Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Seventy Three

"Oh, Selwyn..." Regulus greeted with a nervous chuckle as he combed his fingers through his hair, "Good to see you, buddy."
Selwyn was not impressed in the slightest as he bit back, "What did you just say, buddy?"

"I believe we were talking about the possibility that stupidity is contagious." Esme sharply interjected, "I sure hope it isn't because just this mere conversation with you could be putting me at risk."

Selwyn frowned in confusion, "I don't g-"
"Give it a minute." She replied with a scoff.

"Esme... Maybe now isn't the best time-" Regulus was cut off as the puzzle pieces connected in Selwyn's mind and he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh you rude cow! I ought to curse you, Avery - you piece of shit!"

For once in her life, Esme was completely caught off guard at genuinely being insulted. "I-a-wh-" She stammered, blinking quickly as she processed what had actually happened - unable to even begin coming up with a sly comeback.

However, Regulus' wit wasted no time in bursting out.
"That's rich coming from you! You're lucky I don't punch you, but I wouldn't want my hands touching the guy who is biologically one degree of separation away from being an actual piece of shit." The raven-haired boy spat venomously.

"Black-"
"Don't you dare." Regulus harshly wanted, "I'm telling you to walk away, so you better. Now."

After a few tense moments of the boys glaring at each other, eventually Selwyn appeared to decide the disagreement wasn't worth causing a scene, and promptly turned to leave.
Regulus watched him walk away, and had almost forgotten where exactly they were until Esme mumbled in his ear, "Thanks for that. Though it might have been nice to emphasise that I'm not actually a piece of shit."

"Oh gee, well would you like me to run after Selwyn to tell him that? Because I'm not sure that'll make a difference either way." Regulus replied with a sigh, rubbing his temples as he felt the anger fading away.

Esme slid her hands around his arm and hugged it against her body, "I might need to go to the Hospital Wing - something's got to be wrong with me if I can be made speechless by Selwyn. What you did was very attractive though." She smiled.
"Yes, thank you." He shrugged, quite happy with himself, "I know."

"You really have a knack for going from hot to irritating in the blink of an eye." Esme rolled her eyes as she watched a wide grin grow on the boy's face.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment before they started to laugh.
No joke had been told, of course, but it was one of those things that happen. One of those things where people who know each other so well, and have done for so long, can communicate without words and in ways neither of them entirely understand.
Perhaps it was how ridiculous their lives had become (pranking and partying in the midst of a wizarding war) or simply the fact that this was the beginning of an inside joke between them, but they could barely control their breath as they laughed together.

"Sorry, erm... Back to..." Regulus paused for a moment to catch his breath as he held a hand over his chest, "Back to what you were doing before. You can't leave the party early."

Esme sighed, "Why, exactly?"
"Well... I don't really have a good reason but you can't." He shook his head and stepped back slightly to look down at the dress again, "Let's be honest, I'm probably not going to see you wear this dress ever again am I?"

An involuntary smile emerged across her mouth, "I used to think you were like an old man, but you're a proper teenager, aren't you?"
"I'm just saying, if you wore this every single day forever, you'd hear no complaints from me."

Esme narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment, looking around the room before she turned to face Regulus again and held out her hand, "If I'm going to stay at this god awful party, for appearances only, you'll have to dance with me."