Chapter 37

Annabeth

After a few minute chatting about whether it would be possible for the rest of the students to gain power like Neville had, with the Half Bloods being pro and everyone else being, well, skeptical of that occurring, it was time for Frank and Reyna to take DA2 through group exercises while I took DA3 through basic swords as Jason did the same with DA4. All saw the smoldering ruins that Neville had left and that Leo was already working to repair, and all were told, in no uncertain terms, that in two to three weeks it would be expected that they too would lay waste to drones in that fashion.

"Uh. Annabeth, we're not as powerful as you or Percy, or, well any of you." Katie Bell said.

"You think I did that?" Percy smirked.

"Uh, you didn't? Who did?"

"That Miss Katie is the work of one Neville Longbottom. He took out twelve armed and engaged battle drones in under five seconds, as well as fire from the faculty, without getting hit once. Folks, listen to me. He was where you are just three weeks ago. There is nothing you can't do if you believe in yourself, focus and forget everything you know about the power limits of spells. We're going to be working hard on this. Now that Neville has broken through that barrier, he will lead the way. You can be that strong, if only you have the mind to. Understand?"

"Whats the trick?" Katie smiled.

"That is the trick. Believe in yourself, don't believe in limitations."

"No, I mean, how did you get Neville to blow those up? Were they rigged?"

Percy's face got red and he was both angry and frustrated. He yelled "Neville, front and center." Then he gave Katie the angriest stare I imagine she had ever seen until Neville arrived.

"Yes Percy?" Neville asked.

"Sword practice. Miss Katie doesn't believe it possible that you are as powerful as you are and Leo hasn't made anymore drones for you to blow up."

"Oh, uh okay. Uh, well stand up Katie." Neville said as he looked around for a practice sword.

"No, not her. Me." Percy said. "What are you looking for?"

"A practice sword"

"Use Katie's, she's not going to need it tonight."

"I didn't mean to make you mad Percy, its just"

"You didn't make me mad Katie. You disappointed me. I can't believe in you and make any difference, you have to believe in yourself. That's the only way this will work. All of you. Look. You don't see fear in Neville. You see pride. That's how he blows up drones. He doesn't believe that stunning spells are things you immediately recover from, he believes if you aren't careful they will blow you in half. You wanted to know the trick Katie? That is the trick. Neville knows he is strong, because he no longer believes that he isn't." Percy said as he slashed his practice sword directly at Neville's head, only to have it blocked, then parried. They began like that and within moments were just a blur of attacks and defenses. I tried to narrate the action so as to explain it to the students in hopes they might learn something as they fought but was soon too amazed to follow. It was a ballet of violence and after a few minutes all the students, Order and half bloods gathered to watch.

It was clear Percy had the advantage early on, but only subtly. An untrained person wouldn't notice and most of the students and Order didn't. Neville scored first with a slash across Percy's abs, but Percy answered that with a hack to Neville's exposed shoulder. This continued until they were both covered in sweat and bruises, neither one yielding or giving a death blow to the other. Finally, after twenty minutes or so, just as he had Neville off balance with his sword drawn out of position, Percy shouted "Hold!" and stabbed his sword into the ground. We all were in awe. Neville had played at the level of his competition. Maybe Jason, Reyna or I could have beat him, but at that moment, I doubted it.

"Outstanding Neville, just outstanding. You must have been fighting for years."

"No, just a few weeks."

"So you learned all of that here?"

"Yes."

"Annabeth taught you that?"

"Yes, well and you and Jason. Oh, and Reyna has helped with my footwork."

"And you've won every fight since you started?"

"No, I hadn't really won any until tonight."

"But you beat everyone in your group tonight, and fought both Annabeth and myself to a draw?"

"Yes, well, you both had me at the end" He confessed. "But yeah, I beat my group tonight."

"Oh, so what has changed since last week?"

"My attitude."

"You believe you can fight and cast spells with authority and power now?"

"Yes, absolutely. There is nothing I can't do if I focus and put my mind into it."

"That is exactly right. Now, can you teach Katie that?"

"I can try. I can teach her how to use a sword and how to fight, but she will have to control her mind and getting rid of the preconceived notions that are holding her back."

"DA4, Neville is your new sword instructor. Be here an hour earlier tomorrow. Jason, would you mind if Annabeth took over 3 so you can begin spears?"

"Sure, if Hazel is okay with it." Jason said, subtly reminding Percy that he wasn't actually in charge.

"Oh I think that is a great idea! It solves our problem of being one sword teacher short. But Percy, you're the overseer of all sword classes, especially DA3 and 4. Understood?"

"Absolutely."

With that we went to five hours of practice per night and all of the halfbloods became involved one way or another. The first hour Percy and Neville drilled DA4 on basic sword work, while our quidditch team was able to get in an hour's practice.

Even though our sessions were secret within a day or so everyone in school knew about Neville's new abilities and that he had fought Percy to a draw. This wasn't exactly accurate, but there was no way we were going to tell otherwise. He had gone from that nerd herbology guy to guy who must, at all costs, not be fucked with almost overnight and began carrying himself with a bit of swagger and a much needed boost of confidence. He was an outstanding instructor, with Percy and Annabeth only occasionally having to help out. And as he taught, and continued to learn with DA1, Neville just got stronger and stronger.

Harry was our next break through, and the following night Ginny, Herminone and Ron all got it. With Harry it was anger and frustration as much as anything, but once he started blowing up boulders (Leo had the aerials bring these in so folks wanting to test their strength could have something to blow up other than his drones) he never looked back. The next night he was as strong with a sword as he was with a wand, and that meant we had two terrifically powerful students. Once the rest of DA1 saw Neville and Harry do it, it was only a matter of time, especially with Harry cheering them on, telling them that all the great wizards in history were once students like them, and if those wizards could learn it, then so could they. He even added that "Once Annabeth, Jason, Percy... all our American friends, were students. You're as smart as they are! All we have to do is learn it!" Where Neville became an instructor, Harry became a leader which was fitting and right it seemed.

Our quidditch team was another matter altogether though. We had what we thought would be a winning strategy, based not on flying ability but deceit and trickery, but we didn't know if it would work in practice as well as it did in theory. In any event we spent as much time, if not more, going over the dramatic entrance Will had come up with, as well as planning the defense of the quidditch pitch from both monsters and potential death eaters.

All week the members of the Order stopped flinging sparks at our students and worked on their own power. Harry and Neville helped them as they had time and could, and Reyna worked with them as well. Still it was a lot of years of experience to over come, but all showed progress. Sirius cast his spells with style and aplomb and that got in the way of increasing power. Mrs Weasley on the other hand cast hers with anger, rage and fury and her incremental increases were frustrating her, especially when Ron and Ginny broke free and began pulverizing rocks on a whim. Frank and Alice, Neville's parents, were doing better than any of the rest and would soon catch up to American power levels. I suspect the years they spent magically comatose enabled them to re imagine greater levels than the others with more recent experience.

Hermione continued to teach us basic spells and continued to be creative with combinations of spells, the Order members helping with this too. Soon we were freezing, melting, setting on fire, dousing, electrically shocking and causing our drone enemies to cough up slugs, which was odd given the lack of digestive tracks. One spell we all found useful was a relative of the accio charm which caused a whip to extend from the wand. The Order members thought this useful for disarming when expellioumus wouldn't work, we found it useful to move boulders around with. In the end Leo used it to duel the twins with as they began to break through their blinders and move to full power. He deflected one's jinxes while the other charged behind a shield with sword ready, a clever and useful strategy. Leo simply tied them both up and took their wands. A week later, once they were casting at our levels, they returned the favor by tying him up.

Friday morning our team, myself included, simply skipped class to practice quidditch. We still had not even had a proper scrimmage, and had seen only one match. We were, despite all our scheming, likely to get our butts stomped. In the end, we shouldn't have worried. Will wanted to run through our opening a few times and had finally brought out a prop that he, Leo and Jason had been working on over the last couple weeks. It was a spear, or more accurately a trident, but its shaft was a collection of carvings representing each of us. It was to be our spear of Bellona. Just above the trident's tines, at the bottom of the shaft, was an owl, representing me. Will explained that it was beside the trident as the trident needed to be at the bottom so it would stick in the ground, and the owl had to be right beside it as "the two should always be together." When he explained this I was thinking of the symbols for Poseidon and Athena and said "But my mother hates Percy's father."

"Not those two Annabeth" Will grinned and as he said this I almost lost it.

Next was a bear for Frank, a diamond for Hazel, an arrow for Will, a skull for Nico, a dragon for Leo, a dolphin for Jennifer, a helmet for Reyna and finally a bar stretched across the top with a raven, a swan and an eagle for Rachel, Piper and Jason. Piper had suggested hanging a row of eagle feathers down it so that it might also look like the spear of a native American, and the artists agree to add it to show that we were all united as America House. In the end we used turkey feathers as eagle feathers are difficult to get and they look about the same at a distance anyway. Plus, if all went well, it would all be destroyed.

Percy wished me luck, gave me a quick peck on the cheek and took the ground crew, as we were calling those not in the game, out early to cast protection spells and ensure the pitch was otherwise ready. Leo had been quietly prepping it for days, all in support of Will's intro, and so Skippy and Blackjack would have a place to watch from, as well as Arion should he choose.

Percy led the ground crew for several reasons; first he was technically grounded by the Headmaster, not that it mattered as he was far from the best we had on a broom. Percy and air travel just don't really work. Second, it kept him from the possibility of being blasted out of the sky by Zeus, and finally we wanted some power on the ground in case we got caught up in the match and missed a threat. Percy, Jennifer and Nico could handle anything, and they would have the added firepower of DA1 in case it was necessary.

Since word got out that it was apparently parents day, this turned out to not be a concern at all. If a fight broke out, there would not be enough firepower in all of Britain to handle it.