Chapter 16: Annabeth
The Room of Requirement was everything I could've hoped for. The rest of the seven and I really hadn't done too much combative magic. I also realised that this room opened up a world of possibilities of where to practice our sparring. We had sometimes snuck out to the Forbidden Forest to do that, this would be a much better alternative. Before I could think much more about what else we could do in this room, Harry interrupted my train of thoughts.
"Right then guys. Let's get practicing. We'll start off with something easy. We'll practice, the Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus. Everyone divide into pairs and practice." There were thirty five people in Dumbledore's Army, but Harry wasn't taking part. I paired up with Percy, and Jason paired up with Piper. Hazel and Frank were paired up and Leo partnered up with Neville. I predicted that most of us would be quite adept at this, but I wasn't too sure. I flashed a smug smile towards Percy and he returned it.
"You ready to get destroyed Seaweed Brain?" I taunted.
"You're not going to destroy me Wise Girl." He replied.
"Everyone, cast your charms in three, two one—"
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted. Percy and I shouted the charm in unison and both our wands rocketed out of our hands. I glanced around, looking for my wand and located it on top of the bookshelves. Percy's wand ended up hitting Ernie in the head, and Percy, apologizing profusely returned shortly after myself. I glanced around and saw the Jason was hopelessly looking for his wand, and Frank's wand was off somewhere, as he was also looking for it. Leo kept disarming Neville, as he was far too quick for him. Harry then started to walk around the room, praising and correcting different people's form. Percy and I were quite equally matched, same with Piper and Jason. Frank was getting destroyed by Hazel, and Leo was obliterating Neville.
Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchleys wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.
Percy and I continuously disarmed each other, and it was rather enjoyable, but I definitely preferred fighting with a blade, rather than a wand. Suddenly, Harry blew his whistle very loudly and everyone's head snapped towards him.
"That was quite good, but there is room for improvement. Let's try that again." Again, Percy and I kept disarming each other, both of us probably disarmed the other an equal number of times. However, the wands flying in every direction gave us an exercise routine; dodging the wands that fly at you. Harry soon came over to investigate and slightly corrected both of our grips. We continued to disarm each other for ages, by the end, I was covered in sweat from all the running about. Harry blew his whistle sharply again.
"Well, that was a pretty good training session. However, we've just run out of time. Same time, same place, next week?"
"Sooner!" Dean Thomas echoed.
"Don't forget, we've got Quidditch Practice!" Jason shouted.
"Lets say Wednesday. We will select different days for meetings from then on, for now, let's go." The Room of Requirement slowly emptied, only leaving the ten of us. All of the demigods wanted to stay by and practice. The Golden Trio insisted on waiting for us, but we waved them off. I came up with the brilliant excuse of, we just want to practice for like thirty more minutes. They seemed to buy it and snuck back off to Gryffindor House's common room.
I popped the new bead off my necklace and it sprung into a celestial bronze dagger, it was an exact replica of the one I carried since I was eight. The old one was still somewhere in Tartarus. Anyways, we decided to do with a seven man/woman spar session. Percy drew Riptide, I drew my knife , Jason drew his Gladius. Piper drew her dagger and Frank drew his bow. Hazel drew her cavalry sword while Leo pulled out a hammer from his tool belt.
"Three, two, one—GO!" Percy shouted. We all ran towards the centre and broke off into smaller skirmishes. Percy and Jason started dueling, while Frank and Leo started. Frank was trying to keep his distance while Leo was trying to close the gap and smack Frank with his hammer. The three of us, engaged in a three-way duel. After ten minutes of grueling, rolling, stabbing and slashing, I finally managed to get my knife to Hazel's throat, who accepted defeat and walked away. Fighting against Piper was difficult, as we both had close range weapons.
I advanced onto Piper and feinted. As predicted, Piper leapt backwards and I pressed my advantage. I pressed her and began to attack her. I stabbed her and forced her to keep blocking my strikes, never allowing her to begin an attack on me. Finally, after a few minutes of dueling, I managed to feint around her stab, roll behind her and press my knife to her throat. She also accepted defeat and walked off. I never actually watched the boys fight, Leo and Frank were both exhausted, and neither could really defeat the other, as Leo dodged Frank's arrows, and Frank managed to evade Leo's Hammer. I turned and faced Percy, who was still sparring with Jason. They were both slashing, stabbing, rolling and attempting all the different maneuvers possible. Percy somersaulted over Jason and slashed at his feet, throwing Jason off balance. Percy pressed his advantage and Jason kept having to backtrack. Finally, Percy managed to sweep out Jason's leg from out underneath him and pinned him to the ground. Jason tapped out. Frank and Leo finally mutually forfeited. Finally it was Percy and I.
"Scared Wise Girl?"
"You wish Seaweed Brain!" With that, we charged and we were locked in a fierce battle. We had sparred together so often that when he lunged, I could backtrack and vice versa. We knew each other's fighting styles so well that neither of us could beat the other. After about twenty minutes of this, we both forfeited. Percy kept trying to back me up into a wall, so he could corner me and beat me. But I wouldn't let that happen. We kept circling each other. In the end the forfeit was worth it. We both were sweating fiercely. We were just packing up, when Hermione came in, looking suspicious.
"Uh, guys, we were getting worried, you didn't turn up to the common room, we just got worried." Hermione said. We all looked our best to look normal, thankfully, we had all re-attatched our weapons to our necklaces.
"We were just practicing the disarming charm somemore, we wanted to try master it." I said. Hermione nodded, but there was a glint in her eye and I thought that she might be onto us. Quickly, we packed up and dashed back to our common rooms. The next few weeks, the DA Lessons were extremely fun. We had practiced multiple jinxes and hexes and all of us were extremely good at combative magic. After every DA Lesson, we would stay back and practice our swordplay after every lesson. Also, we started sneaking out to the Forbidden Forest at least once a week to practice more. Hermione had devised a clever way to schedule meetings, so we always knew when we could practice swordplay or when not to. I had a sneaking feeling that we were being watched on a particular session yesterday.
We decided to meet up at the Great Hall, just before dinner. Then we would run down to the Forbidden Forest, saying that we wanted to go for a swim. We dashed down to the edge of the forest. Hazel manipulated the mist, creating an illusion that we weren't there. Throughout the hour that we were practicing, I felt that someone was spying on us. I was in the middle of hand to hand combat with Frank, when I heard a branch snap behind me. Everyone's eyes darted towards that area. Jason summoned the winds, but thought better as it we may be seen by a wizard. We all rushed towards the area, but it was empty.
"I can detect some magical presence was in this area." Hazel said.
"How can you tell?" Piper asked.
"I don't know, maybe it comes by being able to manipulate the mist, I can just feel that a magical presence was felt here, possibly a wizard or a witch." We all nodded gravely, but Leo gained our attention,
"Holy Hephaestus, GUYS! We've been here for just over an hour! We need to get back to the castle, or everyone will wonder where we were." We dashed back up to the castle, Percy drying us off with his water powers. We got the the Great Hall and separated into our House Tables. I ran off to the Ravenclaw table, I sat with Leo, Padma and Luna and we talked about the looming Quidditch match. I was on the Ravenclaw team, but it was Gryffindor vs Slytherin. All of the Ravenclaws would be supporting the Gryffindors, as no one wanted to support Slytherin. I had a quick dinner, and we rushed off to finish the Charms essay set by Flitwick. I still couldn't shake that someone had seen us practicing.
Hermione:
Where did the American students vanish off to? During DA meetings, they insisted staying thirty more minutes. I started to grow curious and I sometimes spied on them. I never actually caught them doing anything, I always arrived when they were packing up, but I felt that something was wrong. They also seemed to be disappearing from the Great Hall just before dinner. They said that they wanted to go for a swim in the Black Lake, but I didn't think so. So just yesterday I tailed them outside, using Harry's old cloak that I borrowed without his permission. I just ran after them, I found them in the Forbidden Forest. I heard some grunting and the clanging of metal. I ran around a tree, and saw them in a clearing. Oh my god. They were all spinning around, using swords, knives daggers and an assortment of weapons. They were moving with blinding speed, punching, rolling, slashing and stabbing at each other. They moved flawlessly, seemingly knowing each other's moves. After about ten minutes of this spar, they moved onto hand to hand combat. They weren't using wands! They kept jabbing, somersaulting, rolling, sweeping and so many fighting maneuvers that it made my head spin. Watching them fight was hypnotizing, I couldn't tear my eyes away from them. I wasn't looking where I was going and stepped on a branch. The cracking sound alerted them to my presence. They obviously didn't know it was me, but they knew someone was there. I saw Jason momentarily jump very high, almost as though he were flying. I heard them conversing,
"I can detect some magical presence was in this area." Hazel said. What? She could detect magical presence, what was that supposed to mean? The others were also mystified, and Piper replied
"How can you tell?" Piper asked.
"I don't know, maybe it comes by being able to manipulate the mist, I can just feel that a magical presence was felt here, possibly a wizard or a witch." The Mist? What was the mist. I had absolutely no idea what they were on about. I decided that I better run back up to the castle, I was running, but I heard something that was lost in the wind.
"Holy Hephaestus, GUYS! We've been here for just over an hour! We need to get back to the castle, or everyone will wonder where we were." I heard the thumping of their feet, and I picked up the pace. While I was running, many things went through my head. Holy Hephaestus? The Mist? Them fighting with swords? This was way too weird. I made a silent oath not to tell Harry and Ron, until I figured out what was happening. I turned around to see where they were and I saw water collecting in a ball above their heads. I saw Percy twiddling his thumbs, and he controlled the water off their bodies. He then splashed the water off somewhere. What!? I thought. I knew that Percy showed some talents of wandless magic, but that was insane! They were 15! How were they that powerful? Oh my god. I ran back to the Great Hall, I arrived just before themselves and I sat down and ate, with a million ideas buzzing through my brain.
"Earth to Hermione?" Ron said, waving his hand in front of my face. I shook my head, shaking myself out of my stupor,
"Huh? What?" Ron frowned, as if my answer was alien.
"I said, if you were coming to watch the Quidditch match."
"Yeah! Of course I am Ron." Harry and Ron grinned and went back to devouring their food.
-=TIME SKIP=-
For the next few weeks, I spent hours in the library, combing through books about Greek Mythology, trying to connect the dots between Holy Hephaestus, and them. I had found nothing, except Percy's full name, Perseus was the name of some son of Zeus who killed Medusa. They had said that they were all half Greek and that was probably it. I found similarities between Percy and Perseus. Both had lost their fathers, except Perseus' dad was Zeus, god of the sky, while Percy's was a wizard. No correlation at all. I slammed down another book about Greek mythology and went to bed. The Quidditch Match was tomorrow and I promised I would be there.
Jason:
Today it was time for the Quidditch Match! I was extremely nervous. I started to go off food, Ron was in the same boat as me. We were both unwilling to eat.
"C'mon Jason, Ron, you need to eat something." We both shrugged.
"C'mon Sparky, listen, you need to eat." Piper soothed. I knew she was charmspeaking, but I couldn't help myself. I felt the desire and craving to eat, and I fulfilled the desire. I had a few slices of bread and about three glasses of Pumpkin Juice. I felt much better after being filled with food, but Ron still had barely touched his scrambled eggs. Suddenly,
"Hello." A dreamy voice said behind me. Luna had drifted over from the Ravenclaw table, but didn't sit down like Leo and Annabeth. "I'm supporting Gryffindor." She said, gesturing to her hat. "Look what it does!" She reached up and tapped her hat with her wand and the lion roared. Everyone in the nearby vicinity jumped away. I roared with laughter as she drifted away, having made her point. Soon, far too soon, I was walking into the changing rooms. Getting ready for the match. The three of us walked in while Angelina, who had already changed was laying out the game plan. I quickly changed into the robes, but Ron, who was still nervous and kept putting his robes on wrong. Katie Bell finally took pity on him and went to help him.
'OK, I've only just found out the final line-up for Slytherin,' said Angelina, consulting a piece of parchment. 'Last year's Beaters, Derrick and Bole, have left, but it looks as though Montague's replaced them with the usual gorillas, rather than anyone who can fly particularly well. They're two blokes called Crabbe and Goyle, I don't know much about them-'
'We do,' said Harry and Ron together.
'Well, they don't look bright enough to tell one end of a broom from the other,' said Angelina, pocketing her parchment, 'but then I was always surprised Derrick and Bole managed to find their way on to the pitch without signposts.'
'Crabbe and Goyle are in the same mould,' Harry assured her.
I could hear hundreds of footsteps mounting the banked benches of the spectators' stands. I was extremely nervous and I was very nervous. Finally, Angelina spoke again,
"It's time guys. C'mon let's go. Good luck everyone." She muttered, in a hushed voice. I shouldered my Nimbus Two Thousand and One, and wandered out of the changing rooms, in single file. The light was blinding and as we walked out onto the pitch, there was a roar emitting from the stadium. The Slytherin team was smirking at us,
"Captains, shake hands." Madam Hooch ordered. They both shook, appearing more to be crushing each other's hands. After this, Madam Hooch raised the whistle to her mouth and blew. The balls were released and I dashed towards the quaffle, barely catching it, from beneath the nose of a Slytherin chaser. I could hear the commentary of Lee Jordan, a friend of the Weasley twins emanating from the stadium.
"And it's Grace, new find by Angelina, flying with supreme speed. Ducks Warrington, spins Montague, dodges a bludger sent by Goyle. Shoots, and HE SCORES!" He shouted, as I threw the ball through the hoops. The Slytherin keeper, threw the ball back to Montague, who streaked up the pitch.
"Montague catches the Quaffle, Montague heading back up the pitch and-nice Bludger there from George Weasley, that's a Bludger to the head for Montague, he drops the Quaffle, caught by Katie Bell, Katie Bell of Gryffindor reverse-passes to Jason Grace, who just scored. Grace is away. He dodges Warrington, avoid another bludger, this time sent by Crabbe, HE SHOOTS! Oh… brilliant save by Bletchly. The crowd are loving this! What are they singing?
'Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why Slytherins all sing:
Weasley is our King.
'Weasley was born in a bin
He always lets the Quaffle in
Weasley will make sure we win
Weasley is our King.'
I was extremely angry by what was being sung. I blocked out the song, blocked out Lee's commentary and turned into an animal. My mind went on autopilot. Steal, spin, dodge, shoot. I continued this pattern and zoned out. I returned when Angelina shouted her approval. We were winning. 100-70. I had apparently scored eight of those goals. Ron wasn't saving anything, but it didn't matter. Harry had apparently saw the snitch and dived towards the Slytherin end. I was transfixed and the crowd went wild. Malfoy and Harry were next to each other, but Harry managed to catch the snitch. The stadium erupted. We descended to the ground, shouting ourselves hoarse. I walked off, trying to find the demigods, who complimented me profusely. I returned to the changing room, but it turned out that Harry and the Weasley twins were kicked off the team by Umbridge.
I just hung dejectedly around the fire, not feeling like celebrating at all. Percy came up and thought of something to cheer me up.
"Jase. C'mon! The rest of the seven are waiting at the Room of Requirement, we're going to practice. We went to the Room and started practicing
Thanks for 5000 views! I'm sorry I didn't upload the past few days. Something was wrong with my account and wouldn't let me upload anything, I just got an error message. I am very sorry, I just hope that you like this chapter. I added more suspicions all credit goes to a guest who reviewed. Anyways, I'll make it up to you. I'll try push out another chapter today. I have to introduce the villain sometime soon. It looks like it might be Ares, but the reviews and support mean a lot. I hope that you will forgive me and enjoy this chapter. Anyways, Read and Review.
~RedGods