Amongst the Hunted Moons

Notes:

Welcome, welcome readers to another chapter of Under the Hunters Moon.

We've moved from the Crescent and onto the full moon, this is where the hunt begins and mother meets son.

For those who have pointed out little details in the story, like the portrait of the wizard with a wand and shield, some of those details are little easter eggs from other fanfictions I've read and enjoyed over the years, little shout-outs to them.

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

Hogwarts, December 4th lunchtime, the Great Hall.

It's been two weeks since my little episode in the hospital wing, and it has been a strange two weeks. For the first week during class with the Slytherins, I've felt eyes on the back of my head but not the normal glares or curious glances, just looking at me, but every time I turned my head to see who it was, no one was looking. While the next week the looks hadn't stopped, I was starting to be followed by someone. She wasn't very good at following me unnoticed, but the little girl could hide better than Ginny did last year.

It was the girl I had brought to the hospital wing, Astoria was her name I think, she doesn't follow me all the time just in between a few classes during the week. I have no idea why she is doing this but it's weird, I had decided to just ignore it, for now, she'll stop sooner or later.

Atalanta really kicked up training the last two weeks, I had told her about what happened with Astoria and what happened to me in the hospital wing. She wasn't happy that I had done that, and we went back over how dangerous the hunt could be, but now, now I understood. The want and the hunger, the hunt wanted blood, any blood, and was going to use me to get it one way or another. Atalanta had told me she was approached by Professor Snape and he had told her a few things I didn't notice, things like how I had bent the iron bed frame that I had grabbed to support myself and just how fast I had moved, some of the students I had run by had just reported a blur of black and grey running through the halls. She had explained how she thinks the blessing of the hunt works for both of us, she had explained it like a faucet, while she had it open at a drip and could open to a steady stream when she needed it. I was different, it wasn't a blessing from a goddess for me, it was a part of who I was and it would always be opened at a stream, and if I could do what she thought I could, submerging myself completely into the hunt and letting it take me over; I didn't like the thought of doing that.

The bloodlust from doing what little I did had scared me, I had wanted to hunt and kill everything in the hospital wing and it had shocked me out of falling deeper in. Atalanta told me the best way to not fall completely into the hunt and to pull myself out of it was to find something that reminded me that I was human, not a mindless hound on the trail of prey, something to tie myself to my humanity.

I didn't know what that was, she gave some examples like friends, family, or even someone I loved. But all of them didn't feel right to me, I mean, sure I had friends in Ron and Hermione but they didn't feel all that close, the less said about my family the better, and I'm only thirteen, what did I know about love?

When I had asked Atalanta what she used to remind herself, she had shaken her head and told me that she was a bit different than the rest of the hunters, she had been a lion for a long, long time and knew what it was like being a beast of the hunt; so she knew where the hunter and the human side of the line was and could pull herself back from it. It was frightening to know just how dangerous it was, teetering on that line between human and hunter knowing dipping too far one way could turn me into something like that. So, we've been working on controlling how to open and close the valve that controls it. I found out that whenever I wanted it to open more than I'd feel this pressure in my ears, all I had to do was let them pop and it would flood into me like a river. I was, like with everything else, completely pants at it and had gone through a few more full-body cramps before Atalanta said I was making good progress with it.

Though I think she only said that for my benefit, to try and give me confidence instead of telling me what she really felt.

We also went over all the common types of monsters that a Demigod would encounter, their weaknesses, and the best way to fight them. Hellhounds were just bigger dogs, so taking out a leg or two would hobble them. Cyclopsis had notoriously bad eyesight from far away, but with a great sense of smell, a bow is the best bet. From lesser Giants to pit scorpions, chimera's to hydra's, she had gone over the best way to hunt and kill each one with me, telling me to write it all down because she would be testing me on this. No idea if she was serious about it with the smirk she had, but I did so anyway, because as she said; a hunter is always prepared.

I was excited about today, however, if not a bit apprehensive. Last Wednesday she had told me we were going on a hunt Saturday, and we were going to hunt a few pests in the forest, the Acromantula. She had scouted out a small colony of them that had broken off the main swarm, she wanted to deal with them before they decide to test their luck against the wards at Hogwarts or attack a CoMC class while we were in the forest. They were smart at human-level intelligence, which made them very dangerous, but there were no more than 5 or 6 of them, with bows it should be quick kills, we just had to be careful, they were XXXXX beast for a reason and should not be underestimated nor disrespected in any way.

I was in the Great Hall, eating lunch with Hermione and Ron, I had just gotten done with Quidditch practice, took a shower, and changed from my Quidditch gear into my hunter training gear. Which wasn't much, just jeans, an oversized t-shirt, and my Jacket. I've just finished up with lunch and I tell Hermione and Ron I was heading out, Ron wishes me well while Hermione just waves me off, her nose stuck in an old Latin book, she had said its name was Codex Deorum Albionis, which made no sense to me but Hermione was in one of her studies moods so I was content to let her read whatever. So I got up and left, heading out of the Great Hall, and started to leave through the main castle doors, I caught something on the edge of my hearing, footsteps quickly trying to catch up with me. I tense, ready for a mocking word or a hateful sneer, but instead, I got a cold but polite voice calling out to me.

"Potter! Mother Magic damn you, slow down!" The female voice says, I stopped, confused at the voice, it's not like many people try and stop me in the halls, just whisper and point like rude children that they are. I turn to see who it was, and oh, fuck what was her name! She was Hermione's "rival", Greenwood? Bluegrass? Greengrass! That's right, her name was Greengrass!

" Umm, May I help…you?" I ask as she catches up to me, still confused as to why she of all people would want to talk to me.

She huff's as she stops her almost jog to catch up with me, she's not smiling which is in some way bad, she's just looking at me with cold calculating eyes as if she was measuring me up and finding me wanting for something. She sighs out before reaching into her inner robe pocket and instinctively my hand shoots to my wand in my back pocket as I take a step back, she pauses when she sees that.

"Calm down Potter, I'm not reaching for my wand, just an invitation, that's all." She says with the same cold look on her face, we stare at each other for a long moment before I move my hand away from my wand and just nod, she reaches into her pocket and withdraws a simple white envelope with a green wax seal and hands it to me.

"An invitation to what?" I ask, flipping the letter over and seeing it was indeed addressed to me.

"The Greengrass annual Yule ball of course." She says with a polite smile and a nod of her head.

"Oh," I say a little awkwardly, I start to look around for an escape from this. I really didn't like the sound of a ball, it sounded like it was gonna have a lot of fancy people who were gonna judge me over something and that didn't sound like fun to me.

"I understand that you may not have appropriate dress robes, but not to worry my mother would happily loan you one of my fathers." She says, sounding polite but for some reason, I felt like she was laughing at me, something in her eyes.

"Umm, thank you but, …" I pause before I start trying to turn down the offer, "you see, it's just, umm- i-i don't do well with…people" I grimaced making a face of dislike, "especially with, with large ah, groups." I say as I look everywhere but her face, I could feel my face burning red. "Besides, w-why would you want some…" I choke on the word freak, before saying "someone like me at a Ball. I'd just embarrassed your family." I finish up by looking away.

"I see," she says after a moment, "Well, it's an invitation, you are under no obligation to accept it. Though do write back to my mother and politely tell her you won't be showing, give any excuse that you like just don't be rude, understand?" She asks though it feels like she's telling me, at least there's no judgment in her voice, so I just nod in understanding.

"Also expect a gift from at least my little sister, but more than likely my mother as well." She says before I finally look back at her confused.

"Why?" I ask before she starts to share my confused look.

"Because of what…" she trails off as recognition enters her eyes, "You really don't know?" She says and huffs out a laugh, "The girl whom you raced to the hospital wing was my little sister Potter." She says, oh! That made a bit of sense I guess.

"Oh! Okay, sorry I ah, I didn't know that." I say a bit awkwardly, "Is she alright? She looked pretty bad when I, ah found her." I ask though I know she has to be fine considering she's been following me around for the last week or so.

She nods her head, "Yes, she's…sick," she says with a bit of an odd look in her eyes, "when she filters too much magic through her core, she has an attack like what you saw. Normally she knows when one is coming on and goes to an adult or, at least she should but she is growing to be a stubborn girl with an independent streak you see." She says while I just nod.

I swallow and look back out the main entrance to the castle, I could feel the call of the woods before I look back at Greengrass. "Yeah, umm, sorry to hear that, but I ah, need to go, I've got this thing…" I trail off with a cringe, even I know how bad that sounded, but she just politely smiles and reminds me to write to her mother or father before the twenty-fourth of this month before turning and leaving.

The forbidden forest, twenty minutes later.

I enter the grove that Atalanta had set up as her camping spot, frost and snow covering very little here thanks to the canopy above, I see Atalanta perched in a tree, laying on a particularly thick branch, she's dressed for the colder Scottish winters with a jumper under her silver jacket and a few pairs of long johns and silver and green scarf. She seems to be dozing off like a cat, but I have no doubt she heard me coming into the clearing.

I gather up some snow in my hands, before swiftly throwing a snowball at her, hitting her in the side of the head she sputters and falls out of the tree but gracefully lands on her feet.

"Harry!" She yells at me, "You little shithead, what was that for!?" I couldn't help myself as I laugh at the look on her face, half shocked, and half good-natured anger.

"Can't have you catnapping on the job can we Professor Claydon?" I say in between laughs as I walk up to her, honestly, we have such a weird relationship but I find myself enjoying it, which is weird when I stop and think of it. I know I'm a pretty closed off person, but Atalanta had gotten as close as Hermione and Ron have in half the time.

"Did, …did you just CATpun me?!" She yells at me, the shock deepening on her face.

I smile when I say " Yes." And then she matches my grin back.

"I have never been more proud of another person in my life, kiddo." She says in a serious voice, but her matching grin betrays her. We both laugh at all this before she gets down to business, "Alright kiddo, listen up. We'll be doing something dangerous today so I need your full attention, the spiders we're hunting are XXXXX for a reason, they're smart and deadly, why is that?" She asks me.

"Because they have human-level intelligence and are ambush predators that work in packs or colonies. Their venom is septic with necrosis and anticoagulant properties, while one bite won't kill you, it will take you out of the hunt." I repeated the information she had beaten into my head for the last three training days, literally, she quiz me as she taught me boxing.

She nods at this, "correct. Now, weak spots? Where are we aiming?" She asks her follow-up questions without pause.

"Weak spots are the back half of their body, either slashing with a blade or a good shot will stop them from being able to use their webs, their eyes, aiming for them will punch into their brain dropping them, legs on one side of their body, take those out and then they do nothing but spin in a circle," I answer back easily to her smile.

"Good, I think you're as ready as we can get you, you've killed basilisk kiddo, you can kill these things." She says as she drops her arms that were crossed over her chest, "but heed my words Harry, if I tell you to leave, you leave. If I tell you to hide, you hide, if I tell you to run, you hall ass back to the castle and you get the headmaster. Understand?" She stopped smiling during her speech, as my lips pressed together into a thin line but nod my head not liking it.

"I want to hear you say it, Harry." She tells me in a voice that brokers no argument.

"I'll listen to you, Ma'am," I say looking into her eyes, she sighs before nodding.

"It's Atalanta, not Ma'am Harry, you know that but I get it." She says with a soft smile, "Now come on, we have some spiders to hunt." Before turning around and heading up the hill that leads deeper into the forest. I follow behind her, only stopping for a moment to grab my quiver.

"So, how deep are we heading?" I ask Atalanta, curious to know if we'll be by the main colony or not.

"Not too deep, they made their den in a nice little hollow of one of the ancient trees in the forest." She tells me as we head deeper into the forest for our hunt.

We walked for thirty minutes before Atalanta gave the signal to slow down and get low, we didn't need to alert our prey to us just yet. As we got closer, I could see the vale of webs and the scattering of bones of both small animals and larger prey of the Acromantula as we slinked closer to the nest. I could just make out the shadows of the giant spiders in the webs as they sat perfectly still, waiting for unexpecting prey to come close so they could attack. Atalanta and I take a position behind a large tree that was clear of webs and brush that gave us a perfect angle at the three large Acromantula hiding in the webs above the forest floor, we both take out our bows and notch an arrow as Atalanta whispers to me.

"You take the one on the far left closest to us, I'll take the one in the middle, then we take the one on the far right, okay?" She says in a low and hushed voice, I nod as I line up my shot, breathing slowly and steadily, contrary to the excitement I feel in my chest, "On three, one, two…" she pauses, and as I look at her confused I see her hat twitch. I watch her eyes widen just a fraction before she yells "Shit! Harry! Get back!" and reaches out grabbing my jacket and throwing me backwards. As I sail through the air, I watch in horror as trap doors made from web, dirt, and forest debris open, and two Acromantula burst from them, one grabbing air and the other snagging Atalanta and pulling her under as she drops her bow.

(3rd person POV)

Harry sails through the air with a scream of his teacher's name, "ATALANTA!", the Acromantula that was meant for him turns as its intended prey was sent flying by the other one, its pincers snaps, and clatter as the annoyed spider charges at Harry as he lands and slides on the ice and snow backwards. Harry with his notched arrow wasn't one to waste a shot, he quickly draws the bowstring back and fires at the beast, hitting its open mouth and piercing its brain, it drops to the ground and slides forward as Harry quickly gets to his feet just in time to watch the three spiders descend from their nest with hisses of "fresh meat." That sends a shiver of worry down Harry's spine.

As the Acromantula touches the ground Harry gets his first good look at them, they were as white as the snow and ice with glittering black eyes like gemstones, their pincers and fangs clatter together in excitement for the fresh meal that had found their way into their nest. Harry quickly aims, notching another arrow, he wasn't leaving without Atalanta, but as he does the large spiders scatter into the underbrush and webs, and he sees the trees and bushes shake and move as they encircle him. Harry fires off a shot blindly into a bush to his right, hoping to slow it down or outright kill it. But as soon as Harry does that, another burst out to his left and quickly charges him, reminding him of the night Harry had first encountered them, it rises to its back legs and leaps at Harry, acting quickly Harry rolls under the charge right into the path of the third, as the Acromantula tackles the boy hunter, he rolls with the momentum, dodging its venom-filled fangs and thanking whatever god of the hunt was watching over him it was a smaller one as when he gets his feet under him he lunches off his back.

Spinning on his heel Harry turns back to the spiders to see two of them regrouping and beginning another charge, so Harry does something a smart hunter would do, he turns around and starts running down the path he and Atalanta had come from, folding up his bow before reopening the swiss army knife to his hunting spear, Harry feels his magic wrap around it, Harry hearing the Acromantula chasing him does something very brave, but also very stupid, he closes his eyes.

Harry focuses on the hunt, on the faucet and valve that controls the flow of the divine power and he turns it open as far as he dares let it go. He feels the pressure build in his ears before he feels them pop, Harry opens his eyes, now slitted and ducks as the Acromantula jumps at him. The creature flies over him and crashes to the ground, scrambling to get back on all eight legs as Harry jumps onto the spider's back, planting his spear right through its head before rolling off and continuing to run leaving his weapon behind stuck in the now dead giant arachnid.

With his divine boost of speed, Harry runs through the forest as the other two Acromantula chase after him, ahead of him he sees a fallen tree on the path, held up at an angle by another. The space beneath it was barely big enough to fit Harry, but it would do.

He jumps, twisting in the air where he can see behind him, the Acromantula was catching up to Harry, just like he wanted, Harry thrusts out his hand, hoping his intent would be enough as he focused on his spear that he could still see, calling it to him, back to Harry's open hand, and to Harry's surprised his spear answers him.

Ripping itself from the spider's corpse, it flies with incredible speed to Harry's open hand, which he catches as he hits the ground and slides under the fallen tree, Harry jumps to his feet as one of the Acromantula tries to follow him under the tree, getting stuck. Harry thrusts forward with his spear, piercing the Acromantula right through the head, quickly pulling the blade from the creature's head. Harry swings upwards just in time to bisect the smaller Acromantula that had chosen to go over the log. Wasting no time Harry leaps over the log and races to the clearing all of this started in, unbeknownst to Harry, with the divine hunt pumping through him he had made it back to the clearing before the fourth Acromantula body even hit the ground.

"ATALANTA!" Harry cries out as he reaches the clearing, running towards the corpse of the first Acromantula, the trap door that Atalanta was dragged down into bursts open as the spider comes out of it, and Harry spins his spear in hand and takes aim before stopping dead and using his momentum to lunch the hunting spear through the air with aim straight and true Harry spear hits the Acromantula and pins the creature to the tree.

Atalanta soon follows it, she pulls herself from the webs, covered in green goo and hunting knife in hand, and with a wild scream, she quickly scans the surroundings for any threats. Atalanta's and Harry's eyes meet both their bodies tense, ready for another fight, they look at each other for a moment ready for anything, before the older of the hunters begins to relax.

"Harry," Atalanta says, her voice colored with concern for the boy she had started to see as a younger brother, "Are you still with me?" She asks as she slowly begins to climb out of the hole.

Harry takes a deep breath, gritting his teeth, he focuses on the valve, turning it close, willing the flow to slow down, and minute by minute his body begins to relax as Atalanta climbs from the trap door and very slowly begins to move closer, the hunting knife gripped in her hand and a prayer in her mind.

Atalanta watches as Harry lets out a deep breath before his knees buckle and he begins to collapse from the exhaustion filling him, Atalanta is there to catch him before he falls.

"It's okay Harry," she says to him, "it's okay, you did it kiddo, you did it. You pulled yourself back, you did good, Harry." Atalanta smiles down at Harry, pride shining in her eyes, "Just rest for now."

(End third person POV.)

I lay on the cold snow-covered ground as Atalanta walks around the clearing, I hear her struggle with something, and as I open my eyes and raise my head I see her with a glass beaker with some sort of cover over it taking the fangs of the Acromantula and jabbing them through the cover and filling the beaker with the venom.

"What are you doing?" I ask she looks at me before turning back to her work.

"Hm?" She makes a questioning sound, "Oh, you mean this? I'm just milking the fangs for venom. Damn handy stuff, useful in antivenoms, potions, and for hunters like us, we can lace our arrows with the stuff to hobble our prey." She says as she drains the first one before moving to the second and continuing while I lay my head back down, "ruins any meat it hits, but when you're using poison to put something down, there's a good chance you're not gonna eat it afterwards." She tells me as I lay on the ground.

"Like Sirius Black?" I ask in barely a whisper.

I hear her stop for a moment before walking back over to me, "Yeah. Like him." She tells me when she comes into view and looks down at me. "He won't touch you, Harry. He'll have to get through me first, I promise you that." She says with a solemn vow. The crazy thing is I believe her.

She reaches down with a hand and helps me to my feet, and we begin to walk back to the castle, only stopping so she can drain the other three Acromantula of their venom before moving on. I wonder as we walk by the dead spiders, I didn't feel any pain after closing the valve but I was tired, almost dead on my feet, so I ask Atalanta about it.

"Hey, Atalanta," I start off waiting for her to make a noise telling me to continue, "When I closed myself off from the hunt, it didn't hurt this time, why was that? All I felt was tired after I closed it."

She takes a few moments to think about it before answering. "For us Harry, hunting is like a ritual." She begins in a quiet voice, "When we say our prayers to our god or goddess of the hunt, it initiates the ritual, and as we chase our prey through the woods and over the grasslands we feed the domain of the hunt, filtered through our gods and into the domain. Now, what happens if the ritual isn't completed?" She asks and I take a moment to think, ritual magic was high-end magic but Hermione had gone on a few rants about it while doing Ancient Ruins homework.

"If you don't complete a ritual as intended, it can have a backlash," I answer, silently thanking Hermione.

"Bingo," Atalanta says, and all at once I understood, "Us completing the ritual is us ending the hunt by killing our prey and offering it up in the name of our gods and the hunt itself. But if we don't the hunt takes from us in blood and pain." She explains what I had figured out.

"The downside is that the longer we are on the same hunt, the deeper we can fall into the hunt and lose ourselves," Atalanta says in a quiet almost sad voice, "We call it the Everchase, where the Hunter becomes no more than a beast that needs to be put down because they will never stop hunting."

I shiver at the thought, out of fear or anticipation I can't tell, so I keep quiet as we walk the rest of the way to the castle and Atalanta does comment anymore, we walk back in silence, but as we reach the main door to the castle I stop before it looking down.

"And the exhaustion I felt?" I ask not looking up.

"Harry, you had hunted, fought, and killed four Acromantula after waking up at gods knows when for Quidditch practice, anyone would have been tired after that," Atalanta tells me, and I believe her, maybe I wasn't as weak as I thought. I feel a small smile grow on my face as I turn to face her, only to get a face full of snow.

Atalanta's laughter echoes on the empty grounds as she points at me, "Oh, gods you should see your face," she doubles over with laughter "priceless." She gets out between laughs as I wipe and shake the snow from my face and hair.

"And what was that for?" I ask, not even trying to hide my smile or my own laughter.

"Paybacks a bitch, kiddo," Atalanta says before wiping away the stray tears in her eyes. After calming down and collecting herself she tells me "come on kiddo, let's go to my room and order some snacks, we'll review the hunt and brainstorm where I fucked up and what we can do better next time, huh?" She throws her arm around me and drags me inside with her, we smile and laugh all the way back to her room.

But what neither hunter noticed was the large shaggy black hound, watching them from the shadows of the forest they had just left. The howl that follows fills those who hear it with a profound sense of sadness and loss.

Notes:

Yoooooooooo, Harry's first hunt without it involving some convoluted plot to kill him went pretty well!

Good for our best boy, he deserves a win.

Was the fight scene good? Did y'all like it?

I did.

Did y'all see that book Hermione was reading? Weird name.

Also, have I been misspelling the headmaster's name this whole time without noticing it? Because if I have, I'm going to laugh at myself.

Anyway, we might be going on a short Hiatus for the story for two weeks at most, I have another bug crawling in my head that I want to do a one short for.

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