Hello again for another installment of this story. I do apologize for the somewhat later release, I wanted to get this out sooner but I hit a small roadblock on which of the two characters I had in mind for a specific scene and needed to get in the funk of attempting to take on that role of that character specifically. Unfortunately I had a harder time than expected and had to rewrite that encounter several times to get it to where I think I did the character justice. Also MGSV: The Phantom Pain came out and I've been sucked into it, though let's be honest I should be doing my schoolwork (*and cue The Price is Right failure theme, the one with the tubas*). Before I get to the chapter I want to clear up some things so that we're all on the same page.
Hedwig being a familiar - Now some might question why Harry is allowed to keep her when she is the sacred animal of Athena when Harry is the son of Aphrodite, who Athena dislikes on a moral standpoint. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of bet involving "I bet I can set Athena up on a date and make her pop her actual cherry" from Aphrodite. Since Harry is a Legacy of hers and since he has taken such good care of his first friend (Hermione is his second) considering his home life she was allowed to bond with him allowing him to hear her telepathically.
I have been conversing with one of our fellow readers and we have both come to the conclusion that we can't see Nymphadora Tonks really joining in on Dumbles' evil master plan as they're family, albeit extended family. And family, like Marines, take care of their own. We also talked about Ron's involvement with Dumbles as well and I just need to clarify with you guys that Dumbles went the path of indoctrination, aka thought reform. There's LITERALLY a manual for this stuff. If you guys are interested YouTuber MatPat did a video on his Film Theory channel called "The Cult of Christian Grey" where he explains the psychological manipulations that Grey uses on Anna. Seriously, go watch it now (YouTube video ID: 3VVyh_IM3Ik) before continuing to read this chapter. I promise that it's a well spent 19 minutes of your life and an insight into the "Cult of Dumbledore" as well as the "Cult of Voldemort" and why no one seems to be questioning a borderline "senile" old man. The eight steps of indoctrination is what I'm going to make Dumbles use on not only Ron, but all the members of the British Wizarding World to put them under his control, knowingly or not.
mattcun: Hopefully this chapter will sate you for the time being.
Ronin Kenshin: Well thank you for the praise, and also here's another chapter for you.
Opinr(guest): Have another chapter, my friend.
Guest (seriously dude, please put a fake name for reference purposes, see Opinr above for an example): I did fix that mistake. My strongpoint is not Norse mythology, unfortunately. That's something that I do want to fix in the near future when I have time.
crazy dragon ninja: Here's another chapter, and more to look forward to.
Shadowz101: Yeah, I've been on a Halo fix, but now it's MGSV right now. Damn that game's good. There are a few people I missed during the Aphrodite/Thor rampage of vengeance (trademark pending), that will be round two once Vernon's trial and sentencing is complete, which I hopefully will knock out soon.
percyjacksonfan135: Well here's one more.
HeirOftheHowlingWolves: Wish granted. See? There was a reason I was asking all those questions :).
ww1990ww: Unfortunately I don't know much about the Darksiders series, though I own the second game through Xbox's Games with Gold program (I've got a backlog of games). I do agree that Chiron mentions in the book that capital G God is talking about the metaphysical. While I could somehow implement that, I would need more knowledge of the series before I pull that off. This is the reason why there are only elements of the Devil May Cry series involved in this story, I know enough about the weapons from information that I can gather from both YouTube and from the DMC wiki page. I know some lore, but I'd rather not contradict myself.
Ogreman: Now while you didn't review in the "traditional" method I do want to say thank you and I hope that this chapter continues to live up to the expectations that you've read and expect from me so far.
Guest #2: Here, have another chapter.
GryffindorPosidens Divergents: I know right? Claudia is the badass tech nerd that later becomes an agent and (spoiler alert) becomes head of the Warehouse after Mrs. Fredricks. I do wish that that show was still on the air. I miss the banter between Pete and Myka.
One last thing before we get on with the story. Guest users, please follow fellow guest user Opinr's example and use a fake name, that way you know that I'm talking to you rather than someone else. It just makes it easier for me to keep track of things. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my copy of MS Word and my laptop. Complete disclaimer in chapter 1.
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"Talking."
'Thinking.'
'Divine communication.'
[Specific event start/stop]
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It had been two days since Harry had arrived in Camp Half-Blood and since then he had become acquainted with all of the cabin councilors like Clarisse of the Aries cabin. She had been incessant in asking about Yamato, then proceeding to semi-insult him about being 'one of the competent children of Aphrodite'. The last two mornings went the same way: he would wake up at the crack of dawn after experiencing a variation of the dream where there would be very small changes. The second night he was at camp the character in the dream had used a handgun, and last night there were more people added to the group around the battle, both living and dead as well as the song from Kill Bill, 'The Lonely Shepherd.'
After waking up before breakfast he would go jogging around the bay, practicing throwing punches as he did. His reasoning was that should he ever be disarmed he would need a more structured hand to hand fighting method. If he didn't say year-round he was planning on taking a myriad of different martial arts to see what specific style would work for him. While basic combat training was taught at camp, it seemed like the more advanced fighting styles one had to learn on their own, though that was an exception for Ares' children as they most likely had styles passed down from the most trained of them to the greenhorns. The previous day he had talked to the Hephaestus cabin leader Beckendorf about commissioning him a dagger blade that he could hide in an ankle sheath that could also be thrown if needed.
Even after he finished his jog and other workout routines he had set himself on he would practice more sword katas with his own blade before practicing as well with the Camp training blades. He rationalized that there might be times where he would have to use the 'standard issue' blade if for some reason, gods forbid, he was unable to use Yamato for one reason or another.
Harry was both happy and sad at the same time though as he had received a newspaper from both the mundane and wizarding worlds alerting him that his uncle had brutally murdered his aunt and cousin. While he couldn't care less about his cousin, it was his aunt he was slightly saddened by. While she demeaned and insulted him, she never did lay a hand on him. After talking to Chiron about it he concluded that he was sympathizing with his tormentors. According to the newspaper from the mundane side Vernon's arraignment was at the end of the week. In the wizarding world they were accusing Harry of murdering his own relatives, placing his uncle under an Imperius curse to force him to do so.
Harry strolled into the pavilion after his pre-breakfast workout and shower to finally eat when Hedwig arrived with a small letter sized package in her beak. He opened and unfolded it to see a pair of very large folders that one would similarly find usage inside of as police or federal agency case file. One folder was labelled 'Black' while the other was labelled 'Potter.' Harry had obviously confirmed that these were the preliminary results of the audit he requested for the Potter estate and vaults, but he didn't request the Black family vault and accounts audited. He opened the Potter folder and saw what he suspected from at least the monetary portion of the accounts. It was all drained down to a single Knut as 'Restitution for Cedric Diggory's death' and the rest was confiscated by the Ministry. However as the ancestral artifacts were only to be handed off to immediate family or children, and since Harry didn't have any children they stayed where they were.
He only paged through the inventory of the Potter family vault which had some treasures, enchanted items such as mage staves and other medieval weaponry, and many tomes passed down for generations from the Potter family line as well as several that merged into the Potter family such as the Perverells. He saw a note from Ragnuk himself stating that they were in the process of reclaiming all the stolen money from over the years, but until they did recover it into his accounts physically they would extend him a line of credit worth what was stolen and automatically transfer they money for the debts accrued until then. Opening the second folder for the Black family he was immediately greeted with a letter from Sirius himself.
'Pup,
'If you're reading this then that either means that I'm dead and did so without any children of my own, or you've gained access to the Black family vault and the rest of its ancestral contents. If I am in fact dead, make good use of it. Go out on a few dates with some lovely young ladies for me, will you? Find someone like your mum and settle down. Someone fierce and fearless, someone who can hold their own, and someone absolutely lovely.
'If on the off chance that I'm NOT dead then congratulations, sorry I couldn't tell you sooner about being my heir, I sort of got put away before I could have any Pad-lettes of my own. I was going out with quite the lovely lady before your parents got killed by Voldemort, but oh well. It's my fault I went after Pettigrew instead of watching over you. You have no idea how many times since I escaped Azkaban a year ago (1) that I've tried persuading Dumbledore to let you live with me rather than the despicable THINGS called your aunt and uncle. Enough of that though. As my heir you have access to all the Black family fortune and valuables as well as my ancestral home at Number 4 Grimmuld Place.
'Enjoy,
'Padfoot'
P.S.: Please do get rid of my mother's portrait. She can be quite annoying.
Harry folded up the letter and placed it back in the folder. He glanced through the folder's contents as he was sure actual training was going to start soon. He had already sacrificed a portion of his meal towards his mother, his unknown grandfather, Hades, and Athena. He looked at the total of the account ledger and saw how many zeroes were there.
"That's… a lot of zeroes," he heard behind him. Harry spun around to see Luke Castellian, the councilor for the Hermes cabin. "What are galleons?" he said sitting next to Harry backwards, away from the table.
"Money used by the wizarding community," Harry replied, closing the folder quickly, not allowing the son of the Thief to see what Harry owned.
"And how much, exactly, is a galleon?" Luke asked curiously.
"They're made from gold into coins weighing one troy ounce each," Harry replied absentmindedly.
"Ok so that's about $292.28 per troy ounce… (2) which would mean that you're one rich kid."
Harry was surprised, "How did you know that?"
Luke looked smug, "Well I'm the son of Hermes, and we tend to have a tendency to know the value of things. That and I watch the Commodities Market."
"So… you cheated," Harry deadpanned.
"A little," Luke smirked. He reclined a bit, allowing him to lean on the table. "So I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Oh? What about?" Harry's eyebrow was raised.
"You know, I heard about you and your past. How you were left with your relatives, how they abused you mentally and physically, how a megalomaniac forced you to go back to them every summer during which they lock you up like some sort of criminal for something outside your control. Why didn't your mother, the Lady of Love herself save you?"
"She said something about jurisdiction, how she wasn't allowed to do anything-."
"Is that what she told you?" Luke chided. "The gods can go anywhere they wish, do anything they want. They can be anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye. If your divine mother does in fact love you so much, why did she wait until you were fifteen and in prison before she took notice of you?" The 'what-if' questions started worming their way into his mind. "Why should you show any loyalty to her when she's abandoned you for fifteen years?"
Luke's argument made sense, in a twisted way. However this made Harry curious. "If I were to not show loyalty to my mother, who would I show loyalty to, and why?"
Luke leaned close, "You have to promise to keep this on the down low. There is another who you can show loyalty to. He's powerful and mighty and it took the Sky Lord's most powerful weapon to defeat him. Of you swear your loyalty to him through me and join us when the time is right then you will share in our bounty and he would grant you a share of his power."
Harry thought about it, however something sounded 'hinky' (4) with the whole deal. He had already been used by Dumbledore and this deal sounded just too good to be true. "I'll have to think on it," Harry replied.
"Take your time, but don't wait too long as this offer won't last forever," Luke said before he got up and walked back to his cabin's table after planting a kiss on Selene.
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Harry sat on the hill overlooking the camp, the same one where Thalia Grace had been turned into a tree which protected the campers inside by her father Zeus. Harry contemplated Luke's offer and analyzed every little thing that he knew. The first thing was the one that Luke was talking about. He had learned from Chiron that names had power and he shouldn't tell anyone his full name for multiple reasons, primarily curses which required one's name.
He thought about who would be just as powerful as Zeus if not more. The only beings he could think of were the Titans or the Primordials like Mother Earth herself or an entire pantheon. But Luke spoke as though he were speaking of one person and one person only Harry would have to swear an allegiance to, not a group. But of it was a Titan, who? There were plenty of Titans that opposed Kronos's rule and teamed up with the Olympians when the opportunity presented itself, but there were just as many supporting the Titan king as well.
Harry did think about the motives of his mother. Why DID she wait until he was on the verge of going clinically insane instead of dropping him off with a person who she would be certain that they would take care of him? Was there something that she needed from him (3)? While he was caught in his mental debate he didn't realize that another camper had come up to him.
"So what's tall, dark, and brooding doing sitting at the foot of the pine tree when everyone else is actually having fun?" a girl stated forcing him to look up. Before him stood a girl, roughly the same age as him (but then again so were a mass majority of the campers there as well), with long black hair, blue eyes, and a tan that screamed 'California surfer' (5).
"Just thinking," Harry replied, in an attempt to keep his troubles to himself.
She sat down next to him and said, "So you're just sitting here… thinking. About what?"
"Nothing," Harry said a little too quickly.
"Uhhuh, right. So you're just sitting here under the most depressing place in camp to think about… nothing," the girl replied back sarcastically, adding in gestures to show that Harry wasn't fooling her. "The only time anyone goes someplace depressing is when they need to think about something serious without the chance of someone finding them. So spill, what were you thinking about?" she asked firmly.
Harry saw that she wasn't going to leave any time soon, or at least not without answers. He sighed, "Have you ever thought if your parents cared about you or not?"
"While it's hard for me to remember her sometimes, I know that my mother cared for me. However foster parents, not so much."
"What about your godly parent?"
"Well… we've had our high points and our low points. I mean when I originally met him I pretty much yelled at him for letting my mother die. It took a while but at least we can interact now without bringing up old fights. Why do you ask?"
"I've been talking to Luke-." The girl let out a scoff-like laugh. "-and he has been telling me how my mother could have done something over the last thirteen years. And to be honest, he speaks logically."
"Flawed logic," the girl interrupted. "Do you know his history?" Harry shook his head. "His story is similar to a lot of demigods here at camp. Our mother or father had a one night stand with a disguised god or goddess and a month or two later we appeared on our mortal parent's doorstep. If our parents married then the stepparent dislikes is because we are not if their blood, however that has to do with supernatural issues more than anything else. At some point we're attacked by some monster which causes us to leave home either voluntarily to protect our parents and stepsiblings or by force by the stepparent not wanting us around anymore putting their kids and their lives in danger. Eventually we make our way here through either by ourselves after wandering for a long time or through a searcher like the Satyrs. Luke had a very similar experience, one he has yet to forgive both himself and his father."
"What about me? I can guarantee you that I have the most unique life out of everyone in camp."
She shrugged, "I don't know. That's up to you to decide whether you decide to absolutely forgive your parent for not doing what you think they should have done, thank them for just getting you here alive, or hold a grudge." She got up and looked at the bay, "You know, a German philosopher once said, 'Every man enters the world as many, but leaves as one.' What happens next is up to you (6)."
Harry stared at the girl. She was very insightful for her age, "Just who are you?"
She turned around with a grin and said, "Leah Blackwood, daughter of Triton. Pleased to meet you."
To be continued…
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And there we go, another chapter knocked out. I wanted to put more in it, but I just couldn't think of anything to add this time around. Kill Bill? Yeah someone mentioned it and the song "The Lonely Shepherd" got stuck in my head. Let's be honest, it would be appropriate. Also, more notes!
1. This was written shortly after the second task so therefore closely enough to be a year.
2. According to google the price of gold in December of 2005 was $292.28 per troy ounce. Today it's well over $1300 per troy ounce.
3. As we all know the gods are not Omnipresent. To those of a Christian background, or those who know Latin, Omnipresent means "always present." In this case Aphrodite not knowing Harry's internal debate as she's off doing her thing.
4. And Ms. Abby Scuito of NCIS makes a cameo appearance by quoted by Harry's inner voice.
5. The OC Leah Blackwood belongs to user HeirOftheHowlingWolves (ID: 5002399) and is used with their permission.
6. The quote is actually from a much larger quote that Martin Heidegger said, but this is the segment that everyone's heard at least once. The second line at the end is a line from the E3 trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction.
Alright before I take off and play more Metal Gear Solid 5- I mean work on stuff. Yeah… that… So a while back I wrote some other stories that I never quite got around to publishing on the site. If I were to post them on the site would you guys be interested in reading them? Let me know and I'll decide on whether I will or not. I've also been thinking of writing a Game of Thrones crossover as well but that idea is still in its infancy and might just die as an idea. I do have a Halo one that's on ice but it does have two chapters written.
Also before I go I need to ask a favor from you guys, I need someone who can write prophecies. I plan to send Harry on a quest that is completely unrelated to the Lightning Thief quest, but I lack the poetic talent to write such a thing. If you're interested shoot me a PM and I'll contact you about what he'll need to accomplish so you can shoot me some prototype prophecies.
Also a quick metrics report as of 9/8/2015 2:24am CST: 195 followers, 143 favorites, included in 3 communities, and a whopping 4761 views. Holy crap you guys! Keep being awesome!
Next time: Debts will start to be settled. Dumbledore begins to search for the fugitive Harry. Harry makes contact with Sirius.
