Esme sat quietly in the Great Hall, scrawling away hurriedly on the parchment as she raced to meet the deadline for all of the class work she'd been neglecting. It wasn't exactly like she could get an extension on the grounds of soon becoming a Death Eater.
It had only been a couple of days since that trip to Hogsmeade, and Esme had been keeping herself occupied with studying so hadn't seen Regulus at all. Yet he had massively helped pull her out of the darkness regarding the news from her father and Esme had moved on to coping with the situation by making morbid and quite dark jokes about her circumstances. Although, they were often told to herself in the mirror as she dared not to tell a single soul apart from Regulus.
"Esmerelda!" Piper hissed sliding into the seat beside Esme and pulling out some books from her back but not opening a single one of them. Esme raised an eyebrow, suspecting that the other girl hadn't joined her simply to study.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
The older girl leaned in close, resting her chin in her hands as she waited to have full attention. After a moment Esme sighed, knowing Piper wouldn't back off until she paid attention. So Esme turned her head and nearly fell backwards off the seat when she saw how close Piper's face was.
"Lord, Pipes..." Esme placed a hand over her heart, "What is it you need?"
"I need to talk to you about something." She replied shortly, tucking some hair behind her ear and glancing past Esme to the intimidating Professor Vector was pacing in front of the teacher's table.
Esme turned back to her work, rifling through books in search of the sheet of notes she'd misplaced, "Go ahead."
"Esme, it's just-"
"Esmerelda."
"Right, yes, sorry. It's just, this is really important." Piper urged.
"Ladies..." Professor Vector leaned over between the two students, "You are aware this is silent study. Do you know what that means?"
Esme pursed her lips together, closing her eyes as she made a mental note to wind up the Professor later.
"Yes, sorry Professor." Piper spoke up, smiling sweetly at the older woman as she stood up straight.
Professor Vector narrowed her eyes, a glimmer temporarily showing, "I don't recall that being the definition of silent study."
"Oh! Well, that would be doing work quietly." Piper innocently fluttered her eyelashes.
Vector was not impressed; she quipped, "Is quiet the same as silent?"
"No, sorry Professor."
"Right, good." Professor Vector cast her eyes between the two girls before finally turning away and continuing to pace the rest of the hall.
Esme watched with narrow eyes as the professor walked away, "I would love to see her suffer."
"Don't say that!" Piper swatted the girl's arm with a grin.
"Whatever." The brunette rolled her eyes and turned back to her studies.
They sat for a moment, Piper cautiously watching as Esme continued to scrawl out an essay over the tattered sheets of parchment. "Esmerelda... I, um, need to talk to you about something."
"Shoot." She replied.
She clenched her jaw, unsure of how exactly to broach the subject. "This is really important..." Piper began, "It's just... Esmerelda."
The younger girl was not paying attention.
"Esmerelda!" Piper exclaimed, clicking her fingers in front of Esme's face.
"Yes." Looking up, Esme was yet again startled by how close Piper was sat, "Merlin, Piper, what is going on with you?"
"I need to tell you something." She complained.
"Okay." Esme put down her quill and held her hands up, "You have my full attention. Go."
"Well... I told Dirk last week... What it is, is-"
"Oh!" Esme gasped, suddenly clapping her hands over her mouth as she realised. Instantly, the two girls turned to see if they had caught Professor Vector's attention, but luckily she was occupied scolding some Gryffindor students. "Why does everyone think you and Dirk are going out? You're clearly not. Is this some bizarre rumour you've started? Because Dirk might spontaneously self combust from anxiety if he hears that."
"It's nothing-well... It's kind of to do with that. Dirk knows... It was his idea really." She badly attempted an explanation.
Esme scoffed, "It was his idea? Dirk asked you out?"
"Not like that." She hissed.
"Sure, whatever you say." Esme quipped snarkily, with a smirk.
Piper lost complete track of what she had been trying to admit as she replied, "You haven't been around to know what's actually going on with us. You're practically tied to Regulus' hip! And you still haven't told me what happened to you when you were so upset the other week."
"Watch it." Esme warned, turning back to her work as she tried not to roll her eyes at the older girl.
Piper slumped down in her seat and let out a sigh. She didn't want to cross any lines with Esme - the girl was notoriously private. However, Piper had worked herself up so much to get the courage to try and talk to Esme and it was infuriating that Esme wouldn't take her seriously. Piper couldn't exactly blame her, she didn't know how serious the matter was. Yet Piper was urgent to come out to Esme; Dirk was very uncomfortable keeping secrets and it had been stressing him out more than usual.
"Ladies."
Esme inhaled sharply, cursing under her breath as both she and Piper turned in their seats to be face to face with Professor Vector yet again.
"Yes, professor?" Piper grinned sweetly, tilting her head to the side and flipping some of her golden hair over her shoulder.
"If you aren't studying, you need to leave. You're disrupting other students."
Esme looked around, noting that there were no students sat nearby.
"Sorry, professor. It won't happen again." Piper nodded reassuringly.
Professor Vector turned up her nose, "Miss Horix, you haven't opened your book since you arrived. I think it's best if you both leave."
Esme's jaw dropped open, "You're joking?"
"I assure you, Miss Avery, I most certainly am not joking."
She scoffed, "Why should I have to leave?"
"I said so." The professor stated bluntly.
"Come on, let's just go." Piper tugged on Esme's arm as she begrudgingly packed up her books into her bag and swung it over her shoulder. Esme turned to Piper, "There's quite possibly nobody I hate more than her." She whispered.
"Thank you, ladies." Professor Vector sneered as the two girls walked past her, making their way out of the Great Hall.
Piper laughed slightly, "Merlin, you do love to exaggerate."
"It's not exaggeration." Esme argued, "That woman is the worst person I have ever met. I think being so pedantic should be a crime."
"What about Regulus?"
Esme coughed, pretending to clear her throat as they came to a stop in the empty corridor and she faced Piper. "What do you mean?" She asked.
"It's just... Regulus is quite pedantic. Yet, you seem to like him plenty enough." Piper giggled, knowing this world push Esme's buttons.
"Yes, well, Regulus is an idiot." Esme replied shortly, tucking some hair behind her ear.
"Whatever you say." Piper grinned, "When are you two getting together, anyway?"
"None of your business."
"Oh!" She exclaimed with excitement and glee, "So you are getting together?"
"I..." Esme started, "Have to go and finish my mountain of essays in the library. I'll see you at dinner. Goodbye." She swerved answering anymore of Piper's intrusive questions. Esme commonly referred to conversations with Piper as inquisitions - the older girl seemed to have no sense of privacy about her, she would share any and everything about her day, no matter how disinterested everyone was.
"You didn't say no!" Piper called out as Esme walked away from her. Although she did notice one thing... Esme turned left at the end of the corridor. Left to go outside. Not to the library.
Once the girl was out of sight, Piper realise she had completely missed talking to Esme about what she had originally planned on. As time went on, it was increasingly difficult to find Esme alone as she was spending so much of her time with Regulus. This was making things difficult when it came to trying to have a serious, private conversation with Esme.
Dirk had noticed it too. Esme was becoming much more distant from them, but they didn't know why.
Esme, however, was completely oblivious to what was going on with Dirk and Piper. She adjusted her bag over her shoulder as she marched out to the courtyard, knowing that's exactly where Regulus Black would be sat reading.
She had noticed it, whilst writing her Potions essay. Esme kept accidentally writing Regulus' name instead of ingredients for the practical she was planning. At one point, she had scribbled out his name so many times she had needed to start over on a fresh piece of parchment.
Esme was beginning to suspect she might actually go insane if she didn't finally do what she'd wanted to do for some time.
"Why didn't you want to open that letter from Andromeda?"
Slowly, Regulus looked up from the book in his lap and smiled warmly at the sight of the girl.
"Well?" She asked.
He closed the book, "Lovely to see you too."
"I'm serious." Esme put her hands on her hips as she stood in front of him, "Why didn't you want to open the letter? It wasn't just hesitation; you never wanted to open that letter."
"Esme." Regulus sighed, "I don't know what you're talking about."
She scoffed, "Yes you do."
"This isn't really the place I want to talk about this." He glanced around at all of the other students out in the courtyard, making the most of the unusually warm weather.
Esme replied, "Real shame."
"Right, all right. Fine." Regulus massaged him temples for a moment before looking back up at Esme, "It didn't matter what was in the letter. Nothing could have changed."
"What do you mean?"
He lowered his voice considerably, so it was just above a whisper, "I... I didn't know for certain, but I suspected your father would make you a Death Eater."
Esme fell into the seat beside him, clutching the bench beneath her and staring at the floor. "Why... Why didn't you say anything? What did you know?"
"I didn't know anything, I promise. It just made sense for him to want to do that. At first, I didn't want to say anything because I though I was protecting you. I wasn't though, it was cowardly of me because I simply didn't want to upset you. I was trying to keep you happy for as long as I could, so I never said anything." He explained quietly, watching Esme intently the whole fine.
Her eyebrows knitted together as she thought, "Why would that mean you didn't want to open Andromeda's letter?"
Regulus sighed sadly, "If Andromeda could have helped me escape, my parents would have let me runaway. I know they would. It's a bizarre form of their love. Your father wouldn't. Your family would never allow you to just vanish without doing everything in their power to track you down. I... I knew you couldn't escape so it didn't really matter what Andromeda said because I wasn't going to take up any offer that she made. Opening that letter terrified me because I knew how badly I wanted to get out. I was scared that if Andromeda offered to help me, I would be a coward and accept it - leaving you. I was... I was so close. Then you read the letter, and I knew I couldn't runaway and leave you on your own. I didn't want to abandon you. Then Andromeda couldn't help, and it didn't matter anyway."
Esme's shoulders slumped down, "You're far from a coward, Regulus. You're the bravest person I know."
He rolled his eyes, "How so?"
She looked across at him now, gazing into his stormy eyes, "No matter how scared you are, or how close to escape you get, you're still here - not leaving anybody behind. You've sold your life away to try and help."
"I'm not staying for anybody. It's you."
"Come on," Esme stood up suddenly, tugging on Regulus' arm and urging him to follow her, "I need to show you something."