Convincing
A couple weeks after finding out the demigods’ secret, the trio were sitting in the common room. Harry was back from another detention from Umbridge. Hermione told him to soak his hand in Murtlap essence. Then Ron and Hermione both point out to Harry how he could teach them DADA.
“Harry, think about it,” said Hermione, pleadingly. “We’re not going to learn anything from her.”
“And you’re really good at defensive spells too,” Ron supplied helpfully (actually helpful? Yes).
Harry wasn’t convinced. “What makes you think that I can teach someone how to do anything? Isn’t that your strong point, Hermione?”
“Yes,” she replied. “But I’m not that good at doing actual defense spells. I freeze when in danger, remember.”
“You’re the only one who’s actually fought against you-know-who and survived,” Ron pointed out.
“Yes, but-when you’re against an actual enemy, there’s only your own guts or whatever, between you and death. I only survived Voldemort because of luck!”
His friends had to work really hard to stifle their laughter.
“I never would’ve been able to survive without all the things that helped me! Stop laughing!” He accidentally sent the
“Sorry, mate,” said Ron. “It’s just that, you did do spells and stuff against you-know-who.”
“Harry,” Hermione tried to reason with him. “You can’t deny the fact that you’re good at defending yourself in a duel. I’m sure there are people who want to learn actual defense. If we’re going to fight V-Voldemort then we need to learn how to, right?”
Hearing Hermione say Voldemort’s name calmed Harry down for some reason. He wished he didn’t spill the bowl of Murtlap essence. His hand was throbbing even more now.
“You’re right,” he said. “I’ll fix this and go to bed. Reparo!”
Ron looked at Hermione like ‘at least we tried’ and went to bed. The curly haired girl did too.
Jason, who’d been sitting in the corner the whole time, looked up from the book he was reading. “They’re right, you know.” He seemed to be listening to their entire conversation. “If you’ve fought a powerful dark wizard, you’d be able to teach defensive spells.” He went back to reading after that. He sounded as if he had experience with fighting evil forces. Huh?
—
The next weekend was one where they could go to Hogsmeade. Ron excitedly explained all about the shops and stuff there when the demigods asked about it. Reyna was able to say ‘bro, I just wanted to know if there’s chocolate there, stfu’ with one glare. Ron took the hint and shut up quite quickly.
Hermione’s like ‘teach me your ways’.
Anyway, the golden trio was going to the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer. They decided to call the demigods too, just because. Nico and Will, who were going to Honeydukes for candy purposes, Thalia and Reyna, who were going to the Shrieking Shack because it seemed cool, and Leo and Piper, who were going to Zonko’s, said no. The other five said “yeah sure” and went on with their day.
On that weekend, the 8 of them went to Hogsmeade together. Hermione decided to use that opportunity to ask all about how their powers work, how the gods act and basically everything else about camp.
“How does the Greek and Roman thing work?”
“Keep your voice down,” said Annabeth. “The gods have different… personalities, I guess. Their different forms (?) have kids with mortal people who impressed them. Which is how we technically have siblings we never knew about.”
“Like me and Thalia,” Jason told them.
“Don’t you both have the same last name, though?” Harry asked them.
“Yes,” Jason replied. “The sky god had two kids with the same woman, in both Greek and Roman forms. Like seven years apart.”
“But you look just three to four years older,” said Ron.
“I never said I was older.”
“What?” Hermione was confused. These two didn’t even look like siblings and it’s Thalia who’s older? What the heck?
“If Thalia had a normal life then she’d be in her twenties now,” said Annabeth. “But she died when she was twelve so Zeus turned her into a pine tree. Then she came back to life a few years after that. A couple months later, she became a Hunter of Artemis so now she won’t age.”
“Let’s pretend I understood what you said and move on,” said Hermione. “Next question, if all demigods don’t have powers, do you all still have abilities based on your parent?”
“Sort of,” said Hazel. “Children of Apollo can play music, do archery or heal people better than the average person. Children of Mercury/Hermes are better at committing theft and stuff. It’s pretty complicated.”
“Ok, I guess that makes sense? One more question, in the myths, the gods eat Ambrosia and Nectar, can you eat those too?”
“Yeah,” said Percy, thankful for an actually answerable question. “But we can’t eat too much, an overdose would literally burn us up.”
“Alright then,” said Hermione. “That clears up some stuff. Anyway, we need your opinion on something.”
“Ask away,” said Jason.
“Ron and I were thinking, since Umbridge’s class isn’t going to teach us anything, we should take matters into our own hands. Harry could teach us, you all and anyone else who wants to learn actual defense.”
“Hold on a second,” said Harry. “I really don’t think that I’m the best person to teach anyone any spells.”
Ron made a fake shocked face. “Oh my, Harry Potter, the kid who defeated you-know-who, is unable to teach someone how to do a shield spell or whatever. Come off it, dude.”
“Harry, I think you’d be the best person to teach defensive magic,” said Percy seriously. “We could use it too.” He gestured to himself and the others. “I’m sure that there are other students at Hogwarts who think Umbridge’s lessons are all bullshit.”
Harry finally gives in to the idea after his friends refuse to take no for an answer. Well, that and Percy’s patented adorable pleading baby seal face. Seriously, how does he even do that?
“Ok, ok,” he said. “But who are we gonna tell this to? A lot of people think I’m a raving lunatic, remember?”
“Just leave that to us,” said Percy. “Apart from the Slytherins, who Umbridge favors for some reason, most of the people in this school know that we ain’t gonna learn anything from that pink toad. I’m pretty sure they’d all like to hear your story about what happened last year too.”
Harry knew Percy was right. About both things. Everyone wanted to hear the story of what happened. They were all so curious about that battle. Harry suspected that some people would come simply to hear the story and they wouldn’t care about actually doing any defensive spells.
It was worth a try, though.