Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter/Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus. Get it? No? Je n'ai pas Harry Potter/Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus. Still don't get it? Ich habe nicht Harry Potter/Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus. Not on hook yet? Guys, this is the last language I know; Ana la amlik Harry Potter/Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus.
Story setting: The second book of the trilogy, takes place during 'Half-Blood Prince'. The Second Giant War has already been won.
Update schedule: About once every week, or every other week.
FOLLOWING FIVE CHAPTERS:
Chapter 2-Summer at Privet Drive
Chapter 3-The Sixth Year Prefect
Chapter 4-Watch out Diagon Alley- here come the Stolls!
Chapter 5- Return to Hogwarts
Chapter 6- An Uneventful Beginning
O
'Nico at Hogwarts (Year 6): More Than a Half-Blood Prince'
Chapter 2: Summer at Privet Drive
Part 1: On Too Much Fire
As far as Nico could remember, his life was always a series of one problem after another, so it really shouldn't have surprised him when he found himself faced with another little fix.
But he was. And if that wasn't enough to warn anyone that this 'little fix' was a tad bit bigger that 'little' then let's just mention the fact that that day, the sun was bright, and many people were standing outside, not to mention the shades provided by the cabins-a source of light, check, an opaque object and screen, check. Shadows? Double check.
But when Nico tried to shadow travel, he couldn't. Literally. The son of Hades had no way of explaining it besides the shadows literally pushing him away. He always saw them as a sort of comfort other than good means of transport- he always stood or sat with one side to the shadows, but now, it was like they were rejecting him.
"Trouble?" Nico jumped, and turned towards a sheepish looking Leo Valdez who was standing right behind him. Percy, who was standing beside the son of Hephaestus, waved aimlessly.
"No." Nico said defiantly- it was just some stupid glitch- he would eventually get it right.
"Aw, come on." Leo said indignantly, his hair setting on fire to prove his disdain. "I'll get you that Oreo McFlurry- promise! Look, I didn't mean to set your closet on fire, really, man, but that's not an excuse to practically push yourself at thin air."
Nico felt himself wince involuntarily. "Is it that obvious?" he asked uncertainly.
"Nope." Percy sad, popping the 'p'. "No one's noticing you have a battle against nothing. It'll just pass as mime practice, don't worry." he said cheerfully, playing with a piece of paper in his hand. He was unfolding it now and then, smiling brightly, and then folding it again and looking smug.
Nico looked around, but no one was looking at him- or maybe they just caught their cue and looked away in time.
"What are you do doing together anyway?" Nico asked, trying to draw the conversation away from him.
Leo and Percy shared a look, then turned to Nico with what he knew were fake innocence in their expressions.
"Nothing." they said simultaneously, and Nico didn't believe them for a moment.
"Guy stuff." Percy added. "For older guys. You wouldn't understand anyway, Nico."
"I'm not a kid!" Nico demanded angrily. "I'm fifteen."
"And I'm sixteen, gonna be seventeen." Leo said, sticking out his tongue.
"I''m almost eighteen- that's how old I'll be before you go for your second year at that school with a funny name- so I'm basically almost a legal adult." he went with the more mature means of smirking smugly. Nico rolled his eyes.
"So, are you gonna tell us, or should we bother you until you do?" asked Leo innocently.
"I-I can't shadow travel- something's wrong." admitted Nico reluctantly, throwing Leo a challenging look and daring him to spread it around- he knew Percy wouldn't say anything, but after that little fire incident in the Hades Cabin, and Leo totally being to blame for the loss of Nico's McFlurry (he had to empty his ice cream onto the fire to help put it out), his trust in the son of Hephaestus was bruised.
"Can't...shadow travel?" Percy stuttered, his eyes widening as Leo's own grew the size of saucers. "Nico, that's not normal. Maybe you should tell Chiron?"
"No, no!" Nico said hurriedly, feeling panic shoot through his veins. "I don't want to worry him anymore- its just some sort of...error. Just a tiny mistake, and time will fix it. Camp has its own problems- the monsters and everything. And most of them have really thick hides, so Connor's theory about weapons being as harmful as Percy the legal adult's pillow-pet panda may not be too wrong." Leo snorted with laughter, though he look slightly worried, as Percy blushed.
"Alright, then. I'll do you a favor and not tell Annabeth, who will most definitely report to Chiron. Not that I'd tell her anyway- she's not keeping her side of the deal anymore." he pouted miserably.
"What do you mean she's not 'keeping her side of the deal'?" Nico asked incredulously.
"She...she doesn't confide in me anymore. She hasn't been sleeping well the last few days- I can just tell. But she's not telling me what's bothering her either." Percy looked positively upset at that. "I mean, I'm trying to stay as open with her as I can- I just tease her about secrets now and then, but she doesn't seem to mind, and it's driving me nuts. I'm pretty sure Rachel knows though- I've seen them talk about it."
"Girls will be girls, man." Leo shrugged. "Now we've got to worry more about Nico- since he can't book at seat at the Shadow Express, we'll have to take him to that place...Drivet Prive, won't we, Perce?"
"No you won't." Nico said stubbornly. In truth, he did need a few fresh ideas, getting to Privet Drive, but he was still holding a grudge against Leo.
"We'll buy you a Happy Meal along the way." Leo promised. "Come on, man- we're not driving you to Britian, but we can just drop you off at New York or something- don't wizards have brooms to fly on?"
"There is no way, I am riding one of those things." Nico vowed. The concept of rising up to Uncle Z's territory made him shudder- he'd be burned to a crisp in a second...or not, since Hades made it clear he was allowed to go wind/sea surfing, but that didn't exactly reassure him.
Leo blinked. "Wow!" he breathed. "Those are actually real? I was only being sarcastic."
"When are you not?" Percy retorted.
"...Touche, then."
"I can use...the Knight Bus." Nico said, snapping his fingers suddenly. That piece of information was buried deep in his brain with all the other stuff Hecate had shoved in there, but he sought it out in the end and captured it.
"Oh-kaaayy...Well, you know, I was kidding about there being a Shadow Express. Now there's a Night Bus, too? The next thing you say, they have magic carpets that can fly!"
"We- I mean, they do." Nico said as he watched Leo's jaw drop and Percy start laughing. "And it's the Knight Bus. Knight, as in, K-N-I-G-H-T, with a silent K. And flying carpets were banned since as group of idiots decided it would be cool to fly over a bunch of Mug- er, mortals, and then fell off on top of them. So they're pretty much out of law now- especially since it is pretty easy to fall off, once you think about it."
Leo's mouth was open, and his hand was raised in protest, but he didn't look like he knew what to say. His eye twitched and he let his hand drop to his side. Percy looked like he was enjoying himself immensely.
"Let's...just go get a cab." Leo sighed, and Nico felt a sort of smug satisfaction as he watched Percy run off to call Argus and ask him for a ride to a fairly used avenue where they could get a cab.
-O-
Everything was fine- boring, but fine, really, until Leo set the taxi on fire.
In the end, Leo did keep his promise- he bought Nico a Happy Meal with an X-tra large McFlurry, but one ice cream, a burger, and a few fries didn't last an entire cab ride from Long Island to New York- he really tried to pass the time, he did, but it was plain boring. He tried to sleep for a while, but found he couldn't with all the honking and rough driving. He tried to look out of the window, but all he could see was smoke, cars, people yelling at each other rudely out windows and shaking their fists (Sally Jackson wouldn't have wanted him to hear the words they were speaking) and buildings passing by. To put it simply- it sucked. Nico kept on asking Percy and Leo how much longer he had to wait, and kept getting a 'not long...' or 'I dunno' until he asked them once more out of boredom, knowing the answer he would get.
"I don't know how you people manage." Nico groaned quietly so only the other two demigods, who were both squished on either side could hear. "Trust Mrs O'Leary to choose a time like this to go wandering in the Underworld. How much longer?"
Percy rolled his eyes, which Nico expected, but Leo did something he didn't expect. He pulled out a phone- it wasn't anything fancy. It was reasonably average-sized, plain fiery red, and with a silver iron lining. Nico and Percy goggled at him as he pressed a button on the side, following an extremely complicated pattern he traced with his finger on the touch screen, and then said in a toneless voice- "We should be there in another fifteen minutes."
"Dude!" Percy breathed in awe staring at the phone, and reaching forward with his index finger to touch the golden 'FP' that was inscribed on the bottom left of the phone. Leo pulled it away immediately.
"Where'd you get that?" Nico said incredulously. "Demigods aren't supposed to have electronics- the three of us can attract enough monsters as it is, but you're just giving them a fire in the night to follow with that thing." he hissed.
"Heck of a difference that would make." Leo snorted. "Even Camp is barely safe- I'd take a boring cab ride over that huge cloud of fluster-buster hanging over everyone at camp, and I think so would both of you. And I didn't get it. I made it. It's still a prototype." Leo admitted, putting his phone in his pocket quickly- he threw a nervous glance at the taxi driver, who was humming, and oblivious to their discreet talking.
"What do you mean you made it?" Percy asked dubiously. "And yeah, how is it not attracting a horde of monsters?"
"Hang on," Nico said. The presence of demigods around had naturally hid his use of magic- not that they'd expel him anyway, but he liked to keep up with the rules occasionally, too. However...He pulled out his wand and muttered a 'Muffiato' so the driver couldn't hear them, but they could hear him if he decided to speak. No spark of light flew from his wand's tip- but he assumed that was just how the spell worked.
"Because it sends vibrations which repel anything that lead monsters to us; apparently, the existence of a demigod is like any other signal along the wireless, and you know how people keep away unwanted data from their gadgets by securing allowance to only a certain amount or kind of data? That's kind of how it is with demigod signals- a monster's brain picks up our location kind of like a phone picks up Bluetooth messages that pop up if someone wants to send you something- in this case, electronics send these signals to the monsters, alerting them of a nearby half-blood. I managed to install a program in a chip that repels any and everything exterior to what I specified and doesn't reach out to unwanted distances, so I won't receive enough outside data to attract attention to myself, and so no monster or any baddie knows where I am. It just needs a bit of tinkering on the anti-magnitude section, but I think this one's good enough for now." Leo ranted.
"Uh huh.." Percy said, slumping back into his seat with a sigh of amazement. "I'm just going to sit here and pretend I understood everything you said." Percy said with an angelic look at Leo, who rolled his eyes.
Despite being a jerk who hid in closets with cameras for his stupid documentary, Nico had to admit Leo was a genius when it came to building and manual thinking in general.
"You lost me somewhere around 'securing allowance to only a certain amount or kind of dama'." Nico confessed. Leo looked exasperated, but somewhat expectant.
"Data." Leo's correction was gone unnoticed, however.
"Whatever." he said. "The point is- it doesn't attract monsters. And it has this really cool program I made up- I call it the Ignis App. It's kind of like WhatsApp for demigods." he finished, smiling.
"So what are you going to call it? You know? Like, what 'brand' is it?" Percy asked while Nico threw him an annoyed look- that was what he was worried about?
"The Fire Phone." Leo answered simply, tapping the little golden 'FP'. "Or the Fire Phoenix if the previous name isn't good enough."
"Cool," Percy whispered.
"No it's not!" Nico protested. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because it's a prototype- it's not ready yet. Duh." Leo answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Would you have approved if I had flown the Argo II to New Rome before I made sure the ballistae was working well, or before I made sure the oars were capable of carrying the ship into the air despite all the opposition the laws of physics offer and the extra density of it?"
"That's different." Nico said defensively. "Annabeth's not bugging you to hurry up and get it done this time- and everyone did know about the Argo II- look, this maybe just a discussion I'm just dragging because this stupid cab is slow and I'm bored out of my mind, but why didn't you tell any Hephaestus kids? Couldn't they have helped you?"
"They would have." Leo admitted. "But I had to do this myself."
"Personal credit and all." Percy agreed, tapping Leo's shoulder as the son of Hephaestus smirked and nodded. Nico opened his mouth to say something else, but Leo beat him to it.
"Look," he said. "I'll give you a copy once it's ready- I'll even make it all black for you- I did buy you that Happy Meal, didn't I?"
"I paid for that!" Percy felt the urge to remind loudly.
"-I'll give you one if you quit arguing about my Fire Phones, kay?"
Nico considered this. "I get a skull phone-cover and my own head-phones?" he asked slowly, turning his eyes to the front in thought. The driver was talking on his own phone and driving with one hand. Typical ignorance of rules.
"Mini-skulls with x-shaped bones around the corners." promised Leo.
"Deal." agreed Nico, just as the driver turned their way and the taxi-cab halted to a stop.
"Erm...excuse me?" he said. "I think we're here. Or would you like to skip to the next station? I have a meeting with someone there anyway."
"No, please." Nico said desperately- he knew the driver couldn't hear him, but he really, really, didn't want to stay in that stuffed car any longer.
"All right." the driver said- Percy, Leo, and Nico exchanged gobsmacked looks.
"The station's just right there on the side-walk. You can walk out- I'm stuck in traffic- he gestured to the sea of colorful cars behind and in front of them.
"Uh...all right." Percy said, pushing the door open as Leo dug into the wallet Percy gave him. He handed the driver a 36-dollar note as they had agreed on.
"Is something wrong?" the young man asked.
"No, no, no, no..." Percy said hurriedly, poking his head through the door as Nico climbed off, almost stumbling.
"No. What gave you that impression?"
"Oh," the driver said sheepishly. "Sorry- it's just. Well, your faces. You look kinda worried."
"Nothing's wrong. D-don't worry." Nico said, but he didn't succeed in concealing his shock- which just meant he was more than usually shocked because he was normally good at holding back.
"Okay then," he said with a wink. "I'm around Little Eredinlen if you need me- Alex Desmond."
"Yeaaaaah..." Percy said. "Sure. Of course. We'll go see you. Again."
Alex was just about to turn around and drive when Leo's eyes widened-
"My Fire Phone!" Leo yelped- "Wait, le grand dude!" he opened the door again and dived for the seat and appeared to search for his FP Nico poked his head in to help him and get it over with just as Leo's fingers enclosed around the red phone.
And then the car burst into flames.
*Clears throat* MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! NYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES, FINALLY! I was bored for a week with my practical exams, and I still have the visual ones to do in May, but finally, finally I can have fun again! *Laughs* Yes, yes- this story isn't one of those that leave you baffled about facts and then throw them out of the window and give no explanation whatsoever after the fanfic is supposedly 'completed'. This is also a common thing with famous, normally well-liked novels. *Glares at Maze Runner*. Anyways, I realize the things I am yet to explain:
1) Why the Hecate kids were in the DOM and where the hell is Hecate.
2) Why Nico's spell didn't work. And why he couldn't shadow travel :P
3) Why the cab suddenly transforms itself into a fireplace. No, it's not Leo's fault, but he doesn't necessarily need to know that :P.
4) Annie's dreams. I haven't forgotten about them, see?
5)...A lot of other things I don't have the time nor patience to mention. List them out if you want, just in case :P.
Reference to Leo TOTALLY wasting ice cream is from one of my fanfics, 'The Leo Valdez Files'. SHALULA!7
I NEEEED A BETA. LIKE, SERIOUSLY. I CAN'T STAND RE-READING, AND I TYPE TOO QUICKLY NOT TO HAVE ANY MISTAKES.
Anyway: I kept getting the question of whether Nico would be in a relationship eventually in this or not. Let me get something straight (or, hehe, technically the opposite)- I'm a total Solangelo shipper. Really. I am. I don't like most people's all-straight attitude. I don't know any gay people, but I know it must be hard not to be accepted, so PROUDLY SHIP SOLANGELO! But the answer, is no. *Clears throat again* Cause of the conflicting pairings. And breaking all our little hearts to pieces, is the fact that Solangelo isn't cannon, and this fic is a 100% so. I can write a seperate Solangelo one-shot sometime, but this is a trilogy, so I don't want conflicting public opinions- I don't want Perico shippers getting mad if I have Solangelo, or vice-versa. And of course, I won't do anything non-cannon. You may be wondering why just ignore what others want and do what I prefer- well, it's because I don't much care for pairings in general (CALEO BEING AN OBVOUS EXCEPTION! EEEP!) and I'm focusing more on the action. *Bows* Now, back to other matters!
So, Plot's rolling well, and I can tell you Nico's year is going to start with a...blast. *Smirks evilly*
Thank you all, ya!
RRs:
Finwitch1: Wow. You guys are really good at guessing gifts, aren't you? Or maybe I'm too obvious. Anyway, yes, the IBOI and MBOM are definitely two books I'd gladly take into my collection. And I guess you're right about them knowing what they're doing. Yeah..well, honestly, that's a sucky way to read- and I don't know Braille. I've always marvelled at how the blind could read it- amazing. Anywho...Thanks for leavin' a review!
alealea: Me too! And trust, me you do NOT! I have three younger brothers to bug me for life-they're like the devil's incarnation.
Princess Of Flames: O-la-la! Good guess! You're the only one besides Finwich to guess it right. Or to bother guessing it at all, I guess. Yeah. I speak Arabic (And Frenc...and German), but I've been learning english since I could talk. And though Arabic isn't REALLY hard to read, it's giving me headaches with grammar. It's confusing. Grr! Anyway, thnks for leaving a review!
shadowell: Greetings, Slytherin! Yep, I'm a 'Claw. And PRRRROOOOUD! You should be proud to be in da House of Regulus Black, and Sev Snape, too!
HowlingRain: I just thought it was a good idea, see. And really nice :P Excited for your reviews, too! OOh, yah!, RAAAAVNCLAWS! WE GO DING, DANG, DING! BLUE AND BRONZE FOR THE WIN! AN EAGLE IS ALL BIRDS' KING! I'm a Rave, an PROUD!
Neon Wish: *Bows* My honor to meet a member of the badger house! Did you know that Jo Rowling's a Hufflepuff?
Kerowyn6: Yeah. Sorry. Writing in big paragraphs just makes me feel superior. Teehee :D. And I did just want to have a bit of fun with it, but yeah, I guess it isn't exactly professional. Heh. I trust your professional/kinda good drawing skills- just put anything and I promise it'll be on the cover. But I have a much...much...much more entertaning image in mind...*smirks* It has to do with a certain Boy Ferret and a son of Hades in a little potion explosion (that rhymed XD!). And of the Silver Quartet (that's what I'm dubbing them) leaning over an over-sized brochure with Ginny holding a quill. That'll be around Chapter 6 or something. Or 7. I dunno really, but I'm having far too much fun with this marauder stuff- but I really want this to be unique. It's really fun to write it all- and I feel like squealing whenever I think about something exciting..(*sigh* Fangirl Syndrome...) Well, yeah, I'm conflicting about character deaths, but I've decided at least two of my OCs will die, and that's final. Fiiiinnal. Don't worry though- you'll get your Tskiera. But I'm not having it all hugging and snogging (ha! another rhyme!) I'll have a few stages just to make it realistic, then maybe we'll move on to that. What'd you think?
Nope. Didn't get touched by an revoluntion here. But I did get touched by absolute boredom- mum/mom (adopting British here and can't figure which one I like...so stay loyal to both!) is too busy and school is still sucky (I'm not going to comment about the rhyming scheme here...oops.) and we can barely get out, but she;s promised we will when the summer hols arrive. IKR? Why on Earth do people like fighting and killing so much? Why does anyone care if you're Valorian/Martian/Australlian/American/Egyptian/Arab/French/German...all the other nationalities I didn't bother to list? Why can't we all live in peace and eat ice cream? *Rolls eyes* I suppose some things can't come true, but at least we have ice cream on our side! *Slicks* CCCHOOOOCOOLATE. Sorry. Hypernavelating. I'm just really glad my stupid practical exams+ German exam are over. Ich nicht spreiche Deutsch, and I'm pretty sure I made a mistake there ):I.
Haha! Well, I would have read it- really, I would have. But I still have Artemis Fowl on my to-read list. My friend's obsessed with it, but I don't really trust her opinion much to be honest. She keeps suggesting stuff like, OC/PJO Character, or Percy/Clarisse instead of Percabeth! You must be grimacing now- I know right! Apparently, if someone shoves your head down a toilet, they definitely have a crush on you! Twice. A. Freakin'. Year. Wow. Ce n'est la ve, c'est mort. Death. Literal death. That's...not good. Twice an year. *Shudder* That's one hell of a writer's block!
Hey, be proud to be in league with Rachel and the Weasleys!
Me neither! Or...or, The Examining Book of Examinations? The Injuring Book of Injuries? The Cursing/Hexing/Jinxing Book of Curses/Hexes/Jinxes? Uh-Oh...
IKR...But they are generally better than normal quizzes. Slytherin would be my next best choice after Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff, then Gryffndor cause I'm not brave *afraid of cockroaches...and all insects in general. I never looked at butterflies the same way after that SpongeBob episode...)
What's ASoIAF? I know that makes me sound like an amateur, but to be fair, I've only dived into the world of reading recently.
Thanks!
-Ambs.
XxanimegrimreapergirlxX: Y r u apologizing for being a Slytherin? *narrows eyes and stands on a 100-metre long pedestal* Be proud to be in the house of Regulus Black! Of Severus Snape! Of many of my friends! Be proud of your green and silver robes (those clash together soooo well ;D) You probably are. Anyway *clears throat* Thank you, thank you, thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, for leaving a reviewwwwwwwwwwwwww! (Luv ur avatar!)
hihihehehe: Done :).
Loggrapes : Glad you like the sibling fluff! And yeah, hope my answer satisfied you.
MarissaTodd: See top o' the AN for yer answa.
Neon Wish: :)
Hailey Face: *Bows* My honor.
fangirl2471999: Thanks, Dennie!