Nico's first official day at Hogwarts was painful so far. He had to wake up early (he didn't sleep much but he knew when too early was too early), deal with Seamus and Harry giving each other the Silent Treatment, and was expected to drink pumpkin juice. He, being a sensible person (along with Hermione, he noticed, who was sitting with the other two on the far end of the bench), drank the orange juice.
So, Nico was groggy and easily irritated that morning. He also didn't eat anything this time to punish himself for not sacrificing his meal last night to the gods; a satisfied rumble of thunder crashed outside. One may ask how thunder would sound satisfied, and Nico would answer, but that one that has asked definitely has never experienced satisfied thunder, and is therefore definitely not a demigod.
"Oi, di Angelo," one of the Twins slid over to him. "Fred here."
"What do you want now?" Nico snapped, rubbing his sleep deprived eyes and staring angrily at his empty plate. He ducked as a flood of owls entered the Great Hall, cursing at the world and almost snatching one of the birds out of the air. "What kind of place is this?" He almost snapped out of his fake accent, but caught himself in time.
"Whoa, no need to murder the poor things!" Fred happily responded. "What's your schedule?"
Schedule? "I didn't get one?" He wanted to state that he didn't have it yet, but he was so tired he wasn't sure of anything anymore.
"Ah, McGonagall's coming with yours right now it seems."
The strict old woman gave Nico a curious look while she gingerly handed him the paper. "I understand your...situation, Mister di Angelo," was all she said.
"Situation? What, are you on some scary quest to move schools?"
Oh, how spot on he was. "Somewhat like that, yes."
"Drink some of the pumpkin juice. It's all enchanted with a buncha caffeine on the first day; I made sure of it." Fred winked as he and George scooted over to Ron, who had just yelled his complaints about his schedule.
Nico returned his focus onto the paper. It was written entirely in Greek, to his surprise. So, Alecto had gotten to McGonagall already, hadn't she? Hopefully this wouldn't compromise his identity or his quest performance.
Nico read his schedule and then proceeded to glance up. He scanned the Gryffindor table (which was covered in feathers) in search of someone he could potentially befriend. He almost screeched when he saw Alecto disguised as a particularly ugly first-year peering at him with her beady eyes at the Slytherin table.
A blond-haired boy caught his eye, as he looked too much like Will. He just needed to have more yellow in his hair, mess it up a little, and he could pass off as a child of Athena or Apollo. He held Nico's gaze for a second before returning to his heated conversation with two bulls of fifteen-year-olds.
When the class bell finally rang, Nico made a beeline for the door. He stopped when he realized he didn't know where he was going, so he opted to just follow someone who he saw with History of Magic first period (it was Ron—all Nico could decode was "His— of —ic" and thought that would be enough). Alecto walked up to him and discreetly slipped a book bag into his hands, (barely) full of the necessary equipment to (barely) get him through the first semester. Man, she sure did care about him. So much. He heard her muttering about useless demigods and doing everything myself.
Nico did actually end up having a cup of pumpkin juice, by the way.
***
History of Magic did sound a bit interesting to Nico at first, he would admit. However after overhearing the stories from the other students he started concocting ideas for the possible excuses he could provide for skipping the class.
He was taken aback when he found the teacher to be a ghost. He silently sat in the back of the classroom in front of Harry and Ron.
"Have you guys had this guy before?"
"Yeah," Harry groaned. "He's the most boring person in this entire school. I had five cups of Fred and George's pumpkin juice and I'm already tired thinking of this class." He took out his textbook and opened it to the correct page, but then taking out a sheet of parchment and drawing the beginnings of Hangman on it.
"We found out about that pumpkin juice too late," Ron said with a dazed look in his eye. He didn't bother to take out a book and just wrote letters down onto Harry's parchment, still a bit...gone. Nico stifled a chuckle and turned back towards the front. Binns was staring at him uncomfortably, stacking his homework papers in a neat little pile on the corner of the desk. The ghost's hands were shaking a bit.
Nico was sure that this ghost had met a child of Hades before and recognized his aura, as this was 1995 and both World Wars had passed, so he decided to visit him once class ended. He should gain as many allies as he could, just in case.
Oh, but the class was horrifyingly boring. Nico started to zone out and look out the windows, but reminded himself he wasn't in Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter anymore; his ADHD wasn't going to be excused here. Well, he couldn't even read what was on the board anyways. He slowly...drifted...into...sleep...nopayattentionNico!
And then he realized (with a frustrated heart) he had already learned about these giant wars in Camp Jupiter and just let his head fall onto his book, closing his eyes and hoping he wouldn't sleep through the bell. His dreams were yet again swirls of strangeness that couldn't be deciphered, but when he woke up to the end of class he could only remember a room of glowing crystal balls crashing all around him.
***
"Hey, what's your schedule, di Angelo?" Nico spun around as he picked up his bag. Harry had a smile on his face while Ron avoided any eye contact with Nico.
After a moment of deciphering Nico finally responded: "Um, after this I have...double...Potions, Divini—Divine—Divination, and double...Defense...Defense Against the Dark Arts? Sorry, I have dyslexia," he added as an afterthought. Well, this was awkward.
"You have the exact same schedule as us today! Come with us."
Nico protested, saying that he had to talk with Professor Binns, but the other two didn't believe him and rushed Nico out the door. They met up with Hermione (meanwhile Nico's intelligent brain kept thinking "Her-me-own" instead) and briskly walked out into the cold rain.
"What is wrong with you three? It's cold and wet out here."
"Er...sorry, Nico," Hermione said sheepishly. "Just nice to have some fresh air after Binns."
Nico nodded solemnly and saw an Asian girl walk up to them. "Hey, isn't that—"
"Cho Chang," Harry responded.
"Hullo, Harry! Er, you got that stuff off, I see."
This conversation wasn't going to go anywhere.
"Cho Chang, right?" Nico held out a hand. "I saw you on the train." That was a lie, he didn't know who the Hades this girl was.
She hesitantly shook his hand (cringing the entire time) and nodded. "Yeah, that's me. You're Nico di Angelo, the kid everyone in Ravenclaw keeps talking about."
"Great. Now I have rumors about me?" Nico muttered, but she heard unfortunately.
"No, not yet. Though there are some that believe He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back are trying to convince everyone you're a Death Eater."
Death Eater, there's that word again. What did it mean? Nico was a bit annoyed at the avoidance of saying Riddle's ridiculous name, as it didn't hold much power like the giants' or gods' names. However, these wizards didn't know that and he respected them for being wary of the power of names. Guess the godly roots didn't leave, did they? By this logic, Nico reasoned, Harry was indeed a psychopath because he used the name "Voldemort" carelessly. And then Nico realized he had missed everything that Cho said.
Thankfully, Ron Weasley saved him from responding by exclaiming, "Is that a Tornados badge? You support them, don't you?"
"Er, yeah? What about it?" Cho looked a bit miffed at being interrupted in her one-sided conversation.
"Have you always supported them, or are you just doing it because they've been winning the league?" Ron sounded very accusative. So he was one of those people.
"I've been supporting them since I was six! Bye, Harry." Cho stormed off with a fumble at her badge, obviously hurt and self-conscious. Hermione and Ron started bickering and Nico turned to Harry with an "oh dear" look. Harry returned it.
***
Snaps reminded Nico too much of Hades. He snarled at Harry especially and gave Nico a critical stare. Nico returned with his worst Hades Stare yet, making Snape return to his board hurriedly.
Nothing much happened after that...until Snape went around checking everyone's potions. Nico could barely read the swirly writing on the board and without magic his potion was just a bland dark charcoal black with wisps of ugly yellow steam escaping occasionally. Nico knew he wouldn't be able to abuse the Mist this time, as he knew Snape would eventually take close looks at each potion after class. Chiron tried to start an alchemy class and did the same (but it was quickly shut down and never spoken of again when one unlucky camper lost half of his face).
Since he had nothing to lose at this point (and none of these classes would matter in the future), Nico played around with his fake wand and Hades-kinesis. With all the magical shadows pouring into the cauldron the potion turned bright red and plumes of what looked like flaming feathers leapt from the liquid. Nico jumped up and leapt away from the potion, sending the Slytherins into heaps of laughter. Snape stalked up to the cauldron with pure anger raging in his ratlike eyes and deformed nose, wand in hand and ready to hex Nico.
"What is this, Mister di Angelo?" He asked with fire spitting from his dragon's mouth.
"A potion."
"What did I ask you to make?"
"A Draught of Peace."
"Can...you...read?" He gestured to the board. Nico looked up and found the letters mocking him, swimming around the wall in indescribable shapes and lines.
Nico, having spent way too much time in 2018, and having spent way too much time around Percy, Leo, and the Stolls, replied with: "What up, I'm Jared, 19, and I never fuckin' learned how to read." He fought the smile from forming on his face. To his expectation and disappointment no one laughed, merely seemed to fear for Nico's life.
Snape was stunned, to say the least. Once he got his bearings, he retorted: "I would give you a week's worth of detention, but seeing that you apparently wouldn't have been able to read the lines I would've had you copy I'll give you a zero for today." He gritted his teeth as he added: "You've managed to create the Angel's Trumpet Draught, though I don't know how. Give me a sample of it and maybe if it's brewed well I'll give you half credit." Under his breath, Snape added: "I've seen it brewed successfully only once."
He passed Harry's potion with nothing but a disgusted scoff. Harry looked amazed at Snape ignoring him and beamed at Nico, mouthing a thank you to him. Nico nodded and scooped up a flask of his flaming potion. He stopped for a second and glanced back up at Snape, who was ripping apart poor Neville's potion, and quickly scooped up a small phial of it, putting it secretly in his pocket. The Mist robes that he wore flickered for a second as he did it and Nico looked around the classroom frantically in case anyone saw. He only caught sight of that same Slytherin platinum haired boy squinting suspiciously at him. However, this guy seemed to be the only one that was paying any attention to Nico, so he turned back to his potion. He knew exactly what this potion was, and it was the exact reason why Chiron's alchemy class failed.