The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 166 - Percy- Give Her Hell, Peeves

For the first time ever, Hermione was at least as inattentive to Professor Binns in History of Magic as Harry and Ron were, keeping up a stream of whispered admonitions that Harry tried very hard to ignore.

"...and if she does catch you there, apart from being expelled, she'll be able to guess you've been talking to Snuffles and this time I expect she'll force you to drink Veritaserum and answer her questions..."

"Hermione," said Ron in a low and indignant voice, "are you going to stop telling Harry off and listen to Binns, or am I going to have to take my own notes?"

"You take notes for a change, it won't kill you!"

"Will both of you shut up?" Alex hissed, trying to listen to the Professor.

By the time we reached the dungeons, neither Harry nor Ron was speaking to Hermione. Undeterred, she took advantage of their silence to maintain an uninterrupted flow of dire warnings, all uttered under her breath in a vehement hiss that caused Seamus to waste five whole minutes checking his cauldron for leaks.

Snape, meanwhile, seemed to have decided to act as though Harry were invisible. Harry was, of course, well-used to this tactic, as it was one of Uncle Vernon's favorite's, and on the whole was grateful he had to suffer nothing worse. In fact, compared to what he usually had to endure from Snape in the way of taunts and snide remarks, he found the new approach something of an improvement, and was pleased to find that when left well alone, he was able to concoct an Invigoration Draught quite easily. At the end of the lesson he scooped some of the potion into a flask, corked it and took it up to Snape's desk for marking, feeling that he might at last have scraped an 'E'.

He had just turned away when he heard a smashing noise. Malfoy gave a gleeful yell of laughter. Harry whipped around. His potion sample lay in pieces on the floor and Snape was surveying him with a look of gloating pleasure.

"Whoops," he said softly. "Another zero, then, Potter."

Harry was too incensed to speak. He strode back to his cauldron, intending to fill another flask and force Snape to mark it, but saw to his horror that the rest of the contents had vanished.

"I'm sorry!" said Hermione, with her hands over her mouth. "I'm really sorry, Harry. I thought you'd finished, so I cleared up!"

Harry could not bring himself to answer. When the bell rang, he hurried out of the dungeon without a backwards glance, and made sure that he found himself a seat between Neville and Seamus for lunch so that Hermione could not start nagging him again about using Umbridge's office.

"Hey, it'll be okay," I told Fred, "get ready."

"Thanks for the help, man."

"Don't mention it. I just helped with the water."

Harry brushed past me, his face red at three o'clock as I made to my career's appointment.

"What happened?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Professor Umbridge was just smacked down by Professor McGonagall," Harry replied. "Be careful."

"Afternoon, Professor," I closed the door behind me. 

"Afternoon, Jackson," she said briskly, but as she spoke, somebody else sniffed from the corner. I looked round.

Professor Umbridge was sitting there, a clipboard on her knee, a fussy little pie-frill around her neck and a small, horribly growl on her face.

"Sit down, Jackson," said Professor McGonagall tersely. Her hands shook slightly as she shuffled the many pamphlets littering her desk.

I sat down with my back to Umbridge and did my best to pretend I could not hear the scratching of her quill on her clipboard.