You Are My Sunshine (Solangelo @ Hogwarts)

10 Easy Steps to Break The Ice With Your Friendly Neighborhood Ghost King

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a God and an Italian, dropped in the middle of a forgotten, timeless Casino, by providence impoverished, in squallor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

I'm not proud of that

Will's POV (OHO, WHAT A DEVELOPMENT)

I miss Neeks. A huge freaking amount. I haven't seen him since our Iris message got cut short earlier, but fortunately, I'll be seeing him in a few days! Dad dropped by yesterday and informed me that Nico is having trouble handling his new powers.

I'm angry at him for not taking care of himself... but... THIS MEANS I GET TO SEE HIM AGAIN. So I'm not too peeved.

I've got about ten days until I leave, but it's never too early to be packed, right?

♧♧♧♧♧♧AHA A DOUBLE UPDATE TO APOLOGIZE FOR MY HIATUS♧♧♧♧♧♧

Nico's POV

I wake up from my nap feeling quite a bit better than I was. I mean, I didn't sleep last night, and fighting takes a lot out of you. Harry and Ron are sitting on their respective beds; Harry's reading and Ron's playing with a miniature broom.

"Oh Nico, mate, you're awake!" Ron cheers. "Dinner's in 10 minutes and we were planning on going down with you, but I was getting hungry. C'mon!"

I nod and get up. Following Harry and Ron out of our dorm, I contemplate how they would react if I revealed who I was. They're being pretty nice to me, even if they suspect me of being evil. It seems kinda rude of me, keeping all of my secrets to myself. However, I don't know much about them that they haven't told me...

We sit down at dinner, with Hermione joining us, and I turn to Ron. "So... what is your family like?"

"Ver rul nois," Ron says, his mouth full of potato. "Ut veree bug."

What the quiznak? "Could you repeat that?"

He swallows (somehow). "They're really nice, but very big. I have 6 siblings. As you can guess, it's hard on my parents to provide for us all."

Harry joins in now. "My parents are dead, and I live with my awful aunt and uncle and my spoiled cousin. Mrs. Weasley is like a mother to me."

"My parents are muggle dentists," Hermione says. "They don't really understand my world, but I love them anyway. What about you, Nico? What's your family like?"

Where to begin?

"My father is a... powerful but scary man who's very distant, and my stepmother hates me. My real mother and sister are both dead, and I have a half sister whom I love very much. I have a lot of cousins, and I live with them and my sister. I don't really have a parental figure, but I guess my old headmaster fits the role well enough."

The Trio all look at me sympathetically.

"It's all good. I actually started to talk about this because I want to get to know you guys better. So... What's the story with y'all? I've heard some stuff and I know Cedric died, but I don't know the whole story."

I sat back and listened to the story of their adventures in the previous years, getting quite interested in the dementors. Like thestrals, they're creatures of the Underworld, but unlike the latter they aren't exactly friendly. Most of them carry grudges against demigods, especially children of Hades.

I wish I was here last year... I could have nipped the Voldemort problem in the bud.

Harry interrupts my musings. "What's your story, Nico?"

I recoil a little and answer the only way I can. "I can't tell you yet. Bad memories."

Hermione nods. "Okay."

I hope I'll be able to tell them eventually.

Harry's POV

I ended up falling asleep too fast to watch if Nico went anywhere last night, but tonight I will. He's a pretty decent guy, but I have to know that he's good beyond a shadow of a doubt.