Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Thirty Three

"I can't believe you! I can't believe you did that!" Esme swatted his shoulder, causing the boy to lean back from her.

Regulus laughed, "You really think if you had spoken to Ignatius it would have ended well?"
"Fine, whatever." She grumbled, folding her arms tightly and sinking down in her seat.

"Still..." She began slowly, "I don't know if I believe him."
Sighing, he placed a hand on her knee and pointed out, "It doesn't make much difference. There's no way we can prove Ignatius knew anything and even if we could, what would we do?"

Esme groaned, running her hands through her hair and tugging on it slightly, "There has to be something we can do! It's nearly exam season and then... Then we go home and... That's it. That's it then - the end of the road. I can't believe it's over."

"Relax, it's going to work itself out."
"How can you be so sure? How can you be so relaxed? Nothing has ever just worked itself out for me. I've always had to work so hard for whatever I wanted, why should now be any different? How can you say I should just give up?" She rambled hopelessly.

"Esme." Regulus sighed, "You're spiralling. We've been through this a million times."
Closing her eyes, Esme took a deep breath, "I remember: we might as well accept our fate, because there's nothing we can do to change it."

"We should be thinking about how to survive once... It happens... Because there's nothing else we can do." He mumbled quietly, making sure nobody around them could make out what they were talking about, "We need to stick to what we promised to do - to keep them safe."

"I don't need remin-"

"Hiya!"

Regulus sighed quietly as Esme suddenly looked up, almost jumping at the sight of Piper with her arms firmly entwined around Dirk's. She narrowed her eyes, scepticism ready to spill from her lips. Spotting this, Regulus, beside her, nudged her gently with his knee as a reminder to keep her less-than-kind thoughts to herself.

"Piper. Dirk." The slytherin boy nodded curtly, earning a roll of the eyes from the girl next to him.

"I was just saying how we hadn't seen you two around much recently," Piper chirped, "And now look! This just proves that manifestation is real."
Esme and Regulus looked at each other, a million words being spoken in that glance. As usual Regulus lost the unspoken argument between them, and so he was the first to speak.

Taking a deep breath, he began, "I hate to... Er... Ruin the reunion, but we were actually just about to leave."

"What? Why?" The blonde quizzed.
Regulus opened his mouth to reply, but had to clue what excuse to come up with. He couldn't exactly tell them that he and Esme were soon to become Death Eaters and needed to distance themselves from Dirk and Piper for everyone's safety. That was a bit much.

Esme stammered now, "Well... You see... We're... Planning a party! Oh yes! A party!" Glancing around the group, she realised she might have looked insane, "It's a secret party." She mumbled sheepishly.

"A secret party?" Piper frowned.
Dirk was utterly confused and he asked, "For who?"
Digging herself further into the hole, "For you! Obviously." She shrugged, wanting the ground to swallow her.

Regulus stared at Esme, he couldn't believe this was the same girl. Lo and behold, she was actually an idiot. He was almost tempted to smile and laugh at how Esme was struggling to stay afloat but he knew this would only land him in more hot water with her.
Wading into the mess, Regulus began, "I-I heard you two went on a date to Hogsmeade. So-so it's a celebratory party."

Esme scoffed, "You heard what?" She turned to face Regulus and almost laughed in his face.

"At least word is finally getting around." Dirk shrugged, finally sitting down opposite them.
Piper laughed lightly, "Took a lot longer than I thought it would have."