ADHD is useful to demigods for a multitude of reasons. Combat assistance, environment awareness, quick reflexes, and quick thinking. ADHD is also a little more than just a superpower, it is classified as a disability after all.
Ever heard of the term “Island Time”? Say a party is on the schedule for ten in the morning. With island time that really means eleven. If you arrived at the event at ten you would be put to work helping set up. No party guest wants to help set up a chocolate fountain in a sundress and uncomfortable heels.
You could say that all demigods have a sort of internal “Island Time”. Chiron had figured this out pretty early on when he started dealing with demigods. He fondly named it “Hercules time”. Who could blame him? Hercules was the only demigod he interacted with at the time. The name was quickly changed when he learned that Hercules was a dick and there were demigods much more deserving of his time.
As time went on and Camp Half-Blood was established it took on a tradition. Whatever demigod was chronically late the most won the prize of becoming the “name”. Currently that honor belonged to Nico di Angelo who had been 74 years late to fifth grade and frequently missed both breakfast and lunch. Now, Nico di Angelo did not necessarily know that he had the honor of being the “name”, it seemed to be a nonverbal consensus that whoever informed him of this fact would have the unfortunate honor of being early to the underworld.
Because of this it should be no surprise that Nico was running late, he was on “Nico time” if you will. His morning started at one in the afternoon when a skeleton (sent by his father) rudely shoved him out of his bed and dumped a cup of water on him. You see, another problem with ADHD is that it is accompanied by forgetfulness and Nico had forgotten that today was the day he was supposed to be running errands for his father. That used to be every day but ever since Nico had met Will Solace he had been spending more time in the world of the living and while Hades may be a jerk he did enjoy seeing at least one of his children living happily. Therefore, Nico was no longer employed under his father but just ran errands for him every Tuesday and Wednesday, sometimes with Hazel’s help. He also attended the occasional family dinner, usually on Sundays as Hades liked to do gardening on Sundays.
This was a Wednesday though and Nico was already a day behind on his chores after spending the previous day being gay for Will Solace. They had gone on a date. Therefore, it should have been no surprise when Hazel huffed into his cabin with a paper in one hand and a water gun in the other. She sent two quick spurts as he groaned on the ground and dropped the paper on his chest.
“We’re late” she said as he sat up and started reading the list. He groaned some more when he saw there were eight things to get done, although one was for next week. Apparently some poor sap had a soul fraction stuck in a scar. “Dad wants us to take care of a mortal in Hecate’s pet world who thinks he can create immortality.” Well didn’t that just sound joyful. Slowly he stood up, planning to take his sweet time with this one but then his sister smirked. “Oh, and I ran into Will on the way here. He wants to know if you’ll finally be joining him in archery lessons like you promised.” That woke him up. It was probably two months ago when Nico promised his boyfriend that he would help him spruce up archery practice with some mobile skeletons. Two months and Nico hadn’t done it once. Will would kill him if he bowed out again. Nico’s feet slid against the floor like a newborn deer learning to stand on ice as he tried to grab some traction that would launch him into the bathroom where he could get changed. The result of this was his head hit the floor before his feet but it got the job done as he was in and out in under a minute.
“What time is the lesson?” he asked Hazel.
“Four” she said, stuffing a packet of ambrosia in their work bag. Nico cursed.
It was now three weeks into term and Hermione still hadn’t let the flying car thing go. The rest of the school seemed to forget it almost instantly but Hermione just kept bringing it up whenever he or Ron tried to get something to go their way.
“Detention with Snape is the worst! I swear all I did was miss one spot on that cauldron and he had me start over!”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t have taken a flying car to school”
“I finally got an Outstanding on the transfigurations quiz! Do you think mum will buy that new Quidich poster for me if I tell her?”
“Probably not after you stole your dads car and flew it to school nineteen days ago.”
“Hey Hermione, can you help me study for this potions quiz?”
“Oh, I’m glad you asked me for help before taking another flying car to the exam.”
Seriously, some of it didn’t even make sense. It made perfect sense to Hermione though, who had decided that morning to sit with Ron’s sister instead of Harry and Ron. Because of this, and the fact that both Harry and Ron were as stubborn as mules, poor Ginny was surrounded by the trio. Hermione on her left, Harry on her right, and Ron across the way who was stuffing his face with pancakes.
“Just give it a rest Hermione, we only have one more week of detention and I swear you’re the only one still upset about it” This particular morning both Ginny and Harry had the special honor of watching Ron dig his own grave.
Hermione huffed, “last week of a month's worth of detention. The two of you have more detention racked up at this moment then the rest of the school combined. And you promised me last year that we would focus on academics, you promised!”
“From what I remember you said you wanted to focus more on classes and we said we wanted to spend less time in the hospital wing.”
“And in your classes!”
“Why’s it matter? People say crazy things when they are in pain, all the time!”
“Crazy? Do you think your education is unimportant? You can’t live at home forever Ronald!”
“We’re twelve, Hermione!”
“Well at the rate your goin-“
BANG
“I told you not to touch anything” an unfamiliar voice shouted.
“It’s not my fault! How was I supposed to know it would start multiplying”
The dining hall went quiet as two unfamiliar teenagers marched their way inside, slamming the door open as they went. Both were short but had this air about them that made Harry doubt they were first years. He was put even more on edge when he noticed their clothes. Jeans and an orange t-shirt.
“The poison and pond full of ghouls didn’t make you air on the side of caution? Or the cursed ring?”
“Uh Hazel…”
“We’re just lucky that the crown didn’t have any protection.”
“Hazel…”
“I mean that room was a mess but at least the ghost was friendly…”
“HAZEL”
The girl finally looked up and seemed to realize they had an audience as her voice died off and her eyes went wide. “Oh we are so grounded.”
“Grounded, really?”
“I’m coping here Nico! We are going to be cleaning the hellhound’s pens until we die! Hecate is still trying to get dad to clean up the haunted tablecloth mess!”
“Can’t you just” the boy called Nico waved his hands around as if miming something. “Mist it away.”
“Did you miss the past where they are Hecate’s pets?”
Pets? Harry couldn’t follow the stranger's conversation but something told him he had just been insulted. It seemed Dumbledore agreed as he chose that moment to speak up. “Well I was not expecting any guests today” he stated, standing up from his seat. Said guests shuffled around nervously. “May I ask who you may be and what your business is walking in here so nonchalant.” It was asked like a question but the hand on his wand told another story. Dumbledore was being cautious, he had been caught off guard. That did not point to good things.
“Nico” the gloomy looking boy stated with a simple hand raise. The girl next to him looked on flabbergasted, as if she couldn’t believe what her partner was doing. Harry jumped when she smacked the back of Nico’s head
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“I don’t know how Will does it”
“Hey!” Nico shouted, rubbing the back of his head.
The girl left him to care for his bruise as she turned towards their headmaster. “Sorry Mr…”
“Dumbledore” Nico raised as eyebrow but the girl seemed unfazed.
“Mr. Dumbledore. We are just here to grab something for our father and we will be on our way.”
“Something for your father” Dumbledore asked, sounding as doubtful as Harry felt. “And what would this be?” The girl turned to Nico with a look that seemed to say well, what’s taking so long? Eliciting an eye roll from her partner before he closed his eyes and started slowly turning in a circle. Harry gripped his wand as the boy turned their way. He opened his eyes and pointed at Harry.
“You there? Why do you have someone else's soul in your forehead?” Harry jumped.
Excuse me?
But before Harry could voice his question out loud, two streaks of red shot at the girl and boy, firmly hitting their chests and seeming to sink into their clothes. “I’m afraid you two are going to have to come with me.” Dumbledore stated loudly. At the teachers table he now stood side by side with Professor Snape, both of them had their wands pointed at the newcomers.
“Stunners” Hermione whispered to their group. But something must have been wrong with her observations because both strangers moved to place their hands on their chests. Within a second they seemed to communicate some unspoken message and then all hell broke loose. Hazel closed her eyes as if concentrating while Dumbledore seemed to be preparing another spell. An orange light this time shot out but something gray seemed to follow behind it. As it hit the floor at the girl's feet he realized what it was.
A wand, Dumbledore's wand.
Who the hell was that girl?
So focused on his own shock Harry didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. It started with a wiggling underneath his robes, and then a shout from the group of students closest to the strangers. One by one all the wands in the room were floating up and away towards the girl. Next to her the boy stood calmly with his hands in his pockets as thick black tendrils of smoke-like shadows created a circle of black fire around the pair. Dumbledore gabbed something else from the table in front of him and brandished it like a wand, a green spell shot out this time as whatever he grabbed exploded in his hand. The light zipped across the room but this time the boy just tilted his head to the side and it whizzed past him to hit the far back wall.
The room was chaos now, students were screaming and running for the door, some (mostly the Gryffindors) were running for the intruders but they didn’t get very far as the black tendrils simply picked them up and placed them back down farther from where they had started. One particular Gryffindor looked incredulous as she struggled back to her feet and in a fit of anger threw a muffin at the boy’s chest. It hit him without a sound and broke apart as it fell to the floor. The Nico kid pursed his lips but stepped to the side in the next second as another green streak of light was thrown his way from another exploding piece of silverware. Harry, too stunned to move, stayed seated. The rest of his friends quickly made their way to his side, blocking his view of the duo but they too didn't make any moves to leave the room.
It seemed that Dumbledore finally realized he would not be causing any harm to the two teens as he instructed most of the professors to escort the students to their dorms and initiate lockdown. When Professor Sprout had tried to pull Harry’s group along with her away from the chaos a black tendril whipped out and took a hold of Ginny’s arm. She shrieked and tried to pull away but it held on firm.
“What the hell-” Ron muttered as he too tried to pull the tendril off his sister.
The girl sent them an apologetic smile. “Hey, sorry, do you mind staying here for just a few minutes? I promise this won’t take long”. Harry saw as Ginny looked down at the tendril holding her and back at the girl with a raised eyebrow as if to say, “do I really have a choice”. Harry was still stuck on the part where the intruders told him someone else’s soul was in his head, Ron was slowly losing his patience and Hermione seemed to be circulating through various textbooks if her muttering was anything to go off of.
“Hey!” Ron shouted. “What do you want with my sister!” He stood in front of Ginny now, all earlier grievances for stealing away Hermione forgotten.
“Uhhhhhhh” Hazel pulled out a piece of paper, her eyes quickly scanning down what looked like a list. Her brow furrowed as she reached the end, “Her diary?”
Ron looked gob smacked. Of all the reasons Harry could think of, taking a random preteens diary was not on the list for breaking into a highly secure magical school.
By this point the last of the students were being escorted out of the Hall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had stayed behind when they realized Ginny wasn’t going anywhere and the two intruders didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Across the room Dumbledore was making his way over to their group, Snape close by his side.
“The ministry of magic has been contacted and will be arriving any second now, I firmly suggest that you let Ms. Weasley go there!” Dumbledore called walking over. He looked terrifying, anger like Harry had never seen before rested on his face and his magic made the air around them taste fizzy. Harry for some reason wasn’t scared of the strangers though. Even with the tendril looped tightly around Ginny’s arm and the glare the boy was sending back at Dumbledore, his heart was calm and his breathing even. Something in his gut told him that they really did just want her diary, nothing else. Harry had met evil people and these two teens just didn’t feel like they fit the bill.
The Hazel girl held up her hands in a placating manner, taking a step towards the Headmaster but stopped when the air sparkled just a little more intensely. She winced. “This really will only take a second, and we won’t be doing any harm to…” she looked at Ginny with a raised eyebrow and Harry realized she was asking her name.
“Ginny” he said.
“Ginny” she repeated. Snape sent him a familiar look as if asking if he was an idiot. From his side he could feel Hermione mirroring it before looking at Ron and the two of them punched his arm. Ginny facepalmed. The girl kept talking. “Actually, if you think about it, we are helping you all out here? That diary is cursed, it doesn’t belong to her. It’s something called a horcrux.”
Dumbledore’s eyes flew wide and the air exploded with pressure, Harry placed a hand on his chest as if hoping it would help him breathe. Just what was going on? His headmaster held out his hand in front of him and in a second his long spindly wand was back in his grip. “WHO ARE YOU!” He thundered and the two strangers took a step back, the tendril grasping Ginny quickly dropping back into the shadows. Once again a spell shot out of the wand and hit both teenagers squarely in the chest but they didn’t so much as flinch.
“We really do apologize for this sir,” Nico spoke up, “It’s just that there were a lot of people and we’re on a tight schedule-”
“He means he slept in and has a date in half an hour” Hazel interrupted.
“A schedule that doesn’t give us a lot of wiggle room” Nico finished, shooting Hazel a quick glare. Then he turned to Harry. It was then that Harry finally got a good look at him. He was thin, perhaps too thin as his cheekbones jutted out in an uncomfortable way. His eyes were just as dark as his hair which was whipping around in an unseen wind. His irises were so brown they almost blended with his pupils. He was reminded of a younger Voldemort at that moment. And yet, even with the comparison, Harry still couldn’t find it within himself to fear Nico. Dumbledore though, Dumbledore was terrifying.
“Then perhaps you two should return on a later date, when we have time to sit down and discuss this” Dumbledore’s tone had changed to a tone Harry remembered from his first year. It was placating, comforting. Nico’s shoulders dropped and for a second Harry thought he was going to give in but instead he placed a hand on Hazel's shoulder and raised an eyebrow. Dumbledore tensed and Hermione whispered to them to be ready. With a flick of Dumbledore’s wrist all the silverware Harry could see flew at their group, Ginny screamed and ducked as one daring spoon whipped past her ear merging with the group of liquid metal in the middle of both groups. At his side, Ron tugged at his arm, Hermione had both Ginny and Ron’s arms in a death grip clearly intending to pull them away from the action. With one final look at the strangers, Harry allowed himself to be pulled along. As he started to turn away he saw as the ball of liquid metal shot out two the two teenagers who were now in stances as if getting ready to fight but it never hit them. Instead, they both ducked out of the way at the last minute, the girls to the left, the boy backwards to where Harry and his friends had left their bags. With quick fingers Nico pulled out a small black notebook, holding it in between two fingers as if it were covered in trash. Snape now had a wand to and he aimed it at the girl crouching before him but before anything could come out it went flying out of her hand.
“NICO?” The girl yelled.
“ONE SECOND!” Was his reply and she didn’t look happy about it.
Dumbledore was sending more objects flying their way now, chairs, cups, pieces of the floor. Dozens of hard objects were flying their way as the boy stayed crouched and the girl set her back to him, as if acting as a human shield. Just as the objects were about to hit the duo the boy grabbed one of the bags with a triumphant yell, the girl placed a hand on his shoulder and then they disappeared.
Harry stopped running, yanking his arm out of Ron’s grip, too shocked that the strangers could apparently apparate on school grounds. That wasn’t supposed to be possible. Harry’s halt brought the whole group to a stop. Ron reached out for him again as Hermione started to reprimand their group but with all of them facing Harry now they got to see the same thing he did.
All the cups, plates, benches, and other large objects Dumbledore and Snape had sent in the strangers direction came crashing down with an ear shattering racket. It was silent for a second, the kind of silent that promises something to follow and follow it did. In the corner of the platform where the teachers ate the shadows started to swirl and swarm until the boy stepped out again with a bag in hand. “Sorry” he said, “Almost took this”, he lifted the bag and Harry recognized it as Ginny’s. Nobody moved and Nico seemed to deflate. “Uh, well, I’ll just leave it here then…”
“Wait!” Dumbledore shouted as the boy turned back to the corner. “Who are you, and what are you planning to do with the horcruxes?” He didn’t send anything hurling in Nico’s direction this time, just stood still and watched. He must have realized, like Harry had, that there was no stopping this strange boy with strange abilities.
“Oh shoot, thanks for the reminder.” He stated and pulled the dark notebook out again from a back pocket. Ginny flinched next to him as Nico threw the book in the air and reached down towards his hand. Out of nowhere he held a sword which swiftly cut through the falling book as black mist, not unlike the shadows Nico controlled, screamed out of the book and into the air before disappearing.
“No!” Ginny screamed, making as if to run to its remnants but her brother held her back.
“I’m Nico,” which Harry thought was a little redundant, that’s not what Dumbledore had been asking. But then he turned to look at Harry, “We’ll be back next week for the one in your scar.” He stated as if they were making dinner plans. Then, he turned to the corner again and disappeared in another swirl of black smoke.
It took a few seconds for Harry to process what Nico had said and everything he had explained since invading the school but once he did, he broke, “THERE’S A WHAT IN MY WHAT?”
“All done?” Hazel asked as Nico appeared back at camp, no stolen bag in hand. Nico nodded and looked down at his watch. Gods he was exhausted. It was eight minutes to four, maybe he could take a quick nap before joining Will’s lesson? Yeah, just a short nap.