Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries [Book 5]

80) Highlighter Humpers

It took nearly two weeks for Hermione to muster up the courage to ask Harry about her idea. In the meantime, I hadn't made much progress on my potion. All I had were a few notes on which ingredients I thought would be useful, ten or so notes from Snape, and Draco constantly reviewing whatever it was I did. He seemed pleased, but all the ideas he offered were ideas I'd already had. I hadn't even started brewing it yet, and didn't think I would be for some time.

Hermione sucked in a breath while the four of us were studying in the library, and I knew she would finally be asking Harry for his answer, "I was wondering whether you'd thought any more about Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry."

"'Course I have," Harry didn't quite get what she was asking about. "Can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us —"

"I mean the idea I had, about you teaching us."

Harry took his time to answer. He stared at a page of Astatic Anti-Venoms as if it would offer him a sign of what to say. Finally, "Well, yeah, I — I've thought about it a bit." I got the impression he'd thought about it a bit more than a bit.

"And?" I raised my eyebrow expectantly.

"I dunno," Harry said.

"I thought it was a good idea from the start," Ron supplied helpfully, even though moments before he had tried to sneakily slink back into his chair. To be fair, Harry did seem make it a habit of yelling at us every so often.

Harry twisted in his chair, "You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?"

"Yes, Harry," Hermione said smoothly, "but all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, because you are. You were the only person — other than Percy — who could throw of the Imperius Curse completely, you can produce a Patronus, you can do all sorts of stuff that full-grown wizards can't, Viktor always said —"

Ron turned to her so fast I was worried he'd gotten whiplash, "Yeah? What did Vicky say?"

"Ho ho," Hermione said boredly. "He said Harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final year at Durmstrang."

Ron's eyes were narrowed in suspicion, "You're not still in contact with him, are you?"

"So what if I am?" Hermione said it casually enough, but her face had turned pink. "I can have a pen pal if I —"

"He didn't only want to be your pen pal," Ron accused.

"Yeah, maybe he wanted to go farther," I piped in, eyes glinting. "Maybe he wanted to be pencil partners or highlighter humpers."

Hermione smacked my lightly on the shoulder, and decided not to comment, instead turning to Harry, "Well, what do you think? Will you teach us?"

"Just you, Percy, and Ron, yeah?"

"Well," Hermione fidgeted in her seat. "Well... now, don't fly off the handle again, Harry, please.... But I really think you ought to teach anyone who wants to learn. I mean, we're talking about defending ourselves against V-Voldemort — oh, don't be pathetic, Ron — it doesn't seem fair if we don't offer the chance to other people."

Harry mulled over it for a whopping five seconds, "Yeah, but I doubt anyone except you three would want to be taught by me. I'm a nutter, remember?"

"That's not so bad, cashews are dope," I offered Harry kindly, but he didn't look like it was much of a compliment. I would have loved to been called a cashew. At least I didn't say he was a walnut.

"I think you might be surprised how many people would be interested in hearing what you've got to say," Hermione said seriously. "Look," she leaned forward, and the rest of us leaned forward to ensure we heard her, "you know the first weekend in October's a Hogsmeade weekend? How would it be if we tell anyone who's interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over?"

"Why do we have to do it outside school?" Ron grumbled.

"Because," Hermione must have been pleased with the way things were going, because she turned back to her homework, "I don't think Umbridge would be very happy if she found out what we were up to."

I wasn't very happy. Draco and I's alone time was limited to nights and Hogsmeade trips, and our nights were spent doing homework, researching potions/architecture/war strategies, and catching up on sleep we haven't even missed yet. We cherished Hogsmeade trips, where we weren't dressed up in awful robes or worried about what to do for our Charms essay. But she did have a point. Umbridge had ears all over the school.

If only Umbridge didn't exist. My life would have been so much simpler (not to say it was simple in the slightest).

Hello my dearest readers. How are you on this fine evening? I am swell! My dog is here, I quite like him, I work tomorrow, but only for half a day, and I got to see my sister's puppy! What a great day. I may have figured out how to make my room colder at night, in the form of opening my vent, but I can't remember if that makes it colder or warmer. I accidentally memorized the quadratic formula, but can't remember how to get nice and cold. Bleh. Had a pizza. It was good. Ooh, also, ACT Aspire testing is coming up, so I may take a few days off. I'm not going to pretend that I'll study for them, I despise studying and only study the morning of tests, but I will be awfully stressed, thinking it was B, Caroline, Damnit! You knew it was B, why did you change it to D? For at least the week, but will be able to worry about it during the day once testing is done. I don't want to write chapters when I'm pissy and worried, so it's likely that I will avoid writing on those days. Though, it may turn out I don't actually care as much as I fear I might, as that has been known to happen. Just know that, in the coming week, if I miss posting a couple of chapters, that is the reason.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a gratuitous (I don't know what that means but it sounds fun) Saturday, and I'll see you on Monday CT. Love ya!

PS. I looked up what gratuitous meant. 1. Uncalled for; lacking good reason; unwarranted. 2. Given or done free of charge. Take your pick for what your Saturday was.