Amongst the Hunted Moons

Notes:

Welcome back to another chapter of A Midsummer Hunt. In this chapter, we have Harry, Artemis, and Zoë in the same room, I'm sure that will end well. The best girl also gets an upgrade and Harry learns the rules.

A bit about the Unktomi, the name comes from an old Native American myth, but its abilities come from either something I've read about in some TTRPG or a fever dream I had, unsure of which.

Just take a regular giant spider and give it spell-casting levels and a world-conquering mindset.

Also, to mwinter1, other than another God, who is gonna tell a God they can't do something and back it up? The Hunt doesn't need permission to go anywhere, but the Gods believe in keeping the worlds apart so they don't start a war with each other, so they tend to be polite with one another.

But enough with this mortal prattle, on with the show!

Harry Potter.

It had taken a better part of two hours to get through all of the questions from Daphnis, he wasn't kidding about wanting to know everything about Aragog and his kin. From rough estimates of how many there were, to the size of the largest, to the size of the smallest, if He had seen any egg clutches, did they come up from borrows or descend from the trees, if there was any Unktomi, and everything in between. He had Atalanta take notes on every question asked, and had Harry draw out a map of the Den from what he could remember that night. After Daphnis had wrung all the useful information out of Harry's brain, he had quickly snatched the notes, and with a thank you to both, He had left the compartment with a huge smile on his face.

The train began to slow down soon after, Harry could practically taste the excitement in the train as it came to a stop outside of Hogsmeade station. The hunt moves through the train with trunks and bags before emptying onto the platform, where the line of carriages sat waiting for them with the familiar form of the groundskeeper of Hogwarts.

"Hagrid!" Harry calls out to the man with a wave and a smile, the large man turns his head at the sound of his name and smiles when he sees who called to him.

" 'Arry, Atolanta, 'eard you two were gonna be 'ere,' ' Hagrid says as the two walk up to him.

"Why are you here? I was sure it was gonna be Dumbledore meeting us," Atalanta says with a smile to her drinking body while helping Harry with his trunk.

"Ay, the Headmaster was meaning to, but business at the Ministry is running a bit later than he had thought it would, so he asked me to be welcoming ya onto the grounds, now which one of these girl be being Miss Zoë Nightshade?" The friendly giant asks while looking over the crowd of girls with more than a little concern in his eyes.

Atalanta turns and looks over the crowd of girls, searching for a moment before pointing towards the front of the train, "See the tall girl with my color skin and looks like she had just stubbed her toe?" She asks

"Ay! I see her, Thanks Miss Atalanta," Hagrid says to the lioness before he starts over to Zoë as Harry and Atalanta load up his things on the back of the carriage, looking down the row he sees a few of the hunters doing something odd, pointing to the front of the carriages and extending their hands to pet something.

"What are they doing?" Harry asks out loud, looking at the girls as Atalanta peaks around the side.

"Oh, they're petting the Thestral's," Atalanta says as she walks over and opens the compartment to the carriage.

"The what?" Harry asks, confused.

"Thestral's, a breed of winged horses that are invisible to those who haven't seen death and accepted the reality of it, mostly harmless scavengers," Atalanta says with a shrug.

Harry walks to the front of the carriage, and as always seemed to be horseless, but as he gets to the front he feels something turn to him before a breath of cold air that smelt of sweetly rotted meat passes across his face and he takes a step back, before jumping a bit as Atalanta appears beside him with a raised brow.

"Here," she says as she takes his hand and guides it to something and places his hand on something hard, flat, ice cold. Harry lets out a laugh as he begins to stroke whatever it was, instead of fur he felt scales, which was an odd thing when he envisioned the horse in his head.

"It's… it's cold," Harry says, it felt familiar in a way, like something from a dream that he had almost forgotten, the touch of something he knew and never forgotten, merely pushed aside, something comforting in its own weird cold way.

"Well, they are creatures of death, be a bit odd for them to be warm," Atalanta says as she reaches up and scratches behind, what Harry assumed was, the ears with a slight smile, she turns back to Harry and tells him to load up and Harry nods before doing what he was asked, quickly followed by Atalanta. He looks out of the window watching the thinning crowd of hunters, most were busy loading up into the carriages, Hagrid was over by the front of the train speaking with Zoë and Daphnis, Zoë seemed to be on guard but nodding politely along with what Hagrid was saying and Daphnis had a smile on his face. After a moment Hagrid stuck out his hand in an offer for Zoë to shake, but she looked at Hagrid's hand with suspicion but Daphnis took it and shook it with a smile before they walked away. It seemed now that most of the hunters were loaded up in the carriages and waiting to take off is when Harry saw two Hunters approach Atalanta and his Carriage. One was the Brittany girl that he had met before, pack slung over her back and what looked to be a hand-carved bow with it, the other girl had tan skin, brown eyes, and ink black hair hung in a braid down her back with what seemed to be feathers braided into it, she also had a pack but something that wasn't a bow over her shoulder, it was a long spray painted silver bag almost as tall as the girl. She looked older than Harry but not as old as Atalanta, she had a grin on her face and something that set Harry on edge in her eyes, like she was looking for trouble.

The second girl jumps up on the steps of the carriage before poking her head in, "Howdy y'all, mind if we join ya for the ride to camp, Atalanta?" She says with a grin, her accent throwing Harry off for a moment, he had only heard in the old westerns that Dudley would watch every now and then.

"Sure Sophie, climb on in," Atalanta tells the girl as she slides over to make some run for the girls, Harry moves to do the same but as the girls climb in, they settle down next to Atalanta while tossing their packs next it Harry, he tries to not let it bother him, but it does. The carriage falls into an awkward quiet as Harry turns back to look out the window watching the rest of the hunt move into their own carriages. Soon enough the carriages lurch forward and they start to move, Harry not once looking at the new girls, but he could feel their eyes on him, sizing him up, considering what was the best way to take him apart if they needed, Harry tries to not let it bother him.

"Soooo, you're him, huh?" The new girl, Sophie, asks with a draw to her words, Harry shrugs and doesn't say anything, "The Heir to the Hunt, a mighty impressive title if I do say so myself, though looking at ya, you ain't much living up to the title," Sophie says with a grin. Harry ignores her, he knows her type well enough, she was just trying to get a raise out of him.

"Sophie, shut up," Brittany whispers to the other hunter, but Sophie just shrugs.

"What?" Sophie says, "Just look at him, he's as skinny as a twig, I can hardly believe that this little pipsqueak's mom is Lady Artemis," As Brittany opens her mouth to retort, Harry, without looking over, cuts her off.

"Artemis isn't my mother," Harry says flatly, with a bit of anger in it, wanting to make it very clear, very quickly where he stood on the matter. Both hunters look at him confused before turning to Atalanta who puts up her hands in a surrendering gesture.

"Hey, don't look at me," the Lioness says, "how Harry and Lady Artemis define their relationship is up to them," she says to the other hunters.

Both Sophie and Brittany turn to look at Harry, who hadn't moved from looking out the window, he was trying to ignore them, if they didn't want to accept him right now, that was fine. Atalanta told him that he would have to give them time, so he would give them time to do just that, he wouldn't fight for their approval as he did with the Dursleys when he was younger, no. They would either accept him or not, he wouldn't let him bother him.

eighty souls singing out as one…

"Are you even listening to me, boy?" The thick southern accent says as Harry notices movement coming near him and a hand grips his jacket and yanks as Atalanta yells.

"Sophie, don't!" The Lioness yells

Harry's left-hand moves before he even registered being grabbed, he grabs the offending wrist and twists, and then pulls the girl across the carriage as his right-hand flicks, his wand jumping into his hand before he jams it into the side of the girl's throat before turning to look her in the eye. There's a flash of movement in front of him as the other girl, Brittany had drawn her hatchet and a silver hunting knife and was about to jump him before Atalanta shoots out of her seat and grabbing Brittany's hatchet-wielding hand, yanking it back but Brittany is able to reach across the carriage and put the tip of the hunting knife to Harry's throat.

"Let. Her. Go," Brittany says, each word spoken through clenched teeth, digging the tip of the blade into his throat, but Harry ignores her and continues to look into Sophie's eyes.

"Do not, touch me, again," Harry says harshly, "Do I make myself clear?" The Heir asks the hunter he had in his grip.

Sophie looks unflinchingly into his eyes before smiling widely, "Now that's more like it," she says with a grin and a laugh, "Alright, Alright, no touching the Heir without his permission, I've got it," Sophie says before Harry lets her go and she slowly moves back to her seat with her hands up. Harry then looks up and into Brittany's eyes, causing her to gasp and flinch back when he does.

"Do you mind?" Harry asks about the silver blade digging into his throat, Brittany, with eyes a bit wide, slowly moves her blade from his throat and goes to set back down before Atalanta lets go of her arm, she doesn't put her weapons away as Harry turns to look back out the window as if nothing happened.

"Holy fuck, Sophie!" Atalanta yells at the girl next to her, "Can you not be an insane cunt for five Hades damned minutes?!" To which the girl just starts laughing.

The Hunters Encampment, Harry Potter.

It didn't take long for the Carriages to come to a slow stop by Hagrid's Hut near the forbidden forest, Harry let the other two hunters climb out, and Atalanta handing them their packs with a glare at Sophie before Atalanta and Harry got out and begin to pull down his trunk. Both Atalanta and Harry had their packs slung over their shoulders and each held a handle of his trunk before walking into the forest, he knew where they were headed, but as he wondered how Atalanta knew that would be where Artemis would be, he saw how. Small silver symbols painting the way for the Hunt to follow.

Atalanta sighs before speaking, "Listen, Harry, sorry about Sophie and about the less than warm welcome from the hunt," the Lioness says as they track through the forest.

"What was her problem anyway?" Harry asks, honestly confused by how the aggressive girl acted, not even Zoë had tried to grab him.

"Sophie isn't the most stable of hunters," Atalanta says, "don't get me wrong, she's an amazing hunter and a good person, she's just…" she trails off trying to come up with the words.

"Bat shit insane?" Harry offers to Atalanta's amusement.

Atalanta snorts, "Yeah, something like that, I just like to think she is a product of her time, much like myself," the Lioness says with a smile.

"And when is that?" Harry asks.

"Oh, Texas in the 1870s I believe," Atalanta says with a grin looking over to Harry, "The girl is a bonafide cowgirl from the wild west, so much so she doesn't hunt with a bow unless told to," Harry raises an eyebrow at that.

"Then what does she use to hunt?" Harry asks, wondering if she used a spear like him.

"A gun, a rifle to be specific, she told me about it but it was more of a huge rant so I don't remember half of what she said," Atalanta says with a shrug.

"And Artemis lets her?" Harry asks, shocked.

"Yup," Atalanta says, popping her lips at the end of it, "From what I understand of it, a Hunter is a Hunter, the tools one uses don't matter so long as they respect the Hunt and offer up their kill to it,"

"Do they all use guns? The more modern hunters I mean," Harry asks, curiosity.

"No, Sophie is the only one," Atalanta informs him, "Like Brittany, she joined like thirty or so years ago, I think, she uses a bow and arrow like the rest of us but prefers her hatchet," she gives Harry a look, and Harry shrugs, he could understand that. He could use a bow perfectly fine, almost as good as Atalanta but his hunting spear just felt better in his hand more so than a bow.

They make it to the training ground after a few more moments, and to his surprise, a tent was already set up. A large eight-sided one colored from silver, dark gray, and white with a large crescent moon on the front of it, it was sent up by the back ridge that made up the open-ended rectangle that was the training grounds that he and Atalanta used last year. Harry didn't have to wonder whose tent it was just by looking at it, Atalanta moved them over to the middle of the stone circle that they used as a ring before putting down his trunk, and before long the rest of the hunters begin to pour from the trees and walking over to them setting down the boxes and bags in the middle before walking over to either side of Artemis' tent before counting out steps from it and marking off sections for something.

Before long Zoë and Daphnis emerge from the trees, Daphnis carrying his own things along with three other bags his way being helped by the same girl who had shown him to Atalanta and his compartment on the train, Harry quickly rushes over, passing Zoë who glares at him when he does, to grab two of the bags from him.

"Ah, thank you, Harry," Daphnis says with a smile, "Have you met Cecilia yet? She plays the part of my missing eyes," he says with a smile, Cecilia doesn't smile but gives Harry a polite nod as Harry awkwardly says hello. As the Heir turns to bring the bags to the circle he sees Atalanta glaring at Artemis' tent, whose flap was just swinging close. Walking back to the circle to drop off the bags, he steps up beside Atalanta.

"Everything okay?" Harry asks, concerned Atalanta only got that look when she was pissed about something, like that time with Snape.

"Yeah, just Lieutenant Bitch being a bitch," she says, the angry look on her face never leaving.

"You shouldn't call Zoë that, Atalanta," Daphnis says, dropping off his own bags, "At least not within earshot of her," he adds with a smirk.

"Fuck her, if she wants a piece of-" Atalanta begins to say before she is cut off by a shout.

"Atalanta!" Zoë calls, as they turn to look at her as her head pokes out from the tent, well Daphnis turns his head in the direction of the tent, "Lady Artemis wishes to speak to you and the boy," the Lieutenant of the hunt yells at them before going back inside the tent.

Atalanta sighs, "Well, come on Harry, best not keep Lady Artemis waiting, she gets grumpy if she waits too long," she says with a smirk as Harry snorts in amusement, he wasn't the only one who does it, a few of the hunters and Daphnis do as well as they begin to walk over to the tent.

"Atalanta!" Daphnis calls as he holds up a few roles of parchment, "Bring these with you, I'm sure our Lady and Zoë would like to see them," he says as Atalanta jogs back to grab them before moving back to the tent, and Harry holds the flap open for her as she walks in with himself behind her.

The inside of the tent was decorated with furs and skins of different animals, including lions, bears, and tigers, what Harry thought to be elephants, hippos, and komodo dragons, and a few others he didn't recognize, large skins made of scales and fur like metal fibers. There were pillows large and small surrounding a small fire that was burning in the middle of the tent throwing silver light into the tent with a bow rack at the very back holding Artemis' bow along with a gold one and a large brown one that looked ancient with three large stars carved into it. The Goddess herself sat under the bow rack towards the back of the tent, and Zoë sat at her right, legs folded under her with her hands on her lap and her eyes closed, a large stag was curled up next to Artemis, golden fur and antlers, and sitting up top those antlers…

"Hedwig?" Harry says, a bit confused as the owl turns her head to look at him before hooting and flying over to land on Harry's outstretched arm, "How did you get here so fast, girl?" He asks before he starts to pet her as she barks at him.

"Well, duh, of course, you flew," Harry says to Hedwig, "but I was talking about how fast you got here," Harry says before someone clearing their throat catches his attention and he looks back up from his owl, both Artemis and Atalanta look amused by his interaction with Hedwig, but Zoë doesn't even try to hide her angry glare at him.

"Oh, …um, sorry?" Harry says Awkwardly looking around the tent, he was being a bit rude.

Atalanta looks back over to Artemis, bowing her head in respect, "My Lady," She says with a smile.

Harry just raises his hand Awkwardly and kinda waves at her, "Hi Artemis," Harry says going for a grin but he was pretty sure it came out as more of a grimace, he was fine when they were alone, but had no idea how to do…all this with other people, like she was kinda his mother but not really, also a Goddess, other than Artemis he really didn't know what to call her.

Zoë, on the other hand, had other thoughts on the matter and decided to share them, "Honestly boy, even in her presence you are disrespectful, she is Lady Artemis or, in your case, moth-" Zoë begins to say with venom in her voice, but is quickly cut off by the Goddess herself.

"Hello Harry, please, take a seat, we have a few things to discuss before camp is set up and our hunt begins," Artemis says, turning her eyes to Zoë, who had now backed off and fell quiet.

"Um, sure," Harry says before sitting down cross-legged on a large pillow before Hedwig jumps off his arm and lands in the space between his legs and snuggles in, and barks, demanding more pets, which Harry chuckles at and fulfills her demands.

"Speaking of the hunt, My Lady," Atalanta says before handing Artemis the rolls of parchment, "From Daphnis, all the information we have on the Den and the spiders," she says before laying down on a pile of pillows before stretching out like a cat. The Goddess takes the parchment and places them at her side to look at later before turning back to Harry.

"When we last spoke, I told you there were going to be rules while you stay in camp," Artemis says, and Harry nods, he kinda trusted Artemis on not being like the Dursleys, so he would wait until she told him of the rules before calling them bullshit or not.

"Good, once again Harry, these rules are meant to keep everyone safe and to also make you a bit more reliant on non-magical skills, to help teach you, do you understand?" Artemis says, and Harry once again nods but begins to fidget in his seat at the words, not liking them.

"The first rule should be quite obvious, no magic in the camp unless I tell you it is allowed, I expect you to keep your wand on you for emergencies, but no spell work. I want you to learn most of what my hunters can teach you with your own two hands before you move on to a magical equivalent," Artemis says, Harry opens his mouth to protest but closes it, even if he could cast during the summer, she wasn't striping him of anything, she just wanted him to learn about camping and the skills the hunters could teach him with his own hands, not with magic, he could understand that but still…

"What is it, Harry? I can see the objection in your eyes," Artemis says, carefully neutral.

"I have summer homework," Harry says slowly, careful with his words, but at Artemis' raised brow in question, Harry continues, "it's, it's not much, just summer reading about what we'll be doing next year, but ah, my, my potion class, I, um, I have to brew one, a potion I mean, …" Harry says, uncomfortable with talking about his homework at all with anyone but Hermione.

"How much have you done?" Artemis asks, shocking Harry a bit.

"Umm, …what?" Harry says, blinking in surprise.

"Your homework, Harry, How much have you done?" Artemis asks, sounding genuinely curious.

"Oh,… um, Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions reading assignments and the essays, I still have Care, Divination, and Defense, but I probably won't do that last one, and I still need to do the brewing," Harry says, a little off center due to the questions, other than Hermione no one has really asked how his homework was coming along.

Artemis hums in thought, "so long as you keep the brewing to your tent, I do not see a problem with you doing it, I also expect you to do all of the homework Harry, the faster you have it done the more you can enjoy your summer," she tells Harry to his confusion.

"Umm, Okay?" Harry says

"Good," Artemis says, nodding her head, with a small smile on her face as if she had accomplished something, "Rule number two is simple, I have asked my hunters to treat you as a new member of the hunt for as long as you are with us," the Goddess of the Hunt tells Harry, "I will be doing the same, you will follow our rules while you are with us, if you do not work or hunt, you do not eat, you are to obey the orders of your seniors, there will probably be some hazing, but if you feel they are crossing a line come to myself, Zoë, or Daphnis and we will set it right," Artemis informes Harry, and he nods along, he doesn't think he would go to Zoë for anything, and he had no problem with working for his food, Harry was pretty sure Artemis wouldn't be like the Dursleys, when she said something, she normally meant it.

"Yes, Ma'am, " Harry tells her, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Good," Artemis says, "The last, and most important rule, is that you will be asked to go to your tent and not leave it for a certain amount of time, what you do in there doesn't matter, read, do your homework, take stock of your supplies, it doesn't matter, but you mustn't leave it, do you understand?" The Goddess of the Hunt says, even in the face of the slight flinch in Harry's face, she was not moved.

"Can, …can I ask why?" Harry says in a whisper.

"The hunt will be doing something that you can not, under any circumstances, be a part of" The Goddess of the Hunt declares in a voice that brokered no argument from Harry.

"Oh, …" Harry says, the thoughts of him not really being a part of the Hunt starting to worm their way in as he looks down at the silver fire in the tent, until Atalanta speaks up.

"We're bathing," the Lioness says, to the complaints of the two other girls in the tent, both blushing, Atalanta snickers before saying, "That's the reason you need to stay in your tent, The hunt does group baths and even if you took the oath and were a member of the hunt, you probably still wouldn't be allowed to join us, Daphnis doesn't and he's blind," Atalanta says.

"Oh, …oh! No, yeah that's fine, I'm good, I'll stay in the tent, I don't want to end up like Actaeon," Harry says, blushing himself and shaking his head.

Artemis looks back to Harry, "Who?" She asks in confusion.

"You know, the guy who saw you bathing on a mountain and you, ah, turned him into a deer and set his hounds on him," Harry says, confused, did she not know the guy's name?

"Harry, I've turned a lot of people into a deer, your father included, but none named Actaeon," Artemis says with a raised brow.

"You turned my dad into a deer!?" Harry says surprised.

"Stag, technically but He got better," the Goddess of the Hunt says with a shrug.

"Getting off track," Atalanta says while laying down with an amused smile on her face.

"Oh, right, um, I, ah actually have something for that," Harry says with an awkward smile, before pulling his pack to him from where he had placed it when he sat down, "When you told me to get some camping gear I wrote to Ron, you remember him, right? The, ah, redhead?" Harry asks as he opens the pack.

"Yes, he was the one who had pointed his wand at me," Artemis says, watching Harry with interest as Zoë lets out a small growl at her words.

"Y-yeah, him," Harry says as he reaches into the back leather bag, "Well, he sent me this catalog with a bunch of Wixen camping stuff, and some of it was pretty cool, but they had a tent thing for traveling Quidditch teams, and well, can we go outside? It's better to show than tell in this case, I guess," He says as he moves Hedwig from his lap, her barking in protest, before standing. Artemis raises a brow and shrugs before standing herself followed by the other two hunters, before the small group is led by Harry outside and to the side of Artemis' tent. Harry reaches inside his bag and pulls out a rolled-up canvas tent that looks to be much bigger than what the bag could hold before placing it down and drawing his wand before stopping and turning to Artemis as Atalanta and Zoë look on with interest.

"Do, do you mind if I use my, ah, wand to set it up?" Harry asks, Artemis frowns but nods to him, so Harry turns back to the tent and taps it three times with his wand, and steps back to watch it unfold itself before setting itself up right next to Artemis' tent before he steps back and gesturing to it.

"It's charmed, it can't be opened from the outside by a male, so I can't open it," Harry says with a shrug before stowing his wand.

"Is this the surprise you were talking about?" Atalanta asks with a smile on her face, and Harry nods with a slight blush.

"Surprise?" Artemis asks

"Y-yeah, it's, well, ah, I read up on some of the myths you're in, and saw this, and well, I, ah, just, just open it and go in, you'll understand, I-I hope," The Heir of the Hunt says as he shuffles from foot to foot, anxious to see how his surprise would go over.

"If this is a trick boy," Zoë says with a glare at Harry before stepping forward and opening the flap of the tent, and looking inside, she gasps in shock at what she sees.

Notes:

Boom, cliffhanger, I wonder what the gift is? Hmm? Can y'all guest?

Also been thinking about slipping in a short "what if?" Kind of story.

"What if Artemis found out Harry was still alive when he was younger?"

Also check out my new book set in Heavily AU universe in Games of Thrones.