Daughter of Poseidon, the Girl Who Lived

21. Harri's origin is a mess

"You should eat at least one," I told Harri as she was about to place all three apples on the Roman version of her father's altar.

"I don't feel like eating!" she retorted without looking up.

"Well, sometimes we have to do stuff anyway, otherwise no pupils would do any homework ever again."

"Hermione would."

"Just eat an apple, please!" She almost smiled at that. "You don't help him by starving yourself," I added a bit softer.

"What?" She gave me a weird look and exited the shrine, confident that I would follow her. Which I did.

"Poseidon is your father, right?"

"Really? He is?" Sarcasm. "What gave it away? The ocean themed jewelry? The trident? The fact that a faint scent of the sea is constantly surrounding me?"

"Um, all of it? So Poseidon sent you specifically to retrieve his symbol of power, because he would only trust his own kids with such a task?" I probably sounded pathetic.

"Dunno. Why did my father pick me? Did he only trust me? Was Percy already on another quest? Did he want me to prove myself...?" Harriet shook her head in an attempt to get it together. "Δεν πειράζει."

"What do you mean doesn't matter?"

"Well, either way I'm on this quest and it does not do well to dwell on why!"

I was stunned for a second.

"He asked us to go after you."

Harriet halted and spun around. She looked suspicious, but that was nothing new. I took the chance to give her one of the apples she had left behind.

"What?" she asked but accepted the apple.

"Poseidon approached us in Boston and told us to put the quest on hold and go get you," I explained.

Harriet took a bite of the green fruit.

"He personally asked you to go and pick me up from Hades?"

"Yes."

Harriet sat down on the grass. I joined and waited for her to say something, but she reminded quite.

"He seems to care about you." No response. I decided to change tactics.

"So, Regulus Black, or Reggie, or whatever, saw some resemblance of James Potter in your appearance. Funny, perhaps your mother had a type."

"What?" She looked at me weirdly.

"Like both you father and stepfather looked similar enough for you to look like the stepfather."

When she continued with her weird look, it occurred to me that maybe I had misunderstood something.

"Or, is that not the case?"

She sighed.

"James Potter wasn't my stepfather."

"Wha-"

"James Potter wasn't real."

Okay, now it was apparently my turn to stare.

"Mind if I ask you to explain?"

"Arg! Okay, look. Zeus is extremely paranoid. He thinks everyone is either on his side, or actively against him. Also Hecate loves to come up with conspiracy theories about wizards plotting to overthrow the gods. So,they're constantly suspicious of wizards, but not in a way that's sustainable. And therefore, Athena came up with the proposition that every century or so, some gods go and "infiltrate" the wizarding world, so if they ever started to plot something, the gods would find out. Athena didn't think the wizards would ever be stupid enough to do that, but Zeus was happy with the idea. So approximately ten years before either of us was born, it was Poseidon's turn to "infiltrate". He took the form of a human, but changed a few facial features, and attended Hogwarts under the made up name; James Potter, and spent the summers with an elder couple, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, as their son. They are thereby technically my adopted grandparents, or were, they died around two or three months after I was born, but that's another story. The point is that since James Potter wasn't ever anything other than Poseidon's alias for when he spent some years in the wizarding world, I can say that James Potter is my father, because him and Poseidon are the same person."

Wow! There is no other way for me to express the shook I felt upon hearing this.

"Um, I- well, I had thought..."

"You thought my mom cheated?" Harriet raised an eyebrow. "No need to lie, it is a logical conclusion."

"I, wouldn't have voiced it that way..." Where were I going with this conversation? I had a point, somewhere.

Harriet laughed bitterly.

"How many other ways could you put it?"

"Fair enough." I hesitated. "It sounds a bit messy..."

"It is, I guess. Wizards who knew my parents often says I look like a female James except the eyes, but that's only because they thought his natural eye color was brown. So of course my very sea green eyes had to be Lily's." She shrugged. "Had they ever seen my father's real eye color, the would have figured out even my eyes were from him."

"But, if James and Poseidon are the same person," I licked my lips as I tried to think of how to formulate it. "How could You Know Who kill him if James was a god in disguise?"

"Well, I'm not sure what happened that night, but I think Voldemort," I flinched when she said that name. "Oh, come on, if that's your reaction to even hearing his name, you would pee your pants if you ever came face to face with him again."

"Again?"

"Our first year, the detention, the unicorn killing creature, I can explain later. But anyway, I think he only killed the physical body, so my father would, unbeknownst to "You Know Who", later wake up back in his domain. Like how killed monsters return to Tartarus and regenerate."

"They what now?"

"Did you never wonder how the furies could come back after I- no, wait! You had crashed inside the camp boarders. Perhaps you didn't know we killed them after you passed out!" Harriet smirked at me.

"Thank you for the reminder." I made a grimace. "Did anyone know he was still alive? How come you ended up with your muggle-relatives, if your father wasn't dead?"

Harriet stayed quiet while fidgeting with the grass on the ground, for a second I was scared I had hit a sore spot. Then she spoke.

"Demigods are supposed to be raised by their mortal parent. My father had stayed with me and my mom for too long already. But there were people who knew who he was. His roommates, for example. Maybe professor Dumbledore knew. But it didn't matter, as my father was gone anyway."

"...it sounds messy." I didn't know what else to say.

Footsteps were suddenly heard and I looked up. Severus were approaching us with a blond guy with a bow and arrows on his back. I stood up and offered Harriet my hand.

"How about we go and find out where we'll be staying tonight?"

Instead of answering, she grabbed my hand.

"You know, when you're not acting like a total git, Draco, you're almost bearable." She actually smiled.