"Nico di Angelo! Wake up!"
Nico grumbled and snuggled deeper under the covers, hoping that whoever was banging at his cabin door at this ungodly hour of the morning would go away before he got mad.
"Hey, Sunshine! You better open this door right now!"
Nico groaned. Only one person would be calling him Sunshine.
"William Solace, I swear to all the gods-"
Will opened the door, letting a blinding shaft of sunlight enter the dark cabin. Nico hissed and stuck his head under the covers. There was a sigh, followed by the sound of footsteps. Seconds later, a weight sunk onto the bed next to him.
Will's voice, much closer now, said, "If you don't get out of bed right now, I'm going to tickle you."
Nico leaped out from under the covers like somebody had fired a gun. "You wouldn't dare."
Will smirked and wiggled his fingers. "Wanna see?"
Nico threw his pillow at Will, scowling. While the son of Apollo was distracted, he jumped out of bed and went to the bathroom to change.
When he came back, Will was standing by the door, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Come on, Death Breath. Chiron's called a counselor meeting and everybody's waiting for you."
The Romans had been invited. A shimmering Iris Message containing Reyna, Frank, Hazel, Jason, and Piper hung in the air next to Chiron. The centaur stood at the head of the table, looking worried. Sitting at the table was Miranda Gardiner, Sherman Yang, Malcolm Pace (Annabeth was at college with Percy), Leo Valdez (and Calypso), Connor and Travis Stoll, Pollux, Butch, and Lou Ellen.
Will sat next to Lou. Nico sat beside him, put his head on the son of Apollo's shoulder, and went to sleep. Will put an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders and tuned in to the conversation.
"So you're telling me there are hundreds of potentially hostile children of Hecate and we have to go fight their war for them?" Butch asked.
"Not all of them are children of Hecate. In fact, there is only one living child of Hecate in that country at the moment. However, they do practice magic," Chiron clarified.
"Well, Pipes and I are still working on the shrines. We can't go off on another save-the-world quest, at least until the minor gods are accounted for," Jason said.
"And Reyna is praetor. If she leaves the legion right now, we might get another Octavian situation," Piper added.
"Why do we have to go help these people-oh sorry, wizards-when we don't even know them?" Sherman asked.
The room erupted into arguments. Demigods were taking sides. Some wanted to help the wizards, most were against it. There were so many people talking at once that it took Will several seconds to realize that Nico had sat up and was trying to say something.
"Guys!" Will shouted. He waited for the assembled demigods to settle down a little before continuing, "Nico wants to say something."
Nico cleared his throat. "I think we should help them. If this Dark Lord person really manages to get control of all of those people practicing magic, the results are going to be bad. Not only for them, but for us and the Romans. We've also got to remember that they work with magic. If they decide we're a threat, we wouldn't be able to rely on the magical borders to protect us."
"Okay, so say we send a couple demigods over to help. How are they gonna get there? If I remember, they're somewhere over in Europe or Asia or something," Sherman said.
"I'm so glad you asked. I'll be shadow travelling," Nico said.
"He means we will be shadow travelling," said Will.
Nico glanced at the son of Apollo, then scowled at the table. "Fine." Will grinned victoriously.
"I'm coming as well," Hazel spoke from the Iris Message, "Nico's my brother and I don't want him getting hurt. Besides, I can help with the shadow travel, like we did during the House of Hades."
Nico looked at his half-sister and nodded.
"Then I'm coming too. I'm not leaving Hazel," Frank said.
"Three is the safest number of demigods on a quest-," Malcolm started.
"Yes, but Nico and Hazel will be tired from shadow travelling and Will will need to heal them. It would be smart to have a fourth person to keep watch while everybody rests," Frank interrupted.
Reyna spoke, "Then it's decided. Frank and Hazel be coming over shortly."
Chiron nodded and turned to Nico and Will. "Please be packed by this afternoon. You leave when the Romans arrive."
Frank and Hazel arrived on Arion's back in the late afternoon. ARion shot off as soon as Hazel fed him a fist-sized chunk of gold and Frank unloaded their bags. Nico and Will were waiting for them by the pine tree, their bags at their feet. Hazel greeted Nico with a hug.
The four demigods circled up and held hands. Frank glanced at the other demigods, trying to gauge their emotions. Will looked like he was doing something he didn't want to do, but was doing it anyways. It probably had something to do with the last time Nico had shadow travelled across the Atlantic Ocean, when he, Reyna, and Coach Hedge transported the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood. Nico himself looked indifferent to the whole thing, but his hand was gripping Will's so tightly their knuckles had turned white. Hazel, who was between Nico and Frank, had a determined glint in her eye. She looked up at Frank and smiled. Frank smiled back, doing a happy dance inside his head.
"Ready guys?" Nico asked.
The other three demigods nodded. Nico closed his eyes, and the shadows engulfed them.
They were spit out into a dimly lit forest. Almost immediately, Nico and Hazel collapsed. Frank quickly caught both of them and laid them gently on the damp leafy ground. Will sat between the two demigods, held a hand over their chests, and began glowing and singing a hymn to Apollo.
Frank strung his bow and pulled an arrow out of his quiver, then faced the surrounding forest, keeping watch for any potential threats.
"Frank! Some ambrosia, quickly!"
Frank rummaged around in his pack, grabbed a bag of the godly food, and handed it to the son of Apollo. He watched the healer anxiously as he put a square of ambrosia in Nico's mouth. Hazel appeared to be resting, but her half-brother was flickering dangerously. His entire right arm was already engulfed in shadow.
"-Stan Shunpike."
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah."
Frank stiffened and searched for the source of the voices. He glanced back at Will, who was now holding two hands over Nico's chest and chanting rapidly, then headed into the woods. Nico would be okay. Will was the best healer they had.
Frank stopped at the edge of a clearing, poked his head around a tree, and saw several people yelling at each other. There seemed to be five or six in total. Frank turned into a bear, charged into the clearing, and roared.
Most of the people fled. Frank assumed they were wizards, since they all had been waving around thin sticks of wood that were probably wands. He morphed back into human form and started to lower his bow, but froze when something poked his back.
"Who are you?"
Frank turned to face a ginger-haired boy who was pointing a stick of wood at him. The son of Mars assumed it was a wand, mostly because it was glowing at the tip.
"Frank. Frank Zhang."
"Are you a Death Eater? What's up with the bloody bow and arrow?"
Frank choked. "I'm sorry, what? Thanatos eater?"
"Thana what?"
"Never mind. Are you a wizard?"
"Yeah." The boy sounded defensive.
"Oh, okay." Frank put the arrow back in his quiver. The wizard blinked.
"What? Weren't you going to shoot me?"
"No! My friends and I are here to help you wizards against some sort of Dark Lord."
"Your friends? Where are they?"
"This way." Frank led the ginger wizard back to where the other demigods were.
Will had started a fire, laid out four sleeping bags, and started on dinner. Hazel and Nico both seemed to be sleeping peacefully, though the grass around the son of Hades had withered and died. Will looked up as Frank entered the camp. He started to wave in greeting, but faltered as he saw the ginger-haired wizard behind the son of Mars. Frank grinned sheepishly and went to introduce them.
"Will, this is a wizard I met in the woods. He's one of the guys we're supposed to be helping."
Will stood up and extended his hand in greeting. "Hi, I'm Will Solace."
"Ron Weasley," the wizard said, shaking the offered hand.
"That's Nico and Hazel," Frank said, pointing at the two sleeping demigods, "You can meet them when they wake up."
Nico suddenly let out a strangled scream and say bolt upright, eyes darting around in panic. Immediately, Will was at his side, a canteen of unicorn draught in his hand.
"Hey, Nico. It's okay. You're safe. Look at me, okay? Take deep breaths."
Nico leaned forward and put his head on Will's shoulder. Will hugged the son of Hades, patting his back comfortingly. Frank sighed, wishing Hazel was awake.
"Does that happen often?" Ron looked startled and worried.
"I guess. Nico's got it the worst out of all of us," Frank said.
"That's… kind of worrying."
Frank shrugged. "We've gotten used to it. The nightmares are mostly flashbacks nowadays, though, so we don't have to worry about prophetic dreams anymore."
"What?"
"Never mind. Want a sandwich?"
"Sure."
The son of Mars led Ron to the campfire, where Will had laid out four sandwiches. Ron practically inhaled half of his before stopping for some water. Will joined them a couple minutes later after making sure Nico was okay. The son of Hades was already asleep again.
"Not to be awkward or anything, but are you guys dating?" Ron asked.
Will looked a bit startled. "Nico and I?"
Ron nodded.
"Yeah, we are." The son of Apollo took on a slightly more defensive tone. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"No! Of course not! You guys just seemed close," Ron explained quickly.
Will grinned. "Yeah, we're close."
The meal continued in comfortable silence. When he finished his sandwich, Ron lay on his back and stretched.
"I've got to go back. To my friends, I mean. I left them back in the woods by the river. They're probably gone by now, but it wouldn't hurt to check..." The wizard trailed off, looking sad.
"We'll help you look for your friends in the morning," Will said.
Frank nodded in agreement, feeling sleepy already.
"Okay, thanks." Ron rolled over, turning his back to the fire.
Will stood up. "I'll keep watch. I've got to keep an eye ehe on Nico and Hazel anyways. If there's an attack, I'll let you know."
Frank nodded in response and flopped on his sleeping bag. In seconds, he was asleep.
They didn't find Ron's friends the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. Several weeks had passed since the demigods' arrival in Britain. Hazel had woken up fully recovered on the second day. She'd been surprised to see that Ron had joined them, but got on reasonably well with him. Nico had alternated between sleep and wakefulness for several days, but was fully conscious one week later. He was cold and distant to Ron, a stark contrast to the wizard's first impression of him. Ron seemed thrown off by the difference, but took it in stride and responded by acting as casually as possible around the son of Hades in hopes to gain his trust, or at least get him to not hate him as much.
The five had spent the weeks journeying from forest to forest, only going into towns for supplies and to get bits of news. They travelled by Side-Along Apparation, since the demigods didn't have wands and couldn't travel as they normally would. They had opted to keep their identities secret from Ron, at least until they knew they could trust him. The demigods had been attacked by monsters frequently, to Ron's confusion and worry, but they soon found that some wizard spells worked just as well as Celestial bronze, Imperial gold, or Stygian iron.
They also contacted Chiron and Reyna weekly, keeping them updated. Most of their messages had to be brief due to the wizard nearby, so the demigods mostly used them to say "hey, we're still alive."
It had begun to snow frequently, and the five often woke up to find their camp buried in snow.
"Too bad Ron can't do weather spells like the ones back home. We wouldn't have to worry about catching a cold anymore," Nico said to Will.
"I just can't believe we're nearly out of nectar, ambrosia, and unicorn draught. We can't find those things in a typical mortal supermarket," Will huffed.
"Maybe we can contact Chiron and ask him to send some supplies to us somehow," Nico replied.
"...remember Ron? When he broke his wand, crashing the car? It was never the same again…"
There was silence in the clearing. As if hypnotized, the demigods turned to face Ron at the same time. Nico had one hand on his sword hilt. The wizard was pulling a small silver object from his pocket with an expression of confusion and surprise. He clicked it slowly, as if in a dream. At once, the campfire was absorbed into the silver object.
A pulsing, bluish ball of light appeared a few feet away from Ron and began to bob towards him.
"Don't touch it! It's probably cursed!" Frank shouted.
Nico and Will both lunged forward at the same time in an attempt to intercept the ball of light. They crashed into each other and went sprawling in the snow.
"Di Angelo, get your bony butt off me."
"Sorry, sorry."
Nico helped Will get to his feet. They stiffened simultaneously, remembering the ball of light, and turned to find Ron standing perfectly still with a wondrous expression on his face.
"Uh, Ron? You good?"
"I know where we need to go. Is everyone packed?"
Will and Nico exchanged skeptical glances. Behind Ron, Frank and Hazel were having a silent conversation that probably included "our wizard has gone crazy, please send help".
Nonetheless, the demigods grabbed their bags and circled up around Ron. They Disapparated and reappeared in a dark snowy forest. They'd barely dropped their packs before Will felt a tingle go down his spine. He stiffened and straightened, glancing around wearily.
"What's wrong?" Nico asked.
"I don't know… I think I just felt a presence-" Will had barely finished his sentence before each demigod drew their weapons. Ron pocketed his Deluminator and held up his wand, ready to fight. The five stood in tense silence for several minutes until Will sucked in a breath.
"There." He pointed.
Everybody turned in that direction. Flickering through the trees was a bright silvery light that strongly resembled a doe. Suddenly, there were soft crunching footsteps. Someone was walking through the forest, coming after the doe, which had begun to move. Ron, seemingly without a second thought, followed the light. The demigods came in pursuit.
They'd barely moved out of the clearing before the bright silvery light vanished. A few minutes later, a narrow and much dimmer light replaced it. The new light wavered all over the place, as if searching the ground.
Suddenly, a loud crack exploded through the silence. The dim light lowered past a line of dark bushes. Ron hurried forward, the demigods following again. There was a splashing noise, as if someone had dived into a lake-though anyone going for a swim in this weather at this time of day was most likely insane.
Ron disappeared beyond the line of bushes. There was a mutter of "bloody hell," quickly followed by a second splash. Hazel, who had been behind Ron, was the first to cross the bushes. She gave a squeak of surprise and turned her back to whatever was in the clearing, fanning her face. Will and Nico pushed past Hazel and Frank, who had stayed behind with her.
A mostly frozen lake occupied the clearing. A hole had been punched through the layer of ice on its surface. A heap of clothes and a still-lit wand lay on the bank. Will started towards the lake, Nico right behind him.
Ron suddenly surged out of the water, dragging another wizard behind him, spraying flecks of ice everywhere.
"Are-you-mental?" Ron panted.
The other wizard looked up sharply, as if surprised.
"Why the hell," Ron held up a locket with a severed chain, "didn't you take this thing off before you dived?"
"That's what you're worried about?" Will interrupted, "He could have gotten hypothermia or pneumonia or frostbite!" The son of Apollo was in full doctor mode now. He knelt next to the other wizard and began feeling his pulse.
"Who are you?"
Will shuffled in his pack for some medicinal herbs. His fingers grabbed the last leaf from the now-empty bag.
"Will Solace. Eat this." Will gave the leaf to his patient. He took the herb, eyed it skeptically, shrugged, and popped it in his mouth, chewing slowly.
The effect was immediate. The boy was no longer shivering and didn't look quite so pale. He began pulling on clothes from the heap next to him, layering up with about six shirts and three pants. Once he was done getting dressed, he picked up the wand from the ground and stuck it in his pocket.
"Okay, I'll introduce everybody. Will and Nico, this is Harry. Uh, Harry Potter."
The wizard-Harry-held his breath, as if waiting for the demigod's reactions. When their only response was their names, he exhaled in relief.
"Will! Nico! Is everything alright?" Hazel's voice came from behind the trees.
"Yeah," Will called back.
"Okay, we're coming down."
Frank and Hazel joined the group at the riverbank. Ron introduced them to Harry.
"I think we can agree that the doe was a Patronus," Harry said.
"Yeah," Ron replied.
"Was it them?" Harry indicated the demigods.
"No. They don't have wands."
"What? Aren't you guys wizards?" Harry was addressing the demigods now.
"No, we're just mortals-uh, Muggles. We fight with swords and stuff," Frank said, using the cover story the demigods had adopted.
"Oh, okay." Harry turned back to Ron. "You got the Sword and the locket, right?"
Ron showed the mentioned items. Harry nodded. "Okay, now let's destroy the- what?"
The locket twitched in Ron's hands, then launched itself towards Hazel. She caught it, looking flustered.
"I'm so sorry! There was a voice in my head, and I felt that tug in my gut that usually happens when I use-" she cut herself off and glanced to Frank, who winced and shrugged helplessly.
Harry narrowed his eyes. "I thought you guys didn't have wands."
"And I thought we agreed not to ask too many questions," Nico stepped in, the warning clear in his voice.
Ron looked confused. "We did?"
Harry whipped the wand out of his pocket and pointed it at Nico, but the son of Hades darted forward and had his sword under the wizard's throat in seconds.
"Nico, murder is below the line behavior," Will said, putting a hand on his boyfriend's shoulder, "Besides, we can't kill them. We're supposed to be helping them, remember?"
Nico scowled, but stepped back and sheathed his sword. Harry was silent, Ron was staring open-mouthed at Nico.
Frank cleared his throat. "You were talking about destroying something. I assume it's the locket? It's probably cursed or something then, so we won't be able to damage it. Is that what the sword's for?"
"Uh, yeah." Ron shook himself out of his stupor. "Okay Harry, here's the sword. Hazel, can you give him the locket?"
The daughter of Pluto nodded and handed the locket to Harry, who had not said anything and was watching Hazel suspiciously.
"I'm going to open it," said Harry, getting back on track, "and you, Ron, stab it."
"Wait, what? Why me?"
"Because you took the Sword from the lake. Ready?" Harry dropped the Horcrux on the ground. Instinctively, the demigods drew their weapons and surrounded the locket, leaving Harry and Ron-who was now holding the Sword-in front of it.
"Is everyone ready? Be careful, because whatever's inside is going to put up a fight."
Ron nodded mutely, the demigods responded with "Yeah"s or "Yes"es.
"One, two, three...open." Harry's voice garbled on the last word, turning into a harsh hissing sound.
The locket snapped open, revealing one human eye on each door, then emitted a dark smoke that billowed into the air and grew several large red eyes.
Nico was the first to react, but it wasn't in the way the wizards expected: he dropped to his knees, hyperventilating. Memories of Tartarus flashed across his mind, images of Bianca dying, his mother being struck by lightning, his father scorning him, Will abandoning him. His sword clattered to the ground, which was turning brown and dead at his feet.
"Nico!" Will kneeled next to the smaller boy and hugged him. "Neeks-What's wrong? What are you seeing?"
Will himself saw patients he had failed to save, but he ignored the visions and focused on the boy in his arms. "Nico, come on…"
The earth trembled at Hazel's feet, but nothing broke the surface. Her eyes were clouded with the past pain of being drowned alive in oil, using her own powers to bring down the cavern around her and her mother.
Frank was shaking, staring at the eye in front of him. He was kneeling at Thanatos's feet, using the flames from the wood connected to his own life force to cut the chains. He reached the final chain, but there wasn't enough wood left-ashes fell from his fingers as Frank toppled sideways, his body racked with pain. Hazel was screaming in the distance, a giant was laughing, Arion was whinnying…
In front of Harry, he saw Voldemort killing his parents, Cedric dying before his eyes, Sirius falling through the Veil, Ginny lying bloody and pale on the floor, Lupin struck by a Killing Curse. His resolve faltered, but he turned from the visions to face Ron, who was staring at the eye in front of him with a disgusted look on his face.
Abruptly, he brought the sword down; it slashed through the smoke and cleaved the locket in two. With a howl of agony, the smoke dissipated, revealing the demigods in varying states of despair. They seemed to realize they were being watched and faced the wizards shakily.
"Um… right. I was thinking we should find the tent again," Harry said, pretending not to have seen the four Muggles at their weakest moments. He had the feeling Nico would kill him if he brought up the subject.
"What tent?" Hazel asked.
"You'll see. It looks small, but it's a lot bigger on the inside," Harry said.
They gathered their scattered belongings and walked the relatively short journey to the wizards' tent. Inside, Hermione was sleeping next to a bowl of blue flames.
"Hermione, wake up!" Harry tapped her shoulder. The witch stirred and sat up.
"Harry? What's wrong?"
"Nothing! I just brought a couple people over."
"What are you talking about? Who-" She stopped mid-sentence as she spotted Ron. Hermione stood slowly, then leapt at him and punched Ron in the face.
"What the-Hermione! Bloody hell-"
"You complete arse Ronald Weasley! You crawl back here after weeks, weeks-Harry, where's my wand? Give me my wand, Harry Potter!"
Harry backed up instinctively, shouting, "Protego!"
An invisible shield burst into existence between Ron and Hermione, the force of it pushing them both back several feet.
"I'm sorry-"
"You think a simple sorry will be enough? We could have been dead for all you knew-"
"I wanted to come back the minute I Disapparated," Ron began yelling over her, "But I walked right into a gang of Snatchers and I couldn't go anywhere!"
Hermione crossed her arms, her glare so fierce it nearly matched Nico's. Harry glanced over towards the entrance of the tent as Ron recounted his tale. The strange Muggles were standing outside, waiting, it seemed, for permission to enter. Frank and Hazel were watching the scene inside with wide eyes, and Nico and Will seemed to be in an intense argument.
"I'm fine, William Solace!" Nico yelled, and began walking away from the blond. Will followed him, catching up to the shorter boy quickly and wrapping his arms around him.
Harry felt a pang of longing for Ginny's company. He turned his attention back to Ron and Hermione, who now seemed to be discussing the silver doe.
"I can't believe this! Then what happened?"
"Well, Harry opened it with Parseltongue, and I stabbed it. Frank and the others were getting attacked by another monster. Don't worry though, they got rid of it easily."
Harry felt a surge of gratitude towards Ron for lying for the Muggles. They all seemed so young and had gone through so much, probably more than he had. He suddenly felt a rush of protectiveness towards the four, even though they could probably handle themselves just fine.
Harry realized someone was calling his name, and he shook himself out of his thoughts.
"Harry! Are you listening to me?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah."
"I was wondering if you could introduce me to the people outside."
"Oh, right."
Harry wondered why she wasn't asking Ron. After all, Ron had known the Muggles longer than he had. Then he realized Hermione was pointedly ignoring Ron; she would look just above his head and direct most of her questions to Harry.
Harry went outside, followed by Hermione and Ron. Frank and Hazel were now standing next to Nico and Will; the four of them seemed to be discussing something.
"...contact Chiron. He'll be able to figure this out."
"Yeah."
"What are you guys talking about? Who's Chiron?"
The Muggles stiffened and exchanged glances with each other. Hermione's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Chiron is our teacher. He was friends with Dumbledore, and sent us here to help you guys fight this war against the Dark Lord," Frank said.
Ron nodded, having known some of this already. Hermione, on the other hand, was eyeing the Muggles as if contemplating where and when she could grill them for information. Nico returned her stare with an icy glare, making the witch break eye contact. Harry, sensing the building tension, introduced the Muggles to his friends quickly.
"Okay… Now that that's been taken care of, can we go sleep somewhere?" Will asked, yawning.
"Yeah. Come on, I'll give you a tour of the tent," Ron said.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to review, constructive criticism is appreciated!