Arrival of the Ghost King [PJO x HP]

IIX: Severus Starts Spouting Vines for No Reason

Nico crept through the school hallways, keeping to the shadows. All was well, until he met the cat. When he saw the wild-looking thing, he figured that it would hiss once at Nico and bounce off, like most cats would.

But of course, the one time he needed to stay unnoticed, it started meowing at him. Very loudly, Nico might add.

Nico backed away, but the cat just followed him.

"Shh! Get back! Bad kitty! Bad!" Nico whisper-shouted at the cat.

"Meow!"

"God, who is stomping around at this hour?" One of the portraits asked, yawning.

Nico internally cursed. At this rate, the whole castle would be awake. Suddenly, he heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. The demigod quickly pressed himself against the wall and wrapped himself in the shadows. The cat didn't seem to like the presence of the footsteps and ran off.

Four people were arguing.

"I would've brought the cloak, but dumb Dippet took it! It's not my fault, it's his!" a boy with messy hair exclaimed. Nico was startled to recognize that this boy was in fact James Potter.

Lupin sighed. "How did you even get it confiscated, Prongs?"

Prongs? That was a strange nickname.

"It was nothing, Padfoot and I were just using it for some pranks!" Potter fumed.

Padfoot. Another interesting name.

"Oh, so that's why those three students ended up in the hospital wing, and why Bulstrode now has permanent acne. I should have known," Lupin sarcastically exclaimed.

"Don't worry, it'll just be for a couple more weeks until I'll get it back," Potter assured.

"Can't you complain that the old soot is taking private property or something?" Black interjected.

"I already did that, he wasn't having it."

"Bumer. We could have gotten him kicked out of the school too."

"That's not the point!" Lupin interrupted. "Because of this, we're going to be late. And we can't be late," he stressed.

"Yes, we know. The clouds part and BOOM!- if Moony's not in the Shrieking Shack and is still on school grounds, you'll eat everyone and we'll all die painful deaths," Potter waved Lupin off. Nico had never met a person talk to nonchalantly about death except for some demigods. Perhaps wizards were stranger than the son of Hades had given them credit for.

The continued along the hallway, still bickering, while Nico processed this new information. It sounded like they had some sort of magic cloak, but it got confiscated. Despite Nico's previous assumptions, Potter, Black, and Pettigrew seemed to know that Lupin was a werewolf, based on their conversation. Either that, or they were part of a cult and maybe the Italian mafia. (Nico had quite the encounter with them before. It was not pleasant, but still funny at the same time.)

But if they did know that Lupin was a werewolf, why would they want to be with him during his transformation? They would be ripped to pieces!

However, Nico was pretty sure they knew Lupin was a werewolf, since his nickname was literally "Moony". How had the other students not caught on? Was everyone just dumb and clueless here?

Nico waited a bit, then followed the quartet (?) through the maze of hallways and passages.

They reached the outside, and Nico heard a small gasp followed by some rustling. The quartet (Nico liked that word quite well,) didn't notice however, and Nico concluded that his demigod senses were the reason for this.