I hope you like this, so sorry if Hermione's a bit OOC but I needed her to overhear some stuff. I am also sorry if this doesn't ccome up for a while like it did last time. If the spelling is wronng it's because the spell checker on Word has gone for some reason.
Disclaimer: If I was JK Rowling DOBBY would NOT be dead. If I was Rick Riordan BECKENDORF and SELENA would NOT be dead.
Chapter 3: A phoney oracle predicts impossible deaths.
Harry's POV
The first lesson of the day was double divination. Oh joy! According to Hermione the new students had it as well. We met them on the way and they followed me and Ron. By the time we got there we weregasping for breath but the transfers looked completely unfased.
Annabeth and Percy were on a table together and Nico and Thalia were on another. They all looked apprehensive and I admit I was curious. I shifted my chair and tried to listen.
"…why we're doing this anyway. Divination's Rachel's job." Rachel? Who was Rachel?
"Shut up Death Boy we can't be too careful. Anyway we don't know if this could be useful." That was Annabeth.
Suddenly Professor Trelawney was there. "Ah, new students. Let us see what will befall you." She paused to walk up to the group. "Ah child, drowning shall be your doom. And you, lightning will be your death. As for you the dead will not honor you. And finally your lack of wisdom will be your downfall." I was waiting for them to look nervous at all this death being predicted. But to my surprise they burst out laughing. "I can't believe that I thought you were an oracle." Said Percy "in fact this is an insult to A-" at this Annabeth stood on his foot, it didn't seem to hurt him but he got the message. "My cousin," he finished lamely. "Yeah, you're definitely annoying him with this pretense," agreed Thalia and with that they got up and walked out. As they did I swear I heard Nico say "I told you prophosies were Rachel's job."
"You're sure that's exactly what he said, Harry?"
"For the last time I'm sure. What does it matter anyway, surely you just need the gist of it?"
"Who do you think their cousin is anyway?" interrupted Ron hastily. "Well…" she replied slowly. "From what you have told me he's a boy who's name begins with A." she looked at me. "You're sure they said nothing else? Not the tiniest thing?"
"Yes!" I said impatiently, "why?"
"It's just I don't know why their cousin would be annoyed. Because she predicted their deaths? Because she's a fraud? Just a hint would do." She looked at me pleadingly, as if willingly me to suddenly remember a forgotten detail. "They said something about someone called Rachel." I said finally.
"What?"
"Um … the creepy boy Nico? Said 'I told you prophosies were Rachel's job' when they left." Hermione nodded.
"Well, it's not much but it's a start. Can you try and find out more about this Rachel?"
"Wait!" said Ron sudenly excited. "What if they're are all Death Eaters? So their cousin would be mad because Trelawney's predicting their deaths but they can't say his name!" Hermione huffed.
"Honestly, that's ridiculus. Firstly they're in Gryffindor, and secondly what have they done to make you think that?"
"Sorry it's just with You-Know-Who back and then these students turn up randomly. You can't trust anyone anymore."
"I know but still." Ron looked about to complain so I pulled him to our next class.
Hermione's POV
In Runes we were set a simple translation to do to test our skills. Then I noticed the new kids whispering together, I would I have tried to listen in but I needed to concentrate. At the end of the lesson when the teacher handed their scrolls back with a confused look. Under the pretense of picking up a fallen quill I sneaked a peek at Percy's results. I couldn't understand any of it. Instead of English he had written all of these weird symbols.
Percy's POV
I was quite proud of my Runes result. Okay so I translated it into Greek but so had the others and the teacher hadn't specified English. We went to the hall to eat lunch and gave our sacrifices to the Gods with on staring at us as if we were slightly crazed. I didn't see Hermione and was glad because I had a feeling that she was going to bombard us with questions again. I was just thinking of how to avoid said questions when Ron came up to us, closely followed by Harry. "Who's Rachel?" Ron asked abruptly. Thalia glowered at him. "A friend," answered Nico shortly and we turned back to our meals. Okay I hit Nicon the head for letting Rachel slip but still.
We followed the trio- Hermione had turned up – to transfiguratin. I'll admit I was nervous. I mean you get turned into a guinea pig on you second quest, you'd be worried. We were waiting outside a classroom when McGonagall, the strict woman I'd seen during the sorting, came in and told us to go in.
Then she started talking about conjuring spells and how they were difficult, blah, blah, blah. All I could think was ' Oh great! ' because this was going to be hard enough already. I confess, towards the end my mind was wandering and I was about to fall asleep when she said. "Right, now pair up and try and bind each other." I was with Annabeth so Nico and Thalia were together. "So what do we do?" I whispered. They all looked concerned about this, even Annabeth. It was a while before she finally said "say it in Greek" it sounded more like a question than an answer but it was the best we had. We looked around for some clue as to what to do. Everyone was waving their sticks so surprisingly it was me who had the idea. I held out my hands as I did when I was controlling water, said a quick prayer to Hecate and muttered the spell in Ancient Greek. Ropes appeared and bound Annabeth, looking amazed she quickly checked to see if anyone was watching wiggled her knife from where it was strapped to her arm and cut the ropes. Then we all started to practise, slowly people around us began to stop and stare as, without the sticks they were so dependant on, we took turns in binding each other.
Finally, everyone was stood staring at us on silence. Eventually Hermione said "what language are you saying the spell in?" We mumbled something evasive about that's how we learnt it at our school. After a moment McGonagall started questioning us about our lack of sticks and after some vague excuses she told us to get back to practising.
