A Midsummer Hunt

A Midsummer Statue

Harry Potter, Hunter's Encampment.

Harry Potter didn't know what God he had pissed off in a former life to be cursed with the inability to wake up normally, instead of say, someone screaming at him at an ungodly hour. But low and behold Harry had awakened to just that, he must be late for cooking breakfast or doing his chores, his sleep-addled brain supplied, so he leaps from his bed, looking around for a change of clothes before Aunt Petunia could get Uncle Vernon, he ignores the voice for sleepy stumbling to his trunk, unsure where his glasses were and opens it to pull out his clothes for the day when a hand grabs him by his arm and yanks him.

"Zoë, stop!" Another voice yells but it was too late.

"Did you even hear me, boy?!" An unfamiliar voice screams with contentment for Harry, and as the hand yanks him Harry's mind wakes up in a flood of adrenaline as his fight or flight instinct kicks in, and Harry chooses to fight.

Harry steps into the pull as he grabs the offending hand and floods himself with the hunt before twisting under the arm and taking the hand with him. He twists the arm before bending it at an odd angle and moving behind his attacker, pinning the arm to the back of his attacker and as he raises his foot to kick the back of the knee, but something collides with the side of his head, hard. He lets go of the arm as he loses his balance and his head rings from the blow, Harry is knocked off his feet as something collides with his stomach, knocking him across the room and the air from his lungs. Harry looks up and sees a blur charging at him with a growl, but he's too busy trying to refill his lungs to do anything about it, but he doesn't have to as another blur comes from the right and tackles the other to the floor.

"Zoë, fucking stop," the new blur, Atalanta, yells, "Harry stay down," she yells at him as she struggles with the not Vernon-sized blur.

"Off me whore!" Zoë yells at Atalanta as Harry finally refills his lungs, there's a smack of flesh on flesh.

"Call me that again, bitch and you'll be losing your virginity to a fucking hunting knife, got me!?" Atalanta screams as Harry finally gets back to his feet with a growl, "Harry, no, calm down dam-" but what Atalanta was about to say is lost as Zoë's fist strikes her across the face and pushes Atalanta off of her before hopping back to her feet with a growl of her own. Harry can't even make out who it is, let alone what they were doing, but sees her charge at him, but with the hunt pumping through him, it was as if she was moving through molasses. So Harry meets their charge with his own, intent on taking them to the floor, but as he does just that, a third blur steps into the tent, and the next thing Harry knows he's tossed like a sack of flour and landing in a heap outside of his tent before he hears a crash in the opposite direction and angry hooting.

"Enough!" A very angry Artemis yells, "hold fire!" Follows soon after, Harry jumps to his feet looking around, everything was spinning in light and shadow as all he can make out blurs pointing at him, he reaches into himself to grab the tap that controlled that controlled the flow of the hunt but before he can twist it, Artemis calls out once again, "Harry! I said enough! You will calm down this instance, or I will make you," The Goddess of the Hunt says with an edge to her voice that stops Harry's reach for the tap as he shakes looking around himself, fighting off his fight or flight instincts, before twisting the tap to close off the hunt as much as he could. He feels his muscles begin to convulse and cramp as he drops to his knees from the pain.

"Easy, Harry," Harry hears Artemis say softly next to him, "go slowly, little by little, it should reduce the pain," so Harry listens to her slowing down, turning it little by little till the tap closes. The pain gradually fades down to a dull ache and Harry breathes out a sigh of relief before he feels someone flip him over, he sees the same person lean over him before slipping his glasses onto his face, and Harry is able to make out the face of Artemis over him, "Better?" She asks, and Harry nods, still breathing deeply.