Percy POV

"Oh please, please, please Wise Girl. It's all I can think about!" I pleaded with my smirking girlfriend. When the girls had come back last night they'd all been extra happy, and their hair and makeup had been applied. Confirming my suspicions that they had been visited by Aphrodite. However, they refused to let us see Hermione.

Ron and Harry had instantly been suspicious and concerned, that is until I had the shock of my life when none other than Ginny Weasley stuck up for my friends. Her exact words being,

'Don't be prats. She wants it to be a surprise, you both owe her that much with how you've been treating her for the past two days. Honestly, asking her as a last resort and denying she had a date already? Then observing that she was indeed a girl? Very bright the both of you." Both boys had shut up instantly pink across their cheeks. They'd convinced us to close our eyes so she could make a quick escape. Unfortunately for them, Nico had left the confines of our personal common room just as she passed him. He'd sucked in a deep breath and I'd practically heard his jaw hit the floor. He'd been sworn to secrecy instantly, agreeing the moment the remaining five girls had swarmed him.

The Ginny produced the same amount of shock when we'd all been saying goodnight and she'd hugged me and whispered.

'Does Aphrodite look like Annabeth too you?" I'd stared at her as her eyes twinkled and she discreetly winked at me. She'd walked up the stairs to the girl's dorm before I could ask her what she knew and I had ushered the remaining demigods into our room.

Hazel explained what Aphrodite had done and I felt a rush of annoyance for the goddess of love. Not only did she mess with my love life but also with our very sensitive quest. It wasn't that I didn't trust Ginny, it was more of a fact that I didn't know her. Annabeth had reassured the rest of us saying that Ginny wouldn't tell a soul, that she'd handled the news better than anyone ever. Which probably meant she was freaking out in her room.

Annabeth shook her head at me with a smile on her face as we walked outside to join the rest of our friends.

"No way Seaweed brain! It's going to be a surprise for everyone tonight! You should have seen her smile when Aphrodite worked her magic though. Oh, I've never seen one so bright! And that includes Apollo!" She swatted my arm before dragging me towards the snowball fight that Leo was loosing so bad it was funny, Piper didn't think so as yelling at him, her moms 'pretty' spell was still in effect, she'd tricked the spell into letting her wear warm pants, finally. It had been a long night listening to her swear as she sat in front of the fire, as she attempted to sleep there. Jason had joined her in a separate chair to try and keep her calm, which hadn't worked as he'd fallen into a deep sleep not ten minutes in. She'd woken in a foul mood, which was to be expected.

Thalia and Jason were having the best luck throwing snowballs at the wizards. With Hazel and Frank building a snowman not far away. I saw a blur in front of the wizards before they were smothered in snowballs, spitting the snow out of their mouths shouting,

"Travis! That's cheating! We agreed to no magic!" Lee Jordan yelled at his new friend. Travis stopped beside Jason startling him slightly as he grinned at the annoyed Gryffindors.

"You agreed to no magic! Besides, Leo keeps melting all the snow, we need to outbalance his bad luck." There was a grumble over the crowd, I couldn't tell if they were agreeing or arguing anymore as Annabeth and I stepped into the area, drawing everyone's attention,

"Hey, wheres Connor, Will, and Nico?" she asked, and I noticed that three of our youngest in our little group were indeed missing from the group. Travis shrugged.

"No idea, Will and Nico are probably hiding in dark corners waiting to be mentioned so they can show up and scare the Hades outta me. Connor's been awol all day, skittish around us too. I think he's nervous for tonight, which is ridiculous because I am 60% sure he doesn't have a date." I saw Ron straighten at the brother's words. Harry noticing elbowed him and gave him a pointed look that I recognized from the number of times it had been thrown my way over the years. One that said 'don't start with that again', what 'that' was in this situation I wasn't sure. Despite the look, his friend gave him, Ron spoke anyway with a tone of bitterness.

"Probably gone to woo some more girls. Practice his bow or something similar." Travis spun on his heel, and suddenly Ron was face down in the snow. Travis appeared a few feet away with a scowl.

"Watch it, little Weasley, that's my little brother you're talking about." Even Fred and George looked confused at their brother's words. Harry helped Ron up as he muttered a string of curses that had my mom heard she'd have sent me to my room with the promise of no cookies for a week. Ginny smacked her older brothers shoulder with a scowl,

"Watch your tongue, Ronald. Mum would have a fit if she heard those words come from your mouth." Annabeth cut in before the snowy red-head could retort.

"Either way, girls-" They all looked at her, "-it's time to go to the common room." They all nodded and began to make their way towards us with great smiles on their faces, even Thalia was grinning which was unnerving.

Harry called out to them suddenly. Looking at his face he seemed just as surprised to speak as we were to hear it,

"You're going to be getting ready in the Gryffindor Common Room? I heard Parvati saying she and Lavender were getting ready in their dorm?" Piper smiled softly at the younger boy,

"Our common room Harry. Hermione and Ginny are getting ready in my room." There was an explosion of shouts from the boys,

"What do you mean?"

"They're aloud in?"

"Gin, why didn't you tell us?"

"Come off it, no ones allowed in your common room"

"That's unfair!"

Ginny's shout shut them all up instantly,

"Shut It! Honestly, you'd think we stole your brooms and gave them to the whomping willow!" with that she stormed up towards the castle with Thalia beaming behind her, she was practically gushing about Ginny's attitude. Piper and Hazel followed quickly after them whispering to each other. Annabeth sighed beside me rubbing her temple.

"They're going to be the death of me. Anyway, I will see you in a few hours. Love you.Good luck with them and find the boys will you?" she reached up and kissed my cheek before pelting after the others. I heard a chorus of oohs from behind me, reminding me once more that the majority of the people present were younger than I was. I turned to find Travis making kissy faces at me while Fred, George, Lee, and Leo howled with laughter. Even Ron seemed to be over his little spout of anger and was trying to stifle a laugh. Harry, Jason, and Frank simply shook their heads with smiles. I rolled my eyes,

"Oh to Hades with you all. Let's go inside, it's colder than Alaska out here." I turned and heard the catcalls as they followed me to the front doors.

Once in the safety of the front hall, they had all caught up with me and were inconsolable with their laughter. Through his tears, Leo managed to speak,

"You- snort- you should have seen your face. Gods like a lovesick puppy!" Jason nudged the small boy with a shit-eating smirk on his face.

"More like a seal pup." Leo howled even louder When Connors's voice suddenly cut through from behind me.

"It seems I've been missing out on some funny things lately. Honestly, I'm insulted, brother." I turned to see the boy followed by Will and Nico who were whispering frantically back and forth, oblivious to the attention now on them. Travis snorted,

"Yes well that's what happens when you abandon your own for your new bestie," Connor smirked in response.

"Yes well, unfortunately for you lot, I haven't been with my bestie at all today. Instead, I've been preparing quite the surprise for you. Nico and Will helped of course, even though I am quite certain I am in trouble for it now." He glanced behind him, I noticed that not only were the pair whispering but Will seemed to be fussing while Nico tried to knock him off. Will feeling the attention, turned for a moment with a scowl.

"Your lucky he didn't disintegrate, even with Mrs. O'Leary he could have been seriously hurt. Apollo's underwear Connor, you've only just healed from your overexertion." Connor patted Wills shoulder with a chuckle,

"Yes, yes. But I'm fine now, you even said so. Unless you are doubting your abilities." Will scowled at the notion before turning back to fuss on Nico, much to his annoyance.

Harry suddenly spoke up from his spot beside the red-haired boys. He was tall but the twins made both boys look miniature. Those two more resembled mountains than sixteen-year-olds.

"One of your teachers finally came over?" I frowned, along with all of the other boys surrounding me. The five wizards seemed to shuffle about uncomfortable. Harry's face flushed a deep red when Ron finally clarified for us.

"Mrs. O'Leary.... Your teacher?" Without meaning too I barked out a laugh, thus causing the younger boy to flush as red as his hair. I cleared my throat when I noticed everyone else around me wasn't speaking. Nico, Leo, and the Stolls seemed to be holding in their laughter, their shoulders were shaking with the effort.

"Right, he did say that. Sorry about that boys, Mrs. O'Leary is in charge of- of physical activities. And uh- Connor, why was that old dog here." I turned to the younger boy who snorted at my pitiful play on words. Connor wasn't the best at coming up with excuses, so I prayed to the gods that he could think as fast on his feet as he could run on them.

"Right. Yes, well I can't tell you. That would ruin the surprise of it all. But Mrs.O'Leary returned to camp with Nico's help." I wanted to smack the son of Hermes for his loose tongue when Ron asked another good question.

"Camp? I thought you went to an Academy?" His eyebrows were furrowed, as he glanced around at the eight of us. I didn't have an answer for that, looking around I didn't see anyone else come up with an excuse until Franks face lit up like the Christmas tree in the great hall.

"Right! Well, you see our school is called, 'Chirons Academy for Magic and Potions', the abbreviated version of that would be C.A.M.P so that's usually how we refer to it. Surprising that topic never came up before now." Right everyone?" His eyes were wide as he glanced at all of us like he was telling us to go with it. I rolled my eyes.

Frank was horrible at subtlety, but the fact that he was the only one among us who remembered the full name of our fake school and connected the dots to make it say C.A.M.P made up for that fact instantly. I shot him a reassuring smile as I faced the five students in front of us once more. Ron was nodding as if it made total sense which it did. I sent a quick thank you to Hecate for being so crafty with her wording.

"Right well, we should probably head up and get ready ourselves for the ball right?" Jason spoke up, his voice of authority set everyone in action towards the moving staircases.

Harry and Ron began to talk about how excited they were for the feast that would precede the dance itself. Lee, Fred, George, Leo and the Stolls were talking in low voices at the back of our pack, I thought I heard something about a blizzard, as long as they waited till the end of the dance and no one got hurt, I didn't care what kind of pranks they pulled. Frank and Jason were whispering beside me about how lucky we were that Hecate thought of that abbreviation and how Frank was a genius for connecting those dots. Will and Nico were whispering fervently in front of us, still arguing about Nico's shadow traveling, I jogged to catch up with them. Catching their shoulders and stoping the argument. I lowered my voice so no one could hear what we were talking about.

"Why was my dog here really?" Nico and Will cast glances at each other quickly.

"Connors got this surprise from Camp here. We can't tell you more about it. But she's okay and we kept her out of everyone's sight so she wouldn't get hurt or too excited. She's absolutely fine and is back in the care of Rachel and Clarrise. Both of which say hello by the way." Nico finally answered me.

"If it's some sort of elaborate prank of Connors then tell him not to do it. Whatever the Hermes cabin came up with for a huge magical school can't end well." Will patted my arm reassuring me before he spoke.

"It's not a prank Percy. I promise I wouldn't have aloud it if it was." I nodded, they hadn't answered my question but if Mrs.O'Leary was okay and no one was getting a Hermes cabin-sized prank, then who was I to ruin a surprise from Camp.

We reached the Gryffindor common room only to find Thalia pacing in front of our door. Upon seeing us she stormed towards us. Nico, Will, and I stopped in the doorway, halting the group behind us. There was no way I was going anywhere near whatever Thalia was doing.

"Stop, you guys can't go in." Fear shot through my body when I saw the red in her eyes. Fearing the worst I shoved her out of my way running towards the door, she called out to me grabbing my shirt and tugging.

"PERCY! Stop! I'm sorry, no one's hurt! You just have to wait. Connors surprise is in there and it's not ready!" I spun on my spot right in front of the door to find all of the other boys looking at the two of us with frowns.

"You look like you've been crying Thals. Why, what did Connor do? Will and Nico swore it was safe." I could still feel the fear bubbling below my skin, my hand itched to grab the handle of our door and inspect for myself what Connor constituted as safe. Thalia shook her head.

"No, no. I was surprised, it's a very nice surprise. She turned her head to look at a beaming Connor as he approached us.

"I never thought I'd say this to you Connor Stoll, but you did good, and thank you." He smiled devilishly.

"Does that mean I get a hug?" Thalia snorted and shoved him away.

"Don't push your luck, Stoll. You still annoy me." Thalia gestured to a clothes line I hadn't noticed beside the door.

"Your guys' suits are here, Aphr-" she cleared her throat. "Pipers mom insisted that you get ready elsewhere, all the other girls are still getting 'The Treatment' I took the least amount of time considering I owned half of this outfit prior to her intervention."

I finally noticed that Thalia was all dressed up. Her ripped jeans had been replaced by leather pants that matched her jacket. In her hair was her Leutenient of Artemis Tiara and she was wearing heeled silver combat boots which had made her as tall as my girlfriend. The boys around me snatched their tuxes and with the invitation of Harry, the twins and Lee made their way upstairs to get changed, with the exception of Nico who Thalia snatched out of the crowd.

"Not you Death Breath, her heinous wants to have a go at your hair." Nico made a noise in the back of his throat glancing frantically to where the other boys had left like he was plotting his escape. Honestly, I didn't blame the kid, if Aphrodite wanted to 'have a go' at my hair, I'd hide at the bottom of the Marianas trench in an attempt to stay away from her. Thalia smirked before shoving him through the door with a little shriek. I tried to see through the doorway but the strong smell of perfume made me turn my nose away.

"Posideons Trident Thalia. You lot are worse than a middle school boy's change room. Good lord, we've only just got him to stop smelling like that." I shook my head as she laughed.

"Tell Aphrodite that, it's her Perfume. Luckily it doesn't seem to transfer to us or I'd smell similar and we'd be fighting a goddess." I nudged her shoulder with mine, having her so close to my height made me uncomfortable, I could almost look in her eyes without looking down now. With a final nod, I grabbed my suit and made my way up to join the rest of the boys.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we got back down Thalia was gone. Ron had been complaining about his dress robes. Upon seeing it Leo, the Stolls, and I had mercilessly poked fun at the frilly thing. I'd finally taken pity on the boy and pulled the small silver knife Annabeth had given me for Christmas from my pocket and cut off as much of the white frills as I could, Harry followed suit on his other side with a severing charm. Ron had flinched and paled when I brought out my knife, only after I'd explained that I was going to remove them did he begrudgingly let me anywhere near him.

His brothers had already left with their dates, Angelina and Alicia and Lee who had insisted that the Hufflepuff girl he was going with was waiting for him. Nevile had joined us in waiting for the girls. He was taking Ginny, which Ron had begun to complain about too. Harry had told us that the two of them would wait for the rest of us downstairs and dragged his upset friend through the portrait hole. Not a minute later had our personal door opened and my jaw dropped.

Nico stumbled out first with a scowl, he seemed to have been pushed by the giggles I heard from inside. He cursed loudly attracting everyone's attention. Will made a strangled sound and flushed. Nico's usually unruly hair was slicked back against his head, making him look years older and less brooding. Still cursing and ignoring the attention he dove back inside dragging a laughing Piper and Hazel out with him.

Jason and Franks breaths caught beside me at the sight of their girlfriends. They looked incredible, both girls dresses resembled that of a Greek goddess. Seeing two of my friends so happy as they led a very embarrassed Nico towards their gobsmacked boyfriends. Jason recovered first.

"Piper, you're a knockout." She beamed at him, kissing his cheek.

"You look spiffy to Superman. I Like the dark blue look." Jason's suit was dark blue and his tie was black. Having to explain what a tuxedo was to Ron and his brothers had been hilarious. Will was lowlily talking to Nico again while Frank simply twirled Hazel with a wide grin, her purple dress flying out around her.

Hearing a squeak from across the room I turned to find Neville staring wide-eyed at the ginger girl in front of him. Ginny had a matching smile to the other girls as they left, with a quick glance back at the door sending a wink back with it. Thalia walked out with her and went to Connor, whispering in his ear. He grinned back, and for the umpteenth time today, I wondered what his plan was.

"What can't pay me any attention Seaweed brain?" I spun forward again to see Annabeth. All the air left my body. She looked like a goddess. Hell better than a goddess, there wasn't a way to describe how beautiful she looked. She giggled,

"Close your mouth Jackson, you'll catch flies." She reached over manually closing my mouth as I sucked in a deep breath. I'd never seen anyone more beautiful. Her dress was an incredible mix of blues, matching my tie. Even in my suit, I felt underdressed beside her. I pulled her closer to me kissing her, everything else around me fell away. She relaxed into my arms. A moment later Thalia's voice cut through my head like a kickback to reality,

"Okay, Lovebirds that's enough! Gods get a room of something we don't need to see that!" We pulled away and I rested my forehead on hers, still holding her face in my hands. Her grey eyes met mine as she panted for breath.

"You look, incredible Wise Girl. You are the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." She blushed and smacked my chest lightly as she laughed.

"Thank you, Percy. You look very handsome in your suit." Travis snorted from beside his brother.

"Yeah, the both of you are without a doubt the most sickeningly sweet and well-dressed couple I've ever seen in my life. Well done." A female voice called out from the doorway,

"What a horrible way to greet your girlfriend Stoll." Travis spun on his heel as his brother smiled from beside him. We all turned to see Katie Gardner in a light green floor-length dress in the doorway. Travis sped over to her, catching her in a kiss. Thalia groaned, despite the smile on her face. I pulled Annabeth into my chest, arms around her resting my chin on her shoulder as we watched the embrace in front of us. Katie was crying, as she pulled away. Her makeup wasn't smudged so I guessed Aphrodite had done some sort of spell or godly trick to make it so.

"Hello, Love. Did you miss me?" Katie's soft voice echoed through the room. Travis let out a hoarse laugh as he pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, you have no idea." From behind them, there was a snort, which made Travis lookup and drag Katie away from the door.

"I want to see my boyfriend as well as you." She had a large smile on her face.

"CALI!" From beside me, Leo's nose burst into flames, which he quickly put out before running to her and picking her up in a kiss. Piper awed from Jason's arms, which was echoed around the room. Even Neville and Ginny looked happy for the two couples, despite not understanding what was going on. Leo pulled away suddenly, letting her down.

"How, are you here?" Calypso smiled over his shoulder to Connor who was grinning wider than I'd ever seen him.

"Connor. He asked Chiron if we could leave to come for the dance." Travis and Leo spun to look at the younger Stoll with wide grins.

"What? You two were insufferable, moaning about missing your girlfriends every day." Thalia nudged him, knocking the smug smile on his face off and replacing it with a sheepish one.

"Plus I remember how Annabeth was after not seeing Percy for eight months. I didn't want that for you guys." Silence followed making him look at the ground, "So I can be a good guy, sue me." He crossed his arms at the attention. Leo's face fell into one of understanding,

"Thank you, that's really nice of you. Cali, you've got to see what they can do. Weasley, Longbottom! We wanna see a mouse chair!" Ginny rolled her eyes but brought out her wand anyway. Transfiguring the nearest stool into a mouse, shocking Calypso.

After the war, we'd looked high and low for Leo. We'd just about given up hope when five months later he showed up at the big house with Festus and Calypso. We'd been in the middle of a counselor meeting. Piper had just volunteered to go looking for him again after a dryad had reported seeing a golden dragon in the sky the day before.

The poor girl screamed at the sight of her best friend and promptly burst into tears, running back into the room yelling at the Stolls as she sobbed into Jason's chest. In her defense, they had played a voice recording of him a few days earlier. Leo had waltzed in with furrowed brows immediately after. The whole room had gone silent other than Piper's quiet cries. Lou-ellen from the Hecate cabin had gasped and smacked the boys. Telling them how awful of a joke this was, they'd stared at the boy in the door in shock and shook their heads. That's when Calypso walked in,

I'd recognize Calypso anywhere, after Leo and I's conversation about freeing her when we were trying to get Nikes help, I knew he'd freed her. I had jumped to my feet, surprising everyone around me as I raced forward crushing the much smaller boy in my arms. That's when he'd finally spoke.

"Hephaestus's smelly underwear Perc, you're going to kill me again." I'd laughed and pulled him into the shocked room before me. I looked at Calypso who looked flustered and unsure. I remembered that she'd cursed Annabeth, which had nearly killed her in Tartarus. I'd also made the Gods free her and had left her on that island alone. My emotions hadn't been sure what to make of the situation, which had made my smile drop slightly as I beckoned her forward,

"Calypso, long time no see." The rest of the seven had gasped, along with the few counselors present that knew about my visit to see her before the battle of the labyrinth. She'd smiled at me shyly and walked forward.

"Perseus Jackson, it's good to see you again." She walked to Leos's other side and held his hand, making him beam. Piper had stopped crying and was instead staring befuddled like the rest of the room. Jason had just whispered Leos name when the boy in question nodded,

"Well of course who else is awesome enough to return from the dead with a beautiful girlfriend." The room had exploded with Piper launching herself at Leo, at first hitting him as he tried to dodge and she cursed him out. Before pulling him into a hug that everyone had followed suit for. Leo had been shocked they'd been gone for so long, they'd gotten back to civilization a month ago with the assumption that it had been a few days tops. This fact had sent Piper into another yelling fit about how worried everyone had been and how it was irresponsible not to at least Iris message us to let us know he wasn't really dead.

Calypso, Annabeth, and I had a serious conversation about what we'd done to each other a few months later after everyone had noticed the tension and forced us into a room to figure it out.

It was still strange seeing her and I still hadn't managed to find a common ground for it to not be weird between the two of us.

I heard a whoosh and suddenly Travis was hugging his brother as Katie followed more slowly behind them.

"Gods I'm a horrible brother. I thought you were sulking because you didn't have a date! I thought Hermione had rejected you! Thank you, Conner." Conner gave his older brother a smack as they laughed. My jaw dropped at the information.

"You asked Hermione to the ball?" Connor laughed at me with a bright smile.

"Nah man, I merely helped her date do so. However, I was guaranteed a dance with her. She's a friend Jackson." Thalia nodded,

"That makes sense, she left the common room a while ago stating that she had to go meet her date. Who is it?" She glanced around the room, it was a question that no one seemed to know the answer to. Other than a grinning Connor who locked his lips and threw away the key, until Ginny cleared her throat with a blush.

"Well, I do. But she wanted to surprise everyone, she didn't think anyone would take it well." Connor snorted,

"Honestly with those two friends she'd got, I wouldn't doubt it." Leo, who had previously been talking off Calypso's ear, turned into the conversation.

"Speaking of boys, I think we are about to be fashionably late for the ball." Everyone nodded and we left the common room. Ready to face the great hall and its occupants.

Hello Lovelies, This is a warning for the next chapter, it is not going to have a POV but instead will jump around following everyone (third person) I will have another A.N. to remind everyone but this is your pre-warning warning.