The Coming of Nico di Angelo

Percy Goes All Big-Brother on Malfoy's Ass

"Nice costume, mister!" A boy's voice called out to him, but fear clouded his innocent face when he glanced beneath Nico's hood. Smile gone, he turned and ran away... Nico touched the wand in his cloak pocket. With one flick, the child would never reach his mother... but Nico could never. Instead, his silent footsteps brought him to a cottage, eyes peering into a window over a dark hedge.

He saw them in their little living room, the young family. A tall, black-haired man with glasses. A curly-haired toddler in blue pajamas. The father made puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand while his son laughed, grabbing at it with his small fists. A door opened and there she was: a robin-haired woman with bright eyes. The father picked up his son and handed him to his mother, then threw his wand on the sofa. He stretched, yawning...

The gate creaked a little as Nico pushed it open, but no one heard. Nico's hand--as foreign as his laugh--took the wand out of his cloak pocket and pointed it at the door. The door burst open with a crack, and Nico strolled inside as the father sprinted into the hall. It was too easy, he hadn't even grabbed his wand off the couch...

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Nico laughed. Hold him off? Without a wand? "Avada Kedavra!"

Effervescent green light filled the hallway, and the man fell like a puppet with cut strings... he was dead before he hit the floor. He could hear the mother screaming from upstairs, trapped like the animal she was. He walked up the steps with calm and ease, loving the thrill of the chase. The melody of the mother dragging furniture to create a barricade became his mantra...

The chairs and boxes piled against the door blew apart with a wave of his wand. Nico saw her, her son in her arms. When she saw Nico, she dropped the child into the crib behind her and tried to shield him. It was as though she thought he would kill her instead of her son if he couldn't see the child.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside now."

His voice wasn't his own. It was higher pitched, as cold and cruel as his laugh. There was no warmth, no emotion, only contempt, and disgust.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead--"

"This is my last warning--"

"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy..."

"Stand aside."

"Not Harry! Not Harry!"

"Stand aside, girl!"

"Please--I'll do anything--"

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light hit her square in the chest, and she fell like her husband had. The child didn't cry, not this time. He stood up, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up at Nico's face with interest. Did he think that it was his father under the cloak, making more pretty light? That his mother would pop up any moment, laughing?

He pointed the wand at the child's face. Green eyes fell on the face under the cloak, the sight bringing hysteria to the toddler's eyes. He'd seen that it wasn't his father.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Nico woke with a start. He stared at the outline of his hand in the dark dorm room, thanking every god he could think of when he recognized it as his own. Beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead and brow, and it wasn't from the hard training with Teddy. He'd had bad dreams before, they were part of the demigod job description, but this was a little harder to digest. He needed help, to talk to someone, to figure out what Hades--if he'd even sent the dream--wanted Nico to take from it. For all he knew, trapped in that night was the secret to the quest's success. But, Nico couldn't make himself think about the dream, much less process and dissect it.