Chapter 7: Crescent Moon III
So, big A/N about me explaining stuff about Harry, why he says and thinks the way he does, his swiss army knife, and the blessings he gets from Artemis being his mom, if you want to be surprised just skip to the story and don't worry about this part.
First off, Harry himself, as I said before JKR really dropped the ball with how an abused kid acts, and make no mistake Harry is an abused kid, a heavily abused kid.
This version of Harry acts more like a kid in his situation would, he believes that he's worthless, that he's stupid, that he's a freak, because that's what he's been told all his life, and he believes it.
The fucked up thing is I'm not even adding more abuse, I'm taking everything from canon.
He was locked in a cupboard and fed smaller portions of food, while it's never said that anyone hit him. It's not a far leap to it when you've got Petunia throwing frying pans at the boy. We've read about Vernon throwing him in the cupboard and not letting him out. When he got his Hogwarts letter they moved him to Dudley's second bedroom, the room that held all the broken and discarded things. Not because they cared, but because they thought they thought they were being watched.
Harry at this time has never had people care about him, so he doesn't know what it's like hence the "weird" looks Hermione gives him.
The Swiss Army Knife has three forms, a sword(knife), a bow(scissors), and a Hunting spear(screwdriver). I'll let you guys figure out what his go-to weapon will be. The enchantment on it isn't like Riptide, it doesn't return to his pocket when he loses it, instead, it comes to him when he needs it, like fighting for his life or during a hunt.
Now for his blessings, he has three.
The first is "sudden death" I've already explained this.
The second is Artemis' main domain, The Hunt.
This blessing works just like the one she grants her hunters, but without the ageless immortality. Harry is faster(much faster), stronger, and better with a bow. He has better senses of sight(he can see in the dark) smell and hearing. Being around a large group of people is basically sensory overload for him, which is why he avoids people so much. He can also talk to animals or at the very least predators.
The third and final blessing is the Moon.
How this is gonna work is gonna remain a secret till I reveal it, but I'll give you a hint, think Nico when he's underground.
But the downside is most Demigod powers are locked away till either they are in great enough danger or till they are told they are demigods. Sure they get passive abilities but they don't get their full power till they start training.
But that's all I wanted to talk about, on with the show!
Disclaimer
I own nothing, not even the door that was not there.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hermione Granger, Hogwarts, the day after.
There was something wrong with Harry Potter. This wasn't a guess or a deduction, this was simply a statement of fact. Hermione noticed it two years ago, on that Halloween night during her first year, the night the troll had gotten into Hogwarts with the help of that year's Defense teacher. She was predisposed in the lavatory due to a few choice words from Ron earlier that day, she had long since forgiven him for them, but still, Hermione had no clue about the troll when the rest of the school found out.
It was Ron that showed up first, Hermione had no idea how he had known where to find her and had thought he had come to make fun of her some more. But no, he was babbling about a troll and how sorry he was, and they had to leave now. Hermione had barely processed what he had said when the troll had entered the restroom, almost ten feet tall carrying a wooden club half his size and could kill her and Ron with a single hit, its stench had filled the lavatory and had both of them gagging. When the beast saw them it had roared and started smashing everything in the lavatory trying to hit them.
It was around this time that Harry Potter walks into the lavatory, it was the first time seeing Harry's face like that, Hermione had run into him a few times, and every time Harry had this look of passive acceptance or deep sadness that she could not understand, Hermione had seen Draco Malfoy insult him, try and bait him, even challenge him to a duel before, but his face was always the same, passive and uncaring, looking as if Malfoy was a child throwing a tantrum for no reason. But his face when he walked in, it was pure joy as Harry looked up at the troll like he had found the prize at the end of a maze or something. Harry had climbed up it, stuck his wand into its nose yelling at Ron to use the troll's club, and before Hermione knew it, it was over and the professors had shown up. They were sent off with a stern warning and a few house points. Ron had apologized for his unkind words and that was that Hermione had made her first friend when they stopped in that hallway. Harry, however, kept walking back hunched and head down, he looked disappointed. It was at that moment that Hermione decided Harry would be her second if not best friend.
It worked, kinda. Hermione would drag him off to the library to study and do homework and he would just sit there, bouncing in his seat, looking around, and not reading. When Hermione had asked why he wasn't studying, Harry just shrugged and said it gave him a headache when the words floated when he tried to read a book. Hermione had asked some more questions and wrote to her parents, she had quickly figured out that Harry had a host of learning disabilities. When she went to Professor McGonagall with it, the Professor had informed her that he couldn't have anything mundane like that affecting him, his core would have corrected the problem in childhood, and looking that up as well had proven the Professor right, his core SHOULD have fixed it any issues, but it hadn't. Any child born with a magic core has access to the magic of the world, and magic, being a semi-sentient force but no will of its own, wants to be used, so when a magical child is born, Magic fixes any problem the child may have either in the womb or in early childhood. Hermione was convinced it had to do with the curse that struck Harry that night, she had looked into it and found, well nothing.
Harry was the first, last, and only person to ever survive that curse. Oh, sure there were many theories on how or why he had survived that night but no conclusive evidence. When she had once again gone to her head of house she was told that unless Harry himself came forward she couldn't do anything. Which wasn't fair, Harry didn't like his classmates let alone any of the teachers.
So Hermione hatched a plan, it was a long-term goal, but if she could pull it off she could help Harry. So, Hermione stuck with being his tutor, she taught him not to write in cursive but in print, which made his handwriting much more legible for his essays and classwork, Hermione let him use her notes to help him write the short essays he did, they were short and to the point, he wouldn't get full grades on them but it was better than the nothing he was doing. Then, Hermione had gotten to practical spell casting with him, which had changed everything. While it would take Hermione hours or days of study to read up on the theory and technique of the spell and then a few more hours to learn how to cast it perfectly. Harry however only had to see the spell cast once or twice before trying it himself, and he would cast it perfectly only after three or four tries.
Harry couldn't even tell you how he was able to do it, he just did. Hermione was in awe when he did it the first few times, but Harry would get this look on his face, almost like he was angry and disappointed with himself.
Hermione would come to understand why in a few short months.
It would come a month before their first-year exams, Hermione, Ron, and Harry would be studying in the library. Ron, thankfully, just needed a little motivation to study, and Harry would need a break, so for every one hour of studying, they got to play a half hour of chess.
They played off quite well with each other in fact, which was good.
It would be during one of the hours of studying that Harry would ask a simple question and a picture would start to form for Hermione and Ron.
"Why are you helping me?" Harry had asked them with a curious look on his face, "My Uncle told me I was too much of a stupid freak to learn anything correctly." He had finished before a look came over his face, as he realized he said too much.
This had started a round of questions from Hermione that Harry ignored, when she hadn't stopped Harry simply left the library and didn't talk to them for a few days until she had apologized for it. But during those days Hermione couldn't help but think of his odd behavior, how he would flinch at loud sounds, how he avoid people, and how once during potions Professor Snape had pulled him away from another one of Seamus' exploding cauldrons snapping at him "Move Boy.", how Harry had gone pale and started thinking before leaving the class and was not seen for hours.
Hermione had cried when Ron had written to her, telling her what he had seen when they broke him out of the Dursleys, the bars on the window, the locks on the outside of the door, and the cat flap. Ron had told his mother, and Mrs. Weasley had left early the next day only to return a few hours later with an angry red face from where she had gone, but still, her friend was sent back at the end of the year. Why she had no idea, Hermione had reasoned that Harry didn't even like to think about his relatives let alone talk about them.
Hermione had hoped to build up his trust, to gradually talk him into going to Professor McGonagall, trying to paint her a stern and fair teacher who graded like that. That she would help no matter what, and it had been working, he was thinking about it, and then Quirinus Quirrell went after the philosopher's stone and Professor McGonagall had, in a dismissive tone, destroyed all her hard work.
They had told Hermione after she had been unpetrified that they went to Lockhart over McGonagall, which, in hindsight, spoke all that needs to be said about Harry's trust in the professors of the school.
In the catacombs below the school was the happiest Hermione had ever seen Harry, and it had scared her, the glint in his eyes and the smile on his face as they moved through the gauntlet of traps going deeper and deeper, and in the second to last room where she had first hugged him, she had seen his eyes, the silted pupils had thrown Hermione off enough she had barely noticed him flinch at her hug.
Hermione did not doubt that he had the same look, the same eyes when he went down into the Chamber of Secrets last school year.
But seeing him last night on the express, unconscious, pale, twitching, and moaning had shaken Hermione she had never seen her friend like that, thankfully it did not last long as it seems that their new Defense professor know what he was doing as he had chased off the dementor and harry was up within a few minutes with chocolate in hand, his first question was who had screamed Hermione had told him no one had. He had gotten an odd look on his face but said nothing further, when they got to the castle he was sent to the hospital wing overnight because of what had happened on the train.
Hermione made her way to the hospital wing the morning after, Ron with her to get Harry and go to breakfast together. Harry was awake when they got there, looking at a block of chocolate like it had personally offended him in some way. Harry looks up at them as they enter, and the sides of his lips lift a bit. It's about as much as a smile as they get from him, but both Hermione and Ron know it's more than he gives to anyone else. And as Harry throws his legs over the edge of the bed, ready and eager to get out of the hospital wing he stops as Madam Pomfrey shouts from her office "Mister Potter if you leave your bed without finishing your chocolate, I will hunt you down and spell it into your stomach and let you deal with those consequences by yourself!"
Harry looks back towards the open office door before whispering to Ron and Hermione, "How serious do you think she is?" Just before Madam Pomfrey's voice yells out once again, "Just try me, Mister Potter!" Harry sighs as he quickly eats the chocolate and yells that he had eaten it, and no sooner than he did, did Madam Pomfrey appear, her wand out she does a half circle before flicking it towards herself. After a second she nods before saying "If Mister Potter faints again, if he is feeling dizzy, or starts to hear things, bring him back here immediately. Dementors can have a whole host of nasty side effects, why they let them by the school I'll never know, bloody fools." She says not to Harry but to Ron and Hermione who both nod, not wanting to cross the stern matron of the hospital wing, knowing Harry wouldn't come back unless he was dragged here.
After one more check-up, Harry was released from the hospital wing for breakfast and Harry couldn't move fast enough to get out of there. In a short time, they made their way to the great hall, Harry grimaced at the number of people eating breakfast. He had hated being in overcrowded places, Harry had said multiple times of the headaches that too much noise or people cause him. He was always ducking out of the after-Quidditch parties that Gryffindor would throw when they had won. As they took their seats by the end of the table McGonagall had appeared with their schedules in hand, passing one to each of them, both Harry and his head of house avoid talking to each other, McGonagall with a sad look in her eye that Harry wouldn't see as you looked squarely at his food, mumbling a thank you under his breath.
As Harry inspected his schedule across from Ron and Hermione, frowning at it for the double Transfiguration and Potion period during the week, his head jerks up and looks to the rafters just as the snowy white owl descends from above and lands on the table quickly approaching Harry. Hedwig and Harry had always had a special bond and was one of the reasons Hermione was looking for an owl that day in the Alley. Watching them across from the table as they nuzzled their foreheads together, Harry smiling just for his familiar and Hedwig softly hooting for her human brought a smile to Hermione's face. Because if there was one way to cheer him up, it was spending time with his oldest friend.
As Harry feeds her some bacon and pets here Hermione speaks up, "she has a note." She points out. Harry takes it from her and unfolds it, his smile turning into a frown, which is never good.
As Hermione opens her mouth to ask what it is about, Ron speaks up first. "Hermione, I think Professor McGonagall messed up your schedule, see you've got Ancient Runes at the same time you've got divination with us," Hermione tells him not to worry about it, she had worked it out with their head of house before the school year began. Harry looks up from his note, "Hey, that reminds me, Hermione, have you ever heard of someone able to read Ancient Greek without having to study it?"
She opens and closes her mouth a few times giving Harry an odd look with Ron, "No, I-I can't say I have Harry, why?" She asks him, Harry goes on to explain about a book he found in Flourish and Blotts that he could read without getting a headache from floating words and letters because they didn't float or dance across the page, how he had read a full chapter without a problem, well, he didn't really understand what the book was talking about, seemed like some advance stuff.
Hermione nods along with his story, trying to understand it, it's not that she didn't believe Harry, it's just…reading another language without even knowing it was hard to wrap her head around. "Could you translate a passage from the book?" Hermione asks and when Harry makes a face and opens his mouth Hermione cuts him off, "It's not that I don't believe Harry, I just want to cross reference it with a few books the library has on Ancient Greek, that's all." She says, knowing how Harry would react to being called a liar about something. Harry paused, lips pressed into a thin line, but nods. He knows what Hermione is like by now and just wants to make sure it wasn't something else.
"So, what did the note say?" Ron asks as he spears a sausage and pops it into his mouth, "Oh, it's from the Headmaster, he's asking me to come up to his office in two days to talk about something." Harry replies with a shrug.
"Did he say what about?" Hermione asks, a little worried. Harry shakes his head no, but from the look on his face, Hermione was sure Harry already knew why.
It wouldn't be until the next day that Hermione got to test to see if Harry's statement was true or not, with the book Harry had gotten and her own book on translating ancient Greek to English they had sat down that night having Harry write out a few paragraphs before Hermione translated straight from the book, she was shocked when they had matched almost perfectly, almost because she had mistranslated a word.
This starts frenzied research on how it was even possible, which leads to dead end after dead end, which drove Hermione crazy. She had torn through every text that the library had on innate magical abilities and still nothing turned up. She had decided to put it off for a later date and not look a gift horse in the mouth. She started to look into translation charms, but she couldn't find anything for ancient Greek in the library, so she went to her head of house to see if she knew anything about them.
Surprisingly, she did in fact know of one, one just for ancient Greek, apparently, the Headmaster had shown her it a few months ago near the end of the year. Which was either a huge coincidence or the Headmaster had known this was going to happen, and Hermione, for one, couldn't decide which one would be more true. But in the end, Hermione had used the spell on every single one of Harry's books before teaching him the spell and counterspell. They had tested it as far as they could, Harry could read it, but couldn't write or speak in it, they had no idea if he could understand if he heard someone talking it seeking that it was sort of a dead language.
But Harry could read his school books without any problems now! Which was a major victory in Hermione's books, now they just had to work on Harry paying attention in class and she was sure that he could become one of the best students in school, or at the very least not flunk his O.W.L's in two years.
It was on the day of Harry's meeting with the Headmaster, the one where he wouldn't say what it was about, much to Hermione's annoyance, when they were leaving charms right after being told their homework would nine inches on the effects of the next spell they were learning and what it could be used for, that Harry was asked to stay behind by Professor Flitwick.
Hermione and Ron told Harry they would be waiting outside the class for him, they didn't have to wait long, but when Harry came out he had a look of confusion and frustration on his face, when asked what was wrong he had said the Professor had told him not to worry about the full nine inches, that six inches would do for him, he had tried to argue against it but he had said, Professor Flitwick had told him that Harry had never turned in more than six inches before, and that is the new standard that he would hold him to do to his learning disabilities. Well, Harry had said, "because I'm stupid." But Hermione could read in between the lines.
But this had got Hermione wondering something, Harry wouldn't go to a teacher even for the most mundane thing let alone about his own personal problems, that was all but proven by this point, so if he hadn't told a Professor, who had?
Notes:
Sorry about the short chapter folks, I just wanted to get an outside view of the oddity that is Harry in the fic.
Hermione is smart enough to figure this stuff out, so I went with her.
In the next chapter we will be welcoming back Atalanta and she's gonna have "the talk" with Harry, we'll see how he takes it.
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