Rising from Shadowed Ashes

GreenCrystal19

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Heroes of Olympus; they belong to respective authors; J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan. Cover art by Viktoria Ridzel (Viria/viria13/vika) as usual. Her art is amazing; she is now the official portrait artist.


Author's Notes: So I mayyyyy have gotten too dramatic with the boggart. But in stories, a good tip is: think of as many ways as possible to add trouble, drama, and tension to a plotline. Yay. Review time!

ALSO: SORRY. I MESSED UP ON THE FIRST VERSION OF THIS CHAPTER. IT WOULD COMPLICATE THINGS TOO MUCH. SOMETHING LIKE IT WILL HAPPEN LATER, THOUGH.

To whoever said that it was weird about how the boggart thing was A) in front of the class and B) required. (The review disappeared; I can't see it. I accepted it though...? It should be there...?) True dat. Pottermore had an article that went something like this: Moving staircases with dangerous trick steps? Dangerous three headed dogs? Teachers being Voldemort in disguise? Werewolf teachers? Teachers who wear pink and torture students? Dementors at the gates? Eh. Sounds safe to me!

Hogwarts has some safety issues. And some common sense issues.

Also thanks to whoever said they liked the long chapters—I like writing them. Although I REALLY have to work on my "real" book at some point...


Chapter 6: Follow the Bones

Nico's PoV

Never again, Nico thought to himself, as he stormed down the corridors. He just wanted to get away, maybe find somewhere in the castle where he could lie low for a couple days. Or weeks. Maybe the whole school year. Arriving at the Gryffindor common room, Nico spent a few moments grabbing his bags as Ambra eyed him nervously, hopping from one foot to another. She cocked her head, appearing concerned. Nico glanced up. "I'm leaving," he said. "Are you coming with me or not?"

Ambra looked at Nico, then at the door, torn. Nico rolled his eyes, grabbed his backpack and school bag, and shadow traveled to an empty corridor.

Ambra had not followed—that was fine. Nico didn't need a wizard bird for hiding in a classroom, even though he would miss the raven. And Nico wasn't going to force her to—she'd probably come along later. Tired from shadow traveling, Nico decided to find the first out-of-the-way room he could and set up camp.

And if the anyone came after him...well, it wouldn't be a good day for them.


Harry's PoV

Bones. They were everywhere—scattered around the floor, hanging off the torch scones. The walls of the corridor had little spider-webs of cracks, and small tendrils of darkness surrounded the bones. The shadows below the torches were doing weird things too—twisting around as though they wanted to go somewhere...or follow something.

That something was obviously Nico.

Harry stared at the trail of bones and darkness. "Should we...er...follow him?" he asked.

Hermione looked nervous about it, but she nodded. "We have to," she said. "Professor Lupin said so."

"Follow the bones," Ron added. "First spiders, now bones."

Behind Hermione's back, Ron looked at Harry and rolled his eyes; Harry nodded, agreeing. Why was Hermione even trying to be nice to Nico? He hadn't done anything to deserve their friendship; quite the opposite, in fact.

Ron shrugged and followed Hermione. Harry, more hesitant, followed. The trio walked along, and followed the bones.


The trail dead-ended in Harry's dormitory, the one that the third-years shared. Nico's stuff was gone. "How are we going to find him now?" Hermione asked worriedly. "If we go back to Professor Lupin and say that we couldn't find-"

"Caw!" Nico's bird—a raven, Harry believed—was hopping around on the tops of the four-poster beds, cawing urgently. She flew to the window and looked at them.

"Are you trying to help us find Nico?" Hermione asked.

"Nico!" the raven said in a loud, raspy voice.

That thing TALKS?! Harry thought to himself. A moment later, Ron echoed his thoughts. "Nico's bird talks? None of the owls talk! Scabbers doesn't talk! And speaking of Scabbers, Hermione, your cat tried to eat him this morning!" Suddenly panicked, Ron checked his bag and sighed in relief when he saw that Scabbers was there. "Thank Merlin."

Meanwhile, Hermione had walked to the window and opened it, and Amy—no, Ambra—flapped out and hovered outside the window. "Where's Nico?"

The raven flew out of the dormitory, obviously leading them to wherever Nico had gone. Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak; he flung it over Ron and Hermione, and the trio, once again, was on a mission that might get them killed—or worse, expelled.


Nico's PoV

Nico was making good time. He'd already found a nice, empty classroom tucked away on the forth floor—no one could find him there! His plan was to just hang out there—for fun, he'd sneak around at night and explore the castle, IM Hazel and Will, and maybe Jason, and...well, he may also be reduced to playing some good ol' Mythomagic.

Suddenly, Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared in the doorway. Nico hadn't even sensed Harry's approach, which was odd. Even so, Nico was so surprised that he whirled, alarmed, and drew his sword before he realized who it was. Which didn't particularly make him want to sheaf his sword.

"What do you want?" Nico spat. "Isn't knowing my worst fears enough for you? Or are you here to badger me about what all that meant? Because if you are, the answer is no. I—"

Hermione cut him off, which annoyed Nico. "No! We're here because Professor Lupin told us to find you and bring you back!"

Nico snorted. "Ha. Like I'd go back there just to be interrogated by some wizard! I'm leaving! Right now! And I am never coming back!"

Ron glared at Nico. "You're not going anywhere, not after what you nearly did to Harry!"

Harry nodded. "You need to talk to Dumbledore! Professor Lupin said so! Without him, you'd probably be dead; you owe him that, at least!"

Nico winced inwardly. He didn't like bing in debt to anyone. It created complications. Pushing that thought aside, Nico gave Harry, Ron, and Hermione a cold, creepy smile. "Try to stop me. I dare you."

He turned away. "I'm not going back. That class was a disaster! What's next? Just stay away from me, for once!"

Nico grabbed all his stuff and ran.


Harry's PoV

They chased after Nico, but he'd just disappeared—who knew where he'd gone? Luckily, Ambra hadn't ditched them. She led them towards the main gates of Hogwarts—that wasn't good. Harry knew the dementors would be there. However, Nico's bird was smarter than she looked—Ambra had somehow gotten the dementors to leave their posts. Probably by cawing insults at them.

Ambra proceeded to fly all the way to Hogsmeade, and then, to the Shrieking Shack. Harry had a bad feeling about where this was going.


Nico's PoV

Nico had found a good spot. He'd shadow traveled randomly, just poking around for a good hiding spot, and ended up in a large but somewhat dusty four poster bed. His sword lay at his side; Nico grabbed it and put it into ring form again. Better safe than sorry.

His backpack and schoolbag were also there; although Ambra was still missing. Nico had noticed her helping the others; he was annoyed about that—even his bird wouldn't leave him alone.

Two shadow jumps in one night, plus a boggart, before he'd recovered from the Athena Parthenon and Tartarus, let alone the past dementor incident—it had been a long day, and Nico was tired.

He flopped back down on the bed and studied the ceiling, wondering where in Hades he was. Around half an hour later, Nico heard footsteps—and they weren't human. Nico sat up abruptly as a large, shaggy black dog with pointed ears bounded into the room. When the dog saw Nico he paused, tilted his head to one side, and whined.

Nico stared at him. "First a raven. Then a hippogriff. Now you. Why do all the animals around here actually like me?" Nico asked, partly to himself and partly to the dog, as he flopped back onto the bed. "Wizards are weird."

The dog cocked his head again, before cautiously walking over and jumping up on the bed. Seemingly concerned, he sniffed at Nico's face before proceeding to sniff at Nico's ring, backpack, and schoolbag. Nico smiled against himself. "I think I'll call you Snuffles," he said, "since that's all you do. You snuffle. At literally everything."

Snuffles opened his mouth and grinned as though laughing, before curling up on the bed next to Nico, his snout pointed towards the door, as though keeping watch. Nico didn't really think about it, but he started telling the dog about his day. As he got around to mentioning Professor Snape, the dog growled; and when Nico mentioned Neville's boggart, the dog started panting again, as though laughing.

When Nico mentioned his own boggart, Snuffles actually seemed concerned—he thrust his cold, wet nose under Nico's hand, then stuck his whole head under there. Nico smiled again and scratched Snuffles behind his ears, like he did for Mrs. O'Leary.

"I don't really know how to explain this to a dog," Nico said, "but I have a really complicated story. It started when I was ten..." And so Nico began explaining his life to a dog. He told Snuffles about how scared he'd been—it felt nice to vent; Nico hadn't even told this to Hazel.

When he finished, Snuffles looked downright confused.

"Um...do you understand English?"

After a moment's pause, Snuffles nodded.

"Oh-kayyyy, then..." Nico said to himself, a bit embarrassed. "What else is new?"

Snuffles made a little sound before curling up again, and Nico took off his wizard's robes and wadded them into a pillow of sorts (he didn't trust the dusty ones) and before he knew it, Nico was asleep again.


Harry's PoV

Getting into the Shrieking Shack was hard. There seemed to be no easily accessible door—which was weird.

Finally, after Hermione had found a gap between the ground and the walls, they emerged into a room full of dust and broken furniture. No one was there; but there were several doors and a dusty staircase. Hermione nodded at the staircase; human and dog paw prints both made marks in the dust. It seemed that a dog had walked up, and a human had walked down. Odd.

In any case, the trio walked up the stairs; they were trying to be quiet, but the stairs creaked every three seconds. At the top of the stairs, they found a door, slightly ajar. Harry walked up to it. I bet Nico's in here, he thought to himself. Wonder what he's doing.

Harry opened the door; Nico was indeed in the room. To be specific, he was passed out on a large four poster bed, also dusty—the entire Shrieking Shack was dusty—with his backpack, school bag, and wizard's robes (which, he, for some reason, was using as a pillow, instead of the actual pillows).

Harry looked at Hermione, who looked at Ron, who shrugged and walked over to the bed. Harry and Hermione followed more cautiously. Harry knew how jumpy Nico could be; if they woke him up, he did not want to have a sword in his face again.

Hermione seemed to know what she was doing. She rapped her knuckles on one of the posts. "Nico?"

Nico didn't hear her. Harry wondered if he was dreaming about McDonald's, or bagels or something.

Ron took over. He knocked more loudly on the bed. "Oi! We came all the way over here, so you are coming back to Hogwarts right now!"

Nico woke up this time, sat up, saw Ron, and flopped back down again. "Can't you just leave me alone?" He sounded more exasperated than angry this time.

"Nico, could you please come back to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked. If this doesn't work, Harry thought to himself, I swear I'm getting Lupin, or Dumbledore, or SOMEONE, or maybe I will personally drag Nico all the way back. If I have to.

Nico groaned. "Fine," he muttered. "But don't expect me to ever go to another Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Speaking of which, have you three been talking about what happened?"

Harry avoided Nico's gaze. Had they talked about the boggart? Well, yes, they had. Nico's gaze grew cold. "Of course you would," he said, his voice hard. He got to his feet and pushed past them, slinging his bags over his shoulder. He seemed unusually tired, and even grumpier than usual, if that was even possible. Harry wondered what that was about.

Whatever it was, Nico would be back at Hogwarts soon. So Harry could get some sleep soon. The sooner, the better, in his opinion.


Nico's PoV

The moment Nico stepped inside Hogwarts' large oak doors, he regretted it. Professor Dumbledore was waiting for him. Curse Nico's luck. Dumbledore just smiled; his blue eyes twinkling calmly, which Nico for some reason found infuriating.

"Please come with me, Mr. di Angelo. You three, go get some sleep. You deserve it," Professor Dumbledore said.

Turning to Nico, he said the words Nico had been dreading. "Nico, we need to talk."


Author's Notes: Well, compared with that last chapter, this thing is short. Even so, I hope you enjoyed! :D

Sorry about that edit; it was necessary. I couldn't find any good reasons for Nico not to have been expelled—and then the rest of the story would have gone poof.