▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER NINE ▬▬▬▬▬

THANK YOU FOR YOUR OPINIONS EVERYONE! I was gonna update tomorrow, but then I remembered that the election results were gonna show up either tonight or tomorrow so I figured I might as well publish a chapter before everything goes to shit (or doesn't, who knows! *smiling fearfully while also getting my passport ready*)

ESMERELDA WAS DOING HER BEST to forget the dream ever happened. Once the dream ended, she immediately woke up wanting answers—and that was the problem. It made her too curious. She was nearly tempted to find a way to the Underworld so she could meet her father—her real one, Regulus Black. But she couldn't just go to the Underworld to see him. That was Hades' domain.

Her father was dead and she needed to leave it alone.

Unfortunately for her, the dream kept haunting her. Every damn night she'd dream of the Underworld, of the cells, and her father shackled to the wall and being tortured by something invisible.

He's in the Fields of Punishment for a reason. He's not my problem anymore and he never was. She told herself over and over again. But every time she lived through that dream, she just wanted to go in that cell and unshackle him. His screams kept her up at night and the tortured look in his eyes stayed as jarring reminders throughout the day every time she so much as blinked.

She just couldn't escape from it no matter how hard she tried. Even worse, it seemed that she couldn't escape from Harry Potter as well. The boy was everywhere, with that shocked numb expression permanently glued to his face. The conversation he eavesdropped on at the Three Broomsticks seemed to be haunting him still.

She couldn't bear looking at him so she'd always leave as swiftly as she entered. She knew she was innocent in all this, but it just felt... wrong for her to be anywhere around Harry. Not when her family impacted his so much. Impacted it in the worst way possible, to be more specific.

She had been doing so well. Holding it all in and keeping in perfect control until December 19th came. The first day of winter break and the day more than half of the student body would be prepared to ride the train back home.

But Esmerelda made a slight, minor mistake. It was nothing big. She had just finished packing up her things when she realized she had yet to return a book from the library. If she had forgotten about it, then it would've been way over due by the time break was over and Madam Pince would have her head.

She had twenty minutes to return the book and hurry over to the train station before it departed. Not wanting to waste any time, she grabbed the book and decided to just Mist travel to the library instead.

She really should've just walked.

Her vision was filled with green as she Mist traveled away, except something was wrong. Just like those times where she accidentally ended up somewhere far away from her original location, it was taking quite a long time for her to 'land'. And then it happened.

Every inch of her skin prickled. She could sense death everywhere. The amount of it was so startling she nearly keeled over from the pressure. But then she finally landed and fell face-first on a cold, hard surface. Miraculously, she didn't throw up, though she certainly felt sick.

"Ah. Daughter of Hecate." A familiar deep voice spoke.

She looked up and paled. Right in front of her, sitting on his large dark throne, was Hades, the Lord of the Dead.

Now she definitely felt like she was going to throw up.

His throne was much more creepier and majestic looking than the temporary seat he had in Olympus. It was massive, made out of black onyx and decorated with a ton of skulls. Beside him was a woman on a floral throne.

It had to be Persephone. Esmerelda had never seen her before, but she could actually see some resemblance between her and Demeter. She was beautiful, but her dark skin was tinted with a deathly grey. Her hair was dark and long, and her eyes were multicolored but strangely washed out... In fact, everything about her seemed washed out. She looked a goddess of spring who had been sapped of her life force.

It must be because of the Underworld, Esmerelda mused. It seemed to have that effect on people. She had only been in there for several seconds and she could already see her skin tone turning paler and her body temperature growing colder.

Surrounding the pair was a bunch of US revolutionary soldiers, British Redcoats, Greek warriors, even Roman Legionnaires, modern US soldiers, and Confederate soldiers all acting as security. She knew this because they aimed their weapons at her the second she appeared.

"Daughter of Hecate." Persephone said flatly as her husband motioned for the guards to lower their weapons. "You must be Esmerelda."

For some odd reason, Persephone seemed to dislike her. Was it because she just dropped in here unannounced?

She unsteadily rose to her feet. "Y-yes. I-I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to end up here, I don't know how—" She stopped herself, swallowing thickly. "I'm really sorry about this. I-I'll just Mist travel back..."

"No," Hades said, and she could feel whatever color she had left drain away.

"No...?" She squeaked fearfully. Oh gods, was he going to kill her for trespassing? It was an accident! She didn't even know how she ended up here! And didn't he vote to not kill her during that one meeting on the winter solstice? Whatever happened to that?!

"Since Hecate's gone, we can have her fill in," Hades muttered to Persephone, completely ignoring the terrified kid in the middle of his throne room.

Persephone's eyes lit up briefly and she nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's a good idea... I still need someone to make the orders for new statues. The ones in my garden are getting boring..." She said thoughtfully, drumming her fingers against the armrests of her throne.

Esmerelda stared at them warily, not understanding what they were talking about.

"Plus, you don't have to pay demigods as much," Hades grunted, sounding pleased but somehow still wearing that dead expression on his face.

What? She thought.

"We shouldn't pay her at all," Persephone scowled.

Hades gave her a look, and she gritted her teeth in defeat. "Fine. Demigod," she called out to the confused child. "How would you like to have your mother's old job?"

"Um, sure?"

And that was how Esmerelda got roped into child labor.

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It looked like she was going to be spending the entirety of her winter break in the Underworld (and she prayed that they would actually let her go once the break was over). She IM-ed Dumbledore about the situation on the first day because she didn't want the school thinking she had been kidnapped again. Thankfully, he agreed to send a letter to Chiron explaining her absence.

She managed to survive her first week of her new job in the Underworld. It wasn't really that bad, to be honest. She initially thought it was going to be something awful, but her mother's old job was to basically be a secretary of some sort (though the correct term was 'attendant' in Hades' and Persephone's words).

Apparently, Hecate was Hades' right-hand man which supposedly granted her a lot of freedom. Esmerelda couldn't see it. For the past few days she had been drowning in paper work, making orders online for Persephone's garden, decorating said garden, and had to help guide the dead souls around the Underworld which was pretty much the size of a gods damn empire so her feet were always sore after every session.

The plus side—and it was a major plus side—was that she was able to stay in her mother's palace. 

Yes, her mother had a palace and it was basically neighboring with Hades' palace. Now that Hecate had defected from the gods' side and joined the Titans, she technically relinquished any ownership of her home which meant... everything now belonged to Esmerelda.

Esmerelda's brand new palace was massive and regal looking, much more grander than any Greek palace she had seen from textbooks, but definitely not as large as Hades' which was designed to look like a darker version of Mount Olympus. It was made out of pure black obsidian with a black marble portico, just likes Hades' but that was where most of the similarities ended.

Hecate certainly added a magical touch to her palace. Torches of bright purple and green flames replaced light fixtures, and a gleaming golden chandelier hovered over the foyer, the flames levitating from each end. The floors seemed to resemble a dark galaxy; it swirled and glittered around, and made special effects whenever she stepped on it.

As for her bedroom... Well, it was only natural that she take her mother's old one of course. It was the biggest bedroom in the house—and according to some of the servants here, there were over a hundred rooms. She cleared everything out, replaced her mother's furniture with the ones that she picked out for herself and even gave it a little more pinks, yellows, and purples for more color. Persephone, who in a brief period of kindness, allowed her to have her old garden statues to decorate the palace with. She placed one of them, a couple holding hands and wearing equally as confused and terrified faces—in the corner of her bedroom. They made great accessory holders.

There were many great things about taking everything her mother once owned, but the best bonus would have to be the servants that made her life easier. Most of the servants in the palace were empousai, but some of them were other undead creatures. There was even a kitchen staff that could make her food that wouldn't keep her trapped in the Underworld forever.

Anyways, after she finished giving Cerberus a walk out in the mortal world, she now had to get started on her next task: make her rounds at the Fields of Punishment.

She had been determinedly avoiding that area for... obvious reasons, but now she didn't have a choice.

"Here," Alecto, one of the three Furies, shoved a list of names into her hands with a vicious hiss. "Hades wants these ones taken in for castration. Finish up and do whatever afterwards."

With a sigh, Esmerelda headed over to the Judgement Pavilion where the awaiting souls would be. According to files in her hand, the souls she would be taking were all rapists... no wonder they were being sent to the Fields of Punishment—and to face eternal castration no less. She read more of their files on the way, growing more and more disgusted with them. All eight of them were misogynists, two of them were even serial killers, and one was some college-aged kid who used his parents' money to avoid jail time for his crimes only to drink himself dead a year later.

Once a person died, their entire lives would be documented in these files. Esmerelda could even read about their childhood, but that was pretty boring. So she shut the files and quickened her pace.

The eight newly deceased were shackled together. Most of them looked like they had died less gruesome deaths much to her dismay, but oh well, they were gonna be tortured for eternity anyways.

She cleared her throat in order to get their attention. "Hi, my name's Esmerelda, I'll be the one to guide you to your designated torture zones." She said in a forcefully bright voice, having already recited the usual 'welcome' words for this moment. "Now if you'd just follow me..." She trailed off, grabbing the chained leash and tugging them forward.

They resisted.

"Hold on, where the fuck are we?!" The youngest one—the college kid—demanded angrily. "Nobody's answering our questions! I want a lawyer!"

"You're dead, you don't need a lawyer." She replied flatly.

"Don't bullshit us, kid," one of the older men spat.

She inhaled deeply, already getting annoyed by this. She just wanted to get this job over with so she could avoid ever going back to the Fields of Punishment. "I won't repeat myself," she said sternly. "You. Are. Dead. You're in the Underworld, Hell, the Afterlife, whatever you want to call it. Your souls have been judged and because you've all been very naughty, you're going to be spending the rest of eternity suffering."

"Excuse me," a polite man spoke up. She wasn't falling for the good guy act since he was one of the serial killers. "I don't understand what you're saying... Am I not in Nebraska anymore?"

"Nebraska?" A portly man echoed. "Ain't we in Jersey?"

"No, that can't be, I was Pennsylvania..."

"Quiet!" Esmerelda sighed in annoyance. "Like I told you, you're all dead. And stop pretending to be polite, Mr. Anthony Spaulding. I'm not going to fall for it like your victims did. You charmed them before raping and killing them, right? Well it's not going to work on me, so all of you shut up and get moving."

The serial killer blinked in shock. "How did you—"

She smiled dryly before raising up the clipboard holding all of the files together. "I know everything about you guys. It's all in the files, see? Face it, you're all dead and you're about to face eternal damnation. Now enough with the questions." She tugged harshly on the leash and they stumbled forward.

"Crazy lying bitch, as if I'm gonna believe that. I'm calling my parents," the college student muttered.

"Your parents are currently trying to save face after it went public that you drunk yourself to death and died choking on your own vomit in the middle of some crackhouse bathroom." She said sweetly.

He looked shocked, and then horrified as the memories came flooding back. Before he could start sputtering questions, she did a quick silencio on them before dragging them to the Fields of Punishment. They started to really panic once they got closer to the entrance and tried running away from her. They only submitted after she threatened to set them on fire.

After dropping them off and listening to their screams of pain, she finally set out to leave the area as fast as she could. In the corner of her eye she could see that dreaded apartment building again and bit her lip.

This could be my only chance... who knows how busy I would be after this... she thought to herself, nails digging into her palms. Just one meeting. And then after that, I stay away for good.

She took one sharp breath and turned around, steeling herself as she came face to face with the same building from her nightmares. The plaque was still there with the same words, as if to mock what had become of the once great 'noble and ancient' house of Black.

She lifted her hand up as if to knock and then mentally slapped herself. Stupid, nobody's going to answer the door 'cause they're all being tortured!

Get yourself together, Essie! Breathing in deeply once more, she pushed the door opened. It was as if someone flipped the on-switch for the volume. The second she had the door open, she was met with the loud screeching shrieks of the prisoners—her family members.

Due to the amount of times she was plagued with the same nightmare, she was able to direct herself to her father's cell without a problem (except for the bursting eardrums issue of course). She slowed to a stop once she was close enough. The screams of her family were drowned out by the loud pounding of her heart as she stood in the middle of the hall. He was just there... in the next cell over. Just a few more steps and she could finally meet him.

A small part of her wanted to turn around and forget anything about this, but a greater part of her was screaming at her to move forward. She had already gotten this far, it would be dumb of her to just turn around now.

She was terrified, to be honest. Her only memories of him were dreams and he seemed to be so caring and affectionate with her, but he was a gods damn genocidal Death Eater. Who knew how crazy he really was?!

He can't hurt you, she told herself. He's dead now. And you have full control over him. You can do this. You can do this!

Slapping herself on the cheeks as a way of encouragement, she finally steeled her nerves and stepped forward to face the next cell. Without wasting a second, she opened the cell door and stepped inside. With her back pressed against the bars, she raised a hand and magically undid the shackles. He was released, and his body fell lifelessly to the floor. He was shaking and heaving desperately, but the screaming and thrashing finally stopped as if releasing him had removed whatever torture he was going through.

She silencioed the room so they wouldn't have to hear any of the loud voices outside and vice versa. So far, so good. Swallowing deeply, she prepared to speak up only to freeze when he finally looked up.

Her breath hitched. Whatever wariness she had disappeared almost immediately. Her father... was a kid. Or well, a young man to be more specific, but he was still young nevertheless. He only looked to be a few years older than her, looking exactly the same as in her dreams. She knew that he had died young, but seeing him this close and in real life... it was surreal how young he looked.

And the resemblance between them was uncanny. No wonder Andromeda kept staring at her. They both had the wavy black hair, the same delicate features, she even had his small nose, and everything. The only difference was the grey eyes. Other than that, she could easily be a younger, female version of her father.

"Um..." Her words died out as she continued to stare at his wide, grey eyes. For a second, he stared at her fearfully, as if he expected her to whip him or something, but then something flickered in his eyes. Recognition, realization, and suddenly Regulus Black was sobbing on the floor just three feet away from her.

Esmerelda was at a loss of what to do. What would anyone do in this sort of situation? She was pretty sure nobody had ever been in her spot before. Who could say that they went to the Underworld to meet their dead dad who they've never met before only for him to start crying on you?

"M-my name is Esmerelda..." She began, and he started sobbing louder. She chewed on her lip nervously. What do I do?

Tentatively, she stepped closer and crouched before him. She gently tapped him on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me...?"

Her touch seemed to have yanked him back to reality. He snapped his head at her, gazing at her as if she was some sort of treasure he had been searching years for.

"My name is Esmerelda... Black," she corrected. "I'm your daughter."

"Wh... why..." He croaked. His voice was so hoarse that she could literally feel how painful it was for him to speak. He had been screaming in pain for so long that it was miracle his voice box had yet to break. But that was probably due to being in the Fields of Punishment. It wouldn't be any 'fun' if the prisoners could no longer scream. Any injuries they sustained would stay forever, but it wouldn't kill them since they were already dead. Never-ending torture. 

Unsurely, she inched closer to him and summoned a small ball of water into her palms. "Drink," she said, and he opened his mouth to gulp down the pure water. It had been years since had drunk or eaten anything.

He kept drinking down the water greedily, and she could hardly blame him for his messiness. As he drunk, she started him down with a tilted head. 

All the ghosts looked the way they did when they died, which sometimes made it easy to discern the cause of death.

She could see some external injuries on his bodies. Deep scratches on his skin; his arms from where his drenched white button-up was ripped at the cuffs, and his ankles from where the hem of his pants were tattered. The deepness of his wounds almost made her think they were clawmarks, but they didn't look animalistic. It looked like they had been made by human fingernails...

But she knew that some nasty scratches couldn't be the cause of his death. She noticed that his skin was a palish grey and his lips were blue. Had he frozen to death? Drowned?

When Regulus finally drunk enough water to probably last a year, he was back to staring at her with wide grey eyes full of disbelief. "Why... are you... h-he... here...?" His sentences were choppy, which was to be expected since he probably hadn't spoke in years.

She looked away, unsure of what to say. What would she say? She didn't even know why she was here. She just... wanted to meet him for once.

His eyes welled up with tears. "Y-you ar-aren't sup—p-posed to be here," he said with a broken voice. "Y-you're... s—posed to live longer than m-me...!"

Her eyes widened. He thought she was dead. She shook her head furiously. "No, no, no! I'm not dead yet, I'm still alive! I'm just... working here. In the Underworld, I mean. I've taken up my mom's job since she's gone."

His contorted into a glare. "H-Hec...cate," he said darkly.

She blinked. "You don't like her?"

He shook his head, unable to voice out just how much he loathed her.

The upper corners of her lips lifted up slightly. "I guess we have something in common." Other than their similar appearances, of course. "So, um," she gulped. "I... I came here to... meet you?"

He smiled at her, lips quivering and eyes watering up again. She could feel herself almost smiling back and she couldn't believe how quickly she switched from being scared to meet him to... whatever this was.

"I don't really know why," she admitted. "I guess I just wanted... to talk to you or something. But I can see that you're unwell, w-which I don't blame you for since you're, er... stuck here." She looked around at the dark and dirty cell, and was suddenly reminded that he was sent to the Fields of Punishment for a reason.

This man, who was smiling at her so tenderly and was close to tears of joy just from seeing her, was her father... and his soul was so bad that he was sent to the Fields of Punishment to be tortured for all eternity.

Her smile faded. Her father... wasn't really a good guy, no matter how much he appeared to be one.

She rose to her feet, and his face fell immediately. "I can't stay here for too long. I-I have to go back..." She swallowed thickly.

As if he could sense a lie, he spoke up hastily, "D-don't...! Wai—ait!"

She froze.

He coughed into his arm, trying to clear his throat. "Pu—please don't be scared of me..." He begged, his voice less cracked.

"Why did you become a Death Eater?" She asked sharply. "You—you met my mom, you should've known that all that Pureblood mania was a lie. So why did you... why did you still follow their beliefs?"

He shook his head. "I stopped. I stopped believing in all that, o-or... well I tried to, but it was too la—late for me," he stopped to cough at that part. "I was already a Death Eater when I met Hecate. I never liked what I was d-doing... I hated Muggles and Muggle-borns and blood traitors, but—but I didn't want them dead—didn't want to kill them! Wh-when Hecate told me how it all started, I tried to ch—change my way of thinking, tried going against Voldemort but I died and—and my change was too late."

Esmerelda's eyes widened slightly. In the Underworld, the Judgement had a certain system. It didn't matter what your last moments were before you died—the Judgement took in every decision, every thought, every reason, and every action you did throughout your whole life. It didn't matter if you changed for the good at the last minute, if you spent your whole life being bad, than that part would weigh out the most and your soul would be sent directly to the Fields of Punishment*.

Regulus tried to change, he tried to do a good thing before he died, but it was already too late for him.

"You tried to go against Voldemort...?" She asked softly, also noting how he called him by his name rather than You-Know-Who like literally every single other wizard and witch she had met (excluding Harry and Dumbledore).

His scowled darkly. "And I died for it... and ended up here."

Esmerelda was stuck between thinking he deserved it or thinking it was unfair. He tried to change for the good, but he spent his life believing in the worst things and even joined a group of genocidal maniacs. He killed people for all the wrong reasons. Did it really matter that he tried to change? Didn't he deserve to be here? Or was it too harsh—was the Fields of Asphodel a better choice for him?

The judgement system of the Underworld certainly tested her morals. Unable to decide, she pursed her lips and avoided his eyes.

"I-I shouldn't have come here," had she been looking at him, she would've seen the way his heart broke. "I have to leave. I'm sorry." She turned to face the bars but—

"NO!" Regulus roared and lunged for her. It startled her so much that she jumped. His grip on her arm was vice and his eyes were wide with fear and desperation.

"You can't leave me, you CAN'T!" His voice rose as he grabbed her other arm. They were face to face now, and she felt herself freeze up at how crazy he truly looked. He had lost his mind in here, though who could blame him? "You're my daughter—you can't—you have to stay—I lost you—so young—don't leave—!"

"—Let go!" She pushed him away and freed herself. He fell back to the ground and continued to mutter things. She stared at him in horror and backed herself against the bars.

"—don't want to be here," he sobbed. "Everything hurts—you can't leave me—not here, not here, not here—!"

But Esmerelda didn't listen. With shaking hands, she left the cell and sprinted away.

Coming here was a mistake.

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Two figures watched as a green eyed girl sprinted out of the Fields of Punishment.

"Is that—is that Essie?" Nico asked with wide eyes. He whirled around to face the older man. "Minos! What is she doing in the Underworld? How long have you known?"

"New employee," the ghostly king replied nonchalantly. "To replace her mother, I heard. Though I have my own thoughts on the matter."

Nico relaxed and regarded him with confusion and suspicion. "What do you mean?"

Minos waved a hand. "Oh, nothing to worry yourself over, young master."

"Tell me!" He demanded.

Minos sighed, feigning defeat. "As you wish... Decades ago, I once judged a soul. This soul was very special. An old lover of your father. He loved her so much he was willing to disregard his own wife and build his paramour a palace of gold to live in should she agree to stay in the Underworld with him. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and she perished," he put on a sad look. "He even tried to bring her back."

Nico's eyes widened. He thought of his sister. "Did he?"

"No," he answered. "She was sent here to be judged. She lived an ordinary life and her deeds should've landed her in the Fields of Asphodel, but alas... Hades her put in Elysium instead, despite what we judged."

"What does that have to do with Essie?" Nico asked.

Minos smiled slyly. "Well, his deceased lover chose to be reborn, and your dear friend just so happens to look like her."

Nico gaped at him. He looked a little sick. "You're joking."

He shrugged innocently. "It was just a theory of mine, master. It certainly would explain Lord Hades' sudden favoritism. I heard he argued for her safety during the winter solstice meeting and now he's suddenly trying to keep her here... quite peculiar of him."

"Who was it?" Nico asked hesitantly. "That soul you were talking about... who do think Essie's reincarnation is?"

"Oh master, I didn't think you'd take my words so seriously!" Minos laughed jovially. "It was just something I came up with. No need to be so concerned. I must go now, master. I have plenty of souls to judge."

Nico watched the old king walk away, a seed of doubt now planted in his head. Then, he melted into the shadows, hidden just how he liked it.

— author's note —

Essie will come back to visit her dad soon, so don't worry. She doesn't stay away for too long.

* Okay the whole judging system was inspired by the point system from The Good Place

While Regulus tried to do a good thing by stealing the horcrux in order to defeat Voldemort, it still wasn't enough to cover up for all the horrible things he had done. He believed in pureblood superiority, he killed people (despite that most of the times, he really didn't want to), and he joined a group that supported genocide. See on the picture that 'Commit Genocide' is -433115.25 points?? Yeah, that one thing would be enough to send anyone to eternal damnation.

Another thing, as you all know, Luke dies and gets to Elysium cuz he died a 'hero'. I don't really like how he went there since he pretty much indirectly killed a bunch of kids during the war, but I'm gonna stick to canon so in here, Luke will die a 'hero', and I'm gonna try my best to explain why/how:

As I said before about the judging/point system, it takes every decision, every thought, every reason, and every action you did throughout your whole life. Luke pretty much started a revolution, but he had a very good reason. The gods were using kids (THEIR OWN KIDS) as disposables tools. The Olympians were also treating the minor gods and the kids of minor gods unfairly. They also did a bunch of other fucked up shit to mortals (just read the greek myths, and you'll understand how fucked up they are). They're abusive, they're rapists, they're pretty much everything awful that you could think of. Because of that, Luke wanted to bring them down (and honestly, who could blame him???). So he had a very good and heroic reason, just... bad methods, tho tbh, there was really no other way to get the gods to listen other than declaring war, and even then THEY STILL DIDN'T LISTEN (HOO, anyone?? Zeus locked down Olympus and didn't let any of the gods help the 7 who were trying to save the world and stop Gaia and the giants).

So yeah, hope this made sense to you guys.

Now let's give a round of applause to Essie who basically took over her mom's own palace and stole her job as a big 'fuck you' to her 👏👏👏👏

PERSEPHONE
played by KYLIE BUNBURY