Ever grit her teeth under her natural expression, glaring at any monster who came to close as she contorter her hands. She had taught herself ages ago how to shift her thumb and pinky fingers to the center of her palm and escape almost any kind of shackles. The only problem? It hurt. Alot.
Her right hand slipped free and hse quickly loosened the knot with both hands and slipped it back in, then repeated the process with her other hand. She glanced over at her 'partners in crime', a titan and a giant. Damasen had been easy to explain the plan to, he was level headed enough and was friends with Percy Jackson. Ever had helpfully failed to mention that she was under orders to kill that particular demigod, but she hadn't been lying when she said she was on his side.
Bob was a little harder. He was friends with Percy as well, which had been the selling point for him, but he wasn't the brightest. Ever kept having to talk slightly slower, which was hard because she talked fast when she was nervous, and use smaller words. But now they were starting their escape plan. Ever tried not to think about how many things could go wrong as she caught Bob's eye and blinked twice.
He nodded and tripped the nearest cyclops. The monster fell to the ground and yelled at Bob, who pretended it was and accident and apologised. The spectacle drew the eyes of most of the monsters away from their prisoners. Ever slid free from her bonds and took the sword from the demigod nearest her.
"Hey!" He yelled and tried to attack her but she kicked him to the ground and ran him through. The monsters were now facing her, momentarily stunned. She took the precious second to free Damasen. The small army surged toward her at once, all reaching for weapons or baring teeth.
She sidestepped the first blow and decapitated the monster who threw it. Damasen had gotten ahold of a handful of spears, which he was using to pound monster on the head, snapping their necks or turning them into monster-kabobs.
Ever spun in a circle with her sword extended, killing the few unlucky enough to be in range. She ran at the horde in front of her and vaulted off a demigod's shield. In the air she released the enchantment on her wings.
Two huge masses of inky black feathers spread behind Ever like the wings of a dark angel. And to the monsters, that's exactly what they were. She dived into the mob with wings extended, knocking down dozens of monster in her path. She swooped back up and watched Damesen and the now-free Bob mow down monsters, the ones she knocked down getting trampled by her friends and theirs as the battle wore on.
Ever swooped back into the fray, taking down monsters left and right and slipping into a zone, tuning out everything but her mission, kill them all. She was a terrifying sight. The celestial bronze of her stolen weapon was a blur as it reduced monsters to dust and demigods to bloodied sacks of meat on the ground. Soon enough, the three allies were the last ones standing on a field of blood and golden dust.
An order broke Ever's trance. Kill the traitors, it whispered and her body went stiff. Her eyes widened as she processed what the order meant. Her body betrayed her, turning on the giant and titan beside her. "RUN" She screamed. Bob furrowed his brow in confusion as Damasen realized what she meant a second before Bob did. The titan wasn't completely stupid, he knew about her connection to her father and the orders he gave her.
They both ran, headed to Damasen old home. Ever ran after, trying to make her limbs stop moving. She only succeeded in slowing her legs down and preventing herself from using her wings to bypass the impossible terrain.
Damasen made it to his house first after a long run and ripped the tree from the ground. He used it like a baseball bat and swung it at Ever, sending her flying several feet into a nearby vein of cocytus. The vein popped and washed over her, sending her into a deep sleep as it convinced her to try to drown herself immediately and counteracting the order.
Damasen picked her up so she wouldn't drown in the new puddle and took her inside. He wrapped her in some soft draken skin and started to stew up some spare draken meat he had saved. He and Bob began talking in hushed tones while she slept, discussing the rest of her escape plan. Her very risky escape plan.
~oOo~
Nico woke in Will arms on the couch of the Slytherin commons. He untangled himself with a groan, rousing Will.
"Good morning death boy," Will greeted, rubbing his eyes.
"Mornin'," Nico said back, not bothering to tell Will not to call him that. He stretched his limbs and made his way to the boys room to get his robes.
He opened the door and kept his head down, refusing to even look at Tom, or to let him see his face. He was halfway to his trunk when Percy stopped him, "Hey Nico, where's Will?"
Nico didn't have to answer because just then the boy in question appeared in the doorway, "Good morning everyone!" Will shouted, rousing the rest of the students, he went over to Nico and put an arm around his shoulders, blocking Tom's view of his face.
"Oh, hey Will," Percy said, "I was wondering, do you still have that textbook I lent you? I'll need it today,"
"Oha yeah, it's, well, you know where it is," He said, glancing at the wizards.
Percy nodded, "Thanks, I'll go get it later," he started pulling on his uniform.
Will guided Nico to the two empty beds, careful to keep his face out of view of Tom Riddle, and started putting on his robes. Nico put his on over his regular clothes, not bothering with the uniform, unlike Will, who put the whole thing on without complaint. Nico blushed and looked away from Will's shirtless chest, instead looking at the ground and gathering his textbooks.
Nico hurried out of the room without anyone noticing him and made his way to his first class, DADA. He was the first one in the classroom and the professor was just setting up a large black trunk at the front of the classroom.
"Oh, You must be Nico," She greeted him with a smile, "would you mind helping me out with this," She said gesturing to the presumably heavy chest. He nodded and put his books on a desk and taking out the long dark wand he had found in one of his trunks.
He silently cast a levitation charm and moved the trunk the the center easily.
The professor smiled, "I was wondering what type of kid you were," She said, sitting on her desk, "Though I suppose Slytherin's do value cleverness don't they," Nico turned and sat down at the desk with his books.
"You know," The professor continued, "Not even the famed Harry Potter can cast silent magic that easily, and no wizard would use such complicated magic and such a simple task,"
"I'm not your average student," Nico responded simply.
"Apparently not, I hear your school is very advanced, and your trained in single combat?"
Nico nodded, "I can use a sword and can do some hand-to-hand combat, but I'm better with the sword,"
"Really? I don't see why anyone would need to know all of that, especially so young,"
"We don't want to be defenceless without our wands. It's a little more...tense...in America, you know, since the whole 'Salem witch trials' and there's a few new groups who are trying to keep the movement alive. We may not be in immediate danger, but knowing we can defend ourselves helps," He was making all this up off the top of his head, but he remembers that bit of history from when Annabeth was teaching Percy about the history of witchcraft in America and whatnot.
The professor nodded and opened her mouth to say something but at at that moment Will stepped into the room, "Nico!" He exclaimed, "I thought I told you to eat!"
Nico grumbled some unpleasant comments under his breath and spoke up, "You did, I'm not hungry,"
Will slapped a piece of toast onto the desk in front of Nico, "Eat,"
Nico rolled his eyes and took a bit, glaring at Will, "Happy?" Will nodded and took the seat next to Nico.
"You can turn to page 479 if you want to be prepared when class starts," The professor said, getting back to her preparations. She wheeled a chalkboard from the side of the classroom and scribbled down a word in flowery cursive.
Will squinted at the board for a few seconds, trying to make out the word. Finally, he gave up, "Hey, Um professor? We both have dyslexia, do you mind telling me what you wrote up there?"
She looked at him, surprised, "I'm, sure, it's the charm I'll be teaching the class today, 'ridiculous', most of the class already learned it but I figured I'd do some review just to get a feel on how the class operates together," She went back to the board, scribbling down notes as Will wrote the charm in greek on his paper, with a regular pen, because he was no good with the quills the wizards still used for some reason.
Soon enough the classroom filled and the lesson began.
"Students," Professor Qualra began to get the students attention, "Now that we have a complete class, I would like to do some review," This prompter grumbling from all around the classroom, The professor help up her hands for silence, "I know most of you have worked with boggarts before, I have written the charm for repelling them on the board there, but I would like to know how you work together as a class,"
There was whispering from the students, fear and excitement evident in their voices.
"For those of you who don't know, a boggart has no true form, at least not one you can see. It transforms into your worst fear once you are in front of it. A simple spell will turn them into something humorous instead, though, so you needn't worry," The exchange students were all whispering amongst each other in that odd mix of latin and greek, nothing but fear in their voices.
"The charm is 'ridiculous', say it with me, ridiculous," The class said t with her three more times, until all of them could say it perfectly.
"All right, form a line, exchange students in the back since they haven't done this before, older svent years in the front, newer seventh years in the middle," Soon they had a long line leading to a huddled mass at the back of the classroom, the class being twice as large as usual.
The first student went up, her boggart becoming an old woman with a wand, yelling at her and threatening her with spells. She yelled the charm and the woman was suddenly dressed in a frilly pink dress and high heels, and she started dancing around singing nursery rhymes, which Nico would argue was scarier.
They went on like that for a while, Ron's becoming a spider, making Annabeth shriek involuntarily and bury her face in Percy's shirt. Harry came after his friend,the last of the older seventh years.
When he went up to the trunk it burst open and a copy of himself crawled out. The copy had red eyes like Voldemort and had a pasty skin tone, making him just a little snakelike. The not-Harry hissed and aimed the elder wand at real-Harry.
"You failed-," he was cut off by Harry yelling, "RIDDICULUS!" And suddenly the not-Harry was dressed in suspenders and playing the elder wand like a flute. There were uneasy laughs from the students, but most of them were just unnerved.
The rest of the students went, their fears ranging from evil copies of themselves to angry adults, one boy had a giant failed exam, he must have had a happy childhood (note the sarcasm). There were a few more with spiders or snakes, one elephant, another dragon, and it was the exchange student's turn.
Reyna went up first. She approached the trunk warily, her new wand ready. The top opened slowly and an image, like a window, appeared above it. It showed camp Jupiter in flames, New Rome beyond it. The bodies of demigods in full battle armor lay dead all around her, the lone survivor, in the center of the war games arena. She was on her knees, the body of her sister beside her, along with Nico, Will, and the seven.
Not-Reyna lifted her sword as a figure came into view, blurry and indistinct. The figure brew back a bow and let an arrow fly. Real-Reyna shouted "Riddiculus!" just as the arrow ran her through. She looked shaken, but not as bad as she should have looked, considering. She went silently back to her seat and sat down, refusing the offers of comfort from the demigods.
Next up was Leo. He was not in the least prepared, through he gripped his wand, his eyes were full of fear of what he was about to see. The box opened and another window appeared. It showed a workshop, not unlike the one his mother had burned to death in, but this time it was Calypso inside with him.
She stood at a small kitchen beside the main workshop, chopping some carrots with a knife and listening to some music through a pair of earbuds and humming along. In the classroom, someone laughed, but Leo knew what was coming.
A fire started in the workshop, but Calypso didn't notice, she just kept humming along to her song. The fire spread quickly, consuming the garage as if it were made of straw. The flames caught Calypso and she screamed, calling out for Leo. But he wasn't there. Percy stepped in front of his friend and yelled out the spell, making the image disappear before it could shift to his fear.
Unfortunately, Percy was next. The boggart came back, turning into Annabeth, as she had looked in the death mist, and Percy, also shrouded in death mist. They stood in a pool of poison, Percy controlling it, making it surround Annabeth and crawl up her legs, burning everywhere it touched. Real-Percy fumbled and dropped his wand, staying in horror at the false-him who ignored his girlfriend's screams.
Real-Annabeth shouted the spell from behind him, making the image go away, because there was really no way to make that image in any way funny.
Percy collapsed to his knees, apologizing over and over. Annabeth ran up and wrapped her arms around him, whispering comforting words into his ear as she slowly picked him up and led him to their desks at the back of the room.
The others went after, one by one, each experiencing the horrors of their darkest nightmares, almost all of them having to be saved by another.
Just before Will was Alex, who had insisted on being closer to the back of the line. He walked up, not knowing what he would face. The trunk opened, pushed by a pale, slender hand. The small child's hand gripped the edge of the box and pushed itself up. His dark angel came out of the box, no more than eight.
He jumped out of the box and landed bouncily on the ground, filled to the brim with endless energy. Tom heard a sharp intake of breath behind him, but he dared not turn away, afraid his angel would disappear.
Young Nico Di Angelo bounced up to him, his pockets stuffed with Mythomagic cards, which were falling out and scattering on the floor. He also had a deck in his hands, which he was shuffling through absently.
"Hi," Not-Nico said, "I haven't seen you in a while," Tom couldn't speak, his wand was hanging limply in his hand, forgotten, as his mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for water.
"You left me," Not-Nico continued, "My sister's dead, she left me all alone, and you left first," He showed Tom one of his cards, the Hades special edition, "I saved an extra for you, but I lost it," He tossed it on the ground and stepped on it. His tone became angry, "You left me," He growled accusingly, "You left me alone with the bullies, they beat me up, without you, I only had my sister, and they beat her too,"
Tom heard the door open and close behind him and the sound of footsteps leaving the room and he glanced behind him to see the door click shut, the last two boys in line gone.
"Ri-riddiculus," He said, remembering the spell. The little boy was instantly gone, the bogart finding no way to make his image funny. Alex fled the room, ignoring the whispers of the student following him out the door.
In the hallway he saw that blond boy, Will, sitting next to a dark haired boy. They were speaking in hushed tones, and they seemed to be speaking greek, which wasn't a problem because Tom had pre-enchanted his ears to translate the language with a spell he found in a book in Diagon alley before he came here.
He couldn't see the dark-haired boy's face or make out what they were saying so he walked slowly into the hall, silently casting a silencing spell in his footsteps and hiding behind a pillar before either of them could spot him.
"-just wish I didn't have to," The mystery boy was saying, "You saw his worst fear, and now the others saw as well…" He trailed off, "Do you think we could change their memories? Just to buy me some time, I don't want them knowing yet, and you know what Reyna will do if she finds out,"
Will put an arm around the other boy's shoulders, but Alex didn't want to risk being spotted if he peeked out again, so he just listened.
"I think we can, but not all of them. We could do it to Percy, Annabeth, Leo, maybe Piper and Jason, but Hazel, and Reyna know you too well, if we try it on them they would probably fight back to hard for it to work,"
He heard the mystery boy curse in greek, "They're the ones who would do my task for me,"
"Not if you told them what you told me," Will's tone was gentle but there was something else as well, fear? Regret? Anger? Alex couldn't tell.
"But-"
"Nico, you know you can't keep them in the dark forever. Hazel's your sister, Reyna's one of the first friends you made since…"
"Say it." Nico spat, "Go on, say it, I'm not ten anymore. What? Are you afraid I'll split the ground open? That I'll throw a fit! Well, how about you stop treating me like the weak ten-year-old I was and treat me like you'd treat Percy! Or Jason! Or any one of the heroes! I went through so much more than my sister's death in the last year, I can handle the facts. She's dead, I can only wish I was," Alex heard the boy get up and shove Will against the wall, "Don't you treat me like a child Will," He hissed, "I could kill you easier than breathing," He stormed off down the hall, his footsteps ending suddenly before he should have been able to turn. Did he apparate? No, no one could do that in Hogwarts, could they?
Will pounded his fist against the wall, muttering something under his breath. Just then the door opened and Reyna stepped out, closing the door behind her.
"Where's Nico," She asked.
"He left,"
"I'll ask you then, what the Hades just happened?!"
Will looked up at her through his hair, "I'll tell you later, meet me next to the labyrinth entrance you found yesterday after lunch,"
"Well, you still have to go, and Nico will probably have to go tomorrow whenever he has this class again," they went back into the room and Alex snuck in after them, joining the crowd of students at the back of the classroom.
Will went up to the front and faced the chest. It burst open and black smoke billowed out, covering the ground and making the room dark.
"I trusted you, Will," The voice of the mystery boy said, "You didn't save me," A boy stepped out of the smoke, thin and pale with an oversized aviators jacket and a black sword hanging off his belt. The unnerving part? A red stain was spreading across his chest, where an arrow had struck home.
"You told me you would keep me alive," The boy sounded angry and heartbroken, like a child who had just discovered someone had broken an oath to him.
"You said you would save my life, even if it cost yours," The boy looked familiar, but Tom couldn't quite place him, the dark eyes and hair, the pale skin…
The boy, Nico Tom guessed, began to pace around Will, "You let your siblings die when the infirmary caught fire, trying to get to me, then you failed to save me as well," He stopped, looking Will in the eye, "You let them all die," Suddenly there were bodies, dozens of them, some of them were the exchange student's, others Tome didn't recognize, but they all wore greek battle armor over orange t-shirts.
Will stepped back, but tripped over the body of a blond girl, Annabeth, and fell. He scooted back, trying to escape the nightmare Nico. he backed up a little further but was stopped by a new body. When he turned and the smoke cleared it revealed Nico with an arrow through his chest, his eyes open wide in an expression of permanent shock and his left hand limp around the shaft of the arrow.
There was one difference, however, between the boggart and reality. Tom had seen the real Nico's left hand, and he was certain he hadn't seen a silver and emerald wedding band around his ring finger. The little ring made the image just that much more horrifying.
"You made an offer," The boggart said, "You offered to do my father's task for me," Will looked up at the fake Nico, his eyes shattered, "You should have. Now I'll end up in the fields, you know how seriously those kinds of crimes are taken,"
"Riddiculus," The professor stepped in. The boggart was sucked back into the trunk and she locked it, turning to face Will. She kneeled beside him and said something Alex couldn't hear and helped the boy to his feet.
"Class dismissed," She said, steadying Will on his shaking legs. The class cleared out, everyone leaving except the exchange students. Alex joined the crowd, still puzzling over who the boy could be. Suddenly, it clicked. Nico Di Angelo. There was no other explanation, other than coincidence. The boy looked like his Nico, his name was Nico, which wasn't a very common name, even the way he talked and held himself was reminiscent of the ten-year-old boy Tom had had a crush on.
Tom rushed to his next class, knowing Nico was going to be there. Or, at least, he was supposed to be there. Tom smirked at the memories of all the time he and Nico had skipped their lessons at the orphanage in favor of playing in the woods while Bianca taught them to read with games. He shook his head, remembering where he was and made it to the classroom.
He took a seat in the middle of the room and watched professor Trawley, who had apparently been brought back after the centaur who had replaced her quit after the battle of Hogwarts, pace the room. She had glass balls on little stands on every desk, which were presumably for fortune telling, which everyone knew was a bunch of nonsense, but this was the easiest class to pass, so quite a few students signed up for it.
The exchange students were scattered throughout the school, but Percy and Annabeth were together in this class. He watched them talking in hushed tones, eyes darting around the room as if expecting to be attacked. He wondered what got them to be that way. Many of the exchange students had had some sort of camp in their boggart visions, specifically two different camps, one in Annabeth's, which had shown the camp in flames with dead kids all around her and a blond boy with golden eyes standing in the middle of it all and killing Percy. And the other had been in Reyna's eerily similar vision.
Wow. Those kids must have been through hell to even be able to imagine that sort of thing. Then he remembered that, because of him, they probably had. He had, after all, started a war. The only thing that confused him was the blood, it was a wizarding war they fought in, so why did their visions show swords and spears?
The classroom had filled up while he thought and he noticed that Nico was sitting a table over. Alone. His heart fluttered a little, realizing that he had his chance. The professor instructed them to look into their crystal balls and try to see the future. Alex pretended to stare into the orb while considering how he would approach Nico.
Of course, he wanted to know how he had managed to stay so young, and he knew he wouldn't recognize him, not with his disguise, so he'd have to convince Nico it was really him. He decided to just wing it and moved over to Nico's table.
"Hey," He greeted. Nico jumped and looked up at him, alarmed, and...nervous?
"Um, hi," Nico said back, gluing his eyes to the orb in front of him.
"So, what's your name,"
"Nico." He didn't talk as much as his Nico, maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe this boy was just a boy who looked similar to a little boy from the forties who happened to share the same name and have a sister who shared the same name as the little forties boy.
"Last name?" Tom asked, hopeful.
Nico opened his mouth to respond when the professor interrupted him, "Mister Di Angelo, if you would please look at your crystal ball," She said as she prepared some incense near one of the windows.
"Your name is...Nico Di Angelo?" He asked, the spark of hope rekindling, "And you have a sister named Bianca?"
"Had," Nico corrected stiffly, "I had a sister named Bianca,"
"Oh, sorry," Tom said, "I...didn't know," He looked down sadly, "Did you ever know someone named Tom Marvolo Riddle?" He asked, wondering how willing Nico was to give himself up.
"Why would you care," Nico answered. Everything he said and did seem stiff, angrier than before. The little kid Tom had known was gone. But he wanted to know the boy who had taken his place.
"Just wondering, I just heard that Tom used to know a boy named Nico. He cared about him a lot, was sad to see him leave,"
Nico visibly stiffened, "Come with me," He said and left the room. The professor didn't even notice as the boys went into the hall and went down it, going down the stairs and leaving the castle without anyone stopping to ask where they were going.
Nico led him to the edge of the woods and stopped, "The woods, can you go in?"
Tom furrowed his brow, confused, "What?"
Nico rolled his eyes, "Cut the crap Tommy, I know who you are, can you go in the woods without getting yourself killed?"
"Um, yeah," He responded, even more confused, "But how-"
"I can't tell you." Nico turned and went into the woods, not waiting to see if Tom would follow. Tom stumbled after him, not as adept at moving through rough terrain. They soon came to a clearing about a mile in, far enough that no one would hear them, and close enough that they could get back to the castle if they needed to.
"Nico," Tom said between breaths, he was really out of shape in this body, "You can't just-" He gasped, "say something like that and-" pause for breath, "not elaborate,"
Nico stopped and turned to him, the pain in his eyes more than Tom could stand to see, "Oh Tommy," He whispered, "why did you have to die?"
Tom looked up, confused, "But I came back," He said, "It doesn't matter anymore,"
Nico shook his head, "You don't understand Tommy," He put his hands on Toms' shoulders, "You don't know how many people you angered by coming back here. Nobody's supposed to be able to come back, with Potter being the only exception, and even then it's because of an oath death made when he gave the hallows to the brothers. And a few special circumstances,"
Tom shook his hands off, "Don't mention Potter's name!" He snapped, then regretted it. He softened his tone, "I'm sorry, Nico, it's just, he's the one who murdered me in the first place,"
"There is no murder in war," Nico said absently, his eyes squeezed shut.
"Angel," Tom started but saw Nico wince under the name and corrected himself, "Nico, how are you still alive, if no one is supposed to be able to cheat death how did you?"
Nico looked him dead in the eye, "I didn't cheat death," He stated, "I avoided him,"
"Him?"
Nico shook his head, turning away, "Look, you're not making this any easier,"
"Making what easier?" Tom asked.
"You-me-us-here-alive," Nico let out an exasperated sigh and ran his fingers through his unruly hair.
"I know, it's strange, but we're wizards. Weird is kinda part of the deal," Nico laughed bitterly at Toms words. He had no idea.
Tom took that as affirmation and asked, "So, how are you alive?"
Nico knew that was coming, the problem was, he didn't have an answer, "Um...It's kinda a long story," He said, trying to get Tom to just brush it off or change the topic.
"Well, I became the most powerful dark wizard ever and split my soul into Horcruxes, them when that little do-gooder Potter killed me I escaped the underworld and came back," Nico could tell that he had held back the 'and I'm planning to kill Harry' at the end of that little summary.
Nico gulped, "I...well...um...you see, I-" He winced under Toms quizzical gaze, "Well," He settled for being as honest as possible, "there's this enchanted hotel in America, anyone who enters it is put into a sort of suspended animation. I only know of three people who escaped on their own and those were...special circumstances. Anyway, Bianca and I ended up there a few years ago, not long after we left the orphanage. We were taken out by another wizard, he's the one who figured out what we were and taught us a few simple spells. He's...dead,"
"Oh, people seem to die a lot around you," He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but he did.
Nico raised an eyebrow, "At least I'm not the one killing them," He said casually, like a regular kid stating that he wasn't the one who lost their team a football game. Even to Tom, that was a little unnerving, especially with the image of the sweet, energetic boy he remembered.
There was a moment of silence as neither boy knew what to say, then Tom spoke up, "Er, Nico…" He trailed off, not entirely sure how to ask the question that was eating away at his mind, "What-what happened to you,"
Nico shook his head, "I went through hell, Tommy, I went through it alone. It did things to me, it changed me, Tommy, I'm not the same boy you knew,"
Tom cocked his head to the side, "Well neither am I Angel," Tom thought, just for a second, that a slight tinge of pink colored Nico's cheeks, but then it was gone and Tom thought he had imagined it. Just wishful thinking.
"I became powerful, Angel, I could have taken over the world. Instead, I was killed. I can do it again, all I have to do is kill the boy who lived, then I can get rid of all the idiotic laws put in place by the fools in the ministry,"
Nico raised an eyebrow, "You do know I'm muggleborn, right?" He said, just to screw with Tom's head.
"Oh…" Tom didn't seem to know what to say, it was like telling your homophobic best friend that you were gay right after they said how much they hate gay people, "I guess I could let you live…" He seemed to realize just how that sounded as it came out of his mouth.
Nico raised an eyebrow, "Let me live?" He asked. Tom shrank under his gaze, cornered, "So, if I was friends with, say, a few dozen 'mudbloods' as you call them, would you let them live as well?"
"Well, I...of course I would-I mean….um…"
"Your plan is flawed Riddle," Nico said, leaning against a tree, "You'll have to fix that if you ever want to get into power.
"And how would I do that? I want to create the perfect world for wizardkind, to do that I have to rid it of the impure. How do I rid it of the impure without killing the ones with impure blood?" He said without thinking about who he was talking to.
Nico had always a bit of a freaky kid, even when he was at the orphanage, but the look on his face now sent shivers down Tom's spine, "How about," Nico said, his voice becoming hushed, dangerous, "You change your idea of a perfect world." He locked eyes with Tom, daring him to look away. He didn't.
"I barely remember my mother," He whispered, "but what I do remember tells me she didn't deserve to be murdered like she was," Tom's eyebrows drew together, he hadn't known Nico's mother was murdered. Thunder rumbled in the quickly darkening sky, the air becoming thick with the scent of impending rain.
Nico glared at the sky, as if challenging the storm. The sky was silent.
"She was a muggle Tommy, my mother, you're telling me that because she was born a certain kind of person she deserved her fate?"
"I thought your mother died in a freak accident?" Tom said, face scrunched up in confusion, "And you never knew your father, he could have been a wizard for al you know,"
Nico laughed bitterly, "Oh, my dad showed up, he's no wizard." Nico didn't elaborate.
Tom didn't want to ask any more about Nico's family, that look in his eyes made him want to fall to his knees and beg forgiveness. He, the dark lord, the most powerful living wizard of his generation, the wizard who escaped the underworld itself, was terrified of this little Italian boy.
Tome cleared his throat, "So, um, you have a girlfriend?" He asked to change the subject, his voice with just the tiniest bit of hope under the surface.
Nico smirked, that dark look leaving as quickly as it had come, "I'm gay Tommy,"
Tom couldn't help smiling, "Oh, um, that's good...good…" He cleared his throat again, "So, a boyfriend then?"
"His name's Will,"
"Oh...that doctor kid? Doesn't seem like your type,"
Nico laughed, actually laughed, the cherry sound seeming foreign from the Ghost King's lips, "Oh, believe me, I didn't think so either. To be honest I thought he hated me when we first met, because…" He trailed off, remembering who he was talking to, "I did something...bad...and he was trying to stop me...so…"
"What did you do?" Tom asked, once again hitting a conversational landmine,
"I...well...let someone die…"
Tom raised an eyebrow, not in the least disturbed. In fact, if he was honest with himself, he was just a little relieved Nico had turned out to be like this, more like him, "Who?" He asked.
"This jerk who tried to kill my…" He debated what to call them, maybe they were friends now, but only in the loosest of terms, none of them, not even Will, knew everything that had happened to him, only Reyna even had an idea of the pain he was in, and even what she knew was barely a fraction of what he was enduring every day.
"...allies," He settled on the word, meant to express near strangers, united through a battle of some kind. That word described them better than any other he knew, they knew nearly nothing about him, yet they were united in their fight against the monsters that hunted them.
"He had rallied a bunch of troops to attack my school. He had gotten himself caught on some of his own weaponry and was killed by some of his own troops. Will and I were close enough to save him and had plenty of time but I stopped Will before he could save him."
Tom laughed quietly, "Sounds like he deserved it," He said.
"Yeah, he did," Will said from behind Nico, stepping out from the trees.
Toms' hand flew to his wand and he was about to draw it when Nico held up a hand to stop him, "Hey Will," He greeted, a little stiffly. Tom squinted, once again confused by his childhood friend. Will responded with an equally stiff nod, as if they knew something Tom didn't, something bad.
"This is Tommy," Nico said, gesturing at Tom, "Tommy, this is Will, my boyfriend,"
Tom nodded stiffly at Will but his wand was still gripped tightly in his fist, his eyes calculating as he studied the happy-go-lucky boy who had managed to gain the affection of Nico Di Angelo. In his mind, he considered the use of love potion, or maybe some kind of curse or spell as possibilities as to why the smiley, upbeat boy in front of him had captured Nico's heart.
Will gave him a tight smile, one that was clearly out of character for him, and gave him a nod, only slightly less stiff than the one he had given him, "Hi,"
Tom turned to Nico, realizing that he had used his real name, "Wait, you told him?!"
Nico nodded, "Keeping secrets from him is like trying to keep Leo from burning something down every three days, you can try, but you'll fail,"
"Also, I'm his doctor, he has to tell me everything," Will added with a grin. Nico gave him a half-hearted glare but said nothing.
Tom opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a growl from the trees.
Hey Y'all! So the reveal for the meaning of Ever's braids will be in the next chapter so y'all give me your guesses on this one asap. I will wait to post the next chapter until I've got 20 guesses, I'm sure you can give that to me can't you? 20 of y'all have got to tell me what you think they mean before the next chapter gets posted. Also, OVER 6000 FREAAKING WORDS WTF! yay. yeah, I could have gone longer but I figured y'all had better shit to do than read my fanfic for an hour, I know it's hard to read it in this format, it is for me at least. Also, tell me what you think, do you like my longer chapters? Or do you prefer them shorter? Let me know! I also want to know what you think is coming up next, like who is the mysterious person whom I totally didn't completely forget about as I got wrapped up in school? And why are they on the bad side? Will we see Hermione again? (spoiler alert! probably not)
And finally, what do you want to see? Do you want me to include more of Ever? Am I putting too much of her? Just the right amount? Do you want me to unveil the big boss, because Nico technically at least knows what they look like so that would make sense, so I probably will. Do you want to know more of Ever's backstory, or are you getting sick of her? Seriously, if you tell me you want to see something happen, almost literally anything, I will at least consider it, I gurentee that.
TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE NEXT!