Babysitting Hogwarts {Book 1}

The End

Will

"And then he disappeared." Harry finished explaining what had happened in the Ministry to Hermione and Ron. We were in the common room. The eleven of us students who were there got the day off and we were relaxing and enjoying the break. 

"Wow Harry. You must have been very brave," Hermione said.

Yeah brave, like Nico. I turned away from the group. He had leapt into the archway without thinking. The voices were from the other side, and I doubt even a child of Hades could survive that. During the battle, I had to ignore what I was feeling and protect Harry. But now that it was over, the emotions were crushing down on me. 

Nico was-

"Hi." 

Impossible. 

I turned to the portrait hole to see him standing there, arms outstretched. I ran over to him and hugged him. He squeezed back. 

"Oh Neeks. I thought," I whispered in his ear, my eyes misting. "I thought you were dead." 

"It's going to take a lot more than that to kill me," I felt him chuckle. I pulled away and slapped his face. He looked up at me, shocked.

"Well make sure it never happens again!" Then I hugged him again. He laughed. I turned around to see Harry, Percy and Annabeth standing. 

"Nico!" Percy gasped. Nico smiled sadly. He was looking at Harry, who was looking hopeful at Nico's appearance. 

"Nico, if you- Sirius -" Harry stuttered.

"I'm sorry Harry. I thought I could-" He paused. "I thought I could do something, but Sirius is gone." The hope drained from Harry's face and he nodded. He must have expected that. 

"Well, who's hungry?" Ron asked, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm sure the feast is starting soon."

"Let's go then," Harry grinned. But I knew that smile. I had seen it on all the demigod's faces. It was the smile that was hiding the pain. He had just lost the only family he had, and now he had to go on with life as if nothing had happened. 

"I'll catch up with you," Hermione called to us as we left the common room. 

Hermione

I was about to break a bajillion rules, but I had to get to the bottom of these secrets and lies. I grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak from his room and snuck out of the common room. While everyone was down at the End-Of-Year Feast, I was going to sneak into the restricted section. Percy didn't want to tell me what he was hiding, so I was going to find out on my own. It wasn't that I wanted to be mean, or evil. 

I was very curious, and it usually gets the best of me. I slipped past the librarian - who never leaves the library - and into the restricted section. I headed to where I was last time. I had found The Lightning Theif (which I had taken back and put into my trunk) in the same place, so surely there was some books that were similar. 

Bingo.

There was an entire series. Sea of Monsters, Titians Curse, Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. There was some more (an entire other series called Hero's of Olympus) so I took those as well. 

I was going to be busy these holidays.

Will

On our way down to the hall, Nico pulled me into an empty classroom. 

"Nico?" I asked. 

"The archway," he whispered. "It's a one way ticket to the underworld. I leapt in, I wasn't thinking. I hurt you, I made you worry..." He trailed off and I realised he was crying. I pulled him into a hug. 

"Oh Neeks, I don't care about that. You're back and you're okay. That's all that matters." I said, but pulled away. "Why did you do it?" I asked urgently. 

"Because Sirius was the only family Harry had left. I couldn't let him die. I tried persuading my father - turns out I was zapped back to our time when I went through. He couldn't do anything about it. Sirius had been dead for twenty years. Even Hecate said that it would cause a paradox." Nico explained. 

"Well, it's okay. We'll make sure that Harry is okay," I soothed and then dragged him back outside. "I'm starving Nico! Let's go!" Nico giggled and we ran down to the hall. 

There was noise and bright lights in the hall. Hermione joined us at the table as we celebrated the end of the year. 

I guess it was finally over. 

Hogwarts was safe for now, so as we laughed, I celebrated the time that we could finally spend back home. At camp. 

I was getting tired of babysitting, so it was about time we went back.