"Good morning, you're looking cheerful." Dirk chirped as Esme sat down at the end of the table for breakfast. She only hummed in response, picking at the single piece of toast on her plate.

"What..." Dirk lowered his voice as he glanced around the table, and once satisfied that everyone else was distracted he turned back to the girl, "What did you find out?"

She shrugged.

"Esme."

"It's Esmeralda."

"Oh, so you do talk? Avery, what is up with you?" Dirk pursued, furrowing his eyebrows with concern.

Esme turned her head to face him now, her eyes narrow with displease.

"Morning!" Piper beamed, striding through the doors of the Great Hall towards them, "How did last night go? Was the prank a success?"

"Sure." Esme replied curtly, focusing her gaze back on the now cold piece of toast before her.

"Avery." Dirk hissed.

Piper frowned, thoroughly confused, "Esme, what's up?"

"It's Esmerelda." Esme reminded them shortly.

"Right, Esmerelda. If I can stretch to the end of your name then you can stretch to some sort of explanation for your grump." Piper sighed before starting to laugh a little as Dirk stared at her with shocked wide eyes.

Finally, Esme lifted her gaze to face Piper opposite her but she couldn't ignore the fact that a few feet behind the girl sat Regulus Black.

As was becoming an oddly regular occurrence for the two, they locked eyes across the room. Regulus put down his fork and flashed the tiniest of smiles to her.

"I've got to go." Esme grumbled, tightening her robes around her shoulders and quickly climbing off the bench. She snapped her gaze away from Regulus and stormed out of the hall; this was all far too much to deal with.

Esme had partly been expecting her parents to send her off to Durmstrang to study after completing her OWLs as an attempt to redeem their status amongst the local pure bloods. But... Death Eaters were a topic she hadn't quite prepared herself for.

No child ever really expects to have to hear that their family is possibly entangled in some manic, practically xenophobic, cult that threatens the lives of innocent people.

Esme tugged at her hair as she stormed back up to the common room, becoming unbelievably frustrated as she didn't know what to do. There was nobody she could turn to. Anyone in their right mind would report her family to the Ministry. The only person who wouldn't, Regulus, not only appeared to support the Death Eaters out of fear but was also somehow involved in a plot to become one of them.

She thought she was going to be sick.

Regulus, on the other hand, was at a complete loss as to what was going on as he stared dumbfounded at where Esme had previously been sat. He hadn't seen Ignatius since their peculiar chat last night, and just when he thought he was finally started to get Esme to open up to him again, she had cast him that icy cold glare and stormed away. He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation, it had taken him an awful lot of time to pluck up the courage to try and build some sort of civil friendship between himself as Esme and for some reason that appeared to have all be shattered.

Maybe he just didn't understand girls.

It was all his fault to begin with. It was he who had completely cut Esme out of his life in their first year at Hogwarts for not reason other than to please his egomaniac parents.

His one real friendship had been obliterated and he was left surrounded by the other idiots in Slytherin who found it funny to flick peas with their spoons across the Great Hall at the Gryffindors.

"What was that all about?" Piper questioned, leaning across the table towards Dirk.

He shrugged, "No clue. She wouldn't speak to me."

"Do you think something went wrong last night? Why would she be so bothered?" She frowned.

Dirk stared out of the Great Hall, "I don't know." He was becoming more aware that perhaps Esme had uncovered something rather unnerving.

And if something could unnerve Esme, Dirk was sure to be more than terrified.

It must have been serious.

A couple of hours later, Dirk was lingering outside of the transfiguration classroom. He had made sure to arrive early and watched as each student entered the room, but no sign of Esme. Glancing down at his watch, the class was due to start in thirty seconds and Esme still hadn't appeared.

Maybe she wouldn't be turning up to lessons today. If there was one thing Dirk knew for sure about the girl it was that she was extremely unreliable.

He rubbed his temples and let out a sigh, just about to give up when the girl rounded the corner at the top of the corridor. She had her hands tucked deeply into her robe pockets and was glaring intently at the floor as she walked towards Dirk.

"Avery, I almost thought you wouldn't show." Dirk chuckled, allowing his tense posture to relax.

"I couldn't go disappointing you. I just mean far too much to you." Esme finally raised her head and flashed a smirk at the boy, "Are you finally going to admit that I'm much better company than those fake popular friends of yours?"

He turned to push open the classroom door, "Don't be so rude. You might even think they're nice if you bothered to get to know them."

"That's rich."

"Yeah, I couldn't even believe my own words then."

The two old friends laughed together, something Dirk didn't want to admit he had missed recently.

Sitting next to each other at the back of the classroom, Dirk decided to risk asking what was really on his mind.

"Esmeralda... What happened last night?"

"Nothing."

He sighed with exasperation, "Seriously."

"I am being serious." Esme turned to face him, her voice almost a whisper as Professor Mcgonagall entered the classroom.

"What do you mean?" He questioned.

She mumbled, "I didn't find out anything. Complete dead end. Guess my parents just don't want me around at Christmas so the Black family has to bite the bullet." A small smile ghosted over the girl's lips as Dirk furrowed his eyebrows at her, not entirely convinced.

"Are you being honest? Like, genuinely serious?" Dirk leant in.

"Absolutely." Esme lied.