Sorry to keep you waiting, but I'd like to hope that this chapter is at least longer than the last.
To THE. NARWHAL. PEOPLE: Good idea! I might do that.
To H.N. Dots: Thank you!
To Aphrodite child: It just came to me. Glad you like the idea.
To InsertCoolName: You'll just have to wait and find out. And, yes.
To Random Letters: Yeah, I'm getting to that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor Percy Jackson & the Olympians
—Nico di Angelo—
The next day, I woke up to a bucket of cold water being splashed in my face.
"Ron! Harry!" I yelled, jumping up.
The bucket had been tossed haphazardly on the floor. "How do you know it was one of us? Maybe it was Seamus! Or Dean!" Ron tried.
I rolled my eyes. "Because you two idiots are the only ones still in the dorm."
They both turned red right before I splashed them in the face with Aguamenti.
"Nico!" they yelled simultaneously. I grabbed my robes and ran with them chasing after me.
Two minutes later, I had changed in my Gryffindor robes (in the bathroom, because I don't want them to see my injuries from previous battles, it could raise questions) and shadow-travelled outside the Great Hall to escape them. Honestly, when I thought about it, this probably wasn't my wisest move. But as Hermione had already caught sight of me, it was too late.
"Morning, Nico." she greeted me.
"Morning." I grinned. "Let's go find our seats."
We went to sit down at the Gryffindor table together, and took out our schedules. Mine would be the same as Nyroc's and Harry's.
"We've got a lot of classes today." I commented, scanning through them. Herbology first (aw man) and Transfiguration, then lunch before Defense Against Dark Arts and Divination.
Harry and Ron ran panting up to us.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Do you ever wake up on time?"
Neither of them answered, but Harry turned to me and asked, "How did you…"
I shrugged. "You guys weren't being very attentive."
It wasn't a very good answer, and Ron narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but they were both distracted by food. As all boys seem to be.
"What's your schedule?" Hermione asked, pulling hers out. She leaned over my shoulder to look at mine.
"Herbology, Transfiguration, Defense Against Dark Arts, and Divination again." I read mine aloud.
"That's the same as mine." said Harry. Uh oh, I think he's starting to get suspicious too.
"Hm." said Ron. "Amazing, that's the same as mine, too."
Wow. "What a coincidence. What about yours, Hermione?" I asked, turning around.
Hermione leaned back into her own seat. "Charms first, then of course I've got Arithmancy instead of Divination." she said with a sigh.
"Oh." I was actually rather relieved that she wouldn't be joining us in Herbology. I suck at plants, magical or otherwise.
Harry dropped another sandwich on my plate. "Eat."
"Geez." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"Who eats one measly cup of yogurt for breakfast?" Ron commented.
"They're right," said Hermione. "I usually say the opposite to them, but you need to eat more. You're starving yourself."
"You need to sleep more, too." Harry added. "You've still got dark circles under your eyes, even if they're getting fainter."
"Thanks for reminding me, mom." I said to Harry sarcastically.
"If Harry's the mum, then who's the dad?" Ron asked.
"You, obviously." said Hermione. Ron gave her a look.
I quietly ate. Do you know what's gastritis? Gastritis is where you eat something after not eating for a long time, and that makes your stomach hurt. I used to get it every single time I ate, and that's why I didn't like to eat much.
Funnily enough, after these three forced me to eat a lot at the opening feast, I didn't get much pain anymore. Not enough to be annoying, anyway.
When we had finished breakfast (Ron acted like he hadn't eaten for days!) me, Harry and Ron headed down to the greenhouse.
I let them walk in front of me, and hung back to talk to Nyroc.
"I'm going to hate this class." I mumbled to him. Even though Persephone and Demeter were also required to give me free clearance, pretty much any plant I touch dies anyway.
Nyroc gave me a smug smile, making me irritated. "What are you so happy about?"
He grinned. "I love Herbology. It's my best subject."
I blinked. "Really?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Draco said it's the safest thing to go for if I wanted good grades for something."
"But… you're a child of death…"
"Oh, Nico." he said with a shake of his head. "Don't you remember what I was doing whenever you came across me at your father's palace?"
I blinked again. "Um, no. I thought you were just hanging around there because your dad was always busy."
He glared. "I was working!"
I was taken aback, which was really becoming a common occurrence here at Hogwarts. "Working?"
"Yes! Persephone had me taking after her garden. Skeletons aren't exactly the best for keeping stuff alive!"
"Seriously?" I asked, shocked. Nyroc… gardening? And Persephone let him?
"She only hates you because you're a constant reminder of your dad cheating with your mother." Nyroc said, rolling his eyes. "So of course she's fine with me."
"Oh."
We entered the greenhouse. Nyroc had a smile plastered across his face as he examined the plants. I wasn't sure whether he was acting or not, but I hope he was. I've already got a death nut, a cereal nut, and a flower nut back at the palace. I don't need a plant nut hanging around too.
Professor Sprout seemed nice. I sat between Harry and Nyroc, hoping not to attract too much attention. The class went smoothly until she handed out some sort of plant we were supposed to extract the sap out of.
"Now what?" I whispered desperately to Nyroc.
"Just try to extract the sap like she said! Don't worry if you can't do it, loads of people don't listen close enough when she explains." he answered faintly, not even turning to look at me.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Ron and Harry were looking at me, and remembered that I wasn't supposed to be good friends with Nyroc.
"C'mon, Nico." said Harry, once he noticed that I had noticed him. "It's not that easy, but it's not particularly dangerous either. Give it a try."
Stalling sometimes helps. The universe sometimes decides to be bizarre and let a giant spider smash up the greenhouse or something. "Um, how are we supposed to do it again?"
Harry gave me a funny look. Assuming Ron hadn't told him our conversation, he didn't know that I had been pretending to be studious all this time. Well, I knew what to do, really, I just couldn't remember right now…
"Just grab the bud where it meets the stalk and twist your knife down the middle of the flower. Yeah, it's confusing and messy." he told me as sap started running down his arms.
Darn. Stalling didn't work. I prayed to the gods that they could do something to make sure that the plant wouldn't die when I touched it…
My finger must've brushed against a leaf, because it withered up and spread across the plant from that plant. Harry and Ron gasped, Nyroc stared alarmingly at it. Within seconds, yes, the whole plant was dead.
I, stupid, idiotic, clumsy me, tried to back away from it and nearly tripped over my chair. The result was falling into the row of plants behind me, which resulted in killing them all.
Chaos ensued. Kids were afraid and running around. I tried to run, and every plant I touched died. Harry and Ron tried to get to me, and so did Nyroc. Professor Sprout was yelling. Any moment now, and other teachers would run in and demand to know why I killed everything I touched and then our secret will be out and… and…
I stopped. So did Nyroc. Across the room, Alabaster was standing with his wand out. I had forgotten that Ravenclaw was taking this class with us!
Everyone else was lying on the floor in a deep sleep, like during the Battle Of Manhattan.
"Wow." Nyroc said eventually.
Alabaster stared down at the students then around at the greenhouse. "Okay, we've got maybe half an hour to wipe everyone's memory and fix up the greenhouse. Nico, considering the greenhouse is a very, um, dangerous place for you, could you go find Draco? The Slytherins are having History Of Magic."
I nodded and slipped out, feeling very exposed as I ran back up to the castle. Though, if anyone caught me, I could easily say I was just going to the bathroom.
The question, I realized, was how would I let Draco know to come out? I couldn't just waltz in and call him over in front of all the Slytherins. Maybe I could influence Binns or something… nah.
That it hit me. Our communication coins! Maybe I could use those! …Somehow.
I wondered if Binns could sense my presence, most ghosts could. If he did, I hoped he'll had the sense not to do anything that would give me away.
Suddenly, the door opened as small as it could go and still let a human through. Draco shut the door behind him.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, leaning down so that they wouldn't be spotted through the classroom windows.
"I could ask you the same thing— I mean, we had a problem down at the greenhouse and Alabaster sent me to get you."
He nodded and we both headed back, our footsteps tapping lightly against the floor as we ran.
"What happened?" he asked, pulling me down shortcut after shortcut.
"I accidentally killed all the plants by touch, nothing new, really." I answered.
He slapped his forehead. "Golly! I can't believe we forgot to do something about that death touch of yours."
We reached outside. "I never messed up in planning around here before, until you came along! You're making me look bad!"
"Excuse me? How did you know I was outside your classroom, anyway?"
"Binns was acting jumpy. Besides, even if you decided to come in, all of my classmates were sleeping. I would've slept too, but you know, constant vigilance and all."
We approached the greenhouse, which was thankfully looking much more like a greenhouse and much less like a brown-house.
"I wiped their memories." Alabaster told us as we walked in. "Starting from around the time the plants were given out. What should I replace them with?"
"Nothing." Draco decided, while nodding approvingly. "Maybe make a random plant give off a lot of gas from behind them, so it looks as if they've all just passed out suddenly."
Nyroc put a last plant back onto Professor Sprout's desks. "There's supposed to be a plant that gives of a kind of chloroform gas—"
"Isn't it the Ficklestool plant?" I asked. Hey, I may be a natural plant-killer, but I do know my facts, actually.
Draco looked around. "Nyroc, see if you can whip up some Ficklestool plant. Alabaster, you look ready to pass out yourself, I'll do the memory-changing."
Alabaster grinned thank-you then collapsed where he stood.
We all blinked at him before Nyroc went back to searching for the Ficklestool plant and Draco began changing their memories.
"What am I supposed to do?" I asked.
Draco looked over at me. "Oh, yeah. You might want to grab your things and leave for awhile. Sorry. Until I find something to counteract your death touch, it's not safe for you to stay in the greenhouse too long."
I nodded dejectedly and grabbed my bag. I couldn't really blame Draco for wanting me out of the way, and I'd long decided that reading between the lines wasn't good anyway.
The bell suddenly rang. Draco grabbed me from behind and shoved me onto the ground. Not until I started getting up with the mass of students around me that I realized why he did that, Draco needed it to look like I had passed out with everyone else.
Ron rubbed his eyes. "What made us pass out?"
"A Ficklestool plant, by the smell of it." Nyroc stated quietly. "How interesting."