Welcome back to another chapter of The Philosophy of Fear, in which, meet Juno who informs Harry of a few things; one being that the Roman gods won't harm him…Right before a Greek Goddess tries to kill him.
On with the show.
Harry Potter, Los Angeles.
Harry watches the stare down between gods from his crouched position. Juno had blasted Bellona away with a single hand gesture hard enough to fling the overzealous war goddess toward the mouth of the alleyway, but soft enough to where she didn't crash through the busy LA traffic. The Queen of the Roman gods looked at Bellona and Virtus with scorn as she glared at them both.
"Just how foolish are you two?" Juno asks, her lips curling into a sneer at her question. "Attacking the boy in broad daylight in the middle of a busy city where your fight could spill out onto the mundane streets," she asks as she shakes her head at both of them, tutting at them as she does. "I would expect this kind of reaction from Mars, but not from you, Virtus," she says as she turns to glare at said God, who flinches at his name coming from her mouth.
"My Queen, you must understand-" Virtus tries to explain, no doubt to save his own ass.
"Oh? What am I to understand, Virtus?" Juno says as she turns fully to him, placing a hand on her hip. "Am I to understand your complete lack of common sense? Your unwillingness to let the past go? Or perhaps you mean the new party trick you've come up with where you put a nail through a two by four using only your thick! Skull! Virtus!" Juno snaps at the minor war god in military dress, her anger radiating off her entire form, causing Virtus to flinch at how Juno spoke to him.
"This- this little shit undid all our hard work," Bellona says as she pushes herself up from the ground, golden ichor spilling from a hole drilled into her stomach by Juno. "He freed the Celtic Gods and overturned our victory!" She snaps back at Juno, swinging her arm wide as the hole she had in her begins to close.
But apparently Juno wasn't letting anyone give her lip today as she slowly turns to Bellona who was just now getting to her feet. "He freed the Celtic Gods, so what?" she says with a pinched face, a clear look of annoyance on her face aimed squarely at Bellona. "The boy has overturned nothing and has only done what he was destined to do, but we are not speaking about what the boy has or hasn't done," she says with a glare as Bellona before crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you two have any idea what you've almost done? The boy is the champion of The Morrígan! The reigning queen of the Celtic Gods, do you two even understand the implications of your actions, the consequences of attacking a foreign champion!?" Juno rages at them as Bellona and Virtus stand still giving each other worried looks.
"Your actions could have very well led us to war if I had not stepped in," Juno says, the seething anger evident in her voice as she spoke to the other two gods.
"So what? We beat them once before we can-" Bellona says, her face twisting into something between angry and proud.
"It isn't about winning or losing, Bellona!" Juno snaps, an unintentional flexing of her power sends spider web cracks across the alley way and up the side of buildings. "Do you honestly think that we want a war!? After everything that happened over fifty years ago? When we are in an age of inter-pantheon cooperation and economic expansion?" the Queen of the Roman gods snapped at the Goddess of Bloodlust and war. "You two are acting like children who can't accept the fact that they can't have their favorite treat before dinner," she says, her tone rang with disappointment at the other gods.
Both Virtus and Bellona had looks of either great rage and disgust, at whom Harry couldn't tell as Bellona eyes flicked between him and Juno while Virtus was looking at the ground at Juno's feet.
"Leave both of you," Juno finally told the other two gods after a moment of tense silence. "You've already done enough damage that I am going to have to fix. And pray that The Morrígan doesn't get wind of this or else I will invoke the right of decimation upon your children to pay for this…misstep," she says as her face twists into something ugly. Apparently whatever the right was, it was enough of a threat to cause the other two gods to pale as their faces took on a look of absolute horror at the mere mention of it.
Bellona turns to Harry with a hateful glare, her eyes flick toward the spear in his hands before returning to Harry's face. She opens her mouth to say something as a sense of power swells around her, but Juno quickly cuts her off.
"Don't! Even think about it, Bellona," Juno snaps at her and the swell of power Harry could feel from Bellona falls flat at Juno's words. Bellona's face twists into something ugly before she turns on her heel and vanishes in a haze of red mist, with Virtue disappearing soon after with a bow to Juno.
The Queen of the Roman Gods let out a deep sigh as she pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head, muttering about idiots all the while. Harry doesn't relax, not fully, he straightens up and relaxes his shoulders but keeps his spear ready, if not pointing away from Juno. The goddess finally turns to Harry, she looked older than most god's Harry had met but it didn't detract from her regal beauty. Juno's green eyes burned with aggravation and power, her dark hair was done up into an elegant bun. The lines on her face were prominent, giving Juno a look of hard won wisdom over many years and a maturity he'd never seen in many of the other gods that Harry has met with the one exception of Odin. Juno was dressed in a flowing purple silk dress that hung over just one shoulder with a black leather midsection that helped the dress cling to her.
She looks at Harry with a mixture of emotions that the Hunter couldn't put his finger on as her face becomes mercurial. But before long, Juno's face finally settled on a look, one Harry didn't like seeing, she looked…calculating. But, much to Harry's surprise, all Juno does is turn on her heel and begins to walk out of the alley. Harry blinks in shock, his luck was never that good. A random goddess showing up to help him out of an ambush always had strings attached to it, hell, even Scáthach had only helped him with the understanding that he would show back up in Dún Scaith.
As Harry thought, Juno stops at the mouth of the alley and turns back to look at him. "Well, Harry Potter, are you coming or not?" Juno asks, raising a brow at him. Harry shuffles, uncomfortable with the look Juno was giving him before sighing and walking forward toward her. "Put the spear away, fool boy," she snaps at him, freezing him. "This part of the country doesn't like it when mortals wander around armed," Juno explains seeing the look of uncertainty on Harry's face.
Harry weighs his options for a moment before rolling his eyes and folding up his spear back to its swiss army knife form before tucking it away in his jacket pocket.
"Good, now come along. I dare say we have a few things to discuss," Juno says as Harry walks over to her, frowning all the way. The goddess motions him forward and out of the alley when he gets close, and Harry gives Juno a wide berth before stepping out of the alley; only for his stomach to do front flips as he does. It felt as if he was tossed and flipped before being spun around a thousand times at high speed. Harry's head spins as he barely holds on to what little was in his stomach before stumbling to his knees.
"Well, at least you didn't puke," Juno mutters as she walks past the fallen demigod. "Hurry up, I have more important things to do today then speak with you," She orders Harry as he pushes himself up off of the sidewalk in a crowd of people, muttering curses under his breath. But he pauses as he stands and looks around for a moment, he was in a different city, all the buildings were different and the streets far more hilly.
"Hey! Hey! Where the hell did you take me!?" Harry calls out angrily as he begins to chase after Juno through the thick crowd of mundane people.
"San Francisco, not too far away from New Rome," Juno tells him as she continues to walk, the crowd subconsciously parting for her as she walks with purpose.
"What? Why would you bring me here?" Harry asks as he quickly catches up with the Queen of the Roman Gods, baffled by her generosity.
"It's close to where you'll be meeting Diana and her hunt, yes?" Juno asks, turning her head to look at Harry who was now quickly walking by her side. Harry narrows his eyes at Juno but nods his head, not trusting her at all. "Then just accept my reasoning as this; the faster you are out of this state and away from New Rome the better," she says airly with a wave of her hand as she dismisses the line of questions.
"Okay, sure," Harry says, nodding his head and understanding her logic, he didn't want to be anywhere near New Rome or the Roman gods in general either. "But why am I following you then?" He asks, raising his own brow at her.
"That is a far more simple answer," Juno says with a frown. "After dealing with those two buffoons, I require wine, and I'm sure a little forest rat like you won't say no to a free meal that wasn't burnt over a campfire," she says dismissively.
"You…don't like me do you?" Harry asks slowly, his eyes narrowing at the goddess once more.
"A word of warning, forest rat, I don't like any demigods," Juno says banefully. "Their birth is normally an insult to my domain of marriage," she says with a bit of disdain.
"You're the goddess of marriage!?" Harry says shocked as his eyes shoot open wide.
Juno finally stops and slowly turns her head to glare at Harry, her eyes burning with power. "Yes," she says shortly and scathingly.
"Oh, man. How are you still married to the thunderfucker?" Harry bluntly asks, his words coming out quicker than his brain could process what he had just said. Harry quickly slaps his hand over his mouth as he gives Juno a sheepish look. "Ah, sorry…" he mutters behind his hand.
Juno's eye twitches before she shuts them and takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment. "You are very lucky that I can't turn you into a peacock right now, I hope you know that," she says scathingly as she lets out her breath that she was holding. Harry quickly nods his head as Juno continues walking with Harry following behind her quietly. They continue to walk for a few more minutes before Juno stops in front of a very nice looking restaurant called La Bella Festa. The Goddess stands before the door of the restaurant before turning to look at Harry with narrowed eyes.
"What?" Harry asks, confused as to why Juno was giving him a look like that. Juno's eyes grow a bit wider as her look turns angrier before gesturing toward the door with an open hand. Harry blinks a few times, looking between the goddess and the doors, lost for a few moments.
"Oh!" Harry says before moving toward the door of the restaurant and opening the door for Juno. "Ah, s-sorry bout that," he quickly says as Juno walks past him with her nose in the air. Harry follows in after Juno, finding her speaking with the hostess in rapid Latin, the poor hostess seems to be shaking with fear as she quickly nodded back and answered in Latin before gesturing Juno to follow her. Harry follows after, his eyes looking around the nice rest full of the late afternoon patrons enjoying their meals. The hostess shows Juno to a private booth toward the back of the restaurant, offering a smile to the goddess along with a menu before turning and spotting Harry.
"Oh! No, sir this is a private booth, I'll have to ask you to–" the girl says before she's cut off by Juno.
"The boy is with me," she says politely, causing the hostess to turn and look at her with wide eyes before looking back at Harry in what seemed to be shock.
The hostess, Mandy by her name tag, looks between Harry and Juno a few more times before speaking. "But- but of course, My Lady. I'll inform the head chief and have that wine out to you right away," Mandy says with a bow of her head before quickly leaving, looking back over her shoulder a few times.
"What was up with her?" Harry asks before taking a seat at the booth awkwardly.
"She probably thinks you're either Jupiter in disguise or I'm finally cheating on him," Juno says with amusement coloring her tone as she slides the menu across the table to Harry. His face twists with disgust as Juno says those words, causing the Queen of the Roman gods to chuckle at his reaction. They didn't have to wait long before the head chief came out from the back rolling a cart with a really old looking bottle of wine sitting in a bucket of ice. Juno and the head chief talk back and forth in quick Latin as the man pours her a glass of red wine, the only real words Harry catches are "Martin Ray and 1953". The chief turned to Harry, asking what his order was but he hadn't even looked at the menu. Juno swiftly stepped in and asked the chief what he would recommend, which was the lasagna that would be coming out of the oven in ten minutes, so Harry had ordered that.
The chief soon took a bow before leaving Harry and Juno alone, the goddess swirling her wine before inhaling deeply through her nose before actually taking a sip. It looks like some weird ritual to Harry as Juno lits the wine sitting on her tongue before swallowing it a few moments later.
She makes a pleased humming sound before speaking. "Simply divine," she says with a smile as if she was pleased with her pun before taking another sip.
"You said you wanted to talk to me," Harry says, turning to look out the one way window that was to the side of the booth. "About what?" He asks, not looking back at Juno but watching her reflection.
"Not one for formalites, are you?" Juno asks with a small smile, when Harry doesn't answer back, she sighs before placing her wine down. "How like Diana you are, she doesn't care much for formality either; far too focused on whatever Hunt is before her," she says, her smile falling at naming Harry's divine mother. "But if you wish for business before the earthly delights of food, that's fine as well," she says before taking a sip of her wine, looking to be considering her next words carefully.
"This terrorist, this…Tom Riddle, otherwise known as Voldemort," Juno begins as Harry clenches his hands together at the mention of the monster. "He's Mantled, has he not?" She asks as she places her wine glass down.
"Yeah," Harry whispers, trying very hard not to let his anger show on his face.
Juno hums before taking another sip of her wine. "Makoshi's reports on the event are detailed and have brought a lot of worry to the other pantheons around the world, including our own. While my husband and king thinks the problem is not ours and is more than content to leave it alone, I on the other hand, do not think the problem is across the sea will stay across the sea," Juno says as she looks down at her wine glass, swirling it as she spoke.
"Makoshi sends you reports?" Harry asks, surprised by that. He honestly didn't think the other pantheons around the world cared too much about each other.
"Not directly, no. She and the ICE have to submit after action reports to the various ICW signed countries to look over at their leisure, it just happens that Mercury also gets those reports and hands them over to me," Juno explains with a shrug, leaning forward a bit. "And what I, and many other divines, have read in them worries us. This has potential to be as harrowing as world war two was for us all," she says before taking a sip of her wine.
Harry frowns at Juno's statement as he turns back to look at her. "Was it that bad?" He asks, only to see Juno's face slip into a frown.
"What have they been teaching you in that History class at Hogwarts?" She says, sounding baffled as she leans back in her seat, bringing her wine with her. "World war two was, without a doubt, the biggest circus the world has ever known. On one side you had Grindelwald, Himmler, and Hitler, a wizard, a demigod, and a mortal all mad enough to try and take over the world along with the Shinto pantheon and remnants of the Legion left in Italy. Atrocities and death wherever you looked, half the legion in the states made an exodus to help their brothers and sisters in Italy fight against the Allies. Neptune and Pluto leading the charge with demigods from the other camp and my Husband and King sitting out of it all because of Heinrich Himmler was his son," Juno spits angrily at the memories from a war long past before taking a much bigger sip of her wine before shaking her head.
Harry blinks, unsure as to what to do or say to that rant. "Wait, I know about Grindelwald, he was the dark wizard that the Headmaster beat," Harry says, shaking his head in confusion. "But a child of Jupiter or- or Zeus was helping the fucking Nazis!? And if you know what's been going on, then why haven't any of you done anything to help?" Harry hisses out in anger.
"I saw that duel, very impressive for two mortals I must say," Juno says, tipping her wine glass forward. But holds off as Harry's food arrives with a cup of ice water and doesn't speak until the waitress leaves them be. "But yes, it was a child of my husband that helped lead the Axis, you didn't think all that iconography of eagles and lightning bolts were simply a coincidence do you?" She asks while raising a brow and sipping her wine.
"But I digress, after the war was over and the battle of Hiroshima between Jupiter and Susanoo had claimed many, many mortal lives along with the bomb the mortals dropped on Nagasaki, the pantheons came together for a moot," Juno says with a sigh, as if just the memories of the meeting brought on a migraine. "We argued for weeks over what to do, how to do it, and who was to do it. It was messy, as all things in politics can be, but eventually we all came to an agreement and put it all into a treaty that all the Pantheons had to abided by," Juno explains before draining her glass and pouring herself another.
"The Treaty of Damocles covers a lot, it covers how we interact and how we settle disputes, how we are to treat each others Demigod children and our agreements on Magicians but there are only two sections in it that apply to this conversation. Those are section three of the Inter-Patheon Real Property Continental Act and the very first section of The Pantheonic Armistice Agreement," Juno informs Harry while swirling her wine. Harry twitches at the word of Magician but otherwises says nothing as Juno continues to talk.
"The IPRPCA states that no pantheon can claim any land beyond what they had originally owned nor can they claim land beyond what they now own," she says before taking another sip of her wine. "While the PAA states that no pantheon or other entities related to the pantheons can invade, occupy, or otherwise appear in the sovereign land of another pantheon without permission from the pantheon that claims that land," Juno explains before placing her wine glass down.
"What all of that basically means is that the pantheons can no longer go to war with one another nor can they or any single god can just walk on a piece of land claimed by another pantheon or God, nor can we send our demigods there unless we have permission to do so, do you understand?" Juno asks him just before taking another drink of her wine.
"So, when The Morrígan demanded all other divines leave her Isles, she basically locked most of you out of handling the situation?" Harry asks with a frown.
"Exactly. Trust me, if it was up to me I would have already sent over four or five Cohorts led by my own champion to help cleanse this infection from the face of the earth," Juno says, her face twisting into a sneer. "But, alas, that would be seen as an act of war and the one I will have as a champion is still very young and has yet to grow into his power and responsibilities," she says with a look of thunderous anger passing over her face so fast that Harry thought he was seeing things for a moment. "The Morrígan has already been made aware of the Treaty of Damocles and she and her kin have already agreed to it, and since no formal call for help has been made, well, our hands are tied," Juno says with a shrug before taking another sip of her wine.
"The only real way we have open to sending help to the Celtic Lands is the ICE, which is what it originally was created to do," Juno explains before putting her wine glass down once more. "But The Morrígan doesn't wish to be seen as weak on the Inter-Patheon stage by letting another pantheon handle something she sees as her problem, something I can respect if nothing else," she says with a pinched look on her face.
"She'd probably be more agreeable with outside help if the last batch of gods didn't leave them sealed after they left," Harry points out snarkelly as he turns to look back out of the window.
"If I had it my way, forest rat, she and all the others would have been freed before we left the Isles," Juno admits as she reaches over and plucks Harry's fork off the table to cut off a piece of his lasagna for herself. Her words surprise Harry, but he bites the inside of his cheek to not let it show on his face. "But as soon as the first crate of the damnable tea hit the harbor the flame vanished from England and swiftly moved, forcing us to move with it," she informs Harry before popping the lasagna in her mouth.
After Juno finishes pilfering his meal and wiping her face with a napkin. "And now that I know Makoshi's reports are true to the detail, it brings up certain questions; one such question is what to do with you?" She says as she wipes the fork clean with a paper towel before putting it back on Harry's side of the table.
Harry turns back to Juno, a sneer etched on his face. "What? Now that you have your answer, you're gonna sick your dogs on me?" Harry asks hotly, his teeth grinding.
Juno's eyebrow raises at his words. "I'd watch that tone of yours, forest rat, I do not appreciate being spoken to like that by my husband, so I certainly won't take it from some bumbling Half-Blood," she says as her eyes flash with power, shaking the entire building with raw power. Harry quickly looks away and mumbles an apology under his breath, but Juno just snorts as the building stops shaking. "Just like your mother, I swear. But no, I have no intentions of sicking my dogs on you, Harry Potter, you are a bit too important to future events to just kill off handed. You are a Greek Demigod, claimed by one of the members of the Olympian council, by divine right that allows you to claim your heritage and attend Camp Half-Blood no matter where you normally live. But, and this is where we run into a problem, you are also a champion of a foreign power in the claimed lands of the Olympians," Juno points out, and Harry's eyes widen as he sees what she is getting at.
"And the Treaty says I'm not allowed to be here, is that it?" Harry asks, inwardly cursing at his normally messed up circumstances.
Juno simply nods with a glint of something in her eyes. "Normally, Demigods of other pantheons going into the claimed territory of another are…ignored for the most part, so long as they aren't causing trouble or in mass. An unwritten courtesy that we follow just to keep the peace between us all," she says, picking back up her wine glass and taking a sip. "Because if we assumed every foreign demigod taking a vacation to the states as an act of war we would never know peace. If they were staying for longer than a vacation, we would handle that differently, but you are in a far more gray area than most," Juno explains before taking another sip of her wine.
"You said it was because I was the champion of The Morrígan back in the alley," Harry points out and Juno nods her head.
"Exactly," Juno says with a small smile. "You are a Greek Demigod but are also a Magician and the champion of another pantheon, you fall outside what is in the Treaty of Damocles for the most part," she says with a shrug and another sip of her wine. "So, we- and by we I mean me, have decided to treat you more as a visiting dignitary than anything else. So, I've decided to offer you my protection in return for something," she says with a sly smile as she leans forward.
"So long as you are in the states, I will keep the Roman gods from cursing or otherwise interfering with you, and in return you will do something for me," Juno offers, her green eyes peering into the depths of Harry's own emerald ones.
"And what's that?" Harry says, his eyes narrowing at the Queen of the Roman gods.
"At a time of my choosing, I will call upon you to repay this favor, you are- without hesitation, to answer my summons," Juno says with a smirk.
"And if I don't?" Harry asks, challenging the Queen of the Roman Gods with a raised brow.
But to Harry's surprise, Juno just chuckles at him. "Oh, forest rat, when I do call upon you; I have little doubt you'll come running," she says with a wicked smile and sparkling green eyes.
La Bella Festa, Harry Potter, 10 minutes later.
Harry, against his better judgment, accepted Juno's deal. He sat in the same booth looking down at his now cold meal with a frown on his face and lost in his own haunting thoughts. Juno had left soon after he agreed to her terms with a word of warning and a final question for him, her word of warning was simple. While she could keep the Roman Gods from trying what Bellona wanted to do, from cursing him, and sending their little pets after him, Juno couldn't stop them from showing up and talking to him. Which was fine, all Harry had to do was walk away from the conversation without punching them and he's had plenty of practice of that when he was younger.
No, what was now bothering Harry was Juno's last question.
"Can you kill him?"
Harry didn't answer it and Juno had left telling him "Well, you better figure that out, forest rat," before vanishing with the bottle of wine and a small stack of muggle money on the table to pay for the meal.
Could he kill Voldemort? Without question, and he wouldn't even lose a wink of sleep because of it. But that wasn't the question Juno asked him, not in the spirit of the question anyway, it was more could he face the monster again? Harry shuts his eyes, trying to block out the rush of memories all entangled in one another.
Blood and fear, swelling like a balloon while he blindly charged at Voldemort, cutting a bloody swath through lesser formorians until it burst, drowning him in his own carnage. "Boy! What did I tell you!?" "Up, I said up! Freak!" Echoes down the hall as his Aunt and Uncle both rage at him as he shivers in fear and broken hope. Sirius's final smile, equal parts happy and sad, as his spell lands, flinging him backwards away from the cursed flames that consumed Sirius. His own voice sounded so distant as he screamed in rejection at what he just witnessed. Mictecacihuatl's final tears hit the cavern floor, thanking him for killing her, sparing her from the pit of rendered fat and ash of her kin. Hands clawing at him under the sludge, whispering inside his mind, begging and pleading with him to end their torment, to…"Nooooooooooooo!" The scream of Atalanta rang in her ears as she charged forward, giving her life just so he could live. "There were no survivors," McGonagall tells him softly as his Aunt and Uncle's scream echo in his head followed by a high cold laugh of delight. "Who will I take from you next, I wonder?" The voice of the monster hisses into his ear full of malicious intent. "I can't wait to find out," his cold laughter followed his gleeful words. Ron on the ground unmoving after the queen bashed him across the head. Hermione lay in the hospital wing, unmoving and petrified. Ginny on the ground, cold and unmoving. Piles of bodies, all unmoving, all dead, their faces flashing through his mind. Luna, Susan, Theodore, Fúamnach, Neville, Fred, George, Mrs. Weasley, Mister Weasley, Delphini, all dead, all his fault his fault hisfaulthisfaulthisfualthisfual! HIS FAULT! Black eyes look back at him, half in glee and half in heart wrenching sadness.
Someone slides into the booth across from him, jerking Harry out of his panic. He blinks the gathering tears from his face and swallows the lump that had formed in his throat as he looks up to them, to her. She looked older than Harry by a few years, a fresh face on a college campus kinda old. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a long braided ponytail as her wise gray eyes inspected him as if he was a puzzle she was trying to figure out. Her arms crossed over her chest as she sat down, she wore a red and white tee shirt with "Stanford University" across it in large letters.
Harry takes a few deep, calming breaths as he closes his eyes once more. "Monster or God?" Harry asks, his hands flexing as he opens and closes them to rid himself of some of the anxiety and tension he was feeling.
"Pardon?" The woman asks, tilting her head to the side. Her voice came out clear as bells and sounded much older and wiser than she looks.
"Are you a monster or a god? It's not that hard of a question," Harry says, gritting his teeth as the Hunt had woken up as the woman spoke and began to snarl and snap uncomfortably in his mind.
The woman's face was blank before Harry spoke to her for the second time, now it quickly falls into a frown aimed at him. "I'd watch the tone that you speak to me in, boy," she says menacingly.
"Goddess it is," Harry mutters as he braces his elbows on the table and cradles his head in his hands, not looking at the goddess across the table from him. "Glad that's solved, now can you do me a favor and piss off? I'm not in the mood to deal with any of you roman cunts right now," Harry says as he bemoans his luck, it hadn't even been ten fucking minutes. If anything, the woman's face turned into a more fearsome and angry look than before, but when she spoke it was still flat, emotionless, and calm.
"I am not a Roman goddess, Harry Potter, and you'd do your best to remember that," she says but her eyes burning with rage that speaks for how she truly felt. "I am Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare," she announces herself.
Harry blinks. "You're Hermione's greatwhatever-grandmother," he says a bit shocked at the woman sitting across from him. She and Hermione had almost nothing in common with their looks other than their eyes. Athena's frown doesn't leave her lips but her eyes turn away from Harry for a moment as if she was considering something.
"Granger, yes. A legacy of mine," Athena says under her breath. "A brilliant student, fearless in the face of challenge and a ravenous curiosity to her," she says as the frown finally breaks and a small proud smile graces her lips. "I am glad to see my blood lives strong in her, however I can't say much in her pick in friends," she says as she turns back to Harry with a slight glare.
"What's wrong with Ron?" Harry says, sounding offended on his friends behalf.
Athena rolls her eyes. "I was not speaking of Ronald Weasley, I approve of him. I was speaking about you, Harry Potter," she says as her frown returns full force.
Harry stares at her blankly. It was possibly the oddest normal thing he had even sat on the other side of, a grandmother disapproving of her granddaughter's association with him, no matter how many times removed that grandmother was. Harry opens and closes his mouth several times as he tries to sort out his feelings over this along with the irritation emanating from the hunt and his own feelings of other things. His hand combs through his hair as he closes his eyes to slam the door shut in his mind, he was fine, he would deal with it later.
Dropping his hand and looking back at Athena, Harry voices his confusion. "What the fuck are you on about?" He says, the Hunts irritation leaking into his tone.
"What I'm on about is the fact you have a tendency of dragging her and your friend Ron into dangerous situations, things that they shouldn't have to deal with," Athena says slowly as if she thought Harry was just as slow.
"I don't drag them into anything, they followed me," Harry snaps at her, his hands twitching as the front door rattles in his mind. "Besides their fine, I always make sure they get out alive," Harry mutters as he looks away from Athena.
"Oh, of that I do not doubt," she says, her face remaining carefully blank and unblinking as her stare burns a hole in the side of Harry's head. "Alive, but never in one piece. Tell me, Harry Potter, do you know what happened to my granddaughter after your last little outing?" Athena asks, her voice turning snarky at the last word like she couldn't hold it back any longer.
"She went to the hospital wing, she was fin-" Harry says, trying to defend himself but Athena quickly cuts him off.
"A putrefaction curse," Athena says simply, cutting off Harry as all the color drains from his face. "It wasn't a full on hit, barely skimmed her but the damage was done. Her liver, one of her kidneys, a small part of her stomach and a large amount of her large intestine all rotted and reduced to what was essentially poison for her body," she informs Harry as he closes his eyes at her words.
"Stop," Harry whispers as his fists clenched tighter.
"It took six hours of intensive and invasive magical healing to make sure she wouldn't die," Athena says, continuing with her account of what happened to one of his best friends.
"Please, stop,"
"And even after that, she remains bed ridden with a potion regiment of thirteen different elixirs to make sure she doesn't relapse,"
"Stop!"
"But yes, you did make sure she made it out alive, Harry Potter. I do hope you're so proud of yourself," Athena says, her flat, cold, and uncaring tone of voice cutting into Harry like sharp knives.
"What the fuck do you want from me!?" Harry snarls, only just stopping himself from attacking the goddess in front of him. Athena is quiet for a moment in the face of Harry's anger, the corner of her lips turning upwards as if she was proud of herself.
"Do you know the story of Astyanax, Harry Potter?" Athena asks, unperturbed.
"What, in the fuck, does that have to do with Hermione?" Harry growls out through clenched teeth.
"Nothing to do with her, but everything that has to do with you," Athena tells him blandly. "Astyanax was the son of Hector, the crown Prince of Troy and its defender. After Troy fell to my champion's tactics and foresight, the kings of Greece convened in the gardens the day after to discuss what they should do with Astyanax, who was not even two years old at the time. None had the stomach to kill a child barely off his mother's breast after their long campaign. So they discussed what to do with the child, some wanted to send him far away to be raised by a trusted but minor family, while others were convinced that they could raise the child as one of their own and keep his past and true lineage from him. But in the end, a prophecy was spoken of the child," she informs Harry as if she was doing a seminar on ancient Greek warfare, and his stomach churns at the mention of a prophecy.
"The prophecy stated that if Astyanax was to grow up, he would rebuild Troy and go on to bring destruction across the Greek world and death to all its kings. But even with prophecy buzzing in their ears, the words of the very gods, none could find the stomach to kill the boy," Athena continues as she glares at Harry.
"Until one found the will to do what needed to be done. Odysseus, my own champion at the time, took the child to the highest wall in Troy and cast the child off of it, killing Astyanax," she says, finishing her tale of tragedy, but still Harry didn't understand why she was telling him this.
"So what? You think I'll be like some ancient asshole hero and start chucking babies off of walls or something?" Harry asks hotly, glaring right back at the goddess of wisdom.
"No," Athena states before leaning forward in her seat. Harry could see her face twist into something ugly and unspoken, like a truth people refuse to say. "You're the child we should have cast from the walls," she says in a deadly whisper, causing Harry to strain his ears to hear her and done on purpose so he wouldn't mistake her words for anything else. Harry stills, his hands clench so hard he could feel his nails breaking the skin of his palms.
"I don't have to take this," he spits out, his appetite forgotten as he tries to stand. Athena raises her hand and gestures to the left, knocking Harry back into his seat and sliding him into the wall; hard.
"Oh, I'm afraid you do, boy," Athena says coldly. "I will say my piece and then, and only then, you may leave," she says in almost a snarl at Harry. She rests her hands on the table, leaning forward into Harry's face. "An untethered magician, I don't know what Artemis was thinking when she made you, the short sighted hunt obsessed fool she is. And to let you run around unsupervised at that, disgraceful," she says with a shake of her head, in disgust and mostly at Harry. "That's not even accounting for what you've done while being left alone," Athena says, her voice dripping with disappointment.
"All I've done was piss off the Roman cunts by freeing the Celtic Gods, if you don't like that, then you can eat shit too," Harry snaps at her, turning in his seat to face away from Athena, intent on ignoring her.
"I don't care about that, boy," Athena snaps at him from across the table. "I care about the fact that you've spilled mortal blood," she tells him, much to Harry's confusion.
"They were assholes who deserved it, who cares about them?!" Harry growls back, refusing to look at Athena.
"You don't know, do you?" Athena asks, her brow raising in question but she continues before Harry could say anything. "It is against Olympian law for a demigod to spill mortal blood, a law we have held sacred for the last one hundred years," she informs Harry, as the stubborn boy finally and slowly turns to look at her.
"What?" Harry asks, shocked.
"No demigod, no matter who they were born to, can spill the blood of a mortal. In doing so, they shall be outcasted from the shelter of Olympus," Athena tells him in a foreboding tone that causes Harry's heart to drop in his stomach. "The Greek Gods will never accept you as one of their own now, no matter who says what. It is rather ironic, don't you think? A boy so desperately wanting to belong to a family, being cast out by the Greeks and reviled by the Romans?" She says, her lips twitching in amusement before her lips fall into a frown and she leans back in her seat.
"But I shouldn't be surprised by that, now should I? With all things considered," Athena says as she crosses her arms once more. Harry just looks at Athena, he could feel the blood dripping from his hands as he took long and deep breaths to calm the raging emotions just beyond the rattling front door. "After all, everything you touch dies," she says with narrowed eyes.
"No, they don't," Harry says, weakly as the frame of the door begins to crack at the force that was keeping it close.
"Oh? You wish to make a list of all your failures?" Athena asks before holding up a hand. "The first one admittedly is your fault directly, merely a…flaw of your birth, your mother and father," she says, holding up one finger.
"That was Voldemort," Harry says quietly.
"Yes, but if it wasn't for the prophecy about you and him, he would have never showed up at your home. If you were never born, then poor dear Lily and James Potter would have never died so young, the world truly lost more than it gained that night. Don't you agree, Harry Potter?" Athena tells Harry as he finches at the cracking running through the front door and the howl of rage from the Hunt.
"Then we have your adopted family," Athena says, holding up a second finger. "Your Aunt and Uncle, no matter how horrible they were to you, didn't deserve to die like that, Harry. Screaming and choking on their own blood as they were tortured to death by the same monster trying to find you all because you had lived in their home, but at least your cousin died quickly because of you. Tell me, Harry Potter, do you know what their last words were? What they said with their final breath?" she asks but Harry doesn't answer, he closes his eyes and focuses on the front door, to keep it closed.
"They cursed you," Athena whispered as Harry's heart wrenched with what he knew to be true. "Before being cooked alive in your cupboard, they cursed even having you in their home. But I suppose you don't feel all that bad about them, huh?" She asks, tilting her head to the side as Harry begins to shake as she holds up a third finger.
"Let's not forget about poor Atalanta and Sirius' death's, all because you were too stubborn to leave a hunt unfinished," Athena tells Harry, as the front door finally gives out and shatters. All of his inadequacies, all of his failures, all the people who died because of him rushes into his mind; unstoppable and unrepentative. Harry finally bows his head, running bloody palms through his hair trying to force the thoughts away and out the door. But the storm of rabbits led by a red eyed black one swarms into him, and refuses to leave.
Athena puts down her hand, her face careful blank as the tears start to fall from Harry's eyes.
"Just how long will it be until you get Ron and Hermione killed? Just how long will it be until you succumb to the Hunt like so many before you and kill your friends yourself?" Athena asks softly as she recrosses her arms. "The only silver lining to all this is if you can muster up the power to kill Voldemort, and I highly doubt that, The Morrígan will kill you soon after," she states before looking out the window to an alley across the street.
"She wouldn't do that, I'm her champion," Harry says weakly as if he didn't believe his words himself.
Athena snorts out in amusement. "I don't know which is sadder, the fact that you think she wouldn't or the fact you might actually believe that," she says with a huff and a shake of her head. "Even now the Queen of the Celtic Gods tears apart the Ministry of Magic around her, to pull the Roman influence that sat at the core of that government since we took it over. root and stem alike, to remove all foreign influence from her seat of power. If you don't think that she won't kill you after you somehow dealt with a Mantled Magician, you're a bigger fool than I thought, and I didn't think much of you beforehand," she says with a shrug.
"The only thing that is uncertain is if your consumed by your own rage and become the monster that I and undoubtedly, The Morrígan, knows you will become," Athena says scathingly, her tone ripping through Harry's mind, only fueling the Hunt more in its own rage against the Goddess of Wisdom and reminding Harry of that ever-present possibility of losing himself to the Hunt.
"What do you want? Why are you doing this?" Harry says through his sobs and tears, as images of all his failures play on repeat in his mind. The sound of something sliding across the table and hitting his arm causes him to open his eyes slowly. A simple bronze blade was now sitting between him and Athena, he looked up with dead eyes to look into the cold gray eyes of Athena that looked so much like Hermione's.
"Save us all the trouble, and kill yourself," Athena states coldly and uncaringly with a face carved from ice. "The only thing prophecy can not override is free will, your free will, if you do it with your own hand you can save so many people. With your death, the prophecy between you and Tom Riddle will be completed, and the Celtic Gods can kill him without worry about being stopped by fate," she says, her eyes burning into Harry as he looks down at the blade.
"Was it that easy?" Harry thinks to himself as he sees his reflection of the blade. His own broken eyes looking back at him, the same look he had after the hellish summer before his second year, or so long ago when he was nine. He could stop it all with a simple blade, all the death that surrounded him, all the pain it caused, all the loss, all his fighting against the…
All it could end with a quick flick of a knife.
"I've said my piece, boy," Athena says, her face never changing as she speaks to him. "You may leave," she orders him. Harry looks at her with a weak glare, pausing before getting up to grab the blade off the table and walking away without another word.
Athena
She watches the boy walk away without another word with a blank face, passing through the door of the restaurant with a haunting look on his face. Only when she was sure the boy wouldn't turn back around did she let her face fall and her own sorrow took over her face. She lets out a deep sigh that she was holding in as she leans forward to place her hands into her hands, cursing herself in her mind. Even to her, the goddess of wisdom and warfare, these acts and duties were never easy.
But Harry Potter was a threat, one she could not deny.
Even if one half of the council was willing to live and let live, she could not. She was a protector of the state and her people as she has been since her birth so long ago. But disposing of a child was never easy, and in a small way she finally understood the burden she had put on Odysseus when she had whispered into his ear about what to do with Astyanax. She looks up, her fingers interlock to rest her chin on as she watches Harry Potter cross the street from the restaurant, his head hung and defeated. She had chosen her words carefully to carefully pick the boy apart at his very core, to break his spirit, and leave him with only one choice in his mind. She had pushed against the door in his mind to make it buckle before breaking under the strain of his own self blame and hatred for himself. It was subtle but messy work to deal with something she saw as a threat and a monster in the making.
It wasn't a curse, just using the boy's own self loathing against him; something she loathed to do to him.
This would be the point where most of her kin would take their leave, assured that the mortal would give into despair and spill their own blood till there was nothing left. But she refuses to move, she would wait and watch until the boy met his end. She would carve this act into her mind, into her very anima so she may never forget what she had done this day. Give her debate halls or battlefields over destroying a grieving child any day of the week.
She prays to any higher power than her that would listen that her half-sister never finds out.
She watches as Harry Potter walks into the alleyway she had pointed out to him, just to slump against the wall and slide down it. Even from here she could feel the boy's pain, his loss, his self loathing for things that were not his fault. She watches as he inspects the blade in his hands that she had given him, his arms resting on his knees, something she would need to take back after the child does his final duty.
"I'm sorry, Harry Potter. But I will not allow a threat to us to continue," she whispers to herself, full of her own self-hatred.
Mortals that walk by the alleyway don't pay the boy much attention, thinking he was just another homeless kid and not the insidious bomb that he was. But as a group of uncaring mortals pass by the alleyway, someone appears in the middle of them.
Short blonde hair curled at the ends and fanning out in a messy look that gave off the radiance of a halo in the late afternoon sun. Young, pale, and child-like, dressed in a simple white sundress the girl glares across the street with burning golden eyes filled with anger, directly at Athena.
Athena's eyes widen at the sight of the girl. "Elpis, what are you doing here?" she says breathlessly at the sight of the Goddess of Hope.
Elpis says nothing back to Athena, just glares with an unfathomable amount of hatred in her golden eyes. Athena has never seen the spirit of hope look so infuriated at anything, she was a passive goddess that was simultaneously the weakest and the strongest of them. She was seemingly fine, fleeting and fluttering in the background of the mortal and immortal lives, whispering into their ears and lifting their spirits to fight on another day. Elpis had never, in all the millennia that Athena has known her, taken interest in the world at large and only around the hearth of Aunty Hestia if she was at Olympus at all.
But as another mortal passes in front of Elpis, ignorant of or uncaring of the true nature of what was standing beside them, Elpis vanishes. The light of her eyes still burning in midair in a mirage, so taken aback by the appearance of Elpis that she had missed a small detail.
Athena's eyes scan the now empty alleyway. "Where did the boy go?" She asks herself in pure shock.
Chapter done!
Near nine thousand words of world building and horror, one hell of a chapter if you ask me.
Let's get the big thing out of the way, and that is:
Athena.
I know she is going to catch so much shit for doing what she did, and she kinda deserves it for the simple fact that the whole thing was premeditated. Athena went in with a plan to get Harry to the point that he would kill himself, she chose each word for maximum effect and impact to break him. She took how Harry felt, all his self loathing, the blame he heaps on himself, and all of his trauma and not only threw it back in his face but forced fed it to him.
And she hated every fucking moment of it.
Athena did something with words that only two people have ever done before, which took them nine years and a whole host of abusive shit, she broke Harry.
But she explained it in her reason for why she was doing it in her story about Astyanax, because no matter what, she will always see Harry as a threat and a monster. So, when no one was dealing with what she saw as an obvious threat, she took it upon herself to do it and broke Harry's spirit and destroyed what little hope he had left.
But in doing so, Athena pissed off one of the only Goddess in this story you should never piss off.
Elpis.
And I don't know about you guys and gals, but I'd rather face an enraged Artemis or a Horny Zeus oding on Viagra than ever pissing off Elpis, because I'd at least have a hope of escaping the other two.
Anyway, the rest of the chapter before that was a lot of world building, which was fun.
Yes, Hitler wasn't a demigod in this, he was just an insanely evil mortal. Himmler was the demigod and the son of Zeus no less.
All props to Nuadha from my discord for putting forth an amazing argument for this, because after pointing out all the lightning and eagle iconography of the Nazis. He also pointed out the fact that America in World War II had an entire concrete barge that had the single job of delivering American troops ice cream during that time.
And if that's not the Rich God flexing with his God of the Seas brother?
I don't know what is.
Kingsaxcul, Out!