The forest was unlike any place Lily Potter had ever seen.
The trees shimmered in the moonlight, their bark traced with veins of silver. Mist rolled softly through the glades, glowing with a gentle, unearthly light. The air itself seemed alive, humming with music that wasn't quite sound.
Lily blinked awake beneath a canopy of stars. Her body no longer ached. The wounds from that night were gone, leaving her lighter, stronger reborn.
Harry slept peacefully beside her, his tiny chest rising and falling with soft breaths.
And there he sat, Auron watching quietly, a serene expression softening his sharp features.
"Good night," his voice was smooth, carrying warmth and calm.
Lily sat up, dazed. "You… really saved us."
A ripple of silver light cut through the glade as Artemis appeared. Her presence filled the air with grace and danger, beauty sharpened by the wild.
Her Hunters followed in her wake: silent, silver-eyed, and deadly. Zoe stood at her right, arms crossed, while Phoebe lingered just behind with an amused smirk.
Lily's heart stuttered. She had faced Voldemort without flinching, but this was different. This was a goddess of legend, radiant, cold, and untamed.
Artemis studied her. "You defied death for your child. Even for a mortal, that is rare."
Lily swallowed. "I… didn't think. I just acted."
"Exactly." Artemis's tone softened, almost approving. "Love unmeasured by reason, instinctive, pure. You acted as the moon commands: light against shadow."
Auron stepped beside his mother. "She carries your mark, you know. Somewhere deep. Perhaps one of your blessings touched her line."
Artemis turned sharply. "You assume much, my son."
Zoe muttered under her breath, "He assumes everything."
Phoebe chuckled. "And somehow, he's always right."
Auron only smiled. "Balance finds its own path."
Lily spent the following days learning what it meant to live among immortals.
The Hunters, wary at first, began to warm to her after seeing her quiet strength. She mended tents, told stories of Muggle inventions, and once scolded Phoebe for trying to test her reflexes with a sudden arrow shot.
(Phoebe still insists it was a "friendly demonstration.")
Zoe, ever the stern lieutenant, kept her distance until she found Harry giggling at a rabbit that had wandered into camp. The sound melted even her ancient heart.
"He reminds me of my sister's child," Zoe said softly. "Before men ruined her peace."
Lily smiled, holding Harry. "Then perhaps this place can give him peace."
Auron appeared beside them, arms crossed. "That's the plan."
Phoebe smirked. "Careful, Silver Guardian. You're sounding like a mother already."
Auron deadpanned, "I learned from the best," and gestured toward Artemis, who, despite herself, smiled faintly at the exchange.
By the third night, Harry began to glow faintly under the moonlight. It wasn't divine light, it was something gentler, purer. Magic.
Artemis watched as the toddler reached up, giggling at the silver beams dancing around his fingers.
"You have my protection," Artemis said quietly. "Both of you. You may stay with the Hunt as long as you wish."
Lily bowed her head. "Then I'll serve however I can."
Zoe smiled faintly. "You already have, mortal. The Hunt needs mothers no less than warriors."
The Fates Tremble
Far above, in the Hall of Threads, the Fates trembled.
For the first time since the dawn of Olympus, two lives existed with no visible thread.
Atropos hissed, "The child lives. The mother lives. And the godling's thread does not exist."
Clotho's spindle shook. "We cannot bind what was never woven."
Lachesis whispered, "ROB's hand is beyond even ours. His son stands outside the Loom."
Below, in the waters of the Loom, Auron's reflection glimmered calm, serene, untouchable.
"He bends the weave," Atropos said bitterly. "Every choice he makes shifts destiny itself."
Clotho scowled. "Then the board is no longer ours. He is the balance between what is… and what should never have been."
And though they could not reach him, they felt his eyes lift briefly as if he knew they were watching. Then, slowly, he smiled.
"Don't," Atropos whispered.
But he did.
He waved.
The Loom sparked. The Fates recoiled.
Moonlight and Defiance
That same night, Artemis found Auron beneath the moonlit clearing.
"You felt them," she said quietly.
"I did," he replied. "They're angry. Good. It means they know they can't touch me."
"You defied their pattern," Artemis said softly, pride and fear interwoven. "That power is not meant to exist."
Auron turned to her, eyes silver-bright. "I'm not meant to exist, Mother. That's the point."
She studied him, then smiled faintly. "You are your father's joke… and my lesson. Balance made flesh."
Auron chuckled. "And you're the only one who can scold a cosmic anomaly into good manners."
Phoebe's voice drifted from the trees. "He's got your attitude, too."
Zoe added dryly, "And your stubbornness."
Lily appeared, carrying a sleepy Harry. "If you ask me, that's exactly what the world needs."
Auron looked at her mortal courage wrapped in divine light and nodded.
"Then we'll change it together."
Above them, the stars shifted, just slightly, as if the cosmos itself agreed.