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: Yay! I seem to be getting back to my normal update schedule. For those of you who have not seen my edits to last chapter's author's notes, I will mostly be found on YouTube and DeviantArt. Note that my Deviant Art username is GreenCrystal2019, and is not shortened to 19. Also: I kinda drew Nico and stuck the speedpaint on YouTube. Hope I won't regret that...

EDIT: I regret it.

Read the description/pinned comment please. It explains why I used copyrighted music and discovered copyright claims.


Chapter 10: The Grim Watches Quidditch

Nico's PoV

Nico listened carefully as the sound of footsteps receded down the halls.

He sighed in relief, before immediately tensing back up again.

He'd hid in one of Hogwarts' broom cupboards.

With one Harry Potter.

Because Professor Snape had turned the corner; and Nico and Harry had had to run for cover. Annoyingly, Harry stayed right on Nico's tail.

And so, as Harry stared, Nico held his breath, waiting for the impending interrogation to proceed and wondering if, somehow, he could wiggle his way out of this situation. He doubted it.

"So?" Harry said, bring out his wand and muttering under his breath: "Lumos."

Nico flinched slightly; what with his night-vision, he hadn't needed more wanted such a bright light in his face. Blinking away the afterimage, the part of him that had lived in the Hermes cabin decided that if he must tell Harry what had happened, he'd do it in the most suspenseful, annoying way possible.

"So. Sirius Black. Basically, I found this dog—" Nico cut himself off and smirked. "I should probably start at the beginning." He paused for a long moment. "I'm not going to start at the beginning. So, I gave the dog some food—"

Harry was glaring at him. "What exactly does this have to do with Sirius Black? Just tell me what happened!"

"Do you want the short story or the long?"

"Nico! JUST—TELL—ME—WHAT—YOU—DID!"

Suppressing a laugh, Nico decided he should actually be serious. Besides, their lives could be at risk. "He's an animagus."

Harry blinked. "What?"

"An animagus. A shapeshifter. He can turn into a black dog at will." Rolling his eyes, Nico added: "Even I know that, Potter."

Harry didn't respond to Nico's insult. Looking over, Nico saw that he looked pale. "The Grim," he said. "Near my uncle's house. Sirius was—"

"—keeping an eye on you, apparently. Anyways, that's probably how he's been getting around without being caught."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "How come you just happened to find him, Nico?"

Nico shrugged. "Coincidence, I suppose. Thing is, I'd seen him before; and thought he was just a normal dog. I wasn't joking about that. When I realized who he was, I managed to corner him in the corridors; I was about to question him. Before I was interrupted."

Harry blinked. "Hey! To me it just looked like—"

"I know." Nico cut him off, before continuing: "We have a problem, though. Sirius has...heard some things. As I said, I thought he was just a dog. I wasn't being careful about what I said around him. He definitely needs to be caught."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Because he overheard you, or because he wants to kill me?"

Nico hesitated. "Harry...I don't know what he wants. He's been around me long enough to kill me; I was off-guard. An easy target. And yet...I'm still here."

"Because you're working with him."

"I am not, Potter! You saw for yourself; he didn't try to get to you at all just now."

"He must've heard Professor Snape coming! He's killed thirteen people, di Angelo! Black's mad!"

Nico paused. "As I said, he does need to be caught. But not by the Ministry. By us."

Harry's jaw dropped. "What?! Are you mental?!"

The ghost of a smile flickered across Nico's face. "Probably. But dementors will—they won't wait for answers. If Black's truly working for Voldemort, he might be part of a bigger plan. We need to catch him, and get him to reveal that plan...or his...true motives. Only then can we pass judgement. Because I doubt the dementors would give him a fair trial."

"Why does he deserve fairness, Nico!?" Harry nearly shouted.

Nico paused for a long moment. Then, softly: "Everybody deserves to be judged fairly. For what they've done, not who they are."

Of course, there was more to that then Nico was letting on. He decided to let Harry figure it out.

"The school won't notice us missing for a few hours yet. In the meantime..." Nico gave Harry a cold smile. "You and I have a murderer to catch.


Harry's PoV

Harry didn't trust Nico. Not one bit.

The teenager led Harry on a crazy marathon through Hogwarts and around the ground...although Nico took great care to stay far, far away from the school's entrances. Which Harry had no problem with; he didn't like dementors any more than Nico did.

Nico, whatever else he was, was fast. Harry was well-known for his speed and agility—his training with Dudley had certainly worked it's magic. But Merlin's beard! Nico was faster, and over the next few hours, he certainly put Harry's skills to the test.

Eventually, despite his most valiant efforts, Harry couldn't keep it up any longer. He stopped panting, and braced his hands against his knees. "Can we...stop for a...few minutes?"

Nico looked over from the mile or two he'd ran as Harry stopped. "WHAT?" he shouted.

Harry knew perfectly well that Nico could hear him. He glared at him, still tired.

In a flash, Nico ran back over to Harry, seeming very pleased with himself at beating the Big Who Lived...again.

Nico unsheathed (unringed?) his sword and started casually swing it through the air, almost giving Harry a nice haircut...starting at his neck.

"Watch it!" Harry snapped.

"Hmm?" Nico proceeded to swing the sword in full loopty-loops, before: "So, ready to run another ten, twenty miles? Black's not gonna wait for us!"

Harry gritted his teeth. "I swear to Gryffindor, I am going to murder you," he muttered under his breath.

"Good luck with that," Nico said, shooting off like a bullet. "You'd better keep up!"

Already, he was a shadow on the horizon.

Sighing, an exhausted Harry Potter followed.


Nico's PoV

They didn't find Sirius. He'd seemed to have disappeared into thin air—and who knew? Maybe he had.

On the plus side, Nico had had fun running Harry until he dropped.

Okay, he hadn't actually collapsed or anything, but the Boy Who Lived was still flopped on his purple sleeping bag, snoring away. He wouldn't be waking up anytime soon.

Nico would feel bad for him when school started in a few hours...

Or not.

Shadow traveling back into the Great Hall had been tricky, both because Nico couldn't be seen, and because Nico himself was pretty tired. Not from running, necessarily, but from his previous "Underworld-y activity."

Will is going to kill me, Nico thought as his head hit the pillow (read: aviator jacket). Already, the Son of Hades was fast asleep.


Nico's PoV

Over the next few days, the Hogwarts students gossiped like they'd never gossiped before. All Nico heard day in and day out was Sirius, Sirius, Sirius. Which was even more annoying than it would seem, because no matter what happened, Nico himself could not find "Snuffles" or his human counterpart anywhere. He even tried leaving food near the edge of the Forbidden Forest and lying in wait, but it seemed that Sirius Black was laying low... and that he also regarded Nico as an enemy, or at least, someone who couldn't be trusted.

The first Quidditch match if the year was also coming up. Malfoy was still pretending to be injured; the Gryffindor team would be playing against Hufflepuff rather than Slytherin. Nico wondered why they couldn't just replace Malfoy with another player. Probably because the Slytherins couldn't risk his dignity.

During classes, Nico even put in some effort to learn a bit of Wizarding magic. (Although he still mostly lurked in the corner during Professor Lupin's classes.) He was decent at very basic charms such as Lumos (though he seldem used it) and wingardium leviosa.

Hermione was throwing herself into her studies; although she didn't look too good. Nico hadn't forgotten that Arithmancy class refererence—and Hermione continued to mix classes up and mention classes she hadn't even been to. Nico got a glimpse of her schedule; unless he was hallucinating, she had multiple classes in one time slot; Nico could've sworn he saw three classes scheduled for the one slot.

When he asked about it, Hermione whisked away her schedule and told him to mind his own business; in turn, Nico had glared at her and said that maybe she should mind her own business; he'd also said that she had been just as bad as Trelawney to Nico, pointing out all his flaws, and that maybe she should just go back to her crazy, chaotic schedule and be the know-it-all everyone said she was.

He may have said more, but Ginny came over and dragged him away, before giving him a stern lecture about what had happened in Harry's first year when Ron had started criticizing Hermione. Nico didn't particularly care, but Ginny added that Hermione was her friend as well, so Nico agreed to leave her alone and apologize (though he planned on prolonging that apology for as long as possible).

But that wasn't enough, was it? Noooooo.

In addition to barely having enough time to look for Sirius himself, Nico also could hardly ever compare notes with Harry. He'd persuaded the wizard to not mention the events of the night to either Hermione or Ron until they learned more; as the two would most likely spend all of their free time tailing Nico; or worse, tell one of the adult magicians. Of course, that turned out to be Nico's downfall: Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived, was under close watch by... well, everyone.

Since Sirius had made it into the castle, Harry was being constantly followed by either a teacher, prefect (usually Percy Weasley), or occasionally a ghost. Harry was just as annoyed as Nico was... and Harry's guards were just as suspicious of Nico as they were of Sirius.

To make matters worse, Professor Snape had subbed for Professor Lupin the day before the match. Apparently Lupin wasn't feeling well. Although Nico wasn't particularly sorry for him.

During the D.A.D.A. class, Professor Snape—despite the classes' protests—skipped nearly to the end of Lupin's plans, lecturing the class on were-wolves. He, too, called Hermione a know-it-all. It was a rough week for the young witch, apparently.

Nico wasn't particularly happy with Snape's choice of topic either—bad experiences—nor the essay he'd given at the end of class—two rolls of parchment. Nico didn't even know how much that was—he was using a black notebook and pen. Like any self-respecting demigod ought to do. Or wizard, for that matter.

It definitely was a busy week.

And so, Nico and Harry had found no new leads by the morning of the first Quidditch match. It was a gray, stormy day; the rain was so thick that Nico could barely see in front of him. He found a seat as low as possible in the stands—which wasn't very low, as no one wanted to be in the top rows—especially Nico. Zeus was not in a pleasent mood that day. Fortunately, Nico managed to grab a seat near the middle. Unfortunately, he was forced to sit next to Hermione Granger...and, as he'd mentioned, Nico hadn't forgotten that rant she'd given him.

He had indeed been trying to enjoy himself, though—he had no choice, with all of the things he'd been doing. Will would kill Nico—again—if the son of Hades died from stress.

Nico huddled under the hood of his wizard's robes, which were over his aviators jacket, which was over his black t-shirt, which was over—wait. He's forgotten the other ten layers of water-proof gear. The ones he didn't have. But even with three layers, Nico was still cold and shivering by the time the match started.

Lee Jordan, a dark-skinned boy from Gryffindor house, was providing the matches' commentary. Being a member of one of the two teams, he was a bit biased. He also tended to get distracted and make remarks about various girls from either teams. Nico did not find that interesting in the least. Although he certainly wasn't going to say so: he doubted that the school had forgotten his experience with the boggart, and he certainly didn't want to remind them.

It seemed to be a tough match. Nico didn't understand Quidditch, but he did know that Harry was zooming around in the sky, and he didn't seem to be able to see very well. Glasses weren't the best thing to have in the rain. At one point, the referee, Madam Hooch, called a time out; Hermione ran down from the stands and did something to Harry's glasses. He flew much better after that. Lightning flashed, and suddenly, Nico saw something that chilled his blood: in another one of the Gryffindor stands, a few of the top rows were empty. And in one of those rows sat a large, black dog.

Sirius Black was watching Quidditch.

Nico jumped to his feet. Ron started and looked at him. "I've got to go," Nico said shortly.

Ron followed his gaze; seeing the dog, his eyes widened. He grabbed Hermione and said something to her about the Grim, but Nico was long gone by then.

Finally reaching the bottom of his stand, Nico was about to go climbing up onto the one he'd seen Sirius on top of. But then, Nico's blood turned to ice. The memories were coming for him, coming, coming, coming. A darkness he could not stop; could not control. One he may just become lost to.

Nico blinked. No! Fight it! Think about Will, or Hazel; seeing them at Hogsmeade! It worked for a moment. Blinking, Nico looked up. Sirius was gone. He cursed and scanned the Quidditch pitch, but Nico couldn't seem to find Sirius Black anywhere. He looked back down, and that's when he saw one of the most horrifying things he'd ever seen—which was something, since Nico has been to the pits of Tartarus itself. (Or himself. Tartarus, unfortunately, needed to be an actually entity as well as a place.) DON'T THINK ABOUT—

Too late. Dementors swarmed the stands, hundreds of them, many more than Nico remembered seeing at the Hogwarts entrance. The last thing Nico remembered seeing before the memories came, roling over him like a turbulent sea, was Harry falling off his broom, down, down, down toward the waves of darkness below.


Nico's PoV

Nico woke up to a stark, white room. He was in a bed. With the white curtains partially drawn.

Ohhhh, Nico thought. I am in the Hospital Wing.

Sitting up, Nico looked around. Yup. Definitely a Hospital Wing.

Glancing to his right, Nico saw that Harry was a few beds down. Right. Because he fell off his broom, Nico remembered, pushing away the... darker memories. He'd been this close to catching Sirius... before his chance was lost. Swept away in a sea of dementors, along with Nico's consciousness.

Also with Harry (though they weren't in beds) were Ron, Hermione, and the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team. Nico couldn't help but notice that no one had come to visit him. Nico cut off that train of thought, as he had more important things to address (not because he was thinking about what Hermione had said!). Nico cleared his throat. "Well, we survived. Now what?"

Most of the team was too busy talking to notice him.

"Lucky the ground was so soft."

"I thought he was dead for sure."

"But he didn't even break his glasses."

"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."

Haha, Nico thought with weak humor. Then you're lucky.

Ron and Hermione didn't respond to his earlier comment; they just looked at him, before turning their attention back to Harry. Gee, thanks, Nico thought, but he was soon interrupted from further thought: "What happened?" Harry asked.

Fred Weasley responded promptly: "You fell off. Must've been—what—fifty feet?"

"We thought you'd died," a girl—Alicia, Nico believed—said, trembling.

Harry didn't seem to care about that. "But the match! What happened? Are we doing a replay?"

The guy was anything if not passionate about Quidditch, Nico noted.

A long silence, before Harry continued: "We didn't—lose?"

"Diggory got the Snitch. Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they win fair and square... even Wood admits it."

None of this made much sense to Nico, but Harry looked devasted. He asked: "Where is Wood?"

Fred—or was it George?—answered. They reminded Nico of the Stoll brothers, a bit. "Still in the showers. We think he's trying to drown himself."

Nico took it back. Compared to Oliver Wood, Harry was hardly passionate about Quidditch...

Or not.

Harry buried his face in his knees, gripping his hair with his hands. Fred grabbed his shoulder, roughly shaking it.

"C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before."

"There had to be one time you didn't get it," George added.

"Besides," Nico said, "it's just a game, right?"

Everybody glared at him, before Fred and George continued trying to cheer Harry up. So much for trying to help people, Nico thought.

After a while, the team left the Hospital Wing, herded out by Madam Pomfrey. Only Ron and Hermione remained.

Hermione continued telling Harry what happened. "Dumbledore was really angry," she said. "I've never him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the dementors. Shit silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away... He was furious they'd come into the grounds. We heard him—"

Ron cut her off. "Then they magicked you onto a stretcher," he said, "and walked you up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were..."

Nico just watched. He'd never seen the trio look so crestfallen before; he wasn't sure how to respond; especially since his last remark hadn't gone down so well.

Harry finally asked: "Did someone get my Nimbus?"

Nico assumed that was his broom. Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

"Er—"

"What?" Harry asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Well... when you fell," Hermione said hesitantly, "It got blown away..."

"And?"

"And it hit—it hit—oh, Harry—it hit the Whomping Willow."

Nico had seen the Whomping Willow swat at birds who came too close before; even he knew what it could do.

"And?" Harry asked, his expression full of dread.

"Well, you know the Whomping Willow. It—it doesn't like being hit," Ron said.

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," Hermione said in a small voice.

Slowly, she grabbed a bag and dumped a pile of wood splinters and broken twigs onto the bed. The remains of Harry's broomstick, Nico figured.

Madam Pomfrey bustled over and shooed Ron and Hermione out of the Hospital Wing, saying that Harry needed rest, and insisting he stay with her during the rest of the weekend.

She then bustled over to Nico, who watched her expectantly. Madam Pomfrey set an enormous slab of chocolate on the stand next to Nico's bed. Nico looked at the chocolate, then at her. "What...?"

"Eat. You had quite the encounter with the dementors." Under her breath, she added: "Dementors, in the school! No wonder Albus was furious—" She stopped when she saw Nico looking at her.

Reluctantly, Nico started nibbling the edge of the chocolate. He didn't fancy eating while Madam Pomfrey watched him like a hawk. After a good chunk of the chocolate was gone, Madam Pomfrey insisted on checking over him, and, even though Nico was obviously not injured (at least, not physically), she also insisted he stay overnight, at least. She said he'd transformed into smoke; it had taken them a long time to figure out how to get him to the hospital. Eventually, he'd solidified enough for them to magic him onto a stretcher ASAP, before rushing him to the Hospital Wing and somehow getting him back to a completely solid, if not stable, state.

Nico was pretty shaken up himself; that had been the worst fading episode since the Athena Parthenos.

And one more thing was certain: Sirius Black was back. And Nico had failed to catch him.

The son of Hades would be quite busy that weekend.


Author's Notes: Well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Feel free to review, and also hop on over to GreenCrystal19 on YouTube to see my speedpaint of Nico! It's... not QUITE how I picture him (he looks too old, for one) and it certainly isn't Viria's art, but I spent many hours on that and I hope you guys enjoy it. Besides, you can always skip to the end or see it at GreenCrystal2019 on DeviantArt. Although I am prioritizing YouTube over Deviant and would like some more views/comments/possibly even likes. Have a nice weekend, ya'll!

EDIT: I took Nico down. And thennnnn decided to put him back up. Yay.