Harry Potter the Lightning Thief - Chapter 7 - Signs of Life and the Mysterious Letter (Patreon)

Spinning around Harry was greeted by the smiling face of Luke.

“Hey there, Harry.” He greeted with a smile. “Heard you got stuck in class all morning with the warrior princess, well I’m here to come to your rescue. Going to take you to the fighting yard after lunch for a … light spar. A chance to make up for the other day.”

Annabeth scoffed, “Hey Luke … hey Seaweed Brain.” She said, drawing Harry’s attention to Percy who had been standing slightly behind Luke. “Maybe go easy on this one Luke, looks like based on the bruises on Percy you already worked off some of your frustration … so you probably don’t need to beat up the other newcomer as well.”

A brief look of anger flashed over Luke’s face when Annabeth had mentioned his frustration but it disappeared so quickly Harry was left wondering if he had actually seen it in the first place.

“I’ll try …” he said a smile forming on his face, “ … but can’t make any promises. Besides pain is a great motivator.” He laughed and walked away leaving Percy behind.

Harry looked over and saw Percy looking at them a little awkwardly.

“Why don’t you join us, Percy?” Harry offered motioning to the empty seat beside him.

A gesture which caused Percy to smile in relief.

Turning around, as Percy moved towards the seat beside him, Harry saw Annabeth flash a look of disappointment as she watched Percy take the seat, barely allowing him to sit down before she abruptly stood up and took a step back from the table. Looking to Harry she nodded, “Good luck with your fight. Luke’s good … real good. But watch his left side, its his weaker side both offensively and defensively … his only other real weakness is his overconfidence which you can exploit to give you an advantage in a fight.”

Turning to Percy she stared for a second before nodding, “Don’t be late for our session, Seaweed Brain, you’ll need to be prepared if you plan to … well Chiron wants to make sure you are prepared” She finished as she shook her head.

Without even waiting for a response she turned and seemed to storm off, leaving her half finished plate on the table as she headed toward the Big House.

After seeing that Percy had already been introduced to the other Athena kids, he leaned a little closer to Percy and whispered, “Okay … what did you do to her? She seemed to be in a good mood until you and Luke showed up?”

Percy looked up from his plate of food and shrugged, confusion evident on his face. “I have absolutely no idea. She … hasn’t really seemed to like me since my first day in camp … and it seemed to get even a little worse when she found out I was Poseidon’s son. But I can’t think of anything I had done to her … I mean Grover told me that Poseidon and Athena had issues between themselves …”

Harry nodded slowly, “This seems a bit more personal that something related to your parents having a grudge.” He paused and shrugged. “I’m just glad it isn’t me she seems to have a problem with … I had enough of that for an entire life.” He paused again before looking down at the bruises that covered a decent percent of Percy’s exposed skin. “Are those from Luke? Is he really as good as they say he is?”

Percy gulped and slowly nodded his head, “Even better. I’m not sure what is more painful … “learning” sword fighting with Luke or spending time learning with Annabeth while she has some issue with me.” He finished with a hollow laugh as he picked up his fork and started eating.

Eventually they managed to come to an agreement that at least as of now Luke was the worse option, although Percy laughed when he pointed out that at least maybe eventually he might become a better swordsmen while he was unsure what to do about Annabeth, especially as he didn’t even know why she seemed to be cross with him.

After coming to this agreement, they spent the rest of the meal talking about interests and their youths.

Finally finishing, Percy stood up, “Well I best be off to meet up with Annabeth, gods know I don’t want to give her an actual reason to hate me …” he paused before smiling at Harry, “ … good luck with Luke …” he said turning to drop his plates off before heading off to join Annabeth, leaving Harry to make his way to the fighting yard where he spent some time doing stretching and practicing some of the sword fighting exercises that Zeph had shown him.

Less than thirty minutes had passed before Luke joined him in the yard, giving him some pointers on his form and his stance, before picking up his sword and crouching into his own stance in front of Harry. And …

… it was one of the most painful experiences of Harry’s life. Luke proceeded to demolish him, making him realize just how much Zeph had been taking it easy on him or conversely just how much better Luke was than Zeph. After the fourth time he found himself picking himself up off the ground he begun to see that Annabeth had been right and Luke always seem just a little slower when attacking of defending from his left side … but by the twelfth time he was picking himself off the ground, Harry had still not been able to take advantage of it … and as for his supposed overconfidence … he was pretty sure that Luke deserved every inch of confidence he had.

In the end, after about an hour of non-stop picking himself off the ground, Harry found himself lying on the ground once again looking up, with a smile on his face Luke held out his hand and helped him get up, perhaps taking pity on Harry or maybe finally just getting bored of watching Harry pick himself up out of the dirt. “Well … that wasn’t bad.”

Harry stared at the boy in shock as he climbed to his feet, “Sorry … what? You must have caught me in the head a lot harder than I thought. It sounded like you said I was ok.”

Luke laughed and shook his head, “Slow down there Harry, I never said you were ok. I just said you weren’t bad.”

Harry returned the laugh, “Oh my bad. Ya … you must have got me in the head a couple times. I’ll work on protecting against that.”

Luke smiled, “But while you aren’t at my level … clearly.” He said as he waved in the general direction of all of Luke’s bruises. “You certainly are better than a vast majority of the rest of campers and I’ve been training them for a while.”

Harry let out a sympathetic look, “Ooo … they have my sympathies.”

Luke nodded, “But I am being serious. While your form needs work, you are likely only behind Annabeth, Zeph, a couple of Apollo’s kids, and Percy. Honestly you are even much better than I was a week into my time at the camp.”

Harry nodded slowly unable to fully accept the truth to Luke’s words, through the stinging of bruises, but appreciated the sentiment.

After spending the next several minutes with Luke getting specific feedback on his fighting and receiving suggestions to work on for the next time he fought, Harry eventually made his way … very slowly as to avoid aggravating his bruises … to the infirmary where he received some salves from a child of Apollo who found his current state to be rather humorous, before he pulled up a chair beside Hermione, sitting down and going over his entire day.

Once he had finished going over his day, he pulled out the book he had found this morning concerning Harmonia, since he had popped by his cabin after lunch in order to retrieve it, and began reading to her, knowing that even if she wasn’t able to actually read or process anything in her current state, she would at least appreciate the gesture.

And as such Harry read for the remainder of the afternoon, only stopping when one of the Apollo campers came upstairs telling him that they were heading to the dining pavilion to join the evening meal, inviting Harry to join them.

Appreciating the offer, Harry nodded, letting them know he would be right down. As the kid nodded and turned around Harry leaned over putting the book back into his bag that he had been carrying as he stood, looking back down to Hermione who was still laying peaceful on the bed.

“Just off for a bite to eat, Hermione. But I’ll be back after I eat.” With that he reached down to squeeze her hand reassuringly.

However as soon as his hand closed on hers, two things happened. The first was that he felt an incredibly strong shock which seemed to simultaneously shock every cell in his body from the bottom of his feet to the tips of his toes, this was immediately followed by the realization that Hermione tightly grasped his hand.

Shocked Harry looked to her hand for a second before his eyes shot up to Hermione’s face, freezing at the sight of her facial muscles having tightened … almost looking as if she was in pain before everything suddenly relaxed and he felt her hand drop down limply, back onto the bed.

Harry stared for half a second waiting for her to move again, but after several seconds of motionlessness he turned, running down the stairs to hopefully catch one of Apollo’s kids before they actually left the infirmary.

To his luck, they had just been leaving the building when Harry came flying down the stairs and as a result seconds later Harry returned to the area Hermione was, leading a couple of confused looking campers to Hermione’s bedside.

“Sorry can you say that one more time … and maybe a little slower.” The older girl said.

Harry nodded, taking a deep breath to slow his heart rate, “I just stood up to say goodbye, letting her know I was coming back after dinner … and as I grabbed her hand it felt like … well … a shock … but more intense … and then she grasped my hand and it looked like she was struggling in pain to wake up … before falling back into whatever state she is in …” he trailed off looking sadly back to Hermione.

The girl looked at Harry in surprise before reaching into a bin of what Harry could only assume were medical-ish instruments in the center of the room, withdrawing several devices that Harry had no idea as to their purpose before rejoining the younger boy at Hermione’s side, quietly talking to him and working as Harry watched intensely.

After what seemed like hours but in reality Harry realized was no more than a couple minutes, she turned back to Harry as the boy went and returned the tools to their original place.

“I’m sorry … Harry? Right? It doesn’t look like there is any change with her status. She seems exactly as she was the last time we checked on her for progress …” She said hesitantly, looking sadly at Harry.

“But the shock …”

She shook her head, “We try to keep these rooms as dry as we can, helps prevent infections … and weird things from growing in here. Of course, it does result in a disproportionate amount of bleeding noses for us … and well static electric shocks when we touch stuff.”

Harry shook his head disbelievingly, “What I felt was way more intense that a static shock … and what about her grabbing my hand or what I saw? That can’t be explained by dry air?”

Shaking her head again slowly, she looked back to him with a sympathetic expression. “I’m not sure what you … thought you saw. But t doesn’t look like there is any change in her status and she still has no reaction to external stimuli. Sometimes a stressed out mind sees … well … perhaps you did feel something but from our standpoint we can’t see any change and it still looks like there is nothing we can do except wait to see if she gets better …” She paused looking at him sadly. “… I’m really sorry, Harry.”

Harry shook his head in disbelief. “It can’t be … I know what I felt …”

The girl looked at Harry for a second before looking away. After a second, she looked back to Harry, concern in her eyes, “As soon as we can see a change … we might have a better idea of what to do … but right now we are doing all we can for her … even if it doesn’t seem like much. But have you talked to anyone?”

Harry looked up in surprise, “Talked to someone?”

She looked away embarrassed for a second before looking back at Harry, “I mean I know this must be an incredibly intense situation for you, but when we lose someone …” She paused seeing the look of panic on Harry’s face, “… sorry poor word choice. When someone we care about … someone we love is hurt and we can’t help them … most times people end up forgetting about themselves with everything going on and that isn’t healthy … they end up getting lost in their own head …” She trailed off looking at Harry who was playing over her statement in his head.

“You … you think … that I imagined what I experienced because I’m worried about her?” He asked feeling anger beginning to rise, although he tried his best to not lash out at the girl knowing that she was only trying to help.

“I’m just saying that the brain is an incredibly complex organ and right now you don’t only need to worry about her … but also yourself.”

Taking a deep breath and forcing himself not to say something he didn’t really mean, Harry dropped back into the chair he had been sitting in before, grasping Hermione’s hand, looking back to his unconscious friend.

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.” Harry heard the girl apologize. “But as healers we need to care for more than just the patient and I just want to make sure you are doing alright as well … we are going to head down to the dining pavilion now … if you did want to come sit with us you are definitely welcome … I’d love to hear about your friend … if you wanted to share …”

Harry only gently shook his head in response to her question.

Not receiving a verbal response, Harry saw her nod her head slowly out of the corner of his eyes, looking sadly at him. “ … if not, that is totally alright. I’ll keep an eye out but if you don’t join, we will bring a tray of food back up for you after the meal …”

She paused for a second awaiting a response, but after receiving nothing she turned and grabbed the younger boy before leaving Harry alone.

Harry contented himself with sitting beside Hermione for several seconds, before eventually reaching back and picking up the book regarding Harmonia, picking up where he had stopped earlier.

By the time the kids from Apollo’s cabin had returned, Harry had managed to calm down and immediately apologized for his reaction as he thanked her for the food, picking up a delicious looking sandwich.

Smiling at his enthusiasm, she waved off both his apology and his appreciation for the food, before asking him if he wanted to talk about his friend, telling her about Hermione.

Harry considered for a second, before shaking his head, letting her know that he just wanted to sit with Hermione for a while in silence.

Smiling sympathetically, she nodded before heading off to the lower floor, letting him know that she was around if he needed or even just wanted to talk.

After she left Harry made quick work of the food she had brought, before continuing to read to Hermione well into the evening.

So long that the next thing he noticed was that he was being shaken awake.

“Sorry about this … you looked super cute like that.” The daughter of Apollo said as she stepped back, motioning to Harry’s hand which had once again found Hermione’s hand and was clasping it. “Got to apologize though, visiting hours are done though … “she shook her head after seeing Harry open his mouth in protest, “ … sorry Harry, won’t argue with you over this. Technically they ended over an hour ago … but I won’t tell Mr. D if you won't.” She said with a laugh. “It’s important that you get a good sleep and as comfy as they look to be you just won’t get that sitting in a chair beside your friend’s bed … I’d go out on a limb and guess she’d probably agree with me …?” She trailed off, smiling when she saw Harry’s reluctant nod. “But feel free to come back as soon as you have some spare time tomorrow. I would advise you to not spend your entire day here … it is important for you to … not be here the entire day … but you are always welcome to spend time with her. I promise that if there is even the slightest change in her status, we will come get you right away … and beyond that we will do our best to look after her, as we do everyone else. She will get nothing but our best.”

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but his sentence was cut off before it even started by a yawn, which ended up causing both of them to laugh.

“Ok …” Harry began hesitantly, smile still on his face, “… I guess, I could use some sleep … thanks for looking after her.”

She smiled, “No need to thank us, it's what we do and between the two of us … we are pretty good at it. But if you honestly did want to thank me … go back to your cabin, get a good sleep, and make sure to be looking after yourself. I will be extremely upset if we end up having to treat you for something because you wouldn’t sleep or look after yourself.”

Hesitantly Harry nodded, getting to his feet as she turned around heading to the stairs, but not descending yet, instead turning around to look at him.

Letting out a small laugh, Harry turned to Hermione wishing her a pleasant sleep and letting her know he would find time to come back tomorrow. Tentatively he reached out to grasp her hand … although he was left disappointed at the total lack of response this time.

Making his way out of the infirmary he made his way back to his cabin, noticing that almost every other cabin was completely dark already, although he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

Entering the Thanatos cabin … he immediately froze, suddenly completely alert.

He was unsure how to explain it, but he could tell that someone … or something had been in the cabin recently.

Cautiously Harry made his way around the main room, not for the first time bemoaning the lack of his wand. Seeing nothing was amiss, he peaked his head into the library, only to confirm that it too was seemingly undisturbed, appearing to be in the same state it had been when he left it in the morning.

Slowly he made his way closer to the bedroom … feeling the intensity of the sensation grow as he approached.

Reaching the door, he took a deep breath before throwing open the door and jumping inside … revealing no one within.

However, the sensation hadn’t dissipated, instead it drew him towards the bed that he had claimed as his own.

As he approached, he offhandedly noticed that the curtains around the bed had been drawn shut, where he was almost positive that he hadn’t bothered to shut them in the morning, partially as he was the only one in the cabin and it was a habit he had never gotten into, even in a room full of other boys at Hogwarts.

Reaching the bed, he crouched slightly, uncertain what to expect, as he slowly opened the curtains … revealing his bed … empty.

Well … mostly empty … he mentally corrected.

As lying on his pillow was a dark black envelope with his name written on it in an elegant silver script.

As he leaned forward to grab the envelope he was hit with a gentle smell of lavender and … something he couldn’t place but nonetheless tugged on his memories.

Picking up the envelope he opened it and carefully withdrew the letter enclosed as he began reading …

 Kind Regards,

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Up Next: Dreaming of a Goddess

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Story Note 1 – A mysterious note … pretty sure the gods wouldn’t communicate like this … who could have left a note? What will it say?

Story Note 2 – Signs of life from Hermione! Yay! Super excited to be welcoming her into the story.

I hope you all liked the start to the story, and I look forward to hearing your feedback. This is a story I have been looking forward to writing for a very long time.

Disclaimer – It has come to my attention recently that I unfortunately do not own any part of the Harry Potter or Percy Jackson Cinematic or Literary Universes or the characters that belong to those entities. One can dream I suppose. Although I did visit the Empire State Building once … but I solemnly swear I did not steal any lightning bolts.