Please welcome the Ghost king, Nico di Angelo, at Hogwarts

Chapter 3

The Summer ended rather slowly, to be honest. Cleaning the entire day, paperwork at night. Those wizards folks tried to take me to Diagon Alley, which, by the way, is a ridiculous name, but also kind of cute. Not that I'd willingly admit to finding anything cute (apart from Will, and Will's smile, and Will's hair, and-)

One night I tried some spells, to see if I would have any trouble fitting in with the students, but apparently I am a natural at magic.

Can't I say, life's good!

Once we got to the Hogwarts Express, Ron and Hermione had to leave for prefect's duties, so Harry and I were stuck in a compartment with Ginny, who I didn't really mind, Neville, who's also in fifth year, and Luna Lovegood, who was a bit weird, but a nice Iris child-like weirdness.

At one point, Neville made his Mimbulus Mimbletonia explode, covering everyone in green goo. Well, except me. I'm not stupid, I can cast a Protego spell without saying the spell out loud.

Flash news; apparently the wizards I'm stuck with can't. What are they going to school for? I had to explain that, in my school back home, we actually learned things, and that we knew silent magic, or whatever they call it in this dumphole.Of course, I didn't say it like that.

Also, if you're interested, Harry has a crush on girl whose name is apparently Cho Chang.

At one point Hermione and Ron came back, complaining about a dragon 'Malfoy' (I'm pretty sure 'mal' and 'foi' translate directly to 'bad faith' in French, so there's that) being the Slytherins' prefect. I couldn't care less to be honest, until said dragon entered our compartment. Annoying times to come!

"— You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."

Before Harry could respond, I spoke up.

"Could you please do us the honour of leaving this compartment?" I said in the most bored voice I could muster.

"And who would you be?" Why the hell hasn't he left yet, I specifically requested it.

"Nico di Angelo, exchange student." I extended my hand, waiting to see if he would shake it. To my surprise, he did.

"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. What are you? Pureblood, I hope?"

"Half. Now can you leave? You are leaving a serious stench of bitter arrogance in this compartment and I don't like it very much." Am I still technically a half-blood? Do I still even have blood? Anyway, it doesn't really matter, since I'm not any type of wizard blood, and the whole blood debate is futile and overall stupid anyway.

I love that word. 'Futile'. Amazing, both in aesthetic and meaning.

"You'll see that it does no good affiliating with Potter," he sneered before turning around, leaving the compartment with his two goons. I rolled my eyes at him.

So now, I was in a train compartment with Potter and his friends. I spent a month with then, and they are still uncomfortable around me. I would say that it's the death aura, but I'm not even the only one with a death aura!

Harry smell like imminent death, by Hades! The entire vibe surrounding him is both so dark and so light, like it has been corrupted by an outside parasite. And yet, I'm the one everyone is scared of, which if I think about it is what I want so I don't really see why I am complaining.

"What house do you think you're going to be in?" Hermione's voice pulled me out of my daydreaming, and I stared at her for a few seconds before understanding the question.

"Gryffindor." They all shared a look, probably thinking about how they will have to be with me for the rest of the year, or maybe they think I must be a Slytherin because I... wear dark clothes? I'm not emo, by the way. I don't know why, but they don't seem to trust me. Just because I wear dark clothes, doesn't mean I'm a Death Eater. I find the idea of me being a Death Eater utterly disturbing, and disgusting. I'll leave it up to your imagination.

The real reason why I'm a Gryffindor is because the whole system is stupid but I need to be in the same House as Harry, it's just easier.

They returned to their own conversations, not interested more than that in talking to me, and I returned to my daydream.

Time was passing slowly; too slowly. I took out some paperwork, and started working on it. I noticed Hermione staring at it, probably trying to figure out what was written, and what language it was written in. Ancient Greek, if you're wondering. I obviously wouldn't go and do my paperwork in English, first because you don't want any mortal finding documents on the last decade's (the next decade's?) deaths, and second because, well, dyslexia.

You know what? I think I mastered the art of shirts creation. I have a 'I'd say go to hell but I don't ever want to see you again' shirt. I probably should admit that I found the design using the phone that the Hephaestus' cabin gave me (they gave one to everyone, they're really great because they don't attract monster and can work anywhere - plus, the data is entirely protected), but I don't really want to admit that, so I won't. I'll be caught dead before admitting that I look up shirt ideas on Pinterest.

It kinda sucks that I need to hide my phone, first because technologie is not supposed to work with magic, and second because we're in the freaking past. I don't even know how Pinterest is even working since it doesn't technically exist; there at least shouldn't be any posts on there, right?

"Nico?" Hermione again...

"What?" Can't she see that I don't want to be bothered? Apparently not.

"What are you doing?" Gods, she has decided to be nosy. It's annoying really, to lie, doesn't she know that? Not that I need to lie here. I'll just tell a partial truth.

"Paperwork for my father." Not a lie, is it? If you exclude the fact that my father is Hades, and the paperwork's about all the deaths from 2001 to 2006. In Canada. My father's paperwork is classed by country, which is rather practical, unless you count the fact that some people die at sea or someplace else.

"What language is this?"

"Greek." Please don't know Greek, please don't know Greek...

"Oh. Okay." Thank gods!           

About an hour later, Hermione interrupted my internal daydreaming and my 'staring at paperwork' for the third time today, which I find a bit rude.

"What?" Stay calm, don't snap, don't slap, don't stab. My mantra.

"We're here." Okay, this time she had a legit reason.

"Thanks." I nodded at her, quickly put on my wizard robes above my clothes, and escaped the stuffy compartment behind the Golden Trio. I don't love stuffy places, if I'm being entirely honest.

The carriage outside were pulled by... thestrals. Thanks, o mighty brain. They can only be seen by people who have seen death. I thought back to all the people we lost in the wars... No, Nico. Bad Nico. We do not think about that. Do not show weakness.

I entered an empty carriage, and immediately closed the door, so no one could come in. I like being alone, okay? Except if it's Will. He the exception. And maybe Reyna and Hazel too. Maybe Jason. Ok, we get it! Yes, I do have friends, thank you very much. Friends that I had to leave without even a goodbye, friends who will find a way to kill me despite being a god, just because I had no choice but to become a god and do this stupid quest. I'm so dead when I come back.

The Sorting was boring, the pink toad's speech was a torture, the feast wasn't much better, and the night was even worse with all its paperwork, and I am so sick of this word. I was in a dorm with Harry, Ron, Neville, and two other boys named Seamus and Dean who've got some real vibes going on, if you get what I'm putting down. Well, they're named like that if I remember correctly. I don't necessarily have space for unnecessary informations in my brain.

Edited ✅