▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWELVE ▬▬▬▬▬

SIRIUS BLACK NEARLY SHIT HIMSELF.

As he stared up at the glowing green eyes of his niece, he was immediately attacked by the memories of her less-than-pleasant infancy years.

You are a grown man, Sirius Black! He scolded himself. You shouldn't be scared of a fourteen year old girl!

"Shift. Back." She whispered dangerously, her eyes glowing more fiercely than before.

He immediately did as he was told and put his arms up. "S-so I take it you didn't like the Christmas present I gave you?" He asked sheepishly.

She kicked him in the chest and sent him falling on his ass. Rather than pushing himself up, he slammed his back on the ground as she pressed the blade of her labrys at his throat.

"I have been looking everywhere for you," she growled in frustration. "Your case has been giving me mixed feelings lately, uncle. At first I thought there was a possibility that you were innocent, but then you went and tried to kill a kid in his sleep? That doesn't exactly scream 'innocent', you know?!"

"I-I was after the rat, not the boy!" He squeaked.

"The rat?!" She snarled, then paused, the angry green glow in her eyes finally fading away. "Wait... the rat...? Are you talking about Scabbers? Why on earth would you want to kill a kid's sick pet? That's just screwed up..."

"The rat is a man!" He hissed. "An animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew!"

Esmerelda froze. Peter Pettigrew was alive, and he was an illegal animagus. She had nearly forgotten that last part! That must have been how he managed to fake his death! His animagus was a rat, he was so small that nobody would've noticed how he got away!

She retratected Glimmer from him and pinned the brooch back to her shirt. Grabbing his hand, she helped him back up to his feet. "I need you to explain to me the entire story."

Sirius spilled.

"James and Lily were in hiding. They—they used the Fidelius charm so no one could find them, but they needed a secret-keeper. I-I had this plan—this awful, stupid plan! I told to them to make me the fake secret-keeper while Peter was the real one! Everyone would expect me anyways, no one would've expected tiny, pathetic, weak Peter!" He snarled. "But that lying little bastard was the spy! He was working for Voldemort all along and he fucking tricked me! Screamed to the streets that I betrayed the Potters, then he went and blew everything up while he cut off his finger and hid in the sewers! The fucking shit should've stayed there—should've drowned—!"

"And then you got arrested..." Esmerelda breathed out.

His face fell. "I spent twelve years in that hell," he said shakily, his face turning white at the thought of the dementors. "Then the Minister came and lent me his newspaper. That was when I saw him. Peter. That fucking rat with a missing finger. He was in a picture with the Weasleys, it said something about them winning a prize or whatever. When I realized that he would be in Hogwarts, I knew I had to kill him once and for all. So I planned my escape."

Esmerelda listened to this part intently, just in case she got arrested and needed to find a way to escape Azkaban if Mist traveling wasn't an option.

"The dementors never bothered animals, so they couldn't affect me as much if I were a dog. I was skinny enough to slip through the bars and I had to swim off the island. Then I saw Harry... then I saw you..."

She furrowed her brows in confusion. "When—oh!" Her eyes widened. "You were the stray outside of Fortescue's!"

He nodded, a fond look in his eyes. "Yep, that was me. Thanks for scratching me behind the ears by the way, made my day better. Also, we need to have a discussion later about some things you said—"

"—Oh. My. Gods." She said, completely ignoring him. "Is being a dog animagus a genetic thing? Is it because that that I couldn't be something cooler? Why are you a huge, scary dog while I'm a pomeranian? That's not fair!"

"Can—can we go back to...?" He asked awkwardly.

"Oh right, sorry. So Peter's actually Ron's pet, Scabbers," which was just so disturbing because she had seen how much Ron coddled his rat. To know that it was actually a grown man that he was coddling instead kind of made her want to throw up... "Gross. And you want to kill him?"

"Yes," he seethed, his rage ignited once again. "I'm going to cut his fucking legs off, rip his lying, squealing tongue out, and then I'm gonna—gonna... er," he seemed to remember that he was talking to his fourteen year old niece and tried to keep things PG. "Send him off to the authorities and clear my name." He finished with an innocent smile.

She gave him a deadpanning look. "Right... Look, I'm gonna help you search for Peter."

He perked up. "You will?" And then his face fell. "No, no, I shouldn't—you don't need to get involved in this, this is my problem and—"

"—You're family," she cut him off. "You're my uncle. I can't just leave you behind," because he didn't leave her behind when he very well could have; because she knew how much it hurt to be left behind by family. "So I'm going to do my best to help you."

His eyes started to water from her words and his body started to tremble at the onslaught of emotions. Now that things have somewhat calmed down, Esmerelda could finally take a closer look at him. His hair was long, messy, and matted from years of hardships, his deathly pale skin had sunken in on his face, and his grey eyes looked tortured.

He was like the shell of his former self, just like his brother. They were more alike than they wanted to admit.

"Thank you," he croaked. "Thank you. It's been so long since anyone's... Thank you."

She smiled. "You don't need to thank me for this. I want to help you. Now you should shift back into your animagus form before anyone sees you. Can you take me somewhere more secluded? There's a lot we need to talk about."

He nodded in agreement. "I've been hiding out in the Shrieking Shack. It's all the way at Hogsmeade."

"Shrieking Shack... I think I've heard of it. People said it was haunted or something?" She asked.

He snorted. "No, those were just rumors that Dumbledore encouraged. My friends and I... we used to go there during our Hogwarts years. My friend, Remus, he's a werewolf and he used to stay at the abandoned house to stay hidden during the full moon. The 'shrieking' everyone keeps hearing is him... he used to... let's just say that being a werewolf is never pleasant. Anyways, there's no other way to enter it aside from a hidden tunnel in Hogwarts."

She smiled. "I wouldn't worry about that." She held a hand out. "I can take us to Hogsmeade, but you have to hold on."

He gripped her hand without hesitation, but gave her a lost look. "Er, what are you going to do?"

"Just hold on." She had never Mist-traveled with a person before, but Hogsmeade really wasn't too far away so she had a feeling this journey would go well.

They disappeared in a poof of green Mist and ended up in a dark alleyway that she always traveled to. She pushed back her queasiness and looked around just to make sure they were alone.

Sirius clamped a hand over his over. "I think I'm gonna throw up."

"Don't," she advised. "Now hold still, I'm gonna disguise us."

"What—" He started to say, but paused when he realized he was... shrinking?! He looked down at his suddenly clean skin, and was that nail polish on his fingernails?! He gawked down at his newly grown boobs. He was a woman! "How did you—"

"—No time to explain," Esmerelda cut him off. His jaw dropped even further when he saw that she had transformed herself into an older woman dressed in wizarding robes. "Come on, let's go."

He sputtered after her.

It was around midnight and the whole village seemed to be asleep. Nevertheless, it only made Esmerelda even more paranoid. Anyone who was awake in their house would be suspicious of two women prowling around.

They reached the Shrieking Shack without a hitch. It was an old, abandoned house with the windows and doors all boarded up. The sealed door did nothing to deter Esmerelda, who grabbed her uncle and Mist traveled themselves in.

Sirius groaned as the same sick feeling from before returned to him. This was worse than apparating!

"Sorry, I should've warned you." She said sheepishly after dispersing their disguises. She looked around. They were in the foyer of the Shrieking Shack, which looked just as bad as everything else. It was even worse than her dad's cell (though to be fair, she did tidy it up a bit).

They walked over to the living room, where he immediately collapsed on a rickety old chair. "How did you know that I was your uncle? I-I never told anyone—"

"—How much do you know about me?" She interrupted. "About what I am?"

"I know that you're a demigod," he answered carefully. "My brother told me... Through a letter. I almost didn't believe it at first, but then the monsters started to show up..."

She grimaced. "Well, demigods have these dreams... Special dreams. Sometimes, they're warnings, or things that are actually happening at that moment, or... or the past."

Realization flickered in his eyes.

She nodded to his unspoken question. "Ever since I found out that I was a demigod, I've been having dreams of him. They were always blurry though, and I could never see his face clearly. But before school started, I had a dream of him again. This time, I was able to see his face. It wasn't yours, it was Regulus'."

"So that was how you found out..." He murmured.

She nodded. "He left me with you. And a few people were left under the impression that I was your daughter."

"It was your father's idea. He left me a bloody letter," he rolled his eyes. "He started out with a sad excuse of an apology—because he tried to kill me once—and next he was basically ranting about how amazing and adorable you were and then he goes 'oh by the way, I lost my virginity to a goddess so Esmerelda's half god. I'm off to die now! Have fun taking care of her!'. Unbelievable. I've written essays that flowed better than that."

Yeah, that sounded like something her dad would do. After getting to know him better, she realized that he had a bit of a dramatic streak so hearing that he wrote a letter to his brother spilling several bombs before fucking off to die didn't shock her very much*.

"He's—he was a... a Death Eater," Sirius admitted. "He had some sort of crazy scheme planned and it was like he knew he was going to die so he had you sent to me. He didn't want people to know that your father was a Death Eater—he knew people would treat you negatively. I knew it too, that was why I pretended to be your father. To keep you safe... Lot of good that did," he said bitterly. "I left you with Remus before everything fell apart, but... you didn't stay with him, did you?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry. But after you were arrested, my mother, Hecate, came and... and she did something to him. She used the Mist on him so he'd give me to her. I stayed in the United States for the rest of my life until I got my letter and I was told that you were my 'father'."

"Who raised you?" He asked curiously.

She suddenly took an interest on the floating dust particles in the room. "I had foster parents here and there. I kinda ran away when I was nine. I've been living in Camp Half Blood."

"Wait, what? But—but you can't just live in a camp, that's not—what about Andromeda? I saw you with her!" He exclaimed in shock. He had ran away too, but he was sixteen at the time, not bloody nine! Had she seriously been on her own since then?! Oh Merlin, he could practically hear his brother spitting curses at him...

"I was only staying with them for a short amount of time." She replied. "They found out about demigods too, as well as Dumbledore and a few professors."

His brows shot up. "They found out?"

"Yeah there were some... issues, last year, and they went to camp and well... they found out." She said dismissively.

"Would these issues... have anything to do with you being kidnapped in your second year?" He asked slowly.

She stiffened. "How did you know about that?"

"I read the papers." He answered, as if it should've been obvious. "Apparently there was some sort of beast that was going around petrifying the students? Sounded like a basilisk to me, by the way. And then I came across this article saying that a student named 'Esmerelda (last name unknown)' was kidnapped by someone named Ethan. You had the entirety of Great Britain looking for you. Not a very pleasant year for you, huh?"

She laughed without any humor. "No, definitely not. But as you can see, everything's fine now."

He stared at her in concern, clearly wanting to talk about this some more but from the way she kept averting gazes from him told him that she didn't want to talk about this at all. He sighed in defeat. "Alright. So every summer, you go to camp? And before Hogwarts started, you were actually living there year round?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It's not as bad as it sounds. We have cabins and tons of kids stay year-round."

He really wanted to ask her where the fuck their parents were, but suppressed the urge. "Well, you know... if—if we actually manage to clear my name... I would be able to have custody over you again. You and Harry, who's my godson. Though I heard he's been with his relatives..."

She blinked. That was right... Sirius was technically her 'father'—or at least in a few peoples' eyes—so once he was a free man she would be able to live with him... But how would that work? She still had camp, and it was vital for demigods to stay in camp for at least the summer if they couldn't do it year round. Maybe she could stay with him during school breaks...?

He seemed to realize the complications that would bring because his face dimmed down as much as hers did. "But I can see that with your busy schedule, you might not even be able to stay with me."

"We can figure something out," she said, and she had no idea if she was reassuring herself or him. "And I'm sure Harry would love to stay with you."

"You think so?" Sirius asked hopefully.

She nodded. She may not know Harry that well, but so far he had stayed in Hogwarts for every break rather than go home. It was almost as if he didn't want to go back. And if the implications of his home were what she suspected, then he'd certainly want to stay with Sirius. The thought comforted her a little bit. Sirius had lost of both of them, but if things went well then at least he could keep one of the kids he was supposed to care for, and Harry would have a good home-life too.

"But for now, let's focus on clearing your name." She stated. "Peter Pettigrew is Scabbers, right? Well, there's a slight problem. According to Ron—who's the kid you traumatized, by the way— Hermione's cat may or may not have eaten him already."

He rolled his eyes. "I did not traumatize him, alright? He's been bragging about the attack to anyone who would listen. And Crookshanks didn't eat him. He's actually been helping me look for the rat, but the damn thing's hiding well."

"Crookshanks?" She said blankly.

"The girl—Hermione's cat." He clarified.

"You're friends with a cat?" She asked incredulously. She had nothing against cats, but for some strange reason, every time she switched to her animagus form she always had this weird urge to go chasing after felines...

"Crookshanks is part kneazle, so he's actually pretty brilliant," he shrugged.

"I—okay? Well, tomorrow I'll help you search."

"Don't you have classes? Don't you have exams?" He emphasized. "I overheard from some Ravenclaws that this is exam week."

She dismissively waved a hand. "Finding that rat is more important right now."

"No, Esmerelda, please. I can't have you skipping out on your exams for this. You can help me afterwards, but don't skip." Regulus would have his head if he knew he was letting his daughter forego exams for his sake. He was almost as nerdy as Remus.

She sighed in defeat. "Fine. Tomorrow's the last day anyways, I'll help you after the exams—" She was cut off by the sound of his stomach growling. She gasped. "Oh my gods, I'm so stupid, when was the last time you've eaten? I'll grab you something in the kitchens."

"No, no, it's fine. Please go to sleep—" She literally looked dead on her feet, he needed her to go to sleep. But rather than listening to his pleas, she vanished in a poof of green. She came back a few minutes later with a whole tray of food.

His eyes widened. "Wha—"

"—You probably haven't eaten real food in a while, so I made sure to get you something light, without a lot of acids or fat. There's chicken broth over here, some vegetables, and some nuts. Don't eat too quickly, okay?" She instructed. "Oh and here's a glass of water."

Sirius found it quite suspicious that she knew what to feed someone who was malnourished, but didn't bother to voice his thoughts aloud. Instead, he stared down at the tray on the table and fought the vicious urge to swallow it all up. Like she said, it was important that he ate slowly.

"Is there even a place for you to sleep in here?" He heard her mutter to herself. "You keep eating, I'll try and clean everything up."

He nearly choked on his broth to stop her. "N-no, wait! Hold on! You don't need to do anything else, alright? You've done more for me than anyone ever has and... and I'm really grateful. But it is also way passed your bedtime." He said seriously.

She opened her mouth to argue, but he raised his spoon. "No, no. You need to sleep. Your eye bags are almost as bad as mine and I was literally stuck in Azkaban for twelve years. Go to bed, Esmerelda. Please."

"Sleep is for the weak," she huffed. "But fine... Just make sure to eat slowly, alright? And don't try to force yourself to finish everything, your stomach isn't used to eating big meals yet and—"

"—I know, I know," he rolled his eyes childishly. "Have you forgotten that I'm a grown man? That I'm your uncle? I know how to eat, dear niece."

She flushed. She didn't know why, but ever since she met Nico she had been acting quite... motherly, lately. It was weird, but nobody ever addressed it out loud until now.

"Oops," she said sheepishly. "I'll go to bed now. I'll see you tomorrow."

Except, she didn't go to bed afterwards.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

"I am literally begging you to go to sleep." Regulus said for the nth time since she arrived at his cell ten minutes ago.

"Funny, he said something like that to me too. You're a lot more alike than you care to admit." She beamed.

He scowled. "Please don't ever say that. I am nothing like Sirius, alright? He's... loud, stupid, annoying, and did I mention that he was stupid? He's a complete moron. One time I saw him lick a pole in 10 degree weather and that was during his fifth year. You see? We're nothing alike."

Okay, she had to admit that Regulus had a little more class than that, but she was still convinced that the two brothers shared a lot of similarities!

"I still think you're similar." She shrugged.

His scowl worsened. "Oh really? Name one stupid thing that I've done."

"You fucked my mom."

His jaw dropped for several reasons. One, for the crass language she was using (had he been able to raise her, she never would've learned such inappropriate words!) and two, because she actually had a point...

"Okay, but I got you out of that, so I count it as a win." He refuted, smiling.

She couldn't help but smile at that. It was good to hear that at least one parent was glad that she existed.

"I guess that is a win," she agreed. "Uncle Sirius doesn't seem to think so, though. He called me the 'Antichrist'." She still snorted at the thought. She wished she had asked him why he chose that particular nickname for her...

Regulus looked offended. "Excuse me? What the hell is the Antichrist?"

"He basically thinks I'm the child of the devil. I guess I was a tough baby to care for." She snickered.

He scoffed in disbelief. "What drivel. Don't listen to that fool. You were the easiest baby to raise."

She shrugged. Tell that to all the foster parents who gave up on me, she wanted to say, but this was supposed to be a happy moment.

"Speaking of him," she began. "I'll be helping him look for the rat tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, that's goo—wait," he paused. "Isn't tomorrow your last day for exams?"

"That's all you care about?!"

"Clearing Sirius' name is important, yes, but so are the exams." He said pointedly.

"I'm not going to skip, I'm going to help him after my exams are done." She assured him. Again, he was so much like his brother. Worrying about her exams and whatnot...

"Isn't it passed midnight in the living world?" He continued to fret. "Bloody hell, child, go to bed already! You have eye bags bigger than my bank account—oh and speaking of bank accounts, have you opened your vault?"

"What vault?" She asked blankly.

"Sirius had one goddamn job," he grumbled under his breath. "I'll explain that later. Just go to bed. Don't you have a bedtime?"

"It's not that late, it's only," she checked her watch. "Ooooh... Four o'clock. Alright, alright, I'll go to bed."

"Goodnight, Esmerelda." He said as she rose to her feet.

"Goodnight..." She trailed off, internally debating with something. "...Dad." She finished. Then she Mist traveled away before she could see his reaction.

— author's note —

* All the Blacks are extra and chaotic af. It's just a canon fact. I mean... look at this:

this:

and this:

this too:

aaaand this:

The Black fam is a chaotic mess full of drama queens, so Esmerelda fits right in. No wonder Andromeda fucked off and got married to Ted, she probs didn't wanna get caught up in the Black Family Chaos™️