▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER NINETEEN ▬▬▬▬

"HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN ME to Italy before?" Esmerelda asked randomly.

Regulus looked at her with a raised brow. "No, I never took you out of England. Why are you asking?"

She struggled to explain it, "When I went to pick up uncle Sirius, there was a mishap with my Mist traveling and I ended up on the roof of some house in Venice, Italy. It felt... familiar to me, somehow. I kept seeing things. They were kind of like memories, but... it didn't make any sense to me. The house was different than before, and there was this baby and a little girl... I don't know. I just kept seeing things. I also know Italian, apparently."

"What?" He stared at her in utter confusion.

"Non lo so," she shrugged hopelessly. "That means 'I don't know' in Italian, by the way, and non lo so how I even knew that."

"Could it be a demigod thing?" He wondered.

She shook her head. "No, that can't be it. Demigods are hardwired for Ancient Greek not... Italian."

"I honestly have nothing," Regulus admitted (which he hated to say).

Her shoulders slumped. "It's fine. It was weird anyways, I'd rather just... forget about it. But on a brighter note!" A smile appeared over her lips. "Uncle Sirius is well-settled in New York. His makeover went great by the way!"

He snorted. "Don't tell him that. He's always had such a big head when it came to his appearance. Do you know how long it takes him to get ready? He prepares his outfits the night before, but he always changes his mind the last second and spends the next two hours redoing everything." He rolled his eyes. "Sooo bloody annoying."

She would speak up in her uncle's defense, but Sirius did spend at least a whole hour admiring himself in the mirror last night so her father actually had a point.

"He also has a new name," she added. "Steve White."

"His new name is Steve White?" Regulus scoffed. Figures his idiot brother would think of an alias like that.

"Yep!" She smiled.

"That's such a—"

"—I thought it all up!" She continued.

"—Brilliant name." He finished, smiling proudly.

She beamed at the compliment, and a few strands of grey hair fell over her face. As she placed it back, Regulus couldn't help but zero in on the grey hairs, irritation bubbling beneath him. It annoyed him, not knowing—especially since he felt that there was something off about it. Whatever caused it wasn't natural, not normal. If he weren't dead and confined here, he would've found out the truth easily, but alas...

"Can you tell me?" He found himself asking, almost pleading. "About how your hair..."

She tensed up... and finally slumped her shoulders in defeat. "War is coming." Was all she said, and Regulus felt himself fall in a downwards spiral.

War was coming. He knew it was, he had actively participated in the Wizarding War after all, tried to stop it because he didn't want his only child to live through such a harrowing time, but he had failed, and the Wizarding War was still on whether or not the Ministry wanted to believe it. So yes, he knew that war was coming—it had never left, in fact—but something about the terrified look in her eyes told him that this war she spoke of had nothing to do with wizards.

If he wasn't already dead, he would've paled.

She nodded, confirming his fears. "A few years ago, Luke, a son Hermes... defected, you could say. He's working with the Titan Lord of time. I can't say his name, not here where he's so close, but you already know who I'm talking about, don't you?"

Kronos, he knew.

"He is waking," Esmerelda said softly, and suddenly it seemed like his daughter had aged years beyond him. She sounded so old and tired, not like what a fourteen year old girl should be. "And he has an army that's growing. Luke wants to bring the gods down for how awful they are and how neglectful they are to their children. A lot of other demigods had left and joined him, as well as a few minor gods who haven't been given the respect they deserve. To be frank, I agree with their beliefs. I really do. For years I had to live on the floor of the Hermes cabin because my mother isn't as respected as the Olympians... I know exactly how they feel... But I don't agree with their methods. They wish to bring the Titan lord back, but the Titans are no good, dad. They're worse then the gods. They'll just bring nothing but destruction. The demigods don't know that though."

"Hecate... joined them, didn't she?" Regulus asked numbly. He had no love for her, not anymore at least, but it still felt like something sunk to his stomach.

"Mother has been working closely for the Olympians for many millennia. She was faithful to them and even joined their side during the first Titanomachy. She went against her own family for them, but..." She shook her head. "The gods demoted her to a minor goddess. They never gave her a throne in their hall. No respect, no equality. She just wants to be equal, and I understand that, but she shouldn't have told my siblings to join the enemies."

"They joined her? And... did you?" He asked hesitantly.

"I'm the only one who stayed." She smiled bitterly. "They're all gone. All I have left is Lou Ellen, my half-sister who only arrived to camp recently, way after everyone else left. All the other children of minor gods defected, as did a few campers who felt neglected by their godly parents. All the unclaimed kids left too... my best friend, Ethan, was one of them."

"So he betrayed you," he scowled.

Esmerelda looked up sharply, about to protest but... the light in her eyes seemed to dim and whatever argument she was going to say died out. "Yes, he did," she breathed out. "He never loved the gods. To him, there was no equality, no balance, no justice, and honestly... he's right. The titan lord gave him false promises of a better beginning and he fell for it. He wanted me to come too, but I knew better. He was determined though, so last year he kind of... kidnapped me from Hogwarts under Luke's orders."

Grey eyes widened. "He did what?"

She grimaced. "Yeah. I didn't fight him much afterwards, since I was so desperate to get him and my siblings to see reason. It didn't work, obviously. The second we reached Mount Tamalpais, the titan, Atlas, had me carry the skies as a... test of some sorts. I lasted for about thirty hours. That's how I got this," she twisted around the grey strands of hair.

"This happened from holding the skies?" He choked.

"Yeah, it wasn't very fun. I wouldn't recommend it." She joked dryly, but there was no humor in her eyes, just defeat and sadness.

"So you're going to war," Regulus said seriously. "You're—you're going to fight."

She nodded.

"But you're... you're only fourteen, why...?" He asked hopelessly.

"The gods always use demigods." She answered, shrugging as if it should've been obvious enough.

Wonderful, Regulus thought. The one thing he wanted was for his daughter to not get caught up in a war, and the Fates had to be sadistic and put her through two wars. And the worst was that one of them would be against gods and titans.

Humans were cruel, but gods and titans were crueler.

For the millionth time since he died, he found himself wishing that he was still alive. If only for his daughter's sake.

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Esmerelda looked up at her uncle's eyes. They were grey just like her father's, but they didn't hold the same emotion. Regulus' eyes were dark, cold, and dead. She knew he loved her though, but there was just something off about the way he sometimes stared at her that kept her feeling slightly unsettled. It was the look he had every time she had to leave, like he didn't want to let her go. Like he wanted to keep her just as trapped as he was.

Despite the hardships Sirius went through, his eyes were much more brighter, more hopeful and lighter than his brother's. Then again, he was still alive whereas her father was dead. So maybe that was why their eyes looked so different despite being the same shade of grey.

Right now, they were eating dinner. Sirius' leg was bouncing as much as hers, and she was the one with ADHD. She could hardly blame him for being so restless though. Today was they day they head off to Diagon Alley to get new wands (she needed one too because she accidentally broke it during a very intense game of Dark Souls where she had an embarrassing rage-quit moment after dying for tHE FORTY-NINTH TIME—)

Anyways.

Sirius was understandably nervous about going there out in public. He was a wanted criminal after all, but like she kept saying:

"They're not gonna recognize you," she repeated for the umpteenth time. "You look completely different from your mugshot photo, plus you're a lot older than when you went to Hogwarts. The only people who might recognize you is Professor Dumbledore and Professor Lupin, and they know you're innocent. Snape too, but I can always just use the Mist."

He perked up. "Can you use the Mist to make him believe his real name is Snivellus?"

"Tempting... but no." She said, causing him to deflate. "Now eat before your french toast gets cold."

"Why'd we have to wake up so early?" He whined, and Esmerelda briefly wondered who was supposed to be the adult here.

"Because London is ahead of New York by five hours," she answered swiftly. "Now eat your food and don't forget to take your vitamins afterwards."

"They taste weird," he grumbled under his breath, mouth full of his breakfast. "Why do Muggles take that stuff?"

"Because it's good for you," she deadpanned.

"Yuck," he made a face, and Esmerelda sighed.

After they finished eating, they got dressed and headed out for London. The long way this time since Esmerelda already Mist traveled to and from the Underworld earlier this morning. She didn't want to risk another... accident, so they had to settle with using the portkey.

They landed in the usual alleyway and stepped out into the streets. At that point, Sirius half-expected some Muggle to scream at the sight of him and shout for the police (it had actually happened once while he was trying to get to Hogwarts).

But nobody was screaming bloody murder as he walked down the streets. He got a few stares, but that was mostly from women who were obviously attracted to him (which he perfectly understood). He totally would've flirted with them, but he had a niece to look after and he'd be damned if he couldn't be a responsible adult for her sake.

"Okay, there's the Leaky Cauldron," Esmerelda whispered to him, gesturing to the old looking pub that Muggles walked passed without a second glance. "Remember, it'll be fine, but if things go bad, I can just use a little bit of the Mist to make them forget."

He nodded sharply. "Right."

"So you're ready?"

Another nod. "Let's go."

Together they walked in and everyone turned to look at them as the bell overhead chimed. None of the customers or the owner looked like they suspected anything, but they looked at them more out of curiosity. Sirius couldn't blame them for it, since they were a pretty odd pair anyways. He looked like a muggle billionaire with his designer clothes courtesy of Mitchell, and Esmerelda was dressed in common muggle clothes with a pink dress and jacket.

Thankfully, they looked away and went back to what they were doing.

Sirius felt himself sigh in relief. They didn't recognize him. As they headed over to the back door, they passed by one witch who was reading the Daily Prophet. His old mugshot was right in front of her, and even then she didn't notice a thing.

"Alright, we got that over with," Esmerelda cheered as they stepped through the threshold between the muggle alleyway and Diagon Alley. "Now we just need to get our wands and go visit Professor Lupin! Oh wait, should we bring him something for the visit? He likes chocolate!"

"Hmmm, good idea. We should probably get him cake. It'd help him deal with the shock of what we're about to tell him." Sirius added. Then he remembered that he completely forgot how exactly he was going to break everything down to his friend gently. Whoops. Looks like he was going to have to wing it.

They headed straight for Ollivander's Wand Shop and none of the wizards walking around stopped to give him a suspicious stare once. Sirius nearly let out a gleeful laugh. Here he was, Sirius Black, walking around in broad daylight and no one even knew of it! He was—what had Travis called it?—flexing on the wizards! They had succeeded! Oh, he was going to spoil his niece for sure, she was a genius!

They made it to Ollivander's without a hitch. The old man looked at Esmerelda and wasn't even surprised.

"Broke your wand again, Miss Black?" He asked knowingly, and the way he said 'Miss Black' wasn't nasty and sneering. He addressed her like he would with any other customer, which was a comforting thought.

Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and she nodded. "I'm sorry..."

"I'm getting money anyways," he shrugged. "And who is this young man with you?" His gaze was almost analytical, and Sirius hoped he wouldn't recognize him.

"This is my uncle, Steve," Esmerelda explained before hastily added, "From my mom's side, I mean. He's not a—he's not a Black."

"Ah," he said, as if he couldn't care either way. "Well, ladies first."

Sirius watched on intently, intrigued to see what sort of wand the daughter of Hecate would get. He expected it to last forever and for it to result in her getting some ultra rare wand. What really happened was... disappointing, to say the least.

"Sturdy rowan wood with a phoenix feather core. Eleven inches long. Try it," Ollivander held it out for her.

She took and gave it a whirl. A bunch of confetti burst from the tip.

She was given one wand and it was done. Must be a child of Hecate thing.

"You're up next, sir." Ollivander called out to him.

Sirius strode up eagerly. It had been so long since he held a wand and he missed using magic more than ever. But he missed his old wand even more. He remembered when he first got it; ebony wood with a phoenix feather core. It was now under Auror custody.

The wand choosing for him was much longer than Esmerelda's, which wasn't a surprise since she literally got the first wand that was handed to her.

Ollivander held out his sixth wand, "Twelve inches, laurel wood with a dragon heartstring for a core. Go ahead."

Sirius eagerly took it, like he had done with the previous five wands. He waved it around once and the tip lit up a brilliant gold. A warm feeling rushed through him. He nearly burst into tears of joy at the familiar sensation. This was the exact same thing that had happened to him when he was just a little boy.

"There you go," Ollivander seemed satisfied. "That'll be 65 galleons altogether."

Esmerelda 'paid' and then they were off.

"Let's go get that cake," she said as they walked through the door.

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"He lives all the way in Yorkshire," Sirius informed her as they exited the bakery with a chocolate cake that Remus would most likely drool over (but then again, he would drool over anything with chocolate).

She furrowed her brows. "Is that far?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. I usually just apparate there, but I haven't done that in years, let alone with a side-along. I don't want to risk accidentally splinching one of us."

"Splinching?"

"It's what happens if you screw up apparating. You leave behind a part of yourself. If you're lucky, it could be your hair. If you're not, it could be a whole arm." He explained nonchalantly. "I remember in my sixth year... Poor Alara Ravensdale splinched herself during our lesson. Left a whole shoulder behind."

Esmerelda shuddered. "And you prefer that over Mist traveling?"

"Hey, splinching is just a possibility. Mist traveling always makes me feel like my whole body is falling apart!" He said defensively.

She shrugged. "It's not that bad."

He looked at her like she was crazy, but whatever. He could have his own opinions.

Since he didn't want to apparate and she couldn't Mist travel to Yorkshire, they ended up having to take the train. Apparently Sirius had never done that before so he was looking around like a child making his first visit to a museum. Everything was interesting to him. It was a lot different than the one he took to get to Hogwarts. For one, it was more cramped. There were no compartments to divide people up, and instead, everyone was in view of the other and sitting in worn out plushy chairs. Secondly, it was moving really fast.

"So, do you know what you're going to say to him?" Esmerelda suddenly asked from beside him. She was busy fiddling with a straw wrapper on the table in front of them. She really couldn't seem to sit still. 

"Ummmm, well..." He said sheepishly.

"You don't know."

"Nope." He replied. "I figured I should just give it to him straight. 'Hey Moony, Esmerelda's a demigod and that's why you keep trying to eat her'." He forgoed trying to be secretive since the muggles literally couldn't care less about what they were talking about. He once saw a man in the streets of New York talking to bunch of rats and nobody even batted a lash over it. If they didn't care about that, then they surely wouldn't be fazed with his 'crazy talk'.

"Blunt... but at least we can give him some cake to help reduce the shock factor." She nodded in satisfaction.

It took forever for them to reach Remus' house because apparently he lived in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. It was situated in a forest, miles and miles away from any source of civilization. The cottage was so rundown and old looking that it made Esmerelda feel almost bad for it—and it wasn't even a living thing.

"Well," Sirius muttered as the stood in front of the door. "Here goes nothing." He knocked.

"Just a moment!" A familiar voice called out from the other side. After several seconds, the door swung open.

"Hi, Professor Lupin!" Esmerelda greeted him excitedly. "Look who I brought!"

"Hello, Moony," Sirius grinned.

Remus' jaw dropped. "Esmerelda?! Sirius?! What are you doing here and—and, wow, you look so different!"

He laughed jovially and strolled inside as if he owned the place. Esmerelda followed in afterwards and closed the door behind her. "I look good, don't I? It was all Essie's idea, brilliant girl. She had her friends give me a makeover and everything. We even went to Diagon Alley and nobody knew who I was!"

Remus was still gawking at them as they entered the dining room and set the cake down. He was so shocked by their sudden appearance that he didn't even spare the cake a glance, even when Esmerelda opened the box and allowed it's heavenly smell to surround the room. 

"Sirius that was risky!" He was too busy admonishing. "What if someone recognized you?"

"Nah," the most wanted man in wizarding Britain waved a hand, as if the chance of being spotted was nothing. He plopped down on a rickety chair without a care in the world. "Essie had that part covered."

He furrowed his brows. "How?"

"Well..." Sirius folded his hands together. Here it goes, he thought bracingly. "Essie has mind control powers because she's not human."

Remus stared at him.

Esmerelda looked between both men and silently raised up a plate. "So who wants cake?"

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It took about three whole hours and nearly an entire chocolate cake to get Remus to understand everything that was being thrown at him.

"So your brother's the father, not you."

"Yep."

"And her mother's a Greek goddess."

"Yeah."

"Her demigod scent is the reason I keep going after her during the full moon."

"Yes..."

"And her mother mind-controlled me into giving her up."

"Also, yes."

Remus stared down at the table. Sirius tentatively asked him, "Are you alright?"

"Of course not!" He suddenly blew up. "Sirius this is—this is insane! This is a lot worse then the time when you thought Esmerelda was the Antichrist! Greek myths?! Half-god?! I mean—what?!"

"Oh, don't deny that a part of you believed my Antichrist theory!" Sirius pointed. 

Remus pursed his lips. He would never say it out loud, but about 20% of him really did believe that Esmerelda was the Antichrist. Though in his defense, James and Peter believed in it way more than he did!

"Professor Lupin," Esmerelda said soothingly as she slid him another plate of chocolate cake. "He's telling the truth."

"I can't believe he put you up to this too," he said miserably, picking up his fork. "And just call me Remus, I'm not a professor anymore..."

"Uncle Sirius didn't put me to anything," she promised. "Look, like I can even prove it to you. Children of Hecate are immune to mortal magic, so shoot a spell at me."

He gawked at her. "Good Merlin, you've lost it too!"

She groaned and turned to her uncle. "Can you do it?"

Sirius nodded eagerly and rose to his feet, wand out. Remus watched him warily. "Sirius, what are you—"

"—Reducto!" He shouted. A light struck Esmerelda, but nothing happened.

Remus looked like he was about to faint.

She turned to him. "See? I'm immune. The only thing I'm not immune to are potions. Madam Pomfrey can't heal me with her spells so she always gives me potions as an alternative instead. It was the same thing with Merlin. You've read in the books that he was immune too, right? That's because he's my half-brother."

Sirius stared at her in shock. "Okay, I didn't know about that part."

"Oh," she said dumbly. "Well, Merlin's the only other wizard-demigod hybrid. The gods felt threatened by his diverse powers and executed him. They made mother swear an oath to never have any more hybrid kids, but she broke it when she had me. Then the gods were gonna execute me, but a lot of them voted 'no'."

"Why do you never tell me these things?!" Sirius cried out.

"Sorry, I honestly just forgot," she said sheepishly.

"How do you forget—?!" He asked breathlessly.

"It happened years ago," she shrugged. "Anyways, do you believe it now?" She asked Remus.

He still looked uncertain. "I... I don't... I mean, I've always known that there was something different about you... something special... but this is just..."

She nodded in understanding. It was always hard for mortals to understand, whether that mortal was muggle or wizard. And then she came up with an idea. "Oh! I got it! I know what to do to get you to believe me!"

He blinked. "What is it?"

She grinned mischievously, and he was almost taken aback by how similar that grin was to Sirius'. "Can normal wizards do this?"

At first, Remus didn't sense anything off. And then he started shrinking.

"Wha—what's going on?!" He panicked, and then panicked even more when his voice grew higher. He looked down at his body and noticed that he was wearing a dress now. Even worse, he was a little girl!

Two pairs of eyes peered down at him.

"Whoa, nice touch on the pigtails!" Sirius high-fived his niece.

"Thanks," she beamed.

"Okay, you can turn me back now, I believe you!" Remus whined, and Esmerelda returned him to his original form. "How did you do that?!" He asked with wide eyes.

"I used the Mist to disguise you." She explained simply.

"Without even needing a polyjuice potion..." He murmured in awe, looking down at his grown hands.

"She can do a lot more," Sirius added smugly. "So do you believe us now?"

"Well... there's certainly no way for the average wizard to do such a thing," he finally admitted. "Ohhhh, this is crazy..."

"I felt the same," Sirius comforted him with a pat on the shoulder.

"Why tell me all this though?" He questioned. "I mean, this is important information that you probably shouldn't be giving out."

"You were literally drowning in guilt, Moony," Sirius told him gently. "The first incident—when you lost control. It wasn't really any of your fault. You didn't want to attack her, I know you didn't, but Esmerelda's scent attracted you anyways because she smelled like food. That situation... it was completely out of your control."

"I had never seen you so furious," Remus said quietly.

He winced. "That was because I initially thought you were a Greek monster. I've... learned through experience that they're able to disguise themselves as regular people. I thought... I thought maybe they had done something to you and took your place so they would have an easier chance to try and kill Esmerelda... When I saw that you were bleeding—because monsters are usually made of golden dust—I realized it was actually you..." He gulped, looking guilty. "I admit, my trust in you wavered after that. But Esmerelda explained to me what really happened."

Remus nodded slowly. "I... I still lost her though. Mind-control or not, I gave her away."

"You couldn't have fought back against her," she told him gently. "You couldn't have escaped either, or called for help. You didn't give me up willingly, okay? My mother forced you to. She messed with your head."

"I wanted to tell you the truth because I knew you were still feeling guilty over it." Sirius said. "So I wanted to clear everything up."

"Never expected this to be the truth..." Remus muttered, looking numb with shock.

"The shock will wear off," Sirius reassured. "Now, how do you feel about coming over to my new house for a visit? The muggles call it a 'penthouse', it's spectacular!"

— author's note —

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!! I've finished all my hw for this week so I think I maaaay be able to update again tomorrow. Don't get your hopes up though because I might be tasked in helping to remove all our Thanksgiving decor and replacing it with Christmas decor (we also have a second christmas tree and we're planning to dress it up as the Grinch lol).

Ahhhhh, The Battle of the Labyrinth finally starts now! The angst, the drama, the tears, the DEATHS!!!!! 

Get ready for it 😈