Euphemia spent the rest of the summer at Camp Half-Blood making friends and improving her survival skills. Luke introduced her to a girl her age in the Athena cabin named Annabeth, who was 'like his little sister.' While Annabeth was much more interested in academics than Euphemia, she had the makings of a great friend. Euphemia told her about the wizarding world, and Annabeth helped Euphemia acclimatize to life as a demigod. Annabeth had at age eleven been made head counsellor for Athena cabin, causing some of her siblings to become resentful of her, and was in need of good friends. Annabeth hadn't had a great home life either, and the girls bonded over their resentment of their mortal families.

Euphemia had become extremely popular in the Hermes cabin with the arrival of her tent. All of the unclaimed demigods had moved in with Euphemia and for the first time ever, everyone in the cabin had a bed. They were still members of Hermes cabin, sat with them at meals and took part in Capture the Flag under the banner of the Hermes cabin, however all the residents were much happier and more comfortable.

Weeks passed and Euphemia still hadn't been claimed. She didn't seem to show any of the talents typical of children of the Olympians. While she was intelligent, it was not on the level of a child of Athena. She hated gardening, although that could be partly due to spending her summers slaving over Aunt Petunia's plants. She wasn't bad at Archery, but didn't seem to have the natural inclination for it that children of Apollo seemed to have. The 'Big three', Hera, and Artemis were ruled out automatically due to oaths. She didn't seem to fit in properly with any of the other cabins either. Euphemia was now of the opinion that her parent must be a minor god, which would make narrowing down who her parent was even more difficult. She didn't really care who her parent was, or how important they were, she just wanted them to notice her. She gave offerings at every meal to Apollo, and to a seemingly endless list of gods, hoping one of them would claim her. The other campers, who had been extremely curious about her when she had first arrived, had lost interest when it became likely she wasn't going to be claimed. The fact that she had a broomstick and was from the wizarding world was somewhat interesting to them, but the inhabitants of Camp Half-Blood generally took strangeness in their stride.

Euphemia had received many letters from her friends, and an interesting correspondence with her headmaster Albus Dumbledore. He had written a letter which while on the surface seemed polite, was full of condescension and disapproval. The essence of it was 'where are you, why aren't you staying with your relatives, it's where you're safest, come home straight away.' Euphemia had responded with a letter that likely would be considered rude by many, telling him that she was safe, it was none of his business where she was, that it was quite disturbing that he had noticed she wasn't there in the first place, and that she wouldn't return to the Dursley's for all the gold in Gringotts. After his third letter, Euphemia had told him she wouldn't be replying anymore, and if he couldn't find her, Voldemort probably couldn't either. Her opinion of him had lowered drastically, it was creepy that he seemed to have been keeping track of her whereabouts without her knowledge. Had he known about her cupboard? That was Euphemia's most shameful secret, and the fact that someone with as much power as Albus Dumbledore had had the power to change her life for the better and had chosen not to disturbed her beyond belief.

Of the residents of Hermes cabin, a boy slightly older than Euphemia with shiny black hair named Ethan Nakamura had become her closest friend. He had taken Euphemia under his wing, having lived in the Hermes cabin for four years unclaimed, he was the embodiment of Euphemia's worst fear of being left ignored by her parent. Yet he was one of the best fighters in Hermes cabin. He wasn't defined by his parentage.

Euphemia had not given up hope about solving the issue of her non-functional legs. Never one to feel sorry for herself, after realising the chances of a god answering her prayers were slim, she had started researching methods of miraculous healing in Mythology. Her most promising hope was the Golden Fleece, however the artefact had been lost for centuries.

She had begged Chiron to allow her to go on a quest to look for it, however he had refused. 'It is too dangerous, Euphemia' he had told her sympathetically. The fleece has been missing for centuries. Hundreds of heroes have gone on quests to find the fleece, and none have ever returned. Besides, it is prophesied that there shall be no more quests until we get a sign from the gods.'

'But what is the sign' badgered Euphemia. 'And when will we get it?'

Chiron seemed to go temporarily deaf. Euphemia noticed he had a habit of doing that when he encountered a question he didn't want to answer. 'Aren't you late for your class in Ancient Greek?' he asked. 'You'd better hurry, you don't want to annoy Annabeth.'

That succeeded in distracting Euphemia for now. She did not want to be late for Annabeth, who did not appreciate her time being wasted.

When she told Annabeth about her conversation with Chiron, Annabeth groaned. 'He's giving you the same excuses he gave me. I had hoped you might be the one.'

'The one what?' Euphemia asked.

Annabeth looked slightly guilty. 'I really want to go on a quest too, okay. I don't really have a good reason like you, I just want to get out of camp. I've been here four years and only leave on regulated field trips. I want to get out into the real world, fight monsters and prove myself. I've been begging Chiron to let me go for ages now, and he always makes excuses for me not to. For the first while I was too young. Then since Luke's quest last year, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. The new excuse is that I have to wait for someone special to come to camp.'

Here she looked especially guilty. 'I had kind of hoped it was you. Even by demigod standards you are different. I mean, we rarely get British demigods, let alone a witch, and I don't think we've ever had anyone with paraplegia. I know it's selfish, but I had kind of figured this was it, you know. That I was maybe destined to go on this quest with you.'

Euphemia was stunned. 'You would have been prepared to risk your life to help me?'

Annabeth looked at her awkwardly. 'Well, my reasons probably weren't entirely selfless, but yeah.'

Euphemia was touched. To know that she had friends that were prepared to sacrifice so much to help her, was something she had never had before, well at least not since her parents had died. Camp Half-Blood was starting to feel like a home she had never had, and its residents like her family.

Eventually the summer ended and Euphemia had to prepare for returning to Hogwarts. Her booklist had arrived and whoever the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was required seven books for the class. Hopefully that meant there would be a major step up in the quality of teaching. Since she could owl order everything she needed she stayed at Camp Half-Blood until the 31rst of August, wanting to spend as long as possible with her new family. It was hard to believe how much her life had changed. Three months ago Hogwarts had been the best thing that had ever happened to her, and yet now she almost didn't want to go back. How lucky was she to be a part of two such magical worlds.

Merry Christmas!