Mount Olympus: The Kitchens

Thursday, August 19, 1995 – Lunch

"Why do we have lunch anyway?" Athena asked. "Honestly, why?"

Hera bowed to Zeus. "Zeus feels that we need to experience more human sensations. We don't need food. Our vital life force comes from within ourselves. When dealing with Magical Britain, we need something to keep us connected to basic human needs. The one that Zeus has chosen is food. We smell the kitchen smells. We see the food being prepared. We watch the house-elves do their daily jobs. Our kitchen exists in Hogwarts and on Mount Olympus at the same time. We experience the kitchen without having to be there."

"Why? Why go to all this trouble?"

Zeus spoke, "Because we have to do their leaders job for them. Magical Britain's leaders are too disconnected from ordinary people's lives. Our intervention here has to be completed. Harry has done his job. His long reward will be everything that a mortal could wish for. His allies here should be rewarded as well. Punishment for those who hurt Harry is easy. Correction for the mistaken and misled will be tricky and necessary."

Zeus continued, "It's time to consider rewards and corrections. Lord Greengrass has received his first reward for the help he gave to Harry. Let's see more rewards and corrections."

Two Hogwarts boys entered the kitchens. The house-elves happily greeted them.

"What about these two?" Athena asked.

Hermes replied.

"Fred and George Weasley; their school records show that they have made the minimum effort required to finish their education. They have no ambition to enter the ranks of the bureaucracy or academia. Their natural inclination has always been to defy established authorities and at the same time to avoid punishment for this defiance by using their cunning intelligence. They have also been two of Harry's best allies. I have attempted to guide and assist them in their development."

"They are here today to mooch some chocolate éclairs from the house-elves. The house-elves love them. The twins usually get anything they ask for."

Hermes was frequently used as a messenger from Zeus. He was given this job to keep him out of trouble. Hermes was a born trickster. He loved Fred and George who, in turn, followed the inspirations Hermes sent to them.

"Show us how they helped Harry." Hera asked.

-ooOOoo—

"No quidditch! They can't mean it!" Katie Bell was fuming.

"Professor McGonagall said it again. We asked her and she said it was definite. We are not to do anything which will take attention away from the Tournament." Oliver Wood was depressed and angry.

"Can we practice?" Katie asked.

"We don't need any permission to practice. We just book the pitch and turn up." Fred replied.

"OK. Let's practice as usual." Wood was gloomy.

The Gryffindor team trudged down to the Quidditch pitch. They changed into their practice outfits and emerged into the November afternoon. The weak light was enough to see the quaffle. They would not use the snitch today. There was no seeker. A replacement for Harry had not been appointed.

George felt something tickle his mind. "This isn't official. We can still get Harry to practice with us."

The team stopped; their heads came up. "YES!" "Get Harry!"

The practice happened with a lighter mood than was going down before.

Practice was over. Fred and George entered the common room. "Neville!" "Just the man we want to see!"

Neville gave his most eloquent reply, "HUH!"

"Neville!" "Man!" "Listen!" "We need you to get to Harry Potter." "You know, the bloke locked up in that tower with all those chicks."

Neville caught up, "Harry! Yeh!"

"We need a proper seeker to practice with." "Harry is the man!" "There is a lot of snotty, snivelling back biting going on in Weasley world." "We need someone who Harry trusts and who isn't going to bring down the wrath of The Molly on us." "Someone like you." "You can talk to Harry and get him to join us for quidditch practice." "What do say?"

Neville smiled, "Sure, I'm sitting with them at dinner, I'll ask him then."

"What a smooth operator!" "Why to go big Nev!"

Neville smirked. "You guys are a bit much. Why are you so hyper?"

-ooOOoo—

Hermes looked embarrassed. "That was me. I gave them a bit too much of a kick along."

"You are too obvious!"

"You know that Zeus gave us all the rules."

"We have rules for ourselves, remember Hermes!"

"There must be as little interference as possible."

"You can influence them, but not overpower their own decision making."

"Any problems they have, they must fix themselves."

"They will not get a rewarding afterlife if they do not have any choices to make in this life."

"Yes! We know! The Edicts were a big interference. That was an emergency."

"Zeus does not want to hurl lightning bolts down at anyone ignoring the Edicts. He might; but he also only has to wait until their wizarding life is over. That is barely a second in time for us. He wants to enjoy the entertainment that handing them over to Hades always gives."

"Quidditch is not, and never will be, an emergency!"

"The thing we wanted to see happened. They set it up for Harry to re-connect with his quidditch team; full marks for that."

"Show us another one."

-ooOOoo—

Practice was winding down for the afternoon. They had some watchers. There were usually people hanging around from their own house. There were a few more this time.

Boyan came up to Oliver Wood. "Hello! Can I talk to you about quidditch?"

"Sure!"

Boyan smiled. "We have some quidditch players here from Durmstrang. We would like to have some friendly matches with you, not official ones, of course. We know that quidditch has been stopped because of the Tournament. That is a crime. We would have loved to be in a quidditch competition against Hogwarts and Beaubatons."

Wood came alive. "Let me talk to the other house team captains. If they agree, we can have an unofficial quidditch tournament between Durmstrang, Beaubatons, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor. We could have a quidditch match every Saturday unless a Tournament event gets in the way. We could run a second game on Sundays if we are running out of time."

Boyan nodded.

Oliver looked around. "Who knows someone from Beaubatons who plays quidditch?"

Katie answered. "We saw some Beaubatons uniforms in that stand. I'll fly over there and ask them."

Katie returned in a few minutes. "They will be here. Guess what? Fleur Delacour will be their seeker. She plays in a summer league team in France."

Fred turned to George and raised one eyebrow.

George called out, "Weasley Bookmakers will donate a perpetual trophy in return for the rights to run the book on each match and on the final winner; one point for each win to make up the final points."

Katie called out. "The Un-Official International Quidditch Trophy competition has started."

There was general cheering; within an hour the teams were picked.

Harry had a deputation waiting for him when he finally made it back to the Merlin House common room.

"We have had an owl from Fleur Delacour. Beaubatons are short one team member. She wants to recruit a chaser from Merlin House. Tracey wants to volunteer." Daphne looked nervous. This must be important.

"Are you stressed about this?" Harry was puzzled.

"Yes, you are playing for Gryffindor." Tracey was worried.

"Un-officially! The last formal thing I had from Gryffindor was my expulsion notice. I am only playing for them because the quidditch team asked me to."

Harry looked at the deputation. "Tracey, I didn't know that you played quidditch."

"I have trained at home and here at Hogwarts when nobody was looking. Millicent Bulstrode is a great keeper. We got up before dawn on most days to train." Tracey explained.

"In Slytherin, no girls were ever considered for selection. We never got to try out. I think Millie and I would have been on the team in third year if they would have let us try out." Talking was making Tracey happier.

Harry answered. "You do want you want to do. I'm not going to try to stop you. Nobody better try to stop me from playing."

Tracey clapped her hands and then hugged Harry. Tracey felt Harry freeze. She let him go. "Sorry Harry, I know that you don't like too much contact."

"I'm sorry that I act like that. It's something that I can't stop doing. I might be getting better. Last year if anyone hugged me like that, I would not like it. I would run away."

-ooOOoo—

"So, the Weasley twins helped make the un-official off-the-record quidditch tournament happen."

Hermes puffed like a peacock.

"Yes, it was one of my best moves. The betting was talked about all over the school. The students, the teachers, they all had a flutter."

Athena smirked. "What was the outcome?"

"The Weasleys made enough to start their business. Hufflepuff won at fifty to one. Nobody took the bet, even the Hufflepuffs. Fred and George cleaned up."

"You are to be congratulated for that one Hermes. Harry got months of escape from the growing burden. He enjoyed it all immensely." Athena smiled.

"The best thing is that you influenced the twins, you got the Durmstrang boy to talk, and they were not coerced at all. You whispered in their ears, they listened and made their own choices. Well done!"

"It was also a good start on their reward. Their life will be entertaining with Hermes guiding them." Zeus said.

-ooOOoo—

Albus paced around his office. Remus had come back at a most unwelcome time. When the Potters died and Harry had to be hidden away, Remus had tried to get guardianship over Harry. He had to be most forcefully persuaded to give up. Then he had to be forbidden to investigate the way that Sirius Black had been sent to Azkaban. Remus refused to believe that Sirius did it. Remus had to be forcefully persuaded that Sirius was guilty; he was guilty; everyone knew he was. Albus disliked using potions that way, but for the Greater Good, it had to be done.

Then there was the Defence Against the Dark Arts episode. Remus did a good job until the curse took over again. Remus never had a chance of course. Albus always knew that Severus would betray him and destroy Remus again. Remus could have been a nuisance. He had to be persuaded to go away and stay away. Now these wretched people had found him and sent him back.

That smelled very strongly of Greengrass.

Albus sat at his desk. Fawkes gave a quiet trill. Then the phoenix flamed away. That was odd.

Dumbledore looked around again. He wasn't in his office anymore. His desk was gone. His chair was gone. He was on a mountainside. He didn't know where.

Hecate walked towards him out of a cloud of mist. Where did that come from?

"Dumbledore; you have been given a chance. You have been given the same sort of chance that you gave Harry. You will be left here, on your own. No one will explain anything to you. No one will help you. No one will love or appreciate you. You will have to find your own way back. There is no time limit. Goodbye."

Hecate was gone. The mist closed in. It started getting cold.

This was not good.

"Fawkes!" The phoenix did not come to him.

"Fawkes!" No phoenix.

"Fawkes!" Still no phoenix.

Dumbledore spoke to himself, "That really was Hecate wasn't it."

This was not good at all.

-ooOOoo-

Zeus waved to Hecate. "Well done. He could spend ten wizard's lifetimes finding his way back from the far side of the universe. He might finally understand what it is like to be alone and friendless."

-ooOOoo—

Friday, July 6, 1995 - Morning

"The stairs are steep."

Harry could remember the words now.

"The stairs are steep."

That was why he had to struggle to get his feet up.

Harry had learned to walk around the gym. They liked that. They all had happy faces. They were cheering him on.

Astoria was here today. She helped him at first. Then she was tough. She made him climb the stairs.

Harry loved learning new words. He loved it when they read stories to him. There were so many new words to learn.

Harry could not remember any of his new friends before the last year. His memories started when he started hearing people saying things. He knows now that they were reading books out loud. They said that they were reading to him to get him to learn words and then to start saying them.

The new words were hard, and he loved them. Harry wanted to learn more words. Some words came to him easily. It was almost as though he already knew them. Maybe he did. He was certain that some words were waiting to come out again when he tried to use them.

Maybe those words were like old friends, waiting to come out again when he was ready for them.

Harry didn't fall over yesterday, that was great.

-ooOOoo—

Daphne and Michael came into the gym.

"How is he today?"

"We have him climbing the stairs. His muscles are atrophied. They wasted away while he was in that coma." Astoria shook he head.

"He is trying to speak all the time. The rate of new word recognition is much higher than a week ago. It seems like he develops in bursts. There are months of slow progress and then he zooms away."

"Is he like he was before. Do you think people will know him as Harry Potter?' Daphne asked.

"Yep! He certainly is. He gets the same stubborn look on his face when he tries to do something, and he can't. Then he works and works until he can do it. He is still Harry Potter."

-ooOOoo—

"The vassals have amazed me. Each of them will be rewarded for their whole life. It won't be with gifts from Mount Olympus. Life itself will give them rewards each day." Hera declared.