Hello. The chapter almost didn't come out today because of my delay in writing and translating it. I'm also on medication, so sleep is getting in the way a little. Anyway, enjoy.

Update: I have two/three crossover stories with PJO in the works right now. Follow me on Twitter for more news. Sign: " /nagixdharma".

Posted on: 17/09/2023

A soft coo from a swallow announced the presence of Hera, who made herself present in Private Drive. She used her human form, but kept the mist around her so that mortals could not perceive her. Her objective was clear: house number 4, more precisely its most recent occupant, Harry Potter.

The garden greeted her with dull grass and flamingo eyes, but she continued along the side, the curving hedges bowing to her. The path to the backyard was marked with large hexagonal concrete blocks, placed on the grass and giving a bucolic air to the narrow corridor between the front and back of the house.

The door was closed, but the window over the sink was open, a defiance of the growing cold of the coming winter. An electrified voice was heard echoing through the kitchen, announcing abnormal owl behavior for what seemed like two days in a row. Evidently it was a small television that was on the kitchen counter, tuned to the regional newspaper. Facing this television, on a chair, was the horse woman, Petunia Dursley, watching the program and feeding her abnormally large baby, revising her focus.

"There, there, Dudley... here, some juice..."

The baby was obviously in the process of gaining weight, his little metal plate being so dirty that it could only mean there had been a lot of food there previously. He let out a burp as soon as he finished taking a sip from a bottle-shaped bottle, which drew a coo from Petunia. Hera just wrinkled her nose.

On the other side of the table, much cleaner and better placed, was baby Harry Potter, leaning back in his chair and calmly drinking a bottle full of porridge, making barely a sound. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing so calmly that you could tell he was eating in his sleep. That got a coo from Hera.

"Oh my, what a cute!" And Hera's smile fell to the ground under Aphrodite's scream. "He's so little, but he's so quiet!" Aphrodite cooed, all smiles.

The Goddess of Love came to accompany Hera, after an extremely uncomfortable conversation for the Goddess of Marriage.

"Um... was the father handsome?" Aphrodite asked shyly.

"He's not my son, Aphrodite," Hera growled, irritated.

"But was he handsome?" The Goddess of Love insisted, a very serious look on her face. Hera felt unnerved, but replied:

"Yes, he was handsome."

Aphrodite's scream only served to increase Hera's frustration. James Potter really was a handsome man, she could grant, but Hera would never be moved by any man other than Zeus – which in itself was enough to make her feel melancholy for the rest of eternity, thank you very much.

"What was he like? Tall? Strong? Did he also have green eyes? Harry is so handsome, I'm sure he got all the good things from him!" Aphrodite was very excited. "And the mother? What was she like? I'm sure she was hot, to have a son like that!" She laughed to herself, her curiosity boiling!

Hera massaged her temples, counting to ten to gather the strength to deal with an excited Aphrodite.

"His parents were James and Lily Potter. James was tall and thin, but muscular. The black hair and nose came from him." Hera said, civilly. "Lily was tall, but shorter than James. She was thin, but attractive. The skin color and eyes came from her. She was a legitimate redhead." A smile played on the goddess's lips, but it didn't grow on them.

Aphrodite looked dizzy at Hera's descriptions, but she almost let out a scream at the gentle twist of the Queen of the Gods' lips. She didn't dare say her thoughts, though, so she asked something else:

"But if he's not your son, why does he have your shine on him?" There was indeed curiosity in the goddess's tone. She couldn't help but insist, "He's just like a demigod."

Hera's lips twitched, but not in a good way.

"Our domain is not simple, Aphrodite." Hera spoke seriously, looking at the one with whom she shared responsibility for Love alongside Hestia. "There are secrets that even we do not fully understand. What comes out of our blessings cannot always be predicted or understood."

"You blessed a baby?" Aphrodite had a very critical tone, evidently in disbelief at what Hera was implying. "A mortal baby?"

"I didn't bless Harry" Hera denied, although she had actually done so on the boy's 1st birthday. This blessing was not the one Lily tied. "I blessed Lily."

"And why did you bless his mother?" Aphrodite still didn't understand Hera's reason for acting.

"She... prayed to me." Hera replied, carefully. The Goddess of Love's jaw dropped at that.

"Did she... pray?" Aphrodite's voice came out slowly. Hera nodded. In current times, they couldn't wait for any mortal to come after them, even those who had faith in something.

"She was a very sad little thing," Hera commented sadly, a heavy tone of pity in her voice. Aphrodite had a friendly look on her face. "Missing... a child. An unconceived child."

Aphrodite sighed in horror, understanding perfectly what the Queen of the Gods meant. What a sad woman Lily Potter was!

"She asked to have a child. I decided to accept her request, so I bathed her in astromelia pollen and made sure she could carry a child."

"But what about the Ancient Laws?" Aphrodite questioned in wonder, staring at Hera with adoration. Hera smiled at her.

"She didn't pray to me, she prayed to my dominion." There was a decidedly playful tone to Hera's voice. "There is nothing saying that I should refrain from granting blessings to mortals if they do not pray to me."

The laugh Aphrodite let out next was truly hysterical.

Hera rubbed her temple again, as she had been doing for the last few hours after having her conversation with Aphrodite. The Goddess of Love was not cooperating with her mood.

"Hush, Aphrodite" Hera grunted with a headache.

"But he's so cute!" moaned Aphrodite, very mature. "He's going to be amazing when he grows up! Oh, so much work to do!" she clapped energetically. "See, my girl, Julia, just turned 3. I know, age is very important for children, but we can work with it! Haha! AH!"

Hera's hand was as heavy as a yacht, "The pimp's hand," Ares said, and it served well to hit Aphrodite in the head, who found herself bending her knees and turning to face Hera with a hurt look.

"What it was?" the goddess whimpered.

"Shut up, Aphrodite," Hera replied, annoyed. She was already regretting not cutting Aphrodite's tendons as she threatened the day before. They came for a reason, and it wasn't planning a newborn's love life (by divine standards).

She turned her eyes towards the kitchen, but blinked when she saw two small greenish eyes staring at her. Harry didn't let go of the bottle, but was looking directly at it intently. When Aphrodite stopped whimpering, she came to her side and Harry's gaze shifted to her, surprising the goddess.

"He... is he staring at us?" she asked confusedly.

"Apparently, yes," Hera replied, sharing the confusion.

Harry took out the bottle, giving the two goddesses a bright eight-toothed smile. Aphrodite's confusion was soon replaced by a bright smile of her own, followed by a coo. Harry laughed at her, radiating a gold that would bring a smile to Hestia's face – though she would be smiling at a baby anyway.

"I want him!" Aphrodite growled, her eyes shining. The "pimp's hand" (according to Ares) hit her head again. "THERE!"

"I'll cut your tendons" Hera threatened, glaring at Aphrodite. The Goddess of Love just mocked her.

"You can't stop love!"

"I am a goddess of love!"

"The true love!"

"Aah!" Hera hit Aphrodite's head again, irritated. The Goddess of Love groaned in pain, but she had a smug look that said "I'm right." Her gazes were diverted from each other by an amused laugh they heard.

Harry was hugging the bottle, but his attention was entirely directed to the two goddesses. He was obviously having a lot of fun with their interaction, which only made his glow grow. Petunia was cleaning the mini-fridge, but she looked away when she heard the boy laughing.

"Why are you laughing?" she questioned, looking suspiciously at Harry. She turned to see what he was looking at and saw the window open, with nothing but it. She frowned. "Of course you would see things. My foolish sister couldn't make you any less strange than she is."

Hera and Aphrodite's eyebrows furrowed at the woman's words. Aphrodite didn't know what the horse woman's tone was about, but Hera was already reaching the limit of her tolerance with Petunia. One time it bothers her, the second time it irritates... normally we don't talk about what happens the third time.

Harry, oblivious to the goddesses' scowls and Petunia's insult, turned to his aunt and gave the woman a bright smile. There was no malice or bad thoughts in his expressions, regardless of all the grimaces and rude movements his aunt gave him in the last two days. Petunia's brow twitched and her eyes softened, tender. She reached over and took the empty bottle from Harry's arms, patting the boy's head.

"Silly boy" she spoke tenderly to him, standing up and collecting Dudley's plate and bottle and taking them to the sink. Hera's frown deepened, but Harry's smile only widened. She could brush off the last two days as stress from taking care of two boys. Aphrodite didn't see it that way.

Hera was, with due excuse, a near-virgin in Aphrodite's opinion. She hadn't had that many children in millennia, so she couldn't understand that much about child-rearing – and Heph could say that more than anyone. Aphrodite had many – like, many – children, and she could see some family tension from afar. She sighed, sad to remember how many of her girls tried to destroy each other when they got together.

"She is a sad woman" Aphrodite declared, melancholy. Hera looked at her, surprised. Aphrodite narrowed her eyes and made a cute frown. "But I'm going to kill her if she doesn't stop. A baby has nothing to do with her problems with her sister."

Aphrodite had a new image in Hera's eyes.

"Come on" Petunia picked Harry up and the little boy hugged her neck. She pulled her head back to look at him. "You're a little monkey, aren't you?" she scoffed a little. Harry gave her a smile, making her smile back at him a little. "Bath, let's go."

She picked the boy up from his car seat – without any effort, surprisingly – and walked them out of the kitchen, heading to the second floor to bathe them in the common bathroom. The two goddesses in the backyard moved away from the window, and the song of swallows and pigeons announced the departure of the goddesses, who disappeared into golden dust and left a pomegranate flower and a rose on the ground on which they stood.

Hera and Aphrodite woke up on their thrones in the Hall of Gods, alone. Hephaestus left as soon as the party ended, returning to his workshop; Apollo and Hermes were working, Artemis was gone in search of some hunting and Demeter was drinking alcohol depressed about Persephone going back to the Underworld to spend the autumn and winter. Ares and Zeus were still lamenting their hangovers, in their temples collecting their prayers so they could recover. Hestia and Dionysus were at the Camp, tending the fireplace and complaining, respectively. Poseidon is who knows where.

"He's going to be amazing" Aphrodite broke the silence. Hera turned to face him.

"What are you talking about?" she questioned, grimacing as she imagined Aphrodite's perversion.

"Didn't you see? He made that woman smile!" Aphrodite smiled widely, opening her arms. "And she doesn't like him! He's going to tie her to his pinky, haha!"

Apparently she didn't want to kill Petunia anymore. Hera would keep her scepter handy about this for now.