Harry Goes On a Quest
Harry was packing his bag, furiously going over the lines of the prophecy. He had owled Ron last night recounting everything that had happened since he arrived at camp and the reply he was given this morning wasn’t overly long.
Dear Harry,
Guess where I am? IN EGYPT. I put a photo of the family in with the envelope for you to see. It’s been mighty great here, Bill’s been teaching me a bit about curse-breaking and I think I might wanna be one. Do you think I could do it? Bill says I could but everyone else seems to think I’m too lazy.
Anyways, about your letter. MATE! What the actual fuck!? I knew I should’ve come with you, it’s way too dangerous there. Also, this Percy guy? He isn’t replacing me, right?
I hope you’re doing alright, mate, it sucks that your godly parent hasn’t claimed you yet. That has to be bad parenting at its finest, but I reckon you will find out soon based on the words in the prophecy.
Wish you luck,
Ron.
Harry found only Annabeth waiting at the bottom of Half-blood hill when he arrived and internally groaned. He wished the other two would get here quickly, otherwise he might just hex her.
“Good morning,” Annabeth said curtly when he reached her.
“Morning to you too,” Harry responded, sitting down on the grass, prepared to wait for the next twenty minutes. After bunking with Percy for the past week he was well aware how late Percy always was.
Annabeth just glared at him.
“Have I done something to offend you?” He didn’t remember doing anything but then again he really didn’t like her so there was a chance he had accidentally let something slip without meaning to.
“You’ve barely been here a week, you're unclaimed, you shouldn’t be allowed on this quest. I’ve trained for years for this opportunity and you get it just because you’re his friend. Ridiculous,” She snapped, her face was red and her hair was a mess.
Harry groaned. “It isn’t my fault that I got asked to come, I wasn’t about to leave Percy to go alone with you two. You guys have never been on a quest before and I have. He deserves to have someone with experience,” Harry thought the girl was being rather whiny for someone who got what they wanted. She was also a hypocrite because the only reason she was coming was because Chiron said she would.
Annabeth’s eyes widened at this. “What quest?”
“I hunted and killed a basilisk,” He said before standing up and getting in the van. Annabeth was left standing there in complete shock once again.
On the ride into the city Percy told him all about the shoes Luke had gifted him, apparently he couldn’t use them so he had given them to Grover. When Grover held them up proudly Harry’s instincts went off like crazy. He quickly snatched them out of Grover’s hands and threw them out the open window.
“What the hell!” Grover yelled, sticking his head out the window, watching as the shoes grew further and further away from them.
“Luke isn’t to be trusted. My instincts are always right and they told me those shoes were dangerous, so I tossed them,” Harry explained with zero remorse. He wouldn’t let someone yell at him for saving their life.
Annabeth glared at him. “I’ve known Luke since I was a little girl, he wouldn’t harm a fly let alone Grover who is his friend. There was nothing wrong with the shoes,” She snarled.
Harry was sick of this girl acting like she knew everything. “Maybe he wouldn’t harm Grover but he didn’t give the shoes to him, he gave them to Percy who is a stranger. He had no idea that Percy would give them to his friend instead. I’m telling you that the shoes were cursed and couldn’t be trusted, now would you stop glaring at me for five seconds.”
If there was one thing Harry could always trust, it was his instincts.
Harry watched as Percy, Annabeth, and Grover played hacky sack with an apple. They had asked him to join them (sans Annabeth) but he was too busy being on the lookout. Messing around was fine when they weren’t on a deadly quest with powerful scents. It didn’t take long before the greyhound arrived, they all boarded and headed straight to the back of the bus. Idiots. The back of the bus was a deadend, if they were ambushed back there they would have nowhere to go considering the locks on the windows. Harry split off from the trio and sat near the middle of the bus where a lady’s body easily covered his lithe figure from any potential monsters.
“Paranoid,” Harry heard Annabeth mutter under her breath, wasn’t she supposed to be wise?
Just as Harry predicted, monsters followed them onto the bus. They appeared to be really weird bird human hybrids and they were making their way directly towards Percy and the others. ‘For fuck sake,’ Harry inwardly groaned. He pulled out his hunting knives - they weren’t ideal for throwing but he couldn’t get close range without potentially harming mortals - and aimed them with careful precision but before he could throw them the bus lurched. Harry’s head shot up to see Percy at the front of the bus (clearly invisible using Annabeth’s hate) steering the bus into a ditch.
Harry leapt up from his spot and rolled out of the one of the only open windows just in time as the bus crashed. Chaos, absolute chaos reigned. Mortals were rushing out of the bus and screaming, quickly followed by the monsters and the crew of idiots. They could have avoided all of this nonsense if they had just let Harry take care of it. Each of the three were facing one of them and they were failing dismally, it was a complete trainwreck. He drew his bow and let loose three arrows in quick succession, each monster collapsing into a golden dust before their confused opponents.
Harry stormed over to the three, anger written all over his face as his eyes glowed a dangerous silver. “YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOTS! I HAD THE SITUATION IN HAND, JUST AS I WAS ABOUT TO THROW MY KNIVES AT THOSE BIRD THINGS YOU DROVE THE BUS INTO A DITCH AND MADE EVERYTHING ALL THE HARDER. YOU JEOPARDIZED THE QUEST WITH YOUR BRASH THINKING AND IMPULSIVE ACTIONS,” He yelled, he was beyond furious with the three. “NOT ONLY THIS, BUT ALL OF OUR SUPPLIES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED THANKS TO YOU THREE LEAVING YOUR BAGS ON THE BUS. ALL THREE OF YOU ARE INCOMPETENT AND CLEARLY HAVE NO IDEA JUST HOW DANGEROUS A QUEST IS, ESPECIALLY THIS ONE,” Harry’s hair was silver by the end of his rant (that tended to happen quite a bit when he got mad). “Just…let's go.”
Percy looked ashamed, Grover was quite clearly terrified, and Annabeth looked embarrassed by the thorough telling off.
This fast food place was sketchy. Grover had told them that the place smelt like monsters and Harry was inclined to agree, who the hell had a random fast food/statue emporium in the middle of the woods? However, Percy and Annabeth had insisted his senses were just clogged from the bus. Pretty sure that wasn’t how satyr noses work and by the incredulous look on Grovers face he was thinking the same thing.
“That statue looks just like my uncle ferdinand,” Grover commented when they walked through the front doors, Harry looked around at the statues and couldn’t help but note how realistic they were. He could see every pore, every hair, the artist was either rather talented or Medusa’s twin sister. He also noticed that most of the statues had a terrified look on their face.
“Hello,” A silky voice said from behind them. They all turned to see a tall pale woman wearing a headscarf, sunglasses, and a rather stylish dress in the style of ancient Greece. Harry’s instincts went off the charts when the hissing started.
“Mmmm, new statues.”
“Perhaps mother will allow us a treat.”
“I want the blonde one.”
Now, Harry wasn’t the biggest fan of Annabeth but he wasn’t going to let her be eaten by invisible snakes. He scrunched up his face as she led them to the snack bar, didn’t Medusa have snakes for hair? He swore to all the gods that if this was actually Medusa he would punch Chiron. Fucking Medusa. Twelve year olds dealing with an ancient being of immense power.
Wonderful.
He waited until Medusa had walked into the kitchen to whisper to his quest-mates. “We need to leave, I think this lady is Medusa.” Grover nodded but Percy just stared with a tired look in his eyes.
“Don’t be so paranoid. We are all hungry and this woman is offering us free food. We may as well take advantage,” Annabeth said with an eye roll.
“You cannot be serious! You said I was paranoid on the bus and look how that turned out. Look I can understand snakes and the second I got close to her I heard hissing,” Harry explained, grabbing both Annabeth and Percy by the arms and hauling them out of the emporium as quickly as possible.
“Where are you going?” Medusa called out with a wide smile, she was holding trays of food that made them all drool but Harry resisted, dragging them all further away.
“I’m afraid we have places to be. Perhaps another time?” He called out.
The moment they had exited the restaurant the charm that had been placed on the two demigods seemed to vanish.
“Wha-”
“Medusa. She was using her allure to reel you into the restaurant,” He explained without stopping, he was going to get as far away as he could from the beast. Medusa was known for being unrepentant and unmerciful, he wasn’t about to test his luck.
Harry would be having words with Zeus when all of this was over. They were all exhausted from the day's activities so they decided to set up camp not too far into the woods. If you asked Harry, Zeus was a right asshole for sending children to fetch his lightning bolt, if he wanted his toy so badly he could go fetch himself. Harry found himself looking at the stars for comfort long after the others had fell asleep (one should never sleep when danger is probable) he had calmed from his earlier rage a while ago and was left with just disappointment, disappointment as the adults in this world for allowing such barbaric practices to continue, disappointment at his godly parent for refusing to claim him, and disappointment at himself for getting so upset with his teammates earlier. He knew that he had overreacted but it was hard not to, Annabeth had been treating the quest like it was a playdate or a vacation and he was sick of it. Quests were dangerous, from what he had heard; people died because of them. Grover, whilst a very kind satyr, had been nearly useless throughout the adventure so far. His flute or whatever it was didn’t do much “woodland magic” on account of Grover not knowing how to play it. His sense of smell would be extremely handy except Grover didn’t seem to trust it which led to confusion on safety. This made Grover both a liability and a tag along. It would have been easier if he had not come along. Harry knew that this was a cold perspective but he had to remain impartial when observing the situation. Lastly, Percy. Percy had been both useful and frustrating. He had been brave and jumped into action while they were on the bus but he had also made the situation more difficult than it had to be.
Harry was tired. He just wanted to go home. Home to Hogwarts where he could be with Ron and Hermione and avoid all of this demigod business. The only reason he hadn’t fled to the Weasleys yet was because this group needed him, and also he was extremely curious about his godly parent and the prophecy stated he would find out (in no certain terms). He thought he had an idea but Percy had shot it down.
“She’s a maiden goddess and she has never had children before. Why would she start now?”
It was disheartening. Everything added up to her but at the same time none of it made sense given her history. Percy had come up with a theory but Harry didn’t like thinking about it, it was rather cruel.
“I- what if she wanted a girl? That isn’t to say that you aren’t brilliant, she totally missed out if you are her kid but…Annabeth said she hated all men, so maybe she saw what gender you were and-”
Harry hated not knowing. He was so sure it was Artemis but what if what Percy said was true? What if she didn’t want him because he wasn’t born a girl.