Early the next morning Amy found her way to the owlery with her letter for Percy and Annabeth. She stopped just inside the door and looked up through the rafters for her grey owl. He was roosting near the top, looking out one of the million windows in the tower.
"Tobias," she called holding her hand out for the owl. Tobias' head tilted sideways looking down at her. "Come on, I have a letter for you," she held the letter up. A few of the other owls stirred at the mention of the letter, some fluffed out their feathers in anticipation.
Seeing the other owls stirring, Tobias took off, soaring out a window and coming back in one on the ground level, alighting on Amy's shoulder. Tobias gave the other owls a disapproving glance, clicking his beak at them. Amy twisted her mouth in a frown of disapproval, but ran her hand down the owl's back just the same. "This goes to Percy and Annabeth," she held the letter up for Tobias' inspection. "They're in New York, in America. Can you fly that far?"
He clicked his beak in annoyance, his large amber eyes boring into Amy.
Amy smiled, petting Tobias again. "I just wanted to make sure. Have a safe flight."
Tobias took the letter in his beak and flew off in to the predawn grey sky.
When she made it back to Gryffindor Tower Hugo and Lily were in the common room with their bags. They grabbed Amy by the arm as she crawled through the portrait hole and started off to a corner.
"Where were you?"
"I had to send a letter back home? I promised I'd write them."
"But nothing's happened yet," Hugo shook his head, taking Amy's bag from Lily and handing it to Amy. "We ate and we slept."
"I've been away from home for a few days already," Amy smiled, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "I wanted to write my sister, she stayed at home even though she's always wanted to see London."
"See Hugo, I told you it was something simple," Lily wrapped her arm through Amy's and started for the portrait hole.
"What did you think it was?" Amy laughed looking between the two of them.
"He thought you'd befriended someone else and were trying to give us the slip," Lily's brow arched as she looked down her nose at her cousin.
"I did not," Hugo defended loudly.
"He thought you'd gone off with James," Lily continued as they started down the stairs for the Great Hall.
"That's what you were afraid of," Hugo ran down a few steps to catch up to them. "And I'm glad she didn't. I don't think I could stand listening to James gloat about that."
"Don't worry guys, I probably don't have anything in common with James, he reminds me too much of someone I know back home."
"Really?"
"Who?"
"My sister."
At breakfast a stout little witch walked up and down the Gryffindor table handing out the time tables. She looked at Lily, Hugo, and Amy and sighed handing them the schedules. "Why do I get the feeling this friendship is going to cause me no end of trouble?"
"I think that's a little presumptuous, Professor Hale," Lily smiled at the head of Gryffindor house. "We're nothing like James and Rose."
"Which is exactly what they said about themselves in regards to your parents," Professor Hale shook her head. "Just try to behave," she commanded more than requested as she moved down the table, casting them a dubious glance over her shoulder as she continued passing out schedules.
"I don't understand why everyone has such a problem with our parents," Hugo muttered once Professor Hale was out of ear shot. "They did save the world, even if they broke a few school rules."
"It's because they broke the rules," Lily answered looking over the timetable. "And we need to avoid that, remember what Uncle Percy said."
"I actually tend to ignore most of what Uncle Percy says," Hugo answered piling toast and scrambled eggs on his plate for a second helping. "He gives me a headache."
Lily gave her cousin a reproachful glare over the top of her schedule, "that's why he lectures you."
"To give me a headache?" Amy snorted into her juice, trying to cover the noise with a cough. "That seems a little too mean for Uncle Percy. Uncle George I could understand," Hugo shrugged.
"He's hoping that something actually sticks," Lily replied crossly, shooting her glare at both Amy and Hugo.
"Well, he should stop hoping. I don't listen," Hugo replied, ignoring Lily as he started to inhale his eggs. "What's our schedule look like anyway?" he asked through a mouthful of eggs.
"Potions, herbology, history of magic, defense against the dark arts," Lily had already memorized the timetable, determined to make better marks than both of her brothers.
"Double anything?" Hugo asked.
"Transfiguration," Amy answered, "very first thing this morning."
"Two hours with Professor Harris," Hugo groaned looking at his timetable for the first time. "Kill me now."
"It's the first day," Amy tried to encourage him, giving a forced smile. "We haven't even had class yet, you don't know what it'll be like."
"You're an optimist," Lily shook her head. "We've had to listen to James, Al, Rose, and all our cousins talk about Professor Harris. She's a complete nightmare."
"And you have her first thing," James forced his way between Amy and Hugo, reaching over Amy's plate to grab a pasty from a tray. "What a way to start a Monday," he shook his head in mock sadness and shoved the pastry in his mouth.
"You're not helpful," Lily narrowed her eyes at her brother. "And what are you doing here? Don't you have your own friends to annoy?"
"I was checking on my sister," James answered quickly. "Seeing how she faired her first night away from home."
"More like stalking my new friend," Lily accused hotly, crossing her arms as she glared at her brother.
"It's not always about you, Lily," James scoffed, reaching across Amy's plate again to take another pastry. "Or your friends, regardless of how attractive they may or may not be," he shoved the whole pastry in his mouth as he stood up and walked further down the table to where the Quidditch team was eating. He fell into an empty seat between two gangly fifth years and started laughing at the conversation.
"And it's not always about him either," Lily grumbled in her chest turning away from the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"Once he gets involved in his classes and Quidditch again, he'll leave us alone," Hugo shrugged continuing to eat. "I mean, eventually being a fourth year will catch up to him."
Amy turned to watch the Quidditch team, the seven of them all laughed loudly as one girl did some sort if impression, pointing across the Great Hall to the Slytherin table. It seemed like being on the Quidditch team would not offer much of a distraction; if anything it would be like the weeks of Capture the Flag at camp. They would have to find another way to distract James, or just avoid him whenever possible.
"Probably not," Amy spoke the same time as Rose.
Hugo's sister fell in the seat beside Lily, folding her timetable and dropping it in her bag. "James likes to be overly involved," Rose continued as if she had not spoken the same time as Amy, buttering some toast. "If Al had been a Gryffindor, they might have killed one another. It's already bad enough with them being in separate houses."
"Why do you say things like that to me?" Lily sighed dropping her head on the table with a sharp crack.
"It's okay Lily," Rose smiled at her younger cousin, patting her on the shoulder. "Once you get used to navigating the school it becomes easier to avoid him."
"Don't worry Lily, I'm a pro at avoiding people," Amy smiled, shouldering her bag and standing up. "Now let's go, we have class."
As the last hour of classes drew to a close, Hugo was beginning to slump over in his desk, holding his head up with his hands as he listened to the ghost talk about history. Amy was having a hard time concentrating as well; she and Lily were elbowing each other sharply in the ribs with every other monotone sentence from the teacher. The only down side to that was that they missed most of what Professor Binns was muttering.
When the bell rang, releasing them for the afternoon Hugo leapt up in his seat scattering the few scraps of notes he had managed to take. Amy started shoving her notes into her bag as she and Lily stood at the same time. History of Magic was the last class of the day, the first day of classes was finally over.
"I can't believe we have three essays already," Hugo ran to catch up to the girls, still forcing his sparse notes in his bag. "It was only the first day of classes."
"If you had paid attention during classes the essays would be easy, and completely understandable."
"I paid attention," Hugo responded quickly. "I just don't understand why teachers give homework on the first day."
"To understand what we already know, get a feel for their student's capabilities," Amy adjusted her bag on her shoulder, feeling the familiar weight of a sword at her hip. She had used the Mist to make it look like one of her school books, hoping she would never actually need that particular book in class. "The tutor back home does that when we start a new subject," she answered as Hugo and Lily turned to stare at her.
"That makes sense," Hugo grumbled as they started up the stairs for Gryffindor Tower. "When you put it like that, anyway."
"Well classes are over," Amy smiled. "Do want to go see what's so forbidden about the Forbidden Forest?"
"It's forbidden for a reason," Lily shook her head, trying to dismiss the thought of entering the forest.
"Generally things are labeled like that to scare people," Amy brushed Lily's comment aside. "It's never as bad as they make it out to be."
"You know this from experience?"
Amy nodded, although her brow furrowed in thought. "Something similar, yes," she answered hesitantly. Her entire life was labeled as dangerous, as it was for every mortal child of the gods. It had never stopped any of them from doing something, so a simple forest could hardly be that as dangerous as the life of a demigod.
If anything it was just like the forest at camp. And as long as she had her sword, Amy was confident that she could handle any creepy-crawly wandering around in the forest. She was well versed in the language of survival.
"I still don't think it's a good idea," Lily shook her head again. "Licentia," she said to the portrait of the Fat Lady.
The woman in the portrait sniffed at them, turning her nose up as the painting swung open to reveal the opening into the tower.
"Well not today anyway," Hugo agreed leading the way through the portrait hole. "Mum and dad would kill me if I broke that rule in the first week. Well, mum would. Dad might be proud."
"You're impossible," Lily scoffed turning her nose up and walking away from Amy and Hugo, heading up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
"You think it's a good idea then?" Amy asked watching Lily vanish up the curling staircase.
"It's a brilliant idea," Hugo smiled, turning to face Amy. "But not a good one for the second day of term."
