Ghost King I

A bad decision, really...

Nico was alone. As usual. And he was just fine with it, thank you very much. That afternoon, he had shadow traveled to London. It was a tiring process, but he figured he could sleep in some abandoned building or an alley and then shadow travel home in the morning. He plugged into his iPod (old fashioned, right? But it didn't attract monsters so whatever) and turned up the volume loud enough he could pretend nobody else was around. Even in a crowd, he was on his own. The relaxing screams of a tortured soul, or at least a singer who did a good impression, came through his ears and soothed him. After the second Giant War, Nico had been trying to recover, finding it hard to do so.

He and Will had been fighting. Again. Will wanted him to infirmary, but Nico knew what would follow. Stay at camp . Get friends. Be betrayed when they thought you were a little different. No, thank you. He was just fine the way he was. Living at camp sucked for the exclusion due to his dad, but at least there he knew he couldn't trust them in the first place. None of that 'this time will be different' crap he always got. Because every time, it just came back to bite him. He stared up at the sky. It was a cloudy night, but the moon was clear winking eye, nearly gone. It was nothing but a sliver of ice, melting away to nothing. Looking up to the clouds just made him feel empty and small inside. Normal people got to believe that there was someone up there, looking out for him, but he knew that anyone with him in mind would be across the ocean and not really interested in his welfare.

Kicking a rock with his toe, Nico let out a long sigh and stared at the ground, pulling his black cap down low over his eyes. It was probably time to try and find somewhere to sleep for the night. A stiff breeze blew through his very bones, and he decided that he'd rather break and enter somewhere for the night. He glanced up at the houses next to him. They were dingy and dark, and matched his mood. Number 11, Grimmauld Place, he decided, looked like a nice empty, abandoned house, probably chock full of horror movie potential. Perfect for a ghost king to nap. Nico smiled and blended into the shadows, which wrapped around him like a cold blanket, and then he found himself standing in the second floor window. He peered at the spot he had stood only moments before.

That got him every time. Shadow traveling was fun. Letting out a big sigh, Nico realized how much more tired he had been than he thought. Doing a quick check to make sure he wasn't about to nap with a hellhound, Nico declared the place safe and started looking for somewhere to crash. He stumped down the creaky, rotting stairs. All of the rooms had been emptied of furniture, but he found a grubby rug that smelled faintly of mouse droppings in the corner of the kitchen next to the hearth. Obviously, the hearth was stone cold, but he used his lighter and some ancient newspapers to get a small fire going. A wooden cutting board had been forgotten, and he tossed it into the flame in lieu of logs. He left his iPod on, figuring he could charge it when he got home tomorrow. Then he wrapped the moldy mat around his thin shoulders and curled up in front of the warm embers that glowed like eerie watchful eyes in the pitch black of the house.

"What do you mean, someone next door?" Lupin asked.

"What I just said," Moody growled, folding his arms. "Someone tripped the alarms in the house next door. Not a Muggle because they just appeared instead of using a door."

Uneasy looks were sent around the kitchen table. Sirius turned his head towards his soup miserably. They were going to check it out, he knew, and he'd miss all the action as usual. Stirring his spoon through the chunky broth, he muttered a few curses to himself.

Molly had been ladling soup out, and she paused with the pot on her hip. "So what does it mean?" she asked.

Moody stood abruptly, pushing his chair back. The kids started, surprised by the sudden movement, as did Molly. Lupin, Sirius, and the other adults remained unaffected. They were used to Moody's behavior by now. "Could be Death Eaters, finally catching on to us," he suggested. A few gasps raced around the room. "We'll have to check it out. I'll go, but I'll need two others."