Nico's Quest at Hogwarts

Our Ghost king has had enough problems in his life already - going through two terrifying wars, his sister dying, hatred towards himself for reasons unknown, a father that barely cares for him. Nico didn't need more adventures. And yet the Fate's were cruel. The son of Hades is, once again, going to have to help people. But this time it's not just Greek or Roman mythology he's facing. This time Nico di Angelo is thrown into the world of witchcraft and wizardry.

I don't own anything. All characters and settings belong to Rick Riordan and/or J.K Rowling.

Chapter 1

Nico

It was a clear, sunny day at Camp Half-Blood. The hot summer days had passed by with a blur and the Camp was almost empty. Most of the demigods went home already, to prepare for their school year in the mortal world, except for the year-rounders, who choose to stay all year at Camp; plainly because the world outside isn't safe for them and they would be hunted down by monsters ... Or they just really don't want to go back to school.

Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades, melted from the shadows of the trees in the woods. It was odd to see him at camp. After the second Giant war, the son of Hades disappeared off the surface of the earth - not even the gods of travellers, Hermes, could find him. Nico would appear every once in a while to be filled in on current news - such as, whether the two demigod camps were still getting along, or if there was another enemy stirring and planning to destroy the earth. To see the Ghost King, either meant something dreadful was about to happen, or he decided to scare the life out of people by making them think that.

He was actually very bored of running from city to city, because a herd of monsters decided to sniff the air when the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and pick up his scent. Killing monsters he could do easily, with the few years of practice he'd had, he was quite good at it. But it was annoying to do, day after day, over and over again ...

He was on his way to the arena, to train his excuse for muscles. Nico was scrawny, there was no denying that. Lonely months in the underworld and a trip to the darkest pit of hell, Tartarus, would definitely be one of the causes of his sickly, pale skin and bony body. The boy had black shaggy hair, which scraped his shoulders in an informal manner, and the dark circles under his brooding black eyes certainly didn't help his appearance.
He was crossing the cabins, a strange assortment of buildings, each for a different Greek god's children. The sweet smell of strawberries, baking under the warmth of the sun, filled the air as Nico passed the fields and entered the arena. There was no people there, which wasn't very surprising, considering there was a hellhound, the size of a tank, rolling around the floor and chewing on a metal shield like it's made of rubber. Mrs O'Leary was one of the very few who didn't mind the son of Hades. Therefore, Nico, enjoying the solitude, unsheathed his midnight black sword and lunged at the nearest dummy, slashing it's straw head off it's shoulders.

Hours later, by the time Percy came over to interrupt Nico's training, the Ghost king was drenched in sweat and the bright August sun had gone down, leaving a bloody streak of red light across the horizon.

"Hey Nico!" Beamed the son of Poseidon. Nico heard the familiar sound of Percy's sword, Riptide, being uncapped. He barely had time to turn around when he found himself pushing back Percy's deadly weapon with the hilt of his sword. He swung his arm as fast as a viper, but Percy jumped back and thrust his own at him. Nico sidestepped as Percy hacked Riptide where his chest was just milliseconds ago. He'd definitely picked up some skill when learning to fight with the dead. Obviously him ageing a little and fighting in the wars helped train him. Percy was pushing him harder than ever before, not giving the son of Hades a chance to ask Percy why he attacked him. With one last attempt, Nico sliced the air with his sword, connecting his Stygian Iron blade with the Celestial bronze. Percy nailed him in the gut with the butt of his sword and Nico lay sprawled on the ground. Yeah, Percy Jackson was still unbeatable.

It was a few minutes before he regained his ragged breath, but when he looked up he saw Percy was wheezing almost as badly.

"What- what was that all about?" Nico panted.

"You looked like you needed a good workout." Percy grinned. "It's good to see you again, Nico."

"Really? Usually people aren't very pleased to see me at camp." Nico mumbled. "And I haven't seen you since the war, that's more than a year now." He remembered the last time he saw Percy, it was on his seventeenth birthday. The war was over, they won, Gaia was asleep again, and Nico came to say his goodbyes. It didn't go as planned, because in the end Nico came back from time to time, and almost always brought trouble or bad news, so people avoided contact with him. Nico spent most of his time in old towns or the underworld, where he usually helped his father with the paperwork - otherwise he would have to help Charon with the DOA Studios entrance to Hades, and that was extremely boring. Occasionally Hades would send him out to get some criminal's soul, which somehow escaped judgement.

"Awh, come on, Nico, you're still my baby cousin!" Percy joked. "Of course I'm happy to see you! But ... Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you come back earlier? Every time you were here you didn't come to see me." Nico wondered how clueless one person could get. Annabeth was the perfect person for him, keeping that goofball in order.

"I guess I was busy." He said simply.

"Well, are you busy now?"

"Um... Well.."

"Because Chiron wanted to see you. Desperately."

"Why?" Nico asked, wondering what the old horseman would want from him.

"I don't know," Percy said, a little too quickly, but Nico didn't notice. "You better get going though, Chiron was in a funny mood when I left him."

Nico hauled himself to his sore feet and, exhausted, trotted off to the Big House.

Chiron, the activities director, was sitting silently in his wheelchair in the middle of his study. The walls were plastered with colourful posters of Hits of the 80s. Scattered across the walls, between the neon posters, were pictures of demigods. There was even one of Nico. It was months before - just a few weeks after the second Titan war, before Percy went missing. They were standing besides the lake, with a couple of giggling dryads in the background, Percy and Annabeth were standing in the middle with their arms linked, Nico and Thalia on either side of them. Thalia seemed to glow in the sunshine, more than usual anyway. She had a massive grin plastered on her freckled face, unlike Nico, who barely gave a smile. He never smiled much anyway, but that particular day was the day Nico realised what he really felt for-

"Nico," Chiron's somber voice brought him back to reality. "What brings you in here?"

"What? Percy said you were looking-"

"Ah . . . so Percy chose you." He said quietly.

"What?" Nico was confused. Percy chose him for what?

"Do not worry about that, Nico." He gave Nico a faint smile, yet Nico could tell it was fake. "You will find out soon enough. Right now, we must speak of your quest."

"Quest?"

"Yes. Nico, you must know about the gods and their, ah, affairs with mortals." Chiron seemed uneasy about bringing up that subject. Nico got the impression that the centaur, as old as he was, hasn't ever carried out the conversation about 'birds and bees'. "Lady Hecate, the goddess of magic, had interesting relationships with her chosen partners. Hecate, much like Athena, is a maiden goddess - sworn an oath not to marry. She, too, had children, by blessing her mortal lover. It was pure magic.

"Therefore demigods aren't the only offsprings of lady Hecate. It turned out, thousands of years ago, that lady Hecate also created her own …" Chiron paused for a moment to find the right word, "breed of children."

"What do you mean by breed? If they're not half-god-half-mortal what are they?"

"In a way, they were half-bloods. Daughters and sons of lady Hecate and the mortal blessed by her. However, throughout the generations, the godly blood had ceased to exist within them."

Nico was confused. "Then ... they're mortals now?"

"I said that they do not have gods' blood within them. That does not include the magic Hecate gave them.

"When lady Hecate gave life to her children, she pushed magic into them, as well as godly blood. That's why there are still wizards and witches around, even today."

"Wait … Wizards and Witches? Like, with wands and broomsticks?"

"Yes." Nico stayed quiet for a couple of moments, trying to wrap his head around the idea of witchcraft and wizardry. So there were other worlds, aside from his and the mortal world … Interesting. Nico doubted any other demigod knew about witches and wizards. He wondered what other secrets Chiron withheld from the rest of them.

"Okay … so, that quest, am I supposed to go to Rachel for a prophecy?"

"Not this time, no." That's new, Nico thought. "But I do need to know whether you agree to it, before I tell you what you must do."

Nico pondered about that. Continue his pathetic, boring life as a travelling oddball, or accept the quest and be occupied for a while with an adventure? Tough choice …

"Alright." Chiron's mood didn't improve at Nico's agreement, "What do I have to do?"

Chiron began the extremely long explanation. About a wizard from fifty years ago who was a power hungry murderer, who disappeared mysteriously after failing to kill some kid, and came back last year, letting most people falsely think he was dead for eleven years. Most people, meaning that not everyone thought he died in the first place, and he never truly did.

"What do you mean?" Nico interrupted.

"He created horcruxes." Nico evidently didn't show any sign of recognition of the word, so Chiron continued. "Horcruxes are the darkest of magical objects, as they allow a person to be semi-immortal. If the person commits murder, like Voldemort did, with the intention of creating a horcrux, they will be able to conceal a part of their soul in an object. Because only by committing the most unforgivable of crimes - murder - your soul is ripped.

By tearing his soul that way, Voldemort was able to live on after his body was destroyed."

"Voldemort? What sort of a name is that?"

"When he was younger, Voldemort was known as Tom Riddle, but he decided to choose a new name. Something that everyone would fear one day. And he was correct to choose it; nowadays wizards are too afraid to speak the name out loud, and instead refer to him as 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'.

"After his comeback last year, Voldemort is expected to be gathering his allies, who call him The Dark Lord."

"He's got a rather large ego hasn't he?" Nico mused. "Well, I'm up for it, as soon as you tell me what I'm ought to do."

"Tomorrow you will go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-" Nico snickered at the name. Hogwarts?- "And attend as a student. The main aim is for you to at least discover a possible location of a few of the Horcruxes, and find a way to destroy them; ergo tear down Voldemort."

"Is that it?" Nico asked. It seemed too easy. He wouldn't even have to bother to go to school and kill Voldemort himself. How hard could it be to impale some dude on a sword? Even if he can come back another few times, Nico can just find him again and kill him until he runs out of Horcruxes.

"Yes. But you cannot face He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Bummer. "It isn't your destiny to do so. Nico, if you do find out the location of the Horcruxes, you must not be the one to go after them. Give the locations to professor Dumbledore - the headmaster of the school. He is a trusted, wise wizard. He, along with a few of the teachers, will know you are a demigod, whereas the students must remain untold. Do not tell anyone your true identity and stay incognito; I cannot bear to imagine what could happen if another war broke out between Wizards and Demigods."

"Another war? What do you-"

Nico's voice died when Chiron lifted his hand in a silencing gesture. "That is not for me to speak about. It has been forbidden by Lord Zeus himself, so I beg you not to repeat what I said to you. This quest is top secret.

"I will send your Hogwarts robes into the Hades cabin shortly, along with your train ticket. You must be on the Hogwarts Express at no later than eleven o'clock." Nico left the centaur's study quietly. He was wondering why he was supposed to go on a super-secret mission. To a school as well? Chiron would know that Nico isn't exactly a people-person.

He stood on the porch of the Big House and looked around. The Golden Fleece still glittered in the branches of Thalia's tree, guarded safely by Peleus the dragon. The Apollo kids were playing basketball on the courts, the satyrs were chasing nymphs and Mr D was passed out by the Pinochle table. It was so calm and peaceful Nico was almost saddened by his rare visits to Camp Half Blood.

Nico pushed open the coal-black door to his cabin and inhaled the musty smell. It hasn't been occupied in a long time. He could practically see the dust frothing around in the air. The floor was filthy gray and his bed was messed up. It was like he never left.
Nico wasn't the cleaning type. In fact he was a little more than lazy when it came to doing chores like cleaning, so his cabin was constantly dirty. Well, it usually was when he was there. But then he found Hazel and was hardly ever at camp. Even when he wasn't at Camp Jupiter, he preferred to wander around the world, eating whatever he could scrounge; like McDonalds or crisps from vending machines.

Stepping into his cabin after all these months was like looking at your old childhood photos. You couldn't remember yourself being there but it seemed strangely appealing. He crossed the room and noticed something brand new. On a chair in the back of the cabin was a black robe and a golden ticket. The robe was a plain, black cotton cloak. As Nico picked it up, a note fell to the ground. Without hesitating, he bent over and read the piece of paper:

Nico, those are your school robes and ticket to Platform 9 ¾.

Nico wondered why there would be a platform nine and three quarters. British people are weird, he thought. Not really caring what he was about to get himself into, Nico stuffed the soft robes into his old backpack, along with the ticket and demigod supplies (Ambrosia, Nectar, clothes etc.) and flopped on the dusty bed. It took him a while to fall asleep, but he wanted to get some rest before shadow travelling to London. It would take a lot of his energy.

A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so I would really appreciate constructive criticism!