Demigods at Hogwarts

Chapter Seventeen: Nico di Angelo

~Nico~

Having my head split open might have hurt less. The headache I got from all the waves of death coming off everyone around me felt like a thousand Stygian Iron swords pressing into my skull. I cried out in pain.

Heads swiveled toward me; I started trembling with the pain...

And suddenly the headache receded, leaving me feeling pins and needles all over my body. 

I wanted to curl into a ball, like I used to at Westover Hall when I had nightmares.

"Sorry," I said to everyone who was staring at me. "I'm fine now." Only my friends didn't seem convinced.

The woman in red stepped up onto a platform and cleared her throat. "To our first years and exchange students, welcome! To old faces, welcome back! As most of your know, anyone who has had their schooling interrupted since the rise of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has-"

Someone down the table from me called out, "Why can't we just call him Voldemort? I defeated him! He's never coming back!" It was Harry.

"My apologies, Mr. Potter. As I said, anyone who has had their schooling interrupted since the rise of V-Voldemort has been invited back to complete their schooling. And also, we have added three new classes for this year: Mythology, Physical Combat, and a Foreign Language elective. The-"

Moans and groans erupted from the crowd.

"Mythology? Why do we need to learn that?"

"I'm juggling three languages already!"

"Silence!" The professor shouted. The gathered quieted down, and I bit my lip. Mythology? Physical Combat? Both classes that demigods would excel at.

The professor mentioned her name, McGonagall; something about forests; and something about ghosts, but I wasn't really paying attention.

I couldn't shake the feeling that someone knew exactly who we are.

***

That night, in the relative safety of the bathroom, I made an IM. Will had told me that New York was five hours behind Scotland, so I made the IM at eleven here.

The campfire sing-along was rowdy and excited, and I had to yell Will's name a few times before he heard me.

He mouthed; I'll call you back, and cut the message. A few minutes later, the faucet emitted a gush of rainbow mist. Will's face appeared in the shimmer.

"Hey, di Angelo!" he said. "It's what, eleven where you are now?"

"This isn't a social call," I chided. "I need advice from my doctor."

Will's face fell. "Is something wrong? Are you hurt?"

I shook my head. "Not really. I got a massive headache at dinner today is all. I was wondering if you had any medicine for it."

Will said, "OK, I'll go check. And, Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"There's a ghost behind you." Will walked off and I turned around.

The ghost was about sixteen years old, wearing Hogwarts robes and carrying a camera.

"Hello, my lord," he said, bowing his head before dropping all formality. "It is really you, isn't it? Nico di Angelo, the Ghost King? Heard you were coming here and I wanted to meet you. I died in the Battle of Hogwarts, but you probably know that. I'm Colin Creavey! My brother went off to your school, you know!"

"Hi, Colin," I said. "You're right, I am Nico."

"I knew it!" Colin pumped a fist in the air. I had a mental image of myself when I was younger, always excited, always happy.

I turned again to see Will's face back in the IM. "Glad to see you've gotten introduced. Did you have a nice heart-to-heart about death?" he asked innocently.

"Shut up, Solace," I growled, looking over my shoulder, but Colin Creavey was gone.

Will lobbed an object through the IM and I caught it, staring at the label.

"Advil?" I asked in disbelief. "You're giving me Advil for a death-induced mystical headache?"

"You didn't say that it was mystical," he said sternly. "You had me thinking that it was a normal headache. Keep the Advil and take it if the headaches bother you."

"I have two more problems," I said. "One's personal, one a problem for everyone." I filled him in on the situation with Ron, and all he said was, "I'll strangle him."

"Or I could just do what I did to Bryce Lawrence," I said. That sounded pretty great. "But that's not the important thing. I think someone knows about us. Someone added classes that we would be good at, like Mythology and Physical Combat."

Will's face grew hard. "I'll ask for a camp meeting."

"Bring representatives from Camp Jupiter," I suggested.

"OK. I love you!" He blow mock air kisses and I smiled.

"Bye, Solace."

I left the bathroom after cutting the message, and headed off to my dorm for some sleep.

~

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! I finally did a Nico chappie and it was good. My use of skull in the first paragraph was not a coincidence. I love this chapter soooooooooo much it's probably my favorite. There's a little bit of Solangelo (sorry shippers!!)

Please follow my best friends:

@horsegirl469

@midpaw

@feihong10

And my mom:

@mommycatt

My aunt is reading the lightning thief like I said, but she mentioned the movies.

My aunt also thinks Will is crazy for giving Nico Advil for a mystical headache. She's a doctor too.

That's a long enough author's note. Peace!