Esme kicked her trunk in frustration, sending it sliding slowly across the battered wooden floor of the dormitory. She had the exact same amount of stuff as she had at the start of he school year, yet for some reason it wouldn't all fit in her trunk as it had before.

Why was that?

The girl pulled at her hair before collapsing onto her bed, lying down and staring up at the ceiling. Slowly, she allowed her heavy eyelids to flutter closed.

"You sure look happy to be going home for the holiday."

Esme opened an eye and glanced over to the corner of the room. Everyone else had already left, taking their cases out and bidding farewell to their friends. In the doorway stood Piper, her dyed blonde hair messily tied in a bun, arms folded tightly as she leaned against the wooden frame.

"Are you not?" She propped herself up on the bed with her elbows.

"My dad has gone to visit our family back in Colombia. Could only afford one ticket. I'm spending the holidays at my Grandma's down south. She's not a huge fan of me." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh... So you're originally from Colombia?" Esme raised an eyebrow.

"Did you not know?"

"I didn't want to assume."

"You thought I was from Mexico."

Pursing her lips, Esme couldn't help but grin, "I never said that."

Tentatively, Piper stepped into the room and stopped where Esme's trunk lay in the middle of the room. She plucked her wand out of her sleeve and levitated the case onto Esme's bed.

"How can you have this many clothes in your trunk, when I've only ever seen you in the same two old jumpers." The older girl mused with curiosity, gazing down at the mountain of clothes.

"Merlin, don't remind me. I'm going to be stuck in formalwear for two weeks. I'd rather to think about the trauma-to-be." Esme covered her face with her hands, "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Well..." Piper dug her hands into her pockets, "I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas, I suppose."

"Why would you do that?"

"Esmeralda, do you know what it's like to have friends?" Piper almost laughed.

Esme rose to her feet, standing slightly above Piper in height, "Dirk's pretty bad at it, so no."

The brunette ruffled the older girl's hair before pulling a few dresses out of her case, leaving them littered on the floor as she flicked her trunk closed. Over the past few weeks, the two girls had almost become unlikely friends. Piper would often reel Esme in if she was found to be acting a little too harshly towards other students. Whilst Esme would undermine Piper's shallow attempts to harmlessly toy with people.

Dirk liked to think they were helping each other become better people. And if the two were friends, it certainly got Piper off his back for a while.

"Esme..." Piper combed out her hair.

"It's Esmeralda."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, "I had originally come up to here ask you to write to me over the holidays."

"Oh?" Esme had reached the door but upon hearing this, abruptly turned around.

"I mean... I'm spending Christmas with just my grandma. It's going to be pretty sad."

"Tell you what..." Esme smiled, "You've got yourself a deal, but I'm not reading any fangirl letters about your obvious crush on Dirk."

Piper smirked, "Done."

"Well you know where I'll be - having the time of my life at Grimmauld Place."

With that, Esme spun swiftly on her heels and strode our of the Ravenclaw dormitory for the last time that year.

Piper raised her hand to wave goodbye but quickly lowered it, kicking at the floor beneath her feet.

"Well look who it is." Dirk approached Esme, nudging her gently with his shoulder. The two walked side by side over the gravel pathway leading towards the train station. Their backs turned to the castle as they began their journey into the unprotected world.

"Merlin..." Esme sighed, "Everyone is making me jump today."

The boy ran a hand through his curled hair, unsure of whether or not to ask what she meant by that remark. After a moment's thought, he decided it would be best not to as she probably wouldn't tell him the truth anyway.

"What are you going to do?" He questioned.

She shrugged slightly, "Hopefully nap on the train."

"You know what I mean." He pursued.

"Cresswell, buddy, I don't have a plan. I'm simply going to have a miserable holiday and then complain to you about it all when we come back." Esme admitted, adjusting her backpack over her shoulder. Not that she would admit this to anyone, but Esme suspected she was going to spend a substantial amount of time worrying about the safety of herself and her loved ones.

The wizarding world had been growing increasingly dark recently. Missing witches and wizards, sudden deaths, whispers of the Dark Lord. It all terrified the girl, more so than anyone else as Esme knew her family was involved.

She should have realised sooner really. Lucius Malfoy had practically given it away at the Lestrange party that Ignatius could become a Death Eater.

Stupid. Esme shook her head, eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"Wow. I simply cannot wait." Dirk replied with heavy sarcasm lacing his words.

"You know..." Esme ignored Dirk, sinking further into her own thoughts as their feet crunched on the stones beneath them. Despite saying she didn't have a plan, Esme was actually beginning to form the blueprints of one in her mind. If she could get to Kreacher, perhaps she could find out more of what the Black family had in store. Winding Regulus up in the process would be a serendipitous outcome.

"Avery?" Dirk waved his hand in front of her face, "You coming back to reality? You never finished your sentence."

"Yeah, right." Shaking her head, she turned to the taller boy, "I have this feeling that things are going to change."

"What do you mean?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"It feels like everything is going to change now."

"Avery," Dirk laughed, revealing his charmingly crooked teeth, "You do realise this is only the Christmas holidays right?"

"Shut up, Cresswell, I can feel this."

"Okay... How so?" The two had finally approached the train station platform, in amongst the crowded students chatting joyfully about their plans for the holidays.

"For one," Esme turned to face him fully, a small smile tracing her lips, "We have spent an substantial amount of time together, which I think officially qualifies us as friends - even though you're annoying."

Dirk chuckled lightly, "Yeah, well I put up with you too. Given we've been hanging out fairly regularly at Hogwarts for four years, I thought you'd have noticed this sooner."

"Oh shut up."

"Secondly," Esme held up two fingers, "We seem to have found ourselves a third friend in Piper Horix."

"Delightful." Dirk replied shortly.

"Not like you to be rude." She smirked, watching with joyful satisfaction as she pushed Dirk's buttons.

"She's really lovely. I just appreciate my personal space every now and again." He shrugged sheepishly.

"Thirdly," Esme held up a third finger, "This holiday will give me some peace from you, because you're annoying."

Dirk laughed again, rolling his head back, "And here I was thinking you were being nice and serious. Did you seriously say all that just to call me annoying at the end of it?"

"Cresswell, my friend, you should know by now that my only passion in life is winding people up."

Standing further along the platform, Regulus black stood with his eyes narrowed and arms tightly folded. He had been listening to Ignatius and Mulciber bicker endlessly over how to pronounce various words, as Mulciber's thick Yorkshire accent was a constant point of amusement for the Slytherin students.

Upon hearing an obnoxiously loud laugh someway behind him, Regulus turned to see non other than Dirk Cresswell holding onto his stomach as he chuckled away.

Stood just beside him was Esme with that stupid lopsided smirk plastered on her stupid face.

For a second, Esme turned her head and connected her eyes with Regulus. This somewhat startled the boy as he began coughing profusely. Esme rolled her eyes and turned away.

Regulus thought: Merlin, Esme was an idiot.