Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to another chapter of "The Heir and the Champions" in which we will get to see everyone's favorite Agent, what happens to the body of Fáfnir, I do a little world-building, and someone tries to Assassinate Harry.
But first, Kittens and Catnip.
On with the show!
Harry Potter, softly slumbering.
Harry was dreaming, a large part of him knew this, but the smaller part was far too caught up in it to notice or care. Dreams to Harry were odd things that could bring comfort or chaos when he would awake, and from the moment this dream started Harry could tell it would bring neither.
He stood in a grand circular hall, polished black slate made up the floors, walls, and ceiling making the room look like it was made from darkness, little orbs of witch-light burned over his head casting their reflections on the floor and giving light to the room. It was like an assembly hall with a raising platform broken into two wings on the left and right by a staircase, on each side were thrown, sitting high and mighty, but also dead and empty except for one, sitting in a thrown of skulls of men and beast alike sat the titanic form of the Horned God of the Hunt, his spear resting across his legs and crackling with lightning. On the opposite side from where he sat, Harry could make out a thrown of crystal and shadow, a form flickering in and out with a blood-red spear stabbed into the ground right before her, almost free and far too ready to reclaim what was once hers.
Harry's eyes are drawn up the stairs that split the two sections to the very top, two more throwns sit above the rest, one of jet or obsidian carved in the likeness of bones and swords with a white crown laying on the seat unclaimed as three crows sing mournfully, the one next to it looked to be grown from the earth like a trunk of an ancient tree and delicately carved with knots and crosses that were embroidered with gold and silver with a crown of gold and wood sitting upon it.
The hall felt hollow, empty, unfilled, and lacking what may have been its true glory, and just as Harry was about to take a step forward, he feels two hands land on his shoulders and lips as cold as the grave brush his neck and up to his earlobe, he hears someone take a breath to start to speak, but Harry is shaken awake.
Zoë's quarters, eleven am, the day after the first task.
Harry jerks awake from where he lay at the sound of someone calling his name and shaking him from his slumber.
"Harry," Zoë says, "Harry, it's time to wake up,"
"Zoë," Harry grumbles out as he pushes himself up, " What are you doing in…your room?" Harry says, as his brain catches up with him and takes in his surroundings. Harry rubs the sleep from his eyes, he must have fallen asleep on Zoë couch and not woken up.
Zoë herself smirk down at Harry as he sits up on the couch, stretching as he does, "You fell asleep after eating, I didn't want to wake you up so I sent your friends back to their dorm, but now you have to get up, the Headmaster asked to meet him outside the Great Hall," she explains before pulling on her jacket that was laying on one of the chairs.
"What does the Headmaster want?" Harry asks as he stands up, picking his jacket up off the table and putting his good arm through the sleeve before Zoë walks over to him and helps him re-sling his injured arm before putting the rest of the jacket over his shoulder.
"His message didn't say, just to get you and to meet him outside the great hall, apparently, we have a guest," Zoë says as they both head out the door and into the main hallway that leads to the moving staircases.
"Do you think it's Artemis?" Harry asks, walking behind Zoë, before yawning.
"It could be, but I doubt it, Lady Artemis would have come directly to us instead of going to the Headmaster," Zoë says as they begin to go down a flight of stairs, and Harry nods, that sounds like Artemis; Always straight to the point.
They walk the rest of the way in silence, with it being a weekend, there weren't many students wondering the halls, but the few who were would immediately move out of the way from their path, Harry was far too used to this reaction from the last three years to give it any thought as they moved through the halls. Soon they make it to the entrance of the Great Hall and find the Headmaster standing outside of it with a smile on his face watching students come and go, creating most by name and with a twinkle in his eyes before turning to see Harry and Zoë descending to the first floor.
"Ah, Mister Potter, Lady Nightshade, good morning to the both of you," Dumbledore says, the smile never leaving his face.
"Good morning, Headmaster," both of the Hunters echo as they approach, it was Zoë who spoke up first, "What can we do for you this morning, Headmaster? Is the Ministry back?" she asks with a raised brow.
This brings a chuckle out of Dumbledore as he shakes his head, "No, my dear, though I have no doubt they will try and reclaim the spear again once they get all the paperwork to do so," he says as he turns and starts to walk to the main entrance to the castle
"They can try," Harry mumbles as the two hunters follow after him.
"Oh, I'm sure they will," Dumbledore says as he folds his hands behind his back, "But lucky for us we have someone in The Wizengamot that will be able to slow them down, stop them, or in the worst case, warn you when they come," he says, "But, Happily, that is not the reason I've called you both from what I am sure was a relaxing time, this meeting has to do with the mishap with your dragon yesterday, Mister Potter," he explains to them.
"Did you figure out who did it or how, Headmaster?" Zoë asks, hoping to get some answers, and her target to hunt.
"Sadly, I haven't had the time to investigate myself, which we are going to remedy here in a few minutes, and luckily we have an unexpected ally in this endeavor," the Headmaster says as they walk through the front entrance and down the steps, Harry was about to ask who, but soon saw the only person that the Headmaster could be talking about. He was tall, with deep brown skin and neatly combed salt and pepper hair, and in a muggle pinstripe suit with what could only be a robe folded neatly over one arm, Harry could make out little pockmark-like scars on one side of his face as if he was attacked by dozens of straws at one time. it was an odd site to see someone who looked so muggle on the front lawns of the castle, he was even puffing away on a fag as he looked over the forest.
"Ah, Him," Harry hears Zoë say, he looks over at her and sees a small grin on her face much to his confusion, Harry doesn't think he had ever seen Zoë happy meeting a guy before.
The man turned to them as if he sensed their approach, he had the look of undisturbed boredom, as if he had seen everything the world had to throw at someone and was utterly unimpressed by it all. The man proceeds to flick his fag straight into the air before, with a flick of his wrist, summons his wand to hand and waving it at the falling butt, vanishing it before making his way to meet them.
"Lieutenant Nightshade," the man says in a cool but rough voice before dipping his head and bending slightly at the waist in greeting, "It's good to see you again," he has a slight smile on his lips when he says this before it drops.
"Agent Doe," Zoë greets back with a nod of her head, "it's good to see you as well, though there is no need for the lieutenant, I'm not with the Hunt at the moment, so I do not have that rank," she tells him and the man nods.
"Lady Nightshade it is then," The newly named Agent Doe says, causing Zoë to smile and roll her eyes, he then turns to look at Harry, eyeing his jacket for a moment before looking him in the eyes. If it wasn't for the sun Harry would say the man's eyes were almost charcoal black, "And you must be Harry Potter," the agent says before sticking out his right hand to shake Harry's uninjured left, "Agent Jonathan Doe of the DoMC of the Magical Congress of the United States of America," he introduces himself as Harry takes his hand.
"DoMC?" Harry asks when he shakes the agent's hand, "Like the Department of Magical Creatures?"
The agent chuckles a bit before letting go of his hand, "Not quite Mister Potter, it stands for the department of mist control, we work as a bridge between the magical and divine worlds, ensuring that the mundane world remains ignorant of both," he tells Harry, "It's my job to make sure that the majority of the mundane and magical world to remain ignorant of the divine one and vise versa in some cases, we also keep track of the demigods born in the world for the most part so we can help cover up and repair any damage done to preserve the statue of secrecy, which also calls for working with your mother when a problem with monsters or magical creatures come up," Agent Doe explains.
"My mom?" Harry says, confused for a moment.
"Ah, right, forgot that little detail, my apologies," Agent Doe says quickly, "I work with Lady Artemis, not the late Lily Potter," he clarifies.
"Oh," Harry says before he shuffles his feet awkwardly, "You sure do know a lot about me, ah, sir," Harry blurts out, and the Agent chuckles.
"It's kinda hard not to Mister Potter, when you popped up on our registry you made quite the stir," The Agent says, "Imagine my office's surprise when the only known survivor of the killing curse was not only a Magician but a child of Lady Artemis as well?" he says with a shake of his head, "My boss almost had kittens over it, a third Magician within the Greek pantheon and one of the major gods as well, to say you were a surprise to us is honestly an understatement,"
"Third Magician?" Harry asks, "Are Magicians rare or something?"
"Other than myself and my boss, there shouldn't be any other Magicians connected to the Greek Pantheon, technically it's outlawed by the Olympian council for any of the twelve to have a child with a Wixen," The Agent explains, shocking Harry for a few reasons, one, he wasn't the only mortal Magician. Harry had assumed he was an oddity that happens once and a while due to how little information about them there is, and secondly, that it was illegal when Artemis had helped his mom and dad to have him, normally Artemis was all about following rules and laws, and thirdly, he was talking to another Magician.
"Oh," Harry says in surprise, blinking a few times, "Who's your parent?" he asks.
"Hecate, the goddess of magic," Agent Doe says with a small smile, making Dumbledore look at the man now in surprise, "But I think we should get to what I was sent here to do, hmm?" he says looking between the three of them before Dumbledore recovers enough to nod and begins to lead the way.
"So, How many Magicians are there?" Harry asks as he follows behind the two older men with Zoë.
"Excluding you and myself, sixteen that are registered with the ICW, for obvious reasons we don't know if there are more until a Wixen is claimed," Agent Doe explains, and before Harry could ask any more questions, Zoë cuts in.
"Why are you here, Agent Doe?" she asks, "Not that I do not appreciate your experience in investigative matters, but I would think the ICW would send one of their own agents to look into this,"
Agent Doe nods, "And for any other case, you would be correct, Lady Nightshade," he says, "But about four days ago on a routine check of some wards in the northeast of Canada, the team that was checking the ward stone found it corrupted and the dragon that was in the area of the ward gone, then as my office ran around like a chicken with its head cut off for about three days until Lady Artemis showed up at the office talking about how a dragon in the first task was switched out, and well," Agent Doe says with a sigh, "I was sent here because one plus one normally equals dragon," he says as Dumbledore chuckles at his words.
Zoë stops dead, her eyes wide, "Northeast Canada?" she asks, before she looks at Harry, "Harry, could the dragon talk? Did it say its name at all?" she asks in a breathless voice, stopping the rest with her question as Harry looks over to her, confused.
"Umm, yeah, he said his name was Fáfnir or something like that, why?" Harry asks before watching the impressive sight of Zoë cursing up a storm in what seemed to be eight different languages and Agent Doe sighs out in relief.
"Well, I found my missing Dragon," the Agent says before he continues on his way.
"Fáfnir, as in the dragon for the Scandinavian Saga?" Dumbledore asks, his brows disappearing under his wizard cap when the name was said.
"The very same," Agent Doe answers back as they keep walking.
"Harry!" Zoë snaps at him when she finally stops trying to single-handedly revive three different dead languages through curse words alone, "These are the type of things you tell me about!"
"When? In the middle of it trying to eat me!?" Harry snaps back at his older sister, "I'm sorry Zoë, but between running away from it and casting magic to slow it down, I didn't have time to stop and ask for its autograph!" Harry yells, "It was a big dragon trying to eat me, I didn't care what it called itself, I just needed to stab the damn thing!" Harry yells before he hears a snort of amusement coming from Agent Doe, Harry and Zoë quickly catch up to the two seemingly older men.
"What is so funny to you?" Harry asks, letting his temper slip a bit, but apparently, Agent Doe was used to anger demigods by now and answers back in a bored tone.
"You have no idea how much you sounded like Lady Artemis when you said that," the Agent comments with a look of amusement in his eyes, causing Harry to stutter and blush before falling quiet.
"Did you figure out anything from the ward stone, Agent Doe?" Dumbledore asks as they reach the path leading down to the arena and continue on.
"Not much sadly," the Agent says, "Whoever did it was skilled enough to get past the outer wards, find the damn thing, and then corrupted it with enough of the Mist to make it seem like everything was normal," He says with a sigh, and Dumbledore frowns.
"Curious," The Headmaster says, "Do you have the capability to check if a ward stone is corrupted with this Mist?" he asks and the Agent nods.
"My mother is the goddess in charge of creating and managing it for the Greek Pantheon, which gives me a certain amount of authority over it so I should be able to check this one if you want," The Agent says and Dumbledore nods.
"If you would be so kind, Agent," the Headmaster says, "and while we are on the subject, what is this Mist? I've heard Lady Nightshade speak of it before but we didn't have time for a proper explanation," Dumbledore asks, sounding curious as he looks over to Agent Doe as the group makes it to the stadium.
"The Mist is a divine force created and managed by various gods of magic to help separate the mundane, magical, and divine world, it blinds and confused the mundane to the divine world around them, and keeps a majority of magical from seeing the divine," The Agent explains, "I say most because the Mist is a mind-altering effect, so if the Magical is proficiently trained in Occlumency, they can ignore the effect of the Mist," he says as the group makes their way into the champions' tent that was taped off by black and purple crime scene taped that Dumbledore vanished with a flick of his wand.
"Fascinating," the Headmaster says as he moves into the tent, "It's almost like the Statue of Secrecy ritual of 1689, a physical manifestation of law brought into being through high magic," Dumbledore says off handly.
"Well, seeing that the Statue is a ritual based on the Mist and pulls from it, it's not all too shocking that there's some coalition between the two," Agent Doe says with a shrug, stopping Dumbledore cold as he looks back at the Agent with wide eyes, but before the Headmaster could ask another question, Agent Doe continues to speak, "And no, I don't know what specifically they did at the time, all I know were twelve Magicians working with the ICW at the time to help create it," Dumbledore pauses, but nods his head as the group moves into the arena.
The body of Fáfnir was still there, twisted and ripped apart from the thorns of Dun Scáth, the golden blood of the dragon was still bubbling like molten gold. Agent Doe makes a humming noise in the back of his throat before walking forward into the arena, stopping at the nearest pool of blood, and kneeling before drawing his wand to poke at the blood with it.
"Yeah, this is Fáfnir alright," Agent Doe says dismissively before standing, "Well, that's one thing off my plate," he says as he turns to look at Harry, "Mister Potter, two questions if you wouldn't mind," he says and Harry shrugs, "Question one is were you splashed by any of Fáfnir's blood? Even if it was a tiny amount," the Agent asks with a frown.
Harry shakes his head, "No sir, by the time it was torn apart I was too high above it for anything like that to happen, and I landed on one of the thicker stocks of thorns so I wouldn't land in the blood," Harry answers, pointing at the place where he had landed, Agent Doe looks at where Harry was pointing before nodding his head.
"That's good, Fáfnir's spoil of war is his blood, which is also incredibly cursed, so we don't have to worry about a Magician gaining both the curse and armor of Fáfnir, that's something I wasn't looking forward to dealing with," Agent Doe says before walking back over to the group, "My second question is how did you manage to kill the King of Greed? I'm not sure if you are aware but its scales couldn't have been pierced by anything but a sword called Gramr," he asks, looking down at Harry with a raised brow.
"Oh, ah, I, ah, didn't know that," Harry says, ideally scratching his cheek, "But I used my spear and threw it down its throat," Harry explains and the Agent just stands there looking at him with a blank, unbelieving face.
"You did that?" Agent Doe says, gesturing to the ruined corpse of the dragon, "By throwing a spear?" he asks slowly, making sure he hadn't misheard the boy, but as Harry nods, the Agent makes another humming noise before turning to Zoë, "Lady Nightshade?" he asks, looking for clarification.
Zoë just smirks, "He's leaving out a few details, but that is essentially what he did," she says with a nod, "Which reminds me, Agent Doe, as much as I dislike using your department as a cure-all, but I need a favor, and by "I" I mean Lady Artemis and the hunt," she asks watching the Agent frown a bit but nods for her to continue.
"The spear he speaks about is technically an artifact that he was recently given, the British Ministry tried to confiscate but I had told them it belongs to the Hunters of Artemis, I was hoping you could draw up the paperwork to prove that," Zoë asks, crossing her arms with an unsure look on her face as the Agent just stares at her before sighing and unfolding his robe to reach into it to put out a small notebook and a fountain pen.
"Details?" Agent Doe asks as he opens the notebook, and Zoë fills the agent in on what the spear was and what it did before the Agent asks to see it to write down a physical description to which Harry takes out Serpent-Hunter (Zoë had given it back as soon as they had entered the castle yesterday) and unfolds the spear. The Agent takes one long look at it before blinking and looking at Harry, "Where the hell did you get a divine armament of death?" Agent Doe asks, which leads to Harry explaining about Scáthach and the Land of Shadows, to which the agent just sighs before turning back to Zoë, "Are the Gaelic gods in America?"
"No," Zoë says with a quirk to her lips as she watches relief flood Agent Doe's eyes.
"Excellent, not my problem then," is all he says before casting a few spells on Serpent-Hunter to get all of the measurements he needed, "Well, if this doesn't get you your fourth X Mister Potter, I'll eat my wand," the agent says as puts away the notebook before pulling out a pack of fags and a golden zippo lighter with a Web design on it, as Dumbledore turns to him with raised brows.
"Surely you're joking, Agent Smith?" The Headmaster asks as Harry looks between the two of the older men confused.
"Fourth X?" Harry asks, as the agent steps past Harry and Zoë to get downwind of the two hunters before lighting his fag and inhaling the smoke.
Agent Doe blows out a puff of smoke before he speaks, "Not at all Supreme Mugwump, Mister Potter owns a copy of a divine armament and killed one of, if not the, strongest dragon in the world baring the divine ones of the far east," he tells Dumbledore who still looks confused.
"But getting the fourth X would mean he was already at three," Dumbledore explains, "and while I haven't looked at the registry in a long while I am relatively sure Harry wouldn't be on it seeing that he's still in school,"
"What X's? What Registry?" Harry asks, before looking at Zoë who just shrugs, not knowing herself.
Agent Doe turns back to Harry before taking a puff of his fag, "Do you know about the ICW scale for dangerous creatures?" He asks Harry, who nods in return, "Well, the ICW has one for Wixen and Demigods, though being from what was once thought to be a godless land, the Supreme Mugwump wasn't allowed to know about the demigod part," he explains as he gestures to The Headmaster, "Most Wixen will fall between the one X and four X depending on how dangerous the International Confederation of Wizards see them, this scale is also applied to Demigods, and most demigods start off as two X dangerous individuals unless their parents are the high divine of there Pantheon, for you, it would be Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades," Agent Doe explains before taking another puff of his fag.
"But, you're not the run-of-the-mill Demigod, you're a Magician, and all Magicians no matter who their parent are classified as three X dangerous individuals, and then you killed this thing," The agent says before jerking his thumb towards the remains of Fáfnir, "Which should not have been possible without Gramr, but," the man says with a nonchalant shrug, as Harry nods.
"What about five X?" Harry asks, knowing the scale for creatures goes up that high and was wondering if the Wixen and Demigod one does as well.
Agent Doe nods, "There is a five X classification, though it is very rare that the ICW gives out that one, in the past two hundred years there have only been four people who were slapped with that," the agent explains and Harry's head immediately snaps to Dumbledore which causes the agent to chuckle, "Good guess Mister Potter, the Supreme Mugwump is indeed one of those four people," he says before taking another drag of his fag.
"But Dumbledore isn't evil," Harry says.
The Agent shakes his head, "Being good or evil has nothing to do with being put on that list, it all boils down to how potentially dangerous the person is, and the Supreme Mugwump is incredibly dangerous by himself," Agent Doe says in a matter of fact tone, causing Dumbledore to frown, he never liked being put on that list.
"Who are the other three on the list?" Zoë asks, curious herself.
"Well, Lady Nightshade, other than the Supreme Mugwump, the man he defeated in single combat is also on it, one Gellert Grindelwald, though most consider him neutralized because of his defeat and imprisonment, then there's the known terrorist, Tom Marvolo Riddle also known as Lord Voldemort and the only reason he's still on the list after his defeat on Halloween in '81 is because of the Supreme Mugwump comments on his belief that he isn't dead," Agent Doe says before taking another drag.
"He's not," Harry says firmly, looking Agent Doe in the eyes, "I've seen him myself, he was possessing my teacher back in my first year,"
Agent Doe narrows his eyes at Harry, removing his fag from his lips before he talks, "Do you have any proof of this, Mister Potter? Evidence of any kind?" he says while his eyes flick back and forth between Dumbledore and Harry.
Harry opens his mouth, but slowly closes it, because he didn't have any evidence to prove what he said, there was nothing left of the body but ash, "Would my memories work?" Harry asks, unsure, but Agent Doe shakes his head.
"Memories can be altered and faked and so aren't admissible in the courts of the ICW, sorry Mister Potter," Agent Doe says with a sigh before flicking the butt of his fag into the golden blood, and Harry scowls at the ground, "But to answer the rest of your question Lady Nightshade," he says, turning back to Zoë, "The last one on the list is Lady Makoshi Tomoe, she works as a member of the ICW's international Auror task force and is one of the registered eighteen magicians, but other then that I don't know much about her," the agent says.
"Lady Makoshi is a woman of unwavering morals with a very strict code of honor who also knows how to make a lovely cup of green tea," Dumbledore says with a smile, "I've had the pleasure of meeting her a few times over the years, and found her to be delightful company even if she is what the ICW likes to call, their nuclear deterrent, to use a muggle term, she has dedicated herself to opposing all forms of evil in the world and know for a fact she is waiting for a certain snake to pop his head up once more," the Headmaster explains with a twinkle in his eyes while looking at Harry. The Heir to the Hunt slowly nods his head, understanding what the Headmaster was saying, whoever she was, she was aware that Voldemort was still alive in a way.
"But, we digress from why we are here," Dumbledore says before taking out his wand and flicking it toward the ground near the middle of the arena, the earth twists like clay before a large crystal floats from the ground. It was a chalky white color with four gold bands wrapped around with various runes etched into them, with a vicious black crack running horizontally through it, Dumbledore turned to Agent Doe with a pleasant smile, "Shall we?" he asks, and the agent nods.
Dumbledore and Agent Doe inspected the crystal and the Agent did indeed confirm someone had corrupted it with the Mist to hijack it, probably not too long after it was planted into the ground. This caused the Headmaster to frown and admit he did not think that someone would try to hijack the ward during the task before once again apologizing to Harry, he would be taking better precautions during the next task to make sure something like this wouldn't happen again.
The next thing was what to do with Fáfnir and his blood, Agent Doe explained that Fáfnir's blood was his spoil of war, Andvaranaut the Agent called it, and was extremely potent but was also extremely cursed. He explained that if Harry would have bathed in it he would have gained Fáfnir's near invulnerability but it would have also made his worst traits to be that more prominent. In the end, Harry decided that having a near-invulnerable demigod with a massive anger problem and a direct connection with a divine domain as powerful and corrupting as the Hunt, was a bad idea and decided to sacrifice it. Though not to Artemis, which surprised Dumbledore and Agent Doe, and caused Zoë to yell at him as he watched the shadows consume the remains of Fáfnir, Harry just hoped that Scáthach didn't mind a big dragon taking up room in her castle.
It was when they were leaving the arena that something happened, Harry had turned to walk to the entrance, arguing with Zoë about why he had sacrificed Fáfnir in Scáthach's name. Harry felt something punch him in the chest and then push throw him, taking his feet out from under him as he fell to his knees, he hears Zoë gasp, but it sounded miles away, the Hunt growled in his mind as it was fed, but Harry barely paid any mind to it as he felt such a heart aching feeling of lost rip through him.
"Mister Potter, Harry! Are you okay, my boy?" Dumbledore panicked, shaking his shoulder, but it still felt and sounded so far away as Harry turned to look at Zoë. Her face was twisted with sorrow as she was grasping at her heart, Harry could see the tears starting to form in her eyes as she looked over to Harry.
"Wha-" Harry tried to say but couldn't get the words out before his voice cracked and his throat grew thick, but Zoë already knew what he was trying to say as she quickly came over and kneels to embrace Harry.
"One of our sisters has died," Zoë says in a whisper, her own voice thick with sorrow, as Harry freezes in shock.
"Well, fuck," Agent Doe curses with a sigh.
Hogwarts, side corridors, four days after the first task.
Zoë had helped walk Harry back to the castle with a somber-looking Headmaster and Agent Doe. Before the group split apart Agent Doe had offered Zoë to take her back to America to find out which of the hunters had passed on, but she declined the offer when she had felt Harry grip her tighter. The agent simply nodded before telling her he would find out who it was and make sure she would find out so they could properly mourn her passing before he and the Headmaster gave them their condolences and left the siblings to grieve in peace.
They haven't heard anything three days later, Ron, Hermoine, and Daphne had all noticed a shift in Harry's mood, though he had only told his two best friends about what had happened, he didn't know how to explain to Daphne without telling her about Artemis and his connection to her. But Daphne had accepted him not wanting to talk about it with grace and decided on just snuggling up to him during their meetups and talking about herself, classes, homework, the books she was reading, anything she could think of to try and distract Harry from how he was feeling. Harry didn't offer much in those conversations, he couldn't, he wasn't as smart as Daphne, nor did he like to talk about what his home life was like though he did mention he was looking forward to staying with Sirius over the summer.
Harry, Ron, and Hermoine were on their to transfiguration, a class that was quickly becoming Harry's second favorite class, he still hadn't told either of his best friends about his lessons with McGonagall on the weekends they still thought it was detention which Hermoine had gone on a truly epic rant about the unfairness of it all and has been acting coldly towards Professor McGonagall for the last week because of it. Harry found it amusing but decided he would bring both of them with him next Saturday to show them what his detention actually was.
"I still say you should start trying to figure out what's on the Pithos along with what the next task is," Hermione says, she was currently training to talk Harry into figuring out what the next task will be to get a head start on it.
"Hermione, I have till February to figure it out, cut me some slack," Harry sighs, looking over to her with fondness in his eyes, no matter how annoying her being bossy could get, Harry knew it was because she cared, and worried for him, he had missed it, "Besides, I'm going to be in a forest, kinda obvious what the task is gonna be," he says as he narrows his eyes and peeking back over his shoulder.
"It's going to be a hunt," Ron says, understanding what Harry was saying, he frowns a bit, "Well, that certainly gives you an advantage,"
"We don't know that Ron," Hermione interjects, "They could have to find something, like a scavenger hunt, or have to take each other out like a war, but we won't know until Harry starts working on the clues," she says leading the trio towards the transfiguration corridor.
"If it was a mock war, then why have the option for them to work together?" Ron asks, turning to look at Hermione.
"Who knows, it could be a trick, if they all work together then they just have to overcome the challenges together, or just outright win together, we won't know till Harry works out the clues," she tells Ron matter of factly, "Which we will be helping him with, won't we Ronald?" Hermione says with a slight glare at the redhead.
"Ah, yeah, totally," Ron says with a nod of his head, not looking forward to working under the taskmaster that was Hermione in a fit of research.
"The task and whatever they put in the forest isn't my biggest worry, Hermione," Harry says, his eyes sweeping the corridor, checking if any of the doors were even slightly open, "It's who I'm going to be in the forest with," Harry says grimly.
"Fleur," Hermione says, her lips pressed into a thin line, "Do you really think she'll try something during the task?" she asks.
"You didn't see the way she looked at me when they said we were allowed to fight each other, I've got no doubt who she'll be coming after as soon as it starts," Harry says before snapping his head to look behind him and coming to a stop in the hall, "Besides, from what she said, I don't really think she has a choice in the matter," Harry says slowly.
"What do you-" Hermoine begins to ask, turning her head to ask Harry who was walking slightly behind her only to see him stopped in the hallway, "Harry? What is it?" She asks, coming to a stop herself, which in turn makes Ron stop.
"We're being followed," Harry says, flicking his wrist, and slipping his wand into his hand just before Ron and Hermione do the same.
"By who?" Ron asks, turning around to watch the opposite way Harry was facing while Hermione steps in between the two, her head moving back and forth to cover both her friend's back.
"No idea, but they've been following me for the last few weeks, and it's not Astoria or Ginny like the last few times," Harry says, straining his ears to pick up on any movement.
"Wait, Ginny followed you?" Ron asks, turning back to look at Harry.
"Yeah, during second year, though I don't know if it was her or the Diary making her do it," Harry admits, not knowing the truth, and honestly didn't want to know. Ginny had stopped after he destroyed the Diary and had gotten more comfortable with him in the room and hanging out with him, no longer blushing or stammering.
"Well, that's creepy on multiple levels," Ron mutters before looking back down the corridor.
"Honestly Ron, have a little compassion, she was possessed at the time," Hermione snaps at him turning to look at him with her hands on her hips, that's when Harry heard it, footsteps as light as snowfall behind him, he quickly turns around to find something he didn't expect, a little girl.
A little girl in a powder blue uniform.
A little girl in a powder blue uniform with Orange-gold eyes with pupil slitted and a knife.
Harry recognizes her from when the other schools had shown up at Hogwarts, Fluer had spoken with her before dragging her off with the other students. But before Harry could say a single thing, the little girl bends her knees and rockets at him with a terrifying speed, he tries to raise his wand to stop her but the tiny girl slams into him and knocks them both to the floor she scrambles on to his chest before raising her knife and screaming something in French.
"Du sang pour le dieu du sang!" The little girl yells before bringing the blade down onto his chest, she tries to stab him in the heart, Harry feels the impact on his jacket and screams as he looks down, the blade unable to Pierce the thick leather of the reinforced leather of his dragonhide jacket. Her eyes widen before she starts to try and push the knife through his jacket, a look of pure determination on her face.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron yells, causing the blade to fly out of the little girl's hands, she watches it sail through the air and jumps off of Harry to try to snatch it out of the air, but Hermione was just a little faster than the little girl.
"Accio!" Hermione casts, summoning the blade to her open hand, and looking at the little girl with wide confused eyes as the little girl stops and watches as Harry jumps back to his feet to aim his wand at her, Ron's never leaving her. Harry watches in growing horror as the little girl looks between the three of them before her bottom lip begins to tremble, a look of devastation overtaking her face as she falls to her knees and starts to cry.
Harry, once again, had no idea what his life had become.
The Knight of Pentacles
Standing below a dark sky with a Crescent moon hanging in the air is a man with neatly combed salt and pepper, a youthful face lined with stress lines and pockmark scars on one side of his face leading down onto his neck, and in a pinstripe muggle three-piece suit. He looks forward to the front of the card, one hand brought up to his face holding a lite cigarette. Above his head floats an ephemeral green crown with eyes for jewels looking in every direction as a polecat wraps around one of his legs.
Chapter finished!
Hahaha, Murder Child, I love it.
Yes, that was Gabriella trying to kill Harry while screaming blood for the blood god, I find this funny on a few levels. But next chapter we get our proper introduction to the tiniest Fea and her reasons for why she tried to assassinate Harry.
Oh, no, one of the Hunters has died, but who will it be?!
Those in the hunt are closely tied to one another and can feel if one of them passes on while on a hunt, Harry being a child of Artemis is tied into this as well.
Who is Makoshi Tomoe? Well, she's my excuse to have a katana in this story because I'm a fucking weeb, that and it will let me do some magic theory for those who go to Mahoutokoro, because for them I'll be throwing any sort of wanded magic right out of the window.
But Tomoe is an Onmyōji and a Demigod of a divine from Japan, five cookies to whoever guesses what divine, and is basically the ICW answer to two incredibly powerful dark wizards popping up when they had no real answer to them, so they found a magician willing to be trained to be the answer, she is fully aware that Voldemort isn't dead yet and is waiting for her chance to take his head.
The Dangerous Wixen ranking system is something I made up to give a little context to the world, and basing it on the dangerous creature scale just made sense. The scale doesn't measure how powerful someone is, but how potentially dangerous they are. Percy, Thalia, Jason, Nico, and Bianca would all technically fall in the five X category for being possible children of the great prophecy, see what I'm getting at?
The Mist at Hogwarts:
So the Mist is how the Divine separates the worlds, and when the ICW created the stature of secrecy they recruited the twelve Magicians at the time to help the mundane world forget the magical one. But in doing that, it stretches the Mist thin, so in places like Hogwarts where there are no Mundane humans, the Mist isn't there because it's not needed to protect the area. After all, it already has protection in the form of wards.
Ah, Jonathan Doe, I'm so happy to bring this guy into the main cannon story. He has the tough job of being the main go-between for the three sets of gods that call America home, which I assure you, is as stressful as it seems, Hence the older look to the 30-something-year-old man. But he's hella useful to the plot when I need something conveniently covered up.
But a special shout-out to Reason13 for being the 1,000th subscriber, that's right boys and girls! We broke 1k again! This is my second story that had done so, and im so fucking proud of myself.
Kngsaxcul, Out!
