To Find What is Lost

Chapter 37: Vision

After the speech, things just kept getting better and better. Will once said that Nico di Angelo was incredibly unlucky, he believed it.

Next up was the dance. The dance. After all that humiliation, it seemed the fates were still not satisfied. Those crooked old hags. Maybe if Nico pretended to lose consciousness he'd get out of it? The idea was sorely tempting. Or perhaps he could summon some zombies, that ought to draw attention away from him!

The music started up, and Will took his hand and led him onto the floor. Nico wondered if this was what it felt like to be a ghost in the fields of Asphodel, completely out of this realm and only existing on a plane of unreality and shock. No, ghosts didn't feel so terribly embarrassed that they wanted to sink into the ground...

The ground was growing softer.

Shit! Calm down Nico, don't think about the ground.

Will was speaking in his ear, and Nico focused on that with all his might.

Listen to Will.

"Neeks, look at me, concentrate, they're not there, it's just the two of us." His eyes were so soft and caring, so loving. Nico took a deep breath, and slowly everyone else disappeared; fading into the air until it was just the two of them as Will said.

The son of Apollo smiled, "that's right, now; left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot,"

Nico was getting the hang of it, he knew this song, he remembered suddenly; Will liked this song, they used to listen to it at camp. Will would sing along to it in a terrible high-pitched wail and Nico would throw a pillow at him.

A smile touched Nico's lips.

"Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot,"

People were whispering, but they weren't there. They weren't there. And the people faded away again.

The music was loud now, playing in their ears as Will and Nico circled the dance floor, Nico stepped on his boyfriend's feet.

"Sorry."

Will laughed, "t's'okay,"

Finally the song was over, and yet Nico found he hadn't hated the dance at all. It had been alright!

A new song started, and they were joined by Pansy and Blaise, a Ravenclaw couple, and a few other people. A while later Luna and Neville Longbottom started dancing, Neville was good but Luna soon broke off to do her own crazy wacky dance. Wonderful girl. Potter and some hot Gryffindor girl joined the dance, and next second Ginny dragged Draco out too. The dancing got faster and faster, and eventually almost everyone was out on the floor leaving only the awkward and unpopular. Usually Nico was one of those people. What was happening to his life?

They were spinning, faster, faster, faster, and then-

Boom.

Blackness.

A light.

Blinding him, driving past him as he sped through infinity to somewhere beyond light.

He screamed.

Boom.

It stopped.

Nico was in a room, a room full of everything under the sun, piled to the roof and stacked in teetering piles that defied gravity. There was no natural light, yet somehow it was not dark. Dust and debris was everywhere, and there was a space cleared out in the centre of the room.

Chalk circles and stars and runes from every language sprang from the boarded floor, forming a pentacle, twirling round and round, runes and runes, at the centre was a girl.

A girl with bushy brown hair.

A girl who should have been at the ball.

A girl who was adding the final chalk line to her spell.

A girl who was about to discover the gods.

"STOP HER!" -Hecate was screaming, more wind, more light, and Nico jerked awake in the centre of a dance floor full of whispering people.

Will was bent over him, Pansy, Blaise and Draco were nearby, but Nico could only think of one thing.

"Granger," his eyes were wide as they stared at Will. "We have to stop her."

***

At Hogwarts people remember things, but they are also remarkably able to ignore strange and sudden occurrences such as students spontaneously passing out and screaming.

Such a wonderful place.

At camp people would care about warnings, signs, but this wasn't camp. Here apparently people would happily go back to dancing after the king of the ball just collapsed in a screaming mess. It was kinda handy.

"I need to get to Granger, it's important." Nico was talking to Pansy, Blaise, Draco and Will, and he knew he shouldn't include the mortals but he didn't have a choice, Granger was finishing the spell now. "She's doing something top secret, and she doesn't know what she's getting herself into, but I have to stop her, it's crucial!"

Pansy and Blaise were exchanging worried looks, but Draco was so pale that Nico would have sworn he was a ghost, the blonde swallowed, then spoke, "I know where she is."

Everybody looked at him.

"You said it was a place full of old things? Piled into a kind of maze of old possessions?"

Nico nodded.

"I can take you there."

Will was looking at Nico with concern, Blaise and Pansy were still looking utterly out of their depth, and Nico hesitated. He didn't know why he hesitated, he trusted Draco. He trusted Draco with his life. So why was he hesitating?

His eyes roamed the bleach-blonde's face, drained and pale and hollow, and their eyes met.

Nico trusted Draco.

The grey of his eyes... it was familiar. Somehow.

"I trust you." he said quietly, only for Draco to hear.

The boy looked back at him, he didn't break eye contact. Malfoy swallowed again, and then whispered back:

"I know."