Chapter 21

People of Earth, we come in peace! [insert peace sign here]. Here's your chapter!

Harry

As the demigods, Hermione, and Ron went to bed, I thought about what had happened after Quidditch practice

~Flashback~

As I was changing and listening to Fred and George complain about their giant blisters (from the Nosebleed Nougats, which they had tasted before the murtlap essence), my scar suddenly burned.

"Ow!" I said, clapping my hand to my forehead. Everybody looked at me. "I'm fine," I muttered.

But Ron stayed. "You all right, mate? Was it the scar?"

"It was Voldemort," I said. Ron flinched at his name.

"He's...angry. Because something's coming along too slowly."

Ron looked shocked. "What? Did you actually see him?"

"No...it was just a feeling. And, well, I guess a bit of a vision, but not really."

"But how?" Ron asked. "How do you know how he's feeling?"

I shook my head.

Ron pressed on. "And what about in Umbridge's office?"

Before I could answer, Percy came in. "What's up?"

I looked at Ron desperately. Thank gods, he knew. "His scar hurt again," he told Percy. "And Harry says it's because You-Know-Who is angry because something isn't done fast enough."

I nodded. But I suddenly remembered that in my first few detentions with Umbridge, my scar had hurt as well. And that time was different, it was because Voldemort was-

"Happy," I said out loud. "I haven't told you this, but the scar hurt in Umbridge's office once. I wrote to Sirius. I think we talked about it in the fire, so Umbridge isn't a Death Eater, I think. That time, it was because he was really happy."

"Wow, Harry," Ron had said. "You're acting like Trelawney!"

"No," Percy said. "More like Rachel, but before she became the oracle."

I scratched my head. "Rachel?"

"She's the prophecy-maker at Camp," Percy said. "But I knew her before she was. You know what you're doing? It's Voldemort's feelings you see."

~End of Flashback~

I thought about what he'd said. I'm not making prophecies...right? But if I was reading Voldemort's mind, then...well, I don't actually know what then.

Then I thought about what the Daily Prophet might say about this.

The boy nut, who has been known to spread rumors about the return of You-Know-Who, is now claiming to have the ability to read You-Know-Who's mind...

I tried to keep doing my homework, but the drowsiness was cutting in. I fell asleep in my chair, the dreams of mysterious doorways coming closer...and closer...my hand was on the handle, starting to twist, and-

"Harry Potter, sir!"

My eyes snapped open. In front of me was a house-elf. Dobby, to be exact. But it didn't really look like him. Mostly because of the pile of hats on his head. And when I say pile, I mean pile. It was stacked with woolly hats, and they looked strangely familiar.

"Dobby?" I asked. "What's up?"

"I has your owl, sir!" He squeaked happily, practically jumping up and down. "Professor Grubbly-Plank has asked for volunteers, sir, and I was glad to do it sir, for it means I can see you again, sir!"

"Oh," I stammered. "Um...she's all right now?"

"Professor Grubbly-Plank says she is all well now, sir!" Dobby replied. He bowed low enough for the top of the hat pile to reach the ground, and some of them fell off. I saw a shaking motion, and out hopped Hedwig, looking as healthy as ever.

"Er...Dobby?"

"Yes, sir!" he squealed. "Yes, what can I do for you, sir?"

"Have you been taking all the clothes Hermione made?"

"Oh no, sir!" Dobby said. "Winky is getting some from me too, sir! But Winky is drinking, sir."

At this, his expression looked much less happy. "She does not enjoy freedom, sir. Nor do the other house-elves. They do not like to clean Gryffindor Tower anymore for they find it insulting, sir. Now Dobby does all of it by himself, sir, for he is wishing to meet Harry Potter! And his wish has cone true tonight, sir!"

Dobby sank into a bow again, and Hedwig hooted. "But is something wrong, sir?" he asked. "Is you having bad dreams again, sir?"

I blinked. "Well...no, not really bad. But some dreams, yes."

"Dobby whishes he could help Harry Potter with his troubles, sir, for Harry Potter set Dobby free and Dobby is so thankful for that."

"Help..." I muttered. A sudden thought sprang. Wouldn't a cleaner of Hogwarts know about places in the school?

"Dobby, do you know a place that is big enough for about 38 people to practice spells? And we can't be discovered by anybody. Especially Professor Umbridge." As I said this, I looked at my scared hand again. The demigods may have tons of scars, but I doubt anybody has carved words on their skin.

I thought Dobby's smile would fall off and say that he might find one...but instead Dobby jumped in the air, letting a few more hats fall. He hastily picked them up and threw them to the top of the pile again. "Yes, Harry Potter, sir! I know of the perfect place! Other house-elves have told it to Dobby when he first came to work here, sir! We is calling it the Come and Go Room, but wizards know it by the Room of Requirement, sir!"

"The Room of Requirement?" I asked curiously. "Why is it called that?"

Dobby's expression turned serious. Or, at least, serious enough to stop him from hopping up and down.

"Because it will only show itself, sir, when one is very in need of it, sir. I have used it, sir, to help Winky when she is drinking too much, sir. I has found a nice little bed for her, sir, and have found antidotes, sir."

I thought about this. Dobby was a great friend, yes, but his ideas weren't always safe. I still remembered the time where I had lost all the bones in my arm and had to drink the horrible skel-gro or something. But then I remembered something that I had overheard during the Yule Ball last year.

"Dobby?" I asked. "Is there any chance that a seeker who really needs a bathroom might find it full of chamber pots?"

Dobby nodded happily, his long ears flapping up and down and letting the hats fall again. "Yes, I suppose so, sir! It is an amazing place, sir! Very few people know about it, sir, but some people have find it, sir. They do not usually find it again, sir, for they do not know the secrets of the room, sir!"

I nodded slowly. If Dumbledore had known about it and didn't mark it as dangerous, it should be all right. "It sounds perfectly brilliant, Dobby," I told him. "Can you show me where it is?"

"Of course, Harry Potter, sir!" He squeaked, beaming wildly. "We can go now if you like, sir, I would go with you gladly, sir!"

I thought about it. I had almost gone upstairs to get my invisibility cloak, but I remembered what Hermione had said: that we were reckless. I sighed and sank back in my armchair. "No, I don't think today would work, Dobby. Can you tell me where it is, though? I think I know how to get in."

Dobby nodded eagerly. "It is on the seventh floor, sir! And-"

"Wait, can you just identify the place on a map?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Great!" I said, pulling out the Marauder's map. Dobby pointed to a spot, the wall across from a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, who was trying (and epically failing) to make trolls do ballet.

"This is the place, sir!" Dobby said. "Walk past that wall three times, and concentrate hard on your needed place!"

I nodded. "Okay, thanks, Dobby."

The elf disappeared with a pop. I sighed. Well, the room would come tomorrow, I guess. But I still have to do my homework.

The next day, I told m friends what had happened. Annabeth nodded. "Dumbledore had told me about it. He doesn't exactly know how it works either."

Percy grinned. "We're sorry-okay, not really-for not telling you guys this, but we have a similar room to that, but it's mostly for physical training. Why don't we go there when the learner people are good enough to have weapons? Like, not just learning the basics?"

I nodded. "That'd be perfect. Come on, we have to get to Herbology."

After the class, which was useless anyway because of the rain downing out all sound, Angelina came to me and Ron glumly to say that practice has been canceled.

"Angelina!" Piper called from across the common room. "Come here, we have to tell you something."

Katie, Alicia, Lee Jordan, Ginny, and a number of other defense group people were around our demigod friends. Angelina went to join them. "What?"

"First meeting today," Frank told them. "At eight. You know where the picture of Barnabas the Barmy is? Seventh floor?"

They all nodded.

"Well, come to the wall there," said Leo cheerfully. Everyone looked at each other, confused. I know, most people would be confused to go to a wall for defense.

"We'll be there," Annabeth promised. "Just find us, all right?"

They nodded and promised to tell the other members in their next classes. "All right."

As the Gryffindors had classes with every house, it wasn't very hard to inform everybody. The ten demigods sometimes rushed around to tell people, and ran off before they could react, leaving them thinking for a few minutes, and then they would go, "ohhhhhhhhh...hey, wait! Where did you go?"

I had watched when Ginny told Cho, secretly scolding myself for not approaching her before.

At seven thirty, I checked the map. Nobody was near our path. I grinned nervously at my friends. "Well, here goes nothing."

They followed me to the wall where the door to our dream room supposedly was.

My demigod friends looked at me. "Is there supposed to be a door here already?" Annabeth asked. "Because I already see one."

Hermione looked taken aback. "What? How's that possible?"

Hazel sighed. "It's the mist, people. The only people who can see it are demigods who know exactly who they are and accept it. That would apply to us, obviously. Even clear-sighted mortals can't see it. But maybe Rachel can, I don't know."

I nodded. "Well, I think it only changed to what we need if I do the walking and concentrating thing. So...here goes."

Following Dobby's instructions, I walked past the poor Barnabas the Barmy's tapestry three times, concentrating on something like, We need to have a place to practice defense without anybody noticing, especially Umbridge...we need a place to learn defense without anybody finding out...and so on.

At the third walk, my Annabeth and Leo gasped and burst into speech.

Okay, just cue Annabeth and Leo's eruptions of speech. That will take me about a year, and I, my friends, do not have a year. Mostly they talked about how the door looked dramatically different, so...gah, I don't even want to start talking about it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Percy asked, looking at our mouths, which were dropped open. "Come on!"

With that, he threw open the door. I followed him. "Wow..."

There were loads of things that were perfect for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Most of the walls had giant bookcases leaning on them, obviously filled with books. Hermione immediately ran to one and pulled a random book out, which happened to be Jinxes for the Jinxed. Annabeth followed, but maintaining her leader-like position. She chose a book and, with a quick spell, translated it to Greek or something.

Tables were filled with Dark-Detectors, like Sneakoscopes and Foe-Glasses. Even with that, there were lots of space left over.

"So cool!" Ron exclaimed, looking around. Our other friends, the demigods, started to look around.

"Are there anything for physical defense?" Thalia asked. "Oh wait...weight lifting? All right, hopefully we can get them to do some of this. 100 pounds? That's the highest?"

"Oh, and here are some with different weight standards," Percy said, running over. "Uh...car, truck, building, sky...sky? Well, I'm testing it. It's probably some lame model. Me and Annabeth-"

He faltered under his girlfriend's death glare. "Sorry, Annabeth and I can test exactly if this is heavy enough to be the sky."

I looked at him curiously. "You know?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I had to hold it up once. Not very good for my muscles, I assure you. Now, this weight..."

He stepped over some equipment and set the weight-lifting thing to Sky. I didn't know much about the machines, but Leo sure did. He was already twisting knobs with screwdrivers, once dissecting a weight-lifting machine into a giant bird.

Percy took the weights. Then, somehow at ease, he lifted them up. "This is what they call Sky? I would call it Leo!"

"Hey!" Leo protested. "I'm not that small!"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Yes, Valdez, you are. Oh, people are coming in."

Indeed, the students we told to come were flooding inside. All of them were looking around in wonder, the coming to join me.

Annabeth and Hermione stopped reading to join the fun.

"So, er..." I paused. "This is the place we found. I hope you guys like it."

"It's fabulous!" Cho called. "Seriously, what is this place?"

Annabeth explained it quickly, and most people ooooohed and aaaaaaahed.

Fred frowned at George. "No wonder it changed from that broom cupboard to this weird place. I thought it was just a tiny room to hide from Filch."

The talking levels began to rise, but Percy stepped up. "Enough!" he called. His strong and powerful voice rang through the room. The chattering stopped. "We are here reasons, people! Not for social hour! Anyway- what, Hermione?"

Hermione's hand was in the air. I looked at her.

"I think we should elect a leader!" she said, beaming. Cho stepped up at once. "It's Harry!" she said. "Hermione, you seriously think we have to elect one?"

Hermione cocked her head. "What about Percy?"

Percy looked at her, startled. "Huh?"

"You know, they can teach us physical defense, right?" Hermione said happily. "So I think it should be a co-leadership."

Most people nodded in agreement. Even Zacharias Smith didn't argue.

"Oh, and I also think we should have a name!" Hermione continued. "You know, to make it feel more group-like!"

Angelina shrugged. "Can we be the I-Hate-Umbridge-And-The-Ministry Group?"

Fred and George nodded. "Yeah!"

Marietta looked down and didn't say anything. Oh, right, her father or mother or something is in the ministry...

Annabeth raised her hands. Percy looked at her and rolled his eyes. "Annabeth, this isn't a classroom! You don't have to raise your hand!"

Annabeth smiled. "Whatever, seaweed brain. I'm thinking we should have an un-straight forward name. "

"Wait!" Leo said. "What about some thing like, All Da Ladys-"

"Does not love Leo," Piper interrupted. "Thank you very much, but please shut up now."

Her voice held her great power that I think they called "Charmspeak." Leo nodded vigorously and stopped talking.

"Oh!" Cho said. "What about the Defense Association? You know, D.A. for short."

Ginny laughed. "That's actually pretty good. But shouldn't we make it more...repulsive towards the ministry? Because they're the only reason we're forced to do this."

"Dumbledore's Army," Jason said. Wow, no wonder he was a praetor. His leader-like voice led all the people to nod their heads."

Ginny smiled. "Yeah, that's the Ministry's greatest fear, isn't it?"

"All in favor?" Hermione called. Most people raised their hands, including all the demigods. I heard Annabeth whisper to Percy, "Demigod's Army works along with the initials."

Hermione nodded. "All right, name passed." She wrote the name on the piece of paper with all our signature things on it.

"Okay..." I said uncertainly. "I'm thinking the first thing we have to do is Expelliarmus. The disarming charm? It's really useful, even if it's basic, and-"

"Useful?" Zacharias Smith snorted. "How's that going to help with You-Know-Who?"

I looked at him coldly. "Actually, it worked perfectly well against Voldemort. It was the one I used in June, and you see how I survived. It was Expelliarmus, and only that."

The little freak's mouth opened, but he was evidently lost for words. His mouth closed again. Nobody was speaking.

"But...um, if you don't have trouble with it...as in, like, at all, go to Percy for physical defense. His friends are really good with wands, anyway."

Indeed, when Percy and his friends tried it out, everyone did it perfectly. But when I tried to disarm Will, his wand just gave a little jerk. Cho was shocked. "Harry, isn't your disarming spell really good?"

I nodded, blushing a little. "Yes, but these friends are a bit stronger. Their old school taught then how to defend really well."

I stole a quick glance at Annabeth. She nodded encouragingly. "Go on."

"So, uh...maybe we should do a quick test. Those of you who handled it really well with no problem join them, then we can switch. Get into pair, all right?"

I felt strange giving out orders, but seeing them followed was much more odd. Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione were all quickly ordered to the demigods. Terry and Anthony were Ravenclaws, and some of those are really smart and good with magic. Hermione was obviously the best in Gryffindor besides Annabeth.

After that, I saw that Neville was standing there, quite lonely. I went over to be his partner.

"On the count of three!" I shouted. "One, two..."

The air was filled with voices. "Expelliarmus!"

Wow, it was right to teach them this first. Most people were giving their opponents the same effect I gave Will Solace.

Since Hermione went for some physical defense, Neville and Ron were left as partners. Ron looked at me. "See you, mate."

Then, Neville said the spell. Ron hadn't even responded yet before his wand flew out if his hands.

"I DID IT!" Neville shouted. "That was the first time I did!"

"Good job!" I said, not pointing out the fact that Ron wasn't even looking his direction when Neville did the spell.

I looked at our demigod friends. This must've been one of the only things Hermione failed at in school. She was struggling to lift a 50-pound weight. "How do you do this?" she panted, putting it down. "Surely you don't do this the first time you are at school?"

Piper looked at her. "No, we don't," she replied. "But we do something like this."

She turned to Percy and Annabeth, then grinned. "It's demonstration time."

"Stop!" I called. Nobody heard me, and kept on going with disarming spells. I need a whistle...

"Here," Will said, handing me a bright orange whistle. I blew it once, and...I almost jumped back myself. Ugh, sons of Apollo and their whistles... But, obviously, it worked. A few people's wands dropped to the ground.

"What?" Ginny demanded. I pointed to Percy and Annabeth.

"Sparring demo," I said, smiling. "Everyone watch."

And even though I've seen them practice before, I was amazed. Their motions connected from one to another. It became so fast I could barely follow, and everything became blurs. It finally ended with Percy's sword at Annabeth's throat.

"Game's over, wise girl," he breathed. Annabeth's lips curled into a smile.

"There's a reason you're the sword instructor," she said playfully. "But for now..."

She pushed Percy back and he thunked to the ground. He looked dazed, but was still grinning wildly. "I know, I know, you win. Let's get up, shall we?"

Annabeth pulled her boyfriend up. "That was it!" she yelled. "Go do your disarms now!"

Most of the people went back to disarming after staring blankly at her in shock, and the others stayed. I smirked as I watched Hermione struggle with finding a sword.

I looked around. Somehow, Zacharias Smith's wand was behaving very strangely. Whenever he tried to disarm someone, his own wand would fly out. He looked at Ernie Macmillan (his partner), but Ernie wasn't even opening his mouth. I looked a few paces back, and saw what was happening.

Fred and George were partnered, but they were actually taking turns to disarm Zacharias. I gave them stern looks, but I couldn't resist smiling. It reminded me of when Percy was on the train and making Malfoy trip over and over.

"Sorry," George said, grinning.

I nodded. "You know, you're good at this already. You want to join PD? Physical Defense?"

They nodded and stuffed their wands into their pockets, then went to the demigods. Fred clapped Leo on the back. "Hey man."

Leo grinned. "Come to join us?"

The twins nodded. "Yep."

I tried to avoid Marietta and Cho, but I finally went to them. Cho glanced at me. "Uh...Expelliarmolous! I mean, uh, expelimarus! Harry, you're making me nervous!"

"Okay, but I saw you over there, you're okay..."

I went over to the demigods again, but Leo checked his watch. "Uh, Harry?" he asked. "Are we supposed to end at nine-thirty?"

I spun to look at him. "Nine-thirty?"

"Actually it's nine-ten..."

I whistled. "Everybody, we're going! Bye!"

The last wands dropped. Everyone picked their weapons up and stuffed it in their pockets. "Time's up?" asked Dean Thomas disappointedly.

"Well, yeah," Annabeth said to him. "Same time and place next week?"

"No, wait, there's Quidditch practice!" Angelina called.

"Okay, Wednesday. Everyone okay with that?"

They nodded, and no objections were raised. I whipped out my Maurader map again and watched as the people appeared into the parchment again. Finally, we were left to go back alone.

"That was nice," Percy mused as we went up the stairs. "Did you see Hermione lift those weights up?"

"Hey!" Hermione protested. "I know how red my face was, stop bringing it up!"

"Did you see me get Neville?" Ron asked. "I did it loads of times!"

I sighed. "Yes, Ron, you did. Now..."

I drifted into my thoughts. Cho. She had said...I had made her nervous. So that meant...that meant...

Okay, done! And, well, I don't have much to say except the fact I really like reviews, so...pretty please? With a cherry top? And to those who told me not to, no, I'm not stopping anytime soon-hopefully.

Good-Bye! See ya next time!