▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWO ▬▬▬▬▬

I WROTE THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER TERRIBLY YOU GUYS, AND I'M SO SORRY!

Just to clarify, Sirius is MOSTLY upset with the fact that Essie killed Crouch Jr, who was already given the Dementor's Kiss and laying helplessly at St. Mungos. Essie straight up MURDERED HIM when he was already defenseless and harmless. Sirius is upset with her for charmspeaking him, but his biggest concern is how she ruthlessly killed a defenseless man, Death Eater or not.

(Also, he's the only one who knows of that. Nobody else knows it yet, which was why Remus and the Tonkses only kept bringing up the Mist thing.)

I'm sooorrrryyyyy, I should've been more specific about it ughhhhh.... 

But anyways, enjoy the second chapter :D

"HE WAS THE ONE FREAKING out the most when he saw them, but now he's pretending as if nothing ever happened!" Esmerelda fretted to the misty Iris Message of Ethan. She paced around her bedroom, having already cast a silencing spell around the area so nobody could eavesdrop—like the Weasley twins with their extendable ear products.

"Oh gods, Ethan, I don't know what to do," she yanked at her hair, feeling her stress levels rise. "We had this huge argument afterwards. I told him it was no longer safe here, but he wouldn't listen to me—didn't want to listen to me! It got so bad that we woke up Buckbeak who alerted the entire Order and then Kreacher arrived and he nearly hexed Sirius for 'daring to disobey me' and—gods it was just a mess!"

She had told Sirius, repeatedly, that a visit from the Fates was never a good thing. Especially if the only thing they did was cut a string in front of you. She had explained the entire story to her uncle, that the string was a person's literal lifeline, and that the act of cutting it basically meant death. The fact that they were looking right at him when it happened didn't ease her worries either.

Sirius was going to die, she was certain of it. Why else would the Fates appear to cut a piece of yarn? That was the only possibility of what it could mean. But did Sirius care? No! He dismissed her worries and acted as if nothing had ever happened!

She knew better than that though. She had seen the look on his face when he saw the three old ladies, the fear in his eyes and how his whole body began to shake when they cut the string. He knew what that meant, and he had to have known whose string that belonged to. They were looking right at him anyways.

It had been a day since their argument and they only grew more agitated. Sirius' mood would drop anytime she entered the room, like he already knew what sort of conversation to expect from her. And she'd only become angrier and desperate the more he continued to dismiss her. The entire Order had grown uneasy by the oppressive atmosphere that would appear whether they were in the same room together.

Esmerelda had hoped that contacting her boyfriend to rant about her worries would help de-stress her, but Ethan didn't really seem to care about what she did. He was focusing on a different part of the story:

"What if it wasn't his string they cut?" He asked, his jaw tense. "Essie, what if they were looking at you? That's probably your string!"

She shook his head, "No, no, they were looking at Sirius. It wasn't mine."

"Why the fuck would they bother appearing in front of him to do that, though? He's just a mortal, they don't care about mortals! It makes more sense if it was your string, you're apart of their world. Essie," he began desperately. "Just get back to camp. Forget school. You're the one whose in danger. A visit like that from the Fates—nothing good could come from that for a demigod."

"I can't leave my uncle!" She protested. "He's adamant on staying here! What if you're wrong? What if it is his string? Then I leave him unprotected and he could die! Ethan, I can't... I can't leave him..! I have to stay."

"Use the Mist on him again," he told her. "Make him come with you."

She faltered at that. While it was true that she could easily force Sirius to come back to New York with her, she knew that doing it a second time would definitely ruin their already crumbling relationship. He wouldn't want anything to do with her, he would hate her just like her own brother did.

"I... I can't do that..." She said in a small voice. "He'd hate me... more than he already does, I guess."

"Then forget about him," Ethan scowled. "I doubt he's the one in danger anyways. Essie, please just come back. If anything were to happen to you, I'd..."

Go crazy, he let the words go unsaid, but Esmerelda already filled in the blanks anyways.

"I can't, Ethan," she told him apologetically.

There was a dark glint in his eye as she said this, the same glint he had when he kidnapped her. She idly wondered if he was going to try that again. Maybe he could kidnap Sirius too. She really didn't care anymore.

She was just so tired now. The war was over, couldn't she have a break? Without having to worry about anyone dying? She'd do anything for her worries to just disappear.

A small knock on the door pulled her out of her thoughts. She glanced at it before turning back to Ethan.

"I have to go," she said miserably. "I'll talk to you later, okay? Love you."

"I love you too," he replied earnestly. "Please stay safe."

"I'll try," she smiled weakly before swiping her hand through the misty image. The last thing she saw was Ethan's grim expression before it dispersed.

She walked to her door and swung it open. Hermione was standing at the other side, looking like she had just spent the entire day cleaning.

"Hello," the younger girl panted out. "I just wanted to tell you that dinner will be ready soon. Mrs. Weasley believes that she'll be done around the time the Advanced Guard returns with Harry."

Esmerelda blinked. "He's coming here? Oh man, I completely forgot..."

She had been told last night that the Advanced Guard would be heading over to pick Harry up and escorting him to Grimmauld Place. The Advanced Guard consisted of Tonks, Remus, Emmeline Vance, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge (she liked him because his name reminded her of the cute doggy meme), Dedalus Diggle, Hestia Jones, Sturgis Podmore, and the real Alastor Moody, who had given her a nod of approval when he found out she had chopped his impersonator's hand off.

She had also wanted to volunteer to come, alone more specifically because that would've been a lot less time-consuming but the stern glare Sirius gave her had silenced whatever words she wanted to say.

Hermione shook her head in reassurance. "Nothing to worry about, there isn't much you have to do anyways. Ron and I just decided to get his room ready before he comes. By the way, when you, erm, saw him yesterday... did you...?"

"He knows that you were ordered not to contact him," she confirmed.

She sighed in relief. "Well... let's hope he's not too bad at us when he gets here. You know how awful Harry's temper could get..."

Esmerelda grimaced. "Oh yeah, definitely."

Harry arrived around fifteen minutes later, with Hermione loudly announcing his arrival that brought Esmerelda and Ron to the bedroom Harry would be staying in.

"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless—but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us—the dementors! When we heard—and that Ministry hearing—it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations—"

"—Let him breathe, Hermione," said Ron, grinning, closing the door behind him and Esmerelda once they reached the room.

"Welcome to Grimmauld Place," Esmerelda greeted dryly. "Get it? 'Cause it's a 'grim old place'? Yeah, I know, this place sucks. I honestly expected something, well... grander."

The Black family seemed like the type to have a gothic mansion located in the depths of a creepy woods, or maybe even a graveyard. She wasn't expecting... this hideous, horribly decorated manor hidden within a Muggle apartment. It was kind of a huge disappointment when she first found out. 

Suddenly, there was a soft whooshing sound and something white soared from the top of a dark wardrobe and landed gently on Harry's shoulder.

"Hedwig!" He beamed.

The snowy owl clicked her beak and nibbled his ear affectionately as Harry stroked her feathers.

"She's been in a right state," Ron told him. "Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this—"

He showed Harry the index finger of his right hand, which sported a half-healed but clearly deep cut. Esmerelda frowned sympathetically, but she had luckily been spared by the owl's wrath (mainly because she just stayed away from her).

"Oh yeah," Harry said. "Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know..."

"We wanted to give them to you, mate," Ron said. "Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you'd do something stupid if you were stuck all on your own without news, but Dumbledore made us—"

"— swear not to tell me," Harry finished. "Yeah, Essie already told me."

"Even though I wasn't supposed to," said girl added sheepishly. "But I'm not really part of the Order so the rules technically don't apply to me."

She didn't really want to be apart of the Order, which she was sure Sirius was happy about. It wasn't that she didn't care about the safety about the wizarding world or anything, it was just... well, she didn't care about the safety about the wizarding world—she really only cared about a few of it's inhabitants. It wasn't like Voldemort was such a huge concern anyways so she doubted they would need her help.

"He seemed to think it was best," Hermione said rather breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Right," Harry replied stiffly.

Esmerelda could imagine a timer above Harry's head and the numbers were soon getting closer to zero.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles—" Ron began.

"—Yeah?" He interrupted, raising his eyebrows. "Have either of you been attacked by dementors this summer?"

Hermione seemed to shrink a little. "Well, no—but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time—"

"—Didn't work that well, though, did it?" He interrupted again, his voice forcefully even. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

"He was so angry," Hermione said in an almost awestruck voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"Well, I'm glad he left," Harry said coldly. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer."

"Aren't you... aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" Hermione asked quietly.

"No," Harry said, but Esmerelda was pretty sure he was lying.  "So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark? Did you—er—bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," Ron tried to explain. "We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted—"

"—He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said shortly. "You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls. It's the twenty-first century. Cellphones exist."

Esmerelda rose a brow at this. "Uh, yeah, do you own one?"

He froze, then flushed.

"No," he answered begrudgingly. "But still! There's a hundred other ways he could've contacted me!"

Hermione glanced at Ron and then said, "I thought that too. But he didn't want you to know anything."

"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted."

"Don't be thick," Ron said, looking highly disconcerted.

"Or that I can't take care of myself—"

"—Of course he doesn't think that!" Hermione cried out.

"So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" Harry said, the words tumbling over one another in a rush, his voice growing louder with every word. "How come you guys are allowed to know everything that's going on—?"

"—Harry," Esmerelda interrupted patiently before he could raise his voice anymore. "I haven't been around here for long, but I know for certain that Ron and Hermione are as clueless as you are. Yes they've been staying here for the entire summer, but Mrs. Weasley doesn't really let them know what's going on. As for Dumbledore's plan to keep you unaware, we don't know either. We can't read his mind and it doesn't help that he's been super vague about his plans. If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at Dumbledore because he's the one who's been calling all the shots."

"Er, yes to everything she just said but maybe you shouldn't get angry at Dumbledore...? Maybe...?" Ron added weakly.

Harry glared at all three of them before letting out a deep breath.

"Fine," he said. "Can you at least tell me what's been going on with Voldemort?"

Grateful that they had avoided an exploding Harry, they tried their best to answer his inquiries.

"We don't know much since the Order don't let us in on their meetings," Hermione began nervously. "So we don't know the details—but we've got a general idea—" She added hastily, seeing the look on Harry's face.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," Ron said. "They're really useful."

"And very invasive," Esmerelda grumbled with pink cheeks.

"Extendable—?"

"It's one of their products," she explained tiredly. "Helps them eavesdrop on people. So it's pretty useful... until they start using it to listen in on your conversations."

"But we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk," Ron mentioned sadly. "Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know—"

"—Some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order—" Hermione added.

"—And some of them are standing guard over something," Ron continued. "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, with a look of dawning comprehension.

Harry snorted. "So what have you three been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?" He demanded. "You said you'd been busy."

"I was in New York doing stuff," Esmerelda shrugged. "I just got here a few days ago so I have no clue what's been going on."

"Lucky you," Ron frowned. "The rest of us have been stuck decontaminating this house. It's a bloody mess, I can't believe your family actually chose to live here."

"To be fair," she began. "I'm sure it was somewhat livable, like, a hundred years ago."

Hermione sighed. "We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms, and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo—AARGH!"

With two loud cracks, Fred and George had materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins.

"No can do!" They beamed in unison.

"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" Harry asked grumpily.

"With distinction," George confirmed. He was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-colored string.

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," Ron rolled his eyes.

"Time is Galleons, little brother," Fred replied. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You want to be careful," Ron warned, staring at the ear. "If Mum sees one of them again..."

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," Fred said. "Oh hello, little Essie, been having conversations with that mystery boy lately?"

Esmerelda turned as red as their hair. "That was a private conversation!"

The Weasley twins managed to overhear one of her many IM conversations with Ethan a few days ago. Luckily, nothing important or embarrassing was spoken about. They mostly just talked about Nico—with Ethan complaining about how 'spoiled' he was and her scolding him for being too harsh. There was nothing wrong with Nico wanting his sandwiches without the crust and for the bread to be toasted at level three! In her opinion, it was perfectly reasonable but nooo, Ethan thought he was 'spoiled' and a 'picky eater'.

But anyways, what the Weasley twins did catch was them saying 'I love you' to each other. They hadn't stopped teasing her about it since.

"We didn't mean to eavesdrop on you," George grinned. "It really was an honest accident. We were hoping to catch something from a meeting when we couldn't help but overhear an added voice in your bedroom. A boy's voice that is."

"Though I'm more curious as to how you did that," Fred said curiously. "You couldn't have brought him here, but I know muggle cellphones don't work in this house either. Too much magic interfering with electronics."

"Well you're never going to find out now!" She said stubbornly.

"We'll find out your secrets soon," Fred teased, poking her in the nose. She scowled and swatted the hand away from her face.

The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.

"Oh hello, Harry!" Ginny greeted brightly. "I thought I heard your voice."

Turning to Fred and George she said, "It's a no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" George asked, looking crestfallen.

"Tonks told me how to find out," she answered. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."

Fred heaved a deep sigh. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape?" And just like that, Harry's day was ruined even more than before. "Is he here?"

"Yeah," George nodded, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," Fred said idly.

"He's on our side now," Hermione said reprovingly.

"Doesn't mean he's a good person all of a sudden," Esmerelda muttered. She was pretty sure he was only doing this was because he still had the hots for Harry's mom. She shuddered at the thought. That poor woman. She hoped she was having a good time in Elysium now.

Ron nodded in agreement.  "The way he looks at us when he sees us..."

"Bill doesn't like him either," Ginny added, as though that settled the matter.

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt."

"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order," Fred said. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked. "There are compensations..."

"What d'you mean?"

"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" George grinned. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish—"

"—And Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," Fred snickered.

"Oh come on," Esmerelda rolled her eyes. "I think they're a cute couple."

"Awwww, do they remind you of yourself and that boy—"

"—Okay that's enough!" She exclaimed, turning red once again as Fred burst into laughter.

"Charlie's in the Order too," George smiled. "But he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked.

Esmerelda winced at that. She hadn't been in Grimmauld Place for long, but she soon found out about what had transpired with Percy and his family. Hermione and the Weasleys immediately began to explain what had happened:

"It was the first week back after term ended," Ron began. "We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted."

"You're kidding?" Harry said.

"Yeah, we were all surprised," George grunted. "Because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain..."

"So how come they promoted him?"

"That's exactly what we wondered," Ron said. "He came home really pleased with himself—even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that—and told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts—Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."

"Only Dad wasn't," Fred said grimly.

"Why not?" Harry asked.

"Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore," George replied.

"Fudge still thinks Dumbledore's crazy," Esmerelda told him with a scowl. "Only now it's worse because the entire Ministry's siding with him now. He's making sure anyone siding with Dumbledore is getting fired."

His eyes widened in horror, "Is Mr. Weasley—"

"—He hasn't been fired," Ron said quickly. "But Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession—"

"—But what's this got to do with Percy?" Harry asked, confused.

"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family—and Dumbledore."

Harry let out a low whistle. "Bet Percy loved that."

Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way. "He went completely berserk. He said—well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been—you know—not had a lot of money, I mean—"

"What?" Harry said in pure disbelief, as Ginny made a noise like an angry cat.

"I know," Ron said in a low voice. "And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he—Percy—knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now."

"Mum's been in a right state," Ron said. "You know—crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work—ignores him, I s'pose."

"Poor Mrs. Weasley..." Esmerelda said sympathetically. She was pretty sure if Nico ever shunned her like that she would've been heartbroken beyond repair.

"But Percy must know Voldemort's back," Harry said slowly. "He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof—"

"—Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," Ron said, shooting Harry a furtive look. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and... I dunno... he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," Hermione said tartly, and the others all nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, looking around at them all. They were all regarding him warily.

"Haven't—haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Yeah, I have!"

"Have you—er—been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asked, still more anxiously.

"Not cover to cover," he said defensively. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it!"

"Ah, well that's kind of the problem," Esmerelda told him. "They aren't reporting about Voldemort at all. Like we said, they don't believe he's back and Fudge is in complete denial no matter how many facts are thrown at him. And the reason Percy doesn't trust your word anymore is because the Daily Prophet's been making you up to be a joke.

His jaw dropped. "Seriously?!"

"Yep," Esmerelda frowned.

"It's quite nasty, actually," Hermione said in a voice of forced calm. "They're just building on Rita's stuff."

"But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?"

"Oh no, she's kept her promise—not that she's got any choice," Hermione added with satisfaction. "But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."

"Which is what?" Harry said impatiently.

"Okay, you know how she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?"

"Yeah."

"Well, they're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something," Hermione began. "They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears they say something like 'a tale worthy of Harry Potter' and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it's 'let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next—' "

"I don't want anyone to worship—" Harry began hotly.

"—We know that," Esmerelda groaned. "But that's not the point. They're purposely writing you like this so nobody would believe you. They did it to me too. I think Fudge wasn't very happy with how I kept yelling at him."

"What did they say about you?"

Esmerelda looked up thoughtfully. "Hmm... there was that one article... what was it called again? 'Black Madness something'... Or was 'Black Insanity'?"

"'Notorious Black Madness Strikes Again at the Youngest Heir'," Fred supplied.

"Oh thanks. Yeah, so it basically just talked about how I became violent and tried to attack the Minister when he refused to believe you. It made me look like I was one of your rabid followers." She harrumphed.

"They compared you to Bellatrix Black, who was Voldemort's most avid supporter," George added.

She crossed her arms, getting more irked by the second. "First they suspected me of being a Harry Potter-hating Death Eater's daughter and now they're suddenly going around saying that I'm a psychotic Harry Potter fangirl. You'd think people would be smart and realize something fishy was going on, but apparently having brain cells isn't a common thing in Wizarding Britain."

"I don't know what's worse," Ginny said sympathetically. "Being called an attention-seeking liar or being called a psychopathic fangirl."

Ron snorted. "Weren't you a fangirl—"

"—I wasn't a psycho!" She cried out defensively.

"And of course, they didn't report a word about the dementors attacking you," Hermione turned to Harry. "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy—we thought they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off—we think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town—I mean, if you're expelled, obviously," she went on hastily. "You really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you."

"I don't know..." Esmerelda bit her lip. "The Ministry's corrupt at this point. This whole thing sounds like it'll be a kangaroo court."

They all stared at her.

"A what?" Ron said blankly.

"It's going to be super unfair, I mean," she translated. She only heard of this sort of term from the amount of times Ethan passionately told her about law, the justice system, and whatnot. "I was told that sometimes you can be convicted even if they know you're innocent. I'm sure the Ministry's got something planned, so I doubt they're going to care for evidence. They might not even give you a chance to show any."

Harry paled. "So I'm done for, is what you're saying."

"Ah, well, hold on..." She tried to rack her brain for more information Ethan had told her. She was pretty sure he had mentioned one court hearing example where the defendant was able to turn the tides of the hearing to their favor, but unfortunately for Harry, she had been... distracted during that time.

Suddenly, everyone froze when they heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs. Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway.

"The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks," Ginny lied unblushingly. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley fell for it. "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please..."

Ginny grimaced at the others and left the room.

Before Mrs. Weasley followed her out, she remembered something. "Oh and Esmerelda, dear..."

"Yes?" She said.

"Kreacher insisted on making your meals again," she said with a small frown. "So I couldn't cook for you."

Her face lit up. "Oh that's fine, Mrs. Weasley, I just hope he wasn't being rude to you..."

When she first came to Grimmauld Place, Kreacher had asked her for the sort of food she liked and she had eagerly told him all about her favorite Italian recipes, her favorite desserts, drinks, healthy meals, and pretty much everything. She hadn't realized Kreacher had been taking note the entire time, not that she was complaining though. Kreacher was an awesome chef and baker.

"Oh, I'm starving...!" She whispered to herself as she hurried down the stairs. Once she reached the hallway, there was a loud crash indicating that Tonks had broken something again.

"Tonks!" Mrs. Weasley cried out.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks wailed. She was lying flat on the floor. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over—"

But the rest of her words were drowned by a horrible, earsplitting, bloodcurdling screech.

Noooo, not again! Esmerelda thought with despair as the moth-eaten velvet curtains flew apart. The portrait of her dreadful grandmother showed itself again.

Dear gods, she shuddered. She could not believe Walburga had been reduced to this. In the photographs from the album Andromeda had given her, her grandmother had once been a beautiful woman but... she clearly hadn't aged well.

In the portraits, she was a hyper-realistically painted old woman whose only talent was to screech like a banshee. Like right now, she was shrieking, her eyes rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed, and all along the hall behind her, the other portraits awoke and began to yell too.

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers—" Walburga screeched.

Harry stuttered to a stop behind her. "What the heck is that?" He asked in horror.

"My grandma," she said in a dull voice.

He gave her a look of pity.

Esmerelda wanted so badly to set the painting on fire, but Kreacher looked so heartbroken when she suggested that so she, begrudgingly, decided to leave it alone.

Sirius came storming forward, his face full of rage.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" He roared, seizing the curtain Mrs. Weasley had abandoned.

The old woman's face blanched.

"Yoooou!" She howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said—shut—UP!" He roared once more, and with a stupendous effort he and Remus managed to force the curtains closed again.

The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence fell.

Panting slightly and sweeping his dark hair out of his eyes, Sirius turned to face the kids.

"Hello, Harry," he said grimly, "I see you've met my mother."

"She's, er, lovely..." Harry said awkwardly. Was it just him or did the atmosphere become tense all of a sudden?

He looked back and forth between Sirius and Esmerelda. The latter was glaring at her uncle while Sirius was purposely avoiding looking at her.

Harry was, for a lack of better words, stunned. He had never seen the two angry at each other before. Heck, he was pretty sure he'd never seen Esmerelda glare at her own uncle who she seemed to adore a lot.

"Come on now," Sirius said gruffly. "Let's get downstairs."

Esmerelda left without a word. Sirius waited several seconds, scowling at her back, before following suit. Harry was left to follow after them wordlessly.

What the hell have I missed? He wondered to himself.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Dinner was not going well, and that was even before the topic of Harry joining the Order was mentioned.

"My lady," Kreacher said respectfully as he placed a plate of cheesy mixed pasta casserole with mushrooms, followed by a glass of water.

"Oooh!" She clapped her hands in enjoyment. "Thanks, Kreacher, I'm sure it'll be as delicious as last time!"

"Thank you, my lady. Kreacher has prepared a mont blanc for your dessert and will dutifully serve it to you whenever you wish." He then bowed and took his leave.

Harry stared in disbelief. "What... what did I just see?"

"Kreacher practically worships her," Ron whispered. "I think it's 'cause she's, you know, not really Sirius' daughter and all. It's super weird though. I've never seen a house elf act this respectful."

"It's because Essie actually treats him nicely," Hermione said stubbornly.

He rolled his eyes, "Oh come off it—"

"—Hold on," Harry cut in, his voice as low as a whisper as everyone else began chatting. "Are Essie and Sirius fighting or something? Because when they saw each other at the hallway, I dunno, they just both seemed angry..."

"Oh Harry, it's awful," Hermione sighed, looking between the niece and uncle who were both sitting at opposite ends of the table. "I don't really know what happened, but it's been like this even before we moved into the house. Something must have happened earlier in the summer, but when Ron and I got here, Essie was still all the way back in New York. Whenever we asked Sirius when she would come here, he would sometimes get snappish and well, we knew better than to pry."

"I think Tonks and Lupin know what's going on though," Ron said through a mouthful of food. "I keep seeing them whisper to each other about Sirius and Essie. I think I heard something about... a mist or whatever. I dunno."

"Ron, you shouldn't eavesdrop, it's probably something personal," Hermione scolded.

He just shrugged before shoving more food in his mouth.

"Sirius?" Mundungus called out, eyeing an empty goblet greedily. "This solid silver, mate?"

"Yes," Sirius replied, surveying it with distaste. "Finest fifteenth-century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the Black family crest."

"That'd come off, though," Mundungus muttered, polishing it with his cuff. "Mind if I sell them?"

"Take whatever you want," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

"What?" Esmerelda finally spoke up. "No! You can't just give everything away!" Some of these were her father's things!

"I hate everything in this house, so if I say I want them gone, then they'll be gone." He said coldly.

The whole room went quiet.

"And Regulus' things?" She narrowed her eyes.

He sneered, "Those especially can be tossed out." He turned to Mundungus. "Like what I said, take whatever you want."

Esmerelda directed her glare at Mundungus, "If you even think—"

"—Do not threaten him," Sirius snapped. "In fact, don't threaten anyone!"

"Sirius," Remus called out to him sternly. "There's no need to yell at her. If she wants to keep a few things then she can." And by that, he meant, 'at least let Esmerelda keep her father's belongings'.

"Merlin," Harry whispered under his breath, watching the scene with wide eyes.

"Yep," Ron muttered quietly. "It's been like this since Essie came back."

"Whatever happened must have been bad," Harry said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Dinner continued with a tense, oppressive silence that everyone must have felt. Mundungus was still eyeing the precious artifacts greedily, but one glare from Esmerelda caused him to look back down at his food.

"Nearly time for bed, I think," Mrs. Weasley said once everyone had finished eating.

"Not just yet, Molly," Sirius said, pushing away his empty plate and turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

If the atmosphere wasn't already tense before, it was ten times worse now.

"I did!" Harry said indignantly. "I asked Essie, Ron, and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so—"

"—And they're quite right," Mrs. Weasley cut him off. "You're too young." She was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her fists clenched upon its arms, every trace of drowsiness gone.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius shot. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happen—"

"—Hang on!" George interrupted loudly.

Ohhhhh no, Esmerelda thought, wishing she had more of the mont blanc Kreacher served her. 

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" Fred said angrily.

"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing!" George added.

"'You're too young, you're not in the Order,'" Fred said in a high-pitched voice that sounded uncannily like his mother's. "Harry's not even of age!"

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," Sirius said calmly. "That's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand—"

"—It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said sharply. Her normally kindly face looked dangerous. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius asked politely, but with an air as though readying himself for a fight.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know," she said, placing a heavy emphasis on the last three words.

The kids all looked between Sirius and Mrs. Weasley, as though following a tennis rally. Remus' eyes were fixed on Sirius.

Esmerelda looked down, trying to scrape up whatever mont blanc was left on her plate. This argument was going to take quite a while to resolve. 

Personally, she believed that Harry should know what was going on. Knowing Harry, if anything was kept from him then he'd try to get the information elsewhere and that could lead to disaster. 

Should he be indicted into the Order? Well, that was when things got more difficult. Harry was a kid and she knew what it was like for kids to be fighting in a war. She didn't want that for anyone, but Harry was already at the very center of the war. He didn't really have much of a choice. In her opinion, Harry shouldn't be part of the Order yet. He wasn't ready for it. Esmerelda would rather someone provided him with proper training before giving him a place in the Order. 

"I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly," Sirius began. "But as he was the one who saw Voldemort come back. He has more right than most to—"

"—He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix!" She argued hotly. "He's only fifteen and—"

"—And he's dealt with as much as most in the Order," he pointed out. "And more than some—"

"—No one's denying what he's done!" Mrs. Weasley's voice rose, her fists trembling on the arms of her chair. "But he's still—"

"—He's not a child!" Sirius said impatiently.

"He's not an adult either!" Mrs. Weasley cried out, the color rising in her cheeks. "He's not James, Sirius!"

"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," he said coldly.

"I'm not sure you are!" She refuted. "Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

"What's wrong with that?" Harry said defensively.

"What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not your father, however much you might look like him!" Mrs. Weasley snapped, her eyes still boring into Sirius. "You are still at school and adults responsible for you should not forget it!"

"Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?" Sirius demanded, his voice rising.

"Well you're not exactly acting like a responsible father either," she glared. "Your feud with your own daughter—it's ridiculous! It's like you can't communicate with her!"

His jaw clenched. "I've already discussed things with my daughter, Molly, thank you for your concern. But our business is none of yours."

"It is when it's affecting everyone in the house," she said sternly. "You see what I mean? You don't act like how a parent should, and I know it's not your fault that you've been away, but I believe it's best to let others handle the children!"

"Excuse me?!"

"You've been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay at home and—"

"—We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, if you please!" Sirius said loudly.

"Arthur!" She rounded on her husband. "Arthur, back me up!"

Mr. Weasley did not speak at once. He took off his glasses and cleaned them slowly on his robes, not looking at his wife. Only when he had replaced them carefully on his nose did he say, "Dumbledore knows the position has changed, Molly. He accepts that Harry will have to be filled in to a certain extent now that he is staying at headquarters—"

"—Yes, but there's a difference between that and inviting him to ask whatever he likes!"

"Personally," Remus spoke quietly, looking away from Sirius at last, as Mrs. Weasley turned quickly to him, hopeful that finally she was about to get an ally. "I think it better that Harry gets the facts—not all the facts, Molly, but the general picture—from us, rather than a garbled version from... others."

"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, breathing deeply and looking around the table for support that did not come. "Well... I can see I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as someone who has got Harry's best interests at heart—"

"—He's not your son," Sirius said quietly.

"He's as good as," Mrs. Weasley said fiercely. "Who else has he got?"

"He's got me!"

"Yes," she said, her lip curling. "The thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"

Sirius started to rise from his chair.

"Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry," Remus said sharply. "Sirius, sit down."

Mrs. Weasley's lower lip was trembling. Sirius sank slowly back into his chair, his face white.

"I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this," Remus continued. "He's old enough to decide for himself."

"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once.

"Very well," Mrs. Weasley said, her voice cracking. "Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Esmerelda, Fred, George—I want you out of this kitchen, now."

Before an uproar could happen, Esmerelda was the first to stand up. Everyone stared at her tensely, as if expecting the argument to grow worse.

"I'll take my leave," she said pleasantly. "Oh and Harry, Mrs. Weasley's right. Sirius doesn't see you for yourself, he sees his old buddy James instead. You're like a replacement, but don't feel too bad. He has the tendency to mistake people for their fathers."

And with one last scathing look to her uncle, she walked out of the room.

— author's note —

"AUTHOR WHY THE FUCK IS ESSIE NOT PART OF THE ORDER?!?!?!??!!"

Because she genuinely thinks that Voldemort isn't that big of a threat and that the Order can handle the situation on their own. Also, tbh the Wizarding War around this time was more of a political war and Essie has no experience with political wars. She's more used to the in-your-face-slaughter-everyone kind of war. Plus, she already finished her own war so she'd kinda like to stay in the sidelines for this one. She'll only step in if her friends or family need her to or if she wants to, other than that, she's certain they can handle it.

When will she finally get involved??? When will they find out THE TRUTH?!

You'll see :)

Also... um... the REAL reason I didn't have her join the Order is cuz uh... I don't really... understand what the point of them was... 😬 I'M SORRY OKAY??? EVERYTHING ABOUT BOOK FIVE AND BEYOND JUST CONFUSES ME 😭 LIKE, what did the Order even do aside from stalking Harry and guarding the prophecy?! The prophecy was so useless too, Dumbledore already knew it and Voldemort was already planning on killing Harry either way so like 

WHAT WAS THE POINT????? AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE AND DEATHLY HALLOWS, AND OMFG EVEN HOO WAS A MESS TOO!!!!

༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽

Writing this book and the next two are gonna be so hard for me guys, I'm sorry. I'm looking at the chapters I've written so far and I hate them but I truly just don't know what to do, especially for the HP part, I really just wanna get to PJO already cuz my plan for that is at least a little more detailed... 😭 😭 😭

(on a lighter note, I'm almost done with the Essan in couples therapy oneshot rn!! 😃)