Nico tightly gripped O'Tenebrus' mane, leaning forward as the wind swept past his face. It was a cold night- clear, too. He wondered how mortals/muggles could miss seven teens flying on skeleton-horses...or technically, on thin air, unless they've seen someone die.

They'd only started flying about five minutes ago, but none of them felt like talking- the sight of the Forbidden Forest stretched before them like a maze of thick, green vines was flabbergasting, and there was uncomfortable silence from those who rode the Thestrals albeit them being invisible.

"So," Ron broke the silence, warily. "I guess we'll have to exchange stories...you or us, Nico?"

"You." Nico said immediately. "Mine will be longer."

And so they launched into their story, with Harry and Ron reciting most of it, along with the others jumping in to add the parts they missed. Harry told Nico (and he listened grimly) about his dream- Sirius being tortured by Voldemort. He then explained how since Umbridge and the Ministry were watching over all the floo-conversations, they had to use her own fire-place. Hermione took the story from then on- explaining how they were planning to clear the corridor of people to put their plan into action.

"Wouldn't someone notice if a corridor was empty, much less the one with the Headmistress' office in it?" Nico asked curiously. Hermione glared, which shut him up immediately. She did not want Nico finding faults with her plan there and then.

Ron picked up their misadventure from there- he went into detail about how their plan had admittedly not gone quite as planned, and how they ended up with a bunch of Slytherins holding them down and a lot of questions to answer to Umbridge.

Ginny took the puppet strings in turn- she told Nico about how Umbridge had asked them who they were contacting, even stretching as far as to use Veritaserum when Severus Snape stopped by. Snape had told her he was out of stock, and couldn't brew any because it needed a month to mature.

Getting desperate then, Umbridge had dismissed the Slytherins, and drawled, saying that the Cruciatus Curse 'ought to loosen your tongue'. With a tone of pride in her voice, Ginny told him how Hermione had whipped a new formed planned into action, and that was when Nico appeared.

The six turned to Nico next- the attention made him slightly nervous, but after all, they had told him what was going on, and it was only fair to keep them up to date in turn.

So he launched into his story. He told him what little he gathered about his trial- which wasn't a lot. Basically just Fudge snapping, the Wizengamot arguing ("I can sympathize with that," Harry muttered) and a lot protests and debates. He zeroed in on his actual time in Azkaban, how the soul-sucking Dementors seemed to surround every inch of the place.

The faces of his friends were sour at this point. "That's not reasonable!" Hermione snapped. "That seriously could have affected your stability."

Luna and Ginny nodded along with her, (the first time Luna and Hermione agreed on something).

"I'm fine," Nico assured them, brushing it off as he was ready to resume narrating, completely oblivious to the stares of inconvenience the others were giving him. Nico nicely glossed over the part with his Patronus, mentioning only that a cylinder apparently popped out of nonexistence and turned out to be a portkey, which transported him to Hogwarts.

"Well, that's strange." Ginny mused. "Almost like...someone wanted you to get out. Maybe the Ministry, so they could maybe place more dirt on you?" she voiced, frowning, as thought she didn't think much of that idea.

"Big load of good it's doing them if that were the case." Ron snorted.

"It's not the Ministry." Hermione said immediately. All heads turned to her.

"Why not?" Neville asked curiously. Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation, as if that should have been obvious.

"Then they'll have to figure out how he got out, and it wouldn't do a lot of good pinning the blame on Dumbledore when he's not here, would it? Besides, we all know Dumbledore can hide well if he wanted to, and if Nico was with him, he wouldn't go out of his sight. Besides, if they do let him out, they probably know he's never going to be found again, and that's not what they want, is it? They think Dumbledore and Nico are plotting something, and I reckon the reason they put Nico there in the first place was because they wanted them apart." she finished.

Sour faces at the mention of Nico's stay in Azkaban took over the cautious (did it really matter that much to them?... he thought). "All right...Go on, Nico."

Nico shrugged, uncomfortable with the fact that his friends were trying to guess things that he already knew. It made him feel like a sort of traitor to their group.

"That's it, I guess. Then..I just dropped off, ironically at the right place-"

"Hey!" Neville interrupted suddenly, causing Nico to sigh. "Sorry Nico, I just thought- what if it was Dumbledore who sent the portkey?"

"Interesting theory..." Hermione mused, getting that ever-familiar thoughtful expression on her face again.

"Can I continue, please?"

"Right, sorry. Go on."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Soo." he told them about the events in the forest, and managed to get up to the centaurs until-

"Oh, I just remembered- who's Chiron?" Hermione said. She shrank under Nico's glare. "Sorry, Nico. Just wondering."

"Our Acitivities Director at Camp." Nico sighed. "He's a centaur-not like yours, mind. Can I complete my story? Thanks-" He continued talking about how Grawp the giant ("NO! Don't interrupt me!) had caused them to bathe in blood, and then smoothly moved up to their current position, flying on Thestrals.."And now I'm here, just chillin' on O'Tenebrus. The End. Shall I roll by the credits, now?"

Most of them looked confused, but Hermione, who was Muggle-born, smiled. Harry showed no signs of having listened to them- he was silent most of the ride. Nico vaguely knew how he felt- Nico had felt sick with worry about Hazel after Pasiphae had trapped her in the maze that was the Labryinth, and he couldn't even see how she was doing, or if she was hurt, because he was too busy fending off monsters with Roman ghosts (Frank was great there, he had had to admit).

"What's O'Tenebrus?" Neville asked curiously.

"Hagrid's Thestral..he said it was the first one born in the forest, remember?"

The girls started giggling like crazy as the guys stared at them like they were just that- crazy.

"Oy, what's so funny?" Ron asked clueless. He started feeling his face. "Is there something on face?" That only fueled their laughter.

"It's Nico!" Luna giggled.

"There's something on Nico's face?" Neville asked, looking at Nico, who was unconsciously raising his hand to feel his face as well.

"No, the Thestral's name isn't O'Tenebrus. It's just Tenebrus!" Luna laughed. "O's an abbreviation for 'of' in Hagrid language." That sent the guys laughing as well. O'Tenebrus- Tenebrus neighed in protest, as if to say, Eh, wha's so funny 'bout me name?

Nico felt his face heat over. "How was I supposed to know?" he defended himself. "Who says 'Name of Tenebrus' anyway? Quit laughing! You got used to him- I mean, you've known him for four years before I did, and I just joined this year and-" But Nico's anger only seemed to be wood to their fire of laughter, which even extended to Harry, who couldn't help but smile.

Nico had never so much felt like his younger self until then- just having someone tease you casually, and laugh along with you, even if it was at your expense, was a bliss and something of a great value that no one really appreciated. But Nico, who had been deprived of that simple right, was definitely grateful to acknowledge how many people he was at ease with now.

"Fine." Nico growled. "I got the Thestral's name wrong. Big deal."

The laughter died down a few seconds after that, but the mood was still considerably light.

"Nico?" Hermione asked again, frowning slightly.

"Yeah?"

"Talking about magical creatures...you said you port-keyed here. What was that...dog-thing with you, then?"

"Oh, yes." Luna said with a dreamy smile. "Roahl-Juggle Nocstraws aren't supposed to leave their native homes..they're quite terrestrial."

Before Hermione could open her mouth to tell Luna that there was no such thing, Ron beat her to it.

"Look- first off, that thing doesn't look like it can Juggle, and it definitely doesn't look like a straw."

Nico snorted. "That's my cousin's pet...Mrs. O'Leary. She comes when called- and I was in trouble, so I just..called out to her."

The wizards paused, as if trying to comprehend how Mrs. O'Leary could possibly be a pet. Nico was afraid that was a bit too creepy for there liking when Neville squeaked in..

"Mrs O'Leary...not Mrs. Of Leary?"

Everyone, save for Nico, almost fell off their Thestrals laughing at that, including Harry. ico was happy to see him laughing, but he couldn't help but be annoyed.

"It's Mrs. O'Leary." he demanded hotly.

Nico was starting to worry the Ministry of Magic would know they were coming- he would be quite surprised if every citizen of London hadn't heard their hysterical laughter.

-O-

After several minutes of much serious flight, (much to Nico's relief), he could feel his stomach flipping over- Tenebrus had changed directions- It plummeted at the speed of a comet down, like the fastest roller-coaster ever- it was worse than anything he'd ever had the displeasure to experience before.

A vision flashed across Nico's eyes- himself, helpless falling into the endless dark, painful abyss that was Tartarus- the coldness, the darkness, the feeling of hopelessness overcoming every inch of his body, making him feel that perhaps, it was just time to give up now-snapping back to reality, Nico had the sudden mad urge to scream it out, as many of his other friends were. But his throat tightened instead, and he had a death-grip on Tenebrus' mane, shutting his eyes impulsively and waiting for a a crash that never came.

The Thestral touch down as softly as a shadow, descending down to earth. Nico had his eyes shut tight for a few moments before he told himself to get a grip on it and open them. He reluctantly cracked his eyes open- Tenebrus neighed softly and nuzzled his head against Nico. The Son of Hades was too distraught to mind, or even noticed. Shakily, he slid off the Thestral's back on shaky feet, feeling like he might just fall unconscious.

"Th-thanks for the ride." Nico said, not forgetting his Thestral despite the dizziness. "I think I know why Hagrid likes you so much."

Tenebrus neighed again, like- Ah, nothin' any decent Thestral wouldn't do...All right, I may have been a little more awesomer but...

He wasn't exactly speaking in his head, but he just somehow understood the Thestral. He turned to look how the others were doing-

Ron landed a short way off and toppled immediately from his Thestral on to the pavement.

"Never again," he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his Thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost tell over again. "Never, ever again . . . that was the worst - "

Hermione and Ginny touched down on either side of Harry, who was a little distance ahead of Nico; both slid off their mounts a little more gracefully than Ron, though with similar expressions of relief at being back on firm ground; Neville jumped down, shaking; and Luna dismounted smoothly.

"Where do we go from here, then?" she asked Harry in a politely interested voice, as though this was all a rather interesting day-trip.

"Over here," he said. He gave his Thestral a quick, grateful pat, then led the way quickly to the battered telephone box and opened the door. "Come on!" he urged them.

Nico cast one more look back at Thestrals, communicated his gratitude through a smile at the creatures, and watched as they flew into the night, spreading their skeletal, yet strangely nocturnally majestic bat-wings as they took of to the Forbidden Forest again.

They followed Harry into s strange phone booth, crushing themselves in it- what made Nico most uncomfortable was that he was closest to the door, so someone may just move to scratch their nose or something, and he'd probably be kicked out of there, unable to use his hands to break ay fall that would come.

"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!"Harry said.

Ron did it, his arm bent bizarrely to reach the dial; as it whirred back into place a cool female voice sounded inside the box.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger,' Harry said very quickly, 'Ginny Weasley, Nico di Angelo, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood . . . we're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"

"Thank you," said the cool female voice. "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

Seven badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins normally appeared. Hermione scooped them up and handed them mutely to Harry over Ginny's head. Nico got his own badge- it said, Nico di Angelo- Rescue Mission

"Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium.'

"Fine!" Harry said loudly and Nico could hear a definite tone of annoyance in his voice. "Now can we move?"

The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past its glass windows; the scavenging Thestrals were sliding out of sight; blackness closed over their heads and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic. For some reason, Nico thought their entrance to the Ministry would have been much more dramatic. What if a Muggle had accidentally dialed the number and got access, but there must have been magical wards to prevent that. If not, well- the Ministry of Magic ought to be dubbed the Ministry of Hypocrisy.

A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose up their bodies.. The light was dimmer than it had been by day; there were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but as the lift slid smoothly to a halt he saw that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening,"' said the woman's voice.

The door of the telephone box burst open; Harry toppled out of it, closely followed by Neville and Luna. The only sound in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain, where jets from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of a centaur's arrow, the tip of a goblin's hat and a house-elf's ears continued to gush into the surrounding pool.

Nico took a better look at the fountain. "That's just disgusting," he said, his nose scrunching up. "None of these are true, especially not the centaurs- I'd know. In fact, the only one that makes the tiniest bit of sense is the house-elf, and I honestly can't imagine Kreacher looking at any wizard or witch besides Miss Black's portrait like that."

"Agreed," said Luna, looking at the creatures sadly and Neville and Hermione absently mumbled their agreements, too.

"Come on," said Harry quietly and the seven of them sprinted off down the hall, Harry in the lead, past the fountain towards a deserted desk.

Everything about this screamed wrong- why weren't there any people at the Ministry?

Without a word, the group rushed into a big, shiny golden lift.

Nico saw Harry press the nearest 'down' button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they dashed inside. Harry stabbed the number nine button; the grilles closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. Nico wondered if Harry knew how noisy the elevator was, despite there being no security guard in vision's-shot, Nico doubted there wasn't any in the building- yet when the lilt halted, the cool female voice said, "Department of Mysteries," and the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving out but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.

Harry turned towards the plain black door, and since none of the others knew anything about the Ministry of Magic are where on earth they were going, they followed.

"Let's go," he whispered, reminding Nico very much of some secret agent slipping into some evil dude's liar to disable a sort of world-domination device as he led the way down the corridor, Luna right behind him, gazing around with her mouth slightly open.

"OK, listen," said Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door. "Maybe . . . maybe a couple of people should stay here as a - as a lookout, and - "

"And get lost? Seperated? Get ourselves captured?" Nico volunteered helpfully.

"And how're we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."

"We're coming with you, Harry," said Neville.

"Let's get on with it," said Ron firmly.

Harry still looked like he did not want to take them all with him, but it seemed he had no choice. He turned to face the door and walked forwards, it swung open and he marched over the threshold, the others at his heels.

They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handleless black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue; their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor made it look as though there was dark water underfoot. Nico was strongly reminded of his father's throne room in the underworld, despite the difference in prsentation- his father's palce was replica of Olympus. Here was...well, just all black. But somehow, it still linked a similarity above the color itself- Nico felt like there was a strange atmosphere above the room- like the air they were breathing itself was tinged with mystery, with secrets, with things he didn't know..

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered, snapping Nico out of his thoughts.

Neville obeyed. But, wthout the long chink of light from the torchlit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their ghostly reflections in the floor. Well, expect for Nico, that was. He could still see the clear out line of the room, though he knew it was dark. Another advantage of being a son of Hades.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron fearfully.

"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through," said Ginny in a hushed voice. Smart, Nico thought. And he knew she was right.

"How on earth are we going to find our way out?" Neville whispered.

"I'll help-" Nico said at once. All eyes turned to him...or where they though he was, anyway. Neville and Ginny had him right, but the others were all looking in different directions.

"I can see in the dark..mostly. I still can't recognized where we came from though...Too many doors." A pause.

"Just how much don't we know about you, Nico?" Hermione whispered.

"A fair lot...But maybe less once this is over. That doesn't matter now, though, does it?"

"He's right.. and we won't need to get out till we've found Sirius - "

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently; but Harry had probably never needed her advice less- anyone who would yell out the name of an accused murderer in the middle of the Ministry of Magic with a fifteen year-old Azkaban escapee who was accused of plotting against the Ministry on his side was just plain stupid.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I don't -" Harry began. He swallowed. "In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room - that's this one - and then I went through another door into a room that kind of . . . glitters. We should try a few doors," he said hastily, "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."

Harry marched straight at the door now facing him, the others and Nico following close behind him, set his left hand against its cool, shining surface, raised his wand ready to strike the moment it opened, and pushed.

It swung open easily.

After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter (Nico had to sheild his eyes for a few seconds), though there were no glittering, shimmering lights as Harry had said he'd seen in his dreams. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in; a number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.

"What're those things?" whispered Ron.

"Dunno," said Harry.

"Are they fish?: breathed Ginny.

"Aquavirius Maggots!" said Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding - "

"No," said Hermione. She sounded weird. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."

"Brains?" Nico asked incredulously.

"Yes . . . I wonder what they're doing with them?"

Harry joined her at the tank. Sure enough, there could be no mistake now he saw them at close quarters. Glimmering eerily, they drifted in and out of sight in the depths of the green liquid, looking something like slimy cauliflowers.

"That's just...wrong. What are they keeping a batch of brains here for, anwyay?" Nico said, feeling absolutely disgusted.

Hermione shrugged. "Unspeakables work here, after all. It's the Department of Mysteries. You just don't know what to expect."

"Let's get out of here," said Harry. "This isn't right, we need to try another door."

"There are doors here, too," said Ron, pointing around the walls. Seriously,how big was this place?

"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one," Harry said. "I think we should go back and try from there."

So they hurried back into the dark, circular room.

"Wait!" said Hermione sharply, as Luna made to close the door of the brain room behind them. "Flagrate!"

She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery 'X' appeared on the door. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the faint blue and, when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried.

"Good thinking," said Harry, and Nico couldn't help but marvel at Hermione's brains. "OK, let's try this one - "

Again, Harry strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open, his wand still raised, the others at his heels.

This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet deep. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre, or the courtroom in which Nico had been tried by the Wizengamot. Instead, of a chained chair, however, there was a raised stone dais in the centre of the pit, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that Harry was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.

"Who's there?" said Harry, jumping down on to the bench below. There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway. Nico's mind screamed at him, but he didn't know what to do.

"Careful!" whispered Hermione.

Harry scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the sunken pit. His footsteps echoed loudly as he walked slowly towards the dais, with Nico quickly following him. The pointed archway looked much taller from where he now stood than it had when he'd been looking down on it from above. Still the veil swayed gently, as though somebody had just passed through it.

"Sirius?" Harry spoke again, but more quietly now that he was nearer. Nico felt the strangest thing he'd even felt since practically reading Umbridge's emotions...the Viel had more to it that they knew. He just knew it- could feel it in his bones, his very existence, yet he didn't know what was so attracting about it...

Gripping his wand very tightly, Harry edged around the dais with Nico tailing him, but there was nobody there; all that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil.

"Let's go," Nico said softly, not at all trsuting this strange...thing. He put a hand on Harry's shoulder, but the latter looked like he couldn't have noticed less- his eyes were gazing at the tattered veil, as if simply absorbed in it.

"Harry, let's go, okay?" Nico said a little more forcefully.

"Okay," Harry said, but didn't move at all. With a jolt, Nico heard what Harry must have been hearing, too.

"What are you saying?' he said, very loudly, so that his words echoed all around the stone benches."

"Nobody's talking, Harry!" said Hermione, now moving over to him.

"Someone's whispering behind there," he said, moving out of her reach and continuing to frown at the veil. "Is that you, Ron?"

"I'm here, mate," said Ron, appearing around the side of the archway.

"Cant anyway else hear it?" Harry said, growing desperate.

Nico was frozen in shock, his hand still on Harry's shoulder. "I-I can hear it." Nico whispered so only Harry could here. "Let's go Harry- I don't have a good feeling about this." Much to Nico's horror, Harry put a foot on the dias- Nico immediately pulled at his arm, backing Harry draw it back, but shrug off Nico's hand, and then step toward it again.

"I can hear them too,"breathed Luna, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. "There are people in there!"

"What do you mean, 'in there'?'"demanded Hermione, jumping down from the bottom step and sounding much angrier than the occasion warranted, "there isn't any 'in there', it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there. Harry, stop it, come away - "

"No!" said Nico, his voice getting a little too loud- his friends stole a look at him- Nico immediately pulled Harry away from the dias, his eyes wide. "It's not just a veil!"

Because beyond it, Nico could see what they could not. Souls of the death- souls that very beautiful, misguiding veil had led to their end. They were whispering, mumbling a lullaby, luring in more victims like a siren's song. If Nico didn't know better...he was a goner. The veil was terrifying. It was beautiful. It was lurring. The voices wavered and sang, whispered and persuaded.

Join us, they seemed to whisper. Be a thread in our fabric...No pain, no misery. Just a second...in just a quick, painless second...

"N-Nico?" Hermione said uncertainly. Harry fought himself out of Nico's grip- Nico tried to hold him back, but, too mesmerized by the Veil's lure, Harry pushed Nico off- he fell onto the ground, eyes wide. Harry however, did not even acknowledge what he did. Ron and Neville ran up to help him

"Harry- stay away from that Veil- it's getting scary here!" Ginny called desperately. Harry didn't respond. Nico stood up straighter, trying to stop Harry again, but knowing it would do no good.

"What about Sirius, Harry?" Nico found himself yelling- memories played in his mind like an old video tape- him, at Camp-Half Blood, dreaming, turning in bed, having sleepless night, Dreaming about Bianca- his every instinct telling him she would die, but him ignoring it...Staying at Camp-Half Blood, learning new things with fascination, while he suspected his sister would die...He could have stopped her. Without even realizing it, tears of emotion were running down Nico's face- he made no attempt to rub them off.

"Nico?" Ginny said softly, at his side in a second. "Is there something-"

"WHAT ABOUT SIRIUS?" Nico demanded, a fresh wave of anger filling his veins, Hermione, Luna and Ginny were looking concerned, while Neville and Ron looked grim; Harry's back was still turned.

"ARE YOU GOING TO STAY HERE, STARING AT THE STUPID ARCHWAY, AND HE'S BEING- WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING TO HIM NOW!"

Finally, as if a spell had been broken, Harry turned away to look at them- with a look of confusion, fear, and shock mixed together.

"Sirius," he whispered, taking a few quick steps away from the veil. Nico hastily rubbed away his tears, taking in a sharp breath to relief himself.

"Nico?" Ginny said unceraintly. "Are you okay."

Nico turned away from them, ready to search for another room. "Let's-let's just go."

Originally, I was to combine this with the next chpt. but I thought I'd rather end this on a dramatic note...Thanks fr reviewing the last chappie, by the way! So...here are a few things I'd like your opinion on.

1) Nico had a place in the epilogue...Also, part of he first Albus Potter series with a demigod in it, but there won't be any demigod references, just Nico. (Series uploaded after end of NAH series) Yeah, he's a teacher at Hogwarts...an option subject for third-years called Practical Defense Techniques.

2) The two character deaths in book seven? Yeah, well, I've found away around my plot wthout killing them off...I really like those characters, too. Guess I was just grumpy, but I really did need them dead...But now I've found a way around that.

3) Characters you may recognize from my Albus P. series- Alexander Vaness Taylor (guess whose kid is that!) and of course, Nico...no other half-bloods for that may ruin my series.

4)Sorry guys...anyway, exams over, SOOOO GLAD! WOOOOH!

RR:

Kindstar: You..you..what *faints*

P. Percabeth Rules: Oh, yes it is! Anyone who even unknowingly cheering the amazing pairing of Percabeth (and Caleo) has my ultimate respect!

Princess of Flames: Thanks! So...Nico wll really have a lot to answer if someone asks him why he has a sword with him...And, I know it can absorb light and kill with a scratch, which is exactly why I don't want him killing anyone...neither does he. And no, it was actually 'to London from Scotland' I checked it...thanks, though!

alealea: Keep reading, and thanks! Merci! Danke!

Darsassan: Yes, I read your story- didn't have time to review, sorry- momy caught me mid-read. I think you have a lot of potenial, and I'm not giving you any styx aand compliments- I meant it. But you have to learn how to balance between dialouge and actions (reactions, too) because that's important. Guess I shouldn't speak since I myself aren't too good at it myself, but I really try...And sorry, no, I'm afraid I can't make Sirius live..I follow this plot perfectly as it is, and there's no one that was so angry and sad about Sirius' death more than myself, but I just can't change it..

Fangirl2471999: Thank you for your thank yous! I just wrote Nico like I saw he should be in my mind...thanks. And I really don't think Nico's cover should be undone just yet...Half-Bloof Prince will have that. And Trio thinking Nico's suspicious...PPPPFT. I hate how that's so overdone. I try to tone it down, but keep it up to a reasonable amount, too.

Winterlover6: *wink*

Hunter of Artemis: Done!

HowlingRain: Yep- clever thinking on JK. Rolwing's part. I wonder what happened to poor Grawp...

Kerowyn: You know what? I seriously like you now. You're hard to impress, and I always like a challange!

MarissaTodd: Nico was fourteen when he came to Hogwarts...and I checked it up, Nico's birthday's January 28th, so he's technically fifteen now..

Neon Wish: WELCOMSIES!

: Really? Thanks! I honestly hate it when people underestimate other because of their age. Bah. It's soooo weird being thirteen, really. I almost wish I'm twelve again. Almsot. And don't worry- you teens are..well, teens. Better enjoy it before things get serious and you have to grow up for real and have kids and stuff...I'm trying to enjoy my childhood, too...Because after all, every year just brings us closer to maturity...and death