"Have you gone insane?"

Esme nearly laughed as Dirk planted his hands firmly on his hips and widened his eyes, waiting for a proper response from the girl.

When Dirk only continued to stare, Esme gave in and replied, "No. I haven't gone insane, thank you very much. This is serious."

"Oh, so you have gone insane." Dirk rolled his eyes.

"I swear to god, Cresswell-"

"Alright, alright. I'm not really sure I understand though." Dirk admitted.

"Dear God, however did you end up in Ravenclaw house?" Esme grumbled under her breath before starting to pace back and forth in front of the clueless boy, "I need to find out what Black is up to."

"Regulus Black? That Slytherin boy?" Dirk questioned, vaguely recalling that the two had some sort of tangled history.

She nodded, "Him and his tormented family are up to something. We need to figure out what they're up to and why it involves me."

"Oh... So that's where the Polyjuice Potion comes in."

Esme nodded in confirmation.

During this, Regulus was sat at the back of Defence Against the Dark Arts and was growing evermore suspicious. He folded his arms tightly, a scowl emerging on the boy's expression as he stared intently at the two empty seats across the room from him. He knew he shouldn't be concerned with what Esme was up to, but still he caught himself biting his tongue deep in thought about the girl's whereabouts.

Suddenly the classroom door flew open and in stumbled Dirk Cresswell, his hair flying about as though he'd walked through a storm. His robes were askew as he clutched his books tightly to his chest and dashed to his desk. The boy looked as though he'd run a marathon to get to class on time. A few paces behind him was Esme, she strode in rather calmly with her signature, yet always infuriating, smirk plastered on her lips.

"Black." She nodded curtly, noticing the boy staring at her before turning her back and sitting down beside Dirk.

Mentally cursing himself, Regulus dragged his attention away to the front of the class. His mind was racing trying to figure out what was going on in his life. Within a mere few weeks Esme had barrelled back into his life, knocking everything out of place. She was like a hurricane that occupied the whole room and whenever she was around he barely had enough room to breathe.

But she was mesmerising.

"Think you're drooling there, mate." Mulciber elbowed Regulus harshly in the ribs, snatching the boy's attention.

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, would you rather I drooled over you?"

"Well anyone in their right mind would." Mulciber chuckled, nudging the boy again.

Regulus released a deep sigh, "Just shut up, would you?"

As the lesson began, it dragged on slower than could possibly have been imagined. Still, Regulus occasionally felt his gaze wavered slightly, falling back on Esme who sat unknowingly across the room. He did notice, however, that every now and again she would open a large dusty book, and scrawl something down on a sheet of parchment. The more he squinted to observe her actions, the more he noticed Esme and Dirk both seemed to be making notes from the book they were reading under the table.

Regulus was well aware of the secret he was keeping from Esme, but nevertheless felt he needed to know what she was up to.

"We could just sneak into the potions storeroom." Esme hissed.

"We?" Dirk exclaimed.

She exaggerated her sigh of exasperation, "Don't be such a pansy. It's a two person job."

"If we get caught, I'm saying you threatened to hex me."

"And they'd probably believe that too." Esme added with a laugh, hitting Dirk upside the head as they left the classroom at the end of the lesson.

"God you're annoying." He mumbled disapprovingly.

She laughed again, "Still much better company that the other Ravenclaws that sit around joking about mistakes in their Ancient Runes homework."

"You're a character, if that's what you're saying."

"Anyway." Esme moved the conversation on as they began walking down to the next lesson of the day, "If we want to get into the potions storeroom, you'll need to stand guard outside." She pointed out.

The two had begun descending the stairs to the Potions classroom as Dirk slowly replied, "And... when, exactly, are we going to be performing this heist?"

"Tonight." She stated with certainty.

"Filch will catch us. That's if Slughorn doesn't. Then we'll truly be dead. He'll-he'll hang us upside down by our ankles!" Dirk exclaimed in a hushed voice.

Esme chuckled smugly, "That's just a stupid rumour. Dumbledore is too much of a softy to let that happen to students."

"I still don't like the sound of this." Dirk muttered, mostly to himself, as the two arrived to their Potions lesson.

She shrugged, taking her seat near the back of the class, "I'll just get Piper to come with me."

Dirk blinked hard, thoroughly confused, "But you don't even like Piper."

"That's not true."

"You told me those exact words the other day."

"That's not true."

"Esme..."

"It's Esmeralda."

"Seriously?"

Esme sighed, dropping her shoulders, "Piper is an interesting person, I'll give her that. She's obviously clever and I bet she'd be up for the job."

"Then you'd have to tell her about the whole plan. I mean, I think you should, but you don't like loose ends." Dirk pointed out. He certainly could do with Esme putting less pressure on his shoulders and including Piper would remove some of the focus from himself.

Professor Slughorn rushed into the classroom, his hat askew and sheets of parchment threatening to fall out of his hold as he dashed to the front of the class.

"You've convinced me, Cresswell. Let's include Piper. If all goes to pot, she could always flirt with some Slytherins to see what she can find out."

Dirk frowned, curious as to why Esme had said that. Did the Ravenclaw girl truly not know that she could probably have any boy she wanted if she wasn't so abrupt and closed off. It was like those ideas didn't even cross Esme's mind.

"Yeah... Sure." he replied.

Meanwhile, Regulus was pacing back and forth in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room. He dug his hands deep into his pockets and furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Every time he tried to figure out what Esme and Dirk had been up to in the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, he lost track of his thoughts. Esmeralda was so peculiar to him that his entire mind was filled with her.

"Idiot..." Regulus muttered to himself, pushing the images of Esme out of his head and shaking himself back to reality.

The door to the common room slammed open then and Ignatius Avery stumbled in, closely followed by Severus Snape.

"Don't be such a coward; it'll be good practice." Ignatius complained, rolling his eyes in a stunning resemblance to his sister.

"I'm not a coward!" Snape exclaimed angrily, moving to whack Ignatius in the head but the slender boy ducked, causing the shorter Snape to fall forwards into the sofa.

"Yeah, good one."

Regulus sighed, "What are you two idiots doing?"

"Oi." Ignatius smirked, "You'd do well to remember that you're younger than us. Don't act all high and mighty."

"You'd do well to remember that just because you're an idiot doesn't mean you have to act like one." Regulus replied quickly.

Ignatius snapped his jaw shut, "You sound like my sister... You haven't been hanging around her... Have you?"

"Wouldn't dream of it." Regulus muttered.

"Why would you want to hang around a Ravenclaw anyway?" Snape questioned with a sneer.

"Shut up. You're friends with a Gryffindor." Ignatius gritted his teeth.

"Not anymore!" Snape exclaimed, blushing furiously.

"Merlin's beard... You two, I can't put it into words." Regulus fell back into one of the large armchairs, "But what were you talking about when you first came in?"

"Oh..." Snape grinned upon remembering, "Just a little plan to have some fun with a few students."

Ignatius ran a hand through his pristine hair, "Got to get a little menace under our belts before we join the big league."

Snape and Ignatius sat down now opposite the younger Slytherin boy. They both kicked their legs up on the small table in front of them. The green hue of the fire lit up their faces as the rest of the common room faded into an eerie silence.

"Have you been drinking rotten Pumpkin juice? What are you on about?" Regulus frowned, glancing between the two boys.

Ignatius folded his arms smugly, followed by Snape doing the same, "You know..." He glanced around the room, "The Christmas treat."

Snape nodded feverishly as Ignatius realised that perhaps Regulus really didn't know what was going on. The truth was, Regulus had been acting like he knew what the Christmas holidays had in store for them simply as a tactic to wind Esme up. However his parents had refused to tell him the actual plans, stating that it only concerned the adults for the time being.

"I-I thought your mother had told you what was going on over the Christmas holidays? Why my sister and I are staying at your house?"

Regulus shook his head, "My mother simply said there was some adult business to be dealt with. She never actually explained to me what was going on."

Ignatius raised his eyebrows, "I won't ruin the surprise then... but, boy, are you in for a shock."