▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER EIGHTEEN ▬▬▬▬

THE FIRST THING ESMERELDA SAW when she woke up was Tonks' bright and sunny face hovering over hers.

"Rise and shine, kid!" She greeted loudly. "Glad to see you haven't turned yourself into mist! Come on! Think you can move around? It's lunch and dad's made some Salisbury steak with gravy and mashed potatoes!"

"...Tonks?" Esmerelda murmured, brows furrowed in confusion. What was Tonks doing here?

"I guess you can't remember much, huh?" The older woman said sympathetically as Esmerelda sat up and looked around the familiar living room. "You Mist traveled here with good ole' uncle Sirius a few days ago and passed out right away. Mum and dad were givin' him the third degree and he spilled the truth about everything. Imagine my surprise when I walked in last night and realized Sirius Black was in my parents' house!"

"I Mist traveled here...?" Esmerelda said, a little slow on catching up.

"Yeah, and you gave everyone quite a scare," she replied. "'Cause you were fading, you know? Dad managed to take you into the living room, but they were too scared to move you to the guest room. You kept flickering around and stuff."

"Oh," the young girl croaked. "Sorry. So they know Sirius is innocent?"

"Aaaand that he's not your dad." She confirmed.

Oh. Well at least that saved her the trouble of having to explain everything.

"Sorry for worrying you all," she said, rising to her feet.

Tonks shrugged as he led her to the dining room. "It's fine. Just don't make it a habit."

Everyone else was already eating at the table when they entered. Sirius was too busy stuffing his face with food—and the gravy and mashed potatoes flying everywhere—to notice her while Andromeda and Ted were watching him like one would watch a car crash.

"Essie's awake!" Tonks sang, pulling a chair out for her while plopping down next to it.

Sirius looked up quickly, then tried to say something only to choke on all the food he had in his mouth. Andromeda made a face of utmost disgust and slid a glass of water to him, as well as a napkin.

"Thank you," he said once his airway was clear. "You're awake! Are you... are you solid now or—?"

She nodded, "I'm okay now."

"No, you're certainly not," Andromeda disagreed, already serving her a plate full of steak and mashed potatoes and lathering it with gravy.

"Thanks, auntie," Esmerelda grinned, eagerly digging in.

"We were just talking about you," Ted began. "Or, well, Sirius was talking to us about what you were like as a baby."

"Oh!" She suddenly remembered something. Quickly swallowing her food down, she turned to give Sirius a questioning look. "Yeah, about that, why do you call me the 'Antichrist'?"

Ted snorted into his drink.

"The what?" Andromeda frowned. She seemed to be the only one who didn't understand what that meant because even Tonks was snickering under her breath.

Sirius looked sheepish. "Erm, well, I admit, when you were first given to me... I genuinely thought you were half-demon."

"Sirius!" His cousin admonished.

He raised his arms up in defense. "Now, now, hold on, hear me out! I have a legitimate excuse, okay?! I didn't believe what Regulus told me about Hecate, so I had no clue who your mother really was. But look, you hated me. Couldn't stand the sight of me! I think it was because you were missing your father. And because of that, you kept crying a lot and having temper tantrums. Very dangerous temper tantrums. Your magic was way too strong for it to be normal, and your eyes would even start glowing a Killing Curse green! So naturally... I thought you were the Antichrist and that you would one day destroy the world."

Tonks started cackling.

"So you couldn't believe that the Greek myths were real, but you believed in demons?" Ted criticized.

"I watched more movies about demons than about Greek myths," he said defensively.

"Did you try to get her an exorcism?" Tonks asked between laughs.

Sirius shrunk a little, trying to avoid Andromeda's hard eyes and answered, "Just once, but Lily told me 'no'."

"Oh my gods," Esmerelda muttered as Tonks burst into another round of laughter.

"I can't believe Regulus would send his only daughter to you of all people," Andromeda sighed, shaking her head and placing a hand over her forehead.

"Hey, I was a good guardian!" Sirius protested.

"You accused a baby of being the Antichrist! What sort of blithering idiot—"

"—But her powers!" He whined.

She rolled her eyes and took a sip of her water. Arguing with her cousin seemed to trigger her stress levels.

"Did I ever meet your friends?" Esmerelda reacted curiously, recalling Peter's reaction to seeing her. Well, technically he wasn't a friend anymore, but Sirius considered him as one once upon a time.

Sirius snorted. "Oh yeah. That meeting went well. Long story short, I stepped on your favorite stuffed bunny—which I sent to you as a Christmas present by the way, did you like it?—and you went ballistic. Used your powers to throw a knife at me, but thankfully your aim was a little off. I think James may have pissed his pants a little. The rat ran for it and Remus had to leave because he had a nervous breakdown."

Well no wonder Scabbers shit himself when he saw me.

"My aim got better," she told him randomly, and inwardly snickered at how pale he became. "But don't worry, I have better control over my powers now."

He gave her a pointed look.

Her cheeks pinked a little. "I mean my other powers. I haven't gotten the hang of Mist traveling yet so..."

"Stay here for a few more days," Andromeda insisted. "You're still so pale, dear, and you've been unconscious for days."

"Plus, the food here is excellent," Sirius added, back to shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth again.

Esmerelda agreed easily. While she no longer felt like her body was falling apart, she was still way too weak to do anything right now. So she settled with staying over at the Tonkses house for another three days before bidding them a 'see you later'.

Esmerelda dropped to her knees once they reached their new location. Beside her, Sirius let out a groan and Buckbeak hurled in a corner.

"You alright?" Sirius asked her as she grasped a brick wall to pull herself up.

"Yeah..." She trailed off, looking around. They were inside an alleyway that was fortunately empty for now. Beyond it, she could see several shops and buildings and recognized where they were at. "We're at the Harlem River Drive. That's the north end of Madison Avenue, I think... Good, we're not too far from Icarus Tower."

"I'll be living in a tower?" Sirius perked up.

She nodded. "Yep. You've got the penthouse, meaning you're living in luxury at the very top," then her stomach rumbled. She cringed. "Er, sorry. You hungry? I know that there's a nearby boba shop that recently opened up... I kinda wanna try it out."

He shrugged. He never heard of 'boba', but he was open to new things.

Her face lit up. "Great! Now let me just disguise you guys first..."

Sirius was somewhat familiar with the sensation of being disguised by her. It didn't hurt, but the process was certainly a weird one. Beside him, Buckbeak started to shrink and shrink until he now resembled a brightly colored parrot. As for him...

"Why am I teenage girl?!" He whined, his voice all high and feminine.

"Because this boba shop is a popular spot for teenage girls. It'd be weird if a grown man were to walk in," she explained.

"At least I'm dressed nicely..." He was quite fond of Muggle fashion. It was much more modern and better looking in his opinion, and there were plenty more options unlike with wizarding robes. Right now he was dressed in a rolled-up, loose pair of jeans with an oversized tee-shirt tucked in. There was a dog on the front of it, so he approved. But there was still something wrong... "Hold on, why are my pockets so small?"

"At least you have pockets," she grumbled bitterly. "Mine are fake."

What the heck, he thought.

"Alright, let's go," Esmerelda said, but he stopped her.

"Wait, can I be a redhead?"

She gave him a weird look and he pleaded with her. "Please? I've always wanted know what it's like to be a ginger."

"It's really not that different, but alright..." She changed his now long silky black hair to a curly red.

"This is so cool," he giggled, playing around with his curls.

She led him out of the alleyway with Buckbeak now perched on his shoulder. It must of been common for New Yorkers to bring around weird animals because no one even spared Buckbeak a glance.

The boba shop wasn't too far away from the alleyway they were at. Once he saw it, Sirius now understood why she disguised him as a teenage girl. The whole establishment was pastel pink and everything was even pinker inside. The chairs were pink and the tables had glitter all over them. There were paintings of weirdly drawn animals with unnaturally big eyes on the walls. The only customers he could see were girls ranging from preteens to teens and they were all milling about, chattering loudly or on their phones. All in all, it was a place no grown man would want to be caught dead in (though he quite appreciated it's charmingness).

They made their orders, a strawberry milk tea for Esmerelda and a taro milk tea for Sirius, and added some food to eat too. They ate at a table next to the window, where Sirius spotted a sign saying 'No pets allowed'. He pointed this out to her while Buckbeak was chewing on beef jerky.

"I used the Mist to make everyone here think you're carrying around a stuffed animal rather than an actual bird." She explained, calmly eating her sandwich.

"What exactly is the Mist?" He had heard that word tossed around so many times now, but he still didn't know what it was. All he knew was that they both had different definitions of it.

"It's this supernatural force that my mother, Hecate, is in control of. It hides the mythological world from the mortals. Like... let's say some mortals were to see me fighting a dracaena. The Mist would make it look like I'm fighting a mugger or something, and our weapons would probably look like guns to them rather than archaic knives and swords. All children of Hecate can control the Mist, so I can use it do many things like create illusions, manipulate memories, control peoples' minds, hide or disguise things, etc, etc. I'm using it on the mortals here to make them think that Buckbeak the parrot is a stuffed toy."

She stopped to take a sip of her boba, looking perfectly nonchalant as if she hadn't just listed out a bunch of dangerous abilities that she had.

"I could've used it that night," she said bitterly. "Had I not been so injured and tired, I would've been able to convince the Minister to free you."

His eyes widened. "Really?"

She nodded, a regretful look on her face. "Yes, shame I couldn't though... I could even use the Mist to make the whole wizarding world forget you were ever a criminal, but... I'm not powerful enough for that. I don't think I ever will be. So far, the most I can do is influence a small group of people at the same time like I'm doing right now."

At the moment, there were about ten or so people inside the shop. Not a very big number in her opinion.

"I'm mortal, so why was I able to see the monsters that would come after you when you were a baby?" He asked.

"You're clear sighted." She answered. "That's actually a rare thing, but all wizards—to some degree—are clear sighted. You guys are kinda like mortal children. They can see through the Mist because they're more open-minded and have vast imaginations, but it usually fades away when they grow up. As for you guys, it sticks with you because you know magic is real, thus being open to a possibility of something more. Muggle-borns become clear-sighted once they've ingrained themselves into the wizarding world, but before it, I don't think they would've been able to see through the Mist."

"So... how exactly is the wizarding world part of your world?" He asked, growing more intrigued by the second.

"Eons ago, my mother wanted to share her magic with the mortals. So she blessed a whole bunch of them. They procreated throughout the years, started building communities, and soon enough, the wizarding world was born," she explained simply.

He grinned wickedly. "So—so we all came from Muggles, then?"

She knew exactly where he was getting to with this, and nodded in confirmation. "Yep. There's no such thing as a Pureblood since you all originally came from common mortals—or Muggles, and Muggle-borns are actually descended from Squibs."

Sirius squealed in joy and slapped his hands against the table excitedly, looking like a girl who had just been given tickets to a Justin Bieber concert, which wasn't that far off since he technically was a girl for now.

"So blood purity isn't even a real thing since we were never pure to begin with!" He cheered, causing several girls to glance over at them. He squealed again. "Oh if only mummy dearest were alive, I'd shove this information right at her wrinkled, ugly face! Oooh, and Voldemort too! Imagine if that little bastard knew about this!"

He giggled to himself.

"You know, Voldemort's real name is Tom Riddle," she added. "His mom's a wizard and his dad's a muggle."

"Are you serious?!" He whispered, eyes widened. "He's a half-blood? Doesn't that mean he sees himself as inferior then?"

"Yeah, basically."

"What a loser," he scoffed.

"I know right? And get this, he's into anagrams. If you scramble up his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, it spells out as 'I am Lord Voldemort'."

"Oh Merlin, that's even worse! He's a nerd!" He gasped.

"He also had a diary." She added.

They gossiped about how much Voldemort sucked before leaving to head over to Sirius' new place. Icarus Tower was a skyscraper with 55 stories and was almost as tall as the iconic Woolworth Building. It stood tall near the heart of Madison Avenue with it's very noticeable golden logo of a winged man, Icarus.

The penthouse, naturally, was at the very top. It made Esmerelda a little anxious because she didn't exactly have a good relationship with Zeus, but it wasn't like she was actually in the air. She was just... inside a really tall building, so thankfully, it didn't count.

When they walked in, Sirius' amazement of the penthouse was cut short by the pair of boys on the hippo couch holding video game consoles and shouting at each other.

"You asshole, you were supposed to cover for me, but you let me die!"

"I was getting shot at, dumbass, I couldn't just focus on you!"

"Seriously?" Esmerelda exasperated at the sight of them. "Have you guys been here the entire time I was gone? Just playing?"

"Yeah," they answered in unison.

"I'm surprised you didn't make too much of a mess..." She muttered. The only clutter she could see was the food and wrappers all over the Jason Vorhees table. Easy to clean up.

"Uh, is that a dead man inside the table?" Sirius asked. He noticed that his voice was back to normal and looked down. He was back to his original form, as was Buckbeak. Should he be nervous that two boys were seeing him now?

"That's not a real person," Esmerelda assured. "And uncle, this is Travis and Connor Stoll. The two guys I mentioned who were in charge of the furniture. Guys, this is my uncle, Sirius Black."

"You mean Steve White," Connor winked.

"Huh?" He asked.

"It's your new name," Esmerelda grinned. "You can't go as Sirius Black anymore, so I had to change your identity. I helped the Stolls forge the documents. All it needed was a little Mist."

These kids are scary, Sirius awed.

"I'll show you around! Buckbeak's gonna love the roof," she gushed, then ushered him into the hallway.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Sirius was getting adjusted to the life of a free man very quickly. It had been two days since he arrived to New York and he had never felt so relaxed before. The last time he felt so at ease was over a decade ago, before he was locked up in that hellhole called Azkaban.

The food was great too, though he really wanted to try out the greasy, fatty foods that America was so famous for. Instead, Esmerelda, his own niece, insisted on shoving greens down his throat and keeping him on a good, but strict exercise regimen. Whatever happened to the Esmerelda who gave him In n Out? She was such a mom now, it almost made him forget that he was supposed to be the adult here.

The Stolls were awesome though. Surprisingly, he actually shared a lot in common with them. His biggest similarity was that they adored pranks. His second biggest similarity was that the Stolls actually went to jail once—or juvie, since they were minors. That really shocked him, and also really concerned him because what the absolute fuck.

Apparently the story was that they went on some road trip two years ago with a satyr named Basil, and Esmerelda during her spring break*. A monster attacked them in a McDonalds restaurant and they ended up accidentally blowing the whole place up. They got chased by the cops and the Stolls got tasered while Esmerelda and Basil got away. The Stolls woke up in Rhode Island Juvenile Detention Center and broke out a few days later with Esmerelda and Basil's help.

"Why does everything have to be so chaotic with you kids...?!" He breathed out. Even he hadn't been this wild during his youth (and oh gods, he sounded so old when he said that).

They shrugged, as if to say 'that's just our regular Tuesday' and were about to reply until Esmerelda strolled into the living room with a beam.

"I called up Silena. Her and her siblings will be here soon." She cheered, before her face turned stern. "And do not prank them. They're here to help Sirius."

"Help me with what?" He asked, turning away from the television when Travis' Mortal Kombat character got beheaded.

"Your makeover!" She said brightly, then giggled at his uncertain expression. "Don't worry, they're not gonna do anything too drastic. They're just gonna help you look less 'Azkaban escapee' and more 'filthy rich owner of a penthouse'. Trust me, okay? They're children of Aphrodite, they're geniuses at this."

If he recalled, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, which reassured him a little. Not to brag, but before he got chucked behind bars, he was ridiculously good looking thanks to the family genes (which was pretty much the only good thing he got from them). Twelve years of rotting away had done his physical appearance an absolute injustice and if these children of Aphrodite could actually manage to restore him to his former glory, he'd give them the family vaults.

Four kids arrived sometime later on, looking like they had a job to do. Trotting behind them was an awkward looking young man whose presence caused Essie and the Stolls to light up.

"Basil!" They cheered, then jumped on the poor boy.

"Uncle Sirius, this is Basil!" Esmerelda exclaimed gleefully, dragging him over to meet the boy. "He's the one I told you about—the satyr who took me and Travis and Connor to camp!"

"Ah," Sirius felt his lips stretch out. "Nice to meet you. Thank you for looking out for my niece." The 'when I couldn't' was left unsaid, but Basil seemed to understand.

One of the Aphrodite kids, an Asian girl with fashion sense so good she could put the Purebloods to shame, clapped her hands impatiently. "Enough with the sentimentality, people! We have work to do. Lots of it."

"He's not that bad, Drew," a blue eyed girl rolled her eyes. "He just needs a haircut, better hygiene, a good diet, exercise—"

"—I already got those two covered," Esmerelda cut in.

The girl nodded approvingly. "Good. He'll also need that skincare cream mom gave us, and—oh! We definitely need to fix his nails, and Mitchell? You got your dad's credit card?"

A smartly dressed dark-skinned boy smirked and held up a card. Sirius learned from Lily that Muggles apparently put their money in it? How did that work?

"I got it right here," Mitchell stated.

"Good. You're in charge of buying his clothes and shoes and whatever else you think he needs. Remember, he needs a wardrobe for all four seasons!"

"Already on it, Silena," Mitchell drawled, whipping out a laptop and typing away.

"And Lacy," a blonde haired little girl looked up eagerly. "You got the tools with you?"

Lacy nodded excitedly, patting her suspiciously large duffel bag.

"Good," Silena looked over at Sirius with a determined glint in her eyes. "Now let's get to work."

Esmereloda should've given him a warning. The second Silena gave them the green light, he was dragged to the master bathroom and forced into a chair. They might as well have tied him up because every time he even tried to move an inch they'd snap at him to stay still.

The little girl—Lacy—was in charge of his haircut. Sirius did not want a nine year old girl holding a shaver anywhere near his face, but she was surprisingly strong and would yank his head back into place whenever he tried to inch away from the shaver's threatening buzz.

Silena was busy threading his brows (whatever that meant) and shaving his beard down. The threading part was painful and he'd tear up every second or so. Drew, who was putting a sweet smelling skin cream over his face, scoffed and called him a 'wimp'.

"Why does this burn so much?!" Sirius asked tearfully.

"The pain means it's working, now suck it up!" Drew snapped.

"Your hair is soooo bad!" Lacy marveled. "Don't you shampoo? Or use conditioner?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't. We aren't given shampoo or hair conditioner in Azkaban."

"You're not?!" Mitchell, who had been lounging around the empty bathtub and purchasing clothes, blanched. "In that case, I'm never going to prison."

"Is it true you have to wear the same uniform everyday?" Drew asked, uncharacteristically frightened for once.

He nodded, and they all shuddered.

"I heard you can't even do your nails in prison," Silena commented.

He showed them his poorly cared for nails and confirmed, "You can't."

More gasps. Through the mirror, he could see that poor Lacy looked close to fainting.

Silena, who had finished threading his brows, steeled her expression. "Someone pass me a nail clipper."

Sirius had never felt so violated by the time he was done. Hours had passed since the makeover started, and he had no idea what time it was now. The devilish kids didn't even let him look in the mirror before tossing him some clothes to wear and dragging him downstairs to be presented.

"We're finished!" Lacy cheered at the end of the staircase. Behind her, Sirius' face was being covered by Mitchell's laptop. "We present to you... Steve White!"

The laptop was pulled away and he was met with gasps.

That was a good sign, he figured, but he really wanted to know what he looked like.

"You look so different!" Esmerelda squealed. "Totally unrecognizable!"

"You're like one of those criminals who had plastic surgery to disguise themselves, except it actually worked out good for you!" Travis commented.

"Here," a smiling Silena thrust a mirror in his hands. "Take a look."

And take a look he did. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his own reflection. His long matted hair had been fixed and cut short, coiffed back as to not get in the way of his face. He was cleanly shaven and he had never seen his eyebrows look so perfect before. Whatever magical cream their mother had given them worked a miracle on his skin too, his face was less pale and less sunken, and devoid of any other flaws.

"I am gorgeous," he breathed out.

"And your new wardrobe will be delivered next week." Mitchell added smugly. "You're welcome."

"This is a job well done, sisters and brother." Silena declared, beaming proudly.

"Thank you so much," he told them earnestly. "I-I-I look so different and... wow."

Drew shrugged, checking out her nails. "Whatever. You couldn't just go around looking like what you previously looked." She scrunched her nose up in disgust.

"Your makeover came just in time, uncle," Esmerelda said.

He gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

She grinned. "Tomorrow, we're going to go straight to Diagon Alley to get you a new wand. And then we're going to pay your old friend, Lupin, a visit. Let's see if anyone recognizes you."

— author's note —

* So apparently Hogwarts has spring break... Was it mentioned in the books ever?! Uuuurgh I wish I had known sooner, do you have any idea how many fun chapters I could've written centered around Essie's chaotic spring breaks?!?!

Anyways guys, college sucks. I don't know about you guys, but I don't get any thanksgiving break for the whole week. I only have a break on Thanksgiving DAY but that's only if I finish all my homework and exams beforehand. Luckily, I don't have much to do but there's still an exam I gotta study for :(

Also, pls stay home for the holidays. I know some of you guys want to go visit your relatives or some shit, but it's not worth risking getting the virus while traveling and infecting your loved ones, or your loved ones infecting you when you visit. Apparently 40% of Americans are still gonna visit their relatives for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Rlly hope they don't end up killing anyone but oh well.

SILENA BEAUREGARD
played by EMILY RUDD

DREW TANAKA
played by RUI WATANABE

MITCHELL
played by CALEB MCLAUGHLIN

LACY
played by MCKENNA GRACE