I know I haven't exactly been making my chapters all that much longer. I'll keep trying, but... yeah.

To Guest: I'm really glad you like it. And great idea for that boggart!

To Knight Wolfe and Ace Wayfarer: Thanks for those suggestions! They were really good!

To H. N. Dots: Wow, you are so right! Hermione probably isn't going to just sit back and take that, though, so it won't be one of those things where they immediately start avoiding him.

To THE. NARWHAL. PEOPLE: Yeah... I'm not very good at writing long chapters, I'm afraid. And for the Tartarus thing, that's because Nico is really used to saying stuff like that and is getting more comfortable around the wizards now.

To Me: Mm hm.

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

—Luna Amato—

Nargles exist. They're tiny invisible creatures that ride the Mist around and sometimes into people's heads. Since they get completely covered in it, a victim's brain will get muddled and foggy, or misty, if you must.

I don't have any Nargles. Draco doesn't either, though he really might soon. Nargles tend to invade people who are stressed on the inside more than those that are calm.

Nate definitely has Nargles. That's partly because he works with the Mist so much, and partly because he spent an entire year being isolated. Nargles tend to invade people who don't have any mental or outward support.

Nyroc doesn't have any Nargles. He seems to scare them off. That's the effect he has on most living creatures. I'm not sure whether Nico has any Nargles. I don't think he does, though, as much as he acts like it. Nico is the only one of us that still has enough emotional trauma to be that confused in his head.

Harry has Nargles. Being The Boy Who Lived gives him enough stress. So does Dumbledore, I would imagine for similar reasons. Snape does too, he's vulnerable because of that whole love triangle thing that Nyroc started explaining to us before I zoned out.

Nargles are strange creatures. Most wizards don't think they exist because unless you know about the Mist, it doesn't make sense. All in all, Nargles seem to invade almost anyone's head, but leave before they can inflict noticeable change. But some do leave their mark, and this is why some people completely change their personality over the course of a few years.

Yes, Nargles are strange creatures.

This is what I was musing about the call came. The Potter Band call. My coin grew hot and I pulled it out to check that the message was still the same. Potter Band meeting time.

It isn't hard to sneak out from the Hufflepuff dormitory. Our common room is always so chaotic and unorganized that everyone was too busy worrying about themselves. Well, we worry about each other too, but it's obviously quite hard to help someone with their homework if you can't find your own and quite difficult to help someone who's lost if you keep tripping down the stairs.

See, the problem with Hufflepuff is that the students originally aren't very good at one specific thing. Some are sorta brave, some are bit sly, some are even rather smart. Some of us go on to be later braver than some Gryffindors, better than some Ravenclaws, or even, sadly, worse than some Slytherins. But we don't usually start off excelling at one particular field, so we get put in Hufflepuff. And Hufflepuff is the oddball group that doesn't fit into any one box. Then, because we're so different, the Hufflepuffs aren't nearly as united as the Ravenclaws, or Gryffindors, or Slytherins can be.

So in a way, Helga Hufflepuff did not do us all that much of a big favor with the contribution of her house.

The Room Of Rquirement isn't very far at all from the Hufflepuff common room. I was, naturally, the first there.

Nate was next. It really is confusing how we all call him different names like that.

"Hey Luna." he greeted me.

"Hi Nate." I smiled back at him. "How is your Potions class going so far?"

As far as being a son of Hecate goes, there isn't any potion-making in the gig. I'm sure that's the only class he still has trouble in.

"Better now." he said truthfully. "Snape has come to see me as neutral game. I must be the only one in all our classes that he isn't biased to."

We were interrupted by the door opening. Draco stalked in, looking sullen.

"What's wrong, Draco?" I asked confusedly. He waved me off and collapsed on a beanbag while we waited for Nico and Nyroc to show up.

Several minutes later, Nyroc came running in. "Sorry! Detention."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked at his watch while tapping his foot impatiently.

The Room Of Requirement provided us with Uno cards to play with while we waited. Maybe it had something to do with being a Ravenclaw but Alabaster won almost every time.

After a while, I couldn't stand the silence anymore. I set down my cards and turned to Draco, who was still tapping with his fingers and foot agitatedly. "What's gotten you so upset, Draco? You're freaking me out."

"What's wrong?! What's WRONG?! NICO NEARLY REVEALED US TO THE GOLDEN TRIO AFTER YOUR HISTORY CLASS AND HE'S COMPLETELY BROKEN OUT OF CHARACTER!" he yelled. The three of us instinctively scrambled back.

Draco NEVER yelled. Not really, anyway, not unless he was acting. The last time he had yelled was back in first year when Nyroc had panicked and tried to stop the Golden Trio from going to save the Stone rather than alerting the rest of the band.

But now he was full-out screaming and currently swearing pretty badly as well. If I had a guess, he had been holding back that temper of his until Nico came.

"AND THE IDIOT BOY DOESN'T EVEN TELL ANY OF US! I SWEAR, IF THE MIST DOESN'T WORK —AND HE SHOULD BLOODY WELL HOPE IT DOES— THEN I'LL—"

"Did I miss something?" a voice asked from the doorway nervously.

Nico looked awkwardly at us, who couldn't help but stare coolly back at him after the slip-up he apparently made. I couldn't help thinking once again whether Nico had Nargles, which often makes a person more distracted.

Draco took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a bit, though he still had his fists clenched so hard his knuckles were white.

Without turned around, he gritted his teeth and spoke as calmly as humanely possible for someone who was screaming bloody murder a few moments ago. "Nico, come in and close the door."

Nico did that, still looking really nervous. He kept staring at the ground and shuffling his feet.

Draco took another deep breath. "You know what you've done?" he said clearly, the calmness in his voice sounding less forced now.

Nico fiddled with his ring, which we had enchanted to turn into his sword.

"Yes." he said quietly, sounding rather like a schoolchild having gotten caught doing something dangerous. I was a bit surprised at his reaction, half-expecting him to put up an indifferent mask as Nyroc had attempted when he was the one being yelled at.

"Stop playing with your ring Nico." he ordered. Nico hurriedly dropped his hand to his side.

He faced the younger boy. Younger. Oh. It had never really occurred to me much about how Nico must feel being younger and less experienced here than the rest of us. He interacted so casually with us and acted so much wiser than his few years.

All this streamed through me as Draco looked down at him with an unreadable expression. "All three of them were already suspicious of you in their own ways, even Hermione." he told him seriously. "And now Ron knows you changed his memories at one point."

Nico looked vaguely startled. "How do you—"

"I know these things, Nico." he said sadly.

I frowned at him. Surely he hadn't been... not after the last time...

Draco sighed. "Look, you've got to be more careful. Getting comfortable with them is fine and all, but you can't drop your act too much."

"That's the problem." he interrupted with a worried tone, refusing to meet any of our eyes. "If I'm acting, then I'm not acting. It's just, my roles aren't as extreme as yours so it's really easy to keep slipping back." he looked to us helplessly.

I sighed. Well, Nico was supposed to trust us anyway. Our band of undercover demigods were supposed to be able to talk things over without being worried about trust and whatnot. It was different from when Draco blew up at Neville, the three of us had known each other for almost an entire year by then.

If Nico had heard Draco ranting, that would probably explain why he looked so scared now. Draco would never really hurt any of us, but he never seems to be aware of the things he says when he's getting all that out of his system. Considering this was almost an entire year worth of stress, it was no surprise.

"Let's calm down." I said, stepping up to them. I looked to Draco then Nico. "It was just an accident, nothing we can't fix easily."

I looked back at Nyroc and Nate like, 'Back me up guys!'

"Yeah," said Nate, catching up. "Just a little more Mist and they'll be no trace left of anything that might give us away."

"Besides, it's not the first time one of us slipped-up." said Nyroc.

Me and Nate glared at him. Idiot.

"What?!" Draco asked fiercely, turning around.

"Um..."

"Okay, that's enough!" I yelled myself. "Now we're fighting. We can't fight."

Nyroc huffed in annoyance. "Well it's not my fault!"

He swung round and made a few practice dummies appear, courtesy of The Room Of Requirement. Nate and Draco stalked over to their usual training courses.

Nico looked pretty confused.

"The day hasn't exactly gone smoothly." I told him. "So we train to let off the steam. It's much better than lashing out at each other."

"Oh."

Nico took out his sword and started training.

Being the peacekeeper is actually more of my job. After all, Hufflepuff is the only house that didn't strike up a huge rivalry with anyone.

I really think Draco needed that chance to yell. Otherwise the Nargles will overload him from stress.