A Midsummer Centaur

Notes:

And so we start another chapter of a Midsummer Hunt, this one is gonna be a short one, around 3k words, hope y'all don't mind that.

But in this chapter, we find something out about the centaurs of the Forbidden Forest.

On with the show!

Harry Potter.

At the crack of the gunshot, Harry had taken off like a bat out of hell, charging through the forest in the direction of where the Centaur had run after striking and snagging Brittany. Harry, taking deep breaths, could smell Brittany, or at least who he guessed was Brittany, because Harry didn't think the scent of forest earth and horse was her. Harry makes it to a small clearing just in time to see the Centaur toss Brittany to the ground, she lands hard, but to the girl's credit, she rolls with the momentum popping up to a kneeling position before drawing her silver hunting knife from her back with a growl at the horse-man.

At her drawing her knife, the Centaur draws his own weapon, an as big sword as the girl he had just tossed to the ground.

"Leave her alone!" Harry yells, spear already in hand and the hunt whispering for a kill in his ear. The Centaur turns his head to him, distracting him just enough for Brittany to stand up and pull her Hatchet from its leg holster.

"And why should I trespasser, you and the group of girls this one belongs to are not allowed here!" The Centaur says back to Harry as he takes a few steps back from Brittany, sword pointed at her, "This forest is sacred ground that you and the others sully by just being here, and the law of the hunt leader is to kill all trespassers," his words causes Brittany to growl once again.

"You're outnumbered, drop the sword and leave, take the other Centaurs with you, don't be stupid," Harry tries to reason with the centaur, hoping that he would take the easy out and just leave. Because Harry really didn't want to kill him, he still remembers the centaur that had saved him from Voldemort, that let him ride on his back to safety.

"Outnumbered?" The centaur asks, sounding amused, but to Harry, it was anything but funny, "Who said I was outnumbered human?" The Centaur says to Harry with a smile just before the boy who lived heard the twang of a bowstring. Listening to his instincts, Harry quickly brings his arm up to block the side of his head just in time for his arm and jacket to take the impact of the arrow that hit him hard enough to send him spiraling. Harry lands hard as he hears a yowl like a hellcat before the sound of weapons clashing and hooves beating against the ground, he rolls right avoiding another arrow before he's able to get back to his feet just in time to duck a hammer swing from a third Centaur that had charged him.

"Don't do this, I don't want to hurt you damn it!" Harry yells as he dodges another swing from the hammer polearm-wielding Centaur, gaining some space and putting the third Centaur in between him and where the archer was now emerging from.

"You should have thought of that before entering our domain, you are either the hunter or the hunted here boy!" Says the third Centaur before he charges Harry, swinging his weapon at the boy who tries to block it, but is knocked down as the Centaur gallops past him with a roar. Harry hears another shot from a bow and instinctively rolls out of the way, but there is no sound of impact near him, instead, he hears the yowls coming from Brittany turn into a scream. He looks up and over to where she was fighting, and his eyes widen at the sight of the girl, an arrow sticking out of her leg, she reaches down to grab it as the Centaur she was fighting rares up, sword held high to bring down on the girl as another arrow finds its way into the girl's stomach at an angle. Harry watches all of this in slow motion, Brittany's face twists in pain, the sword coming down, the sound of hooves behind him, and the drawing of a bowstring.

Harry's breath comes in as a gasp as he feels his ears pop, and the Hunt floods into him as black spots dance across the back of the sword-wielding Centaur.

(A\N: The moment when that Doom music kicks in.)

There's a crack that echoes through the clearing, not from a gunshot, but from the rapid displacement of air and a spurt of blood blossoms from the sword-wielding Centaur chest as a silver spearhead pierces where his heart was just a second before Harry's feet meet his upper spine breaking it and Harry uses it as a launching pad, pushing himself off the back of the Centaur he lands on his feet just in time to spin and swing his spear, shattering the arrow that was fired at him.

With all that Atalanta had taught him about the Hunt, controlling it, and honoring it, she had forgotten to teach Harry one of the most important lessons of the Hunt, she was more focused on teaching the boy how to survive it than any philosophical lessons behind it.

The polearm Centaur screams as his brother falls dead to the ground from the swift death that was brought onto him by the human boy. He charges at the boy as the human turns to him he sees eyes that he had not seen in a very, very, long time and as the Centaur raises his weapon to cave the humans head in to avenge his brother, he blinks and the human is gone from where he once stood before he feels his forelegs give out and burning pain shoot up his body, and he screams as he falls to the ground, looking down his eyes grow wide as he sees his two front legs detach from his body.

Hunter and the hunted, the chased and the chaser, the afraid and the one they fear, the killer and the killed, those who eat and those who die.

The Centaur turns to find the human swinging his spear, still covered in the blood of his brother and himself, to deflect another arrow before spinning it in his hand to where the point of the spearhead is pointing forward as he cocks his arm back and throwing it into the tree line the Centaur hears the spear sink into a body and knew he lost another brother to this human.

It doesn't matter what one would call it, it boils down to what is prey, and what is a predator, and by the virtue of Harry's blood alone, he was prey to nothing and no one.

The human turns back around and starts to walk back to the Downed Centaur, holding out his arm with his hand open. The Centaur reaches out to grab his fallen weapon, to kill this human boy before he dies, but before he can reach it, the Centaur hears the sound of something flying through the air. Looking back at the human just in time to see his spear jumping back into his hand as if called to him like a faithful hound, just like his Lord was able to do when he was free, the boy twirls the spear in his hand before, with a flick of his wrist, he throws the spear right through the heart of the Centaur.

That was the rule of the Hunt, kill or be killed, either way, you will feed the Hunt.

Harry rushes over to the fallen Hunter, sliding on his knees the last few feet, Brittany takes one look at Harry's eyes and screams, "No, No, fuck, No, get away from me, Fuck!" As she tries to crawl back reaching for her hatchet laying on the ground just out of reach for the girl, Harry, shocked at how she was acting, backs up and out of the girl's reach, seeing stops the girl's panicked response as she just looks at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Harry asks, "I'm trying to help, what is it?" He says as he looks behind him to see if any more Centaurs were charging at him, before looking back at the girl, still looking at him with open surprise. She doesn't say a thing, just looks at him, Harry sighs in frustration, "I'm trying. To. Help, but I don't know what to do, I've never done this before!?" Harry says, panicking himself.

Brittany's mouth opens and closes a few times before she finally speaks, "br-brake the shaft of the arrow off till there's only half inch sticking out of my thigh, the arrowhead needs to be removed at camp, I'm pretty sure it hit the bone," she says in a small voice as she watches him with wary and mesmerized eyes, as Harry does what was told to him before he moves his hands to his stomach only to get them smacked away by Brittany, "Don't you dare!" She hisses at him as he immediately pulls his hands back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I swear I'm just trying to help," Harry says panicked, "I didn't mean anything like that, I swear," he says quickly.

"It's a flesh wound, it didn't hit any organs just skin and muscle, I need to stim the bleeding," she tells him as she reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a silver bag with a sun yellow cross on it, "You," she says with a weak glare, "Need to go help the other two, by either killing the Centaurs they are or leading them back here so they can help me without the risk of broken oaths," Brittany tells him, Harry just nods looking down, his entire body shaking.

"Okay, okay, okay," Harry says as he gets to his feet, "i-i can do that, I'll be right back with them, yeah, ah, yeah," Harry turns and runs over to the last dead centaur and pulls his spear out of its dead heart with a wet {pholp} as blood pours from the wound, he turns around to look back at Brittany, "Just, ah, just do-don't die, o-okay?" He told her still shaking before he turned back around and ran into the woods to find the other two hunters, he had left with such speed he didn't hear Brittany mutter under her breath as she looked at the carnage around the clearing.

"What the fuck is he," Brittany says, awe clear in her voice.

It takes Harry a few minutes to find the other hunters, the sound of retreating hooves led him straight to them as he sees a Centaur running in the opposite direction off to the left of his path, as Harry changes course and chases after the Centaur, as there's a crack of Sophie's rifle and Harry watches as the Centaurs head disappear in a spray of blood, skull, and gray matter and the rest of it falls to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Yee-fucking-haw, asshole!" Harry hears Sophie scream, Honestly, Harry was kind of scared of Sophie.

He catches up with the girls soon after that, and is greeted by the barrel of a rifle pointed at his head, as he drops to the ground to avoid being shot, he hears Atalanta scream, "Sophie, Don't!" Before the bang of the rifle sends Harry's ears ringing and his head splitting.

"Atalanta, what in the fuck are you doing the hunt has him!?" Sophie yells as Atalanta hisses in pain, and Sophie reloads by opening the trapdoor of the rifle, making the round pop out as she pulls out another before loading it. But before she can level the rifle at Harry, Atalanta steps in between them.

"Sophie, stop!" She says holding her hand to her chest, she turns to Harry, "Harry, say something, anything, Please," the Lioness says with a bit of desperation in her voice.

"Sophie, you crazy bitch, stop pointing that at me, Brittany is fucking hurt!" Harry yells from the forest floor.

Sophie slowly drops her gun as she gawks at Harry, "Well tie me up, slap a bow on my ass, and drop me off on Zeus' lap," Sophie says in shock before she turns to look at Atalanta, "Did you know about this shit?" She asks.

Atalanta just nods her head, "Yeah, Lady Artemis told me about it, thought it was a fluke at first, but fuck me if it is this time as well," she says breathlessly as she looks at Harry getting up off the ground.

"Happily," Sophie mutters before shaking her head slowly, before her eyebrows jump to the top of her head, "Oh, shit, Brittany! You said she was hurt? Where the fuck is she!?" Sophie says, sounding panicked.

Harry looks between the two, confused, before jerking his head off to the side, "This way, come on," he says before leading the other two hunters off into the clearing.

Hunter's encampment, After Dinner.

It didn't take them long to get back to Brittany, Harry had stayed out of the clearing in case they needed to take off Brittany's shirt, he had stood maybe thirty feet from the Centaur Archer he had killed only minutes before, and Harry had watched the after-death spasms of its hooves with what felt like a detached interest as he waited for the girls to finish up so they could leave. He had overheard them talking as Sophie worked on Brittany.

"His eyes, Atalanta, his eyes were like Victoria's were when we lost her, how is he able to remain human with that much of the Hunt pumping through him, is he like Lady Artemis or the Lieutenant?" Brittany had said, anger in her voice underlined with a bit of something else Harry couldn't put a name to.

"No," Atalanta had said after a moment, "I'm pretty sure it's something else," Harry had no clue what she talking about, but he was curious about the eye comment, he know about the split pupil thing, but as Harry used his shirt to wipe the blood off his spear to use as a mirror, he saw what they meant, his eyes were no longer emerald green, but a golden-yellow like a wolf, which was neat he guessed. But when the girls called out for him, his eyes had slowly started to turn back to normal, and with Atalanta carrying Brittany back in her arms, they had made it back to the encampment without being harassed again. They had immediately dropped Brittany off at the medic tent being run by Phoebe with the help of two nymphs before making their way to Artemis' tent to report their findings. What had not helped in doing that is the first words out of Sophie's mouth,

"Harry is a fucking idiot," which was quickly followed without prompting, "incredibly skilled and scary, but still a fucking Idiot!"

This led to Harry having to explain that he had forgotten to tell anyone about the Centaurs in the forest, which led to Harry watching the interaction between Artemis and Zoë, as if they were having a conversation with their eyes alone, before telling him that the patrols would be warned before the night began. They moved on to their mission and reported on their findings that something really weird had happened, Atalanta had just gotten to the part where Harry had let her use his cloak when she had slapped her forehead before pulling it out and handing it to him with words of thanks when Artemis had asked a question.

"What cloak?" The Goddess of the Hunt had asked, before everyone but the Goddess in the tent, looked between the cloak that Atalanta was handing back to Harry, to Artemis, back to the cloak before blinking.

Zoë turned to her Lady, "But, …My Lady, Atalanta is holding a cloak," she says slowly, just as confused as everyone in the tent.

Artemis narrowed her eyes and studied Zoë's face for a moment, before her eyes pop wide, "Ah! I understand now," Artemis says sagely, "this is a practical joke you are playing on me, for my own joke about not correcting your assumption about Harry's gender, isn't it?" She said, nodding with a smile as if she was in on a joke, a joke no one was playing on her, "A good one," Artemis said.

Her hunters wildly looked between each other not knowing how to tell a God that they were wrong, Harry had just sighed before grabbing the cloak, standing up, and throwing it over his shoulders, vanishing from sight.

Artemis' reaction was instant, her eyes narrowed again before looking around the tent trying to find something, then her eyes shut for a moment before shooting open wide with panic and fear as she leaped to her feet, "Harry!" She yelled, sounding just as scared and panicked, "Harry!" She called once more before Harry dropped the hood of his cloak, he had never moved from his spot.

"But, …how, … I couldn't…" Artemis was rendered speechless at the sight of Harry's floating head.

That had led to Harry telling her the story of how he had gotten the cloak, how it had belonged to his father, and no, he had no idea where his dad got a cloak that could blind a god from whoever was under it. It was around that time Atalanta had screamed incoherently and ran from the tent much to the confusion of everyone, before returning a moment later with a book. She had read the tale of three brothers from it, and Harry had shrugged as far as he knew the name Peverell meant nothing to him. But the way Artemis had looked at the cloak before shaking her head and saying "that not even Thanatos could hide from the other gods," made Harry consider that the story may be true after all.

They had returned to the scouting mission after that, and Atalanta had drawn a rough map of the area she had scouted, and then they had gotten to the statue.

"Are you sure it was the same language, Harry?" Artemis had asked, and Harry had nodded, he wouldn't forget anything those voices had whispered to him, they had chilled him to the bone. He tried to forget his time in the land of shadows, but nightmares were never kind, and sleep never came easy for Harry because of them. They had agreed to stay away from the statue before they were dismissed from the tent for dinner.

Harry had eaten with Atalanta that night, with her by his side she made sure no one cutted in line before them, so both of them got a decent meal before sitting down by the fire. Harry could feel the eyes on him as he ate his food, he was the first one to finish, so he had wished Atalanta a good night before heading to the kitchen to help clean up, and throughout the next hour Hunter had brought in their trays and plates and Harry would clean them in between cleaning and packing away cutlery, serving trays, and other kitchen supplies by the nine pm role around Harry was exhausted from the day and left the kitchen spotless as he heads back to his tent.

When he got back to his tent Atalanta was already there, reading a book, already in her sleeping bag, she looks up with a smile, "You don't mind do you?" She asks and Harry smiles back.

"Not at all," he says as he pulls his Gryffindor pajamas from his trunk and takes a shower washes the blood, sweat, and dirt from himself, and changes in the stall before crawling into bed to snuggle up with Atalanta. Just before either of them started to doze off, there was a tap at the tent flap and Brittany pokes her head in.

"Umm, do you guys mind if I join you tonight?" She asks, her brow furling in uncertainty.

Atalanta looked down at Harry, who just shrugged, "Sure, bring your bag?" Atalanta asks with a smile, Brittany smiles before showing off her sleeping bag before coming into the tent and Harry flips over pressing his face into his pillow as Brittany changes and slips into her sleeping bag before crawling into Harry's bed, sandwiching him between the two hunters. As they all snuggle up to go to sleep, Brittany speaks in a soft voice.

"Thank you, Harry," the hatchet-wielding Hunter says as she begins to drift off to sleep, "for saving me, that is," she elaborates.

Harry just smiles, "That's what family is for, right?" He says, before beginning to drift off himself, Brittany doesn't answer but snuggles closer to Harry, and that's all the answer he would ever need, and the three hunters drift off to sleep.

But are soon awakened to the scream of "BONZAI!" as a Sophie size missile crashes into all three of them to join in on the snuggling.