Nico Di Angelo at Hogwarts (book 1)

Wingardium Leviosa

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.

Hermione's POV

After parting ways with Nico last night, the three of us scrambled into the common room, and collapsed onto the armchairs. I had a thousand thoughts bouncing around in my head, and struggled to focus them as I caught my breath.

"What do you think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron said. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does." Ron's stupid remark brought my anger back to the surface, and I marvelled at how stupid and unobservant he was.

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" I snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads!"

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." I stood up, glaring at them. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." I turned on my heel, and marched up the stairs to my dormitory, still seething. Yet, when I laid down in my bed, staring up at the ceiling, all I could think about was Nico, and the way Peeves had obeyed him.

I was still thinking about it when I woke up, but I couldn't come up with any explanation. At breakfast, I refused to talk to Harry and Ron, although they did seem rather pleased with that. I was hoping that perhaps things would all calm down, that they would forget the three-headed dog, and try not to get into any more trouble. At least Nico seemed as if he was moving on. I looked over at the Slytherin table, and saw him sat there, pushing a piece of bacon around his virtually empty plate, ignoring Malfoy, who appeared to be trying to annoy him. Then, the owls came and dropped a large package in front of Harry, grabbing my attention, along with everybody else in the room. A letter was dropped on top of it, which Harry opened first. He was fighting a grin as he handed it to Ron to read, and the two of them left the Great Hall, without unwrapping the package. Seeing the smug looks on their faces, and Malfoy getting up to follow them out, I knew there would be trouble. So, I did the only thing I could: I followed them out too. Who else would stop them from losing more house points? I reached the door just in time to see Flitwick beaming at Harry, and discussing the package, which, they said, was a Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick. I rolled my eyes and walked around them, climbing the marble staircase. Pausing at the top, I looked around and saw Harry and Ron laughing as they left Malfoy, who was obviously very angry and confused. As they reached the top of the staircase, I heard Harry make a remark about Malfoy indirectly helping him to get on the team, and I had to say something.

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" I called out, frustrated, and looking disapprovingly at the broomstick in Harry's hand.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" Harry retorted.

"Yes, don't stop now," said Ron, "it's doing us so much good." I marched away, indignant. If they weren't going to listen to me, then I wasn't going to waste my time. I made my way up to the common room, and sat down to study, and forget about them.

I spent the next few weeks in and out of the library, searching for accounts of people who could command a poltergeist, or to find some sort of spell that would have allowed Nico to do so. There was nothing. I suppose if there had been, the professors would already have used it to get him out of the way. I saw Nico around a lot too, but I think he started to avoid me after I cornered him one evening in an attempt to interrogate him. He was still hanging out with Harry and Ron though, so he didn't have to try too hard; I was avoiding them myself. Due to all this research, on top of lessons, homework, and extra reading, I had found myself surprised that I had already been at Hogwarts for two months. Our lessons were becoming more and more interesting, and on the morning of Halloween, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that we would be learning the levitation charm. I had been desperate to try this one since I had read about it in preparation for attending Hogwarts; this was all spoiled by the fact that I was forced to work with Ronald Weasley.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practising!" squeaked Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books, as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest." The spell itself wasn't too difficult, and I gave myself ample time to practise the movements and incantations separately, before actually attempting to levitate my feather. On the next table, Seamus got impatient and set fire to his feather, and Harry had to put it out with his hat. Yet, despite setting fire to his feather, he wasn't doing nearly as badly as Ron.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms, like a deranged windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," I snapped." It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled at me.

I rolled up the sleeves of my gown, flicked my wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" I was quite pleased to see the feather rise from the desk and hover about four feet above our heads.

I was even more pleased when Professor Flitwick started clapping, and cried out "Oh, well done! Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!" Suddenly, this lesson didn't seem so bad. That was until the end of the class, when I was packing up my stuff, and overheard Ron speaking with Harry.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly." Tears flooded my eyes as I rushed past the two of them and down the corridor. I knew that they didn't like me, but I thought at least someone would. However, according to Ron, I was entirely disliked, alone. I spent the rest of the day in the girl's lavatories, hoping to avoid everyone, and sneak into my dormitory when everyone else was already asleep. That didn't exactly go to plan...

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it :)

Let me know what you think in the comments,

-GazelleRLG