Moaning Myrtle

A/N Hello again! Almost at 100 review and 100 followers! Sorry I'm a few days late with the update (AGAIN) but this week was really busy too! After two weeks though, we have the summer holidays so I can go back to my 4-5 day updating routine, so look forward to that. Until then, my school is cramming in a ton of work for us to do.

Thank you to when-fangirling-is-life-UwU, DevilishPixelation1006, YAYSOLANGELO, helloimawkwardhowareyou for reviewing. Also thank you to three guests, and the guest no one and kimikiwi. To guest, if I didn't explain why he didn't burn food for his father, I apologise, it was on my list and I must have forgotten. Since Hades is one of the ones who sent him, and burning food wouldn't provide for a very good cover, he doesn't whilst he is at Hogwarts.

Nico's POV (continued)

"Is it true that the both of you got into a yelling match in the middle of a lesson?"

I sat, hands on my lap, looking down, feeling awfully like a schoolchild who had just misbehaved. Which, is retrospect, I was – or, at least, pretending to be.

"Yes," said Harry through gritted teeth.

I opened my mouth to protest, that I had been trying to prevent an argument with Professor Umbridge, but McGonagall silenced me.

"Have a biscuit," she said simply.

"Have a- what?" I asked.

"Have a biscuit," she repeated.

Unwilling to be seen as disrespectful, Harry and I both took a biscuit, although neither of us actually ate it.

"Now, I would like to hear the full story."

"Well," I began, "Professor Umbridge was calling Harry a liar and I tried to stop him screaming at her."

"And?"

"In the process we may have gotten into an argument."

McGonagall sighed. "Harry, you need to learn to control you temper."

"But she-" Harry protested angrily.

"I know. And I know it's incredibly hard to have everyone making assumption about you, but surely you understand who she's reporting to! Be careful or you'll lose a lot more than just house points!"

"I know," he said glumly. "But what about Nico? I wasn't the only one who-"

I shot him a glare.

"I will deal with Mr. di Angelo separately. You may go, but-"

"Yes?" I said suspiciously.

"Both of you will have detention every evening for a week with Professor Umbridge."

"What!" Harry burst out, "surely-"

"-I cannot do anything, I afraid," said McGonagall.

I frowned. "And what exactly do your detentions consist of?" I wasn't exactly worried. They couldn't worse than anything I'd faced.

Harry gaped. "You've never had a detention," he said in disbelief, "but you-" He gestured to me, "you're-"

I raised my eyebrows. "We don't have them at my Camp. Well, not detention detentions anyway. And I never spent much time there as it was. And, yes, I have actually had a detention before, but that was at a mor- um, muggle school, so they are bound to be different."

He nodded. "That makes a lot more sense."

"Why, what assumptions did you make about me?" I said rather snidely. I admit, I may have been mild to moderately annoyed at him for getting me into trouble.

Harry looked awkward. McGonagall gave a cough, and, blushing furiously (but still passing a suspicious glance at the both of us) he left and the door shut with a thud.

"So… we're here again." I said, attempting to drown the ticking of the clock.

"It believes we are, Mr. di Angelo. Now, I will not treat you like pupil, because that is not what you are, so I may speak to you as a professional. What was that?" she burst out, "Protecting Harry is a tactical job that takes the utmost discretion. You can't go letting your emotions get in the way. I refrained from assuming that giving a child the responsibilities of an adult would end badly, because Dumbledore trusted you but it appears you have proven me wrong." She was frowning down her glasses, lips in a straight line and a stern, piercing gaze in act.

I met it evenly. "Professor McGonagall, I am part god. I assure you that I am more than qualified. Lying comes naturally to me. Spying too. My abilities easily exceed yours. I have singlehandedly fought giants, possibly hundreds of monsters, and have participated in two wars, emerging, for the most part, unscathed. In social situations, however, I may not do so well. I am a child of Hades, and, perhaps, the only child of Hades who has yet to die before the age of twenty-five, or to go mad. Or both. And do I say Hades here, not Pluto. So, please, allow me a little leeway in this area. Imagine I'm… Professor Snape. Trying to make friends with Harry. He could certainly be a half-brother of mine. It's going to be difficult."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "I may have been a little hasty, but you have to take care, di Angelo."

"If you must know," I said, "I was trying to prevent Harry getting into an argument with Professor Umbridge, and so, I thought, perhaps, I could take his attention away from her. I admit that it may have gotten little out of hand in the process."

She sighed and shook her head.

As I walked down the hall out of McGonagall's office, my thoughts drew to Will again. I knew I should IM him, but I couldn't. Not when I had, well, for lack of a better phrase, fallen for him. It was my first day, so maybe he would think I was busy. Gods, it was only my first day. It was really dragging. No, Will knew me too well for that. He would know that I was avoiding him, because I needed him for everything, like a child, and this was my first day at this freak school. In which I was even freakier than the rest of them. Even more of an outcast.

So I could just let him be the one to IM first. But then what would I do? Ignore him? Pretend that I was currently busy? No, I would just have to face him when he called. And pretend like nothing was wrong. I'd done it a thousand times with Percy.

I had some times away from Harry, now. It was lunch, and he would be eating with his friends. I could use it to try and find the horcruxes, but first I needed to check in on my friends at Camp Jupiter. Friends. That word felt nice.

I finally found a suitable bathroom to Iris message Hazel, after wandering the halls for a while. I suppose I could have gone to the one in our dorm, but I felt it would be a good time for me to get used to the school and its hallways. It suffices to say that there were a lot.

I was just turning on the taps when I was started by a voice.

"This is a girl's bathroom, you know."

I could sense it was another ghost. "There's an out of order sign," I said, without turning.

"Well, that's hardly surprising, considering everything. But nobody ever visits me anymore. Not even Potter and his friends."

I turned around. The ghost was a girl, young, with large, round glasses and a mournful expression. She gave a dramatic gasp, and I rolled my eyes (a practise I found myself doing very often these days). "What are you doing here?"

I shrugged. "Can't a demigod go where likes?"

"No, he can't. Not to a wizard school. And not to Tartarus. Although, I suppose, if you've been to one, what's stopping you from going to the other?"

I flinched. "Yeah, thanks."

"You know," she said, "you look a lot less intimidating when you're wearing a Hogwarts uniform."

"How would you know what I look like without one?"

"Pipes go everywhere," she said airily.

"Right," I said awkwardly, deciding not to linger on her words, "well, I need to talk to- wait, you were saying that Harry used to visit you. What happened here?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I am the Ghost King and you must obey me."

"Oh, that's right everyone bully poor Myrtle."

"Would you like me to report you to my father?"

"Oh, all right, then. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was here and Harry went and killed the basilisk that had been trying to exterminate all muggle-borns. It was being controlled by Tom Riddle, who was young Voldermort, because he had trapped his memory in a diary (which Harry later destroyed) and was using it to control Ginny Weasley," she trilled in a singsong voice.

"Ron' sister?"

"That's what you got from everything I said?"

I ignored her. "You can't do that," I frowned, "you can't get a memory to control someone like that. It wouldn't work. Not unless… Myrtle - that your name, right? – do you know where the diary is?"

"Dumbledore, presumably."

"Right. Dumbledore. That sly old weasel. Hecate was right." Irritated, I inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. "You know what? For now, I'm just going to get a break and talk to some people back home, before I go and assault the old man, so, I would like some privacy. And that's an order."

"Oh, yes, when the Ghost King finally bothers to talk to me, it's to shoo me out. None of the other ghosts even told me he was here…" Muttering darkly to herself, she sped down a drain.

"Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Hazel Levesque."

Hazel was busy listening to music on her bed, eyes closed. On hearing my voice, she sat up.

"Nico!" she squealed.

"Hazel," I smiled, "It's so good to see you. You don't know what torture it is to be stuck in this school."

"Now, now, Nico," she said sternly, "I'm sure it's not that bad."

"You don't know half of it. It's my first day and yet I've already got a week's detention. And the headmaster, Dumbledore, is a right old codger."

She gave a splutter and a laugh. "Well, you're certainly sounding British."

I narrowed my eyes good-naturedly, pretending to be furious.

She giggled. "It's done you good. You going to have to make friends. You know, I think Hades you the job for that very reason."

"They're teenagers!" I protested, "With magic powers! Can you imagine something so- so-"

"Exciting?" she supplied, "Energy-filled? Exactly like Camp?"

I groaned and put my face in my hands. "Precisely. Except that it's incredibly dull, so much so that I almost miss monsters."

"How did you manage to land yourself in detention?" she asked curiously, "I mean, it does seem like you."

"Why do everyone assume I'm a bad student? Well, anyway, you know the whole political thing that's going on," I explained with the utmost of eloquence, "this teacher was trying to goad Harry into getting detention because she's a bully from the ministry and wants to prevent us learning 'Defence against the Dark Arts', there is no subject on dark arts, mind you. Well, he was falling for it and I tried to stop him and we got into an argument in the middle of a lesson."

Hazel grinned. "That also sounds like you."

"Where's Reyna?" I asked.

"Oh, she's Iris Messaging Will."

"What? Why? Hazel, if you don't tell me I'll- I'll" I threatened, very ominously.

"Bye, Nico!" she called cheerily, swiping a hand through mist, "see you later."

She vanished and I cried out in annoyance and frustration. Why was Reyna talking to Will? I mean, they weren't even great friends. Was it about me? Were they finally fed up of me?

Turning off the taps, and exiting the now very steamy bathroom, I wandered through the halls in search of Dumbledore's office, daydreaming about how I would make my dramatic entrance."

A/N This chapter was the shortest in a while, but this seemed like a good place to leave off. Next time we continue with Harry's quest to find Nico's secret.

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- Merlyn