Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Thirty Two

"Wait! Hold up! Stop a second!"

"Come on, slow down! Esme, I'm actually out of breath. How do you walk to fast?"

"Esme, come on. Just hold on for a moment."

Finally, Esme came to a halt and turned to face Regulus. He jogged the final few metres up to meet her, and realised he didn't quite have a plan for what he needed to say.

"I need to go." Esme mumbled.
Sighing with exasperation, he said, "Just stop for a minute. Think this through."

"Think it through? Regulus, people have died!"
"Esme!" He exclaimed, looking around their surroundings as a few bystanders stared over at them with confusion, "Let's talk about this outside."

"No! I'm not talking about this. Somebody needs to pay for this, and I'm going to see it through. " She shot back and turned to walk away.
He tugged on her arm now, spinning her back around to face him, "I get you're angry, I understand why. We're all scared, but you can't fly off the rails just because a good excuse comes along."

Esme tore her arm out of his grip, "You-you think I'm mad about this as an excuse to complain about the Death Eaters - an excuse to throw a fuss about becoming one? I can't believe you! Dirk is my friend... My best friend and his, or his loved one's, safety is not being put at risk under my watch. This stops now."

"So what? So you are going to singlehandedly take on the Dark Lord? Listen to yourself. You're not being rational." He urged.
She scoffed, "Rational! The whole world is insane, there is no rational."

"Esme..." Regulus sighed finally, running a hand through his hair and tugging on the ends of it, "Just... Pretend you trust me, just for a moment."
"I do trust you. Completely and utterly." She admitted quietly.

"There's no need-"
"Regulus, I do trust you." Esme insisted, "I shouldn't have accused you - I just need to blame someone. Somebody is at fault for this. They need to pay for this."

"You need to listen to me." Regulus persisted, reaching out to take Esme's hand and pulling her around the corner at the end of the corridor so they were out of sight of other students. They stood together, looking at each other for a moment as the gravity of the situation set in on them. "If you truly care about Dirk, you need to go to him. You need to be with him and support him through this - he's going to be distraught. Running around shouting at Slytherins isn't going to help anybody. You go to Dirk, I'll talk to your brother and see what I can find out."

Regulus was nearly knocked off his feet as Esme threw her arms around the boy and tugged him towards her. "Thank you." She mumbled into the crook of his neck. Heat flushed up to the boy's cheeks, bringing the faint trace of a smile to his lips as he gently wrapped his arms around her.

"For what?" He asked.
Her fingers combed through the hair at the nape of his neck, "For putting up with me. For not getting mad. For helping me see sense. Nobody else can."
"Anytime." Regulus replied quietly.

"For the record," She added, "I do trust you. I trust you more than I trust myself. I'm... I'm sorry I implied otherwise."
"You don't need to apologise for anything. You have every right to mistrust me. I've hurt you before, I'm becoming a Death Eater; it's not a good look."

Esme pulled away from him, her arms still loosely hooked around his shoulders as she looked up at him with a frown on her face. "Regulus, you're a good person. Don't ever think otherwise."

"You help me be a better person. I'm braver because of you." He smiled, leaning in so their noses brushed against each other.
"I don't make you better or braver. You were always like that. I'm just slowly convincing you of it." She raised a hand to the side of his face and grazed her thumb over his cheek.