Solace of Slytherin; a grandson of Voldemort Story

Keep your friends close, and annoying kids closer

A/n: hey guys! Back with another one! Please comment on the chapters, I love reading them.

Hermione knew her sleep wasn't adequate to proper decision making, but so what? Yesterday was hectic and left too many variables into play. Her annual plan of keeping her boys alive, and more importantly passing their subjects, has become compromised early. And the thought that kids their age were most likely being kept against their consent didn't exactly sit well with her either.

So she was now here, early at 5 o'clock whereas the whole house would be awake around 8. Careful not to make a sound even after casting an extra muffliato charm around herself. She crept towards Ron and Harry's room, prepared to have to cast even more charms just to wake the two up without waking the entire neighborhood.

Instead, she found Ron staring blankly at the ceiling and Harry holding him close like a teddy bear in his sleep.
"Not a word Hermione-"
"Pfft-"
"I'm serious, and please help, Harry hasn't been letting me breath since 10 minutes ago."

So after waking a very flustered Harry up, casting a strong muffliato charm on all three of them, the trio descended the house and found themselves in the very door that's plagued Hermione all night. She couldn't hear any pained breathing, which was good, then again she couldn't hear any breathing at all, which was bad.

Even after all these years the adrenaline rush that came with breaking rules still left a thrill in her, and she'd die before she said anything of it to the boys. She tried to shake the anxiety out of her hands and just made them shake even more. She watched as Ron reached towards the doorknob, wand at the ready and looking like he might bolt if Harry and Hermione weren't right behind him. Slowly, ever so slowly, the room came into view.

The room itself was a vast one, but the amount of clutter in it made it seem more cramped then it actually was. Hermione was sure that a huge portion of it consisted of dark magic relics that she wouldn't touch with a meter long stick. And near the middle of it, three slumped figures who weren't even tied up with rope, not that Hermione would have been comfortable with that either, mind you.

The trio almost jumped out of their skins, and Hermione had to stop Ron from shouting expletives, when one of the three figures suddenly sat up. His face no longer hidden by inky black hair, his body seeming less weak then just a night before.

The boy with skin like death stared at them with dark eyes, he gazed at the three of them warily, shifting his body slightly for comfort. His boots digging through the thick layer of dust that coated the floor.
"I already told you guys, we don't know anything about Voldemort."

Hermione leveled him with her sharpest glare, the one that usually had others backing away unless they wanted to be left looking like blubbering idiots. "Voldemort or not, we still have a lot of question to ask you, Will Solace."

The boy only looked unimpressed.

"Well, first day of class taught me to always start with an introduction to be polite, my name is Nicolo Levesque." He held out a hand to her, and when she didn't reciprocate he only shrugged and muttered a soft 'rude' that was loud enough for only her to hear.

She doesn't let the embarrassment color her face, but Hermione decided he's talked enough.

"Listen, Nicolo, if you're not Will Solace then you were probably with him for even a bit. The tracing we did wouldn't have led us to you three if that were the case, we know he's a boy so it can't be that girl you're with, and it can't possibly be the blondie so obvi-"

"It's the blondie."
Hermione's mouth snapped shut, then opened again.
"You could be lying."

"And you probably aren't as smart as you think you are, we already told this to the other three people who we saw yesterday. With all that trouble they went through just to get that information, especially with that sick truth potion, you would think they would brief you on it that day, wouldn't they?" His eyes narrowed before quickly looking down at the floor, preferring to instead grimace at the scum at the bottom of his boot. "If not, then that would mean you three aren't supposed to be here to begin with, and the adults are keeping you away from this."

He looked at them square on, face in a strange mix of sneer and squint.
"You could get in big trouble for this, I wonder if that means anything to you hoodlums."

Ridiculous face or not, the words left Hermione without air in her lungs. She could feel her hands shaking, from fear or rage she didn't know, just that a smaller hand than hers grasped one of them in an attempt to comfort, and a larger one wrapped around another to make sure she didn't do anything drastic. Which was a fair assumption, when words failed she's learned that a punch would make a mighty good substitute. Especially if she could punch the kid's face, which wasn't even turned to them anymore.

"Oh, I see where this is going to go, just punch a kid your age after he was kidnapped and kept in a dingy basement under a dingier house-"

Before she could fire back with the vocabulary Ronald was so fond of, his hand left hers and instead rests on the bo-Nicolo's shoulder.
"Listen we don't want to fight you, we definitely don't want to be your enemies either. But we can't let you go or else someone's going to get in trouble, so how about we compromise?" His voice was getting deeper with age, and he almost sounded like wise soothing advice giver if Hermione knew the amount of pubescent cracks it has (and still does) suffer from. But it did it's job of loosening Nicolo's tense shoulders and making him interested. (Or at least appear so, he still wasn't looking at them)

"You don't tell the adults about this little early morning meet-up, and we'll put in a word for you that will get you out of this basement faster than if you did tell on us," Ron proposed despite the lack of response. Nicolo curled deeper into himself.

"Swear on the River Styx."
Before Hermione could stop him, Ron already did, and she wondered if it was just the draft that caused all her arm hairs to raise. The name sounded familiar, and with the amount of dangerous materials she's researched for the sake of survival, that can only mean bad things.

Still, instead of dramatically flinging away his closed of demeanor to smugly explain his evil plan while manically laughing over them, he simply peeked his eyes out and watched them leave one by one, Hermione being the last and only one to see his eyes look lost in sad contemplation.

Maybe she should have been gentler, but she'll be better next time, it wouldn't do well to antagonize kids her age who could very well end up being with or against Voldemort. And in the off chance that they might be allies, she should keep a closer eye on them.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Achoo!"
"Well that went well."
"You think?"

Nico rubbed his nose as the two sleeping (read:eavesdropping) figures beside him stood up, looking reasonably shocked at his handling of, well, THAT.

"Might I remind you that getting punched after passing out 3 times yesterday is not shining a bright light on your well-being for this entire quest?" Will reprimanded, using the bottom of his shirt to wipe the running snot that was dripping from Nico's nose.

"It was one way I could goad them into letting us out, the girl would have just relentlessly bullied us for answers. She seemed like the type," he smiled as memories of blonde hair and a terrifying interrogation voice flashed through his mind, but the frazzled girl clearly didn't have the street smarts needed to outsmart him. Her with the redhead however-

"The freckled guy and the frizzy haired girl could be a problem together. They remind me of some duos back at camp," Will said exactly what the three of them had in mind. Hazel's head languidly stretched until a soft crack could be heard from her head, "so, Ron the Knight, Hermione the Rook, and how does the scrawny kid factor into this?"

The three shared a look, "Harry the Bishop" they said simultaneously. Nico wondered what the titles meant while scratching the shadow's neck(?), but if the way Kreature screeched them was any indication, something good.

Oh right, Kreature-
Nico thought back to yesterday, how the house elf was jumping in joy as the ground collapsed and emitted a sickly green light. How the wisps of spirits put a whimsical look into his face. Lastly, hesitant confusion before the soul-crushing scream he emitted when none of them rushed forward as Regulus Black.

Nico couldn't feel the overwhelming dread that oath breakers were said to feel when invoking the wrath of the River Styx, which means that there was still some way to fulfill their promise to Kreature. Who knows? Perhaps he was alive but stuck someplace where even a popping elf couldn't get to.

His musings were interrupted by a Hazel clearing her throat loudly, more to catch his attention then actually clear it out.

"So, why my last name? Is this going to be another espionage mission of yours?"