Chapter Text
Nico is woken up by the horn indicating breakfast is starting, he groans, and covers his eyes from the sunlight shining directly in his eyes.
Even though he spent a good five minutes on making sure the curtains were closed properly last night, there’s still rays of sunlight coming through them.
He stays like that for a while until knocks can be heard. Nico steps out of the bed and shivers as his bare feet touch the cold ground. In annoyance he grabs the fluffy blanket from his bed.
He almost trips over the blanket but recovers and opens the door before he starts second guessing himself. In front of him Will Solace, the camp's medic, stands practically glowing in the morning sun.
“Good morning” he smiles and Nico grumbles one back. “Breakfast started” He states, Nico nods and turns back into his cabin.
Will follows behind him and sits down on his bed. Nico goes over to his dresser and gets out some clothes before disappearing into the bathroom.
He changes in record time and starts brushing his teeth, then steps out of the bathroom after about two minutes of brushing.
Back in the main room Nico finds Will inspecting some photos, Nico with Hazel's help put on the wall.
“This one is really sweet” he tells Nico, pointing to the one with him and Reyna. “Yea, Hazel took it the day the Romans went back to New Rome” he explains, smiling to himself at the memory.
Hazel found the camera while looking through the Aros ll, Leo’s notes explained his plans on making monster proof devices. She was really excited after finding it, asking Nico to help her since it was a digital camera. They ended up asking Frank, after half an hour of not figuring it out.
He gets snapped out of his thoughts by Will's voice, telling him they’d have to go. He follows Will out of the cabin and they walk side by side to the dining pavilion.
Around them other demigods are walking in the same direction. Once there the mess hall is filled with other demigods, some sitting and others going to the fire to make their offerings.
Will looks at Nico before taking his arm and leading him over to the Apollo table. Ever since the second giant war, a week ago, Will has been forcing him to sit with him at the Apollo table, to make sure he’s eating. Not that nico minds, it’s pretty lonely at the hades table without hazel being there.
They sit down next to each other opposite of Will's siblings, Kayla and Austin, who are in a discussion about what type of potato is better. Or at least that’s what nico was able to pick up.
Nico soundlessly picks up his plate, which is now full of cut fruit and a jelly sandwich and walks over to the fire. He scrapes some of his favourite fruit pieces and sends a prayer up to his father.
When he returned to the table, all three of the siblings were now in a discussion about pancakes.
“Those are alright, but have y’all ever tried those thin ones” Will shoves a piece of Kayla’s pancake in his mouth.
“That’s my food, eat your own” she tells him and grabs a piece of strawberry from his plate. “You’re doing exactly the same” Will tries to reach her plate to take something off but she reacts by picking up her plate and holding it out of reach.
“Guys stop” Austin laughs, “back on topic, what do you mean pancakes are only alright?! They are the best thing on earth” he tells his siblings dramatically.
Nico doesn’t mind pancakes but they are definitely not the best thing on earth.
He picks at his food occasionally eating something while the siblings continue with their debate, if you could call it that. Personally he likes fruit for breakfast, it gives good energy plus most taste really good.
He gets snapped out of his thoughts by an owl flying over him and hooting.
He knows it’s probably a post owl from his school friends, they never contact him during the summer. The owl descends and drops down right on his leftover food.
He wasn’t really planning on eating it all anyway, now he just has a good excuse not to eat in.
Like Nico guessed there’s a letter tied to it, he quickly unties it and looks to the address for the handwriting.
It’s clearly Hermione's, as it’s very neat and beautiful, he still doesn’t get how she does it. Nico's handwriting looks like he tried to write with his left hand.
Nico turns back to the owl and picks up a piece of leftover crust and gives it to them. After eating it up the owl ascends, his eyes following the bird to the athena table before locking with Annabeth's gray eyes.
He looks back down to the letter he’s holding. Why would Hermione send him a letter? He had told his friends to please not try and contact him over break. Did something happen, did Voldemort get to Harry?
“Nico” will snap him out of his thoughts. “You okay, your breathing got faster” he puts a hand on Nico's shoulder, grounding him.
Nico nods, “I have to go” he gets up from his seat and Wills hand drops from his shoulder. He turns and walks out the mess hall. He’s vaguely aware of Will calling after him but he ignores it, the letter is more important.
He practically sprints to his cabin, closing the door behind him he quickly rips the envelope open.
There’s a neatly folded piece of paper, he opens it and is attacked by cursive. Gods, how he hates cursive, it’s really hard to read. Add his dyslexia to it and it’s almost impossible.
He goes over to his bed and pulls out his trunk, he opens it and searches around for his wand. He holds his wand in front of the letter and he swishes it “transferendum lingua” he whispers and the words translate to ancient Greek.
Nico,
I know you said no letters during summer break unless it’s very important, but in my opinion it is.
Harry and his cousin got attacked by dementors 2 days ago, forcing Harry to use the patronus charm.
Because this is his second offence using magic outside of school, he got expelled. Dumbledore stepped in and it was an act of self defence making it legal, he will be having his hearing on the 12th of August.
We don’t know how the dementors got to Harry, the order thinks it might be he who must not be named .
I’m scared Harry will get permanently expelled, leaving him vulnerable. It will probably be okay since Dumbledore is vouching for him.
On another note, Dumbledore is getting people together to fight against he who must not be named. We’re using Sirius's childhood home as headquarters, it’s a really creepy home, I can’t imagine growing up here.
There’s this house elf, Kreature is his name, he’s kinda mean but the poor thing has probably been abused his whole life. Even Sirius is mean to him, and I don’t think Sirius' parents were nice to Kreature either. I hate how wizards and witches treat house elves, to them they’re just slaves, it’s really sad.
Anyway, I was hoping you’d come back to Britain to spend the rest of the summer with us. If it’s not too much to ask.
It might help Harry a bit, he’s been a bit distant since he got here. I think Cedric's death and he who must not be named coming back is really affecting him.
I really hope you will be able to come, but if you can’t that’s totally fine. Don’t feel pressured.
Love from, hermione
After Nico finishes the letter he turns back to his trunk and gets out a piece of paper, envelope and pen. He writes a quick response, telling Hermione that he’s coming as soon as he can.
Behind him he hears a knock on the door before it opens and Annabeth walks in with the owl on her arm.
“Nico, your owl” she holds out her arm but the owl stays put. “She doesn’t want to leave my arm anymore” she tells him.
Nico smiles as he puts his letter in an envelope. He holds it up and the owl lets go of Annabeth's arm flying towards him and presenting its claws. Nico starts tying the teller to its claw “thanks, what was that letter about?” She asks, her voice filled with suspicion.
He stays silent for a moment. “A friend from overseas, checking on me” he tells her, it’s not the full story but it’s not like he can tell her. She gives him a look but doesn’t question further.
Nico takes the owl outside and lets it go, the bird assenting into the sky. The demigods stay there watching the owl disappear in the sky.
“You should check on Will, he’s
A little worried about you” Annabeth smiles at him, before she walks off towards the lake.
Nico laughs breathlessly before going towards the infirmary and the big house.
His first stop is at the big house where Mr D and Chiron are playing a card game. Chiron eyes lock onto him when he walks through the door, while Mr D is too invested in figuring out his next move.
“I have to go back to Britain,” he tells them.
Chiron and Mr D are the only ones that know about Nico being a wizard and going to Hogwarts.
“That’s fine Nico, may I ask what happened?” Chiron asks and Nico quickly explains the story that Hermione wrote to him.
“Don’t worry too much Nico, Harry will be fine.” The centaur reassures “When are you planning on leaving?” He then asks Nico.
“As soon as I’m able to” he answers with a shrug. “Very well, I’ll leave you to it” Chiron nods and Nico leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
His next stop is at the infirmary, he finds Will tucked away in the small head medic office. Nico stands in the doorway, Will doesn’t notice him so he knocks on the doorway gaining Wills attention.
“Nico,” he smiles, getting up from his chair. Will walks around the desk to stand in front of Nico. “what’s wrong, you looked worried after that letter came,” he asks, his tone soft and caring.
“An overseas friend is in trouble, I was worried he got himself killed” nico explains, he nervously picks at his black polish hazel applied to his nails before she left for New Rome.
“Oh, well what happened to him then? I hope not as bad as getting killed” Will asks with concern etched in his voice.
“Well his only means of self defence is at risk of being taken away, but he’ll be fine” at least that’s what Nico hopes, but he doesn’t add that. It only would make Will question him more.
“It’s good to hear he’s okay” Will smiles softly, his eyes examining his face. “You have a look on your face, what is it?” Will asks a bit cautiously.
Nico wreaks his brain for some type of excuse, or lie. He promised Will he’d stay at camp, but now he’s planning on leaving. He remembers Will's look on his face when he told him that he’d be staying, he looked so happy.
He sighs “I’m leaving for Britain in like a maximum of two hours” he tells him, it comes out a bit forced but at least he didn’t just straight up lie. Will's face falls a bit before he nods and smiles understandingly.
“When are you planning on coming back?” He asks Nico, leaning back against the desk.
“Well probably not until school break,” Will gives him a confused look. “I’m going to a boarding school there” he quickly explains and Will nods.
“All the way in Britain? The school better be worth it then” Will smiles humorously. Nico smiles, “well my mom used to go to the same school, so it’s worth it”
“So you’re leaving, I’ll pack a med bag for you. Just in case” Will walks over to the closet in the corner of the room and gets out a big toiletry bag.
“I’ll fill it up with everything you’ll need, while you pack the rest of the bag” Will tells Nico while walking past him through the door to the supply closet.
Nico stays there for a moment, smiling to himself. “Thank you” he mumbles to Will and he leaves the infirmary, heading back to his cabin to pack his bag.
Most he’ll need is already in his trunk, he just has to add his clothes, toiletries and maybe some random stuff that’s not too important.
After he’s finished he checks if he has everything, he does and he closes up the trunk. He gets his wand from where he left it charms the trunk so it looks like a backpack.
Even though he’s still under the legal age for magic, camp half blood is filled with magic so him doing magic himself doesn’t register as suspicious.
He picks up his backpack and grabs his sword to store it in the shadows. It’s not the best solution, if he overused his powers he’ll not be able to reach his sword, but he's still thinking of another way so for now it’s fine.
With one last look at his cabin he leaves and goes back to the infirmary. When he walks through the front door he’s greeted by Kayla and Will.
“Nico, the medkit is ready. You better use it or Wills hard work will be for nothing” Kayla grins and disappears down the hallway.
“Ignore her, I hope you don’t have to use it.” He sighs softly and gives the bag to Nico. “Thanks for this” Nico takes the backpack off his shoulders and puts it on the ground. He bends down and quickly stuffs the medkit into his bag.
“You have everything you need?” Will asks above him, Nico zips his bag and stands up straight again.
“Yea, I checked so it should be fine” nico pursues his lips and throws the bag over his shoulders.
“I need to get going, thanks again for this” Nico smiles, and turns to walk away but is stopped by Will putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Iris calls me whenever you need it, doctors orders” Will tells him his tone is serious. “Okay, I will” he rolls his eyes and Will lets go of him.
“Okay, good luck” he hears Will say behind him as Nico leaves the infirmary.
Nico walks to Thalia tree and crosses the border taking a deep breath he steps into the shadow of the tree.