Magical Demigods

Nico had to be honest, Hogwarts was the best school he'd been to.

That probably wasn't saying much, as he could barely remember his life from before the Lotus Hotel and Casino, but his memories were coming back. Slowly. Very slowly.

But that didn't matter. Nico became invested in the subjects that were taught at Hogwarts. 

He found himself enjoying Transfiguration, which was taught by Professor McGonagall. He was one of the few that had managed to make any change to his matchstick, which was only making it look like a needle made of wood with a red end, but it was better than nothing.

He had to study the sky at night and chart the stars and planets, which was easy enough. Learning the stories behind multiple of the constellations definitely helped.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was a bit of a joke. Nico found himself playing random games on a piece of spare parchment with Dawn while Professor Quirrell stammered through his different achievements. Both him and Dawn noted that there was an odd smell about the room, and particularly their teacher. They didn't pay too much attention to it though.

Even though they probably should.

They had Herbology in the greenhouses with the Gryffindors in their year. Nico enjoyed these lessons solely because he got to hang out with Ron and Harry, who had become fast friends of his. Dawn often spent the lessons with Hermione, discussing the plants and what they did and what they were used for. Nico noticed that Dawn had a good knowledge of medical stuff. He packed it away for later, though.

Out of all of these lessons, Potions was, perhaps, the strangest of them all.

The Potions Master reminded Nico of Hades. Professor Snape had long, greasy looking black hair and a hooked nose. His eyes were black, and most of the time, when he looked at most students, they were cold. Dawn said that he looked like an overgrown bat, which made Nico snigger. It was an accurate description.

His first Potions lesson took place on Wednesday, in the dungeons with the Ravenclaws.

The two houses lined up outside the door, shifting from one foot to the other nervously. Some of the Ravenclaws were reading through their Potions textbook, while the Hufflepuffs whispered to each other. Dawn was sticking close to Nico, looking around nervously.

The dungeon door opened, and Professor Snape appeared. The students looked up at him warily. Even the eager Ravenclaws seemed to be nervous around him.

He silently let them into the room. Nico led Dawn to a desk near the front, and they sat down. Professor Snape looked at all of them, judging them for no reason whatsoever. His eyes lingered on Nico for a few moments longer than any other student.

"Unlike the rest of your classes," Professor Snape began, "there will be no foolish wand waving in this class. Any silly business, and you will be sent out."

The entire room was silent, focused on Professor Snape's words.

"I can teach you how to cure the worst of maladies, how to stopper death, and how to bottle fame. If, you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

That'll annoy the Ravenclaws, Nico thought. And he was right. A large portion of the Ravenclaws were looking at each other, displeased looks on their faces at having been called dunderheads.

Professor Snape didn't seem to notice. He set them the simple task of brewing a simple potion for curing boils.

He'd put the instructions on the board, but Nico couldn't read them that well. The letters were muddled up, making it difficult to read at best.

"Um, Dawn?" Nico asked. 

"Yeah?" Dawn replied.

"Can you read me the instructions? I can't read them myself,"  Nico quickly explained.

"Oh! Sure, I can do that," she agreed. Nico breathed in relief.

"Thanks. You're a life saver."

"Don't mention it."

The period passed with Dawn reading out the instructions in a low voice for Nico to hear, which he copied. He found that it was easy, though he decided to ask Professor Snape if he could maybe translate the instructions so that Dawn didn't have to mutter them under her breath.

Professor Snape stalked around the dungeons, making snide and unpleasant remarks about people's potions, staying silent when he found nothing wrong with them.

He passed by Nico and Dawn's table and looked down his nose at their work. He said nothing to either of them and moved on, letting Dawn sigh in relief before continuing on with her muttering instructions to Nico.

The class soon ended, and everyone packed up. Nico motioned to Dawn for her to go ahead, which she happily did, and he turned to Professor Snape.

"Is there something you need, Mr Di Angelo?" Professor Snape asked. 

"Um, yeah. You see, I'm dyslexic, and I can't read English, so I was wondering-"

"If I could translate it?" 

"Y-yeah. That." Snape looked at Nico, looking as though he was trying to decide on something.

"You're a son of Hades," Snape eventually said. Nico froze, but shook himself out of it.

"How'd you guess?" He asked. Was he a monster?

"I am a son of Hades too," Snape confessed. Nico opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He closed his mouth. "I will give you a piece of parchment with the translated instructions each class." Nico nodded.

"Thank you," he said.

Then he left to process what in the name of the gods had just happened.

It didn't really take very long for him to process it. Part of being a demigod was that random half-siblings came out of seemingly no where. It happened pretty much all of the time.

Nico didn't really care that his teacher turned out to be a half-brother of his. Instead, he focused more on his work.

One day, Nico walked into the Hufflepuff common room to find the other First Years gathered around the noticeboard. He went over.

"What's going on?" He asked Hannah Abbott.

"Flying lessons with the Ravenclaws are next week, Thursday," she explained.

"Oh. Thanks for telling me," Nico replied. Hannah smiled.

Of course, Hades had sorted the situation out with Professor Dumbledore, so when he went to the flying lesson, he found that he didn't have to do anything. He spent majority of the lesson writing a letter to Will Solace in entirely Ancient Greek. When the lesson was over, he followed Dawn inside.

"Why didn't you participate?" She asked.

"The sky doesn't like me much," Nico admitted. Dawn studied him for a bit, taking in his appearance.

"Who's your favourite Greek god?" She suddenly asked. Nico stared at her, taken aback by the question.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well, my favourite Greek god is Apollo. Mum says that if I were a Greek god, then I'd be a genderbent Apollo. What about you?"

Oh, Nico thought, that's what she means.

"Hades," he told her. "My favourite Greek god is Hades."

"Not very surprised. An important yet misunderstood god." Nico couldn't help but smile.

"So... Any fun things you can do?" Nico asked.

"I've been able to speak Spanish since birth. Mum had to learn it to be able to understand me. I'm also quite fond of archery and healing, and I love music," Dawn said. She smiled at Nico. "I haven't been able to tell many people of this."

"It's a relief to, isn't it?" Nico asked. Dawn nodded.

"Truly is. Mama wants me to go to a summer camp in Long Island, New York. Do you know of a camp there?"

"I do, but we're facing problems at the moment. Ancient guy wants to take over, but we're fighting him as much as possible."

"I'd like to help," Dawn said.

"Probably going to end up with trauma," Nico warned.

"Our life is always in danger, isn't it? That's what happens when you're a child of a god," Dawn pointed out. Nico realized that she had spoken in Ancient Greek, which just confirmed his suspicions.

"The Titian king is trying to destroy everything we know," he told her.

"Pack sticks together. If my father's other children, my siblings, and their friends, are in danger, then I have to help."

"There's no fighting you on this, is there?" Nico asked. Dawn smiled.

"Of course."

They acted as though they hadn't just revealed themselves to be children of god's many thought to be myth or that they hadn't talked about war and the possible end of the world, and instead sat down to eat dinner and talk to the others in their year. Nico had to admit, not talking to every single person who knew about war was pleasant and much preferable.

Friday passed in a normal way. Except for the fact that Neville fell off his broom and the biggest bully in their year, Lewis Barlow, attempted to stick his remembrall in a tree. He had settled for throwing it up into the air, but Harry somehow caught it. Nico didn't know how, but he decided not to question it.

Subconsciously, they were all expecting Harry to be expelled. So, that evening during dinner, Nico and Draco join Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table to listen to what he had to say.

"So you're the youngest Seeker-"

"In a century," Harry said, finishing Ron's sentence.

"Bloody hell," Ron said, amazed.

"I'm really surprised that you weren't expelled," Nico admitted.

"I am too. I thought that I'd be packing by now," Harry agreed.

"Me too. Listen, don't do anything that might get you into trouble. Professor McGonagall can still change her mind if she wishes to, so whatever you do, don't do anything that can end up in you being kicked off," Nico told Harry, trying to get it nailed into his brain.

Barlow came over to them, a triumphant look on his face.

"Enjoying your last meal, Potter? When do you even get on the train back to those Muggles?" Barlow said. It was obvious from his tone of voice that he was trying to taunt Harry, to get him to act out, trying to get him in trouble.

Dawn came over then, accompanied by Hermione.

"Are you jealous because he out smarted you?" Dawn asked. Hermione looked at her, astonished that she would say that.

"I'm smarter than him!" Barlow spat, his face red. Dawn just raised an eyebrow, as though she were merely amused.

"If you were twice as smart Barlow, then you'd still be stupid," she told him in a polite tone. Barlow looked as though his brain was struggling to process what she'd said.

"What?" He asked, rather dumbly.

"You heard me," Dawn said. Barlow huffed and turned around to face Harry again.

"Midnight tonight. Wizard duel. Meet me in the trophy room then," he said. He studied Harry's face, and a cruel smirk found its way onto his face. "What, you're not scared, are you, Potter?"

"He's not! In fact, I'm his second. Who's yours?" Ron replied. Nico looked over at Dawn and Hermione, both of whom had a look on their faces that said 'really? You're going to do this?'

That was exactly how Nico felt.

"Goyle," Barlow decided. "Midnight, trophy room. Don't be late." Barlow walked off, his worshippers with him.

"Harry, you mustn't go! If you do then I'll tell Professor McGonagall," Hermione said.

"What's it to you?" Ron asked. Nico raised an eyebrow at his friend.

"Hermione's right though. He's going to get you expelled if you go! It's what bullies do. They irritate you and bug you for attention. My guess is that his parents don't pay him enough attention, and that's why he's doing this. Ignore him, and he'll lose interest in you," Dawn said.

"We're going either way."

"You-" Hermione began.

"It's okay, Hermione. Boys will be boys. Gryffindor boys are going to be reckless at certain moments. We can't change their minds." 

"Cool. Well, we better go get ready," Ron said. Draco looked at Ron and Harry as though they were crazy. Which they were. 

"I'll come with you guys," Nico said.

"Meet us outside of Gryffindor Tower?" Harry asked. Nico nodded.

"This'll be interesting," Dawn muttered to him. Nico had to agree with that.

Safe to say, keeping the duel a secret was easy. However, acting as though Harry and Ron weren't going to break a bunch of rules, wasn't. Dawn forced Nico to work on his homework, but he kept getting distracted. Dawn did too, but then she'd do her best to refocus.

Eventually, at a time that Nico felt was good, he prepared to shadow travel.

"I'm going with you," Dawn said. Nico looked at her. It was a good thing that the room was empty and that everyone else was in bed, or they'd get in trouble for leaving the common room past curfew.

"Are you sure?" He asked. Dawn shrugged. 

"I wanna go, see what happens. I've... Seen some things. I want to see if it's true or not."

"Dream visions? They're normal for... Out kind of people."

"Not dream visions, but yes, visions." Nico raised and eyebrow.

"Oh, let's just go. I'll explain it when I'm ready to, okay?" Dawn said. Nico nodded.

"Alright then. We're going to get there via shadows, so be prepared." Dawn nodded, and Nico held onto her shoulder.

They slipped into the shadows together.

He found his way to the corridor leading up to Gryffindor tower easily, and emerged with Dawn.

"What the what?" She muttered.

"I know it's not pleasant," Nico said. Dawn shrugged.

"Unpleasant, yes. Fast and effective? Definitely," she said. Nico nodded.

They stuck to the walls, Nico manipulating the shadows to keep them hidden from Filch and his cat.

Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor ghost, passed them. He saw them, but ignored their presence.

"Why'd he not say anything? He won't tell on us, right?" Dawn asked.

"About that. I may have defeated Minos and taken his position as the Ghost King so now I can tell ghosts what to do and stuff," Nico admitted.

"So he won't tell on us because you could punish him?" Dawn guessed. 

"Yup. Remember our first History of Magic lesson? How Binns looked astonished and scared, but I put my fingers to my lips in the way you do to tell someone to be quiet?"

"Oh, yeah. He stopped looking like that after you did that. That's cool."

Nico smiled. 

Dawn didn't care that he was the son of Hades. She treated him as though he were a normal person. He prefered that to how the majority of the camp had reacted to finding out that he was a child of one of the Big Three.

They came to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She wasn't there. Nico guessed that she had gone to visit a friend or something.

Neville was there. He was sat on the ground, hugging his knees.

"Neville?" Dawn asked. Neville looked up at her.

"Dawn?"

"Why're you out here?"

"I forgot the password to get in," he explained.

"That's unfortunate. Well, when the portrait hole opens then you can go back to your room."

"That'd be nice. The Bloody Baron's gone past at least two or three times already," Neville said.

"How's your arm?" Nico asked.

"It's alright. Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute." They moved to the portrait as they talked so the Neville would be able to go in once Harry and Ron left the common room.

"I'm glad to hear that."

The portrait swung forward, and Harry, Ron and Hermione came out. Neville went around the bickering trio and into the common room, waving goodbye to Dawn and Nico. The portrait closed.

"You're here too, Dawn? You're all going to get into trouble!" Hermione exclaimed. Dawn sighed.

"I'm aware, Hermione. But someone has to keep these two out of trouble," Dawn replied.

"We don't need you to babysit us," Ron huffed. Dawn shrugged. 

"Okay. But I have a feeling that something is going to happen this year, and I feel like it starts tonight. At least, for us." Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at Dawn like she was going crazy. Nico didn't. He was used to things like that happening.

"Let's just go," he said. Hermione made to go back to the common room, but realized that the Fat Lady wasn't there. She sighed.

"Guess I'll have to join you." She didn't sound too happy about it.

The five of them made their way to the trophy room. Nico kept them covered with shadows as much as possible, but his powers did drain him, so he didn't used them as often. He should've taken some Ambrosia or Nectar with him.

They arrived at the trophy room, but Dawn didn't want to go in. Nico and Hermione stayed with her while Harry and Ron went inside.

"He's late. Maybe he's chickened out," Ron said.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

Filch.

Dawn and Nico pulled Ron and Harry out of the trophy room.

He heard Filch say something, but he didn't listen to it. He just ran.

They took a short cut to the Charms classroom, which was far away from the trophy room. They took time to get their breath back.

"I told you," Hermione said in between breaths.

"He definitely told Filch. But we can't worry about that now. We need to move."

We need to move. Four words that demigods lives by in the mortal world. 

Nico began to walk again, followed by his friends.

They hadn't gone very far when Peeves emerged from a classroom. He turned to face them.

"We are not in the mood for your games, Peeves," Nico said as Peeves taunted them.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" That was just great. Nico sighed. "STUDENTS IN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

They continued to run, and came to a door. Ron tried to open the door.

"This is it!" He said. "We're done for!"

"Oh, here, let me," Hermione said. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the locked door. "Alohomora!"

The lock opened and they opened the door, piling into the room.

They listened as Peeves bullied Filch and waited for the caretaker to leave. When he did, Nico heard growling. He turned around to see a giant, three headed dog. The others seemed to have noticed.

"Wh-" 

"It's a three headed dog. Like Cerberus, Hades' pet dog that I believe guards the Underworld?" Dawn commented. A three headed dog was relatively tame compared to creatures like drakons, an ancient guard of Tartarus, and a man with three bodies who had wanted to hand Nico, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover over to Kronos.

"Cerberus is the guard dog of the Greek Underworld, yes."

At the sound of Cerberus' name the thee heads tilted as though they were saying 'you know him?'

"How are you guys not freaking out?" Ron asked.

"I've seen some weirder things in the past couple of years," Nico admitted, as though it was the most normal thing ever.

"How about we go back for real this time?" Harry said.

"Sure." 

The five of them went back to their dormitories, splitting off on the way.

Dawn and Nico bid each other goodnight and went to bed.