Homeward Bound | Regulus Black

Chapter Six

"My, my... I never thought I'd see your faces again."

"Don't be shy, you can say you're pleased to see us." Esme quipped as she took ahold of Regulus' hand beside her and gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze.

Aberforth Dumbledore had, over the years, grown to look more and more like his older brother - much to the younger man's dislike. And even though the relationship between the siblings had grown even more strained, there was a small piece of Aberforth that had been glad when Esme had told him Dumbledore had sent them to his safety twelve years ago. Now, a slightly bigger piece of Aberforth was glad to see Esme and Regulus were back - even if he'd never tell them.

"Don't tell me you two fools are hunting down Black?" Aberforth grumbled as he settled his pipe between his lips and lit it - his weathered, wrinkled features settling into their typical frown.
Regulus sighed, "What makes you think we've learnt anything in over a decade?"

"And you're guessing he's come to Hogsmeade?"
Esme tapped a finger to her nose, "Ding! Ding! You win today's quiz!"

"You know I still think he killed those muggles." Aberforth warned, "If you find Black, he's not going to be the same person he was before. All those years in Azkaban will have sent him mad."
The younger man scoffed lightly, "He might be on par with Esme then."

Aberforth hummed quietly, took a puff from his pipe, slowly exhaled the smoke, and then said, "I'll go make tea." Before heading into the kitchen and leaving the two of them alone in the room.

"Are you nervous?" Esme asked, turning to Regulus.
"Huh?" He cleared his throat, "Why?"
She rolled her eyes, "You only crack jokes like that when you're worried about something or you want me to go away. I'm hoping it's not the latter."

Regulus sighed and sat down in the one of the armchairs opposite the large painting that hung on the wall. "I think you know me too well." He mumbled.
"I know you just the right amount." She replied with a half-smirk, "So I am correct?"

"It's complicated... I have a lot of thoughts and I... I don't really know what I think."

Esme knelt down in front of Regulus and placed her hands on his knees as she softly told him, "I know there's a lot of mixed feelings about your brother, I get that. Do you want to hear my suggestion?"
"Please."
"Okay." She smiled up at him, "I think you should shelve this for the time being."

Regulus frowned slightly, his eyebrows furrowing together as he paused in thought for a moment and tugged his bottom lip between his teeth, before asking, "I don't think I really understand."
She explained, "All of the... Er... I don't really know how to phrase it... All of the messy feelings about Sirius - the ones stressing you out - should be packed away for a while. I want to help you figure it out, I really do, but we both know it's going to involve actually talking to Sirius. There's no point torturing yourself, so I think you should just put all of that to one side whilst we look for your brother. Then, when we've done that, we can open up that box again."

Leaning forward, Regulus took ahold of one of Esme's hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers. "You've certainly improved at emotional support."

She laughed lightly and stood back up again - taking great relief in straightening out her legs again, "I know, it's good, isn't it?"
"Did you learn it from a book?"
"Oh, absolutely."

He chuckled, "Alright then, we lay low here for a while. Then what?"
"I don't know." Esme admitted, "But it's an improvement from Grimmauld Place, don't you think?"
"You've got that right."

Then the door opened again, as Aberforth joined them again with a floating tray, carrying a pot of tea and several mugs and biscuits, following behind him. "I suppose this means I'm stuck housing the pair of you again." He grumbled as he flicked his wand and the tray gently lowered down and settled onto the coffee table.
"It must be nice to have meaning again." Esme quipped cheekily, warranting Regulus to stand up and lightly swat at her shoulder.

He corrected, quickly, "We really don't want to impose on you."

"If you need to stay here, it's quite alright." Aberforth offered, "There's always room."
Regulus shook his head, allowing some hair to fall over his eyes, "We don't need to stay here. We can go back to London. We can use the Floo network to get between here and there."

"Do you not have that feeling, though?"

Regulus and Aberforth both turned to Esme, who had just asked the question aloud to the room. Regulus asked, with a slight frown etched into his features "What feeling?"
"The feeling."
"Thanks for your clarity."

Esme huffed in annoyance before explaining, with her gaze fixed up at the ceiling, "Clearly you don't. But, I have this feeling that we need to stay here. I know it sounds... Not sane, but I can practically sense that we need to stay close; something important is going to happen here."

Aberforth tutted with an almost-smirk, "Have you become a Seer over the years?"
Biting down in her tongue to refrain from saying something that would get her told off, Esme turned to Regulus. "Alright," He cleared his throat, "It'll certainly make it easier to get to Sirius if he's spotted around here again."

"Instinct." Esme said rather simply.

"Excuse me?" Aberforth questioned with a raised eyebrow.
She clarified, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "That's the word I was looking for. Instinct. That gut feeling we need to stay close."
Regulus nodded in agreement, as he ran a hand through his dark hair to push it out of his eyes and tidy it up, "Well, that's that then - we've got to stay."

Aberforth frowned as he glanced between the two of them, and then inquired, "Are you being sarcastic."
"If I learnt anything in the war," Regulus shook his head. "It's that we always need to trust our instincts - particularly Esme's."

"The pair of you are weird. You do know that, don't you?"

"I'd be worried if we weren't, at this point." The younger man confessed as his shoulders slumped down slightly.
Esme shrugged in contrast, "It's kept us alive so far."

That much was true. Esme and Regulus had survived so much, even before the first wizarding war had begun.
Everyone was so quick to adore the Aurors who worked during the war, but when they saw how the war had changed people... Hardened them... And suddenly it wasn't so easy to worship those heroes anymore.

Esme and Regulus had risked so much to help in what ways they could during the war twelve years earlier, and they had yet to reap any of the rewards. In payment for their efforts, the two of them been forced into long-term hiding. Of course, that wasn't exactly anyone's fault.
That's what Esme had to keep reminding herself every time she got angry at how they'd been mistreated.

It was one thing to accept that so much of her life had been wasted... Lost. Because, after all, she was responsible for her own actions during the first war. She was responsible for the decisions she made that put her in harm's way.
Regulus was a different matter - at least, in Esme's mind.
Always on her mind was the thought that she had dragged Regulus into her mess. That she was the reason for his life having taken such a bad turn. It was her fault he hadn't gotten to live the life that he deserved.
Those thoughts... Those were the ones that made Esme really angry. Those were the thoughts that were a lot harder to stomach.

Regulus knocked Esme out of her deep thoughts as he took ahold of her hand, gently squeezed her fingers, and asked under a hushed voice, "Are you alright?"
Slowly, she turned to him, "Yeah, I am... Are you?"
"I'm great, thank you." He nodded in response.

"Good." Esme replied with a slight smile, "I'm glad."