Nico di Angelo and His (Mis)Fortunes at Hogwarts

Fighting Madness and Boggarts

This had probably been done to Thanatos, but I wanted to do my own little interpretation of what Nico would find the most hurtful and frightening. Also, the spells and Nico's thoughts will be in italics. I trust that you can tell the difference between Nico's thoughts and spells. Enjoy!

Fighting Madness and Boggarts

Nico's POV

"... And today we will have a lesson on Boggarts!" Professor Lupin said with a flourish.

Oh crap, I thought.

"Now does anyone know what a boggart looks like?" He asked. I reluctantly raised my hand. "Yes, Hermione?"

"Nobody knows. Boggarts are shapeshifters. They take the shape of whatever a particular person fears the most." Granger explained, " That's what makes them so-"

"-so terrifying." Lupin interrupted, "Luckily, a very simple charm exists to repel a boggart." The cupboard shook. Lupin stared at it for a moment. "Let's practice it now." He turned back to face us. "Without your wands, please. After me, riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus." The class chanted.

"A little louder, nice and clear. Listen, riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!"

"Very good. Well, so much for the easy part. See, the incantation alone is not enough. What really finishes a boggart is laughter." At this point, I stopped paying attention. Longbottom forced Sev (he's a friend, okay? Well, half-brother, but you know gods) to wear his grandmother's clothes and we all formed a line to take it in turns to tackle the boggart. I was before Potter, which made me, unfortunately, only third in line. I snapped back to attention as Professor Lupin called my name.

My boggart turned out to be well, a lot of people. There was a bit of milling before Father stepped out of the crowd, and I don't know how, but I suddenly caught myself bowing to him. "You are such a disappointment." He sneered, "It would have been much better if Bianca had survived. She would have been much better than you." I stepped backward slightly. I knew that Father had found me disappointing and pathetic but hearing it directly made it so much worse.

Then Bianca stepped forward next to Father, "You could have saved me!" she yelled, "You could have saved me like you saved Hazel, but you were too wrapped up in yourself to do anything! Then, you got a replacement sister! Well, she doesn't think much of you anymore."

And Hazel stepped forward, "I can't believe I'm related to such a let down as you," she sneered.

I regained my voice, "You're my sister. I love you."

"Don't say anything!" Hazel snarled, "Bianca told me everything. How she abandoned you because you were such a whiny brat, how you dragged her down, how you abandoned her in her time of need, how you weren't even useful, and most of all HOW IT FELT TO BE CRUSHED TO DEATH BY A FIFTY FOOT MECHANICAL TITAN!" I buried my face in my hands, tears streaming down. That's right, I'm useless, a waste of space.

"Of course you couldn't do anything remotely good." a voice joined theirs.

It couldn't be, "Percy," I breathed, looking up. There he was, in all his glory.

"When I found you, you were just a kid, obsessed with Mythomagic cards and figurines. Well, guess what? That obsession got your sister killed. Honestly, you were so pathetic, when you got your Ghost King title, I was so shocked, I almost said yes to immortality in my daze." He sneered. Behind me, someone whimpered and I realised that they heard all that.

"That's right, you don't deserve Percy." Gods, Annabeth, "You almost drove him to do something akin to committing suicide to him. Honestly." she huffed.

"No, you're wrong." That's not Annabeth, I thought, curling up into a ball. It's the boggart. Yes, that's right; it's the boggart.

"No, I'm right, Hades spawn."

"No! You're wrong. It's not like that - it was never like that!"

"Oh?" A different voice asked curiously. "Really? You never believed that for a second?"

A hand descended into my view and lifted my face up. I paled. It was me.

The not-Nico had an insane glint in his eyes and a maniacal grin on his face.

"What?" I breathed.

"Poor, poor Nico," He crooned, "doesn't even realise what's going on. I guess you're so used to being our Father's lapdog that you can't think for yourself anymore. Don't you realise? No," He paused, "you must. You're just ignoring it! Oh, this is so sweet. Poor Nico. Not even daring to think about it. You know that the madness eventually claims everyone."

Not-Nico dragged me up with him. "Look at me!" He gestured grandly, "This is who I am! This is who you are. Why do you fight it? It is quite freeing I assure you."

"No." I shook my head. "You can't be real. Madness would not bargain, or bride, or sweet-talk. Madness would chain me at its feet until I broke. GAIA COULDN'T BREAK ME, AND YOU MOST CERTAINLY CAN'T!" I screamed jumping yo my feet and whipping out my wand, "RIDDIKULUS!"

Abruptly he turned into a decrepit skeleton half-sitting on the ground which quickly turned to dust which was swept away by the wind, back into the cupboard.

"Di Angelo?" Professor Lupin asked me quietly.

"Shut up, lycanthrope." I hissed, too quiet for the other students to hear. "I just want to be alone."

"Okay," he nodded quietly. "Go back to my office, you should know where that is, right?"

"No, but I'll get one of the ghosts to tell me," I said with a bit of a watery smile.

Lupin smiled at me, "And I won't ask how."

How was that? Good? Bad? Let me know!

EDIT 26/2/2017: A slight change to add in Nico's fear of the madness that runs in the blood of children of Hades. A prime example that was mentioned in PJO was Adolf Hitler.