Sliver Of Shadow

Peace, Shattered To Pieces

Mesperyian glowered down at the trembling Death Eaters cowering at her feet.

"I gave you one task." She whispered, her gravelly voice carrying promises of unimaginable violence. "One miserable task. And you failed."

"P-please," whimpered one of the younger recruits, "James and Lily - we were caught by surprise. We -"

"Silence!" Mesperyian slashed her hand forward, black shadows springing to life and slitting the man's throat. He immediately slumped to the floor; dead. "You failed, plain and simple. Now," She smiled, a deadly glint in her eyes, "I can't let that go unpunished, can I?" Not waiting for a reaction, the goddess stepped out, slamming the heavy dungeon doors closed behind her.

Mesperyian twitched her fingers.

The sudden symphony of screams was music to her ears.
~

Nico wasn't sure whether or not to laugh or cringe as Harry stormed out of Madam Puddifoot's shop, red as a tomato and streaming pink confetti behind him.

The guy really needed to work on his relationship skills.

It was Valentine's day today - a month after his winter break fiasco. Surprisingly, Harry's utter failure on his date with Cho had been the most interesting thing Nico had seen since the beginning of the new year. One might've thought he'd welcome the change after all the schist that the last year had put him through, but frankly - without Mesperyian and Voldemort ruining his life - Hogwarts had been seriously boring.

Umbridge was a (censored), his possessed wand kept trying to eat him, monsters beat him into a pulp every day… same old, same old.

(Even manipulating the Mist into keeping the wizards from noticing Leo and Calypso's disappearance had been ridiculously easy with Hecate's help... - the wizards might've been superior to mortals, but even they were still just as gullible to their mistress's illusions as any other sentient being would be.)

So nothing was happening, and that was what worried Nico most of all.

His instincts (and the three old ladies weaving socks in his nightmares) kept telling him that disaster was looming on the horizon. The only question was, then, how much would it cost? His life?

That would probably be the most merciful.

Nico unconsciously trailed after Harry, lost in his morbid imaginings. He didn't even notice where he was going until he nearly slammed into the doorframe of a pub in Hogsmeade called the "Three Broomsticks". Wonderful. More people.

Or in other words, social interaction.

Cursing, but with no other way to get out of the rain, he ducked inside and shook the wet hair out of his eyes, looking around. Various students and teachers from Hogwarts milled about, laughing and chatting; a few seventh years dumping butterbeer all over each other. Hagrid was sitting with Harry in a corner, morosely drinking from a large tankard. Nico saw that he had two fresh cuts on his face and several new bruises.

Well, if he was going to go looking for trouble today…

Squeezing through the cramped tables, he pulled up a chair beside them as Hagrid said, "Makes a diff'rence, havin' a decent family," he jerked his head towards Nico, drunkenly unsurprised at his arrival, "Me dad was decent. An' your mum an' dad were decent. If they'd lived, life woulda bin diff'rent, eh?"

Nico didn't feel like thinking about his dead family. That was a mental crisis locked away deep, deep within his mind, and going there never ended well. Scowling, he stayed silent.

"Yeah… I s'pose," said Harry cautiously, not yet noticing the dark teen sitting next to him.

Hagrid seemed to be in a very strange mood, as he continuing gloomily. "Family. Whatever yeh say, blood's important..."