Disclaimer: I don't or HP or PJO.
AN-1: I have a P*T*R*N, where you can read the NEXT SEVEN CHAPTERS right now, along with those of my other fics.
"Lux," his voice echoed in the empty corridors, a ball of soft, bluish-white light appearing before him as he walked out of the common room entrance. Shuddering for a moment as the coldness of the night settled upon him, Harry snapped his fingers, casting a warming charm upon himself as he continued onwards. Stepping through the shadows, he looked out of the window at the night sky, his eyes moving from one star to another as hundreds of them glittered in Nyx's domain.
Taking out his wand, he silenced his footsteps and cast a charm to his scent as he moved towards the stairs. A thrum of excitement shot through his body as he took a final glance out of the window, his eyes zeroing upon the stillness of the Black Lake and the silhouette of the forest beyond it. It had been a couple of weeks since he had arrived here, and he could stave off his curiosity no longer. Studying the books, practising his magic, and staying cooped up in that dorm had gone on for long enough.
Tonight, he was going to stretch his legs…and what better way to do it than to explore the Forbidden Forest?
Rolling his eyes as he saw the broom closet in front of him rumble for a moment, Harry shot a silencing charm at it, idly wondering whether Filch's cat could smell the couple's activities or not as he continued on his way. Humming a quiet tune as he moved through the silent castle, he found his mind wandering back to the nights he had spent in America…and the silence of the Zeus cabin that he had so enjoyed. There, it was just him on one big bed, a bathroom all of his own, and not even Chiron could enter without Zeus' approval.
But here? Here he had to share it with six other children...and that was without counting the shared shower rooms. It was bad enough that every morning, Fred and George somehow made a spectacle in the common room about how 'Harry's abs were harder than bludgers'. Aside from that though, the twins were arguably his only friend in Hogwarts, their antics and pranks reminding him of the Hermes' cabin's residents every day.
If it hadn't been for the fact that Taranis and Hestia both had said otherwise, Harry would have readily believed the Weasley terrors to be his Godly brother's children.
Other than that, nothing of note had really happened since the flying lesson, where he had had to evade a god's attempt at making a joke out of him—and be the object of everyone's fascination due to his flying skills. Idly, Harry wondered just what their reaction would be if they saw him fly without a broom, or pull a Darth Sidious on someone. Probably revere him considering he was a Gryffindor, he snorted, his mind flashing back to the looks the House of Green and Silver was thrown throughout the school. Superpowered and mystical they may be, but the wizards had their fair share of stupidity and shortsightedness.
They were so quick to condemn Slytherins due to the Blood War and the Dark Lord, that the whole legacy of the Slytherin House was sullied down to its roots. Even the children who were in no way aligned with the families that swore to the Dark Lord were viewed with suspicion and whispered about behind their backs. Somehow, it reminded him of how the demigods at the Camp behaved with him. Other than a select few—and even that number had dropped over the years—dropped dead, his mind whispered—everyone had mostly viewed him as a harbinger of destruction and some great future calamity.
His drachma was on that Great Prophecy everyone whispered about.
But that was none of his problem. He could give two fucks about what that bitchy Nightshade and her merry band of 'free women' thought about him and his actions—and the same went for all the demigods that whispered behind his back about how destructive and dangerous he was. For him, all that mattered was bringi-
"Did you hear about it?"
"The half-giant is always up to something or the other, but I don't believe this one," a girl snorted, and Harry stilled instantly, hiding behind an armored mannequin. Of course, the prefects were also patrolling the staircases for anyone who might want to roam around at night. The next moment, their words registered in his head, and his eyes widened as he looked towards the forest.
There was a fucking half-giant here? Someone got fucked by a Laestrygonian and gave birth to a half-monster?! Holy shit that was fuck-
"Yeah, I dunno why the Headmaster keeps him around, to be honest," the boy sighed, and Harry moved a step back as a hand suddenly came across his vision, the blue lining barely visible in the shadows, "My grandfather told me that the beast used to study here when Armando Dippet was the Headmaster, but was kicked out for breeding a monster within the walls of the castle. Dumbledore saved him from Azkaban, and kept him here as a pet."
"But still Amelia…bringing a fucking Cerberus to the School?! I am surprised he hasn't been turned into a piece of mangled meat."
"Kathy told me that Dumbledore got it approved from the Department at the Ministry beforehand, something about added security from invasive species," she answered, waving a wand to send out a pulse of golden light in front of her. "He pitched it as an opportunity for researchers to add to British revenue by coming to Britain to study a rare species."
"Fudge bought that?"
"He buys anything someone better than him tells him," the girl—Amelia, answered, and even though Harry couldn't see it, he could just hear how hard she had rolled her eyes. "Father was saying that soon it is going to be Malfoy. That ponce just gifted a manor to the Minister in Germany, hidden behind a tag of an orphanage of all things."
"Well, being a philanthropist has always been a curtain," the boy shook his head as they continued on their way. "Now, let's get this patrol over with. I am so sleepy I am seeing double right now."
"Same," Amelia groaned as they vanished around the corner, their diminishing voices echoing in the silence. "McGonagall really worked us to the bone today."
Coming out from his hiding spot, Harry took one last look toward the prefects before looking out of the window, rubbing the ring on his finger for a moment. Cerberus were Greek from their origin and other than the one the Lord of the Underworld commanded, Harry had never even heard of them. But the mentions of these…non-godly variants of monsters and mythological creatures had drawn his attention quite a lot ever since he had arrived in Britain. It was finally time that he got to witness just what made these animals different from the ones back home.
Waving a hand at one of the ghosts that populated the castle, he walked through the darkened corridors, his mind flashing back to the nights when he had walked through the forest back home. The chirping of birds and the voices of the demigods on guard wafting through the trees, accompanied by the sounds of some enthusiastic campers training into the night. Here though, it was completely silent except for the sound of the wind whistling through the meadows ahead of him, the sheer stillness of the sight before him taking his breath away for a moment. Even though it had been a while, the peacefulness of his days still managed to surprise him at times like this.
Shivering for a moment as a blast of cold air passed through the area, Harry shook his head and walked down the beaten path, looking at the slowly swaying branches of the Whomping Willow—and once again, there was a similarity between the flora here and the one back on the camp, for it looked much like the self-aware plants the Demeter Cabin grew and maintained for the camp's defense. Deciding upon asking Chiron about the sheer similarities between the two worlds—especially when according to Chiron and Hestia both, the gods didn't like meddling with the affairs of the wizards much—he continued down the trail.
At the edge of the forest, he could see lights glowing inside the small cabin, and now that he had a bit of context, he guessed it belonged to the half-giant the prefects had been talking about. If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't allowed to take out his sword or use his abilities to harm anyone here, he probably would have stormed the abomination's cabin by now—and was this something done by the Celtic gods? Like how Pasiphae's and the Minotaur's story went.
"Better hope not," he muttered out loud, shuddering with horror at the images his mind conjured at that thought. Kicking a stray branch to the side, Harry walked past the pens on the side of the cottage, eyeing the centipede-like organisms chained to the ground, his mind flashing back to the giant one he had battled just before coming to Hogwarts—hadn't Ollivander called it a Great Centipede or something? His eyes following the spikes on their backs and the glowing underbellies of the insects, Harry looked at the hut once again, "Just what in the name of Zeus is this thing smoking?"
"My father has done it again."
"Which minor god drew his ire this time then?"
"He didn't kill someone…he has instead seeded a mortal woman."
The bow in Zoe's hands dropped, only to be caught a second later as the Hunt's lieutenant, and her oldest confidant shot to her feet. The titaness' eyes were wide and disbelieving as they flicked in the direction of the girls once, before she looked back at her. "Again?!", she hissed, falling back to Ancient Greek as she drew a rune for silence in the air, bending the mist to her will to erect a ward around them, "it has barely been a decade since the last one! That boy has just gone to Britain, and the Skyfather decided it was time for another one?!"
"Careful Zoe," Artemis' eyes flashed as she looked down from the moon to her friend, "Beware of what and how you speak of certain things. It is none of our business, and certainly not under our jurisdiction to judge his acts."
"Forgive me, my lady," the daughter of Atlas shook her head, her fingers ghosting across the single letter tattooed on her neck, feeling the phantom sensations of being branded like a cattle once again as she lowered her eyes, "But I am only worried for the Hunt and what it means to have yet another child of the Three roaming the mortal world. Monsters are already growing stronger and more numerous by the day due to the imbalance in the energies created by the birth of that boy. The Hunt is already reeling from the regular skirmishes and the restrictions put upon us by the King. With another child of the Elder Blood…it could quite possibly be the Great Prophecy for all we know! You also know that within the last five years, we have lost fourteen Huntresses, and even though that ban is soon going to be lifted, it will take time to return to our former strength. With each Huntress that falls in battle, as a group we lose more of our strength because your blessing diminishes in power!"
"It's not the first since Harry…" Artemis responded after a few moments, closing her eyes as a squirrel ran up her body to sit upon her shoulder, the rodent rubbing its head against her cheek as nature itself felt her distress. And even though her eyes were closed, the Huntress could perfectly picture her friend's face as the words seemed to echo within the confines of the ward Zoe had created. But now that the news was out of the bag, there was no point in maintaining further silence upon her father's continued philandering ways. Sighing heavily as she raised her fingers to pet the squirrel, Artemis opened her eyes and looked at Zoe wearily, "There is a daughter, six to seven years old by now I believe. He fathered her on some Hollywood actress—and this time, it is a son…from the same woman."
"By the Chaos!" Zoe gasped as the gravity of Artemis' words settled upon her shoulders—and for a moment, she could empathize with her father, as the crushing weight of the reality that Artemis had just revealed was certainly no less oppressive than the sight of Ouranos crushing down on her father. Three children of the Three existing at once, and that too of Zeus only was a disaster in the making. Even if she didn't like the boy's attitude, Zoe would be a fool to ignore the strength and power Harry held within himself, and already, the monsters were growing…more monstrous as an effect. To add two more such beings to the equation would mean hell for the mortal plane—to say nothing about just what it would mean for the vows that Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon had taken at the end of World War 2.
"The Dark One and the Earthshaker are not going to take this silently," Zoe shook her head, and Artemis could only hold back another sigh at that. Her lieutenant was right. While she didn't put much stock in the ongoings outside of her Hunt, and certainly in those going on between her family, she knew that something of this scale wouldn't go unanswered by her uncles. Especially not with Harry being a sorcerer and a demigod.
"This child is Roman," she said after a few moments of silence, and just for a split second, instead of Artemis, Diana was sitting upon the rock, the auburn hair turning more fiery as her height increased, her face paling a shade along with her eyes darkening slightly. The next moment, it was Artemis again, her Roman aspect fading away from view as Zoe closed her eyes, as if waiting for the next bombshell to be dropped upon her, "Which means that someday, the Greeks and Romans may discover each other."
"And the war resumes yet again," Zoe's solemn voice echoed in the ensuing silence as she looked up at the sky, their celestial domains and connections allowing them to see past the light pollution at the stars above, "Just what are the Moirai weaving for all of us?"
"You shouldn't be here, wizard, the forest is not meant for your kind."
"So says who?" He asked in turn, coming to a stop as he looked to his left. And while he was putting up a confident face in front of whoever had stopped him, on the inside, Harry was shocked out of his wits. He had known that his demigod powers were going to diminish in a foreign land, but to this extent? Where he couldn't even sense or hear such a large animal until it was practically atop him?! And clearly, the beast or creature was magical, otherwise, it was impossible to not walk around here without making some sort of sound on the fallen leaves or branches.
"So says the leader of the centaurs that live in this forest, child," the heavy, clear voice replied, authority and amusement dripping from its tone in equal measure as the said centaur came into view. Raising an eye at him, the centaur continued, "Who are you to venture so deep into our lands, wizard? And that too at this time of the night?"
"Harry Potter," he answered, creating half a dozen balls of light around him and floating them towards the shadows, his flicking over every pair of eyes that were revealed within the foliage, "I wasn't aware that this was Centaur territory, if I have caused any disrespect by trespassing."
"Lord Chiron was right about you, Son of Zeus," the centaur rumbled as he walked towards him, a chuckle echoing through the trees as the beast lowered its horned head, fiery amber eyes peeking out from a rough, bearded face, "The Flamebearer's light has certainly tempered the arrogance within your blood."
"You know Chiron?!" He asked, surprised by the revelation, before his eyes narrowed upon the old centaur, "And what do you know about me."
"Enough to know that you are surrounded by death and destruction," he returned swiftly, raising himself to his full height, revealing the hundreds of scars on its front, the muscled torso littered with cuts and marks all over. "The stars are peculiar around you, young demigod. Lies, deceit, blood, war, darkness, light…you are at the center of all of this, and yet away from it in another time… which seems to be happening at the same moment. Considering you are going to be spending the next seven years here as our neighbor, I warn you in good faith Harry Potter. Beware of the blood and weight you carry. Your actions are capable of destroying the world as we know it now, and I'd rather not see an untimely apocalypse destroy us because of stupidity."
"It can't take just a show of good faith for you to come out and give me a warning," he crossed his arms, rubbing the disguised xiphos on his finger as he glared at the centaur, " I might be young, but I am not stupid."
"Lower your tongue boy," one of the centaurs shouted, and Harry's eyes shot toward the animal as an arrow was nocked by it. Seemingly taking that as a cue, a couple of other centaurs too raised their bows, aiming at him. Taking a couple of steps forward, the bronze centaur growled, the bow in his hands glowing a slight orange, "That is our Chief you are talking to, and take it as a sign of respect that he deemed you worth the warning. Centaurs are only concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"
"Lower your bows, Bane, Amelthia," the chieftain ordered calmly, raising a finger in Bane's direction. Looking towards him, he continued, "My name is Pholus, named after our wise ancestor who once encountered your brother, Heracles. This warning was to merely convey the words of the stars to you, demigod, to make you aware of how not only yours, but everyone's future depends on your actions—whether they be wizard, demigod, or centaur. As you stated, you may be young, but you certainly aren't stupid, so I think you can be expected to take these words with the gravity they carry. May the stars light your path, demigod, and may this be the last time we cross paths."