Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or Percy Jackson, so euh, don't 'cease and desist' me? Cool, thanks.
Chapter 1: Delos
It was the late afternoon of a pleasantly warm Spring day, the perfect kind of weather to work in a garden. Which is exactly what Delia was doing. She was hungry, thirsty and her hands ached, but none of that mattered to her, because if she didn't finish in time, it would get much worse.
You see, tomorrow was the annual garden competition in Surrey, and her aunt was counting on winning. Yet, instead of actually doing an effort for the garden she was so boastful about, she rather let the 'freak' handle it.
It didn't matter that Delia didn't have gardening experience, it didn't matter that she was only 6, all of those were just minor details to her aunt.
She had only around 30 minutes left before she would have to make dinner, she estimated that she was making just enough progress to be done in time.
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"Have you finally finished you freak girl? Well? What are you waiting for? Get inside and start on dinner!" Her o so lovely aunt yelled at her through the window. At least she could get some water now.
Delia stood up with a bit of unsure footing, the consequence of kneeling for so long, and ran inside. She carefully cleaned herself up, before she started in the kitchen.
The chores had started when she was around 4 years old. It started easy, like dusting a cabinet, but the chores became more extensive fast. In the past months, they also included kitchen duties, such as cooking and doing the dishes. She always wondered why her aunt and uncle hated her so much? Why were they always mean to her? Why was Dudley seen as a saint when he clearly wasn't?
Her mind started to wander from the cooking, which led to her accidently spilling some of the food on the floor. Before she could even think of covering it up and hiding the evidence of the accident, her uncle opened the door and saw what she did. Here we go again she thought.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL FREAK" he bellowed "Are you truly good for nothing? We feed you, clothe you, and yet you can't seem to do anything properly!" He grabbed her by her hair and dragged her to the cupboard, "You're nothing but a burden, no one wants you, it's no surprise you don't have any friends. Why couldn't you do the world a favor and just have died with your parents?" He opened the cupboard and tossed her in. "No dinner for you!" He slammed the door shut.
As the door slammed shut, Delia started to hear a high pitched ringing, the world started to feel like it was spinning around her, her sight became blurry and everything became white.
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As she came back to her senses, she realized she was laying on her back in a forest. She blinked her eyes a few times and spotted two kids who were looking at her with wide eyes and open mouths.
One was a girl who had auburn hair and silver eyes, the other a boy with golden blond hair and sky blue eyes. Twins judging by their facial resemblance. They were wearing some weird kind of clothing she had never seen before.
"Where am I?" Delia asked them. This seemed to snap the twins out of their wonder, as they blinked and looked at each other.
"Who are you?" the girl asked her, in a tongue Delia didn't understand. It sounded familiar, like she should be able to place it, yet she couldn't. The boy seemed to sense her confusion, pointed at himself and said "Apollo", after which he pointed at his sister and said "Artemis". He then pointed at Delia and tilted his head a bit.
"Delia" she said, as she was catching onto what he was doing. She then pointed her finger at the ground and tilted her head too.
"Delos" said Apollo, with a blinding smile. Delia could not resist smiling back.
It didn't take long for the kids to start pointing at random objects and teach each other the word in their language. She spent the rest of the day running around with them and learning basic words and phrases. It was the most fun she ever had in her life, especially since she finally made some friends.
When night was approaching and the sun started setting, the twins dragged her along to a cabin. From outside the cabin you could smell the heavenly scent of fresh stew. Delia hadn't eaten in more than a day, and her stomach chose that moment to let itself get noticed, which resulted in the twins laughing.
With a slight blush, she followed the twins and entered the cabin. The interior of the cabin radiated a homely feeling. The woman inside the cabin hugged Artemis and Apollo as she spotted them, to then freeze up when she saw Delia.
"Mom! We found her in the woods, it was like she appeared out of nowhere! A blinding light and then she was there! She doesn't speak our language, but we have been teaching her some! I don't think she has anyone here, can she stay with us please?" Apollo rattled out, oblivious to his mother's feelings and way too fast for Delia to even try to understand a single word of what he was saying.
During his talk, Artemis scooted back next to Delia and slowly said "She is Leto, she is our mother". Delia understood her and nodded at her in thanks, an unsure smile appearing on her face.
Their mother seemed surprised by what Apollo was saying, but she quickly covered it up and put on a comforting smile. "Child, do you know who and where your mother is?" she asked Delia.
Delia didn't understand every word, but she did understand the gist of it, and answered in somewhat broken Greek "Mother name Lily is" after which she looked down and shook her head.
This seemed to both worry and confuse Leto somehow, a reaction Delia couldn't place at all. Little did Delia know she looked exactly like a younger copy of her mother. Someone Leto was well acquainted with, and thought would never leave behind one of her own flesh and blood now she was finally free.
Deciding to not dwell on it for now, she made a sign to follow while saying, "Come children, dinner is ready".
During the delicious meal (Delia had never eaten anything remotely as good), Leto was studying her. She came to the conclusion that either her mother didn't know about her being here (which seemed unlikely), or sent her here on purpose, with the hope that Leto would care for her. The last option also didn't seem right to her either. Until she noticed it: a curse. The child was cursed. She was shocked when she realized who cursed the child. Oh this explains so much. Definitely need to keep the child safe and out of sight for the time being then. But why did she call her mother Lily?
Delia didn't seem to have noticed the way Leto was studying her, she was too engrossed in a conversation, well kind of conversation, with the twins.
After dinner it was decided that Delia would stay in Artemis' room, as they didn't have any guest rooms. She barely laid down on the bed, before sleep claimed her. This to the amusement of Artemis, who laid down next to her and shortly afterwards fell asleep too.
The next day played out much like the previous one, as did the following months. She was at the point where her Greek was near fluent, and she became very close to the twins, mainly Artemis, as well as their mother.
However, the mystery of how she came to be on Delos remained. They had asked her many times about it, but she herself didn't know why or how it happened. She had only told Artemis that she assumed she was either from the future or from a different world. That she had never even seen anyone dressed like them before. Artemis understood, she hugged her and told her they would find out the answers together.
For the first time in her life she experienced what it was like to have a family, and she couldn't be happier. Sadly, not all good things can last, and misfortune struck.
One day, during one of their runs in the forest, they stumbled upon a big snake, or a "Python!" as Apollo shouted. The thing was huge, like it could swallow their cabin in one go, type of huge.
"DIE BLOOD OF LETO, I SHALL EAT YOUR FLESH AS THE QUEEN DEMANDS!" the snake seemed to hiss. Delia felt surreal at that, there is no way she could understand that thing, right?
They started to run towards the cabin. The twins were much faster than her and left her in the dust as she did her best to follow. The beast was catching up to her and visibly prepared itself to eat her. Delia couldn't run for much longer anymore. She was so close though, she could hear the twins again, shouting for their mother to come out with her bow. She broke through the treeline and could see the desperation on Artemis' face as she looked at her.
The high pitched sound started again, she started to lose her footing, as the world felt like it turned around her, and just on the moment the beast descended on her with an open mouth, she disappeared in a white flash.
AN: So I have been thinking about posting some fan fictions for a while now. I always had a bunch of ideas in my head, sometimes even semi planned out on paper, but admittedly, I don't possess much talent on the writing front. These fan fictions are the first stories I have ever worked on. I mainly did so when I was bored from studying for exams or while commuting to campus. Some of these would be purely HP universe, others would be cross-overs. Maybe I'll work them out and post more in the future? Depends a bit on free time. No idea how fast updates will come to be honest.
Delia might not be a flower name, which seems to be tradition for HP FF (besides Harriet), but I chose it because it means 'from Delos', which, let's be honest, is fitting.
I'm still kind of looking into pairing for her, I think I have it down, but I'm somewhat on the fence, because it would mean that two of my potential FFs in progress would have the same pairing. Obviously her parentage is decided, you could somewhat derive it from Leto's musing and events, or maybe that's just my bias?
Any feedback is definitely welcome, especially considering English is not my mother tongue.
Shoutout to Avanwolf's 'Temporal Tide' for the time travel concept that I'm using in this FF.