The Final Ingredient
Chapter One: Pendant
A blast of flames caught my sleeve on fire. Yelping, I stumbled away from the dragon and into the bars of his enclosure. A few feet away, Reyna ducked for cover behind the water trough.
As the dragon, Festus, launched himself into the air with a blood curdling roar, I ripped off my cloak, threw it on the ground, and stomped out the flames. What on earth has gotten into him? I wondered, shocked by the dragon's behavior.
"Nico!" Reyna screamed at me from the other side of the enclosure. Glancing up, I found the bus-sized dragon flying straight at me. Oh shit. I thought before dropping to my knees and digging wildly through my cloak's pockets. Right as Festus's jaw dropped open, I yanked out my wand and frantically cast a magical barrier around myself.
The dragon spewed a stream of fire and, for about half a second, I found myself staring at a wall of orange and red flames as they were deflected by the barrier.
Before the smoke could fully clear, there was a sudden explosion of metal smashing into metal. Twisting around, I blanched when I saw that the metal doors to the enclosure were open.
Festus was flying straight towards the Quidditch arena.
Not a minute before Festus had went crazy, the Quidditch arena had erupted in cheering. Reyna and I had assumed that either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff must have caught the snitch, since the teams hadn't been playing for long. The crowd was still cheering, right up until Festus reached the arena. Then, the screams changed from joy to terror.
I watched as the bronze dragon weaved in and amongst the stands, chasing tiny players on brooms and spewing flames into the air.
"Am I imagining this?" Reyna asked softly as she inched out from behind the water trough. She came over to my side and stood next to me, looking about as horrified as I was. I shrugged weakly in response to her question.
Together, we watched the chaos in silence for a minute.
"I don't know what got into him." I muttered, feeling dazed. Festus had never tried to attack anyone before. Heck, he was so peaceful that even first year students were allowed in his enclosure.
"Should we…?" Reyna tentatively began, waving half-heartedly at the arena.
"Uh, yea, probably."
I grabbed my burned robe and slipped it back on as we took off after the dragon.
After jogging all the way to the Quidditch arena, I was huffing raggedly. I couldn't help but think, as my lungs burned, that maybe getting a little more exercise regularly wouldn't hurt. In my head, I could hear Bianca, my sister, telling me you're skin and bones! You need to eat more! Despite of how out of shape I was, I (for the most part) managed to keep up with Reyna.
The arena was in bad shape. The beautiful curtains that hung from the stands were roasted into tatters and the green grass was covered with long scorch marks. In the center of the ruined arena, Festus was roped down by magical chains, with professors swarming around him. He was still unnaturally angry, but a chain around his muzzle kept him from blasting more fire. Tyson, the half-giant groundskeeper, was trying to calm him.
Gryffindor and Hufflepuff players were scattered across the arena.
None of the Gryffindor team seemed to be too badly injured. Zoë and Thalia, a Gryffindor chaser and beater respectively, were carefully removing their smoldering black robes. Above them, the Gryffindor seeker, Frank, was perched on his broom, watching the dragon nervously. I noticed that his broom bristles were strangely short, as if Mrs. Festus had managed to bite off the end.
The Hufflepuff team didn't look as good. Piper, Gryffindor's goalie, was crouched next to her boyfriend, the Captain of the Hufflepuff team, Jason Grace. His yellow and black robes were smeared with soot and dirt, and his leg was bent an unusual angle. Several yards away from him, Asclepius, the head nurse, was tending to the two Hufflepuff beaters. Both Lou Ellen and Cecil had burns along their arms, as if they'd stuck their arms straight into Festus' mouth. Which, knowing how crazy those two were, I considered that they might have done just that.
One of the few uninjured Hufflepuffs was their goalie, Will Solace. He looked as handsome as ever – no, stop that, he's a stupid Hufflepuff, I chastised myself.
Will was talking with the Gryffindor captain, Percy Jackson, not far from me and Reyna.
"Nico! Reyna!" Professor Tyson shouted our names, jolting me out of my thoughts. Normally, Tyson was very kind, soft-spoken even. Seeing him look as angry as he did now as he stormed over to us was terrifying. Several of the professors and the headmaster, Professor Chiron, were following him. "What you do to my dragon!?" He asked with his typical broken English.
Oh shit. This was more terrifying than Festus blasting flames at me. Tyson's yelling had attracted the attention of all the players around us. Which, to my utmost embarrassment, included both Percy and Will. They stopped their conversation to peer curiously at us.
Luckily, Reyna answered, as I couldn't find my voice. "Nothing, sir! We don't know what brought upon this behavior! We were just cleaning out his enclosure, like you asked us to, when he took off!"
The Head of the Ravenclaw House, Professor Athena, huffed disdainfully. "Do you really expect us to believe that two Slytherins accidentally released a dragon on a Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch game?" Athena asked accusingly. I scowled, annoyed. Why did us being Slytherins mean we were automatically guilty? I mean, I knew the evidence wasn't exactly in our favor, but still.
Our Head of House, Professor Aphrodite, chimed in harshly. "Why does it matter what House they're from, Athena? They're just children. Mistakes get made."
"Fifth year students can hardly be considered children, Aphrodite." Athena snapped.
Before the two teachers could continue bickering, Headmaster Chiron cleared his throat and said, "Professors, let's all stay calm." The professors looked frustrated, but they stopped arguing. He turned to us and I shrunk a little under his gaze. "Mr. di Angelo, can you tell me exactly what happened?"
Ugh, why couldn't he ask Reyna? I gulped down my anxiety – both Will and Percy were listening in attentively – and gruffly explained, "Sir, we were cleaning Festus' enclosure when he became frantic. He shot fire at me -" I raised my burned sleeve as evidence, "- before smashing his way through the doors of the enclosure."
"And he exhibited no strange behavior prior to that?" Headermaster Chiron asked kindly. I shook my head.
"No sir, he was his normal self. He -"
I didn't get to finish my sentence. Ares, the professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, started yelling from where he was crouched next to Festus, "Someone placed a hex on this dragon! Aphrodite, get over here!" Aphrodite, being the professor of Charms, daintily scuttled back over to Festus.
Athena crossed her arms and let out a proud huff, as if saying told you so. I felt my heart drop into my stomach. Who on earth would put a curse on Festus? And how? Reyna and I had been the only ones in the enclosure right before she went nuts.
I noticed some of the Gryffindor players were gathering together and glaring at me and Reyna. I couldn't hear what they were muttering to each other, but I doubted it was nice things.
Murmuring some quick words, Aphrodite flicked her wand and shot a beam of purple light at Festus. Almost immediately, Festus visibly relaxed. Tyson dashed back to the dragon, throwing his arms around the dragon's neck.
"Were either of you aware that Festus was hexed?" Asked Headmaster Chiron. Both me and Reyna shook our heads, no, vehemently.
This time, it was the Gryffindor players that snorted loudly in disbelief. They started to jeer at us, saying yea right and damned Slytherins. It wasn't until Percy stormed over to them and yelled at them to shut up that they stopped. If I hadn't have gotten over my crush on the Gryffindor Captain years ago, that probably would have made me swoon.
Chiron stared at the two of us for a long moment, before sighing. "That'll be all for now. I'll need some time to discuss with the Heads of Houses and to investigate. Head back to your House, Ms. Ramíez-Arellano, Mr. di Angelo."
He didn't need to tell us twice. As we left, I indulged in one last glance at Will. His expression was unreadable. Not that I care about what he thinks of me, I reminded myself. Will was childish, overly cheerful, and occasionally downright stubborn. These things I knew for a fact; after all, this year I'd gotten stuck with him as partner in Potions class.
"Red caps." Reyna told the painting when we reached the Slytherin House. As soon as the painting door swung open, we were met with the sounds of laughter and chatter. The Slytherin common room was abuzz with an unusual amount of life. Everyone erupted into cheers when we stepped through into the room.
"There they are!" Octavian shouted at us, "Our heroes!"
I sighed. No, I wasn't surprised to find the Slytherins were having a party, complete with drinks and a prepackaged sweets, to celebrate that the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teams nearly got roasted.
Reyna spoke first. "We didn't put the hex on the dragon."
"Oh, don't be modest," Drew chided, waving a manicured hand at us, "it's not often you two nerds do anything worth while around here. Be proud!" For the umpteenth time this year, I found myself wondering how on earth Drew Tanaka had conned her way into becoming the female Prefect for the fifth year Slytherins.
"To Reyna and Nico!" Bryce laughed, raising his soda can in toast.
The rest of the Slytherins raised their own drinks and echoed him, "TO REYNA AND NICO!" They all started snickering and laughing. Octavian grinned at us, his eyes flashing menacingly. There was something odd about how he looked at us, like he was celebrating more than a few Quidditch players getting roasted.
A glittery, brown pendant slipped out of his robes as he leaned forward to put down his drink. Winking at me, Octavian tucked it into the collar of his shirt.
I shuddered with disgust at his wink. Octavian was very easily my least favorite fellow Slytherin.
Sighing, I grumbled to Reyna, "I'm going to bed."
"Me too." She agreed.
Before we could head our separate ways, Clarisse ran over to us. "Oh, come on guys, don't be weird. That dragon thing was pretty awesome!" Clarisse, other than Reyna, was one of the few Slytherins that I actually truly liked in our year. She was rough around the edges, but she usually meant well.
"Clarisse, you're dating a Gryffindor." I pointed out to her.
"So? I appreciate dragon violence whenever possible. Besides, Chris isn't on the Quidditch team."
"That doesn't change the fact that we didn't hex the dragon." Reyna stated, frustrated. "And yet, Chiron thinks we did. We'll probably get a year's worth of detention."
Detention... ugh. Reyna was completely right; we were utterly doomed. The last time I had gotten detention, I had to spend the entire afternoon helping Apollo clean his divination teacups while listening him spout prophecies and poetry nonstop.
Cheerfully, Clarisse declared, "I think releasing a dragon is worth a little detention!" Sympathy was not Clarisse's strong suite. Before she could further insist how cool what we did was, both Reyna and I escaped to our dormitory towers.
I hoped some of the drama would blow over by the morning.
It hadn't. The next morning, when I entered the Great Hall at breakfast, all eyes snapped to me. I tried to hide my anxiety as I headed over to where Reyna was sitting. "They're staring." I informed her quietly as I sat down
"Yep." She replied casually in between shoveling eggs into her mouth.
At the next table over, a bunch of Ravenclaws were whispering to each other as they peered curiously at us. The plates around me clattered as I slammed my head into the table. Fantastic. I hated all this attention, especially since it was attention for something I didn't do.
"Yep." Reyna said again.
It was kind of funny how easily we communicated. Although, it really wasn't that surprising, I supposed; Reyna and I had been close friends ever since we arrived at Hogwarts, five years ago.
Arms suddenly encircled my neck. I didn't have to look to find out who it was. "Hi Bianca." I greeted her tiredly, as I remained with my forehead pressed to the table.
"Hey," She spoke in a playful baby voice, "how's my baby brother?"
"Bad." I told her honestly. "The entire world thinks Reyna and I hexed a dragon to attack a Quidditch game."
"But you didn't!" Bianca pointed out. Sometimes, I was jealous of her eternal optimism.
"No one believes that, though. We are pretty well doomed."
Bianca's arms disappeared from around my neck. Peeking over my shoulder, I found my older sister glaring down at me. She looked like she was about to chastise once again me for being so doom-and-gloom (her words, not mine).
She didn't get the chance to. "Ms. Ramíez-Arellano, Mr. di Angelo, could you please come with me?" Headmaster Chiron's voice boomed across the entire Great Hall. Jumping up, it took me some searching to find the headmaster. He was standing at the entrance, waiting with his arms tucked behind him.
"You'll be alright." My sister tried to reassure me, but it didn't help. Gulping, I pushed myself back to my feet and headed towards Headmaster Chiron. Reyna followed my lead. Meanwhile, all of the eyes in the Great Hall were on us again. I noticed Will Solace watching me intently from the Hufflepuff table.
Blushing, I sped up.
Headmaster Chiron gave us a small smile when we reached him, before turning and leading us through the hallways. Instead of focusing on my fear, I tried to focus on the weird way that Chiron walked (it reminded me of a horse). I'd heard rumors that he had been in a wheelchair when he was younger, due to a freak magical accident.
Headmaster Chiron stopped in front of an ugly gargoyle. "Ambrosia." He told the gargoyle, which then gurgled a bit before the entrance opened.
I'd only been into Headmaster Chiron's office once, last year, for cursing Jason Grace. After consuming a truth potion (Drew thought it was a hilarious prank), I had panicked and raced down to the greenhouse to hide until it wore off. Unfortunately, Jason had intercepted me in the middle of my panicked escape. He tried to help by telling me that everything would be okay, and what's the worse that can happen? Before I could stop myself, I had blurted, I might tell everyone that I'm gay! I had sort of (temporarily) cursed his voice away, once I'd realized what I'd said.
On that note, ironically, Jason and I had gotten along relatively well since then. He was one of the few Hufflepuffs that I willingly associated myself with.
Taking a seat at his desk, Headmaster Chiron sighed heavily and frowned at us. Twitching nervously, I planted myself a few feet away from his desk. Please, no more than a few months of detention, I prayed silently.
"We didn't have anything to do with the dragon, Headmaster." Reyna tried insisting, but I was pretty sure arguing was pointless. Maybe we would have a shot at a fair trial if we weren't Slytherins? But that wasn't the case. No, sadly, we were more doomed than Professor Demeter's mandrake roots.
"I would like to believe you, Ms. Ramíez-Arellano." Headmaster Chiron said gently, "But unfortunately, the evidence is simply not in your favor." Great, I thought glumly. "However, I think I have come up with a fair punishment."
That got my attention. Fair punishment?
"Since your actions show that you both lack respect for the other Houses, I have decided that, for the rest of the school year, you will live with them so that you can learn to respect and appreciate the other Hogwarts houses. Ms. Ramíez-Arellano, you will spend the rest of your fifth year in Gryffindor. Mr. di Angelo, you will spend the rest of fifth year in Hufflepuff."
My jaw fell open. "You're joking." I blurted.
"No, I am not." Headmaster Chiron replied evenly, his eyes narrowing.
"Is that even allowed?" Reyna demanded.
"As a matter of fact, it is. It's rare, but it has been done before." Standing back up, Chiron added threateningly, "If you'd like, I can also add on a month's worth of detention. Otherwise, you can head back to Slytherin, pack your things, and move to your new Houses. I'll have the Prefects informed of your arrival. Oh, and you can leave your Slytherin uniforms behind. I'll have robes waiting for you with your new colors."
As it turned out, Headmaster Chiron wasn't joking.
Later in the evening, I found myself passing by the kitchens with all my stuff (minus my lovely green and black robes) jammed into two suitcases. Hazel, my half-sister and Hufflepuff Prefect, was absolutely gushing as she lead me to the Hufflepuff House, "Oh Nico, you're going to love it! We have the nicest common room! We play board games every Tuesday and we do karaoke every Wednesday and..."
It sounded awful. I stopped listening to Hazel, instead focusing on the paintings that we were passing. I'd never been to this area of the castle before. The people in the paintings stared back at me, unfriendly. They knew I didn't belong here.
Hazel stopped by some barrels. Confused, I glanced around, trying to find a painting big enough to be the entrance. "Here we are!" She declared, before leaning forward and tapping on one of the barrels. Before I could ask her what the fuck, the barrel's lid flipped open. "You first! I'll get your stuff."
This had to be a joke. Did she want me to crawl through a damned barrel? I stared at her carefully, waiting for some indication that this was her version of humor. When she raised an eye brow, I realized she wasn't joking. Inching closer to the barrel, I peered into it. Sure enough, I could see a people and couches on the other side.
Groaning loudly to let Hazel know how much I disapproved of this ridiculous entrance, I eased myself into the barrel and crawled into it, head first. The tunnel wasn't long, but it remained tight until it reached the room. It was as I reached the far edge of the tunnel that I realized that I couldn't exit the tunnel gracefully. I was about to back up and enter, legs first, when a hand – Hazel's - pushed my butt forward and I tumbled out of the tunnel.
If I hadn't found myself awkwardly staring at a bunch of curious Hufflepuffs, I would have turned around and snapped at Hazel. Great, I thought to myself, blushing, I've been here two seconds and I've already embarrassed myself.
It didn't help that Will Solace immediately hopped to his feet and jogged over to me. "You alright?" He asked with a smile, as he offered me a hand.
Heat rushing to my cheeks. I ignored his hand and pushed myself up. "I'm fine." I replied curtly. Hopefully, he couldn't tell how nervous I was. Really, why did it have to be Hufflepuff? Why couldn't Chiron have sent me to Gryffindor? I didn't have a crush on any of the Gryffindors.
My two suitcases crashed one after the other through the barrel. After they emerged, Hazel slipped herself through, feet first. She landed gracefully.
Will pulled back his hand and smiled brightly. "Okay, well, welcome to Hufflepuff, new recruit!"
I glared at him, unamused.
Somehow, he was unaffected by my glare. Will launched into a spiel, flailing his arms around in an almost comical fashion as he pointed out certain things. "This is our common room, obviously! The plants are all thanks to Professor Demeter, our Head of House. We take turns watering them. Over there is our board game cabinet, and over there we have our shared collection of exploding snap cards, and over there..."
All the people and animals in the paintings on the walls were glaring at me. While Will droned on about where everything was, I was distracted by one painting in particular. To my right, there was a huge picture of an old, heavyset woman. She was giving me a nasty look, as I was stinking up the Hufflepuff common room just by being here. Annoyed, I stuck out my tongue at the painting.
Will stopped in spiel to blink in surprise. "Uh, it's probably not a good idea to be rude to Helga Hufflepuff, even if she's only a painting. She is our founder, after all." The woman in the painting gave me a smug grin and I frowned more.
"Oh. Sorry." I muttered, but then I added under my breath, "But not really." The old woman deserved it, what with the look she was giving me. Anyways, it's not like I wanted to be in her stupid House.
Laughter bubbled out of Will, which surprised me. He looked extremely amused, despite how rude I was purposefully trying to be. "It's going to be fun having you here." He said pleasantly.
Me? Fun? "Did you get dropped on your head as a child?" I asked him incredulously.
"No, why?"
"Because I think you're crazy."
A hand smacked me upside the head. "Nico, be nice!" Hazel whined before jamming her hands on her hips and staring me down, literally so; she was about two inches taller than me. In my defense, she was on the upper end of the height averages for a girl.
Before I could reply with a growl, Will spoke with a chuckle, "No, it's fine! I'm used to his sass. Nico's my partner in Potions class."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Will." Hazel said. I couldn't tell if the sorrowfulness in her voice was honest or in jest.
Hmph! I was a great lab partner. I wasn't the one who kept wanting to discover new potions by mixing random ingredients together (coughWillcough). Annoyance flashed through me. "Hello, I'm right here!" I told her grumpily.
Hazel whacked lightly me on the back of the head again before I could stop her. "Yea, so be nice!" She huffed at me.
Growling, I tried to come up with a good retort. Unfortunately, all I could come up with was, "Well... fine!"
That's when Jason cleared his throat and stepped forward. I'd hadn't even noticed him in the room, what with my attention having gone to Will and his stupidly attractive face. "Uh. Like Will said, welcome to Hufflepuff. I know this is a weird situation, but we're happy to have you here regardless. I'm betting you'd like to go ahead and get your stuff settled?" Jason glanced nervously between me, Hazel, and Will as he spoke.
"Yes." I immediately agreed, relieved at the idea of a break from all this attention.
"Good, I'll show you our dorm!" Will exclaimed with excitement.
For a second, it looked like Jason was going to argue with Will. "Well, okay then." Jason said reluctantly. I couldn't help but wonder if he could see right through me and what I thought of Will. After all, other than Reyna, he was the only person who knew that I wasn't interested in girls; not even my own sisters knew my preferences. Starting to feel apprehensive, I pushed my worries to the back of my mind.
In the back of the common room, Lou Ellen and Cecil started snickering fiercely, but at what, I wasn't sure.
I followed Will to the side of the common room and into a winding hallway that was periodically interrupted by bronze doors. When Will reached the fifth door along the hallway, he stopped and pushed it open. "Here we are!"
The Hufflepuff dormitories reminded me of the Slytherin dormitories, but with more plants and more of the color yellow. There was a row of beds along the wall, with bookshelves and cabinets next to each one. Only the farthest bed looked unoccupied, with it's bookshelf barren. Home sweet home. I thought bitterly as I dragged my suitcases over to it.
"This one is mine!" Will said, before throwing himself down onto the bed right next to the empty one. Figures, I thought as I stared at his bright orange comforter and the thick textbooks on his bookshelf. Are those... medical textbooks? Scowling, I gave my head a shake. Will Solace was odd.
I knocked my suitcases onto their backs and dropped down onto my knees next to them. I was about to unzip one of them and start digging into my stuff, but I stopped when I noticed that Will was sitting on the edge of his bed and watching me. That's when it occurred to me that I was alone in a room with him. Improper ideas jumped into my mind and I couldn't stop heat from flooded through me.
"What?" I snapped at Will, ignoring my impulses.
"Do you want any help unpacking?" He asked politely.
"No." I told him flatly. In fact, what I really wanted was for him to leave so that I could relax. It was too weird being this close to him.
And, then it occurred to me that I'd be this close to him every night until the end of my fifth year. He would be in the bed next to me when I slept. Several cusses rolled through my mind and I scowled in thought.
"Are you sure? I'm great at organization!" Will offered again, smiling his way-to-friendly smile.
"No." I repeated again, a bit harsher this time. Let me suffer in peace.
"No, you don't want help, or no, you don't think I'm a good organizer?" He was teasing me. Will Solace, teasing me. So, this is what hell was like. Flustered beyond belief, I settled for glaring at him hotly in response.
Giggling, Will pushed himself back to his feet. "Okay, okay!" He said, putting his hands up in defeat. "I'll let you have your alone time. But hey, come on out to the common room when you're done! Since it's a Sunday, we're going to be doing a lot of fun stuff this evening!"
As soon as the bronze door to the dorm closed behind Will, I flopped forward onto my suitcase. How was I supposed to survive in this place for the next five months? It was bad enough that I was completely different from the happy Hufflepuffs. Once my impossible feelings for Will were added into the mix, there was really only one word to explain my punishment: it was a clusterfuck.
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- x - x - AUTHOR'S NOTES - x - x -
Hello everyone and welcome to my latest Solangelo story. :O I won't be updating this one as often as Cobalt Blue because the chapters in this story are much longer. You can expect updates at least once a week, though!
For a link to an extra tidbit that accompanies the chapter, check out my profile!