Harry and Merope Meets Percy Jackson

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or series, only the plots that you don't recognize.

A/N: Again, I apologize for the length of time I've taken to get out this next update. My excuses for my delays are already typed on my profile page, so I won't repeat myself here.

A/N: This chapter was reloaded because I noticed two typos while I was reading over it again to refresh my memory on where the story was so I could decide what to write next.

Chapter 9

Percy was the one who broke the silence. "Did you just turn Gaea into a tree ornament?"

Harry grinned in amusement at Percy's unique sense of humor and the way in which he chose to break the ice and responded with an amused snort, "Yeah, Perce, she'll blend in real nice with the Christmas decorations."

Percy blinked in confusion for a split second before he started snickering, jumpstarting the giggles and chuckles from the rest of the campers from both the Greeks and the Romans. Harry even noticed a handful of the gods and goddesses fighting the desire to show their amusement.

As the amusement died down, Harry's attention was turned towards Zeus when he demanded with just the slightest little bit of awe in his voice, "Who are you?"

Harry grimaced slightly and scratched the back of his neck, while he considered what he should say, to buy himself time while he contemplated what and how much he wanted to share he said, "I've gone by a few names in my time, but how is it you have no knowledge of me, considering you're supposed to be a god?"

Zeus scowled and appeared as if he wanted to hit Harry with his lightning bolt, but before he could verbally respond or start throwing lightning, surprisingly, it was Aphrodite that chose to answer.

"Just because we are gods and goddesses does not mean that we are all-knowing. While, in a way, our consciousness can be everywhere at once, we still have our limitations." Aphrodite tried to explain. She appeared as if she would have wanted to explain more, but for Zeus glaring warningly to her to shut her trap, so she pursed her lips and didn't add anything else.

"I see," Harry said, even though he didn't really see.

It was Merope that decided to interrupt the proceedings. "Before we get too far into our life stories, I would suggest that we see to the injured children that need medical attention. There is absolutely no reason that you should be demanding answers from us, while your children are standing here bleeding and injured," Merope interjected sternly, as she gazed out into the crowd around them as she gestured towards the injured children with some emphasis.

Zeus appeared to want to argue, but was cut off when Harry responded in concern, "You are absolutely right dear," secretly glad for the interruption. "Now that the threat has passed, seeing to the injured should have been our first priority, not demanding to know who we are," Harry added with a slight glare to Zeus. As an afterthought he added, "We also need to check on that group of Roman campers that were put into a potion-induced sleep and portkeyed away, make sure they are uninjured and make sure that they understand the fight is over and they were being used."

Then Harry ignored the gods and goddesses and focused his attention only on the children and said, "All right, children. Let's all get back to the camp, so we can get you all looked at and fed."

When it only looked as if the children from Camp Half-Blood were going to comply, Harry looked at the Roman campers, who were standing there looking lost. Harry firmly, but with care said, "I'm speaking to you Romans as well. I understand that you all must be trained to not show weakness and such, but you are children and injured as well, there is no reason for you to remain there in pain when we can help. Now, come on, you're welcome within the borders of the camp." The wards gave a friendly flash at his words, as if to give confirmation that they were indeed welcomed within.

After a few looks were exchanged, the one that appeared to be the leader, or at least one of them, stepped forward cautiously and made some kind of gesture with her fist over her heart, after which, the other Romans followed suit and got into formation and began following her into the camp.

Percy rolled his eyes and said, "You don't have to be so formal about it, Reyna. Geez."

The now identified Reyna glared at Percy and retorted, "Shut it, Seaweed Brain," before she walked past him to go into the camp.

Percy opened and closed his mouth like a fish for a couple of seconds before he complained, "Hey! Only Annabeth is allowed to call me that!" Reyna's laughter in response could be heard trailing behind her.

Just for good measure, Percy called out again, "You're not allowed to call me that!" Then he turned to Annabeth to complain to her, only to see her doubled over in laughter. Percy then crossed his arms over his chest and mumbled with a frown, "It wasn't that funny," before he turned to stomp away in irritation.

Seeing Percy leaving, Annabeth attempted to catch her breath as she chased after him, still fighting laughter, "Percy, wait!" Giggle, giggle. "I'm sorry!" Which sounded insincere when combined with her obvious amusement.

Harry didn't hear any more from the two as he turned back toward the gods and goddesses and said, "Well, you may as well come on in, too. You can use the opportunity to spend time getting to know your children while you're waiting for your answers.

Then Harry offered his arm to Merope, who rolled her eyes, but smiled at the gesture, as she grabbed his arm, then they silently apparated away, leaving behind a group of gawking gods and goddesses.

Artemis broke the silence when she asked, "Should we not recall my brother back from Mount Olympus, so that he can be involved in this…" she paused for a moment as she considered what exactly this is, then settled on, "…family reunion?"

Zeus glared at Artemis just long enough to make her start to squirm in discomfort before directing an order to Hermès, "Go to Mount Olympus and bring Apollo back."

Things at Camp Half-Blood had finally settled down. The injured children had been healed and fed, and the Greeks and Roman demigods had been able to reach a tentative truce, while they all settled down after a while, because they really wanted to hear about Harry and Merope's history as much as it seemed the gods and goddesses did.

The only camper left giving any sort of trouble had been Octavian, who had insisted there was still a prophecy in play that he was destined to fulfill, until Apollo got fed up enough to slap him on the back of the head and said, "Hello? God of Prophecy here. The prophecy has been fulfilled. NOW STOP." So now Octavian was sitting alone in the outskirts of the crowd that was awaiting story time — pouting in embarrassment.

The hum of conversation ended when Zeus could be heard demanding an explanation now that the children had been fed and visited by both the Greek gods/goddesses as well as their Roman counterparts, which turned out to be both equal amounts of strange and fascinating to see them split themselves in two, in order to spend time with both the Greek and Roman demigods.

Harry rolled his eyes and retorted, "First off, I owe you no explanations. If we wanted to, my wife and I could leave like that," as he snapped his fingers, "should we wish to, and you would never see or hear from us again, nor would you be able to find us." He took a glance around and saw the worried expressions coming from the children of Potter Cabin. To alleviate their worries he added, "But we would not do that to the children we've adopted here," looking at said children, who visibly relaxed.

"In any event, we wouldn't leave without giving them a way to remain in contact with us, regardless of what world we were in," Merope explained for the benefit of their children, and Harry nodded in agreement.

"Now, as to your question of who I am," Harry said, while looking Zeus in the eye, "I've gone by many names in my life.

"When I was born, I was a wizard named Harry James Potter. When my parents were murdered and I survived at 15 months old, I was the Boy-Who-Lived. When I was 17 years old, I became the Man-Who-Conquered for defeating the Dark Lord that murdered my parents, I also became Master of Death, though I didn't accept it at the time. I believe I was 18 years old when I finally accepted the Deathly Hallows, which caused me to fully become the Master of Death, which then came with certain perks that I had mixed feelings about.

"I don't see the need to go into all the trials and tribulations that I faced while I was mortal. Frankly, it's a long story and it just feels a bit like unnecessary bragging to go into it all. The short version is that I was born a mortal wizard, but didn't know I was a wizard until I was 11 years old. I was raised as a slave by my maternal aunt and her husband."

Harry frowned a little as he got a faraway look in his eyes, while he was remembering things from long ago. He didn't notice the various looks of concern, awe, confusion and other wide ranges of emotions appearing on everyone's faces, including the gods and goddesses.

"When I was 17, I knowingly walked to my death to save everyone from the dark lord that had been trying to murder me since I was 15 months old. I had a bit of his soul lodged inside the scar on my forehead, you see, and the only way for him to die was if I did," he explained as he met the eye of Zeus once more. Zeus, for once, appearing to lose some of his arrogance.

"This dark lord was obsessed with being immortal, so he split his soul too many times in his attempt to avoid death, and when he tried to kill me as a child, he unknowingly attached part of his soul to mine. So when I walked to my death, he unknowingly killed a little piece of himself instead of me.

"I wasn't meant to survive, you know," Harry explained, seemingly nonchalant. "I found out later that there were plots within plots. I had been raised in such a way as to almost guarantee I'd allow myself to be a martyr for the greater good and I wasn't expected to survive. My best friend, girlfriend, and their family were only pretending to be supportive of me for my money, among other things…" Harry trailed off and sighed in the retelling. He was seriously getting tired of having to explain his life story in every world/time he appeared in, even if he wasn't giving everyone here all of the details that he had shared with others in his past travels.

Looking around at the others, he continued, "The short of it is, I inadvertently collected some trinkets that the world I once belonged to called the Deathly Hallows; the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility, which had unknowingly been in my family for generations. I attempted to get rid of the first two, but kept the Cloak because it was one of the few links I had left to my family. All of the items kept returning to me, so I finally gave up and accepted them."

Harry gave a wry smile, then continued, "They became a part of me when I accepted them. They essentially made me immortal. I can't die. I don't age, though I came up with a charm that gives the appearance of aging." Harry shrugged at the collective look of incredulity coming from the campers and gods and goddesses alike. When his eyes landed on Merope, his gaze softened and he gave her a loving smile which she returned.

Harry clapped his hands briefly and gave a smile with a one-shouldered shrug, "Anyway. I survived what I shouldn't have, and started out time traveling. I met Merope during that time and fell in love, married her, had a child with her, and was able to somehow share this once thought curse with her, making her just as immortal as I am. We started traveling to different worlds and dimensions together after a while, going where we felt we were needed. I have a saving people thing." Harry finished with a wry grin.

Hades was the one that broke the silence when he asked with narrowed eyes, "What do you mean you're the Master of Death."

Harry looked at Hades and shrugged, "I don't know, I've never even met the bloke." At Hades' look of incredulity, Harry added, "It was believed to be a myth in my world and I still don't know where they came up with the term 'Master of Death', because I've never met the entity that is called Death. I only know that I can't die, though I can still be injured, but I heal rather quickly. I have powerful magic. I've pretty much given up on trying to define it after all this time." Harry finished saying, as if that closed the discussion.

"Just so we're clear, you are in no way attempting to take my place as the one who rules over Death?" Hades clarified.

"No thank you," Harry said, drawing out the O in no, waving his hands in front of himself in the universal language of saying, no way. "I have no desire to rule over Death or have any part of the goings on in the Underworld."

Then Hades relaxed and nodded stiffly, "I may not have wanted it when my brothers pretty much pushed me into it, but I'll be damned if I let some upstart push me out of my domain either."

Harry snorted in amusement and jokingly, "I like the sunlight too much to be taking over the Underworld, your domain remains yours."

Hades snorted in response. Then the questions started flying back and forth from everyone and the atmosphere became a lot more relaxed.

Finally after a good period of time, it was time for the gods and goddesses to take their leave and return to Mount Olympus, though they promised that they would visit with their children at least once a year and reaffirmed their promises to claim their children within a month of their arrival to camp.

While Harry and Merope still didn't have a reverence for the gods and goddesses, they did have somewhat of a tentative respect for them, after having spent a bit of time with them and seeing them and their counterparts making an effort to spend the time with their children that the children were obviously quite pleased about.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and enjoyed this slowly written story. I'm not sure when my next update will be, but it's likely to only be an epilogue.