Nico’s POV

I sat on the bench in the courtyard in despair, my thoughts all over the place. Things were going from bad to worse.  So many things had happened since they left.

First of all, the DA meetings were over and it’s all because of that snitch, Marietta, Cho’s friend. I must say, all of us were absolutely proud of Hermione when Harry described how well the jinx worked on her face. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that the DA was never going to happen again but it still cheered us up a little.

Secondly, Dumbledore was gone, having been accused of building a secret army when the DA was discovered. That was the worst thing that could have ever happened. Hogwarts was guaranteed safe with him here seeing as Voldemort was afraid of him but with him gone now, who was suppose to protect us?

Thirdly, Harry was currently being questioned in Umbridge’s office, no doubt about the whereabouts of Dumbledore and to top it all, Percy was now missing, along with Annabeth and Clarisse. We haven’t received any news from them in at least a month and when we tried IM-ing them, it never once got through. We contacted the Hunters and even they told us that the trio hadn’t talked to them.

I groaned softly. “Gods. What in Tarturus is going on?” I muttered dejectedly to myself.

Grover sat next to me, looking equally down in spirits. Neither one of us had the heart to tell Tyson that his brother was missing because we knew that he would probably cry his heart out worrying and go into depression. So he was now still happily ignorant of what was going on and none of us were planning of telling him anytime soon. At least, not until we had some concrete evidence.

Oh, and of course who could have forgotten the evil psycho out there trying to kill Harry? All in all, I think this could have been one of the worst timing in the history in all demigods. At the exact time Harry figured out Percy’s message from Thalia and discovered the horrible news that Voldemort knew the way to obtain the secret weapon, Percy had to go missing with no way of finding out what happened to the three of them.

To be honest, I was afraid. I was afraid for Thalia and I was afraid that Voldemort had gotten his hands on Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse and were torturing them right this very moment. I hadn’t realised that my body had been trembling lightly until Grover placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

“Thanks,” I said quietly, glancing over at him and he just nodded, focusing his attention back to his thoughts.

“I suppose the only thing we can look forward right now would be whatever Fred and George are up to,” he sighed, leaning back and staring up at the sky.

“You know,” I stated. “To be honest, I don’t really know why we’re still here.”

“What do you mean?” Grover asked curiously, turning his head to my direction.

“We’ve already learned so much about wizards. Dementors, hexes, jinxes, spells, magical creatures, Herbology … but we haven’t found anything yet to actually help us with all the monsters.”

“Well, they are brilliant at destroying them,” he offered.

“That’s true,” I agreed. “But we can’t drag them around in every quest we do and make them fight monsters for us can we?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he conceded after a moment of silence. “And I doubt we’re much help in destroying Voldemort either …”

“Exactly,” I said firmly.

“So, what? Do we leave now?” he asked uncertainly,

“No,” I shook my head. “There’s no way we can leave. We have no idea where Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse are and if they come back, they’ll be expecting us here. We’ll have to stay here and wait patiently.”

“Alright.”

There was silence for a moment before I sighed and said, “C’mon, we better head over to the Great Hall and join the others before we’re dragged into whatever mess Fred and George are about to cause. Knowing Umbridge, just because we’re not of her precious pure-bloods, we’ll probably be blamed for the whole thing along with them.”

Grover nodded and both of us began walking towards the Great Hall. Both of us were a little twitchy, seeing as we had no idea when it was about to begin. With that thought in mind, we sped up a little and made sure to keep our expressions relaxed and casual while we walked.

“Hey, Fred and George will be leaving here for real right?” he asked me suddenly.

“Yeah, I think so. I doubt they actually plan on staying on with Umbridge as Head. Why?” I frowned.

“Why can’t they help us try to find Percy? I mean, since they’re leaving school, won’t they be able to help us try and locate them while on the way to wherever they’re headed?” he asked hopefully.

My heart sped up. “You’re right,” I said slowly, excitement seeping into my voice.

He looked proud of himself as we broke into a run to locate the twins. “Maybe they’ll be at the Great Hall.”

“I doubt that,” I called over my shoulder as we ran over to the Gryffindor’s table where everybody was seated.

“Hey, what’s up? Is Harry out yet?” Ron asked us as soon as he noticed us dashing towards them.

“Nope,” I shook my head. “But do you know where Fred and George are?”

“They should be setting up whatever they have planned right now,” Hermione replied. “Why?”

“We need to give them a message, about what’s happening outside of Hogwarts right now that we have no clue about,” I said, giving them a meaningful look.

Recognition dawned on their faces as they realised what we were talking about. Percy, Ron mouthed and Hermione rolled her eyes at him, giving him a look as if saying, duh.

“We should go and find them now before –“I started to say when a loud BOOM! interrupted my sentence.

“Too late,” I groaned as confused whispers started up.

“Let’s go! I have to see this,” Ron exclaimed excitedly as he stood up and rushed out of the Great Hall, all of us fast on his heels while everybody else just stared around uncertainly at each other.

Since we were the only ones who actually knew about the plan, we were the first to arrive at the scene of the crime, which was on the floor below Umbridge’s office. When we got there, the only thing we could was to just stand there and gaped, struck speechless at the sight that greeted us.

There were dragons comprised of green and gold sparks soaring through the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs as they flew; shocking-pink Catherine wheels which were about five-feet in diameters whizzing around; rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls; sparklers were writing swear words in midair; firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere and instead of burning out, fading away or fizzling to a halt, they seemed to be gaining more energy and momentum.

As we watched, awestruck, more and more students gathered around, gasping. Many were whooping and cheering but fell silent when Umbridge and Filch appeared at the other end of the corridor, freezing in horror at the sight. I had to chock back my laughter as one of the larger Catherine wheels whirled towards the duo with a sinister ‘wheeeeeeeee’.  Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat escaped through an open door at the end of the corridor to the second floor.

“Hurry, Filch, hurry!” I heard Umbridge screeching. “They’ll be all over the school unless we do something – Stupefy!”

A jet of red light shot out of the end of her wand and hit one of the rockets.  Instead of freezing however, it exploded with such force that it blasted a hole in a painting of a soppy-looking witch in the middle of meadow. Fortunately for her, she ran into the next portrait in time, where a couple of wizards playing cards stood up hastily to make room for her.

“Don’t Stun them, Filch!” Umbridge shouted angrily, as though she wasn’t the one who had actually casted the spell.

“Right you are, Headmistress!” Filch wheezed, which I found hilarious. Harry had told us that he was a Squib, a person who could do no magic so the idea that he could have Stunned them was just ridiculous and stupid. Then again, it was Umbridge so it wasn’t all the surprising.

Speaking of Harry, I noticed him on the stairs behind Umbridge, barely in sight. While I watched, he laughed gleefully before ducking down low and vanishing behind a tapestry a little way along the corridor.

“Get back to class!” Umbridge shrieked at the crowd of students gathering around to look at the spectacle. “Anyone still here in ten seconds will be given detention!”

With those words, most of us hurried away, sniggering and chattering enthusiastically about what just happened. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, the fireworks continued to burn, creating chaos and disrupting all the classes. However, the teachers didn’t seem to mind them very much.

I couldn’t stop laughing as every teacher called for help from Umbridge every single time a firework appeared in the classroom. Words cannot describe how funny and satisfying it is to see a dishevelled, soot-blackened Umbridge running all over school and answering the summonses of the other teachers, none of whom seemed able to rid their rooms of the fireworks without her.

“They haven’t discovered the culprit yet, so I doubt Fred and George will be leaving now. When they do decide to leave, we’ll tell them then,” I told them when we were all comfortably seated in the common room, where a whole crowd of students were gathering excitedly around the Weasley twins. I chortled at the memory of Flitwick closing the classroom door in the face of a snarling Umbridge.

“I. Love. School,” Ron said blissfully. Even Hermione had gone off to congratulate Fred and George.

“Or your brothers,” Grover added.

“Sure, this one time,” he gave in easily, in too much of a good mood.

“So when do you think we should tell them what we want?” I asked, watching the twins, who were in the middle of all the commotion.

“Probably when they’re about to leave? Or we could just hunt them down one of these days and tell them then,” Ron shrugged, not too concerned. “They probably won’t leave any time soon anyway. Maybe in a few more months?”

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Ron was way off. Fred and George left after the Easter holidays.

We were all in a plan to help Harry break into Umbridge’s office so that he could talk to Sirius. I have to admit, Harry was in a really strange mood these days. All of a sudden, his Occlumency lessons ended and ever since then, he had been more distracted and moodier, easily irritated. Not many people noticed, having assumed that he was that way because of the upcoming exams but those of us who were closer to him could tell.

I suspected that something had happened between Harry and Snape for the lessons to be over but Harry refused to say anything about that, insisting that Snape believed that he could now handle controlling his own dreams. It was a pretty weak excuse but none of us said anything.

I couldn’t deny that I was nervous. If we were caught by Umbridge, all of us were sure to be in huge trouble, and nobody, not even McGonagall could change that. But if we didn’t help Harry, he would probably only get worse and that was something we didn’t want either. To say that Hermione disapprove was an understatement; she was totally against this and have been trying to warn Harry off the whole day.

Fred and George promised him a distraction but also gave him a warning that it would probably only last for twenty minutes. With that thought in mind, we watched as Harry rushed off towards the office and yells and screams started off in the distance. Keeping to the role of true curious students, we headed to the opposite direction, towards to where the commotion was.

I could only clap my hands for Fred and George when we got there. Students were standing all around the walls in a huge ring, some of them covered in some kind of substance (“Looks like Stinksap,” Ron had whispered to us). Teachers and ghosts were also in the crowd and Peeves was bobbing overhead, gazing down at Fred and George who stood proudly, although it was clear that they were cornered and caught when Umbridge and Filch arrived, out of breath.

“Argus!” Umbridge exclaimed, sounding both gleeful and triumphant. “Get me the punishment forms from my office, would you?”

“Yes Headmistress,” Filch croaked, looking delighted as he hurried away.

The twins looked rather unconcerned as they gave each other a high-five, causing Umbridge’s face to turn purple with rage. I shook my head admiringly. These two sure had guts.

It took awhile for Filch to return, seeing as Umbridge’s office was on the opposite side of the school. I noticed Harry arriving not long after him just as Umbridge began to speak.

“So!” she said triumphantly. “So – you think it’s amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?”

“Pretty amusing, yeah,” Fred replied casually, not looking the least scared.

Filch elbowed his way over to Umbridge, looking as though he was about to cry with happiness.

‘I’ve got the form, Headmistress,” he said hoarsely. “I’ve got the form and I’ve got the whips waiting … oh, let me do it now …”

“Very good, Argus,” she said before gazing back down at the twins. “You two are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school.”

“You know what? I don’t think we are,” Fred said, turning to his twin. “George, I think we’ve outgrown full-time education.”

“Yeah, I’ve been feeling that way myself,” George said lightly.

“Time to test our talents in the real world, d’you reckon?” Fred asked.

“Definitely.”

And before anybody could say anything more, both of them raised their wands and said together, “Accio brooms!”

There was a loud crash in the distance. Everybody’s heads swivelled to the left just in time to see Fred and George’s broomsticks with heavy chains and iron peg trailing behind them, hurtling along the corridor towards their owners.

“We won’t be seeing you,” Fred told Umbridge, swinging his leg over the broomstick.

“Yeah, don’t bother to keep in touch,” George added, mounting his own.

Fred looked around at all the assembled students. “If anyone facies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley – Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes,” he said in a loud voice. “Our new premises!”

“Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use our products to get rid of this old bat,” George added, pointing at Umbridge.

“STOP THEM!” Umbridge shrieked but it was too late. Even as the Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge’s own personal army of students closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting into the air. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.

“Give her hell from us, Peeves. Oh and Nico? Don’t worry, we’ll do our best to find what you need.”

I looked over at the others, surprised. They all shrugged but Ron mouthed, must’ve eavesdropped.

As Peeves, who none of us had ever seen taking an order from an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute, Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

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Not edited. If there are any mistakes, kindly do point them out :)

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