"This is a load of crap."

Hermione glared the dark-haired young man who was skimming her newly released book, "Tales of Beedle the Bard: Translated from the Original Runes by Hermione Granger".

She was meeting Harry and Ron for lunch in a few minutes, but had come to Flourish & Blotts to check out the display for her book and see if anyone was buying it. So far the only person to go near it was the guy who made that offensive comment.

"Excuse me," she said, standing behind him and folding her arms indignantly. "I fail to see how you can dismiss my translation after a few minutes of skimming. Are you an expert on Ancient Runes?"

The guy turned around in surprise. "You translated this?" he asked in a very American accent. She nodded. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to criticize the translation, I was just reading this Tale of Three Brothers, and thinking how inaccurate it is."

"Inaccurate? It's a children's story. A fairy tale. Of course it's inaccurate."

"Yes, but all those stories and myths came from truth originally, and this one has obviously been seriously screwed with." She sized him up. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that said "Stony Brook University, NY", and had sea-green eyes. She thought he looked trustworthy, if not especially intelligent.

"You know about the Deathly Hallows, then?" He raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. "The three gifts that Death gave to the three brothers. They're called the Deathly Hallows. I know they're real because a friend of mine has seen them all. In fact he's a descendant of the third brother. I'm not so sure about the story, though."

The stranger looked unimpressed. "Well, I've actually met Death, and he's not exactly Oprah. He wouldn't just give away powerful objects like this for some guys just building a bridge."

Hermione sighed impatiently. "Death had an ulterior motive, he knew that his gifts would bring the brothers to him in the end. That's the moral of the story, obviously."

The American laughed. "You sound so much like my girlfriend. I expected you to call me 'Seaweed Brain' right there." He blushed. "Nickname."

"So you don't believe 'Death' would give a mortal such a gift? If there is such a person."

"Death, Hades, Pluto. Yes, he's very real, and I think he would give gifts, but not to an ordinary mortal, and not for just building a bridge. I'm guessing the three brothers were actually sons of Hades. Demigods."

"Like Hercules, or Perseus?"

"You know your Greek mythology,-" he glanced at the cover of the book, "-Hermione Granger." She grinned, and he looked at her intently. "You're not a daughter of Athena, are you?"

"Er, not that I know of," she said.

"Hm, my girlfriend is. You're a lot alike. I'm Percy Jackson, by the way. Anyway. I also don't think it was an ordinary river. The only thing that would make sense is if the story is talking about the River Styx, the river that separates the Underworld from the transition place."

"You think the three brothers were Hades' sons and they built a bridge over the River Styx," she repeated in disbelief. Percy shrugged.

"It's the only way that story would make sense." She thought for a moment, then decided his theory had merit. She decided that if he knew so much about Hades and demigods, he might have an answer to her current dilemma.

"You know, there's a rumor about the Deathly Hallows, that says if one person can someday unite all three gifts, he will become Master of Death."

"Now that's ridiculous," he said, but looked intrigued.

"Well, what if this actually happened? If this hypothetical person died in possession of the three Hallows, then returned from death, or at least the "transition area", as you call it, and then found he had unusual abilities, like controlling the undead, or traveling through shadows?"

"I'd say this person has the powers of a son of Hades himself. Any chance this guy could be a demigod?" Percy asked doubtfully.

"That would be unlikely. His parents died when he was a baby, but they were definitely both his parents."

"Well, If said person was a descendant of one of the brothers, it would be possible that uniting the gifts could activate his demigod lineage. Hypothetically. I'm guessing you're referring to the friend of yours you mentioned."

"Yeah." Hermione looked at her watch, then back to Percy and smiled. "Hey, we're meeting for lunch. Want to join us?"

Percy grinned. "I'd love to."

Sorry guys, this is a one-shot and I have no plans for continuing it. I have a lot of ideas for crossovers, especially first-encounter scenes, but I really am no good at long multi-chapter stories. Love to read them, but can't write them. Taking my cue from Jedi Buttercup, I plan to write more short vignettes like this in the future, just to get my ideas out there. I may write another that happens in the same crossoververse as this one at some point in the future, but I can't say for sure. Anyone who wants to use my ideas or continue my short scenes, feel free! In fact, I might just call this a very detailed challenge. ;)

Also I changed Percy's school to Stony Brook so he can study Marine Bio. It's on Long Island and their mascot is the Seawolves. Annabeth is at Columbia doing architecture.