Harry

He could feel everyone side-eyeing Nico. Harry himself wasn't comfortable with the thought of one of Malfoy's friends coming to their meeting, but this was Nico; he hadn't done anything to him yet, plus his speech at the Hogs Head had left an impact.

Percy and Nico pulled up two chairs and placed them on the only spaces available: one on Luna Lovegood's left side, one on right. I was an amusing sight to the eye, as a matter of fact. luna looking all dreamy, sitting between two scary looking mates.

He was snapped out of his musings by the blond Hufflepuff's voice.

"Why is a Slytherin here? His house is all connected to Umbridge!"

It was Hermione who replied, surprising most of the people in the tiny space.

"Nico is here because we – we asked him to come. He hasn't done anything wrong, and… uh, we believe he's a good guy; don't we Harry?"

"Y-yeah, sure,"

He could see Percy beaming brightly, and a ghost of a smile was playing on Nico's lips. Hermione continued:

"Well… to get down to business, you know why you're here. Erm… well, Harry here had the idea - I mean" (Harry had thrown her a sharp look) "I had the idea - that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts - and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us -" (Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident) "- because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts -" ("Hear, hear," said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione looked heartened) "- Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on,

"And by that, I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells -"

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said Michael Corner, who was watching her closely.

"Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defense because… because…" she took a great breath and finished, "because Lord Voldemort is back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.

"Well… that's the plan, anyway" said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to -"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff in a rather aggressive voice.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it -" Hermione began, but the dude cut her off again.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry. He was starting to dislike the guy.

"Who are you?" said Ron, rather rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about -"

"It's okay, Hermione," said Harry.

It had just dawned on him why there were so many people there. He thought Hermione should have seen this coming. Some of these people - maybe even most of them - had turned up in the hopes of hearing Harry's story firsthand.

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he repeated, looking Zacharias straight in the face.

"I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening. He was wiping the same glass with the filthy rag, making it steadily dirtier. He glanced at Percy; he and Nico were exchanging knowing looks, while also looking hopelessly lost. That was weird. He was snapped out of his musings once again by the Hufflepuff's shrill voice.

Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know-"

Here, Percy interrupted him;

"Hey dude, I literally have no idea what exactly happened last year, but it seems like most of you are just here for the juicy details to gossip about, and that's not cool, especially if its about someone's death. So, if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out now."

Harry was surprised by the serenity and the stillness in his voice. All eyes were on him now instead of Harry, for which Harry was grateful for.

No one left their seats, not even Zacharias Smith, though he continued to gaze intently at Harry.

"So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So… like I was saying… if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to -"

"Is it true," interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

There was a murmur of interest around the group at this. Harry's heart sank.

"Yeah," said Harry slightly defensively.

And that was followed by a very long debate about Harry's accomplishments and abilities; although he tuned out most of them, he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Look," he said, and everyone fell silent at once, "I- I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but… I had a lot of help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon last year, you didn't," said Michael Corner at once. "That was a seriously cool bit of flying…"

"Yeah, well -" said Harry, feeling it would be rude to disagree.

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer," said Susan Bones.

"No," said Harry, "no, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is -"

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith.

"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, before Harry could speak, "why don't you shut your mouth?"

Perhaps the word 'weasel' had affected Ron particularly strongly. In any case, he was now looking at Zacharias as though he would like nothing better than to thump him.

Zacharias flushed.

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said.

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags. Harry noticed Percy and Nico perking up at seeing the stick-like thing.

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred.

"Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, "Moving on… the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded his arms and said nothing, though maybe this was because he was too busy keeping an eye on the stick in Fred's hand.

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week -"

He, again, zoned out for the rest of the meeting until Hermione pulled out a parchment and everyone started writing their names on it. even Zacharias Smith.

Nico

Nico was the first person out of the goat bar after the meeting ended. He had quickly muttered a 'see you back at the castle' to Percy and bolted out of the creaky door.

He needed some space; plus, he really wanted to look around the village before their time there was over, although he was completely and hopelessly lost.

He was minding his own business, doing normal 'wizardly' things, as one might say, when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

Now; being a demigod and all the shit that comes with it, makes your body sensitive to sudden moves and surprises, so it really wasn't Nico's fault that his first reaction was to grab the hand and pin the body it belonged to to the closest wall.

"Dude!" a voice cried out.

Shit.

Nico quickly let go of the hand and helped the poor boy, who turned out to be Noah.

"Okay, I'm really sorry about that; you startled me. You okay mate?" Nico asked him awkwardly.

"Y-yeah, totally alright," Noah chuckled awkwardly while straightening the hems of his shirt "Did you take kung fu classes or something?"

Nico opened his mouth to reply.

"Anyway," Noah continued without waiting for a reply "you looked kind of lost and I saw Percy hanging out with Fred and George on the other side of the village a while ago, so I thought you might want some company…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Nico blinked. Say what now?

Someone he barely knew wanted to willingly spend time with him out of their own free will?

"Okay," he responded with a nod.

Damn, he really should be more expressive in his responses.

Noah smiled brightly and started walking along with him.

"So, what do you think about Hogwarts so far?"

"It's nice. It feels like everyone is a part of a big family; I obviously can't relate, I've only been here for a few weeks, but the feeling is still there. Though it'd be better if people stopped giving Slytherins shit because of some assholes who decided they didn't wanna engage with others…" Nico trailed off.

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I have some friends in Slytherin," at this Nico raised a questioning eyebrow "And it sucks that people can't see past the house,"

Nico hummed in response. He didn't know what to make of Noah.

It was quiet for a few minutes. Nico was fascinated by the shops and their contents. He saw a poster of a centaur in one of the shops.

It was like the gods were fucking with him.

He sighed; they'd have to talk to Chiron about what happened tonight.

He glanced at Noah. He had a faraway look in his eyes and he was pulling on the sleeves of his robes.

"You alright?"

Noah turned his head towards him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm all good. I'm just thinking over some stuff, nothing to worry about…"

Nico narrowed his eyes. He was obviously lying, but he didn't say anything. Nico nodded and looked straight ahead.

Only to come face to face with none other than Jason fucking grace.

If Nico had moved his hand any faster to dissolve the Iris message, he was sure his bone would've popped out of its socket.

Noah seemed alarmed and was looking at Nico with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked incredulously while eyeing Nico's arms warily "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Nico answered way too quickly, then cursed himself for acting so suspicious. "It was-it was just a cramp. I get them sometimes; cramps I mean. In my arms. Yeah, it gets like that. I have to move my arms so I don't get them. The cramps I mean."

Nico knew he was not making sense, and that he was just making it worse with every word, but he just couldn't stop his blabbering. Noah had almost seen an iris message, and Nico had no idea how he'd explain something like that to him.

Noah was looking at him weirdly.

"Okay then…"

Nico nodded and continued walking. They were walking towards the castle.

Nico and Percy had agreed to meet in the bathroom on the third floor at 5 am the next morning, so that they could make a rainbow and talk with Chiron.

It was currently 5:26 am, and there were no signs on Percy anywhere.

Nico had cursed him in all the languages he knew, which was a lot, considering how many times hed accidentally shadow traveled in the middle of some foreigners very private affairs. Oh, hed learned some pretty intense curse words.

Finally, the door to the bathroom creaked open and a very sheepish and drowsy looking Percy came in.

"Before you start yelling at me, id like to say that I'm sorry, and that you are my favorite cousin and that you look absolutely angelic in this ungodly hour, also that you can have that oversized hoodie that you like so much for a month,"

Nico raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. That was a fair bargain.

Percy made the mist form in front of the window and Nico threw in the coin and called to Iris.

After a few seconds, they could see Chiron in his wheelchair, sitting behind a desk and reading a book.

"Hey Chiron," Nico called out, making the centaur look up "Were contacting you for our report."

He put down his book and straightened.

"I'm glad you two are alright. So, tell me what you have learned."

And so they did. They told him everything they could remember, about Voldemort and his resurrection and the things Thalia told them.

Chiron was silent throughout this all, nodding when he needed to. When they were done, he simply sighed and looked at them for a few seconds.

"Things don't sound good. It seems like a war is brewing within their world, and I've sent you two right in the middle of it. For that I sincerely apologize," he looked at them honestly. Nico could see thousands of years behind his eyed. The centaur looked genuinely tired.

They both nodded. So far, the quest hadn't been so bad. It was actually nice; a change of pace from their demigod lives. Although they really missed their friends back home. He knew Percy deeply missed Annabeth, and he missed Will.

Chiron continued "You should find the order Thalia was talking about. It seems like they would have more information on the wizard than the students; also, be careful. Don't let down your guards. The Romans are visiting from camp Jupiter, and it seems like the Ares cabin has picked a fight again, so I need to leave. Remember what I said." Chiron smiled wisely at them and dissolved the mist.

"Well, that was something. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to call my lover then get the fuck back to bed. Thank the gods its Sunday tomorrow," Percy groaned.

Nico chuckled and left the bathroom.

Hey!

Please tell me what you think about this?

Thank you for reading 3