▬▬▬ CHAPTER SIXTEEN ▬▬▬

"OH MERLIN, YOU LOOK LIKE hell!" Susan shrieked when she saw Esmerelda the next morning.

"...Thanks." She said miserably, forcing herself to get off the bed despite every inch of her body screaming at her not to. The more severe injuries had healed up, but there were still nasty bruises all over her skin. The side of her face still hurt too from when she was thrown against a tree.

"What happened to you overnight?" Hannah fretted. "You have a bruise on your cheek!"

She flushed with embarrassment. "I had a nightmare last night... Thrashed around too much and fell off the bed."

"Oh," she frowned in sympathy. "You should go to Madam Pomfrey then. Have her give you a potion for a dreamless sleep."

"Have her heal up your injuries too!" Susan added. "Ooh, and maybe you can miss out on today's potion lesson."

"Susan!" Hannah admonished.

"What?" She asked. "Professor Snape sort of scares me..."

Esmerelda didn't argue with that. He sometimes scared her too. "Would Madam Pomfrey ask questions?"

"No, she rarely ever does." Hannah replied as she started making the bed.

A light bulb lit over Esmerelda's head. Madam Pomfrey rarely asked questions, which was good because she couldn't exactly tell her that she was getting beat up by monsters in the forbidden forest. Plus, her supply of ambrosia and nectar were dwindling and she needed to find another healing alternative. "What kind of things can she heal?"

"Anything," Susan said brightly. "Bruises, illnesses, potion-mishaps! I heard she could even regrow bones!"

"So she can heal stab wounds?" Esmerelda asked eagerly.

Both girls stared at her.

"...You're not planning on getting stabbed anytime soon, are you?" Hannah asked cautiously.

"'Course not," she scoffed. "I was just, uh, wondering what else she can do." Why didn't she decide to go to Madam Pomfrey sooner? Regrowing bones? Amazing! Not even the children of Apollo could do that!

"Alright," Hannah said slowly, clearly not believing her. "You be careful alright? To be quite honest, I wouldn't be surprised if you do get stabbed one day..." She shuddered at the thought.

"Yeah," Susan agreed. "No offense, Essie, but you seemed to be looking worse and worse."

"Oh, I'm just a little sleep deprived." She said dismissively.

"And all the bruises?" Susan inquired, brow raised.

"I fall off my bed loads of times." She lied.

Suddenly, Megan finally awoke. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and immediately saw Esmerelda. "You look like the walking dead!" She exclaimed.

"Morning to you too, Meg." Esmerelda said dryly. "Does anyone know any stain-removing spells by any chance?"

"Depends," Megan replied, crawling out of bed. "What kind of stains?"

"Blood. I think I started on my period." She lied.

"Oh!" Hannah perked up. "It's Tergeo. My mother taught me it in case I ever started my period in Hogwarts." Then she proceeded to teach her the spell, but Susan and Megan were interested too and soon enough, it became a mini-lesson.

After freshening up and getting dressed, she grabbed a quick breakfast (bananas and toast) and headed off to the hospital wing. She pushed through the double doors and was instantly amazed. The school's hospital wing was far more impressive than any other infirmary she had ever been in. The room was larger than the classroom's back in her old school, and contained a lot of evenly spaced beds, privacy screens, and bedpans.

In her old schools, there was only one bed (a pretty small one) and that was it. It even beat camp's infirmary!

She spotted Madam Pomfrey at a shelf, organizing what looked to be a bunch of potions. She looked more like a nun than a witch to be honest, and it kind of made her nervous since she once attended a super religious private school where most of the staffs were nuns. One of her teachers, Sister Marjorie, was convinced that she was the spawn of Satan and would often make her stay after classes to write bible verses. Thankfully, she was pulled out of that school when her foster parents gave her back up to the system.

It was too late for her to run now though. The nun had seen her.

"Good Godric, what on Earth happened to you?" She clicked her tongue and strode towards her.

"Uh," Esmerelda stared at her stupidly. What was her lie again? "I fell off, uh, something." Her face heated up. "I mean, I fell off my bed."

"You look like this because you fell off your bed?" Madam Pomfrey repeated blandly.

She nodded her head up and down.

"Alright, I'll buy it." She accepted, pulling out her wand. She muttered an incantation Esmerelda unfortunately couldn't hear, and a stream of gentle yellow light appeared at the point of her wand. Madam Pomfrey pointed it at one of her bruises and waited.

And waited...

And waited...

But nothing was happening. Finally, she pulled back with a deeply troubled look on her face. "Huh, it doesn't seem to be working..."

Esmerelda's face fell. It was a known fact that demigods were resistant to magic—it'd take a powerful wielder to be able to land a hit on a demigod—but she was hoping that the people from her mother's world would be exempt from that.

After at least six more tries Madam Pomfrey finally gave up. "My magic must be acting off," she muttered. "But not to worry, I've got a potion for you."

She walked away only to come back with a small vial. "A few sips should do the trick."

Esmerelda did as she was told and she could feel all her tender bruises disappear one by one.

"Any other injuries you gained from 'falling off your bed'?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Yeah, actually!" She replied brightly, then showed her her bleeding shoulder. "Do you have a potion for this too?"

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It looked like Madam Pomfrey had a lot of questions she wanted to ask after that, but thankfully, she kept her mouth shut and went to work. She was so quick about it that she still had spare time before her potions class.

Snape was a lot meaner to her today, which was weird because he usually left her alone unless to judge her poor spelling skills. The second she walked into class, she and Snape locked eyes and he sent her the most scathing look.

She sat down on her chair, confused. Did he direct that glare at her or was it supposed to be for someone else? And if it was for her, then what made him so mad? She couldn't remember doing anything to anger him, mainly because she was too scared of him to do anything considered irrational.

"Go to page 55. Today, we will be making the Wideye Potion, also known as the Awakening Potion," he began, striding elegantly to the front of his desk where his own cauldron sat. "Miss Esmerelda, read the first paragraph out loud."

She froze, her heart jumping in fright. Snape never ordered anybody to read from the book... And he knew about her reading disability too! What was he playing at?

"Um," she looked down at her page and gulped. Her increasing anxiety made the letters more confusing for her.

"Well?" He drawled, and was that satisfaction she could hear in his tone? "Read out loud for the whole class to hear."

She looked back down. Neither of the words made sense. None of the letters looked even normal anymore.

heT Uhdiye Ginoptn, eooi kmwun as...

"Can you not read, Miss Esmerelda?" Snape asked in a cutting voice.

She flinched, as if physically slapped. "...N-no, professor, I can't..."

"Well then," he smiled cruelly. "That explains your poor grade in my class. I originally thought you had half a brain, but it turns out you are just illiterate."

She heard a snort. Most likely from Zacharias no doubt. Just great, she thought as her mind went numb. Now he has more ammunition to use against me.

"She's not illiterate!" Someone quickly came to her defense, and she whirled around to see who it was. It was a curly red headed boy by the name of Justin Finch-Fletchley. "She's just dyslexic, right?"

He turned to her for confirmation.

She nodded her head, still stunned that someone had come to her defense, and so bravely too.

"See? It's only dyslexia. And for those who don't know, it's a common reading disorder. My mum has it, and she's a brilliant physician! Having dyslexia just means she has to work harder than the rest."

"Ten points from Hufflepuff!" Snape barked.

Justin frowned at him. "But professor—"

"—Quiet, you! If you enjoy defending Miss Esmerelda so much, then I'm sure you'll be happy to work with her as a partner. Of course, I'd have to give her a zero for it since you'll be the one reading everything for her." Snape sneered.

"I can read it on my own," Esmerelda said firmly, but there was a slight tremble in her voice. "I'm not illiterate. It's just as he said... I just have to try harder than most."

"So now you think you're better than everyone else?" He inquired softly, his gaze acidic.

"She never said that!" Hannah cried out.

"Shut up, Abbott." Snape snapped at her before turning to the source of his ire. "If you're so confident in your own sub-par skills, then make the potion on your own."

"Okay." She accepted. She had made tons of potions on her own. The Killing Potions, Blindness Potions, Insanity Potions... etc. etc. She could handle the Wideye Potion with no problem... if she could just read better.

Snape ordered everyone to begin, and Esmerelda focused with all her might to read the instructions. In the corner of her eye, she could see Hannah, her usual partner, sending worried glances at her and she knew the kind girl wanted to help.

But Esmerelda knew she could do this on her own. Plus, she wanted to prove herself to Snape.

Speaking of him... Seriously, what crawled up his ass and died? Why was he being so mean to her?

After dropping six snake fangs and four measures of the Standard Ingredient to the mortar, she dropped six dried billywig stings into her cauldron and started to heat it in medium temperature for thirty seconds. At the same time, she crushed the ingredients mixed in the mortar and dropped them into her cauldron.

She looked around and saw that almost everybody was finishing up. Eighty percent of the class was in line in front of Snape's desk to show him their completion while the rest was pouring their potion into their phials to show.

Shoot, gotta hurry. She had spent so much time double-checking and triple-checking everything she had read that she was not so far behind.

She could feel Snape watching her as she stirred, and she felt very bothered by it. She knew that he treated Harry in almost the exact same way, and nobody could figure out why poor Harry was his target. Why did she become his target as well? She wasn't famous or special like Harry...

I'm done, she thought with relief, getting up to head to the front.

"Oops," Zacharias said in a tone that greatly showed how unapologetic he was. His shoulder harshly collided with hers and her phial went flying.

"No!" She squeaked. The phial came crashing down and shattered in a million pieces. "You did that on purpose!" She said angrily.

Zacharias pretended to look bewildered. "No I didn't. Calm down, would you?"

If Esmerelda didn't want to chop his head off before, she definitely wanted to now. She was seeing red. "You—"

"—Ten points from Hufflepuff, Miss Esmerelda, for trying to attack a student." Snape interrupted.

Esmerelda felt like wringing his neck. "I never even—"

"—Another ten points for talking back to a teacher. Bring another phial of your potion and keep your mouth shut."

She gritted her teeth and calmly walked back to her station.

She may not be able to get Snape back for this, but she could surely make Zacharias pay.

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"—then Zacharias shoved me and my phial fell! And Snape took points away because he thought I attacked him! Could you believe them? They're awful!" She vented to an unfortunate Neville Longbottom at the library.

"Snape scares me... And Zacharias is kinda mean to me too," Neville sympathized. "But um, E-Essie? We're supposed to be studying herbology."

"Oh right." Professor Sprout decided to have Neville tutor her in Herbology since he was one of her best students while Esmerelda was one of her worst. The young girl could see why Neville was so favored by her head of house. He was extremely knowledgeable in the topic and he didn't even need the assistance of the textbook.

"Do you have your notes written down on the Wiggentree?" He asked.

"Yeah, over here." She said, filling through her pieces of parchment. Seriously, why couldn't she use notebooks in here? At least all her notes would be in order and she didn't need to worry about any of it getting lost.

Neville peered over her stack and stared in confusion. "What language is that?"

"Just Greek," she replied. "I find it easier to take notes in Greek rather than English. It's easier to read too."

"Oh yeah," he mused, frowning. "I heard some people saying that you can't read? That's not true is it?"

Her face flushed with embarrassment. She had made sure to exclude the part where Snape tried to humiliate her for being dyslexic. "It's just dyslexia!" She said hurriedly. "It's not a big deal, and tons of muggles have it! It's just a reading disorder... Doesn't mean I'm illiterate or anything... Who's been saying that I can't read?"

He gave her an empathetic look, as if he knew exactly what it was like to be the target of teasing. "I'm not sure. I overheard some kids from your house mention it, but I don't think they meant anything mean from it. You should be more worried about the Slytherins..." He shuddered. "I would know... They bully me too sometimes."

"They do?" Esmerelda nearly gaped. She didn't know Neville for that long, but he was a kind and sweet kid! Who would ever want to hurt him? "That's awful! You should—"

Tell a teacher, was on the tip of her tongue, but she refrained herself from saying it when she remembered how useless her previous teachers have been when she came to them. Not to mention one of her current teachers, Snape, was acting like a huge bully too.

Her face fell. "Never mind... I don't really know what to do either..." When she saw his downtrodden expression, she forced a bright smile on her face. "So back to Wiggentrees? I got the notes right here. They're the ones that protect you from dark creatures right? If you, uh, plant one...?"

He shook his head. "Almost. Anyone who touches the trunk of the tree is protected from dark creatures as long as they're doing so."

"Right, right..." She muttered, correcting her notes. "Sorry, I don't pay attention that well in class," 'Cause of the ADHD, but I won't talk about that since people here could be assholes... "And I can't read the book that well, so my notes are all over the place."

"What does dyslexia look like?" He asked curiously.

"Well..." She paused. "The letters are all mixed up for me, and sometimes the letters don't even look like real letters. I didn't have that hard of time in my old school because I could easily scramble the letters back in place in my head. It's easier if the words are familiar to me... But over here, I'm completely new to the terms. Like Wiggentree? If all the letters were mixed up, I'd never be able to tell that it actually reads Wiggentree because it's not a familiar word to me... I'd be totally lost."

"That sounds tough," Neville frowned deeply. "Surely there's some sort of potion or spell that could help you? I wouldn't want you having a hard time in here... The Syltherin's would tease you relentlessly."

"I ordered these Translator Specs to help me out," she chirped. "They haven't come yet, but they will soon. I'd be able to read and do my work correctly. The look on my teacher's faces when I suddenly start doing better in class..." She snickered. "I can't wait to see it!"

"That's great!" His expression brightened up. "Maybe you could one-up Snape with that..."

After that pleasant daydream, they resumed their study session. Neville helped her correct her notes while also giving her tips on how to handle certain plants better. It made Esmerelda feel a lot more confident for her next Herbology class. With his help, she knew she'd do much better.

"Thanks for the help!" She said gratefully as Neville rose from his seat.

He smiled back. "No problem! Good luck on your next Herbology lesson! I heard you have that with the Slytherins..."

"I'll be fine," she assured.

With another smile, Neville nodded and walked out the doors of the library.

Feeling relieved that she now had what she needed to pass Herbology, she gathered all of her notes and stuffed them in her backpack along with her textbook. As she headed for the door, she passed a certain book on one of the tables.

She backtracked and looked at it. It was one of the required books in her year's book list: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander.

Her mind went back to the night she, Neville, Hermione, Harry, and Ron ran into Cerberus. She was still astounded that he was here in Hogwarts when he should be guarding the Underworld... But what if that wasn't the real Cerberus?

She sat down at the table and flipped through the book. All the creatures where listed in alphabetical order, but she couldn't find any mention of 'Cerberus' on the C's so she decided to skin through the entire thing.

Finally, she found her answer in the T's

Three-headed Dog, she read. Not Cerberus. But 'three-headed dog'. Even more confusing was that the page talked as if there was more than one original 'three-headed dog'.

At least this means the real Cerberus is still in the Underworld. Mother just created a bunch of knockoffs of him and dumped them in the wizarding world.

Satisfied with her findings, she closed the book and finally left the library. Rather than going back to the Hufflepuff common room, she went straight to the Owlery, a room on the top of the West Tower where all the school owls and the owls the students owned lived there. It was a circular stone room that had no glass windows, so it was extremely cold and windy when she stepped inside.

She carefully stepped over owl droppings and various skeletons as she searched for Ethan Jr.

"Ethan Jr?" She called out. "You he—"

A loud screech cut her off. The owls around her must have recognized it because they quickly flew away with frightened squawks of their own. Ethan Jr came speeding over. He landed on her shoulder, his sharp talons digging into her skin, but she didn't care. She affectionately patted the top of his head.

"Hello there," she cooed. "You haven't been bothering the other owls, have you?"

She knew he was, but she still felt like asking. "Anyways, I have a letter and a package that I want you to send to Ethan. Think you're up for the journey?"

He hooted loudly, causing some of the owls to flinch and fly away.

Esmerelda grinned. "Great. Let me just double-check my letter first..."

Hey, Ethan! I hope your okay at camp. I'm really worried about how people are treating our cabin... I'm also really worried about you getting into fights with Caleb again, but I'm really glad that you're winning most of them!

School's going somewhat okay for me. My glasses haven't arrived yet so I'm still having trouble with my lessons. My potions teacher, Snape, is being a real jerk too and he called me out for being dyslexic (apparently witches and wizards don't know about 'muggle' disorders, so of course they'd make fun of me). It's not so bad though. Also, the ghosts haven't been bothering me much ever since the Bloody Baron told them to leave me alone.

Another thing, turns out Hogwarts never accepts foreign students. The headmaster and some of the teachers were confused on what to do with me, especially since we found out Professor Diakos isn't even a real teacher at school (think she was a monster or something?). I'm just grateful they allowed me to continue studying here.

By the way, the wizarding world has such weird monsters! I ran into three-headed dog in one of the forbidden corridors, but it turns out it wasn't even the real cerberus! They just have a bunch of knockoffs roaming around. There was also this troll that stumbled in the bathroom.

Also, I killed the odontotyrannus. I decided to send the jaw to you so you can frame or something.

I'll see you during winter break!

PS: I'm really upset Hogwarts doesn't do Thanksgiving break or spring breaks...

She folded the letter up and tucked it in with the brown package where her newest spoil of war laid within. She tied them to Ethan Jr's leg and bid him goodbye as he shot out of the owlery.

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Now that the letter and package were sent, she was finally able to relax in her common room...

If only it hadn't been for the talking painting by one of the grand staircases.

"You have my eyes." A voice commented as she passed by.

She froze and turned towards it. It was a painting. A painting of a very familiar man with eyes just like her.

"Merlin?" She breathed out, walking towards it as she checked to make sure nobody was watching. She had to stop herself from thinking he was the real deal. She knew that the paintings here were only enchanted to behave like the real person would, but it was still a real shock to her since the picture of him on the Merlin card didn't stay long enough to talk.

"Hello there," he greeted her warmly. "I've noticed you've got eyes like mine. My father always said they were unique. Are you a descendant?"

Uh, more like your sister. "Um, well..."

He looked at something over her shoulder and was even more pleased. "Waldo!" He exclaimed. "Good to see you again."

"Old friend..." A hollow voice returned. She whirled around to see the Bloody Baron gliding towards them. He had the same dreadful expression on his face, like he was permanently stuck mourning the loss of someone closest to him, but she could see some light in his eyes. Even if it was just the littlest bit.

"So you did know each other!" She said almost giddily. "Did you attend Hogwarts in the same year?"

"We were both in Slytherin," Merlin answered. "My, Waldo, I never thought you would've befriended a Hufflpuff! You always glide around with that gloomy face of yours. I would've thought you'd scare everyone away."

"Your name is Waldo?" Esmerelda asked the ghost. He looked nothing like a Finding Waldo.

All he did was sigh.

Merlin chuckled whole-heartedly. "Now you see why he goes by the Bloody Baron." He looked over to the side where another painting full of old wizards were beckoning towards. "Alas... I must take my leave. It appears the Fat Lady is starting another opera singing session that I must stop. It was pleasant speaking to you both, Waldo, young Hufflepuff."

She watched as she walked out of his panting and traveled through the other ones. The knights chased after him, near tears at the prospect of hearing the Fat Lady sing again.

"Oh hey, Bloody Baron!" She turned to him. "I never got to thank you for telling the other ghosts to leave me alone. Thanks for that, some of them were getting really creepy."

"Merlin could do that," he suddenly said, as if he didn't hear talking. He was still staring at his empty painting with a faraway look on his face.

"Be creepy?"

"No," he replied. "He can... physically touch ghosts too. Even make them corporeal."

Because he's a son of Hecate, she thought. It makes me wonder if my siblings could do that too... Neither of them mentioned any skills with necromancy... The most I've seen them do is magic and control the Mist. I know Alabaster has some control over shadows too, though he can't really attack anyone yet...

Realizing that the Bloody Baron was still awaiting a response from her, she bit the inside of her cheek and said hesitantly: "Er, Bloody Baron, sir?"

He made a noise that she translated as 'go on'.

"How much do you know about Merlin?" She asked, looking him straight in the eye and hoping he'd get the message that she wasn't asking for what his personality was like or what his favorite color was.

He held her gaze and answered seriously, "Strange things tend to happen to him. He was powerful even as a child. I've seen him do wandless and nonverbal magic, just like you," she figured he heard from the rumors. "And... he had a knack for attracting terrible monsters."

Sounds very, very familiar.

"If I told you... we were related through his mother's side, would you believe me?"

There was a short silence as he regarded her, as if counting all the similarities she had to his long deceased friend. Then, he nodded. "Yes. I would."

— author's note —

In the Welsh translation of Harry Potter, the Bloody Baron is actually given the name Waldo, which doesn't suit him at all but whatever.

Merlin and the Bloody Baron actually attended Hogwarts in the same year and they were both in Slytherin so I like to think that the two of them were close friends.