Author's Note: If you like it, if you hate it, if you can't decide what you think about it, there's a little review button which you just have to click to tell me. Don't be shy in what you write, because otherwise I'll never know what needs to change, and then everything will go downhill. Also, I'd like to tell you that there's going to be a tiny little twist to the classic Percico story here- Percy's the one with the crush.

Title: When The Two Worlds Clashed

Author: GirlWhoReadsAtNight

Chapter: Eight

Location: Hogwarts

Percy's POV

Percy woke up with a dull weight on his chest.

He had dreamed of Nico again.

He had dreamed of holding him, kissing him, doing things to him that had the Prince of Shadows gasping, moaning, begging and screaming his name. He had been having these dreams for a few months now.

And then he realized that the weight on his chest was the head of the subject of his dreams, and turned beet red before counting to ten and then slowly shook Nico awake.

Nico's POV

Someone was shaking him awake. Probably Percy.

He opened his eyes a bit, not wanting to wake up. It was the crick in his neck which finally woke him up.

"Your chest is a terrible pillow, you know that?"he asked groggily when he realized what he had been sleeping on, and extricated himself from the extremely uncomfortable position he had fallen asleep in.

"It's not like like your thigh would win the Pillow Awards", said Percy, rubbing his own neck.

"Don't be a drama queen, Perce", said Nico,"It's not like you've never fallen asleep on my lap before."

Suddenly, Nico remembered Percy kissing him before falling asleep. But Percy probably didn't even remember that. He'd been delirious and had fallen asleep right afterwards, after all. What a shame, he thought to himself, not caring much.

"What time is it?"he asked.

Percy checked his watch and told him it was Seven Thirty and then flopped back onto the bed.

"Get up, you kelp-for-brains idiot. Breakfast starts at Eight and then we need to torture fifteen-year-olds at eleven."

Percy yawned in response and mumbled something about wanting about wanting to die into his (unused) pillow.

Nico fumed. He had had to deal with a literal platoon of ghosts asking him for permission to stay in the castle one by one. He had had to condemn three hundred and forty-eight souls to their individual afterlives until three in the morning. He had had to sleep literally folded in half, and Percy wanted to die. Now that made so much sense.

When he told (shouted) all this to Percy, all the idiot Son of Poseidon did was stare at him open-mouthed (why was he staring at him?) and said,"I thought you took a year off?"

The Supreme Condemner of the Underworld shook his head a little sadly, all the hours of sleep he could have had flashing away before his eyes, and said," They don't have any replacements for me, I'm the only invincible Son of Hades out there, remember? Also dad's moods are so much better now...Percy, don't fall asleep on me!"

The Ghost King went right back to shaking the snoring demigod.

Nico had just finished taking a shower and had barely put on a pair of black skinny jeans (all his belongings had been waiting for him next to his bed) when there was a hesitant knock on the door between his room and Percy's.

He opened it to reveal Percy, still in the clothes he had worn the previous day.

Percy's POV

Nico opened the door and, trying to get this over as soon as possible, Percy asked him if he could borrow some pants.

"Pants? Percy, why do you want my pants?"asked Nico.

Still staring at the floor, Percy told him that he had forgotten to pack his.

Nico laughed - actually laughed at him, the arrogant, good-looking bastard - and turned around to get him the requested article of clothing.

Finally looking up, percy felt all the blood in his body rush up to his face when he realised that nico - did he do this to him on purpose?- was shirtless.

Percy was too busy watching the Dark Prince's muscles ripple across the tattoos on his back - a large pair of angel wings on his upper back with their tips on Nico's biceps that Percy thought were just sexy (don't think about it, Perce, don't think about it) - to notice that he was already back with a pair of black jeans.

Reluctantly, Percy stopped staring at Nico's chest and went back to his room, unable to think about anything other than how the Ghost King's legs looked in those skinny jeans.

Harry's POV

Ron was groaning.

Harry tried to shut out the sound by concentrating on his own timetable, but that made him want to groan too. The only thing he was even remotely looking forward to the entire day was Physical Defense.

"Oh, look", said Hermione."They must have decided to start with the Gryffindor table."

Harry looked up to see what she meant, and found the two Physical Defense teachers walking towards them aimlessly- of course they would be walking towards them, they were they only ones at the Gryffindor table this early in the morning. Harry noticed, with a small amount of surprise, that they were both in Muggle clothes- jeans and t-shirts, and the younger one had what looked like a leather jacket slung on his shoulder.

They introduced themselves and Harry had to admit - even though he was pretty sure he was straight - that they were hot. There was something in the way the younger one - Nico, he'd asked them to call him - moved that made Harry think of a panther or a leopard. They were both very obviously built, but still lean. As expected, Ginny was openly staring at them with slightly glazed eyes.

It was an unexpected relief that neither of them displayed any sort of reaction when they found out Harry's name. They have probably only ever heard of me in passing.

After a few minutes of surprisingly comfortable conversation, Nico said, completely out of the blue,"I'm going to take pity on you, Jackson."

"Oh thank the Gods", said Percy (he'd asked them to call him by his nickname).

Harry and the others looked at them in confusion. What were they talking about?

Nico drew a smartphone from his back pocket and began scrolling down his contacts. Hermione gasped.

"How does it even work here?" she asked.

Nico looked at her for a second and said, sounding very much like Hermione herself when she was explaining something to them,"Its signal is modified so that it is magically undetectable and highly amplified. So basically, I could be calling from the moon and it would still connect." Hermione's eyes looked like they wanted to pop out of her head.

Then it seemed like whoever he had been calling had picked up because Nico said, "May I speak to Queen Hylla?"

Queen Hylla?

"Yes, ma'am, I understand that it is midnight there. Oh, hey, Hylla, how're you doing? I'm fine, just wanted to order something. It's kind of an emergency. No, not that kind of emergency. Okay, I'll text you the items. Yes, of course I'll call you later. Sleep tight."He ended the call and immediately began jabbing at the touchscreen.

"Fifteen seconds, Perce", he said after a while," Think you can, ah, hold your horses that long?"

For some reason, Percy turned a little red before saying, his voice dripping sarcasm, "Yes, of course, Mr I'm-on-first-name-terms-with-a-scary-as-Hades-girl-who-would-like-a-dead-Percy-for-her-birthday."

What the actual-?

Nico sighed, saying, "Am I not allowed to talk to my best friend's big sister, Percy?"

Harry could now say that he was effectively baffled.

Percy pouted,"I thought I was your best friend?"

Harry really didn't have the right to question Dumbledore's appointments, but he could not see the headmaster actually hired these two immature children to teach them.

His rather accusatory line of thought was cut short by a wrapped package appearing on his plate of bacon and eggs. Said package was immediately snatched up by Percy, who abruptly got up and left the table.

Why did he do that? wondered Harry

"Why did he do that?"asked Ron.

Nico didn't even look up from his food before saying,"Oh, he forgot to pack his pants and was wearing ones he borrowed from me."

Oh.

Wait, what?

"So that was what the phone call was about?" asked Hermione."How did the package arrive so fast?"

Nico answered with alot of technical terms which both Harry and Ron listened to with slightly open mouths, signalling that their brains had taken a break from understanding what their ears were hearing.

Nico , Harry noticed, seemed to be hellbent on not looking people in the eye. Though he didn't really know why, Harry was thankful for it. Nico's eyes were like endless pits, as if he had seen much more than any human being was supposed to see. This trait they shared with Percy's, which looked like the sea on a calm morning, different shades of blue-green swirling around, had to work hard to look away from them.

Another thing the two pairs of eyes had in common was that, up close, they both looked like shattered glass.

Harry was extremely confused, and painfully ignorant, but one thing he was sure of.

This year was going to be interesting.