Harry Potter and the Greek Gods

{20} Dumbledore's Army

ANNABETH'S POV

At ten to seven, I ushered Leo and Calypso out of the Ravenclaw Common room. Despite the enactment of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four, we had been told this morning the time and location of the first meeting of the Defense Against the Dark Arts club, or society, or whatever it was going to end up being called. 

I was slightly ahead of Leo and Calypso, who seemed to be playfully arguing about something or rather. Honestly, it just made me miss Percy. We hadn't seen each other as much as we would have liked. If it hadn't been for Calypso sleeping in the same room, I probably would have woken up the other kids in the dorm because of my nightmares. Luckily she kept an eye out for me.

Even so, I still struggled sleeping at night, sometimes just staying up all night studying or doing homework instead. I knew Percy had the same problems, and I had a sneaking suspicion Nico had them to some degree, but he was far less open about that, and, well, most things.

"Is this it?" Calypso asked, jolting me from my thoughts.

Her and Leo had pulled ahead of me, and were currently standing outside a grand door. I glanced around, checking to see if the statue that was meant to be there was there. 

"Yes." I nodded, spotting it.

"What do you think we'll learn?" Calypso asked as Leo opened the door, playfully bowing and waving her through first. 

She rolled her eyes, but went through anyway. I followed behind, Leo following behind me. 

It was a room I had never seen before, and it seemed perfectly equipped for what we were doing. There were cushions, overflowing bookcases, and an assortment of what I assumed where magical artifacts. 

It looked as though we were some of the last to arrive. I made a beeline to where the other demigods were, sitting down beside Percy. Leo and Calypso sat down beside me, Leo earning a light slap from Calypso when he kept talking over Harry. 

"Harry's leader." A fellow Ravenclaw, Cho Chang declared, bringing me- along with most of the other demigods, who had been distracted by Leo's antics- back to the conversation at hand. 

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly." Hermione said, "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So- everyone who thinks Harry ought to be leader?"

Every single person in the room put their hand up, even the Hufflepuff boy that kept arguing with Harry back in the Hog's Head.

"Er- right, thanks." Harry said, his face flushed, "And- what Hermione."

"I also think we ought to have a name." The bushy-haired girl said brightly, "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?"A Gryffindor girl asked hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" Fred suggested.

"I was thinking, more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely out of meetings."

"The Defense Association?" Cho said, "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?" 

"Yeah, the DA's good," Ginny smirked, "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" 

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

"All in favour of the DA?" Hermione said bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count, "That's a majority- motion passed."

She stood and pinned the parchment with all their names on it to the wall, and wrote 'DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY' across the top in large letters.

"Right," said Harry when she sat down, "Shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic, but I've found it really useful-"

"Oh please," Zacharias Smith said, rolling his eyes, "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," Harry admitted quietly, "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet. 

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave?" Harry continued. 

No one moved. 

"Okay. I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice." 

Everyone leapt to their feet and began to partner up.

"I don't want to go with him." Clarisse complained when she realised her and Nico were the only ones of the ten without a partner. 

Frank and Hazel exchanged a glance before Frank stepped forward.

"I'll go with you." He offered, "Hazel can go with Nico."

Clarisse looked him up and down with a huff. It was weird to think that the two were technically siblings.

"Fine." She agreed.

With that sorted, we all split off.

"Have you seen anything suspicious?" I asked Percy as we made our way to a clear spot.

"I don't know what counts as suspicious in this place, but I don't think so. This seems like a normal year, except for, you know, Voldemort and Umbridge. What about you?"

I shook my head. 

"I wish we could IM Chiron." Percy sighed as we took our places facing each other, drawing our wands. 

"He told us not to." I reminded him.

"I know, it's just... we have no idea what we're doing."

"Well, I do. Expelliarmus."

Percy jumped in surprise as his wand went flying out of his hand and hit the wall. 

"My point." I grinned.

"Oh, you're on."