Chapter Twenty Seven

Nico's POV:

My friends and I walked into the Slytherin common room, laughing and talking.

Unfortunately, Will, having been sorted at all, and into a different house, was not allowed inside the common room. So he was not among us.

Percy and Jason, though, were. When I caught up to them, after I found out that they had bet on my relationship with Will, I didn't really have anything to say to them.

So I told them that I forgive them, even though what they did was an appalling thing to do. Even though I forgave them, I still had to resist the urge to pluck Jason's glasses right off his nose and snap them in half.

So we left it at that. We walked back to the others as they walked to us. We all silently agreed to finish up our walk. We entered the castle from a different entrance then the one we came out of, and our friends' oo-ed and aa-ed in fascination at the castle's tall ceilings and marble floors.

Annabeth seriously would not shut up. She kept trying to guess how old the castle was by looking at the type of architecture the castle had, and trying to match it to a specific century, or whatever.

Frank was more than ready to sit already, so we decided to go to the Slytherin common room. When we were by the secret entrance to the common room, everyone was in a really good mood, including me.

Will said goodbye, - except he didn't say it, if you know what I mean - and left to do whatever he does when he's not with me.

When we entered the common room, I realized how empty it felt. There were barely any people around, and it was eerily quiet.

We came over to a circle of sofas and couches, and sat down loudly. If there were still many people there, and they would still be trying to keep the quiet, we would have definitely disturbed them.

I noticed Talia lying on a couch beside us. Her back was propped against a pillow that was held in place between herself and the couch's armrest. Her legs were bent in front of her. She was holding a book against her legs. Reading.

Her face was blank. She was smiling slightly, but somehow, her face was still blank. Emotion hidden behind a lack of emotion. Somehow I could see many emotions on her face at once, and none at all.

"Hey Talia," I said. She didn't react, but yet, she also did. Her smile got smaller, her eyebrows furrowed slightly. Like gears turning inside her head, processing everything, but there is nothing to process, so they stop, but they're still going. Somehow.

I waited for a response, but I didn't get one. So I said again, "Talia...?" Again, she doesn't respond. Her eyes widened, I could see that she had reached the bottom of the page. Slowly, she turned the page. Her hand found the corner of the book, separating a new page from the rest, and turning it over.

The sound of crisp paper moving, fingers grazing old paper. It's oddly satisfying.

From the color of the pages, and the sound they made, I came to the conclusion that this book, the book that Talia was reading, is worn out and old. Years of being read over and over, being loved.

Can books make a person so happy? So happy that they leave reality behind to explore a better place, a place where you can make your own rules? A place where you can't hear annoying boys you met on your way to school say your name?

Do you have a different name when you read a book? Are you even you, if your body is left in reality, but your mind is somewhere else? Someplace better, or someplace worse?

I turned to my friends, they looked puzzled. Only Annabeth was smiling. "Er- guys, I would have liked you to meet Talia, but..." I turned back to look at Talia. "Talia, I'd like you to meet my friends, from America."

Still, she didn't respond. But I got an idea.

"Hey Talia, can you tell me a fun fact?" I asked casually. Slowly, Talia's head turned away from her book, to look at me. Though her gaze still lingered on the words for a moment longer.

Finally looking at me, Talia said, "France had still been using guillotines for execution for another four months after the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977." She paused. "You've heard of Star Wars, right?"

I shrugged." Well, not exactly. But I've seen people wear Star Wars shirts and things like that. I know that it's a big deal."

She nodded. She was almost about to turn back to her book, when I asked again, "Would you like to meet my friends now?"

"Sure, I guess, " She said unenthusiastically. But I could tell she was nervous. Like she would rather spend time with book characters, than real people.

(Now who does that sound like, dear reader? You, the reader, and I, the writer, assuming we actually have available friends right now, are spending our time on fanfiction, because who cares about social interaction, pfffffffff)

"This is Hazel, my sister. Frank, her boyfriend, and my friend. Reyna, she's like my sister, we're very close friends. Percy, don't mind him, he's an idiot. Annabeth, his girlfriend, and again, also my friend. And Jason and Piper, who are also my friends, and also dating."

"You have a lot of friends," she said, almost jealously. I scoffed. "I can guarantee you, at least four people out of these seven didn't trust me, didn't like me, or hated me, when they first met me." I smirked. "Percy."

"Ha!" he shouted. "You were the most annoying ten year old, ever. You nagged me so much. I remember wanting to stuff you into a meat flavored sack and throw you to a pack of wolves.

"Descriptive." Talia decided. "Was I really that annoying?" I asked Percy. "We'll never know. I may not have been thinking clearly. You know, I may have been too busy worrying about Annabeth, who had freaking been kidnapped, while you just wouldn't shut up or stop comparing everything to Mythomagic."

Was I an annoying person? Does it just come naturally to me to drive people away? Is that also why I had such a hard time becoming friends with Talia? Am I just a downright terrible person?

Hazel grunted. "Mythomagic? You mean that stupid card game that Nico and Frank played?" "It's not stupid!" Frank and I said together. Hazel rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"You got kidnapped?" Talia asked Annabeth, shocked. Annabeth looked uneasy. "I'd rather not talk about that. How about we talk about something else? For example, what are you reading, Talia? May I please see your book?"

Talia smiled. She picked up a bookmark that was placed beside her and put it into the book. She closed the book and handed it to Annabeth.

"It's in Hebrew, though." Annabeth reached over and took the book from Talia. Annabeth examined the book.

"You're reading Matilda?" Annabeth asked cheerfully. "How could you tell?" Talia asked in amazement. Annabeth smiled proudly.

"Well, the illustration on the cover is the same style that Roald Dahl's books often have, which means that this might be a Roald Dahl book. And who else would be sitting on a pile of books, but Matilda?" Annabeth explained casually.

"Very clever." Talia admitted. "Seeing that you have even heard of Roald Dahl, I'd assume that you are a muggle-born, no?"

"Er- uh, yeah, sure. I guess," Annabeth said. Talia nodded and sighed. "Well, I'm bored," she said. "I'm going to read my book now."

She turned back to her book, once again lost between reality and fiction.

"Anyway, on a completely unrelated note," I began, "on Christmas we get to go to that nearby village, Hogsmeade, I think. Are we going?"

"Definitely," Reyna said. "Wouldn't it be nice to experience that? Are you actually thinking about not going, Nico?

I shrugged. "I don't know. Wouldn't it be a little strange?" Reyna sighed. "Probably, but, we're always doing something strange. For example, when you met Percy for the second time, and you acted like you've never met him before. Didn't that feel strange?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's completely different." "Your point?" She asked. "I guess we're going to Hogsmeade, then," I said.

"Yay," Hazel said softly. "This will be really fun, don't you think?" I sighed. "Sure it will."

Line breaker

I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, just wondering how many chicken nuggets I could fit in my mouth, as boys do, when Frank entered the room.

"Hey." He nodded to me. "Hi." He walked up to another bed and sat on it. He crawled up to the pillow and faceplanted into it. Slumping.

"Long day?" I asked. "Just tired," he said. His voice was muffled by the pillow. "If you say so." I rolled over onto my side and stared at him.

He was wearing a plain purple shirt, and jeans. His hair was messy and all over the place. "You look more than just tired," I noted. "Is something wrong?"

"Well," he sat up hesitantly. "I met this girl the other day-" I cut him off. "Not the best way to start a conversation with your girlfriend's brother, Zhang," I pointed out.

"Duly noted." He pursed his lips. "Let me rephrase that. I met this idiot the other day…" He waited for my verdict on how his phrasing was. "Better." I clapped my hands together. "You were saying?"

"Well, I met this girl, and she was so naturally racist, that she didn't even know that she was being racist," he said, irritated. I don't know why, but this made me laugh.

"What are you guys talking about?" I sat up and looked in the direction of where the voice had come from. Jason Grace was standing in the doorway.

He walked over to the bed next to Frank's, - which was the one next to mine, which was the one in the corner of the room – and sat down.

"We were just talking about that girl we met the other day," Frank told Jason. Jason laughed. "Oh, yes. The 'painfully racist' one. I remember."

"What did she say?" I asked curiously. "She asked me if I'm Chinese," he said. I waited a moment, expecting him to continue, but he didn't.

"Frank," I said slowly. "You are Chinese." He scowled. "You're missing the point. I could just as well have been Korean, or Japanese."

"We were in a Chinese food restaurant!" Jason exclaimed. Frank opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Jason was talking again. "And you were the only Asian guy there! And you were loudly complaining that it wasn't authentic Chinese food!"

I snorted so suddenly it hurt. I started laughing obnoxiously. Frank's face turned bright red. He raised his hands in order to get my attention. "OKOKOK. BUuuUUuuUUUuUUT! But but but!" He insisted. "Then she asked me if my name was, like, Lee, or something! So…" Frank said, a look of victory on his face.

"I bet she asked you if you like rice?" I said sarcastically. Frank gaped at me. "Oh my gods! She did!"

A moment after Jason and I started laughing hysterically, Frank joined us. I wiped a tear from my eye just as another voice came from the direction of the door.

"Jason?" Once again, I looked at the door. There was standing none other than Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque behind her. "Pipes, what are you doing here?" Jason asked her. "And Hazel, you too?" Frank said.

Piper walked over to Jason's bed and sat down beside him, while Hazel walked over to Frank's bed and sat down beside him.

"Apparently, Jason, girls are in fact, allowed in the boys' dorms. But, not the other way around," she told him. "How did you find your way up here?" Frank asked the girls. "I got Talia to show us the way," Piper said.

I looked back at the door yet again. I saw Talia peering from behind it. When she realized that I had spotted her, she sighed and walked out from behind the door.

"I can't believe you got me to waltz into the boys' dormitories like that, Piper," she complained. "I always imagined it would smell like sweaty gym socks up here."

"I wonder how you did it, Piper?" Frank teased. "Oh, shut up, will you?" Piper said. "What if I don't want to?" Piper rolled her eyes.

Talia looked out of one of the windows and sighed. "There is a full moon tonight. You know what that means." Hazel looked puzzled. "We do?" Talia looked at her like she was an idiot. "Werewolves."

"You have got to be kidding me," I said. "Why would I be kidding you?" Talia asked me seriously. "Are there any werewolves here? Are they dangerous?"

Talia hesitated. "I don't think so. But, Teddy's dad was a werewolf. You know, before he got killed in the battle of Hogwarts, with Teddy's mum. She was a metamorphmagus, like Teddy."

I decided not to push her for more information about these things that I have never heard of. Battle? Werewolves? Metamorphmagi?

"Who's Teddy?" Hazel asked. "He's my friend," Talia explained. "He's a second year student." Hazel nodded. "Oh, ok."

Talia looked at a window. She squinted her eyes in an effort to see something through the glass. She walked over to it and turned the handle, but it wouldn't budge. I got up to help her, but she just said, "Don't worry. I got it."

With a powerful tug, she turned the handle and flung the window open. "Ah, there we go. Now… let's see…" I sat back down. "What are you doing?" I asked, as she stuck her head out the window and looked around.

"Wait a moment… Ah! There we go! Three stars. Motzei Shabbat has arrived," she exclaimed happily. "I'm going to write a letter to my mother." She pulled her head away from the window and closed it, making sure to turn the handle upwards to lock it and everything. "Goodbye."

She started walking towards the door, but I asked her again, "What are you doing?" she whirled around. "I'm going to write a letter to my mother. Didn't I say that?" "No, like, what where you doing, just five seconds ago?" I clarified.

Talia smiled. "I was looking for three stars." I was still confused. "Why?" She sighed. "Basically, three stars means that it's tomorrow, which means that it's not Shabbat anymore, which means that I can do melakha again, which is all the things that you're not allowed to do on Shabbat or holidays, like writing." Talia breathed.

I gave her a thumbs up. "Cool." She grinned and left.

Later, after the rest of the girls had left, it was finally time for me to go to sleep. I was still very tired from my sleepless night the night before, so when my head hit my pillow, I was out immediately.

Author's note:

Hello fellow demigods, witches and wizards, divergent, shadowhunters, magicians, eiherji, and tributes!

I have a very special announcement to make! The next few chapters will be in the POVs of Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, and Reyna! Not in that order, though.

The order of the POVs was determined by who would be most fitting to narrate the plot of their respective chapters. I feel like not telling you the order would be meaner of me, so that's what I'm doing.

Here in the Rick Riordan fandom, we love seeing others suffer! It's how we feel validated! So sit back, scream, and cry in agonizing pain while I watch you suffer! Yippee!

Just kidding, I'm not nearly as good at making people suffer as Uncle Rick. I'll have to work on that. I'd probably need a bigger cause for tension than not telling you the order of the POVs.

Maybe I should end a chapter on a giant cliffhanger and then not post for a year! :D

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Kthanxbye

Also happy new year!