Demigods at Hogwarts

Chapter Fifteen: What Are They Hiding?

Hermione's POV
I looked through books in the library, trying to find out what the exchange students have to hide. I know, I know. It's probably not much use, but there could be something; records, whatever. I had been trying to find out for the last week, since Monday evening, when Ginny told me. Alright, I hadn't been to the library then, it had been too late at night, it was past curfew. But we had been going since then: Harry, Ron, Ginny and I. Yeah, Ginny wasn't very happy about it, she was so mad at herself for eavesdropping. She was really angry with us yesterday, for asking loads of questions. Calypso seemed too unsure of it, though. Yeah, I suppose it was insensitive, to be honest, but something didn't seem right. She took too long to answer and then Percy and Thalia started to answer of her. The whole thing just seemed a bit... Off.

Anyhow, back on topic, I hadn't made much progress. I had been searching, all the time. The only thing I had found so far was the name Chiron, the guy they kept mentioning. I think, also, Leo- at least I think it was him- had almost said Chiron, on the train. I had managed to find the name in a mythology book. He was a centaur. But, that was a myth. I knew that centaurs were real, but I didn't think that mythological characters were. We, being Harry Ron and I, decided that as it was the only thing we had so far, we would research more into it, try to find more out. Even if it is a dead end, it will be interesting to find more out.
"Hey, Gin? You did say that Jason told Piper she was charmspeaking, right?" Harry asks, from a few seats down.
"Yes..." She mumbles back. Currently, she had he head buried in her arms, not making any contribution to helping us. "Why?" She adds, looking up at her boyfriend, who was currently holding a large, dusty book.
"It's got a section on it here," he replies, pointing at it.
"What does it say?" I ask, standing up and walking over.
"Charmspeaking can be used by some if the children of Aphrodite. It is a power which allows the speaker to persuade another to do what they want..." Harry reads out loud, trailing off.
"How could Piper even possibly... That's all mythological!" I exclaim.
"Didn't Thalia say that they call half giants titans for a joke? Maybe it's like that, maybe she has some kind of... Some kind of curse, maybe a spell that's been put on her, and they call it charmspeaking, as a joke, because it has the same sort of effect?" Harry suggests.
"Hmm... Maybe," I say, still unsure.
"Guys! Let's just leave it! They'll tell us when they want, stop being nosy!" Ginny exclaims. Harry gives her an apologetic look before turning back to the book.
"Have they mentioned anything else?" Ron asks.
"Umm... Not sure. Nothing comes to mind..." I reply. Ginny groans in annoyance and hits her head on the table several times.
"Cheer up, Ginny," Ron tells her.
"No," she grumbles plainly. I giggle silently at her, but I don't let it show.
"Your choice," Ron says, before looking in the book. Wait, Ronald Weasley is reading a book? That's new.

A few hours later, we still had no new progress. We would think that we had found something and it would turn out that it was nothing. I had a headache and my eyes were sore from reading, but I was so curios, I stayed. Ginny had got up and left, frustrated and bored, around half an hour ago. I paged through mythology books, not finding anything of use.
"Hey... What about their clothes? Their tops either say 'Camp Half-Blood' or 'SPQR'. Could that be anything?" Ron asks.
"I don't think so. They're just clothes," I reply, no emotion in my voice. I scanned the page looking for something, but I find nothing. Nothing, whatsoever.

After another hour of nothing, we decided to call it quits. There was no point, we had spent so long trying to figure it our but all we had was a mythological centaur with the name Chiron, and a bit of information on charmspeaking. Both if which link back to myths, which I thought was odd, but it was probably coincidence. We had spent the day there, and my eyelids were heavy, my eyes sore from reading and my legs were dead from sitting down for too long. On the way back to he common room, my stomach let out a long and loud rumble, I realised we had got so caught up in trying to figure out our friends' secret we had forgotten about lunch.
"Hungry, 'Mione?" Ron questions, grinning.
"A bit. Can we go to the kitchen, we had no lunch," I ask, putting a hand on my empty stomach.
"No point, only ten minutes till dinner," Harry says.
"Oh, wow. Already?" I say, shocked.
"Yup. Time flies, right?" Harry replies.
"Well... We should make our way to the great hall, then. Only ten minutes and we need to get enough seats for all of us," I say.
"Yeah, we should. There's no point in going to the common room, now, anyway," Ron agrees. Harry nods, so we turn on our heels and make our way to the great hall.

When we arrive, I see all of the exchange students and Ginny already there, sitting and laughing amongst themselves. I kinda felt like Ginny was betraying us, by not helping an going around with them when they were hiding stuff from us, but the feeling passed as soon as it came, as I shrugged it off, trying to ignore the bitter feeling inside of me. We took a seat, and I saw Harry kiss Ginny. I smiled at them, holding hands and talking to each other.
"Where've you guys been?" Reyna asks us.
"We were in the library," I reply. She nods, smiling.
"Oh, OK," she says. I smile back at her, before turning to have a conversation with Annabeth. We had bee getting along really well, we could easily relate to each other and could actually talk to each other about, well... intelligent stuff to each other. I really like her, but still, I couldn't get over the fact that they were hiding something from us. Just then, I had an idea. All of us girls could go into the room of requirement for a sleepover and play truth or dare. This wasn't really the kind of thing I would usually think of, but I was desperate and I thought it would be worth a shot.
"Hey guys, I just had an idea. All of us girls could have a sleepover in the room of requirement this weekend! It'll be fun!" I exclaim, happily. Ron and Harry give me an odd look. All I the girls smile and nod.
"Yeah! We should!" Ginny agrees. Everyone else says something similar to this.
"What about us boys?" Leo asks, pouting.
"I don't know. Do something together," Thalia says, smirking.
"So it's settled. This weekend, we can go to the room of requirement and have a sleepover," I say, smiling. I was looking forward to it already. I may actually get some progress in finding out what they are hiding.