Eurobeat probably isn't the best music to listen to while writing... Whatever. I'd also like to point out that I myself am not a Knicks fan, I just chose them because Percy is from New York so it made sense to me.

The fact that Percy had dragged Louis and Michael to a Knicks game in Madison Square Garden was a complete coincidence. It wasn't his fault that the game just so happened to line up for the date and time he had set for their outing. Michael had been slightly upset, but he didn't care.

Madison Square Garden was crowded. The large circular stadium definitely impressed his two French companions who had only been at such a place during especially large and important Quidditch games. Michael who frequently watched games on television and spent a lot of time in the non-magical world got used to it quickly. Louis however was constantly asking questions about everything, he was especially intrigued about how the roof was held up without magic.

Percy was glad to answer all of his questions, but tried to keep them on the topic of the sport. He didn't want to try to explain how electricity worked again.

Eventually the game ended with a loss for the Knicks, much to Michael's delight. Percy had retired to his area of the room early, claiming that it was to deal with the loss, but in reality he was drained from the extremely complex translation charm he kept up during the entirety of the match. That and the awful training regime Ares had him on.

He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow and was elated when he only saw Hecate.

That elation soon turned to confusion, where was he? The gods could be in multiple places at once so there wasn't a single reason Ares couldn't be in his mind. He pulled out his wand and was about to cast several detection charms when he heard Ares's voice. "I would congratulate you on good instincts but it took you far too long to realize something was wrong."

Percy felt the flat of a sword rest on his shoulder next to his neck. The cold of the metal leeched the heat from the skin it was touching through his thin cotton t-shirt. He sighed and put his wand away and felt Ares put his enormous broadsword back in its sheath. Obviously he had failed the test, which in hindsight he should have seen coming. In his defense though, who sees that someone failed to show up to a meeting and immediately thinks their life is in danger?

"It couldn't have even been five seconds."

Ares snorted. "You should have realized immediately, don't worry by the time I'm done with you you'll be able ambush your would-be attacker at their own ambush." From another person it may have sounded reassuring, but from Ares? No it only was a promise of nearly working him to death, probably even longer if Hades allowed him entrance into the Underworld.

"Do I want to know the methods you'll use to teach me?" Ares didn't answer but had an unsettling grin on his face. "I'll take that as a no then."

Percy then moved to sit down at a desk that had appeared in front of a large blackboard before he thought for a moment. He pulled out his wand and cast detection charms on it. He found an extraordinary amount enchantments that would cause him pain or harm him in some minor way, he conjured his own desk and didn't miss the disappointed look on Ares's face.

"See look how fast you are learning!" Percy only glared at him, he didn't miss the enchantment that would have made him feel like he had been hit in the crotch.

He spent the rest of the 'dream' learning information on the magical world from Hecate and how the information could be useful in a war from Ares. It was much better than the previous training sessions with the gods where he ended up sweaty and wishing for death.

He didn't really understand how any of it worked though, how could he get tired if it was just a dream? It obviously affected his body, he had to take showers in the morning just so the water could give him energy. He also had the muscles from all the working out he was doing too.

Deplorably, because he wasn't focused on the exhaustion he had time to ponder his situation. It reminded Percy of an expression he had heard before, an empty mind is the devil's workshop.

He was about to enter another war, it had been less than two years since the last one, was he really sure about this? If he didn't do that what would he do? He had only ever known fighting, during the short period of peace he had before he started training with Hecate he had been bored. Sure he enjoyed it, but he felt kind of lost without any large threat looming over him.

He completely ignored that the feeling of being lost was probably a result of him being a child-soldier. That would prove to be too much thinking and he wasn't about to have a moral debate over his entire life since he was twelve years old. He also wasn't exactly in the best of moods after the war. Not after his then girlfriend, Rachel, broke up with him to become the oracle and basically said she used him to get into the mythological world. Yeah, that kind of put a damper on his celebrations.

In the end he couldn't really find any reason to not join the war, besides the whole dying bit, his godly nature protected him from almost all mental trauma and he could really make a difference. Might as well go along with it. At least he would be fully prepared for this one and knew what was coming.

~O~

Percy finished his work out earlier than normal, their Headmistress, the illustrious Madam Maxime, said she had an announcement for breakfast so he tweaked his plans a bit to in anticipation for it.

He took a quick shower made sure to change into the proper school uniform, he had only just managed to button up his light-blue overcoat before he ran out the door towards the large hall where they ate their meals. The normal circular tables that they normally ate at were gone, instead several long rectangular tables covered in a white tablecloths took their place.

His friends waved him over to the area they were sitting when he got closer he raised his eyebrow and made a subtle gesture to the tables but they only shrugged in response and looked to where the headmistress was sitting. Percy silently took a seat next to Giovanni served himself a large breakfast. His plate was stacked full of toast, croissants, various fruit jellies, cheese, and sandwich meats.

Percy was finishing off his second jelly covered toast when Madam Maxime cleared her throat. It cut through the chatter as if it was a sonorous charm. Though he couldn't feel any of the magic that would have saturated the sound if it had been.

"Settle down now, thank you." Percy took a large drink of orange juice and listened closely to the headmistress's words. "As many of you are aware I summoned you here to make a rather exciting announcement. In an effort to improve international relations we will be attending the Tri-Wizard Tournament at Hogwarts this year!"

There were a lot of cheers, the tournament might have a rather bloody history, but it was still rousing news. "We will be taking our top students from our first year and top students from the final three years of French School of Magic La Magie. Sadly we will not be taking second year years from our academy because it could be unfair for the younger competitors at Durmstrang and Hogwarts.

Strangely, he saw many people relax at the news, he would assume some people would be upset that they couldn't attend. Then remember what Louis had said about the second year and how difficult it was. He could imagine how difficult it would be having to get used to a completely new school and find time to study. That didn't even take into consideration the language barrier.

Then Percy turned to Louis, "What is La Magie?"

Louis looked confused before his mouth formed an 'o'. "That's right your not actually from around here, I swear sometimes I forget that. La Magie is one of the magic schools you would go to before attending an academy like Beauxbatons. You do six years there then to get a basic education and if you want additional instruction you attend an academy. I didn't go there but I know Giovanni and Julius both did."

Percy nodded and turned back to Madam Maxime. "That reminds me, since we don't have a way to get to Hogwarts we will be having a competition among our students. If you wish you can work with a group to create something to transport and house us at Hogwarts. Anyone who provides us with a possible solution will receive academic rewards to their record and we will select the best of our options. The team that built the transport we use will receive season tickets for the Quidditch team of their choosing."

The tickets didn't do much for him, but the idea of creating a complex enchanted object had a certain appeal. He watched everyone turn to their friends and start talking excitedly as he put the piece of cheese he meticulously wrapped in salami into his mouth.

"Any students that have the chance of going to Hogwarts will be informed in the coming weeks. That is all students, thank you for your time."

Percy sunk his teeth into a cream filled croissant and noticed all his friends looking at him. He sat down the half eaten croissant and wiped his mouth with a napkin, "What?"

"Everyone else is very excited abut this and all you are doing is eating here." Michael said, "How much do you eat?!"

Percy smiled into his cup and carefully schooled his expression before sitting it down. "Well let's see here, there's breakfast, second breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, and... I know I'm forgetting one... ah yes, dessert!"

His roommates all stared at him with dumbfounded expression and even all the occulmency lessons in the world couldn't stop him from laughing at their faces.

"Oh okay so you were just joking, right?"

Percy didn't answer them and left the table to research his latest potions project leaving behind his confused and slightly worried friends. "He doesn't actually eat that much, does he?" Louis asked.

All the others shrugged and started exchanging the latest school gossip.

~O~

Percy was sitting in the common room next to Julius, his roommate, two hours after the Tri-Wizard Tournament was announced. He was working on an essay on the advantages of silent casting over verbal casting.

As he was about to finish his conclusion when Giovanni and Michael rushed over to where they were sitting. "Did you guys hear?"

Julius looked over at them with distaste, he wasn't very happy when people interrupted his studying. "You? Yes I did. We are inside you don't need your usual screeching for me to hear you."

Percy snorted but looked over to Giovvani, "Hear what?"

"Apparently someone has found evidence that Charlemagne's armor is located somewhere on the grounds." He was practically shaking with excitement.

"Charlemagne?" Percy tried to remember where he had heard that before. What was the point of taking three years of world history if he couldn't remember it. "Oh! The uh... Frank king right?"

"Yes him!" Julius suddenly looked a lot more interested.

"But it's just a rumor right? Besides I thought it was his sword that was magic, not his armor." Percy said.

"Once you've gone to magical schools for long enough you learn that most rumors have quite a bit of truth behind them." Percy raised his eyebrow at Giovanni's statement but accepted it as an explanation.

"One bezant says that it's on the second floor." Giovanni said quickly.

"I bet it's in the lake to the west." Michael said.

Percy shook his head. "It's not a lake, its a pond."

"What?" Michael looked confused.

"Its a pond to the west, there isn't a lake on school grounds." Percy answered him.

"So? What's the difference."

"Ponds are shallow enough that light can reach the bottom for plants to grow, lakes are bigger and deeper." He got a lot of strange looks for that.

"Ok then, I think it is in the pond to the west." Michael said.

"It's not." Percy shook his head, "I swim there all the time, I would have noticed an ancient set of armor rusting at the bottom. Although I did find quite a few old coins."

"How old were the coins?" Julius joined back into the conversation.

"Around one hundred-fifty years old." They seemed to be disappointed with his answer.

"So not coins from Charlemagne's time then." Julius asked and Percy snorted.

"No."

"Wait hold on a minute, did you say you swam in the pond?" This was Giovanni again.

"Yeah," Percy said.

"Why would you do that?" Giovanni asked.

"Because he's insane, he wakes up earlier than even you Giovanni and works out." Julius said.

"You guys are just jealous of how much better looking I am." Percy sniffed.

"Yes, I'm jealous of you working out like three hours a day and waking up at.. I don't know, probably five or something." Percy mumbled something.

"What was that."

"I said four-thirty." Percy spoke slightly louder.

"Yeah, I'm so jealous."

"Shut up." The friends laughed and continued theorizing on the location of the historic armor.

~O~

Percy was lying prone on a couch in his normal common room a day after the announcement of the Tri-Wizard. He had spent the time wandering the castle, looking for secrets. He of course wasn't expecting to find the armor, but it was something to do. He had found quite a few neat things too. Like a staircase that went from the first floor directly to the third skipping the second. Or a room where the walls were covered in kitten clocks, which wasn't as neat as it was creepy.

He felt something brush against his occulmency barriers but ignored it, he wasn't looking in anyone's eyes so there was really no way anyone could read his mind. He should probably be paying more attention, but really if Ares wanted that he shouldn't tire him out so much.

Then he sensed something or someone through his powers over liquids. Either it was an object with a beating heart and veins exactly how a human being did or it was a human. He thought the second option but he was in a magic castle so he couldn't rule everything out.

"Go away Michael I'm trying to sleep." Percy's voice was muffled from the pillow.

The person who laughed was definitely not Michael. "Is this a bad time?"

Percy looked up from his spot on the couch.

Oh that's why he felt something hitting his occulmency shields. In front of him was the blonde haired veela, she was wearing the standard women's Beauxbatons uniform including the hat. At first he had been glad that the hat wasn't in the men's uniform but he had to admit, it was pretty cute, at least on her.

He would be lying if he said she wasn't beautiful, even without her allure. Knowing the origin of veela that wasn't very surprising. Aphrodite had been visiting a city and disguised herself to be a poor elderly lady and requested help. A group of maids invited her to spend the night with them in their quarters at the manor they took care of. For their kindness Aphrodite blessed them inhuman beauty and an ability similar to the charmspeak her children had.

The legends hadn't exaggerated their beauty.

"Hello."

She had a small smile on her face and looked extremely amused, a rational emotion considering what he had just said. "Me and a few other students were thinking about forming a group to create our ride to Hogwarts. We saw your charms work and are wondering if you would like to help us."

Percy thought on it for a bit but couldn't really think of any cons. At worst they failed to create a working transport, big deal. There would would be plenty of people who didn't succeed. His friends would probably also mercilessly tease him if they learned he gave up the chance to work with a veela. He could imagine comments about accepting him even if he swung the other way would be commonplace. "Sure."

She seemed kind of relieved at his answer which he thought was kind of strange. "Thank you, meet us in the workshop on the fourth floor at three tomorrow."

Percy nodded his understanding and flopped back down onto the couch. He fell asleep soon after leaving a confused and amused Fleur to her own thoughts. In his defense hot girls were interesting and all, but he was tired.

~O~

Percy walked into the workshop to see five other people, four girls and a guy. He saw the blonde girl who had invited him there among them.

They were standing in front of a massive blackboard with lots of writing on it, likely brainstorming on what they needed to get done. There was a large table covered with tools and other useful items to his right. "Hello, am I late?"

The blonde looked at him and smiled. "Nope you are right on time."

The others looked away from the board and looked at him. The boy who was standing off to the side stepped forward with his hand extended. "My name's Raphael." He was a broad shouldered dark skinned boy with a small afro, which interestingly, he had a comb in.

"My name's Percy" Percy shook his hand and idly noticed he had a very firm handshake. He looked over to the girls in the room.

The girl who invited him to join their study group walked up to him and stuck out her hand for him to shake. He shook it. "Percy."

"Fleur."

Percy nodded and got introduced to the rest of their group. There was Fleur, Raphael, Claire, Pauline, and Marie.

"Alright then, lets get some ideas, what will we build?" Raphael was standing in front of the blackboard holding a piece of red chalk.

"A boat?" Percy said, he was pretty good with naval stuff, and playing to his strengths was definitely a good idea. Claire sighed next to him.

"I thought the same thing, but apparently Durmstrang is already coming in one." Claire said.

"Damn, I chose the wrong school. They got a boat?"

"I don't know about that one Percy, rumor is that it's in Siberia. I may not be the best at geography," Raphael ignored the muttered comments of 'I never would have guessed' from the girls in the room. "But I heard it's pretty cold there."

"The cold has never bothered me much, but the lack of beaches would definitely be a no from me." Percy said.

"Finally a man of reason, can we keep this one?" Claire said from where she was sitting. Percy blushed a bit but didn't respond to her comment.

"So what can't we do?" Fleur asked.

"Hogwarts already has a train and Durmstrang has a boat, obviously it wouldn't go over well if we chose an airplane because you know, 'muggles' so..." Raphael stated.

"A carriage!" Pauline suddenly yelled, and blushed when she noticed everyone looking at her. "We could have a flying carriage."

"Works for me," Raphael said. "Any objections?"

After everyone said they didn't they started discussing all the problems they'd face. They could find solutions to them later, this was only their first get together.

"Alright so all the problems we'd face are," Raphael pointed at a list on the blackboard under the word problems, which was underlined twice. "The housing, safety, and security of the students. How we will move the carriage, and the methods we will use to get the results we want."

Percy checked his watch he got from Tyson, his cyclops half-brother. It was made of celestial bronze and would expand into a large shield if he twisted the top. "I've got to go, same place same time tomorrow?"

After confirming the date with everyone he ran out to get to dinner.

~O~

"Oh." That accurately summed up Harry's reaction to learning about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He knew that the older Weasleys were hiding something that was going on at Hogwarts, but this? He was kind of impressed they had managed not to accidentally reveal it.

When Dumbledore announced the age limit he was thankful, he didn't want to get into another life threatening situation. Although he was thinking about participating in the school dueling and Quidditch contests. Those sounded like fun.

Harry also was interested to learn about the other magical schools from the students, but not nearly as much as Hermione was. She kept going on about the different schools and even the Ravenclaws wanted her to stop. It did little to dull his own excitement though.

The Weasley twins were both saying things about French girls that would make dead men blush. The Quiddutch fans were all gushing about Viktor Krum coming to Hogwarts. The purebloods were salivating over the connections they could make with the foreign students, Harry was also thinking about it, but only because Sirius was very adamant he needed to make some international connections when he was young. Overall, the mood of the school was cheerful.

However, none of this could distract Harry from his biggest question, what was going to go wrong that year?

There were plenty of opportunities for things to go pear-shaped from foreign relations degrading from conflict among the students to the tournament itself. It really worried him, he still held onto the hope that nothing big would happen that year though, after all the school should have additional security because of the tournament. They even had another competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, which he took as a positive sign.

He especially enjoyed the lack of dementors, the train ride was, shocking he knew, far more enjoyable when soul sucking monsters didn't knock him unconscious.

Even repeating these things didn't get rid of the dread he was feeling though.

Merry Christmas! I'm sorry for slight drop in chapter quality but I wanted to get it done by the 25th, I hope you enjoyed!

Have a nice Christmas.