Yes, yes, I probably shouldn't be doing this, but here' my excuse- my laptop' locked up in my cupboard, and I don't have Chapter 32 of NAH:Year 5 here. It's originally 4 chapter away from completion, but I'll try to combine the chapters later...anyway, I somehow got away with working on my mum's laptop, realized I had Chapter one of year six here, and decided I would publish it since it doesn't include much spoilers- I'll update NAH:Year 5 either later today if I managed to sneak of my laptop, or tomorrow, or maybe Thursday, but definitely by the weekend!

Enjoy:

A dark-haired fifteen-year old sat in the corner of a room, surrounded by shadows. The room itself was actually quite dark, but the darkness around him was...darker. He was in a dream, and he knew it. One would really wonder why the shadows followed him there, too, but he didn't mind. He did, wonder, though, why he was having a dream.

This boy was a demigod. Demigods occasionally had dreams that would relate to their past, present, or future- this one viewed neither. He was simply drifting in nothingness, hovering about in the corner which was darker than the deepest earth abyss.

Then, he saw it- a face that emerged out of the darkness- it was sallow, dark, and bitter. A face of a man he'd grown to hate since he was eleven, but one he'd had to deal with against his better liking. Said person's face was twisted and cruel- or at least, that's how it looked like to him- a face of a revenge-hungry misleading maniac who called himself a judge- a soul that had almost led a small, misguided kid to his doom. The demigod would never know why Minos was one of the Judges of the Underworld.

"What do you want?" he growled- Children of Hades had quite a problem with grudges, just like Children of Posiedon were naturally rebellious, or Children of Ares impulsively built for war and bloodshed. Yet he would have hated Minos even without his fatal flaw, and he knew it. His father did not like him a lot either after what he'd attempted, but like everything else in his five-thousand long unending life, he had put it aside eventually. Minos was a judge of the Underworld, and judgement could not be submitted without him- that was it.

Minos' hard face twisted in a frown of annoyance. "Trust me," he growled. "I do not appreciate being here either, but I must obey Lord Hades orders, and I will admit this concerns my matter of work- a soul has been escaping us for too long. And us Judges don't take kindly to souls that try to evade death."

The demigod avoided Minos' eyes- he was in no mood to glare. He pretended not to be interested, but he kept his ears sharp. Lately, everything in his world had to involved him- from getting his cousin Percy to bathe in the River Styx, leading an army of undead warriors into battle, rescuing the Athena Parthenos, the symbol of Greek and Roman unity, to, lastly, spending an year at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, playing his game, collecting information, and doing anything to ensure this war would be won without being involved too much. He wasn't even sure why they were getting into a war that was theirs- the Olympians must have gotten bored after a few war-less months. However, if he was being honest with himself, he knew why this war mostly concerned many gods, especially his own father and Thanatos. He had wondered several times why the gods, with all the power they had and how much they wanted a certain Tom Riddle dead, didn't just zap or disintegrate the guy like they had always threatened the demigods they would- but he discovered why. There was a power- a power so foul could not be destroyed by any divine force, and it was within Horcruxes. He had never gotten the clear definition of a Horcrux. Hades had called them 'funky soul containers' if he remembered right. All that he knew was that they were created when someone intentionally divided their soul, tearing it apart, and after commuting a horrible deed, storing it in an artifact that later became a dark object of evil.

How to locate or destroy them, he knew not. But he did have a hunch.

"I cannot reveal the future, nor am I allowed to. Apollo is getting harsher by the minute- apparently, what is to come will cause panic."

"Can we get to the part where you tell me something I didn't know previously?" the demigod snapped. He finally picked up the will-power to glare at the none-present soul. Minos did not falter.

"There are six known ways to destroy what those foolish stick-wielders call Horcruxes. Four of them divine, and two of which are magical. What the four divine ones are, we can not tell exactly, but we know you will eventually have to come across them. The power of the divines, however, is so ancient, that one cannot work unless the other three are present."

Well, of course. He was probably right, then. He looked up at Minos, trying to look nonchalant. "They couldn't get anyone else to deliver this message, could they?" he asked quietly.

Minos did not answer. The shadows devoured half of his face, but before he was completely gone, his demanded loud enough-

"A fair judge is one that has the grace to be harsh when need be."

The last thing he remembered was laughing mirthlessly as the shadows enveloped him as well. Miles away from where Minos really was, Nico di Angelo sat up on his bed, gasping, and drenched in cold sweat.

-o-

"Nico!" Hazel said, jumping up.

"Sorry...Sorry, Hazel, didn't mean to wake you up." Nico apologized sheepishly- it was a relief, really, that he hadn't woken up anyone at the fifth cohort. They were all heavy sleepers. The Stolls had that joke about children of Hades sleeping like the dead, but perhaps that was a different rule for children of Pluto.

"It's all right." Hazel reassured, smiling. She hopped off her bed, and onto Nico's wrapping him in a tight hug. She kissed him on the forehead, still smiling.

"Happy Birthday!" she laughed. Nico frowned at her in confusion- it wasn't his birthday. He opened his mouth to tell his overexcited sister that, but Hazel seemed to know what he was going at.

"I know it's not your birthday for real- I know yours is January twenty eighth, Nico, but you were at that school of yours at that time- what was it called? Bogcharts? And, anyway, everyone's been busy with the monster attacks that we just couldn't hold you a proper party, you know?"

Nico smiled at her. "Yes, I know. Thanks, Hazel."

It was true- their Camps, especially Camp Half-Blood, were targeted by huge amounts of magical creatures. The trouble with magical creatures was, they didn't disintegrate when in contact with Imperial Gold or Celestial Bronze, and none of the demigod really knew how to fight them. Usually, at both camps, a small course was given to study how to do quests, kill monsters, and be a demigod hero in general. These small demonstrations included every known Greek and Roman monster's sensitive spot, strength, and weakness. With magical creatures, no demigod had the faintest idea what in Hades they were doing. The Athena Cabin was going nuts about it- calculating was everything to them. And much worse, the Hecate children, who were obviously the only ones that had the faintest idea how magical worked, were off to their quests before they could be much help. Since every quest naturally included three demigods, Chiron sent Hecate campers in groups of three each off to different direction- east, west, north, south, south-west, north-west, south-east, and north-east. They were off on a quest to find their mother, Hecate, who had mysteriously disappeared months ago, and query her about the balance of the magical an demigod worlds, and why it was messed up. Not exactly knowing where Hecate resided at the moment was another reason why Chiron had sent off every Hecate camper they had off in all eight directions to find Hecate and help her get things right. Unfortunately, the campers didn't get any prophetic help, either, because Apollo was being secretive about prophecies again- their only guess was that he had done something to anger Zeus and stopped the prophecy flow again, but since there were no thunder storms the past months, that idea was becoming quickly unpopular.

"I'm surprised you really bothered- I mean, with all that's been happening-"

"Oh, shut up. You know what surprises me?" she said. "That you forgot your own birthday, stupid." Hazel laughed, and Nico followed her laughter. She manipulated the mist, making a small chocolate cupcake on a tiny plate appear into her hand. Cocoa frosting read, '15', in a cursive script. Before Nico could utter a word of thanks, Hazel took hold of the mist-created cupcake and stuffed the entire thing down his throat. Nico almost choked on chocolate crumbs. After managing to swallow the thing half-whole, he had small fitting cough, which grew into a large one, and then he started hiccuping due to eating too much all at once without chewing much.

"Hazel did you- hic-did you have to-hic-HAZEL!"

Hazel was unfazed. She spared him another kiss on the cheek, conjured a glass of water, and handed in to Nico, who drank it in a gulp.

"Have some table manners, will you?" he chided, and she started walking away before Nico could even comprehended her words.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SHOVED THE THING DOWN, MY THROAT, HAZE!" he yelled after her. Yep. No doubt about it- from the groans, yelps of surprise, and heads hitting the floor, he could tell he had definitely woken up the entire fifth-cohort now.

"Nico!" Hazel said with mock-annoyances, poking her head back through the door. "Just because you're awake, doesn't mean you get to wake everyone else. Calm down." And he walked away.

Nico hated it. Hazel loved it- being hypocritical just to annoy him. Inwardly basking in sunlight, Nico departed from the yells of protest at waking the entire up, and excused himself to find a nice, solid, wall he could repeatedly bash his head into.

Hope you liked that!

Anyway, I've got news-

1) Nico has a place in the Epilouge...yay!

2) I'm starting the first EVER Albus Potter series with a demigod in it! Of course, it will be Albus POV, but Nico will simply be a teacher, teaching a course called Practical Defense Techniques which is a weekly demonstration for first years and an option for third-years up!
3) I'm not killing off two characters in this book after all! HAAAAAY! In fact, book 6 will be OC-FREE! Book 7, too, expect a chapter or two.4

4) Review! I won't update this again 'til I'm done with year 5, and then I'll resume updating regularly until I'm done with book seven...Then I'll start my Albus Potter series. Thanks for sticking up with me!

~Ambs