▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER SEVEN ▬▬▬▬▬

TONKS RUSHED INSIDE GRIMMAULD PLACE, an article from the Daily Prophet clutched into her hand. She nearly bumped into Remus on the way in.

"Remus!" She gasped. "You can't believe what just happened!"

He tensed up in alarm. "Did You-Know-Who attack? Is Harry hurt? Esmerelda?"

"What, no? Have you read the latest news yet? My mum texted me about it! It's crazy!" She exclaimed, eyes wide. Her hair even turned into a pale yellow color to express her shock.

"Did something bad happen?" He asked in concern.

"Look!" She shoved the newspaper at his face.

He pulled it away to read it better, his eyes scanning the words. When he finished, his eyebrows were nearly touching his hairline.

"What?" Was all he could say. He then grew angry. "How could they say such awful things about her? Esmerelda wouldn't do any of these things!"

"Well yeah, but I was talking about the other part," Tonks sighed.

"The part about—?"

"—The boyfriend, yeah. Is it true?" She asked eagerly.

"It couldn't be," he shook his head. "Essie wouldn't... she's not into those kind of things. Dating, I mean."

"She's a pretty teenage girl, Remus," Tonks pointed out. "I don't see her dating a wizard, so maybe it's one of her demigod friends."

"They were just fighting in a war a few months ago! How would she be able to get a boyfriend in the middle of a war?" He cried out in confusion.

"Who knows! Where's Sirius? If it's one of her demigod friends, then he should know, right?"

"He's having breakfast at the moment so maybe we should—"

Tonks didn't even wait for him to finish answering her question. The second she got a destination, she walked around him and headed off to the dining room. Sirius was there, in the middle of eating from a bowl of soggy cereal.

"Sirius!" Tonks greeted him loudly, and he nearly dropped his spoon from her volume. "Does Essie have a boyfriend?"

He stared at her weirdly. "What? Of course not."

"The Prophet seems to think so. Look!" She handed him the article.

He scoffed. "The Daily Prophet's full of shit—" He froze upon seeing the large bold headlines at the front of the paper. "What?"

"Essie sent you a bunch of letters over the summer, hadn't she?" Tonks questioned. "Do you remember her mentioning a boyfriend or anything?"

Remus narrowed his eyes. "You never read any of her letters though, have you?"

"I have!" He replied quickly. "I read... the first few..."

"Sirius!"

"Hold on, hold on!" Sirius whipped out his wand and aimed at the doorway. "Accio letters!"

Several seconds later, a small pile of letters flew into the dining room and plopped themselves right in front of him.

"Sirius, barely any of these are open!" Remus scolded.

"I was upset, alright?" Sirius scowled. He teared open every envelope and quickly scanned the contents for any information. And then he came upon this particular one:

Hi uncle,

You're probably going to ignore this one too like you did with the others, but whatever. I just thought you should know that since the war's over, a couple of my friends wanted to try and get a proper education. Only problem is that they don't really have a house, so I offered them to stay over at ours, hope you don't mind!

You know most of them, though. The Stolls will be our new roommates so yay! There's also one other person. You've never met him before, but I've talked to you about him. Please, please don't freak out, okay? He's not the enemy anymore and he even tried to stab Kronos and nearly died for it. He's also my boyfriend now, so please try to get along with him?

It's—

"No," he whispered, his eyes growing wide as he read the name. "No, Merlin, please no. Not him..."

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"So is it true? Is Essie really dating someone? Who is it?" Tonks was literally buzzing with anticipation from where she stood.

Sirius slowly lowered the letter. He stared at them with eyes full of horror as he said, "It's Ethan Nakamura."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Esmerelda's morning was going pretty well. She freshened up, got dressed into her uniform, and slipped on the pretty tanzanite ring Ethan had gotten her for her birthday yesterday. This was definitely an accessory she would wear every day regardless of whether it went well with her outfit or not.

She was still smiling when she came to the Great Hall for breakfast. She even exchanged a happy 'good morning' to some students who were passing by.

But ten minutes into breakfast, everything went downhill.

The owls flew in as per usual to drop off their deliveries. Some of them were carrying rolled up articles of the Daily Prophet since most students and teachers had subscriptions to them. They dropped the rolls down and people began to unfurl them.

Hermione was one of them. She untied the little rope holding the newspaper together and smoothed it out. Her eyes went wide when she saw which story was at the very front.

"Oh dear," she squeaked out.

Esmerelda was in the middle of enjoying her waffles when she started to notice people staring at her more then usual. When she stopped eating to pay more attention, she realized that they were whispering about her even more frequently too.

"—think she Imperiused him?"

"No way, I thought she was obsessed with Potter?!"

"She's probably just using him as a front, don't know how she could bare it, really—"

"—How low could she go?"

She tried not to shrink in her seat, but pretending that she couldn't hear them was useless since the whispers were growing louder and louder. She glanced around and saw that those with the Daily Prophet passing them around to those who didn't. Everyone was whispering to themselves and glancing at her as if they were being discreet, and dear gods she wanted to run for it.

She couldn't help it anymore, she snatched the closest Daily Prophet article from a nearby student and read the front.

ESMERELDA BLACK LOVES MUGGLES? UNLIKELY.
written by Rhysand Zaveri

Just last night we were tipped with the news that Esmerelda Black's latest boyfriend is a Muggle. For those who don't remember, Esmerelda Black is the daughter of the raving mad muggle-killer Sirius Black, the niece of convicted Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, and the known lunatic supporter of the infamous liar, Harry Potter.

So is it really possible for a girl with such a background to date a muggle? Not really, but that doesn't exclude the possibility of her using him. Taken into account of who her family is, it wouldn't be a surprise if she were drowning him with Love Potions or using the Imperius Curse (which is illegal) in order to keep up appearances.

This wouldn't be the first time she's attempted to appear like a muggle-lover. Throughout her time in Hogwarts she would be seen walking around wearing muggle clothes and using muggle gadgets like a "notebook" and "pencil" despite being born into a Pureblood family with very strict wizarding traditions. It's seems that she's cranking it up another level for her fifth year by actually dating a muggle.

"She claims to be raised by muggles, yet she's shown to be good at magic," our anonymous tipper states. "It just doesn't add up. The only way she could be that good is if she were raised by a proper Pureblood family. Or maybe it's the Black blood helping her out. Either way, she's a total fake. She doesn't really care about muggles. She always looks like she's trying to force herself to wear those clothes and use those things like muggles do."

When asked for the identity of the muggle, they answered, "I don't have a clue. All I know is that he's a dumb unfortunate bloke who doesn't see how crazy his girlfriend is. I feel bad for him. I'm pretty sure she still has eyes for Potter anyways."

Esmerelda stopped reading after that, her face going pale with horror. The newspaper fell from her hands, landing into her stack of unfinished waffles. The student she stole it from groaned in disgust, but she could hardly care.

Quickly, she rose from her seat and started speeding down the aisle. The whispers were growing worse the closer she got to do the doors.

"Hah, look at her go."

"She's just freaking out 'cause she was caught."

"Wonder what Potter thinks of her now?"

She pushed through the doors, but at that very second every piece of glassware in the Dining Hall shattered; dishes, goblets, windows, they all broke just as she rushed out of the room. Everyone cried out of alarm, their attention no longer on her. Little shards of glass struck some of their skin, causing them to shriek in panic.

"Which one of you was it?" Draco hissed at his Slytherin friends.

Daphne was too busy crying about getting glass in her eyes to respond, Astoria was frantically trying to remember a spell that could carefully remove them, Theodore had a small cut running down his hand from when his goblet exploded, Pansy lip and chin were bleeding, and Blaise's only issue was his spilled orange juice.

"Oh you bloody morons," he muttered impatiently. He used his wand to siphon out the orange juice from Blaise's trousers, gave Pansy and Theodore a napkin for the blood, and ordered Astoria to take Daphne to Madam Pomfrey like most of the students were doing. Once those two were gone, he went back to his interrogation.

"Well?" He demanded. "Theo, it was you, wasn't it?"

"What?" Theodore put on an innocent face.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Stop playing innocent, it doesn't suit you. You're the anonymous tipper, aren't you? I remember you needing to visit the owlry last night... and you also have a cousin who works at the Daily Prophet. I wouldn't be surprised if you give him all this information and had someone else report it to keep Black from realizing it was you."

"I just told him that she was dating a muggle," Theodore shrugged. "I didn't say anything else. They just made the rest up."

"Are you lacking the brain up there, Nott?" He snapped. "Esmerelda's going to kill you!"

He scoffed. "The girl who ran out of here in tears? Yeah, I'm so scared, Draco."

She's the reason you're all bleeding right now, Draco thought, but didn't voice it. He still had no idea how Esmerelda managed to do the things she could.

"You're all suicidal," he muttered under his breath, rising up to his feet.

Pansy's jaw dropped. "Don't tell me you're actually going to go after her."

"Someone needs to do damage control," he lied, before storming out.

In the end, he didn't find Esmerelda. Instead, she found him. He was suddenly yanked away from the hallway he was storming through and shoved against the wall, a knife aimed at his throat.

"Was it you?" Esmerelda demanded.

He brought his arms up immediately, his voice going up an octave or two. "It wasn't me, it wasn't me, I swear!"

"You were the only one I told two days ago and now suddenly everyone knows!"

"It was Nott, not me!"

"What?!"

"I mean, it was Theodore Nott who tipped the Prophet, I had nothing to do with it! Or well, um," now that he thought about it, it was kind of all his fault. "Okay, I had a little to do with it, but I didn't know he'd go running to the Daily Prophet!"

"You told him?!"

"It just slipped!"

She finally released him and lowered her knife. And then she did the worst thing ever: she started to cry.

"Oh come on," he said nervously. "The article wasn't that bad..."

Her crying got louder.

He gulped audibly. "H-hey, seriously, don't, um..."

"How could they say such horrible things?" She sobbed into her hands. Draco was wondering how she hadn't accidentally stabbed herself since she was still holding the knife and all. "Now everyone thinks even worse about me! And they even called Ethan 'dumb'!"

"It's just some stupid rumor, nobody really believes it—"

"—Everyone believes it!" She snapped.

He grimaced because, well, she wasn't wrong. A pretty high portion of not just the population of Hogwarts, but also the entirety of Wizarding Britain most likely believed it. Which... was not good.

"It'll die out in a couple of days," he lied. He was certain it wouldn't because a rumor like this would only invite many more to come flying in. And the Daily Prophet was going to do what it did best: turn rumors into over-sensationalized 'stories'.

"No it won't," she said miserably. "The Daily Prophet's been slandering me and Harry since the end of the our fourth year. There's no way they're going to let something like this go. It'll only get worse from now on."

At least she's aware, Draco thought. Then he stiffened up when she glared at him.

"This is your fault, you know," she stated.

He gulped.

"You have to help me now."

"W-what?" He said.

"You have to help me," she repeated. "I'm going to try and make my own spell, remember? To make up for this whole mess you caused, you have to help me now. You owe me this, after all."

His jaw dropped. "Wha—I can't help you with that! I may be great, but even I can't craft my own spell at this age!"

"You can still help me with other things. Like with research or being a test dummy—"

"—Absolutely not!"

Her glare sharpened. "You. Owe. Me."

Draco wanted to cry in frustration. He only came here to do some damage control (it wasn't because he cared about his stupid, soft-hearted cousin or anything like that, don't be ridiculous), he wasn't expecting to be practically threatened into helping her out with whatever illegal activities she was planning to do! If his parents found about this they'd be so disappointed...

"Fine," he conceded with a scowl. "But I won't help you on the weekends. Those are my Esmerelda-free days."

She beamed. "Great! Let's try and create a schedule for this week..."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

"Even though Harry's the Ministry's greatest enemy, media still loves to demonize women and girls," Hermione said angrily as they stormed up the steps of the owlry the next day. "I'm so sorry this is happening to you, Essie, this is absolutely disgusting."

"It's okay..." Esmerelda trailed off. "The hate mail just needs some getting used to." 

"You shouldn't be getting any hate mail in the first place!" Hermione cried in outrage.

"Do you know who tipped them off?" Ron asked.

"Draco told me it was Theodore Nott. He said something about him having a cousin working at the Daily Prophet so..." She finished off with a shrug.

"I can't believe you're trusting Malfoy to tell you the truth. How do you know he wasn't lying to you?" Harry demanded.

"'Cause I put a knife at his throat and threatened him," she replied in the same miserable tone.

"Wait, what?"

Before Esmerelda could repeat what she had said, they reached the floor where their owls were located. Hermione's owl spotted her first and dumped a roll of newspaper at her feet.

"Oh great," Hermione fumed, then sent a worried glance at Esmerelda. "I can read it later."

She shook her head. "No it's okay. You can read it if you want. There might be something important on there."

Harry snorted, "Like the Daily Prophet ever covers important topics—"

Hermione suddenly gasped. "Sirius has been spotted!"

"What?!" Harry and Esmerelda freaked out. They squished themselves at Hermione's sides to read the article while Ron towered behind them, easily reading the words over their heads.

"'The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer... blah blah blah.... is currently hiding in London!'" Hermione read in an anguished whisper.

"But he was in his animagus form!" Esmerelda exclaimed, growing pale.

"It must have been Malfoy," Harry said in a low, furious voice. "He did recognize Sirius on the platform..."

"What?" Ron said, looking alarmed. "You didn't say—"

"—Shh!" The other three shushed him.

"...'Ministry warns Wizarding community that Black is very dangerous... killed thirteen people... broke out of Azkaban...' the usual rubbish," Hermione concluded, looking fearfully at the other teens. "Well, he just won't be able to leave the house again, that's all... Dumbledore did warn him not to."

"He won't be happy to hear that..." Esmerelda muttered, glancing back down at the rest of the contents. Most of the page was devoted to an advertisement for Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, which was apparently having a sale.

"Hey!" Harry suddenly exclaimed. "Look at this!"

"I've got all the robes I want," Ron said.

"No," he shook his head and pointed. "Look... this little piece here..."

It was a little hard to read since it's section was so small. Figures the Daily Prophet would make the actual important news so minimal on the page.

TRESPASS AT MINISTRY

Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31st August. Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watch-wizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o'clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

"Sturgis Podmore?" Ron said slowly. "But he's that bloke who looks like his head's been thatched, isn't he? He's one of the Ord—"

"—Ron, shh!" Hermione cut him off, casting a terrified look around them.

"Six months in Azkaban!" Harry whispered, shocked. "Just for trying to get through a door!"

"Well then that's gotta mean that wasn't the only reason he was arrested," Esmerelda pointed out. "There's probably some other reason that they don't want to announce."

"What I want to know is what on earth was he doing at the Ministry of Magic at one o'clock in the morning?" Hermione breathed out.

"D'you reckon he was doing something for the Order?" Ron muttered.

"Wait a moment..." Harry said thoughtfully. "Sturgis was supposed to come and see us off, remember?"

The three of them stared at him. Honestly, Esmerelda was more distracted with making Remus promise to watch over Sirius.

"Yeah, he was supposed to be part of our guard going to King's Cross, remember?" Harry reminded them. "And Moody was all annoyed because he didn't turn up, so that doesn't seem like he was supposed to be on a job for them, does it?"

"Well, maybe they didn't expect him to get caught," Hermione wondered.

"It could be a frame-up!" Ron exclaimed excitedly. "No—listen!" He went on, dropping his voice dramatically at the threatening look on Hermione's face. "The Ministry suspects he's one of Dumbledore's lot so—I dunno—they lured him to the Ministry, and he wasn't trying to get through a door at all! Maybe they've just made something up to get him!"

"That wouldn't surprise me," Esmerelda nodded in agreement. "I mean, remember at your trial Harry? They fabricated a whole story about how you wanted to show off your magic in front of your cousin and wouldn't even allow you to give them any proof."

"Yeah," Harry said, but then paused. "Wait, how do you know about—"

"—Anyways," Esmerelda quickly moved on. "I need to find Ethan Jr and send Steve a letter."

"Oh no," Hermione groaned. "Don't tell me he believed what the Daily Prophet said about you."

"No," she reassured. "He was just, um, more concerned about other things it said."

Like the fact that she had a boyfriend. Or more specifically, who the boyfriend turned out to be. As expected, he wasn't happy that she was dating Ethan now, which was understandable given the previous things she had said about him back when he was still a traitor. Sirius' reaction, at least, was less harsher compared to her father's.

The letter he sent her yesterday pretty much said:

Please break up with him.

I'm sorry, Esmerelda, I'm sure he makes you very happy and I'm glad that he's no longer working with the bad guys, but I (and so do Remus, Tonks, Andromeda, and Ted) believe you should go to therapy first and maybe focus on your mental health before your dating life.

Please respond soon,

Steve White

At least he said please, and at least he was willingly contacting her... Unfortunately, her responding letter was basically her saying stuff like 'I'm happy with Ethan, sorry' and 'I don't think there's a therapist who would believe what I say, so that's a no'. He probably wouldn't like it, but oh well, it was the truth.

What really bothered her was that he hadn't talked about anything else. The Daily Prophet had painted her to be some sort of manipulator and fake muggle-sympathizer, of course everyone would detest her for it (and she had the hate mail to prove it). She would've liked some words of comfort from him like 'I'm sorry about the hate mail, I hope you're doing well' or 'I don't believe what the Prophet's saying about you, stay strong' and whatnot.

Instead, she got nothing. 

"What was he concerned about?" Harry asked. "If I were him, I'd be concerned about all the bullshit the Daily Prophet was spewing about you."

She sighed. "Well, the boyfriend part wasn't bullshit."

They all stared at her in shock.

"You have a—" Harry started.

"—Think you can give Harry some dating tips for Cho?" Ron asked her eagerly. "You can be his wing-woman!"

"Wait a second," Hermione cut them both off. "Who is it? Do we know him?"

"Um," she tried not to swallow nervously. The three of them had briefly met Ethan before and they also knew he was the one who kidnapped her back in their second year. If she told them the name 'Ethan', they might connect the dots.

"He's a muggle." She answered carefully.

"No way," Harry's eyes widened. "So the Prophet actually got something right for once?"

"Miraculously," she snorted.

"Tell us about him," Hermione smiled. "Was he the one who gave you the ring for your birthday?"

Esmerelda gazed down at the ring with adoration. "Yeah," she said breathlessly. "He knew to get me a purple one since it's my favorite color. The gem's tanzanite, so it probably would've cost him millions of dollars. He stole it for me, isn't that so sweet of him?"

Hermione blinked. "Um, I'm sorry—what?"

She let out another dreamy sigh. "He's the best boyfriend ever, right?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged identical wide-eyed looks.

"Uh," Ron spoke up. "Yeah. Sounds like a real keeper..."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

The next day, right after classes were finished, Esmerelda dragged her cousin to the depths of the library and dumped a bunch of books in front of him. He let out a small sound at the size of the ancient looking tomes.

"Well," Esmerelda chirped, slipping on her reading glasses. "Let's get to researching!"

"Wait," Draco put up a hand. "Have you even figured out what kind of spell you want to make?"

"A summoning one," she replied smoothly. "So hear me out, my main issue is that I can't be there for people when they need me most. The easiest solution is if they were able to summon me. I won't be able to tell if they're in danger or whatever and I'm pretty sure making a spell for that would be harder then what I have planned, so summoning's my best bet."

"Summoning?" He quirked a brow. "They'll basically be forcing you from one place to another. What if you're, like, in the bath or something? That'd be embarrassing."

"I realized that too," she smiled sheepishly. "That's why I want it to be like... an alarm of some sorts. If someone's in danger, I want them to alert me of it. That way, I can come to them. I already know how to... er, apparate in a way. I just need to know and see where they're at to Mis—I mean, apparate to them."

"Wait," Draco was piecing things together. "So the first thing you need is to be able to see where they're at to apparate to them in time?"

"Yes." She nodded in confirmation.

His jaw dropped. "Hold on, that's not just basic summoning then! That's sensory scrying*! That'll be impossible to accomplish, nobody's ever done that before!"

"Uh, yeah, duh. That's basically the point of spellcrafting."

He continued to stare at her incredulously. "You're insane."

"Draco! You promised to help me!"

"I did not promise, you forced me to! With threats and everything!" 

She gasped, "I never threatened you! Come on, Draco, please! Can't you help me out of the goodness of your heart?"

He busted out laughing. It was a good thing they were so far back in the library that Madam Pince couldn't hear.

"Goodness of my what? You dumb Puffball is that one your stupid, weird, muggle sayings?" He snorted. "Fine, fine. I'll keep helping you even though this whole thing's madness. Just stop with the muggle sayings, they're stupid."

"They are not," she grumbled defensively. "But thanks anyways. Now can we get started with the research already?"

He grunted, grabbing the first tome he could reach and opening it. Esmerelda smiled in approval before following suit, notebook and pen out for note taking.

After about two hours, the words were beginning to swim around in her head and her hand was starting to cramp from how often she would write everything down. Draco, that little nerd, looked perfectly fine for the most of it, though he did seem pretty frustrated by the confusing contents from the books.

Esmerelda rubbed her temples boredly as she continued to read one of the passages:

The easiest way to create your own spell is by piggybacking on previous spells. One notorious example of this is You-Know-Who's famous Dark Mark, which was, essentially, a modified version of the Protean Charm. Another example is—

Well that wouldn't be possible for her, she mused with a frown. Like Draco said, there was apparently no such thing as a sensory scrying spell so she was basically starting from scratch here.

She turned over to the next page only to pick up some whispers from spying students. She tried not to visibly shrink at their words. 

"—what's she doing with Draco Malfoy? You think she's into him too?"

"No way, I heard she's still obsessed with Potter, pfft! I saw them talking in the hallway a few hours ago."

"I heard from Pansy that she's probably cheating on her muggle boyfriend with Potter too," they giggled.

Draco rolled his eyes and looked up. He spotted two girls peeking around from the bookshelf, spying on them with as much stealth as an elephant. He opened his mouth to tell them to screw off when Esmerelda, without even looking up from her book, made a flicking motion with her hand.

The entire bookshelf collapsed on the girls, who let out a pair of terrified shrieks before being cut short.

Well shit, Draco thought. That was kinda cool.

In the end, she and Draco managed to accumulate pages and pages of research that probably would've impressed their professors if only they were doing some actual school work. But oh well. They ended up staying out in the library for so long that they quite literally missed dinner. Of course, Draco was growing deliriously mad over it.

"This is all your fault!" He hissed at her as she dragged him down the darkened hallways of the castle. "Now we're both going to starve to death because your crazy idea of spellcrafting—and where are you even taking me?!"

"The kitchens," she answered with exasperated groan. "Now can you shut up? A prefect's gonna hear you bitching!"

"I am not bitching—"

"—Shut. Up." She rolled her eyes, before perking up once she finally spotted the painting leading to the kitchens. She tickled the pair and the door opened. She then proceeded to drag him in.

It was nearly midnight, but for some odd reason the house elves were still awake.

They stopped what they were doing to stare at her in pure awe. She had to quickly put up a hand before they could start spewing words of adoration at her. As much as she liked hearing them, Draco would probably raise some brows if he heard them call her 'the daughter of their Dark Lady'. She didn't want another incident like with Harry who thought Voldemort had a sister or whatever.

(Though it would be funny if Draco actually believed that and reported it to his Death Eater father, hah!)

"Hi," Esmerelda greeted them brightly. "Me and my friend—"

"—I'm not your friend—"

"—Kind of missed dinner and I was wondering if we could grab a quick bite before heading off to bed?" She finished with a hopeful smile.

Needless to say, they went fucking ballistic. The second they realized she had missed dinner, they wet crazy with the meal preparations. She was hoping they would just give them a couple of sandwiches or whatever, but she and Draco were served two plates of something that was worthy of being served at a five star restaurant.

"Do you come here often? They seem to... worship you," Draco noted suspiciously. "You know, as Prefect of Slytherin house, I can deduct points off of you for this."

She stared at him expressionlessly.

He took it back immediately. "Not that I would," he said quickly. "So you should be grateful for that."

She snorted. "Sure."

They gobbled up their dinner rather quickly since they were so hungry. After that, they parted ways with Draco sneaking back to the dungeons and Esmerelda walking back to the barrels where the Hufflepuff entrance was. Except, someone was already there.

"Harry?" She blinked, spying his head levitating in front of the entrance. "What are you doing?"

"Oh," he sighed in relief, removing the Invisibility Cloak. He was still dressed in his uniform like she was. "I thought you were already at your dorm. You need to go to the Gryffindor common room with me—it's Sirius. He appeared at the fire place and wants to talk to us, but he wanted you there too. Come on!"

He lifted a part of the cloak open for her to squeeze in. She was just about to do so until she caught sight of his hand.

She furrowed her brows. "Hey, what happened to your hand? Is that a scar?"

"Um, potions accident," he said quickly. "I spilled some stuff over my hand, and well, Snape refused to let me go to Madam Pomfrey."

Esmerelda had a feeling he was lying, but she decided to let him go and joined him under the cloak. They quietly journeyed over to Gryffindor Tower.

"So I take it you and Sirius are getting along now?" Harry whispered.

"I guess..." She murmured back. "I mean, he gave me a birthday present and all. And he even sent me a letter yesterday too (even though it was to tell me to dump my boyfriend). That's better then us ignoring each other."

"...Can I ask what happened?"

She pursed her lips. "I... did something wrong. That's all I really wanna say about it."

"That's fine," Harry said in understanding.

They reached the Fat Lady, who opened the door when Harry whispered the password.

The Gryffindor common room was a burst of dark, yet warm colors. Almost everything was colored a deep red, brown, or gold. It was a circular room, full of squashy arm chairs, tables, and windows that overlooked the castle's grounds. It was comfortable looking, but not as comfortable as Hufflepuff's common room in her opinion.

Harry removed the Invisibility Cloak and led her towards the fireplace where Hermione and Ron were kneeling.

"You actually found her!" Hermione said in amazement.

"Yeah, luckily she wasn't in her dorm yet," Harry breathed, sitting down beside them.

"Wait, what?" Said the fire in the fireplace. "What do you mean you weren't in the dorms? Essie, where were you?"

Esmerelda didn't answer right away since she was too busy staring dumbly at the Sirius-shaped fire.

"Uh," she said, blinking.

"Forget it," he sighed. "I'm glad you're here though. This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code—and codes are breakable."

Letter? Esmerelda thought. She turned to Harry, but Ron and Hermione were already on it.

"You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!" Hermione said accusingly.

"I forgot," Harry shrugged. "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?"

"No, it was very good," Sirius smiled. "Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed—your scar."

"What about—?" Ron began, but Hermione said quickly, "—We'll tell you afterward, go on, Sirius."

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?" Sirius questioned.

"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion," Harry nodded. "So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention."

"Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often," Sirius said knowingly.

"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked.

Esmerelda was alarmed. "Um, touching you?"

"Not like that!" Harry assured her. "She, er, checked my hand."

Esmerelda's gaze darted down to his hand, the same one from the 'potions accident'.

"Well," Sirius began. "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater—"

"—She's foul enough to be one," Harry said darkly and Ron and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," Sirius countered with a wry smile, and Esmerelda nodded in agreement for that. "I know she's a nasty piece of work, though—you should hear Remus talk about her."

"Oh," Esmerelda realized. "She hates half-breeds, went on a rant about them in one of our lessons and wasted a good hour. Does Remus know her?"

"No," he shook his head. "But she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job. Not that he really needs one anymore thanks to your, ah, donation."

Esmerelda grinned at the mention of the enchanted coin purse she had given him years ago. She sure was glad that she had made that decision.

"What's she got against werewolves?" Hermione asked angrily.

"Scared of them, I expect," Sirius replied, smiling at her indignation. "Apparently she loathes part-humans."

Esmerelda harrumphed. "Part-humans are so much cooler in my opinion. She's just jealous she can't be as cool as us—them." She corrected herself quickly. Sirius snorted at her slip-up.

Gods, if Professor Umbridge knew about demigods... The wicked witch would probably die of an aneurysm. Esmerelda was almost tempted to tell her about her demigodly heritage just to see that happen.

"She campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too," Sirius added. "Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose—"

Ron laughed but Hermione looked upset.

Esmerelda winced. She was supposed to ask Kreacher to be a little nicer on her uncle before leaving for Hogwarts, but she had been so upset with him that she just forgot all about it...

"Sirius!" Hermione said reproachfully. "Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher I'm sure he'd respond, after all, you and Essie are the only members of his family he's got left, and Professor Dumbledore said—"

"—So what are Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interrupted. "Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?"

"No," Harry muttered, ignoring Hermione's affronted look at being cutoff in her defense of Kreacher. "She's not letting us use magic at all!"

"All we do is read the stupid textbook," Ron complained.

"I fall asleep in her class so," Esmerelda shrugged.

The trio looked at her.

"You fall asleep in her class?" Ron echoed in amazement. "And she lets you?"

She practically made Professor Umbridge her bitch, so yeah, she'd let her do anything at this point.

"Esmerelda," Sirius sighed deeply, a knowing look in his eyes, and her self-satisfaction wilted. Oh no. He was probably disappointed that she had used the Mist on someone again... He'd go back to ignoring her and—

"I'll let it go just this once," he said. "Just don't go around abusing that, you hear me? I shouldn't have let you indulge in it so often."

She nodded quietly, ignoring the confused looks the trio were shooting her.

"Anyways, back to Umbridge's teaching," he returned. "Our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"W-what?" Esmerelda stifled a laugh. No offense, but she couldn't really picture anyone here being 'combat ready'.

"Trained in combat?" Harry repeated incredulously. "What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks you're doing," Sirius confirmed. "Or rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing—forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic."

Holy shit, Esmerelda marveled. Fudge was almost as stupidly paranoid as Zeus. And that was saying a lot.

There was a pause at this, then Ron said, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with."

"So we're being prevented from learning Defense Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells against the Ministry?" Hermione said, looking furious.

"Yep," Sirius deadpanned. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge."

"D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow?" Harry asked. "Only Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be—"

"—I don't know," Sirius replied. "I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here with a couple of short visits..."

There was a definite note of bitterness in Sirius's voice.

"So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?" Harry asked. 

"Ah..." Sirius winced. "Well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened to him. But Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you get yourselves in a state; I'm sure Hagrid's fine."

"But if he was supposed to be back by now..." Hermione trailed off in a small, worried voice.

"Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home—but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt or—well, nothing to suggest he's not perfectly okay."

"That's not very reassuring," Esmerelda sighed. She wasn't all that close with Hagrid, but she knew he was very well-loved by Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid," Sirius said hastily. "It'll just draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back, and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be okay." And when they did not appear cheered by this, he added, "When's your next Hogsmeade weekend anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could—"

"—NO!" Harry and Hermione said together, very loudly.

"Someone saw you, it was on the Daily Prophet," Esmerelda informed him.

"Oh that," Sirius grinned. "They're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue—"

"—Yeah, but we think this time they have," Harry explained. "Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you, and his father was on the platform, Sirius—you know, Lucius Malfoy—so don't come up here, whatever you do, if Malfoy recognizes you again—"

"—All right, all right, I've got the point," he grumbled, understandably displeased. "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together—"

"—I would, I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!" Harry exclaimed.

There was a pause in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his eyes.

"You're less like your father than I thought," he finally said, a definite coolness in his voice. "The risk would've been what made it fun for James."

He's not James, Esmerelda wanted to say. Just like how I'm not Regulus.

Harry looked a little hurt. "Look—"

"—Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs," Sirius said, but Esmerelda was sure he was lying. "I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?"

There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius's head had been was flickering flame once more.

— author's note —

* Sensory Scrying: (according to the Superpower Wiki) The user can "hitch-hike" other beings' senses and experience what happens as they were them. This power grants the user with the ability to taste, feel, smell, see and/or hear from others senses. It allows the user to experience the world as their target would. In Essie's case, she only wants to use the 'vision' sense.

Essie can already Mist travel to wherever they're at, the only problem is that she needs to know and see their location. So what Essie's trying to accomplish in this new spell of hers, is to find a way for someone to share their vision with her, that way she can literally see where they're at and Mist travel to them.

She could always do something similar to the Dark Mark, where Voldy uses it to summon his Death Eaters to him, but she hates that loser so she won't copy him (plus, she's not a plagiarizer so there's that too 😌)

Do you wanna know what I hate the most about living in the HP world??? THE TOXICITY OF IT ALL OMFG. Everything about it gives me "small town" vibes and everyone seems to have some sort of small town mentality. Look at what they did to Harry for example:

- they love him cuz he's the boy who lived

- then they hate him

- love him again

- hate him again

- love him again

- hate him again cuz he "put his name in the goblet"

- love him for that same reason wtf

- hate him cuz he "lied" and shit

And the same with Dumbledore! Everyone loved him! He was a hero! And then the Daily Prophet goes and slanders him and everyone just... believes it???

I get that this is what most irl celebrities go through, but the difference is that celebrities are famous world-wide or nation-wide and that's MILLIONS of people. Wizarding Britain is only by the thousands, that's so much smaller and toxicity thrives in small populations so is it really any wonder that there's so much racism and classism there?

It's so small that there's literally only one news station there (I know the Quibbler exists but nobody really reads that, sorry Luna), meaning the Daily Prophet's quite literally their only source of news and most of the time the news is either useless, or straight-up false. It's also controlled by the Ministry which is corrupt, so yeah there's that too.

And the rumors... dear god the fucking rumors... People are so obsessed with them holy shit, which is another trait for the small town mentality. They go fucking crazy over rumors, their lives are basically revolved around them. The Daily Prophet's known to write about baseless rumors yet people still eat them up like they have nothing else to do ugh 🙄

So yeah, I wouldn't wanna live in the HP world cuz while the magic's fun and all, It's just so easy to ruin someone's life. You don't even have to be famous for it to happen. Hermione wasn't well known throughout wizarding Britain, but Rita Skeeter wrote an article about her and bam, everyone immediately began to think she was some "scarlet woman" like Ron said.

small population + love for rumors + toxic people = shitty place to live

That's what I'm doing here. I'm using the horribleness of Wizarding Britain to ruin Essie's life and making her mental state even worse :)

(also, Essie's a girl. You know how much media loves to harass girls and women 🙄)

Btw, I'll give you a hint about the next chapter:

The next chapter is titled "KARMA'S A BITCH" :D