Running (Harry Potter/ Nico Di Angelo)

Running.

Nico didn't stick around long when the war was over. He'd gone through too much already and was tired of pity from others. He just did what he could during the wars. At least, that's what he told himself.

Will was his reason to stay at first. Turns out the golden boy tended to forget about the younger man in the shadows. Nico knew that people forgot him, he'd lived with it most of his life. It just always stung when the people closest to him forgot too. Will eventually saw what he was doing, or saw the backside on the new member of the Demeter cabin, and broke things off between them. It was a lovely 16th birthday gift.

With that dissipated, Nico said a quick see you later to his friends and disappeared. The seven wondered about him for the first few weeks or so, but then the numbers dwindled until it was just Hazel keeping him in her occasional thoughts.

And so he traveled. Anywhere he felt like going he just went. Except he wasn't excited about it. The whole time he was looking over his shoulder, waiting for another attack from some unknown foe. He even occasionally attacked monsters that weren't there- stabbing trees, buildings, and getting way too close to hitting mortals.

He made sure to never get close to the underworld. Nico got plenty of messages and warnings to go back but he wouldn't. Not yet. He didn't want to face the evils that lived there- the evil that still lived in him. So he stuck to the surface.

Nico wasn't much of a sightseer, really. The places were pretty, sure. Did he still sometimes end up in the wrong spot? Of course. He didn't talk to the people at all. That was until he started having episodes.

Almost all the demigods had developed PTSD between the two wars. Some, like Percy and Annabeth,  only experienced things such as vivid memories in their dreams and slight paranoia while awake. Nico wasn't so lucky.

Added to his mild to extreme paranoia, he also started to have what he called episodes. In these fits of delusion, he relived some of his most horrendous memories. But instead of dreaming them up, they actually played out in front of him. And instead of the people being fake, he saw the faces of those in his memories on the people around him. This led to many people killed, plenty of cities arresting him, many states outlawing him, and several countries banning him. He felt guilty about it, definitely, but he simply couldn't control himself.

One episode of his was extreme. It happened in the middle of London, about a year after he left Camp, and the memory was of his effort in the final battle against Kronos.

All of a sudden the people of the crowd he was wading through slowly changed. He didn't notice at first, he never did, and only saw that when there was a giantess in his face, ready to stomp him under her giant stilettos. It was all flooding back to him- he struck the ground with his recently drawn sword and called forth an army of the dead to help fight Kronos's army. Then he slashed at the giantess, chopping off her toes bit by bit.

While Nico was seeing this, the mortals around him screamed as undead warriors attacked them. They all ran for cover except for one man, who ran towards Nico bravely with only a stick to defend himself with.

Nico was so busy hacking and slashing that he didn't notice the man  cast some foreign magic on him. He collapsed on the ground and started to cry as reality came flooding back to him- so many people dead. So many kids stolen before their time. So many parents left grieving while still not understanding what it was their child died for.

The man cast another curse, which rendered Nico unconscious, and picked him up effortlessly. He carried Nico's limp over his shoulder through the empty streets until he came to a pub. The people inside didn't even question him as he went to the back and entered the magical place known as Diagon Alley.