Running (Harry Potter/ Nico Di Angelo)

Havoc.

Harry kept a close eye out for the raven-haired therapy-needing boy in the days, weeks, and months that came, but didn't see him again until the end of January.

Nico had meant to return to the bar he had met Harry at before, and keep drinking until something else happened, but his shadow traveling was a little off and he ended up in the middle of the Sahara. He travelled around for a few months, and through his paranoia he convinced himself that he shouldn't return to Brighton where the little bar sat. After all, Harry didn't really like him anyway. He just put up with him because of how pathetic Nico had been that night, nothing more. He squashed all feelings of hope as the days wore on, and before he knew it he was celebrating his 18th birthday alone.

To celebrate, he decided to hop to his new favourite bar in Italy and just have a few drinks. However, his shadow traveling was off (or fate was being cruel) and he popped up in the middle of London. And, unfortunately, he popped up in a very heavily populated area. He tried to go back into the shadows and hope that no one had seen him, but then a flashback started, of course.

It was his first real battle. His eleven/twelve year old self was up against hordes of vicious dracanae, and the wave of terror flooded his senses. He drew his sword, struck it in the ground, and started to summon whole armies of the undead.

Unfortunately, these actions carried over into the real world. And even worse, Nico had become much more powerful in the six/seven years since that battle. He summoned over 10x the number of warriors without hesitation, his screams and shouts much louder and deeper as well. The people in the area fled, no one having any idea what was going on. That was, except for a certain couple who happened to be shopping nearby.

"What's going on out there?" Hermione asked as she returned to where Ron was sitting, bags in hand. Ron looked up for the first time and noticed the hordes of people running and screaming. He instantly stood up straight and snatched his wand, his auror training kicking in as he tried to access the situation.

"Nothing good," Ron trailed off as he and Hermione rushed out of the store. She drew her wand, but kept it at her side.

They ran out and against the crowd only to be faced with five skeleton warriors armed with medieval bows and swords charging towards them. They hesitated only for a moment before casting Petrificus Totalus charms and moving further inward.

Ron was taking down the warriors easily, but could see that they were outnumbered, "Can you cover me? I'm going to call for backup."

Hermione nodded and moved in front of him, glad her mental spell casting was so quick. She briefly saw into the epicentre and took a double-take, "Is that a kid doing this? What's he doing with the sword?"

"Harry, I've got a situation on Regent street. There's a guy here with a sword and an army of the undead. How soon can you and the guys get here?" Ron caught him up briefly.

"I'm at the station now. We'll be there in a second." Harry reported back, hanging up to get her the other aurors on-duty.

"They're on their way." Ron informed Hermione as he returned to paralysing the skeletons. Hermione nodded once again, sweat dripping down her forehead as she felt herself get more exhausted by the second—and they didn't seem to be stopping.

When Harry arrived at the scene, he instantly went to work trying to get to the centre. If he could stop the one controlling the skeletons, the skeletons would be an issue. He found a weak spot, zapped through about five warriors, and then saw who it was- the one and only Nico Di Angelo.

"Let me get to the centre!" Harry yelled out to his teammates, forcing his way through as the ones closest to him covered him.

He was behind Nico and quickly moved to where he was facing the boy. His dark eyes flashed about wildly, but looked glazed over and hazy. Harry spotted the flashback a mile away, and put away his wand.

He gripped on to Nico's shoulders and gently shook them, "Nico, it's me, Harry. Whatever you're seeing it's not really there, and you need to wake up."

Nico could hear the words, and felt the moving, but all it did was bewilder him. More skeletons popped up, and Harry began to panic. No one had seen magic like this before, not even from death eaters.

"Nico! Please, you have to snap out of this! Nico!" Harry raised his voice, shaking him harder. He could feel the other aurors look at him strangely but he just fought to meet Nico's eyes.

And then it stopped. The skeletons collapsed, Nico's eyes snapped into focus, and his sword and warriors were suddenly nowhere to be seen. Harry looked into those eyes and saw a brokenness that he'd unfortunately seen too many times before. He pulled Nico into a tight hug just as Nico's tears began streaming down his face.

"It's all just a flashback, you're fine." Harry breathed out, his panic subsiding.

Nico pulled away from him and him and hastily wiped at his eyes, registering what he had just done, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—"

"Stupefy!" The spell flew towards Nico and hit him dead-on, rendering him unconscious. Harry looked up to see a senior member of the aurors, Williamson, holding the smoking wand.

"Williamson!" Harry barked for the millionth time, as the senior member often acted on his own accord without any orders from Harry.

"He just summoned an army of the dead, I think knocking him out is fully justified!" Williamson argued, and the other members shrugged in both agreement and indifference.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione approached the body. Ron knelt down and began to search him for a wand as Hermione turned towards Harry, "Do you know him?"

"A little. I haven't seen him in months..." Harry trailed off, looking down at the boy with an empathetic gaze.

"What spells did he cast to summon the skeletons?" Another member of the team, Richard Perry, piped up.

"I can't find a wand on him to check!" Ron reported, somewhat frustrated at the fruitless search.

"I don't think he carries one. At least, he wasn't using on to conjure the skeletons." Harry furrowed his brows— he thought he knew Nico, but what was happening?

"Wandless magic? Although I've never heard of conjuring like that, even with wands." Hermione suggested, a confused look on her face.

"Let's just get him back to the Ministry," Ron said, lifting Nico up with his wand and latching on to him, disapparating to the usual prison cells.

"The rest of you start obliviating— we need to keep this contained." Harry ordered the other aurors before disapparating with Hermione. He didn't know what Nico had done, but he knew the legal system wouldn't be anywhere near nice to him for it.

~~
And another part. The muse is hitting me at 10:30— let's see how far I can stretch it!

Anyway, please leave feedback, and I hope you enjoyed!