There was no clapping for him, Nico noticed. Just silence. Silence like the dead. And that seemed to fit him perfectly. He took the hat off and walked down to Gryffindor, mentally thanking the hat for making his job of watching Harry easier by putting him in Harry's house. He was surprised that the Sorting Hat wasn't afraid of his memories, then again it had probably seen many things in its time. Many thing that would cause a normal student to turn tail and run.
Ignoring the looks he was getting, which ranged from glares to awestruck to loving, Nico sat down at the Gryffindor table, looking at the kids around him. He was sitting next to three kids. The first was a girl with bushy hair and brown eyes, the next a boy with orange hair, plenty of freckles, and blue eyes. The final of the three could have been a miniature Percy if it wasn't for a scar on his forehead that seemed to radiate death. Percy… Nico was abruptly thrown into a memory.
Nico struggled to stay awake after summoning so many skeletons, but he had to keep fighting. Next to him, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were also fighting. Nico couldn't help but smile when he saw a blade destined for Annabeth being deflected by Percy's arm. That dip in the Styx was a good idea.
"Percy!" Nico called to him, moving a bit closer so they could talk easier.
"Yeah Nico?" Percy called as he took out another monster, a new layer of dust covering each of them, mixing with blood.
"You need to get to Olympus and stop Luke! If Kronos comes back, this whole war will be for nothing! I'll cover you!" Percy nodded as he, Annabeth, and Grover moved as one to the Empire State building, Nico attacking any monster that came too close to them.
That was the last he'd seen of the trio.
"-llo?" Nico was pulled back to reality when he realized Bushy Hair was trying to talk to him.
"What?"
"Sorry, you spaced out there for a minute. Anyway, my name is Hermione Granger, that's Ron Weasley," she pointed at the red-head. "And he-"
"My name is Harry. Harry Potter." The trio looked at him expectantly.
"Yeah, Harry Potter, the reason I'm here." Probably shouldn't have said that. But none of them seemed to have noticed, though Hermione cast me a suspicious glance, before starting to serve up food that had suddenly appeared on the table. He watched them eat for a second before a pulled a small jar out from one of my pockets. It wasn't very big, but in it burned a green flame, Greek Fire. He served himself an extremely large meal taking up two plates, with the best food on the second plate, before setting to work.
Grabbing the second plate, he divided it into twelve equal portions. Starting with the first, he dumped it into the far, mentally praying to Zeus as the flames hungrily ate food. He continued to do this which each of the twelve main Gods and Goddesses. When he had at last finished, he set to work eating his own plate. He couldn't remember the last time he had had a good meal.
"What was with that waste of food?!" Ron was staring incredulously at Nico.
"In my religion you must sacrifice a section of your meal to the gods or face horrible consequences. But I wonder if it will even reach them…" Nico trailed off.
"Well that's a stupid religion!" Hermione declare, sipping her drink. Nico stared at her for a second. "I mean, Ron's right, it's just a waste of food." The shadows began to darken and thicken, slowly stretching closer to Hermione. Nico was practically shaking with anger.
"Hermione…" Harry watched the shadows draw nearer to his friend.
"I suggest you stop talking about my 'religion' like that." Nico glared at her, a glare that made her suppress a whimper of fear, and continued with his meal. Harry shot a glare right back, but Nico didn't care. He'd been under scarier ones.
Harry glared at the new kid again as the Gryffindors headed back to the common room. When they entered, Harry motioned for Ron and Hermione to join him one of the tables while Nico headed to an armchair.
"Did you hear what that kid said? That I was the reason he's here?" Harry desperately whispered to them when they sat down. Ron and Hermione nodded quickly.
"He must be a Death Eater!" Ron whisper/shouted. Hermione scoffed.
"You say that about everyone Ronald. Anyway, he's wearing a short sleeve shirt and I saw his arms. He doesn't have the Dark Mark. But I do wonder why he's here, I'll admit. Of course, tomorrow I'll go to the library and see if I can find anything out about him. I'm ever so interested in him."
"He gives me the creeps. I get this shiver down my spine like, like I do when I'm near Voldemort." Then a horrible thought struck Harry. "Guys, what if Voldemort is on him like on Quirrell?" Hermione was already shaking her head.
"You said last year that he came back to life Harry! He doesn't need to be on someone anymore."
"Then what do you think? I'd like to hear a better idea!" Harry cried angrily before giving a frustrated sigh. "Sorry Hermione, I need to get to sleep. Night." Harry got up and went upstairs going into the 5th year dorm. Inside, he found the extra bed that must have been for Nico, a pitch black trunk sitting on it. Harry climbed into his bed and was quickly out, not hearing the other enter.
The sleep was short lived though.
Around 4:00 am, Harry woke back up and found sleep impossible. Climbing out, he headed down to the common room. To his surprise, he found the Nico kid sitting in a chair in front of the fire, reading one of his school books. Harry quietly walked down the stair the rest of the way, hoping to find somewhere that he could spy on the new kid.
"Couldn't sleep Harry?" Harry jumped at Nico's voice, but quickly recovered.
"How'd you know I was here?" Harry walked over to where Nico sat on the couch and sat down himself.
"You practically ooze death." The boy said simply. Harry really didn't like this kid.
"Well, why are you up?" Harry hoped to get some answers, slowly worm things out of him.
"I don't like nightmares." Nico simply replied. "So I try not to sleep if I can help it, though sometimes a risk the sleep. Other times, I'll go a long time without any rest. I think the longest time was… 2-3 months. Yeah, that sounds about right." How does this kid usually live? Harry turned to ask Nico more questions, like why was he afraid of simple nightmares, to find the14 year old out cold. Harry just shook his head and headed upstairs. As he climbed the stairs, he could hear soft whimpers of fear coming from the couch.