There's Nothing Sweeter
Disclaimer: I don't own either 'harry Potter' or 'Percy Jackson'. All recognisable characters, content or locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Chapter Five:
"I don't see the relation to war in Capture the Flag. It's a bloody game," Gwen paused, and as though an afterthought, added, "And I don't mean that literally."
In front of her, Connor gave an indifferent shrug, pressed an old school helm over the witch's head and knocked on it roughly for good measure. The sound reverberated through her skull, and the witch grimaced her displeasure. Then she glowered and her gaze, presently a vibrant green, promised swift retribution. The son of Hermes, one of her new friends, was unfazed, and had the audacity to laugh at her expression.
It had been a week since Gwen's arrival in Camp Halfblood and in that time, the witch had come to learn a number of things about herself. She was resilient, and determined, and her personal limits were as much psychological as they were physical. She'd not known exertion like what she'd experienced in the last five days, but she'd persevered through it all, she'd refused to give up, and in doing so, she'd inadvertently earned the respect of most of the campers present. She'd also not improved much, but apparently that came with time, which was not an assuring thought. At all.
Also during the week, she'd become firm friends with a fair few of her fellow campers, so unlike the conservative friends she'd made at Hogwarts. Then again, though, magical Britain, with its archaic expectations and what have you, was nothing like Camp Halfblood, so it was really no surprise that the inhabitants were completely different as well. Either way, it was a breath of fresh air that Gwen greatly appreciated, even if she couldn't say the same for much else about the place.
With Friday evening came the eagerly anticipated Capture the Flag, in which campers got the opportunity to freely attack each other, without fear of recrimination for their trouble. Gwen couldn't really see the point, but the others loved it and she'd constantly wondered why. She'd still not received a satisfactory answer, but that hadn't stopped the others from appropriately arming her with blunted weapons and bronze armour.
"The woods, free leave to steal and hurt people? I don't question it, Shorty."
Gwen conceded the point with a slight bow of her head, shifted the helm slightly and barely avoided the urge to pout.
"And why do I have to wear this ridiculous getup? What am I supposed to be, Xena the fucking Warrior Princess?"
"Well, if the shoe fits," Travis interjected glibly. He was rewarded with the metaphorical 'fuck you' in the form of Gwen's middle finger for his efforts.
"Hey, on the bright side, Percy looks as much like an idiot as you do."
"Connor, you're not helping, you moron," Silena chided and turned to Gwen, expression apologetic. "Sorry, Shorty, but until you can get your own armour, you're stuck with that. Don't sweat it though - we've all been there."
"That is not comforting!" Gwen called to Silena's retreating back, but Silena only laughed. She continued walking towards the red zone, wherever that was and Gwen, who'd not been listening to Chiron call out the instructions, simply followed Connor and Travis. "What am I doing, anyway? I wasn't paying attention."
"Lesson one of warfare," Luke Castellan interjected, and Gwen rolled her eyes, entirely unimpressed by the older camper, "Always listen to your superiors."
"Does that include you?" She snarked. Luke's eyes flashed with something indiscernible, and Gwen resisted the reflex to take a step backwards, perturbed. She'd known the Hermes Counsellor was dangerous - they all were, in some form or another - but none of the campers had ever inspired fear - not in Gwen. Not until now.
Luke didn't say anything in reply, and simply continued on his way towards Annabeth. Gwen watched him go, hand curled warily around her wand. Luke had set off alarm bells in her had, and Gwen had learned to trust her instincts years ago. As such, she'd be on her guard, but why she had to was yet to be determined.
"Are you alright?" Travis asked, but his gaze was lowered, on the wand within her grasp. He looked distinctly troubled, and Gwen wondered if he'd seen what she had, but she didn't ask.
"Yes." She strained a smile. "Let's just go. Capture the Flag awaits."
The trio approached Annabeth, the Athena cabin leader, who put them on defence, sent them on their way and turned to Percy, whom indeed, looked as ridiculous as Gwen herself. Gwen grinned at him, and rolled her eyes, and Percy grinned back, and it was the first time she'd seen him look so carefree. Gwen counted the fact that she'd put it there as a personal accomplishment, but as the conch horn sounded throughout the forest, the witch couldn't dwell on it for long.
"Showtime," Connor murmured. He gave a grizzly grin. "You ready to kick some ass, Shorty?"
Gwen twirled her wand between her fingers, and returned Connor's grin with one of her own. "Bring it."
And so they waited. And waited. And waited some more.
"Where are they?" Gwen muttered. The twins shrugged. "This is lame."
As the conch horn sounded throughout the forest once again, the trio shared disgruntled frowns, Gwen followed the twins of Hermes towards the creek and stared, curious, at the company of Aries children, among them Clarisse, who looked as though they'd all been submerged in the placid looking creek. The daughter of Aries was raging, but as a deep, rumbling growl reverberated throughout the clearing, everyone tensed.
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes," Gwen murmured and cast her gaze across the shadows, searching for whatever it may be. She found it on top of a rock pile, a hideously ugly, monstrously large hell hound, with eyes like molten lava and canine teeth bared in a menacing growl. It's attention, however, was fixed solely on Percy and Gwen tensed further, like a bow string pulled taught, unwilling to see the kid hurt. He was only twelve, after all. Beyond that, she'd sort of grown fond of him.
Without really being conscious of it, Gwen raised her wand and pushed her magic to the fore, with every intention to protect Percy. A bolt of lightning raced from her wand and struck the beast in the side, and if Gwen wasn't so focused, she might have been surprised by her own magic. She'd not even known she'd been able to do that, but as the creature seized up and evaporated into a pile of golden mist, there were more important things to focus on.
More specifically, the fact that there was a glowing green, holographic trident above Percy's head, and a glittering gold, holographic lightning bolt above her own.
the title in her mind came unbidden, oath breakers, and not for the first time, Gwen grimaced her displeasure. She'd not been pleased by her status as a daughter of Zeus, more so when she'd learned of the oath Zeus, Poseidon and Hades had made on the Styx, but there was no use crying over spilt milk and it wasn't as if she could change the circumstances around her conception. It just was and there was no going back now.
After Percy and Gwen were hailed as the son of Poseidon and daughter of Zeus, respectively, the wide eyed campers, struck speechless, rose from their kneeling positions, Gwen glowered at nothing in particular and followed Chiron to camp, with percy beside her and their fellow campers silent behind them. She returned her borrowed armour and weapons to the armoury, made her way into the Hermes Cabin and clambered into her sleeping bag, where she fell asleep with her mind on everything that would change in the coming days, now that her paternity had been determined, and the big guy upstairs finally mustered the effort to claim her as his daughter.
In the middle of a dream in which something old, and powerful, and entirely malevolent was talking to her from the bottom of a black abyss, Gwen was woken to find Connor and Travis hovering over her, mischievous grins on their identical features. She glared at them blearily, entirely unimpressed by the fact they'd woken her while it was still dark out.
"What the fuck are you wankers doing?"
They gestured for Gwen to follow them and she did so in silence, annoyed but curious. They led her outside, where the stars were bright and the night quiet. It was a curiosity to see the camp, usually so lively and bustling, so still and peaceful, but Gwen didn't get the opportunity to truly appreciate it because from there, they led her towards the Dionysus Cabin, where they crawled beneath the porch, to a hidden sort of cubby there. It was cramped, and stuffy, and hot, with Clarisse and Silena, Chuck and Lee, Mick, Caster and Pollux present, more so when Travis, Connor and Gwen squeezed inside.
"What is this?' She grunted, "A goddamn sardine can?"
"Something like that," Clarisse answered flatly and Gwen gave a breathy laugh, unfailingly amused despite her poor mood.
The space issue wasn't helped by the walls, lined with too many bottles of smuggled alcohol and crates of the same, but as Lee conjured shot glasses, and Pollux opened a bottle of tequila, Gwen hardly cared that she was seated on a dusty case, with her head brushing the underside of the Dionysus porch, her bare feet in Lee's lap and her skin clammy with sweat.
"A toast," Silena declared, raising her shot glass, "To the life of a demigod, high mortality rate and all."
Gwen followed suit, a mocking smile on her pretty face. "Here's to hoping I live long enough to not die a virgin."
"That's something worth drinking to," Mick agreed. "Here's to martyrdom, the only way we're expected to go."
The toasts went around, grim, and depressing, but enough to make all the demigods present laugh, and forget to cry. To deadbeat parents, to no parents at all, to homelessness and danger, to disillusionment and death and all of the ugly in the world.
They each drained their shots, and Pollux poured some more. Gwen passed on the third though, and she instead leant against Silena, boneless, and tired, and longing for the life she'd lived before magic, and gods, and saving the world, where her only problem was her relatives, where ignorance was bliss, and when the only danger to her was Dudley and his disgusting friends. She might have cried, but that reflex had been forced out of her years ago, courtesy of her loathsome relatives, and all Gwen could do was sit, and stare, and wonder when life had gotten to be so damnably hard.
"We should probably get back to bed," Beckendorf rumbled, his low baritone, like coal and burning embers, a bizarre comfort, "The harpies will be back around soon."
The harpies, half bird, half human beings had taken up the task of patrolling the camp at night. They were hideously ugly, with grating voices and talon-like nails that Gwen had no desire to experience. That said, she was one of the first to agree with a sleepy yawn, and was followed by her friends.
With everyone in agreement, they crawled out of the cubby, stretched out their cramped limbs and went their separate ways without issue. Gwen, Travis and Connor returned to the Hermes cabin, the witch took the opportunity to change into some proper pyjamas and she crawled into her sleeping bag, able to fall asleep content in the knowledge that her new friends didn't give a damn about who her father was. She doubted she'd be able to say the same for many others in the camp, but in truth, she didn't really care about what everyone else thought. At the very least, that was what she told herself and if she pretended hard enough, she might actually have believed it.
Author's Note: Somewhat shorter than all of the other chapters, but the muse was pretty stubborn.
Reviews are love. -t.