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But Harry barely got to the entrance of the second floor, when a blood-curdling scream and ferocious growl that would make even a lion sound like a kitten, made his heart almost jump out of his chest.
"NO, HELP! Aaargh! AAARRGGH!"
"The bloody hell did I just hear?!" Harry nearly yelled in shock.
But then he remembered the words "violent death" and when he coupled it with the ferocious growl, Harry's heart was shaken and a feeling of nausea overtook him. He felt as if he couldn't breathe and his heart started to beat violently. He ripped the stocking off his head and took large gulps of air as if he was suffocating.
"No...no..!" Harry shouted and broke into a mad run back towards the third corridor. He was afraid he would die of a heart attack if he didn't make sure Flint was alright. Sure, he hated the stupid prick but he didn't deserve to die...and not at his hands anyway!
He climbed up the stairs so fast that one would think there was python on his tail. But when he arrived there he saw 6 first year students petrified at the sight in front of their eyes.
Harry turned his eyes to where the other 6 students were looking and he instantly bent over vomiting. There, at the entrance of the classroom in which Harry had thrown Marcus Flint in, was the 7th year boy laying in a pool of his own blood...at least what was left of him...his legs have been ripped off and only his bloodied torso was still on the floor, right in front of the door.
Another growl was heard and Harry looked in panic towards where Flint's corpse laid. But there was nothing. Unconsciously, Harry's eyes fell on Flint's face which was coincidentally looking towards him. The first thing Harry noticed was how livid it looked and how his eyes were still open and bulged in terror. A trail of blood was flowing from his now violet lips and the boy's previously large front teeth were broken.
Right then, an enormous black paw that barely squeezed out of the classroom through the door, suddenly appeared and stomped down violently on what was left of the 7th year student's corpse. This act finally snapped out everyone out of their shocked states and they all started to scream in panic. Two girls and a boy fainted on the spot while the other three boys started to run screaming as if they were possessed.
When the paw collided with Flint's torso, a sound of bones being shattered was heard and the black furred beast in the classroom started to drag the body inside. In that moment, to Harry's horror, Flint's lips seemed to move and mouth the words: "You killed me."
Harry's heart thumped loudly and his sight was drowned by darkness. He lost his consciousness.
Scene break
SEVENTH YEAR STUDENT AT HOGWARTS BRUTALLY RIPPED APART BY A THREE-HEADED CERBERUS. STUDENTS TRAUMATIZED.
Just a few days before Halloween, the 7th year Slytherin student Marcus Flint together with the 1st year student Harry Potter from the same house left the Slytherin Dungeons for what we assume it was a bonding time between friends, to wander through the majestic halls and corridors or the ancient castle of Hogwarts.
Sure, they did it after the curfew, but let's be honest, which one of us never broke a rule while being at Hogwarts? It's in children's nature to be full of energy and mischievous after all...Who Would Have Thought That That Was Going To Be One Of Their Last Day Alive?
The departed Marcus B. Flint met his end at the fierce claws and fangs of a gigantic and vicious three-headed Cerberus. A 15 FEET TALL BLOODY CERBERUS!
Please excuse me for my language, my dear readers, but this is simple inconceivable!
Albus Dumbledore, the Daily Prophet's entire team asks you directly through my quill: "What were you thinking about when you brought such a vicious and dangerous magical creature in a school full of children?!".
Not only us, but I dare say everyone demands an explanation! Especially the family of the deceased student!
Fortunately, our Minister of Magic, Marcus Martlesham has been very prompt in starting an investigation. After all, Minister Martlesham also has his younger son currently studying at Hogwarts (Danforth Martlesham, 3rd year Slytherin).
Worth mentioning is that 6 other students have witnessed first-hand poor Marcus Flint being mauled in front of their very eyes. Some of them have remained with mental traumas and were consulted by Healers specialized in brain damage.
We from the Daily Prophet hope that regardless of their status, the Ministry of Magic will no hesitate in bringing justice upon the ones guilty of this tragedy.
By Rita Skeeter.
This was the article on the first page of Daily Prophet's edition from the 4th of November.
It was Monday and virtually every student at Hogwarts had a copy of the Daily Prophet newspaper in front of their eyes.
The Great Hall was silent. A week before a student was killed. They didn't even have a body to bury anymore. Sure, three quarters of the student body at Hogwarts hated the Slytherin House but even the most bigoted and prejudiced students against the Slytherins didn't wish for them to have such a horrible death.
The Halloween had not been celebrated this year but none of the students could bring themselves to complain about it. Even the notorious happy-go-lucky Weasley twins sported serious looks on their faces.
But some students were noticeably more distraught than the others. It was precisely Harry and the other 6 students which witnessed Marcus Flint's brutal death. The six were Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan and two girls from Ravenclaw, Lilith Argyris and a small and petite girl with large glasses and curly red hair, called Anna Blueberry.
The boys (excluding Harry) were all from Gryffindor House and they had been on the corridors after curfew because of Draco Malfoy. Earlier that day Draco challenged Neville at a wizards' duel in the Trophy Room in the middle of the night. However, that proved to be just a trap Draco had laid for them. Instead of coming over, he had tipped off Filch which in turn caused the 4 Gryffindors to almost get caught by him (though they were caught afterwards but given the circumstances nobody docked points from them nor did they get any detentions anymore).
As for the two Ravenclaw girls, Lilith also happened to hear Draco's challenge. Given her curiosity - the Sorting Hat had been right about her even if it was trying to flatter her at that moment - Lilith couldn't help herself. She had always wanted to see at which level was the famous Boy-Who-Lived when it came to real magic, not the obscure voodoo that happened when he was a baby.
But she was girl...and she was a Veela...and a full-Veela at that. For her to be afraid of wandering through the castle's corridors by herself at night was understandable. After all, her mother warned her many times that there were many beasts among men which would not pass the chance to defile a girl if they were given the chance. And since she was a full Veela, the percentage of the ones that would succumb to their desires would be close to 99 percent. This is why she took her friend with her. Being together with someone made sure that no unwanted incidents would happen. How could she have known though, that she would go through such a soul-shaking experience?
However, amongst them, Harry looked the worst by far. His originally wild hair was even more shaggy now and it looked clearly unkempt. His robes were full of wrinkles and his round glasses couldn't hide the dark bags from under his eyes.
It has been a week since he caused Flint's death and ever since that day, Harry has barely been able to get any sleep at all. Every time he closed his eyes he would see Flint's bloodied and dead face whispering: 'You killed me'.
If he still didn't open his eyes, the whisper would grow in volume until it became and unearthly scream:
"YOU KILLED ME!"
Harry would then wake up covered up with sweat and shouting.
And this is why Harry felt forced to learn how to do a Silencing Charm. Because of his shouting in his sleep, his roommate Blaise Zabini was also kind of frightened. He hasn't told Harry anything yet, nor has he complained to others about Harry's nightmares. Apparently, the dark skinned boy was very considerate and understood that Harry was left with a mental trauma after witnessing someone dying in such gory manner.
But that didn't mean Zabini was enjoying hearing Harry screaming and thrashing in his sleep. Because of that Harry tried his hardest to learn a Silencing Charm. By putting his recent insights to use -t he fact that he didn't really need Latin for his spells no matter what - he managed after 4 days or so to get it done. Blaise could no longer hear his screams anymore.
While everyone was reading the article written by Rita Skeeter, they all glanced at the professors' table. They were not surprised at all to see Dumbledore's seat being unoccupied. For the past week, Dumbledore hardly appeared in the Great Hall at the breakfast or lunch time.
"Wicked!" a 4th year boy seated in front of Harry exclaimed as he read the newspaper. "Look, they got some pics from the incident, there's even the pool of of blood! This is so cool, I wonder how-"
But Harry didn't hear the rest of his words as Flint's face appeared at the front of his mind and feeling of nausea came of over him again. He lost his appetite. He sat up from the table and exited the Great Hall wobbling like a drunk man.
He walked for a while before he stopped and leaned his back against the wall of the corridor. But soon after, he forced himself to stand straight again and walked until he arrived at the boys's bathroom from the first floor. He went to the sink and cupped some water with his hands, splashing it on his face, not even taking of his glasses off at first.
He brought his head under the sink's faucet and let the cold jet of water soak his hair and face completely.
"My, my, someone's awfully depressed.."
Harry was startled by the voice and the back of his head painfully collided with the faucet. It was the voice of a girl.
"What the fuck are you doing in here! Get the heck out of the boy's bathroom, perverted bitch."
Harry growled at her without clearly seeing who was he talking to - his glasses were wet and without them Harry was as blind as a bat.
The girl's face flushed red at being called a pervert but she forced at least her voice to remain calm even if her face's expression betrayed her state of mind.
"You know, besides you, there were 6 other students that witnessed that big oaf's death - me included. Yet none of us reacted the same way you do. Yes, we were terrified and distraught for a few days as well, but we all recovered...I am a very curious type of person, Harry Potter, and I'm wondering what makes you react this way..."
Harry suddenly punched the mirror above the sink and screamed:
"I told you to get lost!"
The girl stepped back in fright and Harry turned towards her while wiping off his glasses. When he put them back, he was instantly angered even more - the girl was "Alice"...or better said Lilith.
"Don't think you can do as you please, you barbarian. I made my parents check out your background. And there is nothing their connections can't solve." the girl said with tinge of arrogance. "You're nothing and you have no-one's support. And after what you've done, you're sure to end up in Azkaban regardless of your age!"
Seeing Harry flinch, the Lilith pressed on, bluffing:
"You're a barbarian. There is no way some blood would scare you shitless. No, I'm sure you were involved in his death somehow..."
But Lilith stopped talking when all of a sudden the doors from 4 the bathroom cabins came off of their hinges and started to float besides Harry.
"Since I'm already in deep shit, I might as well also start to swim in it." Harry said with a dark look in his eyes.
The Gorgoneion was sending pulses of magic at him continuously, but after almost a month of bottling up anger against Draco Malfoy and his little gang, after killing someone by mistake and after being tortured by nightmares for an entire week, Harry's mind finally snapped. He couldn't bear with the pressure anymore and for the moment he stopped thinking rationally.
Lilith was startled at the abrupt display of wandless and nonverbal magic, but she shook her head to clear off her mind.
"Last time to you took me by surprise, but you think I'm a weakling?" Lilith shouted at him as she took out her wand and pointed it Harry.
"Incarcerous!"
Thin cords shot from Lilith ivory-white wand and before Harry could react, they coiled around his body like serpents. He tried to rip the m off by enforcing his body with "telekinesis" but the more he struggled, the tighter the cords constricted around his body. It was to the point that they almost cut into his flesh.
Harry still continued to struggle mindlessly until the pain finally woke up from his craziness.
"Oh, so the pain brought your mind out of the gutter." Lilith said lightly as she crouched near his sprawled on the floor body.
As if woken from a trance, the first thing Harry said was:
"This is a 6th year spell. How the heck does someone like you know how to do it?"
"What do you mean by someone like me?" Lilith shouted back at him angrily and kicked his shin. Harry grunted in pain, but stood silent afterwards, not saying anything else.
...
"What? Are you not going to say anything?" Lilith all but shouted at him after a few minutes of silence. She had expected him to start cursing at her and thrashing around but instead Harry was lying there motionless, not even bothering to look at her.
"What do you take me for? An idiot? I'm at your mercy now, why would I make my situation bleaker than it already is?" Harry replied.
Lilith didn't say anything for a while, but then she asked:
"How did you kill that 7th year guy? ...no, why did you do it? You did something like this only because of a grudge?!"
At Lilith's insinuating words, Harry's temper flared.
"Do you think I wanted to kill him?" he raged at her starting to struggle in his bindings making them tighten around himself even more.
"Do you think I wanted to see his dead body every time I close my eyes and be tortured by nightmares every night? Don't fuck around with me! How was I supposed to know there was a fucking gigantic Cerberus in a school?" Harry shouted and hot tears started to flow from his eyes.
"You...you actually did it...!" Lilith exclaimed breathlessly.
When she bluffed by asking Harry what was his role in Marcus Flint's death, she was thinking that Harry was probably the one to suggest the older boy to go there or lured him there somehow...not that Harry was actually guilty of his death.
But when she looked at Harry's face, she knew that everything he said was true. Harry's face looked as if he didn't get sleep for days, his cheeks were sunken and purple bags were clearly visible under his eyes. Moreover, looking at how tears flowed from his eyes, she was certain that Marcus Flint's death was an accident, an accident which would have not happened had this been a normal school, with no ferocious monsters hidden inside it. And Potter was regretting it enormously - that was the reason for his nightmares.
Lilith swished her wand at the doors which had been taken off by Harry from their hinges and muttered a whispered "Reparo". The doors floated back in their original place and their hinges were repaired. Then, she touched the cords around Harry and said:
"Finite Incantatem!"
After seeing the cords vanishing, Lilith turned on her heels and left the bathroom with a conflicted look on her face.
Harry however didn't even get up from the cold floor. He continued to lay there crying his soul out. Although he had seen people getting stabbed before by gangsters, it was not the same with him, himself, causing another one's death. Despite the mature thinking he usually displayed, in the end Harry was just an eleven years old boy. This kind of reaction was only natural for any sane adult let alone a child. The real problem would have been if hadn't felt any feelings of remorse about what he had done.
Scene break
Harry didn't know for how long he has stayed like that on the cold floor of the bathroom, but eventually everything faded into darkness. When he opened his eyes, Harry was almost blinded by the unexpected rays of the burning sun.
"What the...?"
Where was he? How did he end up there? Speaking of that, his surroundings looked nothing like Hogwarts.
Surrounded by mountains and containing a river with crystal water crossing it, the valley Harry was currently in looked not unlike what Harry imagined the Garden of Eden to look like when the nuns told him and the rest of the children at the orphanage the story of Adam and Eve.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The air was filled with a mesmerizing fragrance and the cold water of the river made sure that the temperature of the air was not to too high. The nearby mountains' were covered in lush forests that bustled with life and the sky was azure blue, with no traces of clouds visible anywhere.
Harry gasped at the beauty of the nature and he couldn't help exclaiming in awe: "So beautiful...!" But Harry stopped admiring the beauty of the nature when his ears picked up the laughter and bantering of a pair of sweet voices.
"Ready to lose again?"
"Ha! As if! Remember, who's the one with the biggest score?"
"You shouldn't be that smug. You're only with one win in front of me. I'll certainly defeat you this time as well!"
"Dream on, sister!"
From the woods, two girls came chatting merrily. When they came in Harry's line of sight, he tensed up but then...
"Don't worry, they can't see you." a gentle and kind voice was heard from behind him and Harry turned his head so abruptly that it was amazing he didn't snap his neck in the process.
There, in front of his eyes stood the most beautiful being Harry has ever seen. Her brilliant glossy brown hair fell in waves to her shoulders, her grey eyes sparkled like the silver under sunlight and the complexion of her face was flawless, with no blemishes. She had a very fit body, with muscular but very feminine at the same time arms and legs, her waist was thin and the fullness of her chest and hips areas gave her an hourglass figure.
She wore an open-faced golden helmet on her head, on her left hand there was a golden shield that had the head of a Gorgon on it and in her left hand she held a spear-like golden sceptre.
She was as beautiful as a goddess. But the beauty she exuded was not the type of beauty one would lust after. No, it was the type of pure and innocent beauty, the type of of beauty that one would feel inclined to worship.
"W-Who are you?" Harry asked barely finding his voice after starting at her in mute amazement for a few good seconds.
The woman - she seemed to be in her mid-twenties - smiled with indulcence at Harry's reaction and said:
"We'll talk about who am I later. For now just watch patiently...this is a memory...my memory. The brown haired girl you see in front of your eyes is the younger me."
At the woman's words, Harry turned his eyes towards the two girls who were now both positioned in a stance to battle. One of them looked just like the woman behind Harry, only younger. Unlike the calm smile her older counterparts had, the girl sported a confident smirk and a playful expression on her face.
The other girl was a black haired girl equally beautiful, but with sharper facial features and a slightly more robust body.
Both girls were dressed up in a light leathery armours and on their head they both wore bronze helmets. The black haired girl had in her hands a long trident-like spear and a long metallic net which she kept spinning above her head.
The girl with glossy brown hair had a round bronze shield on her left forearm and a short double-edged sword in her right.
The two girls looked into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity for Harry but then, the black haired girl broke the staring contest and leaped towards her opponent with a loud battle cry. She gripped her trident tightly and stabbed forward with all her might. The trident met the round bronze shield and the thundering noise that resonated from the clash made Harry feel as if his eardrums have been broken.
Harry was shocked to the core. What kind of strength was that?! No matter how he looked at the girls, to him they only looked like some girls in their late teens. Sure, they had athletic bodies, but no matter how strong someone is, they will never form such powerful shockwaves just from the clash of their weapons!
The black haired girl threw her metallic net hoping to ensnare her opponent, but the brown-haired girl flipped back, elegantly avoiding it.
At a first glance, because of the shorter range of her weapon of choice, the brown-haired girl seemed to be at a disadvantage. But that would be the case only for ordinary people...and Harry realized by now that the girls in front of him were anything but ordinary.
The girl with the shield bent her knees and brought her posture forward, while bringing the bronze shield to protect the lower part of her face and her torso.
"Haa!" she let a battle cry and kicked the ground hard, plunging forwards. The ground cracked under her feet and a 20 foot in diameter crater was formed.
By now Harry dropped all the pretense and was watching the fight with his mouth agape.
The brown-haired girl approached her opponent seemingly at the speed of the light and with her shield thrusting forward, she bashed the more robust black-haired girl at tens of feet into the distance.
The black-haired girl crashed painfully on the ground and groaned in annoyance as he lifted herself up...she didn't even have a scratch, or a bruise...nothing!
"Ughh, you said you won't use your divine strength, you lying bitch!"
"Aww, Pallas, come on, you know that I haven't used even a tenth of my real strength. Why are you always such a sore loser? ...And with that foul mouth of yours, there's no wonder my brother Apollo doesn't want to look at you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." the black haired girl, Pallas, grumbled still annoyed.
"Tell you what: if you manage to land a clean hit on me in the next 30 seconds, I swear on my name that I'll force Apollo to invite you to a dinner." the brown-haired girl said with a teasing laugh.
Pallas' eyes lit up at her friend's words and a smile appeared on her face. Without even saying a word of warning, she plunged towards the brown haired girl with the net above her head spinning at high velocity.
Her opponent batted the net away with a powerful sword strike, but then Pallas stuck her trident forward, towards the small gap in her opponent defence, at her liver.
The brown-haired girl realized her mistake and mentally prepared herself for the painful feeling that would come with her ribs being shattered and her liver pierced...but the pain never came: Pallas did a mistake too at the last moment, not estimating the range of her trident well, this way the tip of her weapon stopping at only an inch away from her opponent's body.
However, taking chance of the brown-haired girl's momentary confusion, Pallas abruptly pulled her trident back, scraping the bronze shield all the while. When the teeth of the trident reached the edge of the shield, they hooked behind it. Pallas pulled hard and the bronze shield was forcefully pulled off from her opponent's forearm.
Pallas immediately threw her net above the brown-haired girl's head and at the same time, she leaped towards her with a vicious glint in her eyes. The brown haired girl was flustered by how she had had her shield taken from her arm, but was startled even more at the face filled with killing intent of her friend. Pallas truly wanted to strike her down!
At that moment, a righteous anger filled the brown haired girl's entire being and she filled her sword with her divine power. Her sword cut through the metallic net like through tofu.
However, being in the heat of the battle and because of her lack of experience, the brown haired girl didn't notice the blade of raw energy her sword emitted when she slashed. That blade of energy continued its advance and not only it bisected the trident that Pallas held, it also cut through the girl's body as if it was nothing.
It was as if the time stood still for a second, everyone looking petrified at the scene. But then, blood splashed everywhere and Pallas' body was completely cut through from the middle. She died on the spot.
At the awfully familiar gory scene - Marcus Flint had also been ripped from the middle - Harry's heart started to beat wildly again. Just as he was about to fall to ground in unconsciousness, a strong yet gentle hand gripped his shoulder and he felt a soothing and refreshing energy filling his body.
When Harry turned his eyes towards the woman behind him, her silver-like eyes radiated so much compassion that he felt overwhelmed.
"Come, you have seen all that was beneficial for you to see." the woman said while the younger version of her from the memory broke down into tears at what she had done.
The woman closed her eyes and in an instant, she and Harry disappeared, only to reappear in a completely different location. It was rocky beach which was continuously assaulted by the seemingly angry waves of the sea. The sky looked like at the sunset, with a multitude of nuances of red and orange painting it and a soft and warm breeze was blowing.
The woman left her golden shield and sceptre on a nearby rock and took off her helmet, letting the warm and humid wind caress her glossy brown hair. She took a seat on one of the many rocks the littered the beach and beckoned Harry to do the same.
They both watched the sea in silence for a long while and even if Harry had an ocean of questions, he could not bring himself to voice them.
"I know you have many questions. At some of them I will answer to you, but at some of them I won't. Go ahead, ask me what you want to know." the woman told Harry with the same kind smile on her otherworldly beautiful face.
She just finished her words when Harry already jumped with a question: "Who are you?"
The woman's smile widened even more at Harry's curiosity and she said:
"I had once been a goddess, the Goddess of Wisdom, War, Crafts and Heroes. I have been given many attributes along the millennia, but these have been the most important. I was once known by the entire world as Athena Parthenos."
"A g-goddess?!" Harry asked stuttering. Had anyone else told him such a thing, he would have screamed "bullshit" right in their face. But the fight he had just witnessed, plus the majestic presence and beauty the woman in front of his eyes exuded made her words not as hard to believe as one would think.
Athena let a soft but sad sigh and said:
"That was the previous me. I'm not a goddess anymore. What you see now is just a shell of my former self."
Harry stood silent for a while, but then he asked the questions that plagued his mind from the beginning:
"Where are we?"
"We're in your mind."
"Then...everything I saw was not real? Are you not real as well? Was this all my imagination?"
"Just because something happens in your mind, that doesn't necessarily make it not real."
"Then...do you truly exist?"
The goddess tilted her head in thought before saying:
"That's a rather tricky question. And you wouldn't understand the answer if I gave you one... However, I have a question for you as well. What do you believe?"
"I...I don't know what to believe..." Harry confessed with his eyes avoiding her penetrating gaze. "But I would be happy if you were real." he said still not meeting her eyes.
Athena was not prepared to hear such words from him and she asked in surprise: "Why?"
Harry seemed to be troubled with finding the right words but he said eventually:
"Since you showed me that memory of yours, it means that you already know what...what I did... Ever since that night I had not rested properly at all. I'm plagueg by nightmares every night and every time I close my eyes I can see Flint's corpse looking at me."
"And...and to make matters even worse, I have just been discovered by someone that hates me. I wonder if there's still a point in living like that. Constantly being plagued with nightmares and spending the rest of my life in a hellish prison...I'd rather die than live like that."
"If this is just a dream in my mind, then I don't want it to end. I don't want to wake up. I want to stay here... I feel at peace in your presence. This is why I would be happy if you were real."
By the time Harry finished his words, tears already started to fall from his eyes. Until this incident, Harry had never known just how important it is for one to have a clean conscience, to be at peace with himself.
Sure, Harry has been stealing for years, but he didn't view that as being a bad thing. He did it in order to survive, to be able to live another day. Moreover, in Harry's mind it was also his victims' fault when they had their stuff stolen: if they had guarded their possessions properly, he wouldn't have been able to steal them - at least this was Harry's process of thought, as twisted as it may have been.
Bottom line, it was the first time Harry felt his conscience being so dirty, and it was the first time he killed someone. Furthermore, he was just 11 years old. In fact, having a more mature mind only made him realize the gravity of his deed even more and that, coupled with his emotions which were those of an ordinary eleven years old child, made his anguish even more painful.
But while Harry cried looking at the agitated sea, two gentle arms encircled his body and brought him into a warm embrace. Athena hugged Harry's small frame and pressed him into her bosom.
"It's alright to cry, my child. Let it all out, don't let your pain bottle up."
And Harry did just that. It was a wonder for him just how nice it felt to have someone hug him lovingly when his heart was so disturbed. Until then no-one has cared about him enough to give him a hug and he has never been consoled before when he felt sad.
"It's good that you realize the significance of your mistake. It's good to feel sorry and to feel ashamed of what you've done. And it's also good that you feel responsible for it and that you're not trying to throw the blame onto another, even if they share a part of it." Athena told Harry after he calmed down. She was holding his head in her lap, gently caressing his unruly hair.
"However, just as important as these, is also to not let it overwhelm you. Be sorry, be ashamed and take responsibility for your deeds. But don't let their weight crush your heart and don't let your mind be drowned by despair. Steel your resolve to never do it again and then brace your heart and mind to make amends. You will not be able to bring that boy back to life, but you can offer life to those who need it."
"What do you mean by that?" Harry lifted himself in a seating position and asked.
"Offering life as in giving hope. Be the light for those overwhelmed by despair and lend a helping hand to those who need it. This is the only way you can pay for your sins and make peace with yourself. I'm telling you this from my own experience. Pallas had been my best friend...we spent most of our time together sparring and bickering just like normal friends do, even if we were deities. And when I killed her by mistake, you can imagine how heavy my feelings of sorrow and remorse were."
"To make amends for my mistake, I took her name for myself and I have been known as Pallas Athena ever since. Furthermore, I did just what I told you to do: I became the patron goddess of heroes, lending them a helping hand and instructing them along the trials they had had to face in their lives. I didn't only look out for them, I also bestowed my gifts to the mortals, offering them wit and wisdom to survive, to evolve. I offered them knowledge. This how I made up for my sin and made peace with myself."
Harry engraved Athena's words in his heart but his face made a complicated expression. He was inherently a very selfish person and he was even somewhat proud of being like that. He never cared about anyone and he didn't want to get involved with anyone - that's how he has been living ever since he ran away from the orphanage. It was his way of life...changing his principles and values was not something he could accomplish in a short while.
Athena lifted herself up to her feet and told Harry:
"I'm afraid our time together is up."
"Why?! Where are you going?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Don't worry, child, I am always with you. As long as you believe I exist, as long as you place your faith in me, I will never leave you."
"My faith...?"
"Yes. I only appeared in front of you today because of your faith. You have long since started to consider the stone pendant a very important part of yourself, your most precious possession. Because of that you subconsciously started to rely on it, placing your trust in it to save you in all the dire situations you've experienced ever since you got it.."
"You mean, that you reside in my Gorgoneion?" Harry nearly shouted in joy. He had been right! The pendant truly was not just an ordinary magical aritfact! His hope that it was sentient had not been in vain.
Athena smiled at the joy in Harry's voice and nodded at him. She only ruffled his hair one more time before everything went black for Harry again.