Okay, so thanks for the reviews, and I have some really funny ideas planned, and I got tired of the boring disclaimer…so…here goes nothing…Oh and I also don't own Blair. Special thanks to TheGreekGoddessofMagic for the character Blair! Okay, disclaimer:
Me: I don't want to say it…
Nico: just say it already! Get on with the story!
Me: Why don't you say it?
Nico: I...uh…don't feel like it (shadow travels to Hogwarts, boys' dormitory) Harry can say the disclaimer.
Harry: oh…um…Let Voldy say it!
Me: (Summons Voldy's ghost, currently in the Fields of Punishment) Say the disclaimer!
Voldy: What? Oh, of course the author doesn't own PJO or me (a.k.a. Harry Potter series). (Looks at Nico), YOU! Ava-
Me: Let's just get on with the story! And how many times do I have to tell you; it doesn't work on a demigod! (rolls eyes)
Nico: (Takes Voldy back to the Fields of Punishment). That was fun!
Me: Enjoy!
Nico: Yeah, I enjoyed the leftover happy meal! Thanks!
Me: Not you! I'm talking to the viewers!
Nico: Oh, well…
Me: I should get on with the story…Enjoy! (glares at Nico)
[This is Author's note]
["This is Nico speaking"]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Normal Point of View
Nico walked down the hallway just as the prefects were about to lead the first years into the Gryffindor common room.
"Wait," he called, catching up to them, "can I just tag along with you? I don't know the password."
"Sure," Ron said, while Hermione frowned, wondering what exactly did they discuss in Dumbledore's office.
"Mimbulus mimbletonia!" Ron said to the Fat Lady, and the portrait swung aside.
They entered the dormitory after Ron and Hermione led the first years to their places.
"-mother out of this, Potter!" somebody shouted.
A boy was angrily shouting at Harry, his face turning redder by the second. "What happened?" He asked the question for himself and a startled Ron.
"He's having a go at my mother!" the boy, Seamus, yelled, his anger for Harry overriding the wariness he felt in the presence of the exchange student.
"What?" said Ron, incredulous, "Harry wouldn't do that-we met your mother, we liked her…"
"That was before she started believing every word the stinking Daily Prophet writes about me!" Harry was now shouting.
The Daily Prophet…Nico briefly remembered that Hecate told him it was the (not-so) official newspaper for the Ministry of Magic…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The Daily Prophet is the unofficial newsletter for the Ministry of Magic," Hecate lectured in a teacher-ish way. Nico, who had missed the other boring history lectures Hecate told him about the wizarding world, perked up curiously.
"Ministry of Magic?" He asked, "What is that? What do they do there? Are they politicians? There's a magical Minister?" The last question popped into his head, and for some reason he found that really funny.
"Well," Hecate said once Nico managed to stop laughing, "the Ministry is responsible for keeping people without any magic-in this case, they call them muggles-from knowing about the wizarding world for the good of every wizard and witch. Supposedly." At this, the goddess made a sour face.
Nico couldn't stop himself from asking, "Supposedly?"
"Well, lately all they've been doing is trying to spread word that Harry, that's the boy who survived the killing curse, and Dumbledore, an old friend of mine (don't ask), are lying about Voldemort coming back. Which I assure you, is absolutely true," she added the last part unhappily.
"And I'm not too pleased about that either," Hades, who had been quiet for the most part (emphasis on most), interrupted sourly. "It would have saved me all the paper with his soul partially wondering rather than trying to hide from me."
"So they're just like mortal politicians," Nico summed up, getting back to the topic of the Ministry of Magic."
"Yes," Hecate said, "and their minister, yes, they do have a minister, is similar to the minister of Britain. With magic, of course, which is where the Daily Prophet comes in. It's the tool the Ministry is using to make Harry and Dumbledore look crazy."
"People would actually believe that?" Nico asked, "I mean, don't they have facts or something to prove Voldymart (yes, it's misspelled) is back?"
Hecate shrugged, "you'll be surprised what lengths people will go to make the truth sound fake when they don't want to face it, which is why they're intent on making the truth teller look bad and crazy so nobody would believe them."
Just then, Persephone walked into the room. Her eyes widened at the odd trio in the room-Hades, Hecate, and Nico. Recovering from her shock, Persephone said, "Hecate! What are you doing here in Lord Hades's palace?"
Hecate, not wanting to admit that she needs help to everyone, merely said, "A little business to take care of" at the same time Nico muttered, "None f your business."
Persephone's eyes narrowed dangerously."I'm sorry; I don't think I heard you properly. What was that you said?" She asked in a dangerously sweet voice [not like Umbridge; Persephone's much better than our friend the toad. (Sorry, just had to say that. It sounds funny-our friend the toad, haha, ok, fine, I'll stop, so stop yelling at me, Nico!)].
"I said none of your business, stepmother," Nico replied, tired of hearing Persephone's dislike towards him and Bianca, well, mostly him. It wasn't his fault he was Hade's son! Apparently that was the wrong (dumb) thing to say, because the next thing he knew, he was shrinking as the 3 immortals seem to grow taller and taller. 'Oh no, not this again!' he groaned/thought (roses can't speak).
Persephone eyed him happily, studying her handiwork. "You make an interestingly unique rose," she mused. The two other immortals in the room were still trying to recover from their shock.
'A rose!' Nico thought angrily, 'Of all the flowers, a rose! And a pink one, ugh. You #%&*%#$^*&%#$^&...' He spat out every single word of insult he knows in English, Greek, and Italian that could have rivaled those of Sisyphus.
"Oh dear," Persephone said, "those were some very colorful language…for a flower." She smirked, obviously amused.
By now Hades had recovered from the shock that Persephone would still turn Nico into a flower even after the talk he had with her. And a pink rose! Aphrodite would be very amused, but the Lord of the Dead wasn't at all. Hecate, meanwhile, wisely chose to stay out of the "family spat".
"Turn his back right now, Persephone," Hades yelled.
"Pity," Persephone looked at rose Nico, who was resembling a sad and angry rose (can roses even do that?), "you would be perfect in my garden…" she sighed, waving her hand. Immediately Nico became himself again, glaring angrily at the Goddess of Springtime and Flowers. 'This was worse than being a dandelion!' Nico thought unhappily.
Before anyone can say something, the goddess disappeared in a shower of roses, which made Nico shudder involuntarily at the very recent memory.
Hecate sighed. Immortal families could be very messy. She had just seen that demonstrated again.
"So, as I was saying," she resumed her lecture, "the reason the Ministry is after Harry and Dumbledore began with a triwizard tournament last year…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nico shivered now, remembering his unpleasant time as a flower. To distract his thoughts altogether, Nico listened to the heated argument that brought the temperature in the dormitory up several degrees.
"Out of order, am I?" Seamus was now shouting at Ron, his face red, "you believe all the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who, do you, recon he's telling the truth?"
Nico was tired of all the rubbish about "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". It's much easier calling him by his real name.
"Why don't you guys just call him Moldywart, wait that's not it, Voldymart, er, I mean, Voldemort?" The argument was stopped and everybody in the room except for Harry cringed t the mispronunciations of the Dark Lord's name and his real name.
'So he can say Voldemort's name without the usual flinching and gasping in shock involved' (which is what everybody in the room is doing right now), Harry thought, 'but that still doesn't mean he's not related to Voldemort in any way.'
Seamus, however, finally recovered enough to stutter, "Y-y-you s-shouldn't s-s-speak You-K-know-Who's n-name like that."
Nico, however, shrugged. "Does it really matter?" He asked, still upset by the fact that everybody is afraid of Voldemort. Is he really that scary?
"Of course it matters!" Seamus said for the rest of the people in the room, "There's a reason You-Know-Who is called the Dark Lord. He's the evilest wizard in history!"
"Well," Nico said, "it's possible for him to be defeated again."
Seamus's eyes widened, "So you believe all that rubbish talk about him coming back? You're crazy too!"
"Like it or not, it's true," Nico retorted. "He really is back." Then, before anyone else can say something, Nico lied back on his bunk and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillows. The shadow traveling helped. A lot.
Harry's eyes widened. Nico said it so matter-of-factly that even Seamus looked a little convinced. 'This is just getting more and more confusing,' he thought. 'Who is Nico, exactly?' He'll have to ask Hermione tomorrow and see if she found out anything about him in the library. With nothing else to do, Harry went to bed too.
Instantly Nico found himself in the deepest part of the Forbidden Forest, as the students call it, with a beautiful woman with long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was wearing a dress that changed colors and was sparkly. In other words…magical. [That's what I imagine Hecate would look like].
"Lady Hecate." Nico bowed.
"Have you sensed any Horcruxes yet?"
"That's the thing." Nico said, "I can sense souls, just not parts of souls. How am I supposed to sense Horcruxes? The pieces of souls in one Horcrux has to be small!"
"Relax," the Goddess of Magic said, "you must…Open up your sense even more."
'Can everybody stop being so mysterious?' Nico thought, 'I hate riddles.'
Reading his mind, Hecate said, "It's not a riddle," making Nico jump in surprise, "it's just a plain fact." She said it like it was obvious.
"First mind-reading hats, now mind-reading Goddesses," he grumbled. Then his eyes widened. "You mean all gods can read my mind? That's…disturbing, in the least."
"We're getting off topic," Hecate said impatiently, clearly changing the subject.
"Depends on what you would call off-topic," Nico said, then grinned sheepishly, "yeah, sorry, I guess I am off-topic, but I'm ADHD, oh, right, off topic again…"
Hecate was obviously trying (and failing) to be patient. Nico could be almost as bad as Percy. If he wanted to. "Let me help," she said, and before Nico could say something, began chanting magical incantations in Greek. [yup. I finished the Kane Chronicles. Pretty cool] A cloudy, golden mist gently swirled around him until Nico was fully engulfed. Then, just as quickly, the mist faded, leaving him feeling quite…different, as if his senses became more accurate and pinpointing souls came more easily.
Suddenly, without warning, Nico found himself back at the boy's dormitory just before Hecate said, "Try it," and woke up.
The first thought that popped into Nico's head when he woke up was that he could actually sense a horcrux (or piece of soul) RIGHT HERE IN THE BOYS' DORMITORY! The second thought was just as unnerving: all his soul-sensing radars are pointing towards Harry, of all people! The Boy-Who-Lived! 'Maybe that's why,' Nico thought, 'that, ugh, vile, cheating insulting (to my father and me), sorry excuse for immortality……' he continued to spout choice words about Tom Riddle until he finally got to the point: '*censored*…Tom Riddle probably sent his soul on a one-way trip to destruction when he decided to make seven horcruxes and forever made it unstable. That little bit of his soul must have been displaced. After all, he dared to make hrocruxes at his own peril.' Right after Nico had that thought, his ADHD brain started to devise ways to destroy that little piece of soul and send it to the worst part of the Fields of Punishment, except for one obstacle. One big obstacle: the soul was somehow merged with Harry's, and he couldn't send it to hell (literally) without killing him as well, which, as annoying as he is, Nico still couldn't kill an innocent mortal. Or wizard, whatever. After coming up with seven failing plans (and already knowing the eighth one wouldn't work), he decided to take a walk. After all, Nico can't ask Hades for help, or else Hades will think that Bianca would've done much better, if not already. This quest was getting more complicated. But then, being a son of Hades wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. At least he could wear his normal clothes, instead of the robes, which, he was sure, would give everybody at camp a laughing fit they might never recover from.
Absent-mindedly, Nico walked through the common room, and the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open to let him through, but not before she said, annoyed, "What are you doing here in the middle of the night? I was sleeping, you know."
Nico knew it'd be much easier to shadow travel out of the dormitory, but for now, since he doesn't want to blow his cover, he decided to do it the (slightly) harder way.
"Nothing," he mumbled, which was the lamest (and most suspicious) thing to say. The Fat Lady, however, was too tired to argue [How can a portrait get tired? I mean, she just sits in the painting all day…right? Did you ask her, Nico? "Shut up! I didn't ask her. And I won't!"]. After climbing the flights of stairs to the tower room and looking out (which was really high up and gave him the feeling that Zeus was about to blast him to tiny bits), he wandered down the corridor, trying to see if there are any more horcruxes in the school.
"What are you doing here, in the middle of the night?" A voice asked behind him, and Nico cursed himself for being so wrapped up in his thoughts and not noticing the presence of another person sooner. He quickly whirled around and saw a dark brown wand pointed at him. The holder of the wand was a girl with orangey-hazel eyes, smooth caramel hair tied into a ponytail with only a bright blue streak left out, and surprisingly pale skin. Her expression was a mixture of alarm and curiosity.
"You're that new exchange student, right?" She asked, "Why are you here? This far from the Gryffindor common room."
"I was just wondering around," Nico told her, still mad at himself for not noticing her sooner. "What are you doing here, and who are you?"
"Reading," Blair said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, holding up a book titled "The Red Pyramid" that Nico failed to notice earlier [Wow. Epic fail, Nico. "No. Comment." Okay, if you say so (while trying to hold back laugher)]. "As for who I am," she continued, "Blair Dilholm. I'm in Ravenclaw."
Blair's Point of View
Blair didn't understand the new exchange student, Nico, at all. He appeared to be wearing black muggle clothing, unlike the usual school robes. The rumors were getting wilder and wilder by the minute, from Nico being an American wizard to him as a Death Eater or another relative of Volddemort's under cover (unlike most wizards/witches, Blair, being in Ravenclaw, knew that what Harry told the school was possible and that Voldemort really was back). She wanted to know if the rumors were true or not.
"So, are you really related to Voldemort?" She asked bluntly (yes, she's not afraid of saying his name either).
Nico couldn't stop himself this time; he laughed at the ridiculous name. "Moldy-wart?" He finally managed to say. 'This,' Nico thought, 'is for all the times that ridiculous name was mentioned where I couldn't laugh at it.'
Blair, however, frowned. 'So either he's telling the truth or he's a great actor (or liar).' It was still weird to see Nico laughing. Even though he just arrived at the school, everybody could tell from the first glance that Nico di Angel wasn't the type to laugh. At all.
Normal point of view
Their conversation was interrupted when they heard footsteps loudly approaching and the voice of Filch, the caretaker, saying, "Students past curfew, Mrs. Norris? What do you think? Snobby Potter again, maybe? Ha! I'll catch the troublemakers, don't you worry" followed by Mrs. Norris growling.
Nico bent the shadows around them even though he knew that the cat could sniff them out.
"Come on!" He hissed to Blair, "or do you want to stay and see what Filch and that cat has in store when they find you?"
"I'm not invalid," Blair huffed, offended, "this is not the first time; I can look after myself." With that, she turned the corner, found a square of ground in the corridor that looked nothing out of the ordinary, and tapped it with the tip of her wand. Immediately it opened to reveal a secret passageway. Looking at Nico's shocked expression, she hurriedly explained, grinning, "It leads straight into the Ravenclaw common room, but only I can open it. Pretty good, huh?" She gestured for Nico to follow.
"Yeah," Nico had to agree, "but I have no intension of going into the Ravenclaw common room," the footsteps sounded closer now, and Mrs. Norris gave meows of excitement, "so, see you later."
"Okay with me," Blair shrugged. Getting him out of the Ravenclaw room would've been hard, especially with Mrs. Norris sniffing their scents.
Just before she completely disappeared into the passageway, Nico added, with a smirk, "Nice meeting you." Then she was gone, and the entrance sealed up once more.
Nico knew shadow-traveling wasn't a good idea in Hogwarts: they just made him even more tired than usual with all the magical protections the castle has, though it's not impossible. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. 'Gryffindor common room, Hogwarts,' He thought, and was swallowed by the shadows just seconds before Filch and the cat rounded the corner. The last glimpse he had was of the two howling in rage that the naughty student, as Filch had put it, escaped.
Nico, unfortunately, did not specify the specific location in the Gryffindor common room, so he landed on the table and sprained his ankle in the process. Limping, slightly, he found the bed and collapsed onto it, but not before he saw Harry twitch and turn, as if having a bad dream, and saying, "…just a little further…" Then the shadow traveling took its toll and Nico fell onto the bed, sleeping.
A/N: I was going to make Nico a yellow rose because yellow's a sunny color and rose is, well, yeah. Then Persephone probably knows about the language of flowers, so I made him a pink rose - stands for happiness;)
This chapter is mainly about Nico meeting Blair. Well, sort of.
So what do you think? Events moving too slow? Too much details? Please review!
And to answer RandomPerson's question, yeah, I totally forgot their ages. For now, Nico and Luna will be friends.