Nikki's POV
I left when the sun hadn't even started rising. That wasn't really saying much because apparently the sun rises at like 7 am here, then sets at like 7 pm! I looked at the clock as I left the common room, it was like 5 am. I groaned loudly as I started walking out to the lake. I had a full 4 hours until classes started. It's not like I wanted them to start but I figured I might as well get them over with.
I refused to wear those stupid robe this so I was just wearing a black pain of skinny jeans, a dark grey shirt with a black skull on it, and my aviator jacket.
I sat down by the lake, and started thinking about last night. It was stupid. I shouldn't have let them get to me like they did, I mean, I was pretty used to it after 4 years. I guess I was just caught off guard, I was angry to begin with because of that stupid Clovis and my stupid father. Then, to make everything worse I was woken up. You can ask anyone who as ever tried to wake me up and they'll all tell you the same thing: Don't.
So naturally I almost killed them with my soul-sucking swords, then flipped out, then almost killed them with the shadows in my room. I was still super angry and if they had tried to talked to me they probably would have gotten more than a few broken bones, but I had to let it go. Because, well firstly, I couldn't gain their trust if I hated their guts. And secondly, well...
I grabbed the figurine around my neck and lightly brushed my thumb over it, remembering the last words Ben ever told me before choosing rebirth: Holding a grudge is dangerous for a child of Hades. It is our fatal flaw. You must learn to forgive. Promise me this. He whispered. I was such a brat then, I almost killed Percy for Zeus-sake! But I always remembered what Ben had said after that, and I chose to live by it.
"Hey Nikki." A misty voice greeted me. Luna plopped down next to me and squeezed me in a hug- which I didn't return- then continued to look out across the lake, as though nothing happened.
"Hello Luna." I said with a voice of indifference trying to sound as though I hadn't just been thinking about my dead brother. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Well, it's around 7 am, and I saw you on my way to breakfast so I figured I would make you join." She replied, matter-of-factly. I looked out onto the horizon and sure enough the sun was beginning to raise in the distance. Huh, I was out here for two hours?
"You seem deep in thought... or it could just be some nargles in your head." Luna's voice broke me out of my thoughts. I rolled my eyes at her comment.
"Come on, let's go to breakfast." I stood up and started walking up to the castle, not even bothering to see in Luna was following me.
We walked into the Great Hall, and everyone in there turned to stare at me. It probably didn't hep that because of my normal clothes I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was about to blush but then set up my mental barriers and glared on ahead of me. I went to go sit at my tale when I heard a shriek from behind me.
"IT'S THE GHOST KING!! MY LADY PLEASE, DON'T COLLECT OUR SOULS WE BEG OF YOU!!!" I turned to see a ghost, kneeling before me his head bowed. I just looked at him with disgust. I hated ghosts, or any spirits of that matter. They cheated death, they didn't have to pay for their crimes and it infuriated me.
"Ugh. 'The Baron'" I mocked, then I remembered something about his statement "Wait... who's we?" Suddenly as if on cue, around a hundred ghosts floated through the walls and bowed before me. They were all shrieking and crying, and my head felt like it was about to explode.
"SILENCE!" I screamed and all of them went silent immediately, part from the few stifled sobs. I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Με δουλεύεις? (Are you kidding me)" I muttered in Greek , then addressed the ghosts. "We will speak of all of your fates later, begone foul spirits." I told them, repeating what I had said to Peeves. They all looked relieved and started talking over each other again.
"Thank you, my lady"
"We are forever grateful, you highness."
"ALL HAIL THE GHOST KING!"
"I SAID BEGONE!" I shouted at all of them and they disappeared immediately. I turned around and saw everyone was staring at me in horror again, well, except for Luna who was smirking at me. "Fantastico, semplicemente fantastico. (Great, just great or Fantastic, simply fantastic)" I muttered in Italian this time.
I looked at the ground and didn't look up till I sat down at my table. I reached out to grab a piece of fruit or something, but then I saw a pomegranate and winced, jerking my hand back.
I just sat there, the eyes of most of the kids there burning into the back of my head.
Then the owls came. Yes, owls. Hundreds flew in through the windows, landing on the table. I recognized the one that landed in front of me as the one that I had on the train. It placed two letters in front of me.
I opened the first one, which was plain white with a red Hogwarts seal on it, and pulled out the letter.
Dear Miss Di Angelo,
I hope this letter finds you well. As I mentioned yesterday I look forward to working with you in the future, and I was wondering if you could come to my office this Saturday to discus the circumstances of which the Wizarding World is in. I assume my mother, Lady Hecate, has explained most of it to you but I was wondering if we could exchange notes, as one could say. I hope you like it here at Hogwarts. Thank you for agreeing to help us in these dire times.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
I folded the letter up and slid it into my pocket. Yay, this was just what I wanted to spend my weekend doing. Exchanging notes with a weird old guy.
I opened the other letter which was dark black, and pulled out the letter.
Dear Daughter of Hades,
This is an owl. It's what wizards use for communication. I think you should name it Alexander Xavier Mitchell III, but you can name it what ever I supposed.
Sincerely,
Hecate
Goddess of Magic and Witchcraft
I rolled my eyes.
'You know you could have just told me in my mind, right?' I thought
Yes but I haven't used an owl in sooooo long! Hecate whined. So what are you going to name him?
'Notte'
Ugh, fine!
I smiled to myself.
"Hey Notte."I whispered to the owl and pet it. It wasn't too afraid of me so that was good. I gave it a piece of met and it flew back outside. Less people were staring now, there were just some odd glances but over all it was alright. Until someone came up behind me and tried to talk to me.
Hey... Nicole? I-I just wanted to tell you... I'm really really sorry for what happened last night." A voice whispered. I turned around and saw Hermione Granger staring down at me, but avoiding eye contact. I sighed and swallowed my pride. You're on a mission. Remember the Mission. You're on a mission. Remember the mission.
"It's... fine..." I muttered through gritted teeth. Hermione looked a little confused.
"Really? Because I had this whole plan mapped out with a speech and a bunch of gifts and everything!" He exclaimed, sitting next to me.
"Vedo come sei un lascito di Atena. Mi ricordi Annabeth. (I can see how you're legacy of Athena. You remind me of Annabeth) " I chuckled softly.
"Huh?" She asked, looking confused.
"Oh, I just said I wouldn't say no to a bunch of gifts." I lied. Hermione laughed.
"So, you're Italian? That's what you just spoke right? I could tell you still have some of the accent. Where did you live? How long were you there for? Is your whole family Italian?" Hermione started shooting a bunch of questions at me, I just answered as vaguely as I could until she went on a rant about house elf slave labor. How we got into the conversation, I honestly have no idea.
We kept talking till it was time for our first class: Herbology. As we left the hall I discretely dumped some food into the fire praying to Persephone for her to have mercy on me. Well it tunes out, my step-mother doesn't do 'mercy'.
It was one of the worst classes I have ever experienced. When we got there the teacher started talking about puss and stuff, but I wasn't really paying attention, since I was distracted by Tweedledum and Tweedledummer. They kept glaring at me and pointing, I just rolled my eyes and caught Professor Plant's last sentence.
"You all with pair up for this task, choice a partner wisely." I groaned. I was going to have to work alone since I had no friends and everyone thought I was a creepy weirdo.
"Hey Nicole? Could we maybe partner up?" Hermione asked, shyly. I just gaped at her incredulously. She blushed. "Uh, you don't have do, you probably wouldn't just I thought since I didn't have anyone-"
"No, no! That's fine." I said coolly and she beamed.
Well, needless to say Hermione did almost everything. I tried, I promise I did, but we were supposed to squeeze puss outta these things. And, again, I tried but once I got hold of one it screeched and started to wither. I let go quickly and backed up. Hermione offered to do basically all of it and I just stood to the side feeling guilty and hating Persephone.
After that horrible class was one that, somehow, managed to be worse. Care for Magical Creatures.
I followed Hermione to a small hut. We waited a bit then a giant man came out. I shivered, and reached for my sword.
No, child! He's a friendly. Hecate's voice appeared in my mind
'How can he be friendly!? He's a giant! We just a had a Giant war remember!' I shouted back- in my head of course. Plus I had my own experiences with giants.
Yes, yes, but he's only half!
'Great so he's only half murderous and violent wanting to take over the world and kill all mortals and immortals alike' I thought, sarcastically.
Oh really? Think of your father! Think of all the gods really! Are you saying that because you're their child that means your like them? Murders? Rapists? Terrorists? Perverts? Hecate accused then added quietly. Especially that Apollo *shudder* disgusting I could tell she must have had a personal experience with that.
'Fine, Fine I get it.' I mumbled in my head, and pulled my hand away from my pocket reluctantly.
"Mornin'!" The giant exclaimed, happily. I had been forced to follow Hermione to the front, though me and her still were a safe distance away from Harry and Ron. There weren't any students there, Hermione had practically made me sprint over here so it was just us 5.
The giant looked between Hermione and the boys and he frowned, causing his forehead to crease.
"Wass goin' on wi' you three?" He asked, Hermione just huffed and the boys rolled their eyes. I could tell the giant was going to ask again and I didn't want him to know what had happened last night so I broke in.
"Hello, I don't believe we've met. My name is Nicole Di Angelo." I plastered a fake smile on my face, an forced myself to step closer to the giant.
"Huh? Oh. Yea', the exchange student." The giant said then looked me up and down, raising an eyebrow at my clothes then shrugged as though he couldn't care less, then chuckled lightly. "That was some show yer put on earlier." The trio looked at me confused. Thank the gods they hadn't been there for that, they were already suspicious of me.
"Yes. Well, professor, what are we going to learn about today?" I asked trying to change the subject as quickly as possible. The giant's eyes lit up.
"Oh, you can jus' call me Hagrid. And look everyone!" Hagrid pointed to the cages that were rattling as he moved aside. "Blast-Ended Skrewts!"
I almost jumped back in repulsion. They were disgusting. Like deformed slugs, that were grey-pale and slimy. And a bunch of legs angled in weird directions. There were a hundred in each crate, and were giving off a smell of rotting fish and Percy's socks.
"On'y jus' hatched," Said Hagrid, proudly. "so yeh'l be able ter rase 'em yerselfves! Thought w'd make a bit of a project out of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them." A cold voice sneered. I acciedently let my lips form a smile at the comment, he voiced exactly what I was thinking. The Slithering's had arrived along with the rest of the Griffin-doers.
Hagrid looked stumped.
"I mean, like, what do they do?" Malfoy asked. "What is the point of them?" I had to force myself to remain glaring with a frown on my face like Hermione was doing, but it was hard this guy was funny. I shook myself out of it, no he's the enemy!
Hagrid opened and closed his mouth still looking confused. Stupid giants. He looked deep in thought then he just frowned and said roughly, "Tha's next lesson Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll-" But I stopped listening- ADHD. And apparently so did Malfoy, since I saw he was staring at me oddly, out of the corner of my eye.
I let him continue for a few minutes until I noticed he wasn't looking away. I turned and glared at him, making him blush but he returned the glare and stared me right in the eye. It was a couple minutes and he wasn't backing down. Wow, this guy is good. So I decided to death glare him since I was getting bored. I gave him my best death glare and he looked scared for a moment before breaking the eye contact. I smiled and turned back to Hagrid who was still rambling about what to feed the blasty slug thingy things. Then Malfoy started staring at me again. Well not staring just glancing every few seconds but I still didn't like it. And that look on his face.. I couldn't place it... I just mentally shrugged.
Hagrid then gave us frog liver to feed to the slugs. Yes, you heard me right. Frog Liver. It was disgusting. I didn't put my hand in the crates I just threw it in since I knew every form of animal hated me, even these slug things.
A bunch of people were complaining about getting stung and stuff and Hagrid just beamed and started talking excitedly about these things sucking your blood. Malfoy made a smug comment and Hermione yelled at him, I had a feeling this was like an everyday thing.
We went through the rest of class basically everything repeating over and over again. The stings. The excitement. The snarky comment. The retort. It went on like this till the end of class, and I also noticed Malfoy still staring at me weird.
I told Hermione to go on with out me as I pretended to tie my shoe. Malfoy and his goons were the last ones to leave since they were still making stupid comments and laughing. I stood up once I felt his eyes on me again and turned to face to him, to find that he was right behind me and his minions were gone.
"What's wrong with you?" I spat at him. His lips formed a smirk.
"May I ask what you mean by that?" He asked innocently, I rolled my eyes.
"You know what I'm talking about Malfoy. If I see you stare at me like that one more time I will break that stupid looking nose of yours." I growled, but he didn't even flinch, his smirk just grew wider.
"You mean like this?" He questioned, his eyes staring into mine with that same look I could make it out now. It was, hunger, longing... love?
Ha, not happening you little snake.
So I made a split second decision as he started leaning closer, his eyes darting to my lips. I punched him in the solar plexus as hard as I could, which I have to say is pretty hard. He doubled over and started gasping, seeing as I knocked all the wind out of him.
"Next time I'll aim for the face." I snapped at him then turned on my heel and started walking towards the castle. I was about half way there when I heard some one running up behind me.
"Wait!" Malfoy's voice gasped, but I ignored him. Then I felt someone grab my wrist. I responded by grabbing his wrist back then twisting it and flipping him over my shoulder making him land hard in the grass on his back.
"Ow." He squeaked, as I grabbed his neck.
"Don't touch me." I growled then let go and continued walking. Then again I heard him run up behind me. So I reluctantly turned around. "What do you want?!"
"I... wanted... to... a-...pologize.." He panted, his hands on him knees.
"For what? Accusing me of murdering my family? Staring at me? Trying to kiss me? Or touching me?" I glowered at him, my voice practically dripping with sarcasm.
"Um... all of it?" He asked, sheepishly. Then he straightened up. "Look, an we just start over?" I was about to snort and make a sarcastic comment but then Hecate spoke in my head again.
No child, you need to gain as much trust here as possible! And this child's family were Voldemort's closest servants! He could be useful.
Ugh! Are you serious?
No I'm Severus
What?
Nothing just be nice!
Fine.
I reluctantly sighed, then forced a fake smile onto my face.
"Sure. My name's Nicole Di Angelo, nice to meet you." This is so stupid. But it did the trick, Malfoy then beamed at me then extended his hand.
"Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." He said and I forced myself to shake his hand. But he went further, by bending down and kissing my hand. I tried as hard as I could not to gag or punch him.
"Yes, well, we don't want to be late for lunch so..." I hinted, trying make as much space between me and this creep as possible.
"Race you!" He proposed, I rose my eyebrow and smirked.
"You're on."