Disclaimer!
These characters do not belong to me nor do I make any money off this story. I am only writing Fan Fiction. The characters belong to their respective authors J.K Rowling and Rick Riordan. I only own this piece of fanfiction.
I hope you enjoy Joining Forces. Thank you for reading this fanfiction.
I was considering making them still be just acquaintances, but I figured this would be better for what I have planned for this fanfiction.
Hermione POV:
After a few more glances at the spines of the books, I started helping Ron and Harry go through all the books I had piled in front of them. "I feel like we should try being friends with them, the Americans," Harry's voice tore me from the first chapter of a book about Egyptian Mythology. I put it down, and sighed, nodding. "I agree with you, Harry."
"They burnt the food!" Ron stated, "And don't you think they're Death Eaters? They were attacked by the minotaur. Hagrid usually has control of the creatures, the minotaur probably smelled You-know-who follower on them,"
"Is that even a stench?"
"Doesn't matter!" Ron snapped, immediately shushed by Madam Pince. "I suggest you be quiet, or leave,"
"We will be quiet," I said. Madam Pince looked speculative of me but nonetheless left us back to the books and our conversation.
"What about Bellatrix and her message to Percy?" Ron continued, his voice lowered.
"He didn't seem to know what it meant," Harry said, "And he attacked her,"
"The food," Ron repeated. "Doesn't burning meals make you a bit suspicious?"
"Dumbledore said it was tradition. If we think about birthday cakes, it's tradition to put fire on it," Harry said.
"Fine, I'll try being friends with Percy," Ron said, "We can make an effort with Annabeth too. She hasn't been too weird yet. What about the Slytherin? He's already one of Malfoy's cronies,"
"Nico…" Hermione began, "we haven't got to know him, maybe he's friendly?"
"And maybe, he's up to something," Ron said, nodding in agreement.
"What do you think happened to the minotaur?" Harry asked.
"Hagrid told me Percy said it turned to dust," Ron answered, "but Annabeth said it went away. I think Percy might have been hit a little hard from the minotaur, Annabeth's reason sounded more...reasonable,"
"Were they even hit?" Harry asked. I knitted my eyebrows, recalling the events from Care of Magical Creatures. The minotaur had attacked the Americans a lot, and at one point the rest of the class when it began thrashing about, but I don't think it ever hit them. Now, when I think about some more, the three didn't look bruised, or even tired. "Maybe they used magic to get rid of it," Ron suggested.
"Strangely, our spells didn't work on the minotaur," I reminded him.
"Yeah, but nobody tried using one of the unforgivable curses. Think about how strong the killing curse is, it might have worked." I remember when Nico said the killing curse in class, maybe he-
"Besides," Ron continued. "with a creature like the minotaur, what could have scared it away? You would have figured after all that happened with You-know-who, everyone would have been better equipped to go against the minotaur,"
"As wizards and witches," I said, "We normally use our wands for defence and attacks. If our spells and charms didn't work on the minotaur, I think it's normal that we weren't the ideal group to deal with it."
"You're right," Harry said. "But, what concerns me if why none of our spells worked on it or how."
Ron POV:
We spent the rest of our time before dinner in the library, we hadn't had any homework yet that was incredibly difficult, but I doubted that'd be the case tomorrow. We had gone through at least half of the books Hermione found, but still had no mention of the minotaur. "Well, at least we know it isn't in any of the mythologies we went through," I asked, "How many did we go through anyway?"
Harry began counting his fingers, "Um, we did Egyptian, Babylonian,"
"We did a good amount," Hermione interrupted. "We can continue later, the next one is Greek."
"Hi, Percy!" I said, noticing the other Gryffindor enter the hall. I was making an effort. Percy sat down next to us, and gave a sloppy wave back, mumbling hi.
"Woah," I said, looking at Percy who had his face in his arms, "How are you feeling?"
"Exhausted. I've been reading through the textbooks, Annabeth had already finished all them basically, and Nico had already started whilst I had only finished a few chapters. I spent the last while before dinner, reading through the textbooks. I didn't even know I could read so much," Hermione gave a snort. I looked at Percy slumped in his seat. Soon the food was served, the tables littered with fresh platters of delicious, and full glasses of pumpkin juice. Percy got up with his friends and burned their food, returning quickly.
"Nico says he finished at least a quarter of the number of textbooks we got," Percy said, as he began eating a slice of pizza. Since we had American students at Hogwarts, Dumbledore probably thought it'd be a good idea for them to have some dishes from their home country. Now, every meal there'd be one or two Americain dishes. "And Annabeth," Percy continued, "she's rereading some of the books now that she's finished them all. I'm never going to catch up,"
"Looks like there's finally someone who's almost as brainy as Hermione," I snickered.
"Annabeth is really smart," Percy said, practically glowing, "She's amazing,"
"Hey Percy, there's a duelling club meeting tonight. Do you want to come with us?"
"A duelling club? That sounds fun, I'll tell Annabeth and Nico," I bit my lip, trying not to show a frown.
"Percy, how have your duels been in the past?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, they've been fine. I had a great teacher, he taught me a lot in my first year at CHB,"
"You have duelling as a class?" Harry said. "And, wait...your first year?"
"Yeah. He sort of was working with a dark wizard in secret and left after some events. In the end, though, he came back on our side and helped kill the dark wizard, but also got himself killed,"
"Oh, I'm sorry," I responded, I wasn't sure what else I could've said, "We had somewhat of a similar situation with our first professor,"
"Quirrell."
"You know of him?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, I've heard about the 2nd wizarding war and what happened before."
"Can you tell us about the war with Dirt Face," Hermione asked. I tried not to snicker, the name was so funny. "We don't have books about your war, and I'm really curious,"
"Well, Dirt Face was actually asleep most of the time, she couldn't do a lot, so she used my blood to help her wake up,"
"Your blood?" Harry asked. Harry had been in a similar situation at one point. He-who-must-not-be-named used his blood to help his resurrection. "It was a nosebleed," Percy said, "But all turned out fine,"