It feels like ages since I last updated! I'm so sorry!

To THE. NARWHAL. PEOPLE: I'm glad you like it! About your Triwizard Tournament idea, that would be good except that it strays from the plot of the story too much. I could write a different story with that, but probably not here.

To Aphrodite child: Thanks!

To TeddyRemusPotter: I goes that was one way of figuring it out... I did plan for Nico to be a Gryffindor from the start.

To blackclaw: Thank you... I have no idea what book or movie or whatever you were referencing though...

To Guest: Pretty much. Harry will probably meet Sirius and all, but it will mostly center around demigods here.

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

—Harry Potter—

Nico had gone from interesting to increasingly mysterious. He was our next mystery, and I found myself watching him a lot more than usual.

I lost him in the swarm of students leaving the greenhouse in our hurry to get to our next classes. I'm not sure what it was for the Ravenclaws in our class, but for all us Gryffindors it was Transfiguration.

When me and Ron tracked him down again, he was already seated next to Hermione in the classroom.

"Over here, guys." Hermione called. We quickly took the seats on either side of them, Ron next to Hermione and me next to Nico, as everyone else from Herbology streamed into the class.

"Some weird lesson, Herbology, huh Nico?" said Ron, leaning over.

Hermione looked between us. "Why? What happened?"

"A Ficklestool plant made us all pass out and miss a good chunk of the lesson." said Nico.

"Why do these things only happen when you three are having a class together without me?" she asked in mock devastation.

We stifled our laughter as Professor McGonagall walked into the room.

"Alright class, today we will be learning about Animagi. Can anyone tell me what an animagus is?"

Predictably, Nico's hand went up.

"Animagi are wizards who can transform at will into animals," he answered quietly.

"Yes." she said with a nod. "Like this…"

And suddenly she transformed herself into a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes.

We all gasped and applauded her. I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that Nico was not quite as enthusiastic.

Sadly, the rest of the lesson was not quite as interesting as it began. Professor McGonagall talked about how each person's animagus form would have distinctive markings, such as color, spectacle shapes, missing or extra appendages, and scars, animagi were supposed to be registered by the ministry and to do otherwise was illegal, one is only to attempt becoming an animagi when they are of age… and a bunch of other stuff that we pretty much just took notes on.

We left for lunch after that. Animagi sounded fun… but not if we were only going to be taking notes the whole time.

Ron started pigging in. I was surprised when suddenly hundreds of owls streamed into the Great Hall.

"Mail?" I asked, confused, as Hedwig landed next to my plate and dropped a rolled-up piece of paper on my lap.

"Don't they usually deliver these at breakfast?" Hermione wondered aloud, before getting distracted. "Hey, it's a newspaper."

I stared down at the cover. The man there looked pale, with long crazy black hair. There was a manic look in his grey eyes that somehow… looked rather familiar.

AZKABAN ESCAPE
Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, has somehow managed to escape this supposedly unescapable prison!
This adds more to the fear of all that know what Black was imprisoned for. Not only is he very brutal and merciless, but he must surely be even more powerful than originally thought if he was all to escape.
"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."
Fudge has informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis. "Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle."
While Muggles sighted Black carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

"Was Black a supporter of Voldermort?" I asked.

Ron shuddered. "Man, please stop throwing his name around like that!"

"Yes, I think so." Hermione answered me.

"Can I see it?" asked Nico, reaching over. I handed him the paper. "I mean, Sirius Black seems kind of familiar… I think I must have heard his name somewhere."

"Really?" asked Ron, suspiciously.

"Yeah." he shrugged. "I… need to go to the bathroom for awhile." he got up and left.

"Um… okay." said Hermione, before leaning over and staring at Ron. Ron stared back levelly.

"Don't tell me you're going to bring up the Voldermort thing again!" she whispered fiercely.

"He knows Sirius Black!" Ron argued, equally quietly so that no one else would hear us. "And now he wants to be excused to do something that we won't intrude on!"

"You have to admit, he's acting strange about this." I chipped in.

Hermione looked ready to tear her hair out, so I decided to change the subject.

"So… what do you think Defense will be like?"

Ron shrugged. "Wanna bet it's someone useless again?"

Hermione sighed. "I sure hope not! Defense Against Dark Arts is really important, and if we don't learn anything about it for three whole years we'll be way behind in our OWLs."

"Yeah… who's our teacher this year?" I asked, realizing that I didn't know.

Ron shrugged and Hermione looked struck. "Oh… I can't believe we don't know!"

"Well, to be fair, Dumbledore is supposed to announce these things doing the opening feast." I pointed out.

Ron suddenly looked defensive. "What do you want, Malfoy?" he growled, looking behind me. I turned around and sure enough, Malfoy was standing there in all of his ferrety snootiness.

"Nothing from you, Weasel." he sneered. Then he looked that at me. "What are you staring at, Potter?"

"Nothing, Malfoy." I said with a roll of my eyes. "I'm just sick of your whole 'I'm-the-king-of-the-word' attitude. Why don't you get back to the Slytherin table where you belong."

He huffed and snarled at me. "You think you're so smart, Potter. Feeling heroic again this year, aren't you?"

I scowled. That was the last thing I wanted to do, be heroic and go on some crazy adventure again. The three of us had been hoping that it'll be a normal year at Hogwarts for once.

Before I could think of something to say back, Nico appeared. "Oh, hey, Ferret. What are you doing here? Did the Slytherins disown you out of shame or something?"

Malfoy snarled at him, though looking a bit apprehensive. "You best be careful, di Angelo. I know things you wouldn't dream of."

"Oh, don't worry, I know I wouldn't dream of them." he answered casually. "Those are probably the kind of things I'll have in my nightmares."

Malfoy looked like steam should blowing out of his ears as he stormed away.

"Oh, by the way," Nico called, "I heard your name's actually Malfoy. Why didn't you tell me?"

Hermione snickered. "Priceless, Nico. Priceless."

"See you later, Malcolm!" Ron taunted.