▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWENTY ONE ▬▬▬

"IS THERE ANY REASON WHY you asked me to come with you and not Ethan?" Alabaster asked suspiciously as he and Esmerelda journeyed to the abandoned Sweetie's Ice Cream Factory.

"Uh, well," she swallowed thickly, but her throat was dry. She didn't know what exactly to say to him. She had been avoiding Ethan ever since she had that horrible dream. She just didn't know what to think about it. Ethan was acting very suspiciously in that dream. She had too many confusing questions in her head. Why didn't he tell anyone about Chris' whereabouts? What ship was he on? Who was he talking to? And what exactly did they want her to join?

"Essie?" Alabaster's voice pulled her away from her thoughts. "You okay there?"

"Yeah, sorry. I just... um..."

"You and Ethan aren't fighting, are you?" He asked, a horrified look on his face.

She shook her head. "We're not."

"Really?" He squinted.

"Really," she confirmed. "We're not fighting. I just... We're not fighting." Gods that sounded lame.
       
"Are you sure?" He pressed on. "Because if you guys are fighting then I'm dragging you back to camp so you two can kiss and make up."

Her face turned positively red. "Kiss and—? Ew, no! Alabaster, that's disgusting!"

He snickered under his breath. "I'll let this go since you're still eleven, but just so you know, I hope you and Ethan end up together."

If it was possible, her face turned even redder. "Y-you're gross!"

He bent over and laughed. "Essie, don't tell me you still think boys have cooties?!"

She angrily swatted his arm. The redness was up to her ears and neck at this point. "I do not! Ethan's my best friend, I'm not gonna—gonna date and kiss him! That's just—Ew! Kissing and dating's ew!"

He just grinned at her, then busted out laughing again.

She just stood there, silently fuming as she waited for him to calm down. Her face was heating up—from anger or embarrassment, she didn't know.

It took a whole minute for Alabaster's laughter to finally die out. He wiped a small tear from his eyes and had to stifle enough laughing session when he saw her expression. "Okay, okay," he breathed in deeply. "How about this: I bet you a hundred drachma that you and Ethan end up together when you're older."

She frowned at him. "I don't have a hundred drachmas."

"Oh?" His brows waggled mischievously. "So you're saying you think you'll end up dating him?"

Her eyes widened in realization. "What?! No—! You don't have a hundred drachmas either!" She sputtered.

He continued laughing.

"Ugh, you suck! Let's just go already before we end up late!" She huffed, storming forward.

"Trying to change the subject, huh?" He called out, easily jogging up to her.

"Shut up." She grumbled.

The broken down factory finally came to view and—much to her relief—Alabaster was too busy commenting on how creepy it looked to try and embarrass her further.

She was still trying to cool her face down from all his teasing. She had seen a bunch of couples around camp, kissing, hugging, and flirting and all that gross stuff. The idea of her and Ethan doing that made her want to gag. She didn't mind hugging him though...

If only he'd actually hug back, she thought sadly, before mentally slapping herself. In a friendly way! I meant it in a friendly way! Not that gross stuff...
       
The two of them made it up to the factory's second floor, thankfully without Alabaster making anymore comments about her and Ethan. She didn't think her face could take it anymore.

She pushed open the door to the freezer and led the way to the polecat statuette.

"So this is the portkey-thingy?" He asked her. "And all we have to do is touch it?"

"Yup, so get ready. It's gonna be an ugly ride..." She said.

He grimaced, remembering how weak of a stomach she had when it came to 'ugly rides'. "Just don't throw up on me."

"I'll try not to." She promised.

Together, they grasped the statuette and Alabaster's surprised yelp is the last thing she heard before everything went whirly.

As expected, they had a painful landing. Esmerelda hit her bottom while Alabaster had the displeasure of breaking his nose.

Before Esmerelda could push herself up to her feet, her stomach made a violent lurch and she turned her head to the side to spew out all the contents of her stomach.

"Gods, I hate using the portkey!" She cried out once she finished.

"Same here," Alabaster agreed as he popped a piece of ambrosia into his mouth. His nose was repaired within seconds, and he simply wiped the blood off his face afterwords. "Let's get outta here. Your vomit's getting all smelly."

They walked all the way to the Leaky Cauldron, where Tom was kind enough to open the passageway to Diagon Alley. Alabaster reacted the same way she and Ethan did when they first walked in, he was simply amazed. And a little put off by everyone's odd attire.

"They have a shop for potions?" He perked up. "Oh, no. Way! Essie, you gotta let me check it out!"

She shrugged. They had enough time. "Sure, why not?"

Alabaster was like a child in a candy shop when they stepped inside the Apothecary. He kept inspecting each jars, asking questions about unfamiliar ingredients and getting excited when they saw one that they could use in their (Greek) potions.

"Look at this. Snake fangs. There's twenty of them in this jar, do you know how many Killing Potions we can make with this?" He hissed under his breath.

"I can't believe I missed this," Esmerelda blinked at her own stupidity. She only ever came here once and that was to buy the listed potions ingredients for the school year. She never really bothered to check out the other ingredients! She was beginning to regret not doing that sooner.

"They even got bat wings, bat spleen—and eel eyes? That's amazing! And—what the Hades?"

"Huh? What's wrong?" She leaned forward and inspected the bottle he was holding.

"Essie," he said slowly. "Is it just me or does this bottle say 'Lethe River Water'?"

Her eyes widened. "What?" She looked at the label. Since she had her glasses on, she was able to perfectly read the words on the paper. It did say Lethe River Water. "It's definitely not from the real River Lethe. Lord Hades would never allow living mortals into the Underworld. Besides, the wizarding world has the tendency to have knock-offs from our world. They even have a bunch of knock-off Cerberus'."

He relaxed and set the bottle down. "Oh, good."

After that slight scare, she happily purchased the ingredients Alabaster wanted (snake fangs, bat wings, bat spleens, eel eyes, leeches, rose oil and dragon blood), and left for Ollivanders.

Old Ollivander was just as creepy as the last time they met, and for some reason, he perfectly remembered who she was.

"Esmerelda," he acknowledged, his eyes trailing over to her half-brother. "A relative of yours? You have the same peculiar eyes..."

"Half-brother," she confirmed. "Um, I'm here to get another wand. I sort of, er, broke mine."

"You broke your old wand?" He rose a brow. "It was mahogany wood, dragon heartstring core, and ten inches, correct? I remember that it was flexible... a very weak type of wood, easily breakable."

He remembered the wand? She thought in amazement.

He beckoned her forward. "Come, young miss. Let's see which wand is more suited for you."

He took a few boxes off the shelf and set them down on the counter. He took out the first wand. "Spruce wood," he began. "Unicorn hair for a core—an easy core to handle. A bit whippy, but it's still sturdier than your previous one. It's thirteen inches long, come try it out. Give it a flick."

She took the wand and flicked it in the air. The last time she had done this, a bunch of flowers had popped out. This time, the wand glowed a faint purple.

"Just as fast as last time," he said, sounding almost disappointed. "I believe we found your new wand, miss. That'll be 24 galleons."

After she paid for them, Ollivander directed his gaze to Alabaster, who was watching the scene with interest. "Young man," he called out. "Would you like to try out a wand?"

"Huh?" He blinked. "Me? Oh, uh, I, um, already have a wand..."

"You do?" Ollivander questioned. "How odd... I don't remember you."

"I got in in America," he lied. He hoped there were wand makers in America or else they'd be screwed.

Thankfully, Ollivander seemed to accept that answer and they were on their merry way.

"Did you sense the magic in that shop?" Alabaster whispered to her.

"Oh yeah," she nodded. "I'm pretty sure it came from the wands."

There was still an hour left before it was time for her to head back to Hogwarts, so she and Alabaster roamed Diagon Alley with leisure until she ran into one of her classmates in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. It was Hermione and she was out with her parents—who she remembered were regular mortals, or 'muggles' as wizards would call them.

Anyways, after they received their orders of vanilla with chocolate bits and strawberry and peanut butter ice cream, they joined the Granger family at their table.

"Is your friend—Ethan not with you?" Hermione asked.

"Oh?" Alabaster grinned widely and turned to a blushing Esmerelda. "You told her about Ethan huh? How much do you gush about him when he's not around?"

She kicked his shin under the table. "Shut up!" She hissed, trying to ignore Hermione stifling her giggles. "It's not like that and you know it!" She turned back to Hermione. "And Ethan couldn't make it today."

"They're fighting." Alabaster told her.

Esmerelda kicked him again. "We are not!"

Alabaster snickered.

"You two have such beautiful eyes," Mrs. Granger randomly complimented out of the blue. She had been staring at their eyes for the past three minutes and couldn't help commenting on them.

The siblings smiled cheekily and said in unison, "Thanks."

"I thought you never knew your parents?" Hermione looked between them in confusion. "So how...?"

"Hermione!" Mr. Granger scolded gently.

"It's okay," Alabaster assured. "Essie and I share the same mother. She never met either of her parents and I don't live with my dad anymore. We, uh, live with the rest of our half-siblings."

"You have other half-siblings?" Mrs. Granger asked. "How many? And—and you kids live with a guardian right?"

Esmerelda nodded. "We do, we have two guardians," she replied, thinking of Chiron and Mr. D. "And we have... a lot of half-siblings from our mom's side."

"Oh my," Mrs. Granger cocked her head back.

"Yeah," Alabaster chuckled under his breath.

"So are you a wizard Alabaster?" Hermione asked.

"Um, yes, but I don't attend Hogwarts." He said.

"Illvermorny, right?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah?"

Fortunately, Hermione didn't seem to notice his cluelessness. If she did, she wasn't able to point it out either because her mother checked the time on her phone and announced, "It's almost time for us to go to the station. Where are your guardians?"

"Back at the hotel," Alabaster lied. "I'm supposed to take her to the station."

"By yourselves?" Mr. Granger questioned, astonished. "The station's a bit far from here. You sure you can't call them and ask them to drive you? Or do you have money for a cab?"

They looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Esmerelda was pretty used to long distance journeys on foot and so was Alabaster.

"How about we drive you?" Mrs. Granger offered. "There's enough space in our car."

Esmerelda looked over at Hermione, who was nodding her head up and down and accepted.
       
I never knew dentist salaries were so good, she thought as she looked at the Granger's sleek silver Range Rover. In the corner of her eye, she saw Alabaster's appreciative impression and knew he agreed with her. The drive to King's Cross Station only took a little over ten minutes and during it, Hermione kept asking questions about their other half-siblings which they were more than happy to answer.

Hermione's eyes widened and she began counting with her fingers. "So that's eleven, then the Novak twins..." She continued muttering under her breath until her eyes turned even wider. "That's seventeen! There's seventeen of you?!"

At the front seats, Mr and Mrs. Granger sent each other bewildered glances before turning their attention back to the road.

"Our mom was a really busy lady." Esmerelda giggled.

Hermione was rendered speechless for the rest of the ride.

They made it at Hogwarts Express with only seven more minutes to spare (Alabaster held them up because he wanted to understand how the whole walk-through-the-brick-wall worked and Hermione spent forever to explain it to him).

"Kick ass there for us," Alabaster grinned, hugging Esmerelda tightly.

"Got it!" She chirped, reciprocating the squeeze.

Alabaster watched as she and Hermione entered the train, and left with the Grangers. They were kind enough to offer him a ride back to his 'parents' hotel', but he told them there were some places nearby that he wanted to check out. He went straight back to the alleyway once they were gone and used the Mist to convince a random guy to give him a drive back to camp.

The second he got back, he sought out a certain thirteen year old boy. He found him alone back at cabin eleven, playing Dark Souls 3 on the floor while using a bunch of sleeping bags as for cushioning.

"Hey," Alabaster greeted. "I thought that game was Essie's?"

There was a small flicker of sadness that flashed across the younger boy's face at the mention of his best friend—who had been avoiding him for the past few days. It was just a brief moment though. He had managed to school his expression in the next nanosecond, something Alabaster was always impressed by (but he found it amusing that he was unable to keep his emotions in check around Esmerelda).

"She said I could play it while she's gone." He muttered, eyes plastered on the flat screen TV.

"Did she say that before she started avoiding you or after?" Alabaster asked, and Ethan turned away from the screen to glare at him—incidentally killing his own character.

The older boy gave him a cheeky grin. "Seriously, why's she avoiding you?"

Ethan bit the inside of his cheek and glanced back at the screen. All it showed was 'you died' so he sighed and turned to face Alabaster, giving him his full attention. "I don't know why she's avoiding me," he mumbled, sounding like a depressed teenager (which he technically was since he was thirteen). "It just... happened."

"Have you tried talking to her?" Alabaster realized it was a stupid question a second too late.

Ethan's glare was piercing enough to make him actually flinch. Honestly... the kid could be scary sometimes. "Of course, I've tried," Ethan said with a hard voice. "But every time I walk up to her, she always manages to get away from me. I even tried cornering her in the armory, but she did that magic fog thing and slipped away..."

Alabaster gaped at him. "You actually tried cornering her? Dang, you must be getting desperate..."

"Shut up..." He mumbled, looking down at his knees. "She didn't even want me to take her back to school..."

Alabaster was beginning to feel really bad for the kid. It was like he was going through a tough breakup... Which was sort of funny. "Don't worry too much about it. You probably said something that upset her and she decided to avoid you. Girls are weird like that."

"Said something that upset her?" Ethan whispered, more so to himself. "I don't even know what I said that could make her this upset with me... She's never tried to avoid me before...!"

"Chill, dude," Alabaster plopped down beside him and gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder. "I bet you, she'll miss you so much that she'll give you a nice big smooch when she comes back from Hogwarts."

As expected, Ethan turned beet. "Shut up! I don't want her to—to kiss me! That's just... gross!"

Alabaster snickered. "Right, okay. Anyways..." His expression turned serious. "I already got the rest of my siblings on board with the plan. All except for Essie, since I decided to trust you with her. What's your progress with her?"

Ethan looked away from him. "I haven't talked to her at all about it."

"You haven't?" He hissed. "Ethan! We'll be leaving in just a couple of months! Luke wants her in the army the most. If she doesn't come with us—"

"—I know!" Ethan interrupted. "I just need more time! I think she's still loyal to the gods... Out of fear, of course... I'm worried I might scare her off. Plus, I know how much she loves camp."

Alabaster's usually friendly face broke out into a nasty scowl. "How could she like a place like this? Sleeping on the floor... constantly being ridiculed by the other campers because our godly parent's not as important as there's... Not to mention having to deal with everyone thinking we're traitors. Well, it's not like they're wrong about that but it's still annoying."

Ethan's face turned dark as the older boy listed off everything wrong with the camp. He whole-heartedly agreed with everything. Everyone had turned their backs to him the second they realized he was just another unwanted leftover, an unclaimed child that nobody cared about. There was nothing here for him, and he would've left long ago if it hadn't been for Esmerelda keeping him anchored and sane.

"What are you going to do if you don't get to her in time?" Alabaster suddenly asked.

"Then I'll stay with her while the rest of you leave." He said firmly. "I'm not going to leave Essie behind.

Alabaster's face broke out into a smile. "Good," he said softly. "I'm really glad she has someone like you looking out for her, Ethan."

He got up to his feet, gave the boy one last pat on the shoulder, and walked out. The second the door closed behind him, he couldn't help the cheeky grin that spread across his face.

"I am so winning that bet."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Esmerelda shoved a quill at Ernie's face and asked him, "What is this?"

Ernie gave her a confused look. "It's a quill...?"

"Dang it," she muttered, drawing the quill back to her. She was hoping the Mist would make it look like a regular muggle pen. She tried again and showed it to Ernie. "How about now?"

"It's still a quill... Essie, are you okay? What does this have to do with our transfiguration essay?"

"Who cares about the transfiguration essay!" She huffed.

"You haven't started it, have you?" He asked knowingly, an amused smile growing over his lips.

She sank down in her chair in the common room. "...No."

He shook his head in faux disappointment. "Essie, Essie, Essie."

"It's not my fault though! I was... busy with things." She finished with a mumble.

For the past few weeks, she had been throwing herself in training. It was the usual everyday routine: do homework until she got bored, practice with her powers and go patrol the forest with the centaurs after hours. It kept her busy and even better, almost kept her thoughts off of Ethan.

Almost.

It was kind of hard for her to stop thinking about him since she was always replying to his letters.

Ethan wasn't being entirely honest to her—or to anyone at camp. A small part of her wanted answers, but a bigger part of her was too scared of what she might find out. She didn't want to ever think of her best friend in a bad light... but her dream had already planted the seed of doubt in her.

After another half hour passed, Ernie finally finished with his transfiguration essay and left, bidding Esmerelda goodbye and good luck before leaving.

She looked around and spotted Hermione, Harry, and Ron at a table that was mounted high with books. She went towards them and shoved her quill at their faces.

"What does this look like to you?" She asked.

Ron stared at it. "Uh, that's uh..."

"A pen," Harry answered. "It's a pen. Why?"

"Dang it not—Wait what'd you say?" Esmerelda stared at them with wide eyes.

Harry gave her a weird look. "I said it was a pen?"

"Like a pen-pen? A muggle pen?"

"It's a blue muggle fountain pen." He clarified, nodding.

Esmerelda was about to cry tears of joy. "You really see a pen? Oh finally!" She breathed out, collapsing on the nearest chair with relief. She shoved her quill into her bag before the Mist could fade away and beamed at the trio. "So what're you guys doing?"

"Er, just doing some studying." Hermione said in a voice that clearly told her she was lying.

"What was that about the quill?" Ron asked, bewildered.

She waved the question off. "That doesn't matter. What are you guys studying?" She peered down at the book laid out in front of her and read the first few passages in her head (thankfully she had her glasses on).

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

Well this isn't good, she thought, mentally shaking her head. Lord Hades hated those who try to cheat death. Whoever Flamel and his wife were, they were going to be in heaps of trouble with him. There was probably a nice spot in the Fields of Punishment for them too. Poor saps.

"Is this part of our Potions homework or something?" She asked, because none of this sounded familiar to her.

"No!" Hermione squeaked, snatching the huge book away and slamming it shut. "It's just... some stuff I'd like to research!"

"Yeah!" Ron nodded enthusiastically. "You know how much of a nerd Hermione is!"

"Hey!" She swatted his arm.

Esmerelda narrowed her eyes at them. "You three aren't thinking of making this are you? Because you'll get in a lot of trouble."

Ron gaped at her. "We're not the ones making it!"

"Ron!" Harry and Hermione groaned.

Esmerelda rose a brow. "So someone else is gonna make it? Ah, whatever. I don't know what you guys are planning, but you three better be careful."

"We're not doing anything suspicious, I swear." Harry promised.

"Oookay." She sang.

"Really, we're not!" He insisted.

She snickered, before her face fell to curiosity. "By the way, Harry, how'd you get that lightning bolt-shaped scar on your forehead?" Was he cursed by Zeus? That's gotta suck.
       
Hermione and Ron stared at her incredulously while Harry looked pleasantly surprised.

"You don't know?" He asked, looking very relieved.

"How can you not know?" Ron blew up.

"Ron," Harry scolded.

"I told you before, remember? Back at the train?" Hermione said exasperatingly. "He got that from defeating a Dark Wizard!"

"Oh yeah," Esmerelda mused. "It was, uh, Vo-something right? Vor... Vol...?"

"You-Know-Who." Ron supplied.

"What? I thought for sure it started with a 'V'."

"Well, yeah, but everyone just calls him You-Know-Who because—"

"—Voldemort!" She suddenly cried out, and a bunch of people nearby screamed and ducked for safety. She was oblivious to it all. "The dude's name was Voldemort right?"

Both Ron and Hermione looked very pale. Meanwhile, Harry looked like he just hit the jackpot.

"Yes..." Ron said weakly. "It was..."

Harry was grinning widely. "You know Essie? You're really refreshing to have around."

She blinked at him. "Thanks?"

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Esmerelda was having trouble finding a ghost, which was surprising because Hogwarts was known to have plenty of ghosts. But now, there was not a single one that she could find. She figured this would happen, though not so soon...

The ghosts didn't exactly agree with her determination to practice necromancy especially since she was prone to having fainting spells through too much practice.

And now, they were avoiding her.

However, luck was on her side because she managed to find the Fat Friar out in one of the empty hallways.

"Fat Friar, wait!" Esmerelda chased after the panicky ghost.

She realized that he was about to high-tail it out of there through the walls, so she called out, "I'll go to Peeves! I know he wouldn't mind helping!" Actually, she wasn't so sure since he was avoiding her too.

The Fat Friar froze, horrified. Peeves and Esmerelda were a bad combination. He whirled around to face her. "Oh please, young Esmerelda, you look very unwell," he fretted. "You'll faint again!"

"Naw, I'm fine!" She chirped. "I'm not going to faint, promise! I think I'm really getting in the hang of this!"

"But aren't you worried," he whispered. "That people might mistake you as a practitioner of the Dark Arts?"

"I'm not doing anything bad," she assured. "Besides, this sorta magic is, um, inherited. It would do me good to get the hang of it."

He sighed in defeat. "Oh alright..."

"Great!" She beamed, then whipped out a timer. "My goal's to keep you corporeal for five minutes without physical contact!" It took a lot more concentration to make a ghost corporeal without making contact with them, but she needed to try her hardest.

She channeled as much as her energy as she could into him. A bead of sweat formed and dropped to her forehead. It felt like there was a hundred pound weight on top of her head. The Fat Friar's body started to solidify. His fingers lightly tapped the castle walls.

"It's working," he told her.

Good, she thought, starting the timer. She just needed to last five minutes. Three hundred seconds. It sounded like an eternity. The heavy weight on her head started to spread lower. Four more minutes. Her arms felt like jelly. Three more. Her legs were growing increasingly weak.

I want to stop now... She thought, but she looked down at the timer. Two more minutes. She could hold on a little more. She could do this.

The Fat Friar was saying something to her, but she couldn't hear him through the ringing.

Less than a minute now.
       
The timer in her hand buzzed. It fell to the ground and she blacked out.