Homeward Bound | Regulus Black

Chapter Five

Regulus Black had gotten quite used to his girlfriend's plans over the years. His life certainly never got boring because Esmerelda would always be up to something. What he had forgotten though, over the years, was that Esme could really orchestrate some quite precarious schemes.
All their years in Paris hadn't been filled with the same danger as their younger years during the first wizarding war. He'd almost forgotten the kind of endangerment Esme was capable of leading him into.

Nevertheless, they stood side by side in one of the bathrooms in Grimmauld Place, looking at themselves in the mirror.

"Okay, so... This might be kind of ridiculous." Esme admitted.
"Do you think?" Regulus replied as he rolled up his shirt sleeves, "This is not going to be discrete at all."
They looked back at themselves in the mirror, where Dirk and Levi were staring back at them.

Regulus sighed, "People are going to recognise me. I'm disguised as a celebrity."

She tutted, and tugged at the neckline of her jumper, "Do you think Dirk deliberately sent me this jumper to wear to spite me? His wife should not be allowed to knit."
"Did you hear what I just said?"
"What? No." Esme shook her head and turned to Regulus, "What did you say?"

"People are going to recognise Levi and want to come up and talk to me." He explained, "I don't want to poke holes in your clearly airtight plan, but it's not exactly going to allow us to secretly search for Sirius."

Esme pursed her lips and grimaced slightly. Of course, she had considered that but, really, they had no choice.
"We don't have another option. As sad as it is, we don't really have any other friends that can help us out." She tutted.
Regulus frowned slightly, "I think what's sadder is we were framed for murder and are now legally dead, but sure."

"We can't disguise ourselves as anyone else, because if we get caught we'll just drag them into our mess. At least Dirk and Levi know what they're getting themselves into." Esme reasoned.

Regulus leant against the door frame as he inquired, "Does Levi actually know we're doing this?"
"Well, let's put it this way: he's about to find out."

"And if we're caught?"
She shrugged, "We'll say we put him under the Imperius curse."

Regardless of the issues with Esme's plan, that wasn't going to stop them. They needed to track down Sirius before he was spotted again and arrested, so they really had no choice. And only a short while later, they found themselves stood in one of the quiet side alleys of Hogsmeade.

"You know how I was regretting this before, well now I'm regretting this even more." Regulus muttered with disapproval. The streets of Hogsmeade in late November were surprisingly sparsely occupied, but this only meant Regulus and Esme stood out even more - or rather, Levi Rogers and Dirk Cresswell stood out even more.

Esme, on the other hand, had not paid attention to what Regulus had just said, as she stared at the cobbled streets and brick buildings she hadn't seen since her youth. It was like wandering into a dream.
She mumbled, "This is really weird."
"What is?" He asked as he tugged at the neckline of his shirt, which was a little too tight for his own liking.

"Being here." Esme reiterated, "Do you not think?"
He shrugged slightly in response, "I hadn't thought about it, but I suppose so."
She turned back to him and placed a hand on his arm, "Hey, we'll find him. We will."

However, Regulus only snickered in response. Esme frowned at this and whacked his shoulder, "What are you laughing for? I was being nice!"
"I'm sorry," He laughed, "I just can't take you seriously - you look like Dirk."

"Oh, yeah... I forgot about that." She muttered to herself as she tugged at the neckline of her jumper again, "You look like Rogers though, so that's not any better."
Regulus chuckled, "I don't know - clearly Levi has been working out lots."
Esme laughed and cheekily quipped, "So it's an upgrade?"

Both of them quickly fell quiet as a large group of students walking down the main street neared them. As the students came to a stop at the same corner Esme and Regulus were on, she - now that she was the taller of the two - quickly spun around so her back was to the teenagers, which obscured Regulus (or Levi) from view.

"How-how do we find him?" Regulus asked under a hushed voice to nobody at all, because there was no answer.
Esme stayed quiet until the Hogwarts students had move on, before replying, "I think we just have to look. He's probably in his animagus form - to stay safer."

"But... Why is he here? What is he doing? Why escape now? What-"
"Reg, Regulus, hey..." She interrupted him, "Let's just find him, yeah? And not worry about all of that."

Regulus sighed and slowly nodded in agreement, "Hm, you're right. Is it bad that I still kind of... Hate him? Well, not hate, but-you know-"
"I know." She smiled, "It's complicated and that's okay."

"I'm just angry at him." He admitted quietly.
Esme responded, "Join the club."
He frowned, "You're angry with Sirius?"
"Well..." She scoffed slightly, "I'm angry in anticipation of how much he's going to annoy me when he's back in our lives."
This brought a small smile to his face before his attention was quickly grabbed by something happening in the distance.

"Es..." He tapped her shoulder.
"What?" Esme turned to try and follow where he was pointing.

"Look over there."
"Where?"
"There!"
"Where?"
"There!"
"You really have a way with words, did you know?"
"Shut up."

Esme sighed and then asked, "Are you pointing at those kids?"
"No, I'm pointing at the ground beside them." He responded.
"Oi!" She swatted his arm, "When did you get so snarky?"

Regulus brushed this off as he stopped pointing at the teenagers and asked, under a hushed voice, "Do you think that's Harry Potter?"
"Harry-Harry Potter?" Esme frowned as she followed his gaze to the young kid with wild dark hair poking up from his head at all angles, "I'm not going to lie, I've got absolutely no clue what Harry Potter looks like."

"It makes sense though, doesn't it?" He continued, "Harry Potter would be at Hogwarts by now... Do you think he could be why Sirius has come here?"

Esme scoffed, "Are you agreeing with the newspapers?"
"What?"
"You can't possibly think Sirius has come here to hunt down and kill his godson?"

"W-well no." Regulus shook his head, "But that doesn't mean Harry isn't involved. Why else would Sirius come to Hogsmeade?"
She finally turned away from the teenagers to face Regulus, "Let's say Sirius does want to see Harry. Why would he risk being caught travelling to Hogwarts? He'll never break into the place and, even if he wanted to, why would he do that to get to Harry? Sirius would have a better chance during the summer holidays."

Regulus had to admit Esme did have a point. Clearly Sirius was doing something urgent... Something that was important and couldn't wait... But Esme and Regulus didn't have all of the pieces to put the puzzle together.

He then pointed out, "Sirius broke out of Azkaban. Who's to say he couldn't break into Hogwarts?"
"You really think he could do that without help?" Esme hit back, "And the point still stands - why would he want to?"

That was when something very bad happened at a very bad time.

"Uh... E-Esme..."
"What?"
"Just... Don't turn around. Keep facing me."

Esme frowned, and was about to turn around when Regulus grabbed ahold of her arms to stop her moving.
"That's like saying not to press the big red button. As soon as you say it, I just have to do i-" She stopped talking as she noticed herself shrinking ever so slightly.

Looking up at Regulus, he nodded in confirmation back at her, "It's wearing off a fair bit earlier than we thought."
"I'm never buying Polyjuice from that vendor in Knockturn Alley again." She complained.

"Now is really not the time for that. We need to apparate out of here." He grasped ahold of her hand as Esme finally began to look like herself again.

That's when the lightbulb in Esme's mind flicked on and a wicked smirk emerged across her lips.

"Hey, Reg," She grinned, "Have I just had a good idea? I think I have."
"Oh, Merlin..." Regulus shook his head, "Your ideas are going to be the death of me."
Esme laughed slightly, "You still want to hear it though, don't you?"
That's when he begrudgingly replied, "Yes."

Esme pulled the hood of her coat over her head, "Let's pay a visit to an old ally."