BWAHAHAHAH! I OWN EVERYTHING!
Nah, I'm kidding, I don't own anything (sadly)
CHAPTER 4Nico POV
I was standing in a dark room, lit by a dim, flickering chandelier. There was a blazing fireplace, against one of the mouldy pale walls. There was a blood red arm chair in front of it, with a rug on the floor. There was also a short man with long shaggy brown hair; he had rat features, a small button nose and beady mouse eyes. The man's hair was long and shaggy, like hasn't cut it in years. He was cowering in fear in front of the arm chair. "Your have disappointed me, Wormtail." Said a raspy voice, it was quiet and creepy. "P-please, my m-master, I didn't mean to. The h-headmaster has con-convinced the ministry t-to let him back into H-H-Hogwarts." Whimpered Wormtail, I think. "I will not tolerate incompetence. You were meant to make sure that the dementor attack was going to get him expelled!" The voice continued. "N-no my Lord please, have m-mercy!" he pleaded, bending down to his knees. "Crucio!" A bright light came towards Wormtail. He wailed in agony, as it struck him with such force he went flying back into the rotting, cracked wall.
In the morning the whole Gryffindor house looked worried to see me. As I went to breakfast, everyone kept glancing at me, like they were surprised to see me in public. I couldn't stand it any longer; the stares they were giving me were really annoying. I calmly walked up to Harry and asked him.
"Why is everyone giving me weird looks?" Harry looked startled, his eyes widened when he saw me, but then he looked down at his shoes as we walked.
"Oh, um . . . well, last night you kind of started attracting the shadows around you, at night. We were worried and someone formed a rumour that you can control the darkness. It's just a silly rumour, and I don't believe it, but you did look a bit, um . . ."
"Creepy," I finished, "yeah I get that a lot." We reached the Great Hall; I slumped on the bench at the Gryffindor table and started filling up my plate with fluffy pancakes and drowning them in syrup. I scraped a part of my meal into the brazier in front of me, which, I figured, appears in front of me wherever I sit.
"Why do you throw away your food into fire before you eat?" Asked Ron with a mouthful of toast, the view was disgusting. Hermione scolded him.
"Ron," Hermione hissed into his ear, "it's rude to ask questions like that." although she started to look at me with curiosity.
"That's ok." I said, while my mind was forming an answer as I said that. "In my religion, I am supposed to sacrifice a portion of my food into the brazier. If not, something bad can happen. It's like a superstition, but it's much more serious where I come from." Most of it is true . . .
"Oh." Ron muttered.
"Really, what religion is it? I've never heard of something like that." Hermione looked interested, but also a bit annoyed. Just like Annabeth when she doesn't know the answer. Before I could make up another lie she glanced over my shoulder and scowled. I turned around and saw two, rather large guys, who reminded me of Frank Zhang, walking on either side of a skinny pale kid. His hair was bleached blond; he had a pointy, aristocratic face. They were from Slytherin, I could tell from their ties being silver and green.
"I heard that you're making friends with Loony Lovegood, Potter. Is that true?"said the blonde kid.
"Sod off, Malfoy." growled Harry, who was sitting next to me.
"Now, now Potter, I'm not here for you. I just wanted to meet the exchange student." He turned to face me and stuck his hand out.
"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. These are Crabbe" He pointed to the slightly shorter one, "and Goyle." He pointed over his left arm to the really big kid.
"So are you a Pureblood, Half-blood or a Mud- Muggle born?" It might have been my imagination, but I could swear I saw his eyes quickly roll over to Hermione.
"Half-blood" I said reluctantly, not having any idea what the other ones were.
"Well, it's better than being a mudblood." he snorted, "You should watch your company di Angelo. Hanging around with mudblood Ganger isn't going to get you very popular with the Slytherins." Draco turned on his heel and left before any one of us could say anything. The door to the Great Hall opened loudly, revealing a stern looking professor McGonagall. She breezed through the hall and walked over to me.
"Mr di Angelo, this is your lesson schedule." She handed me a fresh piece of parchment with writing all over it. Then she leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper so no one else could hear.
"Mr di Angelo, professor Dumbledore told me who you are. Therefore we translated your timetable and books into ancient Greek for you." She gave me a backpack, "You will also find a wand, which is specially made for you, and school books, written in you language."
"Thank you, professor." I said. As soon as she left Ron leaned in and asked.
"What did she want?"
"None of your business" I snapped. I hate it when people stick their noses somewhere they shouldn't. And I had a good feeling that the trio specialized in being nosey. I got up and left for my first lesson, leaving my breakfast on the table.
Harry POV
That Nico guy was strange. First he apparates into our compartment, then he makes the sorting hat go mental and now he just snapped at Ron for no apparent reason. Oh, and he also attracts shadows like a magnet while sleeping. There's something wrong with him. Last night, before Nico came into the hall, Ron told me that he could be a death eater. Hermione took offence for that, but I couldn't understand why. She didn't even know the guy, for Merlin's sake!
I took a look at my timetable. Luckily I was with Hermione and Ron the whole day. Unfortunately, we had double potions first, with the Slytherins. We made our way to the dungeons, and stood outside our potions class. To my surprise, Nico was also in the lesson. Maybe I could talk to him and find out more about him. Snape came over and opened the door. We went into the classroom. Hermione, Ron and I took our usual places in the back of the room. Nico sat directly in front of us, which was really useful; it could give me a chance to talk to him.
Today we were supposed to be brewing Sleeping Draught, which involved messy ingredients, written down on the blackboard, such as flobberworm mucus. Neville wasn't having any luck with the potion - his cauldron started spewing smoke in the first 10 minutes. Snape evacuated everyone and went back in to conjure some magic mops or something. I took the chance and, along with two of my best friends, we went up to him.
"Hey Nico," smiled Hermione, "how's it going?"
"Uh, good I guess . . ." He replied doubtfully. He was obviously suspicious. "I'm sorry I snapped earlier, I just don't like when people try to find out things about me." What could he be hiding?
"That's okay."
"What are –" I was cut off by Snape. He came out to tell us to get back in, not a single Gryffindor looked happy about that.
"That's 20 points from Gryffindor, for delaying my lesson, Longbottom." muttered the teacher. Neville looked worried about the outraged looks Gryffindors had on their faces. But none of us were angry with him; it was Snape who pissed us all off. It wasn't Neville's fault that Snape put him under pressure.
It was almost the end of the lesson, and my potion was almost finished; it was a smooth purple substance, gently brewing in the cauldron. But I couldn't say the same for Nico's, his potion was viper green, and it was bubbling away in a dangerous way - like an erupting volcano. He frowned and squinted at the board. Snape was hovering above the new kid.
"Tell me, Mr di Angelo, can you read?" asked Snape. The Slytherins snickered at that.
"Actually sir, I can't." Nico replied. Everyone was stunned. How can he not be able to read, being in 5th year?
"What do you mean?" Snape barked.
"I have dyslexia sir, meaning that letters get twisted around in my head." He said.
"See me after class." As if on cue, the bell rang and I headed towards the door. Hermione and Ron left for charms after I told them I'll catch up with them later. I decided to wait and ask Nico a few questions. After a few minutes, Nico stormed past me. I had to run to keep up with him.
"What's up Nico?" I asked.
"Nothing." He said, not bothering to look at me.
"Come on, I know what Snape is like. You can trust me."
"No, I can't." He stopped and looked at me. His black soulless eyes bore into mine. I couldn't stand his glare and looked away. He walked off, the shadows clinging to him like glue. I didn't see him for the rest of the day. Nico also didn't show up at dinner, or in the Gryffindor tower for that matter . . .
The following days I hardly saw him at mealtimes, and when I did I saw him sitting at the very end of the table, by himself. He would not talk to anyone, at all. I said 'at all' what I meant was, anyone except for Luna Lovegood . . . it was shocking, but she was the only person in the whole school willing to go up to him and carry out a normal conversation. Ron sniggered at that thought, a weirdo and a freak – and I thought he was right. Me, Ron and Hermione tried to talk to Luna about him, but she never said much. No matter how much we pestered her about it, she would ignore our questions and start talking about Nargles or Wrackspurts, whatever they were.
I felt really confused, Hermione started acting really strange – she was distracted and even forgot her charms homework assignment! I think it's because she was too busy researching the di Angelo family - and Ron began babbling about death eaters. They both started saying that I should be careful around Nico, and they were completely right. I mean, what kind of 15 year old, apparatus into my compartment makes the sorting hat go mental and then says that he has a muggle disability. He was not normal. I wanted to know as much about him as possible, even if it meant spying on him with the marauders map and the invisibility cloak. But I spoke to Dumbledore, and he said that he was on our side and not to get involved.
Then again, me, Ron and Hermione always got involved, and knew almost everything what was going on at Hogwarts. I couldn't shake the feeling that Nico was evil, a death eater - or even worse, Voldemort's son . . .
AUTHOR'S NOTE!
I am so sorry guys! I was busy so I didn't work on the story much, please don't kill me! Also thank you for those who put up with me and were patient! I am sorry that this one is so short, the next one will be longer! :) Please remember that you can PM me any ideas you have for the story!
here's cookies for you (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
