Nico thinks about Teddy Lupin's offer. Percy and Ron try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Chapter Rating: General Audiences

Content Warning: Cursing, Violence (mild).

Word Count: 3208

And all the characters are owned by JK Rowling, or Rick Riordan.

"Help me!" Teddy Lupin begged, tears streaming down his face. "There isn't much time! I don't want to be an orphan! Please! Help me! Let me make you strong!"

Nico woke with a gasp and was hit by an onslaught of guilt. How could he not trust a boy so much like him? So weak and vulnerable, when all he wanted to do was help? It was still night, but Nico couldn't stand still. On a table sat a jug of water, Nico got up and grabbed a drink, thinking about what to do.

What would Percy do? Well, he'd tell Annabeth and me, and we'd come up with a solution to solve this. But, no one would understand what he's going through. This is my problem. No, I'll deal with Teddy Lupin on my own.

Nico went to the bathroom. It was empty since everyone was still asleep. He added more marks to his scarred arm to ease his worry. It made him feel better, more relaxed and calm. Even the ambrosia felt good on his skin, like a hug from Bianca. Thinking about Bianca made his mind drift to Westover Hall, which brought him back to his dream.

Gods, I need sleep.

Sleep never came. It was around midnight, but it felt like it was seven as he still hadn't gotten used to the time difference. He thought about his memories of Bianca, of Westover Hall and of Teddy Lupin, and tried to ignore the guilt that came from him cutting himself. He knew how Bianca would react. She'd think he was a monster. Unnatural, like one of Riddle's horcruxes, which were little monsters anyway.

"Stop it," Nico whispered to himself and played Will's playlist at full volume.

But he couldn't stop thinking about everything. When he finally fell asleep, his dreams were full of his worst nightmares: Bianca's death, Percy and Annabeth finding out about his cutting, and Teddy Lupin dying, screaming it was his fault. To top it all off, his dreams were based around weird images spawned from different Panic! At the Disco songs.

Nico woke up the next morning in a cold sweat. To make his morning even worse, Draco Malfoy was already awake and had noticed the tear tracks on Nico's face. Of course, Malfoy could've kept his mouth shut, but then he wouldn't be the Draco Nico knew and hated.

"Oooh, I'm Nico di Angelo, and I cry in my sleep with mudblood devices in my ears. I'm so edgy," Malfoy mocked.

"Go fuck yourself, Malfoy," Nico retorted, and to his surprise, Malfoy looked confused. That is, until another Slytherin whispered in his ear what 'fuck' meant. Then Malfoy's eyes darkened.

"You want to use muggle insults around me? Maybe you're not worthy enough to be a Slytherin. Go run to your Gryffindor cousin and his sorry excuse of a girlfriend."

Nico looked at him hard, staring him down with a face worthy of the term 'death stare.' "I don't give a damn what you say about me, but when you insult Percy and Annabeth..." he growled, and Malfoy looked terrified. "You want to make me an enemy? Do it at your own risk. Now get out of my bed area." If anyone could make 'bed area' sound badass, it was Nico di Angelo.

The morning passed without any more incidents, Nico mostly sat in the back of the class, glaring at anyone who questioned him sitting out of the lessons. He was able to spend that time thinking about the horcrux he'd sensed before with Annabeth, and how to find it. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to get something out of a wall without knocking the wall down, and that would be out of the question for a number of reasons; the most obvious that Dumbledore wouldn't approve of his school being destroyed. Besides, Nico had the strangest feeling that even if he reduced the school to rubble, he wouldn't find the horcrux in the remains.

Finally, he was at the last class before lunch arrived, and, unfortunately, it was Care of Magical Creatures with Harry and the other two. Nico already had to deal with Malfoy and his Laestrygonians trying to figure out how to get Nico back for threatening them, and now he would have to deal with Harry calling him a Thanatos eater to Ron, and Hermione looking at him like a gods damn lost puppy.

It turned out, Nico had nothing to worry about when it came to Hermione. The moment he got within eyesight of the Gryffindors, she gave him such a cold, disgusted look that it made Nico feel unclean.

What was that about? One second she's looking at me like some poor unfortunate kid, and the next second she's shooting me dirty looks?

Malfoy seemed to get over the little fight (Nico guessed it was a fight, though it was more of a one-sided threat) and had apparently said something he thought was funny, probably about Harry since they kept looking in his direction. Nico was torn. He'd love to hear a joke at his enemy's expense, but when it came from a rat like Malfoy...

Gods, when did people get so complicated? It isn't this difficult at camp. Demigods are good. Some of them are rude, but good. Monsters, Titans, and giants are bad. But here, everyone seems to have some kind of agenda. It makes my brain hurt.

"Everyone here?" barked the Professor, the one Dumbledore had called Professor Grubbly-Plank (Gods, what was with the names here? Riddle? Malfoy? Hermione? Grubbly-Plank? It sounded like the kind of names a three-year-old would write). "Let's crack on then--who can tell me what these things are called?" She referred to a pile of twigs in front of her.

Um... does she think we're ten?

A lot of people in the class were having the same reaction. Hermione shot her hand in the air, earning her the privilege of being mocked by Malfoy, sticking out his teeth like he had an overbite and jumping up and down. Nico felt angry until he remembered how Hermione had looked at him before. A girl near Malfoy started laughing, but that turned to a scream when the twigs became pixie-like animals made of wood, with two fingers and weird flat faces that looked like tree bark.

"Oooooh," said an Indian Gryffindor girl and her friend, which made Nico cringe. Gods, he hated squealing girls. The noises they made drove Nico mad.

"Kindly keep your voice down, girls!" Professor Grubbly-Plank said sharply. She scattered something that looked a little like brown rice to the twig things, who wolfed them down like a hellhound. "So--anyone know the names of these? Miss Granger?"

"Bowtruckles," Hermione chirped. "They're tree-guardians, usually live in wand-trees."

There are specific trees for wands? What does it matter what kind of wood a wand was made out of? Children of Hecate didn't even use wands. I guess followers of Hecate are weaker than I thought. Compared to their patron's children, at least.

"Five points to Gryffindor," Professor Grubbly-Plank said. "Yes, these are bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"

"Woodlice," Hermione answered, which explained why those things Professor Grubbly-Plank had given to the bowtruckles were moving. "But fairy eggs if they can get them."

Nico zoned out after that because Professor Grubbly-Plank started to go on about bowtruckles and woodlice and trees. It was something Nico figured a satyr would find interesting. But not him. He thought about Will. They'd chatted the night before and, as Nico thought about him, skeletal butterflies were flapping around in his stomach. They always did that wherever Will was concerned. The Iris message had been about nothing important, just talking and laughing and thinking about what they'd do when they got to see each other again in person. Basically, it was pure bliss. Nico didn't want to admit it, but he liked Will a lot more than he was letting on.

We have to find a regular time to talk. I can't get enough of his stupid face... did I seriously just think that? Di immortalis...

Professor Grubbly-Plank handed out the bowtruckles, and everyone got into groups of three. Nico ended up with two of the less annoying Slytherins: Blaise Zabini and Hestia Carrow. Nico tried to talk to Hestia, after all with a name like that there was a small chance she could be a half-blood or connected to the Olympians, but she didn't want to talk. So, he worked in silence, doodling what was supposed to be a bowtruckle, but looked more like a really wonky log. Later in the class, Nico overheard an argument between Malfoy and Harry about some guy named Hagrid. The fight only stopping when Harry got injured by one of the bowtruckles. He laughed along with the other Slytherins over Harry's injury. "Who's Hagrid?"

"This half-giant who used to teach the class," Hestia answered quietly. "He had us around monsters. Potter and the other Gryffindors are strangely fond of him, for some odd reason."

"Yeah," Blaise put in. "Do you remember last year, when we had to take care of those Blast-Ended Skrewts as a class project? I nearly got my ear blown off!"

"Then why does Dumbledore still keep him around?" Nico asked. "Why doesn't he fire him?"

"You got me," Blaise said. "Malfoy says it's because Dumbledore's an old fool--"

"Well don't believe everything you hear," Nico interrupted. "Dumbledore seems plenty smart to me."

"I don't buy into that," Hestia said. "Malfoy's the fool, not Dumbledore. I don't agree with everything Dumbledore says, but that doesn't mean he's an idiot. Couldn't have gotten where he is if he was."

Class ended. They headed off to Charms with the Hufflepuffs, Nico still talking to Hestia and Blaise. He ended up hanging out with the two Slytherins the rest of the day. Of course Malfoy had to make a comment in their last class, Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Di Angelo's found a new girlfriend!" Malfoy sneered.

Pansy Parkinson snickered like she always did when Malfoy said anything. "Ooooh, Carrow! I'd thought you'd do better than scum like that!"

Umbridge looked up from her reading, gave a little cough. "Quiet please," she said in her sickeningly sweet voice.

"She's not my girlfriend," Nico replied with a deadpan face and a flat tone of voice.

"Think you're too good for a pure-blood?" Malfoy retorted.

"I think she's too good to be conned by a guy like me," Nico countered.

Hestia looked at him, confused. "Conned?" she asked.

"I'm gay," Nico explained. "I didn't think that was a trait girls looked for in guys."

Did Nico just out himself to get back at some annoying kid? Yes. And he was proud of the sarcasm and pettiness that brought him there. Besides, no one seemed to think this new information was a big deal. That was except for Malfoy, who looked a little shocked. "You don't act gay," he said.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Would you like me to wear a sign? Hello, I'm Nico di Angelo; Slytherin; the gay one." Blaise and Hestia laughed so hard that no one heard Umbridge approach.

"Mr. di Angelo, I thought I told you to be quiet," Umbridge said sweetly. "Next time, you'll get detention."

"Yes, ma'am," Nico forced himself to say as Malfoy, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle snickered.

The week passed quickly. Between trying to find the horcrux in the wall and the amount of homework Percy had to do, he was swamped. He was up late one night in the Gryffindor common room, trying to figure out if his Divination textbook said "foretold" or "fortune" when Harry and Ron came through the Fat Lady.

"Enough about that old hag, can we get back to Quidditch?" Harry was saying. Percy looked up from his work. Harry seemed a bit worried, and he was trying to cover something on the back of his hand. Percy saw enough blood to deduce that he cut or scraped himself, but if there was something special about that scrape, it was concealed by Harry's other hand firmly clasped over it.

"Hey guys," Percy called. He knew that he should hate Harry because of his rivalry with Nico, but Percy didn't find anything wrong with him or any of his friends. He did know that Nico rubbed people the wrong way a lot, so he figured the same thing had happened here.

"Hi Percy," Ron replied, and if Percy didn't know any better, he'd think that was fear in Ron's eyes. "What's up?"

"Just finishing Divination homework." Percy pointed to the textbook. "What's Quidditch?"

"Don't you have Quidditch in America?" Harry asked suspiciously, which surprised Percy. What reason did Harry have to be hostile, or Ron to be scared?

"Nah, it's just football and basketball and things like that."

"Football? A friend of ours, Dean Thomas, is obsessed with this football team, West Ham I think," Ron babbled. He looked really nervous for some reason.

Percy ignored it. "That's soccer football. I meant American football. Like the Giants and Jets and stuff."

"The the who's and what's?" Ron asked.

"Nevermind," Percy brushed off, knowing a lost cause when he saw one. "What's Quidditch?" Ron's face turned from fear to excitement, he went on and on about the rules and the positions and the gameplay. Harry stared daggers at Percy the entire time. "That sounds awesome!" Percy exclaimed when Ron stopped for breath. "Are there any openings on the Gryffindor Quidditch team?"

"You want to be a part of the team?" Harry asked. "But you just found out about it a few minutes ago!"

"I'm a fast learner. Besides, I rode pegasi back in America. I'm good at flying." He knew he shouldn't mention the pegasi, but there were so many weird animals here that he figured no one would bat an eye. Harry was a little stunned, but Ron didn't seem surprised at all.

"Cool. I'm trying out for the only open spot, Keeper. We could practice together," Ron offered. Percy assumed he forgot he was supposed to be scared of Percy because Harry shot his friend a look. That jogged his memory, and his nerves returned.

What's going on?

"Sure, man," Percy replied. He may not've been Annabeth, but he could come up with a half-decent plan. He wanted to know why Harry and Ron were so afraid of him and hated Nico so much. Befriending them would be the easiest way to do that, plus Hades had said they needed Harry. If he could get these particular followers of Hecate to trust him...

That would be hard, though, because Ron looked like Percy'd just signed his death warrant.

____________________HARRY____________________

As Harry wrote "I must not tell lies" on the parchment with Umbridge's 'special' quill, he was able to watch Percy and Ron practicing. It didn't look like Ron was in any danger, but you could never know with death eaters. He could see the outline of their figures against the setting sun, but he couldn't make out who was who. Both were pretty talented, though one (hopefully Ron) was clearly better than the other.

Finally, other people showed up, and the tryouts began. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Percy hadn't tried anything. There were four people Harry could guess were good, two of which had to be Percy and Ron. Percy hadn't been lying when he said riding pegasi would help him on a broom.

On a related note, I should stop getting surprised that every mythical creature in the book actually exists in the Wizarding World. After five years, I should know that.

At around midnight, Harry was finally allowed to leave detention with blood all over his hand and arm. He went to the bathroom to wash it off. The water stung the reopened cuts on the back of his hand, but it got the wound clean and inconspicuous. Ron had found out about Umbridge's detentions, he didn't want anyone else, especially Hermione, knowing what was going on.

Harry left the bathroom and was heading back to the Gryffindor common room when he heard someone whisper "Gods damn it!" Harry recognized the voice immediately: Nico di Angelo.

Why is he out of bed at midnight?

He snuck up on di Angelo by way of the dark, shadowy halls, keeping himself out of di Angelo's eyesight while simultaneously keeping his target squarely in his own line of vision. di Angelo stood beside a wall, staring at it, and muttering to himself. Harry stepped out from his hiding place, just an inch, to hear what he was saying, when di Angelo turned. There was no way di Angelo could see him, his hiding place was too good. But, then, why was he looking directly where Harry stood? "Why are you spying on me, Potter?"

Recognizing defeat, Harry stepped out of the shadows as ominously as he could. "I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing out of bed, di Angelo?"

"We went over this on the train. You stay out of my way, you don't get turned into a Harry-kebab."

"I know what you said. But I'm not going to stop until I find out who you are. Now answer my question: what are you doing here?"

Di Angelo held up a hand in the "stop" position, so it looked like he was directing traffic. At that moment, his own and di Angelo's shadow came out from the wall and grabbed Harry. He struggled against the grasp, but the more he struggled against the shadows, the tighter they held. "This is--" he struggled to say the words. "This is dark magic!"

"And?" di Angelo asked, a dangerous light in his eyes, the eyes of a madman. "I could have the shadows do anything I want. They could transport you all the way back to King's Cross. They could kill you or your friends. Don't tempt me."

"You would kill..." Harry thought allowed. His arms and legs were getting heavier, his movements slower, and his muscles ached something awful. But he fought as hard as he could against his shadowy attackers. He didn't survive Lord Voldemort's rebirth only to die by his teenage servant's hand. And he was positive that's what di Angelo was.

"Do I look like a stranger to death, Potter?" di Angelo asked. He walked up to Harry, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Answer me! Do I?!"

Harry spat in his eye, so overcome with fury he couldn't think straight. "Go to hell, di Angelo!"

di Angelo smiled like he knew something Harry didn't. "Just stay out of my way. Release him!" The shadows melted back into the wall, and Harry fell down to the ground, his legs bent at a weird angle under his stomach.

"Soon the whole school's going to know who you are, you death eater!" Harry screamed, his blood boiling He would find out what di Angelo was hiding, and he would expose him for the dark wizard he truly was if it was the last thing he ever did.