Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Twenty

"I told my sister to come down and watch the match. She has no idea what's about to happen. I promised I would get revenge for her." Levi paced back and forth, continuing to ramble on and on. The cold January air whipped viciously, causing his knees to shiver and cheeks to turn scarlet. Esmeralda stood not far from him, her expression unreadable as she stared out across the quidditch pitch.

"Thanks for this, by the way. I really appreciate it." Levi turned to face the girl, but was met with no reply. "Avery?" He waved a hand in front of her.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Esme looked across at him, "Excuse me?"

"Were you listening to any of that?"
"Not really, no."

Levi frowned, sensing something was wrong. "Is everything alright? You seem kind of... Off."
"Off? What? No." Esme blurted out, "Don't worry about it. I've just been preoccupied with... The OWLs. That's all."

"Alright." He shrugged, "But, are you sure the charm will work?"
Esme laughed, "The real challenge was convincing Ignatius to sneak me into the Slytherin common room. The charm will work."

"Ignatius being... Oh, he's your brother, isn't he? I thought you guys didn't get along." The boy inquired.
"We don't, really." She admitted, "He's an idiot."

"So... How was he convinced to help? You didn't tell him the plan, did you? Because he'll tell Selwyn, and then we're screwed."

"Well... He's been getting a lot of slack for this embarrassing story I let slip to some Slytherins before Christmas. So... I kind of suggested I might let slip another story about him, if he didn't help." She shrugged, gazing down at the floor.

"Oh, blackmail, lovely!"

The two were distracted by the sounds of a large crowd shouting in the distance. Esme turned her heard to see hoards of students making their way over the hill and down towards the quidditch pitch. Above the roaring wind, she could just make out the familiar sound of the Slytherin chants as they hoped for yet another win.
Winter still very much encased the Hogwart's grounds although it seemed as though a storm was looming in the sky, threatening to remove that last traces of snow. The dark weather matched Esme's mood about the whole situation. It practically offended her that there were wizards and witches going missing, but the make focus of Hogwart's students was on whether Slytherin would win the quidditch cup for another year. Did nobody care about the Death Eater attacks? Esme couldn't seem to get the thoughts out of her mind.

"I'll tell you another time." She faced the boy and offered a slight smile.

Levi sighed slightly, noticing a distance in the girl, "You said this charm you're going to cast relies on it raining. It might not rain before the match is over. Are you sure this is going to work?" He asked.

"Oh, I'm certain."

Not long after, Regulus Black stood in the centre of the quidditch pitch, glancing around the stands above him. To say he'd been distracted recently would be an understatement. There was the constant worry about what his future held, but at that particular moment, stood in front of that enormous crowd... All Regulus could think about was that Esmeralda Avery was somewhere in the stands, about to watch her first quidditch match where he was playing.