Chapter Six

When in Doubt, Prank Someone

Nico woke to the sounds of snoring. For a moment he tensed, wondering where he was, before everything came back to him. Orphanage. Youth potion. Hogwarts. Tartarus. He dragged a hand over his eyes and looked around, his sight naturally enhanced in the darkness – a useful talent when you're sleeping in the dungeons.

Abraxas and Allan were in the beds on either side of him, and there were two other first year Slytherin boys in the beds nearest to the end of the dorm and nearest to the door to the dorm. He didn't know their names, only that they snored a lot and it irritated him. Abraxas slept like the dead, his mouth gaping open and his arm hanging over the side of the bad. His covers were twisted around his body and half-lay on the floor, making Nico wonder if he had gotten into a fight with his blankets and lost.

Those deadly blankets.

Allan was as blank in sleep as he was awake. His face was still, nothing showing. Not even a flicker of negative emotion from a bad dream. The last three were sights he had never hoped to see. Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Tom Riddle crashed on beds, looking ready for the Grim Reaper to take their souls to the Underworld. Translation to English? They slept even messier than Abraxas. Nico never would have thought the Dark Lord slept like someone from the Fields of Punishment.

Suddenly Tom sat up with a gasp, fumbling around in the dark before falling off his bed with a loud thud and banging up his elbow on the way down. He let out several creative words – all in ancient Greek, although Nico didn't think Tom knew that himself – and pushed his covers back on the bed. "Bloody nightmares and bloody monsters," he grumbled.

"Bad dream?" Nico asked.

Tom jumped at least a foot off the ground. "Uh, yes. Something like that."

"Sometimes dreams are important." Nico said, risking it a little. Tom was showing more and more inclinations of being a demigod. "They can tell us things."

Tom shook his head and sat on his bed, looking at his yew wand in his hands. "You people are so odd." He paused a few moments, before adding, "I hope this dream isn't telling me anything but I have a vivid imagination."

Nico shrugged. "Like I said, dreams are important. Sometimes they aren't your imagination."

"What do you know about Katelle?" Tom blurted, and then cringed as if he hadn't meant to say anything.

"She's violent," Nico muttered, "I really don't know much about her."

"Do you . . ." Tom swallowed and rubbed his hands on his blankets. "Do you know what's in her pack?"

"Notes, books, and some other stuff as far as I know." Nico said.

"If I tell you something, will you not tell anyone else?" Tom asked.

Alert, alert, learning the dark lord's secrets.

"Uh, sure?"

"I looked in her pack," Tom shot out, as if he had been waiting to tell someone. "She had weird stuff in there, like a gun, but much more complicated, and these colorful pictures . . ."

Great, Nico thought glumly. Now I have to explain why Katelle had 21st century technology in her backpack.

"Well?" Tom pressed. "I'm not making this up!"

"Uh," Nico scrambled for an answer. "She's a very good, um . . . painter! She's a good painter." How did I get myself in Slytherin?

Tom looked doubtful. "There were now brush strokes. And why would she paint a picture of a . . . a dead person?"

Nico blinked in surprise. "Dead person?"

"Yeah." Tom muttered, still examining his wand. "All over the place."

"That sounds . . . disturbing." Nico said, grimacing.

"Do you think she killed someone?" Tom asked in a rush.

"No," Nico said. It was true, there was no aura of death around her. He could sense things like that. "That doesn't meant she hasn't dead people, though."

What am I saying? Nico thought. With a personality like that, she's probably seen some pretty mess-up stuff.

Tom opened his mouth to speak, but the door to the dormitory banged open, flooding the room with light. Several half-awake boys moaned in protests, curling up under their covers desperately. The person who opened the door looked rather triumphant, and certainly not as tired as he had seemed the night before. It looked like a good night's sleep did wonders for sons of Hermes.

"Get up!" Theon said cheerfully. "We have a few things planned for the first day of school."

Nico groaned and pulled himself to his feet.

"And before you ask," Theon said, opening the door wider so the light covered even the kid in the back of the dorm, "no, you can't have five more minutes."

Five minutes later of Theon banging on the door saw Nico, Tom, Allan, Albus and Severus in the Slytherin dorms, fully awake and in rotten moods. Albus was the only one who seemed somewhat cheerful, with his fuzzy green bunny slippers and bright blue shirt under his Hogwarts robes. No amount of begging and pleading from Theon had stopped he former Headmaster from wearing at least one article of clothes that was flamboyant.

"So why are we up at," Nico consulted his wrist watch quickly, "five thirty?"

Theon rolled his eyes. "Come on. We have ages to rig everything! I've had a lot of time to think of good pranks, and I have the perfect one for breakfast."

Tom spun his wand between his fingers, before dropping it. He swooped down and picked it up, looking flustered. Looks like he wasn't born with the ability of twirling things in his fingers. "As long as we don't get caught."

"If we're going to prank," Nico said, "we'd might as well establish that we're prankers on the first day of school."

Theon clapped his hands excitedly. "That's the spirit! So how much of your charm books have you read?"

Nico sat at the Slytherin table, Tom and Severus on either side of him. The former was struggling to keep a straight face and later was doing it perfectly. In fact, his I-am-not-pulling-a-prank face was so good, he looked like he sneering. Of course, he might have actually been sneering, because he was surrounded by brats under the age of thirty. Nico was beginning to wonder if he was allergic to kids.

"Bloody pansy of girls." Katelle threw herself down in a seat on the Slytherin table and began piling her plate with food. "They barely slept. A load of chickens, they are."

She had a picture of a dead person, Tom's voice rang in his head. "So . . . you've never really talked about your parents. Or your mother at least."

Katelle glared at him, her blue eyes narrowed. "My mother's name was Lynx. Lynx Sparrow. It's kind of a tradition to name the first born after an animal."

Nico waited for her to go, but she didn't. "How'd she . . . you know."

"Predator attack." Katelle replied swiftly, stabbing her fork into a piece of sausage. "She got careless around the animals, and one of them attacked her. I was only nine at the time, but I've been on my own since then."

"You said Kronos tried to possess you, but you were alone since you were nine?" Nico asked. He was probably being rude, asking about her past to brazenly, but when it turned out someone had dead people in their pocket, then questions are natural.

Katelle rolled her eyes. "Well he found me, duh. Took him awhile, though."

Albus suddenly joined them, sitting besides Katelle. "Is it ready?"

Nico gave him a thumbs up.

"What's happen –" Katelle was cut off by a shout.

The banners, which previously showed a lion, a snake, a raven and a badger, now showed a worm, a chicken, a strange, blubbery looking blob with puff balls sticking from its sides, and an even bigger lion. The worm squirmed around helplessly, while the blob – which looked a lot like a blobfish that got into cotton balls – made noises that sounded remarkably like, "what am I?" The chicken squawked comically, flapping its wings and sending feathers flying all over in the tapestry.

Katelle coughed, covering her mouth. He was sure she was laughing. "Oh. That's what."

Tom snickered, pointing at the Hufflepuff banner. "A . . . a whatever that is."

"How do you like it?!"

Nico and Katelle jumped, and Tom nearly fell off his seat. Theon appeared between them with a huge grin on his face. "Well? Did you like it?"

"How did you do that?" Tom asked incredulously.

Theon tossed one of the apples from a platter in the air and snatched it with inhuman speed. "It's a gift."

"That I want to learn," Tom muttered under his breath.

"Have you seen the charms teacher?" Theon suddenly asked. "What a creep!"

Tom moaned and set his head on the table. Nico frowned. "What's wrong?"

"He talks weird like you people, too!"

"I don't talk weird!" Theon exclaimed. "Do I talk weird? I never really thought about it. I wonder -"

"Wow!" Nico held up his hands. "Calm down."

Meanwhile, Nico noticed Katelle loading a piece of food on her fork and positioning the utensil like a catapult in her fingers. She squinted her eyes in concentration, and then let the fork go. The food flew through the air and landed on Inanni Dolohov's head, immediately tangling in her hair. Katelle dropped the fork and focused on her plate, her mouth twitching with suppressed humor.

Inanni let out a shriek and batted the food from her hair. She grimaced at the offending piece of food, and then glared at Katelle. "Sparrow! I know it was you!"

"Captain," Katelle and Theon corrected at the same time.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," Katelle gloated, holding up her fork again to fire away another load.

"Don't you dare!" Inanni yelled shrilly.

Katelle let the food fly.

"Rosier!" Inanni shrieked, glaring at a boy across the table with a Prefect badge.

Rosier looked at them with little interest. "Stop whatever your doing."

Katelle loaded and fired another food cannon.

"Five points from Slytherin," Rosier said boredly.

"Boo-hoo," Katelle grumbled, and catapulted more food at Inanni. "So, what is so creepy about the charms professor?"

Theon shook his head. "I don't know. There's something off about him. I've gotten really good at telling when there's something dangerous nearby, and the charms professor sets off all of my spidey senses."

"Are you sure it's not just him?" Nico asked. "I mean," he glanced at Severus, "no offense, but Snape was always pretty creepy."

"Offense taken," Severus grumbled.

"No," Tom said suddenly. "I understand what Theon means. I get the feeling around the charms professor – he pulled me aside earlier, asking me about my parents – that I get around the monsters."

"Monsters?" Katelle perked up. "Where?"

"Go back to throwing food," Severus said snidely.

She made a face at him, and threw a roll at him. He sneered, but doused her in his pumpkin juice. She gasped in surprise, and retaliated with throwing her cup of water at him. Unfortunately, Severus ducked, so the cup sailed over his head and soaked a third year boy. The beefy boy turned around, glaring at her. Katelle grinned, which made her look part shark, and offered, "food fight?"

The boy responded by throwing his plate of food at her.

Fairly soon the Slytherin table dissolved into chaos. There was rolls, brisket, fruits and vegetables, drinks and other foods being hurtled. Professors yelled at them to stop, but it didn't seem to have much of an affect. Nico wasn't sure how it happened, but sooner than later the other tables joined in the food fight. So much for people in the '30s being classy and dignified.

Nico took the distraction to pull Albus, Severus, Percy and Harry aside. Katelle didn't seem to care about what they were doing as long as she had someone to hit over the head with food.

"What have you guys got so far?" Nico asked.

"No one seems suspicious so far," Percy said. "But Theon was insisting that there was something off with the charms professor . . . forgot his name. It was like Yoshi Ronin or something."

"Anosi Yohanin." Harry said. He pronounced the name like, Ahn-ozy Yo-hah-nin. "I don't know. He seemed pretty average to me. Maybe Theon's still jumpy from his experiences time traveling?"

"That's probably it," Katelle appeared next to them. She had an egg tangled in her short blonde hair, which looked quite disgusting. "Time travel can mess with your head."

"I don't feel messed up in my head," Percy said, frowning.

Nico, Severus, Katelle and Harry looked at him silently for a few seconds. Percy flung his arms in the air. "Okay, maybe you people think I'm nuts, but I'm not. Really."

"Lemon drop?" Albus asked, holding out a candy for them to eat.

Nico didn't know why, but it was so hilarious he started laughing. Percy and Harry joined in, while Severus rolled his eyes and Katelle smirked behind her hand.

When the professors finally got the students under control, and took away as many points as they could, even though classes hadn't even started yet. After they settled back down in their respective houses, Professor Dippet walked up the podium – which now had a soapbox under it, thanks to Theon. No one asked how he did it. Dippet seemed amused by it, though the charms professor had wrinkled his nose at it. Theon was probably sensing Professor Yohanin's lack of humor when he thought there was something off about him.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, new students!" Dippet announced. "And welcome back, to our older students. I hope this new year will go as smoothly as the last few have."

Over and the Gryffindor table, Nico could see Ron and Percy elbowing Harry, and Hermione shaking her head with a slight smile.

"I am pleased to introduce you to your new charms professor," Dippet motioned to the Asian-looking man, "Anosi Yohanin."

Tom snickered to Nico's right. "A nosy you hand in."

Katelle let out a short laugh. "I don't know how you came up with that so fast."

"I was sorted into Slytherin for a reason," Tom said with a smirk.

"Slytherin is the house of cunning and ambition," Allan said, ever the damper. "Not humor and wit."

"Allan?" Katelle said curtly.

"Katelle?"

"Shut up."

"Kallan," Theon popped beside them. "I totally ship it."

"Go back to your table!" Nico yelped a few octaves higher than he meant. He lowered his voice and hissed – not in parseltongue, duh – "and stop with the fast thing! You're going to attract attention."

Theon kicked his feet on the Slytherin table and grinned. "Do I seem to care about attention?"

"Theon," Nico growled.

"Okay, okay!" The first-should-be-second year darted – literally – to his table.

On the other side of the Great Hall, Harry and Percy jumped as Theon appeared between them, grinning impishly.

Nico shook his head. "That kid's going to kill me one of these days."

"Coming from the son of Hades?" Katelle said through the side of her mouth. "That's pretty sad."

" . . . and remind the children that the Forbidden Forest is off limits." Dippet said. "We don't want anymore incidents of children being mauled!"

He said it so jovially that Nico could almost get over the fact he was talking about children being mauled. Almost. He looked around at the other students, who didn't seem surprised by what Dippet said. He poked a second year who looked like he might talk under the pressure of Nico's Stare of Death. "What happened with the mauling?"

The second year shrugged. "It happened in my first year. Students who went into the Forbidden Forest came out," he gulped nervously, "either in shock, traumatized, or . . . or weren't found alive."

"How were they found?" Katelle asked, overhearing the boy's proclamation.

"Some were never found," the boy said. "Others . . . it was like they were shredded by a cat. A very big one. Look, I don't want to talk about it."

"That's fine," Katelle said. "We're new, and we just wanted to know."

"If you want to know more, you should ask Inanni," the boy said. "She was one of the survivors."

Katelle froze, and turned predator eyes on Inanni. She leaned back, pressing her palms on the edge of her seat. "So, the prim Slytherin queen has seen death and survived. That's surprising."

When Nico was sure the boy wasn't listening to them, he asked Katelle, "what do you think about that?"

She pursed her lips, examining her silver knife. "I think it means we need to keep our guards up. It means there's an unstable section of time and dimension somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and that monsters came through last year, killing a few students and injuring more."

"A giant cat?" Nico asked. "Nemean lion?"

Katelle shook her head, slipping her knife back in her book. "It could be anything, from a Saber Toothed Tiger to a mythological monster. There's no way to tell." She paused, glaring at Inanni and muttered, "unless . . ."

"Unless what?" Nico asked impatiently.

"The Dolohovs were known for extensive knowledge on Unforgivable Curses, yes?" She asked, still watching Inanni.

"I think so? You'd have to ask Dumble – Albus if he knows," he twisted around so he could watch her face fully. "What are you thinking?"

Katelle rested her elbows on the table. She looked a lot like a velociraptor, about to surge for the kill. "I think we might have someone who knows something about the incursion monster."

"Incursion?" Nico mumbled under his breath. "What in the name of the Styx does that mean?"

"'An invasion or attack, especially a sudden or brief one'," Katelle quoted the dictionary definition from memory. "A fitting word for the situation."

Severus managed to extract himself from an excruciatingly painful conversation about clothes with Albus and Abraxas, and leaned over to them to ask, "what is the situation now?"

"We found out that there has been incursions," Nico said. He liked the sound of the word 'incursion'. It made him sound smart.

"What is the incursion?" Severus asked, blowing a strand of black hair from his eyes.

At least, he felt smart until he found out the person he was talking to already knew what the word meant. Nico tried not to glowered to much at the former Potions Master. Speaking of which, Nico couldn't wait to see Severus in the potions class. He was going to stun the whole class and take over before Slughorn could raise a bushy eyebrow. He might even be the youngest Potions Master ever.

"A monster," Katelle said. "Something that shreds."

Nico cringed. How could she say it so carelessly? He nudged her, "try to be a little more tactful."

"Tact isn't my forte," Katelle snapped.

All over the place, Tom's voice echoed in his head again. Was he lying? He was the dark lord in making, so it wouldn't surprise Nico if he was lying.

"Classes are starting," Theon popped over again. "Not sure if you noticed."

Nico hadn't. Students had started to leave the Great Hall, heading down different halls. Katelle pulled out a wrinkled parchment, and her eyes lit up. "Well, we have Professor You Hand In."

"What way to start – you know what? I'm not going to finish that sentence." Nico stood up, and he noticed Katelle throwing a few extra apples in her pack. "What are you going to do? Eat apples all day?"

"Something like that."

After getting turned around so many times Nico lost count, and realizing that Tom's didactic memory wasn't completely infallible, the two boys finally made it to their Charms class. Since they were Slytherin, they had class with the Gryffindors, which meant new students (cough, Percy and Jason, cough) got lost with them as well. Nico had never been so glad to see a plain-looking wooden door with Charms written on it in bold script.

They stumbled in, quickly finding seats and interrupting Professor Yohanin mid-lecture. The small Asian man frowned at them. "I see you have decided to join us."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Tom said smoothly. "We got turned around on the way here – faulty directions, I think."

Nico noticed Tom aim a glare at him, and he shrugged like, what?

Professor Yohanin curled his upper lip. "Five points from each of you."

Harry's face turned red in his seat in the back, and Nico was half-afraid that the short-tempered Gryffindor would jump out and demand justice from Professor Yohanin. Nico made it to his seat without being the cause of a war, and scanned the room. Katelle, cutting off chunks of apple with a wicked-looking serrated blade. No one noticed anything odd there. Percy clicking Riptide on and off sword form. Again, nothing strange to be seen there. Jason, occasionally zapping people. That's normal.

Theon, who was sitting at the desk to Nico's left, whispered, "watch this." He darted out to the Professor's chair, and then ran back, so fast no one even noticed him. He clamped his hand down on several papers that flew into the air from the wind currents of him running, fighting to keep his really, really bad poker face in tact. Half of Nico was tempted to tell him to just let it go and laugh away. The other part was tempted to nudge him with his wand to see if Theon actually exploded.

Professor Yohanin walked closer to his chair, and Theon's face lit up with excitement. Then the professor walked away again and Theon visibly deflated.

"You're so obvious you're going to give yourself away," Nico whispered.

"He needs to just – sit – down!" Theon hissed back.

"Is there something you wish to say, Mr Azule?" Professor Yohanin asked. "Or is this class not interesting enough for you?"

Nico cringed. Words couldn't express how much he hated it when professors did that. Seriously? Did they have to be so loud and condemning? If only he could call a few skeletons, just a few really angry, bloodthirsty skeletons from Hades to spice Professor Yohanin's life up . . . it would be priceless to see. He noticed a small skull on the professor's desk. Possibility of a dead skull coming to life miraculously? Chances just went up 99.9 percent.

"Sorry, sir," Theon said, his mouth twitching around the words. "I was just wondering how you could walk back and forth so much without getting tired. I now I'd be dropping by now!"

Yohanin sneered. "Children just aren't what they used to be."

Theon's face stilled a little, and Nico could tell the son of Hermes' liking for Yohanin was rapidly dwindling. Theon grinned. "Yeah, well. We much more interesting things to do rather than till dirt. Like learn! So why do you go back to teaching us, yes? That's you job, I heard."

"I don't know," Katelle called from her seat. "I thought his job was being blatantly rude to students. Verbally abusive, even. Things like that could make you lose your job."

Nico caught on to what they were doing. "I'm sure he's not being rude, though. No need to complain to Headmaster Dippet about any of this."

"Certainly not," Tom snickered. "Although I heard abuse is something hard to spot, and needs to be immediately taken care of before the students are taken advantage of."

Professor Yohanin looked affronted. He scowled and went to sit in his chair and –

"YAHH!"

Theon made a strangled choking sound, snorting and clapping his hand over his mouth, shaking with suppressed laughter. Percy, Jason and Harry laughed openly, and Tom smirked appreciatively. Nico laughed at Yohanin's expression, the utter shock and humiliation. He sprang from the chair and landed half-way across the classroom, as far away from his chair as possible. Then a slice of an apple struck the back of his head. Nico looked at Katelle, who was scribbling on her parchment with her quill innocently.

"Who," the professor snarled, "did that?"

"No one," Theon forced out. His voice, trembling with laughter, was a dead giveaway.

"Yeah," Percy suddenly blurted. "It was nobody. Totally nobody's work. Seems like him to do that."

Katelle threw him a questioning glance, and he mouthed, inside joke.

"Mr Azule, you're rather quiet for a chance." Yohanin said accusingly.

"Am I?" Theon asked. He coughed and blinked his eyes clear. "I didn't notice."

"If someone doesn't confess," Yohanin threatened, "then I will take away ten points per person in this room."

"There's not enough points in Slytherin and Gryffindor combined to do that yet," Katelle said distractedly.

Yohanin looked like he wanted to kill the first years, but he straightened his shirt and pulled out his wand. "Very well. Let us move on." Clearly he didn't want to move on. "The first spell we will go on is a simple sliding spell. Yeprancedis," he aimed his wand at a box, which slid across his desk. "Repeat after me, yeprancedis."

Theon had dissolved into a coughing fit. When he stopped he aimed his wand at the small pebble on his desk and said in a watery voice, "yeh prank-a dis." Nothing happened to the pebble, but Theon started to laugh again.

Nico felt his mouth twitched with amusement. "Are you okay?"

"Totally fine," Theon said. "It's just, of all spells, ye prank-a dis."

Tom leaned across his desk, "how did you charm the banners to do that thing with the animals?"

Theon spun his wand through his fingers. "I'm good at pranking things." He dropped his wand.

"But not good at doing wand tricks," Tom said with a slight smile.

"There's a trade-off in everything," Theon said importantly.

Ron bent over his desk from behind them and whispered, "you sound like Percy – my brother – when you do that."

Theon wrinkled his nose. "That's not funny."

The rest of the class went by smoothly enough, except Yohanin had to eventually change the spell they practiced to Wingardium Leviosa, because too many students were snickering as they said the spell. Nico found magic didn't agree with him, and he was afraid he might have lost his eyebrows when the pebble spontaneously combusted. Katelle seemed to find it amusing to say the spell, and then flick the rock into the air with her knife.

Percy somehow, Nico couldn't figure it out how for the life of him, made a jet of water flow from his wand when he tried to levitate his pebble. Suffice to say, no professor had ever been happier than Yohanin when the class was over, and the students left for their next class. As soon as Yohanin announced the class was over, Nico tossed his wand in his bag and jumped up to leave in one movement.

He walked down the halls by himself, lost in thought. He was still worried about what Tom said about Katelle. Mostly, he worried because he agreed with Tom. There was something off about her and her friend, Allan. Besides for the fact Allan showed literally no emotion, he had showed up out of no where, and had pretty much refused to explain how he got into 1938. Another thing was, who was Katelle's mother? She was very vague about her past. Perhaps she didn't want to get into it, but it only made Nico even more curious.

Nico thought his past was messed up. His mother had been killed by Zeus, and he and his sister were forced to drink from the Lethe. It didn't get more messed up than that, right? He wasn't so sure now. Being the son of Hades, he could sense death. It was one of his talents. He sensed death around Katelle, but not in the way he might sense murder. She had seen death, but hadn't caused it. He didn't think she had. Crazy as she was, she just didn't strike him as that kind of person.

He was so lost in thought, he didn't even notice when Tom and Severus caught up with him. Tom waved his hand in front of Nico's face, which broke him out of his train of thought. Tom raised an eyebrow. "Is there something on your mind?"

No, you think? Nico thought irritably. Out load, he said, "I was thinking about pictures."

"I told Severus," Tom confessed. "You can say anything you've figured out."

Nico glared at the demigod-who-hadn't-been-claimed-yet. "You can't go around telling everyone that."

"I only told Severus." Tom said. "We can trust him."

"We can trust everyone," Nico insisted. "Even Katelle and Allan, even if they are a little strange."

"She had a –"

"I know, I know," Nico said impatiently. "I have an idea for that as well. I might sound rude, but I'd really want to see this picture before I go thinking she's a psycho."

"What's a psycho," Tom mumbled. He shook his head and said, "I don't want to go back in that bag. It's disturbing."

Severus pulled his cloak around his shoulders. "If you want us to believe you then you have to prove it to us, we will not, until then, assume that there is actually a photo of a dead person."

Typical Snape, Nico thought. "We're not ganging up on you or anything, but we want to see this for ourselves. We can even distract Katelle for you."

"Did you hear what they said last night?" Tom asked. "There's protective spells over the girl's staircase!"

"You're always bragging about your immense intellect," Severus drawled. "And here is your chance to prove you are as intelligent as you say."

Tom teetered back and forth between saying yes and no, and finally blurted, "fine! Alright, I'll get the picture. I'll get her journal, too. She's got some interesting stuff in there."

"Deal," Nico said, holding out his hand, which Tom shook. Tom looked a little shaken after he shook Nico's hand. He didn't blame him, though. Hades was infamous for his impossible deals and swears that left people either dead, or in bad shape. Tom might not have known about he gods yet, but he definitely sensed that something was off about that 'deal'. Nico supposed that it was another talent of Hades: making unbreakable deals.

They survived through Transfiguration with a slightly looney Dumbledore (Nico was sure Lemon drops didn't help magical talents, but Albus disagreed), and then went to the Great Hall for lunch. There wasn't as many students, since some of them were hanging around the library, or taking their lunch time to wander the grounds freely. Percy and Jason piled their plates full of food and dropped them on the Slytherin table with Nico, Tom, Severus and Albus. Katelle sat across from them and picked at her food, clearly uninterested.

Nico suddenly as if his own appetite had fled him. He had to distract Katelle Sparrow. What had he been thinking when he made that deal? He must have a death wish, which was depressing considering who his dad was. He glanced at Tom, who looked a little green. That cheered him up a bit, although he had no idea why.

He muttered to Tom, "your up during dinner. I'll keep her busy."

Tom looked at his plate with something along the lines of depression. "I want 'He died trying valiantly' on my gravestone."

Nico gave a short laugh. "Okay. Just get the picture."

A/N: Okay, so this is starting to feel a lot like a murder mystery to me. It's not! Sorry if there aren't as many pranks. There will be more in the future, but more centered with Sirius, Nico and Leo. And maybe Jason. Big stuff is coming up, my precious. Big stuff, little Hobbitses. Precious says so. Smeagol swears on the precious. Excuse my LotR fangirling for a second there.

Did I say somewhere in my previous story about Tom Riddle's ancestry (besides for Salazar Slytherin, duh, talking gods here)? Someone - sorry for my laziness, someone, take no offense please - said something about that. Where is it? I really hate it when there's inconsistancies. Did anyone notice that in the Mark of Athena, the evil consultant of Piper's dad was Jessica, but in the Lost Hero, her name was Jane? The name was changed! Or am I missing something?

I'm going to have absolutely no excuse not to update for a few days now. I spranged my knee cap (OUCH #U&*#%*&#!) and it hurts like heck. I tripped on my shoe laces, because they're about 5 FEET long, double knotted. I will find the designer of those shoes and sue them. Now I'm on crutches (I've been making non-stop jokes about Horcrutches now) and I really don't like them. So I get to sit a lot (crying) and do nothing. Expect more updates! Unless I hit a writer's block.

If there's anything that's bothering you, review it. I'm writing this for your entertainment as much as mine, so I'd like to fix anything (unless it's grammar. Please, no grammar nazis. Please. Save me from the grammar nazis! I'm way to hyper for 1 am) that's wrong. So yeah. Review! I live and breathe reviews. They're what gives me motivation!

So I promise on my Horcrutches if I get reviews I'll update faster.