The Hog's Head Inn was a small pub, and extraordinarily dirty. The floor was strewn with sawdust and the windows nearly opaque from years of no cleaning.
Normally, the pub didn't have many customers in it at any one time, but this particular day the pub was empty on purpose.
Aberforth had reluctantly agreed to close the pub for the afternoon, so the few customers had been cleared out and the window shutters bolted closed.
"Would you sit down?" Levi asked, "Your pacing is making me nervous."
Levi, Dirk, and Esme had gathered in the pub, sitting at one of the table closest to the ancient wooden bar so they were away from the windows and door.
She had called them there recently, to regroup and catch up. What the boys didn't know was that this would be the last time for an awful long while.
"Alright, fine." Esme tugged out one of the rickety chairs and sat down at it.
Dirk folded his arms, leant back in his seat beside Levi, and asked, "Where's Regulus?"
"Downstairs." She explained, "He'll be up in a minute. I need to tell you something first."
"What is it?" Levi asked, growing concerned.
Dirk and Levi had of course heard the news. It had been plastered across the front of the Daily Prophet the same morning it happened, and people had been talking about it ever since. It was only secondary to the news that Lord Voldemort himself had been defeated.
But Sirius Black had been arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles.
"Just don't... Don't bring it up, will you?" She asked. No need to state what they were talking about, as it was perfectly clear in all of their minds. "Reg, he... Doesn't want to talk about it. About Sirius."
Dirk sighed, understanding completely. "But do you really think he did it?" He couldn't help but ask.
"At first I thought no, never. Then I thought he could have done that to Pettigrew. I could understand that. But never the muggles. Now, I don't know." She confessed, "I think I've spent so long overthinking and overanalysing everything I know about him, I don't really know what's right or wrong anymore."
"I think he could have done it. Merlin knows I could have killed Lucas after what he did to Piper." Levi grumbled, then added, "Sorry, Esmerelda."
She scoffed lightheartedly, "You don't need to apologise, just as long as you know you'll be in a queue behind me to do that."
Then the door to the back room of the pub creaked open and Regulus Black steppes into sight.
He had barely slept at all in the few days following Sirius' arrest, and his face was starting to show signs of his exhaustion.
"There you are, mate." Levi stood up and extended his arms to draw Regulus into a hug, "Long time no see." He greeted.
Regulus was grateful to see his friends again. Really, he was grateful Esme shared her friends with him. He had spent his whole life forced to be around the Slytherins like Ignatius, Rosier, Selwyn, Mulciber, and so many others. He hadn't realised, until meeting Dirk, Levi, and Piper, what it was like to have proper friends. He'd never had mates he could share interests with or harmlessly joke around with. He was grateful Dirk, Levi, and Piper had embraced him as one of their friends too.
Now, of course, they all relied on each other like family.
The raven-haired man chuckled, "Good to see you too. Especially now it's clear fact that Puddlemere United are better than Wigtown Wanderers."
"It's been less than five seconds and they're already on quidditch." Esme tutted to Dirk beside her.
Levi scoffed, "Just because we didn't do well this year, doesn't mean we can't pull it out of the bag next year."
"Oh," Regulus shook his head with a grin, "So you've become delusional since we last saw each other?"
Dirk laughed, "You sound more like Avery with every passing day."
Esme couldn't help but smile, because it had been a while since she'd seen Regulus so happy. She could tell that Sirius was constantly on his mind. The fact that there was even the slimmest chance they could have saved James and Lily Potter weighed on his consciousness.
What happened to Piper was always at the back of his thoughts.
It was nice to take a break for a while, for both of them.
"What can I say?" He sat down at the table, "Her delightful charm is contagious."
Esme rolled her eyes, "I'd like to take this moment to remind you all that I'm the one person in this group you don't make fun of."
"There's that delightful charm." Dirk muttered.
"What else do you want us to talk about?" Levi asked, "Dirk has been working in the Goblin Liason office. I've only just started working again now the war is over, and you two have been in hiding forever."
Esme had to admit, "Who'd had thought that at the end of the great wizarding war of the United Kingdom, we'd have nothing to talk about?"
"Merlin forbid you guys show any interest in my job." Dirk quipped.
"Dirk," Levi began, "If I ever ask you to talk in gobbledegook, I want you to take me outside and put me out of my misery."
Esme scoffed, "And I'm the one with no charm?"
"I could tell you guys about the girl I've started dating?" Dirk then suggested, leaning back in his chair and smirking as he knew full well this would spark all their interests.
In complete unison, all three of them turned to stare at him.
"What girl?" Regulus asked.
Esme laughed, "She doesn't count as a girl if she's a goblin you met at Gringotts."
"She's a real girl!" He exclaimed.
Levi mumbled, "Yeah, said Pinocchio."
"What's she like?" Regulus asked again.
Dirk cleared his throat and clasped his hands together in his lap, "She's quite short. Dark hair and a fringe. She works in the Being Division of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
"Oh, that's your department." Esme remembered, "Is that how you met?"
He confirmed, "Yeah, my office works closely with her Division because we both work with goblins."
Levi leant back in his chair as he asked, "What's her name then?"
Dirk smiled, "Ava Monroe. She's a muggle born too, and grew up not too far from where I did, coincidentally."
Dirk and Levi didn't know at the time, but this was the last time they would see Esme and Regulus for a long while. The couple just had to sort out a few loose ends before finally leaving and finding safety somewhere else.
So the group of old friends nattered away for the rest of the afternoon, taking about nothing and everything. Anything they could talk about they did, because it had been so long since they'd been able to hang out without the war looming over their heads.
There was a lot of catching up to do, on everything that hadn't been urgent enough to squeeze into one of the few letters that had been sent back and forth in the past year or so.
"Alright, I really, really do need to get going now." Dirk sighed as he stood up from his seat, shaking his head at the numerous empty bitter beer glasses that now littered their table.
The sun was beginning to set and he had work the next day.
Levi groaned slightly, stretching his arms out before standing up too, "I'll come with you then. Better to go before it gets dark and cold."
"It was good seeing you both." Regulus smiled as he and Esme showed them both to the door - taking a moment to fumble with the locks and bolts.
"Yeah, you too." Dirk replied as he tugged on his jacket.
Levi patted Esme on the shoulder, "We'll see you fugitives soon, eh?"
"Hopefully." She responded, not quite having the heart to make a witty remark at his expense.
Then Levi and Dirk left, wandering together back into the centre of Hogsmeade to make their own ways home. Esme and Regulus stood at the door for quite a while, watching them wander down the empty street and then, when they were out of sight, just watching the horizon and the sun sinking behind the hills.
"There's only one thing left for us to do now." Regulus reminded her as the locked up the pub again.
"I know," She said, "And then we're gone for good."
He pulled her into a hug, "They'll come and visit us, I'm sure of it."
Esme wrapped her arms around her shoulders and rested her face in the crook of his neck, "It'll be nice to go somewhere relatively safe for us. Only one loose end left for us to tie up now."