more howls filled the air, signalling the presence of a pack instead of just a single wolf, Harry glanced around before grabbing Hermione's arm and pulling her into the forest. "I don't know, but I don't like the sound of it," he confessed, his wand tip sparking dangerously.

"Oh Merlin, what do we do?" Hermione blurted, "What can we do? We don't have any weapons, and magic is useless against them!"

"Hermione," he began.

"We need help Harry, we can't fight them without help," Hermione continued, her face pale and her voice shaking in fear. "Oh my God. I'm not ready, I'm not ready," she realised hysterically, looking panicked and lost.

"Hermione!" he yelled, snapping her attention away from the approaching threat and back to him. "How close are we to the Camp?" he asked as another barrage of howling filled the air and she trembled weakly, "Hermione! Can we make it?" he demanded when she just shook and whimpered.

"I- I don't know," she stuttered out.

Resisting the urge to slap her out of her panic, Harry grabbed her arm instead and started leading her through the forest at a run. "Hermione! We need a plan!" he yelled as she almost tripped into a hole in the ground, "Hermione!"

Thankfully, Hermione seemed to snap out of it and start running on her own, freeing Harry up to keep an eye on their surroundings as another round of howling filled the air. "They're right on top of us 'Mione! We need a plan!" Harry yelled, able to hear the wolf-dogs following them, crashing through the trees.

Hermione's scream stabbed into Harry's ears as something huge and black exploded out of the trees in front of them, shining fangs snarling and red eyes glowing. Catching Hermione before she ran into what Harry's mind instantly identified as a 'grim', Harry tugged her behind him as he followed the sounds of three other hounds bounding out of the forest and into the clearing, all of them taller than him and Hermione.

"Hermione," he whispered as they instinctively went back-to-back, his head darting left and right in an attempt to keep all four giant dogs in view. "My left pocket has a small expansion charm on it, Professor McGonagall cast it for me before we left. My invisibility cloak is in it," he explained as the dogs snarled and growled at them, drool pouring from their mouths as if from a hose. "Take it and put it on. Make your way to the Camp to get help," he ordered. "Don't argue with me," he said louder, overriding Hermione's sound of disgust and instant refusal, "Just do it!"

'Eris… Mum… Please help me' he prayed hopefully, eyes flicking to the sky for a moment before remembering his mother was in Tartarus and dropping his eyes to the ground instead. 'Mum. Dad. Please we need help,' he continued mentally as he ignored Hermione's argument behind him, 'At least help Hermione if you can't help me. As long as she makes it.'

"-not leaving you!" Hermione was saying as he returned his attention to the problem at hand. "Not when magic doesn't work against them!"

"Hermione!" he roared as one of the hounds made a feint towards him, Harry's incindio barely scorching it as the hound took the spell in the face and shrugged it off, the smell of sulfur filling his nose. "I'm not giving you a choice here! We're not that far away from the Camp, you'll be there and back with help before you know it," he assured her, despite knowing that it would only take seconds for just one of the hellhounds to tear him to shreds.

(The sulfur gave them away, he didn't need to be as smart as Hermione to put two and two together)

Realising that Hermione was right about magic, Harry pocketed his wand and instead reached over his shoulder and shoved his hand into his backpack, pulling out the sword that Seamus had given him. Almost instantly, the hellhound in front of him backed away slightly, glowing red eyes locked onto the softly glowing blade Harry was holding in front of him. Swinging the sword awkwardly, Harry watched as the hellhound ducked away from it each time, realising that even if he couldn't use it as an actual weapon, that the sword worked perfectly as a 'nuclear deterrent'.

As the sword cut through the air, forcing the hellhound before him to back off or get hurt, he let out a stuttered gasp as a presence engulfed him with a sensation he'd only felt from one of Mrs Weasley's hugs. Feelings of love and family encompassing him, Harry felt the leather wristbands sealed around his forearms beginning to heat up, drawing his eyes down to them in time to catch them shimmering slightly as – like a switch had been flicked in his mind - he just suddenly knew what they were and how to use them.

Eyes flicking between the bands and the circling hounds, Harry stepped forward to swing his sword at a feinting hellhound, pride flooding him as it let out a yelp when the blade opened up a gash on it's face. "Fine! Plan B then!" he decided as he stepped back in towards Hermione, who was still using her wand on the hellhounds despite it's uselessness on them. "Wait for my signal, then plaster yourself as tightly to my back as you can. Then… then we run like Fluffy is after us and we're dressed like a squeaky toy."

Hermione let out a startled scoffing-snort, pausing to cast a diffindo at a Hellhound. "Your plans are terrible!" she snarled over her shoulder, "I hate your plans!"

"Then why don't you come up with something?" Harry snapped back at her, knowing it was just the fear making her speak like that (She got the same way before a test). When Hermione didn't respond beyond uselessly cursing a hellhound, Harry nodded curtly, "Alright then! My plan, on three!"

"Wait! One, two, three go?" Hermione asked out of nowhere, "Or one, two, and go on three?"

Rolling his eyes, since even he got that joke, Harry instead replied with "One," spinning his sword around and stabbing it into the earth at his feet.

The hellhound in front of Harry was tensing up, he could see it's head lowering as it's muscles bunched up beneath it's thin coat of coal black fur.

"Two."

His wristbands were still rather warm as he shifted his weight in preparation to raise his arms. Merlin he hoped this would work, while he was certain that he could use them, he wasn't so certain that they were made with car-sized hellhounds in mind.

"Three."

The hellhound in front of him lunged forward just as Harry said 'Three', meaning he was already prepared as he brought both arms up and slammed his forearms together, elbow to elbow and fist to fist, willing with everything he had for them to work.

"HARRY!"

Hermione's scream echoed through his mind as he felt energy rolling through his body, exploding out around him as the Hellhound came within inches of his face, before being blasted back and into a tree by the energy.

"Oh my God," Hermione choked out as Harry strained to keep his forearms together, the backlash of the shimmering dome of power surrounding them both making him feel like his arms were going to be torn off. "Oh my God. Harry?"

"My arms," he rasped, "Hold my arms together!"

Almost instantly he felt Hermione turning around behind him and latching onto him, her sweaty hands grasping his forearms and pushing them together. Able to move his focus away slightly, Harry studied the force field encircling them. It was almost invisible, the only sign of it's presence was the way the air warped and twisted in a ring around them. A soft shimmer of colour rolled through the shield, constantly changing from a black even darker than the hellhound's coat, to a softer silver that made everything seem so much brighter.

Feeling the drain on his energy, sweat rolling down his face, he felt the pressure stabbing into him every time a hellhound launched themselves uselessly at the barrier. "Get ready… to run," he forced out, flinching as another attack made his arms jerk apart slightly.

"One... two..." As the force field sent another hellhound flying, Harry shouted out 'three' and allowed his arms to be thrown away from each other like they were both 'north' points on a magnet. Absently watching the way the force field seemed to roll out from them, staggering the hellhounds surrounding them, Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and his sword and they ran.

His blood pumping in his ears, his heart pounding through his skull, Harry sprinted as fast as he could while keeping even with Hermione. Listening to Hermione throwing curses and hexes over her shoulder, Harry focused on leading them around trees and holes in the ground.

"OVER HERE! HARRY! THIS WAY!"

Harry changed directions towards the wildly flailing Seamus, using his grip on Hermione's arm to help her keep running as she almost tripped up. "RUN!" the Irishman continued frantically, around a dozen teenagers standing beside him with their weapons drawn, none of them making a move to help. "GET BEHIND THE BARRIER!"

Suddenly things were moving in slow motion, as Harry saw the black blur from the corner of his eye, forcing him to release Hermione's arm and slash at the hellhound which couldn't stop it's charge in time. Being lifted cleanly off his feet by the momentum, a yelp escaped his lips as he was slammed into a tree by the hellhound's body. As the hellhound reared up above him, a loud wet 'thunk' filled the air, an arrow slamming into the flesh on its rear leg and making it stagger to the side.

"HARRY! RUN!" Hermione screamed, forcing Harry to fight through the pain in his chest to turn to face her, his bushy haired best friend's entire body trembling as she awkwardly pulled another arrow from the quiver at her feet and nocked the bow again.

As more arrows came from the direction of Seamus and the other Demigods, Harry's world narrowed down to Hermione and the hellhound about to lunge at her from the side. Snatching up his sword, Harry moved purely on instinct and let out a 'battle cry' as he charged the hellhound himself, raising his sword in both hands and bringing it down with all the strength he had left before the hound ever realised he was there.

To his immediate disgust, what he automatically identified as blood splashed into his face as his sword continued down through the hellhound's neck and into the ground.

A wordless exclamation from Hermione made him spin around instantly, bringing the sword up again only to find Hermione sitting there with a dumbfounded look on her face as she stared up at him. "Your eyes," she gasped out, her whole body trembling as she just sat there, "They're… they're… black," she finished as her own eyes dropped down to his arms.

Looking down, Harry barely had time to realise that the veins in his arms had swollen up and gone black as if his blood itself had changed colours, before his instincts screamed at him and he was tackled by a hellhound. Even as a scream was torn from his throat, pain filling him as the hellhound's teeth sank into his arm, Harry was helpless to do anything but watch as power flared in his chest and rolled down his arms and into the hellhound, taking the blackness in his veins with it.

The hellhound still instantly, releasing his arm which Harry tucked into his chest as he stared at the hellhound's eyes, watching as the glowing red was covered by a cloud of black. Snarling drew his attention to the hellhound pincushion as it entered his line of sight, the hellhound standing above him beginning to trembling before it whirled around and launched itself bodily at the other hound. Unable to do anything but watch, Harry just lay there as the hellhound tore it's 'packmate's' throat out violently and then dove for the other hound.

"HARRY! RUN!"

Hermione's voice snapped him out of his shock, and he surged to his feet, accepting Seamus' shoulder to lean on as they hurried through a 'wall' of magic and as the others retreated as well. Collapsing to his hands and knees when they came to a stop, Harry turned back to the hellhounds in time to see the remaining one start throwing itself around violently, ramming itself into trees and tearing them apart crazily.

"Harry?"

Glancing over to Hermione and catching the question in her eyes, Harry could only nod in response, every breath feeling like he was breathing in fire. "It was me," he rasped out, "I did that?"

"Harry, you're bleeding," Hermione corrected, staring at him in horror as he realised she'd never really seen the 'blood' aspect of any of his adventures.

"I'm fine, I've… I've had worse," he denied as he glanced down at his arm weakly. He could barely feel it, the basilisk venom in second year hurt ten times worse than the hellhound's bite. And then as if his body was determined to prove him wrong, Harry felt himself choking and instinctively started coughing, watching as blood splattered across the grass in front of him.

"Oh," he exhaled as everything started to go black, "That's bad."