Harry and Merope Meets Percy Jackson
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or series, only the plots that you don't recognize.
Chapter 5
Harry and Merope enjoyed playing a game of capture the flag. Seeing as though the game would be over too quickly if they had used their powers to capture the flag, considering all they would have had to do to win was apparate there, they played without using their powers.
Percy was running next to Harry as they battled their way towards the other teams' flag. "Dude," Percy said, breathing heavily, "can't you just magic the flag to us?"
Harry chuckled and asked, "Where's the fun in that?"
"I'm so tired," Percy complained.
"Well, that just means you need more exercise and practice. You've let yourself get soft after saving Olympus," Harry said jokingly, as he dodged an arrow coming his way. "The bigger question is why do you all use real weapons in this game, shouldn't you be using something like Nerf guns or something so that no one can get seriously injured?"
Percy shrugged and said, "That's a good question. Unfortunately, Annabeth is probably the one you should be asking for the answer."
"Meh, it's not that big a deal. I'll probably just add commissioning some armor from the Hephaestus Cabin for enchanting to my list of things to do." Harry said nonchalantly.
"But you don't need armor," Percy said in confusion.
"No, but the campers should have some extra protections," Harry replied.
The construction of Harry and Merope's cabin became quite the spectacle during the course of the next few days. Harry's talent with construction spells had developed quite nicely over the years and the spectating campers found themselves quite impressed as they watched him direct the building material with his magic, as if he were a maestro conducting an orchestra.
A few of the daughters of Aphrodite could be seen wearing bikinis in front of their cabin, hoping to catch Harry's eye, as they watched him build the newest cabin. Merope found it amusing they would try to, knowing that Harry was married. Then again, considering the promiscuity of the gods that the daughters of Aphrodite had as role models, she shouldn't be too surprised that they wouldn't care that the man whose attention they were trying to catch was married. She shook her head in amusement as she turned back into the tent to go over decorating schemes and thinking of a cabin name.
Color-wise, they had decided to use varying shades of colors from all the Hogwarts houses, but it was up to her to decide which color schemes would go where and so forth. She decided on shades of blue for the library, yellow and black in the kitchen, and multiple shades of reds and greens throughout the sleeping quarters.
Merope and Harry realized that the other cabins had no need for a kitchen, but they felt it was important for the kids to learn how to cook for themselves, in the event they actually survived into adulthood and were too old to remain campers.
Speaking of the kids' survival, they decided that while their soon to be adopted children would not likely be able to learn spelled magic, it was theorized that the demigods should have at a minimum the magic of a squib, which meant that they had enough magic to learn how to make potions and possibly learn how to make protections using runes. Merope felt that if the demigods had no choice in the quests that the gods sent them on, then the least she and Harry could do was make sure they were as prepared and protected as possible, which will be a simple thing to accomplish once they got the RoR set up, because they could train the kids in the time compression room.
On the sixth day, the newly named Potter Cabin was completed and ready to be moved into. Perhaps the name of the cabin wasn't exactly inspired, but considering Harry and Merope were both Potters and they didn't much feel like calling it the Cabin of the Deathly Hallows or Death's Cabin or any other variation in reference to the sign of the Deathly Hallows that had appeared above their heads. Additionally, Potter Cabin rolled off the tongue easier than say, Peverell Cabin, so there you have it.
The cabin was much bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, due to liberal usage of expansion charms. After all, if the gods didn't claim the rest of their children by the following evening, they were definitely going to need the space.
The next evening, Harry and Merope were giving their normal offering of the food. As Harry was preparing to push off his portion of food off of his plate and into the fire, he paused long enough to say, "So, this offering is for the gods who have yet to claim their children. I don't care if this makes you vengeful or not, but my wife and I are prepared to adopt all of the unclaimed children, so if you plan to claim your children, you have until the end of this meal to do so, otherwise, we'll be adopting the lot of them." Then he shoved the food off into the fire and waited for Merope to do her bit.
Merope ignored the whispers that began to surround them while she spoke her piece, "Right." She said with a decisive nod. "Well, you heard my husband. I'm very disappointed in you gods not claiming your children, not to mention the fact that none of you seem to take an active interest in your children beyond sending them on the occasional quest. It's not right to leave a child feeling unwanted. Your children are constantly put in danger for one reason or another and you act as if you don't even care. If you can't care about the kids you make when you procreate with the mortals, then you should bloody well stop procreating with mortals and stick to your immortal spouses." Then she shoved her food into the fire with a huff and turned around to walk to the Potter table with an indignant look upon her face.
Percy started looking around at the sky in fear, as if he expected Zeus himself to send lightning down to strike the Potters right then and there for the disrespect they had shown for the gods.
Five minutes after the Potters sat down to eat, the hum of conversation came to a sudden halt and then exploded in shock and awe. Harry and Merope looked up to see that more than half of the unclaimed kids had suddenly become claimed. There were at least five to have been claimed by Adonis, another four to be claimed by Ate, three had been claimed by Ponos, two were claimed by Nemesis, and one was claimed by Dysnomia. Ten children were left unclaimed, but since the meal was not even halfway through, Harry and Merope waited.
Finally, the end of the meal was near and Harry and Merope both wiped their mouths simultaneously before vanishing their plates and standing up, but before they could speak, two more of the children were claimed by Anteros.
After waiting a moment in case there were any other last minute claims, Harry cleared his throat. "Well," Harry said, "congratulations to those of you whose godly parents have finally decided to claim you."
Merope smiled and clapped, causing the other campers to cautiously follow along.
After the clapping died down, Harry said, "As I'm sure you heard, Merope and I are going to adopt the unclaimed campers." And with a flick of his wrist, the remaining eight demigods now had a floating symbol of the Deathly Hallows above their heads, causing them to gasp.
Harry smiled and said, "Welcome to the family! If you want to go get your belongings from the Hermès Cabin, we'll show you around the new Potter Cabin and you can choose your bunks."
Merope giggled as the kids tried not to trip on themselves in their excitement to go retrieve their stuff.
"I have to say, that was quite ingenious of you, not to mention gutsy," Chiron told the Potters, as they waited together in front of the Potter Cabin for the new members of the cabin to arrive.
Harry shrugged and said, "Well, the gods should have claimed their children a long time ago. If they didn't want to have kids, they shouldn't have made them to begin with."
"Exactly." Merope agreed. "Do they even understand the concept of safe sex?"
Harry snickered at that. "Considering they're gods and aren't capable of contracting STDs, I'm sure they've never considered using protection."
Merope rolled her eyes and huffed, crossing her arms, "Well, I still say if they didn't want their children, then they should have remained faithful to their immortal spouse."
Harry put his arm around her shoulders and said soothingly, "Well, dear, they've got us now, and we'll work out a system before we leave again where any unclaimed children can be sorted here."
"You don't intend to stay?" Chiron inquired curiously.
"We never know for sure how long we'll stay wherever we end up," Harry explained. "We don't tend to stay in one place more than a hundred years or so before we decide to travel again. Perhaps one day we'll stick around longer than that. That doesn't mean we can't pop in from time to time to check in even after we've left."
More conversation was cut off when the excited new members of the Potter Cabin arrived.
"Well, it seems awfully convenient that we've got an even number of the genders," Harry said, as the new Potter children came to a stop in front of the cabin.
Merope rolled her eyes and said to the kids with a smile, "Come on children, let's go inside and then we can get the formal introductions out of the way."
"I'll leave you to it then," Chiron said with a nod, before he turned away to head to the Big House.
"Have a nice evening, Chiron," Harry said.
The varying expressions of shock and awe from the children upon their first glimpse of the inside of the cabin was amusing to Harry and Merope. It was unlike Hermès Cabin, in that it was obviously not just one big room where the kids slept. It was even better than being inside the Big House.
"Right. Well, everyone take a seat and we'll start with introductions." Harry instructed with a smile, waiting a moment for everyone to sit down and get comfortable.
Once everyone appeared to be comfortable Harry began. "As I'm sure you know, I'm Harry and this is my wife, Merope." At everyone's nod of acknowledgement, he continued, "Now, we'll eventually tell you our whole story, but if I tried to do so tonight, we would never get around to introductions for the rest of you."
That earned Harry some nervous chuckles from the eight of them.
"The short version is that in my youth, I inadvertently collected some magical artifacts that in turn made me immortal and granted me unlimited amounts of power that included the ability to time travel and travel to different dimensions and worlds. The first time I tried to time travel, I met and married Merope, which somehow or another also granted her the ability to share my powers and immortality. We're older than we appear and have been married approximately, I don't know, 300 years or so, possibly more." Harry shrugged and added, "With the time travel and all, it's a bit difficult to keep track, so we don't. Just know, it's been a few hundred years."
"…"
"Darling, I think you've shocked them," Merope said in amusement.
"So you've basically become gods?" One of the girls asked in awe.
Harry thought about it for a second and nodded in agreement saying, "Yeah, I suppose we are in a way, but our existence doesn't really rely on the amount of mortals that still believe in us.
"Now, why don't we go around the room and take turns with brief introductions. Just tell us your name and a small little thing about yourself. Afterwards, we'll show you where you can sleep and after everyone has rested, we'll give you a tour of the place in the morning."
Then Harry pointed to the girl on his right side and said, "Let's start with you and work our way around."
The girl in question was a brunette with shoulder length hair and grey colored eyes. She swallowed nervously and cleared her throat before saying softly, "I'm Aurora Schmidt. I'm twelve and I've been here at the camp for about two years. My mom died in a car accident last summer, so I've been a full-time camper since then."
"Welcome, Aurora. I'm sorry for your loss," Merope said kindly. Aurora gave her a shy smile in answer.
Then the introductions continued with Jack Tiller, age 15; Marsha Sanders, age 14; Maria Martinez, age 16; Fred Gibson, age 13; Bobby and Sarah Snellgrove, age 14; and Timmy Fletcher, age 11.
"It's been lovely meeting you all officially," Merope said with a smile. "I'm sure you're all quite tired, so if the girls will follow me, I'll show you to your dorm room. Boys, you follow Harry and we'll see you all in the morning."
A/N: I'll try to go into more depth with the new characters I've introduced as the story goes along. I honestly have not made up a backstory yet, and I have no idea how important they are going to become to the story at this point. I just knew that the kids needed names, so I just started making them up as I went along. The bit with Aurora was unplanned and made up on the spur of the moment, too.