Chapter 31

The New Year, and The Journey

After reading through the reviews, I realized that you all like this fanfiction a whole lot more than I do, so I'm updating for you, dear readers. A couple weeks ago, I was complaining to Elefunt wuz here that I really wanted to update, and was talking about the quality of my work. She figured I should put the fanfic up for adoption, and I almost agreed with her. Boy, am I glad I didn't listen to myself a couple weeks ago. Anyway, time to answer the reviews!

2Male: Yes, an update, and I'm so honored.

smasher5: I completely agree with you, I hate it when authors do that, and I realize now that I'm a huge hypocrite. And thank you for thinking it's good, but I disagree.

JustOneMoreScreenname: Thank you. I know, I feel ya. Also, READ TRIALS OF APOLLO SOLANGELO IS SUPER CUTE

YAYSOLANGELO: Have I mentioned I love your name? I'm glad you had a nice day. I'm so happy I was your inspiration. How was your day weird?

INeedADamSnack: I know it's been a long time, but I'm back, and I'll update as often as I can. And, for the gods sakes', delete some tabs.

HoverNyanML: Yes! A chapter!

123Thomas123: YESS I'M BACK

I STILL DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR PERCY JACKSON ARGH

Belle's POV

After about three days, I started to lose track of how long I had been walking. Your brain gets a bit fuzzy when you've been deprived of food, water, shelter and human interaction for who knows how long. Luckily, it is said that empousas can survive two weeks without food and water, so I should be good, but, then again, I don't know how long it's been since I've eaten.

I was stumbling along when I saw a small town. "CIVILIZATION!" I cried, and started hobbling faster, desperate to reach the village before I passed out from hunger, or dehydration, or both at the same time.

When I was about to reach the town, I tripped over a rock, and fell flat on my face. Great. Add that to my extensive list of injuries. I weakly said "Help…", hoping someone would come and rescue me.

Right as I was about to pass out, someone came running towards me, their worn blue Converse padding against the soft grass.

Ah, my savior.

They bent over me, their soft black hair falling in my face. She said, "Are you alright?", which was really a stupid question, since I obviously wasn't. I mean, my uniform was ripped to shreds, my skin was filthy, and you don't want to hear about my hair. Plus, I looked half-starved to death, and was laying face-down on the grass. Seriously, would you think I was alright?

I said, "No," to state the obvious, before I passed out.

.oOo.

I woke up in the softest bed ever, or at least it seemed that way at the time. I looked up at the vibrant yellow ceiling for five straight minutes, before I realized I had no idea where I was, or who had taken care of me.

Speaking of taking care of me, I looked down and saw that I was no longer in my Hogwarts uniform, and instead in a pair of cheap fuzzy pajamas that had kittens all over them. Nice.

My skin was spotless, and someone had washed my hair as well. Wow, these people were really kind. I put on some matching kitten slippers, and walked out the door to meet the people who had found me.

Harry's POV

The next day, Raven, Thalia, Reyna, Connor, Travis, Juniper, Katie and Calypso had to leave for Camp Half-Blood, and I was disappointed to see them leave. I mean, I barely knew them!

While we were seeing them off in the pegasi sent by Camp Half-Blood, I felt as if a part of me, a part I haven't had for very long, was leaving me. (Cliché, I know…) We waved them goodbye, then the pegasi disappeared into the clouds, and we went back inside.

Today was New Year's Eve, so the 7 were planning a party to celebrate surviving another year, which I could relate to. Dumbledore had allowed us to use the Great Hall, so all of the demigods were busy decorating.

Jason was flying around hanging gold, silver and black garlands around the ceiling, Piper was charmspeaking people who didn't want to help, Percy was cleaning EVERYWHERE, Annabeth was yelling at people and Frank was carrying people around on his back in elephant form (because the great hall is big enough for that).

Hazel was randomly putting up black gemstones, silver, diamonds and gold, Nico was summoning skeletons to help put up decor, Will was fussing over Nico and creating more light sources, Leo was lighting all the torches, and Grover was putting up mistletoe.

It was all beautiful, but it felt lonely without everyone else.

I wondered how they were doing, had they arrived yet (how fast do pegasi travel)? Were they safe? Knowing their lives, I doubted it…

Belle's POV

When I walked out, I came face-to-face with my caregiver. She had long, black hair, pale-ish skin, brilliant green eyes, and was wearing faded jeans, a blue San Diego sweatshirt with matching blue Converse, and she was looking at her phone.

When I came through the door, she looked up, and smiled. She got up from her seating position and came to greet me. I backed up a bit, and I think she sensed I was a tad nervous and scared.

"Hi! I saw you fall yesterday and you looked like shit, so I cleaned you up and brought you to my apartment, is that ok? My name's Ciara (pronounced kee-ra), what's yours?"

I didn't know how to respond, because if I gave her my real name and went by it, people would immediately know who I was, but what other name could I use? Time to play dumb.

"My name is…. Fiona." My empousa brain was looking through irish names, and that sounded normal enough, plus it means fair, white, and beautiful, which I thought described me well enough.

"Fiona….. What?" she asked. I racked my brain for Irish last names and responded with "Fiona Byrne," which means raven. Ah, my personality is described perfectly.

Ciara grinned, and said " Well, Fiona, you look hungry, I just made risotto, want some?"

I smiled, nodded, and followed her into the kitchen.

Ron's POV

When all of the decorations had been put up, and Dumbledore paid for The Weird Sisters to come, we started the party. Everyone just wore their normal clothes, so it seemed like a chill atmosphere, apart from the decor and the food.

The house elves had really gone all-out on the extravagant food, with hors d'oeuvres, pastry, pumpkin pasties (I've made them before, it's really hard), and insane amounts of BUTTERBEER.

Piper suddenly said "Hey, do you guys have a big screen? I want to watch the ball drop!" Everyone who had seen anything about the muggle world started exclaiming, until Dumbledore said, "Accio television!"

A huge screen appeared at the front of the hall, and it showed the countdown. We had five minutes until it dropped. All of the couples started clumping together, so I wanted to search for Hermione.

Hermione was by Ginny, so I dragged Harry over, and we sat by them, waiting for the ball to drop.

"5! 4! 3! 2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Literally everyone in the room kissed, except Leo and Grover, whose girlfriends had just left. I hoped that this year would be better than the last.

So, I'm thinking about making Ciara and Belle (now Fiona) a couple, what do you think? Would that work? Tell me what you think in the reviews. Also, do you like the name change? I didn't really think that Belle's name suited her anymore. Do you like my new OC? Wow, I'm asking a lot of questions. FOLLOW, FAVORITE, REVIEW!