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Enchanting Melodies (HP SI)

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Chapter 357: Heaven's Gate New
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    • Chapter 357: Heaven's Gate

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    8 April 1995, Olympus Academy, Greece

    Olympus, one of the most historically significant locations, was a place that the ancient Greeks considered to be the home of the gods themselves and he could see why. It was a place probably filled with as many secrets as Hogwarts, maybe even more. Yes, coming here was the right call. This was definitely going to be fun.

    Daphne was gaping at the sight for what seemed to be at least a couple of minutes and Harry couldn't really blame her. The mere sight alone would bring awe to whoever gazed on it, and that wasn't even considering the marvel of magic that this mountain was.

    The blonde finally spoke up, "This is amazing!"

    The headmistress seemed to enjoy the response and went into 'teacher mode', "Oh, yes, it's quite the magical marvel. No one knows the true origin of the enchantment, or even what they are. All we do know is that it's been there for thousands of years. Many have tried to climb the mountain, to see what was at the top of infinity, but no one ever returned. To be fair, the most common theory is that there's some kind of modified expansion charm that makes the mountain spread into infinity. It literally has no peak and anyone who tries to reach it will simply eventually run out of food or water. Nevertheless, the sight was magnificent enough that the muggles in Ancient Greece considered it to be the home of the Gods, themselves."

    "So, there aren't any gods up there," Harry asked with a mixture of curiosity and amusement in his tone. He mostly wanted to know if there were any legends about the mountain. The beings who had proclaimed themselves to be gods left after the first war between the Light and Dark, having sealed them away into their own dimensions. They retreated soon after. The age of gods started to wane when Atlantis fell and officially ended when the fey banished themselves away to defeat Merlin and Morgana.

    Still, it would have been interesting to know what the locals thought about the mountain, mostly because most likely, their coming task was probably going to involve it in some way.

    The transfiguration mistress chuckled, "Not likely. Yet, no one knows what's up there. The school was set up long ago and stopped anyone from entering, claiming that it was for their own protection. If I had to guess, it would have been because of the resources the mountain provides them. It's full of magical creatures and magical herbs, some of them even unique to the mountain, and it's an immense source of wealth to whoever has control over it."

    "What about the gods of Olympus?" Daphne asked leadingly.

    "From whatever meagre sources we have of that time, they seem to be nothing more than very powerful wizards and witches, that were worshipped as gods, which was relatively common at the time, and they died thousands of years ago. As much as this school tries to get inspired by their tales, it's very likely that any tales of divine intervention are nothing more than that, tales. Still, they like to call their students 'heroes', and only invite people from very old Greek bloodlines. The rest of the population are either forced to enter some lesser school in Greece or even go to another country to be guaranteed a better education. To their benefit, while the Olympus Academy, doesn't graduate a lot of students every year, those who do tend to be some very powerful wizards."

    Harry was going to ask something else, only to be interrupted by the headmistress, "I believe that this has been enough talk about the school. I have to go meet some of the other headmasters. I've been trying to convince the ICW that the situation in Britain is far more volatile for Hogwarts to host the final task of the tournament, but they seem to insist upon it. You-Know-Who is fighting an army of enhanced werewolves and for some reason, they don't think that this is concerning. Minister Fudge foolishly agreed to pay a very significant fine if they asked to withdraw Britain from the tournament last year, and the ministry is not in a position to pay something like this, especially with the state of the economy!"

    Her Scottish accent had gotten very heavy at the end and had run out of breath by the end of her rant. She seemed to have noticed her misstep, "I apologize. I shouldn't have said that. I've been under a lot of pressure in the last few months, and I guess my temper has gotten the better of me."

    Harry gave her a sympathetic look, "It's alright professor. We all need to yell at the world sometimes."

    She smiled back, "Thank you, Mr. Carmichael. Now, why don't you go meet the rest of the delegation? I asked Mr. Diggory to show you around and inform you of any detail you might need to know."

    He noticed that they were near a familiar metallic dragon, the Hogwarts Express, and just nodded, "Thank you, professor."

    Daphne echoed his words and the woman disapparated with a pop. The blonde gave him a good look, "So, Dumbledore is forcing the ICW to hold the task in Hogwarts."

    Harry nodded, "It seems like the most likely scenario. He probably already has a prophecy ready there and he can't exactly wipe out years of planning because magical Britain has suddenly become unstable."

    The blonde looked like she wanted to say something, only to start coughing for a few seconds. Harry jumped at his girlfriend, his wand ready to see if she was hurt or something, only for her to raise her hand, "I'm fine, Harry."

    "Daphne, that didn't sound fine."

    "It's nothing, I just choked on a bit of my saliva."

    Harry gave her a concerned look, "Are you sure?"

    "For fuck's sake, Harry, I'm not made of glass. It's just an accident!"

    Harry was about to say something only to freeze a bit on the expression on her face, she looked weirdly angry, especially about something this benign. He didn't really want to push her, but her reaction was still strange.

    He didn't have time to think more on it since Diggory's familiar voice spoke up in front of them, "Oi, Greengrass, Carmichael, welcome back. McGonagall asked me to show you around the Academy a bit. Put your luggage in a compartment and get changed. You'll need to choose your classes here as well. Now, get on with it, we're already late."

    The older wizard then turned and left them neat at the entrance of the Express. Daphne mumbled, "Well, Diggory's certainly gotten pricklier."

    A voice responded to her, "Don't worry about him, he's grumpy because he lost his place in the next task because of you two. He's been trying to 'clear his name and honour' after his performance in the previous task."

    They turned and saw Fred and George Weasley smiling mischievously at them. The other twin continued for him, "Apparently, causing your school to finish last and getting us down to second place makes a person lose their popularity. He thought that without Potter overshadowing him, that he would get the chance to shine."

    He could understand Diggory growing frustrated with his performance in the tournament. He probably thought that he was Hogwarts' best student. He was in his seventh year, with very high grades, good in Quidditch, and obviously tutored in duelling. The professors sang his praises, and he relished it. He reminded Harry of the people who peaked in High School, who never considered the fact that the real world was just fundamentally different. He was a decent enough wizard, that Harry would admit, but that was really it. There was nothing remarkable about him, he was just a relatively attractive popular boy that's good in school and sports.

    He was told by everyone that he would be Hogwarts' only chance at victory, and that must have put a lot of pressure on him and expectations that he just didn't live up to. In the first task, Harry was, by far, the main source of attraction, in the second one, Cho Chang was the one whose efforts were celebrated. In the third one, his victory was overshadowed by Longbottom saying that Voldemort was back. In the duelling tournament, he came in behind both Weasley twins, and he flopped hard in the fifth task.

    McGonagall must have lost a lot of faith in him for that last stunt and chose to replace him for this task when she was forced to put in Daphne and 'Eddie', and that must have stung a lot. That's not to mention that it was unlikely that Diggory would get to compete in the last task, especially since she'll have to get younger students to compete since a few of them didn't really get to do so, being forced to return to the castle when Voldemort officially revealed himself.

    There were five students from each year in the delegation, starting from the fourth years, of course. In Harry's year, only Susan Bones remained as a student who wouldn't have competed in the final task, with Granger, Longbottom, Daphne, and himself as the rest of the delegates in this year.

    However, Cho Chang was the only fifth year who had the chance to compete, and with 'Eddie Carmichael' participating in this one, that left three students who still had to contractually compete in the next task. It was funny, they were all so forgettable. He only barely remembered that Katie Bell and Cormac McLaggen were part of the delegation, and even then, he had to think back a lot. Well, Harry was never good with names.

    Anyway, since the rest of the delegation participated in any task, that sort of forced the four students to be champions in the next task, which McGonagall was probably going to make sure to have, at least, four champions. It was probably why she jumped at the chance of letting Daphne and 'Eddie' compete, but even then, the chances of Hogwarts winning in their own nation were on the slim side with most students being on the inexperienced side.

    To be fair, Hogwarts did surprisingly well so far, even if Diggory's blunder put them in second place, tied with the Greeks. They had won three tasks out of the seven, which was the same number as Beauxbatons' victory – who won the second, fourth, and fifth tasks.

    His train of thought was broken by Daphne commenting to the twins, "It's still not a valid reason for Diggory to act this way."

    The redheads nodded at once. It was weirdly synchronized, as if they had practised it before, "We're not saying he's right. Anyway, you might want to hurry up before Diggory gets even grumpier. No one wants an angry Puff, after all."

    They left at once, and the two newcomers went into their designated rooms. A few minutes later, they came out in fresh clothes and left to see Diggory. The older boy was obviously disgruntled with the task, but that didn't stop him from helping them out. They walked towards the school, with the older student explaining the electives that they could choose during their stay. Daphne was interested in one in elemental magic. It was a bit of a hot commodity for all the delegates, even if it was a bit of a scam since it took years to actually learn anything useful in the field, not just a handful of weeks.

    Anyway, when they arrived near the bottom of the school, something started to niggle at the back of Harry's mind, like a third sense. He instinctively used his Arcane Hearing and almost recoiled in surprise. The mountain wasn't enchanted to be infinite, not this was far more elaborate than that. It was a kind of magic that Harry was probably one of the few familiar with, on the entire planet. Olympus wasn't a mountain, it was an entrance, and everything forward was in another dimension, another plane of existence.

    There was an elegance to it that he had never seen before, a thing that made Lily's efforts seem amateurish, maybe even childish. The way it was incorporated so seamlessly, meant that a master of dimensional magic was involved, someone far above anyone Harry had even heard of. Even the gardens of Avalon, the Fey's crown jewel, paled in comparison. For the first time, Harry was tempted to believe that something 'divine' might have been involved in this creation.

    However, all those thoughts were overwhelmed by a very faint memory of a conversation of Arcturus Black. In fact, it was one of the earliest conversations he ever had with the man, one regarding the founder of his house, of the creator of the first magical crest, a man rumoured to have bent space and time itself to his liking, a man who had discovered the very source of magic itself, "Kronos."

    AN: Sorry again if the chapter's quality is a bit off. I didn't really have enough time to plan it properly and I was relying on notes about the lore I put aside a couple of months ago. The good news is that work has started to ease up a bit, so I only have to catch up with a few things I neglected in my personal life for the next couple of days. I know I said it before, but everything should be back to normal in either the next chapter or the one after.

    Anyway, this chapter is a bit lore-heavy and has a few things that I wanted to scatter in a lot of previous chapters, but since I scrapped the fourth and fifth tasks, I had to do it in a bit of a single dump. Anyway, the task itself will be announced in the next chapter and I'm really excited with what I have planned for this Arc. I've always been a fan of Greek Mythology and I'm pretty proud of how I integrated it into the story's lore and am very excited to show it to you. Anyway, I don't mind rewriting the chapter depending on your feedback so, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Chapter 358: The Fleeting Sunset New
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    • Chapter 358: The Fleeting Sunset

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    10 April 1995, Olympus Academy, Greece

    Harry had barely been in Olympus Academy for a couple of days, and yet, he could tell that there was something fundamentally wrong about it. Well, he was being overly critical, but there was something very different there. There was some detail that just wasn't adding up, a small thing in the back of his mind that would not just leave his mind.

    Uncovering mysteries was always a weakness of his. He knew that he fundamentally hated not knowing something. It just grated him immensely, like a small itch at the back of his mind, unwilling to just disappear until he could explain everything that occurred.

    Olympus was meant to be an easy gig, just pretend to do a task and fail miserably, as Carmichael would have probably done, and just make sure that Daphne is safe, before getting the fuck away from the whole mess and putting everything behind him. He did not have time to investigate things, nor did he want to overcomplicate his stay by seeking out any trouble.

    However, it was very hard to shut down his brain, to notice how odd everything was structured. When he first arrived, Harry was just taken aback by the magical marvel that was Mount Olympus. Just staying around, gave Harry ways to optimize his own space and time manipulation, which felt nothing more than the stumbling of an amateur compared to the masterpiece.

    The way space and time were folded, was just so elegant and so efficient, and the manner in which an external dimension was connected so seamlessly, enough that no one even noticed that the entire mountain did not originate from this world, was breathtaking. The amount of magic necessary to even open the connection and maintain it so easily was insane. To better compare it, Lily Evans used the power of a broken prophecy to create a tiny conceptual connection between her and an external dimension. It was very hard to imagine this scaled up at least a thousand times. Then again, whoever had done this, was obviously far more experienced and had far more efficient control over the energy, unlike Lily who ended up wiping a village off the map.

    Harry truly wished he could meet Kronos. A small conversation with the man was likely to help him far more than years of effort alone trying to replicate the feat. That man was really on another level. He didn't think he would ever be able to come close to replicating it, not even after decades of research and practice.

    However, as much of a marvel as this piece of magic was, he wasn't allowed to analyse it further because no one was allowed there. The academy itself was divided into two halves, the first was where most of the classes took place. The students were allowed to come and go, and where any public event was held. The second half was limited by where the actual dimensional folding began to integrate Mount Olympus, and they put it under some pretty heavy wards. Only a few select older students were allowed to enter, and Harry noticed that those students were admired and obviously put on a pedestal by their peers.

    It wasn't just the wards or the restricted areas—it was the culture itself. No one questioned anything. Everyone simply accepted the rigid boundaries, and those few who were granted access to the deeper mysteries of Olympus never spoke about what they saw. It was as if the academy thrived on the unspoken rule that certain knowledge was forbidden, locked away from prying eyes. It obviously had an extra library since Harry couldn't find any proper elemental spells in the one they boasted of, at least, not even close to what some of the champions demonstrated.

    Harry had never really taken the time to observe the Greek champions. Apart from facing their elemental magic in the first task, he knew very little of them. They mostly kept to themselves, which was weird since the entire tournament was built to enhance the connection between European nations. However, none of the Greek Champions ever cared enough to make an effort to seek out anyone in other schools, hell, they even rebuffed anyone who wanted to speak with them.

    Other than that, Harry noticed that there was some kind of hierarchy there. The blond Lightning Elemental that he had fought in the first task was obviously at the head of the pack. Well, he used to be but was replaced with a muscly redhead instead, but he was still far more respected than almost half of his peers. Hell, if Harry had to guess, there was a clear separation of the delegation into two, and every member of the 'superior' group was allowed entry into the forbidden portion of the academy and was probably taught some extra magic. He found that the whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth.

    The disguised boy walked with the rest of the delegation into the school's great hall. As perplexed about how the school was run, the actual building itself was a marvel of Greek architecture. The school looked like something straight out of an ancient history book—massive marble columns, intricately carved statues, and grand archways that seemed to go on forever. It had that timeless feel like it had been standing there for centuries without a single crack or chip. The way the sunlight hit the stone, giving everything a warm, golden glow, made it even more impressive. It was obviously enchanted to be like this, but the effort to do this for every single piece of stone was just breathtaking.

    The Great Hall was huge, with a ceiling so high it felt like it might touch the clouds. Rows of long tables stretched out endlessly, and the whole room was lit by massive chandeliers that floated overhead, glowing softly with magical light. There was a table with Hogwarts' symbol on it, and they walked and sat there.

    Like in Hogwarts, the long tables were assigned to a single 'house', but that seemed to be a lot more serious there. All in all, there were five of them, the house of Athena, the house of Artemis, the house of Apollo, the house of Ares, and the house of Hera. The few Greek students he spoke to refused to say anything about how the students of each house were chosen. It was probably another personality test like in Hogwarts, but that wouldn't explain why they did this. What was honestly a bit disturbing was that the students tended to pray to their house's deity, as in seriously praying.

    There was something wrong about the Olympus Academy, and Harry had to retrain himself from nosing in and making a mess of things. For some reason, things tended to very quickly spiral out of control whenever he was involved, and he had no intention of making a mess of things. Again.

    The food was good, though. Harry had never tried Greek food, and it was a lot nicer than he expected. Thankfully, Daphne distracted him from his deductions by speaking up behind him, "What's up with you?"

    "Nothing," Harry answered while faking a smile.

    "Eddie!" she warned, "I know when you're distracted. What's wrong?"

    "Oh, it's nothing. It's just me being silly, Daph."

    "No, I know that look. This is the 'I noticed something, and I want to investigate it' look."

    Harry rolled his eyes, "Yes, I did, but I'm not."

    "And it's driving you mad," the blonde chuckled.

    "Oi, it's not funny!"

    "It is a bit," she smiled back at him teasingly.

    Harry rolled his eyes but did not comment. They couldn't really act close publicly, since that would probably give the whole game away, and neither one of them was happy with the prospect, but it was still far better than just not hanging out altogether.

    It didn't help that Daphne had obviously not eaten well when she grieved him, and it affected her performance. Harry did hold a practice duel with her the previous, and she got tired a lot quicker than she had just a few months prior. He'd been trying to get her to train again that day, but she said that she wasn't feeling up to it for some reason. He was tempted to insist, to tell her that she could embarrass herself in an international event because she was a bit rusty, but the gaze she gave him stopped any reply quickly in its tracks.

    Daphne nudged Harry with her elbow, a smirk playing on her lips. "You're brooding again."

    "I'm not brooding," Harry replied, though he knew it wasn't entirely true. He couldn't stop thinking about the task—and that apple. "Just thinking."

    "Ah, thinking. The other thing you do when you're not brooding. Very well-rounded, aren't you?"

    "Hey, I'm just thinking about what the task was going to be. I'd like to avoid making a mess of things here, especially considering how weird they are here."

    Daphne raised an eyebrow. "No offence, but I can't think of a situation we've been in that didn't end up escalating dramatically.

    Harry grinned at her, "What? At least, I'm not boring. Imagine the tales we could tell when we're old and grey."

    Daphne felt lost in her own world, "That would be nice, huh."

    The last Potter gave her a concerned look, "Are you okay? Is there something wrong?"

    "I'm fine Harry. You're not the only one who gets distracted."

    "Are you sure…"

    She interrupted him, "I said I'm fine!"

    He was tempted to broach the subject once more but the academy's headmaster stood up, silencing all conversations in the hall. The man was tall and imposing, but not in a flashy way. His silver hair fell past his shoulders, and his deep blue robes gave him the look of someone important without overdoing it. He had sharp features, but there was a relaxed confidence about him as if he was certain that nothing would ever hurt him.

    He spoke with a heavy Greek accent but his voice was calm, but it carried, effortlessly reaching every corner of the great hall. "Students of Olympus Academy, and our esteemed guests from across the world," he began, his tone measured and deliberate, "you have all come here for a competition, expecting the usual trials of skill, cunning, and bravery. And while those qualities will certainly be tested, let me be clear—this year's task will not be like any other."

    A murmur swept through the hall at his words, but the headmaster didn't pause. His eyes gleamed with a subtle challenge as he continued. "Each school will send four champions, as is tradition. However, let me dispel any illusions you may have. Though you come in groups, there will be only one winner. One victor. The others will not walk away with glory, for this task is not just a trial, but also your reward."

    Well, that was unusual, even for a task, and probably a fancy description. Harry had to give it to him, though, the man was definitely a good orator and knew how to get people excited. He could feel the tension growing in the room as students whispered to each other in hushed tones, trying to decipher the meaning behind the man's words.

    The headmaster raised his hand, and the murmurs fell silent once more. His voice dropped lower, taking on an almost ominous tone, "Your task is to explore the very heart of this academy—the true Mount Olympus itself. The mountain that stands behind this school is not merely a symbol, nor is it an ordinary peak. It is a gateway, a realm of endless possibilities and perils. Within its twisting paths, you will find challenges unlike anything you've faced before. Some of you may not return unchanged."

    "The goal," the headmaster said, his voice now rising slightly, filled with gravity, "is to retrieve a golden apple from within the depths of Mount Olympus. But know this: there is only one. One apple. One prize. The golden apple of the gods."

    A collective gasp echoed through the hall, mostly originating from the Olympus Academy students. To be completely honest, Harry never knew that those things ever existed. He'd only ever heard in from Ancient Greek Mythology, the apple of the gods, the fruit of immortality, coveted by Gods and mortals alike. He'd never heard of its existence before, and from the looks of it, most of the other schools hadn't either. However, the Greeks seemed to have known about it.

    The headmaster must have noticed that lack of reaction from the other delegations and continued, "A golden apple is a fruit that grows on a tree on Mount Olympus. It's often a sign of changing time, of a shift of destiny. A single apple grows suddenly, without any reaction, but the tree could spend centuries without a single apple falling. Not much is known about them, only that they hold immense healing properties, with a single bit capable of healing any ailment, regrowing limbs, and even banishing any curse. However, there is a rumour, that if one were the consume the fruit completely, then they would join the realm of the gods, and become immortal. It's just a legend, but legends have been proven to be correct before. Either way, whether you win or not, whether you eat it or not, the fruit itself is priceless."

    The moment Harry heard the confirmed properties of the golden apple, specifically the healing aspect, he looked at Daphne, who was glazing at the headmaster with an expression of pure hope. She was probably looking at the answer to her prayers, to finally achieve her life's ambition of saving her sister. Yeah, that settled it, they were going to get that apple.

    "You will not find it easily," the headmaster continued, his gaze sweeping over the assembled students. "The mountain does not give up its secrets to the unworthy. You will be tested—physically, mentally, magically—in ways you cannot yet comprehend. And when you stand at the precipice of success or failure, you will face a choice that may define your destiny. Only the most skilled, the most daring, and perhaps the most fortunate will claim the golden apple."

    "The task begins in a week," the headmaster announced, his tone final. "Prepare yourselves. Only one will triumph, and the rest will leave empty-handed. Olympus will judge you, and the mountain does not show mercy."

    The blonde turned towards Harry with an expectant look on her face, "Change of Plans!"

    Harry nodded his agreement, not trusting himself to say anything. While he liked seeing the hope in Daphne's eyes, he knew that hope could be just as dangerous as it could be kind.

    AN: Alright, this is the last chapter that I'll have to write in a hurry. It's been a super hectic week and I'll finally be able to take a breather and take my time while writing chapters. I'll be honest, I'm not sure I like this one. I think it's a bit too padded and that I should have made the task announcement half a chapter, with some other eventful thing before or after it. Still, I'm excited to write this task, as you probably noticed, it's to find the golden apple, which definitely raises the stakes.

    Anyway, I know some of you will ask why the Greeks wouldn't take the apple for themselves, and there's a reason for it, that I don't want to spoil, but it's not an arbitrary thing.

    As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Daphne is dying. The fool girl is using herself to keep her sister healthy. Lilly is a cruel, manipulative bitch, I bet she planned to use her knowledge to keep Daphne in control and drain her family of wealth to fund Lilly.
     
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    Over the past two weeks or so, I've read the entire story! I like it, there were some great moments :) The Harry-Voldemort vampire fight stood out, it was cool, and so was Dumbledore capturing Harry, even though I'm typically not a fan of manipulative Dumbledore.

    Great story so far!

    athassprkr said:
    Daphne felt lost in her own world, "That would be nice, huh."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Poor Daphne. Did she take Astoria's curse onto herself? When Harry "died", her life stopped being worth living? Maybe one last gift his mum gave Harry.

    I think it's being telegraphed quite hard that she has a terminal illness in the last few chapters.
     
    Chapter 359: Scattering Petals New
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    • Chapter 359: Scattering Petals

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    12 April 1995, London, England

    Lily Evans knew before she even married James that she would never be a good mother. Something inside her broke in her time with the Department of Mysteries. Her parents had just died mysteriously. It could have been a Death Eater attack, only that there wasn't a Dark Mark, and it happened around the same time she started defying the department openly. She was afraid that anyone she got closer to would die as well. She practically ignored Petunia, not wanting her to be involved, not that it was hard to do because of the woman's obvious resentment and jealousy and picked James Potter to act as her shield.

    It was mostly out of convenience more than anything. The Potters were firmly in Dumbledore's corner, so they were better protected from any retaliation from the department, and there was also the fact that he was still besotted with her, for some reason.

    She did grow to like him. He was nice in small doses, but she always kept a few barriers out of her own protection. James was her shield, and shields had a tendency to get hurt. Still, she was planning on leaving him the moment she had a concrete plan in place to escape Dumbledore's and the department's reach.

    Lily hadn't planned on marrying him, let alone birth his children, but one night, he had gotten drunk and bragged about being the subject of some prophecy being given to his father. He was babbling incoherent things about it, but that alone made her drop any plans of running away. One of her plans was to connect herself to an external dimension, and she needed to sacrifice something to have the energy release necessary for it. She had found out about it from some old tome she discovered during one of her missions for the Unspeakables.

    She was assigned to clear out some old Mesopotamian ruins before the local magical government sent their own teams to investigate. Apparently, they wanted some artefact there, some kind of golden armour, and they couldn't really interfere in another country's affair without a war being declared. They were wrong about there being any armour, still, she returned with a few pieces of enchanted jewellery, but she had kept the few tomes around. Well, she called them tomes, they were old scrolls that she spent months translating into a tome.

    It explained what they called 'the realms of the divine', and that a few people learned to forge a connection to and channel its magic. Apparently, they assumed it was some kind of divine entity not an actual connection to an external dimension. Still, from the feats they described, the 'blessed' were supposed to be forces of nature and she wanted some of that power. No, she needed it to be free, to help Britain achieve this freedom as well. However, she needed the energy required to replicate the feat first.

    She had planned on spending years moving around the world, using blood magic to remove curses and store the magical release into a far larger curse she was creating. The breaking of her personal curse, empowered by thousands of other ones, could have technically opened a connection to a close external dimension, but a broken prophecy was just too tempting, too easy not to consider as an option. It would save her years, maybe even decades of wandering around the world, years where she could have been vulnerable, even with her prowess.

    And so, Lily made her choice. She didn't particularly like it – James had grown on her a bit – but it was the better option. Still, she decided that the least she could do was to make sure his line didn't end with him, so, she got pregnant. She didn't expect to become a mother, not really. She allowed Sirius Black to be his godfather, hoping to fake her Death after the ritual. After all, the Blacks were a pretty powerful family, and Black would love and care for his best friend's son.

    However, the moment her green eyes met her son's, she knew that she couldn't abandon him. She realized that she would burn the world for him. She never expected to feel something like this, not after what the Department of Mysteries had done to her. Her emotions were a bit suppressed by the cold logic that came with her intelligence boosts, but what she felt on that day, while exhausted in Saint Mungo's was unlike anything she ever experienced in her life.

    She altered her plans. She was planning on disappearing together with her child. Their deaths had to be public; she needed to lay low until her son was grown. Knowing that they were being targeted by Voldemort, and also probably the Unspeakables, she saw an opportunity to get what she wanted and arranged for the ritual to leak a minuscule amount of energy, which would vaporize the house entirely, hiding any traces of rituals or corpses.

    As planned, they were betrayed by Pettigrew and then attacked by outside forces. During the attack, Lily killed James, with a ritual knife that she used to suck the remaining life force of her victims in her time as the Red Witch. They were going to die anyway, and this way it benefitted her the most. After years of use, it was charged enough to potentially break a prophecy.

    The ritual worked as planned, except, of course, for Sirius Black's interference. She hadn't expected him to be there, to have even realized that there would be an attack. She also hadn't counted on the weird interaction between his magical release at James' death, and the ritual. She probably should have killed him first, but he helped her prevent the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. from messing with her work. The magic must have had some kind of space-time effect, enough to destabilize the ritual entirely, the release wiping Godric's Hollow from existence, and trapping the both of them in the other side, in her dimension.

    Lily had spent years treating her body and magic for this particular dimension. It was advised to do so as to prevent madness. Apparently, a few dimensions had inhabitants, developed consciousness and used a connection to their realm to possess their 'champion'. Lily was protected in the realm of fire and ash, but Sirius Black was not. He ended up being split between both worlds, in complete agony. She couldn't help but feel vindictive as she heard him constantly scream, being torn apart and put back together again and again for years, maybe even more. Time was weird in her dimension, and she didn't exactly have a way to keep track of it. Still, at least the idiot proved himself to be useful. She allowed him to express himself better in the material plane. He obviously had help from that side, but she could have stopped it if she wanted to, he made such a useful pawn. A physical manifestation meant that he could be hurt on the other side, that he could die, and she postulated that if she killed him at the exact same time, it would create a temporary connection, something that she could use to come back to the material world.

    Being in that dimension was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She was trapped, yes, and yet she was free. She could make anything, everything. It was her realm, her true home. But she was lonely. She wanted to see her son, who had stayed unharmed in the warded area she put him in during the attack.

    Her plan worked and Black's death allowed her to fully follow him to the other side, but she found herself cut off from her home. It felt wrong. She felt weaker and emptier than she ever had before, and she vowed herself that she would redo the ritual, and have her connection to her home once more.

    And she achieved this, at the expense of almost killing her son. She hadn't planned on it. She temporarily worked with Dumbledore because she needed to utilize his broken prophecy and leveraged her assistance to protect her son from the former headmaster. The ritual was supposed to be it. She would have asked Harry to not participate in any of the other tasks, maybe even move back to Britain, hoping that they could reconnect once more. She would have gotten everything she'd ever wanted, her son, her home, forever. She would have convinced him to forge a connection of his own to her dimension as well, and they would be together for all eternity, untouched by Death and the machinations of the Light and Dark. They would have been free.

    Looking back at it, she should have spoken to Harry, even knowing that he'd probably refuse. In the end, they fought, and her son paid the price. When he asked her to take his place, to sacrifice herself in his stead, she was just so frozen. It was like the world took a deep breath and she just couldn't do it. She wanted to, but something primal inside of her just stopped her, and she ran away, knowing that her son would perish for her own mistake.

    The months she spent mourning her decision were the worst in her life. She tried to distract herself by trying to fight Voldemort, by taking her rage and self-loathing and channelling it at the monster in human flesh, while she burned from within. The connected to her dimension was faint, sluggish, and a bit underwhelming. She assumed it was because it was newly formed, that it would grow in time, and she would obliterate Voldemort from existence, but it wasn't the case.

    When Harry returned, which she found out by complete accident while going to see Daphne for one of their lessons, his words cut her. They hurt her in a way that no spell, no curse, had ever done before, but even then, she couldn't be happy to see him alive, to know that she hadn't caused him to die. She didn't know what happened to him in the past few months, but he seemed relatively unhurt.

    And then Harry proved to be his mother's child by being petty enough to blow her connection to bits and destroy her last tether to her home, making her slowly lose it the more she relished it. It was cruel, it was brutal, and it was fitting. However, with her very home being threatened to be destroyed she needed to act. She needed to fix her connection, to patch the hole in her dimension, to stop it from slowly withering into nothing as its energy was swallowed up by the void between worlds.

    Unfortunately, it wasn't working. Whatever Harry had done to her connection, it didn't seem to be stopping. She had no idea how to fix a damaged connection and so, she turned to the largest collection of dimensional magic books she had access to, the Department of Mysteries.

    And after weeks of searching, trying to find any scrap of potentially useful information, the result was very clear. She yelled as she threw another book onto the pile on the other side of the room, "Fucking useless!"

    Severus entered the room hesitantly, "I don't suppose you found a solution yet?"

    "No shit, Severus. Believe me, you'll know if I find a way to fix this mess."

    "I could be a bit more productive if you told me what you're looking for. Other than 'dimensional magic' you didn't explain exactly what you're researching. It will save you enough time if I look for relevant books, not just some obscure field of magic."

    The redhead glared at him, even if he had a point. Very few people knew about Lily's issues, probably just Harry, Daphne, and herself. She didn't see the point in telling Severus, because while he was a brilliant potion master, he knew next to nothing about the magic she was researching. And as devoted as Severus was, she couldn't bring herself to fully trust him, not after Harry used her connection to her dimension as a weakness.

    Thankfully, the potion master raised his hands in surrender, "Alright, alright, fine. But at least try to be discreet, I've gotten more than enough questions from the Unspeakables complaining about you taking over the library."

    Lily groaned. Even after almost a year, Snape still impersonated Saul Croaker. The department was a very nice resource, even if the Severus' position was a bit of a thankless job. He did a good job with it so far, and he had signed off on more than a few operations that ended up with high-profile Death Eaters dead before Voldemort could recruit them once more.

    If only Remus could be this successful. Lily had given him everything he ever asked for. The werewolf race was almost extinct, only the Lycans remaining in Britain, and after the mess with Voldemort was over, she was planning on getting the new and improved Wizengamot to vote in a law giving them the exact same rights as a wizard. It wasn't like they could even be a threat anymore since they couldn't reproduce, but that was far in the future.

    However, Lupin, while fully devoted to her, did not know how to manage his forces. He didn't discipline his fellow Lycans, considering them to be part of the 'pack', which of course, translated to enhanced aggression during missions. A lot of the innocent deaths in the country could be traced down to just him. She was tempted to get rid of him, but he was such a useful pawn.

    Either way, she stopped caring about Britain when she realized that her true home was in danger. She needed to find a way to fix her connection because if she didn't, she would have no choice but to make a new one. And that would take another broken prophecy and another ritual. Considering the mess that happened last time, she wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect. Then again, Greece was beautiful at that time of the year.

    This will require some thinking. She couldn't make a decision like this in a rush, but with the sixth task of the European Tournament approaching, she was quickly running out of time.

    AN: So, I decided to finally make a proper Lily POV. I wanted it to show her as an unreliable narrator, that she was warped by her own thinking, justifying herself on how everything went wrong. I'm not sure if I pulled it off, and I don't mind rewriting it according to your feedback. It was honestly like someone made everything that could go wrong, happened at the same time, in both work and my personal life, and I had to frantically deal with it. At least, things have calmed down, so I can take my time writing chapters a bit more. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Chapter 360: White Pawn

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    12 April 1995, Olympus Academy, Greece

    Cedric Diggory wished that he'd never volunteered to be part of his school's delegation. It was probably one of the worst mistakes he had ever made in his life, and he'd had his share of bad dates and insane girlfriends. The tournament was supposed to be about him showing the world what he could do. He was probably the best student in Hogwarts, bar that freak of nature Potter, of course. Not that it mattered now, the guy was probably dead, killed off by You-Know-Who when he returned. It was a smart thing, too. Potter was a threat. Dumbledore had seen it and had ended up falling from grace.

    Hogwarts had even won the first three tasks, something that baffled most of Europe. He wasn't under the delusion that people expected their school to win. In fact, it was the complete opposite, they wanted to see it officially fall from grace. His father had told him that the ICW wanted to demoralize the country, make them feel lesser and more grateful for their interference and for them 'saving' the country. It was the only reason they even allowed Hogwarts to compete in the tournament, even with the political and economic unrest there.

    All in all, it was supposed to be a slam dunk, except that Potter happened. The first two tasks were won because of him, and the third was obviously a ploy from You-Know-Who to capture Longbottom. This, of course, was followed by a civil war in Britain. His father's letters didn't paint a pretty picture. It was a warzone between dementors and Lycans, some kind of enhanced werewolves. It was a war between You-Know-Who and the Red Witch, some mysterious figure that was said to have fought the Dark Lord to a standstill.

    Cedric was thankful that he remained in the delegation and not stuck in Hogwarts with the rest of the students, hoping the weather the storm. He would have liked if his parents had come with him, but the minister made a decree stopping any wizard from leaving the country without permission, which also happened to be enforced by the ICW.

    He had tried to distract himself with the tournament, try not to think of the danger his parents could live through, without even being able to rely on Hogwarts' wards. Only things have been going even worse for him during the tournament. He expected that with both Longbottom and Potter out of the picture, he could have started to rise as Hogwarts' true champion, that he could finally show the world what he could do, and that it was the start of his story. It was that hope that made him wake up every morning, unafraid for his dad and his mum.

    It was a good distraction, but it did not help in any way. His luck during his tasks was horrible. He ended up being matched with Delacour early on and ended up losing early. Veelas really shouldn't have been allowed to compete. It was completely unfair that they were able to fling fireballs without a wand. He had forgotten that and she pretended to be disarmed before taking him out. It wasn't that much of a big deal since the girl ended up winning the entire tournament, except that Fred and George Weasley of all people ended up doing very well.

    They were strangely efficient with some very weird combination of prank spells that just worked. The crowd definitely loved them, as they shamelessly promoted their idiotic prank shop, they were trying to open back him. They were able to start it with the gold they won in Hogwarts' local tournament the previous year, and they also won a fair bit of gold for being in the final ten competitors in this task.

    They were pretty set, financially at least, and couldn't have been happier for it. Well, at least they were away from their mother who had apparently tried to get them to spend their gold wisely in the previous summer. Then again, the Weasleys did waste a large portion of their lottery money the year before on a trip to Egypt to visit their eldest. It was a nice thing to do, but not when their budget was that miserable.

    To be completely honest, Cedric never really liked them. They were too chaotic for his taste and never took anything seriously, but he wished them the best. With the state of the economy in Britain, very few people could afford to buy joke items, and the war didn't even help them.

    Still, things hadn't gotten really bad until the fifth task. It was a miserable experience all around. For one, David Abbott, a Hufflepuff a year lower than him, asked to compete in the chariot race, having said that he took the enchanting elective in school. Of course, what that meant was that they took a couple of classes before going with the tournament and hadn't bothered to learn anything more. He probably should have asked the Weasley Twins to participate but he felt just a bit jealous of the attention they got with their performance in the previous task. It was petty, but Cedric didn't need to be perfect all the time. Hogwarts didn't obviously score well as they had fewer duellers than the rest of the schools – with half of the delegation being gone.

    Unfortunately, he didn't know that at the time and picked the rest of the team to be able to fight other students in the air. It was probably a mistake, but he chose people who specialized in Charm work to pick up the slack in case something went wrong with the enchantments mid-air. It was a solid plan, only for David Abbott to not be able to enchant shit, and them needing to take turns levitating the stupid thing. They ended up being so far last that they were mocked publicly by the crowds. Even his father started to send him fewer letters, each one having less information than the ones before.

    McGonagall had lost all faith in him with that stunt, and Cedric had hoped to try to regain some of it by doing a good job of representing Hogwarts in the sixth task. There were only ten of them left, after all. There was him, Roger Davies, Lucien Bole, Angelina Johnson, Beatrice Haywood, the Weasley twins, David Abbott, Patricia Stimpson, and Kenneth Towler.

    He expected the headmistress to still pick him, since he was still one of the best students she had in her school, even if he disappointed her many times. The Weasley twins were a given if they accepted that is, plus maybe Bole, Davies or himself. It depended on how many champions there were in the task anyway.

    Of course, that opportunity was snatched by the children, Greengrass and Carmichael, who decided out of the blue to compete. He didn't know why they weren't under Hogwarts' wards, or why they even cared enough to come while there was a war on their doorstep. He didn't know much about them, but they had to have parents and siblings, right?

    Anyway, with the task being announced as a quest for immortality, of all things, and there only four champions per school, he wasn't exactly optimistic about his chances. He imagined McGonagall would choose the Weasley twins, Greengrass, and Carmichael as champions and hope for the best.

    His chances had gotten a lot smaller, and that only left the final task, where the priority would just get to the dozens of younger members of the delegation who still hadn't gotten to compete. He was angry.

    It just wasn't fair. And like he always did; he took out his anger on some invisible targets while calling it 'a training exercise'. He sent a blasting charm at a wall, feeling a bit vindicated, only for a familiar voice to speak up behind him, "That's a lot of anger in a single spell, young Cedric."

    The young Hufflepuff turned in panic, his wand clenched in his hand, before freezing. In front of him was the familiar form of Albus Dumbledore, giving him a mischievous smile. He didn't know how to act around the former headmaster. The man was a hero, at least he used to be before he ended up being outed for trying to kill a student and a million other things, especially with that mess with the fake Grindelwald.

    He stammered in panic, "Headmaster, I mean, Professor. Sorry…"

    "It's fine," the man answered with a kindly voice, "I suppose I'm not your professor anymore, young Cedric. Albus will do, for now."

    "I think I'll just stick to professor. You've been the headmaster for so long, it would be rude not to," Cedric replied before asking, "How have you been?"

    It was a bit of an awkward question. Then again, how would one ask a person how they were handling being banished from their home country after years of service? To be perfectly honest, Cedric had no idea why that was the case.

    Apparently, Dumbledore tried to kill Potter and then kept spouting that Grindelwald had escaped from Nurmengard, before being told in no uncertain terms that he wasn't welcome in Britain anymore. Now that he thought about it, he could see Potter's fingerprints all over it. It was something he would have done, tried to outsmart someone into becoming their own downfall. The whole matter wasn't really investigated properly anyway, and that was suspicious enough.

    The man chuckled in response, "I've been quite well. I haven't travelled around Europe since my youth. It's funny how a single country could tie you down so much. I don't suppose you share that sentiment, considering the state of the room."

    Cedric scratched the back of his head nervously, "Yeah. It's amazing to see all of this, but I have to say that things got a bit frustrating."

    "I suppose that your streak of bad luck would have made anyone feel anxious. You really are a good student and a good wizard. It really is a shame that no one could see that. I suppose you have two other tasks to show the world just that."

    "Not much, with Greengrass and Carmichael competing, I don't think McGonagall will let me compete."

    The man hummed, "I suppose I could help with that slightly. Minerva was a very close friend of mine and I can be very convincing."

    Hope burned in Cedric's chest, "You will?"

    "I don't see why helping a former student of mine display his true potential can be considered a bad thing. Speaking of help, I was wondering if you could do me a favour."

    "A favour?" the young wizard asked apprehensively.

    "Nothing really despicable, believe me. This place, Olympus, is a very dangerous place. Even that is a massive understatement. It's a very old place, steeped in magic and treachery. This entire monument is considered to be a testament to Kronos' sons betraying him, and I have always been worried about the Olympians. They've always been the secretive sort. Giving out a quest for a golden apple for a school competition is too much of a prize without some kind of ulterior motive. Golden Apples are as coveted as Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone, only that they are consumables and more finite than the stone. What I wish for you is to keep an eye on the situation and keep me appraised as I am being summoned back to Britain."

    It made sense, of course; using immortality as a prize for a school tournament was a bit much. But that whole thing felt like a bit like spying for his taste. Before he could think of it, he processed that last part, "You're going back to Britain, sir?"

    "Oh, yes. Cornelius was quite apologetic for the whole misunderstanding a year ago and asked me to help rein in the chaos there. I'd like to think that I'm a powerful wizard and that the entire war wouldn't have happened had I stayed in Britain."

    The prospect of the war ending and his parents being safe was very enticing, but ever the Hufflepuff, he responded, "I'm sorry, sir. I don't think I can do that."

    The man nodded graciously, "I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on everything myself. I'll have to tell Cornelius that I won't come back. What a shame; I was planning on taking a detour in Saint Mungo's and helping heal your mother."

    The younger wizard stiffened at that, "My mother?"

    "Oh yes. She was hurt during an attack, somewhere around the fifth task. It wasn't the Lycans, thankfully, but she was especially susceptible to the dementor's presence, or it activated some kind of curse. I suppose Amos didn't tell you, not wanting you to distract himself. He's been quite distraught, I'm afraid. I had been planning on taking a look at her condition during my trip back to Britain, but it seems like I'll have to cancel the entire thing altogether."

    "I'll do it," he stammered, "I'll do whatever you want, just please save my mum."

    "I'm very glad that you were able to see reason, Mr. Diggory. Now, just to make it official."

    Cedric was barely able to think until the deceptively fast old man suddenly touched his chest with his hand, which glowed a blinding white. Cedric was confused for a fraction of a second until the burning started. It was like liquid lava, spreading all over his body, as if everything inside him was being purified. His vision blurred as pain and heat surged through every nerve, but then, just as suddenly, the agony subsided. Cedric gasped, collapsing to his knees, drenched in sweat. The glow faded from the old man's hand, and Cedric felt... lighter as if a heavy weight he hadn't known he was carrying had been lifted. The despair he had been feeling about his mother's condition, about his father's obvious grief, lessened, slightly. He would ask the man in his next letter, just to make sure that she was alright, that Dumbledore would do as he said and heal her.

    He gasped, "What was that?"

    "Just some insurance, something to help you in your task and keep you safe in the meantime. Good luck, Mr. Diggory."

    And with that, the older man left the room, leaving a sore student who for some reason, felt renewed purpose inside him. It was like any form of indecision was gone and he had this secret guiding hand helping him out. He could see what the next step should be. He had to know why Carmichael and Greengrass chose to compete in this task specifically, especially since the duelling tournament had been obviously the safer choice to compete in, yet they hadn't done so. Perhaps they knew about the prize beforehand?

    There were too many unknowns, but it was a good first avenue to investigate. With renewed purpose, Cedric Diggory returned to the Hogwarts Express. He would not fail Dumbledore, not with the man holding his mother's fate in his hands. Not that he would have denied the man otherwise. After all, it was for the greater good.

    AN: Alright, so I'm making things move a bit and I haven't actively done anything with Dumbledore for a while, and it's time for the main story to pick up. I'm a bit rusty about writing this Dumbledore, so I hope I portrayed him well, and saw how he pressured Cedric quickly into becoming his pawn. To be honest, I made Diggory a bit on the gullible side, then again, I didn't really make a proper portrayal of him, so it's somewhat plausible. Things should start to get a bit more eventful than the last few chapters – which I noticed you mostly didn't like. I get that the pacing was pretty slow since I needed to catch things up a bit after the time skip and make the stakes appropriate. The good news is that I think there's one more chapter of setting the pieces up before the task begins, and things will definitely not be boring there. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Chapter 361: The Slayer's Ascent

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    14 April 1995, Olympus Academy, Greece

    Perseus was used to being worshipped in the halls of his school. He was the scion of the old ones, rumoured descendants of the gods themselves and that alone would have brought him enough prestige to make him part of the upper nobility in magical Greece. Nobility had ceased to be a thing in Europe and in a way, it didn't exactly exist in his country. However, power mattered, and the old families had power to spare.

    He, himself, was probably the most powerful student in school, the Archon of the house of Hera, essentially the most prestigious rank in the school, however, it came with more than its share of responsibilities.

    The houses a student was part of could change in their first three years of schooling. Instead of some weird personality test to sort them, which was weird at age thirteen, they used the nature of their magic mixed with their ambition. Each school had a different ambition and took different classes altogether. For example, the House of Apollo was where the students who showed an aptitude for healing went, the House of Ares tended to have the martially inclined, the House of Athena was where they had their researchers and artificers, and the House of Artemis previously focused on training expert hunters and trackers, honing skills in archery, stealth, and survival in the wilderness. It was a bit of an old-fashioned specialization at this time, so it was changed to train potioneers, herbologists, and beast hunters.

    And of course, there was the house of Hera, where those who were deemed exceptional and suitable for leadership roles went. Students were chosen in their third year of schooling, and sometimes even afterwards, when they showed some kind of exceptional aptitude. Perseus himself spent his first three years in the house of Ares before transitioning into the house of Hera.

    Still, he walked with purpose towards the headmaster's office, hoping to have a talk before the Sixth Task of the European school tournament began. The event was announced a few days prior while he hadn't been present in the school, something that, thinking back now, was probably planned.

    He wasn't exactly thrilled about them joining the tournament. No one really cared about their international relations. They needed no allies as Greece was mighty, and they held Olympus' divine protection. Magical Greece had remained isolated for thousands of years, even when the rest of Europe burned, and there was no reason to bring foreigners to their slice of heaven for just some bragging rights. Hell, even the delegation they sent to compete was mediocre, so winning didn't seem to be the point. Still, even for mediocre students, their being in joint second place was more than disappointing. They brought shame on Olympus, and Perseus fully expected them to be punished for their performance after the tournament ended. Even if it wasn't by the staff, their cohorts would do it for them.

    Still, he simply didn't see why the headmaster entertained the idiots from the ICW who believed they could force them to do anything, but he didn't care for it. And by the Gods, the sixth task, allowing foreigners to enter Mount Olympus, to witness its secrets, and the world to watch as well, what was he thinking?

    Perseus entered the room without even bothering to knock and flung the door open. The room was as he remembered it, surprisingly spartan for a man of the headmaster's station. There were just a few moving statues, a couple of paintings, a wooden desk and some shelves lined with ancient scrolls and dusty tomes. Behind the desk sat the headmaster, his piercing gaze already fixed on Perseus as if he had been expecting him. The air in the room was thick with unspoken tension, and the faint ticking of an ornate clock was the only sound that broke the silence.

    His rant was frozen in his throat when he was actually confronted with the headmaster and the older man spoke up wisely, "You have returned, Perseus."

    "Yes, I have. The threat around Corinth has been neutralized. I traced the attacks back to a nest of Chimeras nearby. I have taken care of it."

    It was a job that was beneath him, but he couldn't help but feel like it was a nice bit of stress relief, from the pressure he felt during his stay in school. He had been responsible for preparing much of the task's elements, including where the vendors would be set up, where the spectators would stay, including their accommodations since the task was expected to take some time while making sure that the school's secret remained intact.

    The logistics had been exhausting, requiring him to oversee security, ensure the safety of both participants and the audience, and coordinate with local officials. Handling the Chimeras had been a welcome distraction from the endless meetings and planning. Now, with the threat neutralized, Perseus could see that it was obviously a ploy from the headmaster to stop him from interfering in the task's announcement. To be fair, he would have been outraged if he had been there.

    The headmaster nodded, "Ah, that is good to hear. Now, I don't believe you came all this way to just speak of your tasks. I suppose I knew that this would be coming. Speak your mind, my son."

    Ah yes, one final detail, the headmaster was Perseus' father. He sometimes forgot that little fact, as the man was often more concerned with running the school than raising him. The younger wizard had been raised entirely by his mother before she fell ill, and he wanted to honour her by becoming the best wizard he could be. The healers had no idea what was wrong with her. There was no sign of a curse or illness. She just got progressively weaker before falling asleep and just never woke up afterwards.

    He knew long before that that he would never be a healer. He was a destroyer, like his namesake, and over the years his foolish attempts at healing proved that his mother was right to name him that. Names did have power, he supposed.

    Still, it had come as a bit of a surprise for the headmaster of Olympus to visit him after she fell into her coma and tell him that he was his father. He'd been a bit glad at first, at the thought of such a prestigious man helping him to achieve his goals, but the man had always been a headmaster first and a father second. He gave Perseus every opportunity he could and helped him achieve greatness, but he did so as a teacher, not a father.

    Perseus stifled years of pent-up anger and spoke up with an even tone, "A golden apple? You're giving an opportunity for foreigners to win a golden apple as if it were some kind of prize for a competition. This was supposed to be a quest, one of the biggest ones in our generation. We should have gone to the Oracle, not made our legacy into some kind of farce."

    Perseus' voice got louder as he kept talking, the rage and betrayal seeping into his skin as he repressed the hurt, he felt. His father knew that a Golden Apple had grown, a chance he could heal his mother, save her from her endless sleep. And yet, the man chose to parade it around as a prize for foreigners instead of issuing a quest that would have his son have a chance at saving his mother.

    "That's enough, boy," the man raised his voice, and a loud crack of thunder almost shook the entire building. There it was, Olympus' headmaster, the strongest Storm Elemental in history, a person who could wipe out a small village in minutes. In Magical Greece, society was built on power, and there was no one stronger than the Storm bringer himself.

    The ground stopped shaking and the noise disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Sometimes, he still marvelled at the man's control over his magic. Perseus hoped he would never develop such a mastery over his magic one day.

    "I did go to the Oracle, boy. This is what was decreed," the man stated calmly, "I knew that you'd object and that I'd be forced to silence you, removing a lot of your authority in the school. I didn't want to do that publicly."

    That little fact just made Perseus freeze in his tracks. That made a disturbing amount of sense. It was obvious that the headmaster wasn't really thrilled with the prospect either, but the words of the Oracle were law. A golden apple was the highest prize any Greek would wish to have. It was a Panacea in a bite and even rumoured to make whoever ate it all completely immortal with a permanent place in Olympus.

    He had his doubts about the immortality part, especially since only one man had ever eaten an entire apple on his own, Heracles, and from the little he could tell, he disappeared after climbing Mount Olympus. There were a few songs of him joining the gods at their table or something, but it was all just supposition at best.

    Still, something was wrong about that, "Then why not just tell me beforehand?"

    "Because you would have tried to oppose it. I didn't wish to risk it, so I removed you from the equation entirely."

    "What about my mother then? Did you not consider that I might have wanted to know that there was a chance that I could heal her, that a Golden Apple has grown in Hera's Garden."

    The man nodded, "I did, but it is the will of the Gods. One does not simply defy them. The Oracle has spoken, and there is no changing that."

    "Then I will join the delegation, I will find the Golden Apple and use it to heal Mother."

    Unexpectantly, the headmaster nodded, "You will. This was why I put your name as one of the Champions representing our school."

    That just took him a bit to register that. He didn't know how to really reply and just said, "Thank you, Father."

    "I know that I have been distant, but I am not cruel. Do me and our school proud, my son."

    Perseus choked up but he steeled himself and asked, "Father, there is also the matter where you're letting strangers enter Mount Olympus, a sacred ground, for a school competition. I don't see this going well, from both our nation and the foreigners. We're both making a mockery of our legacy, of our beliefs, but we are also putting their champions in danger. This is Olympus, father, we cannot protect them there. You and I both know the manner of beasts there, the strange magics and enchantments. The chances they could get hurt, even killed, are quite high. And considering that the other tasks were relatively harmless, the school is going to have a lot of backlashes from both sides."

    His father slumped slightly, "And that will be my burden to bear, but the will of the gods is absolute."

    "Father…" Perseus started.

    He was interrupted by the man's jovial tone, "Don't worry about this old man, I have handled more than my share of political issues, I'll manage. Now, I believe you have a quest to prepare for, and a mother to save. Give me a list of your chosen teammates by the end of the day."

    Perseus nodded and left the room, his mind entirely on the task ahead. He had a few candidates in mind. He wasn't going to take any risks with his mother's health being at stake. Regardless, from what he could see of the other champions' showing so far, he wasn't that concerned with them getting ahead of him. Most were weak, sometimes even a bit clever, but the only one who had stood out was the Potter boy, but he'd disappeared during the Third Task and was assumed to have died.

    It was a shame; he hadn't had a worthy opponent in a while. Then again, Mount Olympus was more than challenging enough, and a quest for a golden apple was bound to be filled with dangers. He did feel bad about his fellow champions. They had no idea what they were in for, probably too blinded by the prize, not that he could blame them. After all, what a prize that was. He hoped that there wouldn't be any deaths, but he wasn't that optimistic. His father was probably going to get a lot of heat from the task, but the man's hands were tied. One could not simply deny the will of the gods.

    Either way, he was going to win this thing. It was his chance at finally saving his mother and he wasn't going to let that go, ever.

    AN: Alright, this is the last chapter before the start of the sixth task. I'm pretty excited about that one. I have something pretty special prepared, and things are about to be eventful after this small streak of fillers. I'm not sure if this chapter did a good job of introducing Perseus and I'm not even sure if it was a good idea of adding a new character like this. This was supposed to happen somewhere in the last two tasks, but since I decided not to do them, I decided to do it like this. He'll be very important in the next task, which is why I introduced him. As usual, I don't mind rewriting it depending on your feedback, but the pace should start to pick up starting with the next chapter, so be prepared for that. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any recommendations.
     
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    • Got some serious King Minos from Kaos vibes from the headmaster there. "It is the will of the gods/oracle" seem to be his overriding impulse.
     
    Chapter 362: The Clock's Strikes Six New
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    • Chapter 362: The Clock's Strikes Six

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    17 April 1995, Olympus Academy, Greece

    Harry stood amongst his fellow Hogwarts Champions feeling oddly apprehensive about the whole task. It was weird, to say the least. He had fought so many other monsters. Hell, he'd just faced Voldemort and made him run away in fear, a wizard whose name people still feared. And yet, there was something haunting about the task before him. Mount Olympus was probably the most magically dense location he'd ever been to, and the way space and time were folded made him truly think that he was stepping into a different world entirely, one with entirely different rules.

    If he had a choice, he wouldn't have chosen this task to compete in, especially how unknown it is, but Daphne was resolute on her quest for the Golden Apple, her quest to save her sister, and that meant that he had to be there to protect her. His cover as Eddie Carmichael had worked so far, but he couldn't exactly have an impressive display of magic while staying hidden, and considering what was at stake, he didn't think his cover would last for long.

    To be fair, it was a shot in the dark at best, which was destroyed the moment the headmaster of Olympus Academy revealed the reward, and with it, got Daphne's undivided attention. The original plan was to stay hidden, get eliminated quickly and disappear afterwards. The disguise, while useful, was mostly to hide from Grindelwald. From what he could gather, the Dark Lord's divination was vision-based, and a disguise would theoretically trick him. Of course, it was enhanced by his connection to his alternate selves, each acting as nodes to make his visions far more powerful than they had any right to be, but they were all still vision-based. Gellert Grindelwald wasn't likely to find out that Harry was still alive if his only interference was in someone else's skin.

    He was still working on a way to neutralize his divination, which was, by far, his most powerful asset, and that alone would be an amazing boon. He'd been making some headway with his analysis of dimensional magic and a bit of Alchemy, but he was still far off pulling it off. His Arcane Hearing wasn't something that could help him with that, as divination doesn't really leave any traces of active magic.

    Still, all things considered, he was prepared to lose his disguise if Daphne became in danger. It wasn't like he did anything illegal. He was a delegate of Hogwarts and was allowed to compete, the rest was just semantics.

    Harry turned towards his fellow champions, trying to do his best not to roll his eyes. For some absurd reason, McGonagall had gotten Diggory, Johnson and their teammates, while talking about the four houses of Hogwarts representing the school or something equally as absurd. They weren't exactly bad mages, but their performances in the tournament were pretty disappointing all around. Honestly, the Weasley Twins would have been a better option, even if they would have probably tried to prank them halfway through the endless mountain.

    Of course, Diggory spoke first, "Alright, this is it. I know that we'll probably go our separate ways later, but for now, let's just stick together. Just because there's one winner, doesn't mean that we have to do this alone. Until we eliminate the other contestants, it'll be better if we stick together."

    The older boy's words made sense if only he wasn't obviously lying through his teeth. If he couldn't really analyse Diggory's emotions with his Arcane Hearing, he would have believed the older boy. Unfortunately, everything about him radiated that he was fully planning on betraying them. There was a certainty in it that worried Harry a bit. Diggory was different. His sound was a bit stricter, and more ordered, and a lot of his self-doubt was gone. Normally, it would be a good thing, a sign of growing up, but something just didn't feel right.

    Johnson spoke up, "Fine. We'll stay together at least until tomorrow morning. We already planned everything until then. Greengrass, is the jumper charged?"

    The Blonde nodded, "Charged and ready. We'll fire it the moment the task starts. They ought to give us a head start."

    As if waiting for the signal, the cannon fired, and the task began, with the champions confidently implementing their plans to get up the mountain. The French champions enchanted some kind of glowing floating horses, which they rode up, the Durmstrang delegation enlarged a pretty large boat, similar to the one they owned, which slowly started to float away. Similarly, the Spanish used flying carpets to fly up, the Nebelheim students some weird small boat each, and the Romans built a chariot that was enchanted to fly.

    They were really taking advantage of the fact that they were allowed to bring whatever enchanted items they wanted, which was why Harry didn't even need to remove the necklace that hid his true appearance. While this did simplify things, it actually wasn't a good sign; it meant that they expected the task to be hard enough that 'cheating' by flying was impossible. Harry already could tell that fundamental magical and physical properties were just different out there. The mountain had no peak, it was infinite, and that meant that going up really didn't help matters. It wasn't exactly a race, but the Greeks must know enough about the mountain to have a better guess than anyone else.

    Most of the schools seemed to have prioritized getting up the mountain as quickly as possible. It was probably a mistake since they needed to conserve their strength. From the sounds of it, the task was probably going to last days at least, and getting tired early was bound to end in disappointment.

    As he expected the Greeks seemed to take a slower pace but were actually far warier than Harry expected. Their leader was by far the more powerful of them, and Harry would have remembered his song, using his Arcane Hearing, so he definitely wasn't part of the delegation. It wasn't exactly a song, but more of the sound of waves crashing into the sand. He was probably a water elemental and a very powerful one at that. He was definitely one to watch. Why the Olympians didn't put their, by far, strongest wizard in the tournament was beyond Harry. They probably thought that it was beneath them, or the boy just needed to stay in the country for some reason. He wasn't judging them, but it was still an odd choice.

    Yet, what was stranger was how the Greek Champions were acting. They had opted to take the slow approach, ready to react to danger at any moment, despite their obvious advantages since they knew far more about the mountain than anyone else.

    The water elemental simply turned towards one of his teammates, who just raised his hand. The ground rumbled and the earth floated from underneath them before quickly rising to the sky and vanishing round the mountain somewhere.

    Taking that as a sign, Daphne activated Diggory and Johnson's plan, which ended up with them being launched upwards into the air. They each summoned their brooms to them and continued flying up.

    The launcher was supposed to be their 'head start', and the broom's manoeuvrability would get them to explore the mountain far more efficiently than making a floating platform. If it had been a normal mountain and the goal was to reach the peak, then this could have been a pretty good plan if they shielded themselves from the weather, that is. But that wasn't exactly the case, space was spread out differently, it was more like a warped sphere, with hundreds of small imperfections.

    Still, Harry didn't exactly have any better plan, since he had no idea what was going on in the mountain. He had tried to use his growing skills in Divinations but ended up with a pretty horrible headache for his efforts. Even his Arcane Hearing didn't really guide him since the entire place seemed to be filled with hundreds of different pieces of magic, which was very hard to differentiate from one another.

    They soared through the thinning clouds on their brooms, the wind whipping past before Harry heard a sharp noise with his Arcane Hearing, which was followed by a strange whistling sound filling the air.

    Harry glanced over his shoulder just as dark, fast-moving shapes shot through the mist behind them.

    "What is that?" Daphne shouted, eyes narrowing as she tried to make out the source of the noise.

    Harry couldn't see whatever it was properly, only knew that there were a lot of them, and they were coming very quickly. He squinted, catching glimpses of wings, but these weren't ordinary birds. The creatures were moving too quickly, their feathers flashing unnaturally in the fading light. Then, one of them swooped by, close enough for him to see—the feathers weren't feathers at all but sharp, metallic blades.

    "Stymphalian Birds!" Harry realized, his voice tight with urgency. "They're made of metal! Get down, now!"

    But it was too late. Before they could descend, the birds attacked in a coordinated strike, bronze feathers raining down like arrows. Their brooms jolted violently as they dodged, but the birds were too fast. One cut across Johnson's broom, causing it to spin out of control. Diggory had gone all one wolf and dodged the feathers pretty impressively, trying to get to the mountain, probably to build some kind of shelter.

    Harry immediately made a shield around Daphne, just in time to stop dozens of metallic feathers banished expertly and conjured a rope that was able to grab Johnson from falling to her death. He animated it to stay connected to his broom and then took out some pieces of metal from his pocket around him that transmuted into spheres, quickly enchanting them to negate the bird's very own magic. Harry dodged as one of the birds tried to ground him and threw the enchanted spheres in one of the birds' mouths.

    When the enchantment activated, the bird just froze entirely, its magic being negated completely, before falling to the ground, probably being pulverized by the impact. Harry threw a few others at the coming birds, which fell to a similar fate. The rest of the birds tried to attack him at once, only for Harry to quickly transmute the spheres, into a giant net charged with his negating magic. He levitated the net and charmed it to be physically unbreakable, turning it into a shield that protected them.

    It was just in time for Daphne's shield to break and he redirected a metallic feather that could have killed her. However, it still hit her broom, destroying it as well. He caught her with another rope, but the weight was a bit much and he had to get down safely.

    They landed in a small flat space near the mountain. There was a cave nearby that they could use as shelter while they took a breather. Looking back, Harry saw that Diggory was landing towards them as well, the coward. Still, since the birds seemed to stop attacking them, Harry made the net stop at the entrance, just in case they attacked once more.

    "Is everyone alright," he spoke.

    They all looked around one another, and Johnson spoke up, "We're all good. That was some quick-thinking Carmichael. Didn't know you had it in you. What was that?"

    Harry decided to bend the truth a bit, "They're rusting balls. I bought them in case the Romans tried to get after us or something. It's supposed to work on all metals, so I took a chance. I'm glad it worked, and after that, I just transfigured a few into a net to protect us."

    It was a bit of a white lie Harry came up with in a vain effort to hide his identity. Instead of casting any form of impressive magic on his own, he would make small balls that he would enchant and say that he bought them before the task. After all, it was an allowed strategy, and it was perfectly possible to portray 'Eddie Carmichael' as the master of 'being prepared for anything'.

    The older girl smiled and was about to say something, only for Daphne to interrupt her response, sounding shaken by the experience, "What the hell was that? We could have died!"

    Diggory nodded, "Yes, something isn't right."

    "You're right. I don't think this task is as safe as the others. I don't even think the Academy have any control over this place. We can't assume that we'll survive things, just for being here."

    And once more, Harry's Arcane Hearing started to warn him once more. Something was waking up inside the cave, something big and pretty magically powerful. This was, of course, followed by a roar, and a wave of fire, coming from the depth towards them. Harry quickly made a hole through the ceiling, and redirected the fire towards it, missing them entirely.

    They ran out of the cave, almost as quickly as it came in, thunder roaring in the background. With a blasting charm, Daphne got the entire place to cave in, hoping that it would stop whatever it was that was coming.

    However, something was wrong. Harry couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something that he was missing. What was it?

    Thunder roared once more. Oh, right, it wasn't raining.

    Harry turned and saw a giant head looking at them, its neck turning around the mountain. It was joined with another and then a third. Each head was gigantic, almost twice the size of the dragons that attacked the express. They were serpentine in nature and Harry quickly recognized what he was facing, a fucking Hydra. It was so big that Harry had assumed that magic was that of the mountain itself. It was coiled around it, like some kind of giant serpent, and even if Harry was facing only three of the heads, there were probably dozens, if not hundreds all over the mountain.

    Diggory sent some spear of light at one of the heads, which splashed and did absolutely nothing. Well, all three heads hissed at once, and their maws opened with lightning crackling inside, ready to be unleashed.

    Well, that explained the sound of thunder. He knew that he was missing something. At least that was over, now he had to deal with the fucking Hydra. They weren't even two hours in. Who the fuck would ever come up with this shit?

    AN: So, finally, I got started with the task. I wanted to make it something a bit different and go a bit deeply with Greek Mythology. I hope this chapter came out like I wanted it to. It was fun writing something a bit more eventful, especially compared to how the past few chapters were a bit on the slow side. I hope you like it and, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Chapter 363: Warren's Peak New
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    • Chapter 363: Warren's Peak

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    17 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece

    Well, that explained the sound of thunder. He knew that he was missing something. At least that was over, now he had to deal with the fucking Hydra. They weren't even two hours in. Who the fuck would ever come up with this shit?

    Harry couldn't help but feel awed at the sheer scale of the beast before him. He knew that he was seeing nothing more than the tip of the iceberg. The creature had to be almost as large as an entire castle for the heads alone to be this large.

    As the three heads opened their maws and released a stream of Lightning, Harry replied by creating bronze spheres that he threw in the air. The moment a few of them fell to the ground, the rest were magnetized and kept spinning very heavily. In the meantime, all three of the heads released their beams of lightning, which converged into one stronger beam coming at their frozen faces.

    The creature probably expected them to be fried in seconds, and yet, Harry's floating circle of bronze metal balls absorbed the impact and seemed to electrify the ones on the floor, acting like a lightning rod pretending to be a shield.

    Nevertheless, the Hydra, not having expected any resistance, kept its beam of lightning coming. A start of a plan started to grow in his head, but he was too preoccupied by Johnson's gasping, "What the fuck was that?"

    "They're balls enchanted to act like lightning rods," he lied, "I thought they might be handy against some Greek mage that specializes in lightning magic. It wasn't really all that expensive, to be honest, and I'm certainly glad I bought them."

    "How many balls do you have?" the girl asked once more.

    "Enough," he replied cheekily.

    Diggory seemingly didn't like what was happening and growled, "I'll take care of that!"

    "No!" Harry explained, only for Diggory to send a spear of light at one of the heads, killing it.

    To be completely honest, Harry didn't think that Diggory had anything in his arsenal capable of hurting a Hydra in any meaningful way. He wasn't being mean, but it was simply the sad truth. He hadn't wanted them to engage the Hydra since his plan was to transfigure the mountain a bit and trick the creature into thinking that it had succeeded in killing them.

    Of course, one of the few times Diggory was able to be competent at something, he screwed it up. Angry, Harry growled at Diggory, "You fucking idiot!"

    "What the fuck, Carmichael?" the older boy exclaimed, "Just help me take out the rest."

    "It's a fucking Hydra. You kill a head, and two others will take its place. It's the most basic thing, you moron."

    Exactly as Harry was describing, the head had visibly started to wither and fade into dust, only for two heads to grow in its place. He turned towards the blanching Diggory, "See, you made it stronger. For fuck's sake Diggory, even children know Herakles' tale of slaying the Hydra. This isn't exactly a secret."

    Deciding that arguing with the moron wasn't a good idea, Harry sent an exploding charm up the mountain and a small avalanche of rocks fell down the mountain, ready to bury them all. Harry then threw some more metal balls, this time enchanted to mess with each of the heads' senses, more akin to a flashbang, and conjured a shield to protect them.

    Thankfully, Daphne understood what he was going for as she grew a wooden dome of reinforced wood from the ground thanks to her family crest, finally letting Harry have a breather. They were immediately covered with rocks, hiding them from their predator.

    Cedric growled, "Great! Now we're trapped and the Hydra is probably out there."

    As if agreeing with him, Harry felt and heard the familiar Hydra's hissing as well as the sound of thunder. The monster was obviously still looking for them and it sounded pissed. He simply gave the older boy a blank look, "I'm sorry, I was too busy trying to keep us alive."

    Johnson spoke up, "That's enough we need to get out of here and quickly, especially before the Hydra finds us."

    Harry nodded and decided to walk around their wooden dome, trying to think. He wasn't that worried. In the worst case, he'd reveal himself and portal them all to safety, or even just warp space to take them away. He could theoretically fight the thing, but he didn't know its magical properties. There were too many unknowns. This was a creature belonging to another dimension entirely and everything had different rules there.

    No, there had to be another way other than just brute force. There was something he was missing, something very important. It was at the edge of his mind, just in the corner, hidden in plain sight. They were climbing a mountain that wasn't a mountain. Legends of Olympus spoke of a palace above the clouds for the gods, of the gardens of Hera. That was impossible there considering the rocky terrain.

    Unless…

    Oh, this is brilliant. Whoever designed this place had to have been a genius because the entire thing was staring him in the face. The way space is warped, it wasn't random. It was a maze, and even the mountain's surface was nothing more than a single road, a single stage. They needed to get in, to find one of the anomalies he kept sensing. It was so discreet, like a small puzzle and Harry decided to trace it back to a certain direction.

    Harry chose the destination and murmured, "Point me!"

    His wand levitated towards the direction of the breach he sensed, and he spoke up to Daphne, "Hey, can you move the dome in that direction."

    She nodded and the plants slowly moved away. Harry helped her by subtly moving the rocks to make things easier. However, this seemed to have cost them the chance to hold their presence. They arrived quickly to where Harry sensed the entrance there and he saw a carven in delta symbol.

    Suddenly, Daphne yelped, "It found us. Whatever you're trying to do, you better do it quickly."

    Harry nodded and used his Arcane Hearing to trace back the spell. It was waiting for an activation, some kind of weird password, but Harry didn't have the time to solve whatever riddle it was.

    The plants were withering from the onslaught of lightning coming at them, and Harry decided to just say fuck it and found the trigger to activate the symbol. The wall seemed to melt away as if it was made of water, and Harry stepped in, summoning his fellow Hogwarts champions with him. They entered with a yelp and Harry deactivated the entrance, separating them fully from the Hydra.

    They all breathed a sigh of relief when the assault stopped, and they all looked at Harry with a flabbergasted expression on their faces. Diggory was the one who spoke up, "How the fuck did you do that, Carmichael?"

    "There was a runic puzzle. I used to do them with my parents when we were young, and I did specialize in Greek runes in my Ancient Runes class. It was pretty tricky, especially with the Hydra, but I assumed it was important. Thankfully, it worked out."

    "Worked out?" Diggory snarled, "You took a gamble and we're lucky it worked out. It could have been nothing!"

    To be entirely fair to the boy, Harry hadn't told him about sensing space disturbances around the rune and bypassed the puzzle entirely. It was pretty safe to assume that he had risked their hideout, even if they were probably going to be caught soon anyway, to take some chance.

    Harry nodded, "Sure, but I don't think we had any other plan in place. I'm trying not to be insensitive, but did anyone else have any plans other than us waiting for our deaths?"

    They all shuffled awkwardly. Daphne was the only one who knew what he was capable of and had faith that he protected her and would act as her safety net. The others did not have that privilege and slowly started to realize how close they were to dying.

    Noticing their silence, he continued, "So, please, Diggory, I took a gamble because there was nothing else. I didn't think that all we had to do was climb a mountain. The Golden Apple is rumoured to grow in Hera's Garden, and a mountain can in no condition be called a garden, especially not something this rocky, so there had to be some kind of secret, and that the key was the puzzle."

    "And you didn't think to say anything?" the older boy growled.

    "The last time I waited to ask, you destroyed my plan by killing the Hydra's head. I wanted us to pretend to have died and hide inside the mountain with some transfiguration, but you ended up making it mad. With our lives on the line, I decided to be decisive."

    Johnson could obviously see that Diggory was quickly getting angrier at being outshone and decided to intervene, "Come on, Cedric, the guy did well. We were dealing with a fucking Hydra. Who the fuck even puts a Hydra in a fucking tournament? And those birds? We could have easily been killed!"

    Daphne quietly muttered in response, "I don't think anyone put them in there. I think it's what's normally in Mount Olympus. I don't think the Greeks are taking our safety into account with this. There's something really odd about that."

    "They can't have been seriously trying to kill us, right?" the Gryffindor spoke up, looking scared.

    "I don't think so," Harry commented, "I think they just didn't care enough to put safety measures, or more like can't put any. This is a quest, not a competition, not for them at least. Do you remember the old tales of Greek heroes? They weren't exactly given safety nets either. These challenges, they weren't made to be fair; heroes either succeeded or they didn't make it back."

    Cedric's frustration simmered, but Johnson's intervention had softened the tension. "So, what are you saying, Carmichael? We're just supposed to hope for the best?"

    "No," Harry replied, "we're supposed to be clever. Greek heroes didn't win because they were stronger or faster—they won because they outsmarted the gods, the monsters, and the challenges. Like I said, we need to stop thinking of this as a competition and more like a quest. It's not about winning a tournament; it's about proving ourselves against the mountain. That's what a quest for immortality is supposed to be like."

    Cedric finally sighed, some of the anger draining from his face. "Fine. But next time, just tell us what you're planning before you throw us into the fire."

    Harry gave a small, apologetic shrug. "If we make it through this, I'll be sure to ask for a group vote next time."

    The older boy suddenly became serious, "Now, that's enough slacking off, we're in the mountain, presumably the next step. Hopefully, we're ahead of everyone else, but we can assume that the Greeks already knew that – it's their school after all – so we need to step up our pace and find a way through. What is this place, anyway?"

    They were in a relatively narrow stone pathway that seemed to twist and turn. There weren't any sources of light, but they could see, nonetheless. As his first instinct, Harry used his Arcane Hearing to analyse the magic further and what he heard was nothing more than awe-inspiring. He could hear the magic shifting, spreading like some kind of spider's web, space and time morphing into knots and shifting every few seconds. The intricacy of it all inspired him.

    Harry's breath caught as the realization hit him. The complexity of the magic, the way space bent and twisted—it wasn't just a passage or some enchanted tunnel. There was only one thing in all of mythology that could be this complex, this impossibly intricate.

    "We're in the Labyrinth," he muttered, his voice tinged with both awe and apprehension. "The one built by Daedalus."

    AN: I know some of you wanted to see the Harry vs Hydra fight. I had the entire thing ready, and believe me, it was really fun, but with the golden apple being the goal, I decided that Harry revealing himself so early was going to mess up a few of my plans for the rest of the arc. Don't worry, there is a place for the actual fight later, so consider this to be a little teaser of what's to come. Anyway, I loved writing this chapter and I hope it came out like I wanted it to. So, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Chapter 364: Into the Maze New
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    • Chapter 364: Into the Maze

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    17 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece

    Harry's breath caught as the realization hit him. The complexity of the magic, the way space bent and twisted—it wasn't just a passage or some enchanted tunnel. There was only one thing in all of mythology that could be this complex, this impossibly intricate. "We're in the Labyrinth," he muttered, his voice tinged with both awe and apprehension. "The one built by Daedalus."

    Harry wasn't really one to be surprised. He'd been through enough bullshit that he learned to just go with the flow, but other than the fucking World Serpent, this had to be the most bullshit thing to ever happen to him. To think he only did it on a whim, hoping to help Daphne be done with the tournament fully, deciding that it was better to just go away and not deal with the inevitable fallout of whatever Dumbledore and Grindelwald were planning.

    It wasn't really a good plan, now that he thought about it. Harry had decided to enter out of desperation and not as a calculated move, and now he was stuck in whatever hell this place was. To be fair, he had no idea what the fuck the Olympus Academy was thinking to bring them to this place. It was beyond dangerous, and he fully expected there to be causalities for other schools. The average student wasn't used to living without safety nets and it showed. Diggory and Johnson would have died easily in this task, and if he had been completely honest, Daphne relied a bit much on him.

    She was a bit less prepared than she used to be before. Oh, they had trained like maniacs, hidden from sight, to shake off whatever rust she accumulated during her mourning, and while there was some improvement there, it was less than Harry expected. To be fair, he was fully committed to saving her, and even making sure she got that Golden Apple for her sister. He would talk to her about this later when they were in private and the world wasn't watching. Hopefully, her sister would be healed by then and she'll be more open to that conversation.

    Speaking of Daphne, Harry could see her clenching her fist, obviously irritated. He could see why; he had to admit that Diggory and Johnson's arguing was quickly getting on his nerves as well.

    "I can't see why we can't follow my lead," Diggory stated.

    "Your lead?" Johnson snickered, mockingly, "Your lead almost got us all killed with the Hydra. For fuck's sake, Diggory, you need to accept that this 'good guy' routine, while charming for the girls in school, doesn't actually work in the real world."

    "Like you're any better," the Hufflepuff stated and probably continued to whine about something else. Harry was doing his best to tune them out, trying to figure out the logic behind the maze's movement. Very few things in life were truly random, and there had to be some logic to how everything kept getting shifted around, some kind of pattern. His thoughts turned to his fellow champions and he couldn't help but feel bad for them.

    Apart from the Greeks, he didn't think any of them were even aware that there weren't any safety nets in the task. Each task had started with some dramatic speech about how 'dangerous' they were, and the delegates probably thought that this would be no different. That was honestly the biggest crime in Harry's eyes, the fact that they weren't transparent about the task. There was a difference between doing something while knowing that it presented an active danger to you and doing it unaware of any serious consequences that might occur. It wasn't like people weren't going to sign up. A golden apple was an insane prize, but there would have been fewer useless deaths.

    There would be a reckoning for this. The ICW was definitely not going to let this pass, especially with a lot of dead underaged wizards and witches.

    All of that aside, the idea of a genuine challenge, was something that excited Harry. Sure, he planned to make sure that his teammates stayed alive, but there was something thrilling about things not being easy. The Hydra alone would have been enough. It was a frustrating creature to fight, given its regeneration, and finding a way to negate it was more than fun. There was something in him that wanted to go all out, to actually fight it, but he repressed it in favour of staying hidden. It was the logical decision, but Harry missed being challenged.

    The other tasks were just so… easy. He could have won them with a swipe of his wand if he took it seriously. It was why he always relied on trickery and deceit. He turned these into an intellectual challenge instead, and while that did scratch that itch, it was just different than just fighting with everything he had.

    He felt fidgety like he was itching for a fight, before his eyes widened in alarm. He channelled his crest, and the feeling stopped entirely. It was subtle, so subtle that Harry didn't even feel or hear it. The Labyrinth was pushing them towards conflict, trying to get them to act recklessly. It was so dangerous and so subtle. Harry quickly used his Arcane Hearing to understand its effect and even then, it was far from obvious.

    It was so subtle, like a small tune, hidden behind an orchestra of magic and warped space, a very small spell whose main feature was to be accumulated, for the effect to grow with exposure. It was a nasty thing and something that gave Harry ideas to implement other types of subtle attacks. It was subtle enough to bypass the inherent protections of his family crest, even if he and Daphne were obviously more resistant, as they were not at each other's throats like Johnson and Diggory were. Still, Daphne was obviously affected, considering how she was clenching her fists, a mark that she was getting frustrated. Deciding that he had enough, Harry made some new metallic spheres that he enchanted to negate the spell whenever it was near them.

    When he activated it, the difference was very noticeable, and they were all drained of energy. Daphne gasped, "What was that?"

    "A very subtle curse. It was supposed to make us violent and reckless."

    Diggory gave Harry a dirty look, "Seriously? And you didn't think to tell us?"

    Harry simply shrugged, "I was waiting for the spheres to charge up to negate the spell. I got one for everyone in case we got separated," he threw each of them a metallic ball, "These should ward off the effects. I have to say, given the legends of the Labyrinth, I didn't expect our first challenge to be something like this. Daedalus, in the legend, was quite proud of his intelligence. It's quite odd to rob his challengers of their intelligence before even seeing any of the challenges."

    "Daedalus," Johnson reacted, "You said this name before, I think it was familiar."

    Daphne nodded. "Yeah, Daedalus. He was a genius inventor in Greek mythology—built the Labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. King Minos of Crete wanted the Minotaur locked away in a maze so no one could escape, and Daedalus made it happen. But here's the thing, he got trapped there too. Minos locked him and his son, Icarus, up because he didn't want anyone else to know about the Labyrinth. At least, that's how the legends went, I think."

    "So, it's a fancy maze and we just have to fight another Minotaur. At least the worst was behind us," Diggory stated.

    Harry shook his head, "I don't think so. This place is a lot more dangerous than it looks. And let's not forget about the Hydra outside. We need to be very careful."

    Without looking back at them, Harry decided to properly analyse the maze's structure. To say that it was a work of art would have been an understatement. It was obviously designed as a prison of some sort, considering how the entire space was warped so intricately. It didn't have any edges, no beginning or end, but there were obviously passages to somewhere outside, and Harry guessed that the Golden Apple had to be on the other side of one.

    However, considering the countless forms of ambient magic involved, the Labyrinth had obviously started to act independently. Harry waited for the Labyrinth to shift, trying to listen to it with his Arcane Hearing. It was the most important thing to do. Afterwards, with some good control over the environment, he could finally find one of the exits, or maybe explore it a bit more, to find a clue to where the famed apple was.

    Unfortunately, as if the maze itself knew what he was trying to do, the entire thing remained unchanged. He was tempted to groan in disappointment until he felt something coming, something big and very fast.

    He opened his eyes and yelled at them, "We need to run, now!"

    Harry had barely finished talking when something immense came at them. They were able to dodge, but with some kind of agility that was honestly unnatural for the creature's size, it turned towards them.

    Diggory chuckled, "It's just a minotaur, nothing really serious."

    He was right, in a way, the creature was a Minotaur. Given its bull-like face, and huge, curved horns, it was the right conclusion to make. However, this was unlike any other Minotaur they had ever seen. It was far larger, for one, and the fire and shadow that trailed its every move were not one to be found in normal Minotaurs.

    Of course, Diggory decided to conjure some kind of light orb and send it flying at the creature. Once more, Harry couldn't help but be slightly worried about Diggory's behaviour and his magic. He never really paid attention to the older wizard; he was sort of irrelevant, a boy who would peak in school, before settling down as an employee in the ministry for the rest of his life, like many before him. But that confidence, well, that arrogance, wasn't something that he remembered from the boy before. He could have blamed it on the compulsion, but it was still there, even if he was less subdued. Hell, even his magic was relatively odd. It was a variation of hard-light construct, but it was too ordered, too rigid.

    Harry could see Dumbledore's fingerprint all over it and was planning on keeping a close eye on Diggory, just in case he betrayed them. Honestly, Dumbledore could go fuck himself. The former headmaster was probably more focused on breaking some kind of prophecy than some miracle cure. Even if he was, trusting Diggory of all people to take the apple was a foolish endeavour. Even with his new magic, the boy would be defeated in seconds by the Greek water elemental. And Harry, himself, was going to give that apple to Daphne, if only to release the weight that she's been carrying all her life, from her shoulders.

    As for the Minotaur, when the light faded from their sight, his skin had reddened slightly, as if sunburnt, and he had been sent back about a foot. Diggory just stared at the creature in pure disbelief, and Harry used that to throw a couple of exploding metallic balls at the Minotaur's eyes, before conjuring a hole in front of it. Temporarily blind, the creature fell in it and Harry nodded at Daphne who conjured thousands of vines that bound it.

    It wouldn't hold for long, so Harry cast an exploding charm at the horn, breaking it before Daphne conjured another vine, which grabbed it and impaled the monster in its chest. The monster looked at them, confused, before slowly fading into golden light.

    With his resurrection stone, Harry could tell that the creature's soul hadn't moved on. It had simply gone elsewhere, still bound to the Labyrinth. That had to be the most terrifying thing he ever experienced, and that alone made him all the more insistent on making sure everyone was alone. People couldn't escape the Labyrinth, even in Death.

    Diggory gasped in exertion, "What the fuck was that? I fought a Minotaur before, it wasn't anything like it."

    "You fought a Minotaur, this is the Minotaur, the original, you might say. I think the others were man-made creatures, hoping to mimic the legend with Alchemy and Blood Magic. This thing was different, it was… more."

    "And the horn?"

    "The Greek hero Perseus killed it with its horn in the legends. I noticed that its magical and physical resistance were insane, but that it was tied to its skin. The horn was more vulnerable and it's a common theme for magical creatures in general being vulnerable to their own personal magic. The protection thinks that it's their own and doesn't try to negate it. But we need to get out of here and quickly."

    "And do what, exactly?" Diggory sneered, "We don't even know where the Apple is."

    Harry shook his head in disappointment and looked away. He was trying to find an exit, any exit really. Just staying in the Labyrinth felt wrong given the obvious consequences of dying there. It was a fate that he wouldn't wish on anyone.

    He continued hearing the Labyrinth's magic with his Arcane Hearing, trying to find an exit. It was like trying to hear a single conversation that was far away in a loud and full concert. The mental strain was immense, but he was convinced that he had to succeed.

    But he was close, he felt he was. There was something there on the edge of his perception, something very hidden and sneaky, something that acted like a space-time gate. It was probably the way out of the maze and into the next challenge that they had to go through to get to Hera's Garden.

    Just as he was about the celebrate, the Labyrinth shifted once more, as if it knew that someone had solved its mystery and was outraged at the thought. But in a way, even if he wasn't getting out, he did get a very nice advantage at that. He had heard how the maze shifted with his Arcane Hearing and could shift it back to the exit.

    Of course, that was when a giant beast of fire and ash appeared from behind the section of the wall that had disappeared with the shift. The creature emerged, a towering fusion of rage and flame, with serpentine tails writhing at its back, each one snapping and spitting embers into the air. Its body was wrapped in scales that glowed like molten rock, cracked and pulsing with fiery veins, while shadows of ash swirled around it in a thick haze. Two twisted horns jutted from its head, reminiscent of a demonic crown, and its eyes burned with an unnatural, smouldering light. In one hand, it held a massive, barbed whip, glowing red-hot as it uncoiled and lashed the air with a crack that echoed through the labyrinth.

    "What the fuck is that?" Johnson muttered.

    Diggory, looking pale, responded, "I don't know, but good luck with that."

    They had barely any time to respond before Diggory conjured some kind of banishing light, that blinded them all and pushed them, including the beast, back. Harry was able to shield himself and watched as the foolish boy ran away further into the Labyrinth, unknowing that he had sealed his fate. Harry let him, feeling that Dumbledore's pawn being away from him was probably a good thing. He had wanted to keep the boy safe, to make sure his soul wouldn't be bound to this place in Death, but Diggory did try to betray them.

    Instead, he turned walked up to the monster of ash and fire and pointed his wand at it, noticing the creature's obviously amused gaze. There was an intelligence there that wasn't in any other magical creature he had seen before. It knew what it was doing and obviously liked seeing them suffering. It wasn't just some foolish creature he could easily trick either. It was powerful, and it knew that.

    Still, Harry stood there, in front of both Daphne and Johnson and spoke in a very clear and even voice, "We only wish to leave this place. There is no need for us to fight."

    The creature's amusement obviously spiked and it conjured a ball of fire and threw it at them. With a wave of his wand, Harry negated it entirely, "So, be it."

    AN: Not sure about this chapter, to be honest. I think I made the mental compulsion section at the start a bit too long, but I think I made up for it by picking up the pace with the fights afterwards. I don't know. I feel like there's something missing, I guess. Still, I had a blast writing this and, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • I don't really have any advice, but I do think that the last few chapters have been not your best work. There're not bad or anything. Just kind of "Alright"
     
    Just casually throw a balrog into a sentient labyrinth that can capture souls. Nothing can possibly go wrong
     
    Chapter 365: The Fiery Pit New
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    • Chapter 365: The Fiery Pit

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    17 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece

    Still, Harry stood there, in front of both Daphne and Johnson and spoke in a very clear and even voice, "We only wish to leave this place. There is no need for us to fight." The creature's amusement obviously spiked and it conjured a ball of fire and threw it at them. With a wave of his wand, Harry negated it entirely, "So, be it."

    The monster leapt forward with remarkable speed, its fiery whip making them all duck. Harry countered by making everyone duck and threw a metallic sphere that dropped the temperature of everything it touched. The ball seemingly slowed it down for a fraction of a second, countering its heat, only to be overwhelmed immediately by the sheer heat, and the creature sent a beam of fire at them, which Harry shielded against.

    Using his Arcane Hearing, he felt the creature run at them, probably hoping to physically overwhelm the shield. Instead, Harry cast an illusion, making them look frozen, while they sneakily walked by the sides. The creature leapt at the shield charm, breaking it, only to phase through their forms and be impaled by the invisible metallic spikes that Harry had conjured seconds prior.

    Harry hoped that would have been it, only for the creature's tails to immediately turn towards them and try to impale them with some kind of stingers that appeared made of ash. Harry could swear those things weren't there before, but he didn't have time to process that, as he simply shielded against them, not confident that Johnson and Daphne would be able to dodge them appropriately.

    While Johnson stood there, frozen, Daphne, thankfully, reacted to the danger by conjuring hundreds of vines that bound the impaled creatures even further, probably hoping to finish it off somehow. As the tails tried to kill them once more, somehow stretching their size as they tried to reach them, Harry ducked behind one of them and conjured a steel blade that cut off the offending limb.

    The creature growled in pain and released a massive shockwave of fire and ash, which Harry was barely able to shield against yet was still blind to it. When the dust and ash settled down, Harry saw the monster just turn towards them slowly, its previously injured tail looking intact, and the holes in its chest slowly closing off.

    There was a rumbling sound, a bit like it was amused. The creature's rumbling grew louder, echoing off the labyrinth's walls like distant thunder. Its molten eyes fixed on Harry, a sinister grin forming as flames licked around its jagged teeth.

    Harry's mind raced. Hiding his capabilities was a bit of a crutch, one that he decided to disregard entirely. This was getting too serious to mess around, especially with Daphne and Johnson there, with a high risk of getting hurt. He didn't particularly like Johnson, nor did he know her, really, bar her role in Gryffindor's Quidditch team, but she didn't deserve to die for his recklessness, her soul forever bound to this cursed place.

    A plan started to grow in his mind, however, before he had the time to relay it to his teammates, the creature slammed its fiery whip into the ground, sending a fissure of flame racing toward them. "Move!" Harry shouted, grabbing both of them as they narrowly dodged the searing heat.

    "I have a plan! Daphne, try to keep it in place. Johnson, cover me!"

    They barely had any time to respond when he shielded them from another barrage of fire, which splashed harmlessly through his shield. The creature seemed to want to overwhelm their shields once more, only for Daphne to release a beam of ice at the leaping demon.

    That seemed to take it off-guard, at least not expecting the impact, as it froze in its tracks. Daphne then pressed her arms into the ground, making an entire forest appear from the ground, its strong roots, binding the creature next time. Johnson was doing her best to try to hit the monster's eyes, hoping to blind it.

    Out of sheer physical might, the creature pushed through the roots and vines binding it, only for five more to appear the moment one of them was burned off. When Johnson hit the creature's eye with a dark cutting charm, the beast roared in fury, but this was followed by a few of Daphne's vines being overtaken by shadows and impaling it.

    The obviously cursed vines kept it bound and furrowed into the ground. The creature was about to reply, only for Daphne to cut her palm and touch her plants with her bloody hands. The protections strengthened and she yelled, "I can't do this for long."

    Harry didn't even have time to yell anything back, as the beast released another shockwave of fire and ash, rendering their corridor into nothing more than a small hellscape. Both Daphne and Johnson were thrown back by the impact, and the beast ran to finish them off, only for Harry to finally release his spell.

    A wave of cold mist appeared from his wand, freezing everything in sight. The demonic creature walked into it, expecting to bypass it easily as it had the previous attacks, only to start freezing with every step it took.

    It was an improvement on his 'Ice Age' spell, the one he had used on Sirius Black. It sucked away any form of heat, the very movements of the molecules, leaving only the coldness and death. Instead of Harry being forced to stay in a single place, Harry bound the spell into a physical manifestation – the mist – which he was able to do thanks to his magic had gotten stronger since then.

    Harry watched as the fearsome creature froze and conjured a black raven made of shadows that flew towards the beast, shattering it into thousands of small fragments.

    "Is it gone?" Johnson asked.

    Harry shook his head, "I don't think so. This place has different rules. Remember what happened to the Minotaur when it died, how it turned into golden dust? This didn't happen here."

    As if it were listening to him, the cloud of ash started to rise before them, slowly forming back into the monster, letting out bursts of fire as it reassembled itself. The creature's eyes burned hotter than before, its gaze locking onto Harry with renewed fury.

    Harry yelled at them, "Run!"

    They did just that, with the monster becoming more whole with every step it took. It was slow but there was a menacing undertone to him. Then in the middle of their run, Harry stopped and turned back towards the incoming monster. Daphne noticed it and exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

    "Finishing the plan!"

    Her eyes widened and she just nodded. Johnson just remained stood there, frozen in fright, "Plan? What plan? The fucking plan failed, you idiots! We need to run!"

    Harry gave her a nonchalant response, "You really think that destroying a beast capable of regeneration was the plan? No, this was always where I was heading."

    The monster's pace increased with every step he took. As it got closer and closer, it readied its fiery whip, and was about to use it, only for Harry to wave his wand and the Labyrinth to shift once more. Harry could hear the beast's outrage at being denied its prey. He could feel everything heat up at the monster's sheer anger and hate.

    The three of them released a sigh of relief and Harry gave Johnson a smug grin, "Now, that was the plan! What do you think?"

    "You could have said something," she complained without any heat in her voice.

    "It was smarter than it let on. There's something odd with it, something that I haven't seen in any magical creature before."

    "The regeneration," Daphne asked.

    "No, I've seen something like it once, but no. There's something I can't quite put my finger on."

    The older witch shook her head, "Well, I'm not interested in a Magical Creature's lesson right now. We need to get out of here. You can control the maze, right?"

    Harry shook his head, "Control is a very strong word. I learned how to activate its shifting, but any sort of precise control is beyond me. But you're right, we do need to get out of here."

    Suddenly, a whip of fire appeared out of nowhere. It was so quick that Harry didn't even hear it with his Arcane Hearing. Surprised, Harry looked at its source and saw a small hole in the Labyrinth's wall. Daphne yelled, "Harry!"

    He turned towards her and saw the severe gash on Johnson's chest. She had jumped in front of them, out of reflex more than anything and had paid the price for it. Half of her chest was burnt off and the other was flowing with blood. Harry turned towards Daphne and said, "Stabilize her. I'll hold the beast off."

    The Labyrinth was trying to shift once more, to widen the gap before it, but Harry reactivated it, doing his best to reverse it. It was akin to a tug of war, and Harry was obviously losing. With how close they were to one another; he could hear the beast's smugness in its song with his Arcane Hearing. It had obviously learned to control the maze, and it was much more refined than Harry's own. To be fair, Harry was barely there for a couple of hours, while the beast, given its regeneration, had to have lived in this place for at least centuries, and had much more time to refine its control.

    Johnson's condition was his fault. He tried to be clever and never expected the beast to be able to have any sort of control over the Labyrinth. He thought he was smart by using the Labyrinth against it, but it had backfired massively.

    As Harry was doing his best to stop the beast from coming, Daphne yelled out, "It's not working. The wound is cursed. I can't heal her without the proper equipment."

    Harry wasn't under any illusion that he could surpass Daphne in healing and felt his heart drop at that. The older witch, however, seemed to find it amusing, "Harry Potter! I should have known. Carmichael was never this competent. I have to say, you had me with the whole enchanted metal balls schtick."

    "Well, you got me. I've always thought there was more to you than Quidditch Johnson."

    The girl chuckled at that and Harry turned towards Daphne who shook her head. The girl was dying, and there was nothing either of them could do about it. No, Harry could make sure that she wouldn't die in this place, that her soul wouldn't be trapped in this cursed maze.

    He suddenly shifted his attention from trying to stop the monster from entering to trying to find any way out. Trying to do both was giving him a headache, especially given how much the maze kept shifting back and forth.

    Suddenly, he found it, a way out, and an activation sequence that could work. He didn't even have time to verify this, and changed his activation of the Labyrinth, before banishing Johnson, constricting space to make her hit the exit immediately. A quick spell, slowed down time for her body, giving her more time in case she was rescued but Harry wasn't hopeful for it. She was swallowed by a white light, which was quickly closed off as the beast changed the Labyrinth once more.

    If it had been smug before, now it was angry. It had obviously not wanted any of them to escape the Labyrinth, and Harry walked fearlessly towards its towering form and spoke up, "I know what you are. It took me a while to realize it, but I can see it now. You were human once, weren't you? So were most of the monsters in this place. Because this place was never about being a maze, it was a prison. You all got stuck here, in this Labyrinth, and fell to the compulsion. You got more violent, angrier, more monstrous, slowly but surely, until you inevitably died. At that time, you had to have been too feral to even care about escaping, or leaving the maze and just died due to some reckless or stupid decision. But your soul didn't move on, it was reborn here, in this place, with a monstrous body. Every time you died, you came back, stronger, better."

    The beast tried to use its whip to hit Harry, only for it to freeze, the space between it and Harry being enlarged massively, making it appear as if it was frozen in time.

    Instead, Harry continued, "You're probably one of oldest ones here, and until you were granted enough regeneration to resist the compulsion, to become essentially immortal. You stopped being feral and you learned instead. You figured out how to control the Labyrinth and that meant that you had more than enough time to escape, but you didn't want to escape, did you? You liked being here, to sadistically punish those who come before the gods."

    Harry shielded against a jet of fire coming at way and ducked as the monster tried to punch him. He pointed his wand at the monster, bypassing any of his resistance, and banishing it far away in the corridor.

    The beast got up as Harry slowly walked towards it, "But you see, this is where you made a mistake. I was perfectly willing to let you continue whatever you were doing. Live and let live and all this crap. But you just had to kill someone I liked. Well, I mostly tolerated her. She was a good person, and she didn't really annoy me. Believe me, that's rare, at least for me. And well, the most important thing is that the gloves are off."

    The beast ran at Harry before being lifted in the air, gravity itself pressuring it outwards, before suddenly imploding and being turned to ash once more. Only, this time, Harry raised his hand, and the ashes gathered into a sphere instead. He could feel the beast resisting his manipulation, but Harry overwhelmed it all the same, "Remember this name, Harry Potter. This is the name of the person who defeated you, and imprisoned you in your own body, unable to move, to do anything really. When you slowly lose your reasoning, I want this to be the last detail remaining in your soul before you succumb to your madness. Farewell, Beast, for no one will ever see you again."

    Harry alchemically controlled the ball of ash and made the ball of ash the beast's permanent form in exchange for cannibalizing the monster's fire magic. With a wave of his wand, Harry made a hole in the ground and put the ball inside. He then filled it up once more, before turning back to his flabbergasted girlfriend, "Let's go."

    Before she said anything, Harry controlled the Labyrinth once more, found another exit and stretched space between them. Harry walked forward into the glowing gate, Daphne following silently behind him.

    AN: This chapter was pretty difficult to write, even if I had a blast doing it. The beast's name will be revealed in a later chapter, and it will be recognizable, so that's a small hint. Anyway, I rewrote this three times, trying to get it just right. I don't know if I pulled it off, so, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • TFTC

    I really enjoy this story, but honestly, this chapter could use a bit of polishing. Apologies if any of this offends, trying to provide constructive criticism:

    athassprkr said:
    its fiery whip making them all duck. Harry countered by making everyone duck
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    athassprkr said:
    Instead, Harry cast an illusion, making them look frozen, while they sneakily walked by the sides.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Is Harry using Imperio here? I don't understand how else he would have had people duck and then silently communicate that they should sneak away from illusions he cast/coordinate with someone he has very little experience working with...

    Also, I don't know that Daphne's plant magic was ever said to be naturally resistant to magic/fire. Maybe put something in about how she accounted for the fact that the monster was on fire.

    Finally, the ending seems sudden...he struggled against the beast until someone died then Harry immediately realized how he could win and killed the monster like it was no issue.
     
    I've read up to the sorting, and so far the story seems incredibly rote and bland, without anything particularly noteworthy to help it stand out, all conveyed through equally drab prose. Does it improve in any category, or am I wasting my time?
     
    Chapter 366: Ocean's Song New
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    • Chapter 366: Ocean's Song

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    17 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece

    Perseus rolled his eyes as he cut through his seventh Harpy with a simple jet of water, before conjuring a wave from thin air and pushing through the rest of the monsters coming at him. He conjured spears of water, impaling them easily into the single eyes of the Cyclopes trying to attack him from behind.

    He then took control of his water by turning it into razor-sharp whips that encircled him, killing everything around him in a single attack, with dozens of creatures perishing in seconds. He took a deep breath, feeling the residual energy of his water magic coursing through his veins. The battlefield around him was momentarily silent, littered with the fading forms of defeated monsters. But Perseus knew better than to let his guard down.

    He had been separated from his teammates in the Labyrinth, not that he was expecting them to stay together during the entire quest, given what the prize was. It was an unspoken agreement that they would inevitably split up, but not go fight one another until the very end, until they were the only questers remaining. However, Perseus didn't expect to be alone so quickly. The Labyrinth was a lot trickier than he read, and there was something alive about it.

    Perseus thought that the stories in the books at the Academy were exaggerated, that the entire place actively wanted to keep them there, wanted to kill them all. However, the way the walls shifted exactly to split them up, the way beasts and monsters spawned exactly at the worst moment, it was all so unnatural. The mental effect was far more subtle than he expected. Even he, who had mastered his mind and could shrug off most mental effects, ended up being slightly affected and needed to purge his mind of any foreign influence every few minutes, which got annoying very quickly. In the end, he just crafted a small crown out of solidified water that casts that spell for him.

    All those stories about the Labyrinths, from the mouths of the few who escaped it, if anything, were watered down from the real thing.

    He wished that his teammates were alright. He had picked them because they were the ones he found to be the worthiest and it would be a loss for them to die alone in this place, especially since there wouldn't be any bodies to bury. After all, what died in the Labyrinth belonged to it.

    Unfortunately, the Labyrinth acted more like a passageway to the realms of Olympus. The mountain itself was infinite and there was no real reason to climb them. He expected that most of the other schools would do just that, try to actively climb the mountain. In a way, he hoped they did. It was safer for them to never reach the Labyrinth.

    Perseus learned to navigate through it by conjuring some mist, which he could use to map out his surroundings. It was frustrating to keep doing it as the Labyrinth shifted, but he eventually found one of the exits.

    Still, it was a clever trick of his father, making them all so distracted trying to win an impossible race, to forever keep the golden apple out of their reach. There were probably enough challenges up the mountain to keep them occupied as he finished the challenges themselves.

    The realm he had found himself in was definitely not Hera's Garden. If anything, it felt more like a hellscape than anything else. It was just a barren expanse stretching endlessly beneath a blood-red sky. The ground was cracked and desolate, with plumes of steam rising from fissures that glowed with molten heat. Jagged obsidian rocks protruded like the broken ribs of some ancient beast, and the air was thick with the scent of sulphur and ash. In the distance, twisted silhouettes of dead trees stood as lonely sentinels, their branches clawing at the oppressive sky.

    Suddenly, the jagged stone next to him began to move again, the massive stone blocks grinding against each other with a deep, resonant groan. Perseus braced himself, muscles tense, as he watched the corridor ahead twist and reshape.

    From the shifting walls, a figure emerged—stumbling, almost falling—into the dim light. It was a girl, her dark skin marred by deep gashes that crossed her chest, each wound oozing dark, coagulated blood. Severe burns covered portions of her body, the raw flesh a painful contrast against the uninjured skin. Her clothes were tattered remnants, barely clinging to her battered form. She moved with the sluggishness of someone teetering on the edge of consciousness.

    Without even thinking, he ran towards the dying girl and used a part of his water magic that he rarely ever got to exercise. Some of the most controlled Water Magic masters could heal using it. Perseus wasn't one of them; he was a destroyer, just as his name suggested, and his raw power came at the expense of his refined control. However, he did learn how to slow down the progression of injuries with water. It was something that took him too much time to learn, but it was a bit of a necessary skill to have.

    With that done, he quickly rummaged through his potion bag and took out some Nectar. It was a pretentious name for a potion, being compared to the Nectar of the Gods, but it was by far, the most potent fast-acting healing potion made in Greece, and it cost a fortune. He didn't know why he was wasting one of them on a virtual stranger, but it just didn't feel right to let a girl die just to be stingy. He had more than enough Nectar to last him months. He had used all of his savings on his preparations for his quest. He could spare a single dose, really.

    After just a single sip, the girl's wounds closed and scarred over, the burns didn't fully heal but had gotten a lot better – the wounds were probably cursed or something and Nectar only worked on injuries, not diseases or curses.

    She took a deep breath, before falling unconscious, stable but still technically wounded, and Perseus felt something settle between them, and his eyes widened at the realization of what had happened. He had saved a dying enemy from certain Death. Sure, she wasn't a mortal enemy, but she was an obstacle to his greatest desire, where her Death would have been advantageous to him. He had saved her life, expecting nothing in return, and a very old form of magic occurred.

    A life debt. A true life debt. It was a very rare phenomenon, because how often did people save their own enemies, without expecting anything in return? And now, Perseus found himself bound to this stranger, a girl whose name he didn't even know.

    With a closer look, Perseus recognized the girl as one of the British Champions. That surprised him. He didn't expect any of the foreigners to figure out how to enter the Labyrinth, let alone how to leave it, even if she was deathly injured while doing so. And that's without even having access to the knowledge he had on the Labyrinth.

    Perseus was tempted to leave her there, to fend for herself. It was the logical thing to do. If the British were able to breach the Labyrinth, then it was entirely possible that other schools could, and that one of the other Champions might get to the Gardens through sheer dumb luck. He would lose the chance to save his mother, which was the reason why he went on the quest in the first place.

    It would have also been far simpler to just not deal with the life debt at all. It was a form of magic that was very chaotic and that very few people actually understood, and Perseus didn't like the sound of that, even if it was to his benefit.

    And yet, something stopped him, as he reminisced on his nights with his mother where she told him tales of the old Greek Heroes, of the man he was named after and the people they saved, the feats they accomplished. No, he would help her, and at least he'd know if there were others that were as close as he was to the Golden Apple.

    It only took a couple of hours for the girl to wake up. Perseus had conjured a cup of water for her to drink, which she did with gusto, "Where am I?"

    He honestly had no idea where he was either. He had been tempted to explore the realm around him, but even after hours' worth of effort trying to map it out with his mist, he had only figured out that it was nothing more than a barren land filled with feral magical creatures. Instead, he replied, "You came through the Labyrinth. Do you remember?"

    "The Labyrinth…" she thought before stiffening, "I remember. Cedric betrayed us and we fought this demon thing with the fire whip. It could control the Labyrinth and even came back after we turned it into pieces. It hit me… I should be dead. Am I dead?"

    Perseus didn't answer her immediately, having been taken aback by the description of the monster that attacked them. It sounded like Kampe, one of the first monsters ever recorded in the Labyrinth. Its features changed over time, supposedly when it assimilated different monsters and gained their strengths. But it always had a fire whip and control over the Labyrinth. The cursed burns could have been caused by the fire whip in question. It was described as a force of nature, unable to be stopped, unable to be escaped, without ending up swallowed up by its cursed flames and ash. It was pretty much invincible, being able to be healed from any wounds. It was slow, but unpredictable, like someone's inevitable demise.

    The very few survivors had been people who ran away, abandoning their comrades as bait. Even then, they barely survived, relying on sheer luck or narrow escapes through hidden passages. Kampe's legend thrived on fear—the tales said her flames could consume souls, and those who escaped felt marked, haunted by phantom burns that never truly healed. The girl's survival was nothing more than miraculous if she had truly fought Kampe.

    He finally spoke, his voice steady. "No, you're not dead. But it's a miracle you survived your encounter with that particular creature, not for a lack of trying."

    "Who are you?"

    She tried to stand but winced, the pain evident in her eyes. Perseus moved to help her, offering his arm for support. "Easy there. Your wounds are severe, but I've done what I can to heal them. And to answer your question, my name is Perseus, I'm one of the champions of the Olympus Academy. And you are..."

    The girl smiled at him, "Angelina Johnson, a champion of Hogwarts. I suppose I owe you my life. At least, I'm out of the Labyrinth. That had to be the silver lining."

    Perseus ignored the solidification of the binding between them and noticed that the girl hadn't even noticed the magic. She must have been too tired to notice it. He didn't blame her, she was on the brink of Death just minutes prior, "Well, not to burst your bubble, but we'll need to get back. This place is barren, we won't be able to stay here for long. We need to find another exit, hopefully, to wherever your teammates are, if they survived, that is."

    Yes, he would deal with the whole life debt thing after he healed his mother. He needed to focus on his goal and ignore whatever distractions that came his way.

    "Oh, they will," the girl replied confidently as if she knew something that he didn't, "Although, I do hope Cedric does, if only so that I could wring that fucking traitor neck of his."

    Before she could protest, Perseus activated the delta symbol on the wall, and they were sucked back into the Labyrinth and walked through.

    The girl yelled, "What the fuck? Why would you bring us back to that hellhole?"

    "Staying there accomplished nothing, and I do have a quest to finish, after all."

    "Well, I'm still injured!"

    Perseus simply shrugged, "You're perfectly welcome to go back, but by then, you'll be on your own when you inevitably return to the Labyrinth. That is if you survive the countless attacks by rabid monsters over there. To be honest, I'm surprised you're this ungrateful given that I'm the one who saved your life despite us being technically on opposite sides."

    That seemed to have shut her up, "I'm sorry, I was just frustrated. And I promise that I want nothing to do with the golden apple, not anymore. I… I just want to go home."

    She had whispered that last part and Perseus felt for her, he really did. He could feel it, how distraught she felt, how truthful her words were with their bond. Curious, he asked, "Then why did you even participate?"

    The girl looked at the ground oddly shyly and muttered, "I wanted to be remembered, to have something that other people will describe me as other than 'the Chaser girl in Gryffindor'. I wanted to achieve something before graduating, where I'll probably work in a dead-end job, get married and have kids. I just wanted more, and I don't know why I'm telling you any of this."

    Perseus knew the life debt made her feel very comfortable in his presence, and in a way, it made him feel comfortable around her as well. Even knowing that he wouldn't have normally said this, he answered, "I'm doing it for my mother. I'm hoping that a bite of a golden apple might save her."

    "Oh," she simply stated. She looked so sad, so small, suddenly, "I didn't even say goodbye to my mother. She didn't want me to be part of the delegation and said it was too dangerous. I guess she was right. I hope I'll be able to see her again."

    Before he could control himself, he spoke up, "Tell you what, I promise to make sure you come back home safely and that you make up with your mother."

    The girl's eyes shone in unshed tears, "And I promise you that I will help you in any way I can to save your mother."

    They both stood there in comfortable silence until they were rudely interrupted by a faint, sinister hissing echoing through the cavern. The air grew cold, and an unsettling stillness settled around them. Perseus's senses sharpened; something was terribly wrong.

    "Do you hear that?" the girl whispered, her eyes darting nervously.

    Perseus nodded, his gaze scanning the shadows. "Stay close," he instructed, his voice low.

    Suddenly, the walls of the cavern began to shift, the stone surfaces rippling as if alive. From the darkness, slithering sounds grew louder, accompanied by a chorus of eerie whispers. Emerging from a shadowy passageway was a figure draped in tattered robes, her face concealed beneath a hood. But beneath the hood, glimpses of serpentine hair writhed and twisted—a telltale sign.

    "A Gorgon," Perseus muttered, "Whatever you do, don't look into her eyes."

    He closed his eyes and conjured a wave of mist, allowing him to map out his environment. Thankfully, it also blinded Angelina, so she couldn't really see the Gorgon accidentally.

    Without warning, the ground beneath them trembled. From fissures in the rocky floor, more serpents emerged, their scales shimmering ominously. The creatures advanced, encircling them and cutting off any chance of escape.

    "Get behind me!" Perseus commanded. He summoned a torrent of water, forming a protective barrier around them, and wiping out the snakes, only for the Gorgon to shift into a giant serpent, that leapt at him.

    He conjured an immense trident, made of solidified water, ready to throw it at the monster, only for Angelina to point her wand at the ceiling and yell, "Bombarda!"

    The stalactites fell like they were dozens of spears impaling the Gorgon in seconds, and Perseus followed by cutting off its head, as his namesake was famed to have done in the myths. Afterwards, he quickly cast a giant shield to protect them from the debris and gave the girl an incredulous look, "That was beyond reckless. How did you even know where the Gorgon was?"

    "I didn't need to know where it was, only its general direction. And It worked, didn't it?" she answered cheekily, "Come on, we have a golden apple to find."

    AN: I'm not sure about this chapter, to be honest. I wrote it in a bit of a hurry, work was a bit crazy and the next chapter from Harry's side needed a lot more time than I had to be done properly. I also needed to add this in since it does impact this arc, but I planned on doing so later, and probably differently. I'm not really satisfied with it. I didn't have time to write a lot of things I wanted to put, which I'll have to add in another chapter in the future.

    I know some of you might not be loving this arc so far, and that's totally okay. But I'm really excited about the next few chapters—they're going to get a lot more interesting! I'd love to hear your feedback and any suggestions you have to make this better.

    Thanks for sticking with me!
     
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    • Chapter 367: The Sea of Monsters New
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    • Chapter 367: The Sea of Monsters

    I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

    20 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece

    Harry dodged the giant tentacle going at him, building a magic circle that acted like a platform, pushing him in the air. He cast another one, being sent to the side, before creating a giant magic circle that rained beams of ice at the roaring Kraken, before landing on the small island alongside Daphne.

    The blonde followed his lead by conjuring vines from around the island, trying to bind the gigantic creature. It was relatively unsuccessful, but it gave Harry more than enough time to conjure dozens of magic circles that travelled like saws, cutting off the offending tentacles.

    Seeing the giant monster regenerating in the midst of the sea that had turned red from its blood, Harry turned towards his girlfriend, "Keep it bound, I'm going to finish it off."

    "I'm on it!" she yelled, and dozens of roots came from the island and attacked the wounded Kraken, not allowing it to retreat. Harry sent himself flying up and conjured a giant spike of ice, which he infused with the necrotic properties of his family crest and impaled through the creature's head.

    The Kraken seemed confused for a second before its massive eyes dulled, and a shudder ran through its colossal body. With a final, haunting groan, the beast's tentacles went limp, crashing into the churning sea. Slowly, the monstrous creature sank beneath the blood-streaked waves, disappearing into the depths from which it had emerged.

    Harry landed on the island and stretched, "Well, that's a bad way to start the morning!"

    Daphne glared at him, "You're the one who decided not to camp out in the Labyrinth and take one of the exits."

    "For good reason, we could easily be ambushed in the Labyrinth. That place can somehow warp the wards I put up and it seems to learn from the tricks I use to slow it down. If we got attacked in the middle of the night by something like that fire monster, we could seriously get hurt if we're taken by surprise, but here the wards held."

    Daphne rolled her eyes but stayed silent. That did sort of happen when he mentioned the fire monster. Angelina's – presumed – death did weigh heavily on the blonde, and if he was being completely honest, even Harry himself. He hadn't been overly attached to the girl – hell he barely even knew her – but he had promised himself to protect the girl so that her soul wouldn't be trapped in the Labyrinth, and he had failed. Sure, she hadn't died in the damned place, but it was still a failure on his part, and Harry didn't handle failure well.

    He had stopped holding back after Johnson's death. For one, the Labyrinth was far more dangerous than he expected any task to be, but there was also the fact that he didn't really need to. It was obvious that the outside world couldn't communicate with them in any way; they weren't even in the same realm, really. Now that he thought about it, they didn't really expect any students bar the ones from Olympus Academy, to even find the Labyrinth, and so, they were probably watching the other students trying to reach an unreachable goal outside the endless mountain. Just to be safe, Harry removed the spell they were using to watch them, in case it was recording, and decided that holding back was useless. There was no one watching and he wouldn't risk Daphne getting hurt, not like Johnson was. He had even stopped wearing Carmichael's body, not finding any use it in anymore.

    It didn't help that he wasn't even able to find the realm he sent Johnson's body through during the attack. And wasn't that an issue and a half, Harry had assumed that the Labyrinth had one exit. He was proved to be mistaken when, after defeating that fire demon thing, he found himself in some kind of weird jungle, and had to fight his way through feral beasts, to find another entrance to the Labyrinth.

    That was another kink in the Labyrinth. The entrances and exits were at separate locations. Sometimes, they were close to one another, sometimes, they were not. Harry was lucky enough to be able to detect space anomalies and could find them easily enough. This, coupled with his growing ability to control the Labyrinth, made their journeys a lot easier.

    Every day, after waking up in some realm or another, they got up and entered the Labyrinth, trying to explore as many realms as possible, trying to find Hera's garden or at least a clue to find the damn place. So far, they were very unsuccessful, hence why they still continued their search.

    Harry turned towards Daphne, "Alright, I'm going to locate the entrance to the Labyrinth. Can you make a wooden boat in the meantime?"

    Daphne grumbled, "Things would go a lot quicker if you used your portals."

    "I said it before, the laws of space and time are different in every realm. It'll take me hours to adapt my spells enough to make a portal here, which is longer than just going to find the Labyrinth entrances."

    It was a common complaint of hers and Harry had to admit that he wished he could use portals so easily. Unfortunately, while each realm had the same fundamental properties of space-time, meaning that he could stretch and contract them, they had different base constants. That made crafting a portal spell be unique endeavour for each realm and a pretty time-consuming one at that.

    Even the quality of the stretching and contraction of space and time depended on those constants, even if the effects were universal. The only place he even bothered to study properly was the Labyrinth itself, and that was an emergency more than anything. It was a good way to escape if they were under threat, even if he wouldn't be able to use it too many times. A very disturbing fact about the Labyrinth was that it learned.

    Harry found that out the hard way when a pack of hellhounds somehow had the property to phase through the exact wards, he put in place in their first night there. The Labyrinth was definitely an entity capable of thought, and it obviously wanted to kill them. Sometimes it even resisted being controlled, even if Harry overpowered it often. It was like a game. It figured out new ways to resist being forcefully controlled and Harry tried to keep up with every visit.

    Unfortunately, they still had to go back there, for Daphne's sake more than anything. They had to find that golden apple for her to be completely free of her hangups, to finally save her sister from her curse. And so, Harry used his Arcane Hearing to sense the familiar disturbance in space of a Labyrinth entrance.

    Five minutes later, Harry and Daphne were riding a pretty big boat, going very quickly considering how he was stretching the space in front of the water. They should arrive in a few minutes at this pace.

    Of course, that was when Harry heard something big approaching them with his Arcane Hearing and created a magic circle that banished them to the side. Immediately, a giant head came from the water. It wasn't just any sea creature; this beast's gaping maw seemed to swallow the very ocean around it. The waters began to churn violently, spiralling into a massive whirlpool that threatened to drag their boat into the depths. The roar of the swirling vortex drowned out all other sounds as the creature's endless hunger pulled everything toward it.

    Harry's eyes widened at the sight. "Hold on tight!" he shouted to Daphne, his voice barely audible over the tumultuous waves. He conjured a magic circle beneath them, sending the boat flying into the air. He then conjured a bolt of lightning, sending it into the maw of the beast beneath them.

    The monster seemed to thrash in pain as the very sea was electrocuted. Harry followed by altering gravity slightly to hold the beast in place and conjuring an ice ball with runes carved all over it, and he channelled his crest through it. With a flick of his wand, he banished it through the monster's mouth, who swallowed it, probably without even noticing.

    Five seconds later, an explosion shook the very seas, creating very large waves, which Harry used to propel the boat even faster. They were sent towards the location of the entrance, with a dead giant sea monster whose body was already starting to rot, and Daphne turned towards him and burst into laughter.

    Harry gave her a confused look, "What's this for?"

    "Sometimes I forget just how bullshit you are. This thing was massive."

    "Everything has a weakness, Daph. Size doesn't always mean that it's invincible."

    The blonde shook her head, as they finally landed on another island, which probably held where the Labyrinth entrance was, considering that it was the only other piece of land that seemed to be an endless ocean, filled with sea monsters.

    As Harry and Daphne stepped onto the island, they took a moment to survey their surroundings. The island was unexpectedly lush, with vibrant flora and the distant sound of cascading water. It was a stark contrast to the treacherous seas they'd just navigated.

    "Well, this is different," Daphne remarked, her eyes scanning the verdant landscape.

    Harry nodded, "Keep your eyes out. There's some kind of weird effect surrounding the entire island."

    He wasn't joking, the magic on the island was extremely thick, and even to his Arcane Hearing, its sound drowned out most of the fainter magics that he could still tell was there, but only just that.

    She nodded and they walked forward. Other than the plants, the island seemed to be barren of any form of life. It obviously hadn't been the case before, considering the hundreds of bones that were littered all over the place. Still wary of any attack, they walked towards the source of the space anomaly, where the Labyrinth entrance was.

    Harry just wanted to get it over with since this place was giving him the creeps. And eventually, as they got closer to their objective, the dense foliage gave way to a clearing, with the familiar delta symbol being carved into the ground, ready to be activated.

    He was about to enter, only for Daphne to jab his shoulder slightly. He turned towards her, ready to ask her why she stopped him only to freeze at the sight around him. All around the clearings were large boulders, with carvings all over them. They were definitely old, very old, even, and it also had the disturbing connotation that a living human being had once lived on this island.

    "Look at these," Daphne whispered, tracing her fingers gently over the first carving. It depicted a mighty hero clad in a lion's skin, wielding a club against a fearsome beast. The artistry was exquisite, every detail rendered with care.

    "That's Heracles," Harry observed. "This must illustrate his twelve labours."

    They moved to the next boulder, which showed Heracles battling the Hydra, its multiple heads snapping fiercely. The subsequent panels continued to chronicle his exploits: capturing the Golden Hind, cleaning the Augean stables, and obtaining the girdle of Hippolyta.

    But as they progressed along the wall, the quality of the artwork began to deteriorate. The lines grew less precise, the details were lost as if the quality of the tools used to carve Heracles' story got worse over time. By the end, all the carvings became were clumsy carvings of in Ancient Greek of the word 'Remember'.

    "This is odd," Harry muttered. "It's like the artist was losing interest or... perhaps something else was happening."

    He was leaning towards the latter, and from the looks of it, all around the Labyrinth entrance, the ground was extremely uneven, unnaturally so. He had a bad feeling about this.

    He was about to voice his concerns, only to see Daphne staring at one of the boulders. It depicted a lush garden with trees bearing gleaming golden apples. Guarding the garden was a dragon coiled around a tree, its scales suggested by mere rough etchings.

    "This must be Hera's garden," Daphne said, her voice filled with awe and pure hope.

    Harry walked towards her and gave her a comforting look, "We'll get there, Daph."

    However, Daphne didn't respond to him. Instead, her eyes widened, "Wait, there's something here." She pointed to a barely visible symbol etched near the base of the tree—a familiar delta of the Labyrinth entrances.

    So, that was proof that Harry's theory was right, that the gardens of Hera were in fact one of the realms of the Labyrinth. Harry was about to say something, only to notice a faint piece of something glowing gold underneath the boulder.

    He was about to examine it further, only for his Arcane Hearing to warn him that something very powerful coming very quickly at them. Harry stretched space, grabbing Daphne with him, and the entire boulder that they were looking at became nothing more than rubble.

    The last Potter couldn't even see what was attacking him – it was just that fast – but he warped the earth to destabilize it. Whatever the creature was jumped in the air and was quickly coming down on them. Harry, in response, created a giant shockwave of green light. However, instead of a physical effect, what it did was slow time drastically at them.

    It was then that Harry saw him, and it was a man. Well, it was hard to even call him a man, he stood at least ten feet tall, his muscular frame rippling with raw power. His skin had a bronzed hue, etched with scars that told tales of countless battles. Wild, unkempt hair framed a face contorted in a perpetual snarl, and his eyes glowed with a feral intensity that spoke of madness unleashed.

    In his massive hands, he gripped an enormous stone weapon—a hybrid between an axe and a sword—that was nearly as large as Harry himself. The blade was jagged and primitive, yet Harry could tell that it was very powerful. Even falling through slowed time, the young wizard could see the way the very air was shuddering from his every movement.

    "Heracles," Harry whispered, realization dawning on him.

    He quickly grabbed Daphne and ran to the entrance of the Labyrinth, trying to activate it, only for it to not work. That had never happened before. He was sure that the puzzle was solved correctly, and there was a space-time anomaly that was consistent with all other Labyrinth entrances, and yet it just wasn't activating. Harry was so taken aback at his failure, that he felt his control over his slowed time be overtaken. As if it was cracking like glass, the green hue signifying Harry's frozen time shattered into nothing, and the Greek hero landed, destroying the ground around him, before releasing a primal and animalistic roar.

    He could feel Daphne, next to him, shudder at the sound. He couldn't really blame her, they were trapped on an island with what was effectively a mad demigod, unable to return to the Labyrinth. Why couldn't things just go smoothly for once?

    AN: I don't know how to feel about this chapter. I rewrote it like twice, but I feel like I can do it better somehow, or that something is missing. I didn't have time to re-read the final correction, so there might be a few mistakes. So, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
     
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    • Question! Why did Harry not keep his disguise?
    Indeed, even if he is not monitored by a spell for the task, he still needs to hide from prophetic visions based on sight (it was mentioned during one of the previous chapters).
     
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