I know I'm taking a bit longer to update nowadays. Please bear with it. I probably can only update once or twice a week from now.

To Kerowyn6: I totally agree! Thanks for the compliments!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor Percy Jackson & The Olympians

—Harry Potter—

I didn't want to agree with Ron, especially after Nico was announced as a Gryffindor, but I had to admit that there was something strange about him. The ghosts even bowed down to him when he came close. Then they scrambled away as he said something under his breath, which was odd.

The last empty seat at their table happened to be next to Ron, so that's were he sat. I was directly opposite him this time. Then I noticed the cold darkness of his eyes and almost shivered myself.

But I wasn't particularly worried. He seemed nice enough and my scar wasn't hurting like it would if he was truly evil.

"Hi." I said as he sat down.

Hermione brightened. "Hello, Nico. You know, I was just telling Ron and Harry that if you didn't get into Ravenclaw, you'll be in Gryffindor. And I was right, wasn't I? It's great that you're in this house, actually. It'll make things so much more proper, I hope. Course, we won't be in the same classes, but it'll be wonderful all the same!"

For a moment I thought he might actually be listening to Hermione.

Suddenly, Dumbledore spoke up even though he didn't usually make announcements like this.

"Thank you. Now, one of our new students, Nico di Angelo, is from an advanced school in America, New York, Long Isl— Therefore he will be joining the third years and be in the same classes as Harry Potter, to make things simpler— Hope everyone has fun in Hogwarts!"

I was shocked and saw Ron narrow his eyes at the boy sitting next to him while Nico looked uncomfortable.

Hermione, however, was estatic.

"Your school must be amazing if you're allowed to jump years! When I first arrived I was so worried about learning everything because, it is hard, even though Harry and Ron claim I did alright. Which school did you go to? I wasn't even sure if there were wizards in America but now I wish I knew before then maybe I could've gone to a good school like yours. What kind of courses do you have? Oh, it's going to be just wonderful having you in the same classes as us!"

Nico managed to give the impression that he was listening to her as he eyed the food that was being given out.

"You're gonna have to eat more than that." I said to him, pointing at the single sandwich on his plate.

"I'm not very hungry." he answered.

"But you've got to eat more, or what's the point of living?" asked Fred.

George grabbed his plate and piled something from almost every dish onto his plate, including some of Hogwarts' delicious treacle pudding.

Nico pouted teasingly even though his eyes were wide staring at the plate with longing. "I'm not a child, I can take care of myself."

"Get used to it." said Ron with an unbidden grin. "Now that you're in our year, you're going to be the baby for a long time."

He sighed exaggeratedly, making us all laugh, even Ron.

The twins calmed down. "I'm Fred." said Fred, sticking out his hand.

"And I'm George." said George, mimicking the action. "We're some of Ron's older brothers."

Nico didn't shake either of theirs. Instead he pointed at Fred and said, "You're George." then he pointed at George. "And you're Fred."

They both stared at him in awe. "How did you know?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "You twins are all the same. Plus, I've seen too many tricks to fall for that one."

Oops. Looks like I got fooled by that.

Then Ginny swapped chairs over next to me. "Hi."

"Ginny, this is Nico di Angelo." announced Hermione.

"Hi, I'm Ginny Weasely." she said with a smile.

"Hi." he said, not meeting her eyes which is a relief cause she probably would've been freaked out by his pitch-black eyes.

"I'm Neville, Neville Longbottom." said Neville.

"Hello, Neville."

After that, we had a usual chatter while Hermione went on and on to Nico. I considered trying to save him, but he seemed to be perfectly fine with listening to her drone on and answering her questions once in a while.

Later, Percy came over after saying hello to all the other Gryffindors.

"Hello there, I'm Percy Weasely." he said, putting out his hand but giving Nico a stern look, probably because at that moment the twins had been bombarding him with stories of their major pranks (at the same time Hermione was talking and Nico seemed to be able to listen to all of them).

Nico reached out and shook his hand then pointed to his head boy badge.

"You're head boy." he said.

Percy nodded, obviously waiting for him to say something unflattering like George and Fred were.

Instead, he just nodded and said, "I see. Well, I'm just going to have to make sure not to get into any trouble and make your job easier, won't I?"

Percy looked surprised but pleasantly pleased about this and he nodded. "There's good in you, kid. Keep it up."

If Hermione could be any more impressed, she was. I liked Nico too, but it just seemed so much like Gilderoy Lockhart all over again.

It was fun to see Nico's reactions when we got to our dormitory. Apparently since he was going to be in all the same classes as us he was also going to be in the same dorm as me, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus. It was a bit curious how that silver backpack was indeed his only piece of luggage, but I shrugged it off.

Ron had been right when he mentioned Nico would be like the baby of the group. Seamus and Dean fussed over him and helped him with his stuff just to annoy him, and Neville drew hearts all over his schoolbooks with paper-resistant ink which seemed to freak him out before he realized that the ink wouldn't stay on the paper anyway. Ron and I couldn't resist joining in and enchanted the bed so that it looked and felt like it was wet when you touched it then didn't when you took your hand away. The teasing lessened after he rolled his eyes at us and smirked.

"Yeah, I get it, I'm the little newbie that can't cast a spell to stop a jinx. But I know a trick you wizards probably don't know."

Dean narrowed his eyes at him. "What?" he asked teasingly.

Nico sat down on the bed. "This, my friend, is what we call: a pillow fight."

The next thing that happened was a pillow smacking into my side.

We definitely should've seen that coming!

The playing field evened out after that, until Professor McGonagall came in and told us that 1) we should be sleeping and 2) feathers are meant to stay inside of the pillows and we better get them cleaned up.

The look on Nico's face when Professor McGonagall said 'clean this mess up' was hilarious.

Before we got into bed Ron said Hermione probably would've been jealous.