Amongst the Hunted Moons

Notes:

Honestly, I thought that the fact that Brittany had a hatchet was pretty much giving that away, but I guess I'm an odd duck.

Quack.

Harry Potter.

The following day was a flurry of activity for the hunt as they prepared for the coming night, first aid kits were restocked with all the basics, antivenom, Ambrosia, and Nectar for the demigods amongst the hunt. Weapons were sharpened, armor was checked, bows tested, and quivers refilled. The plan was gone over again and again to make sure everyone would know their role in the coming hunt, Harry had stayed out of the way of the hunters who were preparing for it and either stayed in his tent or helped out in the mess tent helping to cook up a large meal before the hunt, making sure that there were no hungry hunters before they left. Everyone was ordered the night before to sleep in and get as much sleep as they could, a well-rested and well-fed hunter was the key to a successful hunt after all.

No one had approached Harry to say anything or go over his part in the overall plan, Harry thought it was because his job was pretty easy, keep the Acromantula off of the Nymphs and kill or disable as many as possible, it wasn't hard to remember his part. He did see Zoë lead the hunters through some type of sitting thing around four in the afternoon, Harry didn't really understand how people could sit still for hours on end, he hated not having something to do, whether it was cleaning or cooking or anything else really, idling was the antithesis to Harry and he couldn't stand it. Hence why he liked working in the kitchen, there was always something to do there, they had just gotten done with the pre-hunt meal and Harry was standing at the sink washing pots, pans, and dishes, his mind working a mile and minute thinking of anything, everything, and nothing all at once, it was only when he had heard a word spoken with as much hatred as his Uncle Vernon had for him that he finally started to pay attention to his surroundings.

"Boy," says a voice Harry didn't want to deal with, but he sighs and answers it anyway through clenched teeth.

"What do you want?" Harry asks, ignoring his own small flinch at his words for sounding so rude, he could feel the glare burn into the back of his head as he continues to scrub the pot in his hands.

"Watch your tone, boy," Zoë says with a growl, "You will be under my command tonight, I expect the respect and obedience that comes with that, do you understand?" Harry does flinch at those last words, hearing Aunt Petunia in his head a thousand times as she speaks those exact words in that exact tone. Not trusting himself to speak, Harry just nods.

There was a moment of quiet, Zoë expecting Harry to speak up, but Harry wasn't going to give her the pleasure of hearing anything along the lines of "Yes Ma'am" come out of his mouth. Zoë just scoffs at the show of defiance from Harry before throwing something into the soapy water, and splashing Harry with it.

"Hey!" Harry yells, jumping to the side water soaked down his front, "What the fuck is wrong with you!?" He says finally turning to face Zoë's cold hate-filled eyes that were far too much like his relatives.

Zoë ignores the question as she points to the sink, "That is a shield," She says while gesturing to it in the sink, "Use it, because I will not save you if you get swarmed tonight," she says, still glaring at Harry.

"I don't know how to," Harry admits looking away from the Lieutenants eyes and looking at the large bronze shield covered in soapy water, "I was never trained to use them,"

"Well, you better learn fast, boy," Zoë says with a nasty smirk, "We head out in an hour, and it would be such a shame if you were to die tonight," she says, the smirk never leaving her face.

Harry returns the older girl's glare with one that shares its intensity with the other, "Why are you such a raging cunt?" Harry asks before watching Zoë's face twist in rage before in a flash she was in his face, her hands on either side of the sink, trapping Harry against it as she leans down coming nose to nose with the boy, her eyes turning amber as the veins in her neck and forehead bulge out. Harry doesn't move or flinch but starts to flood his own body with the hunt causing his eyes to split like a cat.

"Because you shouldn't be here, you should have never been allowed to come, all your kind is a blight upon the world and you should have been killed in your crib to spare Lady Artemis the shame of having such an unworthy heir," Zoë says through gritted teeth as Harry hears the sequel of metal being bent beside him, "If it was up to me, you would have been, all male demigods would be, the world doesn't need more selfish and arrogant boy's in it," Zoë says and all Harry hears in his Uncle Vernon yelling the same things at him before throwing him into his cupboard before locking him in, "and if one of my sister dies tonight because of you, it won't matter if you're the son of our Lady, or the Heir to all of Olympus, I will kill you, do you understand me, boy?" Zoë says with such conviction, Harry didn't doubt she would follow through with her words.

"You can try," Harry hisses at her through his own clenched teeth, "but I am prey to nothing and no one, including you," he says and for a second his eyes flash causing Zoë to flinch away from the boy before turning on her heel and leaving the mess tent. Because in the light of the setting sun the boy's eyes looked the color of Amber with cats eyes, and the words he spoke, how often had Lady Artemis had spoken those exact words to her over the long years they had traveled together?

"Why does she hate me?" Harry asks, petting the Hind whose head was resting on his legs, dozing off.

"Who?" Artemis asks, her head laying on Hind as she relaxed in her tent with Harry and her Hind.

Harry rolls his eyes, "Who else? Zoë," Harry says looking over at Artemis in the silver firelight, and Artemis sighs.

Acromantula Den

Zoë hadn't been lying when she had said they would be leaving in an hour, because as the sun began to dip to the other side of the world, the hunt was called to action. First aid kits were passed out with anti-venom along with quivers full of arrows, Harry had doubts that so many could sneak through the forest quietly, but he was soon proven wrong as the hunt broke into groups of ten before setting out through the woods in a different direction with the meeting point of the small hill on the South side of the Acromantula Den with clear orders to avoid the spooky ass statue, though Artemis was clearly looking at Harry when she said this who couldn't really argue seeing his track record with spooky things, so Harry had set out with Atalanta, Sophie, Brittany, Zoë and the rest of the girls who were going into the melee with him.

He had met a hunter he had seen around but never talked to, over her silver jacket she wore a dark green cloak that, in the coming darkness, made her all but disappear from sight. Her hair dark brown hair was braided and done up in a neat bun with some type of gold and silver ornament stuck through it to not let it fall, she didn't have a bow, but handing off her hip was a two-handed long sword; like the kind a knight from the middle ages would carry into battle. She never said her name, and most of the other girls called her Strider, so she was probably one of the girls that had discarded her name. She didn't speak much, but when she saw Harry looking at the silver sword, she had told him its name was Andúril, so-called for it was forged in the Flame of the West and offered to her long ago. As to why or how, she did not speak of it, and Harry, not wanting to pry, did not ask; She was a rather mysterious girl.

They had arrived at the hill around the same time as the others, and they silently communicated with hand gestures to get into position. Harry followed the girls to the front, kneeling with them, ready to bust forth to meet the swarm when the time came, all the girls worked quickly and quietly as a unit with Harry being the lone one out, but his part was simple, stab, slash, distract and protect the Nymphs. This was something Harry could do, he just wished he could get rid of the stupid shield, it was heavy and cumbersome to him, and he felt awkward with it hanging off his arm, he had never used one before and it wasn't like his swiss army knife became one. Besides, with how he fought, he didn't need one, as annoying as he found it he tried to emulate how Scáthach had fought him in the land of shadows, how she had taught him to fight with what little she had shown him of her dancing style of blood and shadows. It emphasizes fluid movement and speed to maximize the carnage one can cause to a large number of enemies, Harry wasn't very good with the fighting style, what he was doing was a poor imitation of how Scáthach fought, but hey, it was working so far. Having a shield on his arm not only limited what he could do, but made one side of him feel bulky and awkward, Harry disliked it greatly.

But as the signal was given, it no longer mattered, the first volley was launched, and burning and smoking red light descended upon the Den to give light to the hunters who couldn't see in the dark, and with the flare, arrows came the clattering and clicking of pincers and fangs as the Acromantula find out that the hunt was on. The second volley was launched as the smoke arrows landed all around the outer edge of the den, effectively cutting off their escape and with that, the eight hunters in the front charge with Zoë in the front, a silver sword glowing with the light of the full moon shining just as brightly as the sword Strider had, they met the first of the giant spiders and cut through them like a hot knife through butter.

Harry is a step behind the stabbing and slashing any of the Acromantula in range, but as he stops to kick one of them off his spear they swarm him. He brings up his shield just in time to block one leaping at him as he sweeps his spear under his shield, making the rest back off as he tries to push the one on his shield off, but he's not strong enough to throw it off. He swings his spear again, cutting through one of the countless to his eyes, and once again tries to force the bugger off his shield, but it slams against it, its head coming over the top and dripping its venom as it snaps at him with his pincers at him, the only good thing was he was still standing. It wasn't until an arrow landed through the spider's head that he was finally able to throw it off. The hunters on the ridge started to focus on the scuttling masses, thinning their numbers enough for Harry to push forward, smacking the charging ones away with his shield as he awkwardly swung his spear with one hand, cutting through one more, He knows he can do better than this but the stupid shield takes one hand to hold.

From the corner of his eye, he sees another of the Hunters in melee dance between the spiders with a bronze sword, as graceful as a cat or a ballerina, slashing as she went, her white hair reflecting the flares, Harry could make out the minor influence of the hunt in her eyes, one having a long scar that trails down her face, as a silver wolf heads medallion reflects the light from the flares as well. Harry continues to press forward watching Zoë and Strider cut through the spiders as they lead the charge as arrows continue to rain down, Harry, not wanting to give someone like Zoë more reasons to mock him, digs within himself and draws out more of the hunt as he charges ahead to catch up with them, killing only one of the Acromantula, and disabling two more on his way, he can make out Brittany's war cry behind him and knew the ones he downed would be dead soon thanks to the opportunistic hunter bring up the rear, Brittany would make sure none would survive.

Harry catches up with the two older hunters who had stopped to hold their ground, hacking and chopping everything within reach. Harry comes in swinging, killing one that had almost reached them in their blind spot, Strider takes a step back, swinging her blade in a wide arch to cut down two of the spiders as she stands and protects Harry's back as they form a triangle to protect each other, Harry stabs out with his spear killing another of the Acromantula. With the rain of arrows, the number of spiders begins to drop and Harry takes a monument to look around, the other five hunters in melee with the Acromantula seemed fine as they fought them clearing a path to the trees, Brittany was busy delivering the final blows to each of the spiders brought low but not dead. Moved between each one stabbing or chopping them, picking her blows carefully to make sure none got back up again, the ridge behind them had hunters lined up row after row firing arrows one line in a volley and another line picking their shoots, then altering between three rows. The Acromantula would crawl up from trap doors or descend from the trees, and crawl from webs, most died to the archers as they appeared. Artemis whistled sharply, and not only did her silver hounds charge into the mix but so did the Nymphs making beelines to the trees that surround the Den.

Harry stabs out killing a charging Acromantula, before kicking it off his spear, and if Harry was being honest, shield aside, he was having a great time. The Hunt sang in his veins with each kill, his head was a buzz from the feeling and he couldn't help the laugh that spilled from his lips as his heart was beating in his chest. It wasn't a chase, but trapping their prey and giving them no way to escape the Hunt that made its course through Harry with a buzz. He stabs, slashes, bashes, and kicks with glee, it was like the high he would get from flying on his firebolt or when he would catch the snitch but constant, and looking around at the grinning faces of the other hunters, he could tell he wasn't the only one enjoying this.

Eighty souls crying out as one, one of us, one of us, the hunt is on, come brother,

Harry slashes out once more, cutting a small spider in two, before looking around once more the nymphs were swift as Harry watched as a few made it into the trees, sinking into them like they were walking into the barrier at Kings Cross. But he sees one of the Nymphs being chased by three of the bigger Acromantula with a few more descending from above.

"Strider!" Harry yells, "Cover me!" Before taking a step back, as said girl turns, swinging her sword in a wide arch, cutting two more of the spiders as Harry slips the blade of the spear in between the shield and his arm and slices the leather strap that held the shield to his arm, before throwing the damn thing at an incoming Acromantula.

"What the hell are you doing boy!?" Zoë yells at him turning her head just in time to see Harry crouch forward, a smile wide on his face, eyes ablaze with the Hunt.

"Saving one of my Sisters," The boy who hunted says, before he takes off like an arrow from a bow at a speed Zoë could track but hardly believe, for the only two people she had seen move at the speed the boy did, was her Lady and Atalanta.

Harry charges at the three Acromantula, with his other arm finally free he could finally fight how he wanted, he leaps over the middle spider, swinging his spear as he does slicing it down the middle, not deep enough to cut it in half but deep enough to kill it as he cut it from its abdomen to its brain before landing in front of it. Running forward he yells out a warning to the Nymph, who turns to see him and the charging Acromantula that are chasing her, Harry opens his arms, hoping she would get the message, and lucky she does. She stops and pivots, crossing her arms and jumping up and bending her legs as Harry leaps at her, catching her princess style. He's surprised to find how light she is as they sail forward, past the Acromantula descending from above thanks to the forward momentum from Harry.

"You must understand, Harry," Artemis says, "She doesn't just hate you, it is not a personal vendetta," The Goddess explains from her spot lying on the Hind.

"It feels personal," Harry Mutters as he continues to pet and spoil the Hind.

"She hates all male Demi-Gods, for good reason," Artemis says as she turns her head to look at Harry, "though I admit, you being my…child, for lack of a better word, probably doesn't help matters, tell me, Harry, do you know what the Hesperides are?"

"I'm gonna toss you, get ready!" Harry yells, and from the corner of his eye he says the Nymph's face set in determination and nods, Harry calls on a little more of the hunt before he does just what he said he would and toss the Nymph forward towards the tree. With the grace and control that her kind is known for, she twists in the air, arms extending as she hits the tree, sinking into it. Harry hits the tree feet first, stopping his movement as he impacts it and grits his teeth as he hits it hard, he yells out a sorry to the nymph before pushing off the tree in a backflip and landing on the ground feet first in what had to be one of the coolest things he had ever done.

"Harry!" He hears his name screamed by Atalanta as he spins around and it feels like the world slows down. Eight of the larger Acromantula were charging him and nearly upon him to rip him apart, he could see Atalanta raising her bow and pointing at them, but she had no clear shot to instantly drop them, he could see Artemis eyes widen in fear as her own bow materializes in her hand, Strider and Brittany are both screaming his name charging towards him but neither would make it in time, Zoë sees him but turns coldly away and charges toward the hollow where Aragog used to live in the opposite direction, and death descended upon Harry.

"And so she was betrayed by the man she helped," Artemis tells Harry as she explains the story of Herakles and the Hesperides and Zoë's role In it, "After helping him, she was brought before the Olympian council and for the betrayal of her duties she was sentenced to the worst fate the Gods could give, she was to be forgotten," Artemis says, her tone of voice never changing, even though Harry could see the sadness and anger in her eyes.

"What does that mean?" Harry asks, confused, "to be forgotten?"

Artemis frowns before she continues, "it is the worst fate that a being like Zoë to suffer, for she is closer to a god than anything else being a daughter of a titan and a goddess, if she was immortalized in Legend, then she would never fade or truly die, but she was stripped of her original name, struck from every legend, and exiled from her home force to wander the world knowing she would die and not come back, she would get no afterlife, no regeneration, nothing, she was consigned to oblivion,"

"Get up, Graeca, I have yet to decide If I will kill you or not, so stand and dance with me some more!" The voice of Scáthach screams in his head, that was last time he was close to death, when she was treating him like her personal punching bag before tossing him into the crags of the land of shadows, Where he had felt it chasing after his footsteps. But as the Acromantula closes on to him, Harry closes his eyes, waiting for death to come for him, he feels the cold palms of hands pressed against his cheeks and his ears pop.

Black spots and lines bloomed when Harry opened his eyes with a shock of cold, and his body moved on its own before he even knew what he was doing. His spear lashes out in a flash of silver in the light of the glowing red flares, following along with the lines and dots, cutting down the first four of the closest spiders. Harry charges forward, sliding under one of the Acromantula bringing up his spear, and gutting the giant arachnid, before pushing himself back to his feet and turning around to face the last three. The Acromantula were slow at turning even with all the speed they had while chasing down their prey, so, with a spear in hand Harry can't help but grin, and with a burst of speed he began the dance that Scáthach had shown him in her realm of shadows and death, and he was intent to deliver it upon his prey. Harry charges forward taking out the legs on the left side of one of the spiders before twisting and jumping and taking the head of another as the last one turns to him as Harry lands on his feet, but it was too late as it clicked its pincers at him in rage, Harry lashes out aiming for the black blot on in the middle of the eyes of the creature piercing its brain.

Harry kicks the Acromantula off his spear, before taking a look around, while there was still a lot of the Acromantula left thanks to the Nymphs knocking them from the trees, but it was easy to see which way this hunt was going to go, even to Harry's untrained eyes. Harry grips his spear with both hands, the grin on his face never fading, and high on the hunt, Harry begins his dance again no matter how much of a poor imitation it was of the Goddess of Death locked away in her fortress. With every beast he meets he spins, slashes, stabs, bisecting, trisecting, and cutting off limbs to make them fall helplessly to the ground, he moves faster and faster with each kill until he is just a blur of black leather, silver streaks, and laughter only slowing down to kill another Acromantula, feeding the Hunt, moving at speeds only four people in the hunt could follow with their eyes. He spins across the back of the white hair dancing hunter killing two smaller Acromantula with one swing as she cuts down two of her own, their eyes meet, full yellow-gold meeting green tourmalines edging with the yellow-gold of the Hunt, and they grin at each other, each having the time of their lives, before Harry dashes off cutting down Acromantula as he went.

Harry comes across Brittany finishing off the Acromantula that he and the other Hunters had taken down but not killed, he watches as one of the smaller spiders leaps toward the small girl, Harry jumps over her and skewers the Acromantula midair with a laugh before landing and turning to the girl.

"You should pay more attention to your surroundings, Brittany," Harry tells the girl flinging the spider off his spear, as the girl looks up and blinks at him before smiling at him, she pulls her hatchet from the dead Acromantula before cocking her arm back and flinging it at Harry who ducks it, he was about to pop back up and yell at Brittany until he hears the dying screech of one of the spiders they have been hunting. Turning to look he sees one of the curling up, Brittany's hatchet sunk deep into its brain.

"Don't get cocky, Harry, it's a bad look on you," Brittany yells as she runs by him, ripping her weapon out of the corpus of the spider as she dives back into the fray with a laugh as Harry shakes his head in amusement.

Harry once again looks around the Den of the Acromantula and sees the hunt picking off what is left of the giant spiders, those in melee looking tired, sweat and blood from both the spiders and themselves covering their bodies, but not a single hunter wasn't sporting a grin that matches Harry's own. Looking over to the hollow that Aragog once called home, he sees stacks of logs and branches held in place by webbing as if the spiders had reinforced it to withstand the coming fight, but why? Did they know the hunters were coming? It didn't matter, whatever they were trying to protect wasn't going to survive, Artemis would order every clutch of eggs burned and destroyed so the Den could not come back. The only hunter charging toward it was Zoë, sighing, Harry decides he should go give her some backup, even though it didn't look like she needed it at all with her blade lashing out in flashes of silver light cutting down any Acromantula that came close to her.

"When she had returned to Herakles, asking for her sword back and to be given credit in his story, she found that he would do neither," Artemis tells Harry as he lay beside her, using the Hind as a pillow, he turns his head, confusion etched on his face.

"But why?" Harry asks, his voice in shock at what the Hero turned God did, "He was a Hero, he was supposed to help people," he adds, not wanting to believe it, all Artemis does is shrug.

"I don't know," Artemis admits, "I had met Herakles once before he abandoned Zoë to her doomed fate, I can not say why he did it, perhaps because he did not want to give away his glory or admit he needed a woman's help," Artemis says with a sigh and shaking her head, "It was a very different time back then Harry, with very different Society, but for whatever his reason, he did not return her sword or put her in the legend so she may survive, and that one act fostered a hatred so deep and so powerful that even after thousands of years after it had happened, Zoë is still unable to let it go," Artemis says as Harry turns his head to look at the ceiling of the tent, the gears of his mind churning.

"In one move, Herakles had robbed Zoë of her past and future, and left her cold and stranded in the present until the passage of time would claim her," The Goddess of the Hunt whispers, remembering a past eons ago, "That is how I found her, dirty, broken, without hope and so I offered her a place at my side, in the hunt, and she has been loyal lieutenant ever since because I saved her from her fate, but her hatred has never faded, and only once was ever a true problem," she says.

"What happened?" Harry asks, but feels as if he already knew the answer.

"She is the reason Daphnis is blind," Artemis says, turning her head to look at Harry's wide eyes full of surprise.

Harry makes it over to the Hollow quickly cutting down one or two of the Acromantula on his way, making his way over to Zoë who was busy with the last few big ones, Harry charges in, killing the one coming at her blind spot by slicing from the bottom of its jaw through the top of its head, before taking a step forward to pierce another's head as Zoë takes out its legs.

"Back off, boy!" Zoë yells at him, "I will not have you stealing the glory of killing the patriarch of the brood!" She says as she cuts down another Acromantula.

"What are you talking about?!" Harry yells back as he cuts one down himself before turning to her, "I'm trying to help, not steal anything let alone the glory," he tells her as she turns to him.

"That is all your kind does," Zoë says with a sneer, "Steal glory from others, harm those around you, I do not need your help, now be a good little boy and go help my sisters dispatch the down Acromantula," before she turns back to the walled-in hollow moving towards it.

"You know I'm not Herakles, right?" Harry says, getting sick and tired of her attitude and the echo of his Uncle Vernon's voice every time Zoë talks, "And I don't harm people around me," he says before cutting a smaller Acromantula in half as it jumps at him.

Zoë cuts down another spider before turning back to him, eyes ablaze with an age-old rage and pain, "No, you are not," she tells him through gritted teeth, "You're worst, an insult to our lady, to our hunt, to everything we go through as hunters, you should have died with your parents," she tells her, spitting the words with anger, "but at least they're not here to see the child they had unworthy of his own blood, It seems your mortal mother's sacrifice was in vain if this Is the child she choose to save," Zoë says her face twisted in anger, and Harry sees red.

"Fuck you, you stuck-up cunt!" Harry yells, getting right in her face, "You don't know the first thing about them, so don't talk about them like that!" He yells and Zoë just smiles nastily at him.

"Well," The lieutenant says as she turns away from him, "Neither do you, Orphan," she tells him walking back towards the hollow, As Harry shakes with rage, his grip on the shaft of his spear turns his knuckles white, fine, if he didn't want his help she could fuck right off. Harry wasn't here to please anyone but himself, she was just a stuck-up cunt with a chip on her shoulder, he had put up with enough blind and baseless anger in his life to deal with her, and this was no different.

Eighty souls crying out as one,

As Zoë begins to walk toward the hollow, Harry was more than willing to let her deal with anything left inside, it wasn't his problem, he had done his job during this hunt, he had protected his sisters. But as Zoë begins to hack at another of the Acromantula close to the hollow, the wood begins to crack from the weight of some great force before bursting open as some large and black as night aimed right for Zoë's exposed flank, and Harry doesn't know why or when he started to move, nor why he would scream.

Eighty souls crying out as one,

"Watch out!" Harry yells, moving as quickly as his legs could carry him, he jumps, blaming his shoulder into Zoë's back flinging her forward as Harry takes the blow. It feels like he was hit with a bludgeoning hex with a fire modifier in the back as he feels the heat as he also feels a few of his ribs crack or break before being thrown forward. He flies through the air before hitting the ground hard rolling and skidding across the Den, somewhere along the way Harry had dropped his spear, but all Harry cares about is trying to refill his lungs with air, he looks around in panic noticing a few things, first, his spear was about thirty feet from him, he can already hear Scáthach yelling in his head about letting go of his spear. Second, Zoë was looking at him with wide eyes. Third, there was a pool of what looked to be lava burning the ground around the area Harry was hit. And finally, the largest Scorpion Harry had ever seen was crawling out of the hollow with a small flood of large Acromantula.

"If I see the boy with one of our jackets on, I will strip it off of him myself," Zoë hisses at Atalanta as she stands by the boy's trunk, arms crossed and eyes narrowed in a glare.

"Harry turned the jacket Daphnis wanted him to have down," Atalanta tells her, "and I'll warn you now, he doesn't like being touched, so do me a favor and don't get the notion he's your personal punching bag in your head, or you'll be mine, got it?" The Lioness grows back protectively.

"You're acting just like you do with Herakles, when should we expect you to be dry-humping the boy's leg," Zoë says, voice thick with anger as her eyes flash a darker color.

"He's nothing like Herakles, so leav-" Atalanta begins to say, but Zoë cuts her off with an angry hiss.

"They are ALL like Herakles," the elder hunter says before she turns on her heel and storms away to Artemis' tent.

It was as big as a city bus and just as wide, the long tail curved upwards, the stinger still dripping the sticky and glowing red lava, and its body was as black as night, like polished obsidian that had the reflections of starfire and nebulae on it. Harry could make out the red veins that glowed and burned just under its carapace all along its body and leading up to the tip of its tail, and worst of all, it was looking right at him.

It moves with a quickness betraying its size as it charges at Harry, ignoring the arrows that defected off its armor. Harry throws out his hand calling his spear to his hand, but it's too slow as the Scorpion is on him before he could blink, stabbing down with its tail, Harry, with lungs finally full, throws himself to the side to dodge the tail but not the pincer as it smacks him out of the Den and into the deeper forest and chases after the boy who lived, the spear following soon after.

The Den is flooded with Acromantula once again in one last desperate defense of their home, Zoë rolls to her feet swinging and hacking at the eight-legged freaks, cutting down four more as she back peddles to escape being overrun by them. She whistles quickly and sharply, calling the retreat back to the hill where her Lady was looking between the direction of where the boy was thrown to and the oncoming flood of Acromantula.

"Hunters, focus on the Acromantula, protect your sisters!" Artemis orders, causing the hunt to focus on the oncoming threat, "Atalanta! Sophie! Go after Harry, and Sophie, bring your gun!" She calls out to two hunters.

"Yes, My Lady!" Calls the Lioness before charging off.

"Yee-Haw, yes Ma'am!" Yells the Mad hunter, grabbing the long silver bag, and pulling out her chosen weapon as she follows after the Lioness.

"What was the Scorpio doing here so far away from the Flame of the West!?" Thought the Goddess of the Hunt as she grits her teeth and raises her bow to join her Hunters in the eradication of these pests, "was Zeus behind this?" She thought as she released her first volley, Her own father using the same beast that had killed Orion to kill her son was just like something that he would do, some poetic punishment for creating a magician with Olympian blood.

"My Lady, please," Zoë says, sitting to Artemis' right as she always had, "Send the…boy elsewhere, send the fetish with him, he has no place in the hunt," she asks once again.

"No," is Artemis' stony answer as she turns and glares at her lieutenant, "If memory serves me right, you were excited to meet a child of mine, what happened to change your mind so quickly, Lieutenant?" The Goddess asks.

"He is a boy, My Lady," Zoë says, "A male Demigod will be nothing but trouble for the hunt, my sisters are already wary of him, send him away before he follows his baser instincts and gets one of the hunt killed or worst, convincing them of breaking their oaths by either words or for-" Zoë pleads with her Goddess but is cut off as Artemis snaps at her.

"Enough!" Artemis says harshly to her lieutenant, quickly silencing Zoë, "The boy is only fourteen and knows nothing of men can force upon women, and he is not Herakles," Artemis says, watching her second-in-command flinch, "Harry does not seek glory, he does not care for it nor does he want it, he will listen to orders given to him for nothing else than the life he was raised in, you will not antagonize the boy, avoid him if you must, but do not punish him over your old hatred," Artemis tells Zoë, her amber eyes burning at the accusations her lieutenant throw at the boy without knowing him.

"If the boy doesn't seek glory, then what does he seek?" Zoë asks as she looks into the silver flame, but Artemis' answer is only met with outward silence and a scoff inwardly from Zoë, for what male Demigod would ever choose family over their personal glory?

Harry crashes through the shrubs and underbrush, skidding to a stop with a groan that turns into a growl as he stumbles to stand and hears the cracking of the ancient trees in the forest as he raises his arm again calling to his spear, the scorpion charges into the clearing as Harry's spear makes it to his hand. Using the hunt he suppresses the radiating pain he feels coming from his ribs and dives under the sweep of the scorpion's claws, he rolls to his feet, swiping at the side of the arachnid, the tip of his spear throwing sparks in the air but nothing else as the scorpion turns swiftly, knocking Harry away and into a tree and the boy screams in pain as his ribs cry out in protest as it begins to get hard to draw a breath.

Harry looks up in time to see the tail coming and jumps to the side and rolls with a hiss, as he turns back in time to watch the tree begin to burn and melt from the venom of the stinger as the creature turns to him and charges once again. Harry dodges the tail once more before using his spear and, what was at this point, pure willpower to deflect the incoming claw moving around to its side before he tries to stab the damn thing, but his spear wasn't doing anything to the scorpion and Harry is forced, once again to dodge the swift-moving bugger. He circles around it, trying to find a weak spot of lines or blots showing him where to hit or strike, but there were none and he curses as the beast moves to put him back into eyesight again as it begins to rain down blows with its Stinger and Harry is forced to dance and dodge to the tempo of the scorpion's attacks.

As Harry dances the scorpion lashes out with its claws trying to pin him into place, but as soon as it tries, there is a crack of a gunshot, cracking the obsidian carapace along its claw before three arrows puncture the seems in between the segments of its carapace and Harry almost facepalms because why didn't he think of that!

"Harry!" He hears Atalanta yell from the trees above, "the segments! Aim in between them!" The lioness yells as she fires another volley at the giant scorpion as it twists its body causing the arrow to deflect off of it with a screech as it tries once again to skewer Harry with its tails.

"Got it!" Harry yells back as he continues to circle the beast before another crack from who could only be Sophie strikes the top of the creature's head causing it to stumble for a moment as Harry charges its side planting the tip of his spear deep into the scorpion side, much to the displeasure of the creature as it screeches and turns quickly, throwing Harry away from itself but this time Harry doesn't let go of his spear, he was sure Scáthach would be proud. Harry rolls to a stop, his ribs were really starting to bother him now, he had to finish this quickly, another volley of arrows stick into the scorpion's body, and another crack of another round from Sophie strikes the creature's head, breaking off a huge chunk of its armored hide and Harry remembers a story from Primary; Harry was getting another one of his ideas with it.

"It's head!" Harry yells as he dodges another strike from the scorpion's tail, "Sophie! Keep shooting it in the head! Break off more of its armor!" The heir to the hunt calls out before another crack is heard and the creature's armored head breaks into more pieces. It was now or never, it was then that Harry did something incredibly brave, but incredibly stupid.

he ran over to the giant scorpion, using his spear to pole vault onto its back. It feels the creature buck and twist to try and throw Harry off of itself, but thanks to Artemis' blessing Harry was fleet and sure of foot so long as he kept moving, so he doesn't stop until he gets to the scorpion's head, he hears another gunshot go off before more of the scorpion's armored shell from its head falls away. Harry stops at the broken area that Sophie had made for him as he starts to stab down with his spear using both hands, constantly looking behind him, keeping watch on the tail.

"Come on, come on," Harry says as he keeps stabbing at the top of the scorpion's head, "Come on you great big buggering cunt, do it!" Harry yells as he slams his spear down hard enough to push into soft tissue and he hears the creature screech once more before turning his head to see the scorpion's tail hike up and come down right where he was standing, "perfect," Harry thinks before throwing himself off of the scorpions head just in time to hear the crunch of the scorpion's own stinger piercing its head with a wail of pain.

Harry turns with a grin before yelling at the scorpion, "What!? Never heard of the Scorpion and the frog?!" Before he shifts his grip on his spear to the butt of it as the armor encasing the monster's head falls away revealing its face, the black eyes set into burning red skin that dripped like lava, and with it, the black spots of instant Death. Harry calls on the hunt to empower him as bullets and arrows rain down from above as the creature struggles in vain, Harry charges forward with the speed of a Lioness and the roar of a hunter, dodging under the claw sweeps of the scorpion and driving his spear into the monster's face. The beast lets out one last screech of pain as Harry drives the spear into it, forcing his arm into the beast with the force he hit it with, Harry screams in pain as the burning blood warps around his arm and he feels the bones in his arm snap.

But the burning doesn't last for long as the Scorpion's body bursts into golden dust leaving behind only the carapace that had once protected it.

As for Harry, the pain was far too much and the Hunt, satisfied with the kill, withdraws from the Boy Who Lived and his eyes roll back in his head as he passes out and darkness claims him with a giggle.

Chapter done!

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! The Hunt is over! We will see the aftermath of its next chapter, along with Zoë and Harry finally settling some things.

Be honest, who thought I was gonna do a spell-casting spider as the final big bad for the hunt and not The Scorpio?

The Scorpio just fit so well with the Hunters going after a nest of arachnids, Harry being the son of Artemis, and The Scorpio being created to kill the last male Hunter that Artemis truly cared for it was just…*chiefs kiss*

but yay, murder-happy Harry! and seriously, the blessing of instant death is busted, it's like the mystic eyes of death perception from Type-Moon.

Now, on to the what if!?

Harry Potter, Camp Half-blood, age: 9

Harry had Artemis in a death grip, clutching onto her like a koala bear to a tree as Artemis walked away from the gathering behind her, she was holding on to the boy just as hard as he was to her.

"One more step," Artemis hears her Lioness growl out to the old wizard, "One more step and you're dead, do you understand me?" She says this in such a tone that would not hesitate in doing just that.

"You came back," Artemis Hears her son says into the crock of her neck, and she squeezes him tighter to her.

"Always, Harry, I will always come back for you," Artemis says like a solemn vow, and she means each word spoken, "Zoë," the Goddess calls out to her second in command, "Go to the cabin and make sure everyone is decent, I will not let any accidents to happen," she tells her oldest friend.

"At once, My Lady," Zoë says before taking off in a burst of speed toward the silver cabin her hunt called home while they stayed at camp just before the sound of thunder shakes the camp, and Artemis sighs.

"Yes, yes, I know," Artemis mutters looking up to the sky, "I will be there soon to explain, let me just drop Harry off," she tells her father as she makes it to her cabin and releases Harry from the death grip that she had him in, and standing him on the ground, he looks up at her with emerald eyes still filled with tears, she kneels and wipes them away and smiles at the boy.

"Harry, you need to listen to me," Artemis tells the boy, "we have a lot to talk about, but I have to go for now," she tells him as hurt blooms over the boy's face, not wanting her to leave when she had just returned, "None of that now, I will return as quickly as I can but Lord Zeus summons me, and it's not something I can ignore for long," she tells him, and Harry nods quietly, "Wait till Zoë comes outside to get you, you are to listen to her and Atalanta, if they tell you to do something while you are in the cabin, you are to do it, no questions asked, okay?" She tells Harry who, once again, nods.

"Okay," Harry says in a quiet voice.

The door opens behind Harry and Zoë pokes her head out, "Sophie is in the shower, but has been warned, in no uncertain terms, that she is to be fully dressed before leaving it, other than that all of the hunt is presentable, My Lady," Zoë informs Artemis, who nods back to her Lieutenant before turning back to Harry.

"Remember my words little one," The Goddess of the Hunt says before standing and vanishing in a flash of moonlight, Harry stands there for a moment looking at the spot Artemis was with sad eyes before Zoë speaks up once more.

"Bo-, Harry," Zoë says, getting Harry's attention, "Come inside, there are some people who are eager to meet you," she says softly as the boy turns to her and shuffles in place for a moment before nodding and climbing the stairs that lead inside of the cabin to meet what would become some of his closes family.

But thousands of miles away, in the cold north sea off the coast of Scotland, a Grimm man stood on a lonely rock jutting out of the sea, wet and shivering from the constant downpour of freezing rain, his gray eyes scanning the coast as the bleak gray architect of a cold hell that had held him for the last eight years behind him, dressed in prison rags and only one thought in his mind.

He was going to find his missing godson, and nothing was going to stop him, not the dementors, not old friends, not Dumbledore, hell, not even Harry's own divine mother.

And he disappears with a crack.

Notes:

Oh-No, a sane Sirius is on the loose years before he should be, what will happen next?