Chapter 9

Percy

We went to the camp where we first found the archers. I steered the three away from the archers to avoid being shish kebab-ed. Annabeth went to teach her Ancient Greek class. Then we found Jason.

He was sitting on one of the bleachers drying off his hair.

"Had a nice swim bro?"

"Yeah," he said sarcastically, "You know just how much I love getting wet in a lake."

"Sorry man."

"Dude you were supposed to block not shove me into the lake." He said clearly annoyed. He looked at the three in interest.

"Who are you guys?"

"This is Hermione, Ron and Harry, Nico's friends. Guys this is Jason Grace."

"Nice to meet you." Hermione said.

"So you are the ones that Nico told us about."

"How did you threaten Nico into telling you things?" Ron asked curious.

"We aren't allowed to enter our uncle's domain." Jason said "Well except for Uncle H. for some unknown reason he is the most welcoming of them all."

"Maybe because we don't see him often." I added.

"True."

"So you can't swim, or fly?" Ron asked horrified.

"Well, I can't fly." I said

"And I can't swim." Jason said "Well technically I can. But unless Uncle P is irritated or in a bad mood, its better to stay on ground."

"Uncle Z is a hopeless case."

"That is true."

"So where is Nico?" Harry asked.

"I don't know" I admitted.

"He's in the arena." Jason said. "Hand in hand combat with the Ares and Mars cabin."

"He's going to get pummeled."

"No, he'll be fine" Jason reassured. "I was just there. A few bumps and bruises nothing major."

"Why don't we go see him?"Harry said.

"Sure" I said. "After we finish the rest of the tour"

"Well, you guys go ahead" Jason said. "I think I'm going to take a shower."

"Didn't you already take one."

"Haha"

After showing them the cabins, we headed off to the arena with Nico and Clarisse fighting off. Both were in tank tops, sweatpants and were sweating rivers. Clarisse was pushing Nico by his arms while Nico tried to block her off.

He ducked down making Clarisse loose balance and fall forward. Nico took this as an advantage then pinned her down. After the declaring death, Nico jumped and pumped his fists in the air.

"YES! FINALLY!" Nico said. As Clarisse got back on her feet.

"Again Di Angelo."

"Aw come on, I won once, you won the rest."

"Hey guys!" I called distracting them. They turned towards me and Nico found his escape and came towards us.

"Hey, Perce. Perfect timing. It's your turn, Jason left me here to get pummeled." He said cheerfully. Leaving the trio to gape at him. He turned to them and his smile faltered a bit.

"Nico? Wow, you look different."

"Uh… Thanks I guess." He said unsure. "Anyways, I think I should go change…"

"Come on," I encouraged wrapping an arm around his shoulders "Let's go into the castle."

*(^o^)*

We returned to the castle right at the Great Hall. I can say that the Great Hall is impressive. The demigods are spread amongst the houses. We all have different preferences with people but I noticed that there are fewer demigods with the Slytherins.

We sat with the Gryffindors and I gave a wave towards Professor McGonagall to show here that we were here for breakfast. Nico awkwardly looked around.

"Come on, Nico. Sit down."

He sat down awkwardly beside me.

"So, where are your friends?"

"In the other side of the room." he said. "I'm going to go there."

Soon Nico left the table and headed towards the Slytherin Table where the students greeted him with open arms. I studied how my cousin acted. He seemed more comfortable there than when he was surrounded by Demigods. His own kind.

"What can you tell me about Slytherins?"

"Depends" Hermione said while Ron said suddenly.

"Their evil."

I raised an eyebrow. Hermione slapped him behind the head. "That's not true."

"The Slytherins like to take care of themselves. Most of the Purebloods are in Slytherin. The traditionalists, the ambitious, the cunning." Hermione explained. "They're not all bad. But they're not all good either. They take care of themselves and their own kind. I think it's because they've been outcasted for too long."

"Why?"

"The Slytherin house has a really bad history." Harry said. "There were one of Dark Lords and most of their followers came from that same house."

"Nico was from that house?"

"Well he still is." Hermione said. "Like I said, they take care of themselves. They look after each other. And Snape seems to be a bit protective of his little snakes."

I watched as Nico made fun with a platinum blonde haired boy and a black haired boy. He waved goodbye to them as they went to class then returned to the Gryffindor table with a good mood.

"Hey guys. I think I'm going back to the cabin" he said

"No, you are coming with us" I said. "Then you can introduce us to more of your friends here in Hogwarts."

"I don't think…" he said then paled.

"What happened?" Harry asked "Are you okay, you look sick."

"You don't have a shadow." Nico muttered.

"What?"

"You don't have a shadow." He repeated. I looked down and notice the lack of dark human shaped patch on the floor.

"How…"

"Damn it!" Nico exclaimed then tried to run away. I grabbed him by his arm.

"What's happening?"

"The shadows didn't return." he said. "I have to go."

"We can help." Harry said. "If what you said is true there are probably hundreds of shadows out of their bodies."

"Shade Hunting isn't as easy as you think." Nico said. "I have to get started if the shadows are gone too long bad things will happen."

"Let us help you."

"This is my mistake, I have to fix it." he said "Let me go!"

"I'm not going to, unless you let us help."

"If that is the only way then fine!" Nico snarled

"Good" I said then let go. "Let's go find Jason and the others we'll be able to get this done in no time."

*(^o^)*

I found Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Leo, Hazel and Frank after bringing the three back to the castle.

"Alright Death Boy." I said. "Time to talk."

"Well the shadows are loose.I need to get them all before dinner tonight or the shadows and the person who owns it will go mad. So, Bye!"

Jason hooked his arm around Nico's right as he was about to leave. "What do we do?"

Nico sighed. "It isn't easy to recapture a shadow. So we either have to kill it or to trap it."

"Kill it?" Annabeth asked.

"As soon as you get any weapon stabbed through the shadow. The shadow will immediately return to its owner."

"So all we have to do is to stab them?"

"Yes, but it will be tricky."

"Tricky how?"

"Well shadows can shadow travel. And it would take the least likely thing their owner would do. And considering we are in a school of magic. There are a lot of those." Nico said "The shadows have magic themselves. We need to get them all back to their bodies before twenty four hours is over."

"Well what are we waiting for then?" Leo said tightening his tool belt and his other hand held fire. "Let's go Shadow Hunting."

Well it isnt February yet so I still had the time to write one more chapter :D

PLEASE REVIEW and I will see you by March :D