Worst chapter so far, in my opinion. Everyone is in a constant state of confusion, its short, and it has very little to do with the plot. Don't ask me why Nico goes southern in the middle, trust me when I say I meant to rewrite that part, but got caught up in other things. Sorry for that outrageous burst of OOC. Other than that, this really doesn't do much in the descriptive department. Who's the teacher? What hallway could he have run down? Why didn't anybody notice him slipping away? Why the sudden p.o.v. change? Whats the big deal here?

No Idea why this chapter in particular is so terrible. Next update Monday. Here goes:

Previously: Nico went back up to the dormitory after Percy had gone, pleased with the events of the day. He fell into an easy sleep, his dreams filled with memories of old times.

Days went by, then weeks, and before Nico knew it, it was Halloween. He had revisited the trapdoor twice, but he couldn't get past the plant. Others had been coming as well, the puppy was angry and restless the second time, but Nico knew they hadn't gotten past him yet. On Halloween night, something was wrong. There was an odd scent in the castle, an evil smell.

Monster, Nico categorized. He had two options: go to the feast and wait for whatever it was to find him, or go find it and kill it before it did any real damage. He wanted very badly to just wait, but if it attacked him in the great hall there'd be too many witnesses. So Nico broke away from the group and climbed the stairs. The instant he hit the top, the smell came over him. To his right, a shadow crawled along the wall. Nico grinned. He hadn't had a good fight in a while. He was about to step out and confront it, but a teacher ran down the Hallway, so Nico slipped back into an alcove and waited until the coast was clear. He stepped out, but the monster had already gone. Now there were screams from the hall; that teacher must have seen the monster and reported it. Nico followed the monster at a distance, waiting for it to turn and sense him. The noise from the hall intensified, and Nico looked over his shoulder to see panicked students being led to their common rooms. He was a little confused; it was too soon for the feast to have let out, but if they knew the beast was in the school, why would they put students in its path? He didn't have time to question, however, because soon the monster turned down a side corridor. Nico was even more confused, shouldn't it have sensed him by now? However, it seemed to be headed somewhere in particular. Another Half-blood? Entirely possible, but all of the students were at the feast. Nico supposed there was someone he didn't know about, because the monster was on a mission. Nico had a full view of it now, gray, lumpy, twelve feet tall, and altogether revolting. He stayed quiet as it went through an open door, and followed it into the bathroom. The girl's bathroom, he noted, and then he saw what the troll had been so intent on finding. Not that it was hard to find her, she let out a terrified scream as the troll approached. Nico paused for a second.

She's a half-blood? He thought in disbelief, but then he was distracted. Someone had slammed and locked the door shut.

Hermione was in the corner, and she shrieked, the noise echoing around the bathroom. Whoever had locked the door had obviously heard her scream, and the locked clicked open. In ran Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. At first they looked incredibly confused, staring at Nico, but then they saw Hermione in the corner. The troll was knocking the sinks off the walls, and Harry and Ron seemed to be trying to gain its attention by throwing things. Nico would have rolled his eyes if he thought it would do him any good, but his sword was already extending from his hand. The noise that the other two boys made was sufficient to make the troll turn in confusion, which Nico gathered was its regular state of being. The troll paid no mind, not that it had much to spare, to Harry and Ron, he had now seen Nico. However powerful a half-blood Hermione might have been, not that Nico thought this likely, she would be hard pressed to compete with Nico for the troll's attention. Despite the monster's lack of brains, it obviously knew what a sword was. It let out a mighty roar, and charged Nico. Nico, having anticipated the attack, sidestepped agilely, and brought his sword swishing up in an arc, cutting a severe gash in the Troll's leg. However, he did not disintegrate. Stygian iron didn't work quite the same way as celestial bronze. It was equally deadly, but Nico's blow had been glancing and he needed a more solid strike. The troll was not happy about the gash in its leg, so it charged again. Nico knew it would be preoccupied with his sword, but it swung its club. Poor decision on the Troll's part as it rendered him off balance. Nico developed a hasty plan, and sliced across his arm. As expected, the troll straightened and puffed out his chest, roaring angrily at the ceiling. Nico wasted no time and promptly hurled one of his daggers at its heart. With a tremendous crash, the troll fell backwards and didn't move.

Nico saw that the areas around the slices were slowly starting to dissolve, so he walked to the edge of the body and retrieved his knife. He cleaned his sword, and then became aware of the three wizards that were staring at him in awe. Well, the two boys were. Hermione didn't seem to be up to doing much of anything at the moment; she was still sitting against the wall, shaking. Nico decided that that was the most important question that needed to be answered, but when he grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet, there was no sign that they were related. As far as he could see, she wasn't a half-blood. Then why did the troll target her? She shouldn't have been a priority, not when there were ten highly potent demigods in the Great Hall. If she wasn't a demigod…

"Are those your robes?" Nico asked, trying to establish some grounds by which the troll had picked up her scent. Hermione was shaken, but she managed a confused look.

"No- no they're Lavender's. I- I borrowed them." She said, "why?"

"No reason," Nico murmured, and he turned away. After the clamor and noise of the fight, the silence seemed eerie. Ron broke it.

"How- h- how did- you just killed it!"

Nico nodded carefully. This could cause problems, and he needed to be cautious.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked, "Where did you get that sword?"

Nico looked perplexed, or so he hoped. "What sword?"

"That- That- where did it go?" Harry asked, and sure enough the sword was gone. Harry stared at Nico's hand, bewildered. The skull ring caught his eye, and Harry frowned. He was certain it had been silver earlier, but now it was scarlet. He looked at Ron, who hadn't seen the ring, and then looked back at Nico's hand. Perhaps it had just been a trick of the light, because it was black to plain silver. All was quiet for a second, and then there was a chorus of voices as the teachers finally caught on. The door crashed open and they all ran in, wands ready. McGonagall was staring at them, anger scrawled across her face, as Snape examined the troll and Quirrel looked ready to faint.

"You four," she snapped, and Nico looked her straight in the eye, "what on earth were you thinking? You're lucky you weren't all killed! Why aren't you in your Dormitory?"

Ron and Harry both looked at Nico, who thought for a second. He could always mist it over in a minute, so he decided to have some fun.

"Well you see professor, I was on my way to the dormitory, but I got lost."

"You got lost?" she repeated cryptically.

"Yes, ma'am. It's mighty difficult to get through these corridors and all. I saw the Troll in the hallway, see, and I saw it chasing after the lovely lady over there." Nico was having a blast playing up the southern accent, trying to sound as American as possible.

"I couldn't just let her fight the troll on her own, and she didn't have any weapon that I could see, so I went after them, and used my dagger to cut him up all nice and good."

At this point, everyone in the room was staring at Nico, eyes wide.

"So then my two buddies showed up, and they helped to pull the lady up. Shaken real well, she was. I guess they'd heard the noise or something and thought we was in trouble. The little miss over there was screamin' something awful, but we got her calmed down now. I 'pologize for all the commotion." Nico, having had his fun, snapped his fingers, concentrating the mist.

"I was lost in the crowd and must have made a wrong turn, and then it cornered me in here. I saw it and stabbed it with my dagger. The other three showed up later, they heard me shout."

Everybody's eyes glazed over, and McGonagall nodded. "Yes, I suppose that you should get to bed then."

Nico, thrilled with the turnout of the night, was almost out of the room when somebody said something.

"Wait!" Snape said, "Mr. Di Angelo, why did you have a Dagger?"

Nico froze, trying to come up with something.

"Well?" Snape asked, "What were you doing with the dagger?"

"I- I have a habit of carrying weapons with me. Just in case, you know?"

"Why did you think you would need weapons at Hogwarts?" McGonagall asked.

"I-um- we used them at my old school?" Nico hedged, praying they bought it.

"Well, I'm going to have to confiscate them," Snape said, holding out his hand, "all of them."

Nico hesitated, then scowled and pulled out the dagger he had used on the troll. He pulled another from his belt and one from his sleeve. In total, he gave Snape about a third of the knives he had on him, not counting his sword. Snape nodded, and Nico left quickly. The knives he picked to hand out weren't random, they were his favorite. They also had this habit of returning to their sheaths whenever they could. He felt the weight slowly add to his belt within a few minutes, and all three knives had returned to their places. Nico smiled and went to the Slytherin dorm, where he promptly fell asleep.

In the girl's bathroom by the Great Hall, nobody noticed the body of the Troll crumble into dust.