He Who Walks Between Worlds

Wrackspurts for Everyone!

Beginning notes

Stuff from the Sword of Hades is mentioned, briefly. It'll make sense without having read that, but the Sword of Hades has a bunch of Nico, so you might want to read it anyway. It's in the Demigod Diaries.

Wrackspurts cause confusion, in case anyone hadn't read the Harry Potter books in a while.

All characters belong to Rick Riordan and J. K. Rowling.

Nico

Why had he thought this would be different? Of course he would mess up any friendships he managed to make. And here, he couldn't even blame it on being the child of Hades. He had messed thing up all on his own.

He wouldn't run again, though. He would still help these wizards, even if they hated him. But really, he couldn't blame them. Everyone had reacted the same way: a period of calm before the storm. And then the rejected him. It was getting better now, yes, but that had only happened after years. And the wizards, he had found, were more racist, homophobic, and generally unaccepting of anything other, than either camp.

He was done with Hogwarts, though. He would talk to Dumbledore tonight, then go search for the horcruxes. If the Order had a problem, they could deal with it. 

Since their first meeting, Dumbledore had shown him more memories. Merope had gone to London, but died in childbirth. Tom Riddle had grown up in an orphanage. He had gone to Hogwarts and done well. After school, he was not able to get a position teaching at Hogwarts, so he had done retail at a shady store. Nico wasn't sure he needed the whole life story, but he had gained some useful information. Tom Riddle had made six horcruxes; all would be something important to him. Dumbledore had thus far refused to tell him what these horcruxes were. Tonight, he intended to find out.

But when he got to Dumbledore's office, the headmaster was not there. 

"Hey!" Nico said loudly, hoping to wake a portrait. And indeed, a tiny old man opened his eyes. "When's Professor Dumbledore going to be back?"

The portrait blinked and said in an infuriatingly slow manner, "Well -- well -- he's going to -- going to be back -- back -- back in two -- two days' time."

That was longer than Nico wanted to wait. "Well, where is he right now?"

The portrait seemed to be more awake now, "Why should I -- should I tell you that, y--young man?"

"Order business. It's urgent."

"He said that he would be--be visiting a friend of his, um and uh doing s-s-some research."

"Where, though?" Nico asked.

The portrait said, "I--I do not know."

Great. Nico dissolved into shadows and travelled back to his dorm. He began packing, which was mostly just throwing the clothes he wasn't allowed to wear because uniform into his bag. He wasn't lugging textbooks or wizard robes around with him. When he came to the Invisibility Cloak, he paused. Someone had messed with it. It was neatly folded and smelled like mud in spring. It was the same cloak; it had the same aura. On top was a note written in Ancient Greek. 

Nico,

I heard you were making inquiries about the origin of this cloak. It was made by Thanatos, but there is something strange about it. I suspect it is simply due to the influence of the wizards. I hope you will join me for tea and cookies again soon.

Good luck,

Persephone

What was that about? Nico couldn't help but worry. Gods were never nice unless they had an end goal. Well, other than Hestia. And for a godly step-parent to be kind to their spouse's child was basically unheard of. He would have suspected a quest, but last time Persephone had wanted him to do something for her, she hadn't been anywhere near as subtle. He considered going to the Underworld that night, but with gods, it was generally better to let them reveal what they wanted instead of asking them. Besides, he hadn't gotten much sleep last night and he was still wary of shadow-travelling too often.