To Find What is Lost

Chapter 7: Blueprint

Hello lovely readers!! Finally we meet Luna!! Does Nico decide she's crazy? Does he befriend her? And what do I mean by blueprint? So many questions!! XD I'd love it if you could leave a comment or vote!! Thanks for reading -Emmi

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After Divination (yuck) came charms, which Nico didn't mind. It reminded him of theory lessons at Camp, in which Chiron desperately tried to make the ADHD demigods sit still for an hour. Basically complete pandemonium. Luckily they had charms with the Hufflepuffs, so there was no need to steer clear of any angry Gryffindors.

In fact, Nico had noticed that most of the dirty looks they had been getting were from the Gryffindors, a few were from the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, but generally the two houses were rather friendly.

One seventh year Ravenclaw girl even came up to him in the halls and started chatting in a very friendly and completely random manner about Crumple-Horned Snorckacks. Nico was rather shocked when he heard that she knew about Crumple-Horned Snorckacks. They weren't in his list of creatures known to wizard kind.
Thus he was even more surprised when everyone around her started laughing and shooting him funny looks when he actually conversed with her about the mythical beasts.
Belatedly he realized they all thought she was mad as a hatter.

Luna -bless her- noticed a change in his manner and looked around at the others in the hall with them, whispering and laughing.

"Oh, don't mind them." she said dreamily with a smile, turning and twisting on the spot in an absent fashion. "They all think I'm crazy." she explained earnestly but without a hint of bitterness, only a smile. "But you don't think I'm crazy, do you Nico?"

"Oh, well." Nico felt spotlighted suddenly, then he looked at the dreamy and peculiar girl in front of him who in all fairness probably was a tad crazy. He cursed himself under his breath for being so soft all of a sudden, but the Ghost King forced a smile;

"No, Luna, I don't think you're crazy."

She beamed at him and to his surprise launched herself at him in a big hug.

Nico was caught right off guard, and his face must've looked comical. He didn't like physical contact, especially not bear-hugs from practical strangers, but there was a little bemused smile on his face as he gently took her arms and unwrapped them from around him.

She didn't seem disheartened, only nodded understandingly;

"Sorry, I forgot you don't like physical contact. See you later!" And with that she merrily skipped away, humming a song to herself.

The son of Hades was left very bemusedly watching her go. What a curious girl, he most certainly hadn't told her about his dislike of contact, had it been a guess? He shook his head with a smile, then cursed as he realized he only had two minutes to get to Potions, the next class on his timetable.

*** Hermione POV:

Hermione was, for the first time in her life, behind on homework. She had never understood how people let their Homework get away from them, but time and enough logical reasoning can change anyone.

"I'm not really behind though," she thought to herself. "I have an excuse!" However, the brunette had an annoying habit of defying her own logic.

"No excuse is an excuse to put aside homework." she berated herself tiredly, but at that moment the said excuse walked through the door.

"Ron!" she said, getting up happily and walking towards the portrait hole he had just come through.

"Hey, Hermione." he said, but his voice was empty, hollow. It hurt Hermione to hear her boyfriend in such pain.

That's why you're doing this. For him.

"What are you doing up here? You're going to miss dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

"Ron you have to eat." she begged him.

"And what about you, 'Mione?" He turned the tables. "You're not at dinner either."

"Oh," she blushed. "I'm just finishing up some homework. I'll eat later."

"Then so will I." said Ron simply. Hermione sighed, she couldn't fight that logic. She kissed him on the cheek.

"Alright, Ron. Just at least try and get some rest?"

He sighed, "fine. I'll try and rest."

"Thank you." she smiled, holding his cheek tenderly and placing another kiss on it before he smiled faintly at her and left for his dormitory.

The minute he was gone Hermione steeled herself, took a deep breath and pushed aside the homework papers on her desk. Underneath them lay a big blueprint-style piece of parchment, notes were scribbled all over it, endless formulas and spells, and drawings covered the paper. To anyone except the little genius it would have been complete mayhem, but to Hermione it was a long and complicated puzzle, a beast that she had been battling for a month now, and slowly, very slowly, she was winning.