The cool breeze slowly slightly. The birds chirping. The sun shining.

Nico smiled, relaxing for the first time since his father passed away. No more worries. No more pressure. No more work…

"NICO!" a voice yelled, breaking the illusion. Nico looked up at the rapidly approaching sound of feet.

Excited feet.

Nico sighed. How foolish was he, to think for a second that his world was perfect. Of course there were worries. Of course his father was gone, his school marks were lame, and he had about three seconds before his friend came in.

The door trembled, and a girl burst into the room, waving a sheet of paper in the air. Her curly blonde hair bounced as she ran, and her bright blue eyes shone with happiness. Following her was a boy, slightly taller than her, his brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. He walked more slowly, amusement glimmering in his eyes.

"Look, Nico," the girl exclaimed triumphantly, thrusting the paper in his hand. "I told you it would happen!"

Nico took the paper slowly, surveying it with his dark blue eyes. It was a test paper with marking all over it, ink blotches splattering the page. At the top was a large "A" written on it.

"I passed my Transfiguration unit! She exclaimed. "Now I can continue it next semester!"

Nico was about to point out that just because you pass one test, does not automatically mean you get to continue next semester, when the pony tailed boy spoke up. "Yes, that's great Angel."

He then turned his gaze on Nico. "Aren't you proud of her? She ran all over the school grounds looking for you." His green gaze was silent, though powerful.

Nico sighed. He had been best friends with Marco since they started going to Hogwarts in their first year, and his friend could read him like an open book. 'Yeah Angel, great job. I'm sure you'll do great-" He was going to say "on your next test so you can stay in the course", but catching Marco's eye, he finished hastily "Next semester."

Angel's eyes brightened. "Thanks Nico!" she said, jumping up in the air. "Come on, Marco, I wanna tell Dan about this too!" And with that, she bolted out of the deserted classroom.

"Meet you in the common room later?" Marco asked, turning slightly to face Nico on his way out.

"Sure," Nico replied, though he honestly didn't want to. "See you"

Marco looked at him for a second more, then averted his gaze and walked out, leaving Nico alone.

Nico sighed. There was no way he would conjure up that illusion again, of his perfect world.

XXXXXXXXX

Nico arrived in the Ravenclaw common room later to find Angel making two chairs fight each other in the middle of the room. As he watched, one of the chairs broke the leg off the other, making it have a sideways slant.

"I hope you're going to fix that," Nico called over. "I highly doubt many kids would want to sit slanted while trying to study."

"Don't worry," Angel called brightly. She pointed her wand at the chair and chanted, "Reparo!"

At one the chair leg obeyed, snapping back on the chair. Angel nodded, pleased with her work, and fell into the chair, gazing into the fireplace.

Nico sighed quietly. How much work she was! Looking around, he spotted Marco writing on a piece of parchment in the corner.

"Hey," Nico said, pulling up a chair beside him. "What are you doing?

Homework," Marco responded, scribbling out something he had just written. "Hey, do you know how to brew a love potion?" Marco made a face. "We're supposed to be writing about the qualities of it, but I haven't got a clue."

"No, sorry," Nico responded, pulling out his own homework. "And you wouldn't happen to know how to tell if someone is a werewolf, would you?"

"If he's biting someone's neck, I bet that's a werewolf. Or maybe a vampire." He shrugged slightly, and peered over at Nico's work. His eyes grew wide. "Hey, you already have a lot done!"

"I know," Nico responded. "It took me two hours to write this. I just want to finish it with a bang, you know?"

"Welllll," Marco said, trying not to be outdone. "This took me two hours to do this!"

"…There's nothing on the page," Nico pointed out, frowning a little.

"Exactly! It took me two hours to decide if I should start doing it or not!"

Nico snorted. Typical Marco!

Suddenly, a flying Butterbeer appeared, lost control, and toppled onto their work. The beer covered the words, making it impossible to read. Nico stared in disbelief. What just happened?

Turning slowly, he saw Angel, her arm outstretched, wand in hand, looking petrified at what just happened.

"I'm sorry!" she gasped, racing up to them and staring in terror at the spoiled work. "I was just playing, and I lost control…" She froze at the rage in Nico's eyes.

"How could you?" he yelled, causing her to take a step back. "We worked so long on this, and now it's completely worthless!"

Angel began flaring up too. " Well, I'm sorry, but you could have done your work somewhere else! Stop yelling at me! You've been no fun since dad died!"

As soon as the words were out, she instantly regretted them, but it was too late. Nico stepped towards her, eyes blazing with a cold fire. "Do you think I wanted that?" he asked softly, taking another step towards her. "Do you think I wanted Dad dead. What do you think?"

Nico slowly raised his wand, hand trembling slightly. "I can make you suffer, just like he did," he continued quietly. "Or you can get out of my sight now."

Angel stared at him, and she looked too scared to move. Then she turned and bolted up the stairs to her dormitory.

Marco stared at Nico. He had been silent throughout the whole thing, watching Nico turning into the person he disliked most.

"Nico…" he began, but Nico was already gone, climbing through the portrait hole.

He walked through the throngs of students, ignoring the chatter, ignoring the movements, ignoring everyone.

He walked outside, to the Whomping Willow, which had been still for years, and nestled into the braches. He stared at the school, his home, his life. No matter what, he knew.

He was a murderer.

He had almost hurt his sister.

And he would never have a perfect world of his own.