Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Twenty Two

Time truly was an illusion.
Reality was a concept designed to distract people from their inevitable demise and a mere attempt to provide meaning to human's lives.

It felt almost as if time around Hogwarts had stopped. The students and staff were going about their lives but the outside world had seemed to slow down. Technically, it was the start of February, but it didn't feel like it.
The amount of time that had passed and the amount of stuff that had happened, it had to be at least April.

Esme was starting to loose track of the days and was certain this was the beginning of her going insane.

Yet, despite all of the worries and confusion, Esme was starting to feel truly happy. She sat in the Great Hall, Dirk beside her and Regulus and Piper sat opposite. She couldn't help but smile at how much time Regulus was spending with her friends and how well they all seemed to get along. Although, Esme had noticed some slight iciness from Dirk. He did not like Regulus, regardless of how nice the Slytherin boy tried to be.

"Yes, well, then Professor Vector put them all in detention for a month." Regulus chuckled, causing Piper to shriek with glee.
She leant towards him slightly, "But... Them? How did you get out of it?"

Esme pursed her lips tightly as Piper placed a hand over his arm. Regulus made eye contact with Esme, opposite him, for a moment before breaking the gaze and slowly saying "Ah..." and moving her hand away by tightly folding his arms across his chest, "Well whilst they were trying to catch the Niffler, I copied this Hufflepuff boy's work so at the end of the lesson I actually had a homework to hand in. Vector was definitely suspicious but she didn't say anything. I ended up with nearly full marks."

"How fabulous!" Piper exclaimed, "Now, go on Esmerelda. It's your turn. I bet you've sweet talked yourself out of a fair few detentions."
Dirk scoffed, "I'm not sure you can call endless arguing 'sweet talking'."

"You're just jealous, Cresswell, that your charm doesn't get rewarded like mine." Esme nudged him playfully.

"Jealous?" Dirk raised an eyebrow, "I'm too busy actually doing my class work. I don't need to go out of my way to escape punishment." 

"Smart arse." Esme grumbled, earning a gentle kick from Regulus. "Oi, what was that for?" She glared across at him.
"For being bloody rude." Regulus laughed.

"Merlin, you're annoying."
"He's annoying because he's right." Piper countered.

"Oh, suddenly everyone's right except me!" Esme threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. Regulus tried to mask his flinch as she nearly knocked over a large jug of water but couldn't stop himself from leaning across the table and sliding it out of harm's way.

She was about to poke fun at him but was cut off when Piper burst out, "The owls are here!"
And so they were.
The animals burst in the Great Hall, swooping down over the tables and causing the students to excitedly shriek. Groups of students surrounding them leapt to their feet, reaching up to catch their letters as soon as physically possible.

A single, small, grey owl darted towards the group, dropping a tattered letter in Piper's lap. The corners of the envelope were bent and there appeared to be multiple coffee stains blotched on the paper. However, the blonde girl erupted into unrivalled joy upon picking it up.

"It's from my dad!" She gasped, tearing open the message and hurriedly unfolding the letter. Dirk had received a couple of books from his mum and Regulus was subject to reading yet another letter from his own mother about how the family next door were still to blame for the mole in their garden. The Slytherin boy sighed as he scanned over the incredibly dull letter, a small part of him hoping that at some point his mother would ask to hear back from him. She never did though.