Young and Old, Back and Bold

Chapter 13

Annabeth spent ten minutes assuring Will that they would go to this castle immediately, then spent another ten asking Chiron to talk to his old friend. By the time she left that bathroom, she had a game plan and some money to get them to this wizarding school.

Nico...why would they send him to a school for wizards in the first place? Was he...on his mother's side...?

Why had he just left without saying anything? All Will said was that he was found, that a daughter of Hecate from Camp Jupiter had reported him. If it really was him, why hadn't he IMed them? Why hadn't he said goodbye?

She was going to kick his ass when she got there.

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It was the next night when Hecate blessed them, assured them that they'd have powers as long as they helped a boy named Harry Potter. They agreed, and Percy couldn't help but question her about Nico. She left, then. She didn't say a word.

But she did admit it was her first time blessing someone. So that meant if Nico really was at this school, wizarding was in his blood.

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Nico was in that forest for hours, screaming at the top of his lungs. He screeched and wailed, punched trees and let that agony out. He could see the shadows responding to him, could see the way they moved about. They listened.

His fists started to bleed from the rough bark, his knuckles cracked and broke. He kept punching on. His throat stung and remained raw, he voice disappeared. He kept screaming on.

After hours, when the moon took the place of the sun, he collapsed on the ground in utter exhaustion.

The shadows still listened to him. They fretted about, danced in the moonlight that shown through the canopy of trees. He found comfort in that darkness. It was a different kind of darkness than that place in his dreams, a better kind of darkness. It reminded him of home.

Home... What was his home? Maybe it was those shadows, maybe it was the darkness itself.

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Dominic laid awake that night and stared at the ceiling above him, his blue eyes focusing on the different spots and cracks of the castle. It was an amazing structure, a place he had always dreamed about seeing. It was easy to stay awake when he needed to.

The moonlight shone in through the window, illuminating Nico's empty bed. His covers were thrown aside, one of his blankets laid on the floor. A pair of socks and boots were stuffed down the side of the mattress, the odd habit having become more important in Dominic's mind as the nights went on. Why was Nico always so prepared to leave?

He never thought he'd find a castle to be his home, but Dominic couldn't stop the thoughts any longer. He was home, free of the shack he grew up in. But was he really? It still haunted his dreams from time to time.

Maybe that's how Nico felt, maybe that's why Dominic had been so drawn to him. He could never be sure, and before he could begin to make up his mind about it, Nico crept into the room with movements too slow to be normal.

"Nico..." Dominic sat up in his bed, keeping his voice low to not wake the others. "Where were you?"

Nico sat beside Dominic on the bed, his tired eyes staring at his feet. "I went to go release some stuff...sorry for just running off..."

"It's okay." Dominic glanced over at him. "So...are you okay?"

Nico nodded. "I feel better."

"That's good."

Nico shrugged. "I guess. I still don't understand a lot. But...but it's better. I can control more, now. I like that."

Dominic froze when he saw Nico's fists. "Who did you kill? Did you hide the body good? If you didn't we need to get a sheet and-"

Nico's cold gaze broke as a chuckle escaped his mouth. "Oh my god, no, I didn't kill anyone."

Dominic smiled sheepishly. "Oh...okay... Good. Then who did you hurt?"

"No one. I punched some trees." Nico rubbed his knuckles as a wince of pain escaped over his face, though the pain was nothing compared to what he had felt...down there. "To get the anger out, you know?"

Dominic nodded as he reached for his wand. "We should get the blood off and stuff. Then you should sleep. It's late."

Nico let him whisk away the blood before he went to his own bed and collapsed onto the covers. His blanket was still on the floor but nothing inside him gave him the will to pick it up. "Goodnight."

"Night." Dominic put his wand away before also laying down, his eyes once again meeting that ceiling, the ceiling that was worth more than Dominic's whole house had been.

They both fell asleep relatively soon, exhaustion playing a key role in Nico's unconsciousness. And that exhaustion, he was sure of it, was the reason he didn't have nightmares that night. It was the only reason he went back to that forest the next day.