Chapter 36

Frank

We were fast running out of hours in the day. We met again after dinner rather than practice quidditch but got no closer to coming up with a plan to deal with the new prophecy. Unlike prophecies in the past this one didn't directly demand anything of us, it was more a series of warnings as to what was about to happen and for the most part we couldn't tell if those things were good or bad. It sounded good to have our British friends visit for Christmas, but would it be because England was on fire or over ran by dark magicians?

This meeting began with Annabeth apologizing for her emotional outburst earlier and every girl, be they half blood, Hogwarts or faculty defending her and saying that she had the most romantic boyfriend ever. Crap. Now I guess we would all be expected to somehow be offered divinity so we could turn it down. Geez. Then of course she sat on the arm of Percy's chair and put her head on his shoulder, saying nothing for the rest of the meeting but making goo goo eyes at Poseidon's kid through out it.

We went over the prophecy for Professor McGongall who had no more ideas that we had, and ultimately it was believed that the next step would be recruiting this Professor Slughorn, which Professor Dumbledore would take the lead on. As the students went through their individual sword drills, practice and training for an hour with Annabeth, the rest of us met regarding the Deathly Hallows. It was decided that a joint quest was in order, at least the faculty of Hogwarts had no better ideas. It seemed relatively safe. Find a rock. Of course there are a lot of rocks laying around so it was a challenge. In the end no one thought the quest would locate it. Hazel suggested the place to start, since it was a historical artifact, would be the library and appointed Annabeth and Hermione as joint leaders of the quest as our most studious members. Some debate broke out then as to who should join them but Hazel remained steadfast that each should appoint two to accompany them as was tradition. Eventually the faculty agreed, so long as one of the Order be named as advisor. Hazel tried to explain that quests don't have advisors, but her words fell on deaf ears. Finally Professor Dumbledore, in an effort to prevent a civil war, appointed himself to be the advisor, saying that since we were going to be guarding him anyway he might as well be useful.

After the weekend break the Hogwarts kids were working hard, none more so than Neville. He seemed to have increased his speed at everything. What's more, he was telegraphing moves with his posture and feet then doing something else entirely different. Rare was the fighter who lead his opponent into a trap that way and it was a pure joy to watch as we all dissected his footwork. He beat all his fellow students one on one and even Annabeth had her hands full. When the occasional spark was fired by Professor Weasley, Lupin or Sirius he blocked it away as though he knew in advance it was coming. His improvement was spectacular, but we wouldn't know how spectacular until small group tactics.

I only had DA1 for an hour before they started training on basic archery with Will. In that brief time I could barely go over the duties of ranks in large group combat, but was able to explain that generally one was projectile, one was infantry, one was cavalry, and one was reserve. We discussed the role of each, and the importance and usefulness of each, as well as the qualities one looked for in staffing each rank.

"Now, I've had Leo set up some drones, three ranks of four so there won't be a reserve, in a typical offensive fashion, I'd like to see four or five of you fight them to get a feel for how it works. They will shoot sparks only, you can stun. Who is in?" I asked.

"I'll do it." Neville replied.

"Good man, who do you want with you?" I asked.

"Nobody. I got this." He said to the chortling of his fellow students, the Order and the half bloods with the exception of Reyna. It wasn't a lack of respect it was just that we knew how good Leo was at programming drones.

"Well I admire the gumption, but seriously, everyone needs to learn." I said.

"Everyone can watch. If I lose then they will see how your ranks work. I'm more than enough to demonstrate that. And if I win, well, I don't have to share the glory do I?" He laughed.

"Have you been reading Shakespeare?" I asked.

"Yeah, maybe. Henry V. Of all the old wizard writers he's my favorite." He blushed. "The thing is" Neville whispered to me alone, "No one in my family or their friends ever thought I would amount to much as a magician, and, well they're here, mom and dad at least, watching. Maybe they're right, maybe I suck, but I feel pretty good right now and I'd like a chance to show them the family was wrong. I mean, if that's okay, I know it doesn't really fit with what you are teaching us as far as fighting like a group, but please, I'd like to try."

I stared at Neville and was about to say no until I saw the determination in his eyes. Something told me this was his time.

"You got it big guy. A year ago I, well, I know how you feel. Believe in yourself and you will do just fine." I whispered back to him as I patted his shoulder, thinking of all the times I felt like a failure to my mother and grandmother. I really got how Neville felt and he deserved at least a chance to show what he was really made of. I turned back to the waiting, giggling, crowd and for some reason their attitude pissed me off. I said loudly "Leo, don't hold anything back, crank them up to eleven. On three. Neville, tell me when to start."

"I'm ready."

I counted to three, and then what followed was five seconds of the most one sided, horrifyingly beautiful fighting any of us had ever seen. First he popped his shield while quickly firing off a line of perfectly aimed stuns at the back row, each one so powerful they exploded their target. Then as he charged the front line he spun, blocked two sparks fired by Professor Weasley and Lupin back into them before spraying a protection spell on one pass of his wrist to block the incoming fire from the drones. None of those would have hit him as they were poorly aimed due to him charging so fast. On the return flick with his wrist four more drones exploded, this time those in the front row. At that point he stood his ground, firing between the smoldering ruins of the front line, alternatively blocking shots with his shield and rapid firing stuns back at the drones until the last one blew up. It was absolutely perfect, the only thing I could compare it to might be Percy or Jason at Camp Half Blood or the Acropolis, or myself at Venice.

As the drones smoldered a stunned silence fell over us all. No one had seen that coming. I certainly didn't, although I hoped for Neville to at least knock out a few before getting hit. I doubt most of the half bloods could have done it. Whatever had gotten into Neville had jumped him light years ahead of the rest of his class, and they were doing great. Neville had just become our prodigy.

Finally the silence was broken.

"That's what I'm talking about! Boooyahhh!" Percy and Jason screamed and ran to hug him, and as they did everyone else began to cheer as well. Neville just stood there, shy as ever, smiling at his accomplishment and being the proud son of his father. Leo looked as though he could cry.

Instead of an after action report on how the archers in the rear pinned them down while the cav and infantry closed and killed, we got an after action report that was all about speed, initiative, taking out the long threat first so they couldn't shape the battlefield, then the immediate short threat and forcing those in the middle to stop being cavalry and instead fire through the remains of the front line. Truthfully, his strategy and tactics had beaten ours, but without his speed, power and accuracy it would not have worked. We talked about it, dissecting each move, including the deflection of the faculty sparks, for the rest of my class, then Will called everyone over to the Archery range.

"Neville, could you stay just a moment?" Jennifer asked.

"Uh, sure."

"Your wand, may I see it?" She smiled, and he handed it to her.

Jennifer held the wand to her face and inhaled deeply, a look of bliss coming to her. "When I was, uh, a child, my sisters and I used to, uh, visit the very grove this apple tree was in. Thank you, this is such a pleasant memory for me. You should give your wand a name, all the great weapons in our history have names, and I'm certain your wand is going to heralded as a great weapon." She said as she handed the wand back.

"Uh, okay, I'll think about that. Any idea what it should be named?"

"Nightshade." Percy said, and I swear he had a tear in his eye.

"Nightshade? I kinda like that... yeah, Nightshade. It tingles when I say it, I think that's it. What's it mean?"

"Percy, would you care to explain? It has been many years since we, uh left and I know her existence was never published thanks to my father." Jennifer said, guarding her words in front of the faculty.

"Zoe Nightshade was a handmaiden for Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, sister of Apollo, child of Zeus, and one of the major gods of Olympus. Artemis gave her that name as far as I know, I have no idea what her birth name was. Zoe was her main lieutenant. For years she led the Hunters of Artemis along with Artemis herself. Artemis and Annabeth became imprisoned briefly by the General of the Titans, and Zoe led the assault to free them, along with myself, my friend Grover and Nico's sister Bianca. Bianca died just getting us there and it was the saddest moment of my life, then Zoe gave up herself to not only rescue Artemis but Annabeth as well. Of all of us, Zoe was far and away the greatest warrior, and now she is memorialized in our greatest wand"

"I didn't realize she was Jennifer's sister at the time. It was at the apple grove that she was murdered, her blood probably fed that very tree. That was six months or so before Jennifer and I met. Oh, and that apple grove? It was a gift from Hera's mother, Gaea, to Hera on the occasion of her wedding to Zeus. It is guarded by dragons and to harvest a single apple means certain death. So its probably the rarest wood in existence." Percy said. "Anyway, after the battle Artemis took Zoe's essence and made her a constellation, the Archer, that very night. Then took another of Zeus's daughters, Thalia, as her new assistant. When you see Artemis, and you will I hope, the hunters stop by camp a couple of times a year, she will enjoy telling you the full tale of Zoe. She was truly a wonderful friend and person."

"The general said she died when she left the grove, but when you told me of her death I knew he had lied and she had lived a fulfilling life. This was happy news." Jennifer said, her face beaming.

"Don't get me wrong, its horrible news about your sister, but, well, Neville. His wand is amazing, do you think there is anyway..." Sirius said before being interrupted by Jennifer and Reyna.

"No, really, its not horrible news at all, oh, I'm not happy she died, but I am very happy she lived."

Meanwhile Reyna said bluntly "Its not the wand."

"Not to be disrespectful of your opinion Miss Reyna, but I think we all have noticed that his spells are as powerful now as any of the Americans since he received his wand." Sirius smiled.

"Annabeth, did his wand fight you in sword training tonight?"

"Nope, it was all Neville, and he was tough. I mean like Percy, Jason, or Frank tough. I barely won, and that was by luck alone."

"Do you think he could take Percy?"

"No, probably not, but on a good day he would hold his own now."

"And he didn't use his wand?"

"No, not a bit."

"Not to be disrespectful of you Sirius, but my boyfriend kicks ass. What you have seen tonight is what happens when a person has total faith and confidence in themselves and their abilities. We all have blinders up to what is possible, those doubts that hold us back from what we can be. Neville has just lost his. That is where the power in his spells come from, that is where his new confidence with the sword comes from, and that is what we are going to teach all of the Hogwarts youth. It will be easier now that one has broken through that barrier and can show the way to the rest. Its like the other side of what we've talked about before, faith and proof. Most people, witches and wizards included, don't totally believe in themselves. Deep down there is a voice that says 'You can't. You can't really cast this, that's silly,' With magicians that voice is usually faint, all it does is weaken them, make them casts spells at levels lower than they could. As much as anything it is the voice that says 'this is how strong a stunning spell is, no stronger as I have never seen anyone throw stronger.' Since Americans never before trained with other spell casters we don't have preconceived notions as to what should be powerful or how strong a spell should be, so they all are. We have knowledge that our wands will perform at exacting ways and at powerful levels, because Hecate told us they would. We had no expectations from seeing other spells cast, so all of ours are ungoverned by the blinders you have. Witches and wizards grow up thinking they know the outer limits of spells because they have never seem anything stronger, and they wear that like blinders to the possibility of the enormous power within them. Tonight, Neville has taken his blinders off and shown the confidence he was born with and the greatness he was born to. It is not that he has overcome limitations, he has realized that the limitations he thought he had were all fictions, and he doesn't believe them any longer."

"Uh, Thanks honey." Neville said. We had forgotten he was standing there still. "I really do feel more confident, but are you sure its not the wand, I mean as far as the spells go?"

"Here, lets find out." Reyna said. "Sirius, may I borrow your wand?"

Sirius thought about it a moment, shrugged, and handed it over. Reyna handed it to Neville and said "Here, blow something up with this."

"Uh"

"Don't think about it, just do it. That gold ball that's left of the one in the second rank. Its about to shoot me. Kill it." Reyna said.

Neville raised the borrowed wand instantly and the orb exploded. Then he shrugged and handed Sirius's wand back. "I guess you're right." He smiled as Sirius stared at his wand, baffled.

"You just needed it to realize how strong you are. Its not the wand, its you. Now, Will is going to teach you how to kill things with arrows. Roman girls, well we live for that kind of shit big boy." Reyna smiled as she kissed him softly then smacked him on the butt.

He smiled and double timed it to the range, but paused when his father called out "Neville!"

"Yes dad?"

"We're... well, We're so very proud of you!"

"Thanks dad!"

"Anyone else want to say it is something other than my boyfriend's courage, heart and inner strength?" Reyna asked the remaining half bloods and Order members.

No one has much to say though.