Son of the Huntress

Chapter Three: The Lightning Thief Part One

Chiron looked up at the young boy with a solemn look on his face, “I’m afraid the Great Prophecy has been set into motion.”

Harry stared blankly at the old centaur, “Er—what? But I thought Thalia…”

Chiron nodded gravely, “Yes, Ms. Grace is a child of one of the Big Three, as the prophecy states. But, seeing as she is well over sixteen and anything has yet to happen, there is a very large chance that she is not the child of prophecy.”

“But, that doesn’t mean that this guy is either…right?” Harry asked, “I mean, you said a long time ago that prophecies can be for thousands of years from now.”

Chiron looked at him curiously, “I wasn’t sure you had remembered that.”

Harry shrugged, “It seemed important.”

Chiron gave Harry a slight smile, “That it was. Nevertheless, I have this…feeling, I guess you could call it, something big is coming. Something that none of us could ever expect.”

“Oh.”

 Chiron was silent for a few beats, staring at the retreating figures that were carrying off Percy Jackson, “Well, we shall not fret about it now. It’s getting late, I suggest you retire to your cabin for the night.”

Harry nodded, “Ok, goodnight Chiron.”

“Goodnight Harry.”

Despite the exciting events of the night, Harry fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Three weeks after Percy Jackson has arrived at Camp Half-Blood and nothing has changed. Harry didn’t really know what he was expecting, some great force flipping all of their lives upside down the moment Percy woke up from his slightly minor coma…or something like that. But, there was nothing, no changes whatsoever. Well, other than Annabeth’s new sour attitude, but that’s just her being annoying.

Don’t worry, Harry took care of that.

“Harry!”

Harry whipped around to see Lou running towards him with a grin on her face, “What’s up Lou?”

She looked like she was struggling to hold back a laugh, “Have you seen it yet?”

Harry shook his head, “Seen what?”

Lou burst out laughing, unable to contain it any longer, “Annabeth! Someone put pink hair dye in her shampoo! Her face is priceless!”

Harry laughed, “Finally! I was wondering when it was going to happen! That girl never showers.”

Lou looked at him, “You already know about it?”

Harry nodded, “Yep! Who do you think did it? Not even Clarisse would have the guts to mess with Annabeth Chase. Well, maybe Clarisse, that girl isn’t scared of anything, but that’s not the point--”

Lou looked horror stricken, “Oh, man, it was funny when I thought someone else-- you gotta run, dude. She’s out for blood.”

“HARRY JAMES POTTER!”

Lou Ellen placed her hand on his shoulder, looking sullen, “You were a good best friend, Featherhead, I will never forget you.”

Harry hugged her, “If I don’t survive, you get my bow.” He took off running, barely hearing Lou’s shout of “Yes!” while he was dodging other demigods and satyrs that got in his way, ducking behind buildings to catch his breath before dashing away again.

Somehow, somewhere down the line, Harry got on the roof of his cabin, laying low to keep out of Annabeth’s sight. But then, he saw her, in all of her pink-haired and furious glory, storming towards his cabin. He could almost see smoke billowing out of her nose.

He couldn’t help it, he started laughing.

She glared up at him, “Harry Potter you get down here and fix my hair right now!”

“Um…no I don’t think I will.” Harry giggled, “Besides, the pink brings out the color in your eyes!”

Annabeth growled, “I swear to Zeus when I get my hand on you I’ll…I’ll…”

“You’ll…what? Quiz me to death? Oh, the horror!” Harry pretended to faint before laughing again.

“Hey guys what’s going on—oh, um, nice hair?”

Annabeth shrieked in frustration and stomped off, probably to go tear apart some training dummies…or campers, there’s a pretty high chance of that too.

Percy stared at her until she was no longer in sight, “Geez, what’s her problem?”

Harry shrugged as he climbed down the side of his cabin, “I died her hair pink,”

Percy looked at him, surprised, “That was you?”

“Uh yeah?” Harry said, as if it was obvious, “So, what brings you to my humble cabin?”

“Your cabin?” Percy furrowed his brows and looked at the building from behind, “I’m confused, isn’t this the Artemis Cabin?”

“And your point is…?”

Percy reached back to scratch his neck awkwardly, “I may be getting my mythology wrong, but isn’t Artemis a maiden goddess?”

Harry cocked his head to the side, “Considering that I exist, no, not anymore at least. But it’s not her fault.” Thunder sounded angrily in the distance, making Percy jump, Harry just looked up at the sky and screamed, “Don’t even try to deny it, Gramps!”

The older boy’s eyes widened, “Should you be…talking to them like that? Annabeth said—"

Harry waved him off, “It’s fine as long as you don’t seriously insult them to their face…or steal their stuff unless it’s getting it back from someone else for them.”

Percy nodded, “Ok, I’ll keep that in mind.”

The sound of the Conch horn echoed across the camp, Harry’s face immediately lighting up like a child on Christmas morning. He grabbed Percy’s hand and began dragging him towards the dining pavilion, “Come on! The capture the flag game is starting! We need to go find Lou.”

Percy didn’t even try to struggle as the younger, much smaller boy dragged him along, figuring it would be easier that way.

The results of the game were…eventful. Predictably, the combined forces of the Athena, Hermes, and Artemis cabins won. But it was after the big win was when things really started to get interesting.

First was the sudden appearance of the hellhound. It had leapt out of nowhere and immediately went for Percy’s throat, Thalia took it down before it had the chance to do any fatal damage.

“Damn,” Thalia whistled, extending a hand to the younger boy, “Looks like my uncle hates you just as much as he hates me, sending a hound inside the camp like that.”

“Yeah,” Percy chuckled humorlessly, looking up at her as he took her hand, groaning in pain when he tried to stand up.

Thalia hissed in sympathy, “Yeah, I’ve been there, let’s get you to the infirmary, kid.”

“Wait!” Annabeth shouted, making several people jump, “Look at the water, it’s healing him!”

And, sure enough, the water in the creek was flowing up the bank and winding around Percy’s legs, seeping into the claw marks on the demigod’s torso. Everyone watched in awe as the skin knitted itself back together.

When the cuts had completely healed, a green, glowing trident appeared over Percy’s head.

Harry’s mind went to Chiron’s words from several weeks ago: Something that none of us could ever expect.

Well, this was definitely unexpected.