Two -very handsy, very annoying- Demigods Walk into a Magic School… [WIP] - sadlybeans - Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

“Why do you think they summoned us?”

Nico didn’t look up from his phone as he searched through his list of songs.

“To ask us to do something we won’t like”

Percy sighed.

“Please don’t let it be another pointless mission” he crossed his fingers, and they stepped into the throne room.

The Olympians looked down at them from their seats to the demigods in silence for a few moments. As much as it could hurt their ego, they were careful around them for a reason. If they so desired, they could make them fall and take their place… the only reason they hadn’t done so was that they were not interested in godhood, as each had refused the gift when offered.

Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, was a little out of place in a greek pantheon, but alas the necessity. His short blond hair was in a messy style, bright electric blue eyes framed by golden glasses. He wore the purple shirt of Camp Jupiter, jeans, a pair of sneakers and a white jacket.

Nicola di Angelo, son of Hades, was disinterestedly looking down at his phone -courtesy of Leo Valdez-, earphones blasting some sort of heavy metal. His hair, which had gotten longer over the years was gathered on a bun, showing off his undercut. He was dressed in complete black, with multiple chains adorning his pants and silver rings on his fingers that combined with his earrings.

Finally, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, who sported an easy smile on his face, framed by black hair tinted with blue, who was rocking his body on his toes. He wore a cute pastel blue sweater stamped with tiny sharks, pale jeans, and light up shoes, but regardless of his innocent appearance he was by far the most dangerous.

“You have been summoned here to be given a quest of great importance” Zeus spoke with a thundering voice.

Percy sighed and shook his head.

“Hello to you too, uncle Zeus. Yes, we are fine thanks for asking. No, we still don’t want to become gods yet”

Apollo and Hermes actively tried to hide their smiles, but Poseidon openly grinned at his son’s sass. Zeus spluttered, but given that the boy didn’t even flinch when thunder resonated around them, he soon gave up.

Jason sighed, rubbing his forehead as if regretting all the life choices that brought him there, but Nico still wasn’t even paying attention.

Knowing that the annoying brat would only keep making fun of him, and that his own son was adamant in pretending he didn’t exist, Zeus looked towards his brothers reluctantly.

Hades rolled his eyes and spoke instead.

“Hecate is worried about the wizarding world. Things are out of balance and we need you to fix their dumb mistakes” he said bluntly, not beating around the bush “And yes, wizards exist. They are blessed by Hecate to perform magic”

Jason and Percy exchanged looks.

“I’m guessing it’s not as simple as go in and fight our way around…”

“You are not to reveal your nature” Hera confirmed to them “their war must end by their own means, you shall only guide them from the shadows”

“So we’re gonna pretend to be wizards?” Percy asked.

“Yes”

Poseidon inclined himself forwards on his elbows.

“You will go to a magic school, where you will have the highest chances of eliminating the threat that is the Dark Lord causing chaos in their world. Whatever method you choose is up to you”

The two demigods started to think about it while Nico started to blast his music even louder.

After a minute or so, Percy spoke up again.

“Well— why aren’t you sending others? Aren’t we a bit… too much? One of us already calls for a lot of attention, but all three? I think even mortals can guess we’re not normal when we’re together, and if they have magic they will figure it out pretty quickly”

Hades nodded, acknowledging his concern.

“For this task, Nico is the one with the appropriate tools. He will understand it in due time. Taking that into account, we know you won’t let him go alone” Percy had the decency to blush at that “therefore, the three of you were chosen”

“I think Percy is right though… I should stay” Jason, the traitor, spoke up “they should be strong enough to tackle it together, right? And the only reason Percy is going is because Nico wouldn’t otherwise… I’m not actually needed”

Percy stared daggers at him and Jason gave him an innocent smile. Before it could develop into a (yet another) cousin fight, Zeus cleared his throat.

“Very well. The two of them will go. Now get out of my sight”

“I hate you, Grace”

“Listen, I’m just notgoing to be third wheeling for an entire school year” he lifted his hands in defence “it’s already gross enough when you visit Camp Jupiter”

“We are not that annoying!”

Jason looked at him with a deadpan expression.

“Nico’s hand is literally in your back pocket right now”

Percy blushed yet again but he didn’t push his boyfriend away.

“Besides, it’s not gonna be that bad” Jason pat his shoulder “there will be no monsters, and you can treat it as a break— a romantic retreat if you will”

“Now you’re just exaggerating” he huffed “but it’s true that a break will do us well”

“And you can be disgusting all you want” he added happily.

“We are not!” Percy punched his arm “And you have no right to speak, you’re always clinging to Leo!”

“That’s not true!”

“It is!”

As they walked back into Camp Half-Blood, nobody even turned their heads around anymore to bother with their childish fights.

“We are not—! Annabeth! Please tell Percy who is the most disgustingly in love couple of both camps!”

The daughter of Athena rolled her eyes at being dragged into it, but she didn’t even hesitate before pointing at Percy and Nico. Everyone around them who had also heard similarly pointed at them.

Percy covered his face, muttering something about drowning everybody in sight, and Jason casually tapped on Nico’s shoulder.

“Your boyfriend is plotting murder”

Nico, who only miraculously heard through his music, just nodded.

“You do that, baby”

Annabeth sighed and pulled off his earphones, as one of the very few people that didn’t fear him tearing them apart for doing so.

“Stop encouraging him, you’re the one who corrupted him in the first place” she scolded lightly “did you even listen at all what the gods wanted from you three?”

Jason and Percy turned to see him, but Nico just yawned.

“Something something magic, dark lords, war”

Well, that was the just of it, yes.

“Only these two are going” Jason shrugged “We thought it was best as to not call much attention”

“When do you leave then?” She asked, tilting her head.

Percy checked his phone, and Jason had to cover his eyes because he suffered immensely every time he saw the never ending list of unopened notifications adorning his screen.

“We must be in London, a place called King’s Cross, on September 1. Nine am”

“That’s— in three days”

Nico looked over Percy’s shoulder to peek at the message.

“We should leave today and pick up what we need”

“That would be wise” Annabeth approved “I’ll gather everyone so they can say goodbye after lunch”

The rest of the (not actually) seven gathered with them to eat, and they talked for a good while as they would not be able to see each other face to face for a few months at the very least.

Once they had packed, they had a big group hug, Nico squeezed his sister a bit longer than everyone else, and they waved them off before they disappeared in the shadows towards their mission.

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Walking along Diagon Alley had been fascinating, and they gathered all the books and supplies they would need for their school year, except for a wand which they would be supplied by the gods. And sure enough, September first very early, a package had appeared on their rented room.

Percy eagerly unpacked it, revealing two thin and large boxes, accompanied by a card.

“These wands have been blessed by Hecate so that you may perform magic” he read aloud “take extreme care of them and do not let mortals touch them”

Nico opened one, revealing an almost completely black wand, except for the handle which was just a bunch of miniature skeletons that seemed to be trying to climb up the wand as if wanting to escape a pit. The very bottom was a deep red stone.

“I’m definitely keeping this” he declared, examining it closely.

Now even more excited, Percy opened the other box and gasped softly. His’ was appropriately and expectedly colour blue, with waves around the handle and clear ripples along the rest of it which gave the illusion of water.

“Thank you, lady Hecate” they both said in unison.

Nico put it inside his sleeve and he grabbed his bag. Even though there were trunks in the store they had visited, they had been much more impressed by the bottomless bags they offered. While more expensive, it was infinitely cooler and besides, they had more than enough money, courtesy of Hades. Being a prince of the Underworld has its perks.

“I hope this magic school thing is cool” Percy commented as they appeared on a deserted corner of the train station “because normal school sucks”

Nico sneaked an arm around his waist to pull him closer.

“I wouldn’t know, I don’t go to school” he replied with a little bit of a smug smirk.

“Lucky”

Nico hadn’t stepped into a school ever since he and Bianca were found. Most of his time for the next few years had been spent in the Underworld, and then in the mess that was the war against Gaea. Percy hadn’t had the courage to just drop out when it would break his mom’s heart, and so he had continued to assist school, regardless of his terrible grades, up until last year when he graduated at 17.

“I don’t legally exist, so nobody knew I should go to school” Nico reminded him.

“You do legally exist—“

“Yes, in the 1940’s”

“Stop reminding me I’m dating an old man”

They walked past the wall between platform 9 and 10, just as Nico leaned to kiss his temple. The bastard was now taller than him even though Percy wasn’t a small boy by any means.

“Percy, I’m the same age as you”

“That’s only thanks to the Lotus Hotel”

“Well then you should thank them”

Percy sent him a glare and he had the gall to laugh as they boarded the train. The platform was already swarming with multiple people dropping off students, but they managed to find an empty compartment.

From their bags, the son of Poseidon pulled out a book, or well, more like a notebook repurposed into a guide of the wizarding world.

“I wonder how Annabeth found all of this information” Nico muttered.

“She’s miss know-it-all, of course she knows”

“Don’t let her hear you say that”

She had not only noted the weird and nonsensical social rules of wizards, but also all the information in the current war -how she compiled this in a few hours was a mystery-, and also a brief description of a few spells they should learn. Honestly, bless her nerd soul.

Nico sprawled himself on the seat, propping up his feet on the opposite side, just next to Percy. He was engrossed on his phone, as he often was.

“You’re playing gacha games again” the son of Poseidon accused.

“They’re addictive” he mumbled in defensive “and I have more than enough money”

For a moment the only sound was the tapping against the screen and the sound of pages turning.

“Wizards supposedly can’t use technology. It doesn’t work well with magic”

“Bold of you to assume that will stop me”

“Isn’t it a waste of good money?”

“Percy” Nico looked up, eyebrows raised “you have a bigger allowance than me”

“That is so nottrue—“

“Poseidon gives you money”

“Well yes but—“

“And dad does too”

“That’s because—“

“And you’ve been bleeding Jason dry ever since he lost that dare”

“… ok maybe I do have more”

“As much as you deny it you’re our…”

“Do not darefinish that sentence” Percy hissed, shutting the book close a little harder than he should.

“Why not?” Nico grinned with a terrible glint in his eyes.

“Nico” he warned.

“Come on, dear stepbrother don’t you—?”

“NICOLA DI ANGELO!”

“Harry, mate”

Shaking his head to clarity, the young man turned to see his redheaded best friend.

“Sorry, I was thinking about… things”

Hermione sighed, patting his shoulder empathetically.

“Harry, thinking all day about the horrocruxes and V- that idiot will not make them drop at your feet magically”

“She’s right” Ron pushed his cart forwards and looked over his shoulder as if a Death Eater could pop up at any second. “You just gotta focus on the present. Dumbledore will help you”

Sighing to himself, he nodded and let himself be dragged along to drop their luggage. He felt as he should be out there, looking for the horrocruxes, instead of going to class while Voldemort went out and about committing atrocities left and right. But he was safe there, like it or not, where Dumbledore could keep the crazy dark lord away. And besides, the headmaster knew more than anyone about how to find the damn things.

They boarded the train, saying one or two hellos in the way to people they knew, but the air was awkward after the invasion of Hogwarts at the end of the previous year.

“We should—“

Hermione was interrupted when there was a loud bang coming from a bit ahead on the car and muffled struggling. Worried, the three of them pulled out their wands -bless being seventeen-, pushing the door to the compartment open and finding the most bizarre view ever.

In the floor between the seats, there were two boys their age. The one directly on said floor had long hair sprawled on the carpet and distinctive punk clothing, holding the wrists of the one on top of him, whose hands were around the other’s throat. He was not very visible given his position but his dark short hair was tinted with undertones of blue and his clothes were in various shades of ocean colour.

“WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO SAY??”

The punk let out a strangled laugh.

“H-Harder”

A beat of silence.

“That’s it, I’m going to stab you”

He let go of his neck with one hand, reaching to his back and pulling out an actual knife.

“Wait wait wait wait!” the punk could talk better with less pressure on his throat, but he didn’t sound scared “This is my nice shirt you absolute savage!”

Ignoring him, the other raised his hand ready to bring it down and the punk barely managed to hold his arm, though it was a struggle as they fought for the knife.

This made the trio snap out of their utter shock.

“What the f*ck is going on here!?” Ron managed to let out.

They both stopped and finally looked up to them, stopping their fight. Once again, they were left speechless.

The punk had olive toned skin, eyes as dark as the endless night perfectly eyelined and freckles spread across his face. The second one had greenish eyes and skin bronzed to perfection. Both however, possessed a beauty beyond what words could describe. With distinctive european features definitely, but mostly just… beautiful.

The green eyed one cleared his throat and sat up on the punk’s lap, quickly hiding the knife behind his back.

“A little privacy would be nice” the punk finally broke the silence with a rich voice marked with a slight italian accent.

Hermione shook her head and spluttered for a second before regaining her composure.

“What are you two doing? Fighting is strictly forbidden and you’re most definitely not supposed to have a knife of all things!”

The two strangers exchanged a glance.

“Umm…”

While the green eyed beauty tried to come up with an answer, the other one was already talking smoothly.

“My apologies, miss but as I recall we’re not yet in the school so…”

She put her hands on her hips, unimpressed.

“You’re expected to behave from the moment you step on the train. What year are you in?”

“Seventh” they answered in unison.

The golden trio exchanged a glance. They obviously knew everyone else in the same year and one would dare say even the year under, and yet they had never seen these two.

“We’re transferring” the punk clarified.

Again, nothing they had ever seen happening but they reluctantly had to accept that it wasn’t an impossibility.

“I’ll let it pass this once” Hermione sighed “But please do get rid of that knife and seat properly”

They awkwardly untangled themselves from each other and went back to their seats, opposite to each other. The green eyed one picked up a journal that had been left forgotten and the other a cellphone that he pocketed quickly. Harry couldn’t help but notice quite baffled that he hadn’t seen the first one put away the knife, yet it wasn’t anywhere in sight anymore.

“Yeah uh… sorry about that— eh… I’m Percy. This is Nico. Would you… like to sit?”

They should probably say no, but after once again looking at each other and then out at the busy train, they realised they didn’t have many options either way so they went in and settled their stuff in the overhead compartments.

For a long while after that and even after the train left the station, they did not exchange word with each other and they just sort of… coexisted.

That is, until about an hour in when Hermione glanced towards the window and accidentally caught a peek of the journal ‘Percy’ was reading.

“Is that Greek?”

He blinked up at her and nodded.

“Uh, yea. I’m Greek. Well, kinda” he thought about it and turned to Nico “Am I Greek?”

For the moment the other had just been playing with the chains on his pants but he did look up to shrug.

“Mr. P is, I imagine we sort of are by proxy” he then clarified to the wizards “I am Italian as well though”

“And… where are you transferring from?” she asked, a little less intimidated now.

“Well” Percy closed the journal “It’s kinda complicated you see— we don’t really come from another magical school”

Spitting out bullsh*t always seemed to work, and besides they had sort of a plan to answer such questions.

“Not an official school at least” Nico continued “Imagine like a summer camp”

Hermione looked truly interested now.

“I’d never heard of something like that”

“It’s pretty rare, there’s just two places we know of back in USA” Percy nodded along “and it’s very uh… private. You need to come from specific families to enter”

Ron scrunched up his nose.

“Like a pureblood thing?”

Seeing that the trio looked uncomfortable -or downright disgusted-, Nico quickly salvaged the situation.

“Yes and no. Most of us are not purebloods. I think the families chosen are random. They care of our personal strength regardless of that- very spartan type of schooling”

“Teaching us the old ways is their thing- and we’re all Greek so…” Percy shook the journal in the air to top it off.

The wizards were very impressed. They had heard -and seen- from other schools but this was something else.

“Why come to Hogwarts?” Harry inquired quite curiously.

“Oh well… “

Percy got stuck with his words but Nico just rolled his eyes.

“Perce tries to pretend he’s very modest” he mocked “but the truth is we just learnt everything they could teach us. It’s not a complete education either way. And since our parents have the money, they sent us here”

The other kicked him in the shin while blushing slightly.

“It’s not really a big deal, we’re probably super behind all of you seventh years… anyways, you guys never told us your names”

“Oh I’m so sorry! I’m Hermione Granger”

“Ronald Weasley, but Ron is just fine”

Harry braced himself. “Harry Potter”

There was zero reaction from both of them about it.

“Cool. I’m Percy Jackson”

“Nico di Angelo”

With a more relaxed air in the compartment, they settled for their long ride.

Percy and Nico said their goodbyes as they were grouped with the tiny first years, to be sorted into their new house. The professor that had given them a quick rundown, a woman with stern face and a cool witch hat, came for the small group eventually and they all marched into the Great Hall.

It was a very impressive place to be honest— nothing like the beauty of what they were used to but still pretty cool. Very magical indeed. And though they knew it not, their presence was noted.

Not only because they stood out between the children but because they were just… ethereal. Before it had been easier for the trio to miss it but they were practically glowing with so much magic in the air surrounding them. You could practically feelthe power they emanated touch your skin. It was evident they were not just two random transfer students.

“I think Gryffindor suits me” Percy spoke to Nico in quiet ancient Greek as they walked up to the front with hundreds of eyes set in them. “Or Hufflepuff”

Nico raised a brow at him.

“Caro I know you. You don’t fool me. You’re a snake”

Percy gasped and looked at him offended but then they made it up and they shut up to listen to a hat sing -what the actual f*ck- and then the professor started calling names.

“di Angelo, Nicola”

Nico hadn’t changed out of his punk clothing entirely. Under his plain black robe, his button up shirt was black and a little torn, his pants had been scribbled on with white sharpie and were kept up with a spiked belt decorated with chains and dangling pentagrams. He had ignored completely the school shoes in favour of his heavy lace up boots. The look was topped by his long hair in a braid to the side and his multiple silver jewellery with more pentagrams and spikes. Of course, his skull ring couldn’t be missing, as well as a golden pin on his robe; his symbol as a platinum member of the Mythomagic Society.

He received scandalous glares and heart eyes everywhere. When he sat down in the stool, awkwardly since he was much taller than your average eleven year old, the hat was lowered on his head and it wasn’t even two seconds before it was opening it’s mouth (do hats have mouths?).

“SLYTHERIN!”

When he hopped down and walked over to the quiet house of silver and green, receiving snobbish glances, he sat at the corner of the table to the front between absolute silence from the entire hall until the professor cleared her throat and continued. It wasn’t long until they made it to the letter J.

“Jackson, Perseus!”

Percy groaned and dragged his feet forwards.

“Percy! It’s just Percy” he begged.

He himself was an unusual sight, if anything just a bit less outrageous. His pants were slightly rolled up to show his white socks that had the single detail of an embroidered dolphin (all hail Piper). He wore white and blue sneakers, and his belt was blue.

When he sat, the hat actually talked out loud— normally with other students he would speak into their minds but this time was different.

“Hmmm, unlike your companion there’s many possibilities here… Godric and Helga would be fighting over you”

Murmurs started to rise from the population at large while Percy sat there very confused.

“Nonetheless you must understand an old hat like me wants some joy in life… SLYTHERIN!”

Percy pouted and gave back the hat, sulking his way to Nico. As he sat down, practically glued to his side, the golden trio exchanged worried glances as they realised they were being friendly with possible enemies.

The sorting promptly ended and then the headmaster stepped forwards. He was a very old man, with white hair and a very long beard that went past his waistband. His extravagant robes were of clashing colours and an antiquate style. He wore half-moon glasses over a twisted nose and he looked quite tired.

“Welcome, old and new students alike, to a new year” he spoke after calming down the conversations with a gesture “as you all know, things have not been easy these past few years… and last year, we tragically suffered an attack. I will not bore you with politics, as you are here to learn and grow as young men and women. As such I will ask you to please not discuss such topics and focus instead on your studies and friendships. Lastly, since professor Slughorn has retired officially, professor Snape will resume his duties as potions’ master. Please welcome our new DADA professor”

He gestured towards the main doors, and they slowly opened in dramatic motion to let through yet another curious person. Percy squeezed his boyfriend’s leg, who cursed under his breath.

The man was dressed in muggle clothing not unlike Nico’s. Black leather pants, lace up boots adorned with spikes, a black tank top with a full satanic circle drawn in messily, leather jacket to complete. His hair reached his shoulders in elegant way, framing a pale face of harsh expression yet beautiful asian features. He was of average height, but he was evidently build to perfection without being overly bulky.

Giving a cold glance to the student population, he strode silently towards the head table and sat down on the one empty seat, crossing his arms over his chest.

The headmaster clapped his hands and the food materialised atop each table.

“f*cking hell, did it f*cking have to be him? I’m going to—“

Percy quickly stuffed a piece of bread in Nico’s mouth to shut up his rambling and he buried his face in his hands. This was just great.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Their first class was DADA. Nico was notamused. He would not stop playing with his skull ring and Percy had to slip his hand under the table to squeeze his thigh to keep him grounded, less shadows started to wrap around his feet.

The other students were talking conformably between one another, and once in a while they would glance to the peculiar duo.

Things had notgone well the night before in Slytherin….

Finished the banquet, the entirety of Slytherin stood up and went their way to their common room, followed by the first years and newcomers.

Said common room was deep inside the dungeons, behind a plain wall that opened with a password. The insides were elegant and sober, with deep green tapestry and silver decorations as one would expect. A fire roared in one side of it while opposite the entire wall was made of glass, peering into the lake. At the side opposite to the door, there was a hallway that divided two ways.

To be sincere, neither Percy nor Nico paid any attention to the prefect’s speech about how they were expected to act and behave. Once it was over they guided the first years towards the hallway, leaving behind the two demigods.

And they were not alone. All the seventh year students had remained in the common room and once the children were gone they all stood surrounding them while pretending to be intimidating. Suffice to say, they were not impressed.

“That hat truly must be faulty” a girl sneered, raising her head and scrunching up her plain face in an ugly expression. Her hair was pale blond “Sending two mudbloods into our prestigious house. Lord Slytherin would be horrified”

(Just for that comment, Nico noted mentally to summon the man’s ghost and ask him)

“Lets just throw them out, Draco” she proceeded to demand, turning to a boy.

He was blond as well, and his aristocratic face still had some semblance of childhood left, as if his body refused to grow up entirely.

“Don’t be stupid, Pansy. You know we’re already on thin ice, making stupid decisions won’t help” he sneered back. Then he turned to them and stepped forwards slowly, pointing his wand to Nico’s chest, who just happened to be nearest “You don’t belong here. You never will. So listen very closely: you will keep your heads down, make sure our house doesn’t loose face or points, and we will have no reason to put you in your place. Am I clear?”

Percy was the kind to open up his mouth and immediately give him a piece of his mind, but Nico pinched his side hard until the son of Poseidon begrudgingly nodded.

“Good”

The blond put his wand away and the seventh years slowly made their way to the dorm rooms, glaring at them as they went.

“They’re all a bunch of privileged little assholes” Percy mumbled under his breath as he caught ‘Pansy’ looking over her shoulder with disgust.

“Hmm”

Taking his attention away from them, he started to rub circles on Nico’s thigh to keep him grounded.

“I should’ve known they would send someone else— I’m sorry”

“Not your fault” he mumbled, tapping his other foot incessantly.

Percy was about to lean in and kiss his grumpy pout away, but them the door closed behind all of them and their professor finally stepped to the front, just in time according to the schedule. He was dressed much similar to the banquet last night, but this time without a jacket, which meant his arms were uncovered and nearly all students -even the snotty Slytherins- gaped at the sight of his biceps. Nico clenched his jaw and huffed, looking away.

Silently, the tall man grabbed a piece of chalk and wrote down his name on the chalkboard with clear elegant writing: Caelestis Löwe.

“You are all expected to call me professor Löwe” he spoke for the first time in a plain emotionless voice “As to a manner of respect; I do not respect you and I do not care if you respect me. I will give back whatever petty insult you think you’re clever to come up with and it will affect your grades if I feel spiteful enough. Lastly, I do not care if your pathetic spells harm each other if and when we do duels. Don’t expect me to lift a finger”

Examining each and every single one of them with his unsettling dark eyes, he stopped directly on Nico. f*ck.

“Nicola”

“…. fratello” he answered icily.

For a tense second their unyielding gazes were locked together until the professor gestured vaguely with his head.

“Step to the front”

Nico scoffed but he got up and once he was a few steps closer Caelestis threw the piece of chalk at him, which he caught perfectly despite being taken by surprise.

“Today you’re writing assistance. Take note”

The Slytherins snickered, unable to help themselves, but the stoic professor simply raised a brow at them.

“You’re next” and he pointed randomly, just at the Pansy girl.

That shut them up quick.

“Now, is there someone bright enough to list the types of magic there is?”

No one raised their hands for a good few seconds until a shy Ravenclaw finally dared to do so.

“Miss Patil” he gave her the word.

“Well… there’s light magic of course, dark magic, and the much rarer black magic”

The hesitance in her voice made it sound more like a question, but his attention drifted away without reprimanding her and she gave a sigh of relief.

“Who can tell the difference between all three? Nicola, the board”

Nico glared at him and started to write down aggressively. This time one of the few Slytherins that had behaved raised his hand.

“Mr. Nott”

“Light magic is all we consider harmless magic, spells we use day to day. Dark magic starts to be considered so when its intent is to harm or kill. Curses, unforgivable spells, blood and soul magic. Black magic however— well, there’s not much registered about it and what’s known it’s very secure and strictly kept secret. Most of it has been burnt and destroyed, because it involved brutal practises and its users were not only corrupt but too powerful.”

Many of the students were exchanging glances, wondering why exactly was this relevant.

“What is the type of magic we’re born with?”

“Light magic?” someone hesitantly asked from the back.

Others started to nod along and repeat it. Caelestis remained silent as they all expressed their opinions and then he shook his head.

“You are all wrong. It depends” he gestured with his chin towards Percy “some are born with light magic. Jackson, an aquamenti spell”

Percy shrugged and pulled out his wand, pronunciating a clear ‘Aquamenti’ towards the window. From his wand surged a clear and powerful burst of water.

“… Some others, are born with dark magic. Mr. Malfoy, have you ever casted a curse?”

“… Yes, sir”

“How did it feel?”

The blond shifted on his seat before answering, clearly uncomfortable.

“In no particular way…? It’s just a spell”

“What about you, miss Patil?”

Padma rubbed her wrist in a nervous tick.

“It felt heavy. I felt it pull from my magic more than a normal spell does”

The students’ eyes widened as they started to understand and many started to take note frantically -mostly from the Ravenclaw side.

“And some very rare ones” the professor continued “are born with black magic as their main source. I want you to try this spell: tenebris opus. Move your wand in a short motion”

Pulling a pitch black wand from his belt, he moved it to demonstrate. The seventh years all imitated it until they felt they got it right and then started to try out the spell.

The effect was instantaneous. Vomiting, trembling, paleness. Nico, who was still up front, was looking with widened eyes at the scene. Percy’s spell hadn’t worked either but he was perfectly fine. Malfoy and most Slytherins looked slightly better but the Ravenclaws all looked awful.

Without acknowledging the damage, Caelestis turned his head to Nico.

“Nicola. Do the spell”

He hesitated, but he pulled out his wand and moved it in a short motion.

“Tenebris opus” he said clearly.

From his wand a shadow arose, as black as night and with tiny stars dancing in between the ripples of darkness. It quickly formed the tall shape of a robed male figure holding a bident. The figure was not terrifying on its own, it was rather beautiful, but the feeling that came with seeing it was almost as terrible as trying the spell had been.

As it vanished in the air, everyone was pretty much speechless. The professor gestured for Nico to go back to his seat, and he waited until everyone had regained their composure to talk.

“Tenebris opus is one of the purest black spells there is” he quickly raised his hand to shut down any questions before they began “as you can see, without a natural affinity to black magic it is not only impossible to perform the spell, but also severely damaging. As to what it does… much before the patronus spell was invented, this was the only way to drive away dementors” to the gasps and wide eyes it got, he nodded “Of course, being a black spell it was rare than anybody could perform it. And so the patronus was eventually created and this one fell into oblivion. Now, what can you tell me from this demonstration?”

There was a long, very awkward silence.

“You are all stupid—“ he mumbled as he shook his head and walked over to sit behind the desk “Prejudice, you idiots. It proves that all you’ve been fed is propaganda and a black magic spell can be as harmless as a light magic one can snap your neck if done right. For next week, I want a study of what kind of magic you think you were born with, the evidence to support it, and a report on a black magic spell in detail. Yes, any spell, and no, tenebris opus does not count. If your parchment does not reach a minimum of two meters put together don’t bother to present it. Your handwriting better be less than half an inch in size.”

Faces fell as they took note of the impossible requirements for said assignment.

“Well then, let’s start your first lesson properly”

Since they had a free hour after the class, Percy and Nico waited until everyone else left the classroom so they would be left alone with the third older demigod. The second the door closed behind the last student, Nico threw the nearest chair to his half brother.

“Of all people, what are youdoing here?” he hissed.

Caelestis moved only a step to the right, avoiding the chair swiftly.

“Would you have preferred being babysat by a god, didi?”

Nico went to grab another chair and Percy stepped in with a sigh.

“Ok, that’s enough” he kissed his boyfriend’s cheek and pushed him to sit down so he would calm down “I can’t believe Ihave to be the rational one here… let’s just have a calm conversation, ok?”

Nico crossed his arms, mumbling something about having a talk with his father, and Caelestis let put a huff, leaning against his desk with his arms crossed as well. The son of Poseidon rolled his eyes and turned to the eldest.

“You knew about wizards?”

Caelestis nodded, twirling his wand on his fingers.

“A lot of my clients have been involved in some way with magical politics. One or two times I’ve had to mingle with wizards to fulfil a contract”

“And the gods sent you to keep an eye on us” he added, more as an affirmation.

“It was me or Elijah. Take your pick”

Percy shivered visibly and his face contorted in an uncomfortable expression at the mention of his own half brother. Caelestis was the lesser of two evils, definitely.

“Who the f*ck had the idea of choosing two criminals as candidates to teach children?” Nico threw his hands in the air and looked up at the ceiling “Big compliments on your common sense, uncle!”

There was a loud thunder but he just gave the middle finger to the sky outside the window.

“At least it wasn’t a god” Percy sighed.

Never a good idea to have a deity between mortals, specially when they had the bad habit of sleeping with them.

“Are we any better?” his boyfriend retorted “sending demigods to deal with a mass murderer seems like overkill”

“Yeah— can’t they like, I don’t know, shoot him or something?”

Caelestis looked very unamused by their whining.

“Deal with it and do your jobs”

. . .

“I’m going to throw another chair”

“NICO!— NO, PUT THAT DOWN! WE DON’T THROW THINGS AROUND—!”

“Haven’t you noticed something strange?”

Harry and Ron raised their heads from the Quidditch book they had been peering into. Hermione was looking around the empty hallway.

“The what?”

“Ghosts. I haven’t seen any since we entered the castle”

The two boys finally realised that it was true. Hogwarts as a magical castle held a lot of fascinating things, and ghosts was a big part of the population, having many that usually interacted with the living habitants and even held their own reunions, deathdays and sometimes small games. But this year, they seemingly vanished.

“Oh, I saw sir Nicholas on September first” a voice came from the wall.

They all turned to a portrait of an elegant lady with a fashionable eighteenth century up-do.

“He seemed very frightened” she added, fanning herself with delicate movements “the ghosts were all screaming in terror. I heard one say ‘the Ghost King is here’”

That said she walked off towards another painting and the trio exchanged worried glances.

“Ghost King? As in…. king of ghosts?” Ron whispered.

“That is what the name implies” Hermione furrowed her brows “we need to tell professor Dumbledore.”

“I have a meeting with him on Friday, I’ll make sure he knows” Harry assured her, just as they resumed their walk and turned around the corner.

A chair flew past in front of them and broke against the wall in a loud bang.

“Nicola, if you don’t stop this tantrum right now—“ a stern masculine voice came from the open door.

“Tantrum!? Who the f*ck do you think you—!”

“Neeks, come onnnnn!”

Cautiously, the trio leaned to see inside the DADA classroom. It was a complete mess, with desks and chairs thrown everywhere, papers scattered about the room and a broken window. A tornado might as well have passed by.

The new professor was seating in a pile of semi destroyed desks, wand in hand and barely making any effort in stopping the many things thrown his way with flicks of his wrist. On the opposite side of the room, di Angelo and Jackson were fighting, full on kicking, punching and— biting too it seemed. Anyway, the second di Angelo managed to get away from the other at least a step or two he would throw whatever was on his reach towards the professor, who was looking on very bored.

Hermione had a horrified expression on her face, Ron looked very impressed.

Hurried steps came their way from the hallway and both professor McGonagall and Snape came towards the door. The head of Gryffindor was horrified as well as she was furious.

Just at that moment, the two transfers were rolling around on the ground, wrestling.

The new professor calmly jumped down from his perch and walked past them, which was a mistake because di Angelo had managed to kick his frienemy away and tried to tackle him, to which the onlookers gasped.

The professor didn’t even blink, he twisted his body, wrapped his leg around the student’s neck and brought him down effectively.

“Professor Löwe!” McGonagall quickly strode forwards as well as she could between broken furniture “What is the meaning of this!?”

He frowned, the first expression anyone had seem in his face up until then, and then looked down at the struggling teen that he still had pinned to the ground.

“He started it” they both said/yelled at the same time.

Jackson groaned and let himself fall sprawled on the floor, looking done with the world. However he did get up a second later and gave an apologetic look to the other two professors.

“Sorry, let me just…” he turned back to the other two “let go of him”

The young man squinted at him, not moving.

“Oh come on! Why must you two be so alike!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air “Nico, apologise”

Di Angelo started to spit out quick angry italian, too fast to make any sense, and in return the other replied in mandarin, in the same snarky tone though less irate.

It wasn’t clear whether they understood each other or were just discussing for the sake of it.

Jackson looked about to cry. He mumbled something in greek towards the sky, probably praying for patience.

“You know what? I give up. I’ll take it up with Ha— your dad directly” The two punks stopped talking immediately and snapped their heads towards him. “Seriously!? That is the breaking point!?”

Unhappy, professor Löwe let go of di Angelo and they both turned their backs on each other like children.

“I’m sorry about this” he said again to Snape and McGonagall. “You know how brothers are… ha…. I promise they actually do like each other…”

“We don’t” they both protested.

“Shut up, the both of you!”

“Or what!?”

Jackson let out a scream and jumped on them. Soon enough the three were fighting in between them.

The onlooking wizards decided rather wisely it was none of their business.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

“Nico”

“Neeks”

“Ghosty”

“Come on!”

…

“Ghost King, Prince of the Underworld, light of my life, pleasetalk to me”

The whining finally seemed to wear down the son of Hades because he snapped the book on his lap close and turned to see him.

“I don’t care how much you beg, I am notgoing to forgive you”

“But it wasn’t un purpose! I promise!” Percy pouted.

“You spilled juice on my Aphrodite card!”

“Yea but-!”

“You know how long I waited to have it! Bianca wouldn’t let me buy it because it was ‘inappropriate’!”

“You have three more of them?”

Nico’s eyebrow twitched.

“It was a first edition, with the underworld backing and threefeatures that the new ones don’t have” he hissed, eyes darkening dangerously and lights flickering around the room.

Percy crawled across the bed to hug him around his neck, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“I’ll buy you a new one, I promise. And— And also your new deck” his boyfriend was still looking slightly unhappy so he kissed him softly, slipping into his lap to press their bodies together “And I’ll find one of those 1972 edition”

Nico considered it for a few seconds, letting out a low hum, before finally wrapping his arms loosely around his waist.

“Promise?”

“Promise”

They kissed slowly, as if sealing that promise. Percy shivered when a cold hand slipped underneath his sweater, sliding up his back and through the old sensitive spot where his Achilles heel used to be. However he was stopped when he tried to push Nico’s jacket off his shoulders. Offended, he broke off the kiss to make it known.

“Are you seriously going to deprive me until I replace it?”

He received a smirk in return and he groaned, slipping away from his lap.

“Fine! I think I have one”

Standing up to get to his nightstand, he fumbled around for his deck. Percy still couldn’t understand most of the rules of the game even though he patiently heard Nico rambling about it at least once a week since they were eight, so he only had a basic deck and a couple figurines.

Climbing back on the bed, he spilled the cards out of their case and started to look around. Nico curiously grabbed one that stood out and frowned.

“Persephone? You have an Oceanus deck”

“Apparently, Luke thought it was funny to gift it to me” he rolled his eyes, throwing aside a Triton card.

Nico’s eyes hardened again.

“He thought it was funnyto give you a card with your dead name?”

Said like that it definitely sounded worse. Percy shrugged, not looking very bothered, and he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well, back then I was just the tomboyish weird girl who carried around a Mythomagic deck despite not knowing much about the game— and you know how Luke was, trying his best to seem ‘cool’ and ‘friendly’. So, you know, give the card to the closeted trans boy and tell him he should be proud of his name ‘cause it’s pretty”

Just for that, Nico wanted to do the unimaginable and actually burn down the stupid card.

“I’m going to find him in the underworld, you just wait”

Percy chuckled, but he was very honoured that his boyfriend would act so protective over him.

“How did he even— You’ve gone by Percy since you were three years old!”

He shrugged once again, as if to say ‘no idea’. Ever since he could remember he was a boy. His mom always treated him like one and gave him the nickname Percy -mostly because being so young he couldn’t pick a new name of his own-, even fighting the schools he went to so that they stopped calling him Persephone. Gabe probably never even knew he wasn’t a cis boy. Hell, even Poseidonwas completely clueless about it until he turned fifteen, and he only found out because Percy actually had a mental breakdown and prayed to his father because he felt so alone.

Thing is, when he fought the minotaur and fell unconscious, in order to heal him they had to take off his binder and the entirety of camp already knew before he even woke up. He was far too uncomfortable talking about it so he just let it be, never correcting anybody… that is, until Nico moved back to New York from Colorado and very unsubtly used male pronouns until everyone got the clue.

“Ah- I think… Yea, that old bully Nancy wrote some mean thing in my backpack with sharpie using ‘Persephone’ and Luke saw it before I scribbled over it”

“Well they better be grateful I wasn’t there” he mumbled, throwing the card far away from both of them.

“It’s fine, Luke’s dead anyways— oh look, I was right. Aphrodite”

Sure, she wasn’t technically part of the Oceanus deck, but she had some very good debuff blockers before the company removed them.

“This leaves you with one less card” Nico accepted it anyways, but still pointed it out.

“That’s fine, I have this“

Percy smirked and grabbed the case again, opening the front pocket and pulling out a single card. It was covered with a transparent sleeve, so it was very easy to appreciate the beautiful golden backing and the holo effect. As he turned it around Nico blushed slightly.

“How much did you spend to get that?” he asked, hiding behind his free hand.

“Hmm, I got maybe thirteen entire boxes? It is a holo, platinum edition andpart of the Tartarus deck. Besides there’s only—“

“— two hundred and one of them. I know”

Nicola, Ghost King and the Prince of the Underworld. With Hades’ unique shadow buff set, three whole instant revivals, a ridiculously strong attack that banishes the entire enemy team and the absolutely insane ability to summon Tartarus himself. Sure, you need to have at least triple the initial energy, which means he can only be used in combination with a handful of support cards that you can loose as soon as they’re out if you don’t know how to play them. And it had a rigid incompatibility with most decks.

Percy was mostly hoping to get Nico a unique personalised card when he wrote to the company, but to his surprise they had asked for more details of his ‘fictional story’ and then they asked if they would be willing to have it be an actually playable card and before he knew it, Nico’s card was so f*cking popular that Mythomagic was looking to make a more common version given the demand. Suffice to say, he’d outshone every other birthday present for the upcoming century.

“Just you wait until I do the same for you”

Percy blushed and stuck out his tongue, but he knew Nico was dead serious, he’d been writing with the company for a long time to finish off the details.

They weren’t the first players to get a special card made for them, but most were a single card edition or just not with the same rarity. But for some reason, Nico’s had an unexpected boom. The storyline written in that year’s guide had captured so many players’ attention and Percy could swear he’d even seen fanfics out and about. There was fanart, cosplays, a whole entire sub-fandom. The only reason Nico wasn’t swarmed with crazy fans was because the card depicted his younger self and because his social media was set to private.

He could only imagine the madness that was going to be set loose once it was revealed that Nico’s mysterious love interest was a boy. If Percy had learnt anything from Jason, it was that fandoms went 10000 times crazier when it was about a gay couple. He said it was because of representation, and he was the knowledgeable one so he would trust it.

“Anyway— you have your card, now help me gather mine”

Nico obediently started to pick them up and expertly order them by class automatically.

“You have the weirdest Oceanus deck in existence”

“I just choose what’s right” he defended himself “sorry for not having a fancy one”

Nico naturally had every single deck in existence -except the original 1972 edition- but for actual playing, he used a Tartarus deck with an Hades deck as support. He was so f*cking good at it, Percy had never seen him lose once. He’d even participated in the national tournament a year back, and won effortlessly (He’d entered with a pseudonym, of course).

“What did you even do with those thirteen boxes of cards? You have barely the minimum here”

“Oh I sold the rare ones —yes, I knew you already had them don’t look at me like that— and traded in the rest to start a Poseidon deck but I left them back in my cabin by accident.”

Once the cards were back in their case Percy put them in the nightstand and climbed back on Nico’s lap.

“Now can we stop being nerds? I want your hands on me right now“

“Hmm, that’s very demanding of you…”

“Nico”

“Shush, open up your mouth for me”

Harry felt like the lack of ghosts around the castle actually gave it a creepier feel, it made it seem empty and unfamiliar. With Ron and Hermione they’d even tried looking for any ghost they could find, fruitlessly. It was as if they’d left Hogwarts entirely or passed on. Not even Professor Binns was to be found, so the muggle studies professor was filling in the position since nobody had taken her class that year.

The gargoyle let him through when he gave the password and he walked the stairs up to Dumbledore’s office. The room was unusually dark, since the windows that provided most light were covered by heavy curtains, and the candles floating around gave it a slightly unnerving feel. There were no objects flying around and Fawkes was nowhere to be seen. The headmaster was standing next to a bookcase, leaning against the pensive and looking at the mercurial liquid with a somber expression.

“Professor Dumbledore?”

“Ah, Harry my boy” his blue eyes held some sadness but he still smiled at Harry that grandfatherly way of his “Please, come sit with me. Tea?”

“Yes, please”

They sat by the sturdy mahogany desk and Dumbledore clapped his hands. A domestic elf appeared, served them their tea, bowed down and then vanished.

“I apologise for not checking in on you this summer… I trust you had a peaceful time at the Burrow?”

Harry nodded, grabbing his cup to warm up his hands.

“I did. I admit I’m most happy to finally leave my aunt’s house… they were delighted to get rid of me”

The headmaster nodded.

“There’s much to discuss given you’re now old enough, but let us leave that for another occasion. This time I wanted to talk to you about something of the outmost importance. Have you ever heard of the tale of the three brothers, my boy?”

Harry immediately assumed it was a wizard’s tale and held his tongue because his first instinct was to ask how was he supposed to have heard it in the first place if he was raised with muggles.

“No, sir”

Dumbledore nodded and he crossed his hands as he started to speak.

“The tale starts like this; there were once three brothers, travelling late across a dangerous path, when they came across a river that no traveller had ever crossed without loosing their life. But these three brothers were wizards, and with combined efforts they created a bridge to cross safely. However, Death was not pleased with being made a fool of, and she appeared in front of them. Death praised the brothers for their wit, and declared she would gift them with whatever they chose, in reward for escaping their fate. The first brother, arrogant and greedy, asked for a wand that would never lose a duel. And so Death snapped a twig from a nearby elder tree, and the first brother left happy. The second brother, who had lost his fiancée unexpectedly, asked for a way to bring her back. So Death picked up a stone from the river and promised that if spun three times, he would be able to see her again. Only the third and younger brother was left, but he was clever and he instead asked for a way to leave that bridge without Death being able to find him. Angered but keeping her word, she cut a section of her cloak and upon dressing it, the man became invisible.

“After that, the three brothers went their way and eventually separated. The first one won many duels and took vengeance against those who wronged him, yet he was killed in his sleep after getting drunk and the wand was stolen. The second brother got back his fiancée, but she was sad and distant, and unable to take the pain he took his own life to reunite with her. Death took the two brothers, but no matter how much she searched, she could never find the third. Eventually, once he’d lived old and plenty, he took off his cape and welcomed her as an old friend.”

Harry thought it was a rather interesting tale, but he didn’t understand how it was relevant in any way. The headmaster nodded, understanding his confusion.

“This tale teaches us many things, yes… but there have always been those who believe it is true. You see Harry, it is believed that the one who gathers all three relics, will become the master of Death”

Suddenly it all became clear and Harry grimaced, holding his cup a bit tighter.

“V- He wants them”

“Indeed he does…”

He kept silence for a moment, but he already sort of knew the answer when he decided to ask.

“Do they exist?”

Dumbledore looked at him over his glasses.

“Indeed, my boy. As you must’ve figured out, you hold the cape of invisibility. The horrocrux ring of last year, held the stone. And with the battle he brought to us, he pretended to take the elder wand as well”

Harry’s eyes widened.

“You have it?”

Dumbledore nodded sadly.

“It is a rather long story that I hope to tell you one day… but yes, it’s been in my power for many many years”

Harry wondered if Dumbledore ever had the impulse to try and prove the tale right by reuniting the relics, but it was a ridiculous idea. He wouldn’t do that… he’d been ready to die last year.

“What do we do then?”

“For now… nothing” the old man sighed heavily “hold on and work to destroy the horrocruxes before he realises we hold the relics. Keep racing until we win”

It was rather discouraging, but it was true. There was no other way to defeat Voldemort unless they destroyed the pieces of his soul.

“Professor… I wanted to talk to you about another thing. Hermione noticed the lack of ghosts and- well, a portrait told us they were scared? That they all disappeared on the first, screaming about a ‘Ghost King’”

Dumbledore pursed his lips and nodded.

“I’ve heard of it, indeed. I have been doing my best to investigate but so far, there has been no mention of such a thing before”

“Could it be something he did?”

“We should assume the worse, yes. Please be careful Harry, we are in dire times indeed”

“Master of death” Nico huffed in amusem*nt and sat back, propping up his feet on the ottoman.

Vlad, Caelestis unusual companion, shrugged vaguely and floated back to wrap his shadowy form around the older demigod’s sleeve, disappearing inside his pockets.

“Mortals are so…”

“Stupid?” Percy provided without looking up from where he was polishing his shield.

“Yes. As if they had the power to chain Thanatos to their will”

“They do have magic, and it’s happened before-“

“Those were giants, these are mortals” he remarked, spinning his skull rings between his fingers. “And those ‘relics’ are most certainly bullsh*t”

“Believing something is real does give it some power” Percy pointed out “But they might be just magic objects a god randomly gave out and they chose to turn it into a tale. Like christians do”

“It doesn’t matter where they came from” Caelestis turned to finally see his younger brother. “Their pathetic search efforts might still bear fruit. Ask the ghosts to come back”

“I can’t just ask“ Nico scoffed, gesturing vaguely “My presence is still like a black hole to them- regardless of my wants I will absorb their souls and they won’t leave me alone until I take them to the underworld. I don’t do it on purpose— most of the time anyways. And if I summon them again, I’ll need to constantly order them. This is precisely why I do what I do, ghosts don’t belong in this world. Shouldn’t you know that?”

Caelestis glared at him, and any mortal would’ve wept for being in the receiving end.

“Ruler of Tartarusis a much different job to yours, didi”

“Anyways!” Percy interrupted before another fight broke out. “We should—“

“Shut up, Jackson”

“Don’t you daretalk to him like that!”

“Hey! I can shut him up myself!”

“I was trying to defend you!”

“I’m not a damsel in distress!”

“Who thought it was a nice idea to send all of you together?“

They stopped and turned to the window. Caelestis had cleverly applied a plastic film that created rainbows, and now in between the light was the projection of yet another half sibling.

“Zeus” Percy answered quite cheerfully, forgetting all about the discussion.

“Dante” Caelestis acknowledged his brother “why are you calling?”

“Uh— Morrigan was sort of stalking me so I came to the underworld to escape. Father decided that since his two favourites were not home, I should take some of the responsibilities. It is notfun”

“I thought you took care of the punishments” Percy pointed out.

“I got bored of torturing souls—“

“So you are in…?”

“Elysium. Poseidon is visiting, I’m definitely not staying in the palace”

Both Percy and Nico grimaced in sympathy.

“Dante“ Caelestis insisted, as the conversation had strayed.

“Yea, anyway, Hazel came by. She said Thanatos said that there’s some… things it would be best you take back. Some magical artefacts that shouldn’t have been left in mortal’s hands”

Nico couldn’t help but laugh.

“Let me guess; a cape, a wand and a stone”

Dante nodded, producing a little jingly sound thanks to his tiny bell earrings.

“According to Hazel back then demigods sometimes lived between wizards, just you know- not telling them they were demigods. As you can guess, the objects were gifts to three demigods from their parents, it’s just that in mortal hands their functions are not the same because magic and all that”

“So…?”

“The cape was a gift from Father to a sibling of ours that had a bigger inclination to the earth side of our powers. It shrouds you in shadows and slows down a fall, essentially making you glide”

“In mortal hands, turns you invisible… makes sense”

“The wand was a gift from Hecate, much like the ones she gave you”

“I guess that’s why she said don’t let mortals touch them” Percy sighed.

“And the stone was given by Thanatos himself. It is a token of entry to his child, so that they might cross to the underworld at their need”

“That must be why it summons the dead” Nico tapped the arm of his chair with his fingers “it increases your affinity with the afterlife”

“The three demigods disappeared without a trace” Dante finished telling them, looking sort of sorry for said unnamed characters “their souls never returned to the underworld and the gods can’t intervene to get back their gifts. They stopped allowing demigods to mix with wizards, so they didn’t have an external hand to help until now”

“Do we have to investigate their deaths too?” Nico asked just in case.

His younger brother shook his head once again.

“No, they… they already know what became of them. Just focus on fixing the mess.”

“They’re never telling us what we’re supposed to do, are they?”

“Father says you will only make the right choice if you go in blind”

“Of course he would say that…”

“Your highness!” A voice was heard in the background “there’s this redhead looking for you! They’re here to see someone dead apparently— are they even allowed to do that?”

Dante rolled his eyes.

“Gotta go, Hyacinth is here to hang out— don’t die or whatever”

He disappeared from view and the connection was cut.

“So… are we going to acknowledge your little brother hangs out with—“

“We don’t talk about Dante’s questionable friendships” they both answered in unison.

“Think this new professor will be decent?” Lavender Brown asked loudly as the Gryffindors walked inside the DADA classroom.

“I mean, he is hot at least…” one of her friends giggled.

Hermione huffed as she put down her things, rolling her eyes.

“He hardly looks the part. Dresses so unprofessional and he even got in a fight with two students. I don’t have much hope”

Ron sat besides her, leaving Harry to third wheel just behind them.

“Well, since Umbridge we haven’t had much luck with DADA professors… we even had Snape” he added with a scowl.

“If bad comes to worse, we have Harry”

Said Harry laughed nervously and they had to leave it at that because the Hufflepuffs came in followed by the infamous new professor. That particular day he was dressed in torn dark jeans heavily scribbled with white, in unintelligible symbols. He only was wearing a tank top underneath his open robe, and at least three different chains around his neck.

“You” he tossed a piece of chalk to Ron as he passed by “you’re writing assistant. Go take notes”

Ron grumbled but he got up from his seat and made his way to the front as the rest snickered. The professor leaned against his desk, arms crossed.

“Name’s Caelestis Löwe. You may call me by my last name, and I am warning you from now; I am spiteful and the slightest thing you do that bothers me will be used against you. I don’t want to be here, I don’t care about you or your grades, and it is not my problem if you don’t end up learning sh*t. As your classmates may have told you I have impossible standards for homework, and I’m sure they’ve already told you all about the one I left for them. Well, you have to do the same. No, I won’t give the explanation all over again”

Hermione looked even more horrified now, but rather wisely stayed silent. Or maybe she just was too shocked to speak. The professor waited while Ron noted down what he said, examining each one of them with his unnerving dark eyes, as if looking directly into their souls. They were all glad when Ron finished.

“You can sit down, redhead. Today’s lesson is focused on the types of magic there is, don’t bother to ask why—“

Everyone started to take notes, as he spoke fluently and without pause. It was a rather complicated lecture, but they had to admit it was very interesting. When Caelestis finally took a break, Hermione immediately raised her hand.

“What?”

“Yes, well- I was wondering sir, if we are going to continue with duelling lessons like last year, with the… war and all”

“You will have certain practical classes to review what you’ve learnt, does that answer your question?”

“Yes, but I couldn’t help but check in the syllabus that there isn’t any actively defensive spells, just passive protection methods with use out of battle and—“

“Let me be absolutely clear” he interrupted her rambling, putting his hands inside his pockets. “I do not care if you can’t defend yourself in battle. My job is to teach you Defence Against the Dark Arts, and that is what I will do. Wether you apply what I teach you is not my problem”

The students looked at each other, baffled by his coldness and nonchalant admission of disregard for their safety.

“But there’s a war going on!” Harry couldn’t help but say out loud, and heads turned to see him.

“You’re children. You’re delusional if you think you can contribute anything of worth”

“Tell that to the mass murderer going around!”

“Hmm” That tiny sound was the closest thing to amusem*nt. The only sign of emotion they had seen in the professor. “You are tired, of running around to save your life. You want just a normal life… but don’t fool yourself, Potter. You’re not special. You could die and it would not mean anything to this world, for with or without prophecy the Dark Lord will vanish- and it won’t be your doing.” He took a pause, tilted his head slowly, and then continued speaking “It is only the blindfold that the puppet master has put around everyone’s eyes what makes everyone think you hold any weight in what’s to come. You’re a mediocre student with no outstanding abilities and whose legacy will have no value. You’re not a hero. You don’t have what it takes.”

Everyone was staring openmouthed at the vicious professor, who pushed himself off the desk and pulled out his wand from his sleeve, flicking it in the air for a pile of books by the desk to float to the desk, where they came down in a messy mountain.

“Now, thanks to the snarky four eyes, this class will have a bonus assignment. Each will pick a book at random and give me a three— no, five meter length essay about what you learnt. No, it has nothing to do with the lesson and you won’t learn anything of use from any of them, and if you don’t do it then thats forty points taken from your house. For each person. You have three weeks to present it.”

And without further discussion he went back to talking about blood rituals. The rest of the class went by in absolute silence.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

There was a short knock on the door and then it was pushed ajar, the tall frame of one Caelestis Löwe seeming like a shadow with the dark corridor behind him.

“Did you call for me, headmaster?”

“Ah, there you are my boy. Please come in”

The young man walked forwards and sat down, crossing his legs and folding his hands on his lap.

“Tea?” Dumbledore offered, gesturing to the teapot resting on the desk.

“No”

Dumbledore smiled and he took his time in preparing his own cup, while the punk looked around the room completely disinterested.

Caelestis Löwe was… not someone he would’ve chosen to teach, but times were hard and he was desperate. Besides, he had been recommended by someone he did trust.

To be honest, it had been very surprising to him when Remus Lupin suddenly mentioned an ‘acquaintance’ that absolutely nobody in the order had ever heard about. The werewolf was a simple man, someone who Dumbledore knew in and out, yet he somehow knew this mysterious much younger man that had absolutely no records of ever studying in any of the known magic schools, with zero recommendations from any previous job and who on top of that was surrounded by a strong, nearly suffocating aura of raw power.

He was cynical, rude, impossible to read or satisfy. He had gotten into physical fights with two students, insulted Harry publicly, and made a second year poor Hufflepuff cry for three days straight.

And here he had thought Severus was a harsh teacher!

This man was possibly an enemy. But if Dumbledore could use him for his own gain, then it might be a good thing he was here after all.

“Tell me, my boy, what do you know about the Dark Lord?” he asked, looking over his glasses with twinkling eyes.

The potions’ classroom was bubbling with conversation as students brewed. Snape didn’t look happy about it, but then again he never looked happy about anything. Fortunately he seemed to be busy checking some essays so he wasn’t breathing down their necks.

“So, what did Dumbledore say Harry? Do you know where the next Horrocrux is?” Hermione whispered as she cut into the mandrake roots.

Harry sighed, adding his own ingredients to his slightly off colour potion.

“Well, he thinks V- you-know-who used the relics of the founders. But since the locket we found isn’t even the real thing we need to find where the actual one is hidden”

“R.A.B…. who do you think that could be?”

“Dumbledore probably knows and wants us to figure it out on our own” Ron huffed.

“Ron!”

“What? It’s true!”

Harry ignored their little fight in favour of mixing in his potion so it wouldn’t explode. He still had no idea how he’d managed to be accepted in Snape’s class given their horrible fight the year before, but he had the feeling McGonagall and Dumbledore had something to do with it.

“Well all that horrocrux hunting is fine but here in Hogwarts there could be trouble” Ron added later, gesturing to the Slytherins.

Harry and Hermione looked over more subtly. Aside from the fact most of them were suspected Death Eaters, there were now two new students that seemed very suspicious.

“I investigated what they said” Hermione whispered, looking down at her cauldron “but I couldn’t find anything about a camp”

“It does sound weird” Ron threw his mandrake roots in messily “there are very good schools in USA, and I think they have pretty strict rules— my father mentioned it’s illegal not to send your kids to school.”

“Exactly” she pointed out “and to be an educational institution of any kind you need a lot of documentation and to be registered properly. Which means they either studied illegally in a place where they most likely taught them shady stuff, or…”

“… or they lied and they’re just spies” Harry completed.

It was possible. Jackson did have a knife on him when they met on the train, and they looked… out of place.

“Harry” Ron hissed, holding his arm in a bruising hold.

“What?”

He followed Ron’s line of sight and paled. The pair was talking between themselves while they worked, but di Angelo’s sleeve had ridden up a bit, showing the start of a tattoo on his left forearm. It was just for a few seconds before his movements naturally brought down his sleeve and it went out of sight.

“They’re definitely Death Eaters” the redhead whispered furiously.

“We have to tell Dumbledore” Hermione agreed worriedly.

“Well yeah but… are we sure he can do something? I mean, Malfoy is one too and he’s still here” Harry pointed out.

They stayed silent for a moment, grimly considering their options. It was true. Some Slytherins had been essentially confirmed to be Death Eaters, but with the ministry basically in Voldemort’s hands, they couldn’t do anything about it and the school had been forced to let them attend. Not to mention many of their parents were on the board so it wasn’t that hard.

“This sucks…”

“Tell me about it”

At that moment though, there was a loud crash as a bunch of crystal phials fell to the floor.

“f*ckING TARTARUS—!”

Jackson smashed his hand on di Angelo’s mouth to shut him up, but they already had the attention of the entire classroom, and even worse, Snape. The professor put down his quill and stood up, walking towards their table slowly, looking very unhappy.

“What is the meaning of this?” he snapped.

“Uh… well, we accidentally pushed those off the table, sorry” Jackson apologised, looking a little embarrassed.

Snape looked down at both their cauldrons and scowled.

“And do tell me, who allowed you both into this classroom when you can’t brew something as simple as this?”

The Slytherins snickered and even the Gryffindors had to hide smiles, because well… their class had been already very reduced since only those with the highest grades could take the course in sixth and seventh year, so all of them were at the very minimum, decent in potions.

“Excuse me?” Jackson raised his eyebrow, letting go of di Angelo, who suddenly looked very pleased and eager.

“I should’ve known you would be a disgrace for our house the second you walked in” Snape ignored him, sneering down at Jackson “Clean up and get out of my classroom”

The green eyed young man slowly crossed his arms over his chest, and didn’t move. Not for a long, looooong while, squinting at him. Finally Snape snapped at him.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Uh, hold on a sec, I’m trying to find out whether you’re really big bad and mean, or just bitchy”

It was not an exaggeration to say all their jaws dropped. Nobody, ever, had the balls to insult Snape like that. Sure, Harry had been snappy at him ever since he first started Hogwarts, but not outwardly hostile to him. That’s how it worked! You keep your mouth shut around him, and then talk sh*t behind his back.

Snape’s face had become red, something new.

“You—!”

“Hey, don’t raise your voice at me!” Jackson cut in, placing a hand over his chest “It’s not my fault you’re a terrible teacher! Or maybe you really don’t care about potions at all and you just get off on torturing children I suppose…”

Di Angelo snickered out loud, unable to contain his laughter, almost doubled over as he tried to breathe. Everyone else was practically frozen in their place. Snape turned to also yell at di Angelo, but Jackson snapped his fingers in front of his face, calling back his attention.

“I’m not done with you— and don’t you dare talk sh*t to my boyfriend”

Would you look at that. Snape’s face contorted in disgust, but he didn’t have time to say anything.

“Aw, are your feelings hurt because other people dare to be happy?” Jackson pouted, speaking almost in a baby voice and batting his eyelashes “Is almost as if you’d be likeable if you weren’t hom*ophobic or transphobic huh…”

“What does transphobia have to do with anything!” Snape managed to blurt out.

“Yelling at me is very transphobic of you, I’ll let you know” He didn’t seem like he meant it, he probably was just trying to rile him up and it was working.

Snape spluttered a bit but finally managed to get something out.

“I don’t f*cking care what you are, just— get out of my sight!”

“Oh that’s a relief, but no thanks I think I’ll stay”

“That wasn’t a suggestion! Now go out or else!”

“Or else what? You’re gonna drag your greasy hair across my face?” Jackson leant forwards, voice dripping with maliciousness.

The whole classroom almost gasped in unison and a short, tense pause proceeded to take place, before Jackson picked up a random ingredient from his desk and threw it into the cauldron, that let out a little cloud of pretty, purple-ish smoke.

“Would you look at that, the perfect colour and consistency!” picking up his stuff and passing di Angelo his own bag, he paused to look at Snape. “You should probably pick all that mess up before ingredients mix… don’t ever try to insinuate I am incompetent again, bitch”

With that said, he turned his face away and grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, who obediently and quite happily followed him outside.

The door closed with a bang behind them.

(Nobody else passed that class because, in their shock, they had all missed the proper timing to add crucial ingredients)

When Harry made his way to dinner that night, he caught everyone talking and gossiping as if their lives depended on it. Sitting down with his friends, he looked around very confused.

“Is this because of Potions earlier?”

“Yes and no” Ginny was almost vibrating in her seat, eyes wide “everyone is talking about that yes, but…”

“But?” Hermione encouraged her to continue as she filled her plate.

Ginny grinned.

“Well, Filch was doing his normal rounds during potions class, and since the two transfers weren’t in the classroom—“ her voice was suggestive, but seeing as the trio didn’t get it she rolled her eyes “Filch caught them in a compromising position. Whatever it was, he still hasn’t said a word out of shock”

“Probably has to do with the fact di Angelo was balls deep inside Jackson—“ Lavender snickered.

The other girls all broke down in laughter, while the boys (and Hermione) looked pretty horrified.

“Where?” Ron managed to get out.

“In the hallway that leads down to the dungeons” Ginny happily supplied “against a wall”

“Dear Merlin, don’t they have any shame!?” Hermione exclaimed, face completely red.

The girls laughed even louder and Ginny pat her arm.

“Mione dearest, they’re two young adult men who seem to be very obsessed with each other, it’s really no surprise”

“But, but—“ Ron tried to speak coherently “they fight all the time!”

Lavender rolled her eyes.

“You boys are all so blind and dumb I swear…”

The rest of dinner went on more or less like that, and for a moment Harry forgot all about them being Death Eaters. Once they were done with their food the Gryffindors left the hall together since they were still debating about the rumours, and that’s how they found themselves standing in the middle of the grand stairs, just as many other students gathered around none other than the transfer students.

They were seated on the floor, a black and gold board between them and each with a deck of cards by their side. They looked pretty concentrated, and everyone around them eager.

“What are they doing?” Ginny asked curiously.

“Shhh” Luna Lovegood shushed her and pulled them closer to the front “they’re playing a game. It’s pretty tense at the moment”

Di Angelo finally moved, selecting a card and putting it down.

“I activate Akhlys and take three stacks of poison debuff” that said he moved one of the cards on his side of the board forwards “which makes Thanatos regain full health and gives me a second turn. Your Amphitrite takes critical damage”

He looked pretty smug, and Jackson cursed loudly, frowning and taking away the card on the furthest right, tossing it to a discard pile.

“Is it about Greek myths?” Hermione whispered to Luna.

“Yes, Nico has cards from the underworld and Percy from the sea”

Jackson was tapping his own knee impatiently as he examined his cards before finally putting a new one down.

“f*ck it. I use Triton’s shield to hold back Nerites. Okeanos holds Thanatos and now you lost your damage dealer”

Di Angelo pushed the Thanatos card forwards and Jackson added it to a secondary, considerably smaller pile. However just after that he grinned again and the green eyed beauty paled.

“No. No, no, no, no.”

Di Angelo raised a card and put it down dramatically, grinning wildly.

“Tartarus is out and your Okeanos is locked.”

“You used all your energy on that attack with Thanatos!” Jackson protested “Tartarus is a six energy card!”

“Oh yes, but you blocked Nerites with Triton’s shield, babe” di Angelo laughed “and he was holding hostage my Hypnos, which grants me extra energy”

Jackson groaned.

“I’m so f*cking stupid!”

“Your turn”

Jackson looked pretty defeated at that point so he just sighed.

“Triton surrenders the shield and deals…” he rolled a dice that had been laying forgotten to the side. “a completely pathetic third of damage…”

“Tartarus gives me all your cards” di Angelo reached forwards and took the four cards on the board, adding them to his pile. “And I win”

Jackson let his cards fall and he ruffled his own hair in frustration while everyone gasped and clapped in awe.

“This is so unfair! You’re a cheater!”

Di Angelo sent a kiss his way.

“Come on, don’t be a sore loser. I mean, I’m the current world champion so…”

“You’ve been five times in a f*cking row” he grumbled.

Di Angelo extended his hand.

“My prize?”

Jackson glared at him and pulled something out of his pocket, placing it on his palm. It seemed like a stack of coupons or something? They really couldn’t see well because he pocketed it quickly. Then they each recovered their cards.

“So” the punk spoke loudly as he reordered his deck “anyone wants to give it a go?”

The audience started talking quickly as they all debated whether to try it or not.

“Wouldn’t it be unfair?” Hermione spoke up while crossing her arms “You know all the rules of the game and we don’t. Plus it seems like you have a winning deck”

He shrugged putting his cards in a case.

“If you think that’s the case…” he reached to the side that had been obscured by his body from their angle and dragged a box into view. “My opponent can choose a different deck to give me completely at random, and they can also choose their own. If you win… I’ll give you the deck”

Most turned to look at Jackson for help, who looked impressed.

“I would take that deal, his decks are worth like, a lot of money”

Now looking excited, they considered even more. However it was Ginny the one to step forwards, rolling up her sleeves.

“Bring it on! I’ll take the odds”

The Gryffindors cheered on her and Jackson moved to be at the side of the board so she could take his place, holding the box on his lap.

“I’ll let Percy help you”

“Sure”

Jackson rummaged through the box while di Angelo took it upon himself to organise his discarded cards.

“So this game’s pretty even, regardless of what deck you use. You need to combine two to make a winning one and you can use nearly every combination available without issues if you’re clever enough, but we don’t have time to have you read the guide” he explained, and the Gryffindors gathered closer to them in curiosity “For a beginner, a support deck that gives you buffs and inflicts debuffs combined with a damage one would be easiest to handle”

As he spread some for her, she examined them closely.

“The cards don’t say what their effects are”

“Yep, that’s why you need the booklet each has. Nico has them memorised” he pointed to the back of each case, which did have a small booklet attached.

“Ok, cool— and I can combine any?”

“Yes. But there are cards that have less flexibility, so these—“ he put some back in the box “are out of the question”

Ginny hummed as she looked through her options.

“I like this, Apollo?”

“Good choice for support, a lot of good healers”

“And this one”

“Monster deck, yes. It’s doable”

“And what are the dice for?” she asked as she examined the rest to choose a combination for her opponent.

“Just for certain cards, because they can deal insane amounts of damage you need to roll a dice to see if you land a critical hit or not. But you don’t need it for the monster deck”

She grabbed one of the decks he’d taken out.

“Aphrodite?”

“Her cards inflict a lot of debuffs but don’t deal damage nor give any other support. Plus the low health, it’s a high risk”

“What’s a low damage deck?”

Jackson chuckled and he grabbed one from the box.

“You’ll want Ares. It needs to be combined with a high support deck”

“Perfect!” she handed those two to di Angelo, who smiled and started to unpack them.

They took a moment to prepare, in which she read a bit of the booklets and organised the cards according to what she understood. Jackson put away the other decks and the dice, as well as his own cards. The audience sat down or got comfortable around them, taking a lot of space in the middle of the staircase, but almost nobody was passing by so they didn’t care.

“Alright!” Ginny cracked her knuckles “who starts?”

Almost an hour later, Ginny was frowning at her cards and everyone was leaning in, interested. So far it had been a tie, as she had gotten the rules of the game pretty quickly and Jackson had complimented her multiple times.

Di Angelo had a perfect poker face even when he complimented her, so it was very hard to tell if he felt pressured or not. Body relaxed and a casual pose, he truly was a pro.

Leaning towards her coach, Ginny showed him the cards discreetly.

“If I do this and then… yea, it could work”

“Probably” Jackson nodded “but you only have one shot and it needs to be perfect”

She hummed and rubbed her chin with her fingers, before taking a card and putting it down.

“I put down Apollo and my team’s health and energy are restored by fifty percent” she said confidently “With the extra turn the Sun Chariot gives me, I use Ladon and burn down the enemy team”

The audience clapped and cheered for her, while di Angelo stared at the board for long moments. Eventually everyone grew silent and nervous, and then he raised his head and smirked. Ginny’s smile vanished as he gathered his own cards and put them in her pile.

“With a clean board I need four cards” he explained calmly as he put down the first “Paris inflicts a lovelaced debuff that drains energy. Phobos deals poison damage and Narcissus inflicts a mirror debuff that blocks passive abilities” he paused as he played with the last card, for everyone’s frustration “but…”

“f*ckING HELL!” Jackson screamed as he realised.

“… Aphrodite comes down and nullifies Apollo’s healing. You have no energy for Ladon anymore”

Ginny gaped.

“You already used her!”

Jackson almost cried for real.

“f*ckkkkk! He has two of them! The one he used before was the bonus card, Goddess of Love!”

“And since you don’t have any more energy you loose your turn, at which point I activate Phobos’ critical ability and finish off your Manticore” he reached forwards, taking the card “with this I have ten golden cards and I win”

Ginny dropped her cards.

“You’re evil!” she protested “I was so close, I only needed two more cards! How did you do that?”

Di Angelo laughed and with his boyfriend started to put everything away.

“I did say I was the world champion, didn’t I? I’ve been playing for many years, I know every possible combination. Not even Percy can win against me and he’s known me since we were like six”

“It’s true” Jackson admitted with a sigh “I can literally tell you what he’s thinking right now, but not when he’s playing”

“So you were playing along?”

“Well…”

Upon her squinting, he gave up.

“Fine, yes. I knew you’d lose the second you put down your fourth card”

“On the first round??”

Di Angelo shrugged at the many wide eyes fixed upon him.

“Well, I know each single card so I know every possible combination, and once you put down your first four I know which ones are left and then I can narrow down the moves— and as you keep making moves, you just keep eliminating possibilities on your own, the path becomes clearer and eventually there’s an end”

There was a stunned silence.

“So you had countermoves for every single move I made?” she asked slowly.

“Yep”

“You calculatedevery single possibility an hour ago”

“Yep”

“f*ck, do you realise you’re a genius?”

“That’s what Ikeep telling him!” Jackson agreed with her.

Di Angelo dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

“It’s not that hard, I’m sure plenty of other people can do that—“

“No we can’t!” almost all the audience said in unison.

Jackson moved closer to him and held his face.

“Nico. Love. You started rambling about maths a mile an hour when I asked you, jokingly, how much chocolate chips there were in Reyna’s kitchen. And when you said an exact number, she countedevery single one for over an hour, and she proved you right”

“Well I like numbers” he blushed slightly, letting out a little huff “it’s not like I can—“

“How many people do you think there’s in Hogwarts?” Jackson interrupted.

“A thousand and two” he answered automatically.

Jackson looked towards the students around them for confirmation.

“He’s right” Hermione spoke up, looking quite impressed despite herself.

“Besides I don’t know anyone else who can tell me the exact movements of the planets according to where they will be the next few days relative to the Earth!”

“I mean if you just have a telescope and make the basic numbers—“

“Basic!? Nicola di Angelo repeat that one more time I dare you!”

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Before they knew it, it was almost time for Christmas break. Before that happened though, various things came down. Most important, the fact that Dumbledore declared they would have a Yule Ball to celebrate and ‘cheer everyone up’. Because surely a war was the best time for a party.

Still, he wasn’t entirely wrong about lifting up the spirits so they decided- why not.

Percy hated school dances and he hated dressing up formally, but then Nico had dragged him down onto their bed and thoroughly convinced him to attend.

The only reason he said yes was that his boyfriend would share the suffering. After all, a school dance with zero alcohol was not worth it. Not that it mattered anyway… demigods simply couldn’t get drunk with mortal liquor. At camp, it was normally the nymphs that made wine for them and it was absolutely delightful. Once, Percy won a poker match with Mr. D and got to try the god’s wine. He was drunk for about four days and hungover for six.

Wizard’s robes were still too f*cking weird to them so they just dressed up in normal casual clothing and attended hand in hand. By this point, the weird glances had subsided since everyone already had them tagged as the weirdos troublemakers so nobody spared them a second glance.

“Why did you want to come? This is so lame” Percy whined as he dropped down on a chair.

Nico sat next to him and pulled him closer, pressing a kiss to his neck as he didn’t give a single f*ck about being in public.

“I wanted to keep an eye on Potter and his friends”

Percy raised a brow.

“Why?”

“Remember how I said I felt a disturbance a week ago?”

“Yea”

Nico looked over to the three friends, who were by a little corner but still surrounded by Gryffindors. Harry was awkwardly trying to talk to that cool redhead -what was she called again…? Ginny!-, and Ron was talking with Hermione in a poor attempt at flirting.

“It was almost like a death, so I must assume they destroyed a piece of the bad guy’s soul”

At first they didn’t know what an horrocrux was, but just a few trips to the library(‘s forbidden section) later, it became obvious what was going on. Nico was pretty horrified— splitting your soul was irreversible and brutal, and doing it as many times as seven… But what was worse in his eyes was the act of destroying someone’s soul. He still couldn’t shake away the slight anger, even though he kept telling himself it was necessary.

“I hope they know what they’re doing…”

“It is a step towards ending the war” he conceded “but I can’t help but feel uneasy. Like something’s out of place”

Percy pressed his face on his boyfriend’s neck to soothe him. The thing about demigod senses is that you just can’t ignore them because most of the time it means your life is going to sh*t in the upcoming days. And though Nico was strong, Percy still felt like he needed to protect him just like when they were kids.

Back then, the son of Hades was a small little thing who always looked scared and woke up screaming every night without fault. Often during their sleepovers Percy would wake to find him curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth. He then hugged him until he stopped trembling and then they would curl up together under the blankets.

Bianca always said he was calling for attention and asked him to stop it. Percy had never really liked her to be honest— Either way, the mystery remained until they discovered that Nico was just incredibly sensitive to death. The constant headaches, the nosebleeds, the occasional faint spells but most importantly the nightmares; all of it was because he was constantly feeling people die. Eventually he learnt to tune it out, but sometimes Percy still feared to wake up in the middle of the night to see him crying.

“We’ll be ok” he tried to assure “There’s no gods involved so it can’t be that bad, right?”

Nico kissed his forehead.

“Exactly. And if any of them tries to ruin this for us, I’m kicking their ass”

Percy let out a giggle and laced their fingers together.

For a while they sat, watching the other students laugh and talk between them. The hall was decorated with crystals and in blue and silver colours, with a huge tree replacing the teachers’ table and sparkling reindeers made of tiny lights prancing all over the place.

“Hey” Nico nudged him “wanna dance?”

“Are you really asking me? The one who stepped on Piper’s feet every single step when they tried to teach me a waltz?”

“Yes, you, little mermaid”

“Zombie”

“Fish-boy”

“Ghosty”

They continued bickering as they walked towards the dance floor, at which point Nico pulled him forwards without warning. Percy yelped, but he was caught swiftly and an arm was placed around his waist.

“Hey, what was that?”

His lips were shut by a kiss and he closed his eyes, instant forgiveness being given.

“Your arms, Perce” Nico whispered against his lips.

He blushed and obediently put his arms around Nico’s neck. They swayed from side to side, not really on beat with the music but it was decent enough to be considered dancing.

This was… perfect.

Standing there, arms around each other and dressed in normal day-to-day clothes while everyone else was shining in formal robes.

No monsters, no time-sensitive quests, no one to interrupt because they weren’t at camp where people needed them all the time.

Just the two of them.

“Percy?”

“Hmm?” he opened his eyes, brushing Nico’s hair behind his ear in a caress.

“I love you”

Happiness bubbled inside him.

“I love you too”

Another kiss was pressed on his lips.

“So uh… we’ve known each other for twelve years now”

Percy tilted his head, curious as to where this was going.

“Yep”

“And we’ve taken care of each other since day one”

“Yep”

Sure, things had not been easy. There were those four awful years when Nico and Bianca were moved to Colorado and he had to learn about his dad by himself. And there were all those awkward moments that came with puberty, and many misunderstandings because Percy was somehow a girl magnet and Nico often got jealous back then. And of course the wars and the struggles they had.

“What if” his voice was barely a whisper now, but he sounded sure of himself, confident. “we were to just stay together. Now, and wherever the gods tell us to go, or when- when Zeus finally wears us down and our parents get to retire and we replace them”

Percy kissed his jaw. “I thought that was already a given…?”

Nico snorted softly and squeezed him a little tighter.

“You’re an idiot. I’m asking you to marry me”

Those two words sucked all breath from his lungs and he looked up at his boyfriend with wide eyes. He would be lying if he said he’d never thought about it but- well, it was still shocking.

“Now? I mean not now but I mean, uh—“

“Why not? We can take as long as we want to plan and actually do the deed. It’s only a matter of time either way”

No normal eighteen year olds should be talking about marriage but they were not normal. They didn’t know if they would actually live long enough to see their thirtieth birthday, if they would go to university, if they would ever be able to have kids or buy a house or a car or whatever else is that normal people do.

“Yes” he blurted out without much more thinking, standing on his tiptoes to kiss him deeply “f*ck, yes”

They held each other tightly, as if letting go might become painful, and they kissed for a long time until another couple bumped on them because they had stopped moving, at which point they hurried out of the Great Hall entirely and out into the dimly lit hallway.

Percy was grinning widely as he was caught between a wall and his fiancé (fiancé!), pulling him closer by his jacket to kiss him again.

Christmas eve and christmas day were spent on New York with Sally, who cried when her baby told her proudly that he was going to get married. She had seen them grow up glued at the hip and she was so happy for them. It seemed to her as if it had been just yesterday, when her tiny son had come home grabbing the hand of a crying little boy asking if they could have cookies because Nico had scraped his knee but “he was very brave and you said if I’m brave I can have cookies!”.

Life had always been tumultuous for her darling Percy, ever since he was a child… Even though he always sported a smile on his face and had an open loving heart, he was continuously hurt— most of his sassy and snarky personality came from learning to defend himself from ignorant and bigoted people. And just when he was starting into the hardest phase of his life, his world crumbled all around him and everything he’d ever known turned out to be a lie. He was a teen, battling with his body developing in ways he hated, lonely ever since his only friend had to move away, and continuously teased for being a freak— But instead of giving up, he made the best of it. He adapted to this new world in a heartbeat, found his way and made himself at home in between other kids like him.

Sally couldn’t be more proud of him.

She wiped away a tear before Paul noticed her becoming emotional and continued moving along the kitchen, enjoying the cheesy music coming from the radio. The sun had risen a long time ago, but presents were always more important that breakfast, hence the lateness. In the living room, Paul was helping Laura assemble her new doll house with infinite patience for their two year old, and the couple of boys were sprawled on the couch on top of each other and speaking quietly in italian.

She remembered Paul once asked her if she wasn’t worried for Percy, looking concerned. Back then the boys were around fifteen, hesitantly dating but also incredibly awkward around each other. Paul and Sally had only recently started being close friends, and he obviously had no clue of anything just yet but he had still been looking out for Percy as his teacher.

Sally had then looked at Nico, who at the moment had been organising his mythomagic cards, sitting in their living room, and almost laughed because the idea of Percy ever getting hurt by his hand was just… funny.

Maybe once she had been worried, justifiably so. The boys had been apart for years, and she was terrified when Percy came with a huge smile and told her Nico was back. People -specially kids- change so fast, and teenagers can be so cruel, intentionally or not. And then… then he stayed a week with them before school. An entire week he spent looking at Percy like he’d hung the stars, like he was the only thing that mattered. Just like when they were little.

No, Sally wasn’t worried. She was grateful. This, she could thank the gods for… for sending an angel that could look after her son. Someone who respected Percy for who he was, who wouldn’t treat him like he was fragile and needed protecting. Someone who would defend him fiercely and put people in their place whenever they mistreated him. Someone who loved him so deeply and so unconditionally that he would go through Tartarus itself for him.

Laura ran pass the kitchen screaming.

“Mommy!!! Percy don’t wanna share Nico again!!!”

Percy sprung up from the couch, looking betrayed.

“You’re telling on me!?”

Nico laughed as he sat up.

“You heard the princess, Perce. It’s her turn”

“You’re supposed to be on myside!”

Sally chuckled and watched as Percy whined and faked cried, since Laura had climbed on top of Nico and now refused to let go.

As long as her children could smile like this, carefree and happy… everything would be perfect.

For New Years eve, Percy couldn’t be bothered to do anything special and he wanted peace and quiet that they wouldn’t get with camp’s midnight festivities, so Nico brought them to Hades’ palace and they went to sleep early, curled up together.

When he woke up the next morning -presumably, since there was no sunlight to tell-, he groaned into the pillow and reluctantly rolled away from the comfort of his fiancé’s arms, but he didn’t get very far because said fiancé refused to let go.

“Where are you going…” he heard a protest.

Percy pressed a kiss against his temple.

“Bathroom. Now get off”

Nico yawned and started to stir himself awake.

“Don’t wanna…”

“I willstab you, and you know it. Off”

He let out a snort and pushed him away.

By the time he came back, all refreshed, Nico was leaning with his back against the headboard and still looking half asleep, though he’d gathered more blankets and pillows for them to cuddle. Percy climbed into his lap and fetched the half-full bag of blue m&ms from the nightstand.

“I was thinking—“

“Careful, don’t hurt yourself”

Just for that, Nico earned a sharp elbow to the ribs.

“I was thinkin’“ Percy repeated, putting a handful of m&ms in his mouth “about after we finish this mission”

Nico wrapped his arms around his waist, pressing light kisses against his neck and sneaking his cold hands under his shirt. Percy giggled and let him be, because he actually did enjoy how handsy his fiancé could be.

“And what comes included in your plans, young sir?”

The bag was dropped on the bed, far enough as to not spill over, and he shifted to straddle his lap, arms around his shoulders.

“Maybe… we can move in together?”

Nico bit a bright red mark on his throat.

“Is that what you want, baby?” he whispered, squeezing his hips and sucking another sweet spot “To play house?”

“Mmm, why not…” he sighed happily, making a mess off of Nico’s hair “I love mom but my childhood bedroom is getting cramped and Laura will need her own room soon. They can’t afford to move, me leaving makes sense… specially if I’m getting married to a rich, hot prince”

“We aren’t staying down here” he sentenced immediately.

“Oh f*ck, no. I would be driven mad”

Sure, Hades’ palace was nice, but Percy still liked the sun ok? Besides, almost all of Nico’s siblings stayed at least half time down there and what he wanted was privacy, thank you very much.

“Cool. New York then?”

“Babe I don’t wanna live in that trash city”

Nico let out a snort and pulled him into a proper kiss, distracting him from the conversation for a good while, until Percy let out a whine and pulled away, putting a hand on his mouth to stop him.

“Would you stoptrying to get into my pants for five seconds—? Anyway, CHB is to stay for the summer but I can’t see myself living there full-time between kids, and while New Rome is cool and all, I just don’t vibe with the romans that well” Percy likedthem, but he just didn’t finish fitting in. He was -in Reyna’s words- the embodiment of disaster. He was… too greek. “So it has to be away from the mess of a city, preferably by the sea, but not in the middle of nowhere. If it has space to have guests stay over sometimes it would be nice”

The impatient son of Hades spun them around on the bed, pining him down and sinking between his legs to leave more bite marks on the inside of his thighs.

“Any more demands, your majesty?” he asked, but his usual sarcasm was forgotten in favour of a low sultry voice. Bastard knew he was weak to it.

“Well now I don’t remember because you’re distracting me!”

Nico gave him a malicious grin.

“Did you expect me to notpounce on you when you’re only wearing my shirt?”

Percy tugged on his long, stupidly soft hair and brushed it away from his face. How did he look so sexy with that bed head?

“This old thing? I thought you didn’t like it anymore” he grinned, looking down at the faded black fabric “you haven’t used it in months”

Nico rolled his eyes, biting the soft squish of his thigh before stopping with his torture -albeit momentarily. Climbing up his body, he pulled him into a deep kiss, thrusting his hips teasingly. Predictably, Percy let out a gasp and instantly wrapped his legs around his waist.

“Is that how it’s gonna be? Pretending you didn’t steal it?”

“Aw, come on! Stealing your partner’s clothes is like, a universal law—“

“Hmm”

“—and you get really horny when I do it, so it’s a win-win for me. Like, you should really see yourself right now—“

“Percy, baby, shut the f*ck up”

“Or what? Wait no don’t go I’ll be nice!”

Golden lights danced in the air, roaring fires lighting up small camps. Tables overflowing with all sorts of delicacies, good music being played and groups dancing between laughter and cheer. It was a beautiful sight, a simple yet perfect paradise… everyone was enjoying themselves and the company.

Well, all except a young man of golden locks of hair and soft silk wrapped around his thin frame. There was no smile on his rosy lips nor happiness in his bright blue eyes, instead a desperate expression contorting his face. Many knew him because he’d never once been truly happy between them, and for the incessant questions he asked without answer, but this time— well, he was not supposed to be in this party. Not in these isles, he had not yet won that privilege, and he was breaking sacred rules for daring to step in.

He carefully looked over his shoulder, paranoid that he would be caught any second, and slipped past a group of very tall women excitedly speaking in ancient greek.

“You look a bit lost”

The young man jumped and turned to face whoever had spoken, colour draining from his face. The person in question was another man, with similarly golden hair brushing his shoulders and decorated with a crown of laurels and blooming flowers. He was taller than the intruder, with bronze skin and considerable muscle mass without seeming bulky in the slightest. From a distance, he could’ve been confused by one of the women.

“You’re not supposed to be here”

The intruder gulped and looked around quickly, but if he ran then it would seem suspicious. Besides, it looked like a group by a bonfire were eyeing them between conversation.

“Hey” the warrior, for he was undoubtedly one, waved a hand in front of his face “I’m not going to turn you in or anything, you know? This is totally something I would’ve done”

The intruder examined his face distrustfully, but eventually determined that he had no other choice but to trust he was being truthful. Besides, he needed answers quickly. That was the reason he was risking his very soul so recklessly.

“Sorry” he apologised at last, his voice carrying a slight french accent “I… I needed to find help”

The warrior looked him up and down.

“You’re definitely not a hero on a quest… Are you even a demigod?”

The intruder opened and closed his mouth, hesitant.

“No. No, I’m not. I am- washuman. Not completely normal, but not- not like you”

“Well, colour me intrigued. Come, you can join us by the fire and tell us your story. We may be able to help, and the longer you stand around looking like a criminal the sooner you will be caught”

Seeing no fault in that logic, the intruder followed him towards the bonfire. It was considerably smaller than some of the others, and only a few people sat around, sharing wine and meat.

He sat, uncomfortably looking down at the burning embers, while the blond man spoke to his group in ancient greek. He wished more than ever that he could understand their words, but he started to relax when nobody shot up to kick him away and instead looked at him with the same curiosity.

“You must be really desperate to sneak into the Isles of the Blest” one of them spoke. His eyes held a cunning glint and he looked older than the others, a short beard framing a handsome face. He was built like a bull, but the intruder could see he was the voice of reason “and either incredibly brave, or astonishingly stupid”

The intruder had the decency to look chastised.

“I know… But I tried everything else, and nothing worked. For years I went to every corner of Elysium, and nobody could do anything. Well, until— until a few months ago. I met a girl who said I needed a hero, but they’re much harder to find when you’re both dead and not part of their world”

A third warrior laughed. He was about the blond one’s age, though he had too grown a beard and was bulkier in size. His garments were made of the finest fabrics and the laurels in his dark hair were golden.

“All heroes you will meet here are dead, therefore I must assume you’re looking to contact the living” his accent was heavier than the first two, but his voice was pleasant “why would you look to break such a taboo?”

The intruder shifted slightly in his seat.

“Because I wish to save the man I love” during the few seconds he paused to order his thoughts, he was relieved to find his audience react with more curiosity and no judgement “he’s not a good man, this I am aware of, and he has fallen into the worst crimes of our society and perhaps the world at large. But even if I know this, I cannot stand aside and let him be destroyed”

“So you would… risk your stay in Elysium and a chance at reincarnation… for him? Even though you know he deserves what will become of him?” The blond warrior asked in bewilderment.

The intruder pursed his lips and clenched his fists on his lap, grabbing handfuls of his robes.

“I know what it sounds like, and I know that if you were aware of the extent of his crimes you would chastise me even more, but I haveto do something. I— He… He had nobody, from the moment he came into the world. Those who were supposed to care for him did not, and those who had the means to save him from that horrid life turned a blind eye to it instead. He was a pariah between the other children and instead of being welcomed between our classmates, they too treated him like he was beneath them. And I… I tried, I learnt to be kinder and I learnt that I had led a life of fantasy and luxury that was nothing like his, but how could I be enough? How could my love erase all those years of pain and suffering?” he quickly wiped off the stray tears that had rolled down his pale cheeks “He was never a good man, because he didn’t know what good meant, but he still had a spark left in him, he could still become something more than what everyone expected. And Iruined that by getting myself killed”

His fists gave out and he slumped down, as if finally out of fuel. The man sitting next to the blond warrior stood and moved to sit next to him, squeezing his shoulder in gentle comfort. He had a similar complexion to the blond warrior, but his skin was deep brown and he wore no laurels in his dark curls.

“I do not wish to push you further down, but your beloved will never be able to join you here, my friend”

The intruder nodded, perfectly aware.

“I know, he’s destined for the Fields of Punishment at best. I am no one to demand laws are changed for him, I have no power or authority over anyone. But he’s in worse danger, he—” he licked his lips, shivering despite the warmth of the fire “he cannot die unless all the pieces of his split soul are destroyed, but that means he will disappear forever”

The heroes sitting around the fire either paled or just looked straight up horrified at the thought. Glad to know it was a despicable thing regardless of culture or era.

The intruder saw as they looked at each other silently, and though it didn’t seem like they all had equal connection and familiarity to hold a conversation without words, they did have a mutual understanding in this… whatever ‘this’ was.

“Heroes cannot simply go wherever they wish, not without the gods dictating it” the cunning one said after a moment, refocusing on the intruder “however, Lord Hades is more lenient with his children than others, and the youngest prince will likely hear your plea”

Just like that? His hope must’ve been evident in his face because the elegantly dressed one cracked a sympathetic smile.

“I… I cannot leave Elysium though, I have tried”

The blond warrior grinned, a smile that was all mischief and chaos.

“Oh, that’s the best part: he should be around here today” he stood up with energy “Pat and I can take you”

It was much easier to walk between the two tall heroes. People gave them much more attention, but with the amicable smile ‘Pat’ gave them he understood it was because they were well known and not because they were catching that much attention. In fact, most completely ignored the intruder.

Perhaps in a better scenario he would’ve enjoyed the view. But focused as he was in his task, he could not. Some other time, if he could ever be forgiven for his sins and allowed to enter the Isles honestly, then he would take his time and admire everything… even though he didn’t want to be in the midst of that much beauty and cheer without his other half.

They found the prince of the Underworld in a place much different from the camps and bonfires, in a plaza of white marble and colourful statues. He was… young. Mustn’t have reached adulthood yet, dressed in strange muggle clothing that consisted on pale blue pants of a rough-looking fabric, laced shoes of white leather and a sweater that was much too big. His hair brushed his shoulders, coloured a soft pink, and he wore dangling earrings in the shape of tiny bells. Honestly, he didn’t look too much like a warrior or a hero, but hadn’t the world changed a lot since the time of the heroes he’d met?

When he noticed them, he tilted his head in curiosity. Up close, the intruder noticed he had a horrible and highly visible scar all around his neck, as if someone had sliced his throat opened.

“So here it was, the stray soul who caused so much chaos” he mumbled casually.

The intruder bit his lower lip and nodded in embarrassment.

“This young man wants to ask a favour, your highness” the blond hero said, voice dripping with sarcasm at the title “and I may ask personally that you aid him”

The prince quirked an eyebrow, utterly unmoved by his rudeness, and then down at the intruder, examining him with critical eyes.

“It will depend then, on whether it is within my reach. What’s your name, soul?”

The intruder took a deep breath.

“Abraxas, your highness. Abraxas Malfoy”

He expected many things, but not how his eyes widened slightly in recognition.

“You were a wizard?”

“I— yes” he blinked quickly, and then dared take a step forwards.

The prince frowned slightly, but it was a thoughtful expression and nothing more.

“But, what could you possibly want then? There’s little I can offer you”

He likely knew then, who his loved one was and what he’d done. There was no use in hiding it.

“I want to save Voldemort’s soul” he said with as much firmness as he could muster.

The boy looked at him in silence for another while, and Abraxas uncomfortably felt as if he was peering into his thoughts and memories, but that couldn’t be… could it.

“I cannot tell you if it’s possible or not. In fact, I can’t help you at all, I’m by far the weakest of my siblings” however, just as Abraxas was about to let himself sink in defeat, the tiniest of smiles formed on his lips “you are in luck, though. My brother, the Underworld’s heir, is staying in our father’s palace today”

The blond hero let out a snort, and his friend’s eyes shone with amusem*nt.

“Are those two still sticking together?”

The prince rolled his eyes.

“They’re worse than ever now that they’re engaged”

To this, they both gasped.

“Really? Give them our congratulations!”

“And tell that reckless kid to visit sometime” the blond one added.

“I will” the prince gestured with his head to Abraxas “come on”

Before leaving, the wizard turned to both heroes, but before he could thank them they had already started walking away and waved at him from afar. He gave them a hopeful smile and waved back, before stepping behind the son of Hades.

Chapter 7: [Special interlude: Percy's debut in Mythomagic]

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Abraxas didn’t dare ask anything while he was brought inside the palace, and the prince didn’t say a thing either, he didn’t seem like the chatty type. Instead he took the time to examine him closely, because the longer he stared the easier it was to notice the differences between demigods and normal humans. They simply caught a lot of attention, they looked… different, with an air of exotic beauty regardless of what their face looked like, and a heavy air surrounding them like a flame. It wasn’t magic, which felt like a light breeze or a gentle touch— it got under your skin and chilled your bones.

They stopped in front of a heavy double door guarded by a couple of armoured skeletons, who pushed it open for them to step into a room. The decorations were much less gloomier than the rest of the palace, white marble and gold making it seem brighter under the flickering flames that floated along the walls, and some vines and flowers growing inside from a window that looked out towards a flaming pit.

A young man sat between delicately embroidered pillows, holding a note pad and biting the end of a glittery blue pen. His dark hair had a blue tint to it under the lights and it was cut short to fluff around his head, though one small section of it was greying at the roots. He was dressed in white silk, much like the heroes in the Isles were, an exomis fastened on a single shoulder but with a string of colourful enamel pins in a variety of shapes and sizes giving it a shockingly modern look. He looked up when the door opened, tilting his head slightly and putting down the pen as his eyes examined Abraxas’ not-quite-material shape, and then the ghost could finally see his face; he was evidently not related to the prince at all, with bronze skin and intense sea green eyes.

“Uh… I take it you’re looking for one of your siblings?” he asked the prince “Hazel’s still up with the living and hell if I know where Caelestis is”

“Nico, actually”

“I mean, he should be back any second but he’s not in the best mood” he scrunched up his nose in sympathy.

The pink-haired prince grimaced.

“Bianca?”

“Bianca” then, the gorgeous stranger looked at Abraxas once again “Why do I feel I’ve seen that face before….?”

“Not his, but he said his last name’s Malfoy. You must’ve met a relative”

“Oh!” his face lit up in recognition “you’re a wizard!”

Abraxas nodded slowly.

“I was, yes”

“Is Draco Malfoy your… cousin? Nephew? Something like that?”

The ghost frowned slightly as he thought about it.

“I don’t recognise the name, but I did not have any siblings or close relatives with the name Malfoy. He might be my grandson” he shifted in his place “can demigods be wizards too?”

The green eyed boy chuckled, shaking his head and sitting up properly, placing his notepad and pen on the table by his left, where a gold and crystal cup filled with wine rested, along with a bowl of assorted fruits.

“No, not unless they’re kids of Hecate or similar deities. My fiancé and I have been assigned a mission in Hogwarts, that’s why we know of your existence” he gestured to the seats nearby, inviting them to join “My name is Percy Jackson, pleasure to meet you. This is— well, I’m not sure if he’s in the mood to use his western or korean name today”

“Dante is fine” the pink-haired prince replied, moving to sit.

Abraxas hesitantly followed and sat too, right across from Percy.

“I’m Abraxas Malfoy”

“I like your name! So, what’s going on exactly?”

Dante reached to grab a couple of grapes from the bowl, making a vague gesture.

“There was a little disturbance in Elysium as one of the souls vanished. Imagine my surprise at finding it in the Isles of the Blest, no less… I have absolutely zero idea how he snuck inside and I thought you both would like a word. Achilles and Patroclus send their regards, by the way”

Percy’s eyebrows rose, he looked quite impressed. Abraxas had the decency to blush and look down in a meek expression, because he was very much aware of the severe punishment he could receive.

“Damn, not even I have tried to sneak in there yet”

If he was going to ask anything else he didn’t, because the door opened behind Abraxas and the three of them directed their attention to it.

In walked another young man, tall and of olive skin, his long hair gathered in a messy bun to show his undercut best. Like Percy he was dressed in classic greek clothing, wearing a black chiton, though the fabric was so dark it nearly seemed like a void. He didn’t look to be in the best of moods, reading through a seemingly never ending scroll with his brows furrowed. He was very clearly european, maybe italian, but if one looked hard enough they could find a slight resemblance with his brother.

“I don’t have time to chat, Dante, father won’t be back until next week and Caelestis f*cking vanished again” he grumbled without looking up.

“I would offer to help with the judging” the other answered without taking offence “but we already learnt I should definitely not do that. Kinda need your attention for this, though”

“It’s for our mission” Percy added, tugging his arm to make him sit next to him and stretching to kiss his cheek “and you need to stop working like a maniac, baby”

To this the last hero, Nico he presumed, looked up from his scroll and focused on their guest. His eyes were endless black— not deep brown like human’s eyes, real black. And unlike his brother, his presence was more imposing, charged with heavy power. Abraxas wouldn’t have needed someone to tell him this was the heir to the underworld.

“This soul” Dante pointed “wants to save Voldemort”

The couple blinked in surprise, then turned to look at each other for a moment, seemingly speaking without words before they focused on the ghost again.

“You… want to save the evil wizard terrorising Britain” Percy said slowly.

Said that way it definitively sounded insane. Abraxas dug his fingernails on the palms of his hands.

“I want to save the love of my life”

“Ah”

It seemed that made perfect sense to the both of them, for some reason.

“Well” the prince put away the scroll and folded his hands on his lap “tell us then. What is your reasoning? Why should we help?”

Abraxas took a shaky breath.

“You must already know this, but I was born to a pureblood rich family, the Malfoys. I grew up surrounded by magic, and as I was influenced by our social circles I was under the belief that mudbloods tainted our magic, that they didn’t belong in out society, that they were lesser than us. It’s what I grew up hearing. Still, I have to admit my upbringing was less filled with hatred than my peers— my family had such views and they didn’t shy of admitting it, but my father cared more about me growing into a powerful wizard and uplifting the Malfoy name. My entire childhood I lived in France with my grandfather, when Grindelwald came into power” he paused for a moment, because then it dawned on him that they didn’t recognise that name and so he diverted for a moment “Grindelwald was the previous Dark Lord. He used to be Dumbledore’s intimate friend, many suspected they were lovers. He was the one who started the blood purity movement, instigating all sort of wizards to exterminate muggles- it was chaos. He was charismatic and he could rope you in with just a few words… it was between this war that I started Hogwarts. That night on the first of September I walked between other pureblood kids I grew up knowing, and I was sorted into Slytherin as expected along with most of them… but then, one mudblood was sorted into our house. This small gangly thing with dark hair and cold expression, dressed in tattered second hand clothes, with the strangest yet brightest scarlet eyes you’ve ever seen. Tom Marvolo Riddle”

Tears gathered in the ghost eyes as he recalled that night as if it had been just yesterday. What he would give to go back in time and change everything.

“He was quiet and he took all the bullying with his head high, until everyone realised he wasn’t afraid of retaliating and defending himself. He was strong, stronger than any of us were, and sometimes he didn’t even need his wand to make magic. I admit, I wasn’t kind to him… during our second year, we got into a fight. Rosier and I destroyed his notes for class, so when it came for us to do the trials to join the quidditch team, he enchanted our brooms to throw us to the ground. Rosier ended up escaping from detention since I had been the one to actually do the deed, and we were punished by cleaning the potion’s classroom without magic” a small smile appeared on his lips then “I’m not sure why, but as we bickered and snarked at each other, I thought— he’s just a normal kid. He’s read the same books I have. Goes to the same classes I do. Hell, he knows even more magic than me. What exactly made him inferior, when we were so alike? Why should he be lesser than me, when in reality he was a powerful, genius of a wizard?”

“It took some time, of me working past my childish actions and him slowly trusting me, but by third year I think even he thought of us as friends. Slowly, I learnt why he was so distrusting; he was an orphan, his mother died at birth and he was raised along muggle children, but because he was so different they tormented him all those years. So as they hit him and destroyed his possessions, he was just as cruel in turn by hurting them irreversibly with his magic. He didn’t know how to be kind or how to have fun… he wasn’t a good person but he was great and he- he eventually accepted that I cared for him. I don’t know if he ever loved me but I loved him and that was enough. It really was enough for me to be by his side” he looked down at the marble tiles of the floor and then squeezed his eyes shut for a second “We were still in school when Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald, he was acclaimed as a hero and revered by everyone. But I think- gods, I don’t know why anyone ever trusted that man. I can’t give you any evidence of anything he’s done, but I can tell you he had something to do with Tom’s situation. He was the one who went to the orphanage and told him he was a wizard, he sawhow they treated him, he saw then that Tom wasn’t alright and instead of doing something, instead of helping, he left him there. Every summer without fault, Tom asked to stay in the school so that he wouldn’t have to go back to the orphanage and every summer he was made to go back. Every minor incident and every suspicious activity, there he was, looking at Tom as if to say he knew he did it, even though he was never guilty”

“At first… Tom wanted something better, to change the system that had failed him since the first moment. His ideas weren’t what they are now, and he- he was so bright and so passionate. Our classmates slowly started flocking towards him, partially because they saw I did, and soon even our parents were enchanted by him. Then…. then, on the summer of our sixth year, something happened. He didn’t tell me at first, he shut himself off for months, but- then I found out. His muggle father and grandparents were dead, and he had split the first piece of his soul. I was… mad, afraid, terrified really, and I think he was too. I think he too regretted what he did, and he did promise me he would never do it again, that he wouldn’t let that magic consume him. We graduated, and I had my son with a girl from a good family like it was expected of me, but I never married. He… he wanted to teach. Hogwarts was the first home he ever had, and he was a genius that set records that even surpassed Dumbledore’s own school grades, but by then Dumbledore had been named headmaster. He insisted Tom wasn’t to be trusted, that he shouldn’t be between children…” the ghost spoke with bitterness and hate when mentioning the man, but his voice was also starting to turned even more pained “As Tom’s influence and power grew, Dumbledore so increased his efforts and soon heads were turning and people grew suspicious even though he had yet to do anything that warranted said suspicion. So… so he pushed it, started it himself if Tom wouldn’t…”

“Lucius had just turned six. For months before, Tom and I had been digging through old forgotten records to restore his mother’s family name; the Gaunts had fallen to disgrace long before he was born, but they were descendants of Slytherin himself. Tom carried in him the blood of one of the most powerful wizards in our history, and if he could just prove it to everyone, it would open so many paths for him to enter the Ministry itself. But it also meant maybe, one day, he and I…” he trailed off and never finished saying what they all knew he meant. His eyes hardened into fury “Again, I have no real proof it was him, but I know it in my heart with certainty. I was sick, so sick that I started coughing blood and growing so tired I could barely cast the simplest of spells… but I always felt slightly better when I was outside, whenever I ate at a friend’s house or when I avoided eating at all. So I fired the house elves and the illness started going away”

Abraxas turned to see out the window, towards the fiery pit and the screaming souls suffering eternal torment.

“We ate out for his birthday a few weeks before the day, because he would soon leave on one of his trips around Europe, and then we walked through the gardens of my own manor, the heavily warded house that had seen many generations of my family grow from infancy. And in that garden, the sickness hit again, but it was… I threw up blood, and it wouldn’t stop. Then it was my eyes, then my nose, then my ears, then the pain all throughout my body.” for a long while there was silence in the room, before he turned to look at the three stunned demigods again “I saw it, from outside my body, still not understanding that I was dead. I saw him scream, and I saw tears in his face for the very first time… and I waited. I waited for so long until I finally made it to the judges, and somehow I was good enough to deserve Elysium, but by the time I could even try to see what had become of him, he was no longer my Tom. Instead, Voldemort was taking over the world”

With Abraxas dead, so died his promise to never split his soul again. With him died his desire to be better, his mercy and any trace of compassion he could’ve had. Maybe it was egotistical of him to think so, but Abraxas was very sure he had been the only person in Tom’s entire life to ever love him, the only one who had known him inside and out, who understood him and accepted him even with his flaws. People admired him and worshipped an ideology, Abraxas was the only one who saw the man underneath.

“I don’t beg you to forgive his sins, your highness. Just please, let me save him”

Nico took a deep breath as he stood and paced around the room calmly, thinking about it. Percy looked like he felt very sorry for the ghost and about to argue in his favour, but apparently it wasn’t that the prince didn’t want to help.

“Splitting one’s soul is damaging it without repair. While certain beings could put it back together, they would never be the same person again…” he turned towards them, pity clear in his eyes “but we do not have all parts of Voldemort’s soul available, more than half have already been destroyed. Even if we find the remaining ones and put them back together, it won’t be enough to form an entire soul. He will disappear forever regardless of what we do”

Abraxas didn’t know what to say. If he had needed to breathe, he would’ve found all air knocked out of his lungs. Dante grimaced but kept his mouth shut, and Percy stood up to go up to his partner.

“There must be something we can do to help. Maybe Caelestis knows more, you said souls are his specialty”

“There’s nothing else to do in this case, Perce. The only way would be to somehow remake the lost parts of his soul, and that’s impossible”

So it was useless then…

The pink haired prince shot up to stand.

“But what if we don’t have to remake it!” he snapped his fingers with energy “if we fuse it with an already existing soul, we won’t face that problem”

The other three stared at him in shock.

“Well… yes, but even if we look past the more than questionable morality of it, we need to choose a soul. And the result would be someone entirely different, not quite a mix of the two. Plus, we do need consent“

“We could convince someone” Percy suggested, joining in the brainstorming “someone who’s been wiped by Lethe, so it can be a clean slate”

“Consent under duress doesn’t count, caro” the prince shook his head “it has to be genuine sacrifice”

They started to debate the pros and cons of a lot of possibilities, but Abraxas wasn’t listening anymore.

They needed a second soul to fuse with what was left of Tom’s, someone who was willing to sacrifice their own self. And the both of them would disappear forever, joined into an entirely different person. That person would have traces of both personalities but at the end, they would be unique.

“I’ll do it”

Dante shut up mid sentence and the three of them turned to him.

“My mission, my only purpose, is to save him” he said firmly, without hesitation “I will pay whatever price to make it happen, and I… I’ll be with him, in a way, if he accepts. We’ll be together”

Dante and Percy turned towards Nico, leaving the final decision to him as the one person who could actually do the thing (less they involve a god).

“You won’t be parted again” he repeated to make sure he understood “but… you also will be someone new. You’ll be allowed to reincarnate without punishment”

The ghost nodded.

“That’s more than we both deserve”

Tom might’ve been the one who committed crimes and atrocities, but Abraxas felt just as responsible for them happening. He had encouraged him to seek a change, to seek justice. He had turned a blind eye to the questionable tactics, had been complicit to murder. The judges sent him to Elysium because everything he did, he’d done out of love, not because he was truly exceptionally good.

“I’m more than ready to do this”

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

Percy looked up for a moment to stare at Nico, who was tucking the golden chain inside his shirt, hiding the bright white gem that contained their ghost. After a second he looked back down towards his deck, quietly organising the cards.

The planning they did before setting off back to Hogwarts had left him feeling hollow… while they had found a solution that would arguably make everyone happy, he couldn’t help but pity Voldemort and Abraxas. What if this didn’t fix anything else? What were they even going to do? With Voldemort gone the raids and murders would stop, but what about Dumbledore, the man that had started it all? Would he even face any consequences? He had everyone convinced he was the good guy, and even if they could tell on him, who would believe two strangers that appeared out of nowhere?

“Perce. I know you’re worried, but stressing about this won’t help”

“I know, it’s just… are we really helping? For all we know we’re just delaying the inevitable”

“Percy…”

“What if he makes another dark lord?”

Nico sighed and leaned forwards to grab his hand.

“We can’t fix all their problems for them, this isn’t our world. What we can do is leave them the clues they need”

None of that seemed to make him less gloomy, and he hated that he couldn’t do more or say something that might help him relax.

Percy had always been like that, selfless and heroic, wanting to fix everything that was wrong with the world because he just couldn’t stand to do nothing while others suffered. He had fought ancient beings that could crush him with a single thought, all because it was the right thing. He had never been scared of speaking up. But sometimes… well, sometimes you can’t do anything, or just not as much as you’d like to.

“Hey, do you want to see something cool I added to my deck?” he suddenly changed topic, turning to look inside his black leather bag.

The son of Poseidon blinked out of his negative thoughts and tilted his head.

“You didn’t buy another Tartarus, right? If you did I’ll scream”

Nico snorted and shook his head. “Nope. It’s way better, and I have one for you so we can match”

He presented him with a card in a transparent sleeve and he couldn’t help but gasp.

Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, Stormbringer.

He took it with wide eyes, holding it gently as if it could wrinkle by just having it in hand. It was blue of course, but of a variety of at least a dozen tones all swirling together in a similar way as to how Nico’s had shadows, but instead it formed waves and ripples like water. It depicted a younger Percy; oversized worn shirt that once belonged to his mother, ripped jeans and untinted black hair waving around his head like a halo. His gray streak had been bleached white for a better aesthetic but it looked absolutely sick. He was holding Anaklusmos of course, and he stood in the middle of a hurricane, his sea green eyes glowing in a fierce expression that was definitely way too cool to be accurate.

“Woah…..”

The stats were at the bottom, a series of numbers that would make no sense to a non player. They were the same as Nico’s, to his relief.

“This is… they released it already?” he asked, looking up with sparkling eyes.

Nico chuckled and nodded, endeared by his reaction.

“Just after New Years. Limited edition with two hundred units just like mine, and an extra just for you. I payed a hefty sum for mine, but it was totally worth it”

He looked down at the card once more, rotating it to see the beautiful wave like design on the back too. All of it sparkled with a glitter holo effect.

“What are my moves? Are they good??”

Nico pulled out another card, passing it on. This one had nothing special to it as it was basically just the instructions for Percy’s card. Luckily, Mythomagic cards were so good and determined at being immersive that they also wrote their texts in greek, although only in the booklets and not the whole player guide. It wasn’t the same as ancient greek, but he could understand it just fine after a while.

“Tsunami… fearless warrior… oh! Holding up the Sky! ‘Three energies required, blocks all enemy damage for one turn, buffs and passive abilities not counted, can only be used thrice per round’. That’s so cool, I’m gonna abuse that so bad… Bound Hearts, to summon you, that’s so cute! …oh my god— Hero of Olympus: banishes the enemy team and heals forty percent health!? Healing upped to sixtypercent if Poseidon or Nico are on the board!?”

Nico laughed as he freaked out over the frankly insane sh*t they had added to that card.

“Nico!” he protested “this is too much! If someone has all three cards, they only need to use meto summon you, who can summon Tartarus, how is this legal!?”

“I mean, Apollo has a few configurations that can summon Helios too—“

“But that’s different!! We’re like— OCs to mythology, why do we have so much power!?”

“Because” he leaned forwards to hold his cheeks “we’re cool and the whole community can recognise that”

Percy blushed and he looked away, overwhelmed.

For a good few minutes he could only stare down at the card in awe, feeling special. It was… perfect.

“Nico?”

“Yes, baby?”

He doubted for another second.

“Can we post a picture of both of us?”

It was now his turn to blink in surprise.

“You… don’t mind that we’re gonna be known to millions of people?”

Percy shrugged. “It’s not like the entire world will recognise us, Mythomagic is still a game for nerds”

Nico smiled softly.

“Alright. Let me get my card”

Later that day their picture was already trending and their friends at camp were rolling their eyes, but secretly fond of the couple. They looked quite cute, with each holding their card and Nico kissing Percy’s cheek, who was squeezed against his side.

When the train arrived at the station they both walked towards the carriages together, but were surprised when Ginny Weasley intercepted them with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood on her heels.

“Hey, mind if we join you?”

They exchanged a look and Percy shrugged.

“Sure, why not”As far as he was concerned they were nice people, unlike Potter and his friends who, for some unknown forsaken reason, seemed to heavily distrust the both of them. “Your friends won’t mind it, I hope?”

“They’re dumb” Ginny rolled her eyes as they boarded a carriage “I love my brother but he’s missing a few screws… and Hermione is nice and all but she’s too self absorbed without realising”

“The pressure often gets to Harry’s head” Neville added with a soft sigh.

“It’s the snorlacks” Luna corrected, and nobody chose to open that can of worms.

“So! What did you do during winter break?” Ginny swiftly changed topics.

“Went back home to visit friends” Nico answered smoothly “spent a few days with Percy’s mom, another few days with my siblings”

“And we had a very awkward dinner with our dads too -separately, thank the gods”

“That sounds nice” Neville answered politely “I stayed home with my grandmother….”

“Father and I visited some very interesting places for more articles” Luna said distractedly as always, glancing then at Ginny.

“Hermione and Harry stayed over as always” she sighed “Ron kept pestering me about me having a crush on his best friend -which I don’t and I think he and mum are the last to get the memo- and everything was centred around uh, other stuff. But I did manage to escape to see the twins and Bill said I could spend summer with him and Fleur, which I’m eternally grateful for”

She then proceeded to explain she had six elder brothers -Nico grimaced in sympathy at that-, and that she was simultaneously a little spoiled and also the one treated the most strictly. Ron was a little intense but well meaning, and before him went the twins, a pair of pranksters that abandoned school just before graduation so they could open a shop for their own products, which had been quite successful, to their mother’s chagrin! Apparently Harry had given them the funds and now they were making a name for themselves out there. Next was Percy, who in Ginny’s words had ‘a stick up his ass’; he worked for the ministry of magic and he wasn’t in good graces with the family because he preferred to adhere to the status quo instead of following Dumbledore.

Charlie was the second eldest, living in Romania to pursue his dream of working with dragons, and he apparently was good acquaintances with a ‘Mr. Scamander’, who was the son of a really famous magizoologist. Bill was the eldest and he was wicked good at dispelling curses, working for the magic bank Gringotts, and he recently had married a very talented (and beautiful!) french witch named Fleur Delacour. The two eldest sons didn’t get along much with their mother, who wasn’t all too happy with their life choices as she had a conservative outlook, but it seemed all the siblings looked up to them, especially Ginny.

After she finished explaining that the carriage stopped in front of the gates and they walked calmly towards the castle, filling the noise with a few other casual conversations until they made it to the Great Hall.

“… You’ll have to tell me where to get those cards of yours” Ginny said before they parted “although I doubt mum will let me buy a muggle game”

“Just don’t tell her it is” Percy grinned, and she laughed before they waved goodbye and the five of them split off to their respective house tables.

The other Slytherins gave them dirty looks as always and they both ignored it completely as they sat at their usual place, all the way at the end of the table where they were a good few seats away from other students.

“I like them” Percy commented, putting his elbows on the table and leaning forwards “Ginny reminds me of Annie a little bit”

“She’s cool, she’s naturally talented at Mythomagic”

“Of course that’s the thing that you focus on” he rolled his eyes.

“Baby you’ve known me for twelve years, why are you surprised?” before Percy could kick him under the table, he moved out of reach with a wolfish grin “Wow, is that the way you treat your fiancé?”

“Bold words for someone about to get waterboarded—“

“I’m gonna tell professor Snape!” Nico laughed, turning his head towards the high table.

Percy kicked him hard on the shin after a good few attempts at finding him without looking, and Nico had to shut up after that.

The classes resumed and it was quite boring to assist them, but at least they were learning magic and not maths, so Percy could put up with it. Nico found that DADA was his favourite class, and it had taken him a great deal of pain to admit it because he hated losing to his half brother, which Percy found hilarious— Caelestis’ class was very interesting though, and Nico had an unfair advantage by virtue of being so good at… well, studying.

Flying in a broom was pretty cool, although neither of them liked it well enough to try out for the quidditch team, it was best to not tempt Zeus. The other classes were a mix of success and utter boredom….Percy’s favourite class though… to his dismay, it was potions.

Listen, Snape was an asshole and Percy was still not remotely inclined in stoping their insult war (which he was winning with a perfect streak of course), but it was easy to him and it was also fun to toss the ingredients into the pot -cauldron- and mix it up. It was like those flash games he would play online as a kid! Come on, have you ever met a little girl that wasn’t excited at the prospect of being a witch? Percy wasn’t a girl, but he used to be told he was. And believe it or not, the timing and multiple ways in which the ingredients had to he prepared kept his ADHD at bay, helping him stay still for a couple hours.

Snape absolutely despisedhim and the fact he could never find a single flaw in his work, to the point that he had forgotten all about Potter and focused all his might on his new number one enemy. Not a single class would pass without them causing enough of a rocus to distract the other students.

A good change after winter break was that they weren’t isolated into the two of them anymore; now it was a bit of a tradition to reunite in the gardens with Ginny, Luna and Neville to play Mythomagic every evening, and Nico had taken it upon himself to tutor the redhead to make her into a fine professional player. Ginny had gotten so good in just a couple of weeks that she could manage a Hera deck, something not even Percy could quite do since it had a lot of cards with very specific triggers and conditions. She rotated a lot between complimentary decks, but she had talent just like Nico predicted. On the days when Percy would play against him instead of with Luna or Neville the other students gathered to see the intense matches that he always lost, to nobody’s surprise.

On the other hand, the golden trio didn’t look all too happy to see their friends so friendly with the couple, which was a little weird but they also chose to ignore that because honestly, what can you do.

It was nice though, to make new friends and have fun doing actual magic. Sure, they saw other incredible stuff on the daily and they could even fight gods if they wanted to, but it was very different to use it for mundane stuff like doing your bed or summoning a book that’s at the other side of your bedroom. It was new but relaxing, made them feel more like they were regaining some of the childhood they had lost to war and monsters.

They would definitely miss it when they returned home… but maybe one day they could remain in contact with their new friends, at the very least.

“This friday there will be an activity held for you to show your progress” Caelestis said one day with a bored voice after a long lesson was over. “Professor Dumbledore believes a duelling club will do you some good, against my judgment…”

To this the other students perked up and they even started whispering with some excitement, at least until the professor turned to see them with his sharp glare and they promptly shut up, straightening on their seats.

“That said, you will follow myrules unless you want to fail this class, am I clear?” the students nodded quickly and he tapped his wand against his other hand as he started pacing calmly. “You are not allowed to cast any dark spells or harm your opponent with light spells on purpose. Your duels are over after disarming, or after your opponent is off the stage. If I stop you at any moment, you will obey and step off”

Neither Slytherins nor Ravenclaws seemed too enthusiastic about those rules, but the professor rarely even allowed them to cast a single spell so they were smart enough to agree in order to have this one privilege. Percy raised his hand and his brother-in-law glared at them both.

“You two are not allowed to participate”

“Aww, why not?” he whined.

“You’re a liability”

Nico mumbled something under his breath in italian and his brother ignored it, turning his back on them to grab a stack of pergamin paper off his desk, which he gave out to everyone with a flick of his wrist… essays, most of them marked with plenty of red ink making corrections.

“That said, I will allow that you give a demonstration. The headmaster is interested on seeing your abilities”

That illicited a new round of mumbling and whispering while Nico and Percy exchanged a glance.

Oh, this was going to be so fun.