Wizarding Royalty

Chapter 22: Announcement

Thalia and Nico were the only two who managed to talk to each other that morning since they were in the same house it was easier to communicate. They had met in the common room before anyone else was awake. 

"Nightmares?" asked Thalia at Nico's weary look. 

"No, demigod dream. Why are you up?" Nico replied. 

"Same thing. Wanna talk about it?" 

Nico shrugged in reply. "We probably need to," he admitted eventually after a moment of silence. "You want to go first?" 

"Why not," said Thalia before explaining her dream she only went on a small side ramble once before she finished her explanation. 

"So you're saying you saw Riddle's acceptance into Hogwarts and how he was living in a dingy orphanage? I get where he's coming from being outcasted by his peers and being called a freak. We've all been on that end of the stick at some point. And being bitter towards a parent for abandoning him," Nico could see a little where Riddle was coming from in that aspect of it. Both he and Thalia had been called freaks at some point in their life because unexplained things would happen around them or in Nico's case more often because he was gay and growing up in the early 1900s that was unacceptable. Now that he was living with other demigods where relationships like that were common, especially since most of the gods were at least bisexual. No one at camp would judge a same-sex relationship in fact Nico knew of at least three more same-sex relationships around camp. 

"I understand being bitter about that too," Thalia said, "but it seems once he graduated Hogwarts Riddle went off the deep end. Tell me about your dream?" Thalia was trying to direct the attention away from their current conversation. 

Nico hesitated for a second before explaining, "I was in the corridor that Mr. Weasley, Harry, Hermes, and I took when arriving at Harry's hearing. Mr. Weasley was half-covered by some type of cloak that seemed to shimmer and make him almost invisible at times. Then I was on the sidelines as a snake glided towards him hissing threateningly. Something was different about the snake I could sense it." In the last sentence, Nico seemed to muse only to himself. "I followed it to the door where it prepared to strike. The green snake pounced on Mr. Weasley and even through the dream I could feel his life force fading away. He woke up to late to protect himself from it and the venom was already making its way through his system. Then in the blink of an eye, I was in the Gryffindor boy's dormitory with a very pale Harry and everyone trying to figure out what was going on. Harry threw up over the side of his bed and that was when the dream ended." 

Thalia scrunched her face slightly in thought, "My dream was like a memory," Thalia said quietly, "Yours was the usual prophetic do you think...?" Thalia trailed off. 

Nico was on her wavelength though and finished, "Percy had a dream too, but his was in the present?" 

Thalia smiled, "Exactly. We'll have to talk to him soon.-"She glanced at the big grandfather clock hanging in the common room "-but for now it's almost breakfast time."

As Nico looked up the clock chimed seven times signaling it was seven o'clock in the morning. The two pushed open the secret door and retraced their steps from the night before to the Great Hall. This time when they walked instead of the starry sky reflected on the roof there was a cloudy sky with peeks of the sun poking through. Soon students were streaming in and settling along their tables for breakfast. Food was appearing and disappearing as needed by the occupants of the tables. 

The headmaster clicked his spoon against his glass filled with pumpkin juice. This noise successfully gathered the attention of all the students. 

"I know you are eager to begin the school year but I wish to make one more announcement before our Head of Houses passes around your schedules for the year," Dumbledore announced, his voice bouncing along the walls, "We have had an influx of students taking Divination and to make it easier on Professor Trewlany we will be introducing a second Divination teacher. Please give a warm welcome to Professor Firenze." As Dumbledore introduced the professor a centaur walked into the room. He had blonde almost white hair with bright blue eyes. His upper body was that of a traditional human but his lower body was that of a palomino horse. From a distance, a centaur could be easily mistaken for someone riding a horse but at the distance, everyone was at they would have to be blind to mistake Firenze as riding on a horse. 

"All years three through seven will be split up between two groups. Group A will continue to study with Professor Trewlany but Group B will begin study with Professor Firenze. His classroom will be located on the ground floor in Classroom eleven." Dumbledore noticed some of the children's fidgeting and decided to end his announcement there. "Heads of Houses will be coming around with your schedule shortly but for now enjoy your breakfast." 

Many of the kids in the Great Hall relaxed dropping their body positions from alert and listening to the Headmaster to relaxed and laughing with their friends. Thalia had been tapping her fingers on the table in an impatient manner during the speech while Nico had been fiddling with his ring and bouncing his leg. 

Meanwhile, at the Hufflepuff table, Percy had been spinning Riptide in between his fingers under the table while occasionally stuffing a piece of scrambled egg in his mouth.  Even though his body position was faced towards the Headmaster during his speech Percy's eyes were darting along the Slytherin table looking for his fellow black-haired companions. His attention was drawn to the centaur when he walked in though. Firenze seemed to be slightly smaller than Chiron or the Party Ponies that resided in the States and his body showed some signs of slight bruising but other than that he seemed healthy.  

Did I write 500 words about just Thalia and Nico talking about their dreams? Yes. 

Did I go along with it? Also yes. 

Did I try my best to write ADHD? Yes. 

Did I nail it? Not perfectly. 

Also, I refuse to believe in a school with over a thousand students there would not be just the demigods fidgeting during a speech especially when they have friends they want to talk to.