Welcome back to another chapter of Bad Moon Rising.
In which, we see a little more of everyone's favorite god to hate.
On with the show.
Harry Potter, Saint Mungo's long-term treatment ward, December 21st.
Harry Potter sat outside room 142 on the first level of the magical hospital of Saint Mungo's. He sat in an uncomfortable chair that tilted back and forth as he rapidly tapped his foot as he leaned forward. The ever-present smell of antiseptics and bleach invaded his senses like an ice pick through his brain. The soap-suds-like lights gave off a low and constant glow of Witchlight that illuminated the halls of 'Dangerous' Dai Llewellyn Ward: Serious Bites. Anxiety and fear coursing through him echoing the howls and growls in the back of his mind as he held his head in his hands. Harry hadn't felt like this in almost a year, since Christmas the year before and his freak-out over leaving Hogwarts so early. He had thought he was finally over feeling like this, that he was past it all, but now after seeing Atalanta in a hospital bed.
The venom flowing through her veins wasn't something the Healers had ever seen before. They threw around a lot of words that Harry had only half heard, too busy focusing on Atalanta on the bed wrapped in bandages that continued to be soaked in blood. The venom was a mix of whatever the natural toxic the snake had once had and powerful dark magic. Once in the system, it would keep the wounds from closing and continuing to bleed as well as turning them septic. It also had the nasty side effect of constantly reopening old scars and wounds to make sure whoever was bitten had a low chance of survival due to blood loss.
And the worst part? They couldn't get it out of Atalanta's system, they had already done three big purging rituals to try to flush Atalanta's body but the venom was sticking somehow. They had even called in Daphne's mom, Amy Greengrass, their healing ritual expert to try and help, but still nothing.
The only silver lining to all of this was the fact they had a sample of the venom, in her last moments before passing out Atalanta had killed Nagini. Beheading the snake with one of her hunting knives before collapsing. It was also possible that the blessing of Artemis was working overtime to keep Harry's sister alive, and that in time, it could help clear out the venom. But Harry didn't know how the blessing functioned in a magical sense and doubted anyone but Artemis knew. Harry had already sent Hedwig to Artemis with a letter explaining what was going on but had no clue when his feathery friend would return.
As the Hunt growled in his head, Harry hit the side of it. "Shut up," Harry growls himself, "I don't want to hear your shit right now," he orders the ancient domain in the false hope it would listen to him, but still the beast wanted to be fed. "Can't get a moment of fucking peace, can I?" Harry asks himself and to his surprise, someone answers back.
"I only just got here, by Dana, I haven't even said anything," a voice says in an exasperated sigh, a voice that Harry knew and groans out at the sound of before he looks up to see Talia Peverell standing in the hallway, holding, of all things, a potted plant. "And a fine hello to you too, My Harry," she says as her lips crest into a small smile.
"Don't," Harry says, all but barking the word at the Goddess before him. "Call me that," he says as he shoots a glare at The Morrígan, who chuckles at him.
She strode forward, toward him before stopping a few feet from him, her smile never leaving her face. "I must say I am rather surprised to see you here, also fortuitous on my part," The Morrígan says as she looks down at Harry. "I was hoping to run into you tomorrow when I dropped in on Sirius for an afternoon cuppa over some things I wanted to talk to him about," she informs him before placing the plant down on a small end table by the seat Harry was in. "But do tell, what brings you to Saint Mungo's? You're not hurt are you?" she asks, and Harry swears he hears the barest traces of concern in her words.
But the emotions in Harry were too raw, too recent to care. "Like you don't already know," Harry snaps at the goddess with a scowl twisting his face into an ugly angry look.
The Morrígan merely raises her brow at the Boy who lived. "Contrary to the image I exude, Harry, I do not, in fact, know everything that happens on the Isles. So, no, I don't know. So perhaps you can fill me in?" she asks as the tone of her voice sounds strained to keep her temper in check but the genuine honesty in her tone throws Harry off for a moment.
Harry looks back down before running his hands through his hair with a deep sigh. "It-it's Atalanta," Harry admits with a small hitch to his voice. "She was attacked the other night outside the Department of Mysteries, by Voldemort's stupid snake," Harry tells The Morrígan and hears the small "Ah," that escapes her lips before the two of them fall into a moment of quiet. It was the heavy sort of quiet that settled onto the shoulders like physical weights.
"And what is her condition?" The Morrígan asks as Harry hears her take a step forward and pauses for a moment before taking the seat next to him.
"Stable for now," Harry whispered mournfully, not looking up at the Morrígan sitting next to him. "But she's been up and down since she got admitted. If it wasn't for the venom they milked from the snake's fangs then she would have already been dead," Harry admits weakly not looking up as the silence came once more like a heavy miasma. Neither the goddess nor Harry spoke for a long while as the minutes ticked by, Harry was torn between wanting to be in the room for his sister and never wanting to see her like that again. Pale and weak, covered in bloody bandages to stop her old scars from opening up once more. Sirius was in the room at the moment, watching over her with glassy eyes while mumbling "I'm sorry," over and over again. Whether it was to Harry or Atalanta, Harry didn't know and didn't understand, none of this was Sirius' fault.
Atalanta had switched her watch with Mister Weasley for him to enjoy the last few childless nights with his wife. Both of them had come around earlier in the day in a show of support and with flowers for Atalanta's bedside. Asphodel, funnily enough, a flower sacred to Artemis as well as one that symbolizes mourning. It was Atalanta who offered and it wasn't if anyone knew about the stupid snake sneaking its way in any way.
It was just poor luck, that's all.
And Harry knew all about bad luck, for if it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.
"Can you help her?" Harry whispered as he pressed his face into his hands. He was never one to pray, not anymore, but this came close to him wanting to try once more.
The Morrígan is quiet for a long time before answering. "No, I can't," she tells Harry softly before standing from her seat as Harry presses the palms of his hands into his eyes and grits his teeth to stop the expression of rage that would do him no good. "It would go against my very nature and my domain to do so, even if I could, I wouldn't be allowed to," she explains to Harry softly.
"Please," Harry says, not looking at the Morrígan. "I'll do whatever you want, give you whatever you want. Its-its Atalanta, just Please," Harry begs, he couldn't do this, he couldn't lose her.
The Morrígan is quiet for a moment longer before speaking. "Oh, my Harry," she says halfway between wicked glee and mournful sorrow. "You should be very careful with your words to a being like me. I tend to take far more than you could ever expect and beyond anything you could ever see as fair," The Morrígan says before walking back over to Harry and reaching down to softly grasp his chin to have him look up.
To look up and into her Fathomless Black Eyes.
"I could take whatever I wanted from you right now," The Morrígan tells him, her smile turns cruel and taunting as she looks into his emerald eyes. "Your name, your being, your fate, I could bind you and your soul as my little pet forever more. And you would gladly trade it, wouldn't you?" she asks, Harry doesn't answer but she could see the answer screaming in his eyes as clearly as if he said it himself. She backs away from him with one step before rising to her full height and begins to tap her finger on her bottom lip. "But what would I take from Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the son of Artemis?" she says mostly to herself.
"Perhaps his memory of the sister he desperately wishes to save? Or maybe his first love, that's always a fun one," The Queen of the Unseelie Fea says with a soft smile as her eyes turn upwards in thought. "Or I can always go with the classic of the firstborn child, now that one is tempting," she says before turning her gaze back to Harry with a smile full of dark want.
Harry doesn't say anything back as she stands over him gloating and considering what she could rip from him in trade for saving his sister, all he does is glare right back.
All she does is smile back at the look on his face. "There it is, that look of defiance, that fire in your eyes. My, how I could just pluck them out and put them in a jar," The Morrígan says with a tilt of her head. The Morrígan sighs after a moment before turning away from Harry and begins to walk down the hall. "But, if you're lucky, I may ask for nothing at all," she says in a soft voice without looking back at him. "Stay right there, Harry. I need to go find someone real fast, he should be around here somewhere," She tells Harry before turning a corner and vanishing from sight.
Sirius Black, room 142.
Sirius Black was used to feeling helpless in his life. He was helpless against his mother's actions and demands, he was helpless when he was trying to save the lives of James and Lily, and he was helpless inside his cell at Azkaban. Now he felt helpless looking at Atalanta swathed in bandages and under the effects of a dreamless sleep potion.
Because it was his fault.
Sirius was hunched forward with a look of pain on his face as he looked upon Atalanta in the hospital bed unmoving and quiet. His chin was resting on his hands which were balled together in quiet prayer to anything one of the gods that was listening. If he hadn't tried to kiss her the other night, she wouldn't be like this; be here. Over the last few months, he and Atalanta had gotten close, starting off as drinking buddies after Harry had gone back to Hogwarts. Swapping stories and spinning yarns by the fireplace each of them nursing their tankard of alcohol, Fire Whiskey for her, and hard apple cider for him.
Then she became his unofficial guard during his Wizengamot visits, eyes always sharp and always at his back with Remus as they came and went from the Ministry's halls. Atalanta even went with him on the few meetings he had with The Morrígan over the past few months as they discussed funding for the auror department for the future. She was even there with him and Dumbledore when The Morrígan had invited Lucius and Narcissa for tea to give them an ultimatum.
The Morrígan had dropped her mortal guise, and in her terrible beauty had told his cousin and her husband: "Forsake the one you would call lord, cast off the chains he would bind you with, and you will have the favor of my mercy when the time comes. You will have shelter from my wrath, and you shall have shelter for the ones you hold dearest, but know if you do not, you will find the lowest circles of hell are the coldest," Lucius hadn't taken the deal and stormed out like a fool with rude words being cast from his lips about The Morrígan. But the one the Queen had looked at the longest wasn't Lucius, but Narcissa.
The memory of the meeting still sent shivers down Sirius' back, being in the same room with The Morrígan no longer pretending to be mortal was something else entirely from when she pretended to be human. Atalanta had told him that his reaction was pretty normal to how most mortals felt when in a room with a divine. Sirius had asked how she did it without even flinching, Atalanta had just shrugged and admitted that it was normal in her time that the gods acted freely with mortals and had long gotten used to it.
But the closer that he and Atalanta got, the more he flirted with her. It started more as a joke than anything, some harmless flirting with a woman he knew he wouldn't be able to get with. So, it was to his great surprise that she started to flirt back with him, smiles and shoulder smacks, hip checks, and soft words spoken from full lips with an easy laugh and eager grin at a joke. It all came to a head the night she traded shifts with Arthur, they were both deep into their cups and talking about the upcoming Holidays when he had leaned forward to steal a kiss.
"Sirius, no," she had said, eyes full of heartbreak.
"You could stay here with me and Harry," he offered.
"I can't, I wa- I just can't, I'm sorry," she had told him before sweeping out of the living room and the house altogether. Arthur had floo'd him later to tell him Atalanta had taken over his watch at the Ministry.
She told Arthur she wanted time to herself.
Sirius sighs once more before closing his eyes and cursing himself for doing such a stupid thing. With all his might he wished he could take it back, to take Arthur's watch himself to spare both of them from the attack.
It was then that the door opened with a click.
Sirius turns, expecting to see Harry coming back into the room after he had left, storming off and slamming the door shut. The sight of Atalanta had done a number on Sirius' godson that he didn't know how to address. But to his surprise, it wasn't Harry who poked their head into the room, but the scruffiest-looking healer Sirius had ever seen.
From his untidy bedhead to his baby blue eyes hiding behind smudge glasses, to the five o'clock shadow growing across his chin and neck. "Is this Atalanta of Claydon's room?" the man asks in a whispy voice and blank face. Sirius frowns but nods, seconds away from telling the man to piss off before he steps fully into the room dressed in untidy healer robes, unbuttoned, and loose fitting on his tall and reedy form. He walks in and right up to Atalanta's bed without paying Sirius much mind at all before picking up the clipboard that hangs off the end of the bed and begins to read it.
"Who are you, exactly?" Sirius asks with a raised brow as his hand slowly begins to move toward his wand.
The man doesn't even turn to look at him, his eyes flicking across the healer's notes and reading them before flipping the page. "My name is Dian Cécht, but you can call me Doctor Cécht if you feel like it," he introduces himself with a dismissive air to Sirius before reaching up to scratch his head through the gray hair on his head.
"Doctor?" Sirius says with a frown, "That's a muggle term," he points out only to watch the man shrug.
"Sounds better than healer if you ask me," the man, Dian says stiffly and with a frown before placing the clipboard back in its place. "Can't believe that she called me in to deal with a snake bite, a bloody snake bite," the man grumbles before walking around the side of the bed and picking up Atalanta's arm to take her pulse.
"I would say it's a bit more than a bloody snake bite," Sirius snaps at the Doctor before standing with a glare at the man. "It almost killed her,"
"Amazing power of observation you have there," Doctor Cécht says with a roll of his eyes. "What are you going to tell me next, that the sky is blue?" he says sarcastically back at Sirius before dropping Atalanta's arm. "But for your information, most venomous species of snakes tend to kill the people who get bit by them,"
"I'm sorry, but does this look to be the run-of-the-mill rattlesnake bite?" Sirius asks hotly back, feeling moments away from punching or cursing the Doctor in front of him.
"Don't be stupid, Rattlesnakes aren't even native to the isles," the man says with a roll of his eyes. "This strikes me as a magically enhanced European Horned Viper due to the puncture marks becoming necrotic with the muscles breaking down around the bite wound. There's also the fact her blood isn't clotting due to the toxin being a hemotoxin, but that's not all," Dian says as he begins to unbutton the sleeves of his robes. "The venom was magically enhanced to latch onto any arteries closest to the injection site to become self-replicating within the body, which is why the purges won't work. The body doesn't know it doesn't belong there, and to top off this list of fucked up symptoms is the fact that whoever made it also made the venom corrosive to cicatrice," the Doctor says as he finishes rolling up his sleeves to reveal they were tattooed.
From his knuckles and the back of his hands, stretching up to Dian's elbows were Celtic knots and crosses in thick bands of gold and green. "Now you can either back off and let me do my job or I can kick you out of the room," the doctor says with a frown that looked permanently etched on his face with his eyes aglow with power.
Sirius looks the man up and down, his eyes narrowing at Dian. "Who sent you?" he asks, and in his gut, he already knew the answer.
"Who do you think? The Queen," Dian says snidely before turning to Atalanta in the bed as Sirius takes a step back from them both. Dian places his hands on Atalanta, one on her forehead and the other over her heart before he begins to chant. "Trí ghrásta órga na gréine agus iomann cath an ghrá tite, glaoim thú ó maintlín an bháis chun dúiseacht as do bhrionglóidí. Le hamhrán 's le brón, buailim d'ainm ó Annála na marbh, is ardóidh mé chun sláinte thú le mo chroí lán de ghrá," The chant started off as soft as a feather, like a prayer to the world for all to hear before like a raising chorus it became haunting and mournful. It then became resolute and full of hope and light and all of the life in the world flowed through Dian's words.
It was like a song.
As Dian sang to the world, the tattoos inked upon his skin began to glow with soft golden light that filled the room with new life and vitality. As Dian sang the final part of his hymn, the light In his hands left him and was injected into Atalanta. Sirius watched as the bloody wounds closed and old scars faded, the venom that had caused all these problems poured from the bite wounds on Atalanta like a river of poison as her breathing became easier and less labored.
Dian takes a step back from Atalanta and lets out a sigh before reaching down and taking her pulse once more.
"Is-Is she-" Sirius tries to say but swallows thickly as if he is trying his best to swallow his words and awe.
The doctor drops her arm once more before reaching into the pocket of his robe and pulls out a pack of fags and a lighter. "Yeah, she'll be fine. I fixed the damage done to her vascular system as well as ejected all of the venom from her veins before removing the curse that was making more of it," he informs Sirius before putting a fag between his lips and sparking his lighter to catch the tobacco a flame before inhaling the smoke. "If you give her a moment, she should be waking up soon," Dian tells Sirius, and sure enough Atalanta starts to move.
It takes a few minutes for her twitching and shifting to turn into a long groan. She smacks her lips before speaking in a thick voice from sleep "Oh, no. I know that taste, please, please, please tell me it's not Lord Apollo and it's Lord Asclepius," Atalanta says horsely with her eyes screwed shut.
"It's neither that sun-riding ninny nor the God of Doctors, Miss Atalanta," Dian says before letting out a breath of smoke that causes Atalanta to start coughing. "My name is Dian Cécht, and I'm the Healer of the Tuatha De Danann," the doctor informs both Sirius and Atatlanta; whose eyes snap open at his words. "The Queen pulled me away from my research to come to heal you, it's urgent, she said," Dian says scoffing before taking another drag of his cigarette. "Urgent my ass, most of the healers here may be bumbling fucking morons but they at least had the thought of brewing you an antivenom with the toxin from the snake. It was staving off the worst of the damage to the point where the curse would have run its course in just a day or two more," he says with a frown before exhaling again making Atalanta cough and gag a bit.
"Whoever cooked up the venom wasn't under the impression that whoever was bit wasn't gonna last long, and normally, they would probably be right. Guess they didn't think the snake could be killed, the dumb fuck," Dian says with disdain and with a scowl as he takes another drag.
"Can you stop smoking please?" Atalanta asked weakly as she tried to maneuver her body away from the smoking man.
"No," Dian says before exhaling another cloud of smoke right at Atalanta. "But try not to move so much, your body just got a hot load filled with divine juice. It's gonna be a day or two before you're able to move around on your own, but if you make it through that then you'll be fine after a day or two," he tells her before finishing his smoke and crumbling the butt and burning cherry in his hand.
"Now that this is over, I have more important things and patients to attend to, if you'll excuse me," Dian says with a bland voice before turning on his heel and walking back over to the door with the echoes of thanks coming from both Atalanta and Sirius. "Oh! Right!" the Doctor says as he snaps his fingers and turns back to Sirius. "The Queen left a message for me to tell you," he informs Sirius; who rolls his eyes.
"Of course she did," Sirius mutters darkly and with a scowl. "Well, what am I going to owe her for this?" he asks Dian Cécht.
The Doctor raises an eyebrow at Sirius before speaking, "She didn't say anything about you owing her," He says, surprising both Sirius and Atalanta. "No, her message was; that Harry is with me, the debt is on him," Dian says before turning away from Sirius and Atalanta, whose blood was quickly draining from their faces, and leaving the room before closing the door behind him.
Chapter done!
And oh, dear, it seems Harry is finally in the clutches of the Queen.
Right where she wants him.
This chapter was originally gonna be longer but I just can't help myself sometimes with these cliffhangers.
How did y'all like Dian Cétht? I wanted him to be something like Gregory House from House M.D. No idea if I pulled it off.
Anyway, here's a translation of his chant:
"By the golden grace of the sun and the battle hymn of fallen love, I call you from the mantle of death to wake from your dreams. With song and sorrow, I call your name from the Annals of the dead, and I will raise you to health with my heart full of love"
Kingsaxcul, Out!