Two chapters in 24 hours! woohoo!
I also do not own the Rick Riordan books or JK Rowling books.
Edit March 2021: I put the wrong word somewhere and someone pointed it out. Thank you by the way to the reader who mentioned it!
Nico POV
I hear Mrs. Weasley's voice yell upstairs for everyone to come down, and I hear multiple footsteps running downstairs eagerly. I try to get up, but Will pulls me back down.
"I'm almost done, I just need to tighten the neck strap," Will says. I can tell that he's worried about me, but he really doesn't need to be. I'm fine. My shoulder feels a lot better than yesterday, and even Will said that it's looking good. It's just that I keep having to use my powers; to check if Lupin's a monster (technically he is), to check if the adults at dinner were monsters (nope, though Sirius has a weird aura), hide my sword in the shadows from Mrs. Weasley, you get it. And if my wound does get worse, Will will (hehe) be able to sense it, and knowing him he's going to check on it every day for the next year, even though I heal pretty quickly.
"Will," I say, and take his hand in my uninjured one.
"Ya Neeks?" I scowl at the nickname.
"I'll be fine, ok? I checked the scythe for poison and there is none. And we know people from camp who were cut by that very scythe and were completely fine."
"They didn't shadow travel to the past, though."
"They aren't able to shadow travel, Will."
"You know what I mean."
"Actually, that Demeter kid turned a plant back into a seed. I'm guessing the scythe just messes with some of our powers. The weapon of a god or titan can have that effect. My dad says that if a mortal puts on his helmet, they'll die instantly from an overload of fear." Will looks slightly sick at that last part, but still relieved.
"Fine. But I'm monitoring you closely." Told you. "And absolutely no more underworldly powers! I don't feel like meeting King Arthur and Merlin today."
I just roll my eyes at him. He is so overprotective. I can handle my powers. I just won't shadow travel.
"Let's go eat. We need to sacrifice to grumpypants up there." I say, and thunder growls outside. You are just proving my point, Zeus. I walk from the room with Will following close behind.
When Will and I get to the kitchen, the cheerful chatter (hehe alliteration) dies down, and the kids all stare which makes me very uncomfortable. I grab Will's arm and push him in front of me, who seems completely unaffected by the stares. He's used to people as well, which helps my case. I don't even need to small talk when he's around!
"Good morning! I'm Will, that's Nico, for those who missed it last night." Will then sits down at the table as if he lives here.
I'm the only one standing and feel very awkward, so I quickly take a seat beside Will. There are a bunch of red-headed children, probably all Weasley kids. The two other kids at the table are a girl with a lot of frizzy hair, and a boy with black hair and round glasses. There's something odd about the boy. There's a weird aura around him.
"Have you died before?" I ask him bluntly. Everyone looks at me in surprise and Will hits my arm. "Ow! What was that for?"
"You can't just go around saying things like that! Besides, it's suspicious. Most people can't sense death." Will says all of this in greek, which probably isn't helping us not be suspicious, but I answer in greek as well.
"Well, I would like to know why he's still alive! Thanatos gets grumpy when people come back from being dead. It's insulting to him, and he whines on and on to my father for hours!"
"It just shouldn't be the first thing you say to someone, especially when they are letting us stay in their house."
"I don't think the kid owns the house, Will."
"That was not my point."
"His aura is really weird. It seems like a damaged soul, and that usually means that he died and came back. But I am checking his soul, and it's fine. It doesn't make sense. Maybe he has two souls, but that's practically impossible. Maybe -" Then it dawns on me.
"Oh," I say in English, and turn to the kid who is looking at us like we each grew a second head. "Are you Harry Potter?"
Now, I don't know much about Harry Potter, all I know is that he died as a baby then came back, then died in a war to get rid of a Horcrux then came back (though the war hasn't happened at this point). Thanatos still has tantrums when Horcruxes are mentioned, so I never learned much about them. Only that they are really dark magic. The bad kind.
"Er, yes?" Harry poses it more as a question. He looks very confused. Oops. Will sighs heavily beside me.
"I'm sorry, Harry. Nico needs to work on his people skills. He didn't mean to pry." Will says, and Harry nods reluctantly.
"It's all right. Erm, so where are you two from?"
"America. Also, the future." Straight to the point then, Will. They don't seem very surprised. They must have been listening to us talk to the adults last night.
"But we aren't supposed to talk about it, something about the timeline," I say, and Bushy-hair nods in understanding. Mrs. Weasley then comes into the room, a bunch of food floating in front of her. I see pancakes, and toast, and a bunch of drinks and spreads. My stomach feels extra empty at the sight of food.
"Have you not introduced yourselves yet? Such manners!" Mrs.Weasley turns to me and Will with a smile. "Sorry, boys. We don't usually have new people over."
"Not a problem," Will says kindly. The plates float down onto the table, and one one the red-heads reach eagerly for the pancakes. Mrs. Weasley smacks his hand lightly.
"Introduce yourself first, then you can take food." She says sternly. The boy looks up.
"I'm Ron. Weasley." He looks at his mother who gives him a pointed look. "Erm, It's nice to meet you." He then grabs five pancakes and drowns them in syrup.
The identical redheads next to Will introduce themselves as Gred and Forge (obviously it's Fred and George, but I don't have the energy to deal with the obvious trouble-makers. It's too early.), and one of them shakes Will's hand enthusiastically. I hold back an eye-roll. The Weasley girl is next and quickly introduces herself as Ginny before going back to eating. I catch her looking at Harry a couple of times, and smirk at her antics. She could not be more obvious.
"What's your name?" I ask the Bushy-haired girl as politely as I can. It's early, and I am not a morning person. Since I grew up in the 1900s, it's pretty ingrained in me to be polite to strangers and my elders and everyone else, but it's the morning, and I'm hungry. Being polite takes more effort.
"Oh, sorry! I'm Hermione Granger, I was just trying to figure out your accent." She says with a shy smile.
"Italian," I say, and she nods.
"I thought I recognized it, my mum and dad took me there when I was small. It's beautiful there." I nod and look at my shoes, tuning out the rest of the conversation. I only lived in Italy for a few years. Then Zeus killed my mom, and Bianca and I were taken to the hotel and came out almost seventy years later. I guess that's why I'm not so affected by being in the past. I've already dealt with time travel of sorts.
Will nudges my leg, and I look up.
"What?" I say to no one in particular. Fred (Or George, I can't tell them apart) clears his throat.
"Just asked if you could pass the jelly, mate."
"Oh. Sure." I quickly hand him the jelly.
"Cheers." He says. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, so I just nod. Everyone is silent at the table. I look over at Will and realize that he has food on his plate, but isn't eating it. Right. We need to sacrifice. I open my mouth to ask Mrs. Weasley, but Will beats me to it.
"Mrs. Wealsey?" Will asks. Mrs. Weasley walks over from the kitchen
"Yes, dear?"
"Part of mine and Nico's religion is to burn a part of our meal as an offering, do you have a fireplace or something similar?" She looks surprised for a moment but composes herself with a smile.
"I'm afraid our fireplace isn't for a real fire," she says, what the Hades does that mean? Isn't that what a fireplace is for? "But I can put some magical fire in a jar for you two."
I sigh in relief.
"That should be good, thanks Mrs. Weasley," Will says, also looking very relieved.
A couple of minutes later, the blue fire has burnt some pancakes to nothing, and Will and I dig into the delicious food. Ron still has a slightly horrified look on his face ("Why would you burn perfectly good food?!") and Hermione is looking pained. She obviously has some more questions and seems to be having trouble not asking them. Honestly, I would probably answer most of them as long as they aren't too personal, but breakfast isn't the best time to have a whole discussion. Unlike Ron, she seems to understand that eating and talking don't work well together.
I'm just finished eating when the air shimmers in front of Will and me, and the oracle mummy face is staring right at me. A couple of the kids scream at the sight of the undead skeleton, and the adults rush into the room, wands at the ready. I raise my hand to stop them.
I turn back to the Iris Message. Green mist is creeping through the oracle's jaw and eye sockets, and dread fills my stomach. Not good. Very not good. The oracle then begins to speak.
I'm going to put the prophecy as a separate chapter so you can all comment and have it separate. (Also, I haven't finished it yet)