Disclaimer: No, I do not own Percy Jackson. No, I do not own Harry Potter. Yes, I am tired of repeating this.

Chapter 11

The Boggart

I'm not a monster, I'm not a monster, I'm NOT a monster, chanted Nico in his mind, wandering aimlessly through the Hogwarts corridors. He was feeling very tired due to not sleeping at all this past week, mainly because he was never at the Gryffindor common room. Why? Because he didn't feel like being around people very much. In fact, the only people he had socialized with lately were either dead and transparent or annoying and snobby (Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, to be precise).

Right now, the three jerks were one of the primary things on his mind. It was only three days ago, when he had been on the seventh floor, planning to examine the wall through which he could sense one of the Horcrux's energy, he had noticed someone following him. The shadows whispered to him (Nico has been able to manipulate shadows a lot better lately and has been practising) who the pursuers were and Nico, furious, shadow-travelled to the place behind the trio and gave them a piece of his mind. Crabbe and Goyle received punches and kicks, while Malfoy was met with Nico's Stygian sword and the words,

'What the Hades do you think you're doing?'

Malfoy had been very scared and stuttered a lame reply. Warning him to stop following him, Nico sheathed his blade and was on his way. Then, suddenly, Malfoy had become very brave and shouted after the son of Hades,

'You'll pay for that, you bastard!'

Of course, when Nico stopped and glared at him, Malfoy's courageous demeanour was blown away like a feather and the Slytherin ran from Nico like he was the son of death. Of course, in a way, he was.

Nico noticed, though, a look in Malfoy's eyes, which was practically screaming: TROUBLE! It was the same look he had seen in Harry's eyes in the Forbidden Forest – a look that would surely lead to no good. However, Nico ignored this, because another thing plagued his mind: his nightmare.

Since his last disturbing dream, Nico had had no other nightmares involving the boy who had taught him the odd Life-Draining technique. However, right after he was out of the Forbidden Forest, Nico would constantly hear a voice in his head – the voice of the boy from his dream – which either said,

'Well done, Nico. Keep practising your skills,'

or,

'Evil is approaching. Learn more about your powers, Nico. Get stronger.'

Nico had tried in many ways to ignore it, but he found that he couldn't. The first three days this was bearable, but then the voice got louder and Nico simply obeyed it. He had found it was quite easy to learn new things about shadows and death. By now, he could hear the shadows whisper, knowwhen one or the other person is going to die, shadow-travel a lot without getting tired, make ghosts do real damage: ruining a wall, for example...

He was wary of doing this, progressing so fast, because he knew that some darker things he could do would affect his mind if he wasn't careful. However, Nico found that if he learned something knew about his powers every day, the boy's voice would stop bothering him. That was what Nico needed for now, but then, what about Percy and Hermione's conversation he had overheard this morning?

Nico was being brave today, walking near the library where people could see him. Thankfully, not many students like going to the library and the place was quite empty and because of this, Nico felt blissful. A week had passed since he had dropped out of Hogwarts society and today (or tomorrow, perhaps) he was planning to resume his lessons.

Right now, he needed to find Percy and show him what he has found. It was very important to the mission and Nico needed to–

'I figured ti out, Percy.'

The words made Nico stop between a bookshelf in the library. Hermione's voice carried a strange note in it, which immediately made Nico curious. The witch's voice was coming from barely a metre away from Nico, and he decided to listen, while keeping his presence secret.

'You've figured out – what?' asked Percy, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

'That you and Nico are half-bloods, better known as demigods, the children of a god and mortal, who inherited part of their immortal parent's power,' said Hermione, and Nico understood at once that she had memorised a text from some book she had been reading.

Percy chuckled nervously.

'Demigods? Hermione, think about what you're saying! That's impossible...'

Nico was tempted to hit Percy with one of the bookshelves. Percy was kind, strong and smart when he needed to be, but he simply COULD NOT lie and that was a huge disadvantage.

After a few moments of silence, Percy sighed, asking,

'What gave us away?'

'Little hints, actually,' said Hermione. 'When you're disappointed or angry about something you say 'Styx' or 'Hades' and Nico, instead of Death, uses the name Thanatos – all of which are from Greek Mythology. I noticed that instead of 'God' you two say 'gods'. That prophecy Trelawney made referred to 'the son of the sea' and 'the son of death', both of which I was confused about until I had met the centaurs. They referred to you as 'the son of Neptune' and to Nico as 'the son fo Pluto', which I know are Roman names for Poseidon and-and Hades.' Hermione whispered the name as if afraid to say it loudly. 'Then, of course, there's the obvious; you can do tricks with water and I overheard you have a sword named Riptide; Nico can control shadows and the ghosts are afraid of him as if he's Death – I mean, Thanatos – himself. Also, you mentioned that you're hunted by monsters because of your parentage which would make sense because–'

'OK, OK, stop, or my brain's going to short-circuit!' said Percy, amazed that Hermione had managed to say all that in one breath. 'Styx, I feel like you're smarter than Annabeth sometimes...'

'Who's Annabeth?' asked Hermione.

'Daughter of Athena,' said Percy, 'but that's not important right now. You haven't told anyone?'

'No, of course not.'

'Good.' Percy sighed in relief. 'I guess now you know all about us, huh?'

'No, not everything,' said Hermione. 'The centaurs told me you two are heroes. You must've had tonnes of adventures, which I would love to know about.'

'All right, I'll tell you at lunch,' promised Percy. 'But right now, let's go and find Nico.'

'Wait,' whispered Hermione. 'Is-is Nico really the son of-of Hades?'

'Yeah,' said Percy.

'The God of the Underworld?'

'Yeah. I thought you knew that.'

'I do,' said Hermione, 'it's just that I'm a bit, well, just a bit...'

'Afraid of him?' guessed Percy.

'Well, yes,' admitted Hermione.

At this, Nico frowned and considered interrupting the conversation then and there but kept himself from doing it, opting to listen for a while longer.

'Look, you don't have to be,' said Percy. 'He's been nothing but a good friend to me for several years and there's nothing wrong with his... abilities.'

Nico could sense Percy was uncertain, which Hermione noticed, as well.

'You're completely sure?' asked she. 'I mean, you aren't wary of him at all?'

'Well, I...' Percy seemed to be choosing his next words carefully. 'I'm not afraid of him or anything... At least, not now.'

'What do you mean?'

'His father is certain that when Nico becomes older he will be able to match, or even beat me in battle,' Percy told Hermione. 'Which is fine by me, but it would be sort of weird, because I have the Achilles Curse on me.'

Hermione gasped.

'Really?'

'Yeah,' said Percy. 'Anyhow, I don't think Nico's dangerous unless he gets angry – you know what happens then?' Hermione nodded. 'Still, the thing he did to those men in the Forbidden Forest bothers me, but only a little. I mean, all Nico has to do is master his powers gradually, so they doesn't have any negative effect on him.'

'I guess you're right,' said Hermione. 'I think I only feel scared of Nico is because I'm afraid of dying – everyone is – although Harry and Ron just see Nico as a monster. I don't think anything could convince them to help us now, even if we are trying to get rid of You-Know... I mean, Voldemort.'

'I'm sure we can defeat him without Harry's help...'

By then, Nico wasn't listening anymore. He shadow-travelled out of the library to a secluded corridor, feeling sad and angry, the important issue he wanted to discuss with Percy long forgotten. Right now, he just wanted to be alone, in peace. Either that, or he really wanted to crash something. Like a building or two. Or ten.

I'm not a monster, Nico repeated, I'm not, I just have unusual powers... which even Percy is worried about. That really surprised Nico. Percy, Hero of Olympus, wary of him? Percy was partially right, of course: Nico couldn't master all of his abilities in one day. However, it didn't mean he, Nico, was as mad and dangerous as all the other children of Hades. Harry seemed to be of another opinion, although he, of course, didn't know who Nico's father was. Momentarily, Nico wondered what Harry would think if he did know. Probably put Nico in his list of Most Darkest Evil People in the world. Permanently.

At that moment, Nico spotted Harry and Ron walking towards him. Speak of the devil, thought he, hoping against hope for Harry to simply pass without bothering him. Unfortunately, this didn't happen.

'Maybe we should just leave the weirdo alone,' Ron whispered to Harry.

'I heard that,' said Nico, stopping when Harry stood in front of him, clearly not planning to let him walk on. 'What do you want?'

'To know who you are!' said Harry, fingering his wand in his pocket. 'You know I'm not going to stop until I know.'

'If I tell you, you're going to try to kill me,' stated Nico matter-of-factly.

'So you are my enemy?'

'I didn't say that either,' replied Nico. 'But pay attention to what I said: you would try to kill me, but you wouldn't succeed, so keep away from me, until it's time for you to know that.'

Nico could tell Harry was furious hearing him speak to him that way – Nico would feel the same if he was fifteen and a thirteen-year-old dared talk to him like that – but ignored the wizard and started walking again. Suddenly, though, he felt Harry's shadow reach for his wand, which meant the real Harry was doing the same, so the minute Harry said some unintelligible word, Nico sprung out of the spell's way and, as if nothing had happened, continued walking. If only he could see then the smirk plastered on Harry's face... But it seemed the Fates enjoyed torturing him today.

Nico didn't know exactly where he was heading, but certainly NOT into the Paved Courtyard, into which he had suddenly arrived. Some students looked his way, surprised to see him again, but the others ignored him, talking amongst each other and laughing. All attention turned to Nico, though, when Malfoy appeared on the other end of the courtyard and said loudly,

'Look who decided to come back to society – Nico di Angelo, himself!'

'I don't have time to chat with you, Malfoy,' said Nico, 'so how about you go back to whatever smelly hole you came from and leave me alone?'

Malfoy scowled momentarily, but then smirked.

'I don't think I can do that, di Angelo,' said he, 'but I can do myself and everybody else a favour by enabling us to find out more about you.'

With that Malfoy raised his wand, pointed it onto a bush and cried,

'Alohomora!'

Nico heard a sound like a door unlocking and then felt a powerful dark energy, or being, appear in the courtyard. Nico had only one second to realise that this something was a Boggart and then, everything went black.

Nico was in a place where nothing could be seen, heard or felt. Then, though, Nico heard a sound which sounded like small droplets of water falling onto the ground. Other than that Nico suddenly felt cold, very cold, as if a great blizzard was moving his way...

Nico took a few steps back.

'Where am I?' asked he, but found he couldn't hear his voice. However, the moment he had said this, lightning flashed and he was suddenly in Camp Half-Blood, Thalia, Percy and Annabeth standing in front of him. Nico froze when he saw what surrounded them – hundreds of dead bodies of demigods he had seen at Camp, some of which were sprawled on great boulders, drops of their blood falling onto the earth. There were also dead of satyrs, including Grover, dryads, nymphs, who lay in a burned down forest... only Percy, Annabeth and Thalia were present, staring (glaring, rather) at him with such hate in their eyes that Nico shivered.

'You killed them,' said Percy. 'You killed them all.'

Thalia shook her head, saying, 'I thought you weren't like this, Nico. Why did you do this?'

'I didn't!' protested Nico backing away. 'I didn't do this!'

But, all of a sudden, Nico could see another him, standing nearby. The other Nico's face was emotionless, but his – its – eyes were filled with glee.

'What's happening?' asked the real Nico, but found that his friends couldn't hear him.

'You are a monster,' said Annabeth. 'You should have been killed, not Bianca. You're a murderer, Nico, you live only to destroy.'

'No that's not true!' shouted the Nico, fruitlessly; Thalia, Annabeth and Percy were deaf to his words.

At that moment, the second Nico, became enraged at Annabeth's words, wielded his sword and lunged at Annabeth. Percy tried to protect her, but Nico raised his left hand and the son of Poseidon was hurled backwards. Then, the fake Nico's sword ran through Annabeth and she fell down, dead, into a puddle of blood.

The real Nico stood watching this, horrified, while his fake self turned to Thalia and Percy, grinning.

'You're right, friends,' he said this mockingly. 'I love killing and I shall never stop.'

With that, he moved to attack Percy and Thalia, while the real Nico shouted, 'NO!' and was about to interfere and stop the impostor, when the scene changed.

Now, he was in a pure-white room facing no other than the king of the gods. Zeus was looking at him in a mixture of disappointment and anger, saying after a few moments,

'I truly shouldn't have killed your mother all those years ago. I should have only destroyed you.'

Nico closed his eyes and thought, This isn't real, this isn't real...

'Oh but it is reality,' continued Zeus. 'And in this reality, you are a murderer. A killer. All you can do is destruct.'

'No!' cried Nico. 'Stop it!'

Negative thoughts filled Nico's mind like a hurricane and Nico felt angry, lost, confused. All he was aware of was the ever-growing headache he had and himself strongly protesting against everything that has been said to him.

'Your sister should have stayed alive,' said Zeus, 'She would have been more useful, less dangerous. She wouldn't have been corrupted by the powers she possessed, unlike you.'

'But I'm not a killer!' Nico's throat was burning from all the shouting. 'I–'

'Not yet, you're not,' interrupted Zeus, 'but you soon will be. You're nothing more than a murderer, the corrupted son of my brother. Even he, your father, is disappointed with you...'

'No, that's not true!' shouted Nico. 'Stop it! Get away from me!' Nico glared at the fake king of the gods desperately wishing his headache would disappear, along with Zeus, of course.

'You dare disrespect me so, you filthy half-blood? You dare disrespect your ruler?'

Zeus's fists were clenched and lightning appeared around them. He came closer to Nico, but when he did, Nico's headache became so strong that he recoiled and sent a last of dark energy at the fake king of the gods. This, sadly, didn't harm the impostor, who became furious and shot what seemed to be a thousand lightning bolts Nico's way. The demigod closed his eyes, almost expecting to actually be shocked by the attack, but he was merely thrown back a few feet, hitting a wall and then, after a flash of blinding white and what seemed to be a voice saying, 'Ridiculous!'–

–Nico was back in the Paved Courtyard.

The son of Hades sat on the ground, his back to a wall, breathing heavily and shaking from shock and indescribable fury. He could barely see the silhouette of a wizard who stood in front of him, wand in hand, facing the boggart, but Nico's attention was caught by a figure moving towards him. For some reason, this infuriated Nico. He didn't want anyone near him, not after the horrible things he had just seen and felt! He wanted to be left alone – nobody cared about him anyway.

'Stay away from me!' shouted Nico at the figure. He didn't care that it was Percy, he was too furious to focus on anything. In his anger he shot a bolt of dark energy towards the son of Poseidon, but the attack was very unusual – more powerful than before. So powerful, in fact, that it threw Percy back to the far end of the courtyard.

At that moment, Nico spotted Harry, Malfoy and several other wizards raising their wands and shooting several spells at him. The spells had absolutely no effect except for making Nico even angrier. How dare these wizards attack him? It was because of them that he had seen those bloody illusions when facing the boggart. It was their fault!

'Nico,' called a voice. 'Nico calm down!' The son of Hades suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

'STAY AWAY FROM ME!' Nico shouted, finally succumbing to his anger completely. Why were they trying to comfort him if in their eyes he was just a monster, a murderer? Why wouldn't they leave him alone?

Because of these thoughts, Nico's powers acted on his emotions; a great explosion of dark energy took place in the courtyard, which was so strong that it could kill quite a number of people. So strong, in fact, that it could destroy a fair part of Hogwarts...

Right before the explosion took place, Harry thought, shocked and frustrated, What have I done? Because it was he who cooperated with Malfoy, cast a spell on the corridors of Hogwarts, so they would lead Nico to the courtyard with the boggart. And now, because he had done this – a thing which now seemed very, very foolish to Harry – probably disastrous outcome of the dark blast.

A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Aren't I evil? You shall now have to wait another week for the next update! ^_^ The name of the next chapter is: The Son of the Death... Goddess?