When Myths Meet Magic || 5

3|| Nico

Nico sat down at the dinner table, his heart going at it like a bongo drum. Will was here. Will was here.

"What're you doing here?" Nico asked as he reached for the stew.

"I'm here because you in the future when you returned from the quest was complaining about me not being here, so Hecate sent me here so that you wouldn't complain as much. It was really annoying," Will complained.

Nico grinned. "Well, what about Leo? Why's he here?"

"He came back in real life," Will said. "So then Hecate sent him here too." Will paused to sip his water. "So, that's Harry Potter then?" He asked, jutting his chin out towards Harry.

Nico nodded. "Go easy on him," he said in a low voice. "He's had a tough life."

"And he has some anger management issues," Will said. "Like someone I know."

Nico chose to ignore the meaningful glance Will shot at him. "So, you know much about the wizarding world?" He asked.

Will shrugged. "I know enough. Hecate caught us both up on the general fifth year magic knowledge and other stuff. How we're not supposed to say Voldemort and the basic overall crisis you guys are in now."

"Did she tell you anything else?" Nico asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Will rolled his eyes. "Even if I knew, I'm not going to tell you what happens next. That's Rachel's job."

Nico scowled. "You're no fun."

Will shrugged. "And you can't do anything about it. How long has it been? A year?"

"This is the end of our fourth year," Nico corrected him. "I think I'm healthy enough to shadow travel again." He wasn't about to tell Will how many times he had shadow travelled in the past four years.

Will shrugged. "Maybe. I still don't like it though."

"But you can't do anything about it."

"I have more gum."

Nico made a face. "Don't you dare make me eat that again."

"Well guess what, it's one of the few healing remedies you can use that doesn't immediately burn you up into flames. Deal with it."

Percy leaned over to Annabeth. "They have not changed at all," he whispered.

Annabeth grinned. "They're so cute," she agreed.

Thalia grunted. "Don't let Nico hear you call him that," she said. "He'll hide animal bones in your bed."

"You speak from experience?" Annabeth asked, hiding a smile. Thalia nodded.

"That means you called him cute?" She could barely hold back her laughter.

Thalia scowled.

"You walked right into that," Percy said, shaking with suppressed laughter.

On the other side of the table, Leo, Fred, and George were in a very deep conversation.

"Show us!" Fred said eagerly. Leo held his palm forward and let flames dance over it. The twins leaned forward eagerly as Leo put the fire on full blast. The flames narrowly missed their eyebrows.

George pulled away lest his eyebrows catch on fire. "Cool!"

Leo let the fire extinguish with a grin. If he had any doubts about his powers before, they were gone at the awe of the Weasley twins.

Fred's expression was one of which the Stolls commonly had whenever a new camper came. "We are going to get along very well," he said. The three exchanged mischievous glances.

>>>•Leo•<<<

"Hold this right here," Leo instructed George. The Weasley carefully held the wires where they were as Leo reached into his toolbelt and pulled out a small bronze clip. He took the wires again and twisted them, clipping them together then tucking it under the bronze plating.

"There!" Leo beamed. Fred eyed the machine, impressed.

"Wow."

"Wow indeed!" George exclaimed. They stared at the shining bronze owl, though it was sleeker and smaller than a normal owl. Leo spun the owl around and connected a wire in the control panel, and suddenly the statue became a machine. The eyes glowed red for a moment before fading into a solid black. It turned its head to the side and regarded the three curiously.

"Watch this." Leo pressed a button, and a small hatch on the bottom of the owl dropped open revealing a compartment. He dropped something inside, and the compartment closed as the owl took off and soared out a window. They watched as it circled around and flew into the window next to theirs. A moment later, there was a shriek and flour poofed from the window at an alarming rate. The owl flew out of the fog and landed back on the headboard of the bed.

"Leo!" Hazel yelled from the window. They stuck their head out and faced Hazel, grinning.

"Hullo," said George. "You're looking well."

Hazel shook out her hair like a dog, and the flour showered down onto the dying peonies beneath the window. Her face was covered in the white powder, giving her a ghostly complexion. "I knew it was a mistake on Hecate's part to bring you," she muttered as she pulled her head back into the window.

Fred laughed and turned to Leo. "Why have you not come earlier, my friend. Your machines could've been put to use very well."

"The things we could've done," George agreed, sighing wistfully. "But alas, we only have one year of this before we're sent off," he said dramatically.

"Thank the gods for that," Hazel yelled from the hallway.

>>>•O•<<<

The last weeks of summer passed by at odd intervals. One day would seem to drag out for years, the next four would pass by as if you were in a reverse time turner. The next two would once again move at the pace of a sloth, and the next two would zip by as fast as Percy could finish a box of blue cookies. Mrs. Weasley and Sirius, after having a nasty spat about whether or not Harry was mature enough to be in the Order (something that Molly was almost completely on her own for, besides Lupin, occasionally), were increasingly stiff around each other. Chiron, who spent almost all his time in wheelchair form, often vanished for days at a time. From what Fred and George had gathered from extendable ears, and now Leo with several handy contraptions, he was off finding as many magical creatures as possible, turning them from Voldemort's side before Voldemort could get to them. Although Molly did find out about the machines after a day and had since after strictly cast a bajillion charms over the room. The demigods, who were still firmly rejected from the meeting rooms, were often assigned chores of helping clean up the house. Originally, Percy would douse a room in water to wash away all the dust, then dry it and have the rest of them organize and clear out all the creatures living around the room, but that plan failed after the dirt and dust had swirled up with the water flow and simply set back down on the ground when Percy drained the water, and now they were left with a wet mess of dust and dirt, not to mention the water damage they did everywhere.

"Come to think of it, we shouldn't have started in the library," Thalia said as they set to repairing each book one by one.