Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Forty Seven

Piper watched, quietly, as Esme read over the letter in her hands. She wasn't quite suspicious, just concerned. This was about the sixth mysterious letter Esme had received and she refused to explain it to Piper.

"Did you say something?" Esme looked up suddenly as she reached the end of the letter.
Piper shook her head, "No."
"Oh."

Esme turned back to the letter and after a few more moments, she finished and finally pocketed the parchment out of sight.

"Esmerelda, I know you kind of have you own issues to deal with at the moment." Piper began quietly, "But we didn't really properly talk about what I said the other day."

"What did you say?" She asked.
"Esmerelda!" Piper hissed.
"Oh." She remembered, "Right, yes."

"You know you can't tell anybody, right?" Piper urged.
Esme sighed, "I know, of course. I wouldn't ever put you at risk."

"Thank you."

Esme smiled at the girl and then leant down to reach into her bag, in search of a book. After a while of rustling around, she pulled out one of the studies of occlumency- although it was proving to be quite difficult to master that specific field of magic by reading alone.

"I spoke to Regulus, too." Piper spoke up.
"Oh?"

"Have you spoken to him recently?" She asked.
"Um..." Esme hesitated, "I suppose."
"You suppose?"
"We've both been busy. I don't really remember. Why?"

Piper snatched the book from Esme and slammed it shut, holding it out of reach as she asked, "Don't you think you should talk to him?"

Esme tried to reach across to grab the book but missed, so she grumbled, "Is something wrong?"
"You are dense, huh?"

"Merlin, what did I do?" Esme exclaimed sharply.

"You're avoiding him." Piper bluntly stated.
"No I'm not."
"Yeah, you are."
"No."

Piper scoffed, "I've had my fair share of boyfriends to hide behind and... I also know what it's like to avoid boys. You're avoiding him. Why? What did Regulus do?"

"He didn't do anything." She mumbled.
Piper sighed, "I get you're trying to be some sort of hero who protects everyone, but Regulus thinks he did something wrong."

"He does?" Esme's face fell. She'd been so busy trying to keep her distance from him that it had never occurred to her how Regulus would be feeling.

Piper smiled softly, "He gets more attention from Egeria than he does you."

"Alright, fine!" Esme exclaimed as she rose to her feet, "You win. Now you can put that book back."
"Pleasure." Piper grinned broadly as she placed the book back down on the table in front of her and continued to grin as Esme walked away in search of Regulus.

Regulus Black was slowly trudging down to the quidditch stands, on his way to yet an other quidditch practice session. The new Slytherin captain seemed to be particularly paranoid about the Gryffindor team. Apparently they had a new captain too and they would be against each other in the first match of the year, which was only next week.

"Reggie! Not still sulking, are you?" Selwyn chuckled obnoxiously loud as he slung his arm around the taller boy's shoulders and tugged him into his side.

"Get off." Regulus shoved him away.
"I got to tell you..." Selwyn continued, "I'd probably feel the same if Avery dumped me. You really let a fine piece go there."

"Selwyn," Regulus sighed, trying not to shout at the stupid boy, "Just stop talking."

"Alright, as long as you still play well. Lucinda might kick us all off the team if we lose this first match." Selwyn spat.