Hazel Levesque

Hazel Levesque is one of the main protagonists in The Heroes of Olympus series and one of the seven heroes in the Second Great Prophecy. She is a demigod daughter of Pluto and Marie Levesque.

History
Hazel was born to Marie Levesque and Pluto in New Orleans on December 17, 1928, after Marie summoned him using a spell and they fell in love. Her mother's ambition to become wealthy later caused her grief, as Marie began to use Hazel's unique powers for selfish reasons. The jewels that Hazel collected were cursed, and would cause the buyers to suffer. Marie Levesque refused to admit her part in Hazel's curse, and told her Hazel it was Pluto's fault alone.

Hazel did not have many friends during her childhood, with the exception of Sammy Valdez, whom she loved, but after moving to Alaska, she never saw him again. Her mother became unstable because she was being influenced by Gaea and when Pluto came to protect them, he'd realized he'd lost her forever. Marie moved them to Seward, Alaska, beyond the power of the gods.

It was there that Hazel was forced by Gaea to raise one of her giant sons, Alcyoneus, using the precious metals that were beneath the earth on an island. Once Hazel discovered the treachery, she called down her powers and destroyed the island, killing her mother and herself in 1942, but stopping the giant who would oppose her father.

After a long argument over where to put Hazel and Marie, it was decided that she and her mother would go to the Fields of Asphodel after Hazel gave up her chance to go to Elsyium in order to save her mother from eternal punishment, but nearly seventy years later, Nico di Angelo, a son of Hades, came along and brought her back to the world of the living due to the Doors of Death being open. Initially, he had been there to rescue his other sister, Bianca, but was too late as he had discovered that she had tried for rebirth.

Once Hazel was restored to life, she began experiencing "blackouts" of her horrible past. Eventually, she made it to the Wolf House and, consequently, Camp Jupiter, where she was made a guard at the entrance to the Caldecott Tunnel. The blackouts usually happened when she remembered her past or thought too deeply about her old life. During the quest, the harpy, Ella, informed Hazel that she would have no more blackouts. Later, Hazel pulled Frank Zhang into one of her blackouts, where she replayed the time when she stood before the judges of the Underworld as they decided where she would stay. Afterwards, she seems to have no more blackouts, thus fulfilling what Ella had foretold.

The Lost Hero
Hazel is remembered by Jason as one of his friends. She knew Jason for about a month before he disappeared.

The Son of Neptune
Hazel and Frank are the two demigods guarding Camp Jupiter's entrance when Percy Jackson defeated the Gorgons. She helped pull Frank Zhang out of the water after the whirlpool Percy created calmed down. After Juno formally introduced the sea demigod and disappeared, Reyna then orders Hazel to take Percy inside the camp to be questioned. Hazel then takes Percy to Octavian, who is revealed to be blackmailing her to get her vote to be a legion leader. She then shows Percy the various temples like Neptune and Pluto where she meets with her brother Nico Di Angelo. While talking to Nico she has a "blackout".

She then eats dinner with Dakota, Percy and Frank before the war games (which is like capture the flag at Camp Half-Blood, but with a fortress and there is only one flag). They then proceed to the war game where she, Frank, and Percy are the first ones to penetrate the fortress with the rest of their team following. They then capture the 'flag' and win the war game, but before they can celebrate Gwen is killed with a weapon that looked like it was Octavian`s weapon. With the doors of death open Gwen quickly comes back and there is much confusion. They leave the fortress and are stopped by Mars, Roman god of war, who then claims Frank and gives him a special spear. He gives him a quest and his own written prophecy to go north to the land beyond the gods and free Thanatos, a god of death. Mars picks Percy to go on the quest and Frank picks Hazel. They then go to a senate meeting to decide what to give them for the quest, but due to Octavian they are given a boat and a little bit of supplies. Hazel isn't too happy about the boat, but they take it.

When they get to the Camp marina, they find the small, old leaky boat which makes her feel even worse. After they get on the boat Hazel has a vision of her past. She is then woken up by Frank in Portland, Oregon and the trio go to find the blind seer Phineas, son of Neptune. They find him trying to smack the Harpies with a weed whacker and he then tells them to find a Harpy with red feathers named Ella. After chasing Ellaa they catch her on the roof of a library and they take her to Phineas. But they had no intention to give the vunerable harpy to the blind king. Percy gets Gaea to trick Phineas into drinking Gorgon Blood(One heals and one kills, and Phineas drank posion) and Hazel discovers the location of Alcyoneus.

They return to the boat where she has another black out. She is then woken up again and they go find Reyna's sister, Hylla, who is Queen of the Amazons. They find the lair of the Amazons, which is really a front of the online shipping company, Amazon and Percy and Frank are captured. Hazel proceeds to talk with Hylla. She asked her if the Amazons can help the camp. but Queen Hylla declines because her own people are at war with each other due to the arrival of the dead Queen Otrera who has been revived by Gaea. But Hylla agreed to let Hazel and her friends go along with the horse from Hazel's past, Arion, who will only let Hazel ride him. It's also said by Queen Hylla that only the strongest female warrior could ride him, and that person would bring a new era of prosperity to the Amazons.

After escaping, she and the boys arrive at Rainbow Organic Foods & Lifestyles, a store owned and run by Iris, the rainbow goddess. While Hazel and Percy make a few Iris-messages Frank battles three monstrous snakes alone, allowing them to leave. Hazel and Frank then share a vision of her life in the Underworld and when she meets Nico and Frank puts his life in her hands by entrusting her with a stick that would snuff out his life if completely burned. They then go north to Frank's Grandma Zhang's house.

When they arrive, the house is surrounded by Laistrygonians. They talk to his grandma and escape the giants and fly north to Alaska. During the ride, Hazel kisses Percy on the cheek, but just as sisterly love.They stay in Hazel's old house for awhile and take Arion to the home of the giant, Alcyoneus who imprisoned Thanatos. When they get there the threesome split up, Frank frees Thanatos, Hazel takes on the giant, and Percy handles the rest.

Frank and Hazel are able to defeat Alycyoneus after they drive him to Canada. They return to Alaska to get Percy who has the eagle of the Twelfth Legion and head back to Camp Jupiter on Arion. Upon arriving, she meets Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary. Then, she heads off into battle.

Once the monsters are defeated, Hazel goes and finds Thanatos and asks him about the escaped souls. He tells her that she is not on his list of escaped souls and believed that maybe Pluto gave her pardon so that she may do some good within the Prophecy of Seven. She also makes her feelings for Frank known and kisses him show her affection.

Afterward, she gathers in the Forum to await the arrival of Camp Half-Blood on the Argo II.

Personality
Hazel is bright and outgoing with a love for creativity and horseback riding but a dislike for boating and curses. Although she was the youngest in the trio of her, Percy and Frank; Percy states that she was a great comfort to him and Frank, at times even saying she seemed confident. She feels a massive amount of guilt over releasing Alcyoneus, and thinks it's her responsibility to bring him down. Hazel can also be easily embarrassed, such as Frank's clumsiness and his attempts to comfort her.

It is difficult for Hazel to show intense anger, even at the children who bullied her in the 1930's and her mother who used her to resurrect Alcyoneus, a trait similar to Percy's mother.

Appearance
Hazel is African-American with long, curly cinnamon-brown colored hair that falls around her shoulders and 14-carat gold colored eyes. She is marked with a glyph, the letters SPQR, and one stripe for one year of service that she got only a few weeks before Percy arrived. Frank considers her to be very pretty. Percy describes Hazel as being "darker-skinned", and when Hazel is describing her mother later on she mentions that they had the "same dark complexion, brown as a roasted coffee bean." Also, when patrolling Frank's grandmother's house, Frank talks about how Hazel wore this shirt and jacket, "that made her skin look as warm as cocoa."

Abilities
ADHD: Like most demigods, Hazel possesses inborn supernatural battle reflexes and senses that she uses to analyze the fighting style of her opponent.

Dyslexia: Hazel's brain is "hard-wired" for Latin.

Demigod Powers
As a daughter of Pluto, Hazel herself is an underworld deity.

Precious Metal/Material Kinetic Abilities: She has the power to sense and summon precious metals or materials, such as gold, silver and diamonds from the Earth. She can control tons of precious metal (as shown when she fought with the Amazons named Lulu and Doris; leaving them buried on the mountain of jewelry).

Geokinesis: Hazel can find any underground caves, tunnels, trapdoors and change their shapes to suit her needs or destroy them.

Etymology
Hazel is an Old English female name, it means "the hazel tree" which the name for a tree and color, as there is a tree called the Hazel Witch Tree. As interestingly her eyes are pure Hazel, described as being like jewels as their are jewelry that can be hazel in color.

Trivia

 * Levesque is Old French for "Bishop".
 * Her favorite food is shrimp gumbo. She says it is her "comfort food." It also reminds her about living in New Orleans.
 * Hazel feels that Nico and she represent what Pluto can control: Hazel is wealth and Nico is death.
 * Hazel knows a little bit of Louisiana French because of living there. She tried to have a conversation with Frank, because he knew Canadian French, but it ended quickly (the reason being the major differences in the French translations).
 * Frank, Piper McLean, and she are the only three of the Seven to have the ability to speak French, albeit different dialects. (Frank knows Canadian French, Hazel know Louisiana French, Piper knows European French and possibly all other variations of French.)
 * Nico di Angelo and Hazel's mothers share a close resemblance in first names: Marie Levesque and Maria di Angelo.
 * Her eyes are hazel in color, like her name.
 * Hazel's role is vaguely similar to Piper's in The Lost Hero, her crush on a member of the Seven, and her possessing a dark secret.
 * Hazel is one of the three demigods who can speak another language not related to their godly parent (like how children of Aphrodite can speak French). The other two are Leo Valdez (who can converse in Spanish and in Morse code) and Frank Zhang (who can converse in Canadian French).
 * She is the only known demigod to be brought back from the Fields of Asphodel to live once more.
 * Hazel was told by her father Pluto that a descendant of Neptune will wash away her curse and give her peace. However, it is unknown at this time who this descendant is.