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: Nothing much to say. If you reviewed, thanks! Sorry I messed up on that last chapter. If you haven't read my changes, please go back and do so; you can just skim through if you want. I basically made it less dramatic so the others wouldn't be TOO suspicious. Like, no skeleton summoning or dementor fights.


Chapter 7: A Conversation or Two

Harry's PoV

Since Gryffindor Tower could be reached on the way to Dumbledore's office via one of the many secret passageways, Harry, Ron, and Hermione tagged along. Maybe they could discover something useful.

Harry wasn't sure how he felt about Nico.

The guy was certainly dangerous—he had, after all, attacked Harry. And he had a Dark artifact and control over Dark magic—which was illegal.

Even so, what Harry had seen in the boggart's mist was disturbing—and Harry barely understood it. He'd seen a wasteland that looked like hell or something, Nico had gotten trapped in a bronze jar, and some angel guy had showed up.

Harry hadn't exactly understood the scene—after all, it had been partially blocked by mist, and Harry couldn't hear all the words being said—but he was fairly certain Nico had admitted a secret. Harry was also fairly certain that the secret had something to do with Nico's crush on someone named Percy Jackson. (Emphasis on the name Percy—that sounded like Percy was a guy, which meant that Nico was…)

Speaking of Nico, he'd spent the entire walk complaining under his breath. "Stupid wizards," he muttered. "Stupid boggarts. Professor Lupin is a vlákas*. E quei tre—" Nico shot a dirty look at Harry, Ron, and Hermione— "sono insopportabili."** [*Idiot—in Greek. **And those three are insufferablein Italian.

Harry didn't really want a translation. Whatever Nico had said, it didn't sound nice. He followed Hermione's lead, and she chose to ignore him. Ron, on the other hand, was glaring daggers at Nico, his blue eyes glowing with intensity.

Dumbledore was walking in front of them, calm yet alert. He also ignored Nico, who was still grumbling about wizards and boggarts. "I swear, if I don't get to leave soon, questa scuola avrà alcune aggiunte magiche divertenti, stile semidio.* A guy can't ever be left alone at this school. Tóso enochlitikó."** [*This school will have some fun magical additions, demigod style—in Italian. **So annoying—in Greek.]

Harry finally snapped. "Can you shut up?" he asked Nico.

"Non tu—"* Nico seemingly accidentally began responding in one of the other two languages before switching back to English. "Don't you tell me what to do!" he snapped, but Nico was silent the rest of the way to Dumbledore's office. [*Don't you—in Italian.]


Nico's PoV

Harry, Ron, and Hermione left on the way, turning down another corridor. Nico hoped they planned to return to Gryffindor Tower, not spy on him. But Nico figured that even Harry would listen to Dumbledore's instructions. Unlike Nico.

Dumbledore stopped on the seventh floor, in front of a stone gargoyle. He said a password—"Cauldron Cake—" and the gargoyle jumped aside, revealing a round spiral stone staircase that started moving upwards, like a mortal escalator. "If you'd please follow me," Dumbledore said, beckoning.

"Styx," Nico muttered under his breath. The floor rumbled slightly. He'd hoped that Dumbledore's office would have an easy escape route, like a door—not a cramped spiral staircase with a gargoyle, that could probably keep Nico from getting down if Dumbledore told it to.

Reluctantly, Nico followed Dumbledore and stood on the stairs until they arrived at the door at the top. Upon entering, Nico found himself in a circular room decorated with beautiful shades of gold and red. Soft whirring and clicking noises came from around the room; most from a variety of silver instruments on spindly tables. A large clawed desk sat near the back of the room, with a grand golden chair on the side farther from Nico, and several plainer but comfortable chairs on the side closer to Nico. Behind the desk was a portrait labeled "Professor Dippet" and a shelf. What Nico realized was the Sorting Hat sat on the shelf; the Head master's office must be where it was kept.

Around the room were portraits of what Nico figured were past headmasters and headnistresses of the school—and most of them were snoozing away, as it was still the middle of the night—and Nico was tired. Suddenly, the most beautiful sounds Nico had ever heard filled the air, seeming to come from inside Nico's soul, and Nico noticed a gold and red bird sitting on an ornate perch behind Dumbledore's desk. The bird was the one making the music, which made Nico remember the best moments of his life, and feel strong, happy, and courageous: like the opposite effects that a dementor had on him.

"What type of bird is that, Professor?" Nico asked.

"Ah, that is my pheonix, Fawkes. A pheonix's music is magic—it makes the good feel great courage and strength, but strikes fear into the hearts of the wicked. He seems to have taken a liking to you, Dumbledore mused. "He must sense something special."

"Hmm..." Fawkes stopped singing, and Nico broke himself out of his trance. "Well, what did you want to talk about?"

Dumbledore sat in his chair, and Nico sat in a chair as well. "I want to discuss what happened in your Defense Against the Dark Arts class."

Nico could feel himself tense. Warily, he looked at Dumbledore. "What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Well...your encounter with the boggart confused quite a few people. Professor Lupin wants to know what happened so he can take steps in the future to avoid anything similar."

Nico felt a surge of anger and annoyance. "I have an idea," he said. "Don't force students to face their worst fears, in front of everyone, in their first class. Lupin doesn't know who they are or what they've been through!"

Dumbedlore looked thoughtful. "I'll mention it to him," he said agreeably. "Most boggarts take the form of something relatively...normal. Your case was something entirely new, in Professor Lupin's case. He would have immediantly removed that particular boggart, except you had already settled the matter.

"And on to my next question...could you please explain the bones, cracks, and tendrils of darkness leading all over my school? Mr. Filch still hasn't finished cleaning up, and the professors have yet to find a way to return the shadows to normal."

"That...was me," Nico said. "It happens when I get upset, or angry, or scared." He snapped his fingers. "The bones are gone and the shadows should go back to normal now."

Dumbedlore looked mildly disturbed. "Nico...how strong exactly are your powers?"

Nico didn't want to answer that. "Strong enough," he said.

Dumbledore looked interested. "Show me, please," he said.

Nico shrugged. "It tires me out. And no, I'm not going to do it, because recently I used those powers to move a forty-foot statue half-way across the world, and I am still tired from that. Oh, did I mention I also started temporarily turning into smoke?"

Dumbedlore nodded. "Remus did mention that, yes. But it happens even when you're not near the dementors?"

Nico shrugged again. Had it happened? Well, yes. But he decided to water that down a little. "It's happened a couple times," he said. "When I'm tired or when I let my guard down."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "So...if you let your guard down now, you'd turn into smoke?"

"Um...maybe? I am tired. And it is night. But usually it's just my hands or something, not my entire body." Nico looked at Dumbledore warily. Why was he so curious about the fading?

Dumbledore seemed to have read his mind, which unsettled Nico. "And the bones?" he asked.

Nico was a bit more nervous about that. "I...um, don't really want to talk about that, please." Nico's voice got harder. "People find it unsettling."

Dumbledore decided to move on to other matters, apparently. "What about the scenes in the boggart? A jar, a wasteland, and a conversation, or two? "

"Places I've been and things I've done," Nico said shortly. "Please, don't ask."

Dumbledore looked worried, and also like he wanted to ask more. But seeing how tired Nico was, he appeared to change his mind. "Well, go get some sleep. And Nico? If you ever need to talk to anyone about your...let's call it your secret...your classmates are better listeners than you may think."

Nico tensed. "You know about that?"

Dumbledore nodded, almost sadly. "Yes, Nico. The whole school knows about you."

Nico turned pale. Over the last few hours, he'd convinced himself that the class hadn't been able to make sense of his boggart. But no: they knew. They would hate him now. Or would they...?

"Couldn't you erase their memories or something?" Nico asked. "Please. Ther must be a spell for it, or something—"

But Dumbledore was shaking his head. "No, Nico," he said gently. "You can't keep running away. You need to simply admit that's who you are and learn to live with it."

Nico looked down. "I'll try."

He walked out of the office.


Harry's PoV

Harry would have liked to say that everything had gone back to normal over the next few days, but they hadn't. Nico had grown even more isolated and reclusive—he showed up for (most) of his classes, but he never was at meals, nor was he at the common room during evenings. Harry saw his bird, Ambra, swooping upon the tables and grabbing large amounts of food during mealtimes, so Harry knew that Nico was eating. But he couldn't help but wonder where he was.

In addition, Harry could never get close enough to ask Nico—he left class in a hurry and was always the first one in. Whenever Harry tried to get close during class, a teacher would tell him off or Nico would move away or even leave the classroom. The boy seemed determined to avoid all human contact, at all costs.

This went on for weeks; the first Hogsmeade visit was already coming up, along with Halloween. Finally, Fred and George noticed Harry's predicament and approached him in the Entrance Hall. "Alright, Harry," Fred said. "We have a little secret to share with you."

George piped in. "Yeah," he said. "We have decided your needs are greater than ours."

"And so—" Fred said—

"We give you—" George added—

"The secret to our success!" they both said in harmony, producing a thick wad of blank parchment.

"What's this rubbish?" Harry asked, annoyed.

"Rubbish? Watch and learn, mate," Fred said.

George tapped his wand against the paper and whispered dramatically: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Thin, spindly letters arched across the paper: Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers, are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP.

Harry was about to ask what that was, but the map wasn't done yet. It formed a map of Hogwarts that was, as far as Harry could tell, perfectly accurate. But that wasn't all: the entire map was covered in small, labeled dots, and in the area on the map labeled Entrance Hall, three of the dots in the corner were labeled Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Harry Potter. Other dots showed all the Hogwarts students and professors, as well as the ghosts: Argus Filch was prowling along a corridor a few floors above them, and Severus Snape was in his office.

"This shows everyone in the castle?" Harry asked, amazed.

"Yup," George said. "Nicked it from Filch's office. You can see where everyone is—"

"What they're doing—" Fred added—

"Every moment—"

"Of every day!"

"Whoa," Harry said. "You're really giving this to me?"

George winked. "We have all the secret passegways memorized. About that, one leads to Hogmeade! The one-eyed witch, here—"

He indicated a statue by the stairs leading to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, as Fred continued: "—leads straight into Honeydukes cellar!"

"So now you can find Nico," George said. "And get to Hogsmeade!"

"Thanks, guys!" Harry said.

Fred winked. "No problem! Now run along and forget we said anything!"

"But don't forget to clear the map when you're done, or anyone can see it," George said. He tapped the map with his wand before handing it to Harry. "Just say micheif managed."

TThe map faded until it again resembled a blank piece of old parchment. "Thanks!" Harry said, running up the marble staircase to find an empty corridor where he could peruse the map; it was Saturday, so he had plenty of free time. Stopping outside the charms classroom, Harry tapped the map and whispered "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Scanning the map, he finally saw it: a dot labeled Nico di Angelo. Nico seemed to be pacing around an empty room in the dungeons, labeled Storage. Another dot next to him was labeled Ambra. So his bird was down there as well.

Harry started walking quickly down to the dungeons, eyes fixed on Nico's dot. Harry walked down the steps, reaching the cold, draft hallways where both the Potion's classroom and Slytherin dormitories were located. He was so occupied by the map that he didn't notice the dot labeled "Draco Malfoy" until it was practically next to Harry's.

"What are you doing down here, Potter?" a cold, drawing voice said behind him.

Harry whipped around. "None of your business, Malfoy," he said. "Why are you skulking around for anyways?"

"If you haven't forgotten, Potter, the dungeons are where Slytherins belong, not Gryfinndors. I bet Snape'll be really pleased to know that you were down here. By the way, Potter, I haven't seen your friend di Angelo—" Harry grit his teeth; he was not friends with Nico— "in a while. I wonder if he's gotten himself in trouble, like that oaf teaching Care of Magical Creatures."

"Don't insult Hagrid!" Harry snarled, pointing his wand at Malfoy. "You baited that hippogriff! It's your fault that you got scratched, and you were barely hurt anyways—you faked it to get Hagrid sacked!"

"Don't point your wand at me, Potter," Malfoy drawled, obviously enjoying Harry's anger. "You don't want to go making a scene like di Angelo did. I heard all about it; is it true that—"

"—I will make you regret it if you spread rumors about me? Yes, it is." Nico seemed to appear straight from the shadows behind Malfoy, his expression steely—like the calm before the storm.

Malfoy jumped back, his ferret-like face full of terror for a split second before becoming a mask of contempt. "My father willhear about this!" he said, before turning and trying (and failing) to flee the scene with dignity.

Nico watched him go with a mix of anger and weariness on his face. "Like his father is powerful compared to mine. Sciocco idiota*," he muttered. Nico seemed to have forgotten that Harry was there; he turned as though planning on going back to the room he'd been in before. Harry, however, wasn't finished. [*Silly idiot—in Italian.]

"Where are you running to now?" Haeey snapped.

Nico turned, suddenly angry. "Yes, about that," he said. "How come I find you right outside the room I'm in?"

Harry didn't answer his question. "Who is your father, if he's so powerful?"

The question seemed to catch Nico off guard. "Oh Styx!" he said. It sounded like a swear word of some type. "Níko, ilíthios!*" [Nico, you idiot—in Greek.]

"Who is he?" Harry asked again.

"No one you'd want to know," Nico said, giving Harry a cold smile. He turned and seemed to disappear straight into the shadows. Harry furiously searched the Marauder's Map. Nico was in the storage room—no. His dot was gone; the ink disappearing from the map in an instant. Harry scanned the map and found it again—all the way on the fifth floor. Since when could Nico teleport? Although it explained how he'd managed to get to Diagon Alley, or to King's Cross station, without the Ministry cars. Maybe that could have explained why Nico had been so tired.

Harry blinked. Shadows. Bones. A raven. A powerful father. And the odd languages—maybe he travels a lot. Voldemort must have traveled a lot—what if Nico is his apprentice or something? I have to tell Ron and Hermione!


Nico's PoV

Nico leaned against the wall of the closet. He'd shadow traveled into the middle of a corridor, grabbed his stuff, and found the nearest hiding spot he could—the closet. He sighed. Nico couldn't stay in this closet forever. Grabbing his stuff, Nico walked out and began pacing down the corridor. How could anyone at this school ever accept him, after what had happened with the boggart?

Nico didn't notice the girl until she asked, "Are you the one who sliced the boggart in half?"

He looked up. The speaker was a girl with dirty blond hair that reached her waist. Her eyes were silver-gray, and wide, giving her a permanently surprised look. Nico sighed. "Yes. I'm Nico di Angelo."

The girl didn't look any more or less surprised. "I'm Luna Lovegood, but people call me Loony Lovegood. Are you suffering from an infestation of wrackspurts?"

Nico blinked, utterly confused. "... What?"

"Invisible creatures. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy. I thought I saw some zooming around."

Nico blinked. "Did I...um...was I solid, a moment ago?"

Luna wasn't even fazed. "Well, your feet got a little smoky, but you still looked like you had a wrackspurt or two in your head."

"I'm fine...I think," Nico said. He wasn't fine; even talking to Malfoy, Harry, and Luna was reminding him of what the entire school knew now. How could any of them accept him?

"You're worried about how the whole school knows about who you loved," Luna said. "Percy Jackson."

Nico looked up suddenly. "How...?"

Luna just looked at him. "The boggart mentioned it."

Nico scowled. "Everyone knows, don't they? All of my classmates hate me."

"Harry Potter isn't that bad you know," Luna said serenely. "He saved my friend's life last year."

Nico did a double take. "He what?"

Luna blinked before continuing. "He saved Ginny Weasley's life."

Nico hadn't known that so much had happened at Hogwarts, but he wasn't surprised that Harry Potter had been in the middle of it. "What happened?" he asked, following Luna, who'd started wandering along the corridor.

Luna began to explain the basics of Harry's time at Hogwarts, occasionally telling Nico about creatures like the crumple-horned snorkacks and the nargles. Nico listened intently until she'd finished.

"So—this Voldemort wizard killed Harry's parents, and tried to kill him twice in the past two years, almost succeeding both times?"

Luna nodded. "That's what they say, although I have a theory that—"

"Um, I think I know enough," Nico said. Whatever Luna's theory was, it probably wasn't 100% accurate, based on what she said about wrackspurts and nargles. Although Luna was obviously intelligent—she'd known exactly what was bothering Nico, which he still didn't understand. How was that even possible?

"I don't want to have to talk to anyone about it," Nico said, referring to the boggart incident.

Luna's expression turned a little bit sad. "I'm weird too," she said. "That's why they call me Loony. But Harry and his friends aren't so bad; Ginny has always even nice to me."

"Ron's always been a jerk to me," Nico said bitterly. "And in my experience, things run in the family."

"In my experience, it's quite the opposite. I've got to go find some things that are missing. Maybe the nargles took them. But I'll tell Ginny that you're not that bad." Luna walked off, calm as always.

Nico looked up. Somehow, he'd ended up outside Gryfinddor Tower again. Taking a deep breath, Nico said the password and walked in. "Let's try this again," he said. "Watch out, Gryffindors—the Son of Hades is in the house."


Author's Notes: Short, but relatively action packed! :D Sorry for all the notes. I find it confusing when translations are in the author's notes, so I just stuck them right in. Sorry for typos—autocorrect keeps trying to change Nico to Nick.

Okay, I just noticed I've been using - – and — wrong. To help my fellow writers, I will clarify: - is for separating two words, like blue-green. – which is the second longest, is used to separate ranges, like 15–16.

The longest one — is used to indicate a pause, like a ; symbol—or to separate a thought, like I just did. Using spaces before and after: this—compared to this — is a decision of style. If you want more detail, just search up "hyphen en dash and em dash"—em dashes are the longest, en dashes are the middle length, and hyphens are the shortest.

I may or may not go back and fix these in previous chapters.

EDIT: I fixed them.