Chapter 27: Piper

Why does the weekend always seem so short? OWLs were restarting this morning and I was exhausted. I was simply lying in my bed in the Hufflepuff dorm and pouring over Potions notes that I had managed to jot down in class, and let me get this out of the way… I am horrible at potions. Unlike Percy, Annabeth, Hazel and Hermione who seemed to be decent at it, the rest of us never got used to all the fiddly bits that were an intrinsic part of potions, and our ADHD didn't help either.

Additionally, it was hard to concentrate on something as trivial as schoolwork and exams when there was an army of thousands of greek monsters possibly stationed outside Hogwarts right now. Yeah, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter were here, and that was assuring, but my dreams weren't helping matters at all.

Flashback:

Right after seeing Reyna and the rest of Camp Jupiter again, Hazel and I sprinted back through the corridors and down stairs all the way to the Hufflepuff Common Room. We had one more day to pour over our game-plan of what to do against an army. We were going to meet at Hagrid's Hut, who said he needed to do some work in the forest and that we could use his hut while he was gone. I had a feeling that maybe he knew who we were through Dumbledore telling him, but I couldn't be sure.

Anyways, I climbed into bed and kept tossing and turning; I just couldn't get to sleep. I woke up, punched my pillow in a better shape and lay down again, but it didn't work. Eventually, in desperation, I picked up Katoptris, deciding that seeing some visions may help me get to sleep. The first few visions were lack-lustre, yet I felt that the images of a random girl; the forest; an exam; and the Inquisitorial Squad had to do with something. Then, there was the vision that plagued me whenever I went to sleep. A huge army of monsters, all surrounding one shadowy figure, and surrounding another figure that was encompassed in a blinding light, as if the sun had appeared on Earth and they were all talking in hushed whispers. After this point, I felt that it was time to sleep. I turned the knife back into a bead and clipped it back to my necklace. Concluding that I was sufficiently spooked, I lay down again, only this time I had managed to drift into Morpheus' realm. However, as most demigods must suffer, dreams plagued me again. This time it was the same exact dream of the army in the forest. At least I thought...

"My lord. The day of the attack is almost upon usssssssss. When will your two brothersssssss … arrive?" One dracanae hissed. A metallic, rumbling voice was the one that responded.

"Those two fools aren't coming. Our 'leader'," he spat, indicating this leader was someone he despised heartily. "Wishes to keep our third on hand. As for the fourth? He is a disgrace. Those wretched demigods changed him and he escaped from our leader. He's disappeared, not even he can find him… this is a dire situation; he may come for us…" the figure warned.

"But my lord… how can our leader not find him?" Another dracanae responded, with worry creeping into her malicious tone.

"I don't know, he has always been the timid and odd one. He may have changed himself while he was there," the figure replied.

"But my lord, what is our plan from now till the day?"

"Patience. Patience. We attack when we are commanded, and I will crush Jason Grace to a paste… But wait. We have company don't we?" the figure cackled

At this point, my vision blurred and I zoomed in onto the figure's face, still cloaked in shadows. Try as you may demigod, you will never be able to defeat me… We will rule again, not even you know what we have planned!" He screeched, this arms like acid, burning through the skin on my shoulders. I tried to open my mouth to scream, but found I couldn't…

"Piper. Piper. Piper!" I heard a voice scream. After one last look at the shadowy structure situated before me, my dream faded, being replaced by Hazel's clammy face."

"Piper. Piper. Piper!" I heard a voice scream, and this wrenched me from the folds of the past and catapulted me back into the present. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, determined to remove the drowsiness that was infecting me. I shifted my head, and saw Hazel, her eyes sympathetic, as if she understood my plight. After sighing deeply, I plucked up my Potions notes and shoved them hastily into my bag, determined not to be late to my Potions written examination.

Hazel and I ran towards the Great Hall for breakfast and saw Jason and Ron indicate themselves at the Gryffindor table, and we both sauntered towards the group.

"What took you so long?" Annabeth inquired.

"I just dozed off while going over my Potions notes," I replied, and to no one's surprise Annabeth and Hermione both had scandalized facial expression present, as if it was unbelievable that anyone could fall asleep when reading the monotonous and boring notes that they had inscribed. Decided that it would've been pointless to argue, I conceded and began to wolf down my breakfast, which was difficult with Hermione constantly knocking cups and plates about, shaking with nervousness. I decided to use a bit of charmspeak and soothe her nerves, and immediately noticed a slight relaxation in her posture and a reduction in her jumpiness.

After a quick breakfast we lined up outside the Potions Classroom and entered, ready for our theoretical examination. Potions was never my thing, but this went horribly. I got horribly confused on the question about the Draught of Peace and the Draught of Living Death. The only question I seemed to have done well on was about Polyjuice Potion, having just skimmed over the notes before I entered the classroom. However, it was all in all, terrible. Our practical was in the afternoon and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Without Snape peered over my shoulder and rubbing his greasy hair near my face, I was much more confused. Neville and Harry, who seemed to hate Snape as well as Potions looked at great ease, as if they had never had such an enjoyable lesson in this dungeon. Sure, my Draught of Peace wasn't as good as it could've been but it definitely wasn't bad.

I took a moment to look around the classroom, Jason had somehow managed to make his Potion issue dark red steam from his cauldron, and he was frantically trying to douse the steam with his robe, but was failing magnificently. Instead of the shimmering silver vapour that the cauldron was supposed to be emitting, mine and many other people was issuing a thick cloud of billowing silver steam. Hermione, Annabeth and Percy's however, were all perfect and were simmering with the steam. I sighed, knowing that they were just gifted at potions and tried to stem the flow with my robe, and much like Jason it didn't accomplish much.

All in all, I was heartily relieved when Professor Marchbanks instructed us to,

"Step away from your cauldrons please. This examination has now concluded." I wiped the sweat that was clinging to my brow and filled my flask to the brim with the solution and labelled it with my name. I had no delusions of passing well, but with luck had clinched an 'Acceptable'.

After leaving the room, Hermione immediately ran up to Ron and Harry and started pestering them about how they think they did, and Annabeth mirrored her. Ron sighed exasperatedly and explained that they had already done the test once and didn't want to go through it again. Percy again replied with the same thing and Hermione and Annabeth both turned away with equally annoyed looks. They both smiled and walked forward together and began chatting loudly about how glad there was someone else who cared about this stuff as much as them.

TIMESKIP

We

Leo:

Today was the day for the Care of Magical Creatures test. Harry, Ron and Hermione really liked Hagrid, but I certainly was very cautious around him. He was half-giant and I had had some bad experiences with his friends. I knew he was talking about Wizarding Giants, but how different could they be? Anyways, I was walking down in the general direction of Hagrid's hut for the Practical examination. Despite this, Hagrid had invited us to his hut right after the Care of Magical Creatures practical. We stopped right on the edge of the Forbidden Forest and our examiner began to call our names.

When my name was called, I walked forward, not nervous at all. We were given 3 tasks. Identify a Knarl hidden in a clump of hedgehogs; demonstrate the proper handling of the bowtruckle; clean and feed a Fire Crab without getting burned (HAHA) and construct a diet to feed to a sick unicorn.

For the knarl, I had no idea what to do, and we were given a huge assortment of foods and objects. What I did, was chuck random objects at the hedgehogs, and hoped something would happen. After a few minutes, one of the hedgehogs jumped at me, and I fiddled my wand and barely managed to use a freezing charm before it skewered me. I turned to the teacher, and she gave me a brief nod, before gesturing for me to go on. I easily handled the bowtruckle as I was used to holding and fiddling with delicate items and easily completed the task. The next task was to not get burned, and being immune to heat, I took no real care as I cleaned and fed the crab. It got irritated at times and seemed to burn my skin, but I obviously sustained no burns. The diet? I had no idea, I just randomly chucked some food together and hoped it wasn't too bad.

After waiting for everyone else, and quickly leaving the assessment and walking to Hagrid's hut, which was nearby.

I knocked on the door, and before long the door was opened, to reveal Hagrid's hulking body. He smiled his smile and gestured us in with the words,

"Yeh've remembered where I live!" He exclaimed, before chuckling and ushering us in before running into his kitchen to prepare some tea.

Hermione, Harry and Ron sank into three comfy armchairs by the fireplace, while Hagrid's was about thrice their size. The rest of us just awkwardly stood about until I decided to do something and waved my wand attempting to conjure seven chairs for us, and instead managed to get seven pot plants, and smashed them onto the floor, spilling soil and dirt over the carpet on the floor of Hagrid's Hut. I looked towards my friends, giving them a sheepish grin before Annabeth and Piper gave exasperated sighs and muttered some words under their breath while waving their wands and the soiled floor and the cracked pots were replaced with seven chairs, made of deep mahogany wood, and well-constructed beams, and looked very appealing and we all collapsed into them.

After five minutes of silence, Hagrid's burly frame burst into view and he hustled about, pouring us each a cup of tea, before pouring himself a generous amount and beginning to drain his cup. After putting his cup down with a loud clunk, before wiping the tea from his surrounding lips, and beginning to talk.

"So, how was yer examination?" (I can't do an English accent, please enjoy my pitiful attempt) There was a general murmur of assent, determined to show Hagrid that we did well, even if that was far from the truth."

"That's good. With Umbridge as Headmaster, I know my days 'ere are numbered. I expect to be gettin' the sack soon," Hagrid mumbled, with his eyes crinkling and huge droplets of water leaking from his eyes.

"Come on Hagrid, Umbridge can't blame you. You haven't done anything wrong!" I exclaimed, before Hermione cut across me.

"Come on Leo. Do you really believe that old hag will wait for evidence? She's so evil, she might as well have come down and sacked Hagrid now. You know she thinks she's been putting Nifflers in her office."

"Yeah, that's true," I replied. After this, an awkward silence erupted around us, before Hagrid spoke up again.

"Well, before I have to go, I made contact with Dumbledore last night. He told me your story… demigods," he said, pointing his gargantuan index finger in our direction. Percy and Piper gasped, as if they had no idea about this, yet I believed that they all had a sneaking suspicion that they knew.

"What did you want to tell us?" Hazel asked, clearly intrigued.

"Well Dumbledore wanted me to tell you that you need to follow your own path. You are the only defense that Hogwarts has. Harry, Hermione and Ron need to help you, but you can't allow yourself to be revealed to the rest of Hogwarts. You ten and your friends have to defend Hogwarts. It is vital that the next generation of wizards is preserved. You-Know-Who is rising and these wizards are the only hope. You have to help 'em!" Hagrid exclaimed.

Everyone was speechless after this, and then it hit me, if Umbridge or the Ministry caught wind that there were powerful demigods running around the world, they may take action especially in this current climate if they thought we were a threat…

Done. Cool finished. Whatever. Took me a while, it's been a hectic few weeks. Hope you enjoy. Next chapter will probably the conclusion of the OWLS. It might take longer than one or two weeks as I have to think clearly about a certain plotline that'll be very important later on. Guess what it'll be.

~RedGods