Chapter 1:
Harry Potter scuffed a ratty trainer across the dirty floor of the train station. He'd moved way past bored hours ago.
He'd never been very good at sitting still. Even the long hours spent locked in his cupboard under the stairs hadn't kept him from moving. The black haired boy was constantly fiddling with his pilfered treasures while he waited in the dimly lit cupboard, and the moment he could he picked the lock to escape while his relatives' backs were turned. Harry would wander Privet Drive before slipping back in to the cupboard without the Dursleys any the wiser that he hadn't been in there the entire time.
There was nothing for him to fiddle with at the moment beyond the ties on his jacket, and there was nowhere for him to escape to. Harry could do nothing but sit and wait on a bench in the busy King's Cross Station for his relatives to come pick him up. The Hogwarts Express had dropped them off in the early afternoon, which had been hours ago.
Ron's family had quickly said their goodbyes as soon as all of the Weasleys had been gathered. The red haired family of wizards stuck out far too much for them to linger on the muggle side of the barrier. Hermione and her parents had offered to wait with him but Harry had assured them he was fine. He'd lied and told them his family was going to be a little late in picking him up.
Not that he even considers the Dursleys his family.
Families didn't make their children sleep in cupboards under the stairs or treat them the way they treated Harry.
Case in point, the Dursleys had forgotten to pick him up after his second year at Hogwarts.
Or his relatives just wanted to make him wait as a punishment for last summer.
Or the Dursleys simply weren't coming.
He didn't know how to feel about that last one.
On the one hand he hated his relatives. But on the other hand he had nowhere else to go in the summers. Harry had asked Professor Dumbledore to stay at Hogwarts at the end of first year and the headmaster had said no. Staying at the Weasleys had been wonderful and he knew they would welcome him back with open arms but Harry had felt a bit guilty being there. It was obvious they didn't have a lot of money, and Harry didn't want to be a burden to the family who was so kind to him.
If only Mr. Weasley had taken his financial suggestions seriously. But then it must have been difficult for an adult to take financial advice from a twelve-year-old. Harry had this bizarre, innate ability to manage money. He couldn't remember where he learned about stocks and banking or even if he's ever learned about them. But he knew how to become wealthy.
Harry would have just thought it was all in his head if it wasn't for the fact that the nice middle-aged woman in Number 11 who had always baked him cookies had taken his advice about her investments. She'd been able to retire early and travel around the world in relative luxury.
Harry's knee jiggled, and his fingers twitched. Before he could stop himself he had nicked a bobble off the bag of a passing lady. No one saw a thing. No one ever saw anything when he stole something.
Like his inexplicable ability to understand finance, Harry also had this urge to steal things. When it came to stealing things, Harry couldn't help himself. He was surprisingly adept at stealing, and he enjoyed it, always getting a little thrill from a successful heist. The trickier it was to get it the better he felt afterwards.
It started with him slipping away toys Dudley no longer cared for and grew from there. He lost count of how many gnomes he'd made off with from mean old Mr. Clark who lived in Number 8. It always had Harry in stitches at the sight of the man raging when another one of his collection disappeared.
Harry never stole from people who were worse off than him and he never stole from his friends. Now that he actually had friends, that is.
His relatives had always accused him of being a no-good thief and criminal like his parents so Harry hadn't curbed his impulses. He'd just been taking after them after all.
But his arrival to Hogwarts changed his understanding of just who his parents really were. They were heroes who were brave and respected in the wizarding world. Harry had felt ashamed by his thefts, and wondered what his parents would think of his actions. He'd tried to limit his thefts after discovering the truth about his parents. Sometimes he was successful. Sometimes he wasn't.
His sticky fingers helped with a few pranks he'd helped the Weasley twins with the last couple of years. He smiled fondly at the memory of switching Malfoy's ink with the special ink Fred and George had made that turned certain common words into swear words after he already submitted his essays. Malfoy had lost a lot of points on that one.
Harry had also made it his personal mission to annoy Snape. The potions professor hated Harry's guts, and the feeling was mutual. Harry lost count of how many things he filched from the greasy haired wizard. It was just little things like a quill or a piece of parchment. Harry was certain Snape suspected Harry was stealing from him. But the potions professor hadn't been able to prove anything.
"Demigod!"
The inhuman quality of the hiss had Harry jerking his head upwards.
Two women were staring at him across the bustling train station. They wore large, and outlandish hats but otherwise didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary. They didn't have vultures on their hats like Neville's grandmother, or dress in robes like witches. They looked like muggles. But their gazes were sharp and fixated on Harry, recognition in their gazes as they stared at him.
They were also quickly weaving their way through the crowds directly towards him.
"Of course they are," Harry mumbled.
Harry didn't get the impression that they were friendly. He trusted his gut reactions and decided he needed to get away as quickly as he could. Harry got to his feet, and grabbed hold of his cart. The cart held his trunk, and Hedwig's cage. Harry had released her after the first hour of waiting for the Dursleys. Only one of them should have to be put through the misery of waiting.
Harry started pushing his cart through the crowd hoping to avoid whoever those women were. They had to be witches if they recognized Harry. Who else could they be?
"Demigod! You can't run from us!" one of the women snarled.
They sounded far closer than he would have preferred, and he glanced back. The women were only several yards behind him, and gaining on him. One of them shed their floppy hat to reveal a head full of snakes.
Harry gaped in shock, and froze in the middle of the crowded train station. The muggles around them didn't so much as flinch to find a woman with snakes for hair in their midst. The muggles just walked around them like they were any other person.
"Stheno!" the other woman scowled.
"It's not as if the mortals will notice," Stheno rolled her eyes.
Harry remained frozen in complete disbelief as the second woman snarled but also proceeded to remove her hat to reveal a head full of hissing snakes.
"Who are you? Do you work for Voldemort?" Harry questioned, their sibilant voices even reminded him of Voldemort. Not to mention the all of the snakes.
The black haired boy bounced back and forth on his feet. His stance loose and ready to react at a moment's notice. He felt hyper aware like he always did when his life was in immediate danger.
"Voldemort?" the still unnamed woman on the right hissed in confusion.
"What a silly name," Stheno giggled.
"So you don't work for him? Who are you? Why are you following me?" Harry frowned. Who else could they be if they didn't work for Voldemort?
"You don't know why we're after you?" the woman on the right looked thrilled by this news.
"What a treat! He doesn't know!" Stheno clapped together hands that were tipped in deadly looking talons.
"What is it that I don't know?" Harry held his ground despite his instincts telling him to flee.
The black haired boy hadn't heard of snake haired women in Hogwarts. Not that he thought it was impossible either. There were unicorns, dragons, three headed dogs, centaurs, and so many more beings in the magical world that he didn't know about yet. Harry wasn't the best student. Between his inability to sit still, his attention problems, and his challenges with reading studying wasn't his favorite thing to do.
In muggle school his teachers had tried to get him help. They wanted to evaluate him for ADHD, and dyslexia but the Dursleys would never sign off on it. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon insisted he was just lazy, and not very bright.
Hermione had tried to get him to tell the professors at Hogwarts about his problems. At first Harry hadn't trusted his professors, and he still didn't trust some of them. Snape was at the top of his list. He knew the professor would say the same things as his aunt and uncle. Now though, he didn't want another reason for him to stand out among his classmates. Harry was certain once Draco Malfoy knew about Harry's learning difficulties he would tease Harry mercilessly just like Dudley and his gang did.
Besides Harry got along just fine. He managed to be a perfectly average student without any extra help. Well, any extra help besides Hermione.
Harry realized he'd let his mind wander off, and quickly snapped his attention back to the snake-haired ladies.
"You're a demigod," the woman on the right smirked, flashing a set of fang like teeth.
"A demigod?" Harry was familiar with the term. But only from myths they'd read in primary school. He recalled Hercules who was the son of Zeus, King of the gods.
"God spawn," Stheno spat in disgust.
"God?" Harry mouthed, feeling a bit off kilter.
"Yes, you are the child of a Greek god and a mortal; although, you little brats are quite rare outside of America these days. It makes stumbling across you a pleasant surprise," the woman on the right drawled, glee in her split pupil eyes.
"So if I'm a demigod, what are you two supposed to be?" Harry quirked a brow at them.
"I am Euryale," the woman on the right introduced.
"And I'm Stheno," the other introduced even though Harry had already picked up on her name.
"Yeah, that doesn't really help me with what you're supposed to be."
"We're Gorgons," Stheno elaborated.
Harry racked his brain where he'd heard the term before. If he'd even heard it before.
"We're the sisters of Medusa," the woman on the right, Euryale, added in exasperation.
"Oh! I remember the story of Medusa. A goddess turned her into a monster when she got mad at her, and then Medusa could turn people to stone with a look." This particular story stood out thanks to the incident with the basilisk this past year. What was it with snake creatures petrifying people?
"Everyone always remembers her," Euryale growled.
"But never us," Stheno looked equally annoyed.
"That must really stink. But I understand. My relatives hate me and love my cousin," Harry rambled, his mind was racing with what the two women were claiming to be.
And what they were claiming him to be. Him a demigod? Harry was still getting used to being a wizard. If he was a demigod that would mean one of his parents was a god. But gods didn't exist right? If they did they certainly couldn't be killed by a wizard, could they?
Medusa wasn't real so her sisters certainly couldn't be either. But then muggles didn't believe that witches or wizards, or any other magical creatures that Harry knew existed were real either.
The most important question at the moment was how Harry was going to escape these snake women.
"Well, I have to be going now. My relatives are waiting to pick me up," Harry grabbed hold of his cart carrying most of his belongings.
Euryale lashed out, and shoved his trunk and cart to send them flying across the station. Harry gaped at the display of raw strength. The worse part was that all of the muggles in the station turned accusing eyes on him.
"What do you think you're doing, young man? Throwing things like that? You could have really hurt someone," an elderly gentleman glared at him.
"Where are your parents?" a middle-aged woman demanded.
The pedestrians' gazes moved right over the two women, not seeing them.
Stheno snickered and Euryale smirked.
Harry was thankful that his wand was in his knapsack currently on his back. He'd put all of his most valuable objects there in order to try and save them from being locked in the cupboard under the stairs. The problem with that was that he couldn't easily access it.
"There's no escape, Demigod," Euryale lunged forward, snake hair snapping at him.
Using his speed he managed to avoid the first lunge. Deciding he would just have to leave his trunk, Harry didn't wait for the next attack. He turned and sprinted away. Without the heavy cart holding him back Harry could fully access his natural speed. Harry was fast and athletic. In fact Dudley and his gang never would have caught him in Harry Hunting if Harry didn't let them catch him. Every so often Harry had to let the group of bullies catch him in order to keep Dudley from making up stories about him to his parents to get Harry in trouble.
Harry ran flat out through King's Cross Station at his top speed, which was quite fast if he said so himself. His speed, natural flying abilities, and hyper awareness were what made him such a good Seeker.
He made it out of the station and into the busy streets in London. The hissing voices grew fainter and fainter. Once he was outside he was able to just full on sprint. The buildings and people blurred around him. Harry ran until his chest burned, and his limbs trembled. Only when he felt on the verge of collapsing did he allow himself to stop and drop onto a nearby bench.
Looking around he had no idea where he was. He hadn't been paying attention when he'd been running. Not that he would really know what to look for anyway since he'd only taken one trip to London before when Hagrid had taken him to Diagon Alley before his first year. Harry glanced around himself. There were rows of buildings, and the particular street he was on was slightly busy. Cars passed by and a few muggles were walking or jogging along the streets in the late afternoon.
Harry sucked in deep breaths, and tried to think of what to do next. If he could find a pay phone he could call Hermione. She had given him her phone number in first year, and Harry had memorized the number. He hated to bother her or her parents but what else could he do?
A bus drove by.
Or maybe he could take the bus. He let himself rest for a moment. Once he was no longer gasping for breath Harry climbed back to his feet, and set off in search for the nearest bus stop.