Daughter of Poseidon, the Girl Who Lived

17. I'm an idiot and of to Hades we go

Severus sat down at our table and placed a sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate in front of me. What just happened was still processing in my mind. I could smell the faint sent of sea that Fisherman had left behind, telling me I had not imagined it. Could he really have been...? But why would he, of all the Olympian gods, tell me to put the quest on hold to save another demigod?

"We'll take our brooms to Portland and get on a boat as planned. Those three hurricanes are all heading for land and if they reaches it, millions of people will die or loose their homes. We have to find the thief and the trident before that happens. With, or without Harri."

I starred at Severus.

"We can't just leave Harriet!" I bursted out. "She's unarmed against three furies, we gotta help her."

"The furies does not plan on harming her," Severus said. "I talked to Nico about the furies at Camp. It appears that Alecto had suspected a demigod to be the one who stole Poseidon's trident and, without mentioning any name, managed to get my father's permission to take them in for questioning." He frowned before continuing. "Apparently that suspected demigod was Harri."

I pondered over this new piece of information.

"But Harriet can't have done it!" I decided. "She was still at Hogwarts when the crime was committed. Busy with snake hunting, apparently. Why would, Alecto was it, believe that Harriet ever got an opportunity to steal from a powerful god?"

"I don't know, Draco. But if we can find the real perpetrator, Harriet will then be cleared of all suspicion. The sooner we do that, the better."

I thought of what to say. If Fisherman really was who I thought he was, we had to get Harriet back before we continued our search for the trident. I settled for the truth, even though it might sound completely ridiculous. What did I have to loose?

"We cannot continue without Harriet," I tried to say calmly. "We are supposed to go after her."

"Draco, lives are at risk, the furies know there will be huge consequences for them if they kill Harri. They aren't stupid, they won't harm her. She'll be okay until we find the trident."

"He just told me to go help Harriet before looking for the trident. We have to follow the gods' orders."

Severus' right eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"Who, exactly, told you that?"

"...Poseidon, I think."

Severus looked taken aback by that. He turned to his cup of coffee and starred at it as if it would offer him the answer of all his questions. We sat in silence for what felt like an hour. I was quietly eating my sandwich while Severus kept glaring at the poor coffee as if it was all the coffee's fault that we were in this mess.

"'After a bypath the late will tell you where to go forth'" Severus suddenly mumbled.

"Pardon?" I forgot my sandwich.

"The second line of the prophecy," he explained. "Perhaps this is what that line meant..."

"So?"

"We need to go to the loo."

"What?"

"Come on!" He grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the loo.

After checking the stalls and making sure the coast was clear, Severus turned to one of the sinks.

"What are we doing here exactly?"

Instead of answering he turned on the water and threw a golden coin in the mist.

"Oh, Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Nico di Angelo at Camp Half Blood."

In a few seconds I could see a young man with dark clothes in the mist. Nico turned around.

"Hm? Severus, what's going on? What happened?"

"That's a tricky question. But to put it short, we need to get to the underworld. Could you help shadow travel with us there?"

Nico looked more worried by that but nodded.

"I'll be there in five."

Nico waved a hand and the image disappeared. Severus looked back at my confused face.

"That was an Iris message. That's how the gods and demigods communicate."

"Okay..."

Severus sighed and looked overall rather tired with all of this. We left the bathroom and sat back down at our table, waiting for Nico to arrive. After a minute of silence I spoke up.

"There is one thing that I just can't wrap my head around." I said it slowly, afraid my words would somehow make him change his mind again about Harriet. "Why would Poseidon encourage us to leave the quest to find his trident? I mean, you and Harriet told me demigods end up in mortal danger all the time, and almost never even reach sixteen. Why would the God of the Sea find one demigod more important that finding his symbol of power when so much could be at stake?"

Severus starred at me as if I has suddenly grown a second head.

"'Why?' You ask? Well, I wonder. She is Hades' niece, as she might have stated, her main weapon is a smaller duplicate of the original trident that's camouflaged as a quill with an aquatic leaf, the sea-scent constantly pursue her, I'm quite sure you've now seen both her and the sea god with your very own eyes. So yes, Mr. Malfoy, tell me. Why would Harriet's safety be of such huge importance for Poseidon, do you think?"

I looked away, my half-eaten sandwich had became a lot more interesting. But I thought of what he said. We had been silent for about five minutes when the coin finally fell down. Then I once again felt like an idiot once again. Maybe I should just get used to that feeling.

"She's his daughter," I whispered. "Poseidon is Harriet's father."

Yep, I think I even sounded surprised by it. Looking back at that moment of realisation I think that I there reached my peak of stupidity. I still can't believe it took me so long to figure out Harriet's parentage, it made so much sense, how could anyone miss it?!

And obviously Severus also thought I was stupid.

"No way! Really?" he asked me. The sarcasm was practically dripping from his tongue.

Poseidon had trusted his daughter with an important task, and Harriet had willingly accepted. Maybe because she wanted to prove herself, somehow? I didn't know, but Poseidon wanted his daughter to be able to fulfil her mission.

My thoughts was interrupted when Severus stood up abruptly. I turned to him and asked what was going on.

"Our ride is here," Severus said and pointed out the window to where Nico stood outside and waited for us. "We're going to my father's palace."