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Chapter 17

Annabeth

Two weeks later...

"Up! Annabeth, get UP!"

I opened my eyes sleepily. Percy was standing over me. "Hurry up, Annabeth! It's time for breakfast!"

I watched him confusedly as he hopped around the room. "What are you doing?"

He stopped. "I don't know. The only thing I do know is that I want pancakes now! You banned them for two weeks!"
Oh. No wonder he was awake earlier than me. But...I banned pancakes for two weeks? Well, I don't remember that. I looked at him. "I did?"

He sighed. "If you don't get up now, I'm going with Harry and Ron!"

I shook my head as he gave me his seal eyes. "Fine. Will you get off? I can't get up if there is a person sitting on me!"

He hopped off. "Look, Annabeth! I managed to get my cloak on all by myself!"

I rose an eyebrow. "And you think that's a great accomplishment, do you? Waiting for me to pat you on the back?"

He nodded. "Hurry up, wise girl!"

"Yeah, yeah."

We met outside in the common room. "Today's the first Hogsmeade day, right?" asked Leo cheerfully. "Can't wait."

Hermione nodded, but she was looking at Harry. "Did you, er...think about Defense Against the Dark Arts at all?"

"Well...it's hard not to, as there's a green cotton ball on Umbridge's head whenever we go to class."

"No, I'm talking about the idea that I had. You know, you teaching us?"

Harry squirmed. "You know that all my, uh, deeds were mostly luck, right?"

Hermione sighed. "Yes, loads of it was luck, but you still can't deny the fact that you're great at practical spells, Harry."

"Um...yeah, sure."

"And plus, Vicktor said that-"

Ron suddenly seemed alert.

"Vicky?"

Hermione sighed again. "He said that Harry could do magic even more powerful than him, and you know how old Krum is."

"Hold up." Jason put his hands up. "Who's Vicky-uh, Vicktor?"

"My pen pal," said Hermione, ignoring Ron when he made noises besides her. "So, Harry, what do you think?"

Harry sighed, finally defeated. "I guess."

"Great. Now, as for the demigods, I think that the people who learns should lear how to...fight, as in, with a sword or spear or arrow?"

Thalia nodded.

"If that's the case, I think you should tell them that you are demigods."

I looked at her. "You really think? What would happen if one of them ran off to tell Umbridge? That would suck, wouldn't it?"

"Well, you could choose who to tell...I mean, the people who comes because somebody dragged them, you don't have to tell them. And you shouldn't do it in public. You know, you can trust people like Neville."

Harry frowned. "Huh? So how many people are doing it?"

Hermione shrugged. "You'll see. It's just a couple of people. Would you mind if I told them to meet at Hogsmeade today? You know, if they're interested."

"All right."

When we finally left for Hogsmeade, Hermione turned to us. "We shouldn't go to the Three Broomsticks, too crowded. I think we should go somewhere else...a place called the Hog's Head."

I snorted when we got there. Anyone could've mistaken it for Cabin 5 at Camp Half-Blood. There was a giant boar's head hanging over the door, and the paint was just as terrible as Ares's cabin. Percy turned to me. "I'm starting to get homesick for Clarisse."

I smirked. "You want to let her stuff your head in the toilet again?"

"She never did."

"True enough."

We went in. Well, that changes things. The inside is not so much like a Cabin 5 anymore. I mean, most-and by most, I actually mean all-of the people there had their face hidden. There was this short witch, and I walked up to her. I gasped when I saw it was actually Mungdung or something.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed. Harry looked at me. "Annabeth, what's wrong?"

I spun my head around to face him.. "Nothing."

There were also two people in cloaks and a guy with really dirty bandages covering...his face, of course. Well, figures.

The barman came in. I was startled when I saw his eyes. They were shockingly blue, kind of like Jason and Thalia's but mostly like Dumbledore's.

"Er...can we have 13 butterbeers, please?" asked Hermione.

The barman person looked shocked to see that all of us were here, but he started pulling dirty bottles from under the counter.

"26 sickles," he said gruffly. "Or one Galleon and nine Sickles."

Percy tossed a Galleon to him, then turned to me. "Can you count the Sickles?"

I rolled my eyes. "Seaweed brain, you're not dumb, however you look like it. You can count, I'm sure."

He sighed, but counted out nine silver coins and gave them to the barman. He nodded and started to clean a cup with a towel, but anyone could've mistaken the towel for a lump of dirt.

We found a table and sat down, but then the door practically exploded. A flood of people came in, including Fred and George, Luna, Neville, Ernie, Ginny, and a bunch of other people. If I started to name them all, which I won't, it'll take something like...hmm, how about forever?

Fred reached the counter first. Then he turned to the other students, ignoring the stunned barman. "Everyone want butterbeer?"

None of them spoke up, so I guess that's a yes.

"25 butterbeers, please," said George, reaching over the counter.

The poor guy put his bottle and dirt-sorry, towel down and started pulling more rusty bottles out. Everybody started digging through their pockets to find sickles to pay.

Then they joined us by pulling chairs over, and everyone looked at Harry.

I heard Harry whisper to Hermione, "what do you mean, a couple of people? I mean, how did you get that many people?"

"Well...they just wanted to hear what you wanted to say, some of them, but I'll speak first."

I smiled. "Don't worry, Harry."

"All right!" said Hermione, standing up. "Um, I had this idea...about Defense Against the Dark Arts. The girl that Harry had a crush on, Cho Chang, smiled at him and sat, but she had brought someone else. I'd seen her in the hallways before, Marietta, I think. She seemed to be one of the people who came only because someone dragged them. Probably Cho.

"If you want to be able to defend yourself, to actually be able to defend yourself in dangers...this is what we're doing. I mean, Umbridge isn't going to help.

The things we get out of her is not ever going to help. The best we can do is...well, we can try reciting parts of the book to enemies, I guess."

Several people laughed at that. Ernie said "hear, hear."

"So, I think that this would help...learn real spells to defend, indeed, against Dark Arts."

A boy called Michael Corner peered at her. "You do want to pass your O.W.L.s, do you?"

"Yes. But the real reason I want to be properly trained to do spells is because...because Lord Voldemort has come back."

She nodded in our direction. Percy stood, looking determined.

"Has anyone realized that, if you lose your weapon-" Percy took out his wand-"you lose? You have no defense if you get disarmed."

This Hufflepuff boy asked, "yes, we realize that. Not like you do."

Percy smirked. "Actually, yes we do."

"What?"

Percy took out his pen. The guy sneered. "How's that going to help? What are you going to do, write on your enemy?"

Percy turned to me. "He's sounding like Smelly Gabe," he whispered.

Then he looked at the crowd again. "In our school," Percy called. "We are not only trained in magical defense, but also physical. That is what we are meaning to help you with!"

Percy popped the cap off. The effect was immediate. "What?"

"No way you can use that!"

"Yeah, right!"

Percy smiled sweetly. "Would you like a demonstration?" he asked, pointing his sword at the doubting people.

"N-no."

"Fine."

The Hufflepuff person now looked at Harry. "What makes you say You-Know-Who is back? I don't know who told you this rubbish about-"

He faltered at the glare Harry gave him...hmm, I wonder if he'd been taking look lessons with Thalia or Nico.

"You think somebody told me a lie? And that I am crazy to believe it? Answer me, will you believe something if you saw it yourself? In the flesh?"

"Yes," the other person mumbled. You know what, I'm getting tired of not knowing his name. "What's your name?" I asked coldly.

He glared at me, and I had to resist the urge to laugh. I mean, I've had glares from Thalia and Nico, and countless immortals have threatened to kill me. And then this guy tries to scare me with a look? A human glare? *snort* yeah, right.

"Zacharias Smith."

Harry nodded. "Well, Smith. To answer your question, I saw him return. But if anyone's going to ask for a full story of how Lord Voldemort rises... I can't help you. You might as well go and ask him yourself...but the information will be useless, as you will probably be killed...oh, very, very soon after.

"And Dumbledore told you about it last year, anyway."

Zacharias sneered. "Dumbledore just said that Cedric was killed by You-Know-Who. So, I think we'd all like to know exactly what happened."

This time I really couldn't resist laughing. Apparently, Smith thought he was so smart when he made that comment. Kind of like, I made a comment, bet you can't answer!

He looked at me. "Why are you laughing?"

"You're...you're pathetic!" I cried. "Thinking you can dumfound me with your trash-talking? Watch your mouth!"

I glared at him, full force, and he winced. "How would you feel," I said. "If your friend was murdered by someone? If someone asked you about it, would you really want to answer?"

He fidgeted uncomfortably, making Percy smirk. "N-no."

"Well, don't you think Harry feels the same way?"

Harry turned to me and nodded, his eyes clearly saying, thank you.

"If all you want to have here is story time, you might as well leave. I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right?"

Cho Chang looked at him( well actually she was already looking at Harry the whole time), expressionless. She was clearly confused, like, Oh, but I loved Cedric!

No, but I like Harry too!

He doesn't want to talk about him!

Who am I talking-sorry, thinking about again? And etc. cetera, etc. cetera.

Hermione stood again. "So...um, if you want to do the defense thing...we have to plan stuff, right? Like, um, how often we meet, where, and-"

A girl with a hairstyle like Reyna's interrupted her. She was looking intently at Harry. "Is it true that you can make a Patronus?"

Harry frowned. "Yes."

"A corpeal Patronus?"

Now Harry blinked. "Are you a friend of Madam Bones?"

She smiled. "Yes, actually. She's my auntie, my name is Susan. Susan Bones. So...she told me, you can make a corpeal Patronus in the shape of a stag?"
"Yes."

Lee Jordan rose his eyebrows. "Harry! Blimey, you never told us!"

Harry looked down. "A bit too much attention, will that be?"

Another boy, Terry Boot, started demanding answers too. "And you killed a basilisk?"

Harry frowned. "Yes, but didn't you know that the de-uh, American transfers defeat about six?"

All of the eyes shot to look at us. Leo flexed his flimsy things that he sometimes call arms. I think they might be filled with muscles...or are they jello?

But still, it was clear that defeating six basilisks were no easy feat. Leo continued flexing his "muscles." Effortlessly, Piper slapped him. He winced.

Cho looked at Harry, beaming, but I don't think Harry was looking at her. To be honest, I think Harry was trying to look anywhere but her.

Neville continued. "And he defeated You-Know-Who in our first year! To save the Sorcerer's Stone!"

Now, a lot of people were looking impressed. I grinned. Imagine if we told them half the things we've done. They would've gone like, "impossible!" And "OMG!" And so on.

Cho smiled at Harry. "And imagine-" Harry finally looked at her- "he had to get through all those tasks for the Triwizard Tournament."

I could tell Harry was trying not to look pleased, but he was failing miserably.

"I had help with all of those!" he called over the chaos. "I couldn't have defeated Voldemort or the basilisks or anything without help!"

"No," said the boy that had came with Ginny, Michael Corner. "You didn't defeat the dragon with help."

"Well, um..."

"And nobody helped you with the dementors in summer, either," Susan called out.

"Well...fine, I did bits of it without help, but I'm trying to say-"

Zacharias interrupted. "Are you trying to weasel out of showing us stuff?"

Percy and Ron both glared at him. "Why don't you shut up?" asked Ron. "It would do us all a good."

Percy nodded. He pulled his sword out again and pointed it at Smith's face. "Would you like me to shut you up for you?"

Thalia held her bow up and drew a arrow. "Yes, would you like me to cut our tongue out?" she asked sweetly. Wow, Umbridge is going to be jealous when she finds out someone can mock sweetness better than her.

Apparently, Smith was stupid enough to retort even with a sword aimed at his face and an arrow pointed to him."Well, you got us here to take lessons from him, and he's saying he can't do anything."

Thalia let the arrow fly. It hit about an inch away from Zacharias's ear. "Say one more word," she warned. "And my aim will not be so kind."

Smith tried to retreat and tripped on a chair. "You could've killed me!"

"Actually, no I couldn't have," Thalia said. "That was just a demonstration. But of course, I had half a mind to kill you then, so if you don't shut up now..." She left the threat hanging for the tension.

Everyone else looked shocked to see that, surprise, surprise, Thalia could use a bow and arrow! Yeah, wow wow, whatever.

Fred grinned. He pointed his thumbs up mouthing, good one.

I glanced at the other people in the club and narrowed my eyes. Besides Dung, the person with dirty, gray bandages was also listening attentively. I turned to Will. "Any chance you can make that bloke not hear this?" I whispered, nodding to the bandage guy.

Will looked over and nodded. He closed his eyes and started humming. Within a few seconds, the person looked confused and started playing with his ears, muttering stuff like, "come on, what's wrong with these things?"

"So, er...if you want to take lessons with Harry..." Hermione faltered. "Agree?"

"Yeah."

"Why not?"

"Beat that, Umbridge!"

"Sure."

When Hermione saw that everybody agreed, she continued. "So, um, we'll have to discuss how often we meet. I think once a week might be good."

"Wait," Angelina said. "Make sure it doesn't meddle with our Quidditch practices."

The other Quidditch captains muttered agreement.

"Oh!" Percy exclaimed. "Why don't we do most of our meets when the Slytherins are practicing? I'm sure nobody here are Slytherins, right?" His eyes scanned the room. When he found no Slytherins, he grinned. "Everybody okay with that?"

Ernie Macmillan nodded. "You know, I think this might be more important than Quidditch! It's talking about defending ourselves against You-Know-Who, and I think it is more important than anything else, even if it's our O.W.L. Year!"

He looked around. "And I don't understand Fudge, he's dumping this Umbridge lady on us, who is preventing is from using practical defensive spells!"

I smiled. "See, we think that Fudge thinks that we're going to form some kind of army." I looked at my fellow demigods and smiled. I heard Frank whisper to Hazel, "been there, done that."

"Somehow, Umbridge and Fudge thinks we're going to go storm down the Ministry or something."

"Like his heliopaths," said Luna dreamily. "The spirits of fire. Fudge has got an army of them."

"They don't exist," Hermione snapped.

Luna glared at her. "Yes, they do! Just because you don't think there's evidence doesn't mean people haven't seen them! If you just-"

Jason coughed in his hand. "All right, save the, ah, heliopaths conversation for later please."

Thalia smirked. "Well, now that that's cleared, we still have to decide where do we meet."

"Uh..."

"I'm thinking this well take some more time to decide," I said. "We'll tell you when we find a suitable place, all right?

"Oh, and... I'm thinking we should all write our names down on a paper. You know, so we know you're here. Also, it's like an oath that says you're not going to tell anyone else."

Fred and George signed immediately, followed by Lee Jordan, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. Zacharias Smith narrowed his eyes. "Um, can't Ernie tell us when to meet?"

Ernie looked anxious, too, but Piper finally convinced him with no charmspeak needed.

The last person was Smith, whom Piper did have to use charmspeak on.

When we finally left, Leo looked cheerful. "Oof, that was the boringest meeting I've ever been in!"

I rolled my eyes. "That's because you weren't listening, Leo."

He looked surprised. "Were you?"

"Duh!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay."

Hermione looked happy. "Well, now that we've got the list, you can pick out the people you trust and tell them about demigods."

I took it from her hands. Well, at least I can read names despite of my dyslexia. "Um, lets see. Marietta, no, Cho forced her, probably. Michael Corner only came because he's dating Ginny, Zacharias Smith is too stupid-"

"Hang on!" Ron shouted. Michael Corner's dating Ginny?"

"Yeah. They saw each other last year-at the Yule Ball," Hermione told him, sighing. "Oh, speaking of that, what about Cho, Harry?"

Harry looked at her blankly. "Whoa-what do you mean, what about Cho?"

"Well..." Piper grinned. "As a professional daughter of the love goddess, I saw, obviously, that Cho has been staring at you the while time. I can just swear that she has a crush on you."

Harry looked at the village of Hogsmeade and didn't speak the whole way back. Ah, love can make boys so...unique. And that is the best part of being a girl demigod. Love never throws us off if we can help it.

Okay...I know that was a really bad ending. Sorry for updating late. Please, please update. Hopefully we can get up to 80? Oh, and I didn't edit this one as well as the others, or so I think.

So long!