Nico Goes to Hogwarts *HIATUS*

Siriusly, Dragons

Harry paced around the common room. In his owl, Sirius had said to come alone; however, Ron insisted on being there with Harry, and Hermione deemed it "unsafe for Harry to be without at least two others after those Americans' threats", so she sat, curled up, on one of the couches. Sirius would not likely mind the extra faces, Harry was sure.

A rough hissing sound came from the fireplace. "Psst."

Harry sat up in his chair. "What was that?"

"Psst." Sparks flew up from the fire.

Cautiously, Harry knelt in front of the fire, and all of a sudden, Sirius' face was there, gasping.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed. "How--?"

"I don't have much time, Harry," Sirius interrupted, "So let me get straight to it. Tell me about that dream of yours. You mentioned Wormtail and Voldemort, but who was the third man in the room?"

"I dunno," Harry pouted. He didn't like not knowing things.

"You didn't hear a name?"

Harry shook his head. "No. Uhm, Voldemort was giving him a job to do... Something important..."

Sirius looked puzzled. "And what was that?"

Harry looked down. "He wanted... me.... I dunno why, but he was going to use this man to get to me." Harry shrugged. "I mean, it was only a dream, right?"

Sirius didn't look Harry quite in the eye. "Yes. Just a dream... And you mentioned those exchange students in your letter?"

Harry scowled. "Yeah. Nico-Angelo Olympia and Will-Sol Hunter. Dumb names if I ever heard them."

"And you're sure they're spies?"

"Well-- no, not exactly." Harry felt anger swell within him. "They claim they have nothing to do with Voldemort or Death Eaters, but that Nico bloke has a tattoo on his arm. I mean, he showed us it and it looked normal, but he might have confunded us or something-- They can do wandless magic, apparently, so we wouldn't know."

Sirius looked skeptical. "Why else would you think they're spies?"

Harry threw his hands in the air. "Well, they said they'd been in wars, right? Maybe there's still a war going on, and they want Voldemort's help! Or at least a few Death Eaters. And they're friends with Malfoy, the slimy git! They seem to have everyone under-- under some sort of spell, and just today they threatened me!"

"They threatened you?" Sirius asked, shocked. "Why?"

Harry grew bashful all of a sudden. "Well-- you see-- Rita Skeeter published that article about the Champions and wrote some things that even I admit are nasty and likely false, and that angered Nico-Angelo. But he threatened her, and whether or not she had it coming, I couldn't let him do that! So..." Harry paused. "So I called him a Death Eater, and that seemed to piss him off further. Blimey, Sirius, he'd probably'd've killed me had Malfoy not stepped in. But then Will-Sol told us to stop following them and-- well..."

Sirius sighed, and looked as if he were going to berate Harry but thought better of it. "Look, Harry. The Death Eaters at the World Cup, those exchange students coming to Hogwarts-- whatever their reasons.... These are not just coincidences. Hogwarts.... Perhaps it isn't safe anymore, Nico-Angelo and Will-Sol or no."

"What are you saying?" Harry asked defensively.

"I'm saying the devils are inside the walls-- Igor Karkaroff, he was a Death Eater, and no one--no one-- stops being a Death Eater. Then there's Barty Crouch... Why, he sentenced his own son to Azkaban!"

"Do you think either of them are.... Are up to something? Working for Voldemort inside the school?"

"I haven't a clue," Sirius admitted. "But either way neither of them are friend to you."

There were footsteps on the boys' stairs.

"Someone's coming." Harry warned.

"Keep your friends close, Harry," Sirius warned.

Harry stood, only to see Colin Creevey on the stairs.

"Oh," he said, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Can you three not sleep either?"

"Uh, actually, we were just going to bed, see..."

~*~

It was exactly one week until the First Task.

Not that Nico was nervous; he had overheard the Golden Dumbasses talking hushedly about dragons earlier in the week, and it didn't take a genius to piece two and two together: dragons would in some way be involved in the First Task, and they would likely be fighting him. He knew that Delacour and Krum knew, what with the conspicuous whispering between them and the Heads of their schools respectively, but with the nasty looks Harry had thrown at Diggory behind the latter's back, Nico was almost certain Harry hadn't warned him. So that left it to him.

"Hey, Diggory!" Nico called.

The courtyard was empty for the exception of Diggory, his friends, and students passing by. Diggory looked up at Nico.

"Oh, hey," he said uncomfortably. "It's Nico-Angelo, right?"

"Yeah." Nico confirmed, now standing right in front of the bronze-haired boy. He paused for a fraction of a second; was secretivity really necessary here? Diggory was smart enough to understand subtlety, and even if he weren't, Nico pegged him as the type of guy not too shy to ask for clarification. It's not like there was really anyone around to hear, and it wasn't as if all the other contestants already knew. "So," he said, conversationally, casting Diggory a meaningful glance. "I hear that there are dragons somewhere on campus, and I thought that you would be interested. I know Delacour and Krum are interested, too, and I can't say that I'm not."

Diggory's eyes widened substantially, and there was a thankful look on his face. "Oh. Thank you."

Nico smiled at him-- well, as much as he smiled at strangers, anyway-- and shrugged. "Yeah. Like I said. Thought you'd be interested."

~~~~~~~

Nico u don't have to vague all the time jfc

I FORGOT I HAD ALREADY WRITTEN A BIT AHEAD SRY AAAA

Also Harry stop being a little shit