▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER TEN ▬▬▬▬▬

⚠️HELP⚠️

....Does anyone know if Hazel was aware that Nico was a Greek demigod??? Or did she think he was Roman the entire time they were at Camp Jupiter??? Because I remember in Son of Neptune, she was kinda surprised when Percy turned out to be a Greek and had this belief that Greeks were crazy and untrustworthy or whatever, and I figured that she probably wasn't aware that Nico was a Greek because I doubt she would've had that sort of belief if she knew.

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

Okay initially the Essan scene was supposed to be steamy but it ended up being more darker, so... I guess this is a warning for that???

(If you don't notice the dark undertones, then you'll be fine)

ETHAN KEPT VISITING HER DURING the weekends for the next following weeks, and the newly revamped Shrieking Shack became their frequented hang-out spot. Sometimes, she would disguise themselves with the Mist so they could walk around Hogsmeade together and she even got him to go into that cute place, Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, with her. It was a shame they were both disguised, she would've found it hilarious to see her tall, dark, and broody looking boyfriend sitting in such a cute, Barbie-like place.

But regardless of where they went, being near each other was like a serotonin boost. Esmerelda forgot all about her issues with school, Sirius, and the Fates, while Ethan's anger lessened, replaced by a sort of tranquility he only got around her. Their presence was the other's safe haven...

...Until Esmerelda saw Ethan's math homework.

"W-why are there Greek letters in the problem?" She asked shakily. Greek letters were now a part of math? She thought the regular letters were bad enough!

He regarded her carefully. "Essie... do they not teach you, like, any math in school?"

"Not really..."

"...What's one plus one?"

"I know that!" She exclaimed, pouting. "But seriously, since when were there Greek letters in math?!"

"Since algebra 2," he snorted.

"That's horrible," she gasped, and then realized something. "Wait, oh no... I'll be so behind..."

"I'd tutor you, but it's already hard enough tutoring Percy," he rolled his eye. "That kid just can't do fractions to save his life."

She cuddled against his arm. "Nico can do fractions," she said proudly. "Has he visited you by any chance?"

His scowl deepened. "A couple of times. Did you tell him about my first day in my new job? He literally came into the store to bother me."

She tried not to smile in amusement. "Um... maybe he wanted to visit you?"

"That's bullshit and you know it."

"He didn't get you fired or anything, did he...?" She asked nervously.

"No."

"Oh good," she sighed in relief.

Poor Ethan was having problems keeping a job, mainly because he kept lashing out at racists and Karens. There was that one time he worked at Jamba Juice and one crazy bitch threw her smoothie at him because he wouldn't give her an extra pretzel for free, and he reached out and slammed her head into a table. Then there was that one incident with a racist at the waffle place who hurled a slur at him and he threw him out the door, but kinda missed the door and threw him through an entire store window instead and... well, you get the point.

But now he was working at a 7/11 store! According to him, it was 'nice' so Esmerelda was glad he was liking the new job!

"I think the brat misses you though," he mumbled, flipping over to the backside of his worksheet. "And he's just bugging me to pass the time. Any reason he doesn't visit you instead?"

"He said he didn't want to distract me from my schoolwork and that he'd wait for me to do the visiting. Isn't that sweet of him?" She smiled.

"Oh yeah, totally. So he comes and keeps me from doing my schoolwork instead—that's just so sweet of him. Do I need to remind you that he quite literally fed my homework to some undead dog he found, Essie? I'm telling you, that kid needs to be grounded."

Esmerelda shifted uncomfortably. "That's so harsh though..."

"He fed my homework to a zombie dog!"

"He probably thought it was scratch paper or something," she frowned.

He turned away from his homework to give her a flat, dead stare.

She gave him a sheepish smile before catching a glimpse of his math problems and changing the topic, "Oh, look, you're almost done! That's great, finish up the last problem so we can cuddle on the couch already!"

"Needy," he muttered, which was hypocritical of him.

Esmerelda waited impatiently as Ethan worked on the last problem of his math homework (which became more daunting as it went on). Once he was done, she quickly wrapped her arms around him and Mist traveled themselves onto the couch even though it was literally two feet behind them.

She sighed in content, snuggling herself up against his chest while his heart beat loudly in her ears.

"Dude..." He groaned, covering his mouth and looking a little sick. "Was that really necessary? And gimme a warning next time..."

"Sorry," she said apologetically. "Are you okay now?"

He grunted, "Sorta." He allowed himself to relax in this new position: him splayed over the couch with Esmerelda on top of him, and wrapped his arms around her. Thank gods he was done with all his homework.

"I can't visit you tomorrow, by the way," he mumbled in disappointment. "Second day of work, and next week's another tournament. I can't have any distractions, so I gotta stay home and prepare."

She grinned. "I'm a distraction?"

"The biggest," he deadpanned. "You're worse then Nico. Always making me think and worry about you."

"Worry?" She echoed.

His hold tightened a little. "You tend not to tell me about your issues. Like the Daily Prophet... the students... the teachers..." He drawled on, but there was a hidden anger in his voice. "Nobody's bothering you again, right?"

"No, and it's all thanks to you," she said brightly, moving up to kiss him on the cheek. "That Umbitch lady's being horrible as usual, but you don't have to worry about her. I have her... handled."

"You wouldn't need to do anything if you just left this place and come back to New York," he said bitterly. "I'm still a hundred percent certain you're the one in danger and not your stupid uncle."

"He's not stupid," she mumbled. "He's just..."

"Naive? Reckless?" He suggested sarcastically, sitting up and wrapping his arms around her waist. "He hasn't apologized for all the things he's said has he? The only time he was ever 'nice' to you was to tell you to dump me."

"He was worried," she said quietly. "Thought that... that something was wrong with me."

"He wants to fix you," he said darkly.

"No," she denied weakly. "He cares about me, that's why he—"

"—I thought you said he hated you?" He shot. "'Cause it sure as hell seems like it. He doesn't even care that you went through a whole war. Didn't even care that you wanted to keep him safe from it. He's so selfish, all he kept focusing on was himself and belittling you. Did he even care to ask how you were doing when all those Daily Prophet articles came up?"

She froze.

"So he hasn't," he guessed, a vicious glint in his eye.

"No... he... he hasn't," she whispered, with growing hurt. Andromeda, Ted, and Tonks had sent her letters of reassurance. Heck, even Mrs. Weasley and Moody sent her letters saying to stay strong. But... but Sirius hadn't. The only letter he sent was about the one accusing her of being a fake muggle sympathizer and he hadn't even addressed that in the letter. All he told her was to break up with Ethan and go to therapy.

"See?" Ethan murmured, holding her against him. "Just leave this hellhole. Go back to New York. People there care about you: Nico, the Stolls, the camp, me."

"I..." She trailed off, not knowing what to say. But then she steeled her resolve and shook her head. "No. I'm sticking to my plan. I'll stay here until I graduate."

He was quiet for a second, and she looked up at him. His face was expressionless, before it twisted into a scowl.

"Fine," he said.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

He shook his head, "No, it's... I should've figured that you'd stay. You care about your uncle too much, even though he treats you horribly. He's a self-absorbed piece of shit."

"He's mad that I murdered someone," she muttered.

He snorted in amusement. "You mean the guy that actively participated in genocide? Oh yeah, what a tragic loss. That's such a stupid thing to get pissed about. He's so self-righteous it hurts."

She sighed miserably. She really did wish her uncle would stop seeing things in black and white. Maybe then he would be a little more kinder and understanding towards her...

His face nuzzled against her hair. "I just want to keep you safe and happy, you know? After how awful I was before we got together... well, I don't want to hurt you again and I don't want anyone to hurt you too."

She looked up at him with loving eyes. "I know," she said sweetly, before bringing him in for a deep kiss. When they pulled away, he carefully lowered her on the couch as he hovered over her. Then he leaned down and kissed her this time.

She parted her legs so he could lay over her. His right hand trailed up her body for interlacing with her other hand.

When he left her lips, he started peppering kisses down her jaw before finally reaching her neck. He didn't touch her at first, his hot breath fanning over her skin instead.

"Can I... kiss you here?" He asked, knowing how uncomfortable she felt whenever anything touched her neck.

Esmerelda's breath hitched. She gulped uncertainly.

"I can stop," he said quickly when he noticed how hesitant she was.

"Yes please," she said in a small voice. "I'm sorry."

"No, no, you don't have to apologize for anything," he murmured in reassurance, pressing a chaste kiss against her forehead. "You didn't do anything wrong. We can just lay here together if you want."

She sighed in relief and allowed him to readjust their positions so she was laying comfortably on him. As much as she loved Ethan, her neck was still a zone she wasn't comfortable with anything or anyone touching, so she appreciated his patience with her.

Ethan, however, was still feeling a little bit guilty. "Hey..." He trailed off. "Um... if you want, we can visit Madam Pussyfoot or whatever it was called."

Her eyes lit up. "Wait, seriously?!"

He sighed in defeat. "Yeah, sure. You liked their strawberry shortcake and shit, right?"

She scrambled off of him in a hurry. "Oh my gods yes! You're the best! Come on, get up, get up!"

He allowed himself to get dragged off the couch and resigned himself to this fate.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Both of them had to go back to school the next day, which was unfortunate, but Esmerelda immersed herself into her research in hopes to ignore the longing ache in her chest whenever Ethan had to go.

But even that was hard to because Draco would usually be joining her, and he had been avoiding her ever since she called him out—and racists hated being called out.

Narcissa should've spanked him as a child, she thought to herself. But then again, she's most likely a blood supremacist too.

And speaking of people who needed to get punished...

One of Esmerelda's least favorite people was now standing in front of her table.

Cedric cleared his throat. "Um—"

"—Go fuck yourself."

He sighed. "Can I just—" He froze when she rose her pencil up in a threatening manner. "I just want to explain," he said quickly.

She stared at him in disgust, but lowered her pencil. She wanted to hear what exactly was his explanation as to why he decided to endanger wizarding Britain.

"You have thirty seconds."

"I lied last year," he blurted out.

She scoffed, "Yeah no shit you lied. But you wanna know what else you did, Golden Boy?" She was rising to her feet now. "You put this entire country in danger. Thanks to you and your stupid Ministry, a whole bunch of idiots are walking around in blissful ignorance, thinking that Voldemort's dead and isn't rising to power as we speak. War is going to break out, a bunch of innocent muggles and muggle-borns are going to persecuted and massacred in the future—you knew that, yet you still lied!"

"Fudge wouldn't have believed me anyways," he said shakily, growing pale.

"Regardless of whether he believed you or not, you still choose to side with Voldemort." She said in a steely tone.

He flinched at the name. "I'm not a Death Eater, or—or a blood supremacist. I'm not like them."

"The second you decided to lie about his return told me all I needed to know, Cedric," she said sternly. "You lied. I don't care if Fudge would've believed you or not. You lied, do you understand? By lying, you are siding with Voldemort. You are helping him stay hidden. You ruined me and Harry's reputations."

"I didn't know what to do," he admitted, his hands trembling. "My dad was there. He works for the Ministry. If—if I sided with you guys, then he'd be fired. We'd have nothing, we... Essie, I want to fix things, I really do, but I don't... I don't know how."

"I'm not your mommy, Cedric," she said coldly. "Figure it out yourself if you feel so bad."

"But if I speak up, then my dad will get in trouble. They'll fire him," he pressed on, grasping the edges of her table desperately. "And who's to say anyone will believe me anyways? They'll—they'll just think that I'm a liar, they'll question what took me so long to tell the truth or—"

"—They'll treat you like they've been treating Harry and I?" She finished for him with a wry smile. The Daily Prophet articles kept flashing back into her head, followed by the taunting of her classmates. "I can see why that would scare you. Words certainly are cruel."

"I'm sorry," he rasped.

"Yeah, you're gonna be sorry once the war begins and the body count starts rising," she snorted in amusement. "Silence is deadly, Cedric, and you're about to learn it the hard way the longer you decide to keep quiet about the truth. Now go away. You've overstayed your thirty seconds."

He stared at her in defeat before walking away.

"Oh, and Cedric?" She called out before he could fully leave.

He looked back at her.

"If you want to apologize so much, apologize to Harry, not me. He's the one who's problems you added on to."

And after that piece of advice, she went back to work and ignored him.

The next few days went on like that.

Occasionally she'd see Cedric stealing glances either at her or at Harry, but mostly at Harry. She wondered how exactly he was going to make it up to them... Usually, an apology would work, but she was so annoyed by what he had done that she wasn't exactly in a forgiving mood.

Look, she understood the position he was. If he told the truth, he risked his father being fired and him being ridiculed. People might not even believe him and the Ministry sure as hell wouldn't.

But he would plant the seed of doubt in everyone's heads and, well, all seeds grow one way or another.

"—can't believe he actually tried to apologize," Harry huffed as he plopped himself beside her on a rickety wooden stool. They were over at the Hog's Head for their first preliminary meeting about their secret DADA class.

"Apparently he lied because he didn't want his dad to get fired," Esmerelda murmured, playing around with her hair.

"What a privilege," he replied in a dull tone. "To have to worry about that when literal lives are on the line."

Esmerelda was about to respond to that only to let out a small sneeze.

"Ugh," she crinkled her nose. This place was a cesspool of dust and filth.

Unlike the Three Broomsticks, the Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. The bay windows were so encrusted with grime that very little daylight could permeate the room, which was lit instead with the stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. The floors were even worse. They literally accumulated centuries worth of dirt.

Do people not know any cleaning spells? She mentally gagged. Like, seriously, what's the point of magic if you won't even use it?

Her thoughts were cut off when one of the bar goers—a seedy looking guy draped in a black cloak—spat into a spittoon. She couldn't help but be disgusted. Hermione shared the sentiment.

"I don't know about this, Hermione," Harry muttered. He was looking particularly at the heavily veiled witch. "Has it occurred to you Umbridge might be under that?"

Hermione cast an appraising eye at the veiled figure.

"Umbridge is shorter than that woman," she said quietly. "And anyway, even if Umbridge does come in here there's nothing she can do to stop us, Harry, because I've double- and triple-checked the school rules. We're not out-of-bounds; I specifically asked Professor Flitwick whether students were allowed to come in the Hog's Head, and he said yes, but he advised me strongly to bring our own glasses. And I've looked up everything I can think of about study groups and homework groups and they're definitely allowed. I just don't think it's a good idea if we parade what we're doing."

"No," Harry said dryly. "Especially as it's not exactly a homework group you're planning, is it?"

"Nobody would come if it was a homework group," Esmerelda snorted. She sure as hell wouldn't.

"I don't think anybody would come regardless," Harry said. "If they knew that I'm here. I'm not exactly well-liked, Hermione, I don't know how this is gonna work."

"It'll be fine, mate," Ron assured. "Just—"

"—Oh, they're here!" Hermione suddenly gasped.

Esmerelda started to become a little anxious as the students flooded in. She saw Neville, Dean, Lavender, the Patil twins, and Cho, who came in with her friends. Then she saw more familiar faces like the Weasley twins, Ginny, Justin, Ernie, Zacharias, and her roommates. A couple of Ravenclaws came in as well, and some Hufflepuff kids she knew. So far, there wasn't a single Slytherin, which wasn't a surprise.

"Oh gods," she shrunk in her stool, sharing a look of dread with Harry. Almost half of these people probably believed the Daily Prophet over them. If this meeting went badly—and it most likely would, then their mistreatment would grow worse. They'd go back to calling Harry an attention seeking liar and her, a liar and a whore.

The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. He had probably never seen his pub so full.

"Hi," Fred said, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly. "Could we have... twenty-five butterbeers, please?"

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar.

"Cheers," Fred said, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these..."

While everyone was busy paying the barman, Harry rounded on Hermione.

"What have you been telling people?" He said in a low voice. "What are they expecting?"

"I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say," Hermione said soothingly; but Harry continued to look at her so furiously that she added quickly, "You don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first."

"Hi, Harry," Neville said, beaming and taking a seat opposite Harry.

Cho moved forward with her own drink. She greeted Esmerelda with a friendly smile, but her friend, who had curly reddish-blonde hair, gave her a judgmental look.

Wonderful, she thought with a forced smile. Another person who thinks I'm a whore. Just great.

"This is Marietta," Cho introduced. "Mari, this is Essie.

"I know who she is," Marietta smiled.

"I'm sure you do," Esmerelda replied with faux brightness. She exchanged a look with Harry that practically screamed 'GET ME OUT OF HERE'.

In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around Esmerelda, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, some looking rather excited, others curious. One Ravenclaw girl with blonde hair kept gazing dreamily into space. Esmerelda wondered if she was high or something. If she was, then good for her.

When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry, but she could spot some people looking at her from the corner of their eye, whispering and smirking. She tried to steady her breathing, but she could feel her glass vibrate with magic, wanting to lash out.

She harshly bit her lip. Just great. Her control was slipping! Ever since Ethan had helped her out, her magic no longer lashed out when she was angry, sad, or scared, but people were whispering about her again and—

Hermione suddenly cleared her throat, and she snapped her head up to pay attention. Maybe she could distract herself by whatever speech she was going to give.

"Er," Hermione began, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. "Well—er—hi."

That barely worked to catch everyone's attention, but it was good enough.

"Well... erm... well, you know why you're here. Erm... well, Harry here had the idea—I mean, I had the idea—that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts—and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts—"

"—Hear, hear," Anthony Goldstein said, and Hermione looked heartened.

"Well," she continued. "I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells—"

"—You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" Michael Corner asked

"Of course I do," she replied at once. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because..." She took a great breath and finished, "Because Lord Voldemort's back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.

"Well... that's the plan anyway," she said. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to—"

"—Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" Zacharias demanded.

Esmerelda pursed her lips. Here we go again, she thought tiresomely.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it—" Hermione began.

"—You mean, Dumbledore believes him," he interrupted, nodding over at Harry.

"Who are you?" Ron asked rather rudely.

"That's Zacharias," Esmerelda muttered, very much aware of how everyone's eyes darted over to her now. "He believes the Prophet, so I have no idea why he's here. I'm pretty sure the only reason is to try and ridicule Harry—"

"—Why are you here?" He shot. "Came to fawn over him and cheat on your muggle boyfriend?"

"Essie does not like me like that," Harry sighed angrily, rolling his eyes. "Did you just come here to cause trouble? Because that's all you're doing right now."

Zacharias harrumphed. "I came here because I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back when Cedric says differently."

"Diggory's a no-good liar," Ron glared.

Someone scoffed and that was when Harry finally snapped. "Look," he started angrily. "If you guys don't believe me, then leave. It's literally that easy. You didn't even need to come here in the first place. Just get out!"

"Knew he was a nutter," someone muttered.

"Can I just hex someone, please?" Esmerelda begged Hermione.

"I told you she was a crazy fangirl," Marietta giggled to Cho who was looking very uncomfortable.

"I'm not a fangirl, but if you piss me off even more, then I'll show you how crazy I can get." Esmerelda threatened.

"Essie—!" Hermione squeaked.

"Do it!" Ron cheered.

"Ron, no, stop it!"

"—because Diggory is a liar, he was there with me! He fought Death Eaters and everything, he saw Voldemort rise!" Harry was arguing with Zacharias and some of his friends.

"You're just jealous because he got the Cup before you!" Zacharias accused. "Couldn't handle not being in first place so you had to conjure up some bullshit story about You-Know-Who!"

"Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?!"

"Stop!" Someone at the very back was saying, but they could hardly be heard over the ruckus. Then they aimed their wand at their throats while using the Sonorus charm, "STOP!"

Their voice resonated throughout the entire bar. Esmerelda, who was about to stab someone with a dirty fork she found, paused in mid-swing. That voice sounded very familiar to her.

A figure shoved their way to the center of the circle. It was Cedric.

"T-they're telling the truth," he stammered, looking at everyone anxiously. "Harry, Essie, Ron, and Hermione, I mean. They're telling the truth. You-Kno... Voldemort is back, and I lied about it."

Several gasps echoed around the room. Esmerelda had no idea if it was because he said the evil dude's name or because he actually admitted to lying.

"Cedric...?" Cho trailed off, looking stunned. "What are you talking about?"

He swallowed thickly. "The Cup was a portkey," he began. "Harry and I decided to take it together because we both helped each other, but it took us to... t-to a graveyard."

Harry's breath hitched at the mention of the graveyard. "That's enough," he said harshly, his face growing white.

Cedric stopped to look at him, nervous.

"You don't need to tell them the entire story," he muttered. "You admitting to the lie is good enough."

The older boy looked actually relieved by that, and Esmerelda could understand. She wouldn't want to openly talk about her traumas either, especially not to a bunch of insensitive kids.

"Voldemort and his Death Eaters were really there," Cedric continued, making sure to look at the circle around him. Everyone was stunned speechless, save for the select few who already knew the truth. "But I lied to Fudge because I was scared. Essie, Harry, Dumbledore, everyone in the hospital wing were trying to tell Fudge the truth but he was in denial—he kept thinking that Dumbledore was making up a whole story in order to steal his seat as Minister or something stupid like that. I knew he wouldn't believe me if I told the truth, and I was scared he'd get my father fired. So... so I lied."

The silence in the room was deafening.

The Weasley kids were all looking over at him with a quirked brow as if they were saying, 'oh NOW you tell the truth?', meanwhile everyone else looked like they had just been smacked across the face.

Cedric cleared his throat, preparing to speak once more. "As for the Daily Prophet articles about my 'interviews' and whatnot. Those were all made up. I never once talked to the Daily Prophet or gave an interview. I stayed in my house all summer... or well, I tried. Fudge came over once with a whole bunch of reporters. Wanted to publicly praise me and give my dad a raise. Got forced into a photograph too and... Anyways, you can't trust what the Daily Prophet's been saying. They are all lies. Harry's not an attention-seeking liar and Essie isn't a fake muggle-sympathizer or a psycho or a slut. They're both innocent. I'm the liar here."

Nobody knew what to say after he dropped a bomb like that.

The first person to break the silence was the blonde haired Ravenclaw.

"It's good that you're finally telling the truth. I can tell that you fought hard to rid your brain of wrackspurts," she said in an airy, silvery voice.

Cedric blinked. "Um. Yes."

"Wrackspurts aren't real, Looney," one of the Ravenclaws sighed.

"Shut your mouth!" Ginny said defensively, standing protectively at the other girl's side.

"U-u-um, well," Cedric hurriedly said before another fight could break out. He looked shamefully at Harry and Esmerelda. "I'm sorry for lying. You were right, Essie, my silence was deadly. Voldemort's rising and me lying about it put a lot of people in danger. What I'm doing now is probably the bare minimum, but..."

"At least you're finally telling the truth," Harry muttered. There was still a bitter tone in his voice that told everyone that Cedric wasn't entirely forgiven yet. "Even if it's only to a couple of students."

"I haven't really found the courage to go up against the Ministry yet," he admitted shakily, obviously worried about his father. "But... if it's alright with you, I'd like to join this group too."

He looked at Harry, who nodded, expressionlessly.

"Thank you for telling the truth, Cedric," Hermione said carefully, regarding him in a curious manner. Then she looked around at everyone with a serious expression. "So. Does anyone else want to call us liars, hmm? Because if you still think Voldemort isn't back, then there's nothing that can be done to help you so you should walk out."

Esmerelda glanced over at Marietta, Zacharias, and the other group of students who believed in the Prophet. They were red-faced when they realized a lot of other kids were glancing over at them too.

When nobody spoke up or left, Hermione smiled victoriously. "Good. Now as I was going to say before I was rudely interrupted, I want to form a group to secretly learn defensive spells, and I believe Harry will make a good teacher."

Hannah rose a hand timidly. "Um, will Essie be teaching too? She's the best in our House and well, I've always wanted to learn wandless and nonverbal magic."

Esmerelda looked flattered. Her eyes were literally sparkling at this point. She opened her mouth to speak, but Harry got to it first.

"No, no, no, no, no!" He exclaimed, turning white in the face. For some odd reason, Cedric looked like he could faint as well. "Essie's, uh, s-she's got a very busy schedule, I wouldn't want to bother her."

Esmerelda's spirits were crushed. "But I really wanna—"

Hermione clapped her hands loudly. "So there you have it!" She said hastily. "Harry will be our teacher! Any disagreements? No? Great! Now we just need to figure out a sort of schedule..."

Angelina nodded in agreement. "Right. We need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"No," Cho chimed. "Nor with ours."

"Nor ours," Zacharias added, sending a hesitant glance at Cedric.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," Hermione said, slightly impatiently. "But you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters—"

"—Well said!" Ernie barked. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our O.W.L.s coming up!"

He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry, "Surely not!" When nobody spoke, he went on, "I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon us at this critical period. Obviously they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells—"

"—We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione started to sigh in annoyance. "Is that she's got some... some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."

Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news; everybody except the blonde Ravenclaw, who piped up, "Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army."

"What?" Harry said, completely thrown by this unexpected piece of information.

"Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths," she said solemnly.

"The Pokemon?" Esmerelda blinked.

"No he hasn't," Hermione snapped.

"Yes, he has," the girl said.

"What are heliopaths?" Neville asked, looking blank.

"They're spirits of fire," she answered. "Great tall flaming creatures that gallop across the ground burning everything in front of—"

"—They don't exist, Neville," Hermione said tartly.

"Oh yes they do!" The girl said angrily.

"I'm sorry, but where's the proof of that?" Hermione demanded.

"There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you—"

"—Hem, hem," Ginny said in such a good imitation of Professor Um-bridge that several people looked around in alarm and then laughed. "Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and get Defense lessons?"

"Yes," Hermione forced herself to relax. "Yes, we were, you're right..."

"Well, once a week sounds cool," Lee suggested.

"As long as—" Angelina began.

"—Yes, yes, we know about the Quidditch," Hermione said in a tense voice. "Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet..."

"How about the forbidden forest?" Esmerelda suggested helpfully. That was where she always went to train. None of the creatures there bothered her anymore either, so that was a plus.

Several horrified stares were sent in her way. Cedric just closed his eyes, like he was expecting her to say something like that.

"Um... how about somewhere safer," Hermione smiled nervously.

Esmerelda deflated. Why did nobody like her ideas?

"Library?" Katie Bell said after a few moments.

"I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library," Harry said.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Ron said slowly. "McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practicing for the Triwizard..."

Harry winced. "She might not agree to this, though." 

"Good point," Michael nodded. "What about the Shrieking Shack then?"

Esmerelda jolted. "No!" She suddenly exclaimed. Everyone looked at her oddly, and her face turned into a bright pink. "It's still, um, very haunted and stuff, remember? And probably super gross looking on the inside—n-not that I've been inside...!" 

"...Right..." Hermione said slowly, giving her a weird look. "Well, we'll try to find a place. We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting."

She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to say something.

"I-I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think," she took a deep breath. "That we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge—or anybody else—what we're up to."

Cedric was the first to sign. He then gave it to the Weasley twins who cheerfully put down their signatures. Everyone else looked hesitant.

"Er..." Zacharias said slowly, not taking the parchment that George was trying to pass him. "Well... I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is."

But Ernie was looking rather hesitant about signing too. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him.

"I—well, we are prefects," Ernie burst out. "And if this list was found... well, I mean to say... you said yourself, if Umbridge finds out..."

"You just said this group was the most important thing you'd do this year," Harry reminded him.

"I—yes," he gulped. "Yes, I do believe that, it's just..."

"Ernie, do you really think I'd leave that list lying around?" Hermione said testily.

"No. No, of course not," Ernie said, looking slightly less anxious. "I—yes, of course I'll sign."

Nobody raised objections after Ernie, though Esmerelda saw Marietta give Cho a rather reproachful look before adding her name. When the last person—Zacharias—had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signed some kind of contract.

"Well, time's ticking on," Fred said briskly, getting to his feet. "George, Lee, and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."

One by one, everyone began to leave the bar. Everyone except for Cedric, that is. He quietly walked up to their table, head bowed.

"I'm... I'm really, really sorry about all the trouble I've given you guys." He said earnestly. "I never should've lied. I knew that, but I did it anyways."

"You're a right tosser, you know that?" Ron snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "Took you long enough."

He swallowed nervously and looked down once more.

"I don't really forgive you," Harry said with barely hidden distaste. "But I'm glad you're telling some people the truth. It's a start."

Cedric nodded in acceptance before looking over at Esmerelda.

She shrugged. "What Harry said."

Hermione let out a long breath of relief. "I was worried that another fight would break out," she murmured, before standing up. "We all ought to head back to school now. Maybe we should write to Steve about this."

"Um, Steve?" Cedric asked tentatively.

"Essie's uncle," Hermione said swiftly. "Come on, Essie, let's go."

But Esmerelda didn't move from her spot. Her mind kept flashing back to yesterday and her time with Ethan and the things he had pointed out about her uncle... the things she had missed...

"Um, there's something else I have to do." She lied. "You guys go on without me. There's, uh, some stuff I wanna buy."

They didn't seem pretty convinced, but they left anyway with Cedric trailing behind them.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Hecate watched as her eldest daughter parted ways with her mortal friends and trudged through the little wizarding village to wander about aimlessly.

Her hands were clenched tightly around the arms of her throne. While she was glad Esmerelda was no longer being bullied by her peers (mostly thanks to the son of Nemesis giving them other problems to worry about), it was still frustrating to watch it happen. She lamented her past decision on never revealing herself to the mortal wizards. She knew she should've made them worship her, ugh...

She then turned her attention to her youngest daughter, Lou Ellen. She seemed to be doing well, which was good. Right now Lou Ellen was at the strawberry field helping her girlfriend pick strawberries, but they were mostly joking around and talking about video games and whatnot.

My daughters are doing fine... She thought, which was a relief...

But then came her sons.

She was worried about Alabaster's safety the most. He was out in the mortal world all alone, with absolutely zero protection. He was sleeping right now behind some rundown convenience store but she could see several monsters closing in on his scent. She gave him a quick jolt in his dreams to alert him.

And then... there was her other son...

Étienne was doing somewhat fine at the Wolf House. He was excelling in the sword, though she did wish Lupa would just let him train himself in his own powers. The Roman rules about 'working with the army' had always annoyed her. So what if everyone else didn't have powers? It wasn't fair for those who did to hide their gifts instead of using it. Lupa was depriving her son of his birthright!

Magcal powers aside, that wasn't what Hecate was worried about. 

She wasn't blind to how... disturbed Étienne was. 

It wasn't anything new, to be honest. Having mentally unsound children was actually the norm for her and perfectly sane children like Lou Ellen was a rarity, much to her disappointment. She had no idea why her children were always like this throughout the millennia, she wasn't the goddess of madness or instability...

But anyways, Étienne had many paths in his life, and each of them were full of bloodshed. Not very good for his emotional well-being, and being stuck in the Wolf House was only going to make it worse. 

Étienne had made some friends (though none of them knew what he was really like), but the Wolf House was ruthless. It wasn't a place for friendships to blossom, it was just how the Wolf House worked. Lupa and her wolves devoured the failures—the children who were too weak to serve the Roman legion. 

There were about thirteen kids training in the Wolf House at the moment, her son included, and Hecate could see that a good portion of them had very short, limited paths. She would give them one or two weeks until the last of the weak litter were ripped to shreds. So far, only Étienne and two others would be the only ones alive by the end of their training. The rest would be killed right before Étienne's eyes.

Hecate grimaced. That certainly wouldn't do good for his already dwindling mental state. Perhaps she could find something else to replace his dead friends? Preferably something that was longer-lasting. Maybe a pet. Or a cool sword. Boys loved swords.

She sighed to herself and leaned back against the throne. No wonder the gods refrained from interfering in their children's lives. It was so hard to be a parent.

— author's note —

Don't think too hard about the last scene, I uh... mostly only added that so I can reach my usual word count of 6,000+ 😅 The other reason is so I can give you guys a glimpse of Hecate's method of parenting and how Alabaster and Étienne are doing.

Ethan: *calls Sirius out on his BS*

My readers:

Essie who just wants people to listen to her ideas: 

Everyone: No

Essie: 

Hecate trying to parent: