HERMIONE

We didn't see any of the exchange students until dinner. Since Percy's…whatever happened, they skipped class and stayed out of sight.

When they entered the Great Hall, they all seemed to be back to their normal, cheerful selves. They plonked down on the benches next to Harry, Ron and I and immediately started shoveling food onto their plates.

And as usual, Percy's food was blue. What a weirdo.

McGonagall stood and prepared to address the hall. Silence fell over the students and they listened to what the headmaster had to say.

'In order to make the American exchange students more at home, we will be having a Halloween party on the 31st of October. Costumes are encouraged, so I suggest you start preparing. Thank you.' She sat, an excited chatter increased in noise until it was almost deafening.

'What do you think you'll go as?' Harry asked all of us.

'I have the perfect idea,' they all said together as they shared secretive smiles.

'You'll have to wait to find out.' We moved on from the subject as we could tell that we weren't getting anything out of them.

We were all discussing funny stories when Ron, being the clutz he is, accidently knocked his glass over and pumpkin juice began to spread across the table.

'Bloody hell,' he mumbled as he frantically mopped it up with a napkin. I had a sudden burst of panic but it disappeared when I looked down at my book and it was unharmed.

Annabeth glanced at the novel on architectural monuments beside my arm and smiled.

'What chapter are you on?' she asked.

'Chapter 10 on Hoover Dam,' I replied, wondering if she had read it herself. I noticed Percy and Thalia share a smile across the table.

'Have you been there?' I continued.

'No,' she said sadly, shaking her head, 'but those two have.' She waved a finger at Percy and Thalia.

'Oh yeah,' he grinned. 'We had a dam problem.' Thalia started laughing.

'We couldn't find the dam snack bar,' she continued.

'So I couldn't get any dam French Fries,' he finished. They were now laughing uncontrollably as they high fived eachother.

'Don't mind them,' Annabeth said. 'They have a lot of inside jokes.'

'With great power comes the great need to take a nap,' Percy said in a girly voice.

Nico blushed as the green-eyed boy ruffled his hair.

'You were so cute back th-' Percy started, but he was cut of by Harry's sharp, panicked voice.

'What's that on your arm?' he said as he tried to get a closer look. I focused in and caught sight of the end of a black tattoo before Percy pulled his sleeve back down over it.

'Nothing,' he said quickly, obviously trying to avoid the subject. All the exchange students seemed to sense something was up and stood as a group and moved to the door, leaving half eaten bits of food behind.

'There's only one explanation,' Ron said to us.

'Percy's a death eater,' Harry finished before our eyes followed the group's retreat.

How could someone so happy be one of Voldemort's old followers?

ANNABETH

Something was wrong and we all felt it. As soon as Harry mentioned the Roman SPQR tattoo on Percy's arm, the 'Golden Trio', as people seemed to call them, tensed up. From what I had heard, to have a black tattoo on your forearm isn't a good thing. I think Chiron mentioned something about Voldemort's followers having a 'dark mark'. It must have been a tattoo.

And oh gods, if it was…the way they were looking at Percy… we've just dug ourselves a hole.

If they were suspicious, it meant they would be watching us. A lot.

See, this is where having Percy on a quest is bad. He helps, yes. Need an awesome fighter? Take Percy, he's the best you can get. But this certain son of Poseidon (from my experience) also seems to be the best at stuffing up plans and accidently reveling things that shouldn't be.

It's going to be a long couple of weeks.

PERCY

After dinner, all the demigods decided to go down to the lake and let off some steam. We gathered anything we might need and silently crept out of the common room.

We were half way down the stairs when something fell out of Nico's pocket and made a loud clatter as it fell down a couple of steps before the noise ceased.

Everyone winced with each rattle.

And then it was silent again.

'Nico,' Annabeth said calmly, breaking the silence. 'Do you know what the word 'stealth' means?'

Nico just nodded his head silently.

'Yeah he does,' Thalia argued, 'did you see that nod? Stealthy as you can get! Percy on the other hand…'

'Yeah, see that stealthy no- wait, what?' I said, only just processing what my cousin just said. 'I'm stealthy!'

Of course, it was in the moment I was arguing over my dignity that I walked straight into the wall that marked the end of the stairwell, making a rather unattractive 'omph' as I did so.

'Sure,' Leo said, smothering a laugh, 'you're the stealth king. Lets all bow to Lord clumsy- I mean stealthy.'

'Hahah,' I deadpanned. I was clumsy, so what? I could still put a sword through monsters and that's all that really mattered.

'What did you even drop?' Piper asked Nico, bending down gracefully to retrieve what had caused the racket. A wide grin spread over her face as she showed it to Jason, who whispered something into his sisters ear.

She let out an unlady like snort followed by a very un-Thalia-like giggle.

'Death breathe has breathe mints? The irony.'

With that revelation, we all bust out in silent laughter, almost to the point of hysteria. Nico just gave us a gloomy glare, snatched his mints from Piper and stormed out of the castle.

We followed him, still snickering, down to the lake where Thalia, mint-boy and I all moved away from the group together. Piper and Annabeth started duelingLeo started a fire and Jason used the air to make the flames climb into the night sky. Frank was, for some reason, a tortoise and Hazel was having a seizure watching him crawl along the grass at snail pace.

Then my cousins and I nodded at each other and decided to do what we all do best...

...We beat each other up.