Disclaimer!

These characters do not belong to me nor do I make any money off this story. I am merely writing Fan Fiction. The characters belong to their respective authors. I hope you enjoy Joining Forces.

Nico POV:

"What's wrong?" Percy asked after arriving. He looked back briefly behind him to see if anyone was looking over. Some students had cast over a couple of glances but nothing more and soon went back to their conversations as the class waited for the rest of the students to arrive. He lowered his voice more just in case. "Did anything happen?"

"A dream," Annabeth responded. "One like yours," Concisely, she quickly told us about the dream she had facing the Laistrygonian Giant, adding in a couple of details, trying to keep it as brief as possible. "So I had a dream," Percy said, pointing to himself. "I was fighting a monster that could use magic, then you had a dream fighting a monster who could use magic," He pointed to Annabeth, then towards me. "So...?"

"I've been sleeping magical-monster-fight free these nights," I said, putting up my hands. "But who knows what might happen in the future."

"Now that we have some more information," Annabeth continued. "Maybe, we can try to figure something out. Then if you have a dream, you can also see if you can get responses to our unanswered questions."

"Should we tell Dumbledore today?" Percy asked.

"For now we can gather what we know about the dreams to make some sort of theory. Dumbledore should be busy checking if anything is happening at night," We had waited a few nights before going to see Dumbledore who had told us that he hadn't found any out of the ordinary at night. The students had all remained in bed, and everything was as it had always been. As for the virus, it seemed that the students were slowly curing with time and rest. However, the number of students falling ill began to increase. Dumbledore was coming up with plans for the sick patients as the hospital wing had early on run out of room. Most of the time, the atmosphere in Hogwarts was tense and gloomy as students moved around.

I had in my hands a potions book as I finished up some homework before bed. The Slytherin common room was mostly empty with only less than a handful of students inside, some others in the dormitories. The number of students was considerably less than when we first arrived. If one sat in the Great Hall for meals you could easily see that it was less than half full compared to its former crowdedness. In retrospect, you could say that the Slytherin students suffered less. For the most students sick it was from greatest to least: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw. The gaps between the number of patients for houses varied, going from dozens to just a few.

The common room was always decorated with green further adding the greenish tinge it got from being partially underneath the lake, it wasn't often a very vibrant place. Compared to Percy and Annabeth's descriptions of their common rooms, this one could only be described as dismal. Although, the effect was further increased due to the recent events. Now, along with the back dim background, there was also a sombre atmosphere along with several fewer students which also gave it a lonely feeling.

All of a sudden, there came the entry of a Slytherin student who had a distinct pug-like face. It was Pansy Parkinson. However, that day she had somewhat of a thrilled expression on her face. "Pansy?" Asked one of the few remaining students in the common room. "What is it?"

"I just finished going to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey says Draco will be out tomorrow!"

I had assumed she was going to say something among the lines of that. Pansy Parkinson seemed to be quite infatuated with Draco Malfoy from the start of the year, and as I've heard, from even earlier on. When he was put in the hospital wing, she was a student who checked up on him often until Madam Pomfrey had warned her not to visit so much during such times.

"The hospital wing?" Her friend asked. "Pansy, you can't go there so much. What if you get infected?"

"That's just bogus. There hasn't been any proof that close contact transfers the virus. It's only the teachers being cautious that there have been these rules. The teachers, which spend so much time with us students, yet none of them show any symptoms,"

"I wonder why it's only infecting us, students, anyway?"

"I'm not sure, but it's good he's back. Potter and that idiotic Weasley had returned a while and I'm sure he's giving us the stink eye often,"

"Gryffindors," Her friend rolled her eyes. "Ugh, they're like that. Whenever there's a problem, we become the main suspects, don't we? It's always someone from our house or the whole entirety. What's the difference in the number of sick patients between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff now?"

"Less than 10,"

"Good,"

By now, I had finished the potions homework and stood up, going back to the boy's dormitories. "Hey, Di Angelo," A student called. "Turning in?"

I gave a nod of my head.

"I say, Di Angelo, aren't you close with Potter's friend?"

"Is there a problem? Not all Gryffindors are bad just like how not all Slytherins are bad. Percy, Annabeth, and I have been friends for a while now. It isn't going to change because of us being placed in different Hogwarts houses. It's good to know Draco's feeling better though," Without any further words, I headed back into the dormitories. The next morning, as Pansy had said, Draco appeared, looking much more lively as he made his way into the Great Hall for breakfast. "Someone's happy," I commented, barely looking up as I continued to eat.

"Of course I am," Draco replied, sitting down. He reached out and took some of the eggs on one of the untouched plates on the table. "If you stayed in the hospital wing for over a week near all these other sick patients and there's nothing to do but review school material on the recommendation of the teachers - you'd get bored very soon. I'm happy I made it out on Hallowe'en, although it's not as celebratory as most years, it should be the most interesting event for a while,"

"I'm not so sure," I responded. "Look around us. I heard there are usually decorations or some sort. Hogwarts just looks the same as usual, though not sure if it was the students or teachers who put them up, there's a few pumpkins around."

"That's true, but it's still a day for me to catch up on things. I doubt anything would change, but looking at the same scene for so long is very tiresome. Seeing some different is a preferable change,"