Harry Potter and Percy Jackson half-blood heroes (Book 5)

Chapter 11

For the next two weeks, Percy laid low. He and the D.A. were resisting her under her very nose,doing the very thing that she and the Ministry most feared, and one wrong move could cost them a lot. And that is why he laid low and whenever he was supposed to be reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book duringher lessons he dwelled instead on satisfying memories of their most recent meetings remembering how Neville had successfully disarmedHermione, how Colin Creevey had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' hard effort, how Parvati Patil had produced such agood Reductor Curse that she had reduced the table carrying all theSneakoscopes to dust. He would also go an hour or two early for swordplay. This practice did help him get some muscle mass he had lost due to his lack of training at Hogwarts and thanks to that room, it made the endless possibilities

But there was a slight problem. Although the meetings and quidditch were great. It was getting too tight for him. Between Classes, quidditch, DA meetings, swordplay, and OWLs. And not to mention his curse of Achilles, it made him more tired with heavy bags under his eyes.

Hermione was one of those people and after watching him drink his third cup of coffee for breakfast, she decided to intervene and help him with his homework. Something which made him very gratefully to the muggleborn. 

They also decided to reveal their pet project. They gave each of the members ofthe D.A. a fake Galleon and told the instructions.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermionesaid, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches."On real Galleons, that's just a serial number referring to the goblinwho cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers willchange to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins willgrow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocketyou'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets thedate of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because Percy put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimichis."

A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked around at allthe faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted.

"Well — we thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly, "Imean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there'snothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But . . . well, if you don't want to use them . . ."

"You both can do a Protean Charm?" said Terry Boot.

"Yes," said Hermione.

"Yeah so?" Percy asked

"But that's . . . that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is, you'll learn it in seventh, year," he said weakly.

"Oh," said Hermione, trying to look modest. "Oh . . . well . . . yes,I suppose it is. . . ."

"Yeah..." Percy said rubbing his neck. "I mean, It's all Hermione's idea."

"How come you both are not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring at Hermione and Percy with something close to wonder. "With brains like yours?"

"Because she's braver and courageous than you claws." thought Percy immediately in his head.

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," said Hermione brightly. "But it decided onGryffindor in the end. So does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forward tocollect one from the basket.

"You know what these remind me of?"Harry asked Hermione

"No, what's that?"

"The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and alltheir scars burn, and they know they've got to join him."