Harry Potter and the Norse Gods

{22} Ugh, Boys

WILL'S POV

The four of us were left sitting outside of McGonagall's office when Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the other girl (the one who hadn't flown into the air and collapsed) went inside, and Storm vanished without a word.

If we'd had any choice in the matter, I'm sure we would have all gone our separate ways just to avoid the awkwardness, but we had been ordered to stay, leaving us in a very uncomfortable situation.

If I was being honest, it was only Nico holding us back from full reconciliation. It went against his nature to forgive easily. That was the opposite of me, where sometimes even I would admit I forgave too easily. But in this case, I didn't think I made the wrong choice. I was mad at them at first, but after the initial wave of anger passed, I could see that they had a point. I still wasn't happy about any of it, but I could see where they were coming from.

The reply from Camp had been the thing that had settled it for me and assured me that I was justified in my forgiveness. Looking back, I could see that Alex and Magnus hadn't seemed entirely comfortable with accepting help from Gaia either, so it's not like they were heartless.

Nico, on the other hand, was more stubborn. I could see where he was coming from. He lost a lot to Gaia - he had been kidnapped and dragged through Tartarus by her sons, for one. He also had a tendency to hold a grudge.

Thankfully, he seemed to be coming around. He wasn't outright hostile towards them anymore, and he had come close to smiling at Magnus' many jokes and puns. He was getting there, which I was glad about. He was my boyfriend and I lo - adored him, but I also enjoyed Alex and Magnus' company. They'd make good lifelong friends - ironic, seeing as they were both already dead - but I'd only stay friends with them if Nico was comfortable with that. Luckily for me, it felt as though that point was approaching quickly.

The thought brought a smile to my face.

"Why're you so cheery?" Nico grumbled.

"No reason," I shrugged.

He gave me an odd look but didn't press the issue.

"So..." I began, drawing the attention of Alex and Magnus, "You, uh, did pretty good in that fight back there, Magnus."

"He did okay," Alex said teasingly.

"I think I prefer Will's interpretation."

"And I think my say should count more."

"I don't think it should," Magnus retorted playfully, "That's not how a democracy works. Every vote is worth the same."

"Not in America," Alex pointed out.

"Yeah, well, thank the gods we're in the UK."

"Fine, then Nico has the deciding vote," Alex declared.

All three of us turned to look at my boyfriend, who had remained stubbornly silent throughout the whole conversation, despite me having seen his mouth twitch as though he was going to say something several times.

He cleared his throat and sat up straighter (or gayer).

"I think our takeaway from this is that we should be more prepared for an attack in the future, or any other kind of crisis, like whatever happened to that girl, which was most likely a curse of some sort, probably from that necklace, as certainly felt... off. But that's just a reminder that we have to be prepared to deal with magical attacks as well."

The room - well, hallway - fell into an awkward silence for the roughly thirty seconds following his declaration before he said anything else.

(And although it was a mood-killer, I had to admit that he did make a good point.)