REVIEW REPLIES:

DaughterOfHecate: I'm really glad that you like this story so far! I was a bit concerned that I was focusing too much on the Harry Potter universe, since nothing very important is happening in the other ones, but It's good to know that it isn't as bad as I thought. As for Percy, well... you'll figure that bit out soon enough. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a nice review!

Summer: Thanks! I'm glad that I didn't completely mess up Nico's emotions. He really is a fascinating character to write. I haven't really done this before, so feedback is always appreciated! Thanks for letting me know what you think!

"Umm... sorry?" Nico winced as he watched the juvenile genius in front of him pace to and fro.

"Sorry? Sorry? That was an exclusive prototype! I understand that it malfunctioned, but did you have to stomp on it?"

Artemis and the others had arrived at Hogwarts about half an hour ago. After getting settled back in, Artemis had immediately asked if his weird thingamabob (which was apparently was supposed to be some sort of buzzer or beacon) had worked or not. Nico had been left with no choice. When Artemis found out about the fate of his poor prototype, well... let's just say that it wasn't pretty.

"In my defense, how else was I supposed to make it shut up?" Nico grumbled.

Artemis groaned and ran a hand through his hair, "By casting a silencing charm, or muffling it with a pillow or something of the sorts until it ran out of batteries, or literally anything except what you did!"

"You do remember that we were in a room with a huge mirror and the headmaster of Hogwarts, right?" Nico asked, rolling his eyes at the surprisingly tense boy in front of him.

"That took me five whole hours to perfect!" Artemis continued, ignoring him, as usual, "I didn't have much hope that it would be a success, but I was at least hoping to examine it and figure out what's wrong! Do you know how much that zinc coating cost? Honestly, do you think that money grows on trees?"

"Dude, you're literally a millionaire." Nico reminded with a barely noticeable smirk.

"That's not the point!" Artemis snapped, "Every penny that I use to buy resources, is one less penny that I can use to find my fa-" he stopped in his tracks. Nico suddenly felt the teasing smile slip off his face. He was no expert when it came to emotions, but he could tell that Artemis hadn't meant to say that.

Artemis took a shuddering breath, and sat down on his bed, as though he was trying to get himself under control, before he accidentally let something slip. Nico wasn't sure what to think at the sight of the normally cool and composed child prodigy reduced to a trembling, furious mess. But now, Artemis' anger seemed directed at himself more than at Nico.

"Excuse me for that," Artemis began, sounding exhausted and much quieter than before, "I have to admit that I'm feeling rather high-strung today. It appears that my prototype was flawed, so you really did me a favor by destroying it. I should have tested it in a safer and less... unsupervised environment." His expression became pained, "Also, it would be marvelous if you could just forget this entire conversation."

Nico hesitated, on one hand, he could leave Artemis alone with his thoughts like he wanted, or he could poke the bear and talk about something that he detested: emotions.

He sighed, decisions like these were a lot easier back in the days when he could avoid social interaction.

"Not so fast, Fowl. You mentioned wanting to find something." he stated bluntly, immediately wincing at his lack of tact.

Artemis stared at him blankly, with a poorly disguised frown, "Did I?" he asked innocently, although it sounded rather pathetic, to be honest.

Nico refrained from rolling his eyes. Teasing Artemis when he was in such a vulnerable state wouldn't really help his situation.

"Yes, yes you did."

Nico sat down next to him awkwardly, wondering if he was going to say something before this situation got even more awkward than it already was.

Artemis sighed, "It's nothing important, di Angelo. I am feeling quite dandy. I require some time in solitude, if you don't mind."

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Oh, so we're on surname terms now, Fowl?"

Artemis glared at him weakly, "This is none of your business di Angelo! Why do you even care anyway? This is a private affair!" he mumbled half-heartedly.

Nico felt himself get angry, "I'm trying to help you vlákas!"(P.S: Vlákas is greek for idiot)

"No one asked you to help! I am perfectly fine! Incredible even! Just a bit tense, that's all."

Nico growled in frustration, "Don't you dare pull the 'I'm fine' card Fowl! I'm supposed to be your friend, remember? And friends are meant to help each other. I can't do that if you won't tell me what's wrong!"

Artemis growled back, "Nothing is wrong!" he insisted, although it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

"Save it, Genius Boy. You're not fooling anybody. Now, are you going to tell me what this super important thing you need to find is or not?" He froze when he noticed the pained look that was still etched on Artemis' face. It reminded him of the look on his face whenever someone brought up Bianca...

"Oh Gods." he realizes with a growing feeling of horror, "It's not something, is it? It's someone." He felt overwhelmed with guilt. He felt like a hypocrite for making Artemis talk about it, seeing as he still preferred to avoid talking about Bianca, but if Artemis was anything like him, yelling some sense into him would be the only way to make him see things clearly, before he made a huge mistake, like the one he himself had made.( I'm looking at you, Minos!)

Artemis sighed in defeat, "Fine. You win. If you want to know so badly, I'll tell you." he spat out furiously. His blue eyes burned with a strange fire that Nico had seen before, in the eyes of the desperate demigods in Kronos' army . They were the eyes of someone on a mission, of someone who would stop at nothing to succeed. And it scared Nico to see those eyes on a person who he considered a friend.

"Last year, my-"

All of a sudden, the door burst open, and Harry burst into the dormitory triumphantly, followed by a very grumpy Draco Malfoy.

"I tried to stop him!" Draco panted, "But someone told him the password!" he grumbled, glaring half-heartedly at Nico.

Draco seemed to take in the dreary scene. Nico was glaring at him with a passion. Artemis was slouching(something he never did) and were those... tears in his eyes? Nope, probably just a trick of the light. Right?

"Uh, what did I miss?"

Artemis blinked rapidly and tried to compose himself.

"Nothing important, my friend. Just... catching up."

Nico frowned, "Artemis, wait. We can still talk this out..." He sighed, it sounded stupid even to him. The moment had passed, and Artemis wouldn't put his guard down again. He glared at Draco and Harry, because even though he knew that it wasn't their fault, it did make him feel more in control of the situation.

"If you'll excuse me," he said through gritted teeth, "I'll be outside. Somewhere. Alone." he stated coldly, making his way towards the door, ignoring Harry calling out to him, saying something about a clue.

******Line Break******

Nico ended up in the owlery. (that is a real place, right?)

He hadn't exactly had any particular destination in mind when he had shadow-travelled away from the dark corridor he had been lurking in after leaving the dormitory. So apparently, the shadows or whatever other weird spirits lurked in the shadow realm thought that it would be a good idea to send him to the owlery. Of all the places in the world...

Luckily, the owls gave him a wide berth. For the first time in his life, he felt glad that his 'Son of Hades' aura repelled most living creatures. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with Athena and her owls.

He couldn't help but feel like an idiot for not being able to get Artemis to open up. Yes, he was terrible with emotions, but if Fowl's body language was anything to go by, he was dealing with something Nico knew all too much about.

Loss.

He had no idea who Artemis had lost, or if that person was even dead, seeing as Artemis seemed rather intent of finding them. What he did know, was that unless someone could talk to Artemis and make him see sense, he would do something he would regret, that would probably set off a bunch of other catastrophic events. Fowl may be a genius, but grief can make you do crazy things.

He was living proof of that.

It was stupid, yes, but he felt like he should have been able to talk Artemis through it, just like Percy had done for him. He sighed. Once again, the son of Hades fails to pull through for his friends.

Unfortunately, the fates decided that if owls weren't going to annoy the Hades out of him, something else was. Or more appropriately, someone.

"Nico? Man, what are you doing up there? That place is like, 13 feet off the ground, dude! "

Nico jumped, almost knocking over the bag of birds he had been leaning on. Once he calmed down enough to assess the situation, he realized that the voice sounded familiar, and was more or less friendly. Speak of the devil...

"Percy." he greeted, somewhat coldly.

Percy ignored his chilly tone, "Nico! You haven't IM'd me in ages! I was worried that you were in trouble!"

Nico rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the weird feeling in his stomach, "Well I'm not, so unless you have anything else important to say, you can leave."

Percy looked hurt, "Can't I just spend some quality time with my cousin?"

"You're not my cousin." Nico responded automatically. Having a crush on a boy was weird enough, but having a crush on a boy who calls you his cousin? Nu-uh, that was weird on way too many levels.

Percy grinned, "You'll come around eventually. Anyway, where are you? It looks surprisingly bright for 10 o'clock in the night."

Nico blinked, "It's not 10 o'clock. It's 6 pm." He facepalmed, "Right, different time zones."

Percy looked confused, "Time zones? Where are you? You make it sound as though you're in England!"

"Well, Scotland to be exact."

Percy gaped at him, " Dude, you're in Scotland? What the actual Hades? Why on earth would you be in Scotland? "

Nico decided that telling Percy that he was at school couldn't do much harm, "I go to school here, Kelp head."

Percy kept gaping at him like one of his father's subjects, "You go to school?"

Nico rolled his eyes again, "What, did you think that I spend all of my time running around on the streets?"

"Actually, yes."

"Never mind that. Have you thought about my offer?"

Percy bit his lip nervously, " I don't know, Nico. This is the Styx we're talking about. If this goes wrong... well, it would be bad."

Nico groaned, "You can't keep postponing it Percy! You are going to have to do it eventually if you even want to stand a chance against Luke!"

Percy frowned, "Look, Nico, it's not that I don't trust you, but... I just need more time. This is a really big decision, you know?"

Nico sighed. To be honest, he had been expecting it. It was the same reply he had given him every time Nico brought up the topic.

"Fine, we'll continue this discussion later. But you need to stop calling me."

Percy looked affronted, "What?"

Nico facepalmed again, that had come out the wrong way.

"I'm at school, Percy. I can't risk someone finding out about demigods. Which means no more IM's, unless I'm the one calling you, got it?"

Some part of him felt glad that he wouldn't need to worry about the weird skeletons doing the tango in his stomach for a while. The other part felt a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be able to see or hear from Percy nearly as often(because we all know that Nico wouldn't contact Percy unless it was absolutely necessary). Yet another part was worrying about his sanity.

Percy nodded, looking like a puppy that had just been kicked, "Fiinnneeee. But only until we figure out a schedule that works for both of us, alright? We both know that you won't call me unless it's an emergency, and I want to see my baby cousin more than once a year."

"Again, I'm not your cousin."

Percy rolled his eyes, "Keep telling yourself that, Neeks. Well then, until next time Señor!" He declared dramatically before sweeping his hand through the Iris message.

Nico groaned and flopped onto his back. Percy's antics always left him exhausted.

Just as he was starting to relax and enjoy himself for once, Draco's face appeared above him.

"Gah!"Nico yelped, "What is wrong with you? Who in their right mind sneaks up on a person like that? Did Harry's insults finally get to you or something?"

Draco smirked at him, "Not at all, I'm still as unfazed by Potter's pathetic insults as ever. "

Nico glared at him ,"What do you want? How did you know that I was here?"

Draco's smirk grew, "I figured that the owlery would be the sort of lonely, out of the way place you'd want to brood in. As for why I'm here..."

Nico waited impatiently, "Yes?" he asked, gesturing for him to continue.

"Potter thinks that he's figured out what that weird artifact is."

A.N:

Hey folks! Sorry this chapter took so long, I've been a bit busy. Besides, every time I sit down to write, my sister distracts me with fanart.

Anyway, I hope that this chapter wasn't too terrible or OOC. I just really think that Artemis would be kind of sensitive about his dad and all, and that Nico would want to help him out in some way. After all, canonically, Nico is really loyal to people who earn his trust, and would do whatever he can to help them.

I hope that I did these characters justice, they are REALLY hard to keep in character.

As usual, please review!

-Keera( ﾟヮﾟ)