Something good finally happens to me
NICO: let's take a moment to go back in time. We'd all love that opportunity, right? Well, let me burst your bubble by telling you right now that I deserve a reset button way more than you. Until you've gone through things like I have I don't want to hear one complaint out of your mouth.
Like I said, we're going to step back in time for a moment. We're going back right at the moment where Piper and I had parted ways, the first time. Right after we had finished spying on Leo, when I told her I'd have to go and write an update to Harry, and she went off and did whatever it was she did.
I went to the library, of course. I could have very easily gone to my common room, but with going there I had she chance of having to talk to somebody in my house, a house where half of the people wanted me dead. It was better to go to the library, where talking was frowned upon and silence was a good deed.
It didn't take long to write the letter. I sat in my usual table in the corner and began writing away.
"Harry,
Today has been interesting, to say the least. I haven't gotten any updates from you yet, so I'm assuming things at St. Mungo's are uneventful. I do hope the twins are feeling better now, I wouldn't mind an update on that.
Anyway, things here haven't been uneventful. Piper gave word that she suspected Leo Valdez was another potential suspect. We spent the day following him with my invisibility cap and your cloak. We found him chatting to Frank Zhang, who Piper told me was a Hufflepuff a year above you. I'll spare you the details, they're both confirmed suspects. They're a part of all of this.
Additionally, Leo had mentioned two other guys as well without listing their names. Piper and I think that after those two, we've found everybody.
Leo mentioned that they were going to meet in some place called the room of requirement after the quidditch match next week. Piper and I were thinking we should find that place and fill them in on everything, since they'd all be in one place.
We want to know what you think. Please, feel free to write back, let me know you aren't dead or something.
Sincerely, Nico."
I set the letter aside and gathered my things. I was about to leave until a surprise guest showed up at my table.
Before I could speak, he held up his hand to silence me.
"No, you don't get to speak." Will ordered. I listened.
"You randomly imply to me that you're aware of the fact that I'm having visions, then I don't see you until today? You've been following me forever now, don't think I don't know you're trying to gather some information on me! You're going to follow me and we're going to talk!"
He pulled me by the arm down the halls.
"Nice to see you too, Solace."
***
"Mind telling me where you're taking me to?" I asked. We stopped in the middle of an empty hallway. He then proceeded to pace back and forth like mad, mumbling to himself. Again, he held up a hand to silence me.
A door appeared along the wall. Will stopped pacing. He grabbed my arm again and dragged me into the mysterious room.
Two chairs appeared in the center. He sat in one, then gestured towards the other one, inviting me to sit in it.
"This place is the--"
"Room of requirement." I answered. I wondered if Will could have been one of the other guys Leo had been referring to. I then debunked that idea, since Will's trio included him, Annabeth, and Hazel.
"Ugh!" Will crossed his arms. "How do you always know what I'm thinking?"
"It's a gift," I shrugged. "For example, I can tell you that you've been having visions and you randomly woke up with the ability to heal people."
His face reddened with frustration.
"Well, I can tell you that you're a know-it-all!" He said.
I shrugged.
"Can't argue with that. Anyway, why'd you bring me to this place specifically?"
Will crossed his arms once more.
"Because, we needed a private place to talk. You know I'm having visions because you're having visions too?" He concluded. I nodded.
"Great, great! Another person to add to this mess." He complained.
"So, there are others?" I decided to play dumb. Maybe I could get more information out of him.
"Two girls, so far. I don't know whether or not I should tell you their names."
"Don't bother. Annabeth Chase and Hazel Levesque? Hazel's ability is something with rocks. Annabeth hasn't determined her ability yet."
Will stood up, walked over to the wall, and literally banged his head against it.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?" He shouted. I couldn't help but laugh.
"How'd you find the room of requirement? I don't know that yet."
"We sort of, um, borrowed Harry Potter's map. Hazel also has the ability to sort of manipulate people's minds to see things. She sensed a sort of manipulation over the map that was hiding the room of requirement. She undid it, and we found the room."
"Huh." I added a mental note: Hazel can manipulate minds.
"So you're the one who took Harry's map."
"Well we're going to put it back! It sort of forgot about it. I'm assuming you summoned it back?" Will said.
"Yeah."
"Huh."
There was an awkward pause.
"So, what did you do in the room of requirement?"
"Hazel, Annabeth, and I looked at our boggarts. The boggart turned into things that weren't our own fears. It was strange, to say the least. Still, we had all of the emotion of a real fear, as if they were our own."
"Huh." I made another mental note to add that into my letter for Harry. I should look at my boggart. Maybe it could give us more answers.
"What do you want?" He asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"What do you want?" Will pleaded. "It's obvious that you're following me or something."
"I want the same thing as you, I just want answers."
We sat in silence for awhile. I added more to the letter in my head.
"Ps, we may want to check out my boggart. Long story."
"Annabeth has a theory," Will said. "I'm deciding whether or not to tell you."
"Obviously you want to tell me. If you didn't, you wouldn't have brought it up."
He rolled his eyes.
God, this was impossible. I don't even know what I wanted at this point. Would it be easier if we didn't have answers and continued out our false lives at Hogwarts? I didn't know what I wanted.
God, what did I want?
I must have been thinking rather loudly because the room of requirement decided to provide an answer. A mirror stood in the corner of he room.
"Bloody hell," Will exclaimed. "That's the mirror of erised!"
"What?" I said. I found myself being drawn towards it. It had some sort of summoning aura. I couldn't explain it.
"What is it?" I asked. Silly question, really. It was a mirror. I should have instead asked why Will seemed so infatuated with it.
"The mirror of erised shows you your biggest desires. It often drives people mad as they watch what they can never have." Will explained. He continued talking but I couldn't hear him. The mirror had some sort of spell over me. At first, I saw our reflection. Then the scene changed.
I was smiling.
My reflection looked genuinely happy, happier than I'd felt in a long time. I wondered what could make me smile so widely. I wondered, what was if that could make me look so much more youthful, filled with joy and life?
She was the answer.
"Bianca..." I heard myself say. Her hand reached towards me. I reached my hand towards hers. The only thing separating it was the glass.
The mirror of erised showed me two things that I couldn't get back. My childish glee, and Bianca. She was my sister, wasn't she? What hurt most of all was not knowing. Who was this girl who made my heart feel like it had been kicked and buried? What had happened to her?
I loved her. I missed her so much it hurt. Did she miss me?
"Nico." I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and remembered where I was. I was with Will Solace in the room of requirement. How could I have forgotten?
"You've been staring at the mirror for almost ten minutes," Will exclaimed. "You started hyperventilating or something. I don't know. I thought it would be best to take you away from it."
I looked back at the mirror but it was no longer there. Will must have requested that the room take it away. I wasn't sure how the room worked quite yet, that was my greatest guess.
"Stand up." He said, calmly. He gave me his hand. I ignored it and stood on my own.
"You saw your parents, didn't you?" He said. "I'm sorry, I should have known. Obviously you'd see them, since they've just recently passed...I should've known."
"No," I said. "I didn't see my parents."
"What?"
I didn't say anything more.
We sat back in our chairs and stared at each other. I closed my eyes for a moment. I needed something else to look at besides Solace's puppy dog expression. Closing my eyes made it easier to avoid eye contact with him.
***
"You promised." I heard a voice call. The voice was familiar.
"You promised you would protect her!" I shouted. That's why I recognized the voice, it was my own.
"Nico, I--"
"YOU PROMISED!"
I couldn't see anything. I only heard the ground cracking around me. My arms were extended, the blood coursing through my veins filling me with adrenaline. I felt the dead coming towards my call, being drawn towards my fingertips.
***
"Nico!" A jet of water slashed me in the face. Will had his wand extended towards me.
"Uh, sorry. Aguementi seemed to be the only way I could wake you up."
"I wasn't asleep." I shot out of my chair. "I had a vision."
Will rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I assumed that much."
His hand was on my shoulder. I shrugged it off.
"I'm going to ask you the same question you asked me earlier. What do you want from me? If you already knew that there were others, why did you hesitate to approach me for so long?" I asked. Will shrugged.
"Because you're different." Will said. He looked nervous, suddenly. He was hiding something.
"How am I different?" I asked. Will was the one avoiding eye contact now.
"You're the first one I had a vision about." Will explained. "Your face was blurred, your voice was muffled...but I'm sure it's you now."
"Why are you so sure it's me?" I asked.
Will stared at the floor for a long moment.
"I remember healing you in the dream," he said. "I don't know how to explain it. I just know that you were my patient for a few days. I was told to keep an extra watch on you since rumor was going around that you wanted to run away. I don't know to where."
"Three days," I said. "I was your patient for three days. And I don't know where I wanted to go. I don't think I knew where I wanted to go. For awhile, I just wanted to leave."
We stared at each other now, neither of us avoiding eye contact.
"Don't ask me how I know; I just do."
He nodded. We continued to stare at each other.
"What's your ability then?" Will changed the subject.
I stood up and teleported through his shadow, landing right beside him.
"Woah. You can apparate?" He asked.
"No, not quite. I can travel through shadows."
I traveled to the far end of the room, to the door, then back beside him. I suddenly felt light headed. I stumbled. I didn't fall, however. Will caught me.
"Woah," he said. "That's quite an ability. Though, I wouldn't recommend doing it so often all at once like that. You're getting paler by the second and your pulse is a bit concerning."
I stood up. My pulse is racing for a different reason. Will made me nervous. I had butterflies.
"Next week after the quidditch match, Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor, you need to be here. Tell Annabeth and Hazel as well. We need all of us together to figure this out."
I thought it would be best to get Will and his gang here as well. Since Leo had said to Frank that his group was meeting here, that left only Piper, and we'd all be there.
"Okay, sounds like a plan." He paused.
"Nico," he said.
"What?"
I realized his hand was still on my back from when he had caught me.
"Uh, I don't know if you've heard anything about me. People seem to like spreading rumors. Long story short, I let something slip to somebody I thought I could trust. Suddenly, the entire house knows, as well as people from other houses."
"Will, what are you on about?" I asked.
"I learned something about myself from the visions. I mean, I had been questioning it for a while now, the visions sort of confirmed it for me. Most specifically, the visions I've had about you." He said this all with one breath. "Also, your pulse is still racing, you know. Are you sure you don't want to sit down?"
If he was anybody else, I wouldn't have slapped his arm away. But it remained on my back, and I let it.
"I'm fine. And Will, whatever it is you're on about, I'm sure we have greater worries." I reassured. Strangely enough, he didn't seem reassured.
"For the guy who seems to know everything about me, you still still pretty oblivious." He said.
"Oblivious, to what?" I asked. "Will, I'm not a Ravenclaw. I don't have time for riddles—"
Usually, it was me interrupting him. This time, Will decided to shut my mouth in a way that would definitely prevent me from speaking more. The room of requirement was really a magical place, wasn't it. Well, I thought so at least.
It's the place where Will Solace decided to shut me up by kissing me.
As the kiss concluded, I stared at Will like an idiot. He stared at me in fear, waiting for a reaction.
"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" I spat.
"Yes." He didn't hesitate to answer.
I didn't hesitate to shadow travel out of that place, back into the Slytherin common room.
***
Yeah, you know what happened from there on out. Boring, boring, Piper consoling me, blah, blah, blah. Fun times, am I right?
That leaves me where I am now, trying to sleep off a stress headache while Leo Valdez annoys me from the other end of the room. He wasn't doing anything specific to annoy me, he just had that aura to him.
When I heard a repetitive knocking sound coming from Leo's corner, I just assumed he was tinkering with something. He was always tinkering. After it didn't stop for a few minutes I'd lost all of my remaining patience.
"Valdez, if you don't cut that out, I'll kick you out of my dorm for the rest of the year." I threatened.
"Not me, Nico. Try lecturing that damn bird that's been pecking at the window!" Leo replied. I went over and opened the window. Immediately, a small owl swooped in. It was a bit hyperactive. It nearly clawed Leo's face as it flew around the room.
"Immobulus!" I brought out my wand and pointed it at the bird. The rate at which it flew declined rapidly and I was able to retrieve the latter from its talons.
"It's from Harry." I thought aloud. I felt my stomach drop. I had forgotten to deliver my own letter of updates to Harry. It was still crumpled in my pocket! I quickly shoved it in an envelope and tossed it to the bird, whose momentum was increasing once more as the effects of the charm wore off.
"Take that back to Harry Potter." I said, feeling a bit odd talking to a bird. It obeyed, swooping out of the widow in the direction at which it at arrived.
I tore open the letter in anticipation as I sat back down on my bed.
"Nico,
Things here aren't exactly normal. At the hospital, Ron and I ran into a group of people. Their names are Thalia, Reyna, Grover, Magnus, and Alex. The five of them are quite odd, to say the least. They claim to be a part of the wizarding world. They say they have relatives that go to Hogwarts and wish to shadow at the school this year for a project.
They're American, claiming to go to some school called Ilvermorny. Strangest of all, they don't even have wands. Ron told me that a lot of American witches and wizards don't have wands because it was easier to conceal their magic wandlessly back during the time of the witch trials. Still, I think it's quite odd that they show up here and now, given the circumstances.
Ron's mum wrote to Dumbledore, requesting that he allow these kids to observe here for a few weeks. He's been so distracted lately, I doubt he's even glanced at the letter. Still, he wrote back and said they had his approval. Strange, isn't it?
That isn't even the weirdest part. Ron's family and I had gone down to eat something in St. Mungo's cafeteria. When we went back to visit the twins, they were well and awake like nothing had ever happened.
One last note, I sort of filled Ron in on everything. He had too many questions and I couldn't stand lying to him and Hermione anymore. They know everything now, I'm sorry if that upsets you, but we can trust them.
I hope all is well at school. Don't skip out of meals, and make a friend while I'm away. You can't have too many of those. Sincerely, Harry Potter."
The second I read the letter, I set it on fire with my wand. This seemed to surprise Leo, as he jumped out of his bed in alarm.
"What the heck, Nico? What are you doing that for?" Leo asked.
I couldn't risk anybody accidentally coming across the letter. I needed to burn it.
"I've got too many spare papers lying around." I lied. Leo scoffed.
"I believe a waste basket would have been more sufficient."
The last flame flickered out. Smoke from the fire drifted out of the window, still open from the owl's visit.
I thought about everything that had happened today. Piper and I had discovered that Leo, Frank, and two other people were a part of this situation as well. Harry and Ron had an adventure of their own. Additionally, I had managed to score a date to the ball.
I looked at the lines of the prophecy. Even though I basically had it memorized at this point, I still needed to look at it every so often to see if anything would come back to my memory and I could decode it. Of course, that didn't happen.
I analyzed each line.
"Mother has angered magic, she's gone back on her word."
Not helpful. Not ringing any bells. I moved on to the next line.
"Half-Bloods are welcomed to a new, magical world."
What didn't make sense about that line was the fact that not all of those Harry and I had discovered are half-bloods. Will Solace is a muggle-born, as is Annabeth Chase.
"The man in black is a villain, gone weak"
The only man in black I knew was me, and I had never thought of myself as a villain.
"Immortality is what he will seek"
I'm not a fan of immortality either. Definitely not me.
"Light and dark listen in; not part of the plan."
Will and I. I just knew it was about us. It made sense as to why my memories were coming back faster than the others. Maybe I was never supposed to be part of this?
"Extinguished to a new, foreign land."
Obvious. Moving on...
"Seven half-bloods shall appear at the sight."
It still wasn't clear who all of them could be...
"To wood or metal, they shall fight."
Wood...a wand, maybe? But what was metal, a sword?
"An oath is broken, and minds are changed."
What oath, I wondered. What minds?
"All that is certain, is that things will never be the same."
This last line was the only line that made complete sense to me. Whatever was going on here, it was big. It would have a chain of reactions outside of Hogwarts that I may not even be aware of. Things are changing now. I doubted they could ever go back to normal, especially since I don't even know what normal is a this point.
I was close to falling asleep after hours of over-contemplation. But just as I was drifting off, I shot awake at a simple thought. I didn't even have anything to wear for the dance.
I couldn't help but laugh to myself.
Out of all of the complicated stuff in my life right now, I was kept awake by the thought of a school dance.