Finally a chapter, guys! And I did warn you it would be a while before I update, did I not? But am still sorry for the wait. And way, here it is!

Chapter 29

Harry

I woke up when Neville was standing over me, shaking me me until I finally opened my eyes and yawned.

"What?" I asked him.

"Breakfast," he said. "And what's the time for the next D.A meeting? Luna and Seamus were asking me to ask you."

"Oh," I said. "Actually, Percy and I were just about to set it today. And the meeting is going to be today, seven o'clock."

"Oh. And why did you come back so late? I woke up and heard you and Ron getting into bed, and it was already past one in the morning!" Neville didn't look like he was snooping, just curious.

"Oh, uh...demigod stuff," I said. Neville was someone who had believed the demigods's heritage after they'd say it only once, and I was assured he was quite trustworthy. "Big snake. Let's just say it wasn't the best night."

I heard Ron yawn and stretch besides me. "You could say that again, mate. How're our other friends doing, you reckon?"

"Sleeping," I said. "Or trying to wake Percy up. Let's go check up on them."

"Can I come?" Neville asked hopefully. "I've never seen their dorm before."

I thought about it. "Well, you guys have made pretty good friends. I think they wouldn't mind."

We got dressed, then went downstairs, where I opened the secret passage thing. While we were doing that, Hermione came down with Ginny. "Same idea as you," Ginny said, yawning. "Wanted to see the demigods' lair."

The door opened. We were greeted by complete chaos.

Will was throwing a pillow across the room. He hit Percy on the head. Percy, surprisingly, was awake. He turned and said, "hey!" indignantly. Thalia had shot an arrow at Leo's head, which I had been sure would hit him but instead sliced above him and landed on the wall, which had a shooting target on it.

Frank and Hazel were trying to stay out of the mess, but it really is hard to do that when paintballs were zooming from Piper's wand, and Jason was making them zoom around, hitting people in the faces. One zoomed towards us and hit Ron on the chest.

"Oi!" he said sharply. "What in Merlin's beard is going on here?"

The room quieted down. "Isn't it obvious?" Annabeth asked. "We're throwing random things around, duh."

"Paintballs," Ginny noted. "And arrows, and pillows. One more minute and you'll be throwing Frank in squeaky mouse form."

"Is this the usual life of a demigod?" Neville asked, frowning. "Aren't you supposed to train all day?"

Leo snorted. "All day? Nah, but almost. We have fun when we can. Plus, it's the weekend! No monsters to fight-yet, anyway-and no school. What are you guys up to?"

"Well, we just woke up, and haven't had time to create such chaos yet," Hermione said. "It's time for breakfast, by the way. And I think you should do your Galleons now."

"Do our...oh, right," Percy said. He and I both pulled out our enchanted coins and set them for today. We felt them burn a bit, then cool down into regular metal temperature again.

"Breakfast!" Frank said. "Last one there has to wake Percy up tomorrow!"

We raced to the dining hall together with a whole lot of shoving and some arguing. Percy got there first and started digging in. When we finished, we went back upstairs to the "demigods' lair", where we sighed at the mess they made.

"Are you helping us?" Leo asked hopefully to us. "Cleaning up?"

"I'd love to, but we're not done with homework," I said. "Are you done?"

Annabeth and Hermione immediately answered, "yes," and everyone else said no. They were quite bad at writing essays, I soon figured out, even in Greek or Latin. And since Umbridge refused to accept that they spoke an Ancient language, they were failing DADA miserably. Even Annabeth stomped her feet in frustration sometimes.

"We better get going," Leo said. He said the Greek words for clean up, or something, and the paint on his bed disappeared, along with the dirty shorts. "Hey!" he complained. "I liked those clothes!"

Piper rolled her eyes. "Yes, because everyone would like clothes that are covered in soot, burned, and had been worn by Leo Valdez."

Leo ignored her and cleaned up his table as well, careful to get his possessions before he did.

Everyone else cleaned up as well. Annabeth and some of the others actually bothered using the actual spell for clearing things, but the rest just used whatever they're used to doing.

In no time, the room was as good as...well, before the throwing-things-party, at least. There was no more paint, except for the leftovers on their faces, but it was the best they could do.

"We should get going for homework," Annabeth said. "Well, you guys should. Hermione and I are going to the library."

"Woah!" Ron said. "Both of you? But we can't do this without your infinite wisdom!"

"Yeah, Annabeth! Please?" Percy put on his baby seal eyes that bore into people's souls and made them want to say, "awwww..." and pat him on the head.

Annabeth tried not to look at her pleading boyfriend, but he was a bit hard to ignore. "Fine," she said. "But only because I don't want you to fail."

Percy kissed her. "Of course you don't, Wise Girl. Now, how do you write a parchment full of useless facts about moonstones and some other rocks?"

Annabeth smiled and started helping us with homework. She herself was enough was enough to manage all of us through some of the homework, but it started getting much harder for the essays part. Hermione had gone to Hagrid's house to try to convince him to tell her what he was planning for his lessons, but came out with a glum face. She helped us wrote essays afterwards, mostly because everyone hated that sort of magic.

"Done!" Jason said, putting his quill down. "You know, it'll be much easier with a regular pen. At least, we'll be more used to it. I mean, this feels like we're writing with a feather! Well, we actually are, technically. And it makes me think of eagles being plucked. Percy, don't you get the same feeling when they serve seafood at the dinner plate things?"

Percy nodded. Huh, you know, I never thought of it like that. I never thought of the poor birds when I used quills, never thought of the poor fish when I ate seafood, and never really thought of the other poor animals that died in the process of us doing magic.

"It's almost one o'clock," Ron said awkwardly. "We've been working for like four hours. Angelina's called for Quidditch practice. Um...I guess we'll have to get going."

I nodded. I already knew I'd be back and playing again next year, when Umbridge was gone, and we would be going to Quidditch together again. "Go for it, mate. Just don't be nervous."

He nodded, looking plenty nervous. I knew he'd be fine, as long as nobody was there except for the team.

Ginny got up. "Let's go, bro."

She had learned to say "bro" from the Americans, and said it to all of her brothers. That meant she got to say it a whole lot.

Ron followed her out of the common room. Jason flashed a grin at us, then jogged up to join them. Ever since he joined the team as Beater, no Gryffindor player had ever gotten hit by a Bludger. Of course, it didn't happen much anyway, but sometimes a black ball would zoom towards Alicia or someone, and it would suddenly change course and fly towards the enemy team player who's most useful on the field at that time, usually the keeper or a chaser, and it would hit its mark most times.

"At least we've got D.A. later," Thalia said, flopping onto the nearest sofa. "Oh, and by the way, I'm leaving after Christmas, did you know that?"

"No," Percy said automatically. "Wait, what? Did you say you were leaving after Christmas? That's in two weeks, isn't it?"

She nodded. "Lady Artemis called. She hopes I can help in defeating the wild monsters scattered throughout the world after the second Giant War, and, well, admit it, my scent attracts a little too many monsters for Hogwarts to handle, even with us helping. If I left, it would be helpful. It's not like you really need me, anyway, you've got nine people protecting Harry already."

I nodded. "Thalia's right. You guys feel more like friends than protectors to me, but I really think ten demigods, all with super awesome godly powers and stuff, is a bit OP. Go for it. I don't want to have the school endangered because there are too many people, uh, guarding me."

Annabeth smiled understandingly. "We'll miss you. But you can still do the last Dumbledore's Army with us, right?"

"You're not taking this terribly," Thalia noted. "Great! I'm not exactly used to living in a dorm. I've been used to being out in the open ever since...well, ever since I ran away. That's if you count being in tree form, which I do. So, you want to have some fun?"

Just then, a snowball flew in the open window, and hit Percy on the face. Ha, Fred and George. Ever since they were banned from Quidditch, they've been having much more other fun, like, oh, I dunno, having snowball fights with enchanted snowballs that fly everywhere? Maybe. Possibly.

Annabeth smirked. "Well. There's that. Snowball fight, anyone?"

"Me?" Percy asked, wiping the snow from his cheeks. "Yeah, great!"

"Hazel and Frank aren't with us, though," Hermione said, looking up from her knitting. "And Leo's probably Iris-messaging his girlfriend, Calypso. Wow, I still can't believe he's dating an actual goddess from Greek Mythology! It's all quite new to us."

"New?" Annabeth asked, tilting her head. "You've lived with the fact for almost three months! Shouldn't you have adapted to it already?"

Hermione shrugged. "And 14 years without knowing anything. But yes, we've pretty much adapted."

"We're starting the fight!" Percy said. He summoned a ball of water, then made it turn into snow with a spell. I watched, amused, as he chucked it at one of the twin's head. It hit him with pretty good accuracy.

"Hey!" Fred turned. "Oh, Percy? You are so paying for that!"

"You think so?" Percy yelled back. He water travelled down, which I find completely unfair because I'm not allowed to apparate even when I learn, which is next year, and demigods could learn...well, basically anytime and no time. It's completely random.

Fred, George, and Percy started having a pretty intense fight, though Percy looked like he was having the upper hand-that is, until George and Fred both hit his face at the same time. He staggered back a bit, then spit some snow out of his mouth. They continued throwing balls and/or magically hitting the enemy.

"Er...are we joining them?" I asked. "We can't really jump down, right?"

"Why not?" Annabeth asked mischievously. Uh oh. She was going to make us do it, isn't she? Demigods are just that ADHD, eh? Can't wait to join the fight.

"I've seen how far the ground is from here," she said. "And it's not far at all. Plus, the super thick snow will cushion out fall. I've calculated the chances of us dying, and it's a zero."

Piper blinked. "Why would you even do that?"

"Why not?" Hermione asked. "I mean...I would!"

"Well," I don't understand you weird brainiacs," Will huffed. "I just know that jumping down is a bad idea. Though Annabeth may be right."

"We're wasting time!" Piper said. She ran to the window and jumped into the snow. As soon as she landed, she scooped up a ball of snow and chucked it at George's face. She missed, but still hit his head. Annabeth followed, right behind her.

"What the heck?" Thalia said. She jumped down, followed by all of us.

We had a nice afternoon getting smacked in the face, smacking other people in the face, and generally creating snowy chaos.

Percy was completely dry at the end, though he was breathing heavily. The battle was every man for themselves, so nobody was spared. Nico was surprisingly good at the game, usually hitting bullseye. A couple of times he bombed me with about four snowballs at once, hitting their mark easily (my neck), then danced away, saying, "haha, Harry!"

When it was almost seven, we dragged ourselves back to the dorm, since some Slytherins were out in the field as well and the demigods didn't dare risking the suspicions demigod secret. I wasn't a demigod, but I did know that if Malfoy or anyone who's a friend of his finds out, it's game over.

Percy yawned and flopped onto his bed. He picked up a picture of Annabeth and him, and looked at it.

"Oh, wow," he said. "You were really mad at me. What did I do?"

"Knocking me into the water," Annabeth said calmly. "And not drying me. Like, oh I don't know, you are doing right now?"

He smirked, and with a flick of his hand, the water around his girlfriend's body disappeared, leaving her dry and warm. He did the same for all of us. Ron sighed in satisfaction. "Love that feeling," he said. "When you're wet, you think it'll take ages to warm up again, and my mate here does it in about five seconds."

"Aww, thank you," Percy said. He flicked his wand into the air and caught it, making blue sparks come out. He blinked in surprise. "Why did it make blue sparkly things come out?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "It's nothing, Seaweed Brain. It's the amount of power on your hands that made it spark up, blah blah blah."

"It's time," Neville's voice said excitedly. He poked his head in. "Come on!"

Percy smiled and took Annabeth and Thalia's hand. They disappeared together, just as Nico did with some of the others. Most of the rest of us made ourselves invisible, and walked to the wall for the Room of Requirement.

When we got in, everyone was waiting for us already. Percy nodded as I walked in and stood up in the front.

"We're just doing the basic reviews today," I said. "Stunning, disarming, things like that. We're not going to be starting anything new, but we are going to start Patronesses soon, maybe after Christmas. For physical, Percy'll tell you."

He cleared his throat. "Um...yeah. So, we're going to a different place today. We have a special training place, us demigods, and I think you guys are ready. Just follow me there. You have to do exactly as we say, though, or it won't let you guys in. I think we should do magic first, then weapons, so we only have to move once. Harry, bro, you ready?"

I nodded. "Okay, so everybody pair, all right? Do the Expelliarmus-"

"What's the point of coming if we're not going to do anything new?" Asked Zacharias Smith rudely. Ugh, of course it's him again.

"What's the point?" Will asked him, his eyebrow raised. "Are you good enough to disarm one of us, yet?"

Zacharias stopped talking. Will nodded with satisfaction. "Exactly."

Last week, the wizards had tried to disarm the demigods. Some of them succeeded, but Zacharias wasn't able to do it. We laughed at him later in the dorms.

"Well, if there's no more stupid questions, we'll be taking out Leo's automations and doing stunning. After that we'll go to physical defense." I looked at them, signaling for them to speak.

"We're doing a test," Annabeth decided. We're going to kick some fake monsters's butts. Ready?"

The DA members whooped. Well, some of them, anyway.

I watched them start doing disarming spells, some of them already mastering it, some of them not quite there yet. I beamed in pride. We were doing okay on physical, too. Some of us had switched from archery to other weapons, finding that after we practiced a bit, other weapons were better suited to us. Though we originally got archery since they were long ranged just like wands, we got suited to some other pointy things after a while. I was going with a sword. Ron had started up on a spear, and was just as good as Neville.

After a longer time, I blew my giant whistle. It took about a minute for things to quiet down. "Switch!" I said. "Everybody...stay silent and follow them into their training room place."

Percy nodded. "I'm not going to line you all up by alphabetical order. I hate doing that. But as long as you don't make any noise, we'll be fine. Harry, map?"

I pulled out the Marauder's map. Umbridge was in her office, far from us and the Training Room, which was conveniently located on the seventh floor as well. I gave Percy a thumbs up, and he grinned.

"Come on, slowpokes!" he shouted to the D.A. "How do you expect to fight those Death Eaters if you can't even move from one room to another?"

We shuffled out, careful not to make too much noise. All of us made it into the demigods's training room with no trouble.

"That'a really awesome magic," Cho said, looking around around. "So you're the only ones who can access this room, huh?"

Leo grinned. "Yep. Grab your weapons, everyone."

Meanwhile, the rest of us got our weapons. Cho and her friend, Marietta, stood with Thalia and Frank for archery. Ginny and Luna joined them after getting their bows and arrows.

We split into our groups for weapons. Percy shouted over the noise, and we stopped talking. "We're going to let you guys to what we usually do in this room!" he said. "Hazel, Leo, the honors please."

Hazel grinned. I wasn't sure what she was going to do . Press a button? Instead, she closed her eyes. Figures started to form around her. "We train to fight monsters," she said. "And to do that, we have to have monsters."

A swirl of white mist solidified into the shape of a giant dog. Other creatures like that started popping up as well, like a scorpion, a woman with two snake tails but an almost-normal body. Everybody seems to have seen the same, because they all started gasping.

"What is that?" Anthony Goldstein asked, pointing at the snake-woman.

"Dracaenae," Piper said. "They're...well, it's pretty obvious that they're half women, half snakes, so I don't need to really explain. They're pretty good for training. Not overly challenging, but can still be quite hard when there are more."

Leo had been pressing buttons. Whenever he did a command, a section of the wall opened up and five or six creatures/dummies/other automatons walked out. Within seconds, there were tons of hostile monsters around us.

"Expand!" Annabeth said, snapping her fingers. Immediately, the room enlarged to twice it's original size, everyone only on one side of it. Annabeth put the four weapons on the four sections of the room that she had marked. Then, she asked Hazel and Leo to divide the monsters in the four sections and send them off to the wizards.

I pulled out my sword. Yes, I was doing a sword. I had discovered I was quite good with it in the third Physical Defense class, and the weapon had started to warm in my hands.

"Wizards, to arms!" Annabeth shouted. "Fight like your life really is in danger. It's a good way to practice. Ready, Hazel, Leo?"

They nodded. Annabeth gave a signal, and Hazel snapped her fingers. Leo pressed a big red button on his wii controller.

The mist-figures and automatons advanced towards us. I stepped back, trying to hold my sword in the way Percy had taught us to. As the first monster approached, baring it's teeth. It was the giant dog, which Annabeth had told me was called a hellhound. I sliced my sword, along with Fred, George, and a bunch of others. Together, six of us managed to turn one of the hellhound into dust, which turned back to mist.

We greeted another monster, the dracaenae, and tried to slice through her. However, this mist form was much smarter than the dog. She ducked, then threw her net towards Ernie. He fell on his butt, but I helped him up and grinned.

"Thanks," he said. "Duck!"

I did, just as the snake lady's spear sliced through the air where my head was a second ago. I gave Ernie another smile, this one of gratitude, and he nodded.

"Good call, Ernie," Percy's voice called. "And Harry. That's a good thing to do. Always listen to your allies when they give commands like duck or jump. It could save your life, just like it did now."

"That wasn't going to kill me!" I said. "Or, uh, was it?"

He turned around and didn't reply, but I saw him smiling. I stabbed the snake lady that we were fighting in the chest, turning her back to mist.

After a while, I got better at it. However, if the monsters were real, I would've been road kill. A couple of times, a monster's teeth or claws or weapons sliced me arms or stomach, and I had the same feeling as the time Nearly Headless Nick passed through me.

Anyway, when all the monsters had disappeared, Piper blew her whistle. By the way, yes, all of the demigods had their own whistles. And most of them had different sounds. Percy's sounded like a conch shell, whereas Leo's sounded like the call of a ship. Piper's was the sound of singing, which you wouldn't expect to get many people's attention, but it was so beautiful that everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to her.

"Okay!" she said. "Good job, folks. How many of you didn't get impaled at least once?"

Nobody raised their hands.

Thalia nodded. "I thought so. That was really great, guys, but we would prefer if you didn't get sliced through during a real battle."

I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry!"

"It's all right," Jason said. "I think that clears it up. Get going, everyone! Merry Christmas!"

Wizards started clearing out, talking about Christmas break. My friends and I went back to the Room of Requirement, where I found somebody waiting.

Cho Chang.

Piper shot me a look that said, "ha ha ha," and then said to the others, "We'll get going now, Harry. See you back at the common room!"

They exited. Hermione and Ron both whispered, "good luck," and then followed. I was alone. With Cho.

"Hello, Harry."

So...yeah. The Harry and Cho thing. Coming up in Chapter 30!