1ii. the first day
"Hey, White."
"Nice to see you Phoenix."
"Phoenix! How was your summer?"
She hitched her bag up on her shoulders, and realised that a few strands her hair had been caught in the straps of her bag and her shoulders. Groaning a little in pain, she pulled her hair out. "Uh, it was uneventful." She replied to the fourth year Gryffindor student. That was a lie. She met her little brother, well half-brother, Percy and had to say goodbye to him as he went off on a quest with Annabeth and Grover. And it turned out that her crush was evil and serving the titan Kronos.
Typical. But of course, if she told that to anyone but her best friends, they wouldn't understand.
Unfortunately, she was a little late on boarding the train, one of the last, since her owl had been causing her some problems, choking on an oversized owl treat. Phoenix swore that she had the smallest barn owl ever, but she still loved him with all of her heart. Although, her pegasus, Ringbrooke had voiced out her jealousy over this matter but she ignored him.
Dragging her trunk along and trying not to make eye contact with anyone else, she searched the compartments for her best friends, which she knew that they would be sitting together. Aphrodite must've already finished a few chocolate frogs by now.
Naturally, she passed almost everyone on the way. Harry was sitting with Ginny and Neville, which made Phoenix back up and ask where Hermione and Ron was.
"Prefect duty." Harry replied, looking a little sour, so Phoenix decided not to stay long.
Luckily the compartment occupied by her friends weren't that far away from where Harry's were.
"Hey," She broke into a grin as the glass door of the compartment slid open to reveal her friends, not exactly waiting for her, at least one of them was, the other was munching on a pumpkin pastry.
Phoenix had actually met Aphrodite before she had came to Hogwarts, the both of them got their letters form school the same time. She helped take her to Camp Half-Blood when both of them were ten. Phoenix had suspected that she was the daughter of Aphrodite (because the goddess of love did seem to be the type to name her kids after her) but it turned out that she was the daughter of Apollo ('Walking on Sunshine' Played the moment that she stepped into the camp's borders, it was really embarrassing), the name was a tribute to the goddess of love, thanks for meeting her mother, Phoenix guessed.
She had curly black hair and blue eyes, freckles formed around the bridge of her nose and underneath her eyes. For as long as Phoenix has been her friend, she only knew one love of Aphrodite's life (except her mother) and it was food. Once she had asked how on earth she could eat so much and not get fat, the only thing that she ever told Phoenix was she had a very amazing digestive system. Phoenix believed her.
And then there was Lily. She was actually perfect. The most perfect girl in Hogwarts. The only thing that Lily sucked at was remembering to get her homework in on time.
She looked like barbie, except she had grey eyes instead of blue ones. And those eyes would make you want to drown in them, they were like the grey sky when there was a storm. They were both dangerous and mesmerising. She had a perfect nose and everything about her seemed to be perfect, even her legs and her hands, and really just everything, especially her golden blonde hair, that was curled into perfect waves. You couldn't really blame her for being this perfect, this beautiful because she was the daughter of the goddess of love, and that plus a few of her sisters and brothers meant that they won't let anyone that they cared for not be fabulous.
Being the daughter of Venus, you really would've thought that she would be dumb and just about being pretty and stuff, but she was smartest girl that Phoenix ever knew, and that counted Hermione Granger. Things just came easily to her, and just taking a look at the books that she was studying on, and that's everything that she had to know to get everything done. And she doesn't even need to know about the theory, at least thoroughly, to get the spell perfect.
And of course, she was one of the most talented half-bloods that Phoenix had ever met. She is a perfect shot with a bow and arrow, and you should definitely see her with a spear in hand. The only thing that she's not good with, at least compared to Phoenix and Aphrodite was she wasn't that good at hand-to-hand combat. But of course, she was always good at using a sword, which was something that Phoenix was as good at it as Luke was, that meant that was the second thing that she was better at Lily.
Oh god, why did she have to think about Luke.
"Hey, so me and A were waiting for you, and there's something that we need to talk to you about." Lily said, she crossed her legs and peering at her, her chin on her hand. Aphrodite stopped chewing and gulped down the pastry and then decided that she should mimic Lily.
The stares in the compartment really freaked her out. She felt hot and sick, she really didn't want to talk to the both of them anymore. In the summer, Aphrodite had been with her when everything happened, and even though Phoenix didn't tell anyone, she was pretty sure that Aphrodite had told Lily about what happened. And she understood that they were concerned for her, but she didn't want them to treat her as if this was some kind of terminal decease.
"No, actually, it's fine. I'm alright. Let me tell you guys, I'm a lot better now and I just want to focus on my year at Hogwarts, not my year at camp. Although I thank you very much for all this, but I don't really feel like talking about it." She said, and she actually did mean it.
Lily opened her mouth and Phoenix knew that she wasn't going to give up on it, and so she decided to just speak over Lily.
"Listen, let's just not talk about me, let's talk about my brother! Percy! I mean, he's a new to camp, an upcoming hero, you hear me? But don't think that I want him have a horrible life for the rest of it, but I mean, he can make a change to his world. Anyway, it's totally unfair that father gave him a symbol on his head, when he inked me! I am pissed about that, so pissed." Phoenix said, she knew she sounded like a little kid, but she really was angry about the way that her father had chosen to let them know about their parentage.
The story is as follows: About halfway into the first term of their third year, smack in transfiguration class, her arm hurt so much that she lost consciousness and a few hours later, she had a new tattoo of a trident on her left arm. It hurt like hell, and it didn't stop for a week. And then she found out the only good thing that this new tat gave her, was that because it was given to her by her father, it was magic and she could use it to conjure weapons. At least, just two. She had no idea what theory it ran on, but it happened, she would just think and then her trident or her sword, Nightshade will appear in her hand. Up to now, that was the only two weapons that she could conjure up.
But it didn't compensate for the pain that he bought her.
"Oh, not like I didn't like it when the camp gave me my inks." Lily rolled her eyes, and rolled up the sleeves of her jacket, showing Phoenix her SPQR tattoo and the seven lines underneath it.
"Okay, fine." Phoenix said, smiling softly. She had forgotten that Camp Jupiter made sure that their campers would never forget where they are from and to prove it, they would all give them a permanent mark that meant 'I own you, forever'.
"Let's all just talk about something else, something other than our sordid lives as half-bloods. Let's... Let's talk about the new term! Has Dumbledore replaced the new DADA teacher yet?" Aphrodite asked, looking around the two of them. She was always the one who has the small talk down.
Lily was the first to answer. "Definitely, but I do wonder whose come in to fill in the position, I heard that it was rather hard seeing what the past few teachers has gone through. I mean, it's supposedly jinxed." The other two nodded and soon it had become a full-on debate about the teachers of Hogwarts, Aphrodite had even heard about that one time Flitwick and Sprout were an item. "How totally awkward it is to keep on working with each other." Phoenix said in a hush.
A few hours went by with a few games of chess and gossip about Camp Jupiter. And it was announced on the speaker that they were close to reaching Hogwarts, so Lily pulled down the blinds and they changed into their school robes.
Phoenix was the last one to finish tying her Gryffindor tie when Lily opened up the blindfolds. Just when she finished that, the door of the compartment opened and three figures peered in. Draco Malfoy and his cronies.
Phoenix was the one out of the three who didn't hate him that much. That didn't mean that she liked him. Lily hated him as much as Harry and Ron did, and Aphrodite was pretty much like Hermione on this case. Lily was on the Gryffindor quidditch team as the chaser, and of course she hated the blonde Slytherin, and he always bullied Aphrodite because of her blood status (her mother was a squib) which made her throw him on the stone ground of the Hogwarts hallways. Phoenix didn't like him when he did that, but he never really did anything to Phoenix. The only thing that he would do whenever his eyes would pass by her was smile and then turn around. Which was suspicious, but once she had asked Lily about that, she just said that he was scared of her, because as she remembered, the time that Aphrodite took him down, Lily told Malfoy that Phoenix was the one who taught her all her boxing moves.
Phoenix thought that was a little weird.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Aphrodite asked, glaring at him and standing up.
His grey eyes scanned the compartment, and then they landed on Phoenix, and they stayed there for a few seconds before turning to Aphrodite. "For your information, Crystal, I'm just wondering how long you're going to be staying in Hogwarts before you and your mates," At this he looked around once more. "get kicked out for violence."
"You want to see violence? Ha!" Aphrodite shouted and crossed towards the door, her hands raised and Phoenix knew exactly what she was going to do. While she was stumbling towards her in heels (that Lily had made her wear), to make sure that Aphrodite won't be doing something drastic.
As she was walking over, Crabbe and Goyle walked forward trying to threaten Aphrodite, grinding their teeth and cracking their knuckles. Aphrodite responded with, "You don't intimidate me. I've faced more than you, I can twist you into a knot and shove you up Malfoy's ars-" And that's when Phoenix placed a hand over Aphrodite's mouth. While Phoenix was struggling with her, Lily walked forward and straight up in Malfoy's face and said, "You better go, Malfoy, and take your little friends with you, and don't bother us again."
The charmspeak washed over all the people in the room and Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle all walked out of the compartment, and Aphrodite almost followed them.
"I love that you can do that." Phoenix told Lily, smiling and sitting down.
"Thank you." Lily replied, giving her a sweet smile, and pulled Aphrodite on the seat next on her.
"Firs' years o'er here!" was what Phoenix thought will welcome them when they stepped out of the train. Except it was a tall women in Hagrid's place. "Professor Grubbley-Plank!" Lily exclaimed. "Where's Hagrid?" Aphrodite asked, looking around as if Hagrid was hiding somewhere. Phoenix nodded, also wondering where Hagrid was.
"I have no idea." A familiar voice sounded behind them. Phoenix grinned, turning around and hugging Ron. And then Hermione. Then the other two girls took their turns.
Ron turned back to the train, and then back at them. "Have you guys seen Harry?"
And then he appeared, next to them with Neville holding a small cactus and Ginny with a blonde girl with grey eyes, the eyes looked as though they weren't focused at anything at all. Ginny introduced them to the girl who was called Luna Lovegood, who was a year below them. And then all of them climbed on a carriage, which were pulled by skeleton horses. "Thestrals," Lily whispered in Phoenix and Aphrodite's ears. "They can only be seen by people who has seen death."
"Explains a lot." Phoenix said, rather sardonically.
Phoenix thought that this September 1st was the worst that she had ever been through. The food made by the house-elves were amazing as always, but it was the two new additions to the staff that was terrible. She had nothing against Grubbly-Plank, but she loved Hagrid a lot more. And then there was the hell toad who liked to dress in pink, who was hell bent on taking over the school.
"I hate her." She stated, while swinging her sword into the dummy.
"So do I," Aphrodite agreed, coming out of their shower with a towel wrapped around her. She picked up her wand and with a flick, the divider from their training room to their sleeping areas pulled over.
Dumbledore gave them a huge room to themselves, no staying in dormitories, no common rooms. In their first year, Dumbledore told them that they did this because they were the only half-bloods in a decade to come to Hogwarts, and they had to train, as Chiron had written the headmaster a letter. And their room had been assigned to them. It had a huge training room, and a desk for them to write at and of course, their own shower and three beds for them. Phoenix loved that the three of them lived in one room, and they would train every morning.
"Guys, just go to sleep already, let's not think about these things until tomorrow. Today, let's just sleep on a full stomach." Lily chastised them. Phoenix let go of her sword and it disappeared into thin air, and the tattoo on her arm momentarily turned into a sword before turning back into a trident.
Then she changed and fell under her bed covers, waiting for the next day to come.