In the Lap of the Gods

“Congratulations Remus, you’ve been claimed on your first day!” James said excitedly to break the uncomfortable silence that fell to their table since the owl started glowing there.

“It’s not usual for Athena to claim her kids without them showing some great deal of brawn” Vega noted and Remus saw the shared look of worry she had with Sirius.

“No and we all know what this means for Mr Lupin.” Dumbledore said from wherever he appeared from. Remus was still speechless not really processing his surroundings as for the second time on the day his whole family and things he believed of them swam away from his reach. And even as Dumbledore started explaining what it does mean for him, only one thought occupied his mind. Mum. Hope Lupin is not my mum. It felt like loosing her for Remus,for how awful it was to grow up with a woman you believed was your mother,who after like she was, giving you every book you dreamed of,sharing stories of times before yours,introducing you to the music that will become the only safe and constant thing in your life out of her embrace and not having neither her or your dad mention that not only were you not the child of their love, but the third person you came from was a goddess.

Remus didn’t know what hurt most. To realize he is not who he thought, that her mum- no, that Hope was not who he thought she was,that his parents lied to him, that he never met his actual mother or just simply the sense of loosing one’s self after discovering reality. Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking and left the table and Remus was still just spiralling down on the long tube of self doubt when he felt someone’s hands on his shoulder. He looked in that direction and was met with Sirius’s blue eyes that shone with great concern in the moonlight. For an unknown amount if time to Remus that could’ve been hours,minutes or simply a millisecond he got lost in he just stared into those eyes. He didn’t know what Dumbledore was talking about, he didn’t know where Sirius’s concern originated from and this was just the thing, he didn’t know. Him,who used to know everything,who everyone relied on to know everything suddenly became the one to know the least. And that’s when he heard Sirius call his name.

“Remus” he called again and now he forced himself to look at them and not just let himself drown in their eyes with no thought or explanation behind why he was doing it. “How much did you hear?”

“Of what?” he asked throughout laboured breath and that’s when Sirius stood up,pulling Remus’s gaze with them.

“Cover for us?” Sirius asked James and Vega who kept solely quiet ever since Dumbledore showed up and even know barely nodded. Remus’s gaze still hadn’t left Sirius tho,looking at them as if they were the north star,being the only thing that grounded Remus from drifting completely off to a panic attack.

“Come with me?” Sirius asked offering their hand,which Remus took without a word and his feet instinctively followed as they began to walk and walk without Remus ever taking in his surroundings. That was until Sirius opened the door to the room Remus promised himself to visit as soon as he had the time.

“Sit down there I’ll look if they have anything from this Bowie of yours.” Sirius said pronouncing it as in bow,the thing you do at the end of a performance and well, frequent misconception and what could Remus say, it was easier to ignore his problems and talk about Bowie than to face them especially when they numbed his brain.

“It’s Bowie, and considering he’s one of the if not the most impactful artist ever I’m sure their record will be here,and I dare to believe more than one so I’ll pick.” At that Sirius’s grin, that grin plastered over their face yet again and they took a seat at the place they ushered Remus to just a minute before.

“Look who can talk again” they commented as Remus turned to go through records. He didn’t know if Sirius intentionally mispronounced the name like he knew Remus would feel the need to correct, foreseeing it would pull him out of the trance or if it was just an accidental win by their part but Remus was glad either way to have them right now.

“His name was actually Davy Jones you know.”

“Bowie’s?”

“Mhm” Remus answered,his fingers delicately turning the vinyls. He was already met with Heroes,Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups, but he would not stop looking till he found the album he was looking for. “Changed it before he became famous because there already was a Davy Jones in the music industry so he took up the name Bowie and just I guess filled in Davy to David. He actually has 2 self titled albums, the second one being the first to even have an alter ego which Bowie loved doing for his albums. It was Major Tom, the first alter ego that is, and that album even starts with the line ‘Ground control to Major Tom’ which as a kid I used to mishear as ‘ground control to maid you tongue’ which makes no absolute sense but well whatever.” He explained,never looking up till he found it.

“And now may I present to you, the very top of the mountain of music” and he shoved the album in Sirius’s face with triumph.

“The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars?” Remus only nodded with a smile as he made his way to the record player.

“Who’s Ziggy? And why does Mars have spiders? Wait, does it actually? The planet I mean?”

“I do not know about Mars and its spiders but Ziggy is another alterego of his. It’s his most iconic one,and I’m sorry but if you don’t like this album,we cannot be friends.”

Sirius was a bit quiet as the first track, Five years started playing then asked.

“It’s the same album you mentioned at dinner,right” Remus only nodded with a smile,because honestly even he forgot he talked about it,too much information to process and things that’s happened since the beginning of the night he was quite amazed to find Sirius could recall.

There was not a word spoken between them till the song ended,but it was a comfortable silence and Sirius seemed to pay great attention to the music and Remus watched intently. They had their eyes closed and a brief smile playing on their lips as they got engrossed in Bowie’s work. Sirius seemed like they were pulled to a workd entirely new to then,which Rmeus guessed they were,because they did mention not listening to music did theg not? It seemes both sad and questionable and he started to wonder that someone who shut themselves off from anything that’s music,why did they now agree to listen to it now with him? They barely knew one another, but then again Remus felt very at ease with Sirius and their friendgroup,could it be they were just as comfortable?

The needle shifting to soul love was what broke both of them out of their thoughts and Remus was met once again with the most beautiful shade of blue yet again.

“This really was a beautiful one” Sirius commented softly.

“Why did you shut music out?” at that Sirius’s smile wavered and they looked away,making Remus worry they overstepped but then Sirius began answering.

“My family is well, very fucked up to say the least. They sided with Grindelwald back when he started the revolution and they were obsessed with having demigod children. It has happened before, I have 3 cousins who are children of Onerai, gods of dreams. Morpheus to be exact. He sends humane forms to dreams. My mum though, felt like she was gonna go for one of the big guys you know, because having a kid with a god wasn’t special enough to her,she needed to have it with one of the big three, so that’s how Vega and I were born.”

“Does it bother you?”

“Being a child of Hades? No, he’s actually a great person- well god I suppose. Most modern stories make him be this villain but he himself actually was and is a very chill nature. They never intended to throw over Olympus or anything, they mostly just stayed in the underworld and did justice there. Yet people still think he’s this evil being just for being the god of the underworld,but I mean, death is a part of life is it not? It’s not like he enjoys death and brings it to people, he just guides and guards the soul of the already deceased.” Sirius went quiet for bit then looked at Remus as they added. “I constantly worry that’s how people perceive me as too. Just darkness and evil because they believe my family and parentage is all that’s there to me,and to be fair most people do look at me like I would get them dead in a heartbeat just because I can. Which is funny because I actually have no such powers and they’d probably beat me in any kind of combat because I never even tried training.” 

“Hades is the God of treasures as well.” Remus offered then saw the confusion in Sirius’s eyes so he elaborated “The underworld might be filled with the dead,but that’s where the treasures are too, and Hades is responsible of those too. Think of it like this, people are scared of you because of this shell,this shadow your heritage created over you,just like people are scared to fall underground,but once they take the fall they find treasures there, each more precious than the other and I think you’re like that. We have not known eachother for long,but I can tell you’re a great person Sirius”

As if on que Remus heard the first notes of Starman playing and he could see even Sirius’s ears prick up at it. They fell into silence again,their eyes not adverting from the other’s for even a moment and Remus could practically see the gears in Sirius’s mind turning.

“My mortal family is obsessed with heritage. The heritage of being powerful and dark. They resented everything out of sort and raised us like children of royalty. We were forced to dance classes,ballet specifically and classical piano and they would basically torment us with them. They intentionally underfed us because ‘ballerinas are supposed to be light and graceful as a feather’ and if we underachieved they would just not give us food. It became something we had to earn throughout our childhood and I can still see Vega struggle with that and I know that there’s nothing I can do to help,because just like I can’t erase the scars our parents’s physical abuse left on us, I can’t erase her mental scars either. So when our satyr found us and got us to Hogwarts, I closed music off entirely,because it reminded me of music sheets,it reminded me of cold nights I spent on an empty stomach alone just because I landed a second sooner than I was supposed to. I never considered there would be a side of music that was not like that. But this one feels and sounds like freedom I-“ Sirius sobbed then and Remus did not resist the urge to pull his new made friend into a group.

“Thank you for showing me that side of things” They whispered and squeezed Remus a bit tighter. For a while they stayed like that, Remus’s mind swarmed with the brutality of what this two innocent children had to endure in such a brief period of time that was their lives so far and the only thing that took him out of the grey cloud of hatred he started to feel towards the Black parents was the soft sound of piano starting to play.

“This is your song” he whispered into Sirius’s ear and his friend looked up.

“Lady Stardust?” Remus barely nodded and he watched,his heart swelling in size as Sirius eased into the song once again, pointing their whole attention at it and their smile only growing the more the song goes on.

“Then you’re Starman” is what they said as the song finished. “Actually you’re the moon.” Got that wrong,the moon and I have  mutual hatred for eachother thought Remus and was about to say as much before Sirius called

“Moony”

“Pardon?”

“Ton nom est Moony” Of fucking course Sirius spoke french

“Why would you think the Moon and I are in a situation where I’d want to be called after it? It literally terrorizes me each month” He said gestured to his facial scars.

“I like your scars. They’re beautiful. And I like to think there’s beauty to be found in things if we just look at them from another perspective “ Sirius said and ofcourse, wasn’t what they just did with them listening to music for the first time in years to calm Remus down because, wait

“What was it Dumbledore said?” He questioned because he just remembered that life existed outside of this music room where they cooped up to listen to Bowie, no matter how much the album seemed to take them on a space trip.

“You really didn’t hear any of it then?”

“Well no,I was pretty much freaked out about an identity crisis over my mum not being my mum”

“Why wouldn’t she be? Family isn’t just dna and blood, especially since gods don’t even have one to begin with. James considers Euphemia his mum as if she was it by blood as well,because well Effie did more than Apollo ever did, and at the end of the day it’s those who love us and treat us as family who are our family. Why would knowing scientifically otherwise change that?”

“Great thoughts,but what do you mean considers his mum his mum? I thought he’s a child of Apollo?”

“Most of the gods are basically queer icons, Apollo in the lead and as I’ve said they don’t have DNA they can have kids with anyone and in any form they like. And I also hate to break it to you but Athena did not birth you the way you think she did” There came Sirius explaining how Athena punishes men with giving them kids from her thoughts,making Remus himself nothing but a dirty thought given life. But hey at least that meant he’s smart!

“I wanna go back 48 hours and believe I’m a Marvel superhero”

“Hey! Those I know! Marlene from Hermes cabin is obsessed with them. I’ll have to introduce you two!” Remus felt ridiculously proud to hear Sirius say they know something worldwide viral for once. Which was ridiculous because duh, one should know it. But considering his friend’s childhood…

“So anyway Dumbledore “ he brought it back because now he wanted to get through all the weird and insane things and call it a day. Who knows? Maybe it will turn out he actually will get to start his own superhero group!

“What the fuck do you mean I was prophesied to save the world! I’m fucking 11!” Remus cried when Sirius explained how the camp has been waiting for the coming of this child of Athena who will one day save the world from the new evil forces that are to come forward in the years to come.

“A year after Grindelwald the prophecy was issued by the Oracle at the time. Him,who the owl claim on the first night, shall end the fight of the dark mark; but beware to do what’s right or to his call the world must fall’ then Sybill came to camp 3 years ago and said the same thing. There’s actually have been some stirrings of demigods who once fought by Grindelwald trying to do the same and Dumbledore feared they may cease power soon,but now he’s certain you’re the guy from the prophecy and your arrival just set things in motion.”

“Well that’s just fucking lovely.” Remus commented and Sirius nudged his shoulder. They quickly agreed to ignore those issues at hand because gods’ know it could be a decade before that does happen! Remus knew neither of them believed so and they both were just too young and too tired to deal with that and jumped into a conversation about the album and Bowie himself. Sirius asked about the singer and Remus talked and talked and talked, his friend’s interest never wavering. It was past midnight Sirius walked him to the Athena cabin to show the way and they agreed to make listening through Remus’s favourite albums a thing between them,because Sirius found they did love music when it wasn’t used to torment them. As a goodbye they shared a brief hug, more like a half armed embrace,not the holding of one another they shared earlier in the music room and Remus was ready to get to bed, weirdly happy considering all the things that happened just today if it were not for the girl who opened the door to his cabin.

“Where have you been?” Questioned the freckled ginger haired girl he accidentally attacked last night.

Great, once there are people in your little hide out and even then you attack your own sister.