When Swords Meet Wands

Oh Exactly What We Needed. More Boggarts. Yippee.

Harry

The Americans sure knew how to eat. And by Americans, Harry meant Percy. He shovelled in spoonful after spoonful like it was nothing. Even Ron looked astonished.

Harry desperately wanted to know who that ghost was from last night and why they'd all reacted so funny. But he was also hesitant, because it was their business and obviously they didn't want to talk about it. So Harry kept quiet, talking about other trivial stuff, like the new teachers and lessons.

"What subjects did all of you have in America?" Hermione asked. Everyone except Annabeth groaned.

"Ignore them, they hate school. We have pretty much the same subjects as you, except that all the students choose more specialised branches of magic at a very early age. And we have Physical Combat as well," Annabeth explained. Harry was shocked. Physical Combat? What do they need that for? Apparently Ron thought so too.

"Physical Combat? Why d'you need to learn that for?" Ron said through his full mouth, spraying food everywhere. "RONALD! Don't talk with your mouth full! It's disgusting!" Hermione scolded, whacking him round the head with The Standard Book of Spells Grade 7. "Well? Why DO you learn Physical Combat?" She asked them.

"Well. . .uh. . ." Percy looked to Annabeth for help. Harry narrowed his eyes. Are they hiding something?

"We learn it just in case if our wand gets knocked out of our hand, or what if it gets broken?" Percy said this all very hesitantly and, in Harry's opinion, not in very good English.

Harry zoned out of the conversation after that, concentrating on his breakfast. He could sense something was different about the Americans. Not something necessarily bad, just different. They also seemed very uncomfortable in their robes. They kept shifting and adjusting their collars and pulling down their sleeves. Harry wondered about the new professors, wondering what they'd be like. Professor Redwood for DADA, Payne for Potions and Brighton for Transfiguration. Wait, Transfiguration?

"Hermione? Professor Wrighton is taking Transfiguration, right? What about McGonagall, then?" He asked.

"Oh." Hermione looked startled for a second, surprised she didn't think of it earlier. "I suppose they're sharing classes, Harry, I don't know."

"Don't worry, Hermione you'll know soon enough. After all, who could keep anything from you?" Ron teased. For some reason, the Americans looked startled.

                                            ———————————————————————-

Professor Audrey Redwood clapped her hands and said brightly, "Good morning students! You can put those books away." Everyone looked eagerly looked up at the teacher, throwing their books back into the their bags. "Today, I thought it'll be good for us to recap some old lessons. There is a Boggart in that trunk there. One by one, each of you will face the Boggart. Now come one, come on, line up!" She clapped her hands again.

Harry wasn't looking forward to facing a Boggart. He didn't want to face his biggest fear right after the war. Apparently no one else did too, because everyone sobered up quite a bit. The Americans looked confused.

"What's a Boggart?" Thalia asked.

"How can you not know what a Boggart is?" Ron burst out. "A boggart is a creature that shape-shifts into the worst fear of the person who faces it. You only have to say a simple spell to counter it and you have to imagine your fear made funny to conquer it. The spell is 'Riddikulus'," Hermione rattled off, as if reading from a textbook.

The Americans all paled. Nico practically looked white as snow.  Annabeth started whispering something to the others. They argued for a few minutes and seemed to settle on something. Then Percy looked up and saw the whole class staring. He muttered something angrily under his breath and said rather loudly, "What? What are you all looking at?" Everyone blushed and turned back towards the trunk.