Old and Young, Inside Out

Chapter 21

The next day, exams were announced. It took all of Nico's strength to not slam his head against his desk. Dominic didn't fight the temptation.

"Mr. Cook, please refrain from hurting yourself in my class." McGonagall swept by, making sure the desk was okay before going back to the front of the room. "The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education. The exams will, therefore, take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."

Nico couldn't stop himself from snorting this time. Yeah, right.

"Is something funny, Mr. Weasley?" she asked, her eyes now glued to him.

Nico held his hands up in surrender. "Nope, sorry, ma'am."

She stared at him for another minute before continuing on with her explanation. "Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible. And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."

"What if the answer to that, is like, nothing?" Dominic asked weakly, causing a few laughs throughout the room. McGonagall looked like she didn't know what to do with him.

"Mr. Cook, do you need me to take points from your house?" she asked. "Hufflepuff can surely live without another ten or so points, which seems so little compared to what you've lost throughout the year."

Nico whistled, sitting back with his hands behind his head. Collectively, they both lost their house another 30 points that day.

But it didn't matter. Nobody in Hufflepuff seemed to care much about the House Cup, knowing they'd never win it. It seemed that Slytherin and Gryffindor were always ahead, too ahead, and acting out in class was just needed sometimes.

That weekend, Nico brought with them to camp as many books on Hogwarts that he could carry. With Hermione down, he was the only one left willing to do research. And now, he was looking for any clue on what wizarding monster could be petrifying his peers.

They arrived on Friday night, appearing in the middle of the dark Hades cabin. Nico dumped his things onto his bed as Dominic looked around, the demigod-wizard still unused to his new role of living.

"Who decorated your cabin?" Dominic asked, opening the curtains of one of the windows to reveal the stupid face of none other than Percy Jackson. After a yelp of surprise and a jump of shock, Dominic watched as Nico stormed out of the cabin.

"Why were you spying on my cabin, Jackson?!" he heard. "Why are you even at camp! Why were you at my window like a fucking stalker?! Why...why... Ugh! You're so infuriating!"

Dominic looked out the window to find Percy standing there with a grin as if he didn't regret anything. "I found out what time you usually get here and was checking to see if you were back or not."

"You couldn't even see in the window!" Nico's hands were flying about in gestures. With his anger, all his accents tangled up and mixed, making his words almost illegible. "So what were you doing?! Listening?!"

"Well, yeah!" Percy retorted. "How else was I supposed to see if you were back?!"

"Knock on the door!" Nico gestured to the large door that stood at the front of the Hades cabin. "Gods, you call yourself an adult?!"

"Um..." Dominic peeked his head out of the window. "This is Percy Jackson? The Percy Jackson? This is the guy you had a crush on?"

"You aren't any better," Nico retorted. "Allyson barely comes out of her dorm nowadays, let alone talks to you."

"Uh...you guys? You're making a scene." Annabeth was suddenly at their sides, drawing their attention to the crowd of demigods. She flicked Percy in the forehead before hugging Nico. "It's good to see you."