"I can love someone
I can feel your pain
I can cry, I can laugh
I can't get a gift from my family
Do you think that is our difference?"- difference by TAMIW
“Di Angelo.”
Nico stepped forward, preparing himself to face Cupid or Minos or Otis and Ephialtes or some other monster from his past. He drew in a deep breath and tensed up.
I can do this.
The clown grotesquely warped into a mass of black smoke, then formed a vaguely humanoid shape. As features began to sharpen, Nico’s heart fully stopped.
Before him was an image he’d only ever seen once, in Persephone’s gardens.
It was his mother, charred and deformed by Zeus’s master bolt.
“Mama?” The word fell from between his lips.
Her eyes were bloodshot but warm. “Nico, amore.”
She practically fell forward in her rush to clasp her hands and Nico’s together. She sighed wistfully. “Oh, Nico, I am so glad I was finally able to leave you.”
Nico’s blood froze in his veins. “What?”
“Bianca is too,” his mother continued gleefully. “We never wanted you. How could we?”
“Wha- What- What do you mean?” Nico stuttered.
His mother’s hands gently cupped his cheeks. They were ice cold. “Oh, amore. I died for you. Bianca died for you. Hazel died for you. Percy died for you. Will died for you.” Her thumbs lightly swept away silent tears dripping from his lash line. “And there is nothing we regret more than giving our lives for someone as worthless as you.” Her cadence was soft but every word she spoke clawed his heart apart until it was unrecognizable.
“H- Hazel,” Nico struggled to find his voice, “Percy, and Will- Will are alive.”
“Oh, darling,” cooed his mother. “Do you really believe that?”
No, yes, no, yes, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes yes yesyesyes.
Nico slowly lifted a trembling hand and pressed the tip of his wand against his mother’s throat.
“Riddikulus.” The word came out as a whisper.
The familiar tug of magic in his gut felt more like a falling pebble than the static jolt that he was used to but it was present enough to do the trick.
His mother’s broken frame warped into Zeus wearing a playboy bunny outfit. Which was an objectively funny sight, but he couldn’t find it in himself to even giggle.
He turned around to face the class and quickly realized that they seemed to share that same sentiment. The room was wracked with laughter before but now, no one even seemed to be breathing.
Professor Lupin cleared his throat, shattering the viscous silence. “Good job, Di Angelo.” His voice was shaking.
Nico nodded and stepped to the back of the line, not trusting his own voice to come out without instantly splintering.