Percy and Nico Undercover at Hogwarts

Chapter Thirty One

Nico's POV

The campfire was a normal one. We were singing songs and the flames were burning a bright yellow. We were leaving tomorrow morning for Hogwarts, and I was dreading it. We were getting there a two days before school started back up so we could, and I quote, "have bonding time with the wizards." Sometimes Apollo was really annoying. I didn't want to go back on a stressful quest that is full of challenges that will probably get Percy killed.

"Percy!" Leo called from a few seats away. "Open and catch!" He tossed a toasted marshmallow at him. Percy opened his mouth to catch it, but because of Leo's bad aim, it hit me in the face.

Leo, Piper, Percy and whoever else was watching started laughing and I just sat there in confusion.

"How did you miss that badly?" I demanded and Leo shrugged and went back to his conversation with Piper who looked oddly happy. They've been acting weird this past week, but then again, they are always weird.

Percy looked at me and kept laughing. He took the marshmallow that was stuck on my cheek and ate it. I gave him an odd look.

"What? It was a perfectly good marshmallow and it was meant for me anyways."

"You're a freak."

"Well, if I wasn't a freak I wouldn't be able to do this." He swished his wrist and a small ball of water appeared and he started rubbing it on my cheek to get the rest of the marshmallow off.

"This feels so weird," I said and he chuckled. The ball was almost solidified into a solid shape.

"Of course it feels weird, I'm cleaning your face with water without using a wash cloth." After a few moments, he removed it from my cheek. "There, your face is nice and clean." He then threw the ball of water into the dirt and it disappeared into a wet patch.

"Thank you." 

"You're welcome."

Percy and I sat in comfortable silent for a few minutes, listening to the Apollo Cabin lead the sing along, but it was only them singing as everyone else had started conversations.

I broke the silence between us.

"We need to talk about the quest," I told him and he nodded and stood up, heading to the cabins. This was a normal thing for us. We normally left the campfire early so we could talk about everything that's happened and everythings that's going to happened on the quest. After a few minutes, we made it to my cabin. Percy pulled himself onto the top bunk, ignoring the ladder, and I went and sat on the bottom.

Percy had been coming over to my cabin a lot so we could talk about the quest. He normally stays pretty late. He's also claimed my top bunk as his own, but I was fine with that. I thought it was actually pretty cute how he was so comfortable in here. Anyone other than myself, including Hazel, always felt unwelcomed and just weird whenever they would come into the cabin. Percy felt weird, but after an hour or two the weridness went away. Now he considered it his cabin too.

We don't really hangout in the Poseidon Cabin. I don't like it. Whenever I entered it, I would get a sudden pang of terror. It was basically Poseidon saying, 'Get out of my cabin!' So, I don't go in there anymore.

"What did you want to talk about?" Percy asked and I shrugged even though he could see it. "You just shrugged, didn't you?" I nodded. "I thought so."

"What about the challenges?" I asked. This was our main topic of conversation.

"I don't know. Apollo will probably tell us later on. It can't be that hard. The others weren't that bad."

I gave the bed above me a dumbfounded look that Percy couldn't see. "Are you forgetting the fact that you were almost slaughtered by a dragon? You could've died." I felt the bed move and then saw Percy hanging his head over the railing, looking at me. He seemed slightly offended.

"Might I remind you that I couldn't use a Celestial Bronze sword? It's not my fault. Anyways, you would've saved me. I have faith in that." He watched me nod in agreement with what he said.

"If Apollo wasn't there I would've thrown you into the lake. I don't care if the wizards would've found out about us." Percy smiled.

"I love you too, Nico," Percy said and I blushed. I knew he meant it in a friendly/brotherly way, but still. I changed the subject.

"Apollo is a lot better of a teacher than I thought he would be." Percy pulled his head from other the railing, causing the bed to move again and he laid back down.

"He actually isn't that bad. He's the best teacher I've ever had, other than Paul."

"What do you think his class is going to be about this semester?" I asked and I felt the bed move slightly, which meant that Percy shrugged.

"I don't know, probably just more spells."

"Do you think we'll get to keep our wands once the quest is over?" The bed moved slightly again.

There was a tap tap tap sound and I got off my bed, looking for the source of the noise.

"It's the window," Percy said and I went to open up the window. There was only one and it was quite small. Both Mr. Birdy and Wise Girl were there and flew in the moment they were able to.

"Hey fella," I said as I took the envelope from his beak. Percy sat up and did the same with his owl.

It was from Hogwarts.

Percy got his opened before I did. "It's our timetables for this semester." Perce hopped off his bunk and compared his to mine. "We have the same schedule again," he said, smiling which made me smile too.

"We have two new classes. Care of Magical Creatures and Divination," I said and Percy nodded.

"Which means we don't have two of the classes from last semester which are...Herbology, which is good because every plant died the moment you touched them and...Muggle Studies, which is amazing because I don't want to listen to a teacher talk about how use a claw-machine for thirty minutes." I chuckled. Percy was being dead serious. He almost went crazy during that class.

"I would rather have Muggle Studies than Potions. Snape is a dick."

"I know, I hate him! Him and all his little snakes."

"Especially Draco. I understand why Harry and all them hate him."

"Yeah, remember his dragon?" Percy asked and I nodded. "I overheard him telling his friends that his dad paid one of the people who take care of them to give it a sleeping potion."

"That cheater! I'm going to punch him when I see him again!" Percy chuckled and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"No, you're not. You don't want Snape to give you detention." I groaned. Snape's detentions were the worst. I got one because I accidently put too much of something in a potion and caused it to explode, and I had to clean out all of his cauldrons, and there were about thirty. It took my three hours.

"Whatever, now I need to go to bed if I'm traveling us across continents tomorrow."

"Okay, night," Percy said and gave me a slight hug before walking out of the cabin with his owl on his shoulder.