When he stepped on solid floor again, he figured immediately he was in some sort of dungeon. He could barely see his own hand in front of his face, it was so dark. You can imagine Nico's surprise when a pale girl with blond hair to the waist showed up in front of him.
"Oh, who're you?" she asked cheerfully, as if they were in a park. Nico was highly suspicious of her, as all the happy generous people he'd met turned somewhere down the line. Usually, anyway.
". . .Nick." he lied, not wishing to give her his actual name. In the darkness he could just see the corners of her mouth turn up in a serene smile.
"It's okay to trust me, you know. My head is blissfully free of wrackspurts. I wish I could say the same for you," She said somewhat wistfully. Nico was completely caught off guard.
"Wrackspurts? What kind of monster are those?" He'd never heard about them in all the Greek he'd read through at camp. This was something Chiron definitely forgot to mention.
"Oh, they're not a full blown monster. More of a nuisance," she paused to punctuate her conversation with a smile. "They make your brain fuzzy, so you can't think right."
Nico decided not to ask anymore questions about that. It was obvious she wasn't quite right in the head.
"Alright. . .um. . ."
"Luna. Luna Lovegood." she finished for him.
"Right. Where are we?"
"Oh. The Malfoys' Manor." she said this as if he should know what that was. "It was quite lovely upstairs," she added, as if she wasn't trapped in this dungeon and could leave at any time.
Nico was about to step back and shadow travel back to camp when another human popped out of the darkness. He looked very frail, and he had white hair. At least Luna's hair had some color to it.
"Luna? Who is this? Pettigrew didn't bring any other prisoners down here." Prisoners? Was this place for real?
"Oh, Mr Ollivander, this is Nick. I have a feeling he didn't tell me his real name, but that's quite alright, as it is smart to not trust people at first. But you need to have a little." She looked Nico in the eyes when she said this. She turned back to the supposed Mr. Ollivander. "He might have Apparated here." Nico half-wondered what Apparating was, as the two chatted on about him, but he was slightly amazed by how observant this girl was. While he previously thought she had a screw loose, he now doubted his analysis. What if she was saying was true? The other 'normal' humans just couldn't see it. Nico was guessing she was a daughter of Athena. He could tell he was in England, from their accents, but he never knew there were other demigods who originated from different countries. Or maybe he did know, in the back of mind; he'd just never encountered the question until now.
Since he was thinking so much, he didn't realize that Luna and Ollivander had stopped talking and run off. Glancing around for signs of them, Nico ran forward, following the sounds of voices and footsteps.
"Harry?" he made out one word spoken, and it was from Luna's mouth. Who was Harry?
Obviously, this dungeon was huge. Nico found himself on the complete opposite site of the dungeon - the light of the door was far away - and he smelled death. It was strong here. He accidently kicked a skeleton. If he squinted hard enough, he could make out that it was very small; it had to be a non-human. The clothes it had on was just a potato sack. Nico started to get anxious. What kind of place was this? And why was he here?
He tried to shadow travel. There was plenty of shadows to choose from. But nothing happened. Frustrated, he headed towards the light from the door. All of a sudden, the torches on the columns were lit. Nico glanced around and spotted many more of the tiny bones, at least four complete skeletons together. The one he'd touched was the most decomposed. They repelled him, which surprised, Nico, because normally he wasn't this way around dead bodies. Being 'a literal child of hell', as Stephanie had put it, did that to you. But somehow, he knew the deaths that occured here were very wrongful, indeed.
Now Luna was calling his name, or rather, his alias. He actually saw her approach instead of seeming to appear out of the darkness. Nico started towards her, and he could see that a different boy was with her. How many people were locked down here?
"Nick, this is Harry Potter. He'll save us." Luna smiled in that calm way of hers.
"We need saving?" Nico asked, somewhat sarcastically. The boy called Harry Potter frowned. Nico noticed that he looked a bit like Percy; black hair, green eyes. The resemblance didn't go much further then that, though. For one, this guy wore glasses, and two, he had a freaky lightning scar on his forehead. Son of Zeus maybe?
"If you want to get out of here alive, then yes." Harry said stiffly. Nico heard a girl screaming in agony above them. The sound seemed to age Harry before Nico's eyes, and Harry closed his own eyes.
"Hermione. . ." he mumbled.
"Harry, you and Ron should go save Hermione first. She's in immediate danger. We have been waiting, and we can afford to wait a little longer." Luna led Harry back to the entrance of the dungeon, telling Harry something about avoiding wrackspurts and diddlywiddlies. He noticed that Harry took something out of his pocket and whispered to it. Curious. Luna motioned for Nico to follow them. Nico saw nothing to lose and did just that.
Out of nowhere, there was a sharp crack! and a little being, about the same size as the skeletons he'd found before, stumbled.
"Dobby!" Harry exclaimed. Nico could tell it was happy surprise. But the name of the thing. . .Dobby?
"Dobby heard Harry Potter needed help. Dobby can help Harry Potter! Harry Potter is great -" The little voice was squeaky. Nico was half glad when Harry cut him off. Was he a monster that he should be wary of? Or was he like satyrs and centaurs - helpful?
"Dobby, can you get them to safe place?" Harry asked him. Dobby nodded virgoursly.
"Oh yes! It is easy!" he cried, clapping his hands together. Harry seemed to be trying to think of that safe location.
"Shell Cottage, Harry." A new guy spoke up. He had bright red hair. He reminded Nico of Rachel, just a bit. But as he observed the boy more, Nico dismissed this thought. "Bill and Fleur's place. That's where I went. . ." He seemed shameful and looked down.
"Dobby will do as Harry Potter requests!" Before he could protest, Nico was grabbed by the little elf-thing and teleported. . .somewhere. It was nothing like shadow travelling; in fact, when they stopped, Nico stumbled over to a bush and promptly threw up. Luna stood over him, brushing the hair from his face. She didn't seem to mind the vomit at all.
"Why, it seems like the first time he's Apparated!" Ollivander observed. Nico wanted to grit his teeth. When his stomach finally settled from the wild ride, he stood up, shaky and a little embarrassed. Luna just smiled at him and led them all to the cottage in the distance.