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Chapter Text

Remus Lupin did not exactly have a normal life. For one, he transformed into a bloodthirsty werewolf once every month.

When he was young, he was locked up in a cellar charmed to death with protective spells when he transformed. There hadn't been much to do in an empty cellar and the intense, insistent urge to eat, kill, attack, tear, shred wouldn't let go of Remus, he ended up attacking himself. Even with magical healing (their family couldn't afford St. Mungo's treatment each month and the healers there often refused to treat a werewolf; they had to make do with whatever healing magic his father could manage), he spent more than a week every month bed-ridden and utterly bored.

Of course, he became a major bookwork. Of course, he had read the Percy Jackson and associated series. Of course, he got knee deep into fanfictions when he discovered them. It was only natural.

After coming to Hogwarts, with better medical facilities, he got healthy (as healthy as a werewolf can get, what with complete anatomical rearrangement process every month) in a couple of days instead of a week every month. When his friends became animagi the previous year, his injuries became next to none. Moreover, being a marauder didn’t leave him much time to be bored.

But the love for reading remained.

It was during the vacation after the fifth year. The marauders had come over to Remus’s house for a few days of sleepover. Despite being the smallest of the four, Remus' house often ended up being the gathering spot. Sirius' house was out of question, Peter's mom was "annoyingly overbearing" as Sirius put it. Jame's house was nice, but Remus's parents were "cool" as Jame's put it, and so here they were. 

The marauders were messing around in the woods; James had transformed and was hiding somewhere in the woods. He, Sirius and Peter were looking for him. ("it's just hide and seek" Remus tells them. "Does hide and seek have shapeshifting deers, Moony? Huh? Huh?" ) 

“Hello,” a voice awkwardly spoke somewhere away from them in the forest. “Could you show me the directions to a nearby settlement? Or tell me where I am? Or, if you can, just send me home?”

The voice sounded American. The three marauders exchanged confused glances and started walking towards the voice.

“Is the dude talking to Prongs?” Peter whispered.

“Don’t be stupid,” Sirius said, “why would a muggle talk to a deer?”

“I don’t think he’s a muggle though," Remus whispered, "how would a muggle 'send him home'? It's like he's expecting magical means of transport” But then again, wizards don’t go about talking to random animals either.

They could see the boy now. He wore a faded orange T-Shirt and was clutching something in his jeans pocket. He was, indeed, talking to James. The boy noticed their arrival and frowned at them.

“Can we help you?” Remus asked.

“Dude, why were you talking to a deer?” Sirius asked at the same time.

The boy was staring at them confusedly. He looked to James and then back to the marauders.

“Because, uh,” he said, looking at James, “he’s your friend, isn’t he? Prongs, I think?”

Within a blink of an eye, Sirius had his wand out and was pointing it at Percy. “How do you know that? Who are you?”

Remus cringed internally. Sirius being the drama queen he was easily raised to the bait. They could have salvaged their secret. The boy could have been taking a random guess or making a joke, or something. 

“Dude! Chill out!” The boy said, turning towards Sirius. He held up one hand in surrender. He didn't seem too surprised about the fact that Sirius was threatening him with a tiny wooden stick. His other hand was still firmly in his pocket, holding something.

That’s when Remus noticed the faded but distinctive picture of a winged horse on his T-Shirt, and the words ‘CAMP HALF-BLOOD’.

“Camp half-blood?” Remus whispered, almost to himself. He then noticed the necklace with five beads, and the sea-green-blue eyes. “Percy Jackson?”

Now all members of the little party turned to him with surprise. Now that Remus made the connection, he also noticed the streak of grey hair on his head. 'Oh! That's why he keeps his hand in his pocket! He's holding riptide'

“Yes.” Percy said warily. 

“What?” Sirius asked. James also turned his snout to him enquiringly.

“It’s this book I read when I was younger. Percy Jackson is a demigod, like, half-god half-mortal.”

“So you’re saying,” Sirius said slowly and just a little sarcastically, “that a character from a book, jumped out of the book and is standing right here in front of us?”

Remus paused, having not thought that far, “When you say it like that... I don’t know! Wait, how do you know that's James?” Remus asked.

Percy shrugged, “I have been dreaming about you guys.”

“What!” Peter squeaked. James turned his snout enquiringly towards him.

“Demigod visions. They predict the future, in a way.” Remus explained. “Hold on! If you’re Percy Jackson, where’s Annabeth?”

“Let me see,” Percy said, miming and patting his pant pockets, as if looking for something, “huh! I must have forgotten her in my desk drawer.”

Sirius laughed. “Who is Annabeth?” he asked Remus.

“My girlfriend.” Percy answered. He turned to James, “Can you become human again? You are kind of weirding me out there, standing like that.”

In one swift motion, Prongs transformed into a human, grinning. Remus has, of course, seen the process a million times. But he still marvelled at the smooth transition from a bulky stag to the short, lanky human.

Percy grinned, amused. “Woah, dude! Nice!”

“I thought you already saw that in your dreams.” Sirius asked suspiciously. He still hadn't put his wand away, though he had lowered it.

“It’s not like dreams have HD vision.” Percy explained.

Remus was confused. People transforming into animals should be normal for Percy. He was friends with Frank. Why was he so impressed?

"What does HD mean?" James asked. ("It's a TV thing" Peter explained. "What's a Teevee?")

Remus ignored the conversation. Now that he thought about it, Percy seemed young. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Oh.”

That explains it, Remus thought. The Gods of Olympus haven’t started yet.

Remus was suddenly struck with the realization that he was meeting Percy freaking Jackson. He turned abruptly to Percy.

“Can you control water? Can you give a demonstration, please?” Remus said, as he bounced on his feet.

“Dude, you are a wizard.” James pointed out, “You can control water too.”

Oh.

Right.

“Wait! Oh, Merlin, you still have your Achilles curse!”

Percy frowned, “What do you mean ‘still’? Do I lose it? You know my future?”

Remus grimaced, forgetting (like many others) that Percy was deceptively observant. “I… don’t think I should tell you that.” Remus wasn't quite sure why he didn't tell him. Maybe it was all those lessons warning against "disruption of known reality due to time travel". Does this even count as time travel?

Percy nodded, “Fair.”

“Achilles curse?” Sirius asked, “The old Greek hero Achilles, with the vulnerable ankle and all?”

Sirius may not have read the books, but he had had a classical education, unwilling though it was.

“Yeah. Except Percy’s on his back.” Percy looked uncomfortable at his secret discussed so casually, something only Grover, his mother and Annabeth knew.

“Does your curse work on magic? Like, if I shoot a curse at you, would it work?” Sirius asked. 

("What's an Achille's curse?" Peter asked. He was ignored.)

“I think it wouldn’t. I think the monsters count as magic and they can’t hurt him so…” Remus mused.

“We should try it out!” James said, already reaching for his wand.

“Guys!” Percy interjected, “Can we first try to figure out how I got here? And how I can go back?”

“And we are underage, so no magic!" Remus said, "It could be the work of a monster. Or goddess.” thinking of Hera and her tendency to randomly make people disappear.

“Goddess? Why goddess specifically? Not a god?” Peter asked. Percy looked thoughtfully at Peter, a little sadly even. 

Before Remus could think too much about it a growl interrupted their conversation. Remus grinned at the sight of the monster, momentarily happy about looking at an actual Greek monster before recognizing the dangers of the situation.

Percy muttered angrily under his breath, taking out riptide. 

Remus wasn't too concerned about the huge, dinosaur-like creature towering over them. Percy was with them; he'll handle it. Remus could enjoy the show. 

Their holidays just got a whole lot more interesting.

Chapter Text

Percy would like to state, for the record, that he had been behaving. He did not piss off any gods (recently anyway), he did his chores and stayed in school. He hadn’t even blown up his new school (yet). The fact that he got transmigrated into a different world now just meant that the fates were sadistic and hated him.

Had he been concerned about the dreams he was getting? Yes.

Was he worried about the quarantined young couple and their orphaned baby? Of course.

Was he, in some part, angry about what their supposed best friend did? Definitely.

Was he happy about finding himself in the world of his dreams and getting a chance to prevent it? No! He has had enough of being the hero and it was about time someone else did it.

The growl of the monster brought him out of his thoughts. It was a testament to how done he was with this (monsters in general and also the never-ending action series that was his life) that he’d been idly musing even after the appearance of a monster twice his height and just as big.

Percy looked over to the marauders.

James and Sirius were looking at it with apprehension and wands at ready. Remus (odd boy) was grinning. Peter looked terrified but interestingly enough, he wasn’t running away. Was it because he didn’t want to abandon his friends in face of danger or because he was simply following his friends lead without much thought.

A flick and a smack from the monster’s tail to his midsection brought him rudely back to the present situation. Percy launched sideways into the air, and with no effort of his own managed to avoid hitting any trees and landed softly on his feet. The Achilles curse sure was dope.

“Is that a monster?” Sirius yelled towards him, “Do Greek monsters even exist in our world?”

“How about we run in opposite directions” Percy shouted back, “and if it follows me, it’s a monster.”

The marauders took off in the forest and Percy ran in opposite direction and the stupid dinosaur followed him. Of course it did.

***

“We have to help him!” James panted. They had stopped running after a little while when they realized the monster wasn’t following them.

“Do we have to?” Peter asked, “He’s a Greek hero he can…”

“Of course we do.” Sirius said, “he might be a half god but he had no sword or anything. How will he kill it?”

“He has a sword,” Remus said, “and also, we can’t do underage magic. If we go there, we’ll only get in the way.”

Peter nodded in relief as Remus argued in his favor.

James glared at Remus, “We can do underage magic in case of an emergency-”

“- and being attacked by a giant Greek monster classifies as an emergency.” Sirius finished Jame’s sentence.

James looked stubborn and seemed ready to argue more. Remus shook his head, “You know the ministry is hard on werewolves, they won’t see reason with me, however valid our cause may be.”

James faltered for a moment, then said, “Fine, we won’t use magic. But Padfoot and Prongs can still help. We can distract it for a while so Percy can catch his breath or something.”

“And this is the last time you can use the wolf card this month.” Sirius said.

Remus spluttered and protested but he was talking to the receding butts of two animals running away.

Peter ran after them a few steps, then faltered when he realized Remus was running. He slowed down to let Remus catch up (he had injured his leg bone this month and running was painful).

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Remus suggested. Truth is, Remus did want to go, to see the fight but he could also see how scared Peter was.

Peter stopped gratefully, then realized if the monster came there, he would be alone with Remus, who refused to use magic. Confused between whether he wanted to be with Remus- where the monster might not come or with James and Sirius, where the monster definitely is. He was saved from making a decision as rustling in the leaves was followed by the appearance of Prongs and Padfoot.

“Turns out we didn’t need to go after all,” Sirius panted, human again, “the monster was dead by the time we got there.”

“His sword is so cool.” James said with a huge grin.

Percy walked into a clearing, slightly disheveled hair the only indication of any event happening.

“Where’s your sword?” James asked with the professional interest of a transfiguration prodigy.

Percy fished (fish you say?) out Riptide from his pocket and obligingly uncapped it. After James was done examining it (“I wonder how this works, bet it’s a charm”) and Percy wrangled it back from him (“I’d like it to remain as it is, thank you very much”), they discussed what to do now.

They obviously had no way of sending Percy back home. Iris messaging didn’t work and even insulting Zeus caused no thunder. Safe to say the Greek gods didn’t exist in this world. Interestingly, Percy could still control water.

(“Maybe because you have Poseidon’s DNA (ichor?) directly in your body” Remus mused, “so you don’t need Poseidon for your powers.”)

They decided Percy would stay with them until whoever brought him here shows up or takes him back.

“I’m guessing it intentional,” Percy said, “If Greek gods don’t exist in this world, monsters wouldn’t either. So, whoever brought me here also brought the monsters.”

Soon the reason for Percy’s transmission revealed itself, or as it turns out in their case – herself.