Welcome back one and all to another chapter of the Heir and the Champions. In this chapter, we have a hound and a wolf meeting a hunter, Harry learning a bit more about his blessings, and the beginning of a mend between our Golden Trio.

I'm happy that most of you have enjoyed my own little twist on Delphini, she is a rather fun character to write.

On with the show!


Harry Potter, Entrance Hall, Hogwarts. 21st, November 1994.

Harry wasn't in a good mood, he hadn't been in a good mood for the last week or so, barring his journey down into the Chamber of Secrets with Delphini. Hermione and Ron still weren't talking to him, though he hadn't tried to approach them either, he could still feel the phantom pain from Hermione's slap and wasn't keen on trying again no matter how sad both of them looked when he saw them. He was currently trying to get through the crowd of students who all were on their way to the carriages to take them to Hogsmeade, Harry himself was on his way to meet up with Sirius and Lupin at the Three Broomsticks trying to push the building headache away but the other students talking loudly and the bodies pushing against him.

Harry sighs and pushes his way through the swarming students on his way out of the castle, most of whom realize who's trying to push his way through part to let Harry get out of the crowd as fast as he could. He could hear the whispers and feel the looks of them all like ants on his skin, out of the corner of his eye Harry sees a flash of blonde hair and he can't help the ping of pain in his chest.

"I just need a little time to think, that's all," Daphne says, her face set in a lost look, but her eyes were bright with a want Harry couldn't place, "We, ...kinda just fell into this, and it happened so quick, I just don't know,"

Daphne's words echoed in his head, she had told Harry she didn't know how she felt about him, what they had been doing was fun but she hadn't put much thought into it other than that, she wanted time to think it over, a few days is all. Harry understood but didn't mean it didn't hurt, and even worse, he didn't know why it did.

"Harry!" a voice calls out, stopping Harry short from stepping into one of the carriages, turning his head back to look, he spots Zoë wading through the crowd, bumping and pushing people out of the way to make her way up to him, "Mind if I tag along?" she asks with a raised brow and other then blinking a few times, Harry just nods his head before taking a seat as Zoë follows after. A younger Hufflepuff pops his head into the carriage, no doubt about to ask if he can join them, but taking one look at Harry, he pales before turning around and leaving. Harry sighs before he leans over and grabs the door before shutting it and knocking on the roof.

As the carriage begins to pull away, Zoë shoots him an amused smile, "What in Hades did you do to the poor student body to make them so afraid of you?" Zoë asks.

Harry shrugs, "Honestly, no clue, most of them thought I was some kind of dark wizard during my second year, petrifying Muggleborns for fun or something," he answers.

Zoë scoffs, "Children," she says with a roll of her eyes.

"Tell me about it," Harry murmurs as he looks out the window.

"Well, I do know this one who is a brat," Zoë says with a smirk, "Won't listen to anyone, jumps feet first into any situation that looks even remotely dangerous like some sort of insane loon," she looks at him as Harry scoffs.

"Sounds like he just has some bad luck, and being stuck with an overbearing bitch of an older sister then," Harry shoots back before having to dodge a kick to his shin from Zoë with a laugh as she shakes her head with a smile.

"So, why are you going into Hogsmeade?" Harry asks, keeping his eyes on Zoë, on guard if she struck again.

Zoë just shrugs, "No real reason, other than reading there isn't much to do in the castle, the library does have a fascinating collection of tomes on different monsters and creatures, but I wish to get out for a bit," Zoë says nonchalantly, "There's also the fact that I'm going with you to keep you out of trouble," she says while giving him a look.

"Oi," Harry blurts, "I don't get into that much trouble," the Heir to the Hunt says as he crosses his arms over his chest, Zoë just continues to look at him with a pointed look, "In Hogsmeade," Harry mutters before Zoë snorts and shakes her head, as she looks out of the window.

"And yourself?" The lieutenant asks.

"Going to meet my Godfather and one of my mom and dad's old friends," Harry says, before a thought hit him and he speaks it out loud "Sirius, my Godfather, actually met Artemis before,"

Zoë turns to look at Harry with a raised brow, "Really?" she asks, and when Harry nods, Zoë makes a sound of interest, for there are not many men who have met her Lady and lived to speak of it. The rest of the ride is in comfortable silence before the carriage rolls to a stop at the start of the main street of Hogsmeade, Harry stands up and opens the door to start down before he feels something catch his foot, tripping him and making him land face first in the dirt with a groan before Zoë nimbly jumps over him, landing in front of him.

"That was for the bitch comment, Little brother," Zoë says with a smirk looking back at him as she walks away, she turns away with a smug smile just before her leg is hit with a tripping jinx making her land flat on her face.

"Brat!"

"Bitch!"

The Thestrals that pulled the carriages Whinny in amusement.


The Three Broomsticks, Private room on the second floor.

Remus and Sirius' last few weeks had been spent on a mad search for anything that could help Harry, from trying to figure out a way to get Harry out of the binding magical contract, to trying to find out what the tasks were, to researching spells to teach the boy they think could help him in the long run, they had regrettably failed in the first two. A binding magical contract was as exactly as it sounded and damn near impossible to break once you've entered it, against your will or not, short of a few human sacrifices, there wasn't a way to get Harry out of it, and neither Remus or Sirius had any contacts inside the Department of Magical Games and Sports, So they moved on to researching different spells they thought would be useful in the tournament, from going over each of their own repertoire spells and going through the Black family library for anything they could find, Lupin had almost lost an arm to one of the books and there was an embarrassing incident with tentacles and Sirius that both men swore to never speak of again, no matter how long Moony had laughed at it.

The last two Marauders found themselves sitting in one of the private rooms on the second floor of the Three Broomsticks waiting for Harry to arrive, going back over and reevaluating the list of spells they had put together to show Harry. The only problem was the time constraints, Hogsmeade was only open for six hours to the student body from noon to dinner time on a day the town was open to the students, and neither Lupin nor Sirius was sure they could get through the list by the end of the time limit.

"Okay, so Basting Charm and its maximum variant for sure?" Sirius asks Remus as they sit across from each other in the private dining room, parchment in front of them and quills in hand as they both work through the list of spells.

Lupin nods his head as he inspects the list, "Does he really need to know the arrow-shooting charm? He's already well versed in that I would think?" he says, referencing what had happened over the last summer.

Sirius pauses in thought before nodding his head, "That's a good point," He mumbles before scratching said spell out, "How about the shield conjuring spell? We can show him the levitation and tracking charm as well?" Sirius says looking up to Remus, but before the Werewolf could saying anything the sound of screaming and stomping catches their attention as they both turn to the door with confused looks just before it burst open to show Harry sporting a bleeding nose and a look full of fear before he quickly turns around and slams the door shut and locking it before bracing his body against it.

For a moment the two men and the boy look at one another with confusion and concern just before a loud yell could be heard throughout the building, "BRAT!" the voice yells, filled with fury.

Harry looks at the two men with fear in his eyes and mouths "Hide me," to them, it could have been Help me, but neither of the two was too focused on that at the moment as age-old instincts kicked in from their school days and bailing each other out of trouble daily. Sirius immediately jumps from his seat and drags Harry to the Farthest corner of the room from the door before taping the top of Harry's head with his wand, casting the Disillusionment Charm on the boy as Remus flicks his own wand at the door making it and the frame to glow a faint purple before a slight bending of wood is heard as the reinforcement ward takes effect just in time for something to slam against it.

"Brat!" the voice of the other side yells as the doorknob shakes as someone tries to get into the room, "You open this door right now and take your beating like a hunter!" The voice sounded deeply and unbelievably angry.

"Who did you piss off?!" Sirius hisses out under his breath as he watches his charm take effect just in time for the door to get kicked off its hinges, standing in the doorway was an olive skin girl with glowing dark golden eyes and a silver jacket. Neither Remus nor Sirius moves as she steps into the room with a look of anger on her face as she looks around the room with narrowed eyes.

"Can we help you?" Remus asks, sounding confused but polite, the same tone of voice he had used when hiding James from a raging Lily back at Hogwarts.

The girl doesn't answer him, her nostrils flare before her eyes zone in on the corner that Sirius was trying to look nonchalant in before a growl escapes her throat and she charges in a blur of movement. Sirius almost has a panic attack due to being on the other end of a girl in a silver jacket charging at him, his sides ache in Phantom pain before, as quickly as he could, waves his wand in a circle and a wave of magic comes forth, hitting the girl, slowing her to a crawl, only to watch in horror as the girl flexes and breaks through the magic in an instant before her fist slams into the wall right where Harry's would have been if hadn't dodged. Sirius screams, Harry screams, the girl rages, and Lupin sighs deeply as it dissolves into Harry, still camouflage, and the girl rolling on the ground trying to kill one another in a way only siblings knew how.


10 minutes and a few charms later.

"So you're Zoë," Sirius says sitting across from said girl, she was sporting a black eye from where Harry had socked her while she was trying to choke him out and taking a sip of butterbeer, "Well, I guess it's nice to meet you," he says carefully turning his head slightly to look at Harry who was sitting right next to him. Harry looked a little worse off than Zoë, what with the napkins stuffed up his nose to stem the bleeding, sipping his own butterbeer. It had taken them a few minutes to separate the fighting Hunters and calm them down enough to fix up the damage the two did while fighting, thankfully Madam Rosemerta was busy with all the Hogwarts students below, or else there would have been hell to pay.

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Zoë says as she takes another sip of her drink, not really sounding genuine about what she said, "But I can't say I know either of you," she says with a simple shrug.

"Oh, right, I'm Harry's Godfather, Sirius, Sirius Black," He says with what he thought was a charming smile reaching out to shake her hand, Zoë narrows her eyes at the extended appendage, and to her credit, does take and doesn't rip it off, but instead shakes it quickly before letting go.

"As I said, a pleasure I'm sure, and also nice to put a face to the name of a man who has stood in My Lady's presence and not be turned into something for us to hunt," Zoë says with a tilt of her head and smirk as Sirius shuffles uncomfortably in his seat.

"Well, yes…" Sirius says, unsure how to come back from that, Artemis rightfully scared Sirius shitless from the first time he had met her, and he wasn't looking forward to their next meeting for all the things he had bollocks up.

Thankfully, Lupin swoops in for the rescue like always, "Remus Lupin, it's a pleasure to meet another Hunter of Artemis, Lady Nightshade," He says reaching forward to shake her hand as well, which she reaches for to accept it with a polite smirk, till their hands touched and Zoë jumps out of her seat, nearly spilling her drink all other the table with a growl that made the rest of the room jump as well.

"Child of Lycaon!" Zoë yells her hand going for the hunting knife at her side, her eyes wide and the bright gold darkens as she calls on the hunt. There's a flash of movement beside Sirius and in an instant, Harry was standing on the table, the napkins now gone from his nose, in between Zoë and Lupin, spear out and holding it defensively while growling himself at Zoë, who draws her own weapon. Lupin jumps from his own seat backing away from the two with his hands up, and Sirius stands, his Yew wand back in his hand, and pointing at Zoë.

"Don't," Harry says harshly, glaring at the other Hunter as she holds her sword out, ready to defend or attack if needed.

"Do you have any idea what he is?!" Zoë snaps at Harry, "How many of our sisters his kind have killed over the past three millennia!?" Zoë says, her voice raising in anger.

"He's not like that!" Harry yells back, "He's my friend and my teacher, just because he transforms once a month into a werewolf doesn't mean he's a bloodthirsty monster to Hunt, Zoë!" Harry says, preparing to call upon more of the Hunt to stop his sister from hurting Lupin if needed.

Zoë's eyes narrow, before they flick between Remus and Harry and mouths "Once a month", her face twisting in confusion, "What do you mean by that? Children of Lycaon do not change once a month, they are what they are," she says firmly.

"Are you talking about King Lycaon?" Remus asks from his side of the room with a raised eyebrow, "as in the original werewolf?" he questions Zoë who nods her head slowly, "Then I do believe we have a bit of a misunderstanding, Lady Nightshade," Lupin says cautiously, "I honestly didn't think King Lycaon existed, let alone was still alive, I was bit when I still a boy by a man named Fenrir Greyback," he states calmly, Zoë's face shifts from confused to wide eye understanding.

"You're a third generation," Zoë says softly, as her sword slowly dips to point at the floor.

"I have no idea what that means," Lupin admits, as he watches Zoë place the tip of her blade into the holster on her side and watches shrink back down to a hunting knife.

"Lycaon is a very old enemy of the Hunters of Artemis, we are his natural enemy for many reasons, I may have overreacted a bit, I felt his curse upon you and it was strong enough that I had thought you were one of his many sons," Zoë says, "My apologies for my reaction Mister Lupin, but to explain, you are three generations of bites removed from the origin of the curse, meaning-" Zoë explains but Remus nods his head in understanding and finishes for her.

"That the man who bit me was bitten by Lycaon himself," Lupin says breathlessly, "Well, that would certainly explain a few things about Greyback," Remus says, sitting back down and looking distant from the conversation as Harry folds up his spear and hops down from the table and Sirius plops back down in his seat.

"Once again, I apologize for my reaction," Zoë says, moving back to her seat, "I have a bit of a personal problem with reacting without…thinking," she says with a flinch, her eyes flickering to Harry before looking back to Lupin, "I'm working on it," she admits with a slight blush while looking away and brushing her lap clean.

"It's fine, Lady Nightshade, it was far from some of the worst reactions that I've gotten from my ...condition," Remus says with a slight flinch of his own as Zoë nods.

"Why haven't you cured yourself if you dislike it so?" Zoë asks, sounding confused before pausing and shaking her head, "Apologies, it has slipped my mind that the islands have been Godless for a long time, a foolish question," before taking a sip of her drink as the other three males in the room look at her in shock.

"I'm sorry, but run that by us one more time?" Sirius asks, leaning forward in his seat, "Are you saying you know how to cure lycanthropy?" The Heir to the house of Black asks, jaw hanging a bit open.

"Yes?" Zoë says, looking back up at them with a raised brow, "Do you mean to tell me the Wixen has yet to figure it out?" she asks before leaning back in her seat, watching the three people in front of her shake their heads, which causes her to frown.

"It's rather simple, to be honest, the Hunters help solve the problem all the time if and when we can," Zoë says with a shrug, "All you must do is get a silver weapon blessed by a god or goddess of the Hunt and kill the werewolf that bit you with it, the ritual act of slaying the beast that passed the curse onto you is an act of rejection, afterward you hunt a wild wolf, skin it, soak the hide in your blood from a wound drawn by the same weapon that killed your sire and then, once dried, you burn it," Zoë explains it as if removing lycanthropy was common knowledge.

Remus' jaw opens and closes for a few moments before he finally asks, "Sire?"

"The one who bit you," Zoë says, before taking a sip of her drink and leaning back in his seat looking at her in surprise and awe and Sirius and Harry look at him before the Heir of the Hunt turns to Zoë.

"Will my spear work?" Harry asks, "For a weapon blessed by a Goddess of the Hunt?"

Zoë opens her mouth to answer but stops before narrowing her eyes and seems to think about it for a moment, "I am unsure," she says, "I know that Lady Artemis created Serpent-Hunter for you, but a weapon blessed by a god and a weapon made by one are two very different things, my sword is a weapon blessed by Lady Artemis and so is Atalanta's bow, and a few others are floating around but I do not know where they would be," she says before taking a sip of her drink, "And before you ask brat, you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands," she says looking at Harry with a serious expression, stopping Harry's next question dead in his throat, before he just nods and leans back with a frown, as the other men in the room adsorb what they were just told.


The Shrieking Shack, one hour later.

After eating and digesting more than just food, Remus, Sirius, Zoë, and Harry all made their down the main road of Hogsmeade to the edge of the forbidden forest by the Marauder's old haunt so the last two could teach Harry some of the spells off the list they had created for Harry, within the first hour they had made through half the list, much to Sirius surprise.

"How the hell are you getting these so quick kid?" Sirius finally asks after showing Harry the shield-conjuring spell in conjunction with the levitation and tracking charm, which was a tricky combo to pull off, even for a fully-trained wizard. But Harry just looks at him confused with two three-foot copper desks floating at chest height in front of him as Zoë inspects them with an impressed look.

"What do you mean?" Harry asks.

"What do you mean? What do I mean?" Sirius says, shaking his head, "Harry, you're pulling magic off that took me years to even figure out how to do just by seeing it once, do you know how impressive that is?" he asks, shocked as Harry shuffles in place.

"N-No," Harry says, looking at the ground, "I'm not doing anything special, I'm just doing what you did with your wand and saying the words, it's not that hard, at least not as hard as the Patronus charm or Battle Magic," Harry mumbles as he fidgets with his wand.

"Battle Magic?!" Sirius says in shock, "Who the bloody hell is teaching you Battle Magic?!" he says, jaw hanging open.

Harry's eyes widen before he presses his lips together and looks away, looking the role of a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, "I'm not allowed to say," he says trailing off as Sirius looks over to Remus who was leaning against a tree with wide eyes of his own.

"Okay, next time we come we're bringing Nym with us," Sirius says with a shake of his head and a sigh, before looking back to Harry, "Do you seriously not know how impressive that is for a kid your age, Harry? Learning how to cast a spell just by watching?" he asks in shock as Harry just shrugs.

"He's always been able to do that," a new voice says, "Ever since our first year, all he has to do is see a spell once or twice and he's able to reproduce the effect without the instruction on how to move his magic, what to visualize, or even the intent behind it, I first thought he was a natural savant when it came to when it came to magic," Hermione says, looking at the group as all but Harry turns to look at her. Harry keeps looking at the ground with a stony and angry expression on his face.

"Miss Granger, it's good to see you again," Remus says with a smile to the girl, "I was wondering where you and Mister Weasley were when neither of you two showed up with Harry," the former professor says to his old student. Hermione's mouth presses in a thin line, regret and pain dancing in her eyes, she hesitates and goes to open her mouth, stepping forward to say something but is cut off by Sirius.

"What do you mean by first thought?" The Lord Black asks, he had turned to look at Harry when the boy didn't greet his friend, and seeing his Godson's stony face began to wonder what was going on between the two, was she the one leaving marks on Harry's neck?

"Well, after what he…is, came out I started to look into more esoteric or lost bloodline magics from over two hundred years ago and found a phrase called Lunar synchronism, but it didn't match up quite right so I hadn't mentioned it to him," Hermione explains as she took a few steps closer to the group, to Harry, "at the time I was trying to narrow down who his divine parent was, and had thought it was Hecate because of how good he was at magic and how it followed the cycle of the moon," she says stopping a few feet from the group, from Harry, fiddling with her fingers, "But everything else Harry could do didn't match up so I had discarded it as an option when I got ahold of Amanrathus Black's journal and well,..." Hermione trails off with a pained look in her eyes.

Harry remembers it well, Hermione had figured out who his divine parent was through a passage in the journal, which led to his first meeting with Artemis. The silence was thick in the woods, as Harry refused to look at Hermione and she didn't look away from Harry, he could feel her eyes burning into the back of his head.

"Lunar synchronism would actually makes a lot of sense," Sirius says slowly, his eyes flickering between the two friends before looking at Zoë who looked confused about who Hermione even was, "Artemis is a Moon Goddess and if Harry got that blessing maybe it would work like that with his magic?," He says.

"What does that mean?" Lupin asks, looking interested and a bit worried about what was happening between his two favorite students, "I've never heard of Lunar synchronism before,"

"His magical core follows the Lunar calendar," Hermione says, "it becomes denser as the Moon becomes fuller, starting at its normal density at the new moon and increasing while it waxes, allowing more and more magic to be siphon through it and at the height, the full moon, it would be at it's densest putting him on the level of someone like the Headmaster," she says to the stunned silence of the three other Wixen, "Apparently it will only get stronger as he gets older, I'm pretty sure his intuitive grasp of magic can be somewhat attributed to Artemis' blessing as well, plus his own natural talent for magic," she finishes, to Lupins surprised understanding.

"That would explain why his tries at the Patronus charm were so back and forth," Lupin says with sudden clarity, "one week you would be on the cusp of getting it and the next it was like you took a few steps back, and we never tried it on a full moon for obvious reasons, fascinating, simply fascinating," Remus says with a bit of awe looking back at Harry, who just shrugs at the information before finally looking at Hermione.

"What do you want, Hermione?" Harry asks Harshly, causing the girl to flinch.

"Harry, ...I'm sorry," Hermione says, she had paused to try and think of something to say but nothing had come, her words came out small and weak, "I should have believed you, I should have considered all the other ways your name could have come out of the Goblet, I had thought you just want to go on another hunt, I'm sorry, I jump to the most obvious conclusion and I was wrong, I'm sorry," she says, her words coming out as broken and soft.

"You hit me," Harry says with sad angry eyes, and Hermione flinches as Zoë narrows her eyes angrily at the girl.

"Harry, I was scared, you don't-" Hermione says, taking a step forward but cuts off as Zoë steps in her way, glaring down at the bookworm with burning golden eyes.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Legacy," Zoë says softly and full of danger, before Hermione glares back.

"Move," Hermione says, before Zoë leans down and into her face.

"I am not Atalanta, Girly, I will not make empty threats, you touch him again, I will take the hand that does it and your lucky this is the first I've heard of this, or I would have done just that already," Zoë says, calling upon the Hunt and freezing the girl in place with a look before Hermione's eyes widen in fear and she takes a step back.

"That," Hermione says, "You get like that, and, and all I can think of is how dangerous you are, all the ways you could hurt me," Hermione says in a quiet and scared voice as she takes a step back from Zoë.

Zoë smirks as she leans back up, "That's the Hunt, Girly, and the instinct ingrained into you through millions of years of evolution, warning you of the danger those blessed and born from it are to you, because you may have never been hunted, but I assure you, your ancestors were and they passed that fear down to you," The Lieutenant of the Hunt says with an evil smirk, "Perhaps you should listen to them and run," she whispers the last word with malicious intent.

Hermione takes a breath, and closes her eyes, and crushes the fear with ruthless logic before opening them again to glare back at Zoë before taking a step forward, "So it triggers the fight or flight response in people unprepared for it," she says to Zoë impressed face at what Hermione had done, before Hermione's eyes narrow and flicking over to Harry, " Does it, the Hunt I mean, also affect those blessed by it?" she asks.

Zoë raises an impressed brow, "Yes," she answers easily, "The Hunt feeds us and so we feed it in return, it pushes us to hunt for it, to feed it, it gains a foothold through our emotions and edges us to the chase and the hunt to do so," Zoë explains to Hermione.

"Fuck!" Hermione yells, much to the shock of Harry who had never heard her curse before, "Why didn't I realize that!? It's so obvious!" she yells as she runs her hands through her hair and begins to pace, "It explains why Harry has always so eager to chase things, to hunt down the stone, to go after the Basilisk, why he charged after Sirius, and why he went after the Death Eater at the world cup, not because he wanted to but because he was being pushed to do it!" she yells in frustration before rounding on Harry, "Why didn't you ever tell me this!?" she yells, and then stops, her face set in horror at what she was doing before covering her mouth with her hands.

Harry had tried, he really did, his anger was at a boiling point when Hermione showed up, and then she started to do the one thing he hated, yelling, "It's not something I can put into words, Hermione!" Harry snaps back at her, "It's not as easy to explain as just saying I like to hunt, it's like saying you just like to read and learn! It's a part of me, it's, it's like a constant need, a voice in my head that always pushes me to it, to hunt, to chase something down, to kill something! Like a constant headache that won't go away and makes me shake and my muscles ache and, and, and,..." but Harry trials off unable to explain the want to her, how hard the domain pushes him every day, how he has to ignore for his own sake and for the safety of everything around him, he had almost lost himself to the Hunt once and that had scared him deeply, he could still see the pain on Atalanta's face as she begged him to come back the fear on Her and Ron's face as he tried to kill them, or the feeling of his spear punching through Sirius' chest. Harry sighs out angrily before closing his eyes and gritting his teeth he pushes his anger down, looking away from Hermione.

"Harry,..." Hermione says softly, and moves forward to try and comfort him, to tell her that she's sorry, that she was wrong, but before she could Zoë steps in her way once more.

"Leave," Zoë says, crossing her arms, "You're not helping him here and we have more than enough to deal with without you causing Harry's temper to flare, so Leave," Zoë orders Hermione, and before Hermione could say another word, Harry speaks up again.

"Listen to her, Hermione, and go, just…" Harry sighs, his shoulders slumping, "Just go," he says as Hermione looks at her with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Hermione says sadly one last time before turning around and walking back to Hogsmeade.


Ron Weasley, Hogwarts.

Ron was walking back up the slope toward the castle, choosing to take the long way back to the castle from Hogsmeade. He had gone to the village with Harry and Hermione to try and take his mind off of things, he had spotted both of them while there, Harry with Sirius and Professor Lupin and the tall girl in the silver jacket walking towards the Shrieking Shack, and Hermione not much later crying, coming back from that direction, Ron could guess what had happened there, and he couldn't help but to think that Hermione and him deserved it. Harry's anger was a sight to behold by normal standards and they both had earned it by not believing him when he said he didn't put his name in the Goblet, Harry wasn't the type to leave people behind, Ron just wished it didn't take him almost three weeks to realize that.

He sighs to himself as he sees the castle's main entrance come into view, wondering how he was going to fix his own fuck up, but his thoughts are interrupted by a voice he was expecting.

"Ah, Young Mister Weasley," The Headmaster calls out as he walks from the direction of the forbidden forest, "Such an odd coincidence to run into you," he says with a jovial smile.

"Oh, ah, evening Professor Dumbledore," Ron says, turning to look at the Headmaster, "How's your day going?" Ron asks awkwardly, not really knowing how to talk to the Headmaster without Harry around to explain why they had to break school rules to do something.

"It's going well, Mister Weasley, I had to deal with some things for the tournament today, and am looking forward to dinner, I hear that the house elves are preparing blood pudding for dinner and I'm looking forward to it," Dumbledore says, the smile never leaving his face as he walks next to Ron, hands folded behind his back.

"Oh," Ron says, not knowing what to say to blood pudding, but does make a squamous face at the thought and continues to walk beside the Headmaster in an awkward silence that didn't seem to bother the Headmaster at all, "Soooo, why is it a coincidence running into me, sir?" Ron asks, not wanting to leave the awkwardness hanging.

"Hm? Oh, I just had the pleasure of speaking to one of your older brothers," Dumbledore says with a smile, looking towards the school.

"What did the twins do now?" Ron asks, rolling his eyes.

"It wasn't either Mister Fred or George," The Headmaster says, "Though they did set up a particularly amusing prank on the third floor involving a wheel of cheese, a transfigured baby elephant, and a gallon of mayonnaise," he says airily, "No, I had the pleasure of speaking to your older brother Charlie," he says with a hint of a smile.

Ron almost trips when Dumbledore says Charlie's name, "O-Oh! What, what was Charlie here for?" Ron asks with a grimace, even he knew how bad of an attempt at fishing for information that was.

"For work, Mister Weasley," Dumbledore says easily, looking at Ron out of the corner of his eye.

Ron does stop this time, the blood draining from his face and his eyes widen as the implication of the Headmaster's words hit him, Charlie was here, and it was for work, Charlie's worked with,...

"I!" Ron says quickly and loudly, "Need to go and do things! Homework! Yeah, Charms Homework, bye Headmaster!" he says with panic in his voice before taking off at a full sprint to the castle with the Dumbledores chuckles chasing after him.


Harry Potter, Gryffindor Tower.

Harry enters the tower of the brave and bold after wishing Zoë a good night, she was settled in Atalanta's old room close to the tower, after Hermione had left Sirius and Remus didn't comment on what happened between Harry and Hermione, they had run him throw the rest of the list of spells and showing him how to use each one before telling him to practice them as often and as much as he could in the next two days, which wouldn't be a problem if he didn't have Battle Magic practice with McGonagall the next two nights to help him prepare for whatever the first task was.

As he walks into the common room, he sees Hermione sitting in her normal place by the fireplace reading, she looks up to see him, and Harry sees the shame and sadness build up in her eyes before she looks away and back to her book, Harry makes it halfway across the common room to tuck in for the night and hears Ron loudly yell at the twins.

"Oi, Fred, George! Did you hear Charlie was here today?" Ron says, stopping Harry cold.

"Charlie? Why was-" one of the twins says from a reading chair by one of the windows before the other one, who was across the way tacking something to the poster board finishes, "-Charlie here today?" in also perfect sync.

That's when Ron looks Harry right in the eye from where he sat on the couch, giving him a perfect angle to see who's coming and going from the common room, "For Work," Ron says and a pit forms in his stomach before he turns to look at Hermione who had frozen in her spot, looking at her book with wide eyes but reading nothing as fear blooms in them, Harry turns on his heel and runs from the common room, ignoring the fat lady's cry of him being rude as he runs at top speed through the castle, jumping down whole flights of stairs before getting back to the portrait of the witch Medea, screaming the password and pulling it open.

Harry never noticed Hermione running like her life was on the line in the direction of the library.

"Zoë!" Harry yells, "Zoë! I know what the first task is! Zoë, get out here now!" The panic entering Harry's voice was thick as he felt the Hunt purr in his ears as Zoë stepped out of the bedroom with a confused look on her face, dressed in silver pajamas.

"It's Dragons, the first task involves Dragons," Harry says Before Zoë could even ask a question, and watch as horror and fear grow over her face, "Please tell me you know some super secret hunter method to deal with them," Harry asks desperately, but as Zoë shakes her head grimly Harry curses.

"Bloody fucking Hades!" Harry yells, "How am I supposed to deal with a dragon!" Harry kicks the nearest chair, sending it flying into the wall with a crack.

"That's not the worse part, Harry," Zoë says, blood draining from her face, and Harry looks over to her to see the fear in her eyes for Harry, "Dragons are one of the creatures that have a foot in both our worlds, Harry," she says and after seeing Harry's confusion, Zoë continues, "They eat half-bloods, Harry, once they smell you they'll rampage to try and devour you and they won't care what gets in their way," Zoë says as Harry's eyes widen.

Harry bends his knees, before falling down and sitting on the floor as the horror of what was going to happen washes over him as he stares off toward the back wall of the room, "Oh, ...fuck," Harry whispers.

Zoë tilts her head back and leans against the doorframe on the other side of the room, "Fucking idiots, if they had told me ahead of time I would have warned them and gotten this changed," she says with a pained sigh, pressing her face into her hands, it would take a week, at least, to get reinforcements from the hunt here to deal with a rampaging dragon, and a week they didn't have.

"Zoë," Harry says weakly, fear in his voice evident to the lieutenant of the hunt.

"You're not dying, Harry," Zoë says firmly, her head snapping over to Harry, "I was sent here to prevent that at all costs, I'll talk to the headmaster, make sure there's a lake near the area, I'll kill the fucking thing with Hero's downfall to hell with the separation of the worlds," she says with gritted teeth.

"What?" Harry says shocked, "No, not that, thanks, but not that, I was gonna ask for you to get dressed again," Harry says, his eyes hardening because Harry had one more teacher he could go to for help, and his dreams had returned to normal in the last few nights, "There's someone you need to meet," Harry says as he looks at Zoë's confused face.


Three of Pentacles

Shown on this card, is once again three people each separated by torn pages, but where once the edges were fried and fresh, they seem to be coming back together slowly with one another. In the first section, a redheaded by stands on a hill, a raven sitting on his shoulder overlooking four cages, a Pentacle sits where his heart should be. in the second section, a boy in a silver jacket stands alone in the woods, looking down at the Pentacle he holds in his hands with sad angry eyes as the full moon hangs over his head, the silhouette of a large bird falling to him in the moonlight. in the last section, a bushy headed girl with mocha skin can be seen at the side as she sits at a table covered in books with a cat in her lap, her chin rests on her hand as she's looking off in the distance with a mournful look as she pets the cat with the other hand, the pentacle resting inside her mind.


Chapter over!

And a bit late.

Zoë and Harry's relationship can be best summed up with the following statements:

Zoë: "No one is allowed to hit my little brother but me!"

Harry: "Yeah!...wait…"

And

Zoë: "I'm the oldest, therefore, mom loves me the most!"

Harry: "Yeah, well I'm mom's real kid, that means Mom loves me more,"

Zoë: *Punches Harry in the face.

Artemis: *watches the two roll on the ground trying to kill each other, feeling oddly proud and profoundly regretting every decision she has ever made in her immortal existence.

I had a rant but I stayed up WAY TO LATE writing this and cooking meatballs.

Kingsaxcul, Out!