A/N: Warning, this chapter contains another dark flashback.

The common room broke into an uproar. Professor McGonagall had to set off several loud bangs with her wand in order to regain order. After determining that the Fat Lady was too tipsy to remember if Black was still in the Tower, Professor McGonagall sent entire house back to the Great Hall and went to fetch Dumbledore.

Ten minutes later, most of the staff and all of the other students had joined them in the Great Hall. "The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore announced. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately. Send word with one of the ghosts." He made to leave the hall, then paused and turned back. "Oh yes, you'll be needing…" He waved his wand, sending the house tables to the side of the room and covering the floor in squashy purple sleeping bags. "Sleep well!"

The hall immediately buzzed with chatter; the Gryffindors were relaying the story to friends in other houses. Nico debated looking for Luna, then spotted her deep in conversation with Ginny. From the looks of things, she had come up with one of her typically bizarre theories to explain the night's events and was trying to convince Ginny.

"Come on," Hermione said quietly, dragging two sleeping bags over to a corner of the room. "Do you think Black's still in the castle?"

Nico shrugged. "How would I know?"

Hermione sighed. "It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know. The one night we weren't in the tower…"

Nico frowned. "How'd he know the password? I mean, he could have learned where Gryffindor Tower is back when he was in school, but how would he know the current password?"

"I don't know," Hermione replied, baffled. "How'd he even get into the castle? Do you think he could be your brother?"

Nico briefly thought about it, then shook his head. "No. No way. No way I could have a brother who made it to sixteen without any of us knowing about it."

"I mean, 'Sirius' is a name from Greek mythology…Orion's hound…"

"Not one word about Orion," Nico growled. "He was a sexist bastard who deserved what he got. And he didn't have a dog, at least not that I saw."

"It was just a theory," Hermione said defensively. "Normal wizards can't Apparate into or out of Hogwarts, but those rules clearly don't apply to you. I just thought…"

"He's not," Nico interrupted firmly. "My father kept his oath."

"The lights are going out now!" Percy Weasley called. "Everyone in their sleeping bags!"

The candles went out all at once. Nico rolled over and shut his eyes, effectively cutting off further conversation. Hermione sighed and looked up at the enchanted ceiling, trying and failing to think up other plausible theories.

Nearby, Neville stared wide-eyed at Nico and Hermione, trying to make sense of what he'd overheard.

In the morning, the students were permitted to return to their dormitories. Gryffindors were assured that the Fat Lady's portrait had been enchanted to keep her sober within her own frame. The Fat Lady seemed to be torn between contrition and horror, berating herself for letting a madman into the Tower.

Professor McGonagall called Gryffindors into her office one by one in an effort to determine precisely how Black had gotten the password to Gryffindor Tower (which had of course been changed immediately). Neville swallowed nervously when it was his turn, fidgeting nervously with the parchment containing the old password.

"Mr. Longbottom, have you recently given the password to anyone—student, staff or otherwise—who should not have access to Gryffindor Tower?"

"N-no, of course not," Neville stammered.

"Did you see anyone suspicious in Hogsmeade yesterday?"

"N-no, not really. I mean, there was that hooded bloke that turned out to be a witch, but Black's not a witch…"

"Yes, thank you," Professor McGonagall cut him off, sounding slightly irritated. "And you have no idea how Black could have learned the password?"

Neville nervously took out his parchment. "W-well, I mean, I d-did leave this at breakfast yesterday—but Nico found it! He kept it safe for me!"

Professor McGonagall frowned. "What is that?"

"I…I wrote down the password because I k-keep forgetting it," Neville admitted, hanging his head.

"I see," Professor McGonagall said stiffly. "Please refrain from writing down the password in the future, and fetch Mr. di Angelo."

Professor McGonagall held up Neville's parchment with the password. "I understand this was in your possession yesterday?"

"Yes," Nico confirmed. "I didn't show it to anyone, if that's what you're asking."

"Is it possible someone might have gotten a glimpse of it in Hogsmeade without your noticing?"

Nico shook his head. "I wasn't even in Hogsmeade yesterday."

Professor McGonagall's head snapped up. "You weren't?"

"No. I didn't think it was a good idea for me to go near the dementors. I was at school all day, and no one else saw that parchment." Well, no one human, but he didn't think dogs counted.

"I see. Thank you."

By the end of the day, the teachers still seemed to be at a loss to explain how Black had broken into the castle and obtained the password to Gryffindor Tower. Classes resumed normal on Monday, though students continued to trade wild theories about Black.

A few nights later, Ginny walked up to Nico in the common room. "Can you please convince Luna that Sirius Black is not an unregistered Animagus using his animal form to sneak into the school and map all the secret passages? Of which there is apparently one in Ron's bed? Snape took ten points from Gryffindor because apparently it was my fault that she wouldn't shut up about it…"

Nico stared at Ginny. "What makes you think she'll believe me?"

Ginny blinked, then sniffed. "Boys. Never notice anything…" She stormed away.

Nico turned to Hermione, bewildered. "What's she talking about?"

Hermione looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. "Uh, don't worry about it."

"Okay…" Nico turned back to his Charms homework, decidedly confused.

The weather got worse throughout the week. Gryffindor had been due to play their first Quidditch match against the Slytherins, but the Slytherin team all managed to come down with colds that mysteriously resisted every potion Madam Pomfrey gave them. The Quidditch match was rescheduled against Hufflepuff, though none of the Gryffindors bought the Slytherins' ploy.

By Friday, it had begun to rain so heavily that Nico used his book bag as a makeshift umbrella on the way back from Herbology. "At camp, we can control the weather," he grumbled.

"Yes, well, we're not at your camp," Hermione reminded him.

"Aren't there any spells that can keep off the rain or something?"

"There might be," Hermione said thoughtfully. "That's a good idea."

That afternoon, Professor Lupin wasn't in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Snape taught the class instead, and he seemed more interested in disparaging Lupin's teaching methods than in actually teaching the class. By the time Harry burst in, ten minutes late, Snape still hadn't started the lesson. He docked ten points from Gryffindor, refused to answer Harry's questions about Lupin's absence, and threatened to dock another fifty points if Harry didn't sit down and shut up.

Finally, Snape finished ranting about Lupin and opened a copy of the textbook. "Today we shall discuss…" he flipped to a chapter near the very end of the book, "…werewolves."

"But, sir," Hermione objected. "We're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start hinkypunks—"

"Any competent teacher would have begun teaching you about werewolves by now," Snape interrupted. "Now turn to page 394. All of you! Now!"

With some bitter grumbling, the class obeyed. Snape turned to Nico. "You once had an encounter with a werewolf, Mr. di Angelo, did you not? How did you recognize it as a werewolf and not a true wolf?"

"I, uh, saw him transform," Nico replied, caught slightly off-guard by the question.

"I see. And tell us, how did you survive the encounter?"

"I stabbed the werewolf with my friend's silver pocketknife," Nico answered, too flustered to think up any kind of cover story.

Half the class stared at him, then shook their heads. Apparently, they were growing accustomed to Nico's strange stories. Snape, on the other hand, seemed surprised. "You…attacked the werewolf with a pocketknife?"

"Well, it was the only silver weapon we had. Not counting the silver dog…"

Snape frowned, looking like he wanted to ask about the 'silver dog', then he refocused. "So you chose to get in range of the werewolf's teeth? That was incredibly dangerous. Why did you not use your wand?"

"I didn't have it with me," Nico responded, increasingly uncomfortable with the questions. "We're not supposed to do magic outside school, are we?"

"The law makes allowances for life-threatening situations," Snape replied. "Well. Clearly you all need to learn the proper, safe methods of killing werewolves…"

Snape had them spend the entire class taking notes about werewolves while he disparaged the work they had done with Professor Lupin. When the bell rang, he assigned a ridiculously long essay on how to recognize and kill werewolves. The moment they were dismissed, Nico hurried out of the room, hoping to evade any further questions about Lycaon. Fortunately for him, most of the class seemed more interested in complaining about Snape's obvious grudge against Lupin.

Neville, however, caught up to him. "So…what's this about a silver dog?"

"My friend Reyna has a pair of magic dogs," Nico replied, somewhat curtly. "A gold dog named Aurum and a silver one named Argentum."

"Wow. Where'd she get them?"

"She…" Nico stopped short. "I have no idea."

"Wasn't it a full moon last night?" Hermione cut in, looking thoughtful.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Nico demanded, confused.

"Well…" Hermione glanced at Nico and seemed to reconsider what she'd been about to say. "Never mind. I'll be in the library."

The next day dawned gray and stormy. At breakfast, both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teams were clearly not looking forward to the day's Quidditch match. However, the rest of the school remained undaunted, and soon there was a massive crowd crossing the lawn to the Quidditch pitch, huddled underneath umbrellas.

Nico and Hermione automatically went to Leo's heated bench. To their surprise, they saw Ron and Percy sitting with Ginny on the bench. Percy waved in greeting. Hermione awkwardly returned the wave and sat next to Ron.

"Hey," Ron said. He had to nearly shout in order to be heard over the wind.

"Hey," Hermione replied. "We're not…intruding, or anything like that, are we?"

"No, you're fine," Ron said somberly. "Leo would want this thing to warm as many people as possible."

Hermione was briefly silent. "I'm not sure if I've said it before, but I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks." Ron glanced at his older brother. "Percy's gotten a lot nicer, since then. I think it made him realize there are more important things than his dreams of becoming Minister of Magic."

"Ah." Hermione was saved from responding further when Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle into the air and fourteen red and yellow blurs shot off the ground.

"Is Lee not commentating today?" Nico wondered aloud.

Hermione glanced in Lee's direction. He had his usual megaphone, though he looked slightly frustrated. "I think he is, but it's impossible to hear him with all this wind…"

Nico stared through the rain toward the match, huddling rather closer to Hermione than he normally would have done so that he could shelter under her umbrella. "Please don't tell Will if I catch a cold, I don't need another rhyming curse."

Hermione stifled a giggle. "I thought you were immune to the cold."

"Dry cold," Nico corrected. "It doesn't rain down in…uh…Dad's place."

Hermione did not respond, wincing as Harry narrowly avoided a Bludger. It looked less like he'd dodged on purpose and more like he'd missed it through sheer dumb luck. "I hope Harry's not getting too much rain on his glasses. How they expect anyone to find the Snitch in these conditions…"

By dinnertime, there was no indication that either Seeker had so much as spotted the Snitch. Gryffindor was winning, but it had become increasingly obvious that Harry's vision was impaired. When Wood called a time out, Hermione excused herself and hurried down to the field.

She returned just as play resumed. "Cast a water-repelling charm on Harry's glasses," she explained. "Wasn't a fair match the way it was."

"Hm." Nico shivered. For some reason, his mind drifted back to the time Jason had accidentally electrocuted him while fighting a storm spirit. That had hurt. And the time he'd ended up sleeping out in the rain because he didn't have the energy to shadow-travel to somewhere more sheltered…

Why was it so cold? Honestly, no match was worth enduring these conditions. "I'm going back to the castle," Nico mumbled, standing up.

He stumbled toward the stairs without waiting for a response. Just as he reached them, a black shape collided with him, knocking him off balance. The cold grew more intense, and all sound seemed to disappear…

Nico collapsed.

Nico was five years old. He chased Bianca all the way to the edge of the park and finally caught her, laughing. "I'll get you for that!" she teased.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Nico replied. He was about to run off, but Bianca suddenly grabbed his shirt and dragged him behind a nearby bush. "What—"

"Shh!" Bianca hissed, jerking her head at the street. Two policemen had dragged a pair of men out of a nearby house. The two men looked disheveled, and one was missing his shirt.

"These men have been caught in the act of fornication," one policeman announced, very loudly. "They say they are…in love." The policeman's lip curled in disdain. "Let us show them what kind of place their 'love' has in our good Christian society!"

The other policeman drew his nightstick and began beating one of the men. The first policeman followed suit with the other man. Several of the onlookers joined in, punching and kicking the two men.

"They're going to die," Bianca whispered, horrified.

"We can't let them!" Nico whispered back, though deep down he somehow knew Bianca was right. He tried to move out from behind the bush, but Bianca grabbed his shirt again.

"Do you want to join them?!" Bianca hissed worriedly.

Nico briefly struggled, then sagged against his sister. "What's wrong with love, anyway?"

"Don't believe them, Nico," Bianca whispered fiercely. "Love is more important than anything."

Nico simply stared at the scene, unable to tear his eyes away. Somehow, he kept picturing himself as one of the bloodied men on the ground. Eventually, the men fell silent and stopped moving. Nico heard an odd buzzing in his ears, and he was certain they were dead. Nevertheless, the mob kept beating their corpses.

The dream changed.

A handsome man with curly black hair pushed his way through a crowd, wand drawn, his malevolent gaze locked on something Nico couldn't see. Then the crowd parted, revealing a short, round man whose face was streaked with tears. "Lily and James, Sirius!" the shorter man shouted. "How could you?!"

The shorter man reached for his wand. An explosion suddenly rocked the street; Nico could sense at least a dozen deaths. When the smoke and debris cleared, there was a crater in the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Dead bodies and injured bystanders littered the street. The shorter wizard was nowhere to be seen. Many people were screaming.

The handsome wizard stared. Then he burst into laughter—mad, hysterical laughter. He continued laughing even after Ministry wizards appeared and placed him under arrest.

Nico woke, filled with an inexplicable rage. He wanted to find and throttle Wormtail. The filthy rat had destroyed everything…

Wait. Where had that thought come from? Nico didn't know any 'Wormtail'. And he certainly couldn't think of anyone who had done anything to make him that angry.

Next to Nico, Felpato lifted his head, a haunted look in his eyes.

A/N: Just to be clear, Nico's flashback was set back in Italy, and all the dialogue was in Italian.