Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Seven

"Have you gone insane?"

Esme nearly laughed as Dirk planted his hands firmly on his hips and widened his eyes, waiting for a proper response from the girl.

When Dirk only continued to stare, Esme gave in and replied, "No. I haven't gone insane, thank you very much. This is serious."
"Oh, so you have gone insane." Dirk rolled his eyes.

"I swear to god, Cresswell-"
"Alright, alright. I'm not really sure I understand though." Dirk admitted.

"Dear God, however did you end up in Ravenclaw house?" Esme grumbled under her breath before starting to pace back and forth in front of the clueless boy, "I need to find out what Black is up to."

"Regulus Black? That Slytherin boy?" Dirk questioned, vaguely recalling that the two had some sort of tangled history.
She nodded, "Him and his tormented family are up to something. We need to figure out what they're up to and why it involves me."

"Oh... So that's where the Polyjuice Potion comes in."

Esme nodded in confirmation.

During this, Regulus was sat at the back of Defence Against the Dark Arts and was growing evermore suspicious. He folded his arms tightly, a scowl emerging on the boy's expression as he stared intently at the two empty seats across the room from him. He knew he shouldn't be concerned with what Esme was up to, but still he caught himself biting his tongue deep in thought about the girl's whereabouts.

Suddenly the classroom door flew open and in stumbled Dirk Cresswell, his hair flying about as though he'd walked through a storm. His robes were askew as he clutched his books tightly to his chest and dashed to his desk. The boy looked as though he'd run a marathon to get to class on time. A few paces behind him was Esme, she strode in rather calmly with her signature, yet always infuriating, smirk plastered on her lips.

"Black." She nodded curtly, noticing the boy staring at her before turning her back and sitting down beside Dirk.

Mentally cursing himself, Regulus dragged his attention away to the front of the class. His mind was racing trying to figure out what was going on in his life. Within a mere few weeks Esme had barrelled back into his life, knocking everything out of place. She was like a hurricane that occupied the whole room and whenever she was around he barely had enough room to breathe.
But she was mesmerising.

"Think you're drooling there, mate." Mulciber elbowed Regulus harshly in the ribs, snatching the boy's attention.

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, would you rather I drooled over you?"
"Well anyone in their right mind would." Mulciber chuckled, nudging the boy again.
Regulus released a deep sigh, "Just shut up, would you?"

As the lesson began, it dragged on slower than could possibly have been imagined. Still, Regulus occasionally felt his gaze wavered slightly, falling back on Esme who sat unknowingly across the room. He did notice, however, that every now and again she would open a large dusty book, and scrawl something down on a sheet of parchment. The more he squinted to observe her actions, the more he noticed Esme and Dirk both seemed to be making notes from the book they were reading under the table.

Regulus was well aware of the secret he was keeping from Esme, but nevertheless felt he needed to know what she was up to.

"We could just sneak into the potions storeroom." Esme hissed.
"We?" Dirk exclaimed.
She exaggerated her sigh of exasperation, "Don't be such a pansy. It's a two person job."

"If we get caught, I'm saying you threatened to hex me."

"And they'd probably believe that too." Esme added with a laugh, hitting Dirk upside the head as they left the classroom at the end of the lesson.