Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Forty Six

"Egeria?" Dirk asked, frowning as the kitten pawed at beetles scuttling along the ground in the courtyard.

"Yes." Esme stated as she continued to read from her book.
Piper grinned, "I love it. She sounds like a mystical, fantasy creature."
Esme only hummed in response.

The three Ravenclaw students sat on one of the benches out in the courtyard. It was a particularly grey, overcast day and they had just finished their morning lessons. Piper had taken to endlessly complaining about the how difficult her lessons were in her last year at Hogwarts. Esme would ignore this as she focused on her own studies and Dirk had developed quite a skill at tuning Piper out when he needed to.

"Maybe I've missed something." Dirk mumbled, "I don't understand."
"What is there to understand?" Piper quizzed, leaning down and picking up the black cat placing it in her lap.

"Clearly nothing." He shrugged, glancing over at Esme who still had her nose deeply buried in her book.

Piper nudged Dirk gently with her elbow, catching his attention and then leaning in to whisper, "Do you think now is a good time?"
Dirk looked at Esme, then at Piper, "As good a time as any, I suppose. It's really up to you."

"What's that?" Esme asked, still not looking up from the book.

So Piper began, "Esme, I need to tell you someth-"
"Esmerelda." Esme corrected without missing a beat.

"Right, yeah, okay." Piper stammered slightly, "I just have something important to tell you. I told Dirk a while ago, Levi knows too, and I meant to tell you sooner but... You know... Things happened and I couldn't..."

Finally, Esme closed the book and looked up at Piper.
The blonde girl took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before continuing, "I... Wow this is difficult... I'm not heterosexual."

"Not?" Esme asked.
"Yeah. I'm gay." Piper confirmed.

"So... Does this mean you dumped Cresswell? I always thought you two were an odd pair."
Dirk rolled his eyes, "Avery, that's why we're going out."

"You two are dating because Piper doesn't fancy you? Cresswell, you've gone mad." She shrugged.

"No. No, no." Dirk insisted, "You're missing the point."
Piper laughed, happiness filling every bone in her body knowing that her friends accepted her, "Dirk is my fake boyfriend. We're pretending to date so nobody questions me about it... So, Esmerelda, you're okay with it?"

"Oh no."

Piper's voice broke, "What?"
Dirk stood up, "Avery."

Esme was looking straight past them though, as she'd become immediately distracted, "Oh no."

Finally, Dirk and Piper clocked in and followed Esme's line of sight. They both turned in unison to see who she'd spotted.

Regulus Black had just arrived at the courtyard, looking as though he was returning from quidditch practice. His hair was clinging to his sweating forehead and his broom was tucked underneath his arm as he slowly walked into the clearing.

"I've-I've got to go." Esme stammered, quickly jumping to her feet.
Truthfully, she had been avoiding Regulus. Not particularly because anything bad had happened. If anything, Esme did really want to spend all of her time with the boy. Yet she was in deep communication with Andromeda Tonks and had just began unfolding her plan to undermine the Death Eaters. She couldn't risk dragging Regulus into that.
It was one thing that everyone knew how close the two of them were, but if Esme was uncovered as a traitor she couldn't risk Regulus being associated with that.