I don't own PJO or HP.
September 10
Gryffindor Common Room
Lily was greeted by a less-than-cheerful shout when she entered the common room.
"STOP LAUGHING!"
Harry, Lily's detention partner (again; the two had blown-up again during Umbridge's class and gotten another week of slicing their hands open) was towering over Ron and Hermione, looking furious, a shattered bowl at his feet, murtlap essence staining the carpet.
"You don't know what it's like! You — neither of you — you've never had to face him, have you? You think it's just memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something? The whole time you know there's nothing between you and dying except your own — your own brain or guts or whatever — like you can think straight when you know you're about a second from being murdered, or tortured, or watching your friends die-" Harry stopped as Lily cut him off.
"And neither do you!"
Harry laughed hollowly. "Have you forgotten what happened last year? What happened to-"
"Cedric Diggory, Seventh Year Hufflepuff, murdered!" Lily's eyes had hardened to stone. "Have you forgotten that I spend summers in America, where there was a war?"
Harry paused. Ron and Hermione watched the two exhausted students battle it out.
"Have you ever considered that I've experienced what you've experienced, only worse? At least you weren't close to Diggory!"
"I was close enough to-"
"Have you ever been running to save your brother," Lily shouted, tears starting to make their way down her cheeks at a steady pace, but anger still coursing through her veins, "and you don't make it in time?"
Annabeth and Percy stumbled out of their dormitory, investigating the noise.
Lily choked as she remembered the war. "Have you ever been told by your sister that your friend is dead? Watched your boyfriend die? Have you ever wondered why I can see thestrals?"
Harry quieted at the sight of tears streaming down Lily's cheeks. She had a haunted look in her eyes, one that said she had seen far too much.
"One death is enough to give you nightmares. What do you think seeing multiple does to a person, Harry?" Lily stopped speaking, and started sobbing. The memory of the war, and those she had lost, had been fresh on her mind ever since she had first debated with Umbridge the usefulness of experience. It was her fault her friend, brother, other friend, and boyfriend had all died. Her fault. She couldn't save them in time, she couldn't help. She wasn't strong enough. For this, as penance, Lily sobbed.
She registered that Annabeth had hurried over at some point, and had her arms encircled Lily, hugging her. Hermione joined in the hug, promising Annabeth she'd get her sister to bed safely. Ron and Harry watched as their bushy-haired friend supported the crying girl to bed.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked Lily as she climbed into bed.
"I just miss him," she whispered, her crying slowly subsiding into small hiccups.
"What was his name?" Hermione's kind brown eyes somehow stopped Lily's tears for good, letting the little hiccups take over.
"Michael Yew." Lily stared at the ceiling for a second more, before turning onto her side, and letting exhaustion take over.
"Michael," Hermione repeated, savoring the name of a boy she had never known, a boy that Lily had loved.
o.O.o
October 3
The little restaurant called Hog's Head seemed too small to fit this many people.
Hermione squeaked something, looking flustered under all the attention. "Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well, Harry here had the idea, I mean, I had the idea, that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us..." Hermione continued her speech, gaining confidence as she went.
Percy leaned down towards Annabeth. "You said this was the sweets' shop!" he whispered accusingly.
"Shh. This is important, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth whispered back, not taking her eyes off of Hermione.
Percy rolled his eyes, and turned his attention back to the conversation, which had somehow gotten on the topic of owls (honestly, what was it with the wizarding world and their owls?!).
"But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because...Because Lord Voldemort's back."
Percy frowned. "Moldyshorts dude?"
Lily turned to Percy, as if to correct him, but Annabeth cut her off. "Yeah, sure, Percy. Same guy."
The wizards payed no heed to the confusion in the back of the group. "Well . . . that's the plan anyway," Hermione continued. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to —"
"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff Quidditch player in a rather aggressive voice.
"Well, gee!" Lily drawled in a mocking voice. "How else do you suppose Cedric Diggory died?!"
The Hufflepuff, who Lily identified as Zacharias Smith, quieted.
"Besides, Harry saw him. Harry fought him," Lily continued. "I think we can all agree You-Know-Who's back."
Harry cast a grateful glance in Lily's direction, who nodded, holding up her right hand as a sort of a salute.
"So," Hermione said, timid again. "So, like I was saying... if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to —"
"Is it true that you can produce a Patronus?" A girl had blurted out this question.
"Yeah."
"A corporeal Patronus?"
"Er — you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" he asked.
Percy choked at the name, before smirking, and elbowing Nico, gesturing wildly. "Found your soulmate."
Nico glared daggers at the son of the sea, cheeks flushing.
Percy dissolved in silent bouts of laughter, completely tuning out the rest of the speech.
"Right. Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week —" Hermione had settled something another while Percy was busy laughing.
"Hang on, we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice," the girl who had spent the past two weeks yelling at Harry for getting detention from the toad.
The pretty Asian Harry had a crush on (Percy was just good like that) spoke up next. "No, nor with ours."
"Nor ours," the brat from earlier said.
Percy nearly chimed in with his own 'Nor ours!' before realizing it would probably be inappropriate and unappreciated, especially by Annabeth and Hermione. Though the not-Stoll twins might've appreciated it, Percy mused.
"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone..."
He shook his head. Wizards and their schedules. Percy leaned into Annabeth again. "When are we gonna train?"
"Whenever, Seaweed Brain. Whenever we're free."
"Promise?"
Annabeth turned to face her boyfriend. Her nose was red from the cold, but Annabeth's cheeks were still flushed with excitement. "Promise, Percy."
Satisfied, Percy pulled away. He loved demigod schedules. Whenever. Yeah, seemed about right.
Percy started to doze off. It wasn't that Hermione was boring, it was simply that he hadn't gotten much sleep lately, and the lack of sleep was taking its toll. He had almost completely passed out on Annabeth before a frightening sound woke him from his slumber.
"Hem, hem."
Percy jumped up, fire in his eyes.
"Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and get Defense lessons?" Ginny smiled, looking as innocent as ever. Percy groaned, glaring at Ginny.
"Yes," said Hermione at once, "yes, we were, you're right. . . ."
Percy watched as the British wizards discussed where and when to meet under the roof of a grungy pub. It reminded him of the war room, sort of. An extremely unconventional place to hatch something amazing.
o.O.o
October 15
Dumbledore's Army.
That was what the wizard's decided to call their renegade group of rebels. After a debate on names (involving Lily's personal favorite, the Students Against Toads), the DA was named. They practiced disarming people after deciding the name of their group (rather, Percy grumbled about being able to disarm faster with a sword, and everyone else practiced the spell). Meetings took place weekly, in the Room of Requirement. The group was careful to avoid Umbridge and Filch on their way to and from meetings. During Umbridge's boring-as-ever class, Percy had taken to practicing spells in his head (something he actually enjoyed).
