▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER THREE ▬▬▬▬▬

ESMERELDA WAS JUST WALKING DOWN to the living room when she heard Sirius let out a high-pitched shriek. She nearly threw herself down the stairs and burst into the kitchen to see what was going on.

"Oh," she relaxed when she saw Nico standing in the dark corner of the kitchen. "It's just you."

"You gave me a bloody heart attack!" Sirius whined, setting his coffee down on the counter. "Kid, what have I told you about walking out of creepy shadows when I'm in the room?"

"Not to do it 'cause it scares you," Nico droned.

"Exactly! Merlin, and I nearly dropped my coffee..." He sighed heavily.

"Can I have some?" Nico asked.

"Absolutely not," Esmerelda answered. "Coffee stunts your growth. Do you want to stay short forever?"

"It does not stunt your growth, that's just a myth," he scowled as he took to the pantries and began rummaging through the food. Sirius had long given up trying to teach the kid to ask for permission first, since he always came and went whenever he wanted. "Do you have any chocolate chip waffles?"

"Sirius ate it all," Esmerelda shot her uncle a glare, which he pretended to not notice. "But I think we have some cheesy omelets though. What are you doing here so early anyways? It's, like, six o'clock. Oh! Have you found something about Luke's mother?"

"Nothing yet," Nico said darkly. "This is going to take us forever at this rate."

"Uh, I have a question," Sirius chimed into the conversation. "Why exactly are you two looking for the bad guy's mother? Are you guys hoping to bring her in to the final battle or something so she can ground the kid or...?"

Esmerelda snorted. "I wish, but no. Luke took a dip in the River Styx, the same thing Achilles had done years ago."

It took several seconds for Sirius to understand who she was even talking about.

"Achilles. Right. Uh, the fellow with the heel?" He asked.

"Yeah," Nico answered this time. "Luke's virtually indestructible now thanks to him bathing in the River Styx, save for his only point of weakness that we don't know about. We're planning to have Percy do the same thing—"

"—Percy?" He interrupted.

"Son of Poseidon? The dude who's birthday party I attended?" Esmerelda reminded him. "He's basically our only chance of winning the war."

Sirius swallowed thickly. "Spectacular."

"Anyways," Nico continued. "We're planning on having Percy take up the Curse of Achilles too, except there may be a certain requirement that we're not sure of."

"What is it?"

"Percy needs to ask his parent for permission before bathing in the River Styx. Maybe. We don't really know yet, but we're trying to make sure since we can't screw this up." Esmerelda frowned. "The only way for us to make sure is to see if Luke asked permission from his own mother. The problem with that is that we don't really know where she is... I asked Thalia and she said her name's May Castellan and that she lived somewhere in Colorado or Connecticut or Oklahoma... She couldn't exactly remember, but she was certain there was a 'C' somewhere in the name."

"Um, Oklahoma's spelled with a 'K'..." Sirius pointed out.

"Close enough. Plus, she could've moved by then too. We tried googling for a May Castellan with a runaway or missing son Luke, but nothing came up except for a bunch of weird FaceBook profiles..."

He furrowed his brows. "Why can't Percy just ask for his mother's permission either way? Just to be safe?"

"We thought that too," Nico mouth full of omelets. "But I doubt it's that simple. There could be a certain phrase you'd need to say, like, 'I grant you my blessing' or 'you have my permission to take up the curse'. It might not be as easy as saying 'hey do you mind if I bathe in the River Styx?' and for the parent to say 'yeah, sure, whatever'."

"And that's why we need to find May Castellan," Esmerelda sighed. "There's a good chance she might not even remember the exact wording, but we're desperate."

They had been scouring the Archives for weeks now, trying to find a potential deceased relative that she may have been close to, like a grandmother that she was living with or an aunt that she lived next door to. It was a huge stretch, but as she said, they were desperate. But there were so many dead Castellans in the world and neither of them knew if May was related to any one of them.

"Sounds complicated," Sirius said sympathetically, really feeling bad that a bunch of kids were stuck doing this. Were there seriously no adult demigods who could take the reigns instead?

"Take a break, Nico," Esmerelda told him gently. "I'll search with you later, just make sure to rest up. You still have your training to do."

He grunted, shoveling more food in his mouth. "Speaking of training, I better go before father gets upset with me. Are you heading to school now?"

She glanced over at the clock. "In a bit. I'll see you later."

Nico nodded. He took the plate of unfinished omelets, snatched Sirius' mug of coffee, and then melted away into the shadows.

"...That little shit," Sirius blinked at the spot he once stood. "That was my favorite mug too."

About an hour and a half later, Sirius had dropped her off at the Hogwarts Express and she could literally see the manic glee on his face when none of the wizards or witches even realized they were standing in the same room as the mass murderer they were so terrified of.

"Look at them," he whispered excitedly, glancing over at a group of young women who were giggling and eyeing him suggestively. One of them was even holding a Daily Prophet newspaper with his mugshot on the front page. "My mugshot's right there and they can't even recognize me!"

"Ew," Esmerelda scowled. "That's 'cause they like you. That's so gross."

"Excuse me?" He was affronted. "Back in my day, I was—" He stopped himself from talking about his school years, back when he dedicated about 80% of his time 'getting to know' other people. He couldn't tell her about that! He'd be a bad influence!

"You were what?" She furrowed her brows in concern when he suddenly stopped talking.

"I was the most studious person ever," he lied through his teeth. "Always had my face shoved in a book. You 'ought to follow my lead, Esmerelda. Education is very important. Don't be like your father who acted irresponsible and became a father at eighteen years of age."

He inwardly cackled at the thought. His nerdy, stiff, and stuck-up little brother becoming a teen parent was the last thing he ever expected. The whole family always thought that he to be the one to do that and never their perfect Regulus—and oh my Merlin, their mother was probably rolling in her grave. Serves the bitch right.

Esmerelda gave him a flat look. "Are you calling me a mistake."

Sirius nearly tripped on his feet as he tried to tried to correct himself. "No, no, no, no! Of course not—"

"—Relax," she chuckled. "All demigods are born mistakes 99.9% of the time. I'm not angry or anything." She really wasn't. Plus, she was pretty sure most mortal kids weren't planned either anyways, so there was that.

But Sirius still winced. "Sorry... I was just, er, trying to encourage you to focus on your studies. Like what I did."

"Of course, Uncle Sirius," she said sweetly, though she was snorting on the inside. Studious her ass, her father told her everything about Sirius' Hogwarts years. Including some of the embarrassing moments from his childhood. Now that she thought of it, she had quite a lot of blackmail on him... And if she played her cards right, she could probably get Sirius to tell her embarrassing stories about Regulus too.

After bidding Sirius goodbye, she finally set off for the train.

The first thing she did after entering the train was find an empty compartment. She didn't need to though, since Harry spotted her right away and waved crazily for her to join his compartment. Naturally, Ron and Hermione were there as well but there was enough space for her to squeeze in.

"I've got something to tell you," Harry muttered, making sure nobody was listening in on the outside.

"What is it?" Esmerelda asked, settling in nice and comfy on the seats.

"Harry had this super weird dream," Ron began. "And uh, well, mate? You mind explaining?"

"Sometimes I have these really weird dreams," Harry began anxiously, looking cautious as if he expected her to openly doubt him or something. When she didn't, he went on. "I had one a few days after the attack on the Quidditch World Cup. I couldn't remember much of it, but Essie... I-I think you're in danger."

"Oh," she said.

"No, no, seriously," he said hastily. "Someone wants to kill you."

But strangely enough, all she did was give him a smile full of pain. "I understand, Harry," she said with the same pained smile. "Thank you for the warning."

He frowned. "Um, no problem, but—"

"—I'm gonna take a nap now." She cut in, her smile never wavering.

Harry exchanged bewildered looks with his friends as Esmerelda leaned her head against the wall and shut her eyes.

This could possibly be her last school year before she headed off to war, and whether she lived or not, she would like to be as unbothered as possible for her fourth year.

Someone wanted to kill her? Then they'd have to get in line.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

She woke up shortly afterwards to several people talking in not so hushed voices.

"Oh wow," she heard Neville say in amazement.

"We saw him right up close, as well," that was Ron. "We were in the Top Box—"

"—For the first and last time in your life, Weasley."

No, Esmerelda thought with dread. Just one fucking hour of peace, she just wanted one fucking hour—

She cracked her eyes open and internally groaned. Standing at the doorway was her troublesome cousin and his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," Harry said coldly.

"Weasley... what is that?" Draco pointed at his owl cage, where a sleeve of some kind was dangling from it, swaying with the motion of the train, the moldy lace cuff very obvious.

Ron made to stuff the robes out of sight, but Draco was too quick for him; he seized the sleeve and pulled.

"Look at this!" He jeered, holding up Ron's robes and showing Crabbe and Goyle, "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean — they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety..."

Esmerelda couldn't deny it, but she almost laughed too. It was the most hideous and ancient thing she had ever seen. Maybe Ron brought his grandmother's dress on accident or something?

"Eat dung, Malfoy!" Ron snarled, snatching them back. Draco howled derisive laughter; Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly.

"So... going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There's money involved as well, you know... you'd be able to afford some decent robes if you won..."

"What are you talking about?" Ron snapped.

"Are you going to enter?" Draco repeated. "I suppose you will, Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?"

"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy," Hermione said testily, over the top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.

A gleeful smile spread across his pale face. "Don't tell me you don't know?" He said delightedly. "You've got a father and brother at the Ministry and you don't even know? My God, my father told me about it ages ago... heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry... Maybe your father's too junior to know about it, Weasley... yes... they probably don't talk about important stuff in front of him..."

"Draco," Esmerelda growled, standing up and going over to pinch his ear.

"Ow!" He yelped, trying to swat her hand away.

"Didn't I tell you to behave yourself, little cousin of mine?" She asked teasingly.

He finally yanked his ear free, but his face, neck, and ears were all red by then. "Little cousin? I'm—I'm..." His face fell into realization.

"Younger than me," she finished for him with a sweet smile. "By about nine months."

"It's not even that big of a difference!" He argued.

"That's what the younger brat would say," she smiled. "Now shoo, Draco. You can't exactly act like top dog around them when they saw me hauling your ass just a week ago."

Ron and Harry snickered at the memory while Hermione cracked a smile.

Draco sent her one last embarrassed glare before stomping out of the compartment, Crabbe and Goyle following blindly after him.

"He actually listens to you," Harry noted, looking at Esmerelda as if she were a miracle.

She huffed and plopped back down on her spot. "As he should."

"I wonder what he was talking about though," Hermione mused. "It seems like only Ministry workers are aware."

"Whatever it was, mum or dad wouldn't tell me," Ron said with a frown. "Essie, you got an idea?"

"Nope," she shrugged. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. If it's important and it has to do with the school, then we'll find out soon."

And soon it was.

Esmerelda was all too relieved to get out of the train and stretch her legs out. It was freezing cold outside of the castle, but once they entered the Great Hall, they were immediately bombarded by a familiar warmth.

The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in midair. The four long House tables were packed with chattering students; at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table. The spot where Remus used to sit was empty.

"Hey," she greeted her friends casually. She received 'hello's back, but Ernie's greeting was more awkward. She couldn't blame him since he was one of the people who started avoiding her once her 'parentage' came out. He apologized to her already, but he was still beating himself up about.

Honestly, Esmerelda was over it. She was too tired to care about the opinions of others right now.

Moments later, the doors opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall.

They were all terrified and excited at the same time, as all new first years were.

Professor McGonagall now placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and, on top of it, an extremely old, dirty, patched wizard's hat. The first years stared at it. So did everyone else. For a moment, there was silence. Then a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat broke into song.

It was a different one every year. Once it was done, everyone broke out into applause.

Professor McGonagall was now unrolling a large scroll of parchment. "When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool," she told the first years. "When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table. Ackerley, Stewart!"

A boy walked forward, visibly trembling from head to foot, picked up the Sorting Hat, put it on, and sat down on the stool. Esmerelda couldn't help but shudder. She honestly wondered if that hat was ever cleaned at all. She could just imagine the amount of dandruff it had collected over the years... Gross.

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted.

"Baddock, Malcolm!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

The table on the other side of the hall erupted with cheers. Esmerelda glanced over to see Draco clapping as Baddock joined the Slytherins. He even gave the kid a satisfied nod before the boy plopped down.

At least he's not a dick to kids, Esmerelda thought hopefully.

"Branstone, Eleanor!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Yaaaaaay! Esmerelda thought as she clapped enthusiastically.

"Cauldwell, Owen!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Oooooh, yay, another one!

"Creevey, Dennis!"

A miniature version of Collin Creevey staggered forward, tripping over Hagrid's moleskin. He was soaked from head to toe and according to some muttering she heard, the kid apparently fell into the Great Lake.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted, which wasn't much of a surprise.

The sorting went on, with Hufflepuff gaining about five new students ending with Kevin Whitby. Once the sorting was done, they were finally allowed to eat. Hogwarts' food was the one thing she loved so much about the school. Sure they were fattening and not healthy, but after suffering in a summer camp where all she could eat was healthy meals with healthy portions, she was glad to be able to pig out.

After several hours passed, the plates were left empty and most of the food was gone. Dumbledore rose to his feet again and the buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.

"So!" He said, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Esmerelda quickly prepared herself for the cries of outrage. The Quidditch fans all around the room started shouting mutiny while the rest fell into an appalled silence.

Dumbledore motioned for them to settle down before continuing, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy—but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts—"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

Esmerelda turned around. There was a man standing in the doorway. He was leaning upon a long staff and wearing a pure black cloak. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair. Every inch of his face was full of scars, even more than Remus'. His mouth looked like a diagonal gash and a large chunk of his nose was missing. He also had mismatched eyes. One was dark and beady, the other was large and a vivid electric blue, almost like Thalia's but less natural.

The stranger reached Dumbledore and shook his hand before sitting down on the seat where Remus used to sit.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students clapped except Dumbledore and Hagrid, who both put their hands together and applauded, but the sound echoed dismally into the silence, and they stopped fairly quickly. Everyone else seemed too transfixed by Moody's bizarre appearance to do more than stare at him.

"Uh... so who exactly is he?" Esmerelda whispered discreetly. The man gave her the heebie-jeebies, especially since he was staring right at her.

Great, now she was getting 'Professor Lupin' vibes right now. She wondered if this guy knew her back when she was a baby or something like Remus had. Maybe she had terrorized him too.

"That's Mad-Eye Moody...!" Hannah gasped, gaping up at their new teacher. "He was the best Auror ever!"

"Was?" Justin said doubtfully.

"He retired," she explained. "But he's still considered the best. No one's as great as him, even my aunt says so!"

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody, "We are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" Fred Weasley said loudly from the Gryffindor table.

The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively. "I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "Though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar..."

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er—but maybe this is not the time... no..." He said. "Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament... well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely."

Esmerelda listened closely since she had no idea what he was talking about.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities—until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Did he just say 'death toll'?" Esmerelda asked flatly. Nobody answered her. Actually, nobody really seemed to care. The rest of the Hufflepuffs were muttering excitedly to each other, as were the other students.

She heaved out a sigh. She was getting flashbacks of when Tantalus reintroduced the chariot races despite all the numerous incidents that caused the races to end.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "None of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."

Esmerelda made an uncertain face at hearing that.

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

If it was possible, the excited chatter grew even louder. At every House table, she could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore, or else whispering fervently to their neighbors. But then Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age—that is to say, seventeen years or older—will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This," Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words. "Is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion."

His light blue eyes twinkled as they scanned all the enraged faces. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

Dumbledore sat down again and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody. There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall.

"Essie! Essie, hey!" She whirled around to see Cedric rushing over to her with a bright and eager grin on his face. She already knew what he was going to say before he could even reach her.

"You're thinking of joining, aren't you?" She asked knowingly.

"I turn seventeen in a few weeks," he said giddily. "I'll be of age by the time the tournament starts!"

"Did you not hear him say that the tournament was originally abolished because of the high death toll." She didn't even bother to phrase it as a question.

But the excitement in his eyes didn't die out. "Uh, did you not hear him say the winner gets a thousand galleons?! It's totally worth it!"

She smiled fakely, "Is it though?"

"It'll be fine," he assured. "Dumbledore said the departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have made sure this tournament would be safe."

"Well," she shrugged. "If you're certain of it. What were the previous tournaments like?"

He looked up thoughtfully. "Well, I remember my dad once telling me that during the 1792 tournament, one of the rounds included having to capture a cockatrice or something. Apparently the cockatrice escaped and went on a rampage that ended up severely injuring three of the judges, and that was when they decided to cancel the tournament as a whole."

"Sounds pleasant," she said dryly. "Hope you're good with dangerous animals then."

He snorted. "It's not like they're gonna have us face a dragon or something."

She winced. "Don't say that, dude, you could jinx yourself if you end up getting picked."

"Oh I hope I get picked..." He said, eyes bright with eagerness. He kind of reminded her of a puppy somewhat.

The Hufflepuffs finally reached their dorms and their conversation had to stop then. Esmerelda and her three other roommates trudged up to their respective beds and after changing into their pajamas, were immediately knocked out.

— author's note —

This chapter was so short. Lately I've been trying to write over 5,000+ words, but this chapter is just a little over 4,800 which is tragic, but whatever. I didn't know what else to add, so this is it!

Have any of you guys watched Wonder Woman yet? First of all, it's amazing. Second of all, I was rewatching the first Wonder Woman movie before moving on to Wonder Woman 1984 when I noticed that one of the characters seemed familiar to me...

And then it clicked. ARES IS PLAYED BY DAVID THEWLIS, WHO ALSO PLAYED REMUS LUPIN FROM THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES!!!!!! I was fucking dying, I couldn't see him as Ares cuz every time he showed up on screen I'm just thinking 'omg that's professor lupin!!! 😯 😯' He was pretty badass in that movie tho

Wonder Woman 1984 was amazing too. Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva was fucking hot btw, so you should watch it.

Harry: Essie, you're in danger! Someone's trying to kill you 😱 😱 😱

Essie, a tired child: I see :) thanks :) for the warning :) harry :) im gonna :) take a nap now :)

Cedric, upon hearing that the tournament has a high death toll: It's totally worth it!

Essie: