Old and Young, Inside Out

Chapter 12

December came around. The potion continued to be made, Nico continued to teach the kids how to fight, Will continued a quest Nico knew nothing of. The only way he knew he was alive was feeling his soul, as bright as ever. There was no communication.

He signed the list to stay at Christmas, Dominic and the Golden Trio doing the same. If Harry stayed, Nico stayed. He wasn't going to leave him alone for so long.

He skipped out on the dueling club and anything of the sorts, his mind too busy thinking about what Will was doing. What could Apollo possibly be having him do in London? Nico couldn't think of one good reason.

He did hear about what happened, however, and Harry's "attack on Justin". He questioned Ron about it soon enough and got the full story of what Harry was trying to do. He hadn't even known he was a Parseltongue.

Then Justin got petrified.

Maybe it was the loyalty the Hat had seen, maybe it was because the attack felt too close to home. But now that a Hufflepuff in his year went down, Nico was pissed. He went to Dumbledore, but the old wizard himself wasn't sure who it was doing the attacks. If he had told Nico the real culprit, Nico was angry enough to drag them down to his father.

"Save all that energy for when you find the guy." Dominic insisted one night. "I'm as angry as you but you can't just stomp around."

Nico crossed his arms before sitting on his bed. "I feel like I can't even go to camp to-"

"Go to camp." Dominic cut in. "You can't just stop living. That's what the heir is trying to do. That's what all people are trying to do when they attack others. They want to cause panic. They want to control you. So go to camp and teach those kids and try to check on Will."

Nico ground his teeth together. "And if something happens to Harry and he's all alone..."

"He's survived this long, hasn't he?" Dominic asked. "You need to have more faith in him, I swear."

"Fine, whatever." Nico gave in. "But only on the weekends like usual."

"Good, now shadow travel me to Diagon Alley," Dominic commanded. "We need to go Christmas shopping."

Nico sighed but gave in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as they finished wrapping their gifts, Nico was brought to Dumbledore's office for an "important meeting". The whole way, all he could worry about was that he let Harry out of his sight for too long. What he wasn't expecting when he walked in there, however, was to see Will standing by the Headmaster's desk.

"William!" Nico was in the son of Apollo's arms before anyone could blink. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Language, Neeks." Will let his chin rest on the top of Nico's dark curls. "And I'm okay."

"But where have you been?" Nico demanded. "I've been worried sick. Even Rachel didn't know where you were."

"That's because my quest tied into wizard stuff." Will looked around to make sure they were alone before kissing the top of Nico's head. "But I'm okay so relax."

"Relax? You haven't even IM'd me." Nico let him go to cross his arms. "Where have you been? Tell me. And why are you here?"

Will held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. So I've been in London, right? Almost immediately we ran into monsters. But sometimes the monsters weren't going after us."

"Then what were they going after?" Nico asked.

"Other demigods." Will lowered his hands. "It seems for some reason, some of the gods had affairs over here or shipped their kids here or something. But there are demigods in Europe."

Nico held a hand to his head. "Why do they have to put us in these situations?" Will went to answer but Nico held his hand up. "Rhetorical, Will."

Will pouted. "And yet you ask it so seriously..."

Nico let himself smile. "Just keep telling your story."

Will grinned back at him. "So we found some. Dumbledore is letting them stay here until you can shadow travel them to camp."

Nico nodded in acceptance. "Where are the other two campers that went with you?"

Will's expression dropped. "They...they both didn't make it very long. The monsters..." He looked away as darkness crossed his face. "None of us were good fighters. That's why I came here for refuge."

Nico rubbed Will's arm. "At least you're safe now. Come on, let me show you around. You can meet my friends."

Will looked over at him. "Won't people get suspicious?"

"Barely anyone is here." Nico shrugged. "It's Christmas Eve. If anyone asks, I'll just say you're a family friend. I'll have Ron back me up."

"Ron...that's your brother?"

Nico nodded. "Come on."