Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nico should have known good things wouldn't last long.

For the first time since the whole Gaia fiasco, Nico finally decided to participate in Camp Half Blood's infamous campfire night.

It was all Will Solace's fault, of course. The son of Apollo had dragged him here, against his own will, (ha) while he listened to a bunch of children who had fought in a war against Mother Earth sing about how they were their own great-great-great-great grandpa.

The worst part was, Nico enjoyed it.

He's now been at camp for almost a month, which was the longest he's ever stayed despite arriving at the place itself almost five years ago.

He fulfilled his three-day stay at the infirmary request from Will his first week, and since then, the two have been closer than ever. The guy was the reason Nico stayed in the first place anyway. Well, not him exactly but he stayed because of what Will had said to him; you have friends, or at least people who would like to be you friend. You pushed yourself away.

Nico found that to be more and more true as days went on. People came up to him, thanking him, complimenting him, for what he did in the war. At first he was afraid this was going to be like last time, everyone will give him the attention then go back to being scared of him, looking at him as if he was gum on the sidewalk. But it didn't. It's been a month and everyone was still being nice to him, trying to make friends with him.

Again, it was all Will's fault.

Nico looked around the campfire, everyone looked to be relaxed and having fun. It made Nico feel that way too. There was just a bunch of kids being kids and a bunch of teenagers being teenagers. No prophesies, no wars, no monsters. It was great.

He catches the sight of Percy and Annabeth, who obviously, were together. They were happily snuggled up while eating blue marshmallows, joining in on the sing-along once in a while. Nico smiled, he didn't feel the pang of hurt or jealousy he usually felt seeing them together. He just felt happy for them.

He sees Jason and Piper, they were almost in the same position as Percy and Annabeth (ugh, couples). Jason had his arm around Piper's shoulder as she chatted amongst her siblings in the Aphrodite cabin, her boyfriend eagerly listening.

Then he sees Leo and Calypso. Oh boy, Nico resisted the urge to punch the living daylights out of the son of Hephaestus' face, fortunately, Piper did it for him. Leo randomly showed up at camp after being assumed dead, with an immortal daughter of a Titan in his arms and he expected to be happily welcomed? No way.

Nico felt slightly awful for still being mad but he couldn't help himself. His own father had said; Some deaths shouldn't be prevented. Leo had done exactly that, just because he was Nico's friend (sort of) it didn't excuse it.

While everyone recovered and started being okay with it, Nico still held a grudge. Children of Hades' fatal flaw. He should probably work on that.

"What are you brooding about this time?"

Nico looked up to see Will Solace's annoying, teasing grin. He was holding a marshmallow-on-a-stick above the fire with one hand, the other one, Nico's just noticed, dangerously close to his thigh.

"Nothing," he said, ignoring the hand. "Just wondering if I should kill Valdez again."

Will absently hummed, "We've all had that thought at some point," he said. "But I think he's had one too many deaths."

Nico rolled his eyes, "He's died once."

"Exactly. That's too much." Will said, then withdrew the stick of marshmallow from the fire and shoved it against Nico's closed mouth.

"Sola--" he tried to say, but the confection got in, much to his annoyance.

"Hopefully now you'd be less grouchy with that sugar down your system." he said.

Nico huffed, "I'm not a child." though he probably looked and sounded like one with the big marshmallow on his mouth.

The son of Apollo laughed with humor, confirming his suspicion. Nico punched his upper arm.

"Careful, I might just leave if you keep this up," Nico said, putting on a threatning tone. "All that very annoying and persistent convincing you did would just be for nothing."

"Please," Will scoffed, lightheartedly. "I saw you smiling a while ago di Angelo, you're having fun." he drawled out the word 'fun'. "Admit it."

"Not a chance."

"Okay then, wanna hear my rendition of 'Poseidon's Pedi cap Ride'?" he said, "It'll make you want to stay, and, you'd be the only one to hear it."

"Gods, please no." but he was fighting back a grin. Will despite being a son of the music god, had the most atrocious singing voice.

Will shrugged, "Well if you say so," He took a breath ready to sing even though Nico had just said no, when a flash of green light and smoke catches their attention.

To everybody's shock, the green smoke came from Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the camp's oracle, which made absolutely no sense.

"I thought her powers didn't work anymore…" someone from the crowd said.

During the war with Gaia, Rachel's gift of prophecies broke down, so has any connection to Apollo, who had given that gift to Rachel. According to her, the power of the prophecy still hadn't come back after they defeated Gaia.

Until now, apparently.

"Rachel?" Annabeth voiced, concerned. She was by the redhead's side with Chiron, who also looked worried. Rachel was stiff as a plank, her eyes were shining green and her mouth was open, spewing green fog, but she wasn't saying anything. Annabeth had her hand on the oracle's shoulder.

Everyone present was whispering, eyebrows furrowed in fear and worry. Nico hears Leo loudly whispering, 'Please don't be another prophecy, please don't be another prophecy-', Percy was beside him, keenly agreeing. Piper smacked them both on the upside the head.

Finally, a voice spoke.

"The most powerful sons of the sea, hell, fire, and sky,
will unite the four that don't see eye to eye
Protect and fight by the Chosen One at all costs,
retrieve dark powerful souls that was once lost
The deity of magic is needed here most,
current love will arrive and aid at their pending close."

The whole camp was silent.

"You have got to be kidding me," said a very, very annoyed voice, breaking the quiet.

And for once, Nico can't help but agree with the son of Poseidon.

You have got to be kidding me.

~

Percy wanted to punch something.

But there's too many options. Should he punch that nearby tree?  The bag of marshmallows?  Himself?  T hat annoying Ares kid sitting next to him? The gods?...the gods would be good, actually. Unfortunately he couldn't do that without being killed despite saving their asses a dozen times.

He thought he could finally be free of the prophecies, the quests. He thought he could finally achieve that normal life with Annabeth and his friends and family. Looking back, it's very stupid of him to think that. The words 'normal life' and 'free' doesn't exactly go with 'demigod'.

"I'm not doing it." comes out of his lips before he could even think about it.

Everyone looked at him. He hates it, but at this point, he's kind of used to the attention. He crossed his arms stubbornly.

Annabeth stared at him with disbelief and concern, "Percy?--"

"I'm not doing it, Annabeth." he repeated. "I'm tired of these quests, these prophecies, the almost getting killed, being a pawn of the gods, All of it! I'm tired of all of it!"

Everyone stared at him again. The eyes were starting to make Percy uncomfortable.

Surprisingly, Jason stepped up, "I'm tired of it too, Perce," he said. "But if whatever this is, this next problem we're facing, we have to stop it. And it looks like only the four of us can do it." He glanced at Leo and Nico.

"Bro, you don't understand," Percy told him, "You've only had to go through one of these, I have been at the center of two, and now three. And then they've all happened back to back. It's only been a month!" he complained.

"Percy," Annabeth took her hand with his, calming him down. "We know you don't want to do this, no one in your shoes would. But it's a prophecy, there's nothing we could do to change or stop it. If we do, there will be serious consequences." she said.

Percy wished his girlfriend wasn't so good at being right all the time.

As much as he hated these things, he still cared about the world. That's where he, his mom, stepdad, his friends, and Annabeth lived, he couldn't just let it get destroyed, what would even be the point.

He still wishes that said world would stop being cruel to him though. Three prophecies back to back. He didn't get to rest from the last, last war with the Titans, let alone the latest war with the Gaia. He just wanted some damn peace, he saved the universe twice, shouldn't he get that?

Percy sighed, "Let's figure out this stupid prophecy."

Annabeth gives him an encouraging smile and gently squeezes his hand. Then she turned the Chiron. Eventually everyone did the same, asking him the silent question, 'Ok, what do you know about this one?'

As usual, the centaur's expression was blank, not giving anything away. "I'm afraid the only thing I know about this particular prophecy is that the chosen demigods will have to seek out Hecate, goddess of magic." he explained.

Piper nodded, "That's what it meant, then," she said. "'The deity of magic is needed here most', Hecate is the deity of magic."

"Correct." was all Chiron said, not elaborating after that.

"That's just great," Leo said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "She was real nice to us in the House of Hades."

"And the other lines?" Jason chimed. "'The most powerful sons of the sea, hell, fire, and sky,' I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that's Percy, Nico, Leo and me."

Unfortunately no one argued.

"Now hold on," Percy said. "Dad's got a lot of sons, maybe it wasn't talking about me this time." But he knew deep down that the prophecy was definitely talking about him.

So did everyone it seems because some people looked at him with sympathy as if 'Aww he's desperate. I really feel for him.' and the rest looked at him like, 'Aww he's desperate. What an idiot. Good luck almost dying again.'

Piper huffed, looking slightly detached, "Sooo, no girls, seriously?"

"That's a good thing," Annabeth whispered to her, loud enough for anyone to hear. A bunch of girls around them voiced agreements. Percy tried not to feel offended

Rachel cleared her throat. She looked slightly better from when she had passed out, spewing and glowing green. He still wondered why she took this job instead of living like a normal mortal teenager.

"The prophecy said you four will have to 'unite the four that don't see eye to eye.' Any ideas on what that means?" she asked the group.

"It can't be the Romans and the Greeks again," Leo said, "We just did that." He was nervously fiddling with his hands, which were intertwined with Calypso's. Percy can't help but feel weirdly proud at the sight.

"Maybe it's some of the gods and demigods?" someone suggested, they sounded like a Hermes kid.

Percy really hoped it wasn't. If their next job was to unite the gods with all of their children, as in, all of their children, their quest might as well have been about stopping the grass from being green.

Nico finally spoke up, though he looked like he didn't want to, Percy feels for the kid, ever since, well, everything. "No, it said, 'unite the four that don't see eye to eye' maybe it's four groups or four individuals that are actually enemies. I doubt they were talking about gods and demigods."

"Gods and monsters, then? Maybe demigods and mons--"

"That's literally impossible."

"Yeah. There's no way that would happen.."

"I'm just suggesting--"

"Well, it was a dumb suggestion."

Loud arguments and chatter filled the air until Chiron had to stomp his hooves to quiet the noise, "That's enough." he said, "Since we know the goddess Hecate will be involve in this, I will have to get in contact with her myself. That would take until tomorrow, so until then, we will have to wait. I would also like to add that we will have a senior head council meeting at the Big House tomorrow morning at 9 am."

The centaur glanced at the Big House like it was somewhere he really wanted to go to, "Please, enjoy the rest of the night, but return back to your cabins before curfew before the Harpies get to you. Good night children." then he walked off.

Percy didn't feel like continuing the campfire. The mood's all ruined, what, with another prophecy that could possibly end life. It looked like everyone felt the same though. But Jason, the natural leader he is, took initiative.

"So," he started. "I don't think anyone's really up for another sing a long anymore." he said.

A bunch of sad head shakes and the variations of the word 'no' was thrown his way.

"Okay then," he said, with forced cheer. "Like Chiron said, I think it's best we all go back to our cabins. We'll figure out everything in the morning. Hopefully this next quest won't be as big of a threat as the last one."

"Famous last words." Leo said, leaving by his side.

He and Annabeth were still holding hands. She squeezed it and gave him a look like, 'We'll talk about this.' And that's when it dawned on him,

Annabeth isn't joining him on this quest.

Everyone at the campfire left, returning to their cabins except for the couple. The fire was still on, the color signifying that the campers were nervous and anxious.

"I'm sorry I won't be able join you this time," Annabeth says. She wasn't meeting his eyes, just staring at the fire. Percy can't help but think she looked beautiful, with the light of fire. Her skin was glowing and her blond hair was shimmering more brightly.

"Don't be sorry," he said. "Like you said, we can't change things, serious consequences and all that."

"I know but," Annabeth bites her lip "This'll be the first time the two of us won't work with each other on a quest, then we'll be away from each other again. Plus, we have no idea what we're dealing with, what if--"

"Hey," Percy interrupted, softly "I'll be okay, if that's what you're worried about. I have a feeling this prophecy isn't as big or as long as the other ones. It actually just sounds like one quest--"

"You'll jinx it," Annabeth said, though her tone is more light.

"Just saying, also," Percy smiled, "I'll have Jason, Leo and Nico with me. You've met those guys right? You really have nothing to worry about."

"I'll still worry," she said. "If this takes longer than expected, I'm gonna hold off on going to school until you get back."

"Annabeth, no." he already felt awful having to leave her again, he doesn't want to stop her from focusing on her studies too, "This is my problem, not yours. Me not being there doesn't mean you get to stop everything. You care about school, and your grades."

"I care about you," she tightened the hold his hand. "We promised that we'll spend our senior year together, we promised that we'll spend out college years together. I'm not leaving you behind, I don't care if we'll be 23 or 30 by the time you finish. College would be nothing without you."

Percy kissed her. There's nothing in the world he wants more than to have a normal life with her. He wished they could stay like this forever, in each other's arms, enjoying each other's presence.

But it can't, he knows this.

"Gods," Annabeth said, she's smiling but it was more bittersweet. "Why can't we catch a break?" she said, as if reading his own mind.

"Right?" he said, "Do you think if we move to the moon, we'll get away from all this? Like, sure we probably won't be able to breathe air with it being space and all, but would we be away from these dumb prophecies?"

Annabeth snorted, "I'll take those chances." she, then starts to get up, "Come on, let's go back or the Harpies'll eat us,"

"But it's so comfortable here," he whined, tightening his hold on Annabeth's waist.

She rolled her eyes in turn, "You don't want a repeat from last time do you?"

Percy shuddered at the reminder, definitely do not want a repeat of a week ago. He pouted like a little kid, "Fine."

Hand in hand, they go back to their respective cabins, Annabeth kissed him goodnight.

By the time he gets to bed, dread for the senior council meeting tomorrow reached up to him.

The loud chirping of the birds made Jason want to chuck his ham sandwhich at them.

He was having a short breakfast at the Big Three table minutes before the senior council meeting. Percy was across from him, looking disheveled as if he hasn't slept a wink, eating blue pancakes. Jason feels bad but at the same time, he's glad to have been used to waking up early, all thanks to Camp Jupiter. Nico was nowhere to be seen. No doubt he was still asleep at his own cabin, Jason remembered he was never a morning person.

Suddenly, Percy groaned, banging his head on the table, his messy hair touching his plate of pancakes. (gross)

"You okay?" Jason asked despite knowing the answer.

"We're going on another probably really long quest to save the universe even though we had just been through on one a month ago. What do you think?" he replied, muffled.

"I think you're not okay."

"Yeah."

Jason sighed, he really felt awful for the guy. Percy was right about last night, he has been at the center of two big prophecies now, Jason has only endured one. And it hasn't stopped for the sea demigod since he was the age of 12.

"Look man," Jason tries, "I've already said this last night but whatever this is, we'll be able to stop it. I know I have no idea how you're feeling or going through, no one does, maybe aside from Annabeth, but it will be okay, the three of us, me, Nico and Leo, we'll have your back no matter what."

The other boy is silent for a while until, "Grace, has anyone ever told you that you should be a motivational speaker?"

Jason thought about it for a while. "A couple people, yeah."

Percy doesn't say anything after that which Jason takes as a win. A couple minutes later, they walked towards the Big House where they were met with Piper and Annabeth sitting on the porch, talking to one other in hushed whispers. They stop when they see the two of them.

"What were you girls talking about?" Percy asked, with narrowed eyes.

Piper just shrugged nonchalantly, taking Jason's hand, "You guys."

Percy turned to Jason, "Should we be worried?"

Annabeth kisses his cheek, "Nope." she said, "Come on, we have a meeting to get to."

When the four of them got there, everyone else was already present. As usual, Clovis was already fast asleep, his head down on the pong-pong table. Butch was poking at him, each poke with more force than the other. Rachel Dare was drawing on a napkin, Connor Stoll was making some kind of burrito with weird ingredients by the snack table, Pollux from the Dionysus cabin was next to him, drinking cherry coke. Clarisse la rue was boredly carving some sort of wooden spear, next to her was Will Solace, silently chatting with Nico who looked like he had just gotten out of bed. Miranda Gardiner was making a flower crown with Calypso, who was sitting in an extra chair next to Leo.

"Nice of you four to join the party," Leo said as they arrived.

"Uhm," Percy said, "No offence, but why…" he trailed off looking at Leo's left where Calypso was sitting.

Both Leo and Calypso raised an eyebrow, silently urging for him to continue

Annabeth took pity on him, "What he means is that this is a senior head council meeting. I'm sorry but you can't be here, Calypso."

Calypso looked unbothered. "Rachel is here. You will all be discussing the prophecy Leo is in, right? Don't I have the right to know what will happen with him?"

"Aww, you care about me." Leo teased, putting his arms around her shoulders.

Calypso shoved it off immediately, "I definitely do not." her tone indicating that she definitely does.

Piper hummed, "Sounds fair," as she dragged Jason to sit onto one of the chairs. Annabeth and Percy still look unsure but reluctantly sat down to their own respective seats.

A couple seconds later, Chiron walked in, well, wheeled in-- he was on his wheel chair, he came with Lou Ellen, head counselor of the Hecate cabin.

"Lou Ellen and I have contacted Hecate, she will arrive in just a moment. In the meantime, you all may talk amongst yourselves about the prophecy." Chiron said.

"I wasn't there," Clarisse grumbled, slightly bitter. She swiped her sharp knife against the wood. "I was taking care of Chuck. Hedge and Millie went out on a date somewhere, didn't want to know."

"I wouldn't want to know either," Connor said, taking a bite of his burrito.

"How is the little satyr?" Piper asked. Jason recalled her holding Chuck a little longer than some of the other campers

Clarisse glared though it didn't look like there was any fire in them, "Fine," she says. "Yells a lot for a month old."

Leo snorted, "Takes after his old man."

"Hey, I wasn't there too," Butch chimed, "One of the pegasi was sick, it was nasty. Can someone repeat the prophecy again?"

Annabeth opened her mouth to do so, but Rachel was faster. She began to recite the prophecy from last night, "The most powerful sons of the sea, hell, fire, and sky,--"

"That's me, Jason, Percy and Nico." Leo interrupted while pointing at each one of them.

Pollux, who had cherry coke dripping under his chin said, "No duh."

"Jackson?" Clarisse practically spat out. "Again?" she growled.

Percy glared at her, "I don't like this as much as you, Clarisse."

Surprisingly, the daughter of Ares smirked, "Good luck getting yourself killed again then, loser."

Percy spluttered, looking ready to charge, until Annabeth stops him by putting a hand on his shoulder and aggressively whispering something to him.

Here is when Jason realized that this was the first ever senior head council meeting he's ever attended with the son of Poseidon. He's gotten to know Clarisse before he did Percy so it was odd seeing them at each other’s throats but looking like they've known each other for years, which they have.

Chiron cleared his throat, "You may continue, Rachel dear."

Rachel looked a bit put out, but continued anyway, "--will unite the four that don't see eye to eye
Protect and fight by the Chosen One at all costs,--"

"Who's the 'chosen one'?" Connor cut in.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Will you all please just let Rachel finish the prophecy."

"It's not a bad question, Chase." Clarisse scoffed.

"You will all find out once Hecate has arrived. Now, let Rachel here finish." Chiron said.

Everyone stayed quiet, letting Rachel do the talking. She just sighed and continued without energy, "--retrieve dark powerful souls that was once lost
The deity of magic is needed here most,
current love will arrive and aid at their pending close."

"The last one," Jason said, "'current love will arrive and aid at their pending close.' does that mean…"

The demigods around the table took in Jason's unspoken question, 'does that mean the four of us will die?'

"No." Chiron said, as if reading everyone's minds, "I believe 'pending close' refers to the end of your mission, not deaths."

Percy raised an eyebrow, "And how would you know that?"

Chiron looked at him like, 'I'm thousands of years old. I know everything.' "I just do, Percy. I also have a sense that this quest won't be as big of a challenge as the last two."

Everybody relaxed at that. If Chiron says it, he must be right.

"But that line, 'current love will arrive and aid'....what does that mean, exactly?" Piper asked to the group.

Will snorted, "I thought you of all people would know what that meant, Piper." he said. "'Current love' that probably means you, Annabeth, Calypso, and..." he trailed off sheepish, not knowing what to say next. The son of Apollo sent an apologetic look towards Nico, who was glaring at him but looking like he was hiding embarrassment.

Suddenly all eyes were on the dark haired boy and Jason wants to tell them all off but he doesn't know what to say that won't lead to Nico beating him up later.

"That line could've meant a lot of things," Nico huffed, he looked like he was trying to hide using his jacket. "It didn't say romantic love, maybe it was talking about Hazel for me. It didn't say there would be multiple people who'd come and get us either. We don't even know if it is referring to a physical person."

"Yeah!" Will exclaimed, awkwardly. Nico still glared and quietly called him an idiot.

Jason will have to ask Nico about that later.

"But it would also really be great if we end up helping you guys." Annabeth said, glancing at Percy. Piper nodded next to her, agreeing.

"What about, 'retrieve dark powerful souls that was once lost' I'm guessing that'll be di Angelo's job." Clarisse said, spinning her sharp knife.

Nico scowled, "And why would you assume that?"

"Don't play dumb."

Jason intervened before it could get messy, "It's a prophecy, whatever's in it could mean absolutely anything."

"Yes."

Heads turned and saw Hecate, goddess of magic. There were sparkly dust around her as if she had just magically teleported from another place. She looked the same as Jason had remembered, with long black hair, wearing a red Greek toga, a crown on her head, and a serious yet cool expression on her face.

Everyone from the table stood up and knelt (except for Clovis who was still asleep) the Argo II crew did so later than the rest. Their last interaction with her bringing back painful memories.

"Hecate," Chiron said, "Long time no see, welcome to Camp Half Blood."

Hacate nodded at the centaur, "I must apologize for my late arrival. I had to make some quick arrangements for the quest of these young demigods as I was only alerted about it earlier." she said the last part pointedly.

"Well, we were only alerted about it last night, you see. Would you like to take a seat?"

The goddess wrinkled her nose, "No, that's alright, this will be quick."

"You're actually gonna help us on this quest?" Percy asked, a little rudely. They were all back on their seats. Some people looked uncomfortable at what Percy had just said, Annabeth even nudged him.

Jason thinks his friend definitely shouldn't have said that but he can't say he blames him either. A god helping them? Like, actually helping them? No riddles, no mind games, no favors, she's gonna help them? Just like that? It just seemed to farfetched.

Hecate narrowed her eyes, "You won't be able to do your quest without me, demigod."

"What he meant was," Piper chimed. "We just have a hard time believing it, since, most gods or goddesses don't help us unless they themselves get something out of it."

That should've made it worse. Weirdly, it didn't.

"I am getting something out of it, Piper McLean." the goddess said. "The magic of my land and children are at stake."

Everyone looked at Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate with shock and concern.

"Not those children." Hecate sighed. "But before I continue, all of you must swear on the River Styx that what is about to be said in this room, stays in this room. The information I am about to give is sacred, not known by most mortals and even most gods. Understand?"

She looked around the room—evey one was nodding, anxiously and swearing on the River Styx-- but she stopped. Her expression turned to confusion, then slightly angry, and then it was back to neutral, as if it hadn't change at all.

Jason turned and realized she had been looking at Calypso. He felt stupid for not thinking about it, Calypso sided with the Titans in the first war, Hecate did not. He's now wondering how there hasn't been some sort of using powers to the death yet. Maybe Hecate somehow knew Calypso's changed her mind about the Titans.

"Now," Hecate said, her expression blank. "For thousands of years, there has been a civilization, almost similar to ours, hiding. They have magic, magic that came from me, though, they don't exactly know about that."

She continued to explain that these magic people were called witches and wizards, and that yes, they exist. But they're very different from the Hecate kids we know. They channel their powers through sticks, no, wands, using spells and hexes. Jason had a vague idea on what witches and wizards were and they fit Hecate’s description of them (almost)

"So, does that mean we'll be disguising as one of these wizard people? That sounds pretty cool, actually." Leo said.

"You four won't be disguising as wizards, you will be one." While she said this, Hecate was giving Leo a nasty look, probably because he was holding hands with Calypso.

"Wait, wait wait, what do you mean, we'll be one?" Percy asked, his face looking slightly horrified.

"Do not worry," Hecate said, sensing Percy's displeasure. "It will only be temporary."

She began to talk about a place in Scotland called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Apparently, that's where they will be spending most of their mission on because that's where their target was at-- the 'chosen one', and the 'dark powerful soul', everyone, including Jason was shocked she said that outright. She also thinks that their mission might take -

"Nine months?!" Percy and Annabeth screamed in protest at the same time, startling everyone.

Hecate raised an eyebrow, unfazed. "Will that be a problem?"

"Will that be a problem?" Percy repeated. "Of course it will be a problem, that's too long!"

Chiron tried to calm him down, "Percy--"

"And all for, what, protecting some 'chosen one', whoever that guy is, can't these magical people just take care of themselves? It's their world on the line, why does it have to be the four us?" he continued, ignoring the centaur.

"He's got a point." Nico said. "Why us?"

Hecate pursed her lips, "While I don't know the exact reason why the Oracle of Delphi has chosen the four of you specifically, I can say that I do have faith in you all to save my land." she said, "I have seen what all of you could do and I'm confident that you will have what it takes to come out of this quest successful."

It was quiet after that. Of course it was. The goddess of magic just complimented them. Percy, Leo, Jason, Nico and indirectly the Argo II. That doesn't happen often.

"As for the comment about my wizard and witches not being able to take the matters themselves," she glared at Percy. "They can. However, the destruction of their world will affect also us gods and mortals. Luckily, their threat has not yet risen, it is your job to stop it as my people cannot."

"Why can't they?" Jason asked uncertainly.

"As I've mentioned earlier, these people do not know of my existence, and it should be kept that way. The same reason why mere mortals cannot know about gods and goddesses. They won't be able to stop it because they themselves do not even know that he is close to living again."

"What you're saying is that this threat of theirs was already dead, but now he's coming back to life to destroy their civilization?" Nico hypothesized. "Why does that keep happening?"

Jason noticed Leo shift uneasily when Nico said the 'coming back to life' part.

"Indeed." Hecate said. "And while you are still hesitant on doing this quest," she pointedly glanced at Percy, "I have a proposition that I'm sure any of you won't be able to pass on."

The son of the sea god rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah? What?"

"I can ensure that the Oracle of Delphi won't be including you four to any more quests or prophecies after you have completed this one."

Percy perked up at that. Actually, everyone perked up at that. Connor dropped his burrito (he's still eating that?)

"You could do that?" Annabeth asked, wide eyed and hopeful.

Hecate nodded. If Jason knew any better, he would've thought the goddess looked smug, as if she'd caught one of her children stealing from the cookie jar.

"I guess your offer doesn’t sound so bad," Percy mumbled. "But can you ensure that none of us will die on this quest?"

Hecate tilted her head, "It is a quest, demigod. I cannot ensure such thing."

He deflated at that. Jason had the urge to tell him, 'Dude, what were you expecting?' but he didn't.

"We've taken up too much time," Hecate sighed as she summoned two of her torches. "You four, come." she gestured at them to stand up and come forward.

"Uh...why?" Leo asked, backing up slightly even though he was sitting on a chair.

Hecate gave him a look like, 'Less questions, or else meet eternal doom'

Jason was the first one up front. Not wasting any time, Hecate immediately used her powers on him. He suddenly felt a surge of magic go through his whole body. It wasn't like his powers from Jupiter, the ones he was born with, this was different. He looked at his palms, for some reason anticipating some sort of glow of magic to come out of it. There wasn't.

He didn't notice everyone gaping at him until Lou Ellen spoke up, "Um, mom, what did you do to him?"

"Jason? Are you okay?" Piper stood up and walked up to him checking his hands, face full of concern.

"I'm okay," he said quickly. He didn't want to worry Piper over something that's not worth worrying about. "Just felt... weird. Good weird."

"You're a wizard, Jason Grace." Hecate said. "Temporarily, at the very least. Let us hurry this up." she told the other three.

Leo obliged instantly, then he was hit by bright red magic. Jason now understood why they looked so concerned for him earlier. The spell looked creepy. Percy and Nico took a little bit of convincing from Chiron, “Are you sure that's safe?”

Once Hecate was done turning them into wizards, (Jason never thought he'd use that sentence) she summoned four scrolls of parchment paper-- much like she did with her torches-- in front of them. They dropped theirs to the floor except for Jason, who had quick reflexes.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Supply list:

Uniform: Three sets of work robes, one pointed hat one pair of protective gloves [additional: tie and scarf]

Other equipment: one wand, one cauldron ....

Jason raised an eyebrow at the goddess, "Wizard school supplies?"

Leo snorted as if what Jason had said was a joke. "No way, lemme see." he said, picking up the parchment he didn't catch from the ground. Everyone else tried to take a peek of their parchment.

"Yes." Hecate said, "As well as a guide and the addresses you will need to go to."

"Addresses?"  Nico asked. He was swatting a Will Solace who was trying to get a look of his scroll.

"You'll see." she said, "Now, I know how much you demigods like communicating with your friends, love ones, families, which I cannot fathom myself--"

"Thanks, I guess." Lou Ellen mumbled.

"--but I have taken upon myself to give you these." She then summoned a coin for each of them. "An unlimited drachma."

Jason looked at the coin in his hand in amazement. Though it looked like a regular drachma.

"I thought those were just a legend." Butch said, looking jealous. Jason noticed everybody was also looking at their coins with greed in their eyes.

"Let's just say I won a bet with Iris." she said. Jason thought she was joking but she said it very serious. "I am the only one known to have the possession of such thing. The reason of my late arrival, I've talked with Iris and she has agreed you all access until the quest is finished."

"Tell her thanks." Percy said, looking between the coin and Annabeth. He visibly looked less grumpy than before.

"I will not." Hecate said, though her tone was light. "That is everything. I've done all I could do to help. I give you all my best wishes and hope that you will not fail me."

"That's very nice of you." Leo said, faking gratefulness.

Chiron waved him off, "Thank you Hecate, for your assistance." he bowed. Everyone did the same, some not as enthusiastically as others.

Hecate disappeared before they could blink.

"That ladies and gentlemen," Lou Ellen sighed, gesturing at the empty space where Hecate had dissolved , "Is my mother."

~

Leo loved Calypso... but not enough to fight a goddess of magic.

Sure, he died, and then came back to life for her, but Hecate was terrifying, and a god. Leo thought he would've died just by the murderous look she was giving him throughout that meeting. He may have done a number of questionable decisions but he's not stupid enough to fight an immortal goddess.

He looked around the room, mostly everyone had left already. He and Calypso were the only ones still sitting by the ping pong table. Except for Clovis, who was still asleep. (someone should really wake the guy up.)

"Cousin of yours?" Leo asked, he meant it as a joke but Calypso's face should be enough of an answer.

"Sort of?" she said. "She's the granddaughter of Koios."

"Big Titan dude."

"Yep." her hand was on the ping pong table, tapping nervously. "I'm surprised she didn't blast me to bits, given y'know.."

"You supporting the big evil monsters during the first war?"

She scowled, "Yes, that."

"Maybe she somehow knew you were one of the good guys now." he said. "Did you two have some sort of history?"

Calypso thought about it for a moment, "I don't recall ever speaking to her directly, no." she said, "But she is definitely angry with me for siding with my father."

"Yeah, I think that was obvious enough." he grumbled. "Wanna grab a bite? It's lunch time and I want to get there before they run out of those cheeseburgers."

She wrinkled her nose, "I will never understand why you mortals would willingly destroy your own body for something so mediocre as a cheeseburger."

"Hey!" Leo put his hand on his chest for offence. "Camp Half Blood's cheeseburgers are amazing and plus, you're a mortal now too." he bumped his shoulder with hers as they were walking out.

"Yes, or so you keep reminding me." she rolled her eyes.

It was a surprise to both of them when they found out. Once he and Calypso fled from Ogygia, she immediately said she had started feeling weak. Leo tried giving her ambrosia but then her lips started to burn before she could even swallow. That's when they found out an immortal goddess had turned into a human mortal. Leo's just glad she didn't turn into her real age.

Once they got out of the Big House, they were stopped by Jason. "Hey man. Meeting at Percy's cabin after lunch. We're gonna talk figure out a plan for the quest."

"Yeah, okay." Leo said. "Can I bring Cal?"

Jason gave Calypso a hesitant look, "Um, sure."

"That's alright," she waved it off. "I promised to help the Demeter cabin with their strawberry farm anyway."

"Oh, okay." Jason said. "But if you ever change your mind, you'll always be welcome."

"Sure." she replied with a hint of sarcasm.

The son of Jupiter left, leaving Leo and Calypso to walk to the dining pavilion in silence.

Calypso spoke up, "I don't think your friends like me very much."

"Whaaaat?" Leo said immediately. He noticed their discomfort around her too. He doesn't usually get sad, but his friends not liking his (only ever) girlfriend makes him sad. He sighed, "Look, they're probably just not used to you yet. It's been what? A week? They'll warm up to you in no time."

He can't be mad at his friends for it. Apparently Calypso had cursed Annabeth when they were in Tartarus. Calypso had apologized and said she was just upset at the time. Leo himself was a bit iffy about it when he first heard about it but Annabeth seemed to have recovered, Calypso's been trying to be nice around her to make up for it.

"Hope you're right." she sent him a small smile. The sight made Leo's heart skip a beat despite dating for almost two weeks.

He only grinned in turn. They ate. Calypso kept glancing at Leo's cheeseburgers, he honestly can't tell if the look on her face was distaste or desire. She looked at Leo the same way. Eventually, they separated. Calypso kissed him, it was great. Then finally, Leo headed for Cabin 3.

He's never been at the Poseidon cabin. It was similar to Zeus' cabin, small or at least smaller that than the other cabins, less beds, and messy, but that was probably because of the occupant. As expected, Jason, Percy, and Nico were there. But so were Annabeth and Piper. Leo suddenly felt regret for not annoying Calypso into joining, but then he realized Nico didn't have someone. Leo knew how that felt more than anyone and is now glad he didn't bring Calypso. Even if the kid has been a class-A jerk to him.

"Hey Leo." Percy said absently. He was sitting next to Annabeth on his bed. She was squinting at one of the scrolls Hecate gave them earlier.

"Hey," Leo replied. "So what's up?"

"We're leaving tomorrow apparently." Jason said. He was sprawled on the floor holding the parchment on the air, Nico was sitting cross-legged by his right.

Leo looked at his best friend incredulously, "Did I hear that right? Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow." Piper said. She didn't look happy about it either. "The Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry starts on the 1st of September, that's two days from now."

Percy snorted, "I think we should just call the place Hogwarts. I mean, that was a mouthful and I wasn't even the one talking." he said.

"Agreed." Leo said. He went over to the bed Piper was sitting on and sat on the end. He took out his own scroll. "Any idea on how we'll get to Scotland by tomorrow?"

"Shadow-travel." Nico affirmed immediately.

Annabeth furrowed her brows, "I thought Will banned you from shadow-travelling for two months." Weirdly enough, Jason snickered.

Nico glared at Jason and gave Annabeth a weird look, "How do you-- you know what, never mind. It doesn't matter, Solace will just have to deal with it. It's not like we have a choice anyway. We have to get to Scotland by tomorrow and we have to be early since we need to buy the supplies --"

"Wizard school supplies." Leo chuckled, "We went through a war against Mother Earth, I didn't think it'd get more bizarre than that."

"Not gonna lie, I'm kinda jealous," Piper said. "I've always wanted to be a wizard, or witch, you know, with the magic wand, the flying broom, the black cat."

Jason laughed lightheartedly, "Really?"

Leo winced playfully, "Great, now I'm imagining you with green makeup and a pointy hat." Piper stuck her tongue out at both of them.

"Looks like these guys will be achieving your dreams for you, Pipes." Annabeth said while reading the parchment. "Look at this, 'one wand, one cauldron, one telescope, one set of potion bottles' ," she went on, "'Students may also bring an owl or a cat or a toad.'"

Percy asked, "Is fish an option?"

"I don't think so." Annabeth said. Percy pouted.

"Why would anyone want a toad?" Jason questioned.

"Hey man," Leo defended, "I used to catch toads in Houston. They may be ugly on the outside but they're actually pretty smart."

"Reminds me of you." Piper said. Leo made sounds of offence

"Anyway," Nico chimed. "the quest?"

"Right." Jason recovered. "So in the prophecy, it mentioned that we'd have to retrieve dark powerful souls. But when Hecate talked about that line, she said it like we were only looking for one person, the guy who came back to life. Even though it said ‘souls’."

"Maybe the dark souls are his helpers." Annabeth theorized, "Kind of like with Kronos and Gaia, they had people help them come back to life."

"I'll ask my dad if he knows anything about him." Nico said, twisting the ring on his finger. "The guy cheated death, I'm sure he's already on Hades' watch-out list."

Some of them warily glanced at Leo. If Nico noticed, he didn't show it. Leo knows he wasn't that happy for his return. He tried not to take it too personally, it's not like they were close. Leo's sure he has his reasons, being the son of the dead and all. Ever since they had saved Nico from that bronze jar, Leo's been unsettled by him. Which is probably stupid because di Angelo's younger, and tinier but that somehow made him scarier in Leo's eyes. Doesn't help that the guy always looked at him like he was contemplating his murder.

Percy stretched his arms like a cat, "So, uh, are we good now? I wanna get some shut eye."

Piper raised an eyebrow, "It's two in the afternoon."

"Doesn't matter, I need my beauty sleep." Leo could tell from a while ago that Percy didn't get much sleep last night. But he'll probably get to relax more now that he knows that this next quest will be his last.

"Hold on, we need to go over your guys' plan first." Annabeth said, palms up. "Piper and I won't be able to help you guys for this quest but I wanna make sure now that you boys have it handled."

"We do have it handled," Percy kissed his girlfriend's head. "Do you not trust us?"

"No."

He grinned, "Harsh."

"Hecate basically formed the plan for us, see." Jason said, tapping at the parchment paper. "She gave us a guide. Step one; go to Scotland—we’re gonna use shadow-travel for that--, two; find a place called Leaky Cauldron and check in-- I'm guessing it's a hotel of some kind--, three; find a place called Diagon Ally, go to a bank called Gringotts and ask for Vault 1 --Hecate gave us a key for that--; four; Diagon Ally has many shops, that's where we'll find the supples we need for Hogwarts, five; on September one, we have to go King's Cross, platform 9 1/3, a train will take us to Hogwarts. After that, everything is up to us."

Everyone nodded, except for Percy who was already fast asleep on Annabeth's lap. Leo wished he was him-- not because he was laying on Annabeth's lap-- but because Jason's talk made him sleepy too.

Annabeth was playing with her boyfriend's hair, but she looked worried, "But what about the dark souls? The 'chosen one'? Who will you guys have to unite?--"

"We'll figure out everything once we get there." Nico said. "It's a prophecy, Annabeth. Everything will all just fit into place."

Annabeth still looked hesitant. Piper comforted her, "It's going to be alright, these guys aren't as dumb as you think." She probably used Charmspeak because Leo now thinks the four of them aren’t actually that dumb as he thought.

"Yeah!" Leo enthusiastically agreed. "So are we good now? Can I leave? I need to pack some essentials, We're leaving tomorrow, people!"

Jason sighed, "Yes, you can leave now, Leo." he stood up. "I need to take care of some things too. Piper?"

Piper took his hand. "Yeah. Oh, and by the way," she addressed Leo and Nico as well. "The Aphrodite and Athena cabins are going to throw a going away party for you guys. Seven o'clock, sharp. Don't be late." They all said their goodbyes to Annabeth and an unconscious Percy.

"And what if we don't go at all?" Nico drawled. He was walking out with the three of them.

"Then I will have someone physically drag you out of your cabin." Piper gave him a look like, 'Try me. You'll regret it.'

For some reason, Nico flushed. Leo thought that looked unnatural.

"Party sounds good." Leo said instead. "I hope there's cheeseburgers."

~

The going away part was okay, but it had too much attention drawn on himself much to Nico's liking.

He had to leave early. Piper insisted he stayed a little bit longer but he used the fact that he had to shadow-travel four people tomorrow morning as an excuse. Which was true, but that's not the reason he wanted to leave.

There were too many people. All of the campers had joined in including the satyrs, the nymphs and nyriads. Since the party was about the quest-takers, most of the attention was on them. Nico didn't like it. To make matters worse, Will wasn't there. He hated to say it, but Will had a way of calming Nico down when it came to camp gatherings. But according to Kayla, he apparently had an emergency to take care of.

Nico turned his back to close the door of his cabin and then suddenly felt a twinge of cold air at the back of his neck.

"Father."

Sure enough, Hades was standing near his bed, looking at the coffin in disdain.

"Not my idea." Nico immediately said. The last thing he wanted is his dad judging his taste on interior decorating. They've already had a similar conversation before.

Hades looked like he was trying to hide a smirk, "I didn't think so, no." he said. "I don't recall you having any interest in Vampires."

Nico didn't know what to say to that. "Sorry, what are you doing here?" he asked. But as soon as he said that, he suddenly remembered the meeting they had a while ago.

His dad raised an eyebrow, "Am I wrong to presume you will be needing my assist on your quest?"

Nico blinked. "How did you even know about that?" He hasn't asked for his help yet. He actually forgot all about it until now.

"You are my son. I keep an eye on all of my children. Especially if they are to go on a quest such as yours." he said.

"Right." Nico replied, unconvinced. He crossed his arms, "What do you know?"

"I am a god. What don't I know?"

"You know what I mean." Nico rolled his eyes, "Who's the death cheater we're supposed to catch?"

"Ironic choice of words."

"What?"

"The man you are looking for is Tom Marvolo Riddle," he finally said. "He is widely known as and goes by Lord Voldemort."

"Voldermort?" Nico scoffed, "Doesn't that name mean 'fight from death' in French? Real creative of him."

"Yes," Hades said, obvious displeasure in his voice, Nico knows he's not the cause of it. "Riddle himself isn't even French."

"Who is he exactly?" Nico asked, curious. "And how'd he die the first time?"

Hades regarded him for a while, "He was a dark wizard."

"Unsurprising."

"Yes, I only wish these kind of people would stop giving 'dark' a bad name." Hades sighed, "But he, Riddle, was very powerful. He tried to achieve immortality and essentially succeeded. Then he started the ‘First Wizarding War’ back in the 70's. His goal in the war was to wipe out all existence of muggle-borns and half-bloods, which is very interesting considering--"

"Wait a minute, half-blood? Like, us?" Nico interrupted, gaping. "Also, what's a muggle-born?" Ever since he had found out about this secret society, he had been dying to know more about it. But he didn’t know where he could look for information.

"You haven't asked these much questions since you were the age of ten." he responded lightly, lips quirking up slightly.

Nico scowled at his father, annoyed. "I'm just trying to get as much information as I can." And also trying not kick punch you in the face.

"Of course," but he didn't look convinced. "First you have to know that witches and wizards have existed for many centuries. Pure-bloods, they call themselves, are mortal families whose blood is as the name has suggested, pure. They have no muggle or muggle-born relatives. Now, Muggles are what their world calls mortals who have no magic abilities. You my son, are a Muggle, at least before Hecate did her magic on you. While muggle-borns, are what they call mortals who were born magic abilities but neither of their parents would be wizards or witches. And half-bloods are--"

"Half pure-blood, half-muggle or muggle-born?" Nico guessed.

Hades nodded, "You’re fast learner." he observed. "Though I must ask you to stop interrupting me. It's not very polite."

"Whatever." he couldn't give less of damn what his father thought. "From what I've heard, I'm gathering that, Voldemort's racist prick, a supremacist, and basically started genocide."

"Correct." Hades said. "The hardest part of your mission will be defeating him, as he is almost immortal."

"Almost immortal?" Nico asked, squinting.

"Horcruxes." his father answered. "Are you familiar?"

Nico suddenly felt like cold water had been dumped on him. "How many?"

"Originally, there were eight, now seven. One of them had been destroyed two years ago and one of them is Riddle himself."

"And our mission is to find the other seven." Nico rubbed his head, he feels a headache coming in. "How do we destroy them?"

"That," Hades said. "is up to you and your companions."

Nico held back a groan, he should've known better than to push his luck with Hades, even if he was his dad. "Can you at least tell me how he died the first time?"

Hades was about to answer, or give another irritatingly vague response, Nico wouldn't know because a knock on the door interrupted their chat.

"Were you expecting company?" Hades looked at him expectedly.

"No I wasn't," Nico said quickly. He was gonna kick whoever was behind that door. "Just ignore it. What were you about to say?"

Hades was continued, "Riddle was k--"

"Nico?"

Nico froze. He recognized the voice, that voice infuriated him constantly. He hopes to the gods that Will won't do something stupid-- like opening that door.

"It definitely seems like you are expecting company." Hades said. "Though I am not familiar with that voice. Have you made new friends?"

Nico wishes he could shadow-travel to Australia and never come back. He's always found koalas fascinating. But then he remembered his dad was a god and Will Solace was on the other side of that door. The idea seemed not so good anymore.

"Nico! Nico, you okay in there?" Will's muffled voice said.

"Get out." Nico told his father. Usually, when he uses that phrase, it's threatening. This time is more tired and pleading.

Hades, unimpressed said, "And why--"

Nico hears a click. Next thing he knew, his right side was pushed against the black door, his arm probably bruised from the impact, trying to keep the door shut. He hears Will's "Ow! what-- Nico? what's going on there?"

Much to Nico's dismay, Hades looked amused, Nico wanted to wipe it off by punching it. Instead, Nico made a shoo-ing, 'get out of here already', gesture with his free hand.

Then the lord of the Underworld rolled his eyes at him-- no, his own father rolled his eyes at him, and then dissolved into the shadows.

Once he was gone, Nico opened the door, where Will almost hit him with his fist. Luckily, Nico ducked in time.

"What the hell, Solace?"

Will had the nerve to look embarrassed. He scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry. What were you doing?"

"What was I doing? What are you doing?" Nico asked, frustrated. He opened the door completely. Will was in his infirmary clothes, he was wearing the usual green surgeon shirt with cargo shorts and flip flops. Someone should really hire the guy a stylist.

"I wanted to talk to you before your quest tomorrow." was Will's answer, still looking sheepish.

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Couldn't you have just waited until tomorrow? You know, when I actually leave?"

"Ah," Weirdly, Will's expression turned a little sad. "I can't. I'm going back to Austin tomorrow morning. I'll only be there a couple days, my mom's sick."

"Oh." Nico frowned, "Is she okay?" he didn't want to use his powers to check, he feared he might regret it.

"She'll be fine." he gave a reassuring smile. Nico thought it was stupid considering it was his mom that was sick. "Yeah, so that's why I needed to talk to you now, did I interrupt something?" he peaked his blond head inside Nico's cabin.

Nico blocked his view. He wanted so badly to yell, 'Yes! My dad was about to give me very important information! I didn't get it. No thanks to you.' but he figured it wouldn't be a such good idea at the moment.

"No." Nico said instead, hoping it doesn't sound like a lie. "What did you want?"

Suddenly, Will took both of his hands, making Nico's heart stop.

What's he doing? Will's hands were warm and gently holding his, slightly calloused from all of the work he's been doing. His pale blue eyes were on him, focused and determined, Nico didn't understand anything that was happening.

All of a sudden, Nico felt a charge of energy go through him. He felt energized, like he could do 100 jumping-jacks in a matter of two minutes, or run to Sacramento with nothing but a bottle of water. He looked at Will with wide eyes, "What the- Will, what did you do?!"

Will looked the opposite of what Nico felt. He had to stabilize the healer to keep him from almost passing out, his skin was paler than his hair, and his eyes were half-lidded.

"Will?" Nico repeated sternly, patting the other boy's cheek.

Will recovered quickly after that. "I'm alright, I'm alright."

"You're not alright." Nico scolded, hiding his worry. "What the hell did you do?"

Will let go of his hands. Nico felt a little disappointed and noted his hands suddenly felt cold from the loss. Then he inwardly cursed himself for feeling that way.

"I lent you some of my energy for your trip tomorrow." Will said like it was obvious.

Nico scrunched his eyebrows, "Why would you do that?" he didn't bother to ask how he even did it, probably some healer thing.

The blonde looked at him like he was a dolt. "Because you'll be shadow-travelling tomorrow, duh." he replied. "I know how much it takes a lot out of you. The energy I gave you will most likely prevent you from blacking out after-- not one, but three trips." he said the last part grinning.

Nico was stunned. He knew Will probably did it for the sake of the quest, but it was still one of the nicest things someone's ever done for him. But at the same time, he felt like Will did it for him, as his friend of course. It's definitely not out of character for the son of Apollo.

But what came out of his mouth was, "You're an idiot."

Will grinned even wider, "You're welcome." he said. "My one request is that you use that unlimited drachma of yours and Iris message me, as soon as you get to wizard school."

"Hogwarts." Nico corrected. He took a deep breath, "Okay. I mean, I was gonna IM you as soon as I got there anyway." he added hesitantly.

His grin turned soft, the sight made Nico let out a small smile himself. Then in one swift motion, Will leaned down and softly kissed him on the cheek.

Nico felt his brain short-circuit.

"'til we meet again, Nico di Angelo." he said, backing up, smiling obnoxiously. That sentence completely snapped Nico out of the moment. Will Solace was a gigantic, cheesy, dork.

He rolled his eyes, “Whatever, Solace.”

He hoped his face wasn’t as red as it felt.

The other boy waved goodbye, walking away with ease. Nico watched him go, with his heart doing somersaults. He hesitantly touched the place Will had kissed him on.

Gods damnit.

Chapter Text

For once, Jason didn't want to wake up early.

He usually does so, at around four or five, to jog and occasionally practice sparring. It's a habit he picked up from Camp Jupiter. But he wished he didn't have such a good sleep schedule, now that they were heading to a place that's unknown territory.

He and Annabeth tried to do some digging on the so called secret Wizarding World last night and surprise-surprise, they found absolutely nothing.

Once he got out of his cabin, he jumped as he saw Percy already standing by, looking energetic. It was a huge contrast to how he appeared last morning. Jason will bet he looked the same as Percy did at that time.

"Morning, bro." Percy said, eating an apple.

Jason screwed his eyes shut at the bright sunlight and put on his glasses. What time was it?

Percy munched. "Eight fifteen." Jason hadn't realized he asked that out loud. He appreciated his friend's response nonetheless.

Then he realized what the other boy had just said. "Wait. Eight fifteen?" he widen his eyes. "We agreed to leave at eight thirty! Why didn't you wake me up?"

The sea demigod shrugged, "Didn't want to wake you, dude. We have fifteen minutes anyway."

Jason stared at him in exasperation, "And in those fifteen minutes, we'd have to leave."

Percy shrugged again. Noticing that he was just doing it to annoy him, Jason flipped him off and then headed to the Aphrodite cabin.

Piper was already outside, talking to one her little brothers. His heart ached as he realized this was going to be the last time he'll see her in person for a very long time. When she saw him walking towards her, she shooed her brother telling him she'll talk to him later.

Jason began, "Hey--" he didn't get to finish because Piper kissed him. He heard gagging noises in the background (Piper's siblings, probably) but he ignored it.

Once Piper pulled away, she said, "I think we should go somewhere with less creepers." she shouted the last word pointedly.

They chose a spot behind Zeus' cabin to talk. Jason had no idea how it was gonna go. He and Piper have never been away from one another for a long time. Maybe a couple weeks? Definitely not nine months.

"I'll really miss seeing you in person." Jason said, deciding not to jump around the fence.

Piper gave him a soft smile, "Me too." she said. "Iris messaging won't be the same."

"I know." he looked at her color-changing eyes. He's always found them pretty. He'll miss them too. "But I'll still call you every night, like I promised."

"We'll see." She said, patting the side of his neck. "It's a quest, Jace. Not a vacation."

"Yeah," He smiled. "But how am I supposed to know how you're doing? Wait, are you staying at camp all-year round?"

"Yep." she popped the 'p'. "With Annabeth. We're both skipping this school year."

"Pipes--"

"We'll go to school together next year." she firmly said.

Jason somehow knew she was using Charmspeak on him but he didn't care. "Okay."

The she kissed him again. "C'mon. You have a trip to catch." she asked, "Have you packed?"

"I'm not that unprepared." he chuckled. "It's in my cabin."

"I'll help."

They grabbed his stuff from Zeus' cabin. Then they headed to the dining pavilion where they saw Percy and Annabeth bickering and Leo with his arms around Calypso. Both boys had backpacks on their shoulders.

"Took you long enough." Percy said.

Jason glared, "Could've taken me less if you had just waked me up."

The son of Poseidon just shrugged at him again. Jason was tempted to push him off his chair.

Annabeth looked around the pavilion, "Where's Nico?" she said, "You guys can't do this without him."

"Probably in his cabin still," Percy said, stating the obvious.

"Nico usually wakes up at around noon," Jason groaned. "You guys didn't check on him?"

Leo shuddered, "I think the guy would actually murder me to the next Wednesday if I did that. Why didn't you do it?"

Jason was about to tell him, 'Because I just woke up too!' but Kayla Knowles from the Apollo cabin addressed their group

"You guys looking for Nico?" she asked, brows furrowed. "He's been waiting for y'all in Half-Blood hill since this morning."

"What? Why?" Jason asked. "We didn't ask him to meet us there. Did we?"

"Technically, we didn't ask him to meet us anywhere." Percy pointed out.

Annabeth flicked his forehead and glared at the three boys, "This is what happens when you don't plan things out."

Kayla shrugged, "Just saw him there when I checked in the infirmary."

"Thanks, Kayla." Piper said. She gestured at them, "Let's go already. You boys don't want to keep Nico waiting."

"I'd have to get going," Calypso expressed. Leo looked disappointed but it quickly went away when she kissed his cheek. "Good luck Leo Valdez."

Piper, under her breath, whispered, "Cute pet name."

They went to Half Blood Hill, occasionally chatting on the way. Percy talked about his mom Sally, how she was slightly angry at him for not calling sooner and, the fact that she wouldn't see him for another year. Jason really felt for the woman. Luckily, she was sympathetic and understood how important their mission was.

"Once you guys are done with this quest, we'd love to meet her." said Piper. Jason and Leo agreed.

Percy smiled at them while Annabeth said, "Who says you have to wait until their quest is done? We could visit her next week if you'd like." Piper beamed.

"Eat plenty of blue cookies for me." Percy told them. Leo whispered something about a cookie monster.

They reached the hill to see Nico standing in the grass, looking a bit fidgety like he had a lot of energy but he didn't know what to do, he spotted them and scowled, "What took you guys so long?"

Leo grinned. "Jace here forgot to set an alarm clock."

The son of Zeus glared but then looked at Nico with a confused expression, "How long have you been here?"

"I don't know, like, five?" he ignored their bewildered faces. "Doesn't matter, I got some info from Hades last night."

Everyone was silent as Nico explained.

"Voldemort? that's fight from death in French," Piper had said.

Nico nodded, "But his real name is Tom Riddle."

"So let me get this straight," Annabeth rubbed her closed eyelids. "You four are being sent to a magical school and while in this school, you'd have to find these soul jars, destroy them, and also kill a dark wizard lord?"

"We don't really know where these horcruxes are." Nico said. "They could be in the school, they could be somewhere else. The hardest part will be actually destroying them."

"Do we know what these horcruxes look like?" Jason asked, Nico evidently shook his head.

Percy sighed. "This is great."

"So great." Leo agreed.

It worried Jason more that not even Percy and Leo could find the humor in this situation. But who could blame them.

Annabeth crossed her arms and stomped on her boot in frustration. "I hate this. If I could help you guys on this quest--."

"You can, Wise Girl," Percy put an arm around her and pulled out a coin from his pocket, showing it to her. "I'll keep you updated. You are the reason I haven't been put in a coffin and buried three feet under yet. Like, literally."

The blonde smiled wryly. "And don't you forget it."

Nico clapped, trying to get everyone's attention. "So are we done? or are we gonna have to go through emotional goodbyes first?"

Jason rolled his eyes. Piper strolled over to Nico and hugged him tightly, mocking him as she ignored his growls of protests. Once Piper let him go, Percy moved but quickly backed away from Nico's 'Don't even think about it.'

They actually did do emotional goodbyes, with Jason, Piper, Leo and (reluctantly) Nico, Percy, Annabeth each having group hugs respectively. Leo ruining the moment with a three-way joke. Then the quest-takers took each other's hands, Nico actually switching places when he realized Leo was next to him.

"You sure you can do this, Nico?" Percy asked, just now apparently realizing what they were doing. "Remember last time--"

Nico smiled thinly, then dissolved them into the shadows.

~

Percy hated shadow-traveling then, and he definitely did not like shadow-traveling now.

He let go of their hands and doubled over, his breakfast this morning threatening to escape his stomach. From the corner of his eye, he sees Leo duck his head inside a fancy looking fountain and Jason in the same hunch-back position as him.

All while Nico looked perfectly fine.

Weirdly enough, he was mumbling to himself, shaking his head looking slightly.. impressed. "That son of a..."

"Nico! - what the Hades, man?" Percy grumbled at him.

"I don't remember it being this bad." Jason said, wide-eyed while clutching his stomach. Leo gestured in agreement, his head still in the fountain. Percy would've scolded him for probably ruining the water inside with vomit of all things but he didn't have the energy.

"The nausea experienced during shadow-traveling usually depends on how far our destination is." the Italian explained. "We just shadow-traveled from Long Island to London, no doubt you guys are.. like that."

Leo, finally looking up said, "Couldn't we have stopped by some places and taken breaks? I hear Iceland is lovely this time a month."

Nico patted invisible dust off his shoulder. "I wanted to try something."

"You -- and we, could've died, Nico." Mama bear Grace breathed out. Though, Percy would have to agree. He heard what happened with the Athena Parthenon from the Apollo kids.

Nico rolled his eyes, "You guys are babies. We're all fine. Look-- we're here." he pointed at something above.

Percy saw a sign that said 'Leaky Cauldron' with it, a building with a creepy medieval aesthetic. He heard Leo audibly shiver.

Wordlessly, Nico went in and they had no choice but to follow. Jason looking at him like, 'Did we vote him quest leader?' Percy sent him back a look, 'I don't know, does it matter?'

The place looked as old as it did outside, Percy wouldn't have guessed it was a motel.

"Geez, what century are we in?" Leo mumbled.

They followed Nico to a desk, where some old guy was working at. Once they were on his side Nico looked at Percy expectantly. Percy blinked at him.

After a few moments he quickly realized he was the oldest of the group, he'd have to check them into the motel since the old man probably won't listen to fourteen and fifteen year olds.

Gods he wished Annabeth were here.

He cleared his throat, "Sir, could we uh get like-- rooms, for one night, sir, wait- you guys have those here right?" Nico sighed.

The old man raised an eyebrow, the man looked so creepy Percy thought he could've been a monster in disguise. "You lot got a reservation?"

"Um, no."

"Guardian?"

Percy looked around awkwardly, "No sir. I'm eighteen." he lied. It was close enough right? He can pass for eighteen.

Apparently he did, because the old man pulled out a quill and parchment paper, and some old keys. "Just you four?"

"Yes sir." Percy replied politely. The old man gave them their room numbers and two keys. He informed them the schedule for meal times and told them that there were two beds in each room. Leo claimed Jason as his roommate before anyone could say anything, leaving Percy with Nico.

"Where can we find Diagon Alley?" Nico asked the old man before leaving the desk.

The old man looked at him very suspiciously. Percy thought it was a perfectly innocent question, wasn't this alley the place all wizards go to? He told the group, "Backdoor entrance, easy to miss."

Nico thanked him and they left, heading to the back area. Leo was complaining about how they should probably rest in their rooms first, Nico shutting him down. Percy agreed with Leo, that shadow-traveling took a lot out of him, he was baffled at the fact that Nico could even walk straight. He idly wondered what the son of Hades had for breakfast.

At the back, they were met with a cobbled wall.

Nico gaped. "Is this a joke?"

"He said it was easy to miss," Leo said obviously. "So no, it wasn't a joke."

"Maybe there's a secret door or something," Jason said. He pushed the wall and naturally, it didn't budge. He looked at them, "A little help here?"

Percy and Leo helped him push the wall. Nico, claiming they looked stupid, searched around the area as if to look for clues. A few seconds later, an adult and a kid that was probably Nico's age popped out the backdoor. Percy almost pulled his pen on them.

"Daddy, are these Muggles?" the blonde girl said. He saw Nico stiffen slightly.

"No, sweetheart. If they were, they wouldn't be able to come in in the first place." the adult who looked to be her dad said. He addressed them, "Is this your first time entering Diagon Alley?"

They all looked at each other, unsure. Until Jason spoke up, "Yes, um. How do we get in?"

"Like this," blonde girl said, pulling out a stick that Percy guessed is a wand from her dress (robe?). She tapped the bricks from the wall in a pattern and immediately, the bricks started rearranging themselves into an open entrance.

Percy was a bit impressed and at this point, that should be a rare thing. He can't believe he's been to Tartarus and yet, there were still worlds and places he's never been or seen. Through the entrance was a series of (again,) old looking colorful shops and buildings. It was a bit deserted which he found kind of strange, the only noises you could hear were from the TVs that were showcased through the shop windows.

"Is it always this.. empty?" Nico asked, voicing Percy's thoughts.

"Not at all," the guy said. "Really, it's only this way during the World Cup season."

Percy was not very caught up on sport events but he could've sworn the World Cup wouldn't happen for another two years.

He forced a grateful smile (not that he wasn't grateful) "Thanks for your help, Mr..."

"Lovegood."

"Thanks for your help, Mr. Lovegood."

"Are you here for the World Cup?" asked mini Lovegood to Jason for some reason. "Were you there when it happened? What are Americans doing here? what's your names? mine's Luna."

Jason blinked at her, taken a back, he looked at them for help but all he got were stares and Leo trying not to laugh.

"Um, we're.. Hogwarts' new exchange students?" he stated more like a question.

Luna tilted her head, Percy thought she looked like an owl. "Hogwarts has exchange students? from America?"

"Why? you Brits scared of Americans? Boo." Leo joked. No one laughed, the Lovegoods looked confused.

Nico glanced at him in annoyance then turned to Luna, "Is that uncommon?"

"It's certainly odd." Mr. Lovegood said, rubbing his chin. "Hogwarts has never taken in new students at your age, much less Americans. This... will be a good story for the Quibbler. That reminds me, we have much papers to print. Come along, sweetheart." He walked away, entering the shop nearby them.

"I have to go, but I guess I'll see at school soon." Luna smiled at them. "Are any of you in Ravenclaw?"

They all stared a her, blankly.

"Alright. Nice to meet you." She said and left.

"Well," Nico huffed once she was out of earshot. "we're screwed."

"Really? I thought that went well. She's kinda weird, I like it." Leo crowed.

"I think he's talking about the Hogwarts thing." Jason said. "we're supposed to keep a low profile, how are we gonna do that when Hogwarts has apparently never had exchange students?"

"That," Nico sighed. "and they thought we were Muggles."

Percy frowned, "That's crazy," he said. "what's a Muggle again?"
"Non-wizard people." said Nico. "Remember what I said? about Voldemort ? his purpose? he'll kill anyone who's not a Pureblood."

"But why would it be bad if they thought we were Muggles?" Jason asked. "They're not Voldemort in disguise, are they?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Use your brain, doofus." Jason pouted. "Muggles aren't supposed to know about the wizard world. We didn't know about the wizard world. It's kind of like how mortals aren't supposed to know about the gods, only, I don't think they have a mist."

Leo looked around the empty street, playing with the hems of his hoodie, "So how do we act less... Muggle-y?"

Percy grinned, knowing the answer. "We buy wizard stuff."

"Which we were gonna do anyway," Nico said, pulling out a parchment. "First, we have to get some money."

They followed the instructions, telling them to go to a bank called Gringotts.

Not for the first time today, Percy thought he had seen it all. But apparently not when in front of him was a bunch of elves? gremlins? goblins? acting as old time accountants. "They could be you cousins," he had whispered to Leo lightheartedly.

Leo responded by giving him a bird.

Percy hesitantly asked for a withdrawal from the goblin in the front desk. He tried not to laugh at the goblin's face expressions or voice. The goblin asked for their key and vault number and his eyebrows shot up high when Percy did so. Some goblins even stopped typing to listen.

"Come with me," the goblin said. Percy wouldn't have trusted him, with the way he said it, but then he realized, the goblin was crinkled and barely three foot tall

He lead them to an underground tunnel, Leo's head spinning around like a kid in Disneyland while Nico looked deep in thought. Once they hopped off the minecart, he was gone. Percy was gonna teach that kid about manners one day.

"Hold this please." the goblin handed Jason the lantern, Leo stifling laughter by his side. The goblin craned his head, looking for something. "Where's the fourth one?"

"He's in the bathroom." Percy excused quickly. "He didn't come down here with us."

The goblin hummed and turned away, holding out his hand, "Key please."

Percy searched the satchel Hecate gave them and handed the key to him. But it didn't look like a key, it was shaped like a circle-- Hecate's wheel. The goblin clicked it onto the circle shaped hole.

The vault opened to reveal a huge area filled with stacks and stacks of gold and artifacts. You could fit an army of Kronos in there.

"Holy Hephaestus." whispered Leo.

"I don't mean to pry," the goblin said. "but I would like to ask how you children obtained such riches. This vault has not been opened in many many years you know."

"Oh, uh. It belongs to our great aunt... and, her great aunt. She used to live here but then moved to America." Jason told him, Percy applauded him for thinking of that so quick. It's not technically a lie.

"Hmph, very well. Help yourselves." the goblin resembled a small child, Percy was gonna lose it.

He made sure not to take any of the artifacts, just the money. If there's one thing he's learned about old items, is at least ninety percent of it was cursed. Percy didn't want to know what would happen to him, physically or mentally if he does as so touch them. Jason and Leo were smart enough to do the same. He could just feel the goblin judge them from two feet away.

As they headed back to their ride back to land, a subtle clanging noise was heard from the distance. "Hey, goblin man, how was this place built? I bet there's a really interesting story to that."

The goblin squinted like he was trying to tell if Percy was joking or not. Ultimately deciding he wasn't, their ride upwards consisted of a long talk with Jason and Leo kicking Percy's shin while glaring at him.

They exited the building, immediately spotting Nico sitting on the cobbled floor with his back against a building. He was rubbing his left arm.

"Nico? you're lucky I think you've found something important, or I would've kicked your ass." Percy shouted.

Nico blew a strand of his hair that was covering his face. "I found a horcrux."

Jason looked surprised. "That was quicker than I thought."

"Yeah, well like I said, the hardest part would actually be destroying these." he pulled out a golden cup from his backpack. "Not like finding it was easy. I felt a soul when we were down there-- but it was different, not like normal souls so naturally, I investigated."

"Were you that noise we heard?" Percy asked. "I had to make an excuse, we ended up learning about the many different vault types used in Gringotts."

Nico winced. "Yeah, there were like, thousands of these stupid cups in that vault and every time I touched one, they'd duplicate."

Leo's eyes twinkled. "That sounds amazing."

"It was annoying." Nico said. "It was hard to tell where the soul actually was, I may have knocked down a couple towers. I thought the vaults would've been sound-proof."

"Do you know how to destroy them?"

"I have no idea." Nico confessed. "Tried slashing it with my sword. Didn't work."

"Can I try?" Leo asked. Nico looked wary but gave him the cup anyway. The Latino wrapped his hands around the cup and focused. Percy could see the sides slightly heating up but nothing actually happening to it. He frowned in disappointment.

Jason took the cup. "Give me a go." he placed it on the ground and closed his eyes. Lightning struck from the sky and hit it exactly where it was (Leo yelped) the cup was still stood there, looking the same as it was.

"Do you think Riptide could cut that into pieces?" Percy wasn't even gonna try, that would've been embarrassing for the both of them.

Nico stored it into his backpack. "We'll look for a way later. Let's just get the school supplies shopping over with."

The group entered a shop called Ollivander's. There they meet an old man (who looked less creepier than the desk guy) give them an odd look.

He was confused by the fact they've never had wands. Wizards apparently got them as soon as they went to Hogwarts for their first year at eleven years old. He was still professional, urging them to try out wands that were on the shelves.

Huge mistake. The second Percy touched one of them, power that looked like lightning surged up the roof, leaving a huge hole. Hopefully Ollivander wanted a skylight.

"Hey, that's Jason's thing." Leo said then took one of the wands and flicked it. Suddenly, everyone and thing inside the store started hovering. He flicked it again in panic, Percy knocked down a shelf or two.

Ollivander looked deathly afraid, "Let's try the wands one at a time, shall we?"

Percy went first, it took four wands, a cracked desk table, and Jason's usually perfect hair to be rumpled up.

"Ah, spruce, length 13 ½ with rigid flexibility, and a dragon heartstring core." Ollivander said.

Percy scrunched up his nose, "Is that a good thing?"

He didn't really need an answer to that, the wand felt right in his hand just.. maybe not as right as riptide felt. It probably had something to do with him not being a wizard-wizard.

The others went on to find theirs and by the end, Percy had a great appreciation for this Ollivander guy. The place looked like a literal hurricane (and he would know). Jason got cypress, length 13 ¾ with reasonably supple flexibility and phoenix feather core.

Leo obtained wood, length 13 ¾ with reasonably supple flexibility and dragon heartstring core. (he got a bit sad at the mention of a dragon)

Nico got pine, length 9 ½ with unbending flexibility and phoenix feather core. (Jason made fun of Nico for being the shortest which earned him a shove)

Ollivander still had that look in his eye when they left his shop. The group went on to find the other stuff on their list, It was kind of fun shopping for these bizarre items and he even learned a few stuff about Hogwarts that won't leave them completely clueless.

He was going to stay away from Quidditch as much as possible. While Jason, and even Leo seemed excited about it. He still had no idea what the four different colors he kept seeing meant, maybe they were teams? Percy thinks he might do well in the Potions subject since it was basically mixing liquids.

Nico had to remind them a few times that this was a mission but Percy saw him eye the pack of magic playing cards (which Percy bought it behind his back)

They all decided to just get one animal, an owl. They could Iris-Message infinite amounts of time now but they could probably just send letters if they didn't have much time. Because, while they were on a quest, the four of them were still gonna go through school.

The place-- Diagon Alley, made him think of Annabeth. She would've loved these colorful buildings and shops, and roads, even Percy was amazed by looking at them too. He shook his head, he'll see him soon. He will.

They made their last stop at a place called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

~

"Two at a time please," the lady had said. Leaving Leo with a Nico di Angelo who hated him.

They were both in the waiting area for a robe fitting (again, what century were they in?) He was left with Nico because they lined them up by their years; Percy was in 7th, Jason was in 6th, Leo was in 5th, and Nico was in 4th. Percy and Jason went to get their fittings first.

Nico was in the other side of the room, reading some newspaper while Leo tried to practice some spells from the spell book he bought.

There was still some tension between them. Unlike Jason and Percy, he had no idea how to have a normal conversation with the child of Hades. He wanted so badly to pull di Angelo aside, force the two of them to be cool and ask him what exactly his problem with Leo was.

Leo couldn't let him take all the credit though. He started resenting Nico a bit -- not because he was acting like a dick, but because he couldn't help but feel a little jealous of his relationship with Jason. Gods knows how that even happened, Nico didn't seem like the type of person Jason would even befriend, but it was there.

He noticed it a bit in Camp Half-Blood but he really started seeing it while they were shopping for supplies. Jason would tease Nico, he would look annoyed but it didn't look real. Not like the way he would look at Leo whenever he opened his mouth. They had inside jokes, Nico would even let Jason ruffle his hair. He could even say that Nico looked more comfortable with Jason than he did with Percy.

Breaking his thoughts, Leo heard someone say "Shit," he doubted it was the old lady in the counter so he looked at Nico. Who was already walking towards him.

He raised an eyebrow, "Someone died?"

Nico shoved the newspaper he was reading in his hands, "Read this."

Leo already did not like that sentence. Reading? him? He looked through the paper, he could make out the blocky letters that said TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP

"What' happened?"

"Do you remember that World Cup the Lovegoods were talking about?" Leo nodded. "There was a riot. These things called Death Eaters-- I think they're supposed to be Voldemort's followers-- they destroyed some camp site, and started torturing Muggles and Muggleborns."

"Shit." he remembered Nico's lecture when they first left, Muggles were non-wizard people, Muggleborns were wizards with Muggle parents and Purebloods were purely wizards.

He's gathered quickly that these Muggles and Muggleborns were discriminated against, that's usually how things go. This wizarding place was not so different from their world or the mortal world.

"So what are we gonna do? should we go to this site and fight these pig heads?" Leo asked.

Nico shook his head, "No. It's already been taken care of." he said. "We just have to keep these Death Eaters in mind. If they find out we're not actually wizards.."

Leo scratched his nose, "We can take them," he pointed at the moving man in the newspaper. "We fought Gaea! what's a mortal with a stick gonna do?"

Nico narrowed his eyes, "Never underestimate the enemy. Rule number one."

Here he thought he was finally being civil with Nico di Angelo. What was wrong with what he said anyway? One of the doors opened, interrupting the awkward silence. It revealed Percy and Jason with box cases, the former looking slightly annoyed and the latter had an uncomfortable expression on his face.

"Why did you guys take so long?" Nico asked them.

Jason sighed, "You'll see."

Leo handed him the newspaper, "You guys gotta read this."

Percy frowned, "Read? no thanks." at the same time as Jason said, "What happened?"

"di Angelo and Valdez?" the lady called.

"Can't resist an old lady calling for me," Jason grimaced. "See you later, man."

Nico looked liked he wanted to do literally anything else, but followed Leo into the fitting room anyway. Two old ladies told them to stand on the square platforms. The old lady, who Leo thinks is Madam Malkin, ordered him to take his hoodie off, Leo obliged hesitantly.

"I'm guessing you two haven't been sorted like your friends?" Madam Malkin said, using her wand to lift the robes. Leo is so going to learn how to do that.

Nico looked very tense but still kept a polite exterior. "Sorted into what?"

"Sorted into your Hogwarts houses of course." she told him. "This is the first time I've had to transfigure these plain Hogwarts uniforms. You boys are a bit big for the first year ones."

Leo fidgeted, he felt a little awkward just standing there, waiting for the ladies to get them their clothes. "What are Hogwarts houses?"

"You will learn in the meantime," the lady that Leo didn't know the name of said. "But I have to ask, why has Hogwarts let Americans attend school there? I know it's none of my business but I am curious."

Leo looked at Nico expectantly. Letting him come up for their backstory would not be a good idea. Nico bit the inside of his cheek, "What did, um, our friends tell you?"

The lady raised an eyebrow, "They said you four are cousins and your aunt had convinced Hogwarts to take you boys in." she said. "Though, forgive me if I don't quite believe it, none of you appear related to one another and your aunt would have to be a very influential witch if Dumbledore had listened to her."

"No, we are-- cousins, I mean. Just very distant." Nico said, but he didn't look that happy about it. Neither did Leo, to be fair-- he hated being reminded of it. "And yeah, our aunt... very influential witch, yeah."

Both the lady and Malkin still looked suspicious but didn't push it. Leo guessed Jason told the story, the same one he told at Gringotts, playing up the fact that Hecate was their aunt. It wasn't a lie persay, but again, he still hated it.

They got fitted into their robes, Leo was not comfortable with strangers touching him and Malkin was not gentle. He thought they were finally done until Malkin ordered him to take off his clothes for the dress robe fitting.

"I'm sorry, what?" Nico asked in horror.

"We have been told to fit all students of Hogwarts a dress robe for the Yule Ball this year," Malkin said, in a voice that should not be argued with. "now clothes off, don't be shy, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

Leo took an uneasy glace at Nico, who looked like he could be sick. "But what about-"

"You lads are cousins aren't you? Why be embarrassed?"

Both demigods were silent at that. He wanted to argue that he didn't think distant cousins would want to see each other clothless but the ladies were old, so maybe they would've had different beliefs.

Leo flushed, now realizing why Jason and Percy were like that when they left the room. There was nothing more he wanted than to get this whole thing over with, so, he did what he was told. Making sure he kept his eyes forward and not look to his left.

A few moments later, the lady who was tending Nico gasped, "My word, you have more scars than that 7th year boy."

Ignoring his own rule, Leo darted his head towards Nico, who was in his boxer shorts-- he did, in fact, had a shit ton of scars. Almost all of them were faded and seemed healed already but you could still see and tell how painful they looked. Leo's scratches on his arms and knees felt pathetic in comparison.

Leo knew di Angelo's been through a lot-- the guy's been through Tartarus, alone!-- but he didn't know exactly what he's been through, he's heard snippets. Nico wasn't even 'one of the seven' and yet he was probably the most scarred out of all of them.

Nico fidgeted and cleared his throat, "We, um, play sports. A lot." when he noticed Leo staring, he glared. The son of Hephaestus quickly looked away.

Madam Malkin sighed, "Quidditch players, it baffles me that they let young children like you play such dangerous games!" she shook her head. "If what happened at this year's World Cup was anything to go by." she then addressed Leo, "Do you have any preferences for your dress robe, dear?"

"Uh... red?" Madam Malkin nodded. Leo wanted to ask more about the World Cup thing for info but he didn't know what. He was also resisting the urge to talk to Nico and, what, comfort him?

Di Angelo felt like some classmate he always saw but ignored and now suddenly, they had to work on a group project together and be forced to be friends because one of them found something about the other and the one felt bad. Which is, ...basically their exact situation.

Nico sniffed, "I heard about what happened at the World Cup. Shouldn’t these Death Eaters be in jail or something? What do they do exactly, 'cause all It said in the newspaper is that they were followers, didn't say of who-- it said they tortured some Muggles so I figured their leader was Volde--"

"We do not speak of his name!" Malkin hissed, so did the other lady. Leo even jolted at their volume.

"So wait, you guys just call Vol-- I mean him, You Know Who?"

The lady explained that saying his name used to be jinxed and would alert the caster's location, so they avoided saying it even after all these years. Leo thought it was stupid considering Voldemort was dead, well, kind of.

Leo tried, and is trying not to let his head explode from all the information he kept learning today. His stomach was still off from shadow-traveling a while ago. He could not wait to get on that motel room and rest.

Eventually, Malkin found him a dress robe. He didn't really want one in the first place, they're not his style, but he actually liked what he got. It was fiery red with a black trim, his suit and dress pants were also black, while his tie and belt matched the dress robes. He could say he resembled the devil, Leo grinned to himself.

He hastily took a peek at Nico and surprise, surprise, he was wearing all black. It looked really cool though, like he was one of those old-timey detectives or a kid in the 30's going through an emo phase.

"I believe we are done here," Malkin crowed. "Now get out of those and we'll be packing these for you shortly."

"They made you get those dress robes too?" Percy asked them.

They were in Leo and Jason's room. The sun had already set and they had just finished eating dinner a little while ago. Wizards really knew their food, the waiter let them try something called Butterbeer, Leo didn't think he'd even live long enough to drink alcohol, even if the drink was as weak as a twig.

Jason snorted and turned to Nico, "Let me guess, all black?" Nico rolled his eyes.

And there it was again. He started thinking about it more when they were going back to the motel, Jason had thought for a while that Leo was dead. It wasn't fair of him to think Jason hadn't made any other best friends since then. And he guessed Nico could use one, the dude went through a lot-- he deserved people who had his back.

That doesn't mean he couldn't be sad about it, Jason was his best and first ever friend. He wasn't gonna let that go.

"I'm gonna go sleep," Percy yawned, "You guys should too, we've got a long day ahead of us."

They all agreed. Percy and Nico left and went to their rooms after saying goodnight.

~

"Come on! they're gonna run out of compartments!" Harry covered an ear from Hermione's shrill voice.

"You say that every year," Ron grumbled, "we're gonna find one."

Hermione glanced at him, then opened a compartment, which was filled with frightened first years. They squeaked, she closed it.

"You were saying?" she strolled over, leading the other two through the empty hall, every compartment was full.

The atmosphere around them was tense. Not among the three of them, but to everyone on the train. What happened during the World Cup was still fresh in everyone's minds, some were even there when it had happened. Like them

He had a very bad feeling about this year, it didn't help that Arthur Weasley had hinted at something that was gonna happen at Hogwarts, but he wouldn't tell what.

Harry was aware that his two friends had been bickering but he hadn't been listening. It was too early. "--ight, fine, you win 'mione. I shouldn't have stopped for that Galleon on the pavement--"

"Honestly!" Hermione huffed. She opened a random compartment, the one at the end of the tarin, still looking at Ron in annoyance. "this Galleon is the reason we won't have any place to sit! try to sound a bit more-- oh, hello."

Hermione sounded so taken a back that Harry had to take a peek inside. There were four students who he didn't recognize, varying in age, some looked older than Harry himself but, they were wearing first year robes. His eyes narrowed.

The oldest one looked to be in seventh year, he had green eyes, a light-brownish skin tone, sharp jawline, and effortlessly messy black hair. He was looking at them with a calculated stare, Harry flushed at his gaze, the bloke looked a bit too much like a god much to his liking.

He couldn't tell what years the other two were, maybe sixth and fourth, one had a build and blonde with glasses-- though not like Harry's. And the other one was scrawny and Hispanic, with curly hair. Their face expressions were neutral, not giving anything away.

The smallest boy was looking directly at Harry. Seriously, it was like he was looking through his soul or something. He was tempted to ich his scar. From his appearance, he could be the seventh year's cousin, only his hair was darker and he was pale, appearing less healthy.

"You guys looking for a seat?" Seventh year offered, making space for them. Harry blinked at the American accent.

He looked at his friends, weirdly, Ron seemed to be the only one not surprised by this-- either that or he was hiding it.

"That'd be great! Thanks." he said, and went over to sit next to the scrawny & Hispanic.

Slowly, Harry and Hermione followed. He made sure not to sit next to the creepy kid who stared at him.

"Are you exchange students?" Hermione blurted out, she had that rare expression she'd get whenever she didn't know the answer to something-- but it quickly recovered. "Sorry, that was rude of me. I'm Hermione Granger."

The blonde with glasses smiled, warm. "Jason," he said, "And yes, we're exchange students."

"My dad said something about Hogwarts housing foreigners from different schools for an event this year," Ron nodded. "Ron Weasely."

Harry can't help but feel slightly annoyed, he knew what his dad was talking about? Why bother not telling him? he's only said it once they’re with these strangers.

The Hispanic bloke scratched his head, "We're not here for an event-- as least, I don't think so?" he turned to the scary one who shook his head. "Yeah, no. Leo Valdez. Nice to meet you guys." he gave a toothy grin.

He saw Ron frown, confused. Hermione was mirroring it. The oldest of them spoke up.

"Percy. And I don't have anything to add to this conversation." the scary one quietly introduced himself as Nico.

Then they looked at him. "Uh, Harry Potter."

He was expecting questions, or recognition, instead Nico nudged Percy with his shoulder and told him something in a different language. Percy's eyes widen, Jason coughed.

"Was that Ancient Greek?" asked Ron, "Percy, -- not you Percy-- my brother Percy speaks the language and I've picked up some things." he shuddered at, what Harry guessed was a memory. He asked Nico casually, "What was that about having two things?"

Nico stared at his redhead friend in horror. Hermione looked to be processing the bit about Ron understanding a bit of Greek.

"He was stating the fact that we have two people with glasses in this room." Leo chippered and put an arm around his blonde friend. "Our bro Jason, and Harry."

"Oh, yeah." Ron nodded. But Harry knew better, Ron had his chess face on, possibly meaning that he didn't believe them.

"So are you all from Ilvermorny?" Hermione asked.

They blankly stared at her.

"Wizarding school in the United States?" she clarified. They all recovered.

"No, we were homeschooled." Jason said, though it sounded rehearsed.

Harry then asked, "Why go to Hogwarts then, if you can be homeschooled?"

"We wanted a change of pace," said Percy. "It was getting a lil' sad with just the four of us, we wanted the experience, you know."

"The four of you? Are you lot related then? You don't look it," Ron said. He hears Nico heave a sigh.

"No, just family friends," he answered. That was the end of that conversation. "What year you guys in?"

They got to know them a bit. The bloke Leo wasn't fourth, he was in fifth. Nico was the one stuck in their year. They avoided any and all personal questions which was fine, everyone had their secrets, and they had just met.

But none of them knew what houses were-- actually, they knew almost nothing about Hogwarts. And they (mostly Hermione) tried their best to explain as much as they can. Jason wanted to know more about Quidditch. Now that's Harry's type of bloke.

Someone knocked on the glass door, Harry saw the candy trolley so naturally, he and Ron stood up.

"Any of you want anything?" Ron asked.

"I could use some sugar," Leo stood up too. Nico glanced at him as if he found the idea disturbing.

Ron took out some Galleons, "Can I get Droobles and a Licorice Wand?" he revaluated his decision. "On second thought, just the droobles,"

Harry offered, "I'll get them for you."

"Nah, 'm fine with the Droobles." and he went back to his seat.

Leo inched his head, "So, what's on the menu?" The trolley witch started listing options for him to choose, Harry let him go first.

He took a glance at the hallway to see Malfoy stroll in their direction. He was wearing a fancy suit, same as he did when Harry saw him in the Quidditch World Cup.

"Potter," he snarled at him.

Harry sighed, not in the mood. "Malfoy."

He was expecting a jab, it didn't come. "Tentacle Tart and two Chocolate Frogs." he got his snacks and pursed his lips when he noticed Leo, "Who's this."

Leo gave a two finger salute, "Leo Valdez. Nice suit."

Malfoy scoffed. "An American? I guess father wasn't lying. . ." Harry glowered at the mention of his father. "But that's not right, he told me the schools of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be visiting, not Ilvermorny."

Harry's brows furrowed, "What are you on about?" at the same time Leo said, "I'm not from Ivory."

The Slytherin looked at them both like they were the stupidest things alive. "Of course you wouldn't know, Potter. Your status can't get you anything you wanted," He corrected, "And it's Ilvermorny, you buffoon." as he left.

"He seems nice," Leo muttered dryly.

"Tell me about it," Harry replied. "I hope you're not offended or anything, he's like that with everyone."

"Oh I can tell."

By the time Leo's picked his snacks, Harry was no longer hungry. His scar was starting to hurt a bit, it has been since the summer. Hermione looked worried.

"Was that Malfoy? did he give you any trouble?"

Leo and his friends were oblivious, trying out the snacks. Jason jumped when the chocolate frog hopped and sticked to the window. Percy laughed.

Harry shook his head, "He was more civil than usual," civil, meaning, he lightly insulted him and called Leo a buffoon. He scratched his scar,

She leaned a bit, and whispered, "Is your," she gestured at her forehead, "still hurting?"

"I'm fine."

She looked unconvinced. Her head cocked towards their companions and her expression turned to a grimace. Harry looked at what she was looking at, the window was opened, Leo was spitting something out, Harry noticed that the carton of Bertie Botts was opened.

She turned to back Harry, ignoring Nico and Percy's teasings towards Leo, "You should owl Sirius, what you saw at the--"

"I'll think about it," Hermione nodded, and went on to lecture them about throwing snacks out in the open. Harry suppressed a snort.

They left the train in a group, but they quickly split as the four had to ride with the first years because of their sorting. Hermione wished them luck, they all waved them goodbye except for Nico.

"They were lying, y'know." Ron said as soon as they were gone.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "About what?"

"About what that Nico bloke said in Greek," he explained. "He said something about the boy with glasses having two,"

"Two of what?"

"I don't know! but he was obviously talking about Harry," Ron pointed at him. Harry slowly pushed the hand down. "He said it right after Harry introduced himself."

"It's probably just what Leo said it was," she reasoned. "He was pointing out that there were two boys with glasses in the compartment."

"But that's weird!"

"Yes, and we shouldn't judge," she glared at nothing in particular. "Nico seemed shy, perhaps he was only too embarrassed to say it outloud,"

Ron mumbled, "That wasn't the weird part,"

Harry, silently, agreed.

~

Percy kept getting a deja vu, but... in a good way?

It started when they saw that half-giant, Hagrid. All four of them tensed when he approached them, but he actually seemed like one of the nice ones, helping them out and giving directions. That relieved Percy.. and made him a bit sad.

The second time was when they were on the tiny boat to Hogwarts, he sat with Nico since they were going in pairs. While on it, he heard something calling for him and Percy almost fell off his ride when he realized there was a giant squid in the water. It didn't try to kill them, like last time, but Gods.

The old castle they were headed towards was Hogwarts. Annabeth would've been livid if she saw it, Percy wished he could IM her right at this moment and stare at it with her, let her ramble about its properties and design.

Percy asked his boat buddy, "So, you think Harry's a horcrux?"

Nico huffed, "I know he is," he said, "He has two souls-- I've never even seen that before, one of them felt like the same one from that cup."

Percy sighed, that meant Harry had something to do with their quest. He felt kinda bad, dragging this random kid into this nonsense. "Where is the cup anyway?"

"In my backpack," he answered. He picked at the peeling wood of the boat, "I made sure to wrap it in layers in case someone searched for it,"

Percy nodded, then he eyed Nico's nervous demeanor, "Are you okay?"

He crossed his arms, "I'm fine, it's not like we'll be cooped up, stuck in a magic school for nine months," he looked down. "It also just feels weird, walking around without my sword at all times while we're on a quest,"
"You have your wand now,"

"That's different."

Percy understood, it's gonna be strange, being stuck in the same place for a few months. He doesn't think he's stayed at his own home for that long. And he'll always have riptide with him.

They reached land, Leo and Jason both looked shaken, as they said one word: giant squid.

He and the other students gathered in the entrance area where they met one of the professors, who introduced herself as McGonagall. She explained that they will soon be sorted into their Hogwarts houses.

Hermione mentioned it on the train, they'll be in front of the whole school while a hat decides whether you'll be a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. The house it chose for you will be the place and group you'll be staying for the rest of the year.

Yahoo.

Chatter stopped when they arrived at the dining area, most of them were gaping at the four of them, Percy tried not to be offended at the 'he's too old' comments, he's sure they didn't mean it like that.

Some song played as they entered, Percy didn't really pay attention. The roof was.. a sky, Jason was squinting at it. Percy eyed it nervously, wondering if Zeus somehow had any control over it-- the clouds were way too close.

Then he examined the teachers. The headmaster, Dumbledore was looking right at them with an all-knowing look so Percy made sure to avoid his gaze. The one in all black reminded him of an old wrinkly Nico, he shuddered.

McGonagall started calling people up front, starting with the first years. She put the hat on the kid and they waited in awkward silence until the hat screamed, 'HUFFLEPUFF' Percy did a double take.

Percy then remembered Hermione's explanation of the houses in simple words; Gryffindors were brave (according to Ron, it was the best house), Hufflepuffs were loyal (he said they were for the weak ones.) Ravenclaws were wise (he told them it was for know it all's, Hermione smacked him.) and Slytherins were cunning, (he called it the 'evil house', no one protested.)

It made Percy wonder, why it was the four of them that had been chosen on this quest

"Nico di Angelo," Mcgonagall called.
Nico stiffened, Jason patted his back in reassurance. Hastily, he walked to the front of the room and let the professor place the hat on his head.

Percy couldn't tell what was happening, it looked like Nico was having a heated conversation with the hat. Its expression was more verbal with Nico than with the other kids who were previously under it. Nico looked uncomfortable, he kept grimacing and scowling.

'SLYTHERIN!' it announced.

One of the tables, who he assumed was composed of Sytherins, clapped slowly and tentatively. Jason hooted and cheered, silently urging Leo and Percy to do the same. They did, and they received a death glare.

"Jason Grace,"

Jason's chat with the hat was shorter and looked less heated than Nico's. But his eyes darkened at one point, like he was being told ugly truths about himself.

'GRYFFINDOR!'

The Gryffindor table applauded, so did Percy, Leo, and Nico-- even if he was the only one doing so at his table. Jason smiled, looking slightly embarrassed.

Percy took a breath. "Perseus Jackson,"

He sat on the stool as everyone in the hall kept their eyes at him. He sees Hermione looking at him with interest while Harry and Ron frowned at the Slytherin table. Percy didn't notice the hat on his head until he heard a voice.

"Another demigod, eh?" Percy froze. "Not to worry, i've been informed of the mission by your little friends, I will not be telling anyone-- not even the Headmaster, annihilating the dark lord will not be a simple task."

"Didn't think it was," Percy told it, "okay, can we get on with the sorting stuff already."

"Impatient are we? I'll keep that in mind," it hummed. "I look through your memories to be able to determine the place in which you belong--"

"Uh wait," Percy interrupted, he was not told that was how it was gonna go. "is there any another way you could decide? we could play twenty questions or something, how about a personality quiz?"

The hat tsked, "I am aware that you demigods have a rougher life than most wizards and witches, Mr. Jackson. But I am a thousand years old, I can handle a mind of a child -- looking through your memories is the only way I am able to identify where you truly belong."

Percy didn't really think he'd be able to truly belong anywhere other than Camp Half-Blood or with his friends and family, but he kept that to himself. He sighed, and signified the hat to go ahead.

The hat was quiet and then it gasped, panting heavily.

"You and that di Angelo boy!" it wailed in his mind. "Such horrible memories! -- wizards trice your age have been far less damaged!--"

"I thought you said you could handle it," he muttered dryly, slightly annoyed. He didn't need to be reminded at how damaged he was.

"Forgive me, as it's not every year I see the memories of two children who had been through the depths of Tartarus itself, front and back," Percy's jaw clenched.

"What house am I in, you filthy rag."

"I will give you two options," its voice shook, Percy's kinda worried he scared the old thing. "You are obviously a brave one, adventurous, daring, determined, with good morals. Impulsive, a strong leader as well, you will do well in Gryffindor,"

"I feel a 'but' coming in,"

"However, you could also do amazing things in another house, the house of Hufflepuff," it said. "I've noticed, your bravery, your determination that would make you a good Gryffindor is mostly rooted in your admiration for your friends and family-- your loyalty to them. Now, that is the crucial trait in Hufflepuff, they are loyal to the core, they are also hard workers, you too are fair and put others first before yourself."

"You very much lack certain traits for Hufflepuff, -- most Hufflepuffs are patient. From earlier we've established that you, Mr. Jackson, can be somewhat blunt and straightforward, Hufflepuff are no such creatures. In your perspective , you are told Hufflepuffs are weak, that is of course, not true. They are only less likely to fight because they are smart enough to avoid any and all conflict."

It continued, "With you however, you do not get into conflict, partake in the challenges or quests because you like to, or for the glory-- unlike most Gryffindors-- you partake in it in order to protect the people around yourself,"
Percy thought about it, he's always been told his loyalty was a bad thing, it was his fatal flaw. He himself knew what being too loyal could lead to, but the hat made it sound like a good thing for once, telling him he was the reason he was who he was.

And if he was being honest with himself, he didn't really feel like he'd fit in Gryffindor, he didn't care about being brave, or adventurous. He accepted this mission because he was tired of these stupid quests.

" I assume you have come to a decision?" Percy blinked.

"Right. I forget, you're literally inside my mind right now," he grumbled. "and you're making me choose? it felt like you were already placing me in Hufflepuff."

He didn't know how, but he felt the hat smirk, 'HUFFLEPUFF!'

He catched the hat say, "Good luck on your quest, Mr. Jackson," before being taken off of his head. And immediately, his new classmates at the Hufflepuff table were clapping for him, so were his friends.

He didn't like the attention, but he smiled anyway. The Hufflepuffs seemed genuinely happy to have him at their house. He walked over to them and sat next to the brunette who looked to be his age.

"Welcome to Hufflepuff, Percy." he slapped his back in good nature, "Cedric Diggory. I'm a prefect, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask,"

Percy slapped his back in return, "Thanks man,"

He swiveled his head to see Leo with the hat on. If his obvious calculations were correct then Leo would be placed in...

'RAVENCLAW!'

Percy whistled, remembering how ingenious the guy was during their world tour. He was impressed to learn a fifteen year old built the Argo II, mostly by himself.

Dumbledore started making announcements; no one was allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest. Percy wasn't dumb, it was in the name,

He introduced a new professor, said to be teaching them Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. Percy didn't trust him, it looked like the eye had a mind of its own.

Quidditch was officially canceled this year, dodged a bullet on that one, though no one else looked happy about it.

And there will be an event called the Triwizard Tournament, which Hogwarts will be hosting for other schools. So that's what Ron meant.

His classmates initiated conversation with him, luckily Percy was prepared. They asked him where he was from, who his friends were to him, how he got into Hogwarts, etc. etc. The four of them had a meeting in the guys' room last night, preparing answers that they most likely will get asked to get their story straight. Annabeth would've been proud.

"Do you plan on applying for the Triwizard Tournament?," Cedric asked him.

"Hm? oh, nah," he took a bite of his cookie. "'m just focusing on studying this year. Plus, 'that wizard tournament thing sounds... dangerous."

Not that everything he did all his life wasn't. But apparently someone died participating in that event, -- that's why no one below 17 were allowed to join. He didn't know who in Hades was insane enough to willingly apply knowing that fact.

"Tell that to Diggory over here!" Noah chippered, lazily pointing at Cedric with his spoon. "he's planning on putting his name on that blasted goblet!"

Percy had no idea what goblet he was talking about, but he stared at Cedric incredulously, "Seriously dude? do you have a death wish?"

He shook his head, rolling his eyes, "I think I can handle it."

"You think," Percy repeated.

"I wonder where Fat Friar is," Sophia addressed the table, "it's been a long time since we've seen him, I've kinda missed his little rabbit trick,"

Kevin looked around the Great Hall, "Well, it seems he's not the only one not making an appearance,"

Cedric's eyes narrowed, "That's odd,"

"What's odd?" asked Percy, looking around the room himself, he caught Harry looking at him. He ignored it.

"The ghosts," He answered, as if it made any sense. "They're usually all here by now, welcoming the first years, or, well, annoying us by making us want to vomit our food,"

"Hold up," Percy paused. "Hogwarts has ghosts?"

"Got a phobia there, Jackson?" Noah teased.

"Uhh," he caught a glimpse of Nico, aggressively poking at his food, "Yeah, kinda," he lied.

Cedric gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, they're nice-- not like what you see in those films. You'll get used to them once you've seen it,"

"The films?"

"The ghosts."

"Right."

Percy decided to check up on his friends, Leo looked to be joking with his housemates-- they looked confused, Jason was talking to their friends at the train, and Nico was still glaring at his food while some blonde kid was talking to him.

He looked back at his table and sighed quietly as he ate his chocolate chip cookies, wishing they were blue.

Chapter Text

"This seat taken?" Leo took Jason's distracted grunt as a no.

His cabinmates —sorry, his housemates, were nice enough peeps. They reminded him of his siblings in Cabin 9, they didn't get his jokes but they tolerated it (some laughed, but it was a small number), they weren't the most social of people but it was fine, so was Leo, and they were always focused on something, whether it was reading a book, playing board games or practicing spells. Reminds him of home, but with less machines and oil.

The difference, obviously, was that they weren't his siblings so they didn't put much effort into getting to know him. Some did but they were his roommates and he didn't know if he wanted to spend all his time with them, and that reminded him he hasn't seen his actual friends since the sorting.

That's what led to him sitting with Jason at the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

"Is there a rule that says we can't sit with different houses?" he asked. Like the rule with the cabins in Camp Half-Blood.

Jason shrugged, and turned to his left, "Hermione?"

The girl glanced at them, with a considering look, "No, there's no rule," and went back to her breakfast.

His best friend gestured like, 'there you go,'

Leo nudged him, "You good, dude?"

He sighed, "I'm roommates with the Weasley twins," as he tiredly poked at his pasta

"The Weasley twins?" something about that name was vaguely familiar.

Jason stared at him gravely, "Imagine the Stoll brothers, but twins." he added, "And british."

Leo suppressed a snort, he didn't think Jason would appreciate it much at his state, "And you're sharing a room with them?" he asked. "Tough luck, man."

He heaved an irritated groan, Hermione addressed him, "If you'd like, I can tell them to stop what it was that they did all night."

Leo thought that was nice of her, but Jason looked mortified, "No! I know how that stuff works, if you tell them to stop, they'll want to do it more," he said, "i'll just let them take it out of their system for now, until they get bored of me or something."

Hermione pursed her lips, but didn't disagree. Leo took some pancakes, bacon, and syrup, and made himself a sandwich, he ignored the stares.

"Want one?" he asked Hermione, who was staring at his plate in distaste.

"No thanks.”

"Your loss.”

"I still can't believe they've canceled Quiddi-- oh hey Leo, right?" he gave Ron and Harry a lazy grin, his mouth still filled with food.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You two haven't stopped talking about that all night.”

Ron took a seat across from her, Harry next to him, "It's Quidditch, Hermione! Quidditch!"

She stared at him blankly, "And."

Ron fumbled over his words, but continued to argue. Eventually, two new students arrived at the table and sat across Leo, they were carbon copies of each other and had some resemblance to Ron. Leo blinked.

"Who have we got here?" one said.

"Another American newcomer?" said the other.

He felt Jason next to him roll his eyes, these must be the Weasley twins then. Leo introduced himself, "Leo Valdez, why do you people keep pointing out we're American?"

"’Tis a rare thing, to see someone from the outside world," he winked. "This is Fred," he points to his brother.

"And that's George," the other one, Fred, mimicked the gesture.

Ron frowned, "Hey, stop messing with the new guy," Leo tilted his head.

The twins gasped in synch, "We'd never!" they said.

Jason blew a raspberry.

One of them, Fred? George? Leo still couldn't tell, "Now don't be like that, Jason ‘our boy. It's how we show our love.”

The other one said, "How else are we supposed to welcome you to our humble abode?"

He gave them an even stare, "I don't know. But maybe not by shrinking my bed, leaving me to sleep in the common room couches.”

Leo winced, he didn't know what the Gryffindor common room was like, but Ravenclaw's were cold, and couches were not great places to sleep.

"You two did what?" Hermione choked. That answered his question.

"Our first few pranks didn't work on him!" one protested.

"Yeah! We set a dungbomb attack while he was in the loo -"

"But by the time he left, the smell was gone!"

"And he looked unbothered! it was like the smell was never there!"

"Then we casted aguamenti on him before he went to sleep-"

"We looked away for a minute and the sod looked good as new!"

Hermione looked more and more horrified as the twins went on, Ron just looked sympathetic. Leo glanced at Jason who was already giving him a meaningful expression.

Glad to know the son of Zeus was using his powers for good and not evil.

"Please tell me you've turned Jason's bed back into its original size," Hermione said.

The twins innocently looked at eachother.

She sighed and turned to Jason, "Do you not know the counterspell for reducio? You're in sixth year, should you not know it by now?"

Jason blinked, "Counterspell?" he asked. "Reducio, that's, reduce in latin, right? So-- um, would the counter spell be dilato then?"

Hermione furrowed her brows. Both Ron and Harry also looked confused. One of the twins spoke up.

"You see that? we didn't intentionally force our friend Jason to sleep in the common room -“

"We thought he'd just perform Engorgio and go back to sleep.”

"We were staggered to learn that he didn't.”

Jason's cheeks turned pink as Leo tried to think of an excuse. Luckily, he didn't have to because the teacher with green clothing stopped by their table and gave the Gryffindors their class schedules.

"Mr. Valdez, you will have to get your schedule from your own head of the house," she told him when he asked for his. "I advise you to go back to your table, if you wish to acquire it."

Leo tapped Jason on the side, "I gotta get back to my table, meet up with the other guys later?"

Jason nodded, "Where though?"

"Don't know, I haven't explored the place yet, I don't know any of the sweet spots," he scratched the back of his head.

Hermione butt in, "The courtyard's usually a great place to meet up in."

"You're meeting up with your friends? From the other houses?" Harry asked.

Leo thought the question was weird, being the first thing Harry's said to him since the train. "Yeah, we're just hanging out. You know, chillin' before the storm of assignments come,"

"Very important," one of the twins said importantly.

"We'll meet at the courtyard." Jason affirmed.

"Neat-o. See y'all around," he saluted them, and went for his table where his prefect, Penelope Clearwater, was waiting for him.

"I wouldn’t make a habit out of sitting with the other houses," she told him, giving him his schedule.

"Aye aye, captain," he replied. She rolled her eyes, probably knowing Leo wasn't gonna listen to that order. He sat on the chair and tried to read his schedule, unfortunately his dyslexia was making it hard for him.

"Hello, Leo Valdez."

He looked up to see the Lovegood girl from Diagon Alley. He grinned, didn't she mention something about being in Ravenclaw?

"Hey, Loony right?" she shifted in her seat.

"Luna," she corrected. "How are you liking Hogwarts so far?"

"It's cool," he answered. "Hey, how come I didn't see you during dinner last night? or in the common room?"

"I spent the night looking for my shoes," she said. Leo tilted his head. "and I did go to the common room, but very late at night. I was visiting the theresterals. I haven't seen them in so long."

"Okay," Leo pretended like he understood. "Oh shoot, what year are you in?"

"Third," she said, "You're in fifth."

"Yeah, I only asked because I wanted to know if we had the same schedule," he shook his head, holding his schedule. "if I had to try and read this everytime I go into class I think my brain might actually explode,"

She gave him a curious stare, "What's wrong? Is it the Wrackspurts?"

"Is it the what?"

"Wrackspurts. They float through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy.”

Leo knew there were in fact things in his brain that made it feel fuzzy, but he didn't think they were Wrackspurts. "Oh. No, I have dyslexia. I already have trouble reading normally but Hogwarts had to use all these fancy fonts."

"I could walk with you to your classes, atleast, until you've memorized your schedule. I'm sure you're not familiar with the classrooms either. I could help you get there."

"That's nice," he told her gently and gratefully, "But you don't have to, I’m very capable you know—“

"It's alright. I don't have many friends anyway," Leo frowned, he didn't know what to say to that. The bell rang shrilly. "Class is starting soon. We should get going, being tardy on the first day is always bad luck."

Luna turned to leave the Grand Hall. Leo, immediately followed her.

~

Some kids in the Slytherin house annoyed Nico more than Octavian had himself, and that was saying something.

He didn't want to be in Slytherin in the first place. But the hat was insistent; it said something about him being cunning, resourceful, willing to take charge, and ambitious enough to spend a whole year trying to contact his dead sister. Nico was deadly close to cutting that thing into a cleaning cloth.

He couldn't get a goodnight sleep without that Malfoy brat yamming about his father and talking shit about Harry Potter. And he wasn't the only one, some of the other guys joined in with opinions and insults towards the other houses, most of it about the muggle-borns and half-bloods. Nico didn't know any of the people they were talking about but he was still annoyed. While he very much wanted to strangle all of them, causing something with his roommates on the first day would do more harm and good, he knew that. So instead of telling them off, he tried to ignore them the whole night by using his pillow to cover his ears.

He was exhausted; the power energy Will had given him ran out after his shadow-travel to King-Cross station, it didn't help that it took them fifteen minutes to find platform 9 3/4, when some wizard family took pity on them.

Speaking of Will, he hasn't gotten the chance to IM yet, despite his promise to do so as soon as he arrived. After dinner, he had to talk to some ghosts, to make sure they didn't blab anything to the students. They thought he was here to get rid of them, which was ridiculous. That errand took most of his time and he had to go to bed before Filch and his ugly cat got to him.

In the morning he received his schedule and went to his first class, which was, ironically, thought by a ghost. He tried his hardest not to fall asleep, who knows -- Wizard history, it might actually help him on their mission. But despite his efforts to convince the ghosts to act normal around him the night before, Binns still acted as if he was a stray cat ready to bounce on him at the closest opportunity. The others noticed.

"Did you do something to Mr. Binns?" a girl who he thinks her last name was Greengrass asked.

"I've never even met him before that class," Nico replied, he hasn't directly met him at least.

"But the old ghost was terrified of you! You didn't notice?" Tracy Davis questioned.

Malfoy scoffed, "Please, why would Binns be afraid of di Angelo? Look at him," he looked at him up and down, silently pointing out his height and scrawny appearance. His goonies around him snickered so Nico made sure to give them his darkest glare. He succeeded as they all looked away, their noses still in the air.

"Maybe we saw wrong then," Travis shrugged, telling Greengrass.

Zabini changed the subject and started talking about Binn's lesson, Nico didn't listen. He was tempted to just skip their next classes altogether and IM Will in the bathroom, or use this time to look for another horcrux. He didn't know, and probably wouldn't know if there was one at Hogwarts, it's hard to tell with all the people around. All he could hope for was that they get this quest over quickly because he was already getting tired of the school stuff, and they were only one class in.

Break time had arrived a couple moments after, so Nico went to the courtyard with his friends. The Slytherins let him, not before whispering some not so nice comments about Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.

Knees to his chin, Leo asked, "How can we tell if something's a horcrux anyway?"

"Maybe there's a connection," Jason queried, "between the horcruxes we need to find," he turned to Nico, "Is there a label on the cup? Do you know what it's called?"

Nico shook his head, "No but there was uh," he tried to remember, "an animal, with leaves, engraved on the front."

"What animal?" Percy asked the same time Leo snapped his fingers, "Right! it was like a rat. A possum right? Or a weasel?"

"Something like that," Nico responded. "I don't know what items connects to a cup with a possum though,"

"Can you let me take a look at it sometime?" Percy asked him.

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Okay? but it’ll be a huge risk bringing it out in public, so we'll have to be sneaky about it."

"We’re not allowed to visit each other’s dorms," Jason sounded annoyed. "I asked the prefects about it. I mean we have kind of the same house system at Camp but the students here just seem more... divided." Leo audibly agreed by his side, so did Nico.

"I think I've figured out something from the prophecy last night," said Percy suddenly, grinning. They eagerly listened. "'Will unite what don't see eye to eye' it was talking about the houses! we need to unite them!" he said excitedly.

Nico did not share the excitement, "Oh no."

"Oh no?" Percy repeated, confused.

"Yep, oh no." Jason agreed. "I slept in the common room so I overheard some ...stuff about Ravenclaws and stealing from them. I don't think it was light-hearted."

"That was you?!" Leo squaked. Nico was surprised to see a bit of anger but it vanished before it even showed, "I mean- that was your house? Luna told me about it, she spent a whole night looking for her shoes! And she didn't even do anything to them."

Jason winced, "I didn't know you knew her. I'm sorry about my housemates, they can be very immature. I think you got a bit of that from earlier."

"Hey, not that I don't feel for your friend, Leo, but," Percy butt in. "How is this any different from, I don't know, The Stolls turning Katie Gardiner's hair green, or the Ares cabin dumping cold water on the Aphrodite kids, or -- Apollo campers cursing people to speak in rhymes for a week?"

"They're not a family here," said Nico, "When camp goes to war, we're a team. But if Voldemort were to return, and he starts a war like last time, this school's gonna be split into two sides. We don’t want another Luke and co. vs. Camp Half-Blood."

Percy’s face turned scaringly blank at that. Jason looked confused, but appalled, "There's no way kids at this school are actually gonna side with Voldemort," he queried. "Right?"

"You'd be surprised at what my roommates have been saying about the muggleborns and your Gryffindors," Nico deadpanned.

"Well, we brought together the Greeks and Romans," Leo looked at the bright side of things. "How hard could this be?”

“That should be the demigod motto,” Percy muttered, sounding grumpy. “Followed by, ‘I stand corrected.’”

As they leave to head to their respective classes, they see a crowd that had gathered somewhere in the corner of the courtyard. There were some laughing, cheering, and appalled gasps. Nico squinted. He sees that teacher with the one working eye, waving around a… ferret? with his wand.

Someone next to their group whispered to their friend, “Great Gregory! Moody’s turned Malfoy into a ferret!!”

“Yeah, apparently he’s provoked a fight with Potter and Weasley again!” the friend whispered back.

Both of Jason’s eyebrows raise at that as he turns back to them. “That’s a bit harsh isn’t it?”

Nico looks at the animal version of the snotty asshole he’s constantly greeted by in the dorms and snorts. “Nope.”

…

It's later that night, and finally, finally, Nico can Iris Message Will.

“Do you even know the meaning of soon?”

“Hi, Will," Nico sighed.

Will looked unimpressed. “You know, I had to ask Annabeth if you guys made it there okay. Did you know Percy IM’ed her the first night he left?”

Nico did not know that. But the implication made his heart skip a beat. “Well, I’m not Percy, so.” he sighed, wanting to appear nonchalant. “I’ve been busy, okay? The energy you gave me ran out once we arrived at Hogwarts and my roommates are the worst.” He groaned. “Not to mention that, we are, in fact, on a quest.”

Will seemed to soften at that. “Right. Sorry. I guess I was just worried. You did promise you’d message me as soon as you got there to tell me you’re okay, and when you didn’t…”

Great, now it’s Nico’s turn to feel guilty. “We’re okay, now. I actually wanted to thank you for what you did before you left. Shadow-travelling was a breeze. Didn’t even get exhausted until the third time.”

“You’re welcome,” Will grin was contagious, Nico’s lip twitched. “So it’s fair to assume you’re perfectly solid then? I’d hate to come over there and fix you up myself.”

He rolled his eyes, “No fading here. But you’re not a wizard. The magic won’t let you.”

“Like that would stop me.”

Nico bit his lip, “So, how’s you mom?”

“She’s doing okay. Perfectly healthy, now.” He smiled. “All thanks to her very handsome, very talented, son.”

“Naomi has another kid I didn’t know about?” Nico teased, silently relieved. Will stuck his tongue out childishly. He ignored it, and squinted his eyes for a better look through the mist. “That doesn’t look like Camp Half-Blood though. You’re still in Austin?”

“Yeah, I decided to stay the whole week. I don’t visit home enough as it is, I miss it.” Nico had no comment. Then it was Will’s turn to look through the mist. “And I assume you’re in some kind of.. dark ancient dungeon?”

“A bathroom stall, as a matter of fact.” Nico shrugged. “Dark ancient dungeon would be the place I sleep in.”

Will’s expression was serious. “Tell. Me. Everything.”

He did. Will was a huge nerd, and Nico resisted the urge to smirk. Unfortunately, in the middle of telling him about the moving staircases, they heard a grumble and a meow.

“What in Apollo's lyre is a cat doing in a magical boarding school?”

Nico sighed, “Don’t ask. Look, I gotta go. I can’t afford detention with my tight schedule.”

Will nodded solemnly. “I understand. Study hard, di Angelo!”

“I was talking about the quest, but that too,” Nico snorted.

They said their goodbyes and Nico just stood there. Slightly dissatisfied and disappointed. He won’t be able to IM Will for probably another week because of his, as mentioned a while ago, tight schedule. And he’ll probably use that week to IM Hazel and Reyna instead. He doesn’t mind that much because he misses them too but…

“Mrs. Norris, which way did you say that miscreant was?…”

Nico jumped through the shadow of the large stall.

…

Wednesday then turned to Thursday, placing Nico into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

So far, Moody was in his top two of most untrustworthy teachers. The first being occupied by his own head of the house and potions teacher. He didn’t seem like the type to take anyone’s shit, he doesn’t give in to Malfoy’s sucking up, however, there was just something about him that felt shady. Nico, being the king of shady endeavors, can see this clearly.

Their topic today was about Unforgivable Curses, which were very illegal and could send you to wizard jail. It was actually pretty interesting, when Moody made demonstrations on a spider.

But when the second curse was mentioned Nico knew something was immediately wrong. Moody called up that Longbottom kid and, even some Slytherins had looked uncomfortable. Moody enlarged the spider and casted the curse, it started twitching uncontrollably and he noticed Longbottom flinching hard with his expression horrified.

He hushly asked Davis, "What's happening?"

Granger was shouting. "Stop it!"

"His parents were tortured using that curse, drove them mad to death." Davis quickly whispered to him.

What the fuck. "Hey!" he yelled, standing up, joining Granger. "Stop that!"

And did Moody stop, he shrunk the spider and looked at Nico. So did everyone else in the class but he didn't care. He's done his fair share of messed up shit, but what Moody was doing, shoving an unfortunate circumstance of someone's loved ones to their face, – it wasn't cruel, it was evil.

Moody cleared his throat and looked away, "You don’t need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse," he seemed to be pretending like he hadn't just did what he did. Nico sat back down. “Right. Anyone know any others?"

A shaking hand from Granger, "Avada Kedavra," she whispered.

Abracadabra? Nico doubted it when the atmosphere had grown cold as soon as she said it. "Ah, yes. The last and worst one ...the Killing Curse," Moody grumbled. He raised his wand, pointing it at the spider, "Avada Kedavra!"

Stifled cries joined as the spider's life sucked out of its own.Unfortunately, Nico's seen faster deaths. Moody just swiped the now dead spider away like it's dust.

"Not pretty,” he said calmly, "Not pleasant. And there’s no countercurse. There’s no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he’s sitting right in front of me.”

Nico curiously followed his gaze, and to his surprise, the boy in front of Moody happened to be the boy with two souls. Harry Potter.

Nico's gears started turning. He doesn’t need his Divination to see a library visit in his near future.

Once class was dismissed, he walked down the flight of stairs with Greengrass and Davis. He didn't know how he became friends with these people but they just kind of adopted him into their two person friend group the past two days.

"Out of my way," Malfoy shoved him aside to make room. If that was anyone else, Nico would've kicked him to the ground. Unfortunately, he decided to play nice with him until he and his friends figured out a way to bring together the houses.

"I think he's mad at you for standing up for Longbottom," Greengrass told him.

He rolled his eyes, "Gods, sometimes I feel like that guy's a prick just because," he added, "And that's coming from me."

"You've got plenty of good morals, what are you on about?" Davis elbowed him, "What you did was very Gryffindor, actually." she teased. Nico raised an eyebrow.

"Speaking of Gryffindors.."

Greengrass’ eyes were focused on something. Nico followed the direction to see Granger walking toward them, Potter and Weasley following close by but looking uncomfortable doing so.

“Thank you for what you did back there.” she told him. She was pointedly avoiding Davis and Greengrass though. “I’m not exactly sure why you did what you did, or why Neville was acting that way but I thank you anyway.”

After one nod of acknowledgment, they all left. Nico raised an eyebrow at the two girls. “They don’t know?” Granger, and even Weasley and Potter seemed close with the Longbottom from what he’s seen.

“Granger’s a muggleborn,” Greengrass said.

Nico frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It only spread across our community when it had happened, you see. The Longbottoms were a part of the Sacred 28. At that point, every wizarding family knew what had happened to them,” Greengrass paused. “Every respectable Pureblooded family, at least. No one ever openly talks about it though.”

“What constitutes as a ‘respectable Pureblood?’” Nico asked before he could help himself.

He regretted it when they both glanced at each other, face unreadable. “You’re not a Pureblood.”

“Uh. No.” his eyes widened slightly. Mostly because he’s actually glad to have these two as information donors and he’s worried he’d lose that.

“Not to worry, we’re not mad or anything,” Davis smiled. “We figured anyway, you’re not part of the Sacred 28 - that’s the answer to your question by the way, you must be part of the Sacred 28 to be a respected Pureblood.” She then grinned, startling Nico a bit. “I know you must think that, we’d judge you and not want to be your friend. We’re evil, Pureblooded, Slytherins, after all.”

“I’m a Slytherin too.” he protested.

Greengrass laughed. “And yet you spend most of your time with a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw.” she said. “I’m sure you’ve heard tons of things about us and our lot.”

“Barely,” Nico rolled his eyes. “They — and I — think this whole thing with the other houses is stupid.”

“What thing?” Davis asked, and then blinked. “Oh. That. Well, house rivalries have been happening for centuries, nothing we can do about it. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition, either.”

“What if it keeps going?” he asked, “It would be far from healthy if it does.”

Greengrass actually rolled her eyes. “Relax, nobody’s killed anybody.”

Yet, Nico thought, but kept his mouth shut.

“And besides,” she continued. “It’s not like we don’t deserve the reputation at times. History tells us that, in fact. And you’ve met Draco and Pansy have you?”

“I wish I didn’t,” Nico mumbled dryly. Both of them grinned in amusement. “Tell me more about the Sacred 28.”

~

Harry did not trust the new exchange students.

Ron didn’t either, but Hermione’s seemed keen on giving them a chance, particularly after that di Angelo - the scary Slytherin - stood up to Neville.

That’s probably what set it off, Harry thought. But he noticed other strange things too. They all seemed to know very little about the Wizarding World despite claiming to be homeschooled. He once watched as Jason panicked and jumped after a painting had randomly started talking to him. (The Weasley Twins haven't found an opportunity not to mention that, in fact.)

They also always talked in hushed whispers when they were together, it wouldn’t be unusual if they didn’t forget (or not know how) to cast a Muffliato and Harry hears his name being mentioned.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to know good,” he demanded, for the tenth night since the 1st of September.

He waited. He was about to give up like he always has but then he saw his chance. The names Nico di Angelo and Perseus Jackson moved on the map and their trails walk toward one direction in an empty classroom next to the dungeons.

Harry took his Invisibility Cloak and fled.

He made sure his steps were soft and careful as he walked through the corridors. He’d done this a thousand times but he feels a new sense of weary this time around. He doesn’t think either Jackson or di Angelo are actually dangerous people by any means (possibilities’ not out, though,) but Harry’s under the impression neither of them would appreciate being spied on.

He heard muzzled voices when he arrived just outside the classroom. The door was cracked, Harry debated opening it but decided it would be pushing his luck.

“—don’t know how I’m gonna write this stupid potions essay.” A sigh.

“What’s it about? I could help you, probably.”

“Why else would I be telling you about it?” he grumbled. “We’re supposed to write about Calming Draughts, I did my research but I don’t know how I’ll convey it to paper er— parchment. Whatever.”

Harry had the same assignment on potions too. He’s only a quarter done and it’s due tomorrow. But he doesn’t understand why di Angelo and Jackson are sneaking off in the middle of the night just to talk about it.

“Right,” the voice is laced with realization. “You’ve never written an essay before. Wait, no, that’s not right, what about Westover?“

“They gave us mostly physical work, none of this stupid reading and writing.”

“Weren’t you ten?”

“I would’ve preferred physical work over this no matter what age I am.” he sighed. “Which reminds me, did Jason also suggest waking up at four in the morning for a jog on the Quidditch pitch to you?”

“Gods, yes. I lied and told him my roommates are light sleepers and that they hate being woken up early.”

“Good excuse,” he commented. “I just told him to go away.”

Harry is just contemplating leaving, there was nothing to gain listening to the admittedly boring conversation, especially at two am. That is, until he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. A speck of platinum blond.

This has got to be a joke.

Malfoy doesn’t see him, of course, because of his Invisibility Cloak. He’s listening in, and is moving around with poor stealth meaning he’s here for the same reason Harry is. But Harry is in a state of shock and confusion where he can’t seem to move, so, when the Slytherin bumps into him, Malfoy is, of course, baffled.

“What—“

Harry drapes the cloak over the two of them before either of them can think. Malfoy’s eyes understandably widened. “Potter—?”

“Shhhh!”

“What the hell are you—?“

Harry decided to cover his mouth.

“Mhnmhm!”

That made it worse. Merlin, why can’t this git be quiet for once? Harry glared at him, and gave him a meaningful look, hoping it would shut him up.

Then the doors opened, Malfoy finally closed his mouth. There was a hand on each side. Di Angelo’s eyes are narrowed as they scan the skinny hallway as if they were searching for something specific.

“Is anybody there?” Jackson was standing in the middle of the classroom, he had pajamas on, with his robe over it, and his black hair was disheveled. It was a look, Harry thought.

Di Angelo said something in Greek, and there was a response back, unfortunately, also in Greek. Malfoy huffs next to him, as if frustrated. Harry hates to say it but he feels the exact same.

Then, di Angelo’s searching eyes land directly on them. Harry’s breathing stopped.

But the eyes moved away before he knew it. “Nope. Looks like Malfoy got bored of our conversation.” He said in English, then closed the door, completely, this time.

“You don’t actually need help with your Potions essay, do you?”

“Oh, I do. But that’s not why we’re here, is it?”

“Guess not,” Jackson chuckled, “I can’t believe that Malfoy kid was following you.”

Harry’s head snapped to Malfoy again, a bit surprised and annoyed. Malfoy looked more embarrassed to be caught than anything but still sticks his nose in the air as to not show it.

“I can,” said di Angelo. “That guy has an antipathy against me, not exactly sure why but the feeling’s entirely mutual.”

Jackson’s voice is dry. “Your part of the mission going well, then?”

Harry shifts closer to the door at word ‘mission’, and so does Malfoy. And it’s the weirdest situation he’s found himself in, Harry reflects. He is under a cloak that makes him invisible, his body and most notably his ear is pressed against a hard wooden door as he listens to his probably dangerous new classmates plot. And he’s doing this across Draco bloody Malfoy who’s mirroring his position.

“It’s kinda difficult to befriend the guy who recites his prejudices like they’re damn poems.” is said just as dry.

“Wait, what? Do I need to beat this guy up myself?” Jackson spluttered.

Malfoy paled. Harry can’t say he blames him, Jackson is one undeniably fit bloke.

“Not those kinds of prejudices,” he felt an eye roll through di Angelo’s tone.

“Oh,” Jackson mumbled. “I haven’t heard any of the Hufflepuffs say anything bad about the Muggleborns, or, anything like that.”

A sigh. “Of course, ‘cause they’re all in Slytherin.”

“Not true, I think Leo said something about some of his housemates not wanting to date Muggleborns. But we’re getting off track, can I see it now?”

“Yeah, here.”

Harry so badly wants to know what ‘it’ is, so did Malfoy, it looked like, but the door was closed. And they would not be able to take a peak without turning the knob.

“I knew it!” Percy exclaimed in a whisper. “There’s one in our common room just like it. I guess it was a fake? I thought it looked familiar.``

“What is it, exactly?”

“It’s supposed to be a magical artifact created by our house founder,” he paused. “So that means the others are…”

“Also magical artifacts originating from the other houses, too,” di Angelo finished.

“Do you know if Slytherin has anything similar?”

“Not really,” He trailed off. It’s silent, but Harry can hear the two’s brains racking on something. “So we’ve found two, that’s five left including the guy himself.”

A groan. “Does this mean we have to—“

“Research? Yes and I’m not happy about it either.” he said. “But it’s a lead. We have to tell Jason and Leo tomorrow, they might have something.”

“Eager to end this thing, huh?” There’s no response but a faint shuffling from the other side.

A scoff. “We all are, Percy.”

The door opened abruptly. Harry, instinctively, grabbed Malfoy’s arm and moved both of them out of the way, his other hand gripping tightly on the fabric.

Di Angelo squinted his eyes in their direction, Harry held his breath.

But nothing. Nico just walked to the direction of the dungeons and didn't look back. Jackson also appears from the doorway, walking out and away toward the opposite direction before glancing at Nico for a second and tripping on his toes, probably because of the dark.

Once both of them were out of range, Harry bolted inside the used classroom, not realizing Malfoy’s arm was still in his grip until they got there. He released it like it burned him and took off the cloak, daring to look at Malfoy; his face was unreadable. Harry discards it for a moment to lock the door, not before scanning the hallway himself for anyone else. He casts a Muffliato for good measure.

When it was all clear, he walked back to the center of the room, where Malfoy was, and met his eyes, waiting for him to say something.

He had expected for Malfoy to yell, hex him, or to punch him in the gut. Something along those lines. Maybe in that order. Instead though, the blonde lets out a breathless, almost hysterical laugh.

“I knew that slimy di Angelo was up to something,” he was grinning an evil grin, “And Blaise labelled me paranoid. Just wait until he hears about this.”

“What are they up to exactly?” Harry found himself asking. “I mean, we know they’re on a mission - their words - but what are they planning?”

Malfoy is quiet for a moment, pursing his lips, “I’m not sure,” he said. And Harry tried to mask his shock at Malfoy — bloody Malfoy admitting to something like that. “Perhaps they were sent here by someone to spy on the students. That would explain why di Angelo said he had planned to befriend me.”

Harry recalls the conversation, and snorted rather rudely. “But couldn’t because of your prejudices.”

Malfoy scoffed, looking annoyed. Which Harry thought wasn’t fair, considering. “Are you seriously picking a fight with me right now, Potter? When di Angelo and his friends are obviously up to something that could endanger Hogwarts?”

“How could a bunch of kids our age endanger Hogwarts?” Harry raised an eyebrow. He found them suspicious, even more so after that conversation, but not that suspicious.

Malfoy crossed his arms. “Why are you here then, Potter? Actually, how are you possibly here? You’re not even dormmates with either of those two and also — I don’t know how I didn’t mention this sooner but — is that a fucking invisibility cloak?”

Harry rubs at his eyelids, the gravity of this situation finally dawning on him.

1) He had just shown Malfoy his invisibility cloak, even letting him use it for a hot minute. Malfoy. Harry hopes he can think of a good enough reason as to how he knew Percy and di Angelo were meeting up in the first place, because mentioning the Marauders Map will make this situation much, much worse.

2) He and Malfoy had shown up at the same place, for the same purpose. Harry even covered for the git. Basically, they were thinking of the same things and now had a common foe, if you could even call it that. He and Malfoy.

3) They’ve managed to hold a civil conversation. Granted, it lasted a total of five seconds, and it was actually Harry’s fault it ended — but it happened. And the worst part about it is, he felt like this was going to be a common occurrence starting now.

“Yes, it’s an invisibility cloak,” Harry coughed, “What was that about the Americans being a danger to Hogwarts?”

Malfoy narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t over, Potter. You’re lucky I’m actually willing to work with you on this.”

Harry choked at that. “You’re joking. Really?”

“I wouldn’t be saying it to you if I were joking!” Malfoy snapped, face red. He’s embarrassed, what the fuck, Harry realized. “Well?”

“Well..” Harry repeated, hesitation clear in his voice. “Well, why can’t we just go and tell a teacher? If you think they’re an actual threat. They might even know something.”

“They don’t,” Malfoy said, sounding sure of himself. “Not even Professor Snape. The staff was also pretty confused as to why Hogwarts’ got exchange students now but Dumbledore assured them this would have no negative effect on the school and that there is a reason. Just haven’t explained that particular reason because the geezer’s always got to be vague about everything.”

Harry ignores that jab for now to stare at Malfoy warily. “Did Snape tell you this?”

“Of course not,” Malfoy rolled his eyes. “I overheard Professor Snape and Mcgonagall talking.”

“Of course,” Harry rolled his eyes back our of spite. Then he scratches the back of his neck. “Well, if Dumbledore says there’s nothing to worry about—“

“No,” Malfoy interrupted. “I know you trust him ‘cause you’re his favourite and you're his little chosen one,” Harry scowled at him. “but I don’t. Those four are up to something, don’t you think that it's just a little bit odd that they seem to know nothing about magic? or - or that they’ve each been placed in a different house? It’s obviously so that they can spy on us all!”

“Now that’s pushing it,” Harry reasoned. “They couldn’t have charmed the hat, di Angelo couldn’t even cast a proper scourgify during Potions two days ago.”

“You’ve obviously done more stalking than I have,” Malfoy noted. Harry did not flush. “Why are you arguing with me on this?”

“Because—“ Harry stuttered. “Because you’re a git, and I hate agreeing with you.”

Malfoy face-palmed. Now that’s just annoying. “Ditto, Potter. You think this is a breeze for me? Everytime something horridly stupid comes out of your mouth I physically resist the urge to hex you, I actually feel like I’m resisting the sodding Imperious Curse at this point, with the amount of rubbish that comes out of that thing. But I’m not hexing you right now, you see, because I’m actually mature. I’m a mature person. Do you get that, Potter? Mature.”

Harry looked him in the eye. “You talk a lot.”

Malfoy groaned, smacking his head, “Merlin’s tits, I give up,” he told the air. “Why did I think having a civilized discussion with Harry ‘brain-dead’ Potter was a good idea—“

“Hey, you were the one who said you were willing to work with me,” Harry said. “I just didn’t say I’d agree.”

“That’s right,” Malfoy said blankly. “You never did. Excuse me, I will be leaving now. This conversation never happened.”

Even though he said it himself, he didn’t actually think Malfoy was gonna leave. They weren’t done. “Wait.”

Malfoy stopped, and turned to look at him expectantly. It’s not a scowl, or a glare. Harry’s skin crawled at the sight. This was weird. This was very, very weird. “What are you planning?”

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. “Is that you asking so you can stop me or help me?”

“That depends,” Harry answered honestly. “Why are you doing this? Why bother?”

Malfoy is silent for a bit, like he's preparing himself. Harry waits.

“I share a dorm room with di Angelo, Potter,” he tells him. There’s a strange, unfamiliar tone in his voice, and Harry is horrified to realize that it’s fear. “Do you think that after hearing that conversation that I’ll be able to continue on with my days peacefully? How do you think I feel sleeping in the same room with di Angelo? Have you even seen that freak, Potter? He's terrifying! I wouldn't even be surprised if he turned out to be the Dark Lord in disguise– "

"Voldemort is dead," Harry said instinctively. Malfoy's eyes twitched and opened his mouth, probably to tell him off about saying the name. Harry, frankly, was tired of hearing him talk so he interrupted, "I figured you would have liked that though. Living in the same dorm as your idol."

Malfoy's expression turns furious. "The Dark Lord is not my idol. Believe me or not, Potter, but sharing the same room with a murderer would not comfort me in the slightest," he spits. Harry blinks, surprised. "Is this you admitting that di Angelo could be–"

"Of course not. You made the comparison first," and he's actually seen what a person possessed by Voldemort looks like, and it's not di Angelo, who defended a Gryfindor earlier this week. "Are you - Are you afraid?"

Malfoy glares at him, he doesn't answer immediately, but eventually, he grits out, "Yes."

Harry kind of wants to laugh, say 'You deserve that,' but he remembers Malfoy's expression from earlier and thinks better of it.

"Then you have a fraction of how the muggleborns felt."

He doesn't wait for Malfoy's reaction or response, he walks away from him and puts on the invisibility cloak, ready for a peaceful night's sleep.

~

Jason's first schooling experience is going pretty well, he decides, as the spoon he was trying to turn into a chair becomes hazardous fireworks that nearly destroyed the classroom.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Grace," Mcgonagall says. "See me once class is over."

Jason tries to hide a grimace as he nods. The twins next to him go 'oooooooh' and he's tempted to smack them. Lee Jordan does it for him though, Jason grins and gives the guy a low high-five.

"If it were any other house, he would've lost at least thirty," someone behind him does a horrible job at whispering. "But of course, Professor Mcgonagall always has to play favorites."

Jason rolled his eyes, a jab already forming in his mind: 'That's not fair, Snape doesn't even give Gryffindors a chance –' wait. Yikes. Jason's slowly realizing that he's starting to give in to the whole house rivalry mess. He stays quiet then, ignoring the two Hufflepuffs behind him.

“What a bad boy you are, Jason,” Fred says once class is done. Jason’s proud of himself for being able to tell the difference between them quickly. “Two months has barely passed since your first day and you’ve already lost us 40 points!”

George nods solemnly. “An inspiration you are. In our first year, we only lost 37.”

Lee sighed. Jason glares at them, “I’m just not good at Transfiguration.”

“Or Potions,” Fred says.

“Or Charms,” George continues.

“Or Herbology—“

“I get it! I get it! You don't need to make a list,” Jason says, and shoos them. “I need to talk to Mcgonagall now. Go away.”

“Charming,” George says. Lee pushes the duo out of the room, and Jason snorts as he walks to his head of the house.

“How are you settling in, Mr. Grace,” is the first thing she asked. Jason blinked.

“Um, fine,” this wasn’t really what he expected when she asked to speak with him. Jason thinks Mcgonagall’s kind of scary. Not in the same way as Dumbledore’s or Chiron’s, but there’s just something about her that puts him on edge.

She frowned at that response. “The Weasley Twins haven’t caused you much trouble, have they?”

“Oh, they definitely have,” Jason doesn’t really feel bad about throwing them under the bus; He’s sure Mcgonagall knew how difficult they were too. “But I’m pretty used to guys like them. I think I’ve been handling it okay.”

Mcgonagall sighed, but her frown’s been replaced by a small wry smile. “Alright. But let me know if it’s too much, I find studying can be hard with such loud distractions," Jason cleared his throat, Mcgonagall's eyes wrinkle. "While we're on that subject, is there something we need to talk about?"

"I'm really sorry about the ruckus today, ma'am," Jason said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "And about the mess during Potions last week, and I also heard Percy did something similar in your class a few days ago so I'm sorry about that too. Oh, and Leo–"

"Oh, it's nothing to say sorry for, Mr. Grace," Mcgongall said lightly. "I've seen far worse, and at the very least, it doesn't seem like you and your friends are doing it on purpose. Unlike some children I know."

"Yeah, no," Jason chuckled nervously.

"The way I see it, you, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Valdez, and Mr. di Angelo are having a bit of trouble controlling your magic," Mcgonagall's expression turns welcoming, and Jason can tell where this is going. "I know a few students who are a bit like you four in that aspect, however–"

"The thing about us is!" Jason interrupts, a smidge louder than he had intended. "The four of us are kind of academically impaired." Mcgonagall frowned. "We're all dyslexic. And English isn’t our first language. I’ve read and pronounced some spells and charms wrong, and it’s mainly because of that that things kind of go wrong.”

“I did notice that as well,” Mcgonagall said. “There are spells that allow you to listen to a book instead of reading from it, and a few as well that allow you to translate languages, were you not taught them?”

Holy Hephaestus, Mcgonagall was a life-saver. Also: Jason went through a month’s humiliation for nothing. “No, we weren’t taught anything,” at Mcgonagall’s raised brows he babbled on, “The truth is, we were never homeschooled, at least, properly, you know? Our… guardians were athletes and weren't really good at teaching us all this stuff," he waved a hand at the entire room. "We're kind of embarrassed about it. And so were they. They were Hogwarts alumni, you know, so they asked Dumbledore if he could give us an exception. Looks like he agreed. And… that's the truth."

Jason falters. He went way off their script and Nico's gonna summon a zombie to eat him. He had no choice though, he knew Mcgonagall— and literally everybody else in this school— wanted to ask him what the hell he was doing here. It’s a valid question, Jason admits, but answering it truthfully, even to someone who looks as trustworthy as Mcgonagall, could probably get them killed.

He learned a few days into school that there were potions and spells that can disguise him into an entirely different person. With this information, the four of them decided that they wouldn’t expose their identity to anyone no matter who asked. They were all starting to make friends here— Jason noticed that Leo’s gotten close with the Lovegood kid, Jason doesn’t really understand that relationship to be honest. Percy’s been chummy with one of his classmates in Hufflepuff, and Nico’s been walking around with two Slytherin girls. And while Jason can’t stand them most of the time, the Twins were genuinely great guys, and Lee Jordan was a pretty cool dude. But they’re pretty much just Jason's friends with an expiration date. Which he feels really poopy about, but if they actually wanted to get home, it’s what they needed to do.

“I see,” Mcgonagall said, Jason can’t really read the expression on her face. It was either disbelief or thought. She paused before saying, “Your guardians were alumni, you say? What are their names, perhaps I taught them while they were in school.”

Jason sweats. “Um. Top secret. They said only Dumbledore’s only allowed to know. Safety reasons.”

“I see,” Mcgonagall said again. “I apologize for not asking you about you sooner, Mr. Grace, and your other friends for that matter. This is a huge oversight on my part as an educator and deputy headmistress.”

“It’s.. okay.” Jason responded, feeling guilty. “We kept it a secret for a reason.”

“Well,” Mcgonagall started. “If you want to graduate, I think it’d be best if you didn’t. There is nothing wrong or embarrassing about having a poor education background or having what you called, academic impairments.” she smiled. “What matters is what you do now, and I suggest you tell your professors everything you just told me.”

“Uh.. well, I’ll ask the other guys about it first,” Gods, Jason was not looking forward to being eaten by a zombie. “But if they say yes, can you.. be the one to tell the professors about it?”

Jason doesn’t think he can do five more rounds of this. He’s pretty bad at it and all the lying was making Jason feel a bit sick. This type of work was essential in any quest though, he knew that. And when they lied during the last prophecy to a deity or monster for the sake of their lives it was usually Piper or Annabeth doing the sweet talking. Nico would probably fit this job better than him too. Jason’s not cut out for this, he feels like he’s gonna accidentally kick a can of beans at any minute.

“Alright, I’ll be the one to tell them,” Jason thanked and nodded at her, very grateful. “Before you go, I have one thing I’d like to teach you.”

…

“—claws his fingernails into the thin cotton covering broad shoulders, enjoying the flinch of pain and the flare of lust in—“

Jason slammed that monstrosity close, face hot. “Sorry, wrong book.”

Leo was laughing at him. Percy doesn’t seem fazed, hugging his own wand protectively and staring at it like it’s blue brownies. “Mother of gods. Do you think I'm allowed to bring my wand to that mortal school with Annabeth?”

“I think that depends on whether or not Hecate strips us of our magic once we’re done with this quest,” Nico said wryly. Leo is still laughing. “Cool and useful trick. Please burn that book. Where did you learn that, anyway?”

“From Mcgonagall,” Jason answered. “She even—“ he pokes Leo’s eye with feeling. “—Okay, that’s enough—She even showed me a spell that could translate text into any language we want when I told her English isn’t our mother speak! It’s a hard spell though, I don’t think I can cast it.”

“Is that so,” Nico said slowly. Jason gulped. “Was this, like, a spell you learned in class? Mcgonagall, you say, so… Transfiguration, right? What even prompted you to tell her that English isn’t our first language?”

“Technically it is, though,” Leo said. “Our brains are just haywired—“

“I’m asking Jason some questions here.”

Leo looked at Jason pitifully. “I tried, dude.”

Jason smiled at him. “I appreciate it.”

“Wait, did you tell Mcgonagall?” Percy pointed a finger at him, Jason feels weirdly parented. “Bad Jason. I thought we were all clear on that whole identity thing?”

That is to say, Nico threatened them as he drilled into their heads, ‘Do NOT tell anyone. Do NOT trust anyone. DON'T think for a second that the person you call a friend is actually that.’ It was kind of depressing, but they all agreed in the end out of pure exasperation.

“We were clear on it,” Nico hissed. “Jason Amechanos Grace—“

“That’s not my name! And I didn’t actually tell her,” Jason said. “She was suspicious! Everyone in this school is. I mean, we just popped out of nowhere not even knowing basic spells— I had to improvise…”

"Hold on," Percy said, "Did Golden Boy Grace…lie?"

"That's not my name either," Jason sighed. "Yes, I did."

“Jason’s been beating himself up about it,” Leo nodded. “She apologized for not asking sooner, he cried. She’s just a sweet old lady who wants to help, he sorrowed. For two days, actually.” Jason pinched his ear.

“You guys kept this for yourselves for two days?” Nico glared at Leo, Leo raised his arms rigidly as if surrendering. “What did you even tell her?”

Jason tells them. Nico groans in monotone agony.

“It’s not that bad!” Jason defended.

“Kind of embarrassing, not gonna lie,” Leo said. “Going from saviors of the universe to basically idiots? Or that could be my inner Ravenclaw talking.”

“There’s nothing embarrassing about it,” Jason rolled his eyes. “We’re not wizards, we just found out about all this stuff two months ago.”

“Who cares about all that,” Percy chimed. “What we should talk about is how that story’s a huge load of Minotaur turd. I obviously know it’s Minotaur turd, because it’s our mission and all, but I’m pretty sure even Mcgonagall could tell that that was all Minotaur turd.”

“You’re almost an adult, Jackson, just say bullshit.”

Percy turned to Nico, confused, “How old are you again?”

Nico punched his gut. “You know. We’ve cycled through enough undercover stories already. The first one was the one at that bank and clothes shop, we told them we were cousins with a powerful aunt.” Leo grimaced. “You drama queens hated that, so we came up with the second one where we were just homeschooled family friends. We all agreed that was what we would say to anyone who asked. And now there’s this.” Nico rubbed his face. “Was that honestly the best you could come up with?”

“I was under a lot of pressure. And I’m not good at lying,” Jason defended sheepishly. “You’re not gonna kill me, right?”

Nico huffed. “The only thing I’m angry about is the fact that you didn’t tell us about this immediately,” he said seriously. “What if there was a situation where one of us also had to tell some inane lie to keep the teachers off our backs? Our stories could contradict, and they would figure it out—“

“You have some huge paranoia issues, dude,” Leo said. “Like I get it. I overthink things too, but you need to chill.”

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, honestly,” Jason said, and winced as he realized. “Well. Unless Mcgonagall goes directly to Dumbledore. That might be a problem.”

Nico paled. Percy shrugged it off. “We don’t actually know how we were allowed to go to Hogwarts in the first place now, do we? Our first story could’ve been accurate; Hecate herself could have actually convinced Dumbledore to let us in. Maybe she even told him about our quest.” he shuddered. “From what I’ve heard, he knows just about everything. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“If he knew about us, wouldn’t he have helped by now?” Leo asked. “It’s his world that’s in danger.”

They stayed silent at that.

“It wouldn’t be the first time a powerful being left us with their dirty work,” Percy said eventually, shrugging.

Nico rubbed his eye. “Gods. Let’s just— worry about the whole undercover mess some other time. We need to focus on finishing this stupid quest. I’m still doing some research on horcruxes. Also, Slytherin had some kind of locket heirloom. I don’t know what it looks like, but it’s a start.” Nico groaned, and looked at Leo and Jason. “You two. Did you find anything from your Houses?”

Leo pointed a finger between himself and Jason. “Us two?”

“Am I looking at anyone else?”

“Did you want us to get something from our common room?” Jason asked, frowning.

Nico's eyes darted between them incredulously, then he facepalmed, turning to Percy. “You didn’t tell them?”

“I thought you would!”

“Why would I—ugh.”

Jason crossed his arms. “You told me off for not telling you about what I did immediately, but apparently you’ve been keeping something from us as well?”

“Ooooh,” Leo said.

Nico forced a sorry smile. “Call it even?”

Jason grinned as an answer. “Tell us everything you forgot to tell us already.”

Nico did. Jason found himself furrowing his eyebrows and sees Leo doing the same.

“I don’t know any artifacts from Ravenclaw herself,” Leo admitted. “I could probably ask Luna though, or another housemate.”

“Same. Maybe Hermione or someone else,” Jason asked, “Would that be okay?”

“More than. I asked Daphne about Slytherin’s,” Nico conceded. “The only other source of information we have is the library and..” Nico sighed, his eyes looking haunted. “I think I’m pretty okay at reading these days but.. there’s.. just…too much...”

“I’ll teach you that spell Mcgonagall taught me,” Jason offered.

“Oh, you’re teaching all of us that spell, Jason,” Percy snorted. Leo nodded importantly. “Anyways. Nico, I’m pretty sure you neglected to tell them the other thing that happened that night?”

“Right,” Nico acknowledged. He looked at all of them. “I’m proud to say we didn’t only make progress on the horcrux finding part of the quest.”

“Ominous,” Leo gasped.

“One of Nico’s roommates— Malfoy, I think— followed Nico on his way out to meet me. He’s got an epiphany against Nico apparently.”

“I told you everyone in this school finds us suspicious!” Jason said, triumphant.

“And no one disagreed with you,” Nico said back. “Malfoy though, I’m not really sure if he just distrusts me, or was just trying to find some dirt. He tried to be sneaky about following me, but I could literally feel a soul outside the classroom door.”

“Nico and I chatted about homework for ten minutes to bore him into leaving,” Percy shrugged.

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Not that this isn’t an interesting story but what does this have to do with our quest?”

“I started feeling t three souls outside that door,” Nico said. “Two of them being Harry Potter.”

Jason frowned, he’s about to ask what Harry was doing there but Percy shushes him. “Then Nico and I decided to just have our briefing about the hurcoxes plan while they were still there.”

“What?!” Jason exclaimed, having forgotten his question. Leo looked at them both like they were crazy. “Nico, you are such a hypocrite.”

Nico gave him a very dirty look. “We omitted anything specific. But they definitely know we’re up to something now. We intentionally made our conversation sound very dodgy for them to hear,” Jason’s eyebrows raised in question. “It’s a strategic move.”

“A strategic move that leads to..” Leo asked, with a dubious expression.

“Harry and Malfoy are kinda like the face of the inter-house rivalry in Hogwarts; you guys heard about that too right?” Percy implored. They both nodded warily. “Malfoy isn’t Nico’s biggest fan. Harry’s a Gryffindor so that probably means he has some sense of morality in him. Do you see where we’re going with this?”

“You guys are deliberately making them work together to stop us,” Jason answered wildly.

Percy drummed the table. “Bingo.”

“What two enemies need is a common enemy. If we can get those two to get along, then we can probably unite the other houses through them,” Nico said, but his tone is weird.

Leo huffed out a breath, looking impressed and doubtful. “Are we seriously staking this plan on a ‘probably’?” he asked. “What if they actually succeed in stopping us?”

Nico raised an eyebrow at them. “Do you think that’s a possibility?” he asked everyone.

“Like hell,” Percy rolled his eyes.

Leo hummed. "What if they tell on us then?"

Nico shrugged. "They don't have proof."

“Okay but,” Jason frowned. “What was Harry doing down there? It was really late, wasn't it?”

Nico said, “No idea. When I walked out of that classroom to confront them, he and Malfoy weren’t even there. Their souls were, they must’ve used some magic to become invisible. I needed to do some more research on Potter but I didn’t have the time. Actually— Jason, I gotta ask, are you friends with him?”

“Not really,” Jason blinked, surprised. “I see him all the time since he’s my housemate but we don’t really talk outside of greetings.”

“We need someone to get close enough to him. Can you try to?” Nico asked. “You too, Leo.” Leo startled at that.

Jason scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, I’ll try? But he doesn’t trust any of us now, how would I do that?”

“There’s a chance he’ll let you, to get information,” Nico said. “I know I would. I tried befriending Malfoy but he’s being difficult. I was hoping you could get close to Potter since you live in the same dormitory. I asked Leo too, since he’s closer to Potter in age. I’m not an option, you..” Nico grimaced, making eye contact with Leo. “..have a friendly aura. Unlike me.”

Leo gaped, and his eyes widened. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Nico scowled at him. Percy raised his hand, “I have a question.”

“What.”

“We need to get close to Harry because he’s a horcrux, right?” Percy asked, lips curling downward. “Or is there more to it?”

“There’s always more to it,” Nico sighed, not demeaning. He sat a little straighter. “Yesterday, I did some light reading, asked a few questions. Harry Potter isn’t just anybody—“

A pretty boy in Hufflepuff robes stops by their area and taps Percy on the shoulder. Percy turns around, snapping four of them out of their little bubble. The Hufflepuff (who Jason knows is one of Percy’s friends) mouths something.

“Hey, Nico. Can you undo the spell real quick?” Percy asked him. Nico obeys, expression annoyed at being interrupted.

Suddenly, the chatter of students in the Great Hall rushes through his ears. Jason had forgotten where he was in the first place, too engrossed in their little meeting. He had also forgotten about his food, he realized as his tummy wailed.

“What’s up, Diggory?”

“We’re about to welcome the guest schools visiting for the Triwizard Tournament,” he tells them. “Dumbledore says to return to our respective tables.”

“Copy, Mr. Prefect,” Percy drawled. Mr. Perfect rolled his eyes.

Diggory eyes them all pointedly and smiles warmly. He then left quickly to talk to some first year Hufflepuffs who wanted his attention. Once he’s out of earshot, Nico leans into the table.

“Harry’s the ‘Chosen One,’” he whispered. Jason’s eyes widened. Leo choked on his toast. “Jason, Leo. I trust you guys to keep an eye on him, Percy and I will deal with the soul jars. Just keep us updated on any information you learn."

Percy sighed deeply. "I feel bad for the kid," he said grimly, "I wouldn't wish being the 'Chosen One' upon anyone."

Jason watches him, he fills pity, and he finds himself sagging sadly too.

"This is why you're not on friendship duty," Nico tells Percy. "Your depression is contagious, Jackson."

"Wouldn't he be our best bet, though? Since Harry has a crush on Percy?"

They all turned to look at Leo. Nico's eyes narrow, "What?"

"What?" Leo asked incredulity. "Was I the only one who noticed?

Percy's lips purse in thought. Jason kept his eyes on Nico, who closed his eyes and shook his head. "No– we're going through with the original plan. Percy shouldn't– that would be mean."

'Speaking from experience?' Jason almost asked, but didn't. From Leo's baffled expression, he remembered that Nico's probably not out to him. Jason, instead, coughed up a "Yeah."

Nico glared at him unimpressed. Percy eyes him too, and grins, "I'll behave, I promise! Let's just call it plan B."

"Fine," Nico grits.

"Meeting adjured then," Leo clapped. "I need to go back; I can feel someone glaring at me from the back of my neck." Jason looks, and it's an older Ravenclaw girl with curly hair. He tells Leo as such, who grimaces.

"Let's talk soon," Jason says, they all go back to their tables. Jason sits in a spot that the Weasley Twins were saving for him. They were both quietly reading some books, and Jason's eyebrows raise.

"What the hell are they doing?" Jason asks the person nearest which – oh, how lucky was he – Harry Potter.

The boy hesitates, looking at his face before shrugging, "Don't know."

"Some questions are left unanswered with those two," Ron said.

Jason looked between the two friends. Harry was acting and looking at him weirdly, but Ron is totally normal. He expected Harry to tell someone from Gryffindor what he heard, but it's probably better for Jason that he didn't. He wants to know what's going on in Harry's head, and if he's actually working together with a Slytherin to expose them, but…

"Can I ask you two something?" Harry eyes him warily, Ron looks interested and nods. "Do you know if there's anyone in Slytherin being mean to Nico? I'm worried about him."

Jason's heard Nico rant about Malfoy many times. While Jason doesn't support violence against unassuming mortals, he understood Nico's frustration and lets him vent out his anger through sparring in their free time.

"Oh, Malfoy. I've seen him be a total prat to di Angelo," Ron answered immediately. Harry stayed quiet, expressionless. Jason plasters a fake grateful smile, he should have probably thought about this more. "You know, you're not very good at spells but you've got some muscle on you. Will you fight him? Us Gryffindors will be a hundred percent behind you, mate."

"Uh, what? No, of course I won't," Jason amends, and Ron deflates. "He's just a kid. Maybe I'll… talk to him or something." he finished lamely.

But then Harry's eyes dart to him in curiosity. Jason wonders what it is he said that urged that reaction.

"Suit yourself," Ron shrugs. "Let me warn you though: git's not the type to listen, especially to our lot."

"I'll remember that," Jason smiled. He looks at Harry who's been looking at him, the 'Chosen One' avoids his eye, and turns his attention to the front of the Grand Hall.

Dumbledore's been giving some kind of speech since Jason's sat down. He hadn't really been paying attention–he probably should have. The doors burst open, and the Twins drop their books on the table.

Jason can only think of one thing when those girls came in. His heart aches, and he can't help but sigh miserably.

"Piper."