Keeper of the Keys
Everyone is walking around and just chatting while the demigods stretch their legs and talk. Poseidon and Amary stood off to the side as he wanted to talk to her.
Amary looks up at the god, wondering what he wanted to speak about, glances are thrown at the two by everyone in the room, especially their sons, her brother, and a love goddess.
Poseidon admires her for a moment. He remembers the first time he met her. She still looked the same as the first time he laid eyes on her. Those green eyes that he always found beautiful, a little upset that their son got his sea greens instead of her meadow green. She brought along a son with her and gifted him another one. He's a little upset that she declined the sea palace the first time because of their sons, but maybe now that they have grown up more, she will accept his offer.
Aphrodite is holding back her squeals, feeling the amount of love oozing out of the sea god for the half mortal witch. She promises herself that they will end up together. Hestia is smiling at the love of family coming for both parents.
The weight of Poseidon's eyes on her makes her cheeks flush, he looks at her still like the first time he's seeing her even after all those years and her appearance changed over the years of raising troublemaker boys and the result of time. She still looks much younger than her age, but the wear of motherhood is still present on her with her smile lines and more shapely figure from their son's birth.
"Have you always been hurt by them?" Poseidon quietly asks her. Amary sighs, having a feeling that's what he wanted to talk about.
"Mostly, It started when I was young. I don't want to talk about this Poseidon." Amary shrugs off the feelings of thinking about her past even when she's gone to some therapy.
Feeling that she won't say anymore about the subject, he gives her a promise. "Okay, however, when we get out of here, I will make sure that they pay for what they did to you. For the pain and suffering that you suffered by their hands."
Amary grabs Poseidon's hand before he can leave, "No." Her voice stern, which gains his attention, and he glances at her hand in his, holding hers back.
"I don't want anything to do with them, to hear about them, to see them, to even think about them anymore. I left all of that behind for a reason. Nor do I even want you or the boys to be around them." Amary tells him, knowing that they can take care of themselves but wanting the Dursley's far away from her new life.
Poseidon frowns, moving closer to where he's only a foot away, "They can't just get away with hurting you." He squeezes her hand, looking around her face.
"They aren't. Last I heard, their lives were going pretty badly, so I believe Nemesis went after them." Amary jokes, which makes Poseidon smile a little before it falls.
Realizing he's not entirely let it go, she squeezes his hand and steps closer. There they stand chest to chest, "Poseidon, please." Amary looks at him with hopeful eyes, and he sighs, nodding in agreement.
A smile stretches her lips, which makes him look at them. She goes to step back, but Poseidon moves forward and wraps his arms around her in a hug, and she hugs him back.
Amary's head is turned away from everyone, leaning against Poseidon's chest while Poseidon is faced towards everyone. He see's people passing money to each other and people laughing and groaning as they either win or lose money. Percy, George, Apollo, and Zeus glare at Poseidon for making them lose their bets. While Teddy, Ginny, Athena, and Hades give the god a grin in thanks for making them win.
Poseidon starts laughing, which makes Amary pull away, and everyone start going back to what they were doing before, Amary looks around just to see people chatting, and Poseidon tries to stop laughing.
"What's so funny?" Amary as the laugh god confused. He just shakes his head before leading her back to their seat. Everyone else followed their lead and took their seats again.
[That stormy night, a tall house, on a rock island somewhere out at sea. The Dursleys, including Euphemia, have moved there due to the chaos with the letters. The family is sleeping, with Euphemia on the cold, dirt floor, and Dudley sleeping on a sofa. She has drawn a birthday cake which reads, Happy Birthday Mia. She looks at Dudley's watch, which beeps 12:00.]
"Make a wish, Mia." She whispers to herself. She blows the "candles" on the drawn birthday cake.
The mood becomes sullen at how she's spending her birthday. It makes sense to Teddy and Percy as to why she was always so insistent about celebrating their birthdays because she didn't celebrate her own.
George and Ginny were wondering if this is why she was excited and surprised when their family started celebrating her birthday as well.
[Suddenly, the door thumps, in sync with the thunder flashing. Euphemia jumps. The door thumps again, and Dudley and Euphemia jump up and back away. She whimpers at the thuds. She hides behind a wall, and Dudley cowers on a windowsill.]
The sudden sound makes multiple people jump, including some of the gods, as they were not expecting it. People lean forward, curious as to what's going on, especially Ares, who's expecting a fight.
Petunia and Vernon appear, with Vernon holding a double barrel gun. "Who's there?! Ahh!" Vernon shouts at the door.
"He has a gun!" People shout horrified that the man has a gun, especially with his violent and abusive nature.
[The door bangs again and then falls down, and a giant man appears. As he comes into the clear lighting, the giant man himself is revealed to be Rubeus Hagrid.]
George and Teddy cheer for the man, as Amary, Ginny, and Neville laugh at them.
The Greeks are confused, so Neville explains, "Hagrid is a good friend of Euphemia's." Amary nods along with his explanation.
"Hagrid reminds me a lot of Tyson, very friendly and oblivious." Amary tells the Greeks, which makes more sense to them.
"Who is Tyson?" Draco questions at the unfamiliar name, having been keeping his mouth shut.
"My half brother." Percy tells the wizards who look bewildered between the boy and his parents. George and Ginny look at Amary, wondering if she had another kid.
Picking up on their thought process, "Tyson is one of Poseidon's sons, he's a cyclops and younger than Percy, so he's very childlike." Amary speaks fondly of the cyclops whom she adores for his want to protect Percy even if Percy's older, and she adores his innocent nature.
"Sorry about that." Hagrid apologizes before he puts the door back up.
Vernon aims his gun at the large man, "I demand that you leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!"
[As Petunia quietly gasps in fear, Hagrid grabs the gun and bends it upwards.]
"Dry up, Dursley, you great prune." The gun fires upwards, blasting a hole in the ceiling, causing the two to shriek in fear.
People laugh at their fear of the large man.
Hagrid notices Dudley. "Yeh'n not Euphemia, Where is she?" Hagrid questions the scared boy.
Dudley: "I-I-I'm not Euphemia." Dudley stutters scared.
"Obviously not." Dionysus says, flipping through his magazine, everyone else just continues on.
"She could never be like you. She is too kind." Poseidon states with confidence.
His words make Amary think back to her dark moments where she was willing to hurt people, and she pursed her lips and continued watching.
Euphemia reveals herself hesitantly, "I-I'm here."
"Well, of course you are! Got somethin' for yeh. 'Fraid I might have sat on it at some point, but I imagine it'll taste fine, just the same. Ahh." Hagrid hands her the cake.
"Baked it myself, words and all. Heh." Hagrid proudly tells her. Euphemia opens the cake, which reads "Happee Birthdae Euphemia" in green frosting.
"My very first birthday cake!" Amary smiles, happy at the thought of it even if she didn't eat it. Her words make people sad that she got her first birthday cake at eleven.
"Thank you!" Euphemia excitedly thanks the man, never having a birthday cake before.
"It's not every day that yer young woman turns 11, now is it? Aye?" Hagrid tells the girl.
[Hagrid sits down on the sofa, takes out an umbrella, and points it at the empty fire. Two sparks fly out of the umbrella and start a fire. The Dursley family gasps.]
"Excuse me, who are you?" Euphemia shyly asks when she puts down the cake.
"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. O' course, yeh'll know all about Hogwarts." He states to the confused girl.
"Sorry, no." She denies, confused, wondering if she's just dumb.
Her loved ones deny that she's dumb especially considering her home situation, Percy is insistent that she's not dumb as she always reassures him that he's not dumb or stupid.
"No? Blimey, Harry, didn't you ever wonder where yer mum and dad learned it all?" Hagrid questions the girl.
"Learnt what?" Excited to know more about her parents but also extremely confused.
"Yer a witch, Euphemia." Hagrid tells her.
Euphemia looks hurt and confused, "Um- that's not very nice." She shyly tells the man, she thought he was nice before he called her a witch.
"Not like that, an actual witch. And a thumping good one, I'd wager, once yer trained up little." Hagrid tells the girl who is still confused.
"No, you've made a mistake. I mean, I can't be... a-a witch. I mean, I'm just... Euphemia. Just Euphemia." Euphemia denies.
"Hi, Just Euphemia!" George greets while people chuckle at him. Amary shakes her head at him with a smile on his face.
"Well, Just Euphemia. Did you ever make anything happen? Anything you couldn't explain when you were angry or scared?" Hagrid questions. Euphemia softens her expression, realizing. "Ah."
[Dudley whimpers. Hagrid hands Euphemia the same letter that has been sent the past while. She opened it and she began to read, excited.]
"Dear, Ms. Potter. We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Euphemia reads out.
"She will not be going, I tell you! We swore when we took her in, we'd put a stop to all this rubbish!" Vernon shouts at Hagrid.
"You knew? Why did you never tell me?" Euphemia questions, hurt as she moves away from Vernon.
Petunia: "Of course we knew. How could you not be? My perfect sister being who she was. Oh, my mother and father were so proud the day she got her letter. "We have a witch in the family. Isn't it wonderful?" I was the only one to see her for what she was. A freak! And then she met that Potter. And then she had you, and I knew you would be the same. Just as strange, just as... abnormal. And then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up! And we got landed with you." Petunia spits out with venom, Euphemia looks upset at her word about her parents.
"Blown up? You told me my parents died in a car crash." Euphemia tells her aunt with a raised voice that's full of hurt, moving even further away.
Everyone is shocked. That's how she found out about her parents death, some also notice she keeps moving away from the Dursleys.
"That's how you found out?" Neville questions. Amary nods at his question.
"A car crash? A car crash killed Lily and James Potter?!" Hagrid exclaims, shocked.
"We had to say something." Petunia brushes off her sister's death.
"How about the truth?!" People shout at the woman on screen.
"It's an outrage! It's a scandal!" Hagrid yells, angry and shocked.
[As the Dursleys argue with Hagrid, no one, including Euphemia, is noticing Dudley taking Euphemia's cake away]
"She'll not be going!" Vernon yells.
"Oh-ho-ho, and I suppose a great muggle like yerself's goin' to stop him, are yeh?" Hagrid gets in Vernon's face, who backs away.
"Muggle? What is that?" Euphemia quietly questions herself.
"Non-magic folk." Hagrid tells Euphemia calmly when he hears her. He immediately draws his attention back to Vernon and Petunia in anger. "This girl's had her name down ever since she were born!"
The wizards are shocked by that, "Since you were born?" Draco questions shocked.
This makes the Greeks curious, "Why is that important?"
"Because your name is written down the first time you do magic." Ginny explains. This makes more sense as to why they are shocked.
Amary chuckles, "Percy was the same way. The moment he was born, the sink in the bathroom broke."
Grover jokes, "Supreme Lord of the Bathroom." Which makes Annabeth, Grover, and Percy laugh, and Clarisse glares daggers at Percy.
As Hagrid was talking, Dudley was munching on Euphemia's cake. "She's going to the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world, and she'll be under the finest headmaster that Hogwarts has ever seen: Albus Dumbledore."
[Euphemia looks confused upon hearing Dumbledore's name.]
"I will not pay to have some crackpot old fool teach her magic tricks!" Vernon yells. Hagrid whips out his umbrella and points it at Vernon, threateningly.
Amary shakes her head, "You shouldn't have said that." The wizard and witches agree, everyone knowing how loyal Hagrid is to Dumbledore.
"NEVER – INSULT – ALBUS DUMBLEDORE – IN FRONT OF ME." Hagrid shouts at the muggles.
[Hagrid finally sees Dudley eating Euphemia's cake and aims his umbrella at his buttock. He fires a magic spark at it, causing a grey tail to grow.]
"Ahh!" Dudley shrieks. The Dursleys shriek in both fright and horror as they run off out of sight. Euphemia quietly chuckles at this, and so does Hagrid.
Everyone burst out laughing at the act and reaction of the tail. It takes everyone a moment to calm down.
"Oh, um, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone at Hogwarts about that. Strictly speaking, I'm not allowed to do magic." Hagrid shyly asks the girl who wears a smile on her face for the first time in a while.
"Okay." Euphemia nods, agreeing to keep this secret for Hagrid.
Hagrid checks his pocket-watch. "Ooh, we're a bit behind schedule. Bes' be off." He goes off to the door and pulls it down again before stepping out. He turns to Euphemia. "Unless you'd rather stay, of course. Hmm?" He asks the girl.
[He walks out. Euphemia grins, looks back at the direction where the Dursleys are gone, and grins again before grabbing her jacket and stuffed animals and joins Hagrid on their journey to London.]
"Why did you hesitate?" Artemis questions her as the goddess of children along with her brother.
"I guess because I didn't know how that would have turned out, and as exciting as it was, I didn't know Hagrid, but I decided to risk it." Amary confesses.
Her answer makes a lot of sense to everyone, and they nod along with the logic of it.