▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER THREE ▬▬▬▬▬

THE MORNING BEFORE HER FIRST class of the day, Esmerelda was summoned to Dumbledore's office. Professor Sprout was already there waiting for her with Dumbledore.

She had no idea what she had done now. She was pretty sure she had done nothing wrong, but judging by the warm smile Professor Sprout greeted her with, whatever conversation they were about to have had nothing to do with reprimanding her for something.

"Good morning," she greeted them.

"Esmerelda," Professor Sprout greeted back fondly, though her eyes seem to scan down the grey streak in her hair.

"Miss Esmerelda, I brought you here to speak to you about a few things. Nothing that will take too long." Dumbledore assured and she nodded slowly. "With the permission of your activities director, Chiron, I have informed the House Heads of your demigod heritage. This is so you have more adults to rely on should any issues ever arise, like a monster entering the barrier, or another attack."

Again, she nodded. She could see some logic about this, but the thought of Snape knowing about what she really was bothered her a little. She could already see him sneering at her for 'thinking she deserved better treatment for being half-god'. She inwardly sighed, her potions class would not go well... At least I don't have it until tomorrow.

Professor Sprout cleared her throat, indicating that she wanted to speak up next. "It also came to my attention that you've been practicing advanced magic because you feared for your safety..." She said solemnly. "Because of that, we will allow you to keep furthering your studies, though I implore you to know your limits please. In addition to that, I apologize for constantly scolding you."

She blushed sheepishly. "It's alright, professor. None of you guys knew and you were only trying to keep me safe."

"I must admit, that I am impressed with you succeeding the Animagus process. How old were you when you finally completed it?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Twelve."

'Twelve', Professor Sprout mouthed to herself, looking stunned and horrified at the same time.

Dumbledore smiled in amazement. "Very impressive. You would be the youngest ever to become an Animagus... shame we cannot put you on the record since what you did was illegal..." And he looked truly disappointed in that. "Alas, now on to the next matters, hopefully you've remembered that Mr. Cedric Diggory will be tutoring you on the lessons you were gone for?"

She nodded.

"Good. Your professors will give you extra assignments to make sure you're learning properly. They've also agreed to give you an extended amount of time since you also have your own assignments from your current classes." Dumbledore explained.

"Got it," she nodded again. She really didn't like the sound of having more work to do, but it made sense.

"And another thing," he added, his face growing more serious. "I'm sure you are aware of the news of Sirius Black's escape. There is a very high chance he will sneak into Hogwarts either for you, or Mr. Potter, or maybe even both. Either way, I want you to be careful. I have already barred Mr. Potter from going to Hogsmeade—"

Her eyes widened in horror and before she could control herself, she blurted out, "—Hold on, are you prohibiting me too?" Oh she really hoped not, because she heard such great things about Hogsmeade by the Tonkses.

"No, Miss Esmerelda," Dumbledore chuckled. "Unlike with Mr. Potter, I have higher hopes that you would be safe even if you were to run into Sirius Black. No spell would be able to affect you and something tells me your father is not a very good combative fighter without a wand. Especially after twelve years in Azkaban."

Esmerelda tried to hide her wince when he called Sirius Black her father. It just left her another reminder that, yet again, her life was a jumbled up confusing mess. She wondered if the Fates were having fun laughing at her expense...

"But," Professor Sprout emphasized, giving him a pointed look as if to say 'don't encourage her'. "That doesn't mean you should be careless. Do not engage in a fight with him. Tell a teacher immediately should he ever come to you."

She nodded. "Understood. So you want me to knock him out then?"

Professor Sprout blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Like, if I run into him. I can't exactly go tell a teacher since he might use that chance to escape, so you want me to knock him out first, right?"

"If... that's what you must do." Dumbledore said slowly as he folded his hands together. "Now, I think that's all there is to it. Thank you for letting us take up your time. You may resume to whatever you were doing, Miss Esmerelda, though I believe classes will begin in about... seven minutes."

She thanked them and left.

Her first class of the day, the study of ancient runes, was being taught by Professor Bathsheda Babbling (weird name, she noted). She kind of reminded her of Professor Flitwick, nice, cheerful, and excitable, but multiply that by ten. Like her name suggested, she liked to babble a lot when she talked. Exhibit A:

"Hello kids! I'm professor Babbling, the teacher for the study of ancient runes! Real glad you guys decided to choose this elective, in my opinion it's the best class in all of Hogwarts! It was one of the few O's I got for my NEWTS, so it's really easy—not that I'm going to make it easy for you of course, I still expect you all to try your hardest! Anyways, if you don't know yet, the study of ancient runes—or runology—is a mostly theoretical subject that studies the ancient runic scripts of magic! For the majority of the year, classwork and homework will be mainly translating runes into English. Sometime during the end, we'll start doing practical work like activating magic within runes. Now questions?"

She had said this all in less than five breaths, which was... impressive and scary at the same time.

They spent most of class time learning about the rune alphabet and writing them down in their notes. When class was over, Professor Babbling cheerfully waved them goodbye before reminding them of their first quiz at the end of the week.

Her second class of the day was divination, which was taught at the North Tower. It took a while for Esmerelda to get there for several reasons. One, she had never been there before so she had no idea where to go, and two, there were so many gods damn stairs. Sure she had better stamina than most due to being a demigod, but she was currently on her seventh staircase and she was beginning to think that these many stairs were just unnecessary.

Once she finally reached what she thought was the last floor, she realized she had to climb an actual ladder to get to her classroom. After making sure nobody was around to see under her skirt, she hurriedly climbed up and emerged from the floor.

The classroom was anything but a classroom. Instead of desks, there were circular tables surrounded by antique looking armchairs. The lighting was poor and red, the windows were covered, and the lamps were draped with dark red scarves. It was also annoyingly hot, which only urged Esmerelda to find if a cooling charm existed. The hot air only worsened the heavy perfume that fouled the air and it made her grow slightly dizzy.

Please let this class be worth it, she pleaded as she took a seat on a hideous mustard yellow armchair, the only seat farthest away from the scented fireplace.

"Welcome," a mystical sounding voice said once everyone was settled in. "How nice to you in the physical world at last."

Professor Trelawney entered the firelight. She was really skinny, with glasses that magnified her eyes so much she kind of resembled a bug.  She sat down on a winged armchair in front of the fire. "Welcome to Divination. My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

Esmerelda recalled Andromeda saying that only those with the Inner Eye were true Seers. She wondered if this woman was legit or not.

"So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..."

In the corner of her eye, she could see Hermione's jaw drop in horror and suppressed a snort.

Professor Trelawney continued on. "Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future. It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she abruptly turned to Neville. "Is your grandmother well?"

"I think so," he replied shakily.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," Professor Trelawney said casually. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati Patil. "Beware a red-haired man."

Naturally, she turned to the only redhead in the room: Ron, who looked very offended.

"In the second term," Professor Trelawney went on. "We shall progress to the crystal ball—if we have finished with fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."

Esmerelda would never admit it, but that line seriously spooked her. If this woman really was legit, then there was a chance she could be talking about her!

If Professor Trelawney was aware of how tense the class had grown, she didn't show it. Instead, she turned to poor Lavender Brown who immediately shrank back in her chair. "I wonder dear, if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?"

A relieved Lavender did what she was told.

Professor Trelawney hummed pleasantly before dropping yet another bomb. Esmerelda wondered if she was just messing around with them at this point. "Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading—it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."

Lavender trembled.

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. Oh, and dear," she caught Neville by the arm as he stood. "After you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink."

Neville ended up breaking up the teacup, as predicted.

After Esmerelda's teacup was filled, she went back to her table and swilled the dregs around as instructed, then drained the cups and swapped it over with Hannah, who was also taking the class.

"Um, okay..." Esmerelda mumbled as she turned to pages five and six where all the symbols would be. She peered into Hannah's cup. "I see a sun, which means you're going to be happy! And, um... I think this is a a crescent moon? That means you'll have a good dream tonight. There's also a four leaf clover, which obviously means good luck. Wow, you got a really good cup."

Hannah grinned. "Wonderful! Now it's your turn! Ummm..." She looked at her cup, then glanced over at her book, and frowned. "Er, I see a cross... which means trials and suffering."

"Great."

"And a skull... so there will be danger in your path."

A heavy sigh.

"And... and a tree? With a lot of branches? Says here that it means you'll have a family reunion..." Hannah trailed off. "Huh, I guess this all means you're going to have a really bad family reunion in the future..."

"A family reunion...?" She echoed uneasily. Her family was so terrible that she'd rather meet the mortal side of her family instead—and they were filled with mass-murdering, genocidal, lunatics.

Her attention was drawn to Professor Trelawney, who was standing over Harry and Ron's table. She was holding Harry's cup, and everyone fell silent to watch.

"The falcon," she murmured. "My dear, you have a deadly enemy."

Voldemort, duh. It wasn't hard to realize that.

"But everyone knows that," Hermione said, sounding almost sassy. Professor Trelawney stared at her. "Well they do," she insisted. "Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."

Professor Trelawney simply ignored her and refocused her attention on the cup. "The club... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."

"I thought that was a bowler hat," Ron said sheepishly.

"The skull... danger in your path, my dear..." She trailed off, then let out a loud gasp before screaming. Dramatically, she sank into an armchair, a bony hand placed over her heart.

She'd be good in theater, Esmerelda couldn't help but think.

"My dear boy... my poor, dear boy... no... it is kinder not to say... no... don't ask me..." She said pitifully.

"What is it, Professor?" Dean asked eagerly. Everyone started gathering around the table. Even Esmerelda, but she could barely see what was going on with everyone in her way.

"My dear," she opened her huge eyes dramatically. "You have the Grim." Whatever the Grim was, it must have been bad because almost everyone clapped their hands over their mouths and gasped dramatically. Esmerelda shot Hannah a questioning look, but the blonde didn't notice her.

"The what?" Harry said.

"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" She cried out. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen—the worst omen—of death!"

Hermione stood up and moved around the back of Professor Trelawney's chair.

"I don't think it looks like a Grim," she said flatly.

Professor Trelawney gave her a look of distaste. "You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."

Seamus frowned at the cup. "It looks like a Grim if you do this," he said, with his eyes almost shut, "But it looks more like a donkey from here," he said, leaning to the left.

"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" Harry exclaimed angrily. His face was understandably red, and everyone shifted guiltily, avoiding looking at him.

"I think we will leave the lesson here for today," Professor Trelawney said. "Yes... please pack away your things..."

The whole room was silent as everyone took their teacups back to her. Esmerelda just wanted to get out of the stiflingly hot classroom already.

"Until we meet again," said Professor Trelawney faintly, "Fair fortune be yours. Oh, and dear," she pointed at Neville. "You'll be late next time, so mind you work extra-hard to catch up."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Esmerelda was all too eager to return to the Hufflepuff common room for a well-needed break, until she realized that she would be spending that break being tutored by Cedric and given more work to do.

Gods, this was just another thing to add to her list of reasons why she should kill Ethan the next time they saw each other. Sure he had sort of helped her at the end (after she got tortured for thirty hours straight), but this whole mess started because of his crazy idea to kidnap her.

Cedric was already waiting for her at an empty table when she stepped in.

"Essie, hey," he greeted her with a smile, and she smiled back nervously.

Cedric Diggory was probably the most handsomest person in Hogwarts. She could even imagine some children of Aphrodite who might like him as well. He was pretty much the perfect package, tall, with handsome chiseled features, perfectly styled dark hair that was just messy enough to look casual but cute, and bright grey eyes that could rival a child of Athena's. He was also a Quidditch player, which was apparently a plus for some of the witches at Hogwarts.

But there was something else, Esmerelda couldn't help but notice... He kind of looked like a younger and livelier version of Edward Cullen from the infamous movie Twilight—and yes, she had seen it since some of the older female inhabitants of the Hermes cabin wanted to have a movie night. The boys just had to bear with it. It was one of her last good moments with Luke, who had spent the night loudly critiquing on the poor romance between Bella and Edward. He also noted that she had a stark resemblance to the character's daughter, Renesmee, which was just weird... 

"I'm really glad to see that you're okay," he told her when she sat across from him. "And—and I'm also sorry I couldn't do much a-against that guy. I can't believe I let myself get knocked out so easily..." He genuinely seemed to be frustrated with his failed attempt at saving her.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for that," she told him earnestly. "Ethan is... once he sets his sights on something, he won't stop no matter who or what gets in his way. Plus... he punches hard. It's really impossible to not lose consciousness from that."

He bit his lip. "It sounds like you knew him personally..."

"We used to be friends," and that was really all she wanted to say about him.

He nodded slowly, his eyes trailing over to the grey streak in her hair. "I see..."

They fell quiet, until Esmerelda remembered something. "Hey Cedric, do you by any chance have the newspaper article about me?" She knew they had released several articles about her kidnapping, but she had never read any of them. It wasn't like she would get any at camp and the Tonkses definitely didn't want her to see them either.

He glanced up thoughtfully. "They're in my dorm room. If you want I can give them to you after our tutoring session?"

She nodded gratefully. "Yes, thank you. I'd like that."

He beamed. "Great. Now onto the lesson... Let's see..." He looked down at a piece of parchment paper. "We'll start off with history of magic. According to Professor Binns, the first lesson you missed out on was about Uric the Oddball."

Esmerelda inwardly groaned. Again with the weird names. The wizarding world sure was obsessed with giving famous people either wacky titles or hyphenated ones. The lesson went on for about half an hour before he switched over to astronomy. Then potions, then transfiguration, etc etc. By the time it was over, Esmerelda's hand was already cramping from the amount of notes she had taken.

Their tutoring session had gone on until it was dinner time. After Cedric promised to give her the newspapers after dinner, the two of them rushed out for the great hall.

During meal time, everyone seemed to be talking about the something that she had apparently missed out on.

"What's going on?" Esmerelda asked as she poured gravy over her mashed potatoes. "What's everyone talking about?"

"Professor Hagrid's first class was with the Gryffindors and Slytherins," Megan informed her. "It didn't go well. I heard someone got badly injured."

"It was Malfoy, and he wasn't badly injured at all. That's just what the Slytherins are saying," Justin scoffed.

"Yeah," Ernie agreed. "They were being introduced to Hippogriffs—which are known to be really proud creatures by the way—and the git didn't listen to Professor Hagrid's instructions."

"The whole class was told to be respectful and bow to the Hippogriffs. I heard from Parvati that Malfoy started insulting one of the Hippogriffs instead and it lashed out. I think it gave him a cut on the arm?" Susan mused.

"It did, but it's nothing Madam Pomfrey can't fix." Hannah rolled her eyes. "Malfoy's been staying in the hospital wing the entire time and now the Slytherins are going around saying he nearly had to get his arm cut off. Parkinson's been weeping about it for the past several hours now." She usually wasn't this openly irritated, but the poor girl had to share arithmancy class with her and had to suffer hearing about her poor, brave 'Drakey' and his battle against the 'vicious beast'.

"I hope he's suffering." Justin said with a mouthful of steak and mushrooms.

"Do you think he's going to tell his father about this?" Esmerelda asked, and was met with a lot of 'oh yes, definitely's. She sighed. "Well, now I'm worried about Professor Hagrid and the Hippogriff."

"Let's just hope he doesn't try to get the poor thing executed." Susan frowned.

"So anyways," Megan sang, her lit up eyes focused on a confused Esmerelda. "I saw you sitting with Cedric Diggory."

"Ooooh," Ernie said sarcastically.

Esmerelda flushed and really hope the aforementioned boy was sitting nowhere near them. "He's supposed to be tutoring me. And you know that!"

"But still, how was it? Is he a good teacher?" She waggled her brows.

She huffed. "Yes," she admitted. "Really organized too. For some reason he kept all his notes from second year so he was able to help me out a lot." Doing such a thing was so foreign to her. Usually once a school year was over, she'd throw out every homework, classwork, or notework in order to cleanse her mind of how awful the year was. Keeping everything seemed like such a 'child of Athena' thing to do.

Once dinner was over with and they were dismissed by Dumbledore, everyone headed for their respective dorms. Most of the kids stayed in the common room, but after Cedric gave her the newspapers she coveted, she went straight to her dorm and sat on her bed, her body hidden behind the canopy surrounding her.

Cedric had given her two articles. One about her kidnapping, and the other about her being returned. She read the earliest one first.

HOGWARTS COVER-UP?!
written by Rita Skeeter

The once great Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has fallen from grace! They were caught doing some shady business and their innocent students are forced into the middle of it. Several students had written letters to their parents about a series of attacks that seem to only target the Muggle-born students. The worst of it is that this news had only come to light two months after the first attack!

Two months is quite a long enough time for the staff members—or most importantly the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore—to alert the Ministry of the attacks against children, the but they kept silent. Instead, the Aurors had to be informed by the concerned parents of the understandably frightened children.

Even more appalling is the abduction of a second year student, Esmerelda (last name unknown). Details of the kidnapping are scarce as the staff members never divulged the full story, but several students had told their parents that an unknown male from outside of Hogwarts broke into the school and attacked the second year girl around midnight while she was serving detention. Why her detention included her staying up so late is unknown as well as the teacher who assigned it to her. Blood was rumored to be found in the crime scene, indicating that poor Esmerelda was fatally harmed during the transgression.

Details about the assailant are scarce as well. According to the students (and this is all just rumors as the staff members—the only people who know the full story—refuse to say a word), the kidnapper was a male named 'Ethan'.

Why is the school adamant on keeping silent with these issues? Children are being attacked and one was already kidnapped, yet not a word was heard from the adults in charge of watching over them. Has Hogwarts gone corrupt? Check page 4 for more stories about Hogwarts secrets.

Here below is a picture of Esmerelda (last name unknown). She has black hair and green eyes and was last seen wearing her school uniform and a pair of pink and white Nikes (Muggle running shoes). If you have any more information about the case or you believe to have seen her, please contact the Auror Department at once. Muggle authorities have also been informed and are on the lookout.

Esmerelda winced once she finished reading it. They contacted the muggles about it. What if they found out about the other 'crimes' she had committed throughout her life?

Another thing was that the article really had put Hogwarts in a bad light. Or the staff members at least. But they did bring up a good point she had been wondering for months now: why the fuck did Dumbledore keep quiet about all this? She could understand not telling anyone the truth of her kidnapping, but she was pretty sure there was no excuse as to why he never reported the mysterious attacks on the students.

Shaking her head in disdain, she picked up the last newspaper. The article was shorter than the previous one, which she was grateful for because she was seriously getting a killer headache from all the reading she had to do today.

KIDNAPPED STUDENT FOUND!
written by Rita Skeeter

Several weeks ago during a cold and dreary December night, a second year student was abducted from the hallways of Hogwarts, the once esteemed school known for their safety. That student was Esmerelda (last name unknown) and she was kidnapped by a mysterious person named Ethan during her detention, which from inside sources, were to clean the hallways outside of the Hufflepuff common room without using a wand. The reason for the detention is still unknown, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was an unfair one. Hogwarts seems to be going on backwards these days.

After weeks of no clues, Esmerelda was finally able to return home after bravely escaping her kidnapper. She returned to her Muggle family in New York, USA and has been reported to stay there for an unknown amount of time for recovery. She will not be returning to Hogwarts for the remainder of the year and it is unknown if she will ever come back. I could hardly blame her if she refuses to.

Esmerelda's status is currently unknown, but she is alive and possibly unharmed since she has not checked into St. Mungos. Either way, we wish her a happy recovery and that her kidnapper will be brought to justice.

She bit her lip harshly. So they didn't know much about Ethan. Had she made the mistake of telling Cedric that they used to be close friends? She wondered if he would even report it, since he had seen Ethan's face and no details about her 'kidnapper' had been written down either, meaning he kept quiet. She wondered if he did it willingly or not.

The door to the dorm room opened and Esmerelda quickly tucked the newspapers away just before her roommates stepped in.

They exchanged a few words and finally got ready for bed. She sleepily mumbled a 'goodnight' to them before falling asleep.

Esmerelda felt like she was strapped down in some roller coaster. She could barely move her body, but somehow she was floating forward, like there was something pulling her towards an unknown destination. Her body was unbearably freezing, and her ears were practically being violated by all the screaming she heard.

Every inch of her body shook. She could hear the screams of a thousand people, all sounding like they were being tortured in this very dungeon she was stuck in.

She traveled through what looked to be a dark dungeon. On each side of her was a cell and through the bars she could just barely catch the writhing bodies shackled to the farthest walls. She couldn't see any of their faces, but there were men and women in each cell, dressed in fancy wizarding clothes. Some of the women even wore jewelry that she could see. She wanted to see their faces to check if she could recognized them, but she was forcefully pushed forward.

She really wished she could cover her ears. She desperately wanted all the screaming to stop. It sounded so horrifying and her body wouldn't stop shaking. She felt like she was living through a horror movie.

Finally, she stopped moving and her body unwillingly turned to face a cell. Inside she could see yet another prisoner shackled to the farther back wall. He was thrashing around desperately, his fancy clothes drenched and sticking to his unnaturally pale skin. His hair was dark, but she couldn't see his face since he was moving around so much.

His screams were the worst. He sounded like a crazed animal being tortured to death. She couldn't see what was happening to him though. There was nothing hurting him, yet he screamed and writhed as if he was on fire.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!" He screamed in agony, trying desperately to break free, but the chains didn't relent. Another invisible pain wracked through his body, saliva was dripping from his mouth as he seized again.

Esmerelda drew a shuddering breath, and he gasped as if he could hear her. His head snapped up but she was awake before she could see anything.

She woke up in her bed, sweating like crazy and trembling underneath her blankets.

Only one thought came to her head.

Who was that man?

— author's note —

Yoooo, if you guys are interested in reading another PJO/HP crossover story, check out this story from 

She dedicated it to me which is super cool too. It's called PHILOTIMO and so far, all it has is the foreword but it's already got me excited. You should all read it!

Anyways, I decided to update early again because for some time I've been having trouble with my netflix, BUT TODAY THE ISSUE HAS FINALLY BEEN FIXED!!! MEANING!! I CAN BINGE WATCH MY FORENSIC FILES AGAIN! I'll be busy watching the show for the next couple days so you won't hear from me for awhile (probs friday or something)

I have introduced yet another mystery and yes, I'm very pleased with myself 😌

Any guesses on where the dream took place? Who were the people being tortured? Why were they being tortured? How were they being tortured? Why was Esmerelda directed to that particular man's cell? And more importantly, can any of you guess his identity??? I left very very little clues, but they're kinda shitty so good luck everyone!

I'LL SEE YOU ON FRIDAY (maybe)