Harry Potter and the Lost Half-Bloods. *1*

Harry

Nico and I are given extra homework

HARRY: *back to Nico's visit, a few hours earlier.*

It wasn't often I was the only one in my dormitory. Dean and Seamus were probably having fun, catching up on each other's summers in the common room. Ron and Hermione were still, I presumed, in the place I'd left them when I stormed off. It was likely that Neville was in the Herbology classroom, examining how the plants had done during our summer break.

During the first night, most people went to their dorms at least a few minutes past curfew so they could catch up in the common room, and I had a while to wait. I wasn't complaining though, I wanted to be alone.

Sirius and I had written back and forth as much as we could this summer. He'd warned me many times: "the last thing you should do is isolate yourself, Harry. Remember who your true friends are, and keep them close."

It was helpful advice, I suppose. But that was my problem. Ever since the tournament, ever since "Moody" had been an imposter right under our noses, I don't know who my true friends are. To me, everybody was seen as a possible threat. Everybody could be a spy. Peter Pettigrew had been my dad's friend the entirety of his time at Hogwarts and he hadn't even noticed the rat's dirty little secret. My worst fears were, what if Ron, Hermione, or any one of my school friends were just the same?

It hurt me to think these things about the people I loved, but I did it to keep them safe. If one of my friends was actually a villain, they wouldn't attack me directly, they would try to find what I love and use it against me to make me vulnerable. For example, if Ron ended up being a death eater, he would likely use Hermione as a way to make me listen to him.

To know your villain, you need to think like one. I'd been thinking like a villain this entire summer. My biggest worry was if you think like a villain, do you end up becoming that villain?

In other words, my worst fear what: what if I am the villain? What if I'm no better than the man who gave me this very scar, all those years ago?

What if the more I think about him, the more I become him?

I had to shake this thought aside as the door opened. Funnily enough, it shut without anybody walking in. I was curious, had Ron borrowed my invisibility cloak without asking?

My guess was close, but I was way off. It wasn't Ron who had taken my cloak. For when the person presented their self, I recognized him to be Nico. Strangest of all, it wasn't my cloak he had taken. In his hand, he had a navy blue hat with a strange symbol on the front.

"Please, contain your excitement," Nico grumbled. He sat on Ron's bed across from me and stared.

He just stared.

"Slytherins not treating you right?" I asked.

"Yes and no. Yes as in, I hate the house and a majority of the people so far. No, as in, it's not me they're treating unfair, but that's another story." He waved the hat in his hand before me. He seemed to be trying to reference something that I wasn't quite getting.

"You have an invisibility cap? Where'd you get that?" I questioned.

He narrowed his eyes accusingly.

"As if you don't know." I shrugged, not knowing what else to say. His face fell. "You're saying you don't know. As in, you really don't know?"

I shrugged once more, because really, what else do you do in this situation?

"I'm a bit confused," I admitted. "Mind filling me in?"

Nico sighed so heavily, you'd have thought I'd asked him to battle a dragon.