▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE ▬▬▬

I am a horrible human being. In the last chapter I gave you a list of the yandere fics that kept distracting me...

AND I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT MY FAVORITE ONE! Forgive me father for I have sinned 😫

It's a Pain to be a Prince (male!disney princesses x female!reader) by V10LET

IT IS SO FUCKING GOOD SO YOU SHOULD ALL READ IT (it's in quotev btw). My favorite character is Winter White and... you'll find out why 😇

Anyways, consider this chapter a nice lil break for Essie 💖

ESMERELDA LOOKED DOWN AT HER twelve throwing knives that she set on the bed. They all looked identical to each other; bronze blades, with brown and beige handles.

They also looked exactly like the knife that was embedded in her uncle's stomach.

I don't understand, she thought as she paced across the floor of her bedroom. Why did it have to be her knife? Was it a warning that someone was going to steal one of her knives and murder Sirius with it? Or... or did it mean she was his killer?

She grew sick once more at the thought of that. There was no way that would ever happen... right?

Quickly she whipped out a drachma and used the water conjuring spell to create a fine mist. Once the rainbow appeared, she said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Ethan Nakamura at Camp Half-Blood."

She tossed the coin in and waited an agonizing five seconds before his sleeping body showed up. She inwardly grimaced, forgetting that London was ahead by five hours. Whoops.

"Ethan!" She called out. "Ethan wake up!"

He woke up in mid-snore, his eyes blinking in confusion before zeroing in on her floating image. He must have seen the anxiety written on her face because he quickly sat up.

"What happened? Are you okay?" He asked immediately.

"I had the dream again," she said in a shaky voice. "What about you?"

"No," he replied frowning. "I dreamt of nothing. Did something change in your dream?"

She shook her head. "It was the same, but I was paying more attention to the details... You... you said that a knife appeared in your dream right? Did you, um, get a good look at it?"

"Not really..." He murmured, thinking hard. "I was panicking too much, I barely spared the knife a glance. Why? What happened in your dream?"

"I looked closer at the knife that Sirius was stabbed with," she whispered, as if she was afraid someone was listening in on them. "It was one of my throwing knives."

Ethan stared at her in pure bewilderment, and then: "What? What does that even mean?"

"I don't know!" She cried out, throwing her hands up. "I think... I think I need to get rid of them. My knives, I mean."

"No," he said sternly. "You may have your magic, Essie, but they drain you. You can't rely on them all the time. Keep your knives. You need as many weapons as you can get. Plus, don't forget that you're one of the Nine. Gaea's after you. Now wouldn't exactly be a good time to get rid of some of your weapons."

Ethan, as usual, had a good point, as much as she hated to admit it. While her magic was good enough to take down the average monsters with a shot or two, stronger beings would pose a greater challenge. Or if she was bombarded with too many monsters. The last war was more than enough proof that she couldn't always rely on her magic, she would tire out eventually.

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "But... but what about Sirius? What do I do, Ethan?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Frankly, he's not really my concern at the moment. I still have my doubts that he's the one in danger."

She let out a heavy sigh. Ethan could care less about Sirius' life, so she really should've expected an answer like that.

"We made up, you know," she told him. "He apologized to me."

"Okay." He said with the same stoic expression on his face.

Another sigh. This reaction wasn't much of a surprise either.

"Why don't you just force him to come back here to New York if you're so worried?" He asked.

"I'm not taking away his autonomy again," she said firmly. "And the Order won't let him leave the house. They're keeping him stuck here, basically. I doubt Dumbledore would be happy if Sirius was to be placed in a whole different country with teenagers watching over him."

"Why exactly are you guys listening to a school principal?" Ethan asked, brows furrowed. "Does he have any war experience?"

"He, like, beat up a dark wizard a few decades ago," she answered dismissively. "But that's not important right now. I need to finish this goddamn spell..."

"Are you going to tell your uncle about the dream?" He asked her.

Her face turned white. "No," she choked out. "I can't... If he finds out... he'll go back to hating me again... I don't want to go through that a second time..."

He would hate her for getting him dragged into her demigod mess. And gods, it would be so much worse if he found out that it was her knife that he had been stabbed with in her dreams. He would never trust her if he knew about that.

(He thought she was 'bad', evil, a monster just like her father was. He may not have meant it, but he still said it.)

They just made up, she didn't want to lose him again. She didn't think she could handle it if he went back to pushing her away like he had been doing for months before. He had no qualms doing it once, he could easily do it again.

"If you have to worry about him hating you again, then his life is not worth saving," Ethan said coldly. His tone suggested that he was speaking a fact rather than giving out an (albeit harsh) opinion.

Esmerelda looked down.

"You can just come back," he continued, his voice softer and more loving. "Stay here at camp. I'll stay with you too so we can be together. Lou Ellen's here, so are Drew, Clarisse, the Stolls... Plus, you would be around when Nico calls me since camp actually has service. If you stayed at school, you wouldn't be able to hear from him. Come back home, Essie. Sirius isn't worth it. He's just going to hurt you again."

"I need to stay nearby," she said, standing her ground. "If anything happens, I won't be able to hear about it fast enough all the way at camp. At least in here, I'll be closer."

Ethan didn't look very happy to hear that. He looked pissed and scared at the same time, which was understandable given the terrible nightmare he had about her dying. In his perspective, she was the one who could possibly die and now she was throwing away her chances of survival for an uncle who—in his opinion—didn't care about her. It didn't help that she was loyal to a fault. He was terrified of losing her.

But she was terrified of losing her uncle.

"If he dies then he could come back anyways!" Ethan's voice grew more desperate as he used his last resort. "The Doors of Death are opened. He could leave and resurrect himself. He wouldn't be dead permanently."

"He would need to find a way out since I wouldn't be able to get to him. Either way, Hades would never allow him to leave," she explained. "He would order one of his employees to drag his soul back to the Underworld. I'm sorry, Ethan, but I can't come back just yet. Give me more time. Another month or two. I'll finish the spell by then and come home."

"Just a few more months," he said. "And you'll be back home where you could be properly protected."

She nodded, relieved that they were getting somewhere. "Yes. You can even come here to pick me up, if you want." She offered, knowing he wouldn't turn that down.

Ethan seemed to relax a bit after hearing that. He was about to speak up again when someone started knocking on her door.

"Essie! Breakfast is ready! Come on, we gotta hurry up! Mum says we gotta eat quickly or else we'll be late for the Hogwarts Express!" Ginny called out from the other side.

"Coming!" Esmerelda called back before turning to the Iris Message. "I have to go. I'll try and contact you later okay? Love you!"

After hearing him say 'love you' back, she finally swiped her hand through the misty image and freshened up as quickly as she could. She grabbed her luggage and hauled it down to the bottom floor where everyone else was gathering.

Once everyone finished with their hearty breakfast, they piled out of the house to board the Knight Bus.

"Try and be good," Sirius joked with her before pulling her into a tight hug.

"Stay safe," she muttered, hugging him back. When they pulled away, he gave her one last pat on the back, before letting her move on.

However, just as she was about to cross through the front door, she spotted Sirius handing Harry what looked to be a small wrapped up present. Probably a late Christmas present or something.

Anyways, everyone save for Sirius, who was stuck at Grimmauld Place, boarded the Knight Bus. The ride was just as awful as the last time she stepped foot in here several years ago. She ended up bonking heads with Ron while Hermione and Harry were thrown against the window.

They managed to reach the Hogwarts Express in one piece at least. After saying goodbyes, they stepped into the train and found compartments for themselves. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny found one with Neville and Luna, but there was no room for Esmerelda so she moved to the compartment across from theirs.

She did her best to not fall asleep, not wanting to go through another horrible dream of Sirius' dying with her knife being the murder weapon, but her eyes started to grow heavy and soon enough, she was slipping into her dreams. 

It was dark when her eyes snapped open and it was eerily dark too. The good thing was that at least she wasn't dreaming about her uncle dying anymore... but now she had no idea where she was or what was going on. 

She also felt... weak. In fact, it was as if the longer she stayed in this dream the weaker she became. It was so bad that she no longer felt like she could stand up, except there was something keeping her upright. Something forcing her to keep still. 

She tried to look around for clues, but it was too dark for her to see anything clearly. 

But she could feel... a cold mist over her body. It was hard to describe, but it was as if a dense fog had wrapped itself around her body. 

No wait, this wasn't a normal mist. It was hard to describe, but it was as if this mist had grown dense and wrapped itself around her body. She was also certain that it had something to do with her draining energy. 

"Shit..." She cursed under her breath, her lungs already heaving as if she had ran a marathon.

She strained against her bindings, but it was no use. The more she tried to free herself, the weaker she became. 

This is just a dream, she told herself. She wasn't really trapped. This was just a dream and soon she would wake and this would all be gone. 

Suddenly, she started to move. But it wasn't under her control. She felt like a marionette, with invisible strings forcing her legs to move forward. 

What the heck was going on?! She wanted to scream, but even her lips couldn't move. It felt like she had been completely taken over. Somehow, whoever was doing this was able to sap her of her strength while taking away her mobility at the same time. 

Her ears started to pick up on something the further she walked. Footsteps. Loud, heavy, footsteps. Her head was forced to look up higher and higher until she was facing skyward. It took a while, but slowly she began to see it. Color. A pair of blue eyes that glinted cold like diamonds. 

The sight of it made her breath hitch and terror seized her veins. 

But then, there was a loud SLAM and she was jolting back to consciousness. 

"Essie!" Cedric exclaimed after her burst into her compartment.

"You got to take a look at this," he said breathlessly, his eyes wide and completely oblivious to her pale face. 

She was barely able to get a word in before he slammed the compartment door shut behind him and was sitting down next to her. He was rifling through a muggle looking book bag he placed on his lap. She managed to catch a glimpse of some novels, some of them looked like they came from the wizarding world since the covers were moving, while others weren't—probably muggle then.

Cedric finally whipped out a newspaper, but not just any newspaper. It was the Le Cri de la Gargouille, the newspaper used in France.

"This happened a few weeks ago, but I had no idea how to send it to you," he said.

Esmerelda was still struggling to comprehend what the fuck her dream was about, but she was more than happy to welcome this as a distraction.

She took the newspaper he handed to her. The first thing to catch her attention was the large picture at the front of the paper. There was a crowd of wizards taking pictures of this massive mansion. It was the biggest house she had ever seen, much larger than the Malfoy Manor and much more elegant looking too.

"Can you read it? Do you need me to translate it for you?" Cedric asked her.

She shook her head confidently, "No thanks! I spent months taking French lessons on Duolingo. I got this."

Cedric looked like he wanted to ask what the heck Duolingo was but she already took the newspaper from him and tried to read it. She stared really hard at the bold headline, but the only words she could translate was 'of', 'a', 'new' and 'black'.

Sheepishly, she looked back up to Cedric. "Um, yeah, forget what I said. I need help." To be fair she hadn't used Duolingo in a while... If the Fates didn't get her first, then the Duolingo owl certainly will.

Cedric took the newspaper back and started to read. "The headlines say, 'Birth of a New Dark Wizard?'."

Esmerelda's jaw dropped. "Voldy actually reproduced?"

He looked like he was about to vomit at the mental image that popped into his head.

"No," he croaked. "It's a lot worse actually. Sort of. Hold on... "

He started to read the whole thing, and Esmerelda listened, growing more and more horrified.

Minister of Magic, Maxence Rosier, was found in the muggle streets of Yevre-le-Chatel, bleeding and in near death. He was taken to a local hospital, but aurors arrived to the scene and swiftly transferred him to Hôpital Sauveterre.

Aurors were also sent to Minister Rosier's residence, the Rosier Palace, to investigate but made a grisly discovery: the rest of the Rosier family had been slain. His parents, Lazare and Géraldine, as well as the Minister's younger sisters Odette and Bernadine, were all found dead within the walls of their house. Even more shocking was the manner of their deaths. Rather than finding evidence of a curse being used, each of the victims were killed in a more barbaric manner. Four members of the House of Rosier were killed by a brutal stab wound, save for Madame Géraldine who appeared to have been stabbed to death multiple times. The house elves have also gone missing, except for a ghost who refuses to answer Aurors' questions.

Several days after the horrible crime occurred, Minister Maxence Rosier had finally awoken and felt well enough to speak to aurors about what had happened. Boniface Robillard, esteemed head of the Bureau des Aurors, has announced that the murderer was Étienne Rosier, the youngest Rosier child and the wizard who had gone missing over the summer.

According to Minister Rosier's account, Étienne Rosier returned home around nighttime much to the surprise of his family. He quickly blew up the fireplace to prevent anyone from fleeing through the Floo Network, and also broke everyone's wands in order to keep them from apparating away or fighting back.

Étienne Rosier then ordered all house elves to seal the house in order to keep his family trapped. The family scattered around the house, trying to find ways to escape. Minister Rosier fled upstairs with his mother while his younger brother hunted the rest of his family down. He described having to hear their screams of terror while he and his mother tried to hide. Étienne Rosier then made his way upstairs, finding the pair of them. He attacked the Minister first and then, possibly thinking he was dead, attacked his mother next.

Minister Rosier was struggling to stay conscious at this point, but he recalled witnessing his younger brother brutally murdering his mother with a golden sword. He also remembered seeing another person, a teenage boy, who entered the scene. The intruder tackled Étienne Rosier away from him and the pair disappeared.

Minister Rosier described the second boy as tall and somewhere around nineteen to his early twenties. He also has similar features to Étienne: black hair and green eyes. The Minister also added that they disappeared by being sucked into the shadows, a possible form of Dark Magic that has never been heard of before.

Aurors have already contacted the muggle authorities about the two boys. Using their advanced technology, the muggle policemen were able to find 'security footage' of them in various places in the United States. Étienne Rosier has been identified, however the second boy's identity has yet to be known.

Ever since the terrible attack has happened, French wizards have been fearing the worse: a new dark wizard has been born.

Esmerelda honestly didn't know what to say once Cedric finished reading. This was awful news, but it also wasn't very surprising. As horrible as it sounded, a part of her had actually been expecting this sort of thing to happen the second she found out Hecate had introduced her half-brother to the godly world and then proceeded to leave him unsupervised.

But one question kept bugging her. Who was the other boy with Étienne? Was he another Roman demigod he met at the Wolf House? Or did their mom send a babysitter to watch out for him?

(If it was the latter, then that babysitter screwed up big time.)

"I thought you had the right to know," Cedric breathed out, slumping against his seat. "I can't believe it... Étienne actually killed... Essie," he looked at her with wide eyes. "It's crazy, don't you think? Maybe... maybe Maxence was wrong... maybe he got the wrong guy."

Esmerelda inwardly grimaced. She had almost forgotten that Cedric wasn't aware of what Étienne was truly like. In his eyes, Étienne was the same sweet boy they knew who visited their school last year for the Triwizard Tournament.

But she couldn't exactly say 'nope, it's true! Étienne's fucking crazy and he hates his family. He's actually been terrorizing them since he was a young kid and is most likely a sadist. Oh, and he's a demigod too and is also my half-brother.'.

Yeah. No way was she going to bombard poor Cedric with all of that.

"Um," she swallowed uncomfortably. "Who knows."

"I can't even imagine it," he said. "Étienne? Killing his own family? Being a dark wizard? There's... there's just no way..."

"...Yeah," she tried not to wince. "Is the Daily Prophet saying anything about this?"

"Nope," he huffed. "Apparently their greatest concern is poor service at Gringotts. Great Britain tends not to care about whatever goes on outside of them, so I'm not too surprised. Additionally, I'm sure they don't want to cover an article about a potential 'dark wizard' because it would only prompt people to talk about You-Know-Who."

She wasn't too surprised by that either.

"I just hope none of this is real," Cedric muttered, looking back at the newspaper article about the fall of the Rosier family with a pained look on his face. "Le Cri de la Gargouille isn't really a gossip newspaper like the Daily Prophet, but... I just hope they're wrong on this."

They're not, Esmerelda thought.

She thought back to the New Years Eve party that the Malfoys hosted at their manor. It was the day she discovered that the Romans were real and her half-brother was one of them, but it was also the day when Étienne's mask of innocence crumbled before her.

Knowing what he was like now, and how much he hated his family, she could only imagine the sort of horrors the Rosiers faced. Étienne most likely made sure they suffered as much as possible before they succumbed to their wounds. His mother especially must have had the worst of it. It didn't help that Étienne now had proper training from the Wolf House. He probably knew where all the lethal and most painful areas of the body were located.

She knew that the Rosiers mistreated him throughout his life. His mother hated him for being the product of her husband's affairs, his siblings ignored him for being the cause of their mother's pain and ruining what was supposed to be their perfect family, and Lazare, while he never mistreated his son, saw him more as a trophy child to brag about (which only helped to strain the relationship between the kids).

She adored her half-brother, she really did. But gods, what he had done was terrible. He even killed his own father, who was pretty much the only person in that house who didn't treat him with disdain. A lot of demigods had awful relationships with their mortal families, but she was pretty sure she never met any who had murdered their family or attempted to. Most of the time they were just kicked out or ran away...

It made her concerned. She knew Camp Jupiter was ten times stricter than Camp Half-Blood. While Camp Half-Blood took in every demigod without bothering to do any background checks, she had a feeling the Romans might be a little more concerned about that.

Would Camp Jupiter find out about his murderous background? And if they did, what would they do to him?

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Things were... weird when they finally got to Hogwarts. She and Cedric found themselves a carriage to ride on but a second after they climbed in, three more people joined. Usually, Esmerelda wouldn't have minded. It was supposed to be five in a carriage after all, except neither of the Hufflepuffs were expecting these new arrivals.

"What are you doing?" Esmerelda said blankly as she watched her cousin settle himself across from her. His two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle sat down next, looking equally as flabbergasted as the two Hufflepuffs.

"I couldn't find a carriage," Draco replied.

Crabbe shot him a confused look, "But Pansy was—"

"—How was your winter break?" Draco cut him off.

Esmerelda stared at him weirdly. There was something really off about Draco. One, he would never bother to ask anyone about their winter break, she knew he couldn't care less. Two, they haven't spoken to each other in months. The last time they did, he had stormed off because he couldn't handle being called out on his racism. And three, he looked really anxious about something but was trying to play it off.

"Um," Cedric began. "It was nice?"

"I wasn't asking you," Draco gave him his signature sneer, which was more in tune with his character. Then he cleared his throat and gave Esmerelda a forced smile. "How was your break, Essie?"

"It was good," she answered carefully, exchanging confused looks with Cedric. "I, um, visited some friends and family."

"Fa—family?" Draco gulped. "Must have been fun."

What the heck is wrong with this guy? Esmerelda wondered.

The rest of their carriage ride to the castle was awkward and quiet. Draco had stopped talking and nobody else felt comfortable enough to start a conversation after that. Throughout the ride, Esmerelda would occasionally glance at Draco and note his facial expressions and behavior. He couldn't seem to look at her anymore, and he looked sort of... ashamed with himself? Nervous? Sick? She couldn't exactly pinpoint it but it was a little concerning.

"What's up with him?" Cedric whispered curiously as they boarded off the carriages and walked up to the castle. "He's being oddly nice... to you, at least."

She shrugged. "I have no idea... maybe he realized that my mini lecture about racism was right?"

She highly doubted it though.

"Forget Draco," she said as the doors to the Entrance Hall opened. "Let's just eat."

But the next day, she couldn't help but notice that Draco was still being weird around her. They had Defense Against the Dark Arts class together right before lunch and the entire time he had been... somewhat decent.

A nice Draco was a weird Draco.

He gave her answers to the assigned classwork, even offered her his lecture notes when he noticed her slacking off. It was abnormal. The way he behaved reminded her of little siblings who really fucked up with their older siblings, except the older one wasn't aware of it yet so the little one was trying to be super nice in order to soften them up once they did find out.

Naturally, it made her feel a bit suspicious, but she didn't bother to try and figure out what was going on with him. He was probably going through an existential crisis or whatever—definitely not something she wanted to get in the middle of.

When class ended and lunch began, she almost expected Draco to try and spoon feed her or something equally as ridiculous, but thankfully, he joined the rest of his Slytherin friends to their table.

Half an hour into lunch, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

She turned around. "Harry? What's up?"

"Are you done eating? Sorry, I just need your help with something," he said sheepishly.

She shoved the last bit of her breadstick into her mouth before walking out with Harry.

"Okay, what did you need help with?"

"Well, first off, Dumbledore's told Snape to give me lessons on this thing called Occlumency. Don't ask me what it is, because I don't know. I think it's something like shielding your mind from mind-readers or whatever. But anyways, I'll be having these lessons after classes so I can't—"

"—Hold on," she stopped him. "Occlumency?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I never heard of it until now. I don't get what it is, but everyone reckons it'll stop Voldemort from spying and planting things in my head."

"Oh! That's good then, right? Except for the Snape part of course," she chirped.

Harry didn't seem to share the sentiment. "I dunno... The visions could be useful don't you think? I mean, I managed to save Mr. Weasley with them, so they can't be that bad..."

Esmerelda gave him an uncertain look.

Demigods received visions too, mostly in the form of dreams. Sure they could be tricky, but they weren't purposefully manipulative like Harry's visions could be. They didn't exactly have any prophetic qualities to it like demigod dreams did. Plus, his visions were from Voldemort who wasn't exactly the most reliable person in the world.

"It's best not to trust them, Harry." She advised. "Voldemort could be using them to trick you. My best bet is that he gave you one vision that turns out to be true in order to get you to lower your guard. Then he gives you one false vision that you end up believing and the next thing you know it's a trap."

His face fell at her warning.

She put on a bright smile anyways. "So good luck on your Occlumency lessons!"

"Thanks," he said weakly.

"But what was that thing you needed my help with?" She asked curiously.

He composed himself, his eyes glinting. "Everyone in the DA has been really annoying me about the when our next meeting's going to be, and I haven't gotten any time to create a schedule thanks to the Occlumency lessons Snape's giving me, so... I was wondering if you could substitute for me."

There was a wide smile on his face as he asked her this.

Esmerelda gasped, her eyes growing wide. "Y-you want me to teach your class?" Her voice nearly broke at the end. She looked two seconds away from weeping tears of joy.

"Yep," he replied.

Ever since Zacharias overheard him and Ron talking about his 'remedial potions lessons', he had been going around talking bad about him to other members of the DA. Most likely to make him look like a bad teacher in front of everyone.

Having Esmerelda teach (read: torture) them in his stead would help the students appreciate him more. Plus, he knew how hopeful she was to get a chance to teach, so giving her this opportunity would make her happy.

He was pretty much killing two birds with one stone. Esmerelda would be happy while Zacharias and other DA kids would finally stop talking bad about him.

"Oh my gods," Esmerelda was excitedly waving her arms like she was fanning herself. The bright grin she wore could've split her face in half. "Oh my gods, this is amazing! I actually get to teach you guys! Thank you, Harry, oh my gods, thank you!"

"It's no problem," Harry said, smiling back. The image of a half-dead Zacharias popped into his head.

"What should I teach them?" She asked eagerly. "Should I teach them bombarda? Hexes? Or—or—"

"—Train them the same way you trained me, Cedric, and Étienne last year," he said. "It was very, um, effective."

"That's a great idea!" She exclaimed.

"And I think you should give Zacharias and his friends a little more help," he added. "I noticed they've been slacking off a lot."

"Got it! I'll make sure to train them extra hard!" She promised. "Oh I can't wait to finally teach everyone...!"

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For the rest of the week, Esmerelda was buzzing with excitement until the day finally came. She wished Harry luck with his Occlumency lessons while he thanked her once again for filling in for him.

Hermione, unfortunately, ended up getting a headache right before classes started so she wasn't able to participate on the lesson. She was still attending at least!

Ron shot her a confused look when she talked about her headache. "Why don't you just go to Madam Pomfrey for a—"

"—Shush!" Hermione hissed at him viciously.

He cocked his head back, offended.

"You should really do the same, Ron," she told him urgently as more students entered the Room of Requirement. She shot a look over at Esmerelda, who was happily greeting them and was too distracted to notice their quiet conversation. "Tell her you've got a headache too, or you aren't feeling well."

He furrowed his brows, "But why?"

"Just trust me," she urged him. "You do not want her to train you! Now tell her before it's too late!"

Ron was about to retort but the panic in her face made him take this a little more seriously. Still confused, he nodded anyways and walked over to Esmerelda.

"Hey, uh, Essie?" He said uncertainly.

She beamed. "Yeah?"

"I, um, I'm not feeling too well, I think it's my stomach," he lied.

Her face fell. "Oh no... do you want me to walk you over to the hospital wing?"

"No, it's okay. I would rather sit over at the side with Hermione," he explained, jabbing a finger to the other girl's direction. Hermione was sitting on a comfy looking chair along the wall.

"Aww, okay, that's fine then. Hope you feel better!" She said.

The last person to arrive as Ron joined Hermione at the sidelines was Cedric, and he looked around in confusion due to the lack of Harry. He didn't like the way Esmerelda was standing at the center of the room, like she was a teacher about to start a class... Frankly, he unnerved by it all.

Before he could ask where Harry was, Esmerelda let out a sharp whistle to catch everyone's attention.

"Sorry everyone, but Harry's not here today—"

"—Yeah, he's busy with his remedial lessons with Snape, isn't he?" Zacharias snorted in amusement.

The students looked amongst each other, muttering things like 'Harry? Remedial lessons? He's that bad?'

"I didn't know Snape offered remedial lessons..." Padma muttered.

"He doesn't unless you're really hopeless," Zacharias chortled to her.

"Wait," Cedric spoke up, his face paling as realization dawned on him. "If... if Harry's not here to teach, then who...?"

The happy smile she wore looked bloodthirsty to him. "I'm so glad you asked, Ced! Since Harry's going to be busy during some days, he's asked me to substitute for him! So I'm going to be your teacher today! Isn't that great?"

Cedric nearly fainted from the horror. He stumbled back until he bumped into a student.

"You're going to teach us?" Zacharias actually looked intrigued this time. "Are you gonna teach us any wandless and nonverbal magic?"

"Wandless? Definitely not, it'd take you guys too long for that and we'd have to start at the most basic spells. So no wandless lessons, sorry, but you will be learning nonverbal magic. Or at least, you better if you wanna make it out one piece..." The last part was muttered, but a couple people heard it.

"Um... I'm sorry?" Hannah said.

"Don't worry about it!" She waved a dismissive hand. "Harry doesn't want me teaching you any spells—that's too boring. Instead I'll be giving you proper training on how to actually last in a fight against a death eater. But first... I need to change the room..."

According to Harry, all she needed to do was think about what she wanted and the Room of Requirement would bend to her will. So she clenched her eyes shut and thought hard about a training room she wanted.

Zacharias started to get impatient. "Merlin, does she even know what to do—"

The words died out in her throat as the room started to shift into something of his nightmares. Everyone's hearts sank once the room finished changing.

Esmerelda's version of a training room was like a hellscape. The room grew larger—around the size of the Quidditch field. For the muggle-borns, it looked like a huge training facility, except it was weaponized with swinging axes, arrow slits on the walls, a large set of monkey bars with a frightening amount of spikes underneath it, and a bunch of other concerning things.

"Bloody hell," Ron whispered. He turned to give Hermione a grateful look. "Thank you so much for warning me."

"You're welcome," she responded, nodding seriously.

Esmerelda opened her eyes and gasped excitedly as she took in the new room. "This is perfect!"

People looked at her in horror.

"Alright everyone! Before we start, I made a little locker room so you all can change into more appropriate workout clothes! Now hurry and get dressed!" She announced, clapping her hands.

Cedric was the first to move, looking as if he had resigned himself to his fate. Everyone followed a few seconds after, looking deeply anxious about what was to come. They all came out dressed in new workout clothes and running shoes, much to her approval.

"You guys look great!" She beamed at them. "Now first we're gonna start with a warmup! Ten laps around the whole room!"

"What?!" They all shrieked, save for a miserable looking Cedric.

"How is that a warmup?!" Zacharias sputtered.

"And while you guys are running," she continued on as if she never heard them, the cheery smile still on her face. "I'm going to shoot spells at you and it's your job to either dodge them or conjure a shield charm on time. But, if I hear you say the incantation out loud, I add one extra lap for everyone!"

"WHAT?"

"We can't do that, are you crazy?!"

"But we don't know how to do it nonverbally!"

"Fear is a great motivator!" She said happily. "Trust me, it works! Besides, you could always dodge! Just follow Cedric's lead!"

A lot of curious looks were thrown his way.

The poor boy sighed and explained, "She was my trainer for the Triwizard Tournament."

(Honestly, the months he spent training under her was one of the most traumatizing things he ever experienced that year, just second behind witnessing Voldemort's revival.)

"Now let's start everyone!" Esmerelda said giddily. "And afterwards I'll have you guys run through the axe course to test your timing skills—be careful though since there's gonna be arrows shot at you!—then I'll have you climb across the monkey bars to help strengthen your arms, and lastly, you guys will do some simple sparring matches with each other—no deaths or maiming allowed by the way—oh, but if it gets too boring I'll join in to make it more fun! Any questions?"

Almost every hand went up, but she just clapped her hands together and beamed. "Great! Now let's start!"

Nobody moved, save for Cedric who immediately began running. When no one joined him, he shook his head, knowing what was going to come next.

Esmerelda's smile dimmed a little.

"I'm sorry," she chuckled. "I said, 'let's start'!"

A red glow encased her hand, the telltale sign of a stunning spell. She pulled her arm back like she was ready to throw it, and that was when everyone screamed and booked for it.

"Man," Ron watched the scene in awe. "Harry's absolutely evil. I can't believe he had Essie teach just 'cause everyone was annoying him so much..."

"Half of these kids are going to be dead by the end of the night," Hermione said mournfully, grimacing when one of them got a stunner to the back (she was pretty sure it was Zacharias).

"She actually had Harry do this last year?" Ron paled.

"Something like it, but without the equipment," she replied. "Though... I'm sure if she was aware of the Room of Requirement back then, Harry definitely would've suffered a lot more..."

"Run faster, everyone! Come on, I know eight year old kids who could do better than this!" Esmerelda called out before shooting a stunner.

It went for Neville, who shrieked in terror and waved his wand. The stunner clashed against his shield, and Esmerelda broke out into applause.

"Great job, Neville! That was your first nonverbal spell!" She cheered.

Neville was too busy panting to thank her for that, so he continued running.

The torture didn't stop for the students once they were done running. Esmerelda immediately sent them to the axe course and with a snap of her fingers, triggered the traps on the walls. Arrows shot out from the arrow slits, and she explained, with a smile, that they would have to cross it without being hit.

Cedric was the first to go, and he actually managed to do it flawlessly. Everyone else though... wasn't so great. The only good thing was that Esmerelda would actually protect them whenever they were close to getting struck by an arrow or cut in half by the axes, but they wished she had told them this before letting them go through with the course.

The monkey bars weren't that fun either. They all had terrible arm strength and none of them could really make it even halfway, save for Cedric who almost finished. By the time that course was done, everyone was too weak to even lift up their wands.

And lastly... lastly were the sparring matches. Everyone was put up in pairs to duel each other while Esmerelda walked around to observe them. A lot of the kids either didn't know what to do, or dueled in the traditional way which was to basically just stand around shooting spells at each other.

Not exactly exciting. Whereas Cedric defeated his opponent too quickly, which was also not that exciting.

So naturally, Esmerelda had no choice but to step in and spice it up a little by shooting hexes at each pair until they became less boring.

"Move, people, move! Do you think Death Eaters are going to respect the rules of a traditional duel? NO! So stop standing around and get moving!" She shouted. "Haven't any of you heard of DODGING?"

"She's got a point," Ron muttered to Hermione. "I think we should have Harry do sparring matches too, just, um... a more safer version than this."

"I agree," she nodded. "We'll have to tell him after his lesson tonight."

By the end of the class, everyone was on the floor in various degrees of pain. Esmerelda stood before them, that same smile still plastered on her face as she looked down on everyone's battered forms.

"Well, you all did terrible," she said as nicely as possible. "No offense of course. Cedric, you were good though, we just need to work on your arms a little more. Everyone else... well, let's hope whoever tries to kill you guys are weaker and dumber. You all are physically out of shape and don't know how to survive in a real fight, but that's okay! I'll be more than happy to teach you all again whenever Harry asks me too!"

Everyone shuddered. Someone in the back even started to weep.

"Fortunately for us, Harry's going to be busy all of next week so I get to teach you for those days!" She announced cheerily. "Yay us, right?"

They turned white with terror.

"Oh and," she added, her smile turning more sharp. "If any of you don't show up, I will personally hunt you down and make you participate. Understood?"

Everyone nodded excessively.

"Great! Class dismissed!"

— author's note —

I WONDER WHO IT WAS ESSIE SAW IN HER DREAM???? HMMM WHO COULD IT BE??? WHAT COULD IT MEAN??? 🤔 🤔 🤔

(It's hella important so it's time to put your thinking caps on >:D)

The Duolingo owl when it realizes Essie hasn't shown up for her French lessons:

The DA by the time Voldemort and his Death Eaters attack Hogwarts:

(Get it? Cuz Harry only had that one day of training back in fourth year and then never trained again 😂 😂 😂)