Chapter 4 – Hazel
Hazel always hated vehicles. They reminded her too much of when she had gone to Alaska with her mother. The car trip all the way up to Canada, the train ride up to Alaska, and finally, the rowboat that led to the Island that Hazel had successfully destroyed before dying.
They had all gotten up that morning to the sound of Molly stomping around the house, trying to wake everyone up so they'd all be able to eat breakfast and pack before leaving. Thankfully, she had already packed her trunk the night before, so Hazel only needed to change into her day clothes and stuff her pajamas into her trunk to say that she was ready.
That day, the daughter of Pluto pulled on a light blue and silver sun dress which Thalia would approve of. She quietly left the girls' room, only to be intercepted by Will, an uncharacteristically grim expression on his face.
"Will? What's going on with you?" She asked, her eyebrows knitting worriedly.
"Nico had a dream; he's really messed up about it. He saw some pretty serious stuff last night. He told me that he wanted to talk to you about it, since you're his sister and all," Hazel knew almost instantly what Will was referring to and, without warning, darted down the stairs and into the living room, where she bumped into her dark-haired older brother.
"Nico, are you okay? Will told me you had dreams last night," she said, making sure not to talk too loud, as to not catch the Weasleys' attention.
Nico nodded slightly, his eyes somehow darkening more, "It started off as a dream about when Bianca and I first met the others, then it changed to dad... Saying the usual stuff to me. That's not the worst part though. I saw... Him. You know who. He was laughing wildly, and dead people were piled behind him," Hazel froze. The dark lord himself in a dream? That couldn't be a simple nightmare, could it?
She was about to reply when Molly called everyone for breakfast.
"We might need to call Reyna or Rachel for this… get some drachmas ready," she said as they entered the dining room and sat at the table, where bacon and eggs were sitting on their plates, ready to be eaten by the teenagers, "Thank you Molly! I bet it tastes great," Hazel said, hiding away the worry that had been in her voice before.
The demigods all ate in silence as the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione were chattering happily about Hogwarts. Molly has told them that they couldn't tell the other students about the quad-wizard tournament, apparently they wanted to surprise them.
Soon enough, they all got up and brought their trunks and suitcases down to the door, then entered several cars before heading to the train station. That was the first part of Hazel's stomach acting up. The twins, who she was in between of, weren't helping things as they kept showing her a bunch of product ideas for their Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
She stumbled out of the car once they arrived at King's cross, clutching her hands over her mouth to stop herself from throwing up.
"Never.. never again..!" she groaned through her hands, before taking her suitcase and walking inside. Hazel followed the twins towards the platform they were supposed to leave at, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the Platform 9 and ¾ was hidden by a somewhat peculiar use of the mist. Without even being told the Weasleys' instructions, Hazel ran through the brick wall and appeared on the correct platform.
There, she found a scarlet train lined in black. It was old fashioned, though to Hazel, it gave her intense flashbacks to her move to Alaska, and when she, Percy, and Frank were attacked by griffins. Hazel waited patiently for the others to follow, which didn't take long.
Nico came out first out of the demigods, then the twins and Ginny, then Frank, and finally, the other Weasleys and Harry before Will ran through.
"None if you are hurt! That's good to know, I wasn't sure about how safe the wall was," The blonde said with a sigh of relief.
Hazel led the way as they entered the train and went into a nearby compartment. They all sat down, and Hazel noticed Nico frown at his MP3 player, which didn't seem to be working. His new kitten, whom he had named Anatolio.
"Did it already break? What did Leo do when he made it monster free?" Her brother mumbled as he smacked the music player's screen.
"That's useless, electronics don't work at Hogwarts, or on the train. It says so in Hogwarts: a History, honestly, as exchange students, you should've read it," a voice said. When they looked up, Hazel recognize Hermione's bushy brown hair. The girl sat down beside Nico, who had annoyedly shoved his MP3 back in his coat pocket.
They were soon enough joined by Harry and Ron, who sat down opposite of each other. They sat there for a few quiet minutes before the train finally started moving, to Hazel's horror.
Hermione's POV
"What's wrong with her?" Hermione asked as she stared at Hazel, who was doubled over and gagging at every small bounce or sway of the train.
"Motion sickness. She's had it ever since she was thirteen. Honestly, I'm surprised she even agreed to come along, considering how bad it gets," Nico said coolly while fiddling with his MP3, even though she had told him that it didn't work. His cat was curled up in his lap comfortably.
Hermione thought for a while before remembering a little something she had learned for fun.
"Hazel, I'm gonna cast a spell on you to make you feel better, so please don't be scared," Hermione said softly. Hazel simply lifted a thumbs up for her as a way of giving her permission. Slowly, Hermione lifted her wand, and recited a spell, "Evanescet nauseam!"
Hazel instantly sat up straight, the colour having come back to her skin, "wow..! I didn't know such a spell existed. Thank you so much, Hermione," She grinned at being able to help out an older student so well.
The two other cats, Crookshanks and Toby, Hazel's cat, were play fighting with each other, rolling on an unoccupied spot on the bench. Frank was chattering with Harry about Metamorphmagi,
"So... you can turn into anything?" Harry asked the Canadian.
"I wish I could, but my family has been using these powers to only turn into animals for so long that I can't do anything other than that. Actually, you're probably going to see in the dorms, but I usually turn into animals in my sleep. Hazel finds it completely hilarious for some reason," Frank said softly.
"That's only if you turn out as a Gryffindor, which I don't think you are. You look and act a lot more like a Hufflepuff," Hermione responded after hearing Frank say that.
Frank had apparently forgotten about the different houses, as he asked what each house was for, and Hermione was pleased to answer, "Gryffindor is for the brave, Ravenclaw is for the clever, Hufflepuff is for the loyal, and Slytherin is for the cunning."
Will then spoke up, "Frank would probably be a Hufflepuff... Nico's really brave and cunning, so we'll see about that. Hazel... she's loyal, brave, and cunning... I'm really not sure."
Seeing Will, Hermione thought he was probably brave and clever, so if the odds were against them, they'd all be separated. Hermione felt slightly sad at that thought, but at least the four exchange students were already friends, so house rivalries wouldn't affect them like they affect the first years who were all strangers to each other.
Ron was talking to Will about the Quidditch Cup, and how they got to be in the top box, when the compartment door snapped opened suddenly, revealing Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"You'll have been in there for the first and last time in your life, Weasley," Draco sneered in the doorway, his cronies standing behind him.
"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," Harry then grumbled, the hatred between the two was almost visible through their glares.
"Weasley… what is that?" Said Malfoy as he glared at Pigwidgeon's cage, where Ron had draped his dress robes in an attempt to calm the owl down.
Ron reached to push the robes out of sight, but Malfoy was too quick and grabbed hold of them first.
"Look at this!" Malfoy gasped excitedly, "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these rags, were you? I mean, they were very fashionable in about 1890"
"Eat dung Malfoy," said Ron, turning the colour of his dress robes as he grabbed them and hid them. Malfoy howled with laughter.
"So, you gonna enter, Weasley? Gonna try and win a bit of glory to your family name? There's a bit of money involved as well, so you'd be able to afford some decent robes if you want."
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked
"Are you going to enter?" Malfoy repeated himself annoyedly, "I suppose you will Potter, you wouldn't miss a chance to show off would you?"
"Either go away or don't talk at all Malfoy," Hermione snapped, getting sick of the back and forth talk between the boys.
A smile spread across the Slytherin's face, "Don't tell me you don't know? You've got a father and brother at the ministry and you don't even know? My god, my father told me about it ages ago!"
Malfoy was about to disappear when, to everyone's surprise, Will spoke, "Well then, from what I can see, you constantly rely on your father to prove your worth, use idiots with muscles to make yourself seem tough, and constantly pick at your enemies' few weaknesses to make yourself look better. I'm sad to say, Malfoy was it? That you seem to suffer with a superiority complex."
Malfoy, and everyone else, was speechless, and to Hermione's surprise, Nico was giggling and snickering behind his hands.
A deep blush appeared on the blonde slytherin's face and he shut the compartment door, leaving with his lackeys.
Nico then erupted into a fit of laughter, the olive tone on his cheeks turning a slight pink, "I..! I can't believe! HahhHah! You used the doctor thing! Like- pfft..! Like when you took care of me! You completely roasted him!"
Hermione was stunned, and from the looks of it, even the other exchange students were too. Then Hazel giggled a bit.
"I guess this is proof that you've fully recovered, huh Nico? I.. I cant believe this is the first time I've herd you laugh."
Hermione was surprised, to say the least. She'd never heard Nico laugh before? They've apparently known each other for almost three years!
"You've never heard him laugh before? That's not possible," Ron said, just as Nico wiped away a tear from his face.
"After my older sister passed away.. let's just say life spiralled downwards after that," Nico said, and Hermione instantly realized that this sister was probably the Bianca that Ron said Will an Nico were talking about.
The train lurched, and Hermione stood up, "We should get our robes on now, the train's gonna arrive at the station soon."
They all took turns in twos to go get changed. When Frank and Will came back from changing wearing different uniforms, Harry spoke up.
"What are you wearing?" He asked incredulously.
"We have different uniforms than you guys. You'll get to know why during the feast, don't worry," Frank said with a smile.
Hermione frowned, but didn't say anything about it. The train lurched again before stopping, and they all took out their trunks and slowly got out of the train.
When they reached the self-pulling carriages outside of Hogsmeade station, she heard someone yelp, the Nico speak.
"Calm down Will, they're just thestrals. There aren't any in America so you've never seen them before, but still."
Hermione turned to them, confused, "Thestrals were pulling the carriages? That actually makes a lot of sense..! Do all four of you see them? Doesn't that mean you've all seen death?"
The four demigods nodded.
"Right.. we saw Gwen die back during war games at camp.. though she ended up coming back somehow, I guess it counts.." Frank said to Hazel.
"And Will and I got to see some undesirable losses during a certain event.." Nico mumbled, looking at Will. Hermione definitely wasn't going to ask what he meant.
They got into the chariots and made their ways to the castle, to find out exactly what was going on.
First off, no, Nico can't see the Thestrals because Bianca died, since he didn't actually see her die. It can't be his mother, she didn't die in front of him either. I'm referencing the events of the Battle of The Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. Also, Nico technically met the personification of death, so I think that counts. Thanks Thanatos!