The snakes shed their skin
Third-Pearson PoV: Gryffindor House, Fifth-year Boy's dorm
Harry woke up in a mood. Not a bad one, but it was certainly a bad mood. It wasn't the type that people knew you were in a bad mood but more of a feeling down. He supposed it was from last night, he and Seamus ended up in a fight that nearly got physical if Thalia hadn't stepped in. A shiver ran down Harry's back as he remembered her hard blue eyes that glared at them as she stormed in commanding them to shut up and argue in the morning as some people were trying to sleep.
He sat up and let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his glasses on his nightstand. He dragged his eyes to look at the clock and his eyes nearly bugged out. "RON! RON! GET UP IT'S NEARLY 8:30! WE'LL MISS BREAKFAST!" Ron shout out of bed, tumbling off the side of the bed and disappearing, Harry stuffed a laugh as he rose out of his bed, fixing the covers and fluffed out the pillow, Ron stood up glaring at Harry.
"Gezz mate, there was no need to be so loud." He grumbled and scratched his head, stretching his arms above his head and yawning. "Best get ready before 'Mione starts storming up." They quickly shoved on their clothes and bolted down the staircase of the boy's dorm nearly running into Hermione. She gave them a miffed look and stood with her hands on her hips, bag slung over her shoulder and resting behind her.
"I was just about to storm up and wake the two of you up, what took the two of you so long? Never mind let's hurry up and get breakfast." She cut them off and made her way to exit the dorm, the boys trailed after her. They ran their way to the Great Hall. "I heard that you had a row with Seamus last night." Harry looked at Hermione in shock for a second before letting out a sigh.
"Yeah well he didn't believe me about what happened in the Third Task, so I sort of went off on him and then Thalia came out of nowhere and stepped in before it could get any worse."
The brunette hummed in understanding before turning to glance at him, "I had the same issue with Lavender as well, you should be careful this year Harry a lot of people probably won't believe you." Harry was about to respond when they finally reached the Great Hall, they opened the doors and made a beeline for the Gryffindor table, but they did a double-take when they noticed all of the Americans sitting together, joking and laughing together as they ate their meals.
"Why are you lot sitting here?" Ron grunted as he began to stuff food in his mouth as quickly as he could, they turned to look at him, some of them making blatant faces of disgust or wrinkling their noses.
"I don't see a sign saying that we couldn't." Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him, they were dressed in the uniforms that they wore the previous night, each of them having their corresponding house's scarf wrapped around their necks.
Ron scowled at her, setting down the hastily put together 'breakfast-bagel' on his plate. "Well, I'm pretty sure the rest of us don't want you Snakes here." He sneered, Annabeth seemed more amused than offended by the statement, but Percy clearly didn't agree, his eyes narrowing at Ron and flashing a darker green, they seemed to swell in the morning light.
"I don't think they're that bad..." Neville shyly spoke up, his face reddened as they all turned to look at him. "I-I mean that Hazel has been nothing but nice to me since this morning, Cedella hangs around with the Slytherin's all the time and she treats me right. I was quite surprised when Draco apologized to me at the end of the Fourth year and even offered to tutor me in potions." He wrung his hands looking down at the table. Hazel placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Thanks for standing up for me Neville, you didn't have to."
"That's what friends do right?"
"Glad to be friends with you too." Frank gave Neville an almost bashful smile.
A tall dark-skinned witch walked over to them, she had brown eyes shining with determination and dark hair that was pulled back into a braid and wore the Gryffindor uniform. "Hey, Harry have a good summer?"
"Uhhh yeah it was...fine." He hesitated slightly hoping no one would notice.
"Good, well I have good news for you, I've been made the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team." She stood proudly and Harry broke out into a genuine grin of happiness.
"Really?! That's great Angelina!"
"I came to tell you that we'll be holding tryouts for keeper on Friday, I hope to see you there." She walked off as Harry nodded and turned back to finish off his meal.
"How long are the summer holidays here in the UK?" Reyna set down her finished mug of coffee and tidied up her plate, the only one left eating was Leo who would keep nicking a random breakfast item to feast on.
"We have 6 weeks."
Leo choked on the hash brown he was eating, Jason smacked his back as the Stolls laughed at his misfortune. "Really? We have 11 weeks back in America." Connor's eyebrows were raised, playing with a fork in his hand.
"I don't quite think I can imagine having that short of a summer, that's barely any time at all." Travis picked up a knife to start a mini sword fight with Connor's fork, Clarisse rolled her eyes at the two, twirling a dagger in her hand.
McGonagall walked over to the Gryffindor table with a stack of papers in her hands that she hands off to students as she moves along the length of the table, eventually she reaches where the half-bloods and the Golden Trio were sitting.
"I trust that you all slept well in your accommodations your Majesties?"
"Quite well thanks Professor, we feel right at home with letting us all room with each other." Katie smiled politely at McGonagall who nodded her head in understanding.
"Didn't stop you from snoring loudly last night though," Travis muttered from behind his hand, Katie blushed scarlet and turned to glare at the son of Hermes.
Connor snorted and looked at his brother mischievously. "Does she snore louder than Chris?"
"Absolutely!" A glint shone in their eyes as Katie protested.
"Chris doesn't snore." Clarisse glowered at the two brothers.
"You're only saying that because he's your boyfriend."
"Wanna say that again? My knife might be quite cosy up your-" Annabeth coughed and sent a pointed look at Clarisse who sat back down and huffed with crossed arms, Travis stuck his tongue out at her.
"Here are your schedules, if there are any problems with the, don't hesitate to go to your head of years to discuss any changes." Professor McGonagall handed the last of them out and headed for the doors of the Great Hall, presumedly to set her classroom up for her first lesson.
"So you have your own dorm? And to sleep with your betrothed in the same room? Alone?" Hermione crinkled her eyes in confusion.
"Yup, I wouldn't exactly want to room with people I don't know for a year," Thalia explained.
"But that's the whole point, it helps to build friendships." She protested.
"Wouldn't matter if we wanted to, our parents wouldn't have it, they don't want to risk anything happening to us." Percy scowled slightly at his own words.
"We should get to our first lesson now, we wouldn't leave a good impression for our teachers if we were late." Jason cut off another question that Hermione was going to ask as he rose up from the table to look at his schedule. "Wow, they actually wrote it in Latin, I have Defence Against the Dark Arts first, anyone else has that with me?" Jason mumbled the first part to himself.
"We have that together, we best get going, Umbridge doesn't exactly look like the nicest teacher," Will said, Katie, Jason, Clovis, Pollux, and Connor set off, Clovis stumbled as he got up but caught himself and scurried off to catch up with the departing demigods.
"Surprise, surprise, we've got Divination." Rachel snorted, seeming somewhat amused, a wicked smile crossed Percy's face.
"This is going to be fun." He rubbed his hands together as he and Rachel let out mock evil cackles.
"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Hazel murmured.
"Rachel, Percy." Lou Ellen came up to them with a sad look on her face, she rested a hand on the Oracle's shoulder and whipped away some fake tears. "Get them good for me." The two mock saluted at her resulting in Annabeth to facepalm.
"I'll keep them in line." Reyna stage whispered to her.
"A good thing too, we can't be getting out of character on the first day here," Frank said.
"We should all go now, should we meet by the Lake at break?" They all nodded and went their separate ways for their lessons.
Ron quickly finished off his meal as Hermione began to usher them out of the Hall, many of the students had already left so they speed-walked on their way to History of Magic which they (unfortunately) shared with the Slytherin's.
"Do you think they really allow them to sleep in the same room?" Ron panted out as they run for stairs that were about to move, they pushed their legs harder and lept just as it turned away.
"It seemed that they are, I'm pretty sure that Professor Dumbledore has no choice but to, they would probably just tell their parents anything that upsets them and it might cause problems." Hermione caught her breath and leaned onto the bannister, adjusting her bag back onto her shoulders.
"So they'll be just like Malfoy then?" Harry grumbled as they set off again when the stairs connected to the floor just above, they set off running again for the classroom, they quietly opened the door taking the only available seats, which happened to be next to where Thalia and Piper were sitting with Lavender, Parvati and Cedella were sitting. They took their seats just as Professor Bins floated through the wall.
Thalia snorted into her hand as the ghost began to drawl in his monotonous voice. "Nico will have a field trip with this one, I dare say that by tomorrow he shall be ranting non-stop about unregistered ghosts."
"What do you mean by...unregistered?" Hermione cautiously asked looking up from the notes she was already jotting down.
"King Hadrien, Nico and Hazel's father, usually deals with handling the registration of ghosts and the alike across the globe, after all, it is his domain. He handed the title of 'Ghost King' to Nico two years back so now he generally monitors and registers ghosts." Piper explained, her voice seeming quite enchanting.
"So what will he do to the ghosts at Hogwarts then?" Lavender twirled her ponytail around her fingers, her nails were painted gold and red, and a few bracelets hung on her wrists just barely being hidden by the length of her robes.
"The worst he'll do is banish them for punishment, but I wouldn't worry too much, Hazel and Will wouldn't let him," Piper reassured.
"As much as some of them annoy me not all of the ghosts are bad." Pansy came and sat next to Cedella who gave the girl a hug. The rest of the table, apart from Piper and Thalia, stiffened and stared at Pansy like she was an alien. "What?"
"Well you are sitting on the Gryffindor side Panz, there's no need to act so surprised." Draco cocked an eyebrow at her from the other side of the room where he was resting his chin in the palm of his left hand and a quill in his right hand. Blaise was slouched down in his chair slightly with his head resting on Draco's.
Pansy rolled her eyes at him and turned back towards the Gryffindors with an apprehensive smile on her face. "You all have good summers?" Neville shifted in his seat and nervously chewed on his lips.
"I ummm well yeah. Yes, I did." He stuttered out.
"That's good."
"Why exactly are you here Pansy? Come to poke fun at us again?" Hermione glared at her setting down her quill, Cedella sighed and shook her head.
"So it's wrong for me to come and apologize for how I acted and treated you all since the First year?" She countered, her hard-set face seeming to turn stonier.
Hermione sputtered, a blush rising on her cheeks. "No! It's just that....you don't usually act like this." Pansy shrugged.
"People can change, it took some time for most of us to realize that our prejudice on blood supremacy was awry and as a house well all decided to change our ways and make amendments to our house's reputation. I can't promise that everyone in Slytherin has changed but we're doing the best that we can. So I want to personally apologize to you all for how I've bullied and embarrassed you over the years. I would like to have some more girlfriends to hang out with, Cedella and I would love that." She slung an arm around the other witch's shoulders and winked at her.
"You better not be stealing our girlfriend from us again Parkinson!" Blaise called from Draco's head.
"Wouldn't dream of it Zabini!"
Lavender and Parvati squealed, clapping their hands together. "Oh my god Lavs."
"I know like Parvati, do you know what this means?"
"We won." They gave each other high fives and began firing questions rapidly to Cedella, Pansy joining in to add in 'details' that she believes Cedella forgot and teased her friend in good humour.
"Φαίνεται ότι δεν χρειάζεται καν να προσπαθήσουμε να ενώσουμε τα σπίτια, απλά το κάνουν μόνοι τους*" Thalia chuckled to Piper.
"Αυτό μπορεί να είναι πιο εύκολο από ό, τι νομίζαμε, ίσως αυτό θα ήταν σαν διακοπές για εμάς**" Piper responded.
"What did you guys just say?" Ron frowned at them, Thalia narrowed her eyes at him, the blue seeming to flash like lightning.
"That's the whole point of speaking in another language, to have some privacy." Ron shrunk back and sunk into his chair to try and hide from her view, Hermione sighed and went back to hurriedly writing down notes for the lesson. The lesson continued on, and Binns droned on, still not noticing that almost all of the students weren't paying attention at all. Ron was slouched on the table taking a nap, Piper and Thalia mostly talked to themselves in their unknown language occasionally chipping into the conversations that were going on between Lavender, Parvati, Cedella and Pansy.
Harry sighed and gazed up at the ceiling, he hoped that maybe Snape had changed like the Slytherin's had claimed to, although he still doubted it, he absolutely apprehended the DADA lesson later on with Umbridge, he had a gut feeling that all it would bring is trouble.
Later at Break, near the Black Lake...
Percy dipped his toes into the lake, a tingle travelled up his spine as his skin connected with the cool surface of the water, a jolt of energy surged through him as his feet disappeared beneath the dark waters, he would've dived into the water if Reyna hadn't grabbed onto the back of his scarf.
"You can take a dip later once we've all talked."
"Yeah, sorry it's that....there's something about this water that's different from any I've ever been in." He circled a foot in the water creating a miniature whirlpool.
"You can be angsty later Percy, they're all here now."Rachel said from her spot on the bank of the lake, Percy and Reyna looked behind them to notice the rest of the demigods walking down to them, laughing and talking, yet still making it look elegant, even when Leo bounced around most likely babbling about something. Those lessons from Hecate really did pay off, there was no way he would be able to pull off the aristocratic attitude without any help.
They found a spot to sit down in a circle, Percy swivelled around not bothering to put his feet back into his shoes, Clarisse gave him a deadpanned look at his feet then back at his face and gave an unamused face, he gave her a cheeky smile in return.
"Everyone's days been good so far?" Hazel asked.
"I think one of our aims for uniting the houses might not even need our interference," Piper said.
"That's a good thing then, that should at least ensure that they are prepared as a school for their war." Pollux hummed twirling a finger above the ground to allow a few plants to grow.
"From what Pansy said it seems more like an internalized prejudice between wizards for years that will be hard to change, the best we can do is promote house unity and push the wizards to unite themselves," Thalia suggested, they all nodded in agreement.
"So Percy, Rachel." Lou Ellen smirked at the two, "Anything interesting happen in Divination?" Rachel and Percy exchanged smiles as Reyna sighed in defeat.
"Well.."