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Chapter 15

Frank

As we woke up and got down for breakfast, Hermione got her Daily Prophet.

"So where's that article you said Percy mentioned?" asked Will, yawning as he threw food in Leo's burning hand. Nico smirked.

"Will, are you even looking at the paper? If you are, you will be seeing a pinker, more deformed toad staring at you right about...now."

Nico flipped Will's eyelids open, allowing him( okay fine, actually forcing him) to see the cover. Hazel snuggled into me and grinned. I rubbed her head...or rather, petted her.

Hermione started reading out loud. I didn't concentrate on anything, but I think I heard something like, Umbridge is hereby the Hogwarts High Inquisitor or something. Later, my friends told me more about it, somehow the Ministry is having control at Hogwarts. And that Umbridge got to inspect the teachers and all that.

"And she's been an immediate success," Percy said, mocking Percy. Which is seriously confusing.

"Seriously, what're they playing at?" I asked. "Fudge dropped this Degree thingy on us and now we get to be tortured. Great. Can't wait to kill him and dye Umbridge's hair green."

Leo looked impressed. "Why Frank, you have good ideas sometimes! Why don't we get together to make some hair spray after..." He checked his schedule. "After Binns? I'm sure he wouldn't object to letting us out early. Am I correct, Nico?"

Will put his hands over Nico's mouth. "Yes, you are correct. Nico, don't say anything, I know what your answer will be anyway.

Nico sighed, but experience tells him not to argue.

Indeed, when History of Magic was almost over, Nico glared at Binns for about five seconds, then turned to us.

"Let's go," he whispered. We walked silently out of the room. The Hufflepuffs and other Gryffindors looked at us strangely.

A boy raised his hand. "Uh, people are going out."

Binns nodded. "Don't worry, I gave them permission."

We gave Harry, Hermione and Ron I-am-sorry-looks, then exited the room to get to our room.

"So!" said Leo, flopping on his bead. "What kind of hair spray?"

Piper shrugged. "I think celestial bronze might work again. You have more in your stash?"

Leo beamed. "Absolutely!"

He turned to his trunk and pulled a bag out. It was filled with small metal scraps.

"Got it from the armory," he said proudly. "Had some broken armors. I thought I'd fix them, but we're putting them in greater use here."

Annabeth nodded. "Now, where's that extra paint you got from your belt?"

Leo put his hand in his belt. He pulled out a bottle of green paint. "No other colors, this is perfect."

"Great," said Will. "Now what, powder and then put it in?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

The free period was spent mixing the paint with the bronze. We weren't done yet when the bell rang for Potions.

Annabeth jumped up, pulling Percy with her. "Potions, guys!" she yelled. "Finish after lunch!"

I sighed and dragged Hazel up. She was tired, as she was using her powers severely to powder the precious metal, Celestial Bronze. She groaned in argument.

"Sorry," I said gently. "Gotta get to Snape."

She sighed, then picked up her bag and followed Thalia out.

We got there, panting out of breath, when Snape was handing back the moonstone essays.

I looked at it and sighed in relief, as I had gotten an A. Hermione had told us that it meant Acceptable, which at least meant I passed.

I happened to look over at Harry's and was shocked to see a giant D in the corner.

Honestly, it couldn't be that bad!

Snape went to the front again. "Those are the grades you would've gotten if you had turned those papers in your O.W.L.s. I expect those who get D's to start working harder, or it will eventually be detention."

Malfoy snorted. "D?" he asked. "Ha!"

We finally finished the classes and got to lunch.

"That wasn't as bad as last week, right?" asked Percy hopefully. "I got an A."

Hermione started pressing Ron and Harry to tell her their scores. Well, she didn't actually ask them, but they knew the meanings anyway.

Ron said, "Hermione, I know what you're trying to ask. I got P, all right?" George, Fred, and Lee Jordan came over, saving Harry from answering.

"You got a P?" asked George casually. "Not bad, bro!"

Hermione looked confused. "Poor is not bad?"

"Well, not to us."

Percy looked up from his waffles. For some reason, there were waffles on the table when it was supposed to be lunch time.

"What are the grades anyway?"

"Outstanding is O," answered Hermione promptly. "E for exceeds expectations-"

"Somehow, George and I didn't get exceeds expectations for every one," Fred cut in. I mean, most people wouldn't even expect us to get to the exams."

Everybody laughed, but Hermione still looked worried. Seriously, she was getting worried even though she's probably going to get the best score out of, like, everybody.

"What's after E? A, right?"

Fred shrugged. "Acceptable, yeah. Last pass grade."

"And then P," George continued. "Then D. Then-"

"Wait, there's something worst than dreadful?" asked Hermione anxiously. "What could possibly-"

"Troll," Leo said. "They told me. I said I didn't care if I got all T's."

Piper and Annabeth both punched him at the same time. Then they turned to each other and high-fived. I never thought I'd feel bad for Valdez, but nobody deserves Annabeth and Piper's punch at the same time...

"Hey, have you gotten an inspected lesson yet?" asked Lee, sitting down and grabbing a pumpkin juice. "We got one-Charms."

"How was it?" I asked. "I mean, Flitwick is pretty good, right?"

George nodded. "Just treated her like a guest, you know?"

"We have Divination," said Ron gloomily.

"She has to be graded a T."

"And then Umbridge," said Percy cheerfully. "Sorry, you gotta endure Trelawney again. We're going to go prefect the spray now, bye!"

With that, Hazel dragged me away from my pizza and to the Gryffindor tower.

After a few more minutes, Leo exclaimed, "we're almost done! Just stir it a couple more times, then can I put a special ingredient in?"

Annabeth frowned. "What?"

"Well, I want the spray to turn her hair all puffy...so, you know, instead of her stupid hair style, it'll be like a cotton ball."

Percy grinned. "Like!"

"Oh, when's the spray going to take effect?" asked Piper. "And Will, can you make the spraying part silent? If we're planing to do it during class, we don't want the students to suddenly hear and see her hair turning green and puffy."

Will smirked. "Will do! I think it should happen at night, so she can suddenly wake up, and check the mirror to see her beautiful hairdo."

Piper looked at the pot thingy with hair spray in it. "Even as a daughter of Aphrodite, I admit that, when put on the right head, green puffy hair is exquisite."

Leo put a small ball inside. "Timer," he explained. "We could just put the paint in an invisible and hair-sticking bomb."

We put the finished "potion" in a bomb, making sure the timer was working. How Valdez controlled that, I didn't know, but if he could raise sails by shaking a wii controller, I would trust him for this, too.

And that afternoon, Hazel manipulated the mist again. I squeezed her shoulders nervously as we were about enter. "Ready? Gotta make a Leo on the seat, then hide him as he puts-"

Hazel stopped me with a kiss. "Shut up," she said softly.

I gulped. "Shut up," I agreed.

"Success!"

Leo hopped over to us when the class ended with triumph shone on his face. "Got it, got it, got it!" he squealed. "It'll be green by tomorrow!"

Jason high-fived him. "Good job, dude."

I smiled and gave Hazel a peck on the cheek. "Let's get to dinner. Hope there's hot fudge chocolate."

She smiled at me. "There's always hot chocolate. Come on, don't want to be late."

We joined our friends. Not surprisingly, Percy was already enjoying his second serving of pancakes.

I sat next to him. "Hey."

He choked a huge piece down, then said, "I wonder why there aren't any monsters here. You know, I was talking to Hermione. She said they only had one monster attack. And it was a single basilisk."

"Really? Well, every wizard is technically a mortal, so they wouldn't have a scent, right?"

Annabeth joined our conversation. "Yes, but a Greek goddess's blessing might also count, just a bit. Hecate."

"Well, there are strong defensive spells around Hogwarts. Probably blocks the scents from monsters," Percy said.

Turns out actually everyone on the quest was listening to our whispers.

"Well, I know more magic-no offense- because Hecate kind of...chose me, right?" said Hazel. "Anyway, I think the spells are just to block small scents, like non-demigod wizards. But ours are too strong for the defensive spells."

I put down my hot chocolate. Suddenly, something absolutely delicious didn't look so absolutely delicious anymore.

"Does that mean monsters might attack?"

"Yeah," Annabeth answered. "But we're here to fight them, aren't we?"

"We got them here in the first place," said Jason dryly. "So it'll be no difference if they come."

"True..."

After we finished, Ron came. "Let's go back to the common room."

We plopped down onto the armchairs.

I looked at something Hermione was holding in her hand.

"Murtlap essence," she explained. "Harry got another detention for telling Umbridge about how Malfoy had gotten bitten because he didn't follow Hagrid's instructions."

Percy looked up, finally interested. "Did he get hurt?" he asked, his face brightening up. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah," Hermione answered. "Bitten by Buckbeat. Serves him right, he called the hippogriff a stupid git or something."

"Yeah. You know, we have to do something about Umbridge! She can't go on teaching like this forever!" Hermione said.

Ron sighed. "Poison?" he suggested. "Bomb? Dementors? Dragons? Drowning by Percy?"

Hermione snorted. "No, Ronald! We mean, how to actually study Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

When he said that, Harry finally stepped in, looking tired.

Hermione looked up and handed Harry the bowl with some yellow goo-like murtlap essence things. Then she told him,"murtlap essence. Soak your hand in it, should help with the pain."

Will stared at the yellow thing. "That's it!" he yelled suddenly.

We stared at him. "Uh, that's it what?" asked Fred.

Will turned to the twins. "Murtlap essence! For your skiving snackboxes."

Fred and George turned to look at each other. Then, at the same time, they spun their heads around to look at Will.

"Will, you're a genius," said George. "A...a"

"A true son of Apollo," Fred finished. Let's see if it works tomorrow."

Hermione looked at them with distaste clearly imprinted on her face. They did their best to ignore her Mrs. Weasley-ish glare.

Harry sighed, putting his hand in. "Yeah, kay. Tell me when you perfect the snackboxes, will ya?"

He turned to Hermione. "Thanks for the murtlap. Now, your expression-" indeed, Hermione looked anxious. "Looks like you have something else to tell me, right?"

"Yeah," she answered. "I'm thinking...we've got to do something about Umbridge."

Ron patted Harry's arm. "I thought poison might work, but Hermione said it wasn't like that."

Hermione shrugged. "Well, I'm thinking we should just...do it ourselves."

I frowned at her. Since getting the blessing of Mars, I had grown smarter and stronger, but I still felt clumsy and awkward and, well, kind of stupid.

"Huh?"

"Learn Defense. You know, Against the Dark Arts."

Leo blinked. "Well, you know we have tons of homework, right?"

"It's much more important than homework!" she cried. "If You-Know-Who comes, we've got to be ready! You said so yourself, Harry!"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe. So you think we can find spells to do on books, then-"

"No," Hermione interrupted. "I think we have to learn things that we won't get through books. We need a proper teacher."

Ron yawned, "Lupin?" he asked. "He was kind of nice-"

"I'm thinking of Harry."

Harry's mouth fell open.

"Wait," Percy put in, saving Harry from the awkward moment. "There's something about wizard fighting that we have talked about. I don't think is good enough."

Harry looked at him strangely. "What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it. If you wizards get unarmed, what happens?"

Hermione looked around nervously. "We lose?"

Percy nodded. "Exactly. But if us demigods lose our wands, we can still fight. And we can still defeat."

Jason laughed. "Cuz, that's an understatement. We probably defeat more easily without wands."

Percy nodded. "Exactly my point. So...if we're going to do this defense thing, we should teach you physical defense against the dark...arts and things."

Hermione looked down. "Well, the thing is, I'm thinking that more people should get the chance. Like... well, anyone who's interested."

Percy shrugged. "Well, as long as this is disobeying Umbridge, I'm in."

"Why me?" asked Harry suddenly. "Why should I be the teacher? You've beaten me in all those examines."

Hermione shook her head. "No. The only time you got a higher score than me was when we got a proper teacher who knew what he was doing."

"But...what have I done?"

Ron snorted. "First year. Save the sorcer's stone from You-Know-Who."

"Well...yeah, but Dumbledore came and-"

Ron rose his voice. "Second year, defeat the basilisk."

"Yes, but if Fawks didn't-"

Ron rose his voice more. "Third, defeat those stupid Dementors."

Harry shook his head. "That was..." Well, apparently he couldn't think of a defense for that.

"Fourth year, get through all those tasks for the Triwizard Tournament!"

"Yes, but I had help! Plus, why don't you get the demigods to be teachers?"

Hermione nodded. "Thank you, we were already going to do that."

"Right..."

Ron and Hermione grinned. I could see Harry starting to get a little agitated. I mean, he might as well have been holding a danger! sign above his head.

"I had help!" he practically yelled. He probably didn't even notice, bit he stood up. The murtlap bowl crashed to the floor. "Don't just stand there grinning! None of you had ever done anything to so with Voldemort! WHO DEFEATED THE STUPID DEMENTORS WHILE YOU WERE STAYING AT HOME, SAFE? I DID! WHO HAD TO SEE CEDRIC DIE? ME!"

Percy sighed. "Harry, sit down. If we were going to throw a tantrum like that, it would've gone on forever. Who had to watch his girlfriend stumble around and think that he had abandoned her? Who was helpless while that happened?"

Percy looked down. "Me."

Harry looked slightly ashamed. "Sorry."

Hermione looked more hopeful. "Harry, that's exactly why we need to know this! We need to know how to face...V-Voldemort."

Harry looked at her. "I'll think about it," he said flatly. "Bed, bye."

I sighed. I had a strange feeling that we would do good to convince Harry, as we've probably all done more than him. He has someone to throw his tiredness on adventures on.

I yawned. Steering Hazel to our room, I thought about the Defense thing Hermione had talked about. I thought it might've sounded both stupid and amazing at the same time.

Finally going to sleep, I smiled. Things were going to change.

Well...yeah. I love you guys, I really do...but, there's not much else I can publish for now.

Good bye!

~Freda