Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Five

Esmeralda stretched her legs out in front of her, reclining in the arm chair in front of the fire. Around her, the sound of early morning birds chirped high up in the Ravenclaw Tower. Nobody else was awake yet and that sweet serenity was like music to the girl's ears.

Although this didn't last long.

"It's a bit early for anyone to be up, isn't it?"

She turned in her chair, dragging her gaze away from the fire, to see a rather dishevelled Dirk Cresswell making his way towards her.

"It is. So why are you?" She questioned, turning back around.

Dirk collapsed onto the sofa, running his hand through his hair to flatten it slightly and make it appear as though he hadn't just rolled out of bed. "I was planning on heading to the library. to continue working on my essay."He explained.
"Planing in doing that without the essay with you?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Forgot about that."

Esmeralda narrowed her eyes, "Or you weren't going to the library? You know I get good grades for a reason. I'm not stupid."
"Those two facts don't necessarily correlate." Dirk pointed out.

"Shut up, Cresswell." She half-smiled.

Dirk rolled his eyes and turned to face her, "Truth is I had a manic summer. I didn't get a single moment of peace from any of my friends. I think I was more tired and stressed over the holidays than I've ever been at school. I just wanted so alone time."

"Uncomfortable, or indeed comfortable, silence is my specialty. Feel free to sit in peace and I won't say another word." Esmeralda replied, leaning back and sinking down in the chair as she opened up her book. Dirk smiled at this, although he hid it from the girl, and closed his eyes for some much needed tranquility.

They sat in silence for a while, neither feeling any need to break the ice or address the lack of conversation. Thankfully, they were quite comfortable in only each other's company. This was at least until the first years started to eagerly bound down the steps into the common room.

"Merlin... We weren't ever that noisy. Were we?" Dirk rubbed his eyes tiredly as he leant forward, frowning at the harsh noise of chatter and occasional shouting.
"I wasn't. You, Mr. Popular, might have been." Esmeralda sniggered.

"That's not true!" A first year yelled as the leant over a desk to show various points on the page of the open book to the other students that gathered round. "There's no way that's real. It's not possible!"

Esmeralda sighed before turning around to face the group of eleven year olds. "No offence, but shut up; you're annoying." She glared at them coldly, startling a few of the young boys as she slammed the book shut and they moved away to the corner of the room.

"She was only joking." Dirk called out after them, "She didn't mean it. You guys are fine. Need any help with anything?"

Clearly, the first year students were still a little tentative as they chose to ignore Dirk's attempts at offering assistance.

"Brilliant. Now they hate us." He muttered, turning back around with a huff.
Esmeralda raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, "And why do you care?"

"I'm a nice person. In fact, I'm a pretty damn brilliant person and they'll forever think I'm horrid now." Dirk sighed, sinking down in his seat.
She laughed lightly, "I thought you were a prefect. Just make them like you; you have power."

Dirk shook his head, "I think I've realised why you don't have any other friends."

"Cresswell! Ouch." Esmeralda held a hand over her heart, pretending to have been shot.

"Don't pretend you even care." He chuckled.
She only rolled her eyes in response to this, before adding "Alright, whatever."

The clock stood beside one of the enormous windows chimed, signalling that it was seven in the morning on the dot.

"Guess I'm off down for breakfast then." Esmeralda closed her book and rose from her seat, smiling warmly down at the boy. Just as she reached the common room door, before pulling it open, she turned back to Dirk and opened her mouth.

"If you see Piper, tell her I wouldn't mind grabbing lunch some time." She smirked, startling the boy before once again leaving him in peace, which caused her to chuckle.

Esmeralda pulled the door shut behind her with a creek, and began quietly descending the stairs of the tower. She had barely made it to the bottom of the stairs before she was violently tugged by her arm out of the door and into the courtyard of the school.

"Merlin's beard, what are you doing?" Esmeralda yanked her arm free, spinning around to face who had grabbed her, before adjusting her words, "What are you doing?"

Regulus folded his arms and glared at the girl. "Don't lie to me. What did you say to Kreacher? I need to know. You need to tell me."

The girl straightened out her robes and smirked, "Why exactly had this gotten your wand in a knot? What does it matter? Why do you care?"

"I trust Kreacher more than I trust my own parents. Now he has a secret he's pretending he doesn't even know about. This is your doing. How and why did you do that?" Regulus snapped, rising his head to reveal the deep set and dark bags that lay under his eyes.

"Sucks doesn't it? Being left out. Especially when you've done nothing wrong." Esmeralda spat, her voice laced with venom.
"W-what?"

"Don't you remember? Because I do. I remember when I sat up on that stool in the Great Hall four years ago. The sorting hat was placed on my head and it said Ravenclaw. Since that moment, none of you ever spoke to me. Everybody looked at me differently. All of my childhood friends were disgusted and my parents still refuse to let me make any of my own decisions. We're in our fifth year now and still nobody has realised how wrong that is. Back off Regulus. Leave me alone." Esmeralda snarled, shoving past the boy and storming back into the castle in search of some breakfast and some peace and quiet.

Regulus stood out in the courtyard for a while after Esmeralda had left. He remembered when him, Esme and Liza Rosier had all been best friends. The three of them used to be joined at the hip when they were younger, always laughing obnoxiously loud about things their parents would never understand. At six years old they had promised to remain best friends for the rest of their lives. At eleven years old, that promise what shattered.

Truth be told, Regulus had never really thought too much about it. His parents had insisted Esme wasn't who they thought she was. They had insisted he wasn't to speak to her or even look at her in school. Regulus, being Regulus, obeyed.

However after uncovering the fact that the one soul in this world he truly trusted was keeping a secret from him, everything had changed. He needed to know what made Esmeralda so special. He needed to know what he was missing out on.

This was only the beginning of the problems Regulus would face as he attempted to solve the mystery that was Esmeralda.

They used to know every single detail about each other's lives and now they were nothing more than strangers, acquaintances at most.