Winter's coming
Third-Person PoV:
Ron shivered and wrapped his cloak around him tighter, he clenched his jaws as he attempted to keep a yawn in. It was less than a month till the Christmas holidays and he couldn't wait to be able to sleep in till noon and do nothing but eat and play Quidditch all day. His amusement of Umbridge getting pissed at McGonagall while she continues to monitor classes could only satisfy his tiredness for so long. He praised whatever gods were out there that it was still Sunday, yet he was still annoyed, he wanted to sleep like a log tomorrow but it would be Monday and he has a session with Will after classes. He wasn't looking forwards to it, to be honest, he hated it when someone tried to pick apart his mind. It was aggravating.
The cold was starting to seep into the cracks of the castle, it always got cold in November and yet for a bunch of wizards they could never seem to keep the heat in the castle. It was bloody ridiculous!
"Morning Ron." Harry greeted him in the Common Room, Hermione was sitting on the sofas talking with Lavender and Parvati, Cedella was nowhere in sight.
"Morning-" Another yawn escaped his mouth.
"Did you stay up late?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, partly in disapproval and amusement.
"No, some of us find school exhausting." The redhead raised his hand to his chest in a grandiose gesture, Hermione rolled her eyes at him and stood up.
"I'm getting kinda hungry now, let's go down to breakfast before all the pancakes are gone." Parvati bounced up and skipped over to the door.
"I wonder if there's any chicken, Thalia told me about this meal they have of waffles and pancakes." Lavender hummed as they exited the room, they all paused to swivel and looked at the girl, she squirmed under their looks and pinched her lips together. "What? Is there something in my hair?" The Gryffindor frantically patted down and combed her fingers through her hair. Parvati laughed being her hand and patted the girl's head.
"Umm like no, you look fine Lavs it's just... waffles and chicken? That sounds gross."
"I kinda wanna try it now, I'm interested," Ron mumbled as they entered the Great Hall. Like every other Monday, the Hall was full of half-dead pre-teens and teenagers struggling to stay awake as they fed themselves breakfast while hurrying to complete homework that had been left forgotten on their desks over the weekend. After a lazy flick around the Great Hall Ron focused back on the end of the Slytherin table where Cedella had a large cauldron being heated up. She was standing on a stool and was going back and forth to the fire roaring beneath it and dipping some weird long, glass stick inside the water.
"Why is Cedella heating up something over at the Slytherins?" The freckles on Ron's nose wiggled in a wave at his distaste.
"Uhhh I dunno, she wasn't in the room this morning."
"She left early, she said something about prepping for some festival that the Royal's celebrate." Hermione sat down next to Neville who gave them a small nod as he went back to nibbling his toast.
Harry snorted and glanced around the Hall, "They could at the very least show up and help her with whatever twisted thing they're celebrating." He murmured through a glass of pumpkin juice.
"Maybe they're still preparing. They may need to dress up or-or gather more supplies or like even finish making things?" Lavender spread some honey on the small stack of pancakes on her plate.
Harry opened his mouth but was stopped as the doors opened wide and Annabeth stalked in carrying the largest olive branch he had ever seen over her shoulder like it was a gun. The blonde's curly hair had a few strands framing her face, the rest of her hair was done in a half-up style where the top was in a bun while the rest flowed down her back, bouncing with every step she took. A simple white chiton hung on her body and hung down to her ankles, and a pair of beat-up black converses were worn on her feet. Over her left shoulder, a grey shawl embroidered with olives and olive leaves stretched over.
Annabeth continued to march into the Great Hall beginning to catch the attention of fatigued adolescents, behind her the rest of the Americans trailed behind her in pairs carrying baskets full of an assortment of items. Coloured fabrics, jars of honey, figs, small bottles of wine and a basket of blue cookies? There was a vast amount of ingredients like beans and lentils in the baskets too, Harry honestly had no idea what they were planning to do. They all wore chitons, some wore theirs down to their ankles like Annabeth while others wore it down to their knees, Harry guessed there wasn't really much of a gender indication with their clothing. Similarly, they each more a shawl over a shoulder, a different colour and with different designs embroidered. Will had lyres and circles of sun embroidered on his canary scarf. Vines of grapes curled along the edges of Pollux's purple cloth. And an abundance of gold, gems and jewels glittered on the chestnut of Hazel's shawl.
Murmurs circled around the Hall, most of the Professors up on the staff table had already gone back to eating their breakfast, Dumbledore looked on at the Americans in interest and with a glimmer of what Harry couldn't quite pinpoint if it was excitement or curiosity at the teens. On the other hand, Umbridge looked like she wanted to blow a gasket but was poorly attempting to hide it.
"What are they doing...?" Hermione whispered from her bowl of porridge, a dollop of jam had been stirred in.
"Who even fucking knows." Ron swallowed a piece of bacon.
The Americans stopped in front of the pot, and half of them walked to the table depositing the baskets on the empty end of the Slytherin table along with the massive olive branch, the rest remained in front of the pot. Cedella climbed down the short ladder and curtsied in front of Will.
"The water is ready to start My Lord."
Will's lips pulled up into a smirk. "You have our thanks, My Lady," He turned back to the Americans and smiled wide, "Let the festivities begin!" A round of whoops, cheers and whistles burst from the group before they burst into action. The blond hopped up the ladder and threw his basket of lentils into the cauldron, Will pulled out his dark wooded wand, the yellow and orange gems that were embedded on the end cap glowed as he muttered something in another language and it extended into a large, ebony spoon. "Let's start with putting the lentils and chickpeas in." Percy stepped up and handed him another basket of lentils that the younger boy poured in. Percy took out his own wand and waved it in an s-shape at the ground, also speaking in another language, water sprouted from the wand onto the ground, he then waved it lazily again and it reformed from the floor into a stepping ladder.
"Show off." Clarisse snorted at him, Percy smiled at her and flipped the bird. The brunette retaliated by shoving another box of lentils into his arms as he walked up the step ladder. Katie, Piper, Nico, Rachel, Thalia, Lou Ellen and Clovis came forth with more baskets overflowing with lentils and chickpeas, they handed them to Percy who threw them in as Will continued to stir the pot.
"Are they making soup?" Hermione asked in disbelief, Will had called up Leo to allow the flames to burn hotter.
"Seems so, what kind of festival has them making soup as a celebration?" Parvati pursed her lips.
"None that I know of, must be some sort of American festival or perhaps Greek, they're wearing clothes like from Ancient Greek." Ron continued to eat the mess of pancakes, syrup, bacon and waffles that were stacked onto his plate.
"We should start doing the eiresione now." Jason pushed his glasses up his nose, Connor rubbed his hands together as he chuckled.
"Didn't know you were that desperate to show us your singing voice, weather boy." Travis threw Jason a wink.
"You can flirt with Jason later Travis, let's get started on making the eiresione now." Annabeth moved the olive branch further into the centre of the table and pulled out the colourful cloths of purples, reds and whites.
Connor picked up a pair of figs and grinned, his lips parted as a song started to leave his lips:
"Eiresin carries figs and rich cakes;" he used the strips of purple to start tying figs to the branches, Travis picked up what looked like golden dough balls that were dripping in honey as his voice joined his brothers at the end of the line using the purple cloth to tie it onto the branch as well.
"Honey and oil in a jar to anoint the limbs;" Frank and Jason tied the small jars of honey and olive oil at the neck on the opposite side where Connor and Travis were still tying the dough balls and figs.
"And pure wine, that she may be drunken and go to sleep!" Leo and Pollux joined in clinking together the bottles of wine that they held with animation.
They continued to sing seemingly in their own world as they ignored the inquisitive stares from the students and staff in the Great Hall. Will continued to stir the soup in the cauldron, bubbles beginning to bubble up at the top.
"Alright, we can add in everything else and allow it to simmer." They came forwards with the remaining baskets of chopped carrots, parsley, garlic, oregano, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, parsnips, a bowl of caramelised onions, rosemary and what looked like a bottle of some sort of sauce. All of it was added in one by one, some time being given to allow each ingredient to diffuse its flavours into the soup.
"It's starting to smell really nice." They heard Dean murmur behind his hand.
Will placed a lid onto the top of the cauldron, he tapped his finger on the end of the spoon, and it shrank and shifted back into the shape of his wand.
"Eirsione bring figs, Eirsione bring loaves:" Katie and Rachel joined the song helping to tie on more of the figs, Percy joined too a glint in his eyes as he tied on the blue cookies.
"Bring us honey in pints, and oil to rub on our bodies,"
"And a strong flagon of wine, for all to go mellow to bed on." All of the Americans had joined in on using strips of purple or white to tie the items on the table to the olive branch as they sang as a choir.
"Hem hem." They paused on the next line they were going to sing to gaze in confusion at the pink toad smiling artificially at them.
"May we help you? A cough sweet perhaps?" Nico's lips pressed in a line of distaste, a repressed chortle circulated the Hall.
Umbridge's face flushed red as she opened her pink-painted lips in a smile of gritted teeth. "No, thank you, dear. Though I do believe your... activity in the Great Hall this morning goes against school rules and Educational decr-"
"Oh, we weren't aware that Hogwarts was discriminatory towards celebrating religion." Leo blinked with large eyes at the Professor.
"You would think that the Greatest Wizarding School in Europe would allow freedom of religion." Lou Ellen sighed, eyes closed and shaking her head up at the ceiling.
"I will simply have to tell mother that we weren't able to celebrate Pyanopsia this year, and King Zane that our other celebrations planned for the year-"
"Oh no no no. There's no need to do that dears, I was simply just concerned that you're, celebrating the day before lessons begin."
"We cannot simply choose when to celebrate our festivals, the vast majority occur on certain days. Besides after we have completed the Eirsione and hung it in our common room and eaten the pýanos stew the main festivity is done and then we just spend the remainder of the day in the presence of family." Will shrugged, his hands busy tying a white strip of fabric onto the olive branch.
Umbridge pursed her lips, her face turning a faint purple. "Very well as long as your work ethic isn't disturbed for lessons tomorrow."
"My father would be disappointed if I had a hangover from drinking wine." Pollux chipped in sending the Americans into a chaos of laughter and chatter, the name 'Mr.D' and 'Diet Coke' being thrown around.
"What kind of parent allows their child to drink wine and get drunk?" Hermione huffed as Umbridge stormed back to the Staff table.
"Blaise usually drinks wine for dinner, has ever since he was little, could be a cultural thing." Cedella shrugged next to them.
"Holy Mer- when did you get here?!" Harry choked through his toast.
Cedella rolled her eyes. "I was sitting here five minutes ago, you should be more aware of your surroundings." She sipped at her tea.
"Why the hell doe his mum allow him to drink wine? If I did that my mum would have my bloody head." Ron asked.
"He's Italian, in Italy, they usually drink at least one glass of wine a day."
"Ooh Blaise is Italian?" Lavender placed her head on top of her crossed hands, her eyebrows wiggling.
"I thought he was from Spain, 'cause I've heard him talk Spanish before," Parvati stated.
"He speaks Italian as well."
"So how long till their stew is cooked?" Hermione leaned forwards.
"A few hours from what they told me. I might try some if I can stomach it."
"Trouble eating again?" Lavender frowned.
"Yes, had a meltdown a few days ago and I'm still recovering."
"A meltdown? Like a mental breakdown?" Harry questioned.
"...I... suppose you could say that."
After Lunch in the Slytherin Common Room...
"That stew was quite delicious if I must say." Adrian Pucey licked his lips and settled onto one of the sofas.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought, I've never eaten food as exotic as that before." Harper ran his hands through his hair.
Tracey Davis snorted. "Yeah but while we were all playing simpering puppies to the Royals did any of you even notice the faces of the other Houses." She crossed her arms standing in front of the roaring fire.
"The Ravens seemed more interested than horrified." Astoria Greengrass pipped up.
"True, the Hufflepuffs were mostly curious or more so just being polite I guess, who even knows? Swear half of that House could be Slytherin by being all polite and all, never know how they usually really feel." Graham Montague mumbled the last part but the quiet of the Common Room allowed them all to hear him.
"Honestly I could say the same with the Lions. More curious than hostile, everyone was really just wondering what they were doing, they didn't understand the meaning behind it so there were no harsh thoughts about their festival." Ella Wilkins spoke up.
"I think the real question is how would the school react if we did a pre-Yule celebration? Patrols have increased this year most likely to ensure that there are no assassination attempts on the Royals on British soil. We can all agree that it was hard to celebrate Samhain last month in secret." Murmurs of agreement followed from Xander Lofthouse's statement.
"So we might as well just come out and celebrate our culture. Why should we be scuttling in the dungeons like rats just to stay in touch with our traditions? Why should we allow this country to annul the parts of our society that sets it apart from every other Magical Community?!" Ella yelled. The students cheered, spurring her on.
"If they think that recognizing where we came from and appreciating the old ways we came together to celebrate makes us Blood Supremacists, then I'd be a Blood Supremist and proud!" Draco stood up and yelled.
"Hear! Hear!"
"Who's ready to celebrate Yule next month?!" Xander yelled a mad grin on his face.
"Hear! Hear!"
"Who's ready to show Hogwarts that they won't take away traditions?!"
"Hear! Hear!"
They descended into a chatter of excitement as the Snakes spoke of plans to happen and materials that would need to be collected.
"Hmm interesting..." Connor scurried away from the crowd of students.
At the Demigod's Common Room...
Katie sat and stared at the Eirsione that hung at the entrance of the Common Room. It was a shame that they had to cut off that branch on the Olive tree, it was so strong and healthy. Maybe she could replant it once they'd finished using it. Could she? Or would that be disrespectful? Perhaps she should ask Will to ask his father before she replanted the branch. Though she did wonder how much it would grow before they went back to America, Travis shouldn't mind having another plant in the room, you could never have too many plants aftera-
SNAP
"Could you fucking not! You know I don't like noises close to my ears!" Katies slapped her hands over her ears and hissed at Clarisse, the brunette held up her hands and backed away.
"My bad Poison Ivy looked like you were going into hyperfocus."
Katie rolled her eyes. "That was one time."
"Being wrapped up in poison ivy sure does leave an impression on you."
"You were in the infirmary for a week." Clovis rubbed at his eyes.
"Maybe if you hadn't trampled all over my hydrangeas then it wouldn't have happened."
"Maybe you should keep your plants exclusively in your cabin rather than outside."
"They were literally right outside the deck of my cabin it wasn't bothering anyone."
"Well it was bothering me."
"You littl-"
"I have returned bearing news!" Connor thrust open the door twirling in with his arms wide open.
"Where did you even go?" Butch grunted.
"The Slytherin Common Room."
"And what did you find out there?" Travis asked.
"They've decided to fuck it and celebrate a pre-Yule and that if the school decides that they're Blood Supremacists then they'll just own it."
"Hmm that is quite interesting." Annabeth looked up from the set of blueprints she had.
"Indeed, this could root them down even further into their blood supremacy or get them to acknowledge it better." Reyna bounced her foot.
"We'll honestly have to see, best to monitor their opinions and behaviour till Yule, we might see a change whether it's positive or negative." Percy tapped his pen on the arm of the sofa.