▬▬▬ CHAPTER THIRTEEN ▬▬▬

THE PREFECTS FOR HUFFLEPUFF LED everyone towards the directions of the kitchens, which was apparently where the dormitory and common room was. It was accessed through a pile of large barrels stacked in a shadowy stone recess at the right-hand side hallway near the kitchens. One of the prefects was very eager to show the first years how to get in. After warning everyone to pay attention, he tapped the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'.

"Tapping the wrong barrel or tapping the incorrect number of times results in one of the lids bursting off and drenching the person in vinegar, so I hope you paid attention to the demonstration!" The prefect said cheerily, stepping aside and allowing the students to enter through the tunnel.

Esmerelda found their common room to be quite cozy. It also gave her some Demeter-vibes. Even though it was nighttime, the room generated a somewhat 'sunny' aura. It was large, earthy, and round with low ceilings. Burnished copper touchings with plush, cozy yellow and black patterned sofas (House colors), and chairs, and there were wooden tables scattered around here and there for students to hang out. The fireplace had a large tree root over it, and it stretched all the way to the ceiling where it spread out and dangled different types of plants. Through the circular windows she could see beautifully bloomed dandelions and healthy looking grass. The plants that practically surrounded the room were—much to her surprise—singing and dancing to welcome them all.

She didn't know how the other common rooms looked like, but she was quite satisfied with this one.

The prefects didn't give them much time to admire their common room and lead through a pair of big, round doors which was where the dormitories were. It was four per room, so she was rooming with Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, and Megan Jones.

When they reached their shared bedroom, Esmerelda almost cried tears of joy.

She had a bed.

Her own bed.

As lame as it sounded, she had always wanted to sleep on a bed ever since her first night staying in the Hermes cabin.

No more sleeping on the floor, she told herself, smiling widely as she unpacked her things with the rest of her roommates. She did so very impatiently, wanting nothing more than to jump on her bed and lay there for the rest of her life. Dear gods, her bed was so huge, too! Much bigger than the bunks back at camp! She was sure her fellow campers would be jealous if they saw her now.

"Well, I guess it's lights out then." Hannah Abbott said, smiling. "Sweet dreams, you guys!"

"Goodnight!" They all chimed, and the lights turned off.

Esmerelda fell asleep instantly, and was sucked into her dreams.

She dreamed of darkness. The only source of light was three-colored glows in front of her. She saw black on the left, green in the middle, and then blue on the right. A form started to shape in the mist... No, three forms.

She saw three women, but they had the exact same delicate looking face. It was the color palette that was different. All three of them were deathly pale and wore a dark purple chiton, but the one surrounded in black mist had blonde hair and pitch black eyes. On the right, her hair was red and her eyes were bright blue. The woman at the center had black hair and deep green eyes.

The two women at her sides blurred together and only the green eyed one was left standing. The black and blue glow disappeared too, and became entirely green.

The woman was suddenly holding a pair of lit torches.

"Mother." Esmerelda said, and began to lower, but Hecate shook her head.

"No. Do not bow to me, daughter." She ordered. Her voice was soft, which matched her frail looking appearance. But Esmerelda knew better than to underestimate her, she could practically feel the magic her mother radiated. It was almost stifling.

Esmerelda nodded and stayed standing.

"I see you have made it to Hogwarts. That is good," Hecate noted, nodding to herself. "Learn well there, but you must do more than what your professors expect from you. You have a job to do, Esmerelda, and I cannot allow you to fail."

Esmerelda furrowed her brows. This was their first ever meeting... and this is what her mother says to her? No 'hello' or 'how have you been doing?'. She pursed her lips but didn't say anything.

What were you expecting? She scolded herself. A tearful embrace? I should be more grateful... Not every demigod has the chance to even look at their godly parent.

She tried to feel happy for herself, but all she could feel was disappointment.

"I don't understand, mother," she finally spoke up. "What job are you talking about? Do you have a quest for me?"

She shook her head. "Not a quest. It is something more important. Something you cannot fail. You have a vital part to play in the future... He needs you."

"He?" She echoed. "Who is 'he'?"

But her mother didn't reply. At least not right away. Her deep green eyes searched every inch of her face, as if trying to remember it. Esmerelda stared back. Her mother was absolutely beautiful, but something about her seemed... cold. Distant.

Her mother finally spoke. "Please do not fail me, Esmerelda. This is what I made you for."

"But what do you—"

Her mother disappeared, and her only source of light disappeared with her.

Esmerelda was left in the darkness, but she didn't wake up. No matter how much she wanted to.

A sense of dread struck her. She felt like there were walls closing in on her, ready to crush her, to bury her.

And then came the voice.

"I need you, young hero..." It murmured.

No, she thought, feeling faint. She hadn't had a dream like this for over a month now. Why was it happening again?! Where was her mother?! Wake up, let me wake up!

Her body started sinking into the ground. Something cold and wispy started to wrap itself around her. She thrashed around and screamed, but the evil voice only chuckled at her panic.

"It's almost time..." It crooned, and she could feel the tendrils tighten around her neck, moving higher and higher until it reached her mouth. She felt her jaws being forcefully pried open, and multiple strands of something cold and flexible started to lower themselves into her throat. She started to choke.

"Give me your body, Esmerelda."

She shot up from her bed, her hands around her throat as she coughed and struggled for air. Megan—whose bed was located at her left—began to stir.

Esmerelda placed a hand over her mouth and waited for Megan to stop moving around. When she did, she lowered her hand and clutched her bed sheets. Her face was full of sweat and her hands were shaking and clammy.

Just what kind of dream was that? Who was that voice? And... and why did it want her body? Did her mother have something to do with it? Or did that voice just trick her? It had sort of done the same thing in the last dream, where her dad was there but had been replaced by that thing...

Knowing that she'd never be able to go back to sleep, she quietly left her bed and slipped through the curtains. Her roommates seemed to be sound asleep, so she slipped on some shoes and left. She didn't exactly know what to do, but she had a good place in mind.

The Forbidden Forest was seriously creepy. She felt like she was stepping into a horror movie as she strolled through it. All the trees were tall and the branches created weird shapes in the moonlight that would make almost anyone paranoid. The place must have been so scary that not even squirrels would dare enter because she had been inside for at least half an hour now and had yet to see a friendly squirrel.

As she continued to delve deeper, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She was being watched. Her hand reached for her brooch (she was armed twenty-four seven until she reached the showers) and she began to unpin it until a voice called out to her.

"Halt. Turn around."

She turned and saw a centaur. His gentle features almost reminded her of Chiron. He had a palomino body, long white-blonde hair, and pale blue eyes that were much brighter than her own siblings. He sniffed at her.

"Godling," he realized. "You must be one of Chiron's campers."

She perked up. "You know Chiron?"

"Who does not know of that man?" He questioned. "Why is there a young godling far away from her safe haven?"

"I'm, um, well... I go to school here." She said stupidly.

"Ah," he seemed to understand. "You are the child that never should have been born."

Thanks for reminding me. She didn't want to seem rude, so she just plastered on a grimacing smile and said: "Yep, that's me."

"Firenze," another centaur came. His face was hard and not as friendly as Firenze's. He had a black body, black hair, and black eyes. He stared at her, and seemed to come to the conclusion of what she was. "Godling," he muttered under his breath. "So you are the reason for the forest becoming wilder."

She frowned. "Wilder? What do you mean?"

"The creatures here have become restless since you have arrived. Some are hungry for you, others fear the ones who want to kill you. And more monsters are coming," he said, looking up. "A big one is coming soon as well. But I cannot tell which. The stars have yet to given me an exact shape."

"Oh no," she paled. Monsters were coming. She knew this would happen, but on the first night...? So soon?

"We have managed to kill some," Firenze told her softly. "But we cannot kill them all. Not forever at least."

"Let me help you then!" She pleaded. "It's my fault that they're here. I'm sorry for putting you all in danger... and the other kids too. Can you take me to them?"

The dark centaur regarded her with a look of approval. "The other monsters are not too big of a threat, but a particular group of—"

"—Bane," Firenze cut in. "She is but a foal."

"That is correct. But she is a demigod foal. She is much more different than those humans." He spat, his glare directed towards the castle where the mortals were all sleeping in. "She has offered us help, and we will accept it."

Firenze looked like he wanted to argue some more, but sighed in defeat when Bane gave him one last pointed glare.

"There is a group of aeternae wrecking havoc in our woods. The humans have yet to notice it because they are ignorant, but they will not be able to do much if they encounter them." Bane said.

"They can't? But they have magic, or at least the teachers do." She pointed out.

Bane smiled almost mockingly. "You have much to learn, daughter of Hecate. While these witches and wizards are blessed by Hecate, they are still nothing but weak, feeble humans. Their mortal magic is not strong enough to defeat the monsters of Greek legend. But yours will do."

"I see... Okay, can you take me to them now?" She asked.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Bane and Firenze led her towards the group of aeternae. While going there, Bane informed her that they would not assist her unless she was in dire danger. Apparently he wanted to see how much worth she was and she was determined to prove herself.

When she found the aeternae, however, she immediately wanted to back out.

Holy Hera, she thought, her eyes growing wide with horror. There were four of them. Four massive rhinoceros-like monsters with thick and pointy bones pointing out from their heads. Their tails were like whips; whenever they lashed at the ground, they left marks.

She remembered learning about them in her Greek monster lessons. They had attacked Alexander the Great's army when they were trying to pass the northern Indian plains. They had decimated a lot of the warriors through their bony, saw-toothed horns.

She vaguely imagined how it would feel to have one of those running through her stomach and shuddered.

Okay, time to think, Essie. She forced herself to calm down. They haven't noticed you or smelled you yet, so you can still plan a strategy. I don't know how fast they are, but they're fast enough to pierce through human flesh. Their skin also looks really tough and guarded... maybe their bellies are soft? Or should I throw a knife into their mouths? Or what if—

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP—!

With a choked gasp, Esmerelda dove away from the tree she was hiding behind and watched as the whole tree fell down from the impact of an aeternae.

Another one darted for her but she raised her hand and shouted, "Incantare: Circumligo (bind round, fasten around, tie up, wrap, envelope, etc)!"

The tree roots underneath started to emerge from the earth and wrap itself around the aeternae's legs, but they easily ripped through them with ease.

Oh shit.

Esmerelda quickly side-stepped an incoming monster and grabbed one of it's horns to pull her up. Now that she was riding it, it started to buck around like a crazy bull and she was unable to see anything.

"Inc-cantare: S-stulti Carcer!" She shouted, then cursed when she bit her lip. The aeternae that she was riding on slowed down, literally. It was like in one of those slow-motion scenes on TV.

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP! Hastily, she jumped off her ride just in time for one of it's brethren to ram itself into it's side. It disappeared in a shower of golden dust and Esmerelda had to roll away to avoid being stomped on.

Seeing what happened gave her an idea.

She scrambled around for another aeternae to ride on and hoisted herself up on the first one that ran at her. Gripping it's horns to keep steady, she forcefully tried to steer it towards one of the remaining two.

THUMP! The target evaded and she knocked a tree down instead.

Squinting to protect her eyes from flyaway splinters, she made her aeternae turn around. She'd have to make hers faster than the others.

"Incantare: Consectatio (race, pursuit, hunt)!" She cried, her eyes glowing green in the darkness. She felt the air whip at her face as her trusty steed zoomed forward. She didn't even realize she had killed another monster until she started coughing on the dust. She turned left and stormed towards the next one, then she cast Stulti Carcer on the one she was riding and hopped off of it.

It's belly looks soft, she noted as she gripped her labrys. She held it like one would hold a golf club and swung upwards.

Breathing heavily, she looked around her surroundings in case another one would pop up. There was nothing left but broken trees and golden dust. Relieved, she spat blood on the ground.

"Excellent work, godling. Impressive." Bane said as he approached with Firenze. He looked at the destruction and nodded in approval. "Very impressive."

"Is that all?" She asked. "I mean, is that the biggest threat?"

"For now," Firenze said softly. "I'm afraid, more will come. Stronger ones too..." He looked up at the bright sky. "The shape of the incoming monster is still unclear... But Mars is very bright tonight. For both of your worlds."

"Mars?" She repeated. "Wait... Mars represents war... War is coming, isn't it?"

Both centaurs nodded grimly.

"What do you mean for both of my worlds though?" She asked.

"Rest, daughter of Hecate." Firenze murmured. "You will need it."

When she returned to her dormitory, she changed into a different set of pajamas and washed the blood out of her mouth. She also nibbled on some ambrosia for the little cut she had on her lip from where she accidentally bit it. She crawled into bed and wondered about the centaur's last words...

A handful of hours passed and it was time to get ready for class. Esmerelda wasn't able to go back to sleep, but she wasn't too bothered by it. She got dressed for her first day of classes, ate breakfast with her house mates, and was trying to find her History of Magic class.

It was hard because the school was huge and there was no map anywhere. Plus, the staircases moved around without giving you much of a warning (she almost fell off of one). She tried asking one of the talking paintings for help but he was very unhelpful and gave gave her directions to the boys bathroom instead (jerk).

She reached an empty hallway and groaned in despair. She was going to be late at this point... But then she saw someone at the end of the empty hallway. It was the Fat Friar, and he looked too busy admiring a potted plant to notice her. Remembering how friendly he was yesterday, she approached him in hopes of getting some help.

"Excuse me," she said, then reached up to tap his shoulder.

He screamed. "AHHHHH!"

She jumped back and screamed too, though in a more confused way. "AHHHH?"

He whirled around to face her, gawking. "You touched me!"

"Sorry!" She squeaked. "I touched your shoulder though! I didn't know that was inappropriate!" She remembered that friar's were religious. He must be very conservative then.

"No!" He exclaimed, looking ready to die of shock if he wasn't already dead. "I'm a ghost!"

"Oh," she said, finally realizing the problem.

She remembered the feast—every time a ghost made contact with a student, they always went right through them. She did not.

"How—how did you do that?" He spluttered, hand over his unbeating heart.

"I... I don't know..." She said. She really didn't. For a moment, that is.

Mom's also known as the goddess of ghosts... That must be why! She couldn't exactly tell him that though...

"Can you help me find Professor Binns class?" She blurted out.

The Fat Friar stared at her in bewilderment. It was a very abrupt change of subject after all. "I—yes, just follow me." He gave her one last incredulous look before gliding her to the right direction.

Thanking the Friar, she hastily entered the classroom before he could ask her about the odd occurrence and sat down with the other Hufflepuffs.

History of Magic turned out to be the most boring class she had ever been in. The ghost-teacher, Professor Binns, had one of those voices that just droned on and on and made you fall asleep in seconds. Rumor has it, he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up the next morning to teach without even realizing he had left his body behind.

When he asked the class to open up their textbooks to page 30, Esmerelda honestly felt like ditching right then and there.

Questions. He wanted them to answer questions and hand them over by the end of the class. She couldn't read any of the questions and the more stressed she got, the harder it was to read.

She glanced at her seat-mate's paper. By the looks of it, he was almost done. Then she looked at her own paper—blank with only her first name.

She covered the questions with her arm and leaned towards her classmate. "Hey, what does the first question say? I can't read it because there's been an ink spill."

"Oh. It's asking you to describe Emeric the Evil," he answered before going back to his work.

Emeric the Evil. She remembered hearing Professor Binns say that name before. She skimmed through her notes, which was written entirely in Ancient Greek (a tip given to her by an older camper) and found the name. She quickly scrawled down whatever she could write before Professor Binns announced the end of class. She only managed to do one question, but it was better than nothing.

The rest of her week went pretty terribly. School had barely started and yet she had never been so stressed.

Every Tuesday she would have to study the night sky through her telescope at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movement of the planets. That got in the way of her 'monster hunting' activities with the centaurs and it always made Bane very displeased when she would turn up late.

Speaking of her monster hunting activities... She was barely getting any sleep because of it. Every night when it was time for everyone to retire to their dormitories, she would wait for her roommates to fall asleep before slinking back out to the Forbidden Forest to kill the monsters there. Then, she would go back to bed and either stay up the rest of the night or fall asleep to another weird dream and wake up an hour later...

Anyways, back to her classes.

The Hufflepuffs had Herbology with Professor Sprout, who was their House head and was a very kind woman. Unfortunately, the Slytherins had that class too and she met Draco again. Only it was much worse because it seemed that all the Slytherin's shared Draco's terrible attitude. It was hard to ignore him because whenever she was near, she would hear him snicker to his two goonies: "Hmph, knew she'd end up being a dumb Puff!".

It took her all her willpower to not just cut his head off right then and there.

She shared her Charms class with the Gryffindors, who were better company than the Slytherins. Their teacher, Professor Flitwick, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. On the first day of class, he was so excited to call out Harry Potter's name that he accidentally topped off the books. He was okay, though.

The class everyone seemed excited for was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Esmerelda was a little excited for it too. She wanted to know how they'd defend themselves. What super cool spells would they be learning?

The excitement died down after the first five minutes of class, though. Their teacher, Professor Quirrell, was really lame. His paranoia about vampires caused him to purposely make the whole room stink of garlic and he didn't teach them anything useful at all. The most he did was tell skeptical stories of how he got rid of a zombie in Africa, but whenever someone asked for more details, he'd get embarrassed and start talking about the weather.

Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall however... went very weirdly.

The stern teacher started off with roll call, and like during the feast, Esmerelda was the very last name to be called.

"Here." Esmerelda said, raising her hand up. Professor McGonagall gave her an odd look.

"Your last name is not on here." She stated.

Esmerelda lowered her hand and became very nervous. "Oh, that's, um, well—"

"—You are American?" She cut in, more surprised about that.

She nodded her head silently.

"You... Were you born in the United Kingdom?" She asked.

Esmerelda blinked, and in the corner of her eyes she could see the rest of the class look at each other in confusion. Why did it matter where she was born? "Um, no?" It sounded more like a question but she honestly didn't know where she was born at this point. Her origins were unknown to her. "I'm from America..."

"America..." Professor McGonagall repeated, then muttered something under her breath that nobody could hear. She seemed just as lost as everyone else, but was hiding it better. "Right then. Back to class now. Our first lesson shall be..."

To make everything worse, the ghosts seemed to be stalking her everywhere she went. They didn't do anything harmful though, they were just being creepy. During breakfast one day, the Fat Friar seated himself a few feet away from her and just stared at her unblinkingly. Another time was when she was walking back to the dormitory after her Astronomy class. She was tired and sleep deprived and it didn't help when she spotted Nearly Headless Nick lurking at a dark corner watching her. The worst incident was when she was in the bathroom; she had opened the stall door and Peeves was inside just waiting for her. He had a great laugh, but she nearly pissed her skirt.

There were many more, but those were just the more memorable ones. She figured that the Fat Friar went and spilled the beans to the other ghosts about her being able to make physical contact with him...

Friday was the last day of classes and she was so very relieved of that. She was tired, stressed of all the homework that she could barely do, and her whole body ached from being beaten around by monsters.

Today she had Potions with the Ravenclaws. It was being taught by Professor Snape, who she heard warning whispers about. Apparently he was very mean and favored the Slytherins over everyone. He was also crueler to Gryffindors and there were rumors that he had acted like a total ass to Harry Potter unprovoked.

It made Esmerelda a little wary, but she had suffered through worse teachers. Besides, she liked brewing potions with her half-siblings so maybe this class wouldn't be much different.

The Potions classroom was down in the dungeons. Even creepier was that the room was full of pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. It was also freezing cold inside, and she wondered if Hogwarts had ever thought about investing in getting a heater...

When she saw Professor Snape, she couldn't help but gulp in fear. Something about the air he emitted reminded her of her mother's. Cold, distant, and detached. The comparison only made her stomach twist. Her mother... why had she behaved that way towards her?

"In my class, you will learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began, his voice soft but somewhat powerful. "Wands will not be needed in my class other than to stir your potions, so if I hear any of you so much as utter a spell when not asked to..."

He didn't need to finish his sentence. Both Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws tensed up in understanding.

Esmerelda gulped. This dude was intense. It only made her all the more nervous what with her terrible school record...

Her anxiety tripled when Snape put them all into pairs and had them brew a supposedly simple potion to cure boils—a potion neither she or her siblings have ever brewed before. She partnered up with Hannah Abbott, who had the tendency to read aloud the instructions to herself which made it easier for Esmerelda.

"So we crush the snake fangs and dump them in one by one after putting in the dried nettles." She heard Hannah mutter. Esmerelda started to crush the snake fangs while Hannah decided to make sure the nettles were properly made.

Snape walked around the room, probably to make sure nobody screwed up their potion and caused an explosion (apparently that had happened once). His long black cloak billowed softly in the wind almost majestically. Esmerelda couldn't help but wonder if he enchanted it to do that.

He finally made it to their table. Esmerelda was sweating bullets at that point. Please tell me we did right... She pleaded, but he only managed to spare their cauldron a glance because he spotted something happen in the next table over.

"Smith!" He snapped. "The instructions say to stir slowly! Look at the mess you have created! Five points from Hufflepuff. I hope you aware that you will clean all of this up."

Poor Zacharias Smith stammered an apology and began to wipe up his mess with his own robes.

Instead of returning to Esmerelda and Hannah's table, he went over to the next one. The two girls looked at each other and sighed in relief. As much as Esmerelda wanted to know how she was doing, she didn't want to get yelled at for every little mistake they made.

During dinner that night, she received mail. Most likely a reply from the previous letter she had sent detailing how Hogwarts was so far. She sent a letter to Ethan and Travis to ask how things were going for him as the new Hermes counselor.

Stylianos landed gracefully beside a bowl of mashed potatoes and stuck his leg out, where a letter was tied to it. It was in binder paper instead of parchment. She unfolded it and read the Ancient Greek characters.

Yo, Essie, it's Travis. Things at camp aren't going so great right now. His betrayal practically put the rest of the Hermes cabin in some sorta blacklist. Everyone's suspicious of us now and the Ares cabin's going around calling all of us traitors. Some of my half-siblings still can't believe what he had done... As cabin counselor, people are now going to me to help break up fights. It's tough. I've gotten like five black eyes in the past week so far. I got Connor helping me out though. We're kinda like co-head counselors now.

Hope you're safe at your fancy school (it's seriously a CASTLE? So not fair). Ethan kinda got a lil worried when you wrote about the Forbidden Forest, and tbh, so am I. Why did you even go there?? That's like something Connor and I would do and we're STUPID.

I'm shaking my head at you rn.

You better come visit us over break, okay? Bye!

Esmerelda was still smiling by the end of the letter, but it quickly faded away once her eyes reverted back to the first paragraph. She could tell that Travis was deeply wounded by what Luke had done... He couldn't even write his name down.

Quickly, she grabbed a piece of parchment and quill from her backpack and started writing a reply down.

Hey Travis. I can't believe how awful the other campers are treating you guys... Sorta makes me wanna go back there and help out. I feel useless here now. The Ares cabin's taking this situation way out of hand though. Why punish the whole cabin for what ONE person did? It's unfair... I'm sorry you and Connor have to be the ones to stop the fights. What is Chiron saying about all of this? I don't think he would just allow this sort of thing to happen, then again he couldn't do anything to stop all the tension when camp was going through that mini 'civil war'.

Anyways, I'm perfectly safe here at school. I only ever went in the Forbidden Forest because I was unable to go to sleep. And I told you, if I hadn't gone there and killed all those monsters they would've stampeded all over the school...

By the way, I haven't gotten any replies from Ethan? Do you know if he's okay? I hope Caleb's not bothering him, but I feel like he is. Especially since he has more ammunition now with what happened...

I'll be coming back once break starts, so don't worry. I'll see you guys soon!

—Essie

She purposely didn't mention any of her nightmares. She didn't want to burden him or any one of her friends with them and besides, what could they do about it? What could she do about it? She'd just have to continue suffering through them until the (hopefully) stopped.

Folding up the letter, she tied it around Stylianos leg.

"Hey, Stylianos, how about you stay and eat a little bi—okay then..." He had flown away.

— author's note —

HANNAH ABBOTT
played by HANNAH MURRAY

SUSAN BONES
played by ANNALISE BASSO

MEGAN JONES
played by AISHA DEE

( try to imagine them as eleven year olds tho )

HECATE
played by TUBA BÜYÜKÜSTÜN