Order of the Demigods chapter 6
So many kind reviews! SonofZeus0001, especially. Thanks to all of you who gave me ideas, you know who you are. No, I'm not bringing Percy in yet, although I do love Percy being all brotherly to Nico.
Harry was beginning to get annoyed. It hadn't even been a week, and already Ron and Hermione were formulating a plan to tail Nico around and see if he really was a deatheater. They met to discuss this at a table in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, and decided (reluctantly on Harry's part) that they would enlist the help of his invisibility cloak, and subtly try to find out information.
"Yes, but why do we need to do this?" Harry asked, exasperated.
"I told you, he could be a-"
"Deatheater, yeah, we got that." He replied, "But it doesn't make sense. Wouldn't he have killed me by now if he was?"
Hermione and Ron shuddered; they didn't like it when Harry discussed his own mortality with him so blasé like that, but they knew it was from past experience that he could act so calmly. So, they decided to keep a close eye on Nico for the time being.
The next morning, they had double Defence against the Dark arts with Professor Umbridge. Nico had been absent for the first lesson they had had with her, so he didn't know what (not) to do in her lessons. They filed in drearily to the classroom and got out their books, dumping their schoolbags on the floor. Nico sat in the front row, and Umbridge's eyes widened as she saw him.
"A word, please, Mr Nico." She simpered, and he followed her outside.
"Well?" He asked, now they were away from prying eyes.
"I was not aware there were…extras in this class, so…?" She asked, a little confused. A plan suddenly popped into Nico's mind, fully formed, like Athena springing from Zeus' head.
"Didn't Professor Dumbledore inform you of the reinforcements?" He asked back. Her eyes widened further, making her look like an owl with a makeup addiction.
Dumbledore had approached her on the night before term started and told her of Nico. He'd been very vague, only telling her that "An exceptionally powerful being will be at Hogwarts next term as protection, and I may inform you that they are more powerful than any here, even I. So please be careful, Dolores. We haven't had the cleanest track record when it comes to Defence teachers."
"Of course, Mr Nico, but I highly doubt you…" She said, before she hurriedly ushered Nico back into the classroom and told him to sit down.
He did, and noted a pamphlet on his chair that read- 'Half-breeds and why we shouldn't accept them.' Nico snorted, amused, and flicked through the pamphlet. Professor Umbridge noticed this, and raised her toad-like head.
"Something funny, Nico?" she asked with a sugary-sweet tone.
"No, Professor."
"Then why-"
"I was just reading this, Professor. Is it true that 'Half-Breeds are a disgrace to wizard kind'?" he quoted from the leaflet in his lap, and several heads turned in his direction. Umbridge flushed red.
"Well-"
"And that 'No half-breed will ever be as powerful as a wizard'?" More heads turned, and now the majority of the class was watching his and Umbridge's exchange as if it were a very exciting quidditch match.
"I think you'll find that wasn't-" The professor tried to interrupt. Nico's death-glare intensified. Suddenly, feelings of sadness, terror, despair and fear filled the room, and everyone's shadows grew longer, contorting themselves into shapes a bit like faces. Strangely enough, Neville, Dean, Harry and Corvus weren't affected at all. Everyone else felt a bit like three hundred Dementors had somehow all entered the room at once, forgetting happiness and only remembering bad times.
"Professor," Nico hissed quietly, "Do you still doubt…?" The look of fear on her face was clearly evident, and her plump hands were shaking with fear at her sides. Then Nico chuckled, and the fog that held the class disappeared, and his classmates looked (a bit) happier.
"Wha-?" Ron choked out; his voice still croaky from Nico's bit of magic earlier.
"Nothing to worry about, class, just Peeves being nasty again," Umbridge hastily excused, half-glancing at Nico out of the corner of her eye.
"Peeves?" He asked innocently.
"The poltergeist."
Jeez, these guys had a poltergeist too? What kind of undead didn't they have? Nico had seen poltergeists in the underworld before, in fact, many of them hung around Hades' palace, and they were kind of like their servants. They liked do anything to gain favour with Hades or anyone close to him, in order to not be sent to Asphodel.
There was one Nico liked in particular called Bertie, who had taken a liking to Nico and was sort of like his personal butler. In his previous existence, Bertie had been an entertainer for the rich court, so he knew exactly what to say to the Royal Death group (Hades, Persephone, Nico.)
The bell rang, and the students packed away for break. Umbridge hurriedly left the room, mumbling something about seeing Dumbledore.
Nico was intrigued about the poltergeist. He closed his eyes, letting his death-sense guide him. He could sense people's life auras around him, so he could usually navigate blind. He sensed residual death nearby, and knew he'd found the poltergeist. He opened his eyes and…
He bumped into Harry, who looked at him questioningly. How did his death-sense get him here? If he wasn't mistaken, the aura came from Harry's bag.
"What've you got in there? I can sen-" He stopped himself before he revealed anything else.
"Um, er," Harry responded intelligently. "Just my books and school things." Something about Harry's body language seemed suspicious; maybe it was the way he gripped his schoolbag so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Are you sure?" Nico asked before he could stop himself. Great, he thought, now he's bound to think I'm some kind of weirdo. Instead, Harry looked around furtively before beckoning Nico into a nearby secret corridor.
"I shouldn't let you see this, but…" Harry reached into his schoolbag, and for a brief second Nico thought he was going for a knife, but he only pulled out a large piece of silvery flowing material. He gasped; this was Death's very own cloak of invisibility. That must've been why he'd sensed it.
"It's an-"
"Invisibility cloak, yes, I know. A, ah, colleague of my father's had one like this, but he gave it away."
Harry looked stunned that Nico knew what it was, and he was also eager to get the new information to Hermione. He mumbled some excuse about homework and dashed off down the staircase. Nico was about to follow him when the staircase moved and he cursed.
Harry had just got back to the common room to meet up with Ron and Hermione, who were eating sweets from Honeydukes, eagerly waiting in the armchairs by the fireplace.
"So, what've you got?" Hermione asked him quickly. Ron shot her a bemused look.
"Give him a break, Hermione, he only just got in." He chided. Harry waved it off.
"Well, it was sort of interesting because he bumped into me," He began, "And he had his eyes kind of half-open, and he said he…noticed something in my bag." Hermione looked suspicious and Ron just looked eager for him to continue. "I told him it was nothing, but he didn't believe me so I showed him the invisibility cloak."
Hermione choked on a chocolate frog. "You what? Harry, that was extremely risky; if he is a Deatheater then you-know-who probably knows your only means of hiding by now." She all but shrieked at him. Ron looked taken aback at her sudden anger.
"He isn't a Deatheater, I'm sure." Harry insisted.
"Sorry, mate, but didn't you see what happened in Umbridge's class?" Ron asked, "That must've been some serious Dark Magic. Even if it wasn't him, it certainly wasn't Peeves." Hermione nodded her agreement.
"Fine. Anyway, he looked at it and said something about someone his dad works with having one and giving it away." Harry explained. Hermione turned pale and made a sound not unlike a mouse being trod on.
"Hermione? What the heck was that?" Ron asked.
"Well, there's an old legend about invisibility cloaks, and it starts with three brothers…" And Hermione began to tell them the Tale of the Three Brothers. As most of it was written in Ancient Runes, and she didn't have her books with her, she had to give them the idiot's version. Ron didn't really mind. All three of them had wide eyes, and the sky was almost pitch black with night by the time the story was finished.
"So…what you're saying is; Nico's dad works with Death." Ron summarised.
A quick flutter of black wings filled the room, and Harry and the others spun around to see the bird soaring up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. They shared dark looks; Corvus was never far from Nico, and that meant Nico had probably heard them.
Yeah! Woo! Feeling all peppy, having finished other chapter already.
Just to let you know, I'll probably be mostly (read only) focusing on this story now. Sorry if you're expecting updates on the others, but I'm too busy.
Oh yeah, and if anyone has any stories I know of then I'd be happy to beta them for you.
-Supernerdette out.