Full Moon III.8

rivet Drive, Surrey, February 13th, 1994.

The Gods had a set of unspoken rules in the regard to having children, they were mostly followed by all. The rules are as followed:

1: Never take a mortal lover that would go against the laws of man.

2: the mortal parent must be able and willing to take care of the child.

3: Protect the child to the best of their ability while working within the ancient laws that bound the Gods.

Artemis had broken two of these rules, not that she even meant to have a child. Even her flighty and airhead brother followed these rules, and Artemis could hardly believe that he of all gods was a better parent than her, not that she had much practice mind you. So when Artemis left Number 4 Privet Drive, she had made sure she would receive any prayers that Harry would make inside of the house by injecting the wards that were around the home with a small sliver of her divinity. It would not stop the wards from functioning, but it would no longer block Harry's prayers from reaching her, and as soon as the protections fell she would know.

But still, the pain and the beast in her chest had yet to settle, it still hurts, she replays the image of the cupboard and the room of broken and unwanted things over and over, twisting the dagger in her heart more and more, as the Beast that bays for blood has yet to abide from what Artemis promised to Petunia Evans. With her heart and mind warring with each other over the child that carried a piece of her inside him, her thoughts wander back to a time long ago as her body wanders the streets of Surrey, to a time where one could look to the heavens at night and see the stories written in the stars unlike nowadays with the mortals polluting even the sky, to a dark forest in her homeland, to a man made mad by the hunt and the overreaction of her brother.

"I knew, I knew that you were a Goddess who couldn't understand her own heart, but even knowing that I still fell in love with you…"

Orion's last words still rang true, even two thousand years after his death, even after she had immortalized him in the stars. Because Artemis didn't understand her heart nor what it desires, but she understood her mind and her wants, and she really wanted to kill something right now. She wanted to hunt down Sirius Black and peel his skin from his still living body, she wanted to raise Voldemort from the dead to strip him of his magic and hunt him like the animal he was, she to boil Dumbledore alive in Tabasco sauce before shaving his stupid beard from his face. She would have to settle for something else however, Black would meet his fate soon enough, and Dumbledore was needed.

So as Artemis prepared to go back to her hunters, it was like the domain of the hunt answered her own wants as the prayers of her hunters reached her, they had cornered a Drakon in a cave somewhere in upstate New York. Perfect.

Artemis follows the prayers back to the source, a large wooded area not too far from Mount Greylock (He could have gone there if we brought him to the camp.) Artemis grits her teeth as she marches through the woods, the sun still hanging in the sky thanks to the time difference between the U.K and the States. She finds her handmaidens hidden in the trees and the underbrush, waiting for the beast to leave its cave to ambush it, the younger hunters in the back to learn from the elders on how to take a beast as dangerous as a Drakon. (He could have been here, he could have grown up amongst the hunt where he belonged.) Shut. Up. Artemis tells her heart that flooded her mind with the shoulda, coulda, and woulda's because it doesn't change the fact of what happened had happened, the boy survived, that's all that matters, he is hale and…he is hale…(but not whole, we know that now, don't we?)

Artemis finds her lieutenant quickly, in the hopes of a good fight will purge her mind of these traitorous thoughts of the heart. Zoë was skillfully hidden in a tree, eyes locked on the cave when Artemis lands on the branch next to her.

"Report." Orders the monotone Goddess.

If Zoë was surprised at the sudden appearance of her Goddess, she does not show it as she does what is asked of her, "My Lady, we have tracked the beast to the cave beyond yonder. There were several reports from the DOMC that large predators in the area were found savaged and half eaten, along with a few missing hikers, with it being so close to the school they asked up to hunt whatever it is down and neutralize it." Artemis nods at her lieutenant's words, the DOMC, or the Department of Mist Control was a branch of the MACUSA that helped control the Mist that hides both the Wixen world and Divine one from mundane eyes, whenever they came across a beast that could destroy the fragile balance the world found itself in, they would pass it along to her and her hunters to take care of. Only the highest forms of Government were even aware of the Gods, unless they were Demigods themselves. But it was for everyone's benefit to keep the worlds as separate as possible to not step on each other's toes.

"We think it's the Draco," Zoë says, and at this Artemis' eyes widen, Gigantomachian Drakon was a rare hunt indeed, the beast was created to try to bind Athena during the first war with the Giants before she proved too much for the beast and tossed into the heavens forming the constellation that shared its name. But what was it doing awake? The beast shouldn't have risen thanks to most forgetting its story, questions for later, for now.

"Take the hunters and fall back, leave this to me," Artemis orders her lieutenant whose head snaps to her with wide eyes.

"But My Lady, we've been tracking the beast for hours, most are starving for the kill," Zoë informs her.

"That was an order lieutenant. I will take on the backlash of the hunt upon myself, but this is my fight, now go." Artemis said through gritted teeth and with eyes blazing.

Artemis never talked to her lieutenant like this and it shows in Zoë's wide and shocked eyes, but an order was an order, and Zoë was not her Lady's lieutenant for disobeying a direct order. So she nods and leaves her perch to inform the other hunter here.

"Good," thinks the Goddess of the hunt, "my hunters didn't need to be in the area for what I am about to do." Artemis opens her link with those that have her blessing, she can feel them all. The thirty-nine close by, the other forty on Olympus, and the one in England. She feels their souls, Zoë's as cold and distant as the stars, Phoebe's which burned like the sun much like her father, Atalanta's was as fierce as a lioness, and, to Artemis' surprise, the boys(Harry's). She had not opened this link in many years, there was no need she had always made sure her hunters had a hunt to feed off of, to take in the kill at the end of the hunt. She could not stop the hunt from taking them, but she could take on the backlash to protect them by the vows they took when coming under her protection. His soul felt like she was looking at the full moon's reflection on a calm dark ocean of hidden depths, it was a beautiful sight to behold. (If we had opened the link sooner, we could have found him, we could have sav-) ENOUGH! what was done is done, we can not change the past.

Artemis drops from the tree, her body twitches as her muscles convulse from the backlash of the hunt, but she ignores it as she marches on, intent on feeding her bloodlust as she draws her silver hunting knives, which twist and shift according to her will, lengthening into a pair of short swords. Her bow would do no good here, she wanted a fight, something to vent herself on, so she reduces her own divinity to a level of a child of her fathers or uncles to extend the fight waiting for her.

As Artemis approaches the entrance to the cave, the Drakon emerges, and her hunters were correct, it was indeed the Draco. A serpent as long as a New York subway train and just as thick, its scales shifted and twisted with a reflection of the night sky as its eyes, crest, and fangs all burned with star fire. When the beast sees the Goddess, its roar shakes the earth and heavens around it and Artemis answers the beast back with her own cry, as she submerges herself fully into her divine domain of the hunt and meets the serpent head-on and losses her hurt heart to the bloodlust of the hunt.

Harry Potter, Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts.

Harry had run away, he had run away from Hermione's pleading, unworthy of her forgiveness, or so he thought.

He had run away from Ron's words of sorrow over what had happened by shutting his curtains and putting up a silencing charm that Hermione had shown him because he didn't know what Ron saw in someone as useless as him, or so he thought.

He had refused to talk to Miss Atalanta after the Headmaster had confronted him about his weakness, because even if he put aside that she lied to him, how could someone as weak as him become a great hunter, or so he thought.

He had run from the Headmaster after the man's placating words of removing him from the Dursley, Harry knew it was untrue for the wards were too powerful to ignore and be left to fall, he would return to his prison in a few short months of freedom and magic. The Headmaster had subsequently given Harry a pass for the days he missed and for the remainder of the week to come to terms with the upheaval he found himself in the middle of and canceled the detentions that he had earned, but would not overturn the points lost for it.

So as Harry lay in his bed, stewing in the misery brought up by just being him, the words beaten into him play on repeat till he dreams of a moon on the ocean.

Hopeless, useless, worthless, unworthy, and a waste of space.

Artemis, a bloody field full of heartbreak.

Artemis sits on the unmoving corpses of her prey looking into the sky, the fight was magnificent and lasted well over an hour as she met her prey's fangs and star fire with her own silver and cunning. She was covered head to toe in gore and blood as she looked upon Orion high in the sky as his last words replayed in her head, "A Goddess who doesn't understand her own heart." He was right of course, he could always see through her in the end. She didn't understand her heart, and now, she wasn't even sure she was the master of it, as the grim grip of despair had its claws around it and refused to let it go. She had thought her heart had the desire for a hunt, for a kill, for something to vent upon but still, it twisted in pain of what she had found in the halls and minds inside of number 4 Privet Drive.

For a short time, her heart was forgotten as she fought The Draco at a mortal level and submerged into the hunt, in the violence that she had thought it called out for, but as soon as the great serpent of the stars lay dead and she emerged from the hunt it all came flooding back, the want for violence, the pain in her breast, her sweet victory turned to ash in her mouth; and she didn't understand why. (We left Harry, our Harry, in a hell because we never checked the connection with him, we assumed he was dead.)

The crib was crushed.

(We never saw a body.)

We felt three mortal souls ripped from their bodies.

(We never even looked!)

It doesn't matter, it wasn't our fault.

(Yes it was.)

The crib was crushed, and three mortal souls were ripped from three mortal bodies, we assumed it was the price we paid for our curiosity.

(But we were not the ones who paid for it!)

"A Goddess who doesn't understand her own heart."

"JUST SHUT UP!" Artemis yells to what she assumed were just the cold uncaring stars so far away.

"My Lady?" The voice of Artemis' lieutenant carries out of the dark forest behind her, Artemis' head quickly turns as Zoë steps out of the shadows holding something in her arms concern coloring her face. "Are yee feeling well?" Zoë asks.

Artemis is quiet for a long moment as her head tilts back to Orion, mockingly looking down on her, never knowing how much his words had haunted her to this day. All Artemis can do is shake her head, she didn't understand, so she doesn't think she was well.

"No Zoë, I do not believe I am well." The Goddess admits freely to her oldest friend and hunter.

"Is there anything I can do My Lady?" Zoë asks, wanting to help the Goddess that took her in and gave her a new purpose so long ago.

Artemis shakes her head before answering, "No, for I do not know what is wrong Zoë." Artemis sighs out as she drops off the body of The Draco and walks over to her lieutenant as her heart cries out to her mind.

(It's because we love him, and we hurt him, we left him in darkness and pain for all these years and did nothing.)

We do not love.

(We love him, we love him like we loved Orion.)

Then we are like our father now?

Her heart had no answer to that because it did not know.

"I see," whispers her lieutenant softly before holding out what was in her arms, "A clean jacket My Lady, I will not question why you wear that old one, but I thought you might like one not so beat up and raggy," Zoë says, unknowingly insulting the boy(her son).

"I like it, it's warm." Artemis makes her excuse. (Because it smells like Harry.) But Zoë continues to stare at her, unblinking, holding out the bomber jacket, Artemis shakes her head and smirks at her Lieutenant before taking the jacket, "Mother hen." Artemis calls Zoë.

"Well, My Lady, someone must make sure you look presentable, or else you'd run around covered in mud and blood." Zoë snarks back with a smile of her own. Artemis shrugs, she knew Zoë was right.

"Nothing wrong with being covered in the blood of one's prey, Zoë," Artemis says, not changing out of the jacket, but instead turning back to the sky, back to Orion.

"Of course not, My Lady," Zoë says as she turns her eyes skyward to where her Goddess was looking, "Do you miss him?"

"Yes." is all Artemis says.

"A Goddess who doesn't understand her own heart."

"Well," Artemis thinks to herself, "it's about time I figure it out, huh Orion?"

"Zoë, you're in charge of the hunt till I return, apologize to them for me for taking their kill," Artemis tells her lieutenant.

"If I may ask My Lady, where are you going?" Zoë asks

"A place I swore I would never step foot in." Artemis says as she begins to walk towards the woods, and Zoë makes a noise of protest, "do not worry mother hen, it's not dangerous, merely…humiliating." Artemis says the last part in a sigh, "I'll be gone two days at the most, take care of the hunt." She tells her lieutenant, already knowing she would.

"Of course, My Lady," Zoë says with a worried frown as she watches the Goddess she was sworn to disappear into the dark of the woods.

Mount Olympus, Empire State Building, 600th floor, New York.

Artemis hated pink, it was an awful, disgusting, eye sore of a color found nowhere in the natural world other than flowers, flowers that only bloom in spring to be fed upon by deer and trampled under their feet when the hunter approached. Now, now she was surrounded by the color that should be used to torment the vilest souls in Hades realm, and she hated it even more because she had come here willingly, why couldn't she go with a better color than barbie pink, silver was a very good color, in fact, it was the best if one would to ask the Goddess of the hunt.

Wait, what the hell was a barbie and how did Artemis know that Barbie pink was even a color? great, this place was infecting her.

At least it had a skylight.

Artemis stands in the temple of her immortal enemy, a being that had cursed her, and her hunters, they had fought on the floor of the Olympian counsel and had come to physical blows more times than Artemis cared to remember. The only time in their long history of fighting they ever agreed on something was to punish Apollo for sending Orion into a mad rage that pushed him so deep into the hunt that Artemis had to put him down. Neither Artemis nor her enemy talks about that day with each other.

The room she stands in is modeled after a high-class ritzy hotel penthouse in Paris, France, everything was high-class and crystal from the vases, to the cups, to the Chandelier and Artemis wanted to smash it all just to spite the bitch, but she wasn't here to cause trouble, no she was her because she needed said bitches help, Artemis feels so dirty admitting that to herself. Honestly, the look on the receptionist's face when Artemis walked by her heading into the heart of the temple was almost worth the visit, almost.

So as the hearth crackles away with divine fire Artemis was looking to the Moon so high above the earth, cold and uncaring, above the petty arguments of the mortal realm, the door handle to the room turns, and in walks the bitch.

Her blonde hair hung in ringlets going down to her mid-back, eyes as blue as cut Sapphires, skin pale and without blemishes or scars, her figure one that most mortals would cause a genocide for. But like most things with the bitch, none of it was true, her features would shift and twist into whoever the beholder loved, be it the puppy love of the young, the never-ending devotion that comes with true love, or the heated passion of lust. So when Artemis' eyes briefly looked over to who had entered the room and saw blonde become black, and sapphire become emeralds, Artemis quickly looked away, cursing herself for coming here.

"No, I'm telling you Persephone, Hades loves the evil queen step-on-me look, leave him with a good memory to rema-" the Goddess stops talking on the slim flip phone in shock as she sees who is in the heart of the temple.

There is a moment of complete quiet, other than the crackling of the hearth, as one Goddess looks at the Moon and the other looks at her uninvited guest in shock.

"Seph, listen, something just came up. I've got to go, no no, nothing bad, I hope." The Goddess says into the phone as she walks into the room and sets the bags she was carrying down on one of the chairs. "I'll call you back later, promise, yeah. Bye loves." She says as she shuts the phone and tosses it with her bags and looks at the Goddess of the hunt with trepidation.

"Aphrodite." Artemis greets the mistress of the house in her normal cold tone.

"Artemis." Aphrodite greets back in the same cold tone.

There is a moment of tense silence as the two Goddesses who hated each other the most occupy the same room without it exploding into heated tempers. Aphrodite takes it all in with cold calculation, what did Artemis want? Was she here to pick a fight the day before Aphrodite's holiday? She wasn't a fighter like her boyfriend, nor was she clever in the way her husband was, but Artemis had walked into the heart of Aphrodite's center of power, where she reigned as queen, not her.

"I need to…speak with you about something private," Artemis says the words like they were the most painful thing she had ever spoken.

Aphrodite quirks her perfect eyebrow at this, She and Artemis didn't have a good history of girl talk, in fact, they had no history of girl talk. When they normally talked to each other it was to trade insults with one another.

"If memory serves me right, last time we talked," Aphrodite uses air quotes for the last word, "You called me the, what was it again? Ah right the Olympian organ orifice" the Goddess of sex cocks her hips after reminding Artemis of her words.

The Goddess of the Hunt doesn't flinch or turn her eyes from the Moon as she is quiet for a moment before saying "I'm not apologizing for being right." In the same deadpan tone.

Aphrodite yells in exasperation as she throws her hands in the air, the pure nerve of the Moon Goddess gets under the Goddess formed from sea foam skin faster than anything, Aphrodite needed a drink to deal with her. So as Aphrodite walks across the room to her private bar she fumes and tells the other Goddess in the room.

"If this has anything to do with your hunters, it was all-natural, I had no hand in it."

The Goddess of Love was telling the truth, after the incident that happened fifty years ago, it wasn't worth the collateral damage messing with Artemis' hunters anymore, Aphrodite had a lot to lose, Artemis, by contrast, had very little to lose.

"No, it's not about them, though I will remind you to keep away from Atalanta," Artemis says as she continues her star gazing.

Aphrodite busies herself with making a mimosa and snorts, Atalanta was so B.C and would likely shoot her if she got within a hundred miles of the lioness. So as Aphrodite turns around to look at Artemis, crystal Margarita glass in hand, she notices the Goddess of Maidens has not once looked at her, Aphrodite's eyes narrow a bit but says nothing about it.

"So, if this is personal and not about your personal group of prudes, what is this about Artemis?" Aphrodite asks, patience wearing dangerously thin.

"I need you to swear an oath first," Artemis tells the beautiful one, "that you will not speak about anything you learn from me to anyone else on the pain of all of your children's deaths."

Aphrodite's eyes narrow even further at that, taking a sip of her mimosa the Goddess of Love thinks to herself, Artemis would never ask for an oath of secrecy unless what she wanted to talk about was really juicy. The fact she wanted to keep the girl talk a secret by oath, that she had not looked at her once after Aphrodite walked through the door, and the damning fact that she had come to her of all Gods, oh this was gonna be good.

So as Aphrodite leans against the private bar she smiles and says, "I swear upon the River Stixs and the painful death of all my children that whatever you tell me in the next, say, two hours, starting now, I will not speak to another living being, be it Gods, mortals, demigods, or monsters and everything in between without your expressed permission unless they already know." With a crack of thunder, the oath was sealed by the powers higher than the Gods.

With a sigh, Artemis finally stops her stargazing and looks at Aphrodite, Artemis sees the curly blonde hair shift to an unruly black, and the perfectly cut sapphire eyes turn into sparkling emeralds.

Aphrodite feels her features shift to a more masculine look, her hair turns black, and her eyes the most shocking shade of green as her mouth opens in surprise, Artemis had never made her form shift, but it wasn't as shocking as what the Goddess of the Hunt said next.

"I have a son." The Goddess of Maidens confesses.

The crystal glass shatters when it hits the floor as Aphrodite drops it in shock, along with her jaw.

One hour and three neat whiskeys for the Goddess of Love later.

It was one hour, three neat whiskeys, and one short screaming match when Artemis tried to sit on her antique Haverty's furniture when said Goddess of the hunt was covered in blood and dirt, and Aphrodite confiscated the worst offenders on Artemis' body, a beat up old leather jacket she was wearing. Oh, the fit she had thrown over that shook the temple to its roots, and Aphrodite could tell why, the jacket was a gift out of love, not her type of love mind you, but love nonetheless. Interesting.

Not as interesting as the story, however. A binding ritual for fertility that had caught Artemis in its web because the male could turn into her sacred animal, a woman in this day and age who could cast it, Artemis actually accepting and gifting the couple with a child before their untimely death over a year later. Aphrodite felt like she had hit pay dirt for a best-selling novel, or some cringe fanfiction.

But it hadn't stopped there, she had found the boy, Harry Potter, Alive, eleven almost twelve years later. Her son she had assumed dead in a war between Wixen, another casualty of it, only to hear a prayer from him while he was fighting a basilisk of all things to save a girl, Aphrodite almost swooned right there.

How Artemis had sent a hunter, Atalanta the lioness herself, to train the boy because of the double-edge blessing that her domain was, how the boy had saved ANOTHER maiden from death or so it seemed, at that point, Aphrodite's near-perfect poker face had almost crumpled right then and there, this boy was A+ hero in a classic romance novel and he wasn't even eighteen yet!

Then they had gotten to their first meeting and the train wreck that it was, even under perfect conditions a demigod meeting their divine parent was always touch-and-go. Unique for each of the children, sure the divine parent could choose to meet their children right before claiming them, but once again, very touchy. But this meeting? This meeting took the cake on fuck ups, telling the boy he was just a curiosity after said boy admitted he was abused? I mean, Artemis have some tac for once in your life and read the room, campsite, whatever.

Artemis admitted to never hearing any of the prayers the boy had spoken of, so she had gone to the house where the boy lived, and boy did she find them. Stuck in a loop inside the blood protections that the mortal mother had laid on the child before it was turned into a ward to protect the boy behind his mother's blood, Aphrodite whistled at that part, that was a part of her domain and that was the highest level conceptually possible that mortal magic could go, to even stop a God for a short time, no matter how short of a time, was a feat worthy of the legends of old.

But then Artemis had gotten to what she had found in the house, both a prison and protection for the boy. She had spoken of dark cupboards and a room of broken things, about the rage, pain, and desperation in the prayers, she spoke of how hope died in a boy who hadn't even reached double digits in age. Aphrodite's heart went out to the kid, it really did. But she was focusing on the important things at the moment, like the tiny little heartthrob running around a magic castle saving maidens with a dark past and scars, adding in the leather jacket that Aphrodite was sure was the boy's and she almost creamed herself in excitement. This was one hundred and one percent her weakness, how old was this kid again? Thirteen? Fuck, far too young. Okay, so she couldn't show the kid what love can do like that, but Aphrodite was pretty sure she had her next drama, she just had to scout the local talent.

But then Artemis got to the meat of this five-course buffet, and oh was it good. Artemis thought she was turning into King Bull himself, now don't get her wrong, Aphrodite had taken a ride on that bull herself, she didn't like to think of the aftermath, not her best moment, but the point was she knew the appetite of the king of the gods and frankly while he was into some kinky stuff, Aphrodite was unimpressed. Zeus was beyond a selfish lover, toeing into toxic, but Artemis thought she was at Zeus-level hedonism? That was a joke, she wasn't even on the chart. But Aphrodite understood where her enemy was coming from, Artemis was beyond her power and domain, and because of that, she could not tell lust, from love, from family. It was like a built-in blind spot for her, she couldn't tell she loved the boy as a son and not like Orion.

While Aphrodite could explain this herself, and teach Artemis what her heart was feeling, it does, technically, fall into her realm. But she would step on some toes, toes that if she did step on would earn her the wrath and rage of every being on the Olympian Council and Aphrodite would rather avoid that. So as the two Goddess lulled into silence after the yarn had been spun, Aphrodite decided to go for it.

"Artemis," Aphrodite begins slowly and cautiously, "While I would love to help you in this matter, I fear that I am the wrong Goddess for this. So I would like to bring in another, with your permission."

"How can you not help? You are the Goddess of this, are you not?" Artemis questions but all Aphrodite does is frown before informing the Moon goddess of what her limits were.

"While yes, this is a matter of love, it is not the circles of love that I dabble in," Aphrodite admits because while yes she could, due to being the Goddess of Love, we circle back to pissing everyone off. "It's someone we both trust and someone who will keep your secret without an oath ever being needed," Aphrodite informs Artemis, and sees the amber eyes go wide in realization.

"Oh, her. Are you sure she can help?" Artemis asks

"This is more her domain than mine, Artemis" Aphrodite assures her.

Artemis thinks about this for a moment before nodding, and with that Aphrodite gets up from her seat and walks over to the Hearth before leaning down and calling out into the divine fire.

"Aunt Hestia, are you free? I have Artemis here and she needs to talk to you." Aphrodite says and waits for the response she knew was coming.

"Arty you say? With you? Is everything…okay?" The youthful voice calls from the fire.

"We are being civil if that's what you are asking, Aunty," Aphrodite says to the eldest female Olympian that everyone but her brothers and sisters called Aunt or Aunty in some form or another, Aphrodite wasn't even related to any of the Olympians and she still called Hestia by Aunt Hestia, "But Artemis needs some help with a very sensitive topic, and she is far overdue for an explanation about a few things."

The fire crackles and goes quiet for a moment before the voice of the last Olympian calls out, "Stand back, I'm coming through." And Aphrodite does that, moving across the room towards the door.

The fire from the Hearth roars as a figure steps out, she looked no more the eight or nine, dressed in a simple brown dress, her brown hair looked as if flame licked at the edges of it, but I was the eyes that gave her away as a god, like twin burning coals or dancing flames in the dark. The first eternal maiden, the keeper of the flame of the west, and the last Olympian, Hestia. While technically a minor Goddess, there was not a soul on Olympus or in Hades that would dare call her that. She was the eldest child of the Titans and the youngest of the Olympians that had the love and respect of all who had sat by her Hearth, and without saying a word, Hestia had conjured up two mugs of hot chocolate and sat by Artemis.

"Speak child, let me know what weighs so heavily upon you." Aunt Hestia speaks softly, offering the Moon Goddess one of the mugs, and as Artemis does, she is cut off by Aphrodite speaking.

"Know this, and know this now," Aphrodite speaks and her power resonates throughout her temple, " You speak of matters of the heart, in the temple and seat of my power, know that you may speak freely for none will know what is said but you two and none shall interfere with you." And as Aphrodite speaks, her power takes hold, and Zeus could be right outside the door striking it with his master bolt, but it would do little for this was her domain where she was queen. And her word was law.

So as Aphrodite turns to the door to leave the maidens to speak alone, she sneaks a peek behind her and sees Artemis far too wrapped up in speaking with Aunt Hestia, Aphrodite reaches out and quietly picks the old and battered leather jacket off her coat rack and leaves the room with it and a smile on her lips.

She would have to push back her Bi-brunch with Poseidon and Amphitrite if not outright canceling it, she could push back her roleplay lunch with Ares, he wouldn't mind. There wasn't a force on earth or in Hades to make her cancel her dinner with her husband, but that doesn't matter, she would return long before then. After all, it wasn't that long of a trip to the Scottish Highlands.

Notes:

Bet you didn't expect a third chapter, did you? Well, fuck you here it is.

Did anyone guess that Artemis, the chaste Hunter would go to her greatest enemy?

What about Hestia? I mean one of the main themes is family.

But now Aphrodite is heading to Hogwarts, god's help that poor school, it's about to be the personal playground to the Goddess of Love on the one day of the year when she is stronger than Zeus.