"He's alive," Harry whispers to himself in shock before exclaiming, "Merlin! He's still alive!"
"What?" Ron asks as Hermione finally turns back around to look in the crater. "How is this even possible?"
To check further, Harry grabs the boy's wrist to check the still beating albeit a bit weak pulse. "I got a pulse!" Harry yells at them in alarm.
"Oh, Merlin! We need to get him to Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione yells, wiping her cheeks and immediately putting on her headstrong determined face.
Harry quickly conjures a stretcher. "Ron! Get in here!" he yells, making Ron jump in the crater to land on the other side of the mysterious lad, helping Harry put him in the stretcher with Ron holding him by the legs and Harry holding him by the shoulders.
"Be careful!" Hermione screeches.
"Harry?! Ron?! Hermione?! What're yeh lot doin' 'ere?!"
"Hagrid! Help!" they all yell.
Immediately their Care of Magical Creatures Professor comes quickly, panting slightly after running in a panic at three distressed students.
"What happened?! Are yeh hurt?!"
"No," Hermione quickly replies, "but someone else is."
"Over here, Hagrid!" Harry and Ron both yell, gently placing the boy down on the conjured stretcher as Hagrid walks down the crater.
"Merlin! What happened 'ere?" he asks, carrying the boy in his arms with ease.
Whilst Ron and Hermione tell Hagrid what they've noticed, Harry walks behind them in silence, secretly glad the boy is unconscious because if he is anything like him, it would be a bit haunting to be looking like a corpse whilst being cradled like a baby by Hagrid.
"Yeh shouldn't go running in the Forbidden Forrest like tha'," Hagrid reprimands them. "Yeh dunno what's out there."
Harry snorts, earning everyone's attention. "Oh, we know," he says. Ron snickers.
"Honestly, you two, someone is injured and you're laughing out here."
"Oh, come on, 'Mione, you've had your share of adventures in the Forest," Ron points out.
"Oh, yes, running away from a professor who is a werewolf and seeing my friend and his godfather nearly die from a hundred dementors! Oh, that's fun." The two boys stare at her before she finally smiles. "Okay, it was a little fun."
"I just realised we've never been in the Forbidden Forest together before... like all three of us together. When I first encountered Voldemort in our First Year, I was with Draco and you two were together. Second Year, I was with Ron. Last year, I was with you."
"Yeah, spiders for me. Dementors for Hermione," Ron says. "Dunno what's worse, to be honest... then again, Draco got You-Know-Who—nope, no, spiders. Definitely spiders are the worst."
Harry and Hermione share a glance before shaking their heads in amusement.
"All those times, yeh kids were out there saving people... and 'ere yeh are again with the saving," Hagrid comments, frowning at the heavily injured boy in his arms.
"Can't we go faster?" Ron asks worriedly. "It looks like he really needs Pomfrey."
"Can't jostle him too much. Might make it worse," Hagrid replies.
"But how could he still be alive?" Harry asks. "That crater was too big. I'm not a genius but even I know that means he fell from a high distance."
"I dunno, but wha' matters is tha' the lad's alive," Hagrid replies just as they reach the doors to the Hospital Wing.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione yells at the empty room.
"Miss Granger?" the matron asks upon exiting her office at the sound of her voice. Her eyes immediately drops onto Harry. "What did you do this time, Potter?"
Before Harry comments, Hagrid gently places the boy on one of the beds, placing Madam Pomfrey's attention from Harry to the boy immediately. Hagrid, Ron, Harry, and Hermione all tell her what they saw in the forest—the crater, the blood, everything. Madam Pomfrey looks at them in disbelief especially looking at the boy who doesn't seem as injured as he would have been if he really had fallen to such great heights.
That is, before she waves her wand over the boy's body and the diagnosis on the floating parchment started appearing.
—oOo—
Date: October 30, 1994. Friday.
Leonidas Valdez. [1]
Age: 15. [2]
Gender: Male.
Blood(s): Hephaestus. Muggle.
Parent(s): Hephaestus. Esperanza Valdez.
Sibling(s): Several paternal half-siblings.
Physical Condition(s): [3][4][5]
Small Cranio-cerebral Damage.
Small Subarachnoid Haemorrhage.
Sprain of Bones:
- Skull.
- Ribs.
- Cervical vertebrae.
- Thoracic vertebrae.
- Femur.
Damage of Internal Organs.
- Spleen. Small laceration from Deceleration.
Slight Abrasions.
Mental Condition(s):
Combat neurosis.
Note(s):
Survival due to godly DNA:
- Superhuman durability.
- Superhuman strength.
- Superhuman intelligence.
—oOo—
"This is simply not possible!" Madam Pomfrey exclaims, much to the surprise of everyone else in the room. Harry hears her whisper something after, which made his brows rise in curiosity.
"I'll tell Professor Dumbledore what happened," Hagrid offers, starting to leave, but Madame Pomfrey stops him.
"There's no need for that, Hagrid. After I take care of Mister Valdez here, I will go to the headmaster myself," she says, going back to the office to grab everything she needs for such an impossible case.
After casting Scourgify on the boy to clean up the soot and blood on his body, she only does several castings of Episkey for the sprains on his bones and put some Murtlap Essence on the abrasions and wounds on the boy's skin.
"That's enough for now," she tells the kids and Hagrid. "I want you to look after him for a moment while I talk to the headmaster about our new visitor. This is a matter of urgency and it will take a while but I do hope none of you will get in trouble while I'm gone. Are we clear?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all nod, sitting down on the bed beside the boy's.
"Alright, if he wakes—though I'm not sure he will, I want you to give him this Blood-Replenishing Potion immediately," she says, handing Hermione the mentioned potion. "He has some blood clotting in his brain as well as some cuts on his spleen from the fall, so there is some internal bleeding for him, though it's not as damaging as it should be. Check whether he has some brain damage as well. Ask him questions. Do you understand?"
They all say their affirmation.
"If he doesn't calm down, give him this," she says, handing Ron a vial. "It's a calming draught. He might need it."
With a small nod from Madam Pomfrey, she turns back to her office to use the floo connecting towards the headmaster's, locking the door behind her.
"I have to go back meself," Hagrid says. "Yer little journey in the forest stopped me from checking on the second crash. I have ter know if it's a threat or not."
"We can help," Harry suggests.
"No, yeh heard Madam Pomfrey. This lad's yer responsibility now. Take care o' him, okay?" Hagrid tells them. Reluctantly, Harry and Ron finally nod as genuinely as Hermione does, reassuring Hagrid to leave them in the Hospital Wing.
When the door closes behind Hagrid, the three all look at the peaceful face of the person they found.
"Madam Pomfrey said he should be dead," Harry whispers out loud.
"We saw the crater, mate. He should be dead," Ron comments.
"Who is he, then? If he can survive that fall?" Hermione asks.
Ron snorts. "The Boy-Who-Lived?" he suggests, making Harry laugh.
Hermione hits them both at the back of their heads. "I'm serious. What if he's dangerous? Shouldn't we think about that?"
"Hermione, look at him, he's about our year!" Ron sighs, gesturing at the boy and his forearm. "See? No snake tattoo. I don't even think he has a wand on him. Did he, Harry?"
Harry shakes his head. "No, maybe it got lost somewhere... Also, Voldemort was just a year older than us when he killed Moaning Myrtle with the Basilisk, and he didn't need a wand for that either," Harry adds, making Hermione shudder at the memory of having been petrified by that snake. "Sorry, Hermione."
"It's fine..." she replies with a small shudder.
"All right, point taken," Ron finally agrees, shrugging. "So who the bloody hell is he, then?" he asks. Hermione doesn't even berate him for his language.
"His last name's Valdez, according to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione adds.
"Who on Earth is Valdez, then?" Harry asks himself out loud, "Because I don't think even Voldemort or Dumbledore would've survived that fall."
FOOTNOTES
[1] In the Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle, Calypso calls Leo "Leonidas" once. Leo responded by saying and I quote, "Hey, I told you never to call me that." The fact that he had not responded by saying that Leonidas isn't his name, and the fact that he seems to hate it may mean that Leonidas is his legit name. Only people who hate their names and insist on a nickname behave that way.
[2] Leo was 15 when he defeated Gaea, and the whole thing that happened in The Heroes of Olympus was supposed to be 2010 so Leo would have been born in 1995. Yes, we know... but bear with us LMAO.
[3] Kiran Kumar, J. V., & Srivastava, A. K. (2013, January-March). Original Research Paper: Pattern of Injuries in fall from Height. J Indian Acad Forensic Med, 35(1), 47-50. ISSN: 097-0973
[4] Kholi, A., & Banerjee, K. K. (2006, October). Pattern of injuries in fatal falls from buildings. Med Sci Law, 46(4), 335-341. doi: 10.1258/rsmmsl.46.4.335
[5] Yes, I researched about actual medical articles concerning this, and there should have been more to that list but Leo is not a mortal. He's a demigod.
He once fell to Ogygia at a much faster speed but had little to no problems after that. However, the Archimedes Sphere he was holding had also exploded, giving him another direction to fly over and thus breaking his fall.
In this fic, there was nothing to break his fall—not even the trees themselves... but he is falling less quickly than he did in The House of Hades. In THoH, Khione threw him off, giving him more force and quicker velocity. Here, he's just falling.
Had Leo been mortal he would have died with Subarachnoid Haemorrhage, Brain Parenchymal Injury, the "Sprain" would be "Fracture". There would be damage with the liver (lacerations from fractured ribs) and lungs (puncture from fractured ribs), as well as haemoperitoneum.